Day 4:
Definitely a more productive day than yesterday, even including the time my computer restarted without my permission and I lost some unsaved work (only about 30 minutes worth, thankfully).
I didn't get as far as the first battle scene, but I started coding in (if I can call this coding, which it's really not) the first 'cutscene', or the pop-up text that appears as the player starts the game and introduces the first guided quest.
Not a whole lot going on in this specific text event, but there's a series of events that the player triggers as they explore. This is to encourage the player to explore the early map (I don't plan to spend too much plot time here, and I did spend so much time on it...), as well as give the player a sense of control over the 'scene'.
Beyond coding in a number of these events, I also created a few more early maps. I redid the protagonist's house to improve the layout (pictured below is the 'night' version with the whole map shaded in, and the opening 'cutscene' events included), created some filler house interiors for the town, and created the town mayor's house interior. As you can see from the pictures, I'm testing out including multiple navigable spaces within a single map page, mostly so I don't have 15 different map pages for one small location. I still have to code in the events to link all these locations together, so I can test what that looks like for the player.
Tomorrow I need to finish this opening 'cutscene' and finally, actually, get to the first battle sequence. I think that'll involve making one more map, and then I need to focus on creating the overworld map and setting up generic battle encounters (I, personally, hate random encounters, but I need the player to be able to fight enemies to level up, so I'm including specific battle locations and events that the player will be able to trigger at will. Or, at least, that's my goal).