I have another update.
I've added 10 different NPC personalities with a total of 320 unique character dialogues. I'm not much of a writer, so these are mostly flavored gameplay hints. They might be useful to some players, but can also be fully ignored.
So far I've added 29 challenge levels ranging from short and easy to longer and more difficult. I also found a way to put a natural time limit on some of the challenges, by slowly having a guard chase the player. So they have to progress through the challenge, otherwise the guard behind them will catch them.
I haven't created a full level editor, but I have created a simplified text level editor. This is what a text level looks like:
Theme: Forest 4.4..5.5##### .#.##.#.##### 4.4##5.5.E### .############ .###3##2##### .1..........1 ####3##2#.### #########.P##
This is a top-down stealth level. The # are walls, dots are open spaces. P is the player start position and E is the exit. Each number is a unique guard patrol route with one guard patrolling that route. The theme can be: Forest, Wooden Home, Stone Temple or Mansion.
This text level editor is still very basic, but it helped me design challenge levels faster. This could expand to a full level editor later on. If you like, you can try drawing your own level like this and I'll put it in the free game with your name ^^
The "Custom Game" main menu option has become an alternative way to play the game without a story and a guild. From the custom game, the player can select a specific tutorial, mission, challenge, mini-game and upgrade skills. The player will still gain gold and rank when finishing these levels and unlock new levels. The "Custom Game" is also a way to replay specific missions and levels. The "Custom Game" doesn't end, so it's also a way to play infinite uniquely generated stealth levels.
I made a lot of progress, though I won't be able to finish and release everything on January 23rd. My remaining tasks are:
- (finished) add gold, rank, character selection, the skill upgrade shop and tutorials to the custom game menu
- (finishes) add artifacts and the "steal artifact" mission objective to the game
- add the final story scenes
- (in progress) play-test all challenges and missions, including replaying the same missions with different skill point configurations
Optional tasks are:
- A grand final escape mission where the player has to free all their characters and switch between them to escape
- A visual level editor based on the current text level editor, accessible to players to create and share their own stealth levels
I marked the last two tasks as optional, because otherwise it will take me even longer to release a next version. I will work on those after the next release.