Hi! I'm here to bring you the 3rd monthly update for Dysphoric Soymilk Lidocaine.
I'll begin by addressing my overall thoughts on the development of the game, and how it is coming along. In general, things are slowly but surely falling into place. Sometimes it's hard to tell if my game is actually progressing, because I'm a perfectionist and I find myself redoing and refactoring nearly every element in my game. However, I can confidently say that in the past month, I've implemented some core mechanics that have improved the game a lot.
One of these mechanics is the weapons and tools mechanic. I'm adding plenty of weapons and tools that can be found throughout the world and used to defeat enemies. So far, there are 5 different weapons to choose from, but I plan on having around 30 (that number is subject to change, but if it does, there will likely end up being more than 30.). These weapons all have different shooting patterns and effects. I'll probably add some melee weapons too. There is also going to be tools that are obtainable throughout the world. They will be primarily used to interact and alter the world around the character in varying ways.
But what good would a weapon or a tool be if there weren't an inventory? Glad you asked. I'm currently working on an inventory system that is almost done and allows the player to consume items, equip armor, weapons, and tools, and play minigames. The minigames are obtained throughout the world in the form of floppy disks. Each floppy disk holds a unique mini game or cutscene that can be activated in the inventory system. So far there are 10 minigames. A lot of these minigames are from the early period of game development (November 2022 - February 2023) when I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my game yet, so they're pretty wacky. I basically just recycled the old content because I didn't think it would fit with my ever changing vision for the game. I didn't want to just cut them completely because they took a long time to create, and there's some pretty fun stuff in those earlier versions too.
QUESTIONS I'VE BEEN ASKED AND SOME ANSWERS FOR YOU:
Q: Will there be a demo, and when would it be put out.
A: There will be a demo. It will be put out anywhere from September 1st - October 31st. I want to make sure that the game is playable and enjoyable before I go ahead and put it out into the public.
Q: Will there be a mobile port?
A: No. Never.
Q: How long does a typical game last?
A: I'm working towards making it so that a typical run of DSL would last 15-30 minutes. There will be many branches and paths for the player to explore in these runs, adding variety to gameplay. Not to mention, there will be many different endings and things to discover along the way, so that sort of makes it fall into an almost roguelike category, with lots of replay potential.
Q: What genre is DSL? How can I understand what the game will be like?
A: Dysphoric Soymilk Lidocaine is going to be a blend of multiple genres. I take elements from walking simulators, roguelikes, idle games, role-playing games, and point-and-click adventures. The reason why I'm blending all of these genres together is because I don't like it when my game falls too deep into one category. In todays day and age, it's very hard to be truly original because it feels like all the good ideas have already been taken. My solution is to blend a bunch of good ideas together to make one unique product.
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I'll add some screenshots below of the inventory system. I update the user interface quite often, so as I do these updates, expect that to change a lot.
Anyways, thanks for reading the update and supporting the game. If you're a big fan of my work, I added in a donation page. Any amount is greatly appreciated and goes directly towards the production of my game. If you don't want to donate though, just being here for the ride means very much to me. I'm just as excited for the game to be finished as you are.
-Mogdog