I Really Should Have Started With an Easier Game

First, a reminder to myself:

Start with an easier game next time.

That said, things are moving forward.

We have sound effects working now, with more being integrated as I go. I'm also adding proper music stingers for things like winning a combat encounter and, of course, dying. It's a small thing, but having some actual sound coming out of the cube makes the game start to feel a little more like a game.

Movement continues to be one of the bigger challenges.

The problem is that the cube is a 3D object that can be held in pretty much any orientation. Moving north, south, east and west makes perfect sense while you're looking at one face. Move to another face, though, and suddenly the orientation changes along with it.

Then there's the other fun problem: you tilt the cube to move, return it to your normal holding position, and that movement can sometimes register as another tilt and send you right back where you came from.

I'll get it. It's just taking some time to work through all the different ways someone can actually hold and move this thing.

Figuring Out Inventory

Next on the list is figuring out the inventory.

The original version of Just One Floor Deeper was going to have quite a few equipment slots: head, chest, main hand, off hand, legs, feet, rings and an amulet. That works fine with a mouse or touchscreen, but that's a lot of stuff to navigate and manage on a cube.

I'm considering simplifying it down to something more manageable:

• Head
• Weapon
• Armor
• 2 Rings
• Amulet

It still gives me enough equipment variety to make finding new gear interesting without turning inventory management into its own puzzle game.

I do have a basic equipment list in place already, and special quest items are working now as well. Those can be placed inside treasure chests or carried by monsters, which gives me what every RPG obviously needs:

"Go kill this thing and bring me back its whatever."

So that's another piece of the game falling into place.

What Comes Next

Once I have the inventory and equipment system figured out, it'll be time to start working on character abilities.

Fortunately, map generation is already done. Any dungeon that isn't specifically hand-authored is generated from a seed, so the game can create new dungeon layouts without me having to build every floor manually. That's a pretty important part of making the whole "infinite dungeon crawler" idea actually work.

There's still a lot left to implement.

Vendors. NPCs. The actual quest system. Character abilities. More combat systems. More items.

And then there's the Sanctuary.

The Sanctuary will be the place you return to after a delve into the dungeon. That's where you'll repair equipment, upgrade your character, equip the new things you've found, and scrap or sell all the old junk you've dragged back with you.

Basically, the quiet part between trips underground where you prepare yourself to go down one more floor.

There's still a long way to go, but the individual pieces are starting to come together.

I really should have gone simpler.

But then it wouldn't be Just One Floor Deeper.