Sanctuary: Come for the Campfire, Stay for the Inventory Management

Most of the evening has been spent on Sanctuary in Swordoku: Grid & Glory. It turns out the place you visit between dungeon battles needs a LOT of systems, and just as many decisions.

Apparently putting up a tent and lighting a campfire was the easy part.

Daily rewards, without the guilt trip

The daily reward system is built and in. I still need to fill in the actual reward values, but the system itself is there.

And skipping a day won't count against you. Life happens. The game doesn't need to give you grief about it.

Getting properly equipped

We now have equipment! Well, a few pieces of equipment. More importantly, we can properly equip our characters.

Your character doesn't have a level. Finding and equipping new items from your battles is one of the ways you'll grow stronger.

The current equipment slots are:

• Head, chest, and legs
• Weapon and offhand
• Boots
• Two rings
• Amulet

I may or may not add a trinket slot, partly to balance the slots on either side. Nothing like a little interface symmetry to start another design decision.

Inventory management is pretty simple. Tap a filter button, or tap an equipment slot to see everything that fits there. Tap an item icon to preview the changes it would make if equipped.

If you like what you see, press and hold, then drag it onto the slot. It'll automatically swap whatever's already there, or equip the item if the slot is empty.

A lighter camp with more going on

Sanctuary also got a complete scene rebuild: new scene, new models, and a lighter-weight setup. Somehow I managed to simplify it and make it a little more complex at the same time.

The previous version was taking five to seven seconds just to load textures when returning to Sanctuary in the editor. That did not inspire confidence about how pleasant it would be on a phone.

The joys of my 3D learning curve. A nice-looking scene is great. A nice-looking scene you have to wait around for every time you return is somewhat less great.

Gold, Essence, and a merchant waiting for his carts

Right now there are two currencies: Gold and Essence. I'll probably stick with those.

Gold will handle the vast majority of things, while Essence will be used for items on the permanent upgrade ladder.

I haven't built out the blacksmith, merchant, or shrine systems yet, although some of their foundations are in place. Those will come in time.

One decision I have made: the merchant's inventory will refresh every 24 hours. Buy him out and you'll have to wait for more carts to come through. Even fantasy merchants need a delivery schedule.

I'll probably offer the usual optional currency purchases: some amount of Gold or Essence for some amount of actual money. Amounts and prices aren't decided. Buying currency isn't intended to be necessary; it'll be an optional extra for those who choose it.

A few more things on the list

I'm planning a profile popup for switching heroes, opening settings, accessing your account, and returning to the title screen.

There's also a custom, account-wide achievement interface on the planning list, with Coin or Essence rewards. Those are plans, rather than finished systems.

Because apparently Sanctuary didn't already have enough to do.

From a picture to a model

Since I can't always find the models I want, I've also been experimenting with image-to-3D. Currently I'm using Hyper3D: I give it a 2D picture of what I'm after and have it turn that into a 3D model.

It does amazingly well, I have to say. It's been an interesting tool to experiment with while rebuilding the scene and figuring out how to get the camp looking the way I want.

So that's where the evening went: rewards, equipment, inventory, currency decisions, and rebuilding the place that holds it all together.

Back to Sanctuary. There's apparently still room for another system or six.