Goldenflame Dragon has been very busy in the month since we last checked in with him, and has made progress on a few different aspects of The Dark Unknown. He seems to have spent much of November working on the game’s manual, the Almanac:

Just wrote a big chunk of text for the Almanac, finishing the History section. Includes the creation myth that explains the names of a lot of the geographical features, and the history of the Kingdom and now explains why there is another continent in the game, why no one lives there, why there is a portal network, and who made the Palace of the Skies. As soon as I thought of how to tie those things together I had to write it all down right away. I might post a teaser after I’ve done one editing pass.

The save system also saw some work late in the month:

Hard at work (heh, right) on the save system- features can now be converted into data that I can save. Next up will be creatures, which will be more complicated, in part because they have inventories that can contain features.

But, as November drew to a close, creatures were not what he opted to work on:

Made the map for the town of Stout. Only one town left to do. I considered making a little behind the scenes video showing my map editor and what goes into making a map for DU, but I scuttled it when I realized it was incredibly boring. I may try again later with a map I have more of already sketched out in advance- this was too much of me dithering as I decided what to put where.

As December began, he turned his attention to the game’s story:

No coding or mapmaking tonight, but I did iron out what may be the last of the problems I had in plotting. The third chapter of the game feels a lot more natural now, with the player having a lot more agency in figuring out solutions rather than just being told “you’ll need this, go find all the bits”. Which, mind you, would be par for the era this mimics (how _do_ Bartenders always know such useful things?) but I like this better.

He then worked on graphics:

In the last two nights have I drawn: four bookshelves (a two-tile wide bookshelf, a one-tile wide bookshelf, and then both of those with the books all knocked over to represent a bookshelf that the player has searched), a bed, up and down stairs (unsure if I will use), a mirror, and a version of the mirror that will be able to reflect whatever stands in front of it, not just the player. Also, a blank scroll, some spider silk, and a black pearl.

I’ve made a list, I have 27 missing graphics currently, not including some spell effects I’ll eventually want. But, progress.

And after logging his 1000th SVN check-in, he went on a bit of a bug hunt, adding some new features along the way:

Mirrors now reflect; searching bookshelves works. Fixed a few bugs, and started working on a map that will use some of the technology I constructed for the Palace of the Skies map, so at least that stuff isn’t going into only one map that happens to be optional… though this new map is optional, too. The Ethereal Plane.

The above update was posted yesterday, so…we are now, for the time being, caught up on what has been happening with The Dark Unknown. Even though the HoBLotH diverted some of Goldenflame’s attentions, he has still made some excellent progress on the game.

He’s also on Twitter now, by the by.