Happy new year! It’s only been 15 days and it’s already felt like forever. Life goes on, I keep doing my thing. VYCE update:

Working on it every day, almost to an unhealthy degree these last few nights. I just added a new feature that I’ve had in the back of my head since the beginning, I just didn’t know how I would implement it. I’m still tweaking it a bit but it adds an entirely new meta to the combat system.

There are certain VYCE tagged as “sickly.” When the player summons these, they create visual effects, auditory distortion, cause the player to wander if idle, and make enemy VYCE go after the player. Prior to this mechanic, there was no true “game over” screen, the player would simply run out of VYCE, get more money, then buy or capture them to keep the gameplay loop going.

When an enemy VYCE captures you, you black out. There is no health bar, no warning, no mercy, but it can easily be avoided if you have the wherewithal to know your enemy and not overdo your defenses. The sickly effect is not triggered by a single VYCE, rather multiple combined. They all have varying levels of this condition, so for instance, the liquor VYCE will make you sicker than the beer one. So, basically, it’s a “fucked up” meter.

The original idea was to have a singular VYCE that goes after the player introduced later in the game. I feel like this mechanic allows for more variety, as any VYCE will go after you if your sickly level is high enough. I still plan to implement that earlier VYCE, it will rather just have a higher sickness level than the others.

(this gif is slowed down)

All of that was implemented within the last 3 days. I’m putting more time into this than my actual job. I did a little bit today and had to step away. Yesterday was a particularly frustrating session, but for every bad one, theres two good ones, and about 10 okay ones. But the important thing is progress and I’ve been making a ton.

In my last post, I talked about the plasma donation mechanic as a means to make money. However, to donate plasma, you need a doctors note, and to do that you need to see a doctor, which costs money, and you start out with nothing. The other way to make money is by collecting recyclables, whether that be bottles, cans, copper wire, and anything that can fetch you a pretty penny. Luckily, your father works at the local recycling plant and offers you a flat rate of $1 per item.

That’s about it for now. I don’t want to dwell on things too long or give too much away but I just like to keep up with the monthly tradition of updating my blog. Thanks for reading!