Last few days has me fixing up some unseen issues that were introduced while adding the vine grow functions, as well as cleaning up some issues with the vine grow itself. Originally I just had it so you can add a vine anywhere, but that led to being able to add floating vines when you jumped. So now I made sure there was something to latch the vine onto, but you can still add it most places, just not in empty air (for now). Another issue was that if you walked up to an existing vine and try to grow that, it would just create a new vine behind it. I added in some functionality to check for vines near the area the player was facing, and then grow that vine ID rather than adding in a new one.

It added in quite a bit of complexity, and I'm going to have to go and clean up some spots ona  few maps that caused the game to crash when adding vines in areas I wasn't thinking about, but it's going to be so worth it. I added the ability for both vines and arrow platforms to be persistent, and I might add some more persistent stuff later on. I want the world to feel alive outside of the player, and I want the player's actions to leave marks within the game.

My desire is to have this game released on my birthday this year (August 24th), but I'm not sure if I can make that deadline. I might be closer to September or October, I'm not quite sure. I'm not going to rush it to have it released on my birthday, but it's a "would be nice, if this happens" kind of thing. It is *possible*,  and a lot of this is solid (and I don't see myself adding any new functionality in the next month or so, everything else that I'm going to be added is already coded and debugged, it's just content creation now). We'll see how it goes! I'm not going to beat myself up if it's not released then, so we'll see.

I'm already starting to think of one more short(ish) game to do after this one, before returning to the Heart of the Bone Witch. I'm thinking the next one will be another game engine from scratch, using Lua and the Love2d framework. Though I'm going to use far less third party libraries for the next one, and will probably use an in game editor I build and not TileD (though I love TileD, this game seems like it needs it's own editor). I'm also going to implement my own bounding box routines, I know how to code them, and even though this third party library I'm using works, I'm finding myself working around it's code far more than I'm working with it.

The idea? A top down adventure platformer RPG. Zelda ish in ways, but not a zelda clone. Implementing more modern game styles in a 2d world. A giant labyrinth you were summoned to protect from encroaching shadows. An included editor for players to build their own dungeons and challenge their friends. Enemies that interact with each other and you, and have a timing system similar to Ultima 6 or Stardew Valley. Interesting NPC's that run on their own schedule (also like U6/SW Valley), and have quirky lives (think Zelda: Link's Awakening). 

It will be another smallish game (6-10 hours or so) of gameplay, with it being easy for both players and myself to add new content as we feel like it.

Anyway, that's next year, and it could all change. I'm excited about that, and excited to show you this game. I learned an insane amount by working on this, and it was fun. Not much longer to go now...not much longer at all. It's all map design and pixel art and maybe one or two new enemies.