Been a while since I've just posted a general devlog. First of all I gotta say, the Godot progress is going quite well. The engine for the most part is much better to work with, but it does take a LOT more time to get used to compared to GMS . There are a few quirks that piss me off (there's no way to test constant collisions as far as I can tell, which baffles me because it makes collision detection way more complicated than it needs to be). And there's not a lot of info out there on how to use Godot outside of the documentation and some specific tutorials on YouTube. So I've been using Chat GPT to help me understand how to do most things and it's been a real lifesaver (I don't know if I could have done it without it)

As far as the game itself, Plans have not changed for the most part. Although I'm probably going to have to cut some stuff I had planned originally, as it's just too much work for one person. without taking too long (look how long it's taking just to get the basics down).

right now the current plan is this:

4 locations

2-3 stages per location

1 "dungeon" area per location

each location will have an encounter with the main antagonist who will act as a "mini-boss"

each dungeon will have a "big boss"

dungeons will be technically optional, but necessary to see a "true ending" (and perhaps some other unlockables). In other words, if the player simply wants to play the game like a progressive platformer, then they can choose to do that. if the player wants to delve deeper into the story, then they can choose to do that.

each stage will have 3 hidden relics, all of which must be collected to enter the dungeon for that location.

completing a dungeon will award Lilly extra perks that are non-mandatory for completing the game, but nice upgrades.

Dungeons will be under a time limit. Players will be able to "buy time" before entering the dungeon using orbs collected in stages. 

Story will be fairly straightforward. nothing too crazy but serviceable.

Lilly will be able to purchase items from someone. stuff like shields and limited powers.

There will be a Cardboard box.

In the Legacy version, there are blocks Lilly can hit that give her orbs and other items. I may remove these from the game, as they kinda feel out of place and useless. Although I might also repurpose them for dungeons to give the player extra time or something. idk yet.

in a video I posted years ago, I showed off a feature that involved planting seeds that would sprout into plants that grew power-ups, which would have to be maintained and taken care of by collecting specific materials from certain locations to keep them healthy. Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to scrap the idea in favor of a shop system as It will just be too much extra work. I was going to include a shop system regardless because some people might find that feature tedious and I want an option for those people. Although the items will be pretty expensive.

The garden would have been found at Lilly's house. This will also be cut for the most part (you will still see her room in the beginning of the game). but the original intention was to let the players explore the entire house and return to it whenever desired. There would have been a bunch of fun little eater eggs to explore (if you enter debug mode, you can see there's a fish bowl in one of her rooms,, which Lilly could feed. if you kept it fed, it would grow to a massive size, and if you neglected it, it would die)

here's a synopsis of the first few minutes of the story. I may or may not have covered this at some point in the past but if so I don't remember... It may have changed a bit since then but this is the finalized version:

One day, an object from space crashes into the forest, waking Lilly from sleep. She leaps out of bed and heads towards a thick smoke in the distance. the forest had caught fire.

upon arriving at the fire, she sees a girl, who looks unconscious (maybe even dead, but hopefully not). The girl had purple hair, about shoulders length, and was wearing a short purple skirt with striped leggings and crop top.

"she must have been near that explosion"

Lilly thinks to herself.

She begins approaching the girl to check up on her, but suddenly another explosion, knocking both the unconscious girl and Lilly back, smacking them both into a tree. The girl's body, falls limp,  but Lilly manages to hold consciousness. as the smoke from the explosion clears, a figure of a robot of some kind is revealed. Lilly stands up with confidence, as she's destroyed plenty of robots in the past, though this looks nothing like anything she had seen before. The machine, looks at her slowly, and then sporadically, as if it had forgotten how to move its limbs, begins walking towards Lilly. Lilly gets ready to fight when suddenly another girl appears from above, landing between the two.

it was a girl with long red hair, tied into a ponytail. She wore purple shorts, and what looked like compression sleeves, with her chest concealed by a purple bra

"You need to leave, right now..."

She exclaims with the intensity of the flames surrounding the 3 girls

"wh- Who are you??

Lilly exclaims

"I said NOW! There's no time to explain!

the machine slowly got closer to the girls as the conversation lingered...

Lilly reluctantly submits, she grabs the unconscious girl and runs away, with the redhead following behind

That's all I'm giving away for now. I've thought about adapting this specific scene into a short comic. just to test the waters for a potential comicization (is that a word?... like Novelization?) for the plot, but that discussion is for another time.

Anyway, thanks for reading! stay tuned for future updates! Unless I die first! Then someone else can do it! but why would they want to??