About Time

I finally finished writing the damn prologue last night. Huzzah! Granted, there wasn't much left to do...just had to finish fleshing out the questions at the end. But now it's done and I can move on to the good stuff. :D

On that note, I worked on my characterization some more today. I really fleshed out Chael and his relationship with Zuleika, what draws them together in the first place, what makes them "right" for each other, etc. Some people complained that the romances were too simple before, that there was nothing that showed why they should even be interested in each other, but that will definitely be different this time around. In part, I can develop the romances much more because there will be more flexibility in the story line, plus the story will be longer so I actually have time to develop them instead of having to cram everything into a set, short time frame.
I was making great progress, but somehow my commitment to fleshing out my characters devolved into watching Nyan Cat, which led me to the eHarmony cat lady, which led me to a fake newscast report about it, which somehow led me to the Numa Numa guy, which led me to........you get the point.

In addition to all that, I implemented the updated character customization screen that will be used to "disguise" yourself and such. You can view a screenshot of it below:

You'll notice that you now have the ability to switch between wearing the "Warrior's Garb" and the "Princess' Dress," or rather, you will eventually. The princess dress will be unlocked once you've achieved a certain level of fame, to where it's no longer necessary (or useful) to hide your identity. The "Accessories" section refers to the accessories that you have unlocked through receiving gifts in other play-throughs (all of the love interests will give you a gift to wear when you have enough affection with them). So, if you pursued Chael in a past play-through and received his gift, then in the next play-through you can equip that gift from the start, plus receive another gift from a different love interest and wear that too (unless the accessory and gift are in conflict, such as the two necklaces).

With this change, I had to completely re-code all of Zuleika's sprites. I needed to do so anyway because the way I'd coded them was an inefficient, garbled mess, but...it was still tough, and took a long time. I also added Ahzi's gift while I was at it. I'm not sure if I like it, because the style kind of clashes with the sprite...which is entirely my fault, of course, because I had to draw it myself and I'm not an artist. But it's simple enough that it should be okay, I think....I hope.