Devlog Monday 7/7/2025

At this stage I'm working heavily on core design principles; making sure that the game "feels" right.

A large part of that means getting the UI to seamlessly accomplish all the important backend stuff.

In previous iterations, DataDash was played entirely by navigating through the dev console. No longer: I've improved the UI slightly.

It's currently my goal to release a stable build this week in which the player can: 

1. Interact with two of the first discoverable NPCs: Cipher and Andrew.
2. Discover 10 job locations organically.
3. Purchase and equip 1 piece of gear.

Early on I am going to establish a ratio of 1:10 for gear:levels. Every 10 levels should introduce a new mechanic which a piece of gear interacts with. The first piece of gear is a pair of Electromagnetic Gloves. The index finger and thumb tips have special EM diodes capable of twisting metal screws from their housing, unlocking access to vents in the map, which will significantly improve the player's ability to escape quickly and undetected. 

This devlog contains work from the week prior. All work done before this is considered foundational and has changed so much that it no longer warrants documenting. Several refactors have removed or fundamentally altered all code commits from 0.1 - 0.4.7

v0.4.8: Gameplay Polish & Progression

Fast Enemy Slowdown: The Fast Enemy (F) no longer triggers a "game over." Instead, it applies a temporary speed reduction to the player.

Level Progression System: The end-of-level UI has been temporarily changed for playtesting purposes.

v0.4.9: Controller & Input System Overhaul

Xbox Controller Support: The game now partially supports Xbox (X-Input) controllers. Gameplay can be achieved with controller input, while menu navigation must still be performed with keyboard/mouse inputs. The left analog stick controls player movement with variable speed. The right bumper (RB) is mapped to the fire action.

Pixel-Based Physics: The player's movement system was completely refactored from a grid-based system to a pixel-based one, allowing for precise analog control.

Input Normalization & Deadzones:

Implemented logic to normalize raw, high-value integer input from controllers into the expected -1.0 to 1.0 float range, fixing a bug where the player vanished when any input was detected.

A controller deadzone was added to the player's movement calculation to prevent stick drift from causing unwanted movement.

v0.5.0: Global Developer Console

Architecture Refactor: The dev console and log viewer have been removed from the GameScreen to the main DataDashApp class.

Global Accessibility: The console can now be opened from any screen in the application (including the main menu) by pressing the backtick (`) key.

Cross-Screen Functionality: Console commands like load <map> and goto <screen> now correctly interact with the screen manager to control the game state from anywhere in the app.

v0.5.1: Spawning System & Collision Engine

Spawn Zone Implementation: Replaced the single Player ('P') start tile with a new Spawn Zone ('Z') tile. The game now randomly selects a valid spawn point from any 'Z' tile placed in the map editor, spawns the player in the tile's center, and prevents all "teleport on spawn" bugs.

Robust Collision System: Implemented a definitive, robust AABB (Axis-Aligned Bounding Box) collision-and-response system for the player. This new physics logic some persistent movement bugs, including getting stuck on walls, jittering, and teleporting during gameplay.

Objective-Based Alerts & Enemy Destruction: Implemented v0.4 feature; if download starts, all enemies alerted and they begin investigating.

Fixed Player Hitbox: Player's hitbox is no longer big enough to get wedged in certain scenarios. 1-tile corridors now traversible.

Robust Map Loading: Game engine and map editor sanitizes map files on load, replacing unrecognized characters with floor tiles.

v0.5.2: Strategic Realignment & Narrative Design

Pivoted from temporary powerups to a persistent, gear-based progression system.

Discarded armor/shield concept in favor of high-stakes, one-hit-fail model to be supplemented by a new Checkpoint system.

Established a new narrative framework: Players work for "Fixers," earning money and "Street Cred." The similarity to existing IP should be addressed.

Designed the "Data-Phone" as the central UI, featuring apps for "Contacts" (Jobs), "DarkMart" (Shop), and "Loadout" (Inventory).

Linked core abilities (like using Vents) to gear purchased from the shop, creating a robust economic and progression loop.

Spawn Zone Implementation: Iterating on the previous spawn zone changes, player now spawns at a point central to a 2x2 grid of 'Z' (Spawn Zone) tiles. Map Editor now requires 2x2 spawn grid for map to be considered valid. 

v.0.5.3-5: Interactive Narrative & UI Overhaul (Most Recent Updates as of 7/7/2025

Completely overhauled the game's front-end, replacing static menu systems with a dynamic, narrative-driven interface that directly ties into and feeds gameplay progression.

Interactive MessagesScreen: The simple JobBriefingScreen has been completely replaced with a fully interactive MessagesScreen which simulates a text messaging application on a cell phone, creating a more immersive narrative experience.

Animated Conversation Flow: New messaging system displays dialogue organically. The player can "Reply," and the chosen contact will experience brief pauses with an indicator showing "is typing..." between messages. Timed delays give the appearance of an alive and dynamic conversation.

MapScreen Implemented: A new "Map" app has been added to the Data-Phone. This screen acts as the mission selection hub, and is to be directly tied into the messages app.

Gameplay & UI Flow

Narrative-Driven Unlocks: The core progression loop is implemented. Specific messages in the MessagesScreen now unlock playable missions. The location name will appear as a "hyperlink" that the player can click/tap on. This navigates the player to the Map app.

Return to Hub on Mission Complete: The end-of-level screen has been removed, player is now returned to the Data-Phone.

UI Optimization: Changed the phone such that the player has a "Contacts" menu, which will lead to conversation bubbles, as well as the "Messages" menu, which will show a list of active conversations. 

Bug Fixes & Refactoring

Major UI Architecture Refactor: The responsibility for drawing UI elements (like the info label) has been moved from the GameWidget to the GameScreen. Separating the game world and UI layer resolves numerous drawing order conflicts and is significantly more stable.

ScrollView Bug Resolved: A persistent bug causing odd behavior on the MessagesScreen was resolved by attempting to anchor the message list to the bottom, but this does not fully resolve the issue.

Text Rendering + Conversation Flow Stabilization: A problem with the way I was rendering text in the MessagesScreen caused odd behavior and was ultimately removed+replaced with Kivy's Animation class which is far more stable and predictable until I can design something better.

v0.5.5 is playable with severe, game-breaking, crash-inducing, file-corrupting bugs. There is also no possible way to progress past stage_1 in this version. This build purely shows the iterations made to the main UI and the navigation between different screens. Regardless, I've included maps in case you want to use the dev console (Which has not been updated in a very long time and probably doesn't work) to load the original 10 maps I designed.

IN EVERY GAME SEQUENCE, THE PLAYER MUST DELETE player_profile.json OR THE FILE WILL CONTINUALLY CORRUPT DUE TO AN UNKNOWN, UNDIAGNOSED ISSUE. IT IS NOT RECOMMENDED TO PLAY THIS VERSION EXCEPT TO INTERACT WITH THE NEW UI ELEMENTS.