Soul shards for all | v0.0.4 Pre-Alpha Update

Hello, happy Friday and happy Bone Quest patch day!

Over the past couple of weeks the main focus has been on improving the currency system so I could add more currencies along side gold. To do this there has been quite a bit of behind the scenes work needed to both the player character script, shop script and UI. I'm pleased to say that adding this now means that I can add extra currencies much more easily in the future, and the first of which is included in this week's update! Outside of this, I've also fixed some bugs found in v0.0.3 and I'm hoping there shouldn't be many, if any, game breaking bugs left to fix with the current systems in the game.

Here's what else I've added in this most recent build:

Bone Quest Pre-Alpha Changes - v0.0.4

• Currency window updated, can be accessed from the inventory window.
• Soul shard currency added to the currency system.
• Soul shard item added which when used, adds one soul shard to your currencies. These drop from the sea goblin and Shregroth.
• Soul shard merchant added to Heathport church.
• Heroes Sword and Heroes Shield cosmetic items added, these can be purchased from the soul shard merchant for one soul shard each.
• Spider Rune and Spider Silk Bindings enhancement items added, these drop from spider enemies.
• World updated with minor cosmetic changes.
• Guard NPCs added to Heathport.
• Sailors Wheel cosmetic item added, which drops from the sea goblin.
• Pressing Esc now either clears the target enemy, closes all windows or pauses the game depending on if you have a target or UI windows open.
• Can no longer press UI buttons when the game is paused.
• Collectable item pickup sound slightly increased.
• Ambient sea sounds added to the coastline.
• Enemy spawners improved to stop enemies spawning inside of objects as well as adding the functionality to alternate between spawning different enemy types.
• Dialogue panel close button now highlights correctly when hovered or pressed.
• Recipe worth amount reduced from 20 gold to 7 gold so as they are no longer worth more than the cost of purchase.
• bonequestv2.exe file changed to bonequest.exe.
• Optimised game textures to slightly reduce the game file size, this is ongoing so hopefully more improvements will be made in the future.

What's next?

Now that I feel like I'm in a solid place with all of the systems currently in game, it's time to turn to the quest system and start the mammoth task of implementing that. This means that there might not be anymore patches to the game until the basic quest system is implemented. Any bugs found between then will hopefully be actioned and added to the next build which should include some initial quests to test! It's likely this update will be in January, so if I don't decide on pushing an update before then, Merry Christmas to those who celebrate and thank-you for all of the support over the past few months - I can't wait to see what the new year brings for the game! (Hopefully a launch date 👀)