Suladev Log 1: The Journey Begins

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the first dev log for Soulbound! I’m excited to share the progress I’ve made so far and outline the plans going forward. Here’s a quick look at what’s been happening behind the scenes:

Progress So Far

Core Mechanics

• Soulbound Sword: Our unique sword system is in place! The sword now follows the mouse with dynamic speed and can lock in place to serve as a bridge or platform. 
• Environmental Interactions: Floating rocks, falling only when the player is underneath, add a dynamic challenge to the levels. I solved some tricky physics issues by controlling gravity directly, so objects behave exactly as intended.

Enemy Behavior

• Patrol & AI: Enemies now patrol along defined paths using spawn points set up in the level. Although I wrestled with getting the patrol system just right (and iterated through several solutions), the basic functionality is now working—each enemy spawns at its designated location and moves along its patrol route.
• Combat & Fireballs: Enemies can shoot fireballs at the player, complete with animations and sound effects. They also take damage and play a death animation when defeated.

User Interface & Narrative

• Popup Dialogs: A popup dialog system is in place to deliver on-screen prompts and narrative text. When the game needs to pause for dialogue or instructions, the game will pause until the player dismisses the message.

Sound & Music

• Integrated Audio: I’ve added sound effects for key actions—sword swings, enemy fireballs, and ambient sounds that help bring the world of Soulbound to life. Background music is also in place to set the mood.

Challenges & Iterations

Developing Soulbound has been a rollercoaster of problem-solving:

• I encountered several tricky issues with the physics behavior of the sword and rocks (freezing vs. gravity control) and iterated many times until finding a solution that fits.
• Enemy patrol logic required multiple adjustments to ensure they spawned correctly and followed their paths without overlapping.
• The UI popup system underwent refinements so that dialogue appears exactly when needed, without interfering with gameplay.

Every iteration has brought Soulbound closer to my vision.

What’s Next?

In the coming months, I plan to:

• Polish the Core Mechanics: Fine-tune the sword controls, enemy AI, and environmental hazards.
• Enhance the Narrative: Expand the dialogue and visual effects around the rebirth theme to deepen the story.
• Level Design: Add new challenges and puzzles to further engage the player.
• User Experience Improvements: Refine the UI and audio based on playtesting feedback.

Thank you for following along on this journey. Your support and feedback are invaluable as I continue working to make Soulbound the best it can be.

Stay tuned for more updates, and feel free to share your thoughts on suladead.itch.io/soulbound!

— Suladead