Dev Log: Equipment Selection Menu

Since my last dev log, I’ve spent most of my development time creating an equipment selection menu. This menu is available when starting a new save file and allows the player to choose between multiple equipment kits. The main purpose of this feature is playstyle customization, but there are other benefits as well. As a reminder, all art/graphics (including GUI) are placeholders during this stage of development.

The function of the equipment selection menu is very simple. When the player creates a new save file, the game manager loads the equipment selection menu scene, rather than the level scene. This scene reads a list of available kit names and populates the kit buttons with icon nodes for each stack of items included in the matching kit. For example, the farming kit currently creates 1 icon for basic seeds (quantity 5), 1 icon for the deluxe seeds (quantity 1), and 1 icon for the small raised bed (quantity 1). The quantity is indicated by a text label within the icon node.

The actual save file is not created until the player selects an equipment kit and presses “Play”, which allows for navigation back to the file selection menu without losing a save file slot. When an equipment kit is selected and “Play” is pressed, the equipment selection menu scene sends a signal to the root scene that includes the name (String) of the kit selected and a boolean value for the tutorial checkbox.

Equipment Selection Menu

While this approach is simple and flexible, it is not terribly efficient. Because the equipment selection menu only passes the name of the kit, the game scene must specify the items created within the initialization script and any changes to the content of a kit must be recorded in both the equipment selection scene and the game scene. This is easy to manage at the current stage of development, but will likely require revision as the number of available kits increases.

Again, the main purpose of adding this menu is to allow players to customize their playstyle as soon as the game starts. My goal is to offer full flexibility between fighting and farming, and I want players to get to their ideal game state (or at least have a vision for that state) as soon as possible. I plan on reinforcing this concept with an early game upgrade choice, as well as a series of mid-game choices/challenges.

Aside from the equipment selection menu, I’ve also introduced a loading screen, improved save/load functionality, and adjusted movement/controls. Controls still need significant tuning, which I plan to address by researching games with similar mechanics, and by getting (very early) playtesting feedback.