feature_tracker.txt

                      
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                        | Skeletris Planning Doc |
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[P1 bugs]
 - there many issues with fullscreening if you have multiple monitors
    - it's not really supported by pygame / SDL (are you kidding me?!)

[P2 bugs]
 - if you've ever drank a potion, it shouldn't pop the potion tutorial
    - the tutorial can basically get blocked by the equipment one
 - crash files go to the working dir (maybe that's fine?)
    - it's the most convenient place (if i want people to find & send me them)
    - but it could fail if the directory is restricted
 - if you have a high score, but no in-progress save files, the "load" option still appears
    - same problem w/ high scores
    - not sure if I want to parse the files on game start
        - what if you have a crazy number of them?
 - telling potions apart is probably impossible for colorblind people
 - on mac, when you adjust the window's size it also snaps to the center
 - saving system isn't explained anywhere in the game
    - people are quitting out of zones and expecting it to auto-save I guess?
        
[story bugs]
 
[sound bugs]
 - frog song could use a bit of remastering
      
        
[current features]
 - maybe before vault too?
 - mention right-click to pickup on itch page
    - eh, probably not necessary?
 
[next features]
  - shift + direction should force a walk action, even if there's a target in that direction
    - (more secret key commands?)
  - having an item on the cursor shouldn't prevent you from attacking
    - this gets in the way a lot when you're weapon swapping mid-fight


[testing]


[balance issues]    
 - players can quite easily forget how to rotate items or skip turns
    - realistically, they can just look at the store page / controls menu
 - slow potions are a bit OP against bosses
    - maybe OK? bosses are pretty tough otherwise...
 - weapon drops become extremely common at the later difficulties because
   all of them are in the loot pool
  

[maintanence]
 - fix up project requirements. can probably update all the dependencies (even python)
    - why though?
 
 
[what's stressing me out?]
 - won't ever finish
    - potentially true. it's up to you
 - "it took you X years to make this?"
    - it's hard to predict reception. don't let it paralyze you.
 - new players will struggle and quit
    - you'll playtest the tutorial system before release, and you might be 
        surprised at how well players can figure this stuff out.
 - boss fights aren't very interesting
    - you weren't even supposed to *have* those in the first place, remember? 
        just having them at all is more interesting than not, and they don't 
        necessarily need to play a huge role in the game to be memorable.
    - also they're actually better than they seem
        - frog boss tests the player's ability to sidestep attacks
        - robot boss tests player's ability to use CC
 - none of it's very interesting
    - done is better than interesting
    
 
[architecture]
    - entities should keep a reference to the world they're in
        - instead of passing the world into literally every method
    
    
[content design philosophy]
    - done is better than good
    - but if it's bad cut it
    - after two tries, move on
    
        
[future features]
 - mary doesn't have repeat dialog at many places
 - better death animations for enemies
    - i was looking through old gifs, and i swear they used to be better
    - can probably generate some "falling down" animations based on the enemy's sprite
        - sorta like i did in 'HATE', where they'd desintigrate
 - alternate ending for deathless / cp-less runs
    - fight the cloning machine? lol
 - when you go "back" to a previous menu, you should return to the same selected idx
 - [WASD to move] tutorial doesn't look good
    - honestly it's probably fine
    - render it underneath the player maybe?
 - traps / ground effects
    - not sure how much sense this makes, given that enemies can already block you pretty fiercely
 - enemies picking up items (intelligence >= 4)
    - we'd want an "arms up" sprite for eligible enemies I think
 - holding the up/down key in menus should continue scrolling
    - careful, the hold-down behavior on keys differs between OSes
        - (meaning this might already be a thing on windows / mac)
 - projectiles should get a color based on the item/status or something
 - tiles that alter movement
    - jump / teleport tiles
        - an interesting way to get away from enemies, assuming they don't follow you
        - could use "ReturnExitEntity" sprites for this
            - although tests have shown people are afraid of it..
        - this also makes the maps a lot more "mazy" and harder to visualize
    - ice tiles
        - these would be interesting to try to generate
        - enemy pathing on these would be a bit tricky / interesting
    - water tiles (kill or hurt you when you fall in)
        - only meaningful if knockback is a thing
    - one-way tiles
        - (not sure what these would be good for, honestly.)
            - force engagement?
                - running away is sorta hopeless already
                    - and turtling in doorways only works if you can facetank the enemy
 - new (secondary) item stats
    - poison duration
    - confusion duration
 - quest system
 - permanent effects (aka curses)
    - only fun if it truly changes your options somehow
    - and it's obligitory to have different art
 - doors that can only be unlocked with "keys"
 - more varied scenery
    - bridges over deep pits, water pits
 
 - make enemies move at the same time as you...?
    - this would be my #1 complaint with the game if I were a player
    - there's a reason why all other roguelikes do this...
    - this will require a lot of work though
        - essentially:
            - gets complicated when enemies are taking multiple actions during a single player turn
            - we actually don't even know in advance how many total steps will be taken by enemies during this phase
                - depends on various speed-affecting actions that may or may not be taken
            - so it seems like we'd have to pre-compute the entire phase, and play it back at the proper speed
            - actually, it might not be so bad if only MoveActions are affected
                - but I want to be able to toggle other things too.
            - actually, if we could represent the worldstate (as it pertains to actors) in more abstract way..
            - HMMM
            
            - Plan A
                - player chooses an action A0.
                - take a snapshot S0 of the current worldstate (or a relevant part of it)
                - compute S1 = A0(S0) (the worldstate after the player's action has resolved)
                - compute the first enemy's action A1 given S1, and let S2 = A1(S1)
                    - if A_e1 is non-concurrent, animate Ap, then A1
                    - else find A2, A3, A4, and so on until a non-concurrent action is found 
                        - or until it's the player's turn again
                        - hidden enemies do not animate, and therefore their actions are always concurrent
                        - if the player is gone (AKA dead), all actions are non-concurrent
                        
                - then: during animation, sort the actions into lists for each actor
                - and animate them concurrently 
                    - increasing the anim rate for longer lists so that all animations finish at the same time.
                    
            - issues with Plan A:
                - how to represent the state of an actor?
                    - position
                    - HP
                    - energy
                    - base stats
                    - list of stat modifiers (with X turns remaining)
                        - this basically includes items and status effects
                        
                - how to handle 'unusual actions' like interacting with scenery or talking to an NPC?
                    - have them be "non-concurrent" and skip this entire process
                - how to update the 'true' worldstate after the animation phase has occurred?
                    - just finalize actions as they occur (mid-animation)?
                        - no, they absolutely must be called in order
                    - do a "full finalize" of the world at the end?
                    - refactor current world to have it basically represented this way to begin with
                        - aka decouple the model from the view
                
 - use N "dividers" on HP bar where N = max health
 
 - when enemies are "flinched" it should be shown to the player somehow
    - in the tooltip?
    - this should be done with pink zees I think, and other status effects should have similar effects
        - or just regular zees?
        - or just flash the status's color...?
    

[rejected future features]
 - consider allowing two weapons to be equipped at maximum
    - there currently is almost no reason to have more than 1, let alone two
    - this would allow for a simpler UI
        - you'd have an active / offhand weapon, and a button to swap
    - would allow weapons to have global stats (not currently possible because 
      it'd become more efficient to stack small weapons instead of cubes)
    - would need to elegantly "fail to equip" somehow
 
 - putting skeletons back together with bone pieces
 
 - figure out how to make 32-bit windows builds
    - download 32-bit python and dependencies and fire away?
    - could also consider only shipping 32 bit exes?
        - i think this is normal way, yeah
        - it's 2020, time to let 32-bit die...
  

[~dream features~]
 - farming
    - if you can dream it you can meme it
 
 
[P3 bugs / won't fix]
    - going in and out of fullscreen mode loses the window position (or something like that?)
    - offscreen light sources that are somewhat nearby will make offscreen enemies act non-instantly
        - for now, let's just not have any enemies that emit light by default
            - oops, tree boss emits light...
    - HP on kill doesn't trigger when you kill an enemy with poison
        - I think this makes the game better. leave it.
            - It also doesn't go towards kill count, which makes peaceful runs possible (I think~)
    - as frog boss is leaping diagonally, it'll activate player's attack targeting squares
    - right clicking a potion in the equipment grid moves it to the inventory (it should consume)
        - should it?
    - if you have temporary speed boost that's about to expire, enemies with z's can act after you move
        - need to math a little harder here (or just leave it...)
    - windows freaks out when you try to run the exe (how do I authorize it?)
        - it seems like the only way around this is to get a digital certificate,
          which costs hundreds of dollars and requires me to be a company?
        - this is kind of a non-starter
             

[game name]

    [CAN'T USE] Cubelike 
        - blend of roguelike and "cube" (?)
        - been using this as the name since the beginning
        - don't really want to use word "Cube" because it's awkward to say/hard to hear
            - "it's called kyubelike"
            - what?
            - "it's cube-like, like roguelike, if you pronounce it wrong"
    
    Skeletris
        - pros:
            - sounds cool
            - available
            - this can also be the name of the city in which the game takes place
        - cons:
            - similar to "Dungetris" which is an existing indie tetris-roguelike fusion
                - games are totally different though, probably fine to use
            - says basically nothing about the game except "there are skeletons + tetris"
            - there are like four ppl using this name on social media accounts
                - sorry kids, it's mine now
    
    Slap Monsters, Find Loot
        - cute, memorable, 2nd half needs work
        - hate the word "loot"
        - SMFL = "ess em eff ell" sucks
        
    Slap Monster, Get Treasure
        - pros:
            - SMGT = "ess em gee tee", pretty good, acronym available
            - sounds like lgbt
            - describes all important parts of the game
        - cons:
            - ambiguously necessary comma
            - ambiguously necessary "s" after Monster
            - it's too stupid
            - one day later, i hate it
            
    [CAN'T USE] Tomb of the Mushroom King
        - cons:
            - identical to "Crypt of the Fungal Lord", which exists
            - similar to "Curse of the Mushroom King", which exists
            
            
A remnant of the past:

   "Note: The game is quite difficult, and it's probably not for everyone. 
   If you become surrounded or get hit by something nasty, you'll likely 
   die. And have to start over. The idea is that each death will teach a 
   lesson, and as those lessons are learned, you'll stop getting hit and 
   the game will feel more fair and satisfying :)"