I have returned to programming! Sorry for the small delay. Let me show you what I've been up to.
I've been working on my notebook! Alright so is starts out looking like:

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q255/Venks428 /NoteBook03.png

When 'Clues' is high lighted and the player presses 'X' then this code is run:

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q255/Venks428 /CodeSnippet.png

The menu is equal to wClues(meaning write clues). Alright so we declare two variables i and j.
While i is less then parentA.arrayClues.length(the number of clues) then operate this loop:
Start of loop. If i is equal to 0 then add the name of the first clue to the variable j.
Add one to i.
i is still less then the number of clues so...
i is not equal to 0 this time so instead we do the next line of code:
If this clue is undefined then go down a line

But if the clue is defined then we do the next line:
If the clue is defined then go down a line and write the clue's name

This is repeated until i becomes equal to the amount of clues. Then we write the variable j which has all the clues stored in it. We set menu to 'Clues' meaning that everything has been written. The cursor's position is reset and we tell the cursor how many clues is now on the menu.

The end result being:

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q255/Venks428 /NoteBook04.png

Yay programming! All the clues are presented ever so neatly!

Suddenly... chickens everywhere! What's up with that? Just so you know collecting chickens isn't gonna get you a jar like in Zelda. But there might be some other sort of reward.

Just like objects you can interact with every chicken in the game. Now I dont know if these chickens will do much for you, but the option is there none the less.

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q255/Venks428 /Detective13.png

So yesterday was a table and today is a... chicken? What is a chicken doing in front of that house? I'm positive that the chicken is not there to be used as some sort of obstruction in order to support game flow. That would just be silly.

As I mentioned before about the routes and how they should lead the player in the correct direction... well I'm not betting the farm on that one. Just in case the player goes somewhere before I want them to they will find obstacles in the way. Sometimes it'll be a worried villager and sometimes it will be a chicken. I don't want to force the player to follow too linear of a path so you can trigger some events in different orders, but still there has to be some sort of order. Otherwise I can't have a forward moving story.

The average work day of a paranormal investigator calls for a lot of outlandish stuff. You never know when you'll be dealing with a friendly apparition or a murderous phantom. So our protagonist, Terrich Lembton, always keeps his wits about him making sure to be observant to everything around him. Such behavior can be what keeps you alive in certain situations. Perhaps this encounter isn't one of those situations.

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q255/Venks428 /Detective12.png

All of the items in every house can be examined. Sometimes this will lead to finding clues or helping you learn about the inhabitants of the house. At other times you will just be examining a table.

So who wants to see a new screenshot?

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q255/Venks428 /Detective11.png

Most of the houses in this game have been tiled and ready for use for quite some time. This one on the other hand was made just recently. I have to say I really like how it turned out. I probably could of filled it with more stuff, but I think for now this is fine. I've never really been much of an artist so when it comes to things I tend to go for a functional approach more then an artistic one.

This time around I can't tell you how much time I spent with misspelling a word and leaving out numbers. All of my npcs say different things based off of the state of the game as well as pop up in different places. This is realized in code by an array that keeps track of each npc's current state. For quite some time the npc in this house was not appearing because the game was looking for 'kF-stranger', but this npc's array slot was equal to 'kF-stanger'.
By missing just the letter 'r' I spent more time then I would of liked to figure out what was going on.

I also added the option of having up to four interactive npcs at any one given time. This encountered problems left and right because I would continually forget to ask for 'comp3' or 'comp4' and try to interact with 'comp'.
This happens a lot because the dialogue, animations, and interaction with the player all call for their own lines of code. I do not write everything word by word that would take too long. Instead I'll copy and paste what works for other npcs and make the appropriate changes here and there to make the code work for other npcs. Now and then though I miss little things like a number here and there. But a single number can be the difference between elegant dialogue or the crashing of my game!

No worries though. I'm keeping on top of everything and the game is making nice strides in progression. Also for those of you unaware and you can backup my project on Kickstarter here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1537889393/b erathen-spirit-detective

A special thanks to Gypsy Dunson and Ceri Davies who already have done so.

I have to say I'm really happy with how Berathen: Spirit Detective is coming out. I'm getting a lot better at discovering the reasons for things not working in my code. I've just come across the same hindrances time and time again that it's a lot easier for me to see what's wrong. A lot of time's it's just me forgetting to make sure my 'interact' variable is true or that I sometimes use "==" instead of "=" when trying to assign a value to something.

if (coolDown==0) walking==true;
if (coolDown==0) walking=true;

The first line is wrong and the second line is correct. As usual I tend to do things wrong when I'm doing them very fast. The first line says 'If the cool down is equal to zero then is walking equal to zero?'
The second line is correct and says 'If the cool down is equal to zero then walking is equal to zero.'

Those sentences both use the exact same words, but I'm sure you can see the difference. One of them being a question and the other a statement. It's silly things like this that slow me down.

Anyways here's a new screenshot! What has Terrich gotten himself into this time?

Nothing big to report today. I was polishing npc interaction and the note book feature for about six hours straight today. Hopefully in the end it'll make for a very rewarding interactions.

Devlog #06
How's it going everyone? I'm back with another update of your favorite game!

First off I have really great news! The Berathen: Spirit Detective project is lucky enough to be up on KickStarter.com! What's Kickstarter.com you may ask?
Why it's a website that provides a platform to raise cash for creative projects, such as my very own detective game!
However, only projects that meet their goal price point by their deadline are funded. Say you back my project, but it doesn't meet its goal? Then your credit card will not be billed. But how terrible would that be!? Not getting the funding to port Berathen: Spirit Detective to smart phones! I don't even want to think about it! I get chills... they're multiplying. And I'm losing control!
Eh hem. Anyways I should also point out that their are rewards for backing my project on Kickstarter!
Can you believe it? So awesome.
Your name can be in the credits for my game... or maybe you could even be an npc in it! You should definitely check this all out at my Kickstarter page.

First off let me clarify that Berathen: Spirit Detective is still coming out on PC, to be played on your very own web browser, by May 19th! If you choose to back my project on Kickstarter, which you so totally should, you are helping me get the game onto iPhones and Android phones across the world! Cool right?
Now secondly you don't think today's update was only about me asking for your money did you? Because it's not! Geesh! Today's update is about the notebook feature!

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q255/Venks428 /NoteBookSS.png

With the simple press of a button you can access Terrich's notebooks and review everything note worthy you've come across in your investigation. You can review clues and the profiles of all the suspicious villagers. This will be infinitely useful for keeping track of names and staying on top of your leads. Not to mention, in case you miss it, Terrich will be writing down very specific observations about any clues he comes across.

Remember kids, in 'Hot Fuzz' Nicholas Angel(Simon Pegg) tells us that it's not his gun that's the most important tool in his arsenal. It's his notebook!

I've been giving a lot of thought to the game's flow. Like where the player goes at what point of time. As someone who has run Dungeon and Dragon campaigns I already know how players like to do everything, but what you want them to do. While there are multiple options in my game, certain events have to take place before other events do. So in order to facilitate this I'm trying a gentle way to point the player in the right direction.

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q255/Venks428 /Outside.png

For example the npc in the house just before the next one suggests that you go into the neighboring house. At first there were very few trees south of these houses, but I decided nature should flourish. By having trees blocking the way to the southern house it should hopefully make less players head there first. There is also a dirt path that connects all of the houses in the village together. Though I haven't had my play testers try this out yet. I won't be completely surprised if my testers decide that they should go to every other house, but the very next one. I'll just have to wait and see.

It's not that I have anything against exploration, but I am against player frustration. Players usually get pretty grumpy when they are confused about what they are supposed to be doing. But they also get irked if you have lengthy tutorials or too much hand holding. Hopefully I can find the right balance.

Pushing out some more progress.

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q255/Venks428 /BookRead.png

All of the items in this room can be examined. Including the books on the floor which will give you small excerpts of the stories inside. It took a bit to make the dialogue text pop into the middle like that. I kept making a bunch of silly mistakes. The biggest one being that this format is accessed when ever I call the 'write' function with the last argument equaling two. I continually made the argument equal zero at first as that is the default. So basically I was never calling the other format I had made. Oh silly programming woes.

Perhaps you noticed that Terrich's cloak has turned yellow?

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q255/Venks428 /Lembton.png

It's all part of a feature I implemented. Terrich can lock into ethereal signals and his mystical robes provide a visual cue for whether or not you are getting closer to the source. Basically by playing hot or cold you can find objects or places that have recently been haunted. If you keep on top of these trails it shouldn't be long before you've solved the case.