I made the kids pick a nearby adult and follow them (not pictured), while adults follow the player (represented by the mouse moth. Mousefly? Cursorfly?).
They only do this if they get curious about the player! How quickly curiosity builds depends on their attunement trait: the higher it is, the more they seek connection; the lower it is, the less they engage. Some might even start to resent the player.
So, the first hints of this being a bit of a relational game are finally starting to show up!
I’ve been thinking about what the player actually *is* within the world of Plinks. They won’t control the Plinks directly. Instead, the player will take on the role of a spirit(?), gently influencing the world. To reflect that, I’ve created a new mouse cursor: a softly glowing butterfly. It’s maybe a little cute, but that will balance out over time as the world becomes deeper and stranger.
The Plinks will be curious about the cursor. You won’t be able to steer them directly, but their curiosity will become an important game mechanic later on.
I also made progress on how Plinks move around, based on their traits. It still needs work, but at least they no longer walk straight into the sea!
(I also see that I need to adjust the word banlist. Oops.)
A small animated preview of my game. It’s still far from finished!
You can spot a different type of Plink here, a rare hatless variety. Its name consists of its colony name (Ihie) followed by its own name (Yrafi). The naming system follows a set of rules, though I’m still working those out.
The tileset you see isn’t final either. Some tiles are still placeholders, as shown by the numbers. I'm not happy with their look, so they will get changed.
The flowers are two species of notiflowers, Waernts and Heyls, which will play a central role in the game.
Hi! I'm #NewHere but not on Mastodon as a whole. (You can find my other account at @LevendLichtje )
This will be my blog where I post about my hobby project Plinks!
Plinks is meant to be a little game about the tiny mushroom creatures named Plinks. It is a gentle nature-themed base-builder and life simulator. Each Plink is created with genes, traits, relationships, a personal and ancestral history etc.
Gameplay centers around forming meaningful bonds, guiding the colony through the seasons, and observing the interplay of genetics and personality.
Instead of standard strategy, it invites players to care for and influence a living, growing community. Not through commands, but through relationships.
As a professional artist who turned her hobby into work, this is just a replacement hobby. Mostly made to create the kind of game I could not find anywhere. Development will be slow and only move forward when I'm up for it. But it's made with a lot of attention and hand-drawn pixelart.
