Devlog
Working notes, balance changes, and progress updates from the desk.
Finally got the zone audio transitions working without memory hitches on Android. Instead of sticking to one genre, I broke the soundtrack out by zone context: heavy overdrive guitars for minibosses, chill lofi in the workshop areas, and orchestral themes reserved strictly for story moments. Hearing a heavy riff kick in during a phase break completely changed how the turn encounters feel.
Connected the first three planet biomes into the main world map this month. Early playtest runs felt too bogged down by random battle frequency, especially when walking back through cleared mining sectors. Added a visible roaming encounter system so you can run around fights when you're just trying to get back to the workshop to turn in scrap.
Ripped out the on-screen joystick completely. Testing on phones showed that people kept losing their thumb position during combat menus, and virtual sticks just take up valuable screen real estate. Replaced it with tap-to-pathfind for exploration and direct swipe-targeting for abilities. Navigation feels ten times more natural on glass now.
Spent two weeks untangling scaling bugs across different Android aspect ratios (19.5:9 vs 20:9 screens). Raw pixel art was either blurring or creating weird uneven pixel jitter during camera scrolls. Built an integer-scale render pass with clean letterboxing buffers so character sprites stay sharp regardless of the phone's native resolution.
Started Starborn. Goal is a turn-based sci-fi JRPG built specifically for touchscreens—no gacha, no energy timers, playable offline. Got the basic battle loop working this week: turn order queue, basic attack/guard states, and elemental resistance checks. Just colored boxes and debug text for now, but the timing logic works.