(NOTE: These devlogs usually lag behind our official updates. The latest up-to-date information about the game can be found on our team's Patreon page!)

Hi everyone, hope you're doing well! :)

Today's devlog is about the game's UI - namely, the interaction icons!

This is another part of the game that we haven't had a chance to talk about yet, but is extremely important because it controls how players interact with the majority of ToLLA's content... Almost everything you'll come across in the game (areas, containers, events, NPCs, etc.) is tied together by these interaction icons! Think of them as strings that tether all the content, and are there for you to pull on and experiment with!

Vixi (our lead artist) came up with the original concepts, and painted many from start to finish... then Shuky (our secondary artist) took over the rest after she came on board, and polished some of the older ones from the previous set. They're all painted in 480x480, then scaled down to 48x48 for use in-game...

The icons work as a sort of stand-in for more complex triggering. Since the default engine lacks polygonal triggers, we use player-activated commands to achieve a similar outcome... Actions such as looting containers, talking to NPCs, launching storybook events, moving from one area to the other via doors, and so on, are all handled through these interaction icons! Each icon is tied to a series of scripts that it calls up when activated, which then run whatever effects are needed. It's an elegant way to present visual information to the Player - you'll be able to gauge what an area has in store for you just from looking at the icon types present!

There's over *60* icons in total, each standing in for an individual action or event that you'll be able to tackle while playing. The artists chose a stylized appearance to represent the various actions, with sepia/gold color for the interiors, and a thick black border encircling the entire token. This was done to make the icons pop from the likewise hand-painted backgrounds! As with most art assets developed for ToLLA, we did tests way back in pre-production to determine how to best present the icons while making them visually distinct - the finalized pieces are the end result of that lengthy process, and naturally draw the eye while also meshing with the game's overall style.

Doozle (our scripter and systems designer) recorded a short clip a while ago to showcase how these icons behave in real time... The sound effects accompanying the actions were temporary placeholders that were put in for the purposes of demonstration, and were swapped out later. Feel free to check out the rest of the videos on our YouTube channel to see how the interaction icons and their role in the game changed during development...

And with that we'll wrap up today's development log - hope you had fun reading! Work continues on the game, and we'll have more cool stuff to share next time. Take care out there, stay safe, and see you then! ;)

~ Crimson Delight Games

P.S.

If you'd like to help support our work on the game, consider purchasing our Lewds Library & Bonus Art Pack during checkout. This is an additional purchase you can pick up when getting the game, and holds much of the concept art for ToLLA, with holiday wallpapers in their full resolution, a bunch of pre-production sketches, and over 150 gorgeous hand-painted 2D lewds!

We're also selling an NPC portraits pack that you can pick up for your own game-making needs if you're a developer!