Another weekend, another couple of days picking up some of the coding. My main focus is now on getting the game to work as a game; so I've been looking at the adventure side of things. At the heart of it is a little routine that allows interaction between the player and NPCs in the game. As the adventure is going to mostly be a "get item 1 (or 2) and combine or trade them to get item 3, use item 3 to do something, somewhere" I've been working on the different variations of the "do something" code.

In this example, you start without the Shovel and speak to Copper; Copper gives you some advice. If you then go and pick up the shovel, and speak to Copper again, he'll say something else.

Note that Bill can carry 2 items at a time (1 for each wing) and there is a status icon for items Bill will automatically equip and use; such as the shovel. I would say more, but for spoilers.

The "Hint for an item, message after item" is the simplest of the sequences. Others have been coded but we'll save that for the game itself.
Each time I post these updates, there is a bit of an evolution of the graphics. Some aspects I'm happy with. Some I'm going to tweak and change.  I don't mind a little colour clash, but there are some areas where I think it is a bit too much.

My aim for the next update is to have a playable demo built that encompasses the top level, a "diggin'" level and some puzzles from the next level down. But we'll see what happens.