This is the week 26 devlog for Cosmic Construct, meaning we are now at the 6 month mark.

As I had mentioned last week, I had some other non-coding work that needed to be done for the game, and that is just about finished.

If you want to follow development progress, you can do so in the following ways.

• My bluesky account where I post frequent updates.
• I also have a Cosmic Construct community discord server.
• Don't forget to Wishlist Cosmic Construct on Steam and follow the steam page.

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[] Dialogue Art

I decided at the beginning of the week that I would get the social interactions working before the demo was released. That way the game would be a little more lively, and better reflect how I intend the pawns to react in the released game. Pawns are meant to communicate with each other in the same way that they communicate with the player. With audible conversations nearby at low volume.

[] Social Interactions

Once the art was finished. I was able to work on getting the placeholder coversation text done. When communicating with pawns, they will either complain if they have a complaint, or will talk with a random coversation subject relative to their personality. Personalities will effect the kind of leisure tasks they will take part in. Some will prefer games, reading, physical activities, as well as more or less leisure.

Social needs are covered by these interactions. Pawns with low social will seek out interaction between themselves and others. Pawns can also have traits which prevent them from communicating with others, or the player.

[] Energy and Food

I previously got the food integrated, and the player could eat; restoring hunger. I found some bugs with the way energy was implemented, and wasn't working for some activities, and was decreasing too quickly for others. This took longer to get working than I expected, but the player now loses energy while working and needs to eat to recover it.

[] Recording

I've been recording and recording different aspects of gameplay to create two trailers, one for each of two events Cosmic Construct is taking part in, both of which will be up on the Steam page to showcase the game. I have a hard deadline for the completion of those trailers, which is the 23rd of May. 3 days from now.

[] Gameplay Testing and Prep for the Upcoming Demo

I am going through multiple cycles of gameplay testing preparing for the new demo that will be changing the entire game progression relative to the current demo which uses the old hand-holdy progression system. The game is being changed more to a "move at your own pace, choose your own goals kind of game" with a level restriction apparatus which gates player progress behind completing a number of arbitrary goals.

I'll need feedback on this new demo when it becomes available. Feel free to take part in that at on June 3rd.

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We are now back to a regular schedule of planned development content.

- Finish two separate 2 minute gameplay trailers. (priority task)

- Add new structure icons and complete gameplay balance.

- Art for new structures.

- New pawn interactions and voice dialogue for existing complaint types.

Sorry week's devlog was short on images. I thought I would have more with all of the recording.