Dango Thief Demo Update: Lights, Camera, Ac-Actually Just Lights

Hey everyone, this is my first update to my Dango Thief Demo since it's initial release December 31, 2022.

I'm basically just going over the demo and polishing it as well as fixing bugs and adding some missing features. I've made lots of small fixes such as the mirror in the restroom (still having trouble with the Up/Down display though), new graphics for the choice boxes (still want to improve them some more), the statue at the end of the nightmare now works properly, and more little things here and there.

However, I really want to talk about the new lighting system. My plan for the game is to have stages of lighting based on the time of day. There are four "times of day": morning, afternoon, evening, and night. These base values of light are then altered by the weather. There are four types of weather in the game (coming soon): sunny, partly cloudy, overcast, and rainy. The weather is randomized so the lighting will have to adjust accordingly. Next the lighting is also affected by whether the map you're on is considered indoors or outdoors. Outside will always be brighter than inside. So I had to create a new database in the game to store each map and assign it an "indoor" or "outdoor" variable. Lastly, lighting can be altered by artificial light if you're indoors. There are lamps and light switches in the game that the player can turn off and on.

Right now, this lighting function is wonky. I just added it a few days ago and I'm working out the kinks. The specific lighting settings are also likely to change. But this will give me much more control of the lighting as well as make the game world feel a little more alive!

Another big change I'd like to announce is the save/load menu. It now properly displays save info! I'm worried about the readability of the small details so I'll be working on that next. Probably a darker font will do wonders. I'm just happy it's working since it's hard to even play the demo if you can't tell what you're saving or loading.

Anyway, that's it for now! Like I said, I'll be updating every Sunday. Even if it's not a big update, I'll still push fixes for small bugs and graphics.