Small polish, big progress (Day 32)
Hi, it’s me again.
Today I kept polishing the Dungeon Merchant demo.
Mostly small things—UI layout, visuals, making the whole experience feel a little more solid.
It’s not a big flashy update, but bit by bit, things are starting to click into place.
Right now, I’m aiming to release the demo around June 5th.
It might shift slightly depending on how things go, but that’s the rough plan.
Here’s a checklist I’ve been using as my guide:
✅ Dungeon Merchant Demo TODO (based on my Notion template)
UI Foundation
- Basic UI layout (gold, number of travellers, item count, etc.)
- Effect when player pays gold after interactions
Completed Features
- Travellers appear and leave the shop properly
- Travellers walk to the service items they need
🧩 Core Feature Development (May 18 – May 25)
- Travellers use items (sleeping bags, tables, etc.) and perform actions
- Furniture placement system made stable
- Room detection logic (e.g. 3 walls + 1 door)
- Apply bonuses based on furniture placed inside rooms
🎮 UX & Game Flow Improvements (May 26 – May 29)
- Tutorial popup or simple guide when the game starts
- Input guide (clicking, placement basics)
- Playtime limit or replay setup
- Make traveller behavior more visually intuitive
- Title screen or intro UI for the demo
- End screen (thank-you or what's coming next)
🎨 Polish & Extra Content (May 30 – June 2)
- Basic sound effects (placement, payment, reactions)
- Small effects (glow, coin popup, etc.)
- Balance item counts and prices
- Text cleanup and font consistency
- Test with at least 3 different traveller flows
- Remove critical bugs
🚀 Demo Release Prep (June 3 – June 5)
- Build for itch.io
- Add dev info / helpful links in-game
- Link demo from bhbstudios.xyz
- Set up itch.io page + write intro
- Write blog post for demo launch
- Make a GIF or short trailer video
Thanks for reading. I’ll keep going and try to share more cool stuff soon!
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