Trout Priest - Secondary mechanics

Now the base loop seems to be working nicely, it's time to give the player some busywork!

Endlessly whapping zombie trout is great, (and now you can track how many), but what if you could make yourself stronger?

When returning to the Chapel, a small panel pops up automatically with info & button prompts to upgrade. I chose to use the remaining buttons on the gamepad so the player never has to enter a menu & have control taken from them.

But what does the player use to upgrade these? Well the visuals may change, but I wanted to avoid getting them from the fish themselves - so the player doesn't see them as a resource to be farmed instead of sorry creatures to be helped. So both materials appear randomly around the map, but will be triggered by different things (rather than just spawning on arbitrary timers)

So for now, we have Feldstar - a golden mineral that falls from above - seems pretty appropriate for upgrading Grace. The name is "borrowed" from a real mineral called feldspar (I just like how the name sounds). We also have Worrystones - simple pebbles that can ease the soul when held in the hand. As Heart is more to do with Wallace's determination, rather than his physical state, something that can calm him works as an upgrade material. They also look a little like a heart.
Feldstar falls from the sky like a little shooting star (think star fragment from BotW/TotK), but Worrystones appear washed up on the banks of the river. Hopefully these will give the player a reason to explore and not just stick to the immediate area around the Chapel to defend it.

Speaking of, so far there has been no coded "lose" state. As Wallace does not die, the lose state is when the trout make it to the Chapel. When the Chapel takes damage, it knocks one point from Wallace's max Heart and Grace. When one of them reaches zero, Wallace simply gives up. Game Over.

There are also now small Altars that the player can buff with Grace to temporarily distract the fish.

There are a handful scattered around the map. Luckily it re-uses a lot of existing code, and I modified the Chapel mode to make it. Saves time and keeps design language consistent!

I am now starting to get to that point of a project where I'm getting ready to open it up to some playtests and see what people think, make any adjustments, then start wrapping it up and kicking out the door! Exciting!