WhileIterating's game – Devlog

A daily devlog documenting my journey building a turn-based RPG, with many other elements mixed in for fun, in Godot

Project maintained by Brhando Hosted on GitHub Pages — Theme by mattgraham

🛏️ Day 8: Day/Night System, UI Time Display, and Icon Redesign – May 27, 2025

Progress Made

Designed and implemented a custom Day/Night system inside the GameManager singleton using a 5-stage cycle: Morning, Midmorning, Noon, Afternoon, and Night.
Configured time progression logic to advance only through player travel or sleeping, with dungeon travel forcing nightfall and sleep resetting to morning.
Added scene-based tint overlays using CanvasLayer and ColorRect to reflect time of day—excluding the overworld map—providing immersive visual feedback.
Integrated a time-of-day and day count tracker into the player UI, styled with orange text and black outline for visibility.
Connected the sleep mechanic to the bed in the home base, limiting usage to Afternoon and Night to prevent time-skipping abuse.
Redrew and updated the inventory icons for wood and stone using custom pixel art for a cleaner, more personalized visual style.
Pushed all changes and updates to Git for version control.

Challenges

Ensured tint system modularity and consistency across scenes without affecting UI layout.
Balanced visual clarity with pixel density when updating resource icons.
Debugged scene transitions to ensure day/night advancement logic executed consistently across all entry points.

Next Steps

Begin implementing the Crafting Workbench scene and logic, starting with a simple recipe (e.g., 3 Wood → 1 Plank).
Design and import a Workbench sprite to match the newly updated item icons.
Finalize the inventory system refactor to support unique item caps and item stacking (e.g., max 64 stack per resource).
Continue polishing UI elements and feedback for day/night transitions and resource feedback.

Reflection

Today marked another milestone: the world now breathes with time. The shift from static environments to a living, time-responsive space was incredibly satisfying, especially seeing the player UI and tints adapt fluidly. Creating my own pixel art for inventory icons made everything feel more mine. Though crafting looms ahead, I’m gaining confidence with each system. I’m proud of the polish and intention behind today’s progress.