Elsie's Out of Potions

background: you play as Elsie, a for-hire witch living in a forest. You've just come back from a long vacation and it looks like your neighbor needs some help! Fortunately for you, she has a few of the recipes that you've forgotten!

• collect items (10 in total) to create various potion (6 in total)
• travel to three parts of the forest (Orchard, River, Graveyard)
• total playtime: very short, maybe 10-15 minutes

Note: all resources for a potion are in the same area where you need to deliver. there are:

• Orchard: 4 unique resources, 3 unique potions
• River: 4 unique resources, 2 unique potions
• Graveyard: 2 unique resources, 1 unique potion

input:

Button	Action
Z(A)	Start, Act , Advance Story, Craft
X(B)	Go Back (potion, bag, quest menus)
Directional Keys	navigation: Up,Down,Left,Right potion menu: cycle bag menu: cycle
Start	Start Story (shared with A)
Select	Unused

information:

• library: GBDK: https://github.com/gbdk-2020/gbdk-2020
• web emulator: emulator-js: https://github.com/EmulatorJS/EmulatorJS
• assets: Aseprite
• font: "Daydream" , https://doublegum.gumroad.com/l/MeHRC https://www.dafont.com/daydream-3.font
• source code (with a copy of png2asset!): https://github.com/jgensler8/elsies_out_of_potions

if I had more time:

• faster builds (currently ~2 minutes, probably due to ~300 png files)
• better scene management / sprite framework (adding content takes too much time. also not compatible with sprite sheets + understanding shared data segments across frames. i did write a copy of png2asset in python but did not want to fix tooling when the rest of the story wasn't completed)
• better item craft mechanic (this could be using directional keys to stir + add ingredients, plus animations when it completes)
• game sound / menu sfx (two problems: challenged for space in ROM0, challenging to use hUGETracker studio to create nice sounds)
• better scene transitions (possible with palette fades, never got around to it. I would love a fancy dither based one using bg/window tile mapping)
• exclamation "guide" (I created a sprite to show you where to go next, ideally to the right of the menu sprites. this would tell you if you need to search, craft, or speak)
• title screen animation (I wanted Elsie to peek out from under her hat, apprehensive about working and being back from vacation. well, next time)

Final Rom Usage (MBC5):

Bank         Range                Size     Used  Used%     Free  Free%
--------     ----------------  -------  -------  -----  -------  -----
ROM_0        0x0000 -> 0x3FFF    16384    13392    82%     2992    18%
ROM_1        0x4000 -> 0x7FFF    16384     6443    39%     9941    61%
ROM_2        0x4000 -> 0x7FFF    16384    10545    64%     5839    36%
ROM_3        0x4000 -> 0x7FFF    16384    15465    94%      919     6%
ROM_4        0x4000 -> 0x7FFF    16384    12652    77%     3732    23%
ROM_5        0x4000 -> 0x7FFF    16384    14222    87%     2162    13%
ROM_6        0x4000 -> 0x7FFF    16384    11069    68%     5315    32%
ROM_7        0x4000 -> 0x7FFF    16384    15471    94%      913     6%
ROM_8        0x4000 -> 0x7FFF    16384    14233    87%     2151    13%
ROM_9        0x4000 -> 0x7FFF    16384    11251    69%     5133    31%
ROM_10       0x4000 -> 0x7FFF    16384    13539    83%     2845    17%
ROM_11       0x4000 -> 0x7FFF    16384    11957    73%     4427    27%
ROM_12       0x4000 -> 0x7FFF    16384    11125    68%     5259    32%
ROM_13       0x4000 -> 0x7FFF    16384    12265    75%     4119    25%
ROM_14       0x4000 -> 0x7FFF    16384     5468    33%    10916    67%
WRAM_LO      0xC000 -> 0xCFFF     4096      264     6%     3832    94%