It's finally time to share some of the progress I've been making in the upcoming sandbox mode. I'll be splitting this up into two separate devlogs since there's quite a bit to share, and I have of course saved the best stuff for last. I expect to have the next devlog ready within a week or so, and I'll be publishing some bug fixes then as well.

The first update changes how characters are assigned to props, which is now down with a simple drag-and-drop interface. Props that can be interacted with all display an outline while dragging the character around to make it easy to see which they can use, and each prop has a default animation that gives you the opportunity to add a partner.

Each prop also has multiple animations available and each is represented with its own button and icon in the panel at the bottom-center of the screen. Buttons are enabled/disabled depending on whether they can be used with the current partner, and I'll be expanding on this in the future to account for multiple partners as well. I've also added dialogue progression to several of these animations as well as some particle effects for climaxes.

There will eventually be a toggle for first-person mode, but for now I did everything manually so you can see how things will work when sandbox mode is released. I'll also be testing out a few ideas to improve the particle effects dramatically, but that will likely wait until after I've made sandbox mode available since it isn't really a priority at this point.

Keep in mind that sandbox mode is designed to make it easy for me to prototype and test new props and ideas that will be used in the upcoming story mode; I've made it available to players since there isn't really any reason not to and I've always enjoyed the freedom that sandbox mode in other games provides. I expect that the first chapter of the story won't take long for me to put together once I've published sandbox mode for the public, and every chapter that is released will be a free update for anyone that has purchased the game.

This is only the first half of the updates I've been adding to sandbox mode, and I'm hoping to have the next devlog ready for next weekend.