dd4a694: The key was invisible, and it is called an inventory

Published from cloudronin/astara@dd4a69487fdcd5dc93c68f73714aa19dc98d90a5

index.html

@@ -176,7 +176,7 @@
       <button type="button" class="n" data-act="pickup" aria-label="take the object">TAKE</button>
       <button type="button" class="e" data-act="attack" aria-label="swing the sword">SWING</button>
       <button type="button" class="s" data-act="torch"  aria-label="hold to raise the torch">TORCH</button>
-      <button type="button" class="w" data-act="sheaf" aria-label="hold to look through your pages">PAGES</button>
+      <button type="button" class="w" data-act="sheaf" aria-label="hold to look through everything you are carrying">ITEMS</button>
     </div>
   </div>
   <div class="cluster right">

src/checks.js

@@ -1382,9 +1382,14 @@ export function createChecks({ renderer, scene, canvas, clips = {} }) {
       // fall, so the first version of this measured a wall nothing was drawn
       // on: every comparison came back 0 except the one that accidentally
       // caught the lightning.
-      const TORCH = { ...NONE, torch: true };
+      // NOT CALLED `TORCH`. It was, and it shadowed the TORCH this file
+      // imports from tuning.js — so `TORCH.KEPT_PULSE_HZ` a few lines down was
+      // undefined, the clock went NaN, and the renderer died trying to build a
+      // gradient stop out of it. The same shadowing that once made the whole
+      // module refuse to load, in a new place.
+      const HOLDING = { ...NONE, torch: true };
       const shot = (h) => {
-        for (let i = 0; i < 3; i++) scene.update(1 / 60, TORCH);
+        for (let i = 0; i < 3; i++) scene.update(1 / 60, HOLDING);
         s.clock = 3.0;
         renderer.drawLevel(scene, 0, { pass1Ms: 0, pass2Ms: 0, bgDrawn: 0 });
         return ctx.getImageData(...patch(h)).data;
@@ -1433,6 +1438,34 @@ export function createChecks({ renderer, scene, canvas, clips = {} }) {
       const bare = brightness(shot(forge));
       const noise = Math.abs(brightness(shot(forge)) - bare);
 
+      // 1b. AND AN EMPTY PATCH BREATHES.
+      //
+      //     The ghost below only helps somebody already standing here with the
+      //     right thing in hand. Nothing walked them over: they lit a door, saw
+      //     a slightly cleaner rectangle, and had no reason to think it was
+      //     anything — which is what actually happened to the first person who
+      //     played it. The breath is the same one a dropped scrap has and a key
+      //     has, at the same numbers, and it means what it has always meant.
+      //
+      //     Measured over one full cycle of KEPT_PULSE_HZ, on a box wider than
+      //     the patch so the halo around it is counted too.
+      const wide = (h) => {
+        const [nx, ny, nw, nh] = clip.nailAt[h.variant];
+        return [Math.round(h.x - s.camera.x - clip.pivotX + nx) - 26,
+          Math.round(GROUND_Y - clip.pivotY + ny) - 26, nw + 52, nh + 52];
+      };
+      const breath = (h) => {
+        const seen = [];
+        for (let i = 0; i < 12; i++) {
+          s.clock = 3.0 + (i / 12) / TORCH.KEPT_PULSE_HZ;
+          renderer.drawLevel(scene, 0, { pass1Ms: 0, pass2Ms: 0, bgDrawn: 0 });
+          seen.push(brightness(ctx.getImageData(...wide(h)).data));
+        }
+        s.clock = 3.0;
+        return Math.round(Math.max(...seen) - Math.min(...seen));
+      };
+      const emptyBreathes = breath(forge);
+
       // 2. A SCRAP ON TOP AND THE WALL SHOWS IT.
       put(0);
       const ghosted = brightness(shot(forge));
@@ -1449,6 +1482,12 @@ export function createChecks({ renderer, scene, canvas, clips = {} }) {
       const pinned = brightness(shot(forge));
       const ghostIsNotThePin = ghosted - pinned;      // solid, so darker again
 
+      // AND IT STOPS. An empty place asks its own question; a full one has
+      // nothing left to ask. Same reason the gate's sockets never needed
+      // explaining — and why the loom house goes on asking all level, with
+      // nobody left to answer it.
+      const filledIsStill = breath(forge);
+
       // 4. AND IT IS OVER. Lightning, not a filter.
       drive(1.2, { torch: true });
       const gone = !(s.flash > 0) && (s.flashMs ?? -1) < 0;
@@ -1471,8 +1510,11 @@ export function createChecks({ renderer, scene, canvas, clips = {} }) {
         pass: ghostShows > Math.max(8, noise * 3) &&
               ghostIsNotThePin > Math.max(8, noise * 3) &&
               wrongGhost > Math.max(8, noise * 3) &&
+              emptyBreathes > 8 && filledIsStill <= 2 &&
               struck && quiet && gone,
         flickerMovesTheMeanBy: noise,
+        anEmptyPatchBreathesBy: emptyBreathes,
+        andAFilledOneIsStill: filledIsStill,
         theWallPreviewsTheScrap: ghostShows,
         andItPreviewsAWrongOneToo: wrongGhost,
         theGhostIsNotThePin: ghostIsNotThePin,

src/render.js

@@ -280,7 +280,7 @@ export function createRenderer(ctx) {
         // only shows where the light actually falls.
         if (mode === 'lit') {
           c.drawImage(clip.frames[h.variant].lit, x, y);
-          drawNail(c, s, clip, h, x, y);
+          drawNail(c, s, clip, h, x, y, s.clock ?? 0);
           drawRoomKey(c, s, clip, h, x, y, s.clock ?? 0);
         } else c.drawImage(s.houseArt[h.variant], x, y);
       }
@@ -342,8 +342,28 @@ export function createRenderer(ctx) {
     const n = TUNING.GATE_WANTS;
     const row = gx - ((mw * n + mgap * (n - 1)) / 2);
     const my = leafTop + 70 - lift;
+    // AN EMPTY SOCKET BREATHES, the same as an empty patch on a door and for
+    // the same reason. Four holes in a leaf have always asked their own
+    // question — but only of somebody who already knows the answer is a key.
+    // The first person to reach this gate carrying four of them put one in by
+    // accident, pressing the button to see what it would do.
+    const sock = 1 - TORCH.KEPT_PULSE_DEPTH *
+      (0.5 - 0.5 * Math.cos((s.clock ?? 0) * Math.PI * 2 * TORCH.KEPT_PULSE_HZ));
     for (let i = 0; i < TUNING.GATE_WANTS; i++) {
       const mx = row + i * (mw + mgap);
+      if (i >= filled) {
+        const scx = mx + mw / 2;
+        const scy = my + mh / 2;
+        const sr = Math.max(mw, mh) * 0.95;
+        const sg = c.createRadialGradient(scx, scy, 0, scx, scy, sr);
+        sg.addColorStop(0, `rgba(${TORCH.KEPT_RGB},${(TORCH.KEPT_GLOW * sock * 0.8).toFixed(3)})`);
+        sg.addColorStop(1, `rgba(${TORCH.KEPT_RGB},0)`);
+        const wasOp = c.globalCompositeOperation;
+        c.globalCompositeOperation = 'lighter';
+        c.fillStyle = sg;
+        c.fillRect(scx - sr, scy - sr, sr * 2, sr * 2);
+        c.globalCompositeOperation = wasOp;
+      }
       c.fillStyle = '#000';
       c.fillRect(mx, my, mw, mh);
       if (i >= filled) {
@@ -410,9 +430,11 @@ export function createRenderer(ctx) {
     if (!pg) return;
     const pose = s.prince.clip;
     if (!pose?.mapPivot) return;
-    const art = pg.kind === 'fragment' ? s.kept : pg.kind === 'letter' ? s.letterArt : null;
+    const art = pg.kind === 'fragment' ? s.kept
+      : pg.kind === 'letter' ? s.letterArt
+        : pg.kind === 'key' ? s.keyArt : null;
     if (!art) return;
-    const idx = pg.kind === 'fragment' ? pg.kept : pg.house;
+    const idx = pg.kind === 'fragment' ? pg.kept : pg.kind === 'key' ? 0 : pg.house;
     const frame = art.frames[idx];
     if (!frame) return;
 
@@ -635,16 +657,22 @@ export function createRenderer(ctx) {
    * every other act of looking in this game charges.
    */
   function drawSheetPage(c, s, sheet, x0, y0, pg) {
-    const whole = pg.kind === 'letter';
+    const whole = pg.kind === 'letter' || pg.kind === 'key';
     const known = s.pageSeen ? s.pageSeen(pg) : true;
     // A page he has not turned to is the SHAPE OF THE THING WITHOUT ITS
     // CONTENTS — the same contour with nothing written inside it. Drawn from
     // its own art rather than from the silhouette pass, which would put a solid
     // black page on the paper and read as a hole in the sheet.
-    const art = known ? (whole ? s.letterArt : s.kept) : s.pageBlank;
+    // A KEY IS IN HERE TOO. It carries nothing to read and never will, but a
+    // thing you are carrying that you cannot look at is a thing you do not
+    // know you have — which is exactly what happened: somebody collected four
+    // and only found out at the gate, by pressing the button to see.
+    const art = pg.kind === 'key' ? s.keyArt
+      : known ? (whole ? s.letterArt : s.kept) : s.pageBlank;
     if (!art) return;
-    const i = known ? (pg.house ?? pg.kept ?? 0)
-      : (art.pageFace ? (whole ? art.pageFace.whole : art.pageFace.torn) : 0);
+    const i = pg.kind === 'key' ? 0
+      : known ? (pg.house ?? pg.kept ?? 0)
+        : (art.pageFace ? (whole ? art.pageFace.whole : art.pageFace.torn) : 0);
     const frame = art.frames[i];
     if (!frame) return;
     // FITTED BY ITS INK, NOT BY ITS CANVAS. The page art uses about half of its
@@ -787,7 +815,7 @@ export function createRenderer(ctx) {
    * LIT PASS ONLY, so all three live and die with the torch like everything
    * else in a doorway.
    */
-  function drawNail(c, s, clip, house, x, y) {
+  function drawNail(c, s, clip, house, x, y, clock) {
     if (!clip.nailAt) return;
 
     // 1. THE LETTER, while it is still hanging there.
@@ -811,13 +839,51 @@ export function createRenderer(ctx) {
     //    made it, because paper curls and the weather got in at the edges.
     const rect = clip.nailAt[house.variant];
     const [nx, ny, nw, nh] = rect;
+    const px0 = Math.round(x + nx);
+    const py0 = Math.round(y + ny);
+
+    // 2a. AND WHILE IT IS EMPTY IT BREATHES.
+    //
+    // The ghost below only helps a player who is ALREADY standing here with
+    // the right thing in his hand. Nothing walked him over in the first place:
+    // he lit a door, saw a slightly cleaner rectangle of wall, and had no
+    // reason to think it was anything. That is what actually happened to the
+    // first person who played it.
+    //
+    // THE GAME ALREADY HAS A WORD FOR THIS and it is not a new one. A scrap
+    // lying in the dark breathes; so does a key once its door is open. Same
+    // numbers, same rhythm, same meaning — something here is yours to do
+    // something with. A new kind of highlight would have been UI; this is the
+    // sentence the level has been speaking since the first object on the
+    // ground.
+    //
+    // IT STOPS THE MOMENT SOMETHING IS IN IT. An empty place asks its own
+    // question, which is the same reason four empty sockets on the gate have
+    // never needed explaining — and it is why the loom house goes on asking
+    // for the whole level, with nobody left to answer it.
+    if (house.filed == null) {
+      const pulse = 1 - TORCH.KEPT_PULSE_DEPTH *
+        (0.5 - 0.5 * Math.cos(clock * Math.PI * 2 * TORCH.KEPT_PULSE_HZ));
+      const cx = px0 + nw / 2;
+      const cy = py0 + nh / 2;
+      const r = Math.max(nw, nh) * TORCH.KEPT_GLOW_R;
+      const g = c.createRadialGradient(cx, cy, 0, cx, cy, r);
+      g.addColorStop(0, `rgba(${TORCH.KEPT_RGB},${(TORCH.KEPT_GLOW * pulse).toFixed(3)})`);
+      g.addColorStop(1, `rgba(${TORCH.KEPT_RGB},0)`);
+      const was = c.globalCompositeOperation;
+      c.globalCompositeOperation = 'lighter';
+      c.fillStyle = g;
+      c.fillRect(cx - r, cy - r, r * 2, r * 2);
+      c.globalCompositeOperation = was;
+    }
+
     c.fillStyle = PATCH;
-    c.fillRect(Math.round(x + nx), Math.round(y + ny), nw, nh);
+    c.fillRect(px0, py0, nw, nh);
     // The nail itself, bare now. Four pixels of iron, and the only reason it is
     // drawn at all is that a patch with nothing at the top of it reads as a
     // stain rather than as a place something hung.
     c.fillStyle = '#000';
-    c.fillRect(Math.round(x + nx + nw / 2) - 2, Math.round(y + ny) + 3, 4, 5);
+    c.fillRect(Math.round(px0 + nw / 2) - 2, py0 + 3, 4, 5);
 
     // 2b. AND IF HE IS STANDING HERE HOLDING A PAGE, THE WALL SHOWS WHERE IT
     //     WOULD GO. A ghost of the exact page in his hand, faint, in the patch.
@@ -898,7 +964,32 @@ export function createRenderer(ctx) {
     const w = ink.w * k;
     const h = ink.h * k;
     const px = x + kx + (kw - w) / 2;
-    const py = y + ky + (kh - h) / 2;
+
+    // IT HANGS ON ITS OWN PLATE OF LIGHT, and that is not decoration.
+    //
+    // The key is black line work hanging inside the doorway — where the anvil
+    // and the oven and the buckets and the loom also are, and those are black
+    // too. Measured: 48% of the key is drawn over the anvil, 87% over a bucket,
+    // 96% over the oven dome and over the loom. A black key on a black oven is
+    // not a dim key, it is no key, and the first people to play this never saw
+    // one at all.
+    //
+    // THE LETTER SOLVED THIS ALREADY: it paints its own patch of doorway light
+    // before drawing the page, "because on a dark wall it came out
+    // dark-on-dark". Same fix, same value. The key is now always a black shape
+    // on light, whatever it is hanging in front of.
+    //
+    // AND IT SWINGS WHEN IT IS YOURS. A warm halo is this game's word for "you
+    // can pick this up", but a warm halo on an already-bright doorway barely
+    // moves the picture — the same mistake as a white bolt on a white sky. What
+    // reads against any background is motion.
+    const swing = house.open
+      ? Math.sin(clock * Math.PI * 2 * TORCH.KEPT_PULSE_HZ) * 4
+      : 0;
+    const py = y + ky + (kh - h) / 2 + swing;
+    c.fillStyle = DOORLIGHT;
+    c.fillRect(Math.round(px - 7), Math.round(py - 7),
+      Math.round(w + 14), Math.round(h + 14));
 
     if (house.open) {
       // The same breath the dropped pages take, off the same tuning values, so
@@ -929,7 +1020,7 @@ export function createRenderer(ctx) {
   // standing, which is the whole point. A line naming a mode that no longer
   // exists is worse than no line.
   const HELP = 'A/D or arrows walk — hold SPACE torch — F swing — E take'
-    + ' — hold Q pages, arrows scroll — M mute — R reset — ` readout';
+    + ' — hold Q inventory, arrows scroll — M mute — R reset — ` readout';
   // Keyboards only. On a touch screen every one of these is a labelled button
   // already, and a line about SPACE and backtick is noise on a device with
   // neither.
@@ -1336,8 +1427,8 @@ export function createRenderer(ctx) {
           (s.gate?.open >= 1 ? '  OPEN' : '  shut') +
           (s.gate?.through ? '  — through' : '') +
           `   doors lit: ${doors || '—'}` +
-          (s.sheaf?.up ? `   PAGES UP ${s.sheaf.index + 1}/${s.sheaf.pages.length}`
-            : `   [Q] pages (${s.sheaf?.pages.length ?? 0})`),
+          (s.sheaf?.up ? `   INVENTORY ${s.sheaf.index + 1}/${s.sheaf.pages.length}`
+            : `   [Q] inventory (${s.sheaf?.pages.length ?? 0})`),
         `${face > 0 ? '→' : '←'} ${s.prince.moving ? 'walking' : 'still'}   sword ${s.prince.hasSword ? 'out' : 'away'}` +
           `   torch ${(s.torch.raise * 100).toFixed(0)}%   r ${radius.toFixed(1)}` +
           `   ${s.prince.clip.name} f${s.prince.frame}` +

src/scene_level.js

@@ -666,6 +666,8 @@ export async function createLevelScene(clips, { audio = null, seed = null, lette
    * the whole gate at the end of the level turns on that difference.
    */
   const pageSeen = (pg) => {
+    // A letter was read off a lit door and a key has nothing written on it, so
+    // only a torn page can be a thing he owns without having looked at it.
     if (!pg || pg.kind !== 'fragment') return true;
     return !!prince.inventory.find((it) => it.kept === pg.kept)?.seen;
   };
@@ -680,7 +682,9 @@ export async function createLevelScene(clips, { audio = null, seed = null, lette
     if (!letters || !pg) return null;
     const h = letters.byHouse?.[pg.house ?? pg.kept];
     if (!h) return null;
-    // A MAP HAS NOTHING TO READ ON IT.
+    // A KEY HAS NOTHING WRITTEN ON IT, so the band stays empty on one — which
+    // is the difference between a key and a letter, shown rather than said.
+    // (This used to say "a map", back when page zero was one.)
     return pg.kind === 'letter' ? h.letter : pg.kind === 'fragment' ? h.fragment : null;
   };
 
@@ -1337,12 +1341,29 @@ export async function createLevelScene(clips, { audio = null, seed = null, lette
       // fifth house whose key is still hanging behind a door that never opened.
       prince.keys--;
       gate.placed++;
+      // Out of the inventory too, or he is holding a key that is in the gate.
+      // The last one found, so the pile behaves like a pile.
+      for (let i = sheaf.pages.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
+        if (sheaf.pages[i].kind === 'key') { sheaf.pages.splice(i, 1); break; }
+      }
+      sheaf.index = Math.max(0, Math.min(sheaf.index, sheaf.pages.length - 1));
       audio?.mark?.();
     } else if (wantsPickup && state.canTakeKey && !prince.attacking) {
       // Off the hook and into his pocket. No page, no band, no entry in the
       // sheaf: there is nothing to read on a key and nothing to work out.
       litKey.keyTaken = true;
       prince.keys++;
+      // AND IT GOES IN WITH EVERYTHING ELSE HE IS CARRYING.
+      //
+      // Keys were a number and nothing else — deliberately, because "a key is
+      // not evidence, it does not go in the sheaf, there is nothing to work out
+      // about one". All true, and it made them invisible: somebody collected
+      // four and did not know until they put one in the gate by accident. A
+      // thing you carry that you cannot look at is a thing you do not have.
+      //
+      // Nothing to read on it, so the band stays empty on a key page. That is
+      // the difference between a key and a letter, said by showing you both.
+      filePage({ kind: 'key' });
       audio?.mark?.();
     } else if (wantsPickup && !state.canMark && nearest && !prince.attacking) {
       nearest.keptTaken = true;