2024 Goals and Progress Thread

Happy 2024! Ok it is still mid December, but I thought I'd start the thread now, so we can start to plan out what we want to get done in 2024.

Post below your goals for your RPGMaker projects below! Or else Harold will glare at you!

I'm not even ready to start thinking about next year with all the Christmas stuff still stressing me out, haha, ahhhhhHHHHH

But I suppose it'd be nice to finish the small little thing I've been working on on and off in 2024. All the maps have been done for the longest time, it's just been about finding the motivation to flesh out all the required events on each map and sprinkling in some extra secrets along the way. I've been tinkering with a range of mechanics too as I get more and more versed in Javascript and learning just how much you can do with states and skills.

Slow and steady wins the race, as they say~ Above all else, I have no expectations for this particular test project beyond my own personal satisfaction of getting it out the door. And if one or two people play it by chance--then that's cool, too, I guess!

Here's to a productive 2024, everyone. We've totally got this!

2024 Goals:

Shipwrecked:
I need to decide the fate of this game. This will mean one of three things:
1: Polish it up and release it in the ACE version, I hesitate as ACE is dated now and with resolution sizes increasing the 640 x 480 limit is starting to hinder players some.
2: Port it to MZ. I started some work on this earlier this year
3: Cancel the game.

I think 2024 is the deciding year for this game one way or other, as I can't sit on it forever.

24 hours:
I want to try to get hours 1 - 12 fully implemented and playable, and release a demo of the early hours to the forums. Ideally I'd like to go father than that, but with work and the other projects I gotta be realistic.

Currently Hours 1 2 and 4 are fully playable, though some side quests are not implemented in hour 4 and some cutscenes are still static in all 3 of the hours. Hour 5 is also fully mapped and cutscenes are present but needs monsters and loot added.

IATCO:
This is that stat sim game I made for the Driftwood game jam in 2023. I do want to polish this up and release a full version of it. However it was starting to balloon too much in size so I paused it as I decided more what I want the game to be.

I do now have a GDD of what I want this to be written out. It is going to be a short game but replayable. I would like to have it possible to beat the game under certain routes by end of 2024.

Montagor's Legacy:
Yep this is still in progress, but on hold while the plot gets finalized. I work on that when I need breaks from 24 hours for now, and collect assets. My goal is to finalize the plot to this in 2024. IF I get any free time from the others (ha!) maybe make Chapter 1? But realistically I doubt that will happen unless I decide to do that instead of my other goals.


Will this all happen? Probably not. But doesn't hurt to try. As it is main focus is on 24 hours, the rest is bonus if it can happen.

Goal:

Finish a small project. That's all.

The Goddess Stair - Maps mainly. And that's just the town. I'll need dungeon maps and maps. And probably maps.

One of my goals for next year is to present my project, I've been investing a lot of time and I would like to release a demo so you can enjoy it. The project went from something simple to something more ambitious, so for the moment I'm happy with the result

I hope that 2024 will be a good year for all of us :rhappy:

For 2024 I aim to make release of Advent Heroes on August 5 (was originally going to do the 2nd of that month but the Microsoft Store wouldn't let me schedule until at least the start of the 6th week after pre-orders begin which is set for June 18th, and I can't legally start sales any sooner because I'm opted in for the mid-year iteration of Steam Next Fest). Beyond that, I'm anticipating that I will resign a contract for a game that I am also planning to release for Xbox, although this is from another developer and the legal specifics and trade dress have changed... plus since I basically restarted things, I nullified the prior contract as a result of that, so I basically have to resign the developer's project anyway.

For 2024 i aim to give SoTE Bigger battlers at least. That and well, releasing at least half the game as a demo again.

I hope to finish my prequel project before the new year. So far it's at about 80% completion, and it's looking like it will be finished soon.
After that I wanna make more asset packs, build my little cooperative community/studio up, and try to get started on the big one.

Wind Ryder Part 2

I definitely do intend to make some headway into Three Trees. How much so, not too certain as I will likely do my usual "proof of concept" mini projects to "try before I buy" certain ideas for that game.

I also want to continue overhauling my resources but I think I have to reformat my computer once all these forum activities~ are over. I have like...4 (?) hard drives and my main instrument manager is looking at my directories (that it LET me set) and is all "u fokkin wot m8t?" when I try to update anything. I do have the option of telling every library where every folder is, but I think I'd rather die and could probably use the refresh anyway.

My 2024 goals (as individual things we'd like to do, with the understanding that we won't do them all):

- expand The Worst Noel to give it a bit more depth and improve the art
- update Touch the Stars with some ideas Kytt and I have had to turn it into a full game
- finish The Descent
- start properly working on It Takes a Village
- finally, finally finish Tundra
- release a bunch more plugins

• Finally finish and release Origin Hunt
• Decide what I'm doing with the plethora of 'side projects' I've started and abandoned in the oven - they're probably all charred husks by now, but, eh. Maybe one can be salvaged and made into a small project. SMALL project, future me. Small.
• I had to skip out the Xmas contest because of exams, which sucks, cause I really liked my idea. I may make it anyways

...Okay, so 2/3 of those are 'maybes' or 'mays'. Off to a fantastic start! :yhappy:
*consults the to-do notebook #6 for Origin Hunt* Huh. You know what. Let's just keep the list to...

• Be more social in RM forums so I have an excuse for never publishing a finished game - "oh, look, I was too busy helping other devs, te-he!"

Been thinking about this a bit and while it might change, here are my initial thoughts.

• My generic standard goal of learning more things I can do in MZ.
• Finishing the W3Schools free Java Script online course because that has seemed to help me a lot so far.
• Fix, to the greatest extent possible, the abomination that is my Krampus Games. Just because it is out there.
• I want to experiment with and better understand plugins and figure out what free plugins can do.
• I think I want to take my experiments with making a Sudoku puzzle and turn it into an actual game. I have a few new ideas for options. It would probably only be interesting for someone who specifically likes Sudoku puzzles so most people probably wouldn't really be that interested in it. But I already put in a lot of work when I was figuring out how to do it and maybe it would interest someone.
• I want to make more mini games and deploy them as stand alone games and then maybe consolidate them into a mini game collection. Mostly to learn more and get more experience, but maybe I can make some of them more interesting and fun to play by yourself for a little while.
• I want to experiment with more core mechanics for the game I actually want to create.
• Get better at using GIMP. The Game Jam did give me more experience with it, but I still am like a toddler just clicking on things and hoping that something usable remains.

I think that is a pretty good list to start.

Starting from 2024, I wanna get into the groove of puttin' out more games, so for the spring I'm thinkin' a li'l dating/adventure game using some of the assets I made this autumn (Frisky Females). Workin' title is Shadowloom: The Last Dragon Nymph but I doubt it's gonna be PG-13 enough for the forums... :kaoswt:

Then, I wanna get the second draft of Slaybuster: The Devil Executioner done. I think I'm gonna give it a month or two more to cook. It's gonna come, tho :kaoluv:

I have some Content creation series that I hope to finish in 2024, but beyond that my goals are in 3 categories:

New Dawn For the Elements:
I'd like to have the main cast sprites finished, which would hopefully coincide with having the first three and a half "chapters" of the game finished, then I want to get my tilesets hammered out, then I can decide which antagonists are important enough to get their own sprites and faces.
I'd like to also get more of the music made for the game, some commissioned, some I make, and some used from packs, but some of that depends on my future financial situation, which is not something I like to hedge my bets about.

Computer
I really need to organize my files for my projects into proper locations, and delete the irrelevant files. at some point before spring I need to be sure I also crack it open and clean it

Art
I'm vending at an artist alley for the first time ever this year, and while I don't think I'll come out of it fully profiting, I believe it will be valuable for getting my projects out there and making friends , both of which will no doubt help me do better at later events.

I had no yearly goal last year and it showed in my lack of progressing anything that wasn't new.

Jolly Holly Time
Let's start with this since it's fairly simple: bug fixes and small improvements. I'm not planning on expanding it, nor do I feel like implementing some of the things I decided to scrap. It's a short game, it's done. It just needs to get fixed/improved.

Stray Kitten and the Magical Lantern
I've been thinking of a sequel to this game, but before I start on that I want to do some upgrades to this game (and fix some tiny bugs). I'm gonna need to replay it myself since it's been a while though :aswt:

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?
I've hit a mental wall with this game. With the exception of one or two interiors the mapping's done, all NPCs have been evented, everything's written, I just need to actually event the cutscenes for the second part of the game. I'm close, but I feel unhappy with what I have. I started this game years ago, back when I didn't know a lot and it shows. I'm not sure what the right thing to do is: finish the game in XP or restart it in MZ. I should make a decision soon though.

My 2024 goal is to fill 52 slots (one for each week of the year) in What the MZ RTP is missing.

I feel like that is a doable goal, but I won't overstress myself with it. In the end, it is just for fun anyways.
Also, since advent calendar might happen again next year, I allowed myself to start now and I am already 2 slots in ;3
To keep tabs on that project I made a doc so I don't loose track of how many I have actually made.
What the RTP is missing - 52 new cells filled in 2024

Been working some over Christmas break, managed to get that missing hour 3 implemented in 24 hours. So now hours 1 - 4 are playable.

Though buggy.

I'm going back over them now and squashing bugs as I find them.

Next up is to add loot and monsters to hour 5. Or map hour 6 (the mines).

Work on and finish a sequel for my Yaoi jam game... which I have until summer to pre-write and prepare the assets.

Also work on a fanVN but that's Ren'py stuff.