2024 Goals and Progress Thread

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Started by bgillisp 149 posts Page 5 of 8 View original ↗
  1. Didn't post in a while, but here are the updates:

    24 Hours:
    Been at work mapping hour 7. This is in a residential district so its been deserted stores and houses this time. Also you get to go to the party member's houses too. Here are a couple snippets:

    24Hours_Julias_House.png
    Julia's House. Guess which bed is hers? (Note I have to still do the shadows so ignore those).

    Residental_area.png
    A map of the residential district. I still got to touch up the shadows, what you see is what the autoshadow did for now.

    End of term is coming hopefully I can do more soon!
  2. Weekly Update:

    24 Hours:
    -Added the dialogue to hour 6, and the start of hour 7. Need to finish mapping hour 7 before I add the rest though.
    -No monsters or loot has been added beyond the minimum though. Adding the rest is next.

    Montagor's Legacy:
    -Made the next 2 maps for the prologue.
  3. Not much in the way of updates recently as I have taken a break to rework some of the maps in my game prior to Next Fest. Also, I made this small change to the common event for the credit roll to acknowledge the loss of two community members over the course of the game's development cycle:

    Screenshot 2024-04-29 191647.png

    Beyond this, I have changed the castle appearances somewhat. Couldn't completely move away from RTP for this, so it ended up being a mix of both that and DLC assets. Here's the updated look:

    Screenshot 2024-04-29 192940.png

    Also, you may notice that the guards at the gate are different from the other guards in that they are the same half-beast race as one of the party members, even at this early stage in the game. In other words, she's no longer the only one of her kind to be forced out of her home by the respective plot details as the specifics of that matter have snowballed in the time since her exile to affect many others like her over the course of the time before the story takes place.

    There's also this significant change to the castle library:

    Screenshot 2024-04-29 193904.png

    Essentially what I did was to use the hook of a 50/50 split of the destined heroes between our world and the parallel dimension where most of the story takes place in a way that has affected the technological progression of that dimension, so there's the equivalent of computer systems in the mix now. This also gave me the idea to put those computer systems to use in a manner not unlike that in our world, in which digital games are also popular in some circles. Specifically, I decided to periodically reference something called Warzone Showdown in the NPC interactions involving their use of the computer systems (which I have kind of envisioned as the distant world's answer to our Call of Duty games, though I declined to be more directly comparative for copyright reasons).
  4. 3rd project's the charm! Ngl, I find it really difficult to care about realism when it comes to mapping, anyone else struggling with that? Like ''would a house really have this structure'' or ''does it really reflect the outside of the house'', stuff like that. I just never think about things like that when I play games :p

    sdfsdf.png
  5. Skipped a week so here is a 2 week update:

    24 Hours:
    -Made most of the hour 7 maps. Everything is done except a couple optional zones, and the last map where the boss battle will occur.
    -Most hour 7 dialogue has been added.
    -I also went back to the start, redid the tutorial to flow better, and added the ceremony map. Before it was just a add ceremony here box, not its an actual map with dialogue. Started on the sprites too for it.
    -Added difficulty options and settings. So far they DO nothing, but the switches are now set in my save file so I can properly add them in without another restart.

    And a pic of the ceremony map with no sprites showing (yet):
    Ceremony_Map_No_Sprites.png
  6. @Willibab That’s ambitious for sure.
    @bgillisp You update weekly =O
    I update on here when I am ready.
  7. Normally I wait til weekly but since this is probably all I'll get done this week as its finals week I just happened to get Monday off for it.

    24 Hours:
    -Went through and touched up the cutscenes. Also edited tutorial text and some dialogues.
    -Changed the musics away from the placeholders. I think I've found my soundtrack for about 75 - 80% of this game now so time to put it in officially.

    Posted is a video of early hour 1 after the town is attacked. It is alpha footage I still need to touch up little things, and the sound balance is a little bad between the tunes right now, fair warning:
  8. Last year was a mess for me and this year has been such a wild ride, but after being a year on game dev hiatus, as of today, I'm back in the game! And what better way to return than with RPG Maker? My plans are to finally, FINALLY get Rebellion of Gilfer's Bay ACT I released before the year is out!

    dude.png
  9. Still giving weekly updates on my Games In Development thread for my Sudoku game.

    Current status:
    • I am reworking the UI for the entire game and updating/reorganizing everything as I go from the beginning to fix past design flaws, issues, inefficiencies, etc.
    • The Intro is done.
    • Option to Skip the Intro
    • Option to Disable the One-Time Tutorial
    • Redesigned the Main Menu UI
    • About 80% of the Main Menu UI is functional
    • About 30% of the One-Time Tutorial for the Main Menu is done.
    Current Main Menu UI
    Main Menu UI Updated 2.png

    Video of Main Menu UI Functionality


    If anyone has any feedback, questions, or suggestions, please feel free to let me know.
  10. Been awhile since my last update, but I'm debating the use of audiovisual cutscenes in my project. Currently they're using still images, but it has been suggested to add some visual cues of some sort for certain parts of the scenes so I may animate their mouths, eyes and heads for an anime-style presentation. (Also, the writing may be a little rough and some of the design elements are oversized for their intent, but this will be addressed as well.) Here's a look at what I have so far:




    As a side note, I'm doing all my own voice acting which is changed using AI tools for the purpose of suiting each character, so please excuse any potential design issues from that.

    On a related note, I have also just finished creating the sprite sheet for the squad car, which is based on the excellent model of a Dodge Charger in NYPD livery that can be found over this way. (Note that I did remove the car's make/model decals for copyright reasons, although the model itself is under creative commons.) I'm allowing its use under the same terms thereof, although you'll have to cite both me and the person who uploaded the source model if you do.

    !$nypdcar.png

    Beyond that, the vendor for the app that I'm doing my humanoid reference models in recently released an update that adds a built-in tool for adding beast tails in addition to the ears that I already had, so I have updated the model for the mage in my game to reflect this:

    Nefersila Portrait.png
    NefersilaSideViewFacingRight.png

    And to close things out, I also ended up changing the concept design for the scuba equipment at the encapsulation level of training progression so that the helmet is now based on an actual design specification. Here's her upgraded equipment provision for this final stage of her training (which also reflects the addition of the beast tail generator):

    Nefersila Diving Gear (Helmet Version).png
    Nefersila Diving Gear (Helmet Version facing East).png
    Nefersila Diving Gear (Helmet Version facing West).png
  11. I would suggest changing the VA.

    I can't tell what anyone is saying.
  12. I've made a ton of progress on The Wastes recently thanks to having a week off from work. I replaced like 100 RTP sounds with more realistic sounds from a sound pack, increased the length of the map and moved everything over, as well as started working on the nearby Road Market location.
  13. Lime Zu's Modern tilesets are amazing, but its kind of difficult to use...There is just so much choice (and rpg maker sheets are limited too).
    Very strange making modern stuff too o_O

    Any suggestions on how to improve?

    Edge of Suburb, Fire Station
    Modern town.png
  14. Willibab said:
    Lime Zu's Modern tilesets are amazing, but its kind of difficult to use...There is just so much choice (and rpg maker sheets are limited too).
    Very strange making modern stuff too o_O

    Any suggestions on how to improve?

    Edge of Suburb, Fire Station
    View attachment 306005
    I would personally add some shadows to those buildings, but then again you are working with a more stylized tileset rather than a realistic one. Other than that, adding npcs.
  15. cthulhusquid said:
    I would personally add some shadows to those buildings, but then again you are working with a more stylized tileset rather than a realistic one. Other than that, adding npcs.

    I didn't notice the shadows, its weird... Some shadows that are on the tiles don't seem to show up in the engine it seems. Will have to look into that :p

    I will ofc add npcs :p But that is the last step as my NPCs are all fully developed characters as opposed to decorations.

    I also just noticed that I posted in the wrong place xD Would prolly fit more in the screenshot one. But I suppose its the new goal is to make a modern looking city (lets say that) :p
  16. Forgot to post for a week or two, so here's the updates:

    24 hours:
    -Mapping for hour 8 still. You can walk around the entire overworld part, and the watchtower. Now I need to map the underground part of it.
    -Added motion to a lot of cutscenes in hours 2 and 3 now. Also edited some lines to better fit characters.
    -Added some more choices to things in hours 2 and 3.

    Shipwrecked:
    On a long trip I was able to decide what to do with this game. The original goal was to release a short free game shortly after Book of Shadows came out. Sadly its now been almost 5 years so that was missed. So instead I decided to suspend development on this one *until* 24 hours is closer to release (in reality it will probably not resume until 24 hours is released). That way I can still do my idea of release it close to another release, kind of as a promotion thing.

    It will still happen, but its on break until I get closer to release for 24 hours. As such Shipwrecked will probably not show updates here in 2024 going forward.

    And thankfully since Shipwrecked is in alpha now it shouldn't take long to finish at that point.

    And fun with maps. I realized late that these stairs spelled out the letter H.
    H.png
  17. A bit of unfortunate news this week. Despite my best intentions, I am no longer able to continue working on the project for which I have been the most active on. As much as I tried to make it work both narratively and conceptually, ultimately Advent Heroes has hit an impassable roadblock with regard to the design which has resulted in its cancelation. Although I did consider analyzing the game for anything that could be improved on to lessen or resolve the problems, ultimately the size and scope of the project at this point is both infeasible and way too extensive to support an easy fix, and any attempt to do so would likely take just as long and be fairly expensive as with the development that has been done to this point. Essentially speaking, the game simply didn't meet the quality standards that the community deserves.

    Obviously I am disappointed, but with all of the work that would be required it would be far better to start over and build out a replacement project than to fix thousands upon thousands of issues in something this big. For now, updates on my development efforts will likely be minimal to nonexistent while I consider my next steps and decide on what I am going to do in place of what I currently have.

    What I will say in closing is that I am currently doing some experiments with an alternative design that may potentially end up resulting in a complete genre change, although nothing has been finalized yet. I will otherwise be taking a break from development until I have an idea of what I will end up doing to account for this unfortunate situation.
  18. @BreakerZero I'm sorry to hear that and I hope you are able to find a path forward that works for you. Good luck!
  19. ZombieKidzRule said:
    @BreakerZero I'm sorry to hear that and I hope you are able to find a path forward that works for you. Good luck!
    Didn't get a chance to respond sooner, but thanks. In any case, I now have an idea of what I plan to do in its place. I will have more to share soon.
  20. bgillisp said:
    And a pic of the ceremony map with no sprites showing (yet):
    Are those stairs leading to the podium? If yes I’d like to suggest the base of the stairs be moved a little farther away from the structure.