2024 Goals and Progress Thread

My goal is the same as ever, actually finishing a demo. So I started a new project ofc!

Yet another FF clone! Temporary name: Arcane Legacy.


Heavily inspired by the early FF nes games (clearly) but no rips, its all edits of Mighty Palm and Marumugi's 8-bit assets or self-made. (I had someone thinking it was rips so maybe I made it too similar to the og games xD Can always change that later tho)

So today I wanted to post my original 2024 goals and do a lookback as I do the weekly update:

Shipwrecked:
Decision is to delay it. Originally it was meant to be a small game to promote BoS, and that ship sailed in 2020. Also ACE is showing its age now as an engine, so I would need to port it to MZ.

Work did start on an MZ port, but it was decided to delay this for other projects. Will it ever get resumed? Dunno. I may pick it back up and release it during Montagor's Legacy dev cycle, but it is at least delayed until then most likely.

24 Hours:
Goal was to have hours 1 - 12 playable (alpha build basically). I started the year with hours 1 2 and 4 playable. Currently hours 1 - 9 are playable. Hour 10 is half mapped but needs a few maps redone.

IATCO:
This got repurposed as Harold's Island Adventure. That game is now in alpha as of this post. It's jank, some cutscenes are on maps of grass, and most cutscenes are static, but you can play it start to end, get all the endings, and date all of the ladies.

Work is now on adding the actual maps for cutscenes and animating them and overall general polish.

Montagor's Legacy:
The plot was written for this in early 2024. Now I'm just waiting til my other projects are done before going all in on this one.

Overall though all goals have been met except the goal for 24 hours, an there are 3+ months to go!

How goes meeting your year goals everyone?

A quick update on my status. For starters, I'm currently not as focused on RPG Maker as I previously was due to changing requirements for my intended targets (save for Unite which is not directly supported here nor even in my collection yet) so my updates are primarily going to be in regard to asset designs across everything I do. Second, my username has in fact been updated (so you're definitely not seeing things, and I haven't been jacked of my account or even replaced it). And third, I may still experiment with RPG Maker on the side even though it's no longer my primary focus (so game jams which specifically call for it are not out of the question). Finally, I have been looking for a new day job because my current one is no longer being scheduled consistently enough to support my efforts.

With that out of the way, I have settled on the diving gear appearances that I will use in my next project (and may still consider this matter for an RPG Maker concept demo at some point). The lady in blue is still a police officer for her day job (although her equipment was originally orange) and is also still burdened by the need for a mobility suit to function normally. However, the diving experiences of all three characters will be written into the story rather than being acquired during the progression of the plot owing to genre matters (and they all have their preferences as well - the cat girl keeps things simple, so she uses a standalone breathing regulator paired with a half mask, while the siblings use a full mask setup. The officer swaps her police uniform for a bikini when in the water (though she can't do **** about her bionic underwear), while her brother opts not to use a diving suit and just sticks with his swim trunks). Despite their differences in equipment (especially with the cat girl), they all have it figured out for communicating with both each other and the surface crews (the full masks allow the siblings to simply radio their communications, and while the cat girl doesn't have this luxury due to her own setup, she extensively uses her telepathic sense to make up for this).

Update Log for September 2

RPG Maker development

• Updated the Ready to Rumble plugin to ignore controller vibration triggers if the input comes from a mouse or keyboard. This is something that I didn't originally consider, but someone brought it up in the forum thread so after consulting with them I added it in as an official behavior.

General game development

• Changed Nefersila back to using a full mask in her diving certifications. After testing out the changes for the purpose of my portfolio, I found that while her breathing regulator initially appeared to be used properly in the preview animation, a close-up of her face revealed that her expression was affecting its use in an unnatural manner. As it would be impractical to fix without affecting the entire source file (and I already had to use the stiffness controls on her neck to keep her air hose alignment in check!) I decided that the full mask configuration would be easier to accommodate for this purpose.
• Nefersila's background story has been finalized as well. Her originating society was structured as an imperial order, although Cleopari Tutenso (the grand empress at the time when the story begins) was more of a benevolent type and would go out of her way to do right by the common population for even the most problematic situations. This led her to use her society's mana arts with the telepathic senses of her species to locate an evacuation point on another planet when she found herself facing a "death of Krypton" situation, ultimately settling on planet Earth as the destination. Unfortunately, she had barely sent off the study team through her mana portal when the final tremors hit and imploded her own world, essentially defeating the purpose of the expedition and leaving its members as the only surviving faction of their entire society.
• Cleopari has also been given a background profile to help explain as to how Nefersila is already experienced in matters such as the use of scuba gear. In particular, the diving equipment used within their society was much the same as ours, making Nefersila's skills transition easier than anticipated (and in fact the empress was also a fully trained diver, with underwater excursions being her favorite leisure activity when she didn't have any official duties that required her attention). Cleopari would also dress like the common population, such that the traditional imperial armor and her diadem crown would only be worn in the case of formal and/or ceremonial matters.
• Building on the matter of the new project carrying over the themes of being greater than yourself in what you do, Nefersila's society didn't have any sort of Hindu castings or Jim Crow divisions (although racial identities do still exist in their history, such that Nefersila is black by her skin color while Cleopari would be considered white.)

Concept Update: Nefersila's scuba gear



Concept Addition: Empress Cleopari (edited 9/8/2024 to correct her skin color)

An additional update on the empress. Her safety is the highest priority in any situation, so she invokes preservation protocol during the implosion and uses a dimensional portal to catch her fall and drop her into New York City to join the surviving faction of her society (although doing so in this case leaves her stricken with grief from having had to leave the rest of her people to perish in the cosmic disaster, even though she still has the expedition team to rule over as they collectively adapt to living on Earth).

Get a lot done these last couple of weeks. Created a giant new area, some new character scenes, and an alternate way to complete two quests. (one of which directly affects the plot)

Gonna relax for a few days. Rest da brain. After that, will decide where to go next. (most likely an expansion of cosmic color)

Update:

School started. Enough said.

In all seriousness I get a couple days to do a little work, and most of it is polish on the stat sim right now. So little to really state as progress as its all fixing bugs and polish it so it doesnt' explode when I release it.

I'll leave with 2 screenshots though:


So how do YOU fix a plane?


*windows XP crashing sounds*

Update Log for September 14, 2024

RPG Maker Development

• No major updates to report.

General Game Development

• Changed Nefersila's diving suit to incorporate protective padding.
• Started creating the cutscene animations for the underwater segments. This is being handled separately per character due to limitations with the particle effects system.

Visual Previews

Diving propulsion animation (with Nefersila's diving suit update applied)



Kyla and Nefersila Combined Diving Animation

Is it too late to join in?

I'm planning to finish one of my projects this year, or at least get one to 80% completion by the end of the year. The main one I'm working on is at about 20% right now, which I think is pretty okay considering that I only got around to properly working on it a month or two ago.

@GeorgeForest Never too late! And welcome to the forum!

Good luck on your project!

I figured I'd join @HawkZombie's jam this year after two failed attempts. Since the jam hasn't started yet, I've been hard at work in the brainstorming phase. I've already had to pivot from my first idea (since it was getting too big and that was the reason I couldn't finish my entry last time I tried) to do a sort of prologue/prequel game to it.

So far, I've got the setting (neo-gothic castle, inspired by castle Miranda) and time period (late 19th century) jotted down. I've also designed the MC, Rose:

(Ignore the right outfit, I wasn't yet sure what time period to go with when I made that :aswt:)
And her sister:
(Haven't decided which colourway to pick on the last dress)

So turns out I can also enter the Spooky Month Game Jam on the forum with my Hawktober entry, due to me not having started on anything in-engine. Whoever said procrastination is useless ;)

I wish I could say I've done a lot since then, but motivation has been hard to find after a mentally draining day job. That said some progress has been made, and any progress is better than no progress :)

I finished the sprites of everyone, except Rose and her sister. I hope to finish Rose this evening though.
I started writing cutscenes. I'll probably have to rewrite them to get them more succint, but a start's a start and it helps me out with the gameplay bits. (Honestly that's been tripping me up more than anything. I know I want to do a game similar to games like Mad Father, The Witch's House, etc. but coming up with roadblocks and puzzles, has me stomped.)

And this game got a tentative title~ It's either going to be Castle Claudia or Château Claudia. Still debating on that.

To do this weekend:

• Finish all sprites
• Start mapping the inside.
• Resource collection.

Update Log for October 4, 2024

RPG Maker Development

• No major updates to report.

General Game Development

• New character added to the lore: Sandra Wiley Mettaton
  • She's a former Osiran knight whose involvement in a catastrophic destructive incident resulted in her being sentenced to a permanent exile from the empire.
  • Owing to her banishment, Sandra's armor has been cursed so that it has lost most of its luster (although the golden trim that's associated with her final recorded rank is still intact).
    • However, Osiran mana arts cannot be used to curse, deform or otherwise manipulate biological structures - they can only affect inanimate objects such as armor and weapons.
      • Thus, Sandra's reasoning for wearing glasses (in spite of the medieval designs of Osiran armaments) is because she has a stigmatic vision disorder which is unrelated to her exile.
  • Sandra's analysis of the fatal quakes and the conclusion of their similarities to the effects of manipulation spells is finalized at roughly the same time as the grand empress begins looking into potential evacuation options
    • She consequently gathers a coalition of other exiled Osirans to continue sorting out her analysis on planet Earth, shortly after field reports indicate that the destination is pending confirmation
    • The mass number of exiles who sign onto Sandra's research far outnumber that of the official study expedition, but with the curse preventing them from connecting with non-exiled personnel (one of the very few effects on biological function that a curse can be set upon) it takes an unreasonably long time for the officially-confirmed remnants of the empire to catch on to either her plan or the massive number of Osirans that she saved in order to support her research.
      • Similarly, when the rumors do begin to circulate, it is surmised that Sandra may not be fully aware of the potential dangers that are associated with such research - thereby causing alarm within the United Nations and other governing bodies on Earth who quickly form a coalition to stop the project from being completed.
• Tentative title data has been selected.
  • Code Name: Advent Tail
  • Working Title: Tail Force
  • Project Identification Status: Preliminary/non-final

Visual Previews

Sandra Mettaton Concept Reference

Since the last post, did two giant updates. Each one that would normally take 2-3 months to complete.

Next update is going to focus on creating new enemies and improving the AI to some old ones.

Today I finished the second level of my card game project on MZ. The experiment was also to create a modular system where I can focus only on the events that manage a specific aspect without scrolling through one or more events searching for bugs or things to change. Additionally, I wanted to minimize parallel events, and I'm achieving that too. The prototype looks nice, and I might submit it to the forum contest.
Things to do:
- Title
- Credits
- Massive testing
- Translation (if I decide to submit it to the contest)

Some small updates from last month and early this month:

Harold's Island Adventure:
-More sprites have been modified and given proper outfits
-Kaylee's route has gone Beta, pending a final test of it.

24 Hours:
-Rebalanced the hour 8 end fight.
-Added move routes and loot to hour 8
-Drew two maps for hour 10. Now we got Sunflower fields.


And yes some of the sunflowers are bigger than the party.

Haven't posted here for a few months, but I do weekly updates on my game in progress thread.

I now have the BGM options almost completely implemented. There are only two menus left. The Help & Tutorial menu and the Achievements menu.

Here are examples of the most current menus.


Check out my game in progress thread for more details.

Happy game developing!

Does anybody remember how I said I would fill 52 cells in What the MZ RTP is missing this year?
Well, technically I am done, since the final stuff is in my advent folder, so this pledge has been taken care of, even though the public release is still a bit out.

And that smoothly brings me to what I am working now on, advent. I feel like I struggle more than the last years, especially since work is extra tight. It is not really the time, more the ideas and energy, so I expect to have this year not as packed as last year. Still, I make progress and while I realistically would want to bundle several things up for one day, worst case I can spread them out as thin as possible and then I would have 15 by now.

@Avery You shouldn't put any pressure on yourself. Everyone should be overjoyed with whatever you want and are able to share.

Thank you for everything you do!

Agreed. I am pleased as punch whenever you post resources. The size of the box does not determine how precious the gift is. @Avery