Game Making Drive Feb 2014

Day 5

Little late updating today.

 

Began a project for the RM event, hated it immediately.

Found a teammate and started completely from scratch.

Worked out a game outline with teammate.
Began pixeling.

 

Suuuuuper early WIP screenshot, trying to figure out a graphic style.



 

 

Sunday Update: 2/9

Began writing out skill ideas for the Boss Battle Event due this week.  Had some interesting ideas and concepts.  In the end, I decided the minimum skills were all that was needed, but I may add a 5th skill for others if necessary.  Trying to add party synergy, as well as strategies to counter the "Boss".  We shall see what happens!  Also experimented to see if I could have more control with TP.. I'm not really able to, so it'll take some more experimentation/ working with the system some more.

GMD Day 5



Started adding in the details and decorations

Think I'll work on the buildings tomorrow.

I worked on couple scripts unrelated to my game today, but I also worked on my custom sprite script to display custom Game_Follower sprite table. I have yet touched the 8 directions, but it should be done by tomorrow. : x

For now, enjoy the game_follower. : p

Day 3

The Seven Tower

- Updating a few scripts before development start.

- Cut scene being tested

- Still working on the video cut-scenes for the game.

New project

-Project for the RPG venture team up with someone.

- Started to check on RTP character

I wasn't able to update yesterday because of the busy-ness, but this is technically my report for today.
This video that took me 12 hours to make and pretty much lagged my computer with rendering and all other things. 1 hr and 21 minutes rendering each track ? hahahahaha.... ;_;

Oh and that drawing, idk how long it took, but it took a while.

Oh and this.

Day 6



Oddly enough, while Sundays are rather uneventful in my life most of the time, today was a hodge-podge of visits, family and craziness. So I think I'll give myself a clap on the back for at least getting something done - especially since my nephew and niece wanted to just play minecraft all day instead. >.<;

I managed to convince them to help me with parts of my boss project by picking the monster I had to fight. My niece wanted me to pick the pretty girls and make them princesses. She even invented this whole story about a lost kingdom and the princess being the good guy (she couldn't think beyond princess=lawful good, but I think I've made headway in breaking her of that idea) and fighting the heroes to restore her throne because, and I quote, "That old guy looks like he does bad things, Aunty Becky." I tried to argue that bad people sometimes look nice and nice people sometimes look bad but she was giving me odd looks so I figured I'd push that idea on her when she's a bit older.

Her brother, however, wanted the cool knight and demons to be the baddies because they looked 'awesome' and 'really strong'. I did try to argue that I didn't want to use the same monsters as everyone else but apparently that's not a good excuse. I got more odd looks.

At least they didn't argue too much when I made a map but they did grow bored after a while and started bouncing off me, trying to get me to play a game they preferred - never mind that making a house in minecraft is a bit like making a house in RM. :/

So, yeah, I basically got some monster ideas set-up (which I shall have to scrap because, welp) and two maps finished before being dragged screaming into the abyss that is that game... I should never have gotten them hooked on it, but at the time it was revenge on their father (my brother) for something he did. Kinda backfired on me. >.<

February 9



Adrian and I were talking about rpgmaker's default battle system. He didn't want to implement the side-view atb (which made me sad). Did another sketch of one of the heroes. 

Adrian (my partner-in-crime) was finally able to finish half of the cutscene dialogue script! whew. (i'm really happy!) Once he's finished with the dialogue, he can finally progress to spriting and mapping (cheers!)

Day 6:

I'm not feeling very well today, so I haven't done much, and I'm not going to write a proper post :(

Sorry

GMD Day 6 - February 9, 2014

Finished the faceset I started yesterday, messed with some fonts, and worked more on the starting town's map (I'm so ready to be done with this thing OTL).

Day 5 ... 6 ... or whatever it is,
my "artsy" mac crashed yesterday. had to work on my other ty mac that doesn't support tablets for some reason.
today's progress, character sprites.

Game Making Drive, Day 5, February 9th.

   Didn't get as much done as I'd hoped due to unexpected home maintenance (Repairing a fence, in case anyone cares.) I did manage to work on a couple of maps, nothing special and nothing complete enough to show off in a pretty screenshot either but they are functional if not yet aesthetically pleasing. Also finished up one thing that was bothering me in my plague doctor's skills. Being a plague doctor her main skill would be the creation of medieval medicine. At first I was going to make up plants and stuff for these concoctions to be made out of but decided to go the route of actually using real plants and stuff instead because. 1. I know a load of old country remedies for pretty much everything passed down to me for generations. (20% of which actually have clear positive effects, believe it or not) 2. It's no more far-fetched to say that a paste made of aloe, cottonwood bark and Comfrey would heal deep gashes and severe bleeding cuts instantly than it would be to say drinking a potion of unknown origin would (at least with the paste it's actually applied to the wound.) That's about all I did, sorry for it being much less than my last updates, I'll try to work a little more tomorrow to make up for it. 

Day 6

* Bunched up and autotiled the Tree graphic for more variety, even though there'll only be about one densely forested area in the game.

* Went ahead and put a few battle mechanics into practice. I'm thinking of giving everybody the ability to use up a turn to heal themselves or revive allies kind of like how in many multiplayer based games you can stand near an ally and revive them. Made it so magic of any kind will raise a stat by a certain amount, it'll take my balancing abilities to whole new levels.

Changed major stats to:

STR - Damage of normal attacks, plays into a couple of the mechanics

VIT - Defense from normal attacks and its variants

POW - Damage of Tech and Magic abilities. Tech takes TP while Magic takes MP

RES - Defense from Tech and Magic attacks

AGI - Speed and affects a few attacks/healing

CHA - Affects healing while for the female protagonist affects her ability to recruit enemies on the screen

*Separated Upgrade and Tech equipment, so magic users can still use tech skills, but are unable to equip upgrades since they gain their stats through magic use.

* Finished up windowskin and battle GUI, but not going to show it off until I have animated characters and enemies in play; who knows when I'll get to that, but knowing how much I jump around it should be in the coming days.

So most of it is inner working type stuff, but I hope to show some more stuff soon as it's created.

What I learned today: Different stories that cross together and are connected, different styles of growth, and different features between the two stories that make battles/decisions made in game unique. It really is like making two games in one, so it fits a broader range of gamer preferences.

Day 2 (for me, I'll try to find additional space on this week to recover the days lost)


- fixed some database Icons.


- finished the intro cutscene


- finished some npc houses on the first town


- nerfed 2 classes and buffed 1


Spoiler with 1st map

Feb 10 2014:


- Not much things right now, focusing on planning for my next projects since I've released CG 2.0 and I want to take a break from doing patches for that for now.


PS: I might not be able to post tomorrow due to a medical exam

DAY 3 -

Today was similar to my previous days as well.

I worked on more of the Database (This time on Armour concepts, didn't get to Accessories and shields though).

I also worked on stomaching the worst Chinese food I have ever had in the middle.

After Finishing the terrible food, I worked on converting another map to the XP Style.


Today was a more relaxing day since, I wanted to take it easy for school tomorrow, so that is all I accomplished.

FTLOP - Out. :D

Day 5

Ok, since I had a 12 hour shift, I really didn't have anytime do much of note. But what I did manage to do on my break was finished off the movesets and get down some early drafts works for battlers and such. So yeah. Here's a preliminary doodle:

Because I can get obsessive about some things, I continued working on the sprites. I think I've gotten the hang of it as it went much faster today. I'm still need to do Leo's glasses, which I'm dreading, so I've put it off, and there are a few tweaks with some shadows and stuff I noticed in-game needed to be taken care of. However, I pretty darn proud of these, so I'm showing them off. I used Aerendyll's sprite template, based off of First Seed Materials sprites designed for VX. I thought I would show them with the concept art I had commisioned so you can see what I was working off. I also have one more character I commisioned art for that I'm waiting on. I also did get a little bit done on the super-duper detailed outline, and will probably do some more in a bit.

edit: I do plan on making versions with their accessories at some point. But probably not anytime soon, lol!

Day6: Did nothing particularly interesting. I'm resisiting starting on the plot eventing real hard. I don't want to do the eventing, nuuu :<

 After reading an article on game design, and witnessing first hand what people expect from one of these games I've decided to

do what people have been recommending.  Cutting things out to meet a deadline.

 

So what will be cut?


Bruin, Kendra, Renard, and the Mission board.  Kyrie, Sasuaga, and Garrett would have been in chapter 2, but I can't count on play past 2-3 hours.  So I won't

count my chickens before they are hatched.  Saving it for the 'next one' as they say.  

 

So 6 characters cut.  Right off the top.  Focusing on just the original four:

Emmet, Shade, Willard, and Wolfe.  Just because I can design for so many classes doesn't mean I should.   All content and information I was planning to hide from the player will still be revealed to create a full story.  I just can't pad it out like a final fantasy game.  I was using the wrong model for this type of medium to judge work.

 

I'll keep the others as NPCs, but I see no reason to strain myself with optional material while I struggle to fix the main content.

 

Tower of Illusion after game dungeon (Real content upfront, no need for pointless after service).

 

Custom battlers (Saving it for the next game).  I just don't have the time with Dad in and out of the hospital.  

 

Bromides.  (Saving it for the next game).

 

Side Quests are now Wolfe's main quests and will be altered to fit him. (Minimal effort).



 

What won't be cut?


Portraits for Characters and important NPCs

 

Certain Puzzles that are already designed and tested.

 

Existing maps and dungeons which are getting resource updates, and remapped.  This is still happening during the GMD.  People have been liking the progress in just week 1, so I see no reason not to continue with the feedback you all have given me.  (I'm currently hammering out the slums).  Mapping is very tiring, I'd much rather be drawing portraits.

 

Special thanks to those who contributed feedback.  This includes the use of all resources made for the project, and hopefully getting you a background NPC in Silver Town. (I won't be doing portraits for them though, you can see my terms on the shop I'll open once a stable build is released.)

Updated functionality of battle and a possible engine added.  I see no reason not to add a battle engine, even if I enjoy the original a lot of people don't.

 

I've already gotten a lot of suggestions and seen a few in action.  This may not be done before the end of February, but it's still on the table.

 

Quality music.  I am at it everyday assuring myself I can find decent music from unheard composers.  Rose will still be used, unless I can find something superior to the mock RPG style.  I understand the work from that artist is a particular favorite of people.



 

 

EDIT: Looking over some areas for remapping.  Resources can wait till I've finished the meat of things.