Game Making Drive Feb 2014

Game Making Drive, Day 21, February 27th

I finished a game just now! A little over half an hour of game-play and a cute little piece of fiction based upon the real life of Rin Cain, an adolescent chocolate lab ,and her interactions with horses, llamas, a goat and the neighbors dog. I haven't decided yet whether to release it and thus make it available for critique or else to leave it a family game yet... (If I were to release it I'd need to find a decent llama sprite, since right now the llamas are actually sheep) but it's done. It isn't the game I set out to make this month, but still, it's a game.



p.s. the GMD seems to have really petered out at this point. Usually there would be 2-3 pages difference between my updates, while today they aren't even a page appart and I updated later than usual.

Day Something-or-other!

I didn't get a chance to work on my game today due to college really. Got 2 5-page essays due soon, and an exam tomorrow morning. Gotta study, and write... No time for game developing... :(

So ive been working on the start of my game, and for the second time now I have decided to add a beginning before the current beginning, the first was mostly to drive the story a little, give a little back story and insight into the main character. I have decided to keep that addition but I have also started working on a few events for townsfolk and the initial area of the game... initial for now, haha but I'm pretty sure this is the final addition to the start as I enjoy the flow now

Day 4:

I spent a lot of my day (and part of my week) working on a delightful little tune. It will likely show-face in my project, but in either case, I'll certainly be sure to post it somewhere for others to listen and offer some of the good ol' C.C. It seems to me, however, that at every instance, someone is asking me for a favor, preventing me from using all of my time to do what I'd like to do (in terms of actual work or progress). Nevertheless...

Yeah... I agree Amnell, there sure seems to be a lot less posts lately D: I guess people are fizzing out on it. (though...nothing bad ever came of chain breaks?? I've never done a GMD before, so I'm not really sure if that's normal. But the fact that there doesn't appear to be any sort of "punishment" for missing days kinda makes it easy to do and not feel bad for it?? Maybe something happens at the end though. I don't know.)) I've read the rules a lot, but I still don't really get it haha I'll wait and see; I'm just thankful for something that forces me to set aside my other art projects and work on Winter Blossoms a little bit each day.


And on that note, even though I largely did spend all my time on the webstory today, but squeezed in a couple of hours towards game dev





Day 24


* Did a couple tile edits


* Re-conceptualized the dungeon I'm working on with a new sketch and new mechanics


* In an attempt to figure out how something would work in said new mechanics, built an absolutely useless little sequence of events in a new project file that is dreadfully rudimentary and would make seasoned RPGMaker users laugh (There's a reason Rach does the eventing and not me)

Tuesday, 2/25/2014

Wasn't able to do anything.  Homework + work got in the way and I was just exhausted.  Sorry to have failed you red team :(

Thursday, 2/27/2014

Started working with Yanfly's leveling script in an attempt to make dynamic enemies, thus making the creation process (and future process) quicker.  Sadly, I think it runs off of a different formula then what I imagined, so I'll have to go back to the excel spreadsheets and start recalculating.  However, I am confident that if I can tap into it, that I should be able to make dynamic stats, thus, making this game database (and future game databases) easier to create.

With a heavy heart I deleted my day 1 maps.  I just can't savage them.  

I'm redoing  the main square of town and tested my new cut scenes today.  I got everything to the point where it functions, and now it's just a matter of waiting on the new square, putting in a few pieces of tile sets, and more drawing.  Here in a more urban environment I can section hings off rather than leave them chaotic like the forest of the slums.  

Editing events took a lot of time today, and I'm retroactively going back with common events and other details to make sure I don't put up another turkey like last time.  I still have to fix the issue with a boss fight that causes a game over, which will be about three extra lines of an event.



There is a 30 hour snow storm headed to my area.  I may post early or contact one of the mods if the news gets anymore severe with the forecast.

@Makio-Kuta and Alexander Amnell - It is feeling a bit less lively in here TT.

As for me, I got really pumped for RM Venture and then just kind of coasted after it finished >.>;

Today was spent working on scripting and reviews, finished up another couple of script requests, and managed to get through two more games for which I'll be posting reviews shortly ^^.

It's the final day for a lot of people, so good luck to everyone, and congratulations on staying committed so far~!

Go, Blue Team!

Double post today because my internet was down for last night and most of today. >.<

Day 24



Did more mapping on the Wrecked Coast. It's really slowly coming around. I also looked for better palm trees, and found some but couldn't find a source for them so I doubt I'll use them. :/ I had most of the coast planned out, though, and had started to detail things much more. But that's all I managed yesterday, unfortunately.

Day 25



Notice I said 'had' started to detail? I did a little playtest on the island and realised I didn't like what I had. So I undid most of what I'd done and went for a different kind of design for the isle. It looks a bit better in my opinion, and after playtesting I like the general layout a bit more. There's more twists and turns to it - not so much as to be maze-like, but definitely enough that you have to pay attention to where you're going while playing, which is what I was after. 

I still hate the trees but ugh, I'm sick of looking for better ones so I guess I'll stick with what I have. At least now they'll not be the only ones on the whole island like I had initially planned. Which is mucho helpful~ I'm also going to change some of the cliffs so they appear to be underwater. That way I can have 'holes' in the island which is neat~ It should look nice, if I can get it to look like I want. Anyway, here's what I currently have. Oh! And at some point I decided on one large map for the island than a bunch of small maps like I usually do. I dunno, it was hard to divvy it up and still make it feel like one area led into the next. It'll be the largest map in-game but it should be fine. I just hope it doesn't lag much. >.<;

started with the character sprite of my main character. though it is still unfinished. I won't post it yet because I'm embarrassed! hehe

And I might get busier the following weeks because I have some videos to edit for our short film.

Uhg, I keep falling asleep and forgetting to post.


Yesterday I really just spent my time going through the packs on the Steam Sale, looking for something to buy. I ended up getting the DS pack and Gyrowolfs music pack. When I was about to start working, I learned I had won a contest, so I went through everything AGAIN

Feb 28 2014

The Seven Tower

- Created the Preview Island map

- Started evening Special Items

Day 25

Posting this now, because I won't get the chance to later.

- For the secret project I've completely changed how a battle is initiated (no battlestart, instead something more dynamic that doesn't take the player to another screen), but what I changed it to is a secret! (whole point of calling a project secret innit?)

- Finished up the common item icons I'll be using. Might make more if the game calls for it. Started making a few junk item icons; since this is going to be a full length game I'm going to have upgrades/augment skills be created through item synthesis for those who love doing that. I'm only going to be making the ones the player will be able to get in the beginning, so I don't pull my hair out coming up with them all at once.

- Made the starting equipment icons. All I really need to do now is get started animating if I want to show how my battle system will look in action, but I'm not completely confident enough to do complex character animation yet.

What I learned today: How to implement pictures in scenes much better than before. It opens up a lot of options for me!

Day 19 ?
(at least for me since I only do workdays)
 

 
Go, Team Red!

Oh man, I almost forgot to write this down. I was so busy editing tiles. I'm done with my tileset, wohuuu. Well, almost. Just have to arrange some tiles on the 2nd tilesheet and I still want to do a flame animation for the cauldrons. There is still so much I can do to get better at editing, but at some point I just have to call a tile finished or it will drive me crazy. :p

Entry #11 This will go to March 3rd or 4th, correct? If so that will give me a final entry on Monday.

The last big map I'm able to get done before the end of the GMD. There are a few rooms I'd like to tackle next but on my own time. I redid the throne room. It's not supposed to be crazy fancy. I've seen some with water flowing around the chairs and whatnot but this is a bit more modest. I feel something is missing (or off about it) though, just I can't put my finger on it. The bottom with the flags and candle are still iffy, no idea what to do there. I kept the basic motif of a long hallway, pillars and lots of royal red colors. And took me a surprisingly short amount of time, only just worked on it last night and this morning. So it may go through another set of edits sometime in the future when I look at it again and inevitably get repulsed by it :p

DAY 10? ~

Well today was a day I dedicated to converting resources made by the wonderful Ruruga. Specifically the XP ones since they didn't come in a VX Ace format so I went through the tedious work of resizing faces and fitting them into sets, along cutting out 1 frame of the XP Character sets, and placing those into 8 sets of Characters per set.

I learned that this entire process takes quite awhile, and the only time I took a break was when I went to answer the door for pizza. (Also to be honest I was about 10 minutes late on starting my day's work on this since, I was late getting home from after-school activities).

So if I am not mistaken since it is Feb. 28th for me this is my last day of GMD? If so it has been a blast, and I have gotten quite a bit done for my project in the 10 days I have dedicated to it, if it isn't and the days go a little longer... then see you all tomorrow.

FTLOP ~ Out BD

Game Making Drive, Day 22, February 28th:

   Decided to convert one of my favorite short stories into a game using the ds resources that I impulsively bought during the steam sale a couple of days ago. After finishing 'Chasing Squirrels' in a little over a week I've come to the realization that large games are not something you should do by yourself, even small games are easier working with someone and since I'm not willing at this point to allow another person access to my personal works to change and adapt them as needed in a partnership I've decided to actually get a game or two out there that are short and maybe episodic if well received. Not that I'm going to abandon my game that chronicles a story I've worked on for years, I just want some experience in finishing a few games before I keep trying to work on it, because it's a lot of work done but I know sadly if I don't learn how to finish something smaller first then I'll likely never finish anything at all. I plan to touch up 'Chasing Squirrels' and releasing it for anyone that might be interested in such a game, even something as lighthearted and casual as it is makes me nervous to release it to the public, I've always been a little to hesitant to share my work with people though.



Edit: Can someone let me know if GMD ends today or if we're going a little into March since we didn't actually start until the 4th and February is a short month to begin with. I see people already writing as if they're done and wrapped up but I could have sworn I saw a post somewhere that said that it didn't actually end till sometime later.

Day #11 ~There Will Be Brawls~

Mostly databasing work done today as well, with some writing on the side.

◆ Writing

* Decided to design the overworld in a similar style to SaGa Frontier.

* To be specific, the overworld isn't a map that the player travels along by foot/sprite, but a series of locations related to a specific area selected from a menu.

* Unlocking locations is going to be one of the few things players will be able to do easily.

* Within the game world itself, each major location is connected through cross-gates or other means that people have access to.

* Each Major location is pretty distinct from the next (hopefully I can achieve this through the visual aspect as well), with their own customs, terminology, etc.

* Drafted about seven or so characters that have their own minor storyline within the game world that the player can take part in.

* This same storyline will feature a heavier focus on one of the main characters (that has yet to be designed.)

◆ Database

* More or less finished adding in 2 Sets of Weapon Skills and 2 Schools of Magic into the game.

* The entire skill database was reorganized in a way that skills are categorized by their school/type.

* Weapons/Armor are still being tweaked in a way to make it easier to modify them without breaking balancing.

* Jobs/Classes/Titles are controlled through Mr. Bubbles Titles Script.

Team green, team green. Where is 80% of team green?





Day 25


LOTS HAPPENED


* Like this cute little house





* and this cute little ramp (which may yet need some tweaking)





* Sketched both forms of a battler


* Did an alternate sprite for a character


* Remapped the dungeon I replanned the other night (flipping huge dungeon)


* Tweaked a couple of other maps and resources


* Set some passibilities that I have been ignoring doing


* I feel like I'm missing something, but this was a full day of work


And I agree, curious what day this actually ends. I'll just keep making posts until told otherwise haha O:

Tiles, tiles, tiles. Yep, still. I've been so indecisive about what to use. I feel the tide is turning though. I've settled on a couple of sets as my basis. And I spent quite a bit of time this morning pouring through every XP tileset to pull out the pieces I wanted to use. I then worked on (hopefully) converting them to make them compatible with the other tiles I've chosen. And right now, I am continuing to compile the all of the pieces I want to use into tilesheets. I have so many tilesheets in my project right now, it's ridiculous and I think I will be able to cut down to just two main sets - one interior and one exterior.