IGMC and November Goals and Progress Thread

Made a lot of good progress on mapping the last two days.

Decided to make my interiors (what few there are) more isometric than the usual orthogonal. I'm aware this particular interior seems rather large at present.



Most of the game takes place in various exterior environments, so been working a lot on some of those. A quick look at a town and another beginning locale:




Lastly, wanted to try my hand at making a world map (something I tend to not do). So far so good, though no smaller sprite at the moment for scale comparison. Clouds, cloud shadows, water all animated - will see about adding some animated waves along the shore lines as well after more important things are taken care of and time permits.

Managed to finish the map I started yesterday, then started mapping the menu (unfortunately I didn't get it completely finished tonight or else I'd show it off)
Other than that I got a little bit more balancing done and managed to find some decent enough enemies I can use for the time being. After I finish up the menu tomorrow I hope to get started on putting together how the equip screen is going to work (I have a very specific way I want to pull it off, and I'm heavily leaning towards just eventing the entire thing which is going to be a pain, but might be my best course if I want it done)

Unfortunately I had no time to work on my project today. Had a good time with friends though, so it's okay. :kaoblush:

My goals for tomorrow:

• Make supporting character's walk sprite
• Finish basic wall, roof and floor tiles
• Test main mechanics in test map

Goals for November:

I'll definitely be passing on the IGMC. I started the refit & revision of my project back in January, & I've literally reworked EVERYTHING in my game, nothing remain as is beyond the visual & audio assets I was already using.

However, I still haven't completely caught up to where I was December of last year when I decided to commit to the refit. I want to have my project pack to the development state it was at December of last year, prior to the refit; so I can start 2019 closing the distance to the finish line, rather than still fixing things that were the reason for my refit to begin with.

This month I am going to be focusing on enemies, troops, battlebacks, etcetera, as the last few months of development have been all about secondary systems, for example the random loot generator, rotating shop inventory, & playstyle based parameter evolution mechanics. So I can get them back to the development level they were at, only with improved variants.

For example, I already had battlebacks assigned to my field maps based on region ID, but those stopped being effective when I rebuilt the entire world from the ground up, so all of the field maps now have different terrain features; not to mention changing the region ids, to accommodate their usage as a data point in my "local map" mechanics player marker & quest markers positioning systems. So naturally all of those need to be redone to in light of those changes.

I also had templates of my various visual encounters, but then I decided to improve upon their design, so all of them needed to be replaced. Specifically, instead of using a specific character sprite to indicate a singular type of troop battle process, using a variable control RNG mechanic to select from a subset of troops, that vary in visuals, numbers, & general composition. I.e. instead of running into "Bandit sprite 1", giving you "Bandit Troop 1", the "Enemy" variable roll determines between "Bandit Troop A" through "Bandit Troop E".

Furthermore, I decided I need a "Field" & "Dungeon" variant for most of them for different purposes. Namely, the "Field" variants, to manifest based on what switches used in the time system are "On" at the given moment. Thereby changing the nature of any given field map, based on whether the player is there during the "day" or the "night". For example, running into hornets during the day, but running into bats in the night. It's a small thing, but I think it makes the world feel more, "alive" for lack of a better word. The "Dungeon" variants are obviously for dungeon maps, & won't react to time constraints. Which to me seems reasonable, as wandering into the burrow/cave of a given monster/animal should get you the same response regardless of the time of day.

Item 1) Ignore IGMC.:troll:

Item 2) Continue with rebalance of Enemy parameter curves in accordance with new player character parameter growth system.

Item 3) Create more enemy specific skills to add greater tactical variety between enemy types.

Item 4) Creation of skill integrated & Troop based AI common events, for enhanced tactical operations by enemy warbands.

Item 5) Create both Field Map & Dungeon variants of improved visual encounter templates.

Item 6) Assign corresponding battlebacks via region ID to all field maps.

Item 7) Assign Field & battle BGMs to all field maps.

Item 8) Further develop IP lore pages, on various topics.

Update 3

I didn’t get a chance to post yesterday, I was baby-sitting and then did a binge watch of the Haunting of Hill House for Halloween, and couldn’t use my computer or the light would have ruined the atmosphere.

However I did do some drawing (awful drawing!) of the battlers from the game. I may use them, I may not, depending on how much time I have as my current chosen battlers don’t really fit.

Now I have much work to do today to make up for my two days of non-productivity. Roll on Saturday night! Lol.




@Jesse - PVGames Loveing the maps! I always wanted to try using tilesets like that. I'm not too sure what stopped me, but you make them look awesome! Sometimes maps made with tiles like that look dark, but these look awesome.
@slimmmeiske2 Thanks, I appreicate your kind words. I'm not to good at art, so it's noce to know it gives the vibe I was hoping for!
@Plueschkatze +team, that map looks so awesome! I am so impressed!

@Paladin-Cleric of Awesome - Thanks! The tiles sometimes get a lot of hate, but I always enjoyed the style. I am enjoying your daily updates as well and I hope you enjoy(ed) the Haunting of Hill House as much as I did :)

@Dezue - Will we be seeing a return of Quidget the Wonderwiener?

Wow. Everyone's stuff looks really amazing! This'll be a good year.

It's looking like us RM diehards will be facing lots of Unity entries this year too. We can't ignore the fact that Unity's a good engine, and it's got some advantages over RM. But I wouldn't worry too much, we can still make fun games with RM.

As for progress, I'll be recording our team's progress mainly at our thread on the IGMC site. If interested you can click on the banner below. Good luck everyone!

@watermark actually I find RPGMAKER better for jams as you have a bunch of prebuilt systems and resources available for faster prototyping. The big downside is the games can be a little same if the dev doesn't put in much time.

Personally, I'd like to see a jam some year where everyone has to use the RTP. That would make the focus on the game and nothing else then. And everyone would be on the same footing when it comes to graphics and sound, and would instead have to use what they got well. Maybe something to consider?

@bgillisp actually there was one just recently. It was the RTP only jam.

Right, but I'd like to see one sponsored by Degica with a decent cash prize (maybe $500 - $1000 or so?) Use it to remove some of the negative stigma around the RTP and RPGMaker in general by showing the public you CAN use the RTP well. After all, I'd think it would be in their best interest to remove some of the stigma, and something showing how to use what they got already well would go a long ways towards that.

And I know it can be done. I remember Jim Sterling held a contest asking people to take the Unity asset horror spider that everyone was overusing and show how to use it well. He got over 400 entries.

I only got two maps done so far this week :kaoback: I got too busy with the decorating, but I guess as I make custom stuff I can reuse and newer maps wont take as long. I am using the posterization filter and a purplish overlay to give the rtp I'm using a unique look.
I am using MV for the first time so I am hoping I can get to the actually game making as soon as possible since I know it will be a weak point for me. :kaoswt: I don't know what I'm doing.
This first week for me is asset making, there is so much to do.

Everybody's stuff is so lovely! I can't wait to see more.

@Paladin-Cleric of Awesome The Haunting of Hill House is an awesome show, hope you enjoyed watching it!
@watermark Love the title Work In Progress :p I enjoyed reading your devlog. It's fun to see the day to day improvements. POP Horror is such a nice style, can't wait to see what @Miss Nile does with it.
@animesock52 The maps look nice!

Today was a national holiday, so I had three goals to meet today:

• Add Reward/Demerit system
• Shop upgrades
• Add in animations/SEs for the dolls, crystal ball, book and gifts.

I started with the last goal, since I'd partly done that yesterday and I didn't immediately feel like eventing. But wow I forgot how tiring it can be looking for resources. It took me a while to find something that would fit the dolls (and not make them scary) and the crystal ball. Fixed up the animation of the book and tried two styles for the crystal ball. Not yet decided which of the two to pick.

On to the next goal, since I'm making a time management game without time, I needed something to make it "game-y", so I opted for a life (demerit) system. I also still needed to add an actual reward (and end) to the level, so I did that today. I was afraid it would take a while, but I got it done pretty fast. :)

And the last goal for today was to add shop upgrades. There's three things you can upgrade/buy: flowers (gives an extra heart), new carpet (makes customers walk faster) and new seating (gives bigger tips).
Here's two screenshots, showing the map before and after upgrades:

Didn't really do anything extra, besides changing some of the system SEs and making some small adjustments to the other maps.

I'll be away for the weekend, no idea if there's any internet, so I don't think I'll be posting any updates. I'm planning on working on the plot and characters, as well as the level design while I'm away. Everyone good luck, you're all doing great :D

@Jesse - PVGames @slimmmeiske2 The Haunting of Hill House was awesome! I want to find the old flm to watch as well.

Update -Day 4

Ok, so I spent the entire day game making (and watching various TV shows and films to have sound in the background). And what do I have to show for it? Well… it doesn’t seem like a lot, but I have my three puzzles on the Sunbird half of the Witchfinders Keep completed and tested.

As I was testing I had to laugh as I got through all the puzzles in less than 5 mins. It’s amazing how short a dungeon area can be without battles to break it up. But I don’t want to make anything too big for this game, because if I do I’ll get bogged down, and I want to give this the best chance of winning, so small will do!

No videos or screen shots I’m afraid. I’m too busy trying to make up for the lost time the last two days.

I also, like an eejit; I nearly completely messed up the whole game by not paying attention to Yanflys message script variables. So lesson learned! Check all scripts for hidden variables and switches that might mess up the game!

I feel bad that my update today is so short, but I feel like I’m on a roll, so I’m gonna clock off and keep working on my puzzles!

Well, ended up napping instead of really doing much today. Did manage to get the MC sketches done so now I can at least get on with progressing the initial sections of the story.
Still trying to decide whether I want to actually play out the "Origin" Epilogue or just show it through dialogue choices.

Took a break from bust art to edit some sprites and also make one of the maps.

Got the menu (mostly) done (only have the equip screen left, though I have some free time this weekend so it shouldn't be that hard)

Other than that, today was a long day so I'm gonna go collapse and get some sleep.

Another day of nothingness. I have a feeling it will be the same tomorrow as well. Got pretty busy all of a sudden. > o < /

Hoping to search up some RPG maker questions tomorrow to get a better idea of how I can go about doing things. :p

After some consideration, I've decided that I won't be participating in the IGMC as such - at least on my own. Instead, I will try to get back to my old project and maybe aim for a public demo release near the end of the month. I've started writing down a detailed script of sorts to get a better hang of the way characters speak (because after replaying my old version, the dialogue felt clunky). Hopefully I'll be able to incorporate that into the game, along with honing stuff. Graphics will probably have to wait for now.

Although I'm sort of skipping IGMC, I might end up assisting someone in a joint project, as its basic concept is relatively close to what I had in mind. My first task in that one is to come up with some character designs (and maybe a rough idea of the characters' personalities), but that'll have to wait until next week.

Update 5

I feel in this update I should discuss what I would love to see in the game that may not yet be part of it.

1 A Party – I have some ideas for a party design, not your usual group.

As you have no doubt realised, in this game you play as a villager with no special skills, no magic (as magic is banned from the land). You buy your skills as you go so that you can charm, intimidate etc. enemies (and later people you meet along the way).

Other party members will include (eventually)

- Merchant – his business is going downhill since the rifts, monsters are disrupting supply lines, and he joins you on your mission to ask the King for aid (and joins you further to seal the rift in the Witchfinders Keep). Can get the player discount in shops for items and other things.

- Old Warrior – A warrior that was so good in his day that he survived many battles, survived in fact, into old age. Now too old to join the Warrior troops he has lost his chance to die with honour. (he joins the group with the sole purpose of a last chance to fall in great battle)

- Healer – with the banning of magic, the healing arts of crafting draughts and poultices has soared, the healer can craft draughts etc. and use them in battle, a non-combatant in the sense they do no damage to the enemy.

I have no other thoughts on other allies yet, but it might be interesting at least to have some non-typical characters for a party group.

2 Further exploration of the world;

- You start in your own village, and make the decision to travel to the Kings castle beyond the jungle. You will get to learn all about the Sunbird, the creator of the world, the dragon of the Abyss, and the beliefs of the people of Istolia. You will get to hear more about the magical plague, and the Prince. Hopefully it will also allow for some more immersive details.

3 Skills, like the Dungeons and Dragons kind.

- A few of the skills you get to play with in the game are Charm and Intimidate, you get to level the skill up to 5 levels, and each level allows you something more. Egg. Intimate level 1 allows you to lower the defence of your enemies; level 3 makes lower level enemies to flee.

- I also want to make it so you can use the skills outside of battle i.e., able to charm someone into giving you information, or intimidate someone. I want the player to be able to choose skills they think will help them play the game, like push/pull, jump, climb etc. A lot of stuff I can’t put in yet as I want to be able to finish the game in good time! But when I do go back to redo the game I think this is something that will be added in!

Now to what I’ve been doing today.




All puzzles in the first dungeon done, each one slightly different than the last to show the potential of the game. Spending some time with my mum this afternoon so won’t have too much time to do a lot later. However my goal for tonight and tomorrow is to move on the next part of the game, where we meet an important character and learn some more of the backstory.

I’m hoping I’ll have another set of cut scene pictures done for tomorrow evening. Because my Saturday night all-nighter is going to be spent madly attacking the database!

Next week, I’m hoping to have the second area done and dusted so I can focus on polishing what I have after this, and if I have time maybe add some more areas.

We’ll see.