General progress update

[Valkysas]

in an effort to streamline the game and improve the flow of the game, I'm toning down some of the survival elements. This will mostly effect the "your characters can get sick or seriously injured because of your actions" bit. instead of getting sick if you're being stupid when it comes to how you are managing the characters, their HP will just start taking hits rather than get sick or if you do something that would result in an injury.

Playtesting is showing me that unless the player is extremely careful, Megan ends up sick way too much, and Lucid gets injured too much. This results in the player spending far too much time running around getting medicine, or tending to wounds, and it's boring and repetitive as a result. it also takes a lot of the impact away from the scripted injuries and illnesses.

I've also decided to change my decision that no more art will be posted of the cast. There's a big reason for this: I cannot do the Angel sprites properly. My colorblindness is biting me in the ass. since the Angels are mostly white, they require quite a bit of shading to give them depth. I found out that I had been shading Lucid with not only gray, but pink as well, confusing it with gray. their whole design and animations in sprite form require proper mixing of colors to make the designs stand out and look right when in motion.

Simply put, I cannot do the sprites for the Angels, and I have discarded all the work I had already done. They looked decent to me, but people with the ability to see color correctly informed me that they looked rather terrible. I'm going to need help doing the sprites, and that's going to require me posting artwork for Lucid, Raya, the rest of the major Angel characters, and get some "generic angel templates" made for me to work on to make the various armor types, because I'm not stupid enough to imagine anyone other than myself would want to make all the armor variations that the Angels have.

Lucid's design sheets will be posted as soon as I can get to a scanner.

[Big Rick Cook]

Re: Changes is happenin' (general progress update)

It sucks that your colorblindedness is such a hamper to the visual design aspect of your game creation. This is the only game I'm really looking forward to in all the Designer Series games we have access to.

[Jamos]

Re: Changes is happenin' (general progress update)

I'm not the greatest with spriting, but I'm willing to help out if you want it.

[Wavelength]

Re: Changes is happenin' (general progress update)

What a shame about the survival aspects... that was one of the really standout things you had. The HP taking hits is still not bad, but I thought the sickness/injury aspects were very interesting. Personally it sounds like it just needed some tweaking, either to lower the overall incidence of that kind of stuff (perhaps by adding a random factor to it? Do something that would get Megan sick, and there's a 30% chance she'll GET sick...), or by adding a bit of scripting to prevent it from recurring too quickly after you cure a character of illness or injury.

And as to the sprites, I'm sorry to hear that the colors are giving you trouble like that. What I don't understand is why you're discarding your work rather than simply asking for help in applying a good set of palettes to your artwork.

Anyway, not sure whether or not I've mentioned this before, but I've been following the updates on your game for a while, and they reflect a lot of thought... very neat style and I think it's going to be a great game.

[Valkysas]

Re: Changes is happenin' (general progress update)

I discarded my sprites because I want the Angels to have a consistant look. I can't have some touched up by someone else, and others made entirely by someone else. style continuity is important.

the injury/illness thing HAD to be toned down because of the scripted stuff. If Lucid can get injured over and over, it really ruins the beginning of the game where he's so badly injured that he's near death. It's supposed to be extremely hard for an Angel to take that kind of damage. if he was inconvenienced at all by any damage the player could manage to inflict upon him, it wouldnt make sense because of the way he behaves with that early scene.

Megan, Erica, or any of the human cast getting sick too much can make them look frail and weak. like they HAVE to be taken care of. it'll make Lucid come off as someone who has to protect them because of it. I don't want that.

HP taking a hit from a character being careless is going to be a big deal. not like normal RPGs. Lucid's HP restores on it's own (because of his regenerating armor), but it's slow. You cannot restore HP by eating or drinking. resting doesnt fill it all the way back up. HP reflects a character's overall health, and it maxes out at 100 for each character. to restore a character's HP, you have to make sure they're actually living in a way that will make them healthy. You're also going to want to avoid fighting as much as possible, because that's an easy way to get your HP to drop. If a character's HP drops too low, they'll show it, and you'll have to take care of them to get it back up.

Originally, this HP management system was in the game alongside the environment/weather illness system, and that's what was making characters get sick or injured too much. getting rid of just one of the systems is not going to cripple the game.

as an example of how easily things can go wrong with both systems in place, I'll give a summary of one playtesting session:

Megan and Lucid are in the water cooling down and relaxing. it's around 8 PM, they've been hanging out near the water for a few hours now. a storm moves in. it starts to rain. Megan shouts for them to head back to the shelter. Lucid is the active character. after both get out of the water, Lucid picks Megan up so they can get back faster. But I take my time getting them back. of course, Lucid is in his armor, so he's okay. Megan is in her bathing suit, and getting rained on. she's getting cold. not okay. I'm still slow getting back. I know where the shelter is since I built the game, but maybe the player forgot. It takes me 10 minutes to find my way back, pretending I'm lost. They go in the shelter, which is their tent. it's not very warm. Megan dries off, gets changed and wraps up in a blanket. too bad. the rain, the late time of day, and the temperature of the tent has triggered an illness. This being the first time Megan got sick in this playthrough, there's no medicine with them. Lucid has to go get some the next day. he heads to a supply depot to obtain it. he is caught before he gets it. he has to fight his way out. he's outnumbered. he gets badly injured, but he manages to get away. now an injured Lucid and a sick Megan are in the tent. Lucid will heal on his own if given enough time, and if he keeps himself fed. Lucid's injury is severe enough that he has trouble getting around. Megan has to help him obtain food. her health deteriorates more. She ends up getting respiratory infection. Lucid is finally healthy enough to make another shot at getting medicine. the depot is on high alert now. he is caught again. gets away uninjured this time. but he can't keep going back. he heads to the tent, and they pack stuff up to move on to a location near another supply depot. along the way, megan's HP drops enough for her respiratory infection to turn into into pneumonia. Worried about her, Lucid decides to take her to the nearest town and surrender himself to get her treatment. Her HP is dropping rapidly now. She dies before they get where they were going.

all because they stayed out in the rain too long.

the system is just too damn sensitive to leave in. rather than work my ass off to balance it better, I'm throwing it out and relying on just the HP system instead. food and shelter will still be a concern, as will overall health. but I dont want situations like the one above happening to players. it happened to me, it would happen to others.

[Ωbright]

Re: Changes is happenin' (general progress update)

You know, it sounds like it will be much better without the survival aspects, at least in this particular game, but keep it in mind for future games because it's a great idea. I had some things like that too when I was working on my games. I was really disappointed at first, but when I saw how much better the game was without those things, I got over it quick.

I don't have XP, but I'd be glad to help with some sprites if I can. Just let me know what I can do, and I'll give it a shot.

[Valkysas]

Re: Changes is happenin' (general progress update)

Progress Report #2

It has almost been a year since I made this project public. The teaser demo will be released in the coming weeks, and the Angel sprites are coming along pretty well. The only thing holding the teaser back is Lucid's sprite sheet. The animation isnt flowing right. I don't want to release a demo with unfinished assets.

Raya's armor got redesigned. helmet is the same, but that's about it. she got redesigned because she stood out too much. the body armor type she uses has been completely removed from the game as a result.

The game still doesnt have a title. The sequel game does. how stupid is that. I'll need to fix that before the demo release. guuuuuuuuuh. The sequel game has had it's name for about 5 months now. I stole the name from a song (but it's relevant to the plot too). I considered doing that with the first game's name, but nothing ever seemed right.



Also. about names.

Someone PMed me and suggested I change Megan's name to Hitomi.

That's a ****ing stupid suggestion.

Megan is named after the actress Megan Follows, whom I had a crush on as a kid.

And also, Megan is a name that someone may have if born in Alabama.

Unlike Hitomi.

**** you.

I can't stand stories that use japanese names for no goddamn reason at all.

There arent any asians in the game at all.

Take that, racial equality.

Raya is named after an Egyptian serial killer. Raya (the character) is from Egypt originally, so that makes it okay. her history came before her name.

Lucid was named by Obright.

Erica is named after nothing. I've just always liked the name.

I did assign SOME terribly out of place names though. Alces is an Angel in Megan's hometown (the medic). type alces into google and see what you get.

[Sivart the Sloth Trencher]

Re: Changes is happenin' (general progress update)

Yeah, there's no reason to change Megan's name.

Also:

[H2H]

Re: Changes is happenin' (general progress update)

Sounds AWSOME! You are a very talented person I'll give ya that I am playing the game as soon as you realese it umm... I don't need rpg maker xp to play it right?

[Valkysas]

Re: Changes is happenin' (general progress update)

nope. it'll be an exe file.

[Valkysas]

Re: Changes is happenin' (general progress update)

I'm going to re-write all the information in this forum, because so much of it is obsolete and doesnt reflect the final product.

as for progress, before my computer problems, I had just started working on the side-story that unlocks after the game is completed (it's essentially a sequel). it's far less linear than the first game, different cast, different locations. less talking and more action. the mood is completely different. Lucid and Megan's story is calm, and light-hearted for the most part. the side-story is much more chaotic, and fleshes out the world far more than the limited scope of Lucid and Megan's story would ever allow.

I wont be discussing story or characters from the side-story, since it would spoil the main game. but I may be showing some material.

I'll have the demo for the first game out fairly soon. whenever my computer is fixed, I can go ahead and isolate the demo stuff from the main game and release it.

[Valkysas]

Re: Changes is happenin' (general progress update)

Still plodding along on this. I've been working on the side story that opens up after the first game is finished (which will from here on be referred to as "Chapter 2").

I take a long time to develop my characters. I'll spend weeks, or in some cases even months figuring them out, and sometimes even starting over. Chapter 2's lead character has been through several revisions so far. It's mostly just her personality traits that keep getting changed. I want her to be a likable character, but many things about her personality and the way she's supposed to interact with others is making that very hard. so I keep adding little things, toning other things down, stuff like that.

Figuring out Chapter 2's gameplay elements is taking a long time too. it's not focused on just living and being on the run like Chapter 1. The new character's focus is combat, and she's going to have a custom battle system. Lucid's battle system is the default battle system, for the most part. This new character is much more action-based. She'll still have a lot of character building segments like what are in Chapter 1, but she'll get a ton of opportunities to just go out and fight.

I know I'll get complaints from people that both games are rather slow. I've made my peace with that. This story probably would have been better off as a written work, but I like visual media. I'm not a good writer. So I've decided to tell my story through a game, and I'm not altering it just so it functions better as a game. Both chapters feature long stretches of no actual action (fighting) going on. characters interacting and talking make up about 75% of Chapter 1, and roughly 50-60% of Chapter 2. its not just sitting around and reading text, though. You'll have dialogue options, dialogue will change to reflect actions taken, and characters will be able to be controlled in a ton of non-fighting events. despite how little "action" is in both games, the player rarely loses control of the characters. Especially in Chapter 2, where the main character's development isnt set in stone. Chapter 2 has dozens of branching points, and it's effectively a "choose your own adventure" story with only a handful of events that are encountered no matter the path chosen.

blarg.

[Valkysas]

Re: Changes is happenin' (general progress update)

I'll have the demo for the first game out fairly soon. whenever my computer is fixed, I can go ahead and isolate the demo stuff from the main game and release it.

HA.

I'm making a new scenario for the demo, rather than use any of the "journal entries" as I had originally planned. Why am I doing that? I missed working with Lucid and Megan, and this was a great chance to do more with them without having to change anything in the rest of the game. Only have to do a few new emotive animations for it, the rest is all using stuff that's been done for a long time. Mostly I'm just having to write and script the thing.

It'll take place a week or two before Megan leaves on her vacation that she's returning from when the actual game starts.

There wont be any combat, it's purely story driven, character interaction stuff.

I'll post some screenshots later.

[Valkysas]

Re: Changes is happenin' (general progress update)

I havent posted any updates for a long time.

in early january, my laptop died. I had to get a new computer. I didnt have any data loss, luckily. I reinstalled RPG Maker XP, and copied my game over. Then something happened that is going to set me back for quite a while.



Almost all the custom sprites in the game are like this. RPG Maker XP didnt remember what color was supposed to be transparent in the sprites. For some, like Megan there, it did. I dont know what caused this. But as far as I know, there's no way to change the transparent color in the materialbase after importing a sprite. So I've been deleting sprites, re-importing them, and selecting the transparent color again. It's impossible for me to know what all sprites are "damaged" like this without playing the entire game, and testing every branching event every way. so I have to do them all. it's going to take a while. Lucid alone has around 70 sprite sheets for all sorts of different animations.

I've been working at it when I have free time, but I havent had much free time this year. so the pile is barely dented. THE DEMO WAS ALMOST DONE. THE ****ING DEMO WAS ALMOST DONE.

GOD DAMN IT.

[Gustaff 13]

Re: Changes is happenin' (general progress update)

Sorry about the setback.

I can't wait for this demo, no rush though...