Josh's Adventure (Released!)

[1ce]

Re: Josh's Out-of-Body Adventure

I'm planning on getting back to work on this soon. I'm doing a different RPGMaker related project, so that's taking priority. Will be back soon.

[1ce]

Re: Josh's Out-of-Body Adventure

So it's been two and a half weeks since I've taken time off from the project. I had initially planned to only take a few days off, but with many different things for me to do, I've put rpgmaker at the backburner and have been doing many other things, like: Arcade gaming, Tales of Symphonia 4th playthrough, Halloween, Daytona USA, possibly buying my first arcade cabinet, board games, Raw Danger, G1 Jockey 3, lots of shopping and...pretzels.

Back on topic. I think I'm starting to realize making games goes in a cycle. There's the planning cycle where ideas flourish, and the starting cycle where game creation actually starts and lots of new ideas and ambitious ideas are put in. Then there's the second cycle, which I'm in right now, where the harsh reality of things are hitting me. This game will take a lot of time, playtesting and creative force (not forgetting technical knowledge) behind it to make it good. And while I feel I'd like to drop the game, I also have a desire to finish it.

I think the longer away you are from something, the less motivation you have to return to it. With that in mind, I've booted up the game file and messed around with what I have accomplished up till now. Most of it is good and solid. I found a number of bugs that were promptly fixed, and some areas of code that were passed over were properly completed. And maybe I'll get ome progress done today on new material.

It's boom or bust, baby.

[Leish]

Re: Josh's Out-of-Body Adventure

And while I feel I'd like to drop the game, I also have a desire to finish it.

Don't drop it! I want to play!

[1ce]

Re: Josh's Out-of-Body Adventure

I think it's time to make some cuts.

The most radical and benefitical cut would be the story itself. So no arcade electrocution, no trying to revive yourself from Death.

When it comes down to it, typing lots of text or doing cutscenes is not my thing. It eats up valuable time for no good reason, in my mind. This is a platforming game, and the gameplay should take front and center. So why should I waste time with a story when I could be tweaking the level design? Or editing some imperfection out?

So this big change will change a couple of things. First and most important, it will give me less to do, and give me a much-needed motivational boost. Now I have far less to worry about, and can focus on what matters. It will require me to probably change the title again, and hopefully nobody will be too disappointed with the change.

I did get some work done on the first boss, Captain Calcium. The arena is covered in a red tiles that spew out hot steam, and take one life if you land on them. I had to spread them around the arena. I'm a tad worried that I may run out of events that I can use. Which is the reason the arena is closed off, because the original idea was to have it completely opened with no walls. But the sheer size of the arena and how many I would have needed....it wasn't possible.

And for anyone disappointed with the cut of the story...well, that's just how I make these games :P I figure it out as I go.

[Pagerron]

Re: Josh's Out-of-Body Adventure

Personally, I think it's a great idea to get rid of the story if you feel it's a waste of time 1ce.

Some of the classic platforming games didn't have much of a story because they just didn't need it anyway. So, cool!

I hope this motivates you to keep hammering away at getting it done.

[1ce]

Re: Josh's Out-of-Body Adventure

So, there's more progress on the game that I made today. Cutting out the story has given me much more motivation to continue working, as I detailed in the last post.

This first boss area is really giving me problems. I've already mentioned the basic setup of this boss. Captain Calcium wanders the stage along with fireballs, some that hone on you and others that are random. In three of the four corners, are shields that you pick up and bash Captain Calcium with. What I'd like to do is have the captain get angry after the second hit and throw more fireballs on the stage. This is presenting some problems trying to figure out the best way to code this to actually make it work. I'll sleep on it for now, and figure it out later.

I also have been going back to what I've worked on and fixed some things I didn't like, such as certain dialog and I sweeped for some bugs. I've set the game up to have the game start at the hubworld, showing the title screen once and never again, then the game starts with a message telling you to talk to the lady in pink for some beginner hints. Much like the intro for Donkey Kong, really.

Speaking of which, I also worked on the tutorial lady some. I have the basic three questions she asks, but I also have a section next to her available to give visual aids. So when she mentions that you should head for the level exit, a graphic of the level exit will appear next to her to help show what one looks like. A subtle improvement from DK.

I'm already on three blocks of scenario. I'm starting to think this game might be getting a little big already. The first boss level is just really eating up memory. I had to copy and paste most of the smoke spots in that level so every one moved independently instead of altogether when I duplicated the whole thing.

I've got more to report, but we'll leave it at that for now. I'll post more when I get to work on it next.

[FlamingMage]

Re: Josh's Out-of-Body Adventure

Sounds very nifty. Harkens back to the good ol' days of platformer gaming. Way to keep at it.

[1ce]

Re: Josh's Out-of-Body Adventure

And some more progress today...all work on the first boss. I had to find a technique to make it all work correctly. Using lots of pages and some technical know-how, I think the entire thing is structually complete. I have the events laid out so you grab one shield, bash Captain Calcium with it, and then go grab the next shield. I have it played out fairly well. I still haven't added in much of the code that removes lives or sends you back since I wanted to get the basics down first. Although having typed this all out, I realize I'll still need to playtest most of it to make sure it works.

I'm starting to get back into the groove of making this game again, with some changes. Before I was charging through and working a lot, and while that got a lot of work done it also added much unneeded burden on me, since I was working a bit too hard. Now I will play it when I feel like it, and while this means less progress updates, this will prevent me from burning out again.

Here's what I'm thinking concerning memory cards....I may need to use four of them. With the boss battle, I've realized that some ideas will suck up a lot of scenario memory. So I may need two scenario cards, one system card and one custom art card (if I decide to use custom art though. That's still up in the air). What I'd like to do is have a warp spot in the hubworld so you can jump between scenario cards easily. Maybe have half the levels on one card and half on the other. Although I may be speaking a little too early...Who knows what's ahead?

At least I have the drive to finish this, and the chances of me dropping the game have fallen dramatically. This will get done.

[FlamingMage]

Re: Josh's Out-of-Body Adventure

Sounds great! I'm not really familiar with RPGM1; is the area in which the boss fight occurs fairly large, or is it more of a tight thing? It sounds like the player will have to jump up platforms to make it to the higher up shields, and if there's not enough room they could get into a situation when, regardless of skill, they cannot avoid an incoming fireball.

I don't even know if what I'm suggesting is plausible. But watch out for it...

[1ce]

Re: Josh's Out-of-Body Adventure

Last time I thought I had the whole boss fight figured out. Upon playtesting, it turns out I didn't. There was no solid way to make the shields vanish as they were being used. So I finally broke down and dedicated three more switches to each shield, to help the game know that once taken, they vanish forever. Now it works great.

A thought I've been mulling over is the thought of wrapping up what I have complete, and send it out to see if I can get some feedback on what I'm doing. Or maybe have some friends try it out.

Sorry if this is a rather short or incoherant post, as I'm rather tired and it's late. But that's what I've been up to.

[FlamingMage]

Re: Josh's Out-of-Body Adventure

Coherency is fine for me.

I always like to let my friends screw around in my game. Mostly because many of them are the kind of person that searches for bugs intuitively, but any 'test group' will reveal things about your game that you never knew existed. I've found that its best not to speak to them while they play, and not to explain things unless an element of "tutorial" is actually missing.

Congrats on finishing that boss up!

[1ce]

Re: Josh's Out-of-Body Adventure

You should consider yourself lucky then FlamingMage. I have no such luck with that. Sure I have friends, but their editing skills are....lackluster, we'll say. I'd rather go online and find people who know rpgmaker to help figure out what's going on.

[FlamingMage]

Re: Josh's Out-of-Body Adventure

Ha, yeah, there are a few people that I never bother asking because the controller would confuse them more than your average calculus problem.

I spent about ten minutes trying to get one of my friends to understand where the R3 and L3 buttons were. They just kept pressing the back of the shoulders, where the screw holes are.

[1ce]

Re: Josh's Out-of-Body Adventure

Finally got around to finishing the final bits of the world 1 boss. I simply had to add in codes that removed lives and kicked the player back to the hubworld if they lost.

It feels a little weird moving to a new world that I can create, since I've spent so much time on this first world. I don't think it's fully sunk in yet.

I think I may need to figure out how I'm going to structure some aspects of the game. I'm not sure, for example, how to handle turning switches off. Do I turn them off in individual levels or in the hubworld? If the hubworld, I'll need to either A) Copy and paste the off switches to every intro event (which is around 15), or B) cut the jukeboxes to make it all fit nicely without so much copying and pasting. If I do go for individual levels, I'll be risking more bugs. After typing this out, cutting the jukeboxes seems like a far easier and better idea. Cut out the stuff that's less important for more stuff that is important.

There's still so much I want to add to this, and hopefully I'll tumble around enough to figure everything out. Oddly enough, that's how I figure out what works and what doesn't. Trial and error. If something slows me down, I cut it out and keep going.

And finally, I'm going to shorten the title to just Josh's Adventure. Something simple, but full circle. You get exactly what the game is about from those two words, and I love it! ......Yeah, that sounds a bit odd, but I've always loved the word "Adventure". It's such an exciting word that means something new and great. Yeah, I'll stop talking strange now.

After some going-over the stuff I've done, I'll begin progress on World 2!

[1ce]

Re: Josh's Adventure

So, might as well post what I've done before Thanksgiving comes.

I'm currently working on a tutorial level. This will take you through the various things you can do in each level, what enemies and allies are, and some helpful knowledge and tips.

Most of the level has been designed, and will add the scripting in soon.

It seems I always enjoy level designing, and that's my favorite part of making these games. Just thought I'd point that out.