Dev Log - How Badly Do You Want It?

[Wavelength]

This is the Developer's Log for How Badly Do You Want It. If you're looking for the Teaser, which contains a ton of info about every aspect of the game, click here.

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CHANGE LOG

Current Version: "Sugar Cookie" (v1.0) - Released 9/14/2013, Patched 9/16/2013
Next Version: "Sugar Cookie" v1.1 - Target release January 2014


Version 1.0 (Sugar Cookie)

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an additional 4 bugs; see the Beta Test thread for more detail
• Fixed a few typos

Minigames

• "Slime of Your Life": Retooled timing of the Zap-O-Matic to make it feel less "laggy"; also gave this event its own background music
• Minigame Damage: At the end of a minigame, if your HP is less than 10 it will be automatically restored to 10 (this already happens for battle events)

Skills & Battle

• All skills and attack items now have animations

Content

• Populated the Library's shelves with books to read
• Added a credits sequence to the end of the game
• Most auto-scrolling text has been replaced with manual-advance text due to Beta Tester feedback; remaining auto-scrolling text now stays onscreen longer
• Removed the Beta Test Debug Utility from the Treehouse

Patch - These bug fixes are included in downloads on or after 9/16/13.

• Fixed 5 bugs, mostly in the "Ice Scream" minigame; see the Beta Test thread for more detail

Version 0.1 (Cookie Dough)

Bug Fixes

• Fixed about 10 bugs, including the auto-wins/losses in minigames; see the Beta Test thread for more detail
• Fixed a few typos

Minigames

• "Ice Scream": Changed shape of a few carpets to eliminate an easy slide line near the bottom of the map
• "Zombie Nation": Completely redid the way that Part 2 of Zombie Nation works, due to severe bugs in the original structure. If there are more than 4 Zombies left, instead of looping through sets of 1-4 zombies, you instead play a single special battle where zombies will continue to appear until none are left.
• "Rat Race": Changed scoring algorithms to increase difficulty
• Bidding for Minigames: Made a few changes to the AI's bidding patterns on a few events

Skills & Battle

• Increased the cost, damage, and AP gain (for defeated foes) on Energizing Charge to make it less spammable while keeping it useful
• Slightly increased Rhyss' Agility to compensate for his high spell costs
• Lowered the cost of the "Mist of Passing Time" spell to give it a bit more general use
• Lowered the costs of "Scope" skills in the Light class to make it easier for Kai to combo them with other skills
• Reworked the functionality of the "Timebolt" spell - now removes all non-permanent charms on target foe instead of cancelling "Charge" skills on target foe

Enemies

• Increased zombies' offensive stats and removed their constant health degeneration to make them more formidable foes
• Increased defensive stats of Draglow Eggs to make them harder to kill before hatching in Don't Count Your Dragons
• Increased Water Slime's attack slightly... it still will barely lay a scratch on you though

General

• Made a new title screen from scratch
• Now start each day with all six characters in your party, instead of requiring you to add them; party members can be reorganized by talking with them at the Treehouse

Version 0.0 (Cookie Dough)


Initial Release.



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Torn between desperately wanting to share what I've created, and trying to avoid hyping up something that could go horribly wrong, I'm going to take the middle ground and just do a little tease for my Anything Goes contest entry.

The working title is "How Badly Do You Want It?". It's sort of an RPG, and then it's sort of... not.

I don't want to give away the overarching concept, because I may need to change it up if things go awry. So instead, how about a few screenshots?


A Zombie Castle...


...A Panera Bread wannabe...


...and... some sort of game show? What kind of madness is this?!

[DK]

Re: How Badly Do You Want It?

How much blood will you shed to survive, Ernest?

[Ryner]

Re: How Badly Do You Want It?

Hmm, perhaps you bid HP for bonuses to be used in battle?

[Wavelength]

Re: How Badly Do You Want It?

Another little tease in the form of the "world" map.

Although, in my infinite wisdom and awareness, I realized an hour ago that I completely forgot to add one very important location to the map. So I think a bit of deforestation is in order...

[Wavelength]

Re: How Badly Do You Want It?



Maybe it'll get more than nine minutes at the top of Game Forums this time.

Maybe not.

[Ωbright]

Re: How Badly Do You Want It?

Well I'm intrigued...CONFUSED, but intrigued.

Is that map going to change as you play?

[Wavelength]

Re: How Badly Do You Want It?

Update!

Until this week, I've made very little progress since March on How Badly, with my newfound addiction for League of Legends.

However, I've kept in mind that time is ticking away for the Anything Goes contest - I'm doing my best to assume their will be no extension, meaning I have maybe 6-7 weeks before it needs to be playtested.

I still have so much more to do - it feels almost insurmountable, so I'm going to focus on the most important areas, and just do my best.

In the last few days, I've done most of the work for two TV Studio minigame events - "Rat Race" and the pirate-themed "Booty or Bust" - as well as created some new skills for players to use.

"Rat Race" took waaaaay longer than I expected, partially due to a weird conflict I encountered between Move Route and Scroll Map commands, and partially due to tiny mistakes I made (such as referring to Switch 101 instead of Variable 101) in the complicated eventing.

As one of my programming profs once said, "The good news is that programs will do exactly what you tell them to do. The bad news is that programs will do exactly what you tell them to do."

So, I'll be posting more frequently if this small dream of mine starts to near completion.

[Wavelength]

Re: How Badly Do You Want It?


It lives on!! ...Kind of.

Still feeling crushed three years later by the disappointment of the game with the world's coolest name ever being cancelled, I couldn't resist the temptation to give it a cameo as an epic accessory in How Badly Do You Want It.

The Sourdough Eyeglasses provide a bit of health regen and improve your hit ratios to the point where you'll land hits even if you're blinded. Or, you can EAT your eyeglasses(!) once per battle, sacrificing the bonuses it grants but immediately restoring a large amount of health.

Since this kind of behavior isn't supported by normal Armor and I don't want to poke around with too much code, I instead added a common event at the start of each battle to check each character's armor and apply the appropriate States (which hold the actual bonuses that the armor grants) accordingly. I believe this is how Ryner did it in Simple Man's Quest, and it's really a great idea.

[Big Rick Cook]

Re: How Badly Do You Want It?

I see my name in that game show. Obviously I was saving my HP for something better. And obviously it was me.

[Ryner]

Re: How Badly Do You Want It?

I instead added a common event at the start of each battle to check each character's armor and apply the appropriate States (which hold the actual bonuses that the armor grants) accordingly. I believe this is how Ryner did it in Simple Man's Quest, and it's really a great idea.

Correct, and it's a pain in the butt to do if you have too many items that work this way. Just remember you have to go back and change everything if you ever alter what the item does.

[Wavelength]

Re: How Badly Do You Want It?

I'm getting closer, slowly but surely, to the point where I can reveal a lot more. The entire concept of the game, the characters, and so forth. But I still have a ways to go before the deadline; just have to keep plugging away and do my best (and hope for an extension).



The minigame above took well over 20 hours of work to get right. But... what the heck is it? What are all those monsters doing in the studio?



How Badly will have battles, using the VX Ace's battle system. Almost every battle has a unique twist to ensure you never get bored. In this one, you face off against "Ogrist", an ogre hunter that captures Faeries in gem prisons. He can sap power every turn from his captive faeries, and gains access to their spells.

You can try to defeat him directly, or you can rescue the Faeries by damaging the gems. Free a faerie and not only will Ogrist lose the benefit, but the faerie will start using its elemental powers to attacking its captor!

[Big Rick Cook]

Re: How Badly Do You Want It?

I just imagine the fight being very, very difficult if you don't rescue at least a couple of the faeries.

[John Mora]

Re: How Badly Do You Want It?

This looks like a really cool game with a bunch of unique ideas. Might actually play it :3c

[Ryner]

Re: How Badly Do You Want It?

Can't wait to see what kind of battles you come up with.

[Ωbright]

Re: How Badly Do You Want It?

How Badly will have battles, using the VX Ace's battle system. Almost every battle has a unique twist to ensure you never get bored. In this one, you face off against "Ogrist", an ogre hunter that captures Faeries in gem prisons. He can sap power every turn from his captive faeries, and gains access to their spells.

You can try to defeat him directly, or you can rescue the Faeries by damaging the gems. Free a faerie and not only will Ogrist lose the benefit, but the faerie will start using its elemental powers to attacking its captor!

That is really cool! Do they just float there offering the ogre bonuses and magic use while they are crystallized, or do they do something on their turns? That would suck if the ogre actually attacked you with them. I guess that would damage the crystals, though.