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About this blog

This blog focuses on the development process of my first game.

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Skills to Pay the Bills - Part 2

So in the first blog post about skills I talked about how weapons provided the physical skills and armour provides passive skills for the player. This blog post is all about the magick.   Magick in Keeper of the Wards works out it's damage calculations by using the INT (MATK) stat and another stat appropriate to the element - Fire has Energy (TP) while Water has MHP.   Variety is the Spice of Life   While not Attuned, players have 3 skills from each of the 5 elements (Fire, Wind, Water, Earth and Magick): The first of these skills is an elemental arrow that attacks a single target.
The second is a skill with a cantrip, with a function appropriate to the element it belongs to. For example, the fire element has a skill that applies Burning (a heavy DoT) while the water element has a small heal and removes Poison and Burning.
The third is the Attunement spell.
Attunements   While Attuned, players gain access to a greater variety of spells of that element, as well as adding that element to basic attacks in exchange for losing access to spells of other elements. As well as this, the spells that players already have access to - elemental arrow and cantrip - are improved. Elemental arrow becomes a barrage attacking all foes, while the cantrip has an increased effect, longer duration etc.   Unlike gear skills, these spells are learnt from defeating the Champions and their lieutenants sent forth by Nature. As well as the cast-able spells, players can gain passive effects while attuned to the appropriate element by defeating the appropriate foe.   Skill List   Fire   Water       Air       Earth       Magick   Special    
HeckHound

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Skills to Pay the Bills - Part 1

So, aside from running the Deadpool trailer through youtuberepeat, what I've been working on are the skills for my game.   In the game, skills - both active and passive - come from two main sources: Equipment - Each weapon set (main hand and off hand) and armour set has it's own purpose and theme.
Attunements - Attune to an element to gain access to powerful skills associated with that element, but locking you out of other elements.
This blog post will be dealing with skills that will be coming from Equipment.   Your character has three equipment slots: Main Hand, Off Hand and Armour. Since this is my first game, I kept this simple. How each slot functions is different, as I'll go into detail below.   --------------------------------------------   Main Hand   Main Hand weapons automatically have 2 skills that the player has access to. The other skills, however, come from how you build your character's STR, AGI and INT stats.   For example, the Arming Sword: Reaching 50 STR gives you access to Pommel Bash.
Reaching 50 AGI gives you access to Feint.
Reaching 50 INT gives you access to Mana Blade.
These skills will continue to grow stronger as you increase the relevant stat. For example, Pommel Bash has a chance to stun. The higher your STR, the higher the chance of applying the stun.   Each weapon has 2 skills per stat that can be unlocked: One at 50 [stat] and one at 100 [stat].   Your Main Hand slot has 4 options: Arming Sword, Longsword, Dagger and Mace.         --------------------------------------------   Off Hand   The default skill on your Off Hand is dependent on your main-hand weapon.   For example, the shield: If you have the Arming Sword equipped, you have access to Sword and Board.
If you have the Dagger equipped, you have access to Hidden Dagger.
If you have the Mace equipped, you have access to Smash and Bash.
As well as this, you gain a skill based on how you build your DEF and MDEF stats.   For example, the shield: Reaching 50 DEF gives you access to Shield Wall.
Reaching 50 MDEF gives you access to Reflective Shield.
Your Off Hand slot has access to 2 options: Shield and Dagger. However, equipping the Long Sword seals this equipment slot as it is a 2-Handed weapon.         --------------------------------------------   Armour   Instead of active skills, armour provides passive skills. Like weapons, armour gains these passive skills based on how you build your stats.   For example, Cloth Robes: Reaching 200 Max Mana gives you access to Magick Recovery.
Reaching 50 INT gives you access to Magick Efficiency.
Reaching 50 MDEF gives you access to Infused Robes.
These passives also grow stronger as you increase the relevant stats.   Your armour slot has 3 options: Cloth Robes, Leather Armour and Mail Armour.         --------------------------------------------
HeckHound

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Menu Editing

Just a small update on a WiP I started last night because my head was a bit shot and I couldn't remember where I left my opening scene on so things may change between. Just figured I'd post it because I learnt something new   The default menu I felt there was a lot of wasted space and unnecessary clicks - thank you Rikifive - so I've gone and gotten the basic layout moved around to my liking:   * I've reduced the size of both the command menu and the basic status menu to only occupy the top 1/4 of the screen.   * I removed the Gold window, as the game won't have a currency based on current plans (though this may be reinstated as a currency to learn skills).   * I've moved around the HP, MP and TP bars to all be in-line.   * I removed Class and Level, as these are not needed.   * I've divided the State and Buff/Debuff icons into two separate rows. I may look into further dividing the State icons into positive and negative states, but I'm not sure if this will be necessary as only negative states will persist after battle.   * I've gotten rid of a number of commands that are unnecessary: Formation and Game End (though I may reinstate Game End).   * I've gotten rid of unnecessary clicks. When selecting the Skill, Equip and Status menus, these commands automatically take you to the appropriate sub-menu instead of needing to also select the actor. I done this by going into the Scene_Menu.       Finished Result   aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaBeforeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa After  
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"It's Good for Building Character..."

So, since I'm in work and I have nothing to do currently, I've decided to have a look at how I'm going to include character development and customisation into the game.   First things first though so we're on the same page, I've edited some of the terms in the game:   HP Vitality (VIT) MP Magick (MGK) TP Energy (NRG) ATK Strength (STR) DEF Defense (DEF) MAT Intellect (INT) MDEF Dampening (DMP) AGI Agility (AGI)   As it is, Luck isn't a paramater that I'm looking to include in the game. Instead, State application will be guarenteed with the more powerful States having prequisites to balance their effectiveness.   Stats   When the player levels up, stats will remain the same by default (i.e a L99 player will have the same HP as a L1 player). Instead, players will have a way of customising their stats. Currently, I'm looking at a few methods: Items - A consumable item dropped by mini-bosses in a dungeon that will increase an associated stat (i.e DEF for Earth) by a set amount. This method has the advantage of making the player carefully consider their build as the change is irreversable, as well as thematically fitting in with the game (consuming the essence and attributes of a given element - Earth is Unyielding, Fire is Ferocious, Wind is Agile etc). The disadvantage is that without a cap on how many can be acquired, players would be able to raise all of their stats to the max, which could potentially negate the mechanics of the fight in exchange for overwhelming power.
Gear - Through different side tasks in the dungeons, the player is able to acquire gear that increases stats. This method has the advantage of allowing the player to experiment with different stat combinations - and thus combat styles - to see what playstyle they prefer and to finetune their build for encounters.
Paramater Bonus Growth by Yanfly - Players choose which gear to equip in order to provide stat increases on level up meaning that they can choose to focus their time into one stat, or develop multiple stats at the same time. Compared to the previous idea, I can control how fast the player progresses and gains stat increases. However, this also has the disadvantage as the first method. Also, as this is a learning exercise, I don't want to rely too much on other people's scripts.
  Skills   There are three main sets of skills in the game: Weapon Skills - These skills will be determined by your weapon type; players with a Longsword will have access to Cleave which hits all enemies for Slashing damage, while those with a Shield and Arming Sword will have access to Sword and Board, a two-hit skill that deals Blunt and Piercing damage. Weapons will also gain skills depending on the user's stats. For example, with the Longsword raising your STR to x will unlock Overwhelming Strike which has x% armour pen, while raising AGI to x will unlock Furious Assault, which cleaves all enemies 3 times.
Magick Skills - Most Magick skills utilise the INT stat alongside another stat that is attributed to that element (Fire - Pure INT, Earth - STR). Magick skills cost MGK to cast.
While all players have a few skills from each element, the more powerful skills are only available when you Attune (which also modifies your basic attack). For example, Attuning to Fire will convert your basic Physical/[slashing/Piercing/Blunt] attacks to Fire/Physical/[slashing/Piercing/Blunt] and give you access to Conflaguration. Attunement's are unlocked when you first defeat the boss of a dungeon. While in an Attunement, the player's MGK is drained each turn.   However, I'm still deciding whether players can only be in one Attunement at a time or not. Limiting to one Attunement would mean players would think carefully about what they're Attuning to (since it takes a turn to Attune) while allowing multiple Attunements opens up more spells based on a combination of elements (Fire + Water = Ice, for example). Passive Skills - Passive Skills are skills that confer benefits to the player and are automatically on. Unlike other skills these skills, for the most part, have to be leveled to increase their effectiveness. So far I'm working out how players get these skills, and am toying with the idea that players get these skills through:
Equipping a weapon - Longswords would get Longsword Mastery which increases your damage with Longswords. Equipping armour - Full set of Heavy Armour would get Iron Defence, which reduces Slashing and Piercing Damage as well as AGI; leveling this would reduce the AGI penalty. Raising Stats - Like Weapon Skills, raising INT to x would grant Magick Finesse which would reduce the cost of spells. This skill would increase in effectiveness the higher your INT. Secret Bosses - Defeating the [Greater Fire Elemental] would grant Blazing Fury passive, which increases your crit chance while Attuned to Fire.
HeckHound

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Title Screen

Duration: 3 hours   Resources:   Photoshop CS5 Xeno Tribal font (1001fonts.com) Jim Nightshade font (1001fonts.com) paladin_f (RPG Maker VX Ace) Theme2 (RPG Maker VX Ace) Process: 1) I created some clouds for the background layer using the Render > Clouds function.   2) I then began typing out words using the Xeno Tribal font in order to create the runes in the background. I then reduced the opacity slightly so that it wouldn't pull attention to what should be the focus of the screen (the title). Fun Fact: The writing in the background is the basic lore of the game.   3) I inserted the paladin_f picture into the image. I then edited the image using the Hue/Saturation to match it up with the desired colour scheme (blue) and Brightness/Contrast to give it less definition.   4) I typed up the title of the game using the Jim Nightshade font. The reason for using this font is because I personally thought it had a fantasy look to it.   Next come the prettying up:   5) Using the Layer Blending Options, I added a Gradient Overlay (blue and white) to the rune layer and a small Outer Glow to the paladin_f image to help it stand out slightly from the background.   6) The title text was the most heavily edited. I first added an Outer Glow to help it stand out from the background. However, this somewhat blended in with the paladin_f image,so I added the white Stroke as well to further define the letters. Finally, I Beveled and Embossed it using black and blue. While faint, I feel it adds to the text, rather than having it flat black.   Next comes editing the default settings and resources in RPG Maker:   7) I exported the Window image as a template for creating my own. Given my lack of ability in using Photoshop and overall artistic creativity, I opted for something simple and after creating it imported it back into RPG Maker.   8) I went into the script (Windows > Window_Command > Get Alignment) and adjusted the alignment from left (0) to center (1) and the Line Height from 24 to 30.   9) I created a folder in the project file named Font and inserted the Jim Nightmare font into it, as this will be my font for the entire game. Going into the script again, I edited the [Main] script to set the font to Jim Nightmare size 33 (Thank you Lunarea for the tutorial on that).   The final steps:   10) I set the window background colour to a navy blue colour and selected the theme music.       The Final Result
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And so it begins...

And so begins my journey on creating a game. This blog will be a record of my progress through creating the game as a learning experience, and so will include all of my failures and trials as well as my successes in the hope that it may help someone in the future.   Lore:   Thousands of years ago humanity managed to conquer Nature and, using powerful magicks, erected a series of wards to help surpress Nature. Once in every generation, the grand mages pool their magick into one individual who will serve as the Keeper of the Wards - an individual with a high amount of potential power and control over the various elements of nature who will serve as the one to venture into Nature and defeat the monstrosities nature sends forth, defending the wards from destruction.       Features:   Visual Character Customisation (credit to Neon Black for their Composite Characters v2.1 script for making this possible)   Player-Driven Character Development - No skills get learnt or stats get raised without any decision made by the player.   8 dungeons, each with their own theme, puzzles and secret gear set.   Encounters that rely more on player decision making and tactics than stats.
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