Retrogression

[Tarq 746]

Another week passes, another update amasses. Here we go;

 

So this week saw a lot of visual vivification. I went through all the various res. packs I got a few humblebundles ago and also scoured the XP rtp for anything salvageable (I actually much prefer their battlers). I appreciate that in most artists eyes this is only single step up from the using Ace rtp, but hey, all journeys are composed of single steps, amiright? These additional tiles helped to make some maps like the Doctor's Office and the Tattoo Parlor recognisable for what they actually are, and most other maps have been improved in at least some small way.

 

I also did a little spriting of my own this week and there is now a cast of ~30 enemies for Act II with a sprite that corresponds with its battler (as well as a handful of icons).

 

There's now speechbubbles in Act II; doesn't sound like much but they took, like, half a day to fully implement =P

 

"But wait Tarq! What about your bowel-shifting battle-system?" Well, I made the enemies directly selectable, it was easy enough. I also added a few new auxiliary weapons and items:

-Caltrops: Scatter these little fellows on the ground and every enemy will take a little damage after they move. Kind of like Leech Seed, I guess.

-Stink Bomb: Disrupts the targets for a couple of turns. Enemies wont fall for it a second time though.

-Net Gun: Takeo's sticky bow modernised ; traps a single for a significant no. of turns (undecided as of yet) and requires reloading.

-Stun Grenade: Pepper Spray en masse. Obviously, single-use only.

-Airsoft Gun: Fires rubber bullets and requires reloading when the cartridge is empty. Thinking of adding some sort of GunFu counterattack that expends bullets quicker.

 

I also implemented a little of the feedback I got from Izu's stream; namely the attack animations and increasing the amount of diagetic sound during the RL sequences.

 

Oh, I've also tidied up the front page of this thread and added the credits of my newfound resources.

I don't anticipate an update for next week; I'm largely going to be performing the balancing for our new friends, reworking the main questline of Act II, and working through the rest of that Act I feedback. But hey, I'm distracted easily enough, maybe I'll end up scripting something worth it.

Here's a screeny of Act II's progress to tide you over 'til our next encounter

[Rikifive 3,411]

Everything looks/sounds so good!

Keep it up!

[Tarq 746]

No update this week? Past me is a liar. Future me is building a time machine to correct his shameful behaviour. Current me is updating you.

 

So, I actually ended up doing a bunch of cool stuff this week; all that time in the database led me to figure out how to give enemies attack animations, so now most have them. A few even have custom ones but its a totally new aspect of the engine to me so inefficiently giving them all super-awesome animations is low down on the priorities list.

 

I finally got back into ActIII in the last day or so. I say 'finally' like it was something I was looking forward to but it was actually the reverse. By being overtly faithful to the dungeon crawl genre I was worried it would turn out really bland but its actually been pretty cool to work on. Very action-orientated so far; flamethrowers, poison darts, those pendulum axe things, webs that slow you (BoI style), obscuring the screen traps, minefields, alarms. And that's from a couple of hours, how promising. It's gone a little astray from the original idea of the final act (the game's title was a hint) but its probly a better game because of it. Let me know if you think it would be better to go back to a more old-school rpg approach for this act though, like said, I'm in two minds about it since this is principally a narrative game.

 

As well as doing most of the stuff relating to Act II that I said I would last week, there's also been considerable fresh progress in that Act. Two 'guilds' have been made (I'd like four in total), a dojo and a beggar's guild. The benefits of each guild are a safe, free, place to rest and associated skills/gear, as well as simply the additonal content they provide.

I also made a script so that pressing 'x' goes straight to inventory, has a capacity limit, and money now works as a float variable (although, as you'll see from the screen, while its relatively easy to limit the no. of zeroes after the decimal, its much harder to force it to consistently display two). It turns out that you can't normally equip stuff straight from the inventory so I had to script that too =P

(I also scipted a scene for withdrawing/returning books from the library and improved how the reading system was handled generally, but I suppose that's neither here nor there).

 

Anyways, here's the aforementioned screeny, points for whoever gets the reference:

 

As always, if there's any changes you'd like to see or critique you'd like to give then I'm all ears. No really. I'm a mutant.

[+ Takeo212 1,079]

oooh, really loving the inventory capacity~ It's a great feature not allowing players to carry everything! plus, logic for IRL stuff

(well I actually hate it it coz I'm a hoarder who needs to have everything xD)

 

Delayed updates are better than no updates! I look forward to seeing act 2 - and any possible changes to act 1

[Tarq 746]

I guess it about time for another update, although it will be decidedly more brief than the last few.

 

ActI:

-Figured out how to allow random movement of npcs within a set region so the mooks can't wander too far from their spawn point any more.

-The same logic also allowed me to create a more sophisticated aggro system.

-Every enemy has their own attack animation. So does all the player's skills.

 

Most of the work this week has been on ActIII content. Its kind of hard to go into detail of the kind of risk/reward content I've been making so I'll use a screeny for an example:

This is the cloud room of the second floor where falling sends you back to the beginning. The player is given three choices:

-The right path has no unique traps (there are debuff on contact clouds that affect all routes) but is significantly longer causing the player to have more battles. The loot on this path also sucks.

-The middle path is the shortest but heavily fogs the screen. I would consider this the hardest and getting the loot to require incredible luck or effort, and so it is very rewarding.

-The left path is something of an intermediary; wind blows the player periodically and they have to make sure they're in the right spot at the right time when it happens. The loot is very useful, but its also fairly easy to acquire elsewhere.

 

All the rooms have gameplay like this; gameplay that suit their theme. Although some are certainly better than others. At least there are lots of interesting traps littered about; I even remade the Whomps from Mario :3

In fact, outside of balancing and all that. I'd say I'll probly have the first draft of ActIII ready by the next update. Maybe. There's still plenty to distract in the other acts.

[Rikifive 3,411]

WOW that really sounds and looks interesting!

I would love to see that in action!

Good idea with that, I liked that kinda-puzzle content here.

Keep it up! =)

[+ Takeo212 1,079]

I really hope you open a public demo sometime. After seeing Izu's stream a while back, and seeing your progress, I am rather looking forward to trying out your mechanics and system for myself

 

I agree though - the cloud room looks simplistic from design, but of course that wouldn't be the case

[Tarq 746]

I don't think I'll release a demo; a demo exists to give you an idea of what the game will be like and the game changes too drastically between acts for that to work, I think. I'm really grateful you're interested in the game though, doesn't seem like too many people are D:

If you'd like I can give you early access to one of the later acts, although it would be at least a month from now, testing and all.

 

Tbh though, I just got back from a friend's house and I've got two more people's worth of stuff to change ActI-wise. I don't mind letting them fester, in lieu of getting the newer content out, but I would prefer to let things run their natural course. Let me know if you'd be interested in that early access or not and I'll work around it

Edited August 6, 2015 by Tarq

[Rikifive 3,411]

That's kinda right, but personally I don't see any problems with that. I would love to play at least one of the acts to see what is this about more or less. =P
These changes are an uncommon feature and that's really interesting ~ changing tactics etc. after each act - that will be something cool!
I remember when I was confused when I first saw that project, but now I know what's the deal here and it's kinda outstanding (correct me if that word not fits here) and make me want to play it.
 
 

(..) I'm really grateful you're interested in the game though, doesn't seem like too many people are D:

Looking on this really makes me sad, but please don't give up! There are people, that are willing to play your game, perhaps they're just hiding somewhere. (1000+ views after all!) =P
The whole idea for a game is really great, changing style after each act is something I would love to see! When the demo would come out I would for sure play that and explore everything, and perhaps find some bugs xD ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Keep it up and I'm waiting to see more updates!

[+ Takeo212 1,079]

@Tarq: I would be interested actually - as Riki said, the change of theme per act makes me more curious, and I like the idea of in game/outgame. I don't mind bugs either - as long as they are stated before testing, that way I know what is known and what isn't so i can report them I love testing games too, since I really do enjoy seeing projects built up - especially ones I am interested in.

 

Also as stated, don't give up. There are supporters, just alot of people don't actually post - but hearing your updates and the fact you fixed the act 1 battle areas with terrain tags, i am interested in trying it

I personally enjoy and only really play ATB turn based games, so having your ABS system in act 1 makes me curious to try it more

 

Question though: Is it a grindable game (random encounters), or are the battles evented? (refering to acts 2+)

Edited August 7, 2015 by Takeo212

[Tarq 746]

Okay, I'll try to get a good build of ActIII ready in the next few weeks; I got through most of the minor criticism of ActI my friends gave last night anyways.

I wont send you ActII (as much as I love it) because its too sandboxxy and I just cant knowingly deliver a defunct product; when people play my game I hope for a list of critique, not bugs that they shouldn't have encountered.

 

As for battles; ActII has sprites you see on the map before battle (with corresponding battlers, no less ) but ActIII has random encounters.

I'll probly have to borrow someone else's SBS for your build, but I don't see any reason not to make my own for the finished product. There won't be an ATB system though, Im afraid; time is an aspect of ActII and is a concept Will abandons by ActIII.

[Tarq 746]

So, yeah, I didn't do any workon ActIII, sorry Takeo

I've been busy though, and I think I'm finally closing in on the final version of Act I. I'm too mentally drained to go through all the shiny new systems in place but hopefully this screeny will suffice:

 

After the recent discussion I think I'm willing to let a few people play Act I if they want. They'll have to ask though, either here or via pm, as I'm still not comfortable with releasing a public demo of an unfinished product.

[Rikifive 3,411]

How far are you from releasing the full game? If you're kinda far, then I'd like to play Act I ^^. If you're close, then I can wait for a full game to have the best experience during gameplay. =]

[Tarq 746]

Very far I believe. Several hundred hours at least, and then a few hundred more hours of polishing and implementing whatever new feedback I can get.

As for ActI I'll pm you the link within the week, the chatbox always has a fresh surprise for me when testing and I cant risk one of them causing you a crash

[Rikifive 3,411]

Okey dokey! I'll be waiting. =]

[Capt_Elfimis 55]

Please get this to the "Demo" phase. Please?

 

*Supported

[+ Takeo212 1,079]

What resolution are you using Tarq?

I assume 640x480 since you have alot of stuff going on - will there be a fullscreen option in a later update to make up for all the space used on screen?

 

The chatbox seems like a nice touch, but also raises the question about space is why I ask

[Tarq 746]

I would like to write a fullscreen script, I think I might even have an idea of how to do so already.

Resolution is one of those tech words I don't fully understand :3 From my understanding RM has a locked resolution, it can only display 17x13 tiles and full-screening only increases the size of those tiles and all the overlays would also scale with them. But like said, I'm not really sure about that kind of stuff. For now .

 

Yeah I share your concern about the size of the chatbox, one of the issues with it is even when its that large it can still only hold, I think, 7 lines of readable text. I've locked its font size to 22 now though and will need to change the gap between lines to be smaller so I can probly make it a little smaller and hold the same amount of information. All that is for the future though; there's a lot of other stuff that simply doesn't exist that should be taken care of first. Plus the chatbox is super fragile. Its ridiculous. Its taken so much time and effort, I sincerely regret ever making the cursed thing ¬.¬

Edited August 19, 2015 by Tarq

[+ Takeo212 1,079]

Whenever I hear "Resolution" i immediately jump to stuff like quality, since alot of people use that term.

My resolution meaning is simply the default window box size. The biggest you can make the game box without fullscreen is 640x480, a size I normally use since it gives a little more sizing - though everything has to be resized to suit it ;-;

 

Scripts such as Yanfly's Core Script has the option - though of course thats not saying you go grab it, but it's an example.

 

Your always so fidgety with your on screen widgets

Don't worry about small stuff, if you come back to them, I'm sure you'll come up with fixes

[Tarq 746]

So a pretty cool morning. I managed to both fullscreen on opening (force keyboard entry alt+enter) and change the screen resolution to 640 x 480 ('Graphics.resize_screen(640, 480)').

Will have to reorganise a bunch of stuff onscreen, but I dig how it launches now, looks like a 'real' game :3

Thanks for explaining resolutions Takeo, I wouldn't have changed things otherwise.

[+ Takeo212 1,079]

Bump?

havent heard from this topic in a long time, so hoping it isn't canceled :<

[Tarq 746]

Hi Takeo,

 

The project is more 'on hold' than anything I guess; I'm working in Business Systems right now so I'm not all that keen on looking at screens after a long day of scripting and data entry. Still, I've received a few frowny faces recently about the lack of progress (which is super nice >w< ) so I'll be sure to open the engine at some point this weekend and try to get back into the groove.

 

So yeah, thanks for your interest Takeo, and as ever if there's anything anyone would like to see in the project or would like to discuss then please get in touch!

[Rikifive 3,411]

I was and I'm getting worried all over the place, since many projects went silent.

Take your time, but don't forget about your game. =3

[Tarq 746]

Welp, here is a long overdue update. In HD

 

 

I haven't touched this project in a long while so I cant be sure what else of note was added/changed between updates. Probably a little of everything, knowing me. The video does display progress though:

- A splash screen that I'll have to make much nicer someday, perhaps animate even.

- A now, crudely, animated title screen (music will probably change but I'll stick the dude in the credits in a mo).

- The concept for a platformer sequence. This is part of ActIII, the fire room, where players are given the choice to go through a hyper-attrition sequence of an RPG on cocaine or the one-hit lifespan of a platformer. All those 'custom' resources are sure to make a certain pony pleased though.

 

If any of you Mario Makers out there have any advice on improving the sequence, or the project in general, I'd be grateful to hear it.

 

[Rikifive 3,411]

Holy balls! That looks so epic!

 

I really like the mix of things you're putting to the game! =3

~Each Act brings something new and that for sure will be fun to go through!

 

Well done!! Keep it up! ^^