How is your game going?

[+ Chaosian 617]

Hey guys,

Simple public interest question: how are your games going? I wanna get a sense and feel for how productive the people on the forum actually are. Are you in production or pre-production? Nearing a demo? Alpha? Beta? Or are you winding down for post?

[Yuugami 252]

I no longer have a project that I'm actively working on, although I did write up a nice setting/plot/universe that I definitely want to play with my imagination within. I'm still unsure of what I'm ultimately going to do with it - I did flirt with the idea of turning it into a RPG, but then I realized that if I wanted to do that, I wouldn't be willing to make it anything else but a dungeon crawler.

 

That said, I still think this story I have in mind is best done as a VN or a similar style of medium, but I digress.

[Skysagi 219]

My project's next objective is actually the Pre-Beta, which is between Alpha and Beta stages. After going through the testing, everything will be improved or fixed, and the Beta will be released, which is the game's first Open Demo. (All previous versions are Closed)

 

The story and lore are 100% planned, but there are many many things yet to come.

[Rikifive 3,411]

Currently I'm finally working hard on my main project and doing some nice progress. I'm pretty far away from even releasing a demo, because I'll have to design menus and make maps (with style, where there are no resources available - this will be challenging)

 

What is more, I'm planning a sequel for "Good VS Evil", which will involve much better, neater gameplay and local-coop! *gasps in background*.

 

 

So... At the moment it goes pretty nicely, but the time has come and I have no idea how it will look like when I'll start a job on March. I hope it will not kill my project(s)...

[Whiona 310]

I started working on my game in 2015, but the majority of the work that year was all pre-production. I fully planned out the story and characters, designed the cast, learned how to parallax map, and implemented all the necessary scripts, common events, etc. for the major features. It was all necessary work, but nothing that you can actually screencap and show off to other people. Even though things were moving forward, it didn't really feel like it, since I didn't have anything that was playable yet. Prior to December 2015, the only non-planning thing I did for it was write 2/11 chapters.

 

Now that all of that is over with, though, I have moved onto the production stage, and it feels great to see things start to come together. My focus right now is primarily on the visuals of the game (ie. maps and artwork), since most of what I did in 2015 was behind-the-scenes stuff. Even though there's a ton of work to go, I am pretty happy with the progress I've made so far.   Last night I began working on the portrait for the fourth party member (out of eight), so I'm hoping to have that finished within the next couple of days. She luckily isn't too complicated design-wise, but I'm having difficulty getting her face to match her concept art...

[_____ 214]

So far, i'm working out plot ideas, mechanics, moves, and sidequest, as well as bringing together a team to work on tilesets, music, and scripting. so i'm in the pretty early stages of my project, but I try to work on it atleast 5 hours a week.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Retnuh

[lonequeso 1,921]

Production. Lots and lots... and lots of production. The game spans over three continents and a handful if islands. I'm about 75% done with everything on the first continent. I'm playtesting now so no more assets are being added. The current playtest I'm doing isn't focused on fixing errors. It's solely to test the battle system to make sure the difficulty is where I want it. Part of that is knowing what level the player should be at when they begin an area. For the most part, I've just been rushing through everything and even running from a few battles to achieve this.

 

I made a lot of major changes to my battle system which required me going back and changing the enemy stats and skills. The main tow things are stat points and enemy conditions. Both are scripts. HP/MP use the default curve system. Everything else is increased by stat points the player gets every time an actor levels up.

Enemy Conditions is one of Hime's many awesome scripts. It allows me to create smarter, more difficult enemies. 

 

Soon I'll reach the spot where I was originally playtesting and notating errors, typos, land little things like event/text timing. 

[Rezanta 373]

Well, fighting with MV didn't help much, so I was thinking on bouncing back to Ace for a bit. Though, writing, drawing, and making cards (which may be posted in the future) is drawing me away. That, and failing at SSB4.

[Shiggy 630]

I have no game except the one i made for Globa Game Jam, At one point my team said they wanted to continue working on it but no news since then .

At the jam, the limits of RPG maker for multiple-person projects clearly showed so I'm working on ways to outsource stuff outside the editor. I now read my scripts from text files which let me use the much more comfortable notepad++ instead of the RM script editor and avoid me a lot of copy/paste when sharing my scripts ( my scripts are created and edited inside my dropbox i don't have to reupload a script I made mino rmodifications too).

The next step is some sort of event manager script that would let me read events from text files and write my events in Ruby which would be much more efficient for me.

 

 

Because I always work on several stuff at once,I'm also trying to learn how to make android apps witha ndroid studio so I'm learning how to code in Java and my goal is to turn one of my mini-game into an app (this is just something I work on to put on my resume) 

 

So basically I'm still learning and making tools 

[TheManlyFairy 51]

I fucked up, sorta. I started making a game and realized along the way it doesn't fit my character as a human being at all. I'm not serious and gloomy and make difficult life changing choices. On the contrary, I'm laid back and make fun of horror movies. So for now, my first project, Gods Don't Compromise, is shelved in favor of a brand new project called Default Quest.

 

I aim to do everything as much as possible using RTP and no scripts and joke about everything we've ever known about traditional RPGs. Since I've barely fleshed out this idea, so far I only have the first town, Generica, and a short opening cutscene where the narrators existance becomes apparent to the main character.

[Guyver 65]

I've been adding a lot of side content and I'm trying to fill out my game world more. I'm about 90% done with the main story, I decided to rewrite the end because I couldn't find a way to meld sci fi and fantasy without it being totally over the top and do a 180 on players. I've also been busy balancing enemies to make every encounter more strategic instead of just powering through them with autobattle. Now if only I could find a better ATB script that doesn't conflict with yanfly scripts :c

[Nyapurgisnacht 152]

Yay! I really really like getting see this stuff ;3

 

Uh, well I released a suspense/horror text adventure in November(? time escapes me) I made with Ace, so I guess I technically have a game out there now.

I'm not really proud of it though, I just wanted to see if I could compete a game in 3 days for a jam, and I was mostly successful! Some people even played it, still no critique though, so I can only assume everyone probably got bored xD

I think the only cool part about it was in the the way the events were handled. I wanted to do this thing with color and sound too, but didn't have time for it during the jam. I thought I might put up an non-encrypted version in the forum here just for interest after I eventually get around to fixing it up, maybe.

 

I have too many projects I want to work on. There's easily 250+ pages of documentation for RM ideas that won't leave me alone, and I add to that every chance I get. (Separately, kitty sim actually has only about 40 pages to itself, the bulk of the work is in the editor already.) I always draw things out and make sketches if something comes to me I can't just write down. I'm pretty much constantly thinking about one project or another. There's notes just floating around everywhere in my room, it's a mess. Can't wait to show them off a bit once Kitty Sim is outta the way though x3

 

Kitty Sim is priority though!! I resist working on other stuff in the editor SO HARD. Things are running much more smoothly after I started over from a fresh file, and a certain playtester was kind enough to inform me that my mapping needed work, so I changed tilesets and redesigned every single map. Mainly there's a metric shit ton of programming done, and all the planning has been done for quite a while, it's just a matter of one huge task at a time. The scale of the game took on a life of it's own a long time ago, but I'm filled with determination. If I don't get Kitty Sim done this year I'll lose my god damn mind.

 

I really need just one more week of hiatus, but it's very very difficult not doing anything ;-;

[Allusion 398]

I've been working on my project since 2014, and it's only just now grasping for any kind of playability. I'm trying extremely hard to get a demo up in April, but I'm unsure if that will happen, so maybe May. Like Whiona, I've been focused on behind-the-scenes stuff for most of the time, nothing anyone could be shown. My mechanics are pretty straight forward, but they have to be done well or the entire experience will be ruined. (But no pressure, me. )

 

So far, I have a few graphical assets to draw (title screen, map, UI related stuff, etc...) some tutorials to add, and the tail-end of the demo to finish. Then I have to polish, test, polish, and hunt down some willing beta testers...then...release!

[Tsarmina 2,612]

I'M A WILLING BETA TESTER ALLU *flings herself into the pathway*

 

Anyway, I'm in production, as you guys probably all know....not that it's gotten very far. Progress is at the speed of an elephant riding on a llama. The llama just isn't moving. o.o It's not that I've lost interest in Sugar Sweet by any means, though I've had some motivational issues lately (I think I just don't really know what to work on because there's so much to work on), I just haven't had a lick of time to try and work on any of it. Poop.

 

The main story and pretty much all of the linear stuff have already been planned out, but very little of it has been implemented yet, due to two big issues: mapping the second half and the battle system. The second half of the game is in a modern city, which isn't exactly the easiest thing to parallax, and made out of food to boot. (Kill me). I don't live in a big city, so it's been hard to visualise this in the first place, haha! Battle system is a pain to work out because Spec was working on it, before he dropped off the face of the earth--read: eaten by law school. I've attempted to sort out the mechanics myself, but since he was custom drawing most of it that's another load of art that I need to try. Haha! Looks like no demo in the near future--sorry to disappoint you guys. ^^"

[lonequeso 1,921]

One upside to doing a big modern city, is it's really easy to get references. It's just a matter of finding a style you like and then changing it into food. Creating the battle system will be a challenge if your inexperienced. I cannot wrote code to save my life. Luckily, 95% of it is done and working properly thanks to several very talented people. I'm sure you can handle the artwork on your own. It sounds like you may have to find someone else to work on the battle system. 

 

I may just take you up on that offer to beta test once I'm at that point. I already have a pretty long list of errors I need to fix. I really need to make a demo of a level so I can see what people think of the battle system. I'm walking a line between being challenging without making it frustrating. I changed some things up to make exploring dungeons less daunting. Less frequent encounters (quality over quantity), actors recover 10% MP after the battle and MP and HP potions restore a set amount instead of a percentage now making them much more effective.

 

I actually didn't check your game out as of yet. Buildings made of food, you say. I like it already 

[Nyapurgisnacht 152]

@Tsarmina: Careful there, I'll probably take you up on that <3

 

Oh, btw -rolls onto the path with Tsar- I too would love to beta test for anyone at any point ever.

[+ Takeo212 1,079]

I actually have a personal project on-going that I've been trying to plan out. If work stops eating my every moment of personal time, I may actually have a demo by the end of March. That is my aim goal anyway.

 

I don't have a game title yet (currently default: The Gang's Adventures) but other than that, not much.

I've gotten the entire demo section planned out, just need to actually event it and make those custom graphics, music and artwork to match.

Alot of RL work has however left me with extra money to spend on getting peole to do custom stuff for me, so that's a bonus. No time to make game, but plenty of extra money to make stuff for the game!

Welp.

 

Anyway, I'll be making a topic soon on it in the "theories and development" section sometime in the near future for help and feedback. Once/if this demo is released, I also expect alot of critique and feedback - especially on the writing side of things.

Writing dialogue is my weakness. I know what and how the characters interact with each other and the world - but I'm not good at writing. I really need critique on that stuff.

[Meep007 173]

For now I'm playing around with different things. Testing different scripts I'd like to use for compatibility, editing resources for future use, etc. I'll be using a mixture of RTP and other resources, so it won't be just generic.

 

I'd like to make an adventure game with lots of exploring and quests to do. I have an idea of how I'd like my story to go and end, but I'm not too sure yet (it's pretty sad, I think I'm a terrible muffin). I'll need to spend time thinking of how to fill in the giant gap between the beginning and end of the story. I also have to think of ways to make it more original.

 

I'm also working on the battle system, (Moghunter's) and I've just finished creating the animated portraits for my main cast. Courtesy of Archeia (Division Heaven), who kindly granted me permission to do this with some of her portraits due to some recent change in her terms.

 

Unfortunately, I won't be accomplishing much anytime soon due to health reasons. I won't go into to much detail into my personal matters, but I've been home from school for a few weeks, actually maybe a month and now I'll be getting home schooled. While I'll be home a lot more, I'm going to have to work harder on my schooling. Ugh...

Which also means less games...wah.

[lonequeso 1,921]

The middle is the hardest part. It's the largest part of the story after all. It is a lot easier to figure out the middle when you know the beginning and end. You just have to connect the dots. Or like a jigsaw puzzle. You have little pieces of things you'd like to do. Now you just have to see how they fit together. 

 

One thing that helps me flesh out the story is working on everything else. It's amazing where you can find inspiration. I've gained story idea just from fleshing out my characters' personalities or classes. A lot of inspiration comes from when I'm mapping. World map, towns, levels; they all give me ideas. For instance with the world map sometimes it's  been necessary to impede the player's progress. I really don't like the path being blocked for reason X and opening up after the player completes something completely unrelated. I love the way Zelda games do it. Most of the time, you need to gain a new item in order to pass the obstacle. I follow that model a lot using items/field skills. But then, I need to figure out where and when the players gets those items/skills. So now I'm creating more story to accommodate for them.

 

If you get stuck on where to go with the story, try working on others aspects and see where it takes you.

[Darkanine 116]

Just started working on mine and made some pretty good progress so far. Right now me and my friend are trying to write the outline story and characters.

[lonequeso 1,921]

That's my favorite part.  Second favorite is mapping/level design.

[VideoWizard 6]

Seeing as this is essentially a progress thread, I guess I can post here.

 

Mon 2.29.16- First Leap Year Day on a Monday since 1988! Yeah. I started the scene where a kid version of the MC, Kevin, sneaks out of the palace where he is staying at.

 

Tue 3.1.16- Nothing

 

Wed 3.2.16- Started the scene where the hero as a kid and a friend run out of town (it hasn't needed a guard until now, since no monsters want to sneak into this town)

 

Thu 3.3.16- RPG Maker MV 1.10 update released, so I spent the day making new facesets in the generator.

 

Fri 3.4.16- Added the Chronus Palace area map (the palace Kevin sneaks out of). William wakes up from a nap and finds out the boys are gone. He sets out to find them, jumping over bridges so as not to collapse them from walking on them. The palace is the only building he can enter as he towers over most everything else.

 

Sat 3.5.16- Nothing

 

Sun 3.6.16- Posted all this here. I guess that counts, maybe?

 

The game, for anyone curious, is Dragon Kingdoms VI: Heroes of the Past. Yes, all these years after the last one, which was on RM2k. This version started development on February 21st of this year, but there are unreleased versions going all the way back to an RM2k3 version that is about a year or so after Dragon Kingdoms V's release (which released the same day as the original Cave Story. Really.). So I got five games out in six years, and nothing but demos and unreleased versions in the following eleven. Go figure.

[Tarq 746]

The Showroom is definitely a lot less active these days

 

As for my projects:

Retrogression is on hiatus until the supposedly short tower defense game is made. The tower defense is going well enough I guess; all the systems and balancing are in place, just working on content for the various modes. Then I'll have to do all the aesthetic stuff at some point since my friend dropped out :/

 

I expect (read 'demand') that the TD will be completed this year but its finding the time to work on it. I feel like working on it in the five minutes here and there that I can usually spare would only lead to a fractured product.

 

Anyways, keep up the work guys. Breathe some life back to The Showroom!

[Purple Phantom 453]

Nightwatch Nightmares: Act 1 - Nearing a tester-only demo.

Aftermath: Gears of Hope - Nope-nope-nope-nopitty-nope-nope-nope-not-ready-nope. Not even ready for the first pre-demo debug build. Nooooope! But progress is being made.

Otherworld - Going good, but far from any sort of done-ness.

Edited March 8, 2016 by PurplePhantom

[Tsarmina 2,612]

Progress is stagnant enough that it's breeding mosquitoes now. D: Oh noes! Lack of time sucks, doesn't it?