April Goals & Progress Thread

[bgillisp]

@imascribble: That tint I suggested does seem to work best for the outdoor tiles yes. But, you can probably tinker with it some and make it work for yours. I've found moving the tints by 17's in either direction seems to be the best. Maybe try your tint first and move it to the nearest multiple of 17 (so 17, 34, 51, 68, 85, 102, etc, or the negative versions), see if that works, then shift it by 17's from there until you like it.

Wasn't able to respond to the rest (too late), will have to add more tomorrow.

4.16 Update: Did a playthrough of my first chapter with the rebalanced inventory and healing spells, to see how it worked. Tweaked a couple of my weak monsters stats too so that they weren't total pushovers (one gained 2 points of AGL, one gained 10 points of MAT, little stuff like that). Also upped the EXP rewards a little since they were not total pushovers anymore. Also took notes in a word document of the little things that I mean to add someday or the things that are missing (like a shelf that had no text when you search it, the NPC that I wanted to change their speech at point x, stuff like that). Now I at least have a detailed list of what is missing.

My hope is to do the same thing for Chapter 2 as well over the weekend. However, I do have to give a major presentation on Wednesday next week, so sometime Friday or Saturday I will have to stop to prep it. Looks like game work is going to be little to non-extant until the 22nd is over, but if the presentation goes well I have a new job, so its worth the slow down.

 

[mlogan]

I can post a teeny tiny update that I finally started working on some more tiles. Sigh. A smidge of progress.

 

[Kyuukon]

Collect resources, scripts, learn a little bit of RGSS3 and do lots of planning for my IGMC entry. This will be stressful fun.

 

[Dream3r]

I'm either posting late for yesterday or early today (it's 2:30 AM you decide) but here's what I've been up to, and this time I'm not sharing a blog post since it's so ugly and buggy I wouldn't want to scare off potential fans.  Just for you RPGM folks.

Spoiler

So we have a script that we tested with RTP assets before and it worked fine.  As I've started to implement it into Out of the Storm I've started facing some issues. Take a look...

Main map, walking towards building (all building art is RTP placeholders)

Val starts to enter cabin

Val clips through the roof (the first two tiles are events, I tried to make it where they were over her head so it didn't clip)

Val enters the cabin, layer 1 (roof) is removed and layer two (cabin interior) is added.

Basically what this script does is paste multiple maps together and allows you to cut each one on or off so that we can have interiors without the game having to load again.  (This is necessary since the main map is so large it takes eight seconds to load and will likely take longer as we add more to it)

The problem is Val is twice the size of the RTP characters we originally tested this with so her head clips through the roof.  I could use events for portions of the roof, as I did with the first two panels, but this leads to the issue you can see in the last panel where they don't go away like the rest of the roof because they are events and not a separate map.  So the issue is finding a way for the roof to not clip and spawn everything as it should....plus getting rid of the snow when in the house would be a good thing.

Update:  While writing this post I found a solution, it just requires some scripting so I'll have to wait until Devon (our scripter) is awake and able to help me.  Basically if I can make those roof events tied to the layer so they go away with it everything will work nicely.  Also this will allow me to make the interior events show up only when inside the building...so that will help.

Hope you enjoyed that long buggy post.  Boy bugs are fun...I sort of mean that.  I like facing a challenge and over coming it.  The thing is though if it needs a script fix than I'm clueless on how to actually implement it.  Gotta rely on someone else.  Good thing I have a team (please never leave me guys O_0)

Alright everyone take care.  I'm going to call it a night pretty soon.

-Dakota

 

[Marquise*]

@Dream3r

I think have someone on my list who specialize in that. Except he is developing too as I type.

Oh and everyone;  I've finished my sweet secret sprite project.  32x32 isn't as bad as that Demon and Minotaur and Ogre

 

[BlackRoseMii]

Weekly update:

I've been...procrastinating...

I've tried to focus on working on my game, but there were so many things I did instead >.<

The only things I did are so small, they aren't even worth mentioning...(Adding one or two sentences in an event, starting a new battler, but stopped as soon as I started...) Well, at least I have a new game idea ^^°

I'll be trying to actually work next week, I promise! >.<

 

[VideoWizard]

Wed 4.15.15- Just a bit of progress on the Lakeland Highlands- Central map. Nothing really impressive.

Thu 4.16.15- Nothing due to having an 12-hour work day and also no internet. I don't know why it went down Wednesday afternoon, maybe it had something to do with Bright House Networks changing its servers over to Frontier, because its phone service went down, too. Amazing that it went down on Tax Day. Imagine if I had waited until the last minute...

Fri 4.17.15- It's Friday now, at least in this time zone. Hoping to get a little time in this evening, but at least internet works now!

Edit: I got the Lakeland Highlands- Central map done. The landscape has more scratches and rocks and scattered areas of tall grass. I'd imagine the land gets pretty battered from storms, as well as people, animals, giants (William's not the only one, after all) and other creatures walking, crawling or otherwise across it. Dragons' claws probably sink and tear into it when they land, too.

Saturday hopefully will be the final map before a loop is completed, and that part of the story can be added into the editor and thus the game.

 

[EternalShadow]

Speedran BR: HD and got a total time of 2 hours.


Now, BR: IGMC took me 20 minutes to speedrun (that's probably the fastest you can get through the game, considering it was mostly cutscenes) and the game time of that was averagely an hour. Therefore, my speedrunning time can be assumed to be five times faster than the normal gameplay time.


Five times two is ten.


Therefore, BR: HD is about eight to ten hours long, and I'm not even completely done with it o_0


It'll be interesting to see how long it takes others to play though, as this is a rough estimate - but I'm assuming the above since the two hours was basically mashing enter on cutscenes, holding SHIFT all the way, going exactly where I needed to for stuff (I didn't do any of the hidden bosses/rare game, and I missed a couple of dungeons) it'll be a relatively safe estimate.


Unless of course, the players also rush though


Regardless, congrats on your progress, everyone else :3

 

[Denna]

@wynautastronaut:

kspj17, it feels so good when you can copy+paste stuff to save yourself tedious, repetitive work. 

'Til the moment when you find a bug in this copy+paste stuff and have to fix it everywhere.

@Galenmereth: Looks pretty. I love the animations and the colors work good together. *-*

I just read through the criticism we got a year ago, again and made some changes based on them. First I disabled the automatic dialog progression, found some little, friendly bugs and I'm going to adjust the textbox color and text color to improve readability.
 

 

[Kes]

@bgillisp

good luck with the preparation.  Hope you are suitably inspired.

@mlogan

Yaay!!!! even for small progress.  When you have so many other things to handle, even small progress is noteworthy.

@Kyuukon

I wouldn't drop the term stressful if you want to be realisitc - it can be fun and stressful, but without doubt it will be stressful.

@Dream3R

There is a way of dealing with that business of the head showing - there's a post from me in the March version of this thread which might be helpful.

@Marquise*

Nice to know that the sweet secret sprite project is finished.  Do we get to see it here?

@VideoWizard

It sounds like it must have been pretty frustrating.  I'm glad you've got your internet back, I know how lost I felt when mine went down the other week.

@Hotfirelegend

Don't forget your speedrun also includes the fact that you know your game so well you instinctively will go the most efficient route, do things in the fastest possible order, zero unnecessary backtracking and so on.  A player, on the other hand will be highly inefficient, so you may well find that you are underestimating how long the game will last.

@Denna

I wish more people would pay attention to the colour of the text box.  Over the last few months I've played several games with text boxes that would make your eyes bleed.

My update

Mapping, as if you couldn't guess.  All the maps for this fire cave are now done, (8 in total) at least in the main details.  I'm pleased with how they've turned out.  Just as well, because mapping with curved cliffs is a lot of extra work, so if it doesn't look better, it is simply not worth the time investment.  I still have to put in more chests and found items, but I have finished the 4th, final, and most complex, version of the cut scene in the 3rd location.  Now it doesn't matter what order the player does things in, I think I've got it covered.

 

[imascribble]

Congrats on everyone's progress! Too tired to post replies, but I have read them

Yesterday I made up several title screens to try out. Not sure which one I'll be using yet, but it's not urgent and I can just leave it sitting in the back of my mind. I also finally got around to building a website for Allosaurus Studios (which is just me being fancy, basically ).

Today I worked on busts for my second project out of boredom and curiosity (playing around with a generator is fun!), and made up a full game description for both games (one of which I posted on the website, mainly focusing on lore and backstory)

Tomorrow night I might get back into mapping. Maybe. Mapping really is my least favourite part of this -_-

 

[Dream3r]

Today's update is short and sweet.  You can check it out below or click the link to go to the blog I update (Almost) daily.

Spoiler

      Not a big update today, just experimenting with some concepts for the main menu.  Currently my idea is to have two screens, the one you see above which allows you to either play the game, change your settings, or back out; and then a second menu if you choose play that list the game modes.  Currently there is just the story mode but we'll likely add a freedom mode that you can play which is basically just do what you want after the story is completed.  Perhaps some extra features will be added to that mode I'm not sure, we're not ready to start working on extra content just yet.  Need to make the main game first.

Want to see us make the game faster or perhaps add some extra game modes to play?  Consider supporting us on https://outofthestormlde.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/*******-banner.png?w=225&h=51.

If you liked this post be sure to click the like button below or even better, follow us by clicking the  button at the top left.

Take care everyone,

-Dakota

 

[nio kasgami]

I worked on my manga and mostly just procastinate I have to work on my french homework haha but I project to also more work on my manga

 

[Denna]

@Denna

I wish more people would pay attention to the colour of the text box.  Over the last few months I've played several games with text boxes that would make your eyes bleed.

Yeah, the colors need to match with the game colors and must be readable that's undeniable. The main problem there's that every single monitor looks rather different when it comes to colors. I hope I find the right composition...

Yesterday I made up several title screens to try out. Not sure which one I'll be using yet, but it's not urgent and I can just leave it sitting in the back of my mind.

The title screen... Another building site. I should make a new one for the beta... But I don't know if I've the time left for that. We'll see.

Yesterday I got my new processor, finally, so the first thing what I did was to set up my computer. I didn't worked on Listen that day, but I thought about a problem we've with one map. The problem is that we have a parking place but not enough modern cars to fill it. The biggest problem there isn't that where aren't any modern car ressources around, but they need to match together. So probably I need to make them by my self and I hate making cars. T___T I already did 3 of them... But I guess I need to bite the bullet. :/

 

[Dream3r]

Working on concepts for the second screen you see after this one,

Spoiler

Here's the basic concept and the one after that is when you have one selected.

Spoiler

Currently all placeholders but it shows the general concept.  Feedback is welcomed and appreciated.  Thank you.

 

[EternalShadow]

@wynautastronaut:

'Til the moment when you find a bug in this copy+paste stuff and have to fix it everywhere.

Been there

 

[Marquise*]

@Dream3r

Just a question... Is that your normal typography for the game?  Or did you thought of playing more with it?  Not a critique just a question.

IT'S SATURDAY! NOBODY WORKS ON SATURDAY! 

... XD sorry I had the sentence in my head for a while and I realized it came from Lister in Red Dwarf!

But I decided to take KSJP17's advice, I saw a game that was on a week-end free... And I think I am doing a sweet saturation to the brain with it

No worries, for now I can do optional; takes on my sweet secret spriting project additional poses.

And of course I can go back and forth as Guinea Pig with that coding stuff that is also someone secret project. 

What`s now really left is cleaning up and updating my Tome Of Unanswered Questions.  (No, it is not a game.  It is a very peculiar list of questions I want as info in the planning of future games to make myself a very comfy work frame before doing something serious as a public or commercial official first RPG!  -That isn't a very elaborated self-imposed test/exam!)

 

[CrazyCrab]

I'm back, hopefully for good. Dont know what it is, but I've been lacking motivation this month... too much free time is bad for me.

Anyway, finally opened the editor today. Finished some ''custom'' animations for my skills as well as the skills and added facesets for some guys.

Not much, but it's a start I guess Trying to ease myself in this time, don't want to burn out again.

I'll just do some designing and look at some pretty monsters for now, plan things for tomorrow. Have to add the RPG elements and I find it much harder than the strategy elements strangely enough. As someone who's been making RPG games since the age of 7 (had a look at my old notebooks when I was home this Easter... I worked harder back then, heh) this comes as a shock to be honest. I just don't want my starter area to be filled with rats and slimes ^^' 

 

[EliteZeon]

Finally got around to doing some simple eventing.

Placed a small amount of environmental interactions around my town, trying to flesh out the party members by having them comment on each other and discuss different things depending on what they interact with. Just some simple stuff.

Also redid some of the forest layout surrounding said town.

Spoiler

Mreh didn't think it was too big a deal to put this in the map thread as an update.

 

[Dream3r]

@Marquise

I was told the original way I had the title was too hard to read by a few people so I worked on it a little more.