April Goals & Progress Thread

[VideoWizard]

@ksjp17 I should be able to get that done, assuming you mean by the end of the upcoming week, and not today. If so, that's all the way to next Sunday. I would hope I can do two maps in eight days (there's still today's progress to count), but you never know what can be thrown at you.

That would get the party to level five, which I think is good for the same number of weeks of progress.

Also, in your project, does the magma just damage the party if they try to walk on it, or is it an obstacle that they have to figure out how to pass?

@shingamix That's all for April? That looks like an April-June quarter goal list, or even April-September half-year goal list. Beware of burnout and doing nothing until like 2017 because of it.

 

[imascribble]

So today between babysitting and work, I managed to figure out the tileset combination for my next dungeon and began mapping. If I continue tonight (not likely), I should have some decent screenshots by tomorrow to show off

 

[hiddenone]

@Ms Littlefish - Gotta love an undead pop star.  I'd call that experiment very successful.
 
@ksjp17 - I love the sweeping maid, and your cave is looking nice.
 
@bgillisp - Updating your project page is definitely a good use of your time, even if you didn't get much else done.
 
@VideoWizard - Two maps in a week sounds like a good goal, you can do it!
 
@imascribble - I look forward to your dungeon's screenshots.

I actually worked on my game today, instead of just kinda staring at my computer.  I cleaned up some stray events and added in some comments so that when I look at some of my common events later I don't go "what does this do?" again.  Also added some short cutscenes, so here's a shot from one of them.

 

[EliteZeon]

-Falls over dead-ish-

Just spent 3 days at Megacon... my first time at a major convention like that. My wallet is completely empty, my legs are killing me, I pretty sure I reek of sweet and plastic thanks to my cosplay, and I am about to pass out from exhaustion.

I am so sad this convention is over. T_T

I brought my laptop to the hotel thinking I would be able to work on something... nope.avi

Ah well, with this convention now done, I got 3 days for my next exam, a week to do two lab reports, and then hopefully this weekend I can get back to work more on my project.

Before the con, I worked on the town map for Clay's hometown and updated it a bit more, downside is that I think it is too big to the point where I am not sure what to do with every house (newbie problems), and my parallax background isn't working as intended. (You know, the default unscripted problem that causes it to move weirdly)

I also made a raptor battler sprite before the con, and I will need to rework it and then fully animate his attacks and such. I think I'll make another monster to fully animate and I will be set for this chapter in the game. (Thinking a raptor pack leader, a dretch-bear-skunk-thing, or another plant or insect monster)

I'll ask for feedback in the appropriate threads when I get the chance... for now I am going to fall dead on my bed... use a revive spell on me a few days from now. Preferably before my corpse starts to rot.

-Blegh-

 

[VideoWizard]

Lots of progress lately! Even if it seems the train is slowing a bit. Perhaps soon we'll have a page a day, but for now...

Sun 4.12.15- Finished the Lakeland Highlands- SW map and added some touches to the Swamp of Disappointment maps. The four-tile long straightaways have mostly been changed to short grass or beach tiles there. And yes, there can be beach in a swamp area, try a trip to Florida sometime. Almost the entire state was once swamp. The exceptions are the Lake Wales Ridge, Crestview Hills, Hernando Hills/Ridge Manor, and the real-life Lakeland Highlands.

At least changing the maps isn't too difficult, and an easy suggestion to fulfill. I'll generally do most suggestions, so long as it's not something ridiculous like ditching William or turning the game into a futuristic setting.

 

[King Sangos]

It appears I jumped onboard this thread a little too late, but I suppose I can still offer up a few more news and tidbits surrounding the progress of BLANK, my RPG. But before I went over that, I just wanted to say that the rest of this month in terms of development time will pretty much be in shambles. My girlfriend from the US is coming to see me for 2 weeks and will be arriving in only a few days. This will mean I'll be spending more time with her than time on BLANK. But fear not, for she's a fan of the RPG and MAYBE I'll get something done. I can't promise anything though.

So in terms of development, I'm happy to announce that the third level of BLANK is more-or-less complete. Yes, there are bound to be some bugs, but that's why I'm rigorously testing the areas by myself as well as some help from my faithful friends. But I'm incredibly happy with how the level has turned out so far, but I'll let people who playtest it be the ultimate judge of that. But I do have some more goodies to show and that is to do with two new enemy sprites I recently created. Both of them are bosses, but each are drastically different in play-style and encounter.

   

 

[Marquise*]

@hiddenone, VideoWizard & EliteZeon


You guys are funny continue the good work! ^^


@King Sangos


Strange critters.


and... Well I guess I will have to contact some folks for my IRL papers today


I finished alpha-testing of some game.


I'm drained...

 

[rondchild]

@bgillisp : you can find the project page in my signature, or click this

anyway im update Menu for Kitten Mita
This is still wip, need finish new potrait and some icon for this menu

Spoiler

Menu - Item

Menu - Skill

Menu - Save

Menu - Load

 

[Galenmereth]

My goals for April are now set to be the following:

• Fully working inventory scene (almost done)
• Fully working "Sell to heroes" scene
• Start work on the Shop scene
• Improving the combat scene

Progress so far is going very well. I've had to sidetrack these goals somewhat to implement mouse, kb and controller support, which introduced a few other key challenges, but the result is an almost complete inventory scene which supports all input seamlessly and with button prompts:



Let's ganbate gaem maek, minna-san!

 

[Kes]

@VideoWizard

If it's a 'pool' of magma, then it is a block.  For terrain damage, it's just the floor tiles with tiny bits of magma showing; floor tiles mere tinged a bit red do no damage.  I always think of swamps when I think of Florida (not that I think of it very often, in fact it's rather rare) so it doesn't surprise me to have beaches and swamps go together.

@imascribble

looking forward to the screen shots.

@hiddenone

Oh, a tender moment!  How sweet!  I do like the map.

@EliteZeon

I saw the pic in the other thread.  Looks like you were enjoying yourself.  After all that you were doing, I'm not surprised your only interest now is getting some sleep.

@King Sangos

It's never to late to join in this thread and if the rest of April is going to be a bit chaotic, there's always May.

@Marquise"

Maybe once the papers are in, you could just have a fun day, no work, no game dev, just relax.  It's no joke being drained, I know.

@ronchild

It looks a good basis for your menus.

@Galenmereth

The contents of the video are awesome.  This is shaping up to be something exceptional.

My update

Some more mapping, but not a huge amount as I spent a lot of time helping to sort out some problems in someone else's game.  I think this counts - he's made progress (so second-hand I admit) and I've been exercising my game problem-solving skills.  If nothing else, it reminded me of a couple of game-breaking pitfalls that need to be avoided.

 

[Marquise*]

@Marquise"


Maybe once the papers are in, you could just have a fun day, no work, no game dev, just relax.  It's no joke being drained, I know.

You want to know the worst part... I was ready with everything... Then no one worked on THIS Monday. >.< Why can't everyone give that paranoid of society the GOOD example? I rotten all my day worrying and thought typing here;"Today NOTHING! Go figures!" Let that ol' dyslexic make her taxes herself... it'll turns out an animated feature! (Too sweet revenge heh? They'll lock me away?)


@Galenmereth


That's a neat crafting interface you have there!... Completely pwned me!

 

[slimmmeiske2]

Everyone's making a lot of progress, good job guys!

@hiddenone: Love that screenie. I can see I'm going to adore your game :3

@King Sanos: Those are some creepy battlers. Good job on those (and the other ones you've posted before).

@rondchild: Love the menu. It looks really cool and cute at the same time :3

@ksjp: Of course that counts! Or then my update wouldn't count

Wooot, commercial game that I betatested for the past two weeks has been released. Going to keep an eye out on forums to see if anyone needs help, but mostly I'm going to work on my own games now. I've fixed some bugs and uploaded a new version, as someone got stuck behind a NPC.

 

[EternalShadow]

I finished the Alpha, so now the game is pretty much playable the entire way through


I'll still need to implement the Hunt quests (they're easy, basically they're copies of each other with some uniqueness edits inc. dialogue and rewards) but that'll only take like, twenty minutes at most. Most further changes at this point will basically come from beta tester feedback.

 

[lemongreen]

I should probably leave some updates:

1. I did finally post in the Luna Engine forum (but apparently things move extremely slowly in there so I'm waiting on a reply)
2. Decided to go ahead and start working on the short game I wanted to make.
3. Taking some time to go through my resources and clean things up/move things around (It's very much needed; I'm sorting things by licence and person so everything's a bit easier to find)
4. Will probably start jotting down game notes for IGMC (already have a semi good idea of what I want to do)

 

[King Sangos]

@King Sanos: Those are some creepy battlers. Good job on those (and the other ones you've posted before).

Why thank you!

I'm glad that you found them to be creepy like that. Shows that I'm doing a pretty good job of the enemies so far. ^^

 

[Marquise*]

@rondchild


This is so neat looking! I am almost forgetting my 2D skills to cybermentally chant in my head "Do mine! Do Mine!" I am guessing you have the Luna Engine?


On my side I finished my part with two out four IRL to-do. Have one urgent return call thing that I hope can hold on a week -if the taxes papers returns for copy purposes-. And tomorrow, I think it is the nasty Bedbug Buster monthly day!


Up to Photoshop now before me and my kitties cries 8hours outside tomorrow. Got to try and do some sweet secret spriting!

 

[bgillisp]

@Marquise: Hope the scripting goes well!

@lemongreen: Hope you have a good idea! I'm still on the fence on whether or not to enter, as I'm not sure I have the time.

@hotfirelegend: Just be sure to do something to break up the repetition though. Though I assume when you say copies you mean the same quest event, but the variety is in the battles? If so then I know what you mean (my battle arena is pretty similar).

@slimmmeske2: Welcome to the "We took a break to play a game crowd"

@ksjp17: Always good to have reminders of what not to do

4.14 Update: So I took a break to play Undefeated and gain some inspiration for my maps. It did though make me think about my economy more though, because I've noticed I almost never use my items in my game. Now, part of that is due to the type of player I am (I item hoard like crazy. I'm that player that beats the dragon bare handed, rather than use up my one scroll of protection from dragon breath), but part of it was I had my potions healing less than my healing spells.

So, I did some major tweaking of my items. Since everyone levels up so slowly in my game, I figured I should have more gradual increases in the power of my potions instead of the usual system of low/medium/high/all. So, now I set it up so that HP potions go 125/300/600/800/1000/1250/all (since all is about 1500 HP in this game anyways, I saw no point in any more tiers). MP potions got a similar overhaul. The numbers still need testing, the jump from 300 to 600 bothers me a little but until I test it more I'm going to leave it. Also, the lowest tier potions are now so cheap that a player can load up on them in Chapter 1 if they wish to.

Also I have never used an item to remove a status aliment in my game ever, except that rare time I get diseased before I learn the cure spell. So, I changed it so that the items that remove status aliments also heal a tiny amount of HP (125 or 300, depending on the item). This way they can sub as a "I'm out of everything else and need healing ASAP" type potion at least.

Still need to balance the HP heal spells around the new tiers though. The idea is the level 1/2 spells should be between 125 and 300, level 3/4 between 600 and 800, and so on. Plan is to do that Thursday, as I have no time tomorrow to work on the game, but will still check in on my breaks at work!

 

[Marquise*]

@Marquise: Hope the scripting goes well!

Spriting. When I do Scripting (I guess you meant doing programing, not a game/game dialogs scenarios) I might stop looking at tax forms like a 2D animation dope-sheet of doom... that could bring me material doom if not correctly filled! XD


Who knows in maybe 10 years I might do that... Maybe... Is it just possible to do a game just with mere eventing?


I look at your text and...Woosh... Database work seems pretty much like filling taxforms... You're a Math teacher right?

 

[EternalShadow]

@hotfirelegend: Just be sure to do something to break up the repetition though. Though I assume when you say copies you mean the same quest event, but the variety is in the battles? If so then I know what you mean (my battle arena is pretty similar).

Yes, basically. Speak to questgiver, do hunt quest, get reward. They all speak differently though, and they have different motivations for asking the party leader about the hunts. They're sort of mini-quests on their own; there is one proper one currently in the game though. I plan to have a few more proper ones before development truly ends, but this is the barebones (Alpha) right now. Along the beta, this is where I'll be polishing (improving the game with extra quests/story) and etc.

 

[imascribble]

Everyone seems to be doing really well! Congrats on everyone's progress so far!

I've been working on mapping my underwater dungeon, which is proving to be harder than I thought. Between trying to figure out the tint and having a minor problem with my transfers, I've been getting a little frustrated. I'm still not sure about the tint (I think it's not quite light enough), but I've been taking a break and adding in details now. Opinions?

Also, since I'm a newbie at this, is eventing the best way to tint the entire dungeon, or is there an easier way I'm just missing?

Spoiler