Beyond Reality HD [Development Topic]

[gRaViJa]

Lol, that's not a lot of commitment, but okay.

 

[EternalShadow]

Lol, that's not a lot of commitment, but okay.

Gimme £300 then~

 

[Dark_Metamorphosis]

Long story short, this project is on hold.

I cannot afford Celi's tileset (It's on sale, but the price is still £100 which is really high for a non-exclusive tileset, if you account for taxes and currency conversions and currency conversion fees) - and that price goes up to nearly £300 in a couple of days.

And I made 19 maps (and tidbits of others) with Celi's tileset before I knew I had to make this project commercial.

And I don't have the heart to do redo 19 maps.

The vast majority of them are 42*24 (to accompany the 1344*768 resolution) and all 19 I estimate would take nearly two weeks to do, and that's at more than two a day! 

So I'm not going to be touching this project for quite a while, unless people want a very condensed game without those 19 maps -_-"

EDIT: Ought to mention: The game has about 80 playable maps. We're looking at 1/4 to 1/5th of the entire game here.

That's sad to hear

Hope it works out for you.

 

[Tornado Samurai]

The development of games is a rewarding yet difficult journey. Some days are enlightening and inspiring. Some days have drawbacks and misfortunes.

It's unfortunate to hear that one of your upcoming projects has been held back. However, it is better to take breaks and not overwork yourself and take your time to recuperate from the drawbacks. Best of luck in overcoming the drawbacks and developing the game whenever you chose to start it back up.

Are you going to work on another side project while on your break from BR HD or are you taking a full break from making games?

 

[EternalShadow]

I'm not gonna make anything. At the moment, I'm just checking around to see who'd be willing to map this many things all over again (based off the original designs) and we'll see from there. If I do make anything, it would likely only be to do with the upcoming improved high-res thing to test that (I need to make a guide on or near the same day of its launch) or to test random stuff, but no way am I touching this project (or any project really) with a barge pole until I've calmed down at the very least, or gotten over/replaced/got back at least 1/5th-1/4 of my work!

I realize I probably sound very temperamental, but I was pretty much on smooth sailing to a release within three months (barring the release of the new HD dll), and now it doesn't seem like the project will be anywhere near complete by then... The maps for instance would take up to another three weeks to do, with one a day - or two weeks, with about two+ a day... So I've basically wasted at least 2-3 weeks of work

 

[Tornado Samurai]

I might be a bit too positive, but it is absolutely fine to feel anger towards the mistakes and negatives. However, it is from those negatives we learn to do better. Enjoy your break, try to overcome your difficulties and hopefully everything will work out. I'm sure it will, it has to someday.

PS: It wouldn't be a complete waste of time. You did well recreating 19 maps as it is.

- Tornado Summoner

 

[bgillisp]

If it makes you feel any better, I have to totally redo a chapter in my game (so it flows better with the plot). 2 - 5 weeks of work to redo that, depending on if I have to redraw the maps too (which is likely).

However, you may not have to totally redraw your maps. If you can just find replacement tiles, and line them up appropriately in the tilesheet, then RPGMaker would do the swap for you once you changed the tilesets. It would just take some time in GIMP to set it up, as long as everything is the same size as the previous tiles were (that is, if your trees were all 2 x 2 tiles, these new trees have to be 2 x 2, else you will get really strange stuff).

 

[EternalShadow]

If it makes you feel any better, I have to totally redo a chapter in my game (so it flows better with the plot). 2 - 5 weeks of work to redo that, depending on if I have to redraw the maps too (which is likely).

However, you may not have to totally redraw your maps. If you can just find replacement tiles, and line them up appropriately in the tilesheet, then RPGMaker would do the swap for you once you changed the tilesets. It would just take some time in GIMP to set it up, as long as everything is the same size as the previous tiles were (that is, if your trees were all 2 x 2 tiles, these new trees have to be 2 x 2, else you will get really strange stuff).

Ouuuuuch. That sounds worse, though - since you'll have to redo the events as well, from the sounds of it.

I will try and see if I can match up tiles though, to save myself redoing everything. If that idea works, it might just be as simple as swapping over tilesets. Somehow I doubt it will be that simple, though... But I suppose it's worth a try.

On another note, while I take a break from the project as a whole, I've been doing some experimenting and prototyping to allow players to earn some money ingame via methods other than just killing monsters. Any feedback on these?

The first one is a mining "minigame", where Faryl makes items based on a quantity of gold bought to him, and you can resell any other gold you find. 

Spoiler

The second one is a farming "minigame" where a mysterious farmer (who evidently worked with Faryl or a mysterious magician!) sells you some fertilizer, which can be used to grow plants in increasing values. These plants take time to grow, however. Once grown, the plants can be harvested and sold.

Spoiler

 

[bgillisp]

Ouuuuuch. That sounds worse, though - since you'll have to redo the events as well, from the sounds of it.

I will try and see if I can match up tiles though, to save myself redoing everything. If that idea works, it might just be as simple as swapping over tilesets. Somehow I doubt it will be that simple, though... But I suppose it's worth a try.

On another note, while I take a break from the project as a whole, I've been doing some experimenting and prototyping to allow players to earn some money ingame via methods other than just killing monsters. Any feedback on these?

The first one is a mining "minigame", where Faryl makes items based on a quantity of gold bought to him, and you can resell any other gold you find. 

Spoiler

Spoiler

The second one is a farming "minigame" where a mysterious farmer (who evidently worked with Faryl or a mysterious magician!) sells you some fertilizer, which can be used to grow plants in increasing values. These plants take time to grow, however. Once grown, the plants can be harvested and sold.

Yeah, I haven't done it yet, as I want to make sure it really needs to be done, and that its not just me second guessing myself. I'm going to probably write out the new flow (if the changes are made) on paper to make sure it is appropriate and see if it gains enough to be worth it.

I've had decent luck with swapping tilesets like that, you might get a tree turn into a book, but usually it is nothing too terrible to fix. The worst part is when the ceiling becomes a birthday cake or something silly like that, that is a little harder to fix.

I haven't tried those kind of minigames, though I did implement a battle arena where the party can enter for x gold and if they win they get 15x, if they win all five rounds (if they lose, they get nothing, if they retreat they get a small percent of 15x. Retreat after round 1, you actually lose gold).

 

[EternalShadow]

Yeah, I haven't done it yet, as I want to make sure it really needs to be done, and that its not just me second guessing myself. I'm going to probably write out the new flow (if the changes are made) on paper to make sure it is appropriate and see if it gains enough to be worth it.

I've had decent luck with swapping tilesets like that, you might get a tree turn into a book, but usually it is nothing too terrible to fix. The worst part is when the ceiling becomes a birthday cake or something silly like that, that is a little harder to fix.

I haven't tried those kind of minigames, though I did implement a battle arena where the party can enter for x gold and if they win they get 15x, if they win all five rounds (if they lose, they get nothing, if they retreat they get a small percent of 15x. Retreat after round 1, you actually lose gold).

Yeah, it's always a good idea to plan to see if any change that large is worth it!

I will first have to see what fatalities and damage has been incurred. I'm losing a lot of clutter items which will have to be re-sourced and replaced in their own tileset I'd imagine (a tile B, C, D or E thing used over multiple maps, but that's probably the easy part) - it's the As I'm mostly worried about. One of the ones I found earlier doesn't even have a working A2, and it needs editing to shift it over to the right by one column! 

A "gambling-style" battle arena sounds like a fun idea, especially at a potential 15x multiple, but what stops players saving pre-arena, loading if they lose?

 

[EternalShadow]

EDIT: Accidental double post ;~;

 

[EternalShadow]

Right guys, remember this?

Spoiler

After seeing the prices of tax, this map (amongst many others) turned into this:

Spoiler

But now they look like:

Spoiler

The game is also fully-compatible (I still have to make some more images) on multiple resolutions, fullscreen and windowed:


640*480 is used in this example, but the range goes from 544*416 to 1344*768

Spoiler

Now this game can come out of "On Hold" / Haitus!


Thank you for your support!


I have one question for all of you, though.


Do you think this font is iconic to what Beyond Reality is?

Spoiler

I could easily replace the "Reality" part as there are many futuristic fonts out there that look similar, for retail commercial use. However, brush-like fonts such as this are in short supply - especially ones that look good and are free. The font costs about £25 ($40), but it is a price I am willing to pay if you feel that it is mandatory to the Beyond Reality logo. If you have any other suggestions for the logo though, I am happy to try them.

 

[EternalShadow]

Ok, development update:


I'm mostly balancing the game now, though the late-game balancing may have to be redone after the game is run through by the beta testers, if we feel the game should be even longer. This depends, though.


But while doing battle balancing, it is obvious that the standard 544*416 battlebacks that come with RM will not suffice beyond that resolution. As such, new ones will have to be made for their respective areas, and in high-res.


There is no performance loss when at a lower resolution, when displaying a high-res image. Therefore, to cu down on file sizes, I will only include the battlebacks in HD.


Works in progress, to show you what I mean:

Spoiler

I can see that I need to move the ground line up, though - and I need to make the background a bit more defined (I blurred it a lot, but that may not have done much good! At least it is only an example, so I know how to fix it in future!) - but another way to do this may actually be to do the foreground and background separately, with their own colours.

 

[EternalShadow]

So I've been hard at work on this game over the course of April, and I'm pleased to announce that the game is pretty much done, bar polishing up some bits and pieces. There may also be additional game elements to come if the beta testers agree these are required

And yes, beta testing starts within this week!

Still to do:

- The battlebacks (not quite sure how I will do these, some experimentation will be required) and music.

- A few script optimizations (colours and positioning of a few things, mostly)

- A "questlog" (how would you prefer this be done? A questlog script might be unwieldy for me, but more user-friendly - or are you happy with an item in the inventory that tells you the next step in the main quest/side quests? Or even one item/note per sidequest, and one note that is self-updating for the main quest?)

Since it's been a while since the last update, here's some more shots of the game:

... and at this moment I just realized I made a stupid error not shown in these shots (Will fix it now!)

(All shots at 640*480 resolution)

Spoiler

And here is a little thing I found elsewhere that made me laugh really hard, as it echoes the Alpha Omega company!

Spoiler

 

[Matseb2611]

Yeah, I'd definitely prefer some form of a questlog. Using a quest script would be ideal, but an item that tells you the next objective should be fine too so long as it's informative. And yeah, if you're going for the items, I think having one for the main quest and separate ones for sidequests would be pretty neat.

 

[EternalShadow]

Ok guys, roadblock number 2, pretty much the size of the Celianna tileset one (which was solved after some time, don't worry - read back if you didn't know about it)!

So basically, my game offers 4 resolutions:

- 544x416

- 640x480

- 1024x768

- 1344x768

Now, I'm sure you all know that the game contains a lot of battles and events and suchlike. However, the main issue I'm having now is that due to the way RM works, well, I could do any of the following:

- Commission 1344*768 battlebacks and downscale them (expensive, large file size)

- Upscale the default battlebacks (low quality, doesn't look good, time-consuming, script is not commercially-usable)

- Only offer 544*416 as a resolution (very "rm-ish", doesn't show what engine can do, basically everything I tried to avoid)

I can't even go to 640 res. without the non-commercially usable script, resizing everything and bloating the file size or spending loads of money :/

Now, as I'm also sure you know, we've pretty much heard nothing on the HD dll since its supposedly-near-completion in Jan or Feb. That's four months, at least. There is no hint either it will be out for the IGMC (I thought it would be by then, but there hasn't been any news and there's only about two weeks to go but then again, Degica don't seem to announce things before their exact day of release lol - but this on its own throws another spanner into the works!) - if it isn't out by the IGMC, I essentially have to choose between finishing this game and entering the IGMC as I can't do both at once. The best-case scenario would've been just to get this game on Greenlight and do the marketing over June as well (as that would've been doable) but there is no guarantee the proper HD dll will even be out by then, let alone what it actually contains - screen resizing? Performance fixes? (We know it has this due to the new code, but it could've been taken out by now for all we know) - and so on.

Essentially, I'm in a rut. I could just release at 544 and call it a day, updating whenever the HD dll is out, but is that really the best option considering there's so much stigma toward RM games in the first place anyway? And right now, I can't seem to do anything because there is no guarantee of any of these things being supported or changed before/by the time I release! -_-

Right now, it just seems like the only real option (unless people REALLY want the 544 version) is to Haitu the game again until whenever the HD dll is released (if it ever is, and if not, I may as well just release the 544 version over summer as that would be the latest cutoff point really) and work on another game (maybe even on another engine), and the IGMC game whenever the IGMC game rolls around.

Taking suggestions!!

 

[Iavra]

Hmm...i don't know what script you are using, but resizing the battle background shouldn't be much harder than this. Note that this absolutely centers the background images, so if you want them to be aligned in another way, the method would have to be modifed further, but still easy enough to make it commercially usable.

I didn't test that with the DLL as i don't have it, but i used YanFly's script to test different screen sizes.

class Spriteset_Battle        alias :resize_center_sprite :center_sprite        def center_sprite(sprite)        sprite.zoom_x = sprite.zoom_y = [(Graphics.width.to_f / sprite.width), (Graphics.height.to_f / sprite.height)].max        resize_center_sprite(sprite)    end    end

 

[Matseb2611]

I don't think the stigma towards RM games is due to their resolution. OK, some people complain about it, but vast majority of the stigma is because a lot of RM games are badly done - boring or lack of story, unbalanced battles, mixing art styles, terrible mapping, etc. Just make sure all those aspects of your game are taken care of. The resolution isn't that big of a deal really.

Having said that, I know how you feel in regard to settling for 544x416, because one of your original goals for the game's vision was to have it in a higher resolution. Am I right? If you think this is the case, then go for the higher resolution. There are some choices:

1. You can just make the game in 640x480 (via Yanfly's core script). That resolution isn't so bad at all, and this option will have the least amount of work.

2. You can make the game use only 544x416 and 640x480 as resolutions. That way any artwork you need will just be done for 640x480, and since the default resolution is not that much smaller, resizing and stuff shouldn't be a problem.

3. Any other combination of resolutions. You can do the whole game in 1024x768 only, if you feel resizing and making new resources and stuff will be pricey.

With stuff like battlebacks, can't you just use default ones and copy parts of them to extend them to fit larger resolutions?

 

[EternalShadow]

 

Hmm...i don't know what script you are using, but resizing the battle background shouldn't be much harder than this. Note that this absolutely centers the background images, so if you want them to be aligned in another way, the method would have to be modifed further, but still easy enough to make it commercially usable.

 

http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/417-battleback-stretch/

That script ^

I tried resizing the defaults manually. It looks awful. I had to make it slightly blurry to remove pixellation, but the contrast against the battlers really hurts it, and it bloats the file size anyway as an image will be needed for every resolution, no matter what modification I make, be it resizing or editing.

See here:

http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/39505-may-goals-progress-thread/page-8#entry397306

Lavra: That seems a reasonable compromise, given the time it'd take to export the battlebacks and blur them - and seems to do exactly the same stuff as the script I couldn't use, and with less lines too o_o I love you

I think what I'll do is use this script for now, and if the HD DLL comes out with some sort of auto-resizer (togglable, I hope) then I'll comment it out but leave credit.  

Unfortunately, as with other engines/games, resizable game windows need to be fluid. That is, able to adapt to various resolutions. Given that RM doesn't have much in the way of this (unresizable script input boxes, cannot move right on event input, etc) there is probably a missing knowledge gap here in Enterbrain's staff, or the entire actual engine was simply never made with resizing in mind, which is kind of a shame.  

This auto-resizer from Lavra is probably the best option for now. Thanks

I'll be posting on the forums soon enough regarding some minor aesthetic script bugs which have fixed width/heights that need to be turned into fluid width/height detectors though...

 

[EternalShadow]

Sorry for not updating sooner!

The game has undergone a LOT of changes from beta testing, including but not limited to:

- A segment has been revamped and polished

- Additional maps have been added

- Transitions between some locations have been modified

- EXP rates have been tweaked

- Missing descriptions have been added in

- You can now sell staffs

- Questnotes have been removed (nobody ever needed them) 

- Some animations have been switched around

- Additional interactivity has been implemented

- Additional dialogue has been added, and some cutscenes have been fixed

- Item drops have been tweaked in lieu of items in chests

- Rare weapons have been added in hidden locations

- Map name displays have been fixed

- The bestiary has been updated, fixed and now should display properly

- An equip tutorial has been added

- Polish has been provided generally

- The story has been fleshed out

And so much more.

There are some additional side-quests as well, but I hope to add more at some point. 

All that's really left to do is have one script bug fixed, tweak a couple of graphics and see to a couple of areas' music and the sound effects.

But if there's anything you still want to see added to this game, let me know! This is a good time to add content, seeing as pretty much all of the existing known bugs are fixed and anything else at this point is just pure eventing. I have some time still before I submit to Greenlight as I need the means to make a trailer, which I might have within the next month or so.

So yes, let me know!

p.s: the huge delay between this update and the last update is due to a web dev job which started in June xD