December Goals & Progress Thread

[bgillisp]

@mlogan: That can help a lot I've learned. Are you talking the skills and such you can use? I found once I got my classes and skills in it really helped with the flow in my game.

So progress update on my end. I did finish Chapter 3 today! *Does happy dance to the Victory ME*. Is it good? Probably not yet. But you can play Chapter 3 from start to end at least. Next up is all the bug testing and polish that is needed to bring it up to snuff. Also may start drawing the maps for chapter 4 (which is going to take a while, as chapter 4 is when a lot more of the world map opens up in the game).

Only 6 more chapters to go....hey, does that mean I can call the game 33% complete now?

 

[mlogan]

@bgillisp - No not exactly, lol. This game is really going to be a non-RPG so no classes or skills. Kinda sorta a platform game? But, making it with Ace there are so many potential features and extras that could be added to make it different, that I just need to be decisive about what's going in for now and what will need to be cut, so that it doesn't get too complicated.

Also, yes, I say call it 33% done! That's exciting. I'm curious though, when you say chapters (and maybe you've mentioned and I just don't remember), do you mean that it will play in game as different chapters, or is this just the way you've broken down game development for yourself?

 

[bgillisp]

The chapters are the way I've broken the game down for myself. However, the player does get notified when they change chapters (kind of like how Betrayal at Krondor did it). It's just a way to designate the major plot points and let the player have an idea how far in the game they are.

 

[mlogan]

That's cool. (And I've never heard of that game, lol.)  It sounds interesting.

 

[bgillisp]

Should check it out, it was considered one of the better RPG's of the 90's by most. The company released it as freeware in '98 to promote the sequel (which was a dud unfortunately), though it is hard to get the freeware version working on current computers. However, you can buy it on gog for $5.99 in a version which does work on current computers.

A platform game? I've never made one, so no advise here I'm afraid. At least if you decide on your features you can design the levels around them.

 

[mlogan]

I'll have to keep it in mind if I ever get through the list of "must play" games I already have, lol.

And yeah, the basic gameplay is going to be Frogger inspired (not sure if that's truly considered platformer or not). But like I said, there are so many more things that can be added and they all sound great. But if I truly put them ALL in, it would end up crazy and chaotic.

It will get there though, I've got a pretty good list going thanks to input from a lot of sources.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

The music is done! The music is done!

Spoiler

Ok, So cleaning my house. Even pulled out the fridge. Avoiding family. Opening Hanukkah presents. Then I'm finally going to play with Spriter and start my third round of character sketches.

 

[mlogan]

I don't really have much to update, as it's been a slow week. A tiny smidge of progress on tiles, but that's about it. And I'm okay with that, lol.

Probably won't get much done this week either as it will be a busy week and we will be out of town because, yay Christmas!

So obviously, I will not be meeting my deadline of a demo out by the end of this month, and that's okay too. I'm really, really hoping by the end of January. Mainly because I really want to show off the cute artwork, lol!

 

[R4B]

I'm still working on my tileset...

Spoiler

 

[bgillisp]

Did a full playthrough of the game since my last post, not too many major bugs found. Still need to add all the side quests to chapters 2 and 3, and write up my outline for chapter 4 now.

I figure this is the last update for December though, traveling most of the next week and internet will be spotty at best. Plan is to take a week off now and play a few games, while I let my ideas for how to implement the planned story for chapter 4 stew some.

 

[R4B]

Blocky roads and straight grass to dirt transitions are no more!

Spoiler

 

Btw, I have some left over 32x32 tiles

Feel free to edit/use in anyway you want!
Probably gonna release the old tiles later as well...

 

[mlogan]

Thoseook great R4B!

 

[bgillisp]

Ok, so I do have one more update, as I had a burst of creativity.

12.25 update: Did a playthrough of chapter 3, caught some bugs, and discovered some dialogue needs a total rewrite. However, I also used today to write down the official outline of the plot, and it appears the game will be 12 chapters in the end. Looks like I have some work to do now...

 

[R4B]

-snip-

 

[mlogan]

Not all R4B! That's kind of the point of these threads - it's a place to spam your progress essentially.

And I like the trees, they look nice and while I'm no expert, I think the colors work.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

Yeah, R4B I remember the original iteration of this series during IGMC when  I was posting screen shots, music, and artwork sometimes four times a day. It was nuts! And honestly why my post count is anywhere near where it is! 

I actually really like the color palette you're working with. It's very vernal and dreamlike and I'm curious to see what kind of projects you have intended for them.

Well, here is a screen shot of how absolutely not spectacular my maps are. Which is really quite intentional. What I've done here is a very simple map to hopefully "prove" a concept of mine. You may wonder how we will be getting that treasure chest on that little cliff, and that's basically the game play feature I am trying to conceive.

Spoiler

 

I have come into a lot of new tile sets and I'm really torn on what I want to use for my project. But I think something I want to work on in the next few days is putting tiles together into my own little set and doing some color edits, as well as looking into doing some simple lighting. And then one day when I'm good at the map editor I'd like to try out parallax maps because I cannot be contained!

 

[Marsigne]

@Ms Littlefish - That looks pretty good xD (yes really xD), and yeah, the more updates, the awesomer XD, and if that is a very simple map, how will the awesome maps look? XD

Well, I think I'll start making progress posts on January, since I've seen that I've made a lot more work than normally (yes, for me xD) when I was posting in the November progress thread, I've done almost nothing this month, believe it or not XD, even if I don't post everyday (which is part of the reason that I stopped posting, believe it or not, again XD) but it seems that posting and getting feedback and stuff and forcing myself to post everyday helps me do more good things for my projects

 

[Sharm]

R4B: Too many? Are you kidding, once a day is not enough to stare happily at pretty pixels! I'm looking forward to the palette tweak, the purple dirt against the yellow-green grass is a little bit too harsh for me. I hope you can keep the same feel though, right now the palette makes it look like you made it with pastel chalks. I always fix the colors last too, being able to do that is one of the joys of working in pixel art.


Ms Littlefish: Maybe make a test map with each set you're considering. It'll help you get a better idea of the strengths and weaknesses of each.

 

[Cozzer]

2014 has been a... complicated year for me. This doesn't mean it was bad, since everything more or less ended well, but I had very little energy to spare for not-passive hobbies.

During this Christmas break I realized that now that things are under control I'm starting to feel the need to do something creative, and RM is the tool I always turn to when I'm in a creative mood. I've reread the notes I had written during my last attempt, and I've found a lot of ideas I still like.

So yeah, I don't have any definite goal for this year (or the next), but I want to try my hand at it again.

(On one hand, having a full-time job leaves me with WAY less free time. On the other hand, at least now free time feels actually like free time and not like "I should spend this time completing university/getting a job time".)

So yeah, I realize this is not very RM-centric, but writing down this kind of things makes them more real.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

@ Cozzer Reflection is an important part of setting goals and completing them. Everyone need to chance to look at what they're working with and determine what are fair goals for them. I totally understand what you mean by having a job and your free time becoming actual free time instead of just, time. 

Really glad your notes still strike some chords with you. While I do compile everything on my computer eventually into my massive library of documents, I recommend a notebook to have around at all times. That way, if work is consuming more than it's fair share of time, I can scrawl down that idea I just had (when I totally should be working harder, but bleh).

@Sharm That's an excellent idea, thank you! I have a little village sketched out that I'm going to map. I think I'll do just that on my day off this week. I also have collected a lot of mapping tutorials as well. I haven't touched mapping much since IGMC when I first tried it. .-.