February Goals & Progress Thread

[Idril]

First time posting in one of these threads, since I'm finally actively working on a project.


Goals for the end of February -


1. Finish plot outline for game


2. Make a spreadsheet of items


3. Organize items in database (may not have time this month, but we'll see)


4. Work on game intro


@Confederacy Have you tried the tablet again just after a fresh restart of your computer? My Wacom is getting older and it gives me driver problems all the time, that usually fixes it. If not, try restarting the driver (should be in Local Services) and then restarting the computer, and then try it again.

 

[taarna23]

Well, so far all I've managed to get done is get over a stomach flu. I have poke and prodded JavaScript as well as requested help and it's starting to seem like there might not be a good way to iterate the maps and grab the notetags, probably due to the way that a map needs to be loaded before any of its data is accessible... It's looking increasingly like I will have to hardcode mapIDs to be used. That or parameters would be a comma-separated list of mapIDs, which sounds awful and not terribly user-friendly. At least it sounds like other peoples' stuff is progressing better!


[Edit] Omigosh. Guys at work are STILL playing my kind-of-terrible contest entry. Full of bugs and parts are poorly done, but away they go. Huh.

 

[Sharm]

Ever hear of the 80/20 rule?  To oversimplify, it means you should be spending most of your time only focusing on the stuff that gets results.  There are always things that would be good to have done but won't give a lot of results, and you should avoid working on those if you can.  Totally failed to follow that rule today.  I was having fun making alternate decoration tiles for the carpets.  Is it awesome? Yep!  Can I make amazing carpets now?  You bet!  Should I have spent my time making doorways or furniture instead? Absolutely.  Oh well.  I woke up with a headache, there's no recovery from that so I'm counting it as a win anyway.  I'm still keeping to my schedule just fine.  If it still works on a bad day like today I think it's a keeper.  Yay!


For those of you who think I should have a better attitude about a mere headache, let me explain (everyone else can skip this).  I get migraines, sleep is the absolute best way to get rid of one.  If I wake up with one that means that it is so bad that not even sleep is effective on it and I will have a killer migraine all day that no medicine will be able to mute.  Today is a complete loss, I'm going to close my blinds and wait it out.  I'll most likely be fine tomorrow so there's no need to worry.


@ashikai  Welcome, fellow artist!  You have survived initiation.   What you said made me feel better about people in general.  It's like "Yes!  Someone gets it!"  Half the time the reaction is "Yeah, it's hard for me because I'm bad at it, it's easy for you!"  Um, no.  No it's not.  It's more fun for me and I can get good results a bit faster than someone who's a beginner at it, but it's always hard.

 

[Schlangan]

@AceOfAces_Mod : If you ran out of ideas, maybe it si time to release your launcher then


@CrazyCrab : Can't you report your manager, to protest somehow on the hours cutting ?


@lilyWhite : I like the global appearance, but I find everything a bit too cluttered in your display. Maybe should you reduce the font size a bit ?


@Sharm : Good if your new schedule works. Concerning a headache, it depends on the kind of headache. When I have a headache due to my eyes, it won't disappear until I go to sleep in the evening. Any intermediary sleep is useless, or even worsen the condition. People make fun of me when I wear sunglasses outside with no sun, but else the brightness is enough to trigger the headache in the morning. I know too well what a whole day headache provokes, so I understand you perfectly. 


@Mirpono : Where will your charatcer be ? He should wear clothes in accordance to his place. From that, you should be able to design his outfit.


@ashikai : Yes, you should never think as drawing as easy. Doing a single tile will require a lot of time for beginners like me, especially if you want everything to be nicing tiled, but without remaining with a bland color.


@Idril : Welcome in this thread then. Nice goals, feasible depending on the time you have for your game.


@taarna23 : Why don't you output the map data to an external file that you will load ? That way, you won't have to iterate trhough the maps, just read the file.


My update:


Still working on the new character generator, more specifically the flexibility part for other templates than the standard RPG Maker MV ones. Here is another screen capture, where you define the categories (Male/Female), and the body parts associated to them. You define all the parts here, and check them for each category. In this example I put MV's standard parts. No Beard category for the female as you see. The subpart section is used for the drawing priorities. For Damage charset, only the Clothing will be used, while for Charsets, it uses both Clothing1 and Clothing2. The next tab will help defining the drawing priorities using the subparts.

Spoiler

 

[taarna23]

@Schlangan I wanted to be able to just use noetags on the maps - easier for users. However, it's looking like it's not possible to get that information without being on the map that you're trying to get it from already... so I'm going to be awful, hardcode it and call it a day. I guess it won't be one I share after all. Oh, well. The additional reliance on an external seedrandom.js probably makes it just as well that it's just for my project.

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

@Schlangan, I'm thinking about it. If I do, I need to remove any references to Immortal Sins before I release it to the masses.


(I also thought the UI and some of the code of the software updater (along with the launcher update mechanism). I do not have any server to test it out however. And I cannot afford one right now.)


Progress Report #6


-Finished two scenes. A few more to go.


-Doing some under-the-hood changes in the launcher.


-Mapped all the story related areas. I still need to do some things in there.

 

[bgillisp]

@Sharm: Glad the schedule is working for you (so far). Hope those headaches go away! I know what you mean about the all day headaches, I get them here when the pressure changes drastically due to a major storm coming in or leaving.


@Confederacy: I've never had a good tablet myself, so all I can say is I hope you get it working soon!


@Schlangan: I think you can do that too in GIMP. You try it in GIMP?


@Chaos17: Sounds like the difference is how much more HP you have at level 5 then, as a jump of 5 ATK is not going to do much difference in damage unless you changed the formula drastically. Have you considered though letting the party start at level 4 - 6 or so, so as to avoid the early game spike in balancing?


@crazycrab: Ugh. That stinks. Hopefully you figure something out!


@lilywhite: Ok, I've never played the 7th Saga. Any good?


@Mirpono: Will a placeholder for the outfit work?


@Ashikai: Maybe I should then add a rule to my game: "To leave a review you have to spend 72 hours drawing your own high quality tiles?:


@Taarna23: Glad you are feeling better now!


@aceofaces_mod: Maybe add a field where someone can add their project name to the program? Would that remove all references successfully?


@idril: Suggestion for organizing: Give yourself about 2x as much space between types in your database that you think you will need. In other words, if you think you'll need 25 fields for swords, give yourself 50. That way you keep them all together for equipping by the player, and don't have your last sword in entry 999 or something weird like that.


2.10 and 2.11 Update: Managed to map almost all of Thundermeadow, just have a couple stray mountain peaks to map, and some windows and doors to add. Also started on the peaks North of town, mapped the first trail, and drew a line where the other trails are supposed to go.


Hoping to tomorrow to work on the peaks. Probably going to be a 2 day project though, as mountains take a while to map. About tempted to make my next project take place in a big, flat desert just so I don't have to map any more mountains!

 

[noctiluca]

Still in an art slump, I mean I'm doodling character design ideas on notebooks but no progress with actual graphics this month. I think there's just too much going on environment-wise (room is chaos, moving back overseas in 2 weeks and packing all my stuff, prepping for graduation) to be able to get much "creative" stuff done... bummer.


but! In the meantime I am working on the features of the game itself and making some more progress with that.


Using Yanfly's Item Core I was able to make unique items that have flags for quality and whether it's homemade vs bought in a shop (both affect selling price). It seems to work with my item crafting system as well.


I also made a pretty elaborate fishing system with eventing alone. Basically you can fish anywhere that is terrain tagged as water, and the kinds of fish you can catch are then determined by region. Also, using note tags, the different fish have their own stats like hp and speed (how quickly they'll get away if you idle) which determine the difficulty of the catch. It's kinda fun even just test-playing it; it's a little harder than I anticipated because it's more rhythm-based than simply mashing the button to reel in the fish.

 

[jonthefox]

dear lord may the gods of game development help me...I recently learned how to edit and convert older tiles/sprites/battlers to MV, and am now obsessing over the possibilities of creating the kind of old school FF1-style game I've always wanted to.   What this means is, the past 3 days I've been completely sidetracked from my main project because I'm relishing all of the delicious theorycrafting, planning, and resource-compiling joys of a new project idea.  I feel like some shameful compulsive gambler or something--I totally broke my promise of not working on any other projects, even if i I tell myself "it's just a temporary break" (because history has shown that those always turn into extended diversions).  


Anyone else can relate?

 

[stupid enough to like FF13]

@lilywhite: Ok, I've never played the 7th Saga. Any good?

Eh, it has some interesting ideas, like how the runes you collect have in-battle functions (such as buffing your stats or restoring HP) and how the apprentices other than yourself can be encountered, teamed up with, fought, and even beat you to the runes in a few instances (necessitating a fight). But other than that, it's a really tedious game, even without how the Western releases made it obscenely difficult by lowering your character's stat growth (but not the other apprentices).


As for progress: I hate myself.


To clarify: I decided to merge the work I'd already done on my TP system with the new layout template I'd made. That was enough work...until I decided that I might as well make it work off of MP, because then I could have more control over it more easily (especially in regards to max MP). But the story idea I have only involves four party members at a time, so I had to tweak the main menu status back. Then I had to make MP regeneration work without having it change based on max MP. Then I had to make the menus display base and max MP totals. Then I had to figure out how I'd have stats work, then make the character status screen for all of the relevant stats needing display, then any other stuff I wanted to have...


End result for the character status screen

Spoiler

Still more stuff to tweak (namely, I need to adjust the equip screen stat display) but this is a start.

 

[Idril]

@bgillisp - Thanks for the suggestion! I will definitely keep it in mind


@noctiluca - Those features sound great, the fishing system sounds especially inventive. Best of luck getting out of the art slump!


Today I did everything but what I knew I should be doing - so instead of working on my spreadsheet for items/etc or outlining I worked in the editor. At least I'm getting a better idea of where my story is going just based on playing around. Trying to convince myself to do the more boring work is turning out to be very hard


Also contemplating when I should make a thread in Early Project Feedback for my game, I still don't know if it's too early to put one up. I'm guessing that by the time I decide to do it, it'll be the right time.

 

[BlackRoseMii]

(Almost forgot to post today Oo)


This week, I've tried to work on the cutscenes again. There aren't many left anymore, so I should be able to finish them until sunday. Hopefully I won't have any more headaches until then ^^° Missed half of today because of them again -.-°

 

[Mimironi]

Aalright, after a few days of procrastinauuhhh... planning, i got another pose for the 'main character' done.


Also I finally confirmed an outfit for the other dude, which was my main goal for this week (it's the little things) ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Spoiler

Spoiler








Smug. Probably looks weird cause I haven't erased the arms yet.

 

[bigcalsworld]

Been ill for the last few weeks so wasn't able to get done what I wanted by the end of Jan . Starting to feel better so opened up RPG Maker again to try and get back into it. So my Feb goals are:


Finish planning the story - Got the main idea written down last month, now I just have to flesh it out.


Figure out how to prevent death/game over - Found 2 or 3 tutorials/scripts for this and none work whatsoever and I am totally clueless as to what to do now lol.


Map out my first forest area - This is the first real area, that you must travel through to get to the world map and properly begin your journey. Got some ideas of what I want to do with it, its just a case of actually doing it.

 

[Chaos17]

About the skill level up system, I decided that I will finaly stick with my original vision.

 

[bgillisp]

Internet crashed for the day when I tried to post yesterday, so I'm going to make this quick and just say congrats on your progress so far!


2.12 Update: Finished mapping the town of Thundermeadow and the peaks that are nearby. Now I need to event them, which is today's task.

 

[NarikoStudios]

Just saw this

My Goals for this month are to finish the second demo being a story demo of the intro and a introduction of the world and then make a start on the mechanics demo which is more gameplay based and shows how the game will go gameplay wise


Write more chapters of the story would be a good idea to do aswell


Request some clothes I saw in the specials resource


Post the second demo and make it smaller size so people can download it and show the current and possibly final form of the game(I don't think its going to change anymore)


Not obsess over Nariko and do some work development and story wise other than just being distracted by how cute and hot she is(don't judge me)


Try and find a uniform that fits Nariko more than the generator has


Find last names for Shika, Kitsune and Kaze aswell as a name and design for the Kunoichi in the first arc


Try and make sprites and a face of The Traveling Samurai


Give as many people as I can there official outfits and not placeholders


That's what i'd like to do anyway

 

[taarna23]

Progress is being made... I'm going to have to actually make some maps soon to test with. I think I have my code configured to choose and place a start room. Nothing yet to handle teleporting there, but that comes later.


Right now I'm trying to handle the bulk of map generation. I think the next step involves every programmer's best friend: recursion. Lucky me, this was a concept I innately grasped in school, much to the ire of fellow students. I've figured out that I need to, once the start room is chosen, I need to map out the REST of it and then go over those areas and assign maps to them after the fact. So basically, it'll build the structure, then fill in the maps.


After that, I need to figure out handling transferring the player. Ideally, this is done in a one-size-fits-all kind of way based on the direction the player wants to go. I don't think that should be too bad.


I was loving mapping before. Now that I'm neck-deep in code, I don't want to work on maps. Sigh.

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

Progress Report #7


-Another two scenes down, 3 more to go.


-I'm doing a small revision on the dialogues in some areas. Some things did not work right.


-Finished with the option to skip the launcher automatically, along with a way to reset the option.

 

[bgillisp]

@Narikostudios: What's the title of your game? Does it currently have a page posted on here?


@taarna23: I've noticed that once I get going on something I don't want to switch from it. Busy mapping, I don't want to event. Get busy evening, I don't want to map. Maybe that's what's happening here?


@aceofaces_mod: Is the option to skip the launcher in a config file?


2.13 Update: Evented the Thundermeadow peaks. Now you can run up there and grab the item you need and get out of there. Too bad there are Shocking birds, Storm Gargoyles, Thunder Crystals, Stun Flies and even a couple Genies and Stroka (hybrid Dragon/birds. Very deadly) that are in your way.


Managed to set it up so that you can get in and get out with what you need. Now its time to event the sequence where you return with the items you were asked to find in the first place.


Also, with that I just hit my February goal, which was map Thundermeadow and the nearby peaks. I'm going to probably for the rest of the month either work on the rest of the Ch 5 maps (which means I need to redraw parts of Elmwood to make it fit), or just do general polish on what I have so far. I'm leaning to the general polish myself, as there's a lot of polish needed for Chapters 4 and 5 right now. Let's just say they are playable but rough in places.