Game Making Drive March 2014

[Alexander Amnell]

GMD, Day 5, March 20th:

I'm not sure what is wrong with me exactly, but I cannot make myself make any true progress with mapping right now, no matter how much I sit with the program open I just don't get enough done. I was hoping between today and yesterday I'd have the forest pretty much finished (nine maps) though at the moment I only have one even complete enough to be worth screenshoting and that one isn't even complete to my satisfaction. 



The log can be pushed into the river once you have a party member that isn't an 11 or 14 year old girl; complete with foam around the log and the current pushing it downstream until it is stopped by land and creates a sort of bridge with the rocks sticking out of the water for you to hop across to get to the other side.

I played around with skills a little more but really what I need to do at the moment is more mapping, everything else is done up to the point of progression and well tested, I'm just not in a mindset where I can make a lot of headway with that right now apparently.

http://s1227.photobucket.com/user/Alexander_Amnell/media/O21qbjI.png.html

 

[Mouser]

GMD Day 4: Dialog, dialog, and yes, some more dialog.

It seems every time I add a few lines I realize there's another condition that has to be set to be sure the characters aren't told something or say something they shouldn't know about (Lumina is a bit of a 'mystery' type plot) while making sure the pages don't allow for skipping over needed lines through some combination of choices. Fortunately, there's no shortage of switch slots (wish there were more event self switches though). I'm down to the final four NPC's so this should be finished (along with a couple I still have to add) by the end of the week).

Thankfully, the array is the data structure with the absolute fastest lookup time [o(1)] so I don't have to worry about performance hits as the list grows from the hundreds to the thousands. I'm thinking of setting aside a block of 100 to use for the 'temporary' switches that eventually get replaced by permanent ones as the plot progresses. The problem is I then lose the meaningful names of those switches.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

March 21, 2014


- Working on my idea for the farm mapping contest


- Working on some maps for the project (I'll post links once I finish some)

 

[ThatMaestroGuy]

Day 1:

Spent the vast majority of the day mixing down and mastering this one track. It's a process that I'm not excited about, but it certainly makes a difference in the end. I need to continue working on a few extra tid-bitts for a project on VX Ace, but for now, I am content with the track. Hooray!

 

[Hesufo]

Day 4:

Continuing with the skill rework I've been doing in my game, I've changed the effects of many bread-and-butter abilities for some classes in my game. Particularly, Mana Siphon, a MP-damaging skill which didn't absorb MP, actually does now. I usually rely on scripting for neat spell effects: I was unable to make a skill that dealt MP damage and drained a percentage, and not 100% like the default options force you to, so I whipped up a neat damage formula, check it out! :

c = a.atk * 0.2 + a.mat * 0.2 + b.mp * 0.25; a.mp += (c * 0.4).to_i; cSo basically, it factors 20% of your Attack and Magic Attack plus 25% of the target's current MP, and the result is dealt as MP damage. Afterwards, 40% of that is absorbed by the attacker.

The use of a letter value to save up space in the small formula box helps a LOT. In this case I save the damage formula to letter "c" because I need to use it first (but multiplied by 0.4, that is, 40%) to heal the attacker's MP; and, secondly, I just type "c" again to use the full formula that is dealt as MP damage.

On the skills note, I've also switched around the effects for some skills to make them less must-have and more of a part of valid choices for the player to make, particularly in some cases where weapon skills were unbalanced among each other.

I've also started working on a brand-new Class, the Hexer, who is able to use a variety of spells. Most of them cause status ailments and debuffs, others deal direct damage. Their signature line of spells are the Marks, which affect an enemy either for the duration of the turn or at the end of the turn and are instant-cast (they don't take up a battle turn). The strongest one, the Death Mark, tags an enemy at the start of the turn. When the turn ends, they take as much damage as the amount of HP they lost in that turn, so it's a very strong pseudo-damage amplifier when you can afford to focus down a strong enemy to bring them down quickly

 

[Hollow]

GMD Day 6 - March 20, 2014

Well, today I've been pretty ill so it's been difficult to sit down and focus on the task at hand. However, I did manage to start moving my cutscene draft into an actual event, and worked on a couple more emotion edits for the MC's portrait.

 

[seita]

Game Making Drive Day 5

• Another slow day today on actual development~ Getting my legs wet on world-map making with research and testing.
• Some more work delegation, in particular with environmental concept art.
• Started and nearly finished going through the entire 2013 tax year for business expenses and tax deductions.

Sorry no shiny pics today~

 

[Ever]

I'd love to try this.

DAYS: Wednesday and Thursday

TIMES: 12pm-4pm

MY TIME ZONE (UTC/GMT +/- #): GMT - 7:00 (Arizona - We do not to Daylight Savings*)

PREFERRED TEAM: Knights if possible

 

[Tsukitsune]

GMD Day 3

Worked a little on the Training Squadron map for about an hour, tried out some building layouts.  Not really satisfied with the layout I made though and might be scrapping it, so because of that, no screenshot this time.

 

[Shaz]

Ever, I've added you to Knights. Will you be doing an update today (for Thursday), or just start in week 2?

 

[Lars Ulrika]

GMD, Day 5, March 20th:

I'm not sure what is wrong with me exactly, but I cannot make myself make any true progress with mapping right now, no matter how much I sit with the program open I just don't get enough done. I was hoping between today and yesterday I'd have the forest pretty much finished (nine maps) though at the moment I only have one even complete enough to be worth screenshoting and that one isn't even complete to my satisfaction. 

The log can be pushed into the river once you have a party member that isn't an 11 or 14 year old girl; complete with foam around the log and the current pushing it downstream until it is stopped by land and creates a sort of bridge with the rocks sticking out of the water for you to hop across to get to the other side.

I played around with skills a little more but really what I need to do at the moment is more mapping, everything else is done up to the point of progression and well tested, I'm just not in a mindset where I can make a lot of headway with that right now apparently.

Hi! 

I strongly advice you to post it on the game and maps screenshots topic. You'll get much useful insight for improving it. I can already tell you that there is a trouble with the waterfall and the height of some "cliffs" that don't make sense. 

 

[Jonnie91]

Was feeling pretty rough last night so wasn't able to update!

GMD 5: Thursday

Today I worked one three different tracks, one battle theme, which is still in progress, and two different dungeon themes and a main theme for Cruel miracle. In the end I had to stop though as wasn't feeling to well, so went to bed early ^_^ 

 

[Neo Soul Gamer]

Day 3: Coping with the lack of scripting knowledge.

I've been reading through scripts trying to tweak x & y values to get a desired visual effect. I'm working with the Ao No Kiseki battle system, which seems to be pretty popular in RM game development these days. What makes me happy is that no one seems to want to drift too far away from the defaults. In other words, everyone's battle looks and acts the same way. The more I see this, the more I feel about mine being unique.

I can happily say that I've managed to create some custom graphics to give my Battle Scene some consistency and uniformity. I'm hoping it'll be aesthetically pleasing to those who see it. 

 

[numfanklewhat]

Day 3 - FRI mar 21


- Polishing and tweaking interface graphics, which is a lot of works. The original interface graphics on my project is currently strictly limited to box shape with three colors, but after much testing, i do feel the simplicity I tried to present in the interface is really flawed, since the information on the interface feels like it is too cluttered and can be difficult to understand quickly.


- Eventing routine (as usual) 

 

[Ksi]

Day 07

It's been a week already! Yikes! >.<;

Alright, so I decided to start my weekender off with a fizz and began the new project. I have 0 idea where it's going, but we'll see on Monday how far I went with it. ^.^; So, started out just erasing pieces of the database - the hero information and what-not. I also started the mapping.

As I said in my last post, I'll be using Sample Maps as a base. Which I have done. I then jumped in and edited them to fit with my aesthetic and so far, so good. Now I just have to create the character, quest and everything else. Woo... XD

Well, for the sake of comparison...

Here's the initial sample map of the town:

Spoiler

And here's my edit:

Spoiler

Much better~ ^.^
 

 

[Sharm]

GMD DAY 4


Goal: Make small mine details.


I don't know why I've been avoiding mine details, since it's pretty easy and going to mostly be edits. I kept working on bust stuff and started on the NPC counterpart to Priska.


Eventually I got myself going and started making some mine details. I pulled the outline for my water tiles as a starting point to make a dug out hole in the ground and realized pretty quickly that the work I'd done on the water tiles was extremely flawed and needed to be redone. I finished the hole tiles and then got distracted by remaking the water tiles.


I have no preview image today, my workflow was too fragmented.


Today's Goal: Redo all the water tiles.

 

[Ever]

Ever, I've added you to Knights. Will you be doing an update today (for Thursday), or just start in week 2?

Here you go

Days 1 & 2 (Week 1 - Project Code: 'Starfall'*)

Day 1:

• Worked on intergrating existing scripts into the game for Parallax overlays. (This took me hours to find a mesh that worked how I wanted it to)
• Continued expanding upon an existing town and imported the file from GIMP2 to Photoshop.
• Heavily edited the overlays in order to get them to work properly from an asthetics perspective.
• Tested the existing maps extensively for bugs and an overall "hurrah" or fist raising moment when everything worked as planned.

Day 2:

• Created a new .PDF file that will be used to house all my games information friom story to characters.
• Wrote an overview/definition of the world which the story exists in.
• Began writing a synopsis of the story conept so it turns from thought to paper.
• Created a new studio logo.
• Hunted for additional mapping + sprite resources and ideas to intergrate into the game.

 

[Lars Ulrika]

Day 5

A HUUUUUGE day getting headache trying to sort out compatibility troubles between Moghunter and Yanfly systems. I miraculously sorted it out. Result : menu interface changed, save interface changed too, added a bestiary and Battleback EX script to use battlebacks à la Mother series. I also did edit three sprite sheets. 

Two of them are pretty much look alike. 

Spoiler

Sorry about the watermarks but it's just to keep anonymous users not caring about copyrights at bay. 

Oh, and I finally decided to show you my bust abomination : 

Spoiler

I used "template" from Version Fille busts to make a test. And as you can see, it was not conclusive at all lol. At least, certainly not for something I intend to become a commercial project. 

Oh and also, I'm amazed at how Ksi always manages to show that rtp too can be badass. 

 

[PixelLuchi]

GMD Day 5:

- Finished up an interior for an Inn. Kept it simple.

Spoiler

It's from the same miserable mining town that my earlier interiors were based off.

- Finished up a bust of a main antagonist.

- Started writing out the scene for Episode II of Tristian.

 

[Pern]

Entry 3

I've posted nothing exciting this GMD drive so far! It's a shame I don't have anything physical to show for my work yet, but still powering away at that battle system. Doing my best to find answers to my questions through google and the forums before asking something silly in a thread. It's going well, I'm making decent progress. I'm not "in love" with the system yet but I'm getting there. It's pretty straight forward, and I think my doubt will be alleviated once I get over this hump. The beginning only has two characters available so not much wiggle room. This is probably one of my weak spots. Next Monday hopefully I'll have a little bit more done and start doing outside maps next like I said I would.