January Goals and Progress Thread

[Another Ned]

Progress Update:

• decided on some lore-relevant things that might affect the designs (e.g. some types of magic leave marks on the user's skin)
  
• finished the preliminary designs for Shiah, Xunrae and Fyir. Shiah's original design notes (from about ten years ago) said 'refuses to wear shoes'; I got him to wear slippers now, I call that character development. Xunrae was a challenge since she's supposed to be stylish and my knowledge of fashion is very, very limited. After some poking around the internet and multiple sketches I found something that worked. Fyir... He's pretty new (as in, I wrote him for the first time late 2016), so while I didn't have much to work with, it also wasn't terribly outdated. But he showed me Paint Tool SAI's limits (I wanted to draw everyone side by side, my file is 5000px wide now) as it decided that it didn't have enough memory. Also, he's got a ton of freckles, so I had to switch to Photoshop anyway
• might potentially replace one NPC that appears only if the player is too lazy to answer the phone at one point with one that can be optionally called later, just to save some time/work. Might actually be more fun, too, since the other doesn't like Ned much

Two more NPCs to go, then I have everyone on the critical path. Then, there's only eight more left (or seven, depending on my choice regarding the replacement of one character with another). Then, there's only three (or four) that I need minor sketches of for Ned's contact list and I'm done with the preliminary character designs.

 

[BreakerZero]

0.6.2 now. After debating how to deal with the limitations of the custom title method I'm using I decided to turn the default menu scene into the opening slide of my prologue (reasoning is over this way) and structure the events accordingly.

 

[Marquise*]

Got 9lined busts done. I wonder if they will get appreciated to the sole beneficiary I destine them to?

 

[bgillisp]

Progress Update:

-I fixed the stutter bug that plagued my game on the overland map and a couple other big ones. Seems ACE can't handle updating the step counter once it becomes a long variable (> 65535 steps) and update the animated A1 tiles and such correctly as well as scroll the map, and it causes a stutter step effect about every 20 steps or so when scrolling which was quite noticable. I disabled the step counter completely and that fixed it.

-Been researching a change to the victory aftermath so I can try something with it. I want to change it so that after you defeat a boss it says a fixed line that is appropriate to the battle you just had and not a random line from the pool. Kinda like what many Tales games do. Got an idea for it and plan to test it this weekend if not sooner.

 

[Another Ned]

Progress Update:

• did decide to replace one NPC with another to save time/work
• finished the preliminary designs of the replacement and afterward, Ned's superior as well

Next up are the optional, callable NPCs, and the first on the list is Erika. She'll be interesting, I wanted to redesign her artificial limbs for years.

 

[BreakerZero]

0.6.3 and a shift in presentation at the start. Decided to give an early look at Tedd's hometown ahead of the planned sequel (not that any interactions will be possible in the first game, and the vending machines aren't freebies either) but prior to what goes down the next morning I figured that I may as well get inside his mind a bit and build the 'hood from the very start prior to his block getting separated from the rest of the city in the course of what is yet to come.

Also, to better fit the core hook I used this as an opportunity to introduce healing procedures relative to what makes the crew members as they are by providing extra mitigation by infusion therapy so that when Tedd gets up the next morning he's not on the manic side of matters following the prior day's issues, unexpected jitters notwithstanding.

 

[bgillisp]

Fixed Yanfly's aftermath so that if I set two variables it will have the actor stored in variable one say the line stored in variable two. Now we won't get silly lines like "Let's fight something harder" or "Zzzz....huh? We won?" after defeating a boss.

 

[mobiusclimber]

Been sick for the last week so I've gotten almost nothing done. I've decided to remove the credits from the beginning of the game since I think it's distracting. I might at some point put them back in, but it would only be when I have a more dynamic intro. There's a lot of stuff I want to do, and no idea how to go about doing it. In RPG Maker FES, there's an overlay of birds flying from the bottom left corner of the screen into the top right. Looking around, there doesn't seem to be any animated overlays, if that's even what they're called, for MV. I'm not an artist and I don't even know how I'd go about making something like that.

I did get several more enemies set up, rudimentarily anyway, so that now each of the on-map enemies has one of three different troop configurations that are randomized. I gotta figure out some good damage formulas for enemy spells so the enemies aren't so boring. I also really need to cut out that weird scrolling text cutscene I have and replace it with something. I'm about ready to put up a new demo. I wish I had done so a long time ago bc the IGMC demo I did is so bad. XD

 

[BreakerZero]

@mobiusclimber I have the same thing in my project. In my case it is for the implosion sequences and I do it with standard show picture calls.

Additionally I am officially entering the coming soon phase now, rather than waiting until I release my demo.

 

[Another Ned]

Progress Update:

• finished prelim. design for Erika. Still not happy with her prosthetics but I'll iterate some more once I get to a later stage. For now, I have the colours and potential textures down
  
• finished prelim. design for Aaron. He was an easy one. I could even use a drawing I made in 2010 and make a pattern from it for his pants, so that was fun

Only five more to go! I might be able to finish all preliminary designs after all?!

 

[BreakerZero]

0.6.4 to close out the week. Demo build is now live on Steam and the first build of the full game in progress added as well (which also means that key codes are now up for request so convo me with any interest you may have). Also, I decided to adjust the opening scene's pacing a bit and added a few more NPCs to add a bit of interaction to make it feel like a real-world "end of shift" is going on as Tedd begins his walk home, snubbing a panhandler in the process and receiving an unexpected hint that something's about to go down as he approaches his block.

 

[Another Ned]

Progress Update:

• finished preliminary designs for three more NPCs!

Only two left, one of them Suiyan (or more specifically, his inversion). This is going to be interesting, as he's on duty when he can be called. I thought I got to stave off designing the uniform for a few more years... Unless I go the 'but he's a priest, he's wearing his robes on top!' route, but I was hoping to stave off designing the robes as well, so I lose either way. His old design happened during my 'Belts! Belts for everyone!' phase so I can't even re-use that one.

 

[BreakerZero]

Got a bit of heavy material going in now. Not enough to force a 0.7 but still a biggie so I am technically pushing 0.6.8 and even that is being conservative. It actually starts off with the part of the story that I am currently working on and involves a surprising plot twist and a capability that someone has that you're not going to see coming, among other matters. Ultimately though, it's not going to end the same and his time short before the respective member of your crew has to mentally and technologically give the difficult call and formally issue his termination order. Naturally she sticks around and talks everything out to the bitter end, and she even goes as far as to frame everything around her new professional rank.

As of 1813 CST I am also at 0.6.9. I have now disconnected the last vestiges of my (now-abandoned) second quest plan and replaced it with a debug assist and sound check. Still the ultimate secret of our craft, just a different use. (And I got my first recommendation as well.)

 

[Thothdan]

...What is my goal?

 

[Another Ned]

Progress Update:

• finished the last two preliminary designs. I solved the uniform vs robe design problem by going for the robe; my last redesign didn't look too bad so I based it off of it. I did struggle a bit until I made some decisions that led to more character development, so yay! Also, I added a few useless belts back in, that was fun

I actually did it. I finished 15 preliminary designs this month. The remaining four characters will only require minor sketching (Ned isn't particularly close to any of them so I might not even need them for any other illustrations), so they don't count. I might add a version of Suiyan as himself for comparison (so I don't accidentally forget the differences between him and his Inversion again), but that's about all I had planned for this month.
The rest of the month I'll probably spend brushing up on my anatomy skills. I feel a lot more comfortable drawing than I did at the beginning of the year so things are looking up on the art block front.

 

[TheoAllen]

Trying to come up with a tutorial

 

[BreakerZero]

I went ahead and made the decision to buff my final encounter and make it a bit more interesting as well. That includes using the power boost hook to make it so his abilities are not as you would think going by his place on the chart. Also, I gave him access to the strongest ability for every mystic elemental power to seriously test your ability bringing this to 0.6.12 in terms of progression (as I'm also changing to another boss type in my latest scenario test).

 

[Marquise*]

Have to make a big picture of my month's work I think ^^

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

Progress Report #7:

Immortal Sins:
-Released hotfixes for the game.

RPG Maker MV Cook Tool:
-Released an update for the program, which improves UI responsiveness and adding the option to cancel compilation. I wonder what else to add...

 

[artoni]

Migraines are THE WORST. I had one all weekend which significantly impacted my progress. I THINK I can still get things done but it'll be close.

Spoiler: Action Journal

SHORT TERM (this week's goals);

• Populate Crescent Port
  • Recycled from last week as I didn't finish this. NPCs made, just need putting in.
• Finish sewer
  • Puzzles done, need playthrough.
• Fine-tune bandits encounter
  • Can only be done through playthrough at this point

LONG TERM;

• Program skills and script learning
  • Can Yanfly lunatic mode help
• Start work on Giboso Harbor
  • Can wait until after demo.
• Short-Long term but finish replaying this a few more times until I'm comfortable for the demo on the 31st- TWO DAYS REMAIN