January Goals & Progress Thread

Ths last month of 2016 was very productive for mwe, but I still couldn't finish all I wanted to.


For this year, I hope to get a demo out in November or December. (I wanted to aim for mid year, but I have gotten more realistic/pessimistic over time)


For this month I want to improve my title screen, finish the last part of the intro (and create Character Protraits for use in those two) and rework my battle system (which means pretty much rebuilding it again from square one.) as well as implement a bar brawl minigame (also for the intro).

 

Just got a 2 goals.


1. Get started on a project and not quit on it. And hopefully finish it one day.


2. Release at least 1 more plugin this month.

 

Since I failed last month goal of "finish the game BETA", this month my goal will be "finish the game ALPHA" -_-

 

Good luck with all the goals everyone!


1.2 Update: Managed to rebalance level 2 of the Dwarfen Training Caves, place all my secret rooms except those that are in optional areas that still need to be drawn (but did decide on what the reward is for each), and finished placing all NPC's at Icetop Fortress. Though, that last one didn't take long, as who lives at am old fort in the coldest place in the world?


Also polished up the world map so it has all the optional dungeons placed. Some of them are already done, but in the wrong spot, so they will just need to be moved. And now is also when I'm glad I have almost never deleted any maps in my game yet, as those 20 - 30 unused maps from old side areas and such are about to become very useful.

 

For January:


1. Due to a promise from the RMN Secret Santa event, I now have to write a fanfic for the RM date sim game Heartache 101. How did I get myself into this?!! Writing a romantic love story? Never done it before! What the f... oh well, it'll be good writing practice. They always say getting out of one's comfort zone is a good thing. The story'll probably suck, but I did promise BAD fanfiction, haha! At least I was honest. 


2. Also another out of comfort zone experience, my goal is to finish a simple horror game before the end of the month. Still in concept stages. I've never done a horror game before either.


Well, I suppose getting out of my old comfort zone is a good way to start the year with a bang.


For 2017:


1. Complete our game "99" in some shape or form. Right now the game is a super memory hog and I have no idea how to go about solving it. Maybe will have to redesign the dungeons so they're smaller? Or wait for new updates on the core and plug-ins? Will have to wait and see on this.


2. Originally wanted to put our game "Valkyrie Blue" on MV, but with MV's memory problems, now not so sure...maybe will have to use another engine, but using MV would save so much more time. It's just performance I'm worried about. Still undecided what to do with this now.


3. Make some other MV game. No idea what it will be at this point.

 

Good luck everyone! 


I'll keep my goals simple and hopefully doable, so that I can start the year off right:

• Get an updated demo out - I've made some progress fixing up things with my game, so it'd be nice if I could release it for people to try
  
• Figure out how to get shields working well in the character generator - I played around with the idea a bit the past few days, and I think it's possible but it needs some more work to really be useful
  

 

Starting a new game project. This will probably be the first one I'll finish - I hope I suceed.

 

There are some great goals emerging.  This could be a really good month for interesting posts.  Good luck everyone!  To all those starting a new project, or starting a project again, I have found that this thread helps me to keep focused and on track.  I think that has been other peoples' experience as well.


@bgillisp Never deleting maps seems like an extremely sensible idea.  I rarely have 'spare' maps that I can draw on, but I'll keep your experience in mind.


@AMGLime Plot and Character feedback thread might be the way to go.  It's difficult to give coherent feedback on just bits and pieces, because one needs to know the context of those extracts, so maybe the whole plot would be better.  It depends how well you can synthesize it.


@Crabs At first I read your goals as "Polish character" as in "character from Poland", and got very confused for a moment or two.


@Punamaagi I thought I'd seen a couple of plugins for what you want.  It might be quicker/easier to modify an existing one than to create it from scratch.  Or perhaps find one with a lot of customizable options in it that you would select from?


@Arithmetician Are you using animated or static battlers for your monsters?


@watermark I'll be honest, I'm not even thinking of using MV until those memory problems are sorted.  As I'm not intending to release for mobile, Ace does all I want at the moment.  Writing a romantic love story could be a hoot if you go at it intending to have some fun with it.  Romance doesn't have to be all floaty pink hearts.


@hiddenone I'm deeply curious about what it is you want to do with shields that you need to rework how the generator handles them.  Is it the positioning that's the problem?


My update:


Spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to get an accessory to work.  For those who didn't read the earlier threads in this series, our heroes have been given a choice about how to progress the story.  There's a 'roadblock' as it were, and they can clear it by going the 'Slow but Sure' route of going off to get an item which will cause the monster to flee, (a Hygrod Stinkwort, since you asked) or there's the 'Death or Glory' route if they want to try and fight it.  If they fight it, I want the rewards to be special, and that will include an accessory which will revive the wearer with a decent amount of HP next turn if they die in battle.  Trouble is, of course, I have no idea who might have equipped it, and I cannot do a Force Action of any sort of revival spell because that would normally need me to designate an actor to carry out the Action - but I have no idea who else might be in the party or alive themselves at that point.  But all is now well and my little darling does the business regardless of such piffling details.

 

My update so far:

• Received 3 tracks from the composer (Title theme, Spring theme and Festival theme) and added them to the game.
  
• Implemented gate items (I already had the fences working, just added gates now):
  
  
  
  
  
• Finally implented the chicken coops (I know, this should've been implemented years ago):
  I'm still using a few placeholder assets for it though:
  
  Spoiler

  
  
  

 

I juuust barely managed to make last month's goals, but at least I don't have to do any catch-up to start the year.


My hope for January is to get a demo that I'd actually want someone to try, even if it's just a proof of concept for how gameplay flows.


My goal for the year is to at least get a demo that lets you feel "this is what the game is like," and uses enemies, areas, and items I expect to use in the final game, even if they aren't in their final stage.

 

My goal this month is to finish Tiny World and get it up for sale.  I did a brief breakdown of how much I'd have to do each day to pull it off and I'm more than a little intimidated.  I should be logging off of work for the day and I'm only half done with today's tasks.  Granted, I spent most of the day hanging out with my family so I spent a bit less time working than I intended, but considering how much time I did spend on it, it's not looking so good.  I'm hoping that when I get around to doing a more thorough breakdown of what's left to do that I'll have more done than I think, otherwise I'm in trouble.


Oh well, five animated auto tiles from scratch, plus three more created by editing, then one more from scratch normal auto tile and four edited isn't a bad amount for one day's work.  I just still need to get at least a quarter sheet of B tiles and and two event animations in before the end of the day.


Wish me luck!  I'm going to deal with normal real world stuff and then give it a go before bedtime.

 

By end of January I'd like to have all my Database (with the exception of skills) completed and all my plug-in settings checked and tested for proper expected functions. I'm aiming high on this one.


-Mia


"I'd also love to create a Spongebob Squarepants inspired tileset for M.I.A. by the end of January." - @Sharm


Oh Sharm.. you are too kind. Why thank you kindly..

 

Sorry Mia, that would require me to have actually seen an episode all the way through and not hate it.  Not going to happen.

 

I have finally been able to work again on my project. I was thinking that my "skills" leveling system is a bit lacking with it just making you learn new "arts" every few levels so I made it to increase your parameters too. This way it allows the system to help you build your desired character and play style more. I've also learned how to add/remove features so some of the skills that you level modifies the ex and sp params instead of just the params.

 

Is it remarkable to say that I've been slacking a bit building my game? Well, I have been. In fact I think I've lost a little bit of fluency with RPG Maker MV and the billions of plugins (okay, dozens) that I've set up in the game. Still I'm confident that I can get back in the swing of things. I want to set a hard date to have the alpha done. For me an alpha would consist of all character class related systems built, One major multiple part quest complete (including minions, midbosses, and boss monsters), and a good solid side quest. Let's say........ February 28th?  Yeah, let's say that.

 

@Volimance What might be really helpful is to break that big goal down a bit.  What do you hope to do in January that will set you up for your February  goal?  What steps do you think you can realistically make? Breaking things down a bit helps to make it easier to see the correct sequence and achieving mini steps helps motivation. 

 

Oh, I'm a tad late this time for this topic. Well then, good luck everyone for your goals !


My goals this month will be :


- Continue working on my current project (SFE) of course, by finishing the adaptation of the secondary missions after the changes brought by mission XVIII.


- Work on mission XIX in SFE, a new secondary mission after a while, based on puzzles and logic more than firepower.


- Work on a new project with a friend (no name yet), which will be based on RPG Maker MV, but with a complete set of personal plugins. First of all will be the generation of random maps with a notion of "depth". For example, if you dig on a tile, you make the tile below appear. I will start by coding this.

 

@ksjp17: It's more like the maps used to be in the game in one way or another, but the dungeon has since been deleted from the game (no entrance to it anymore). But, the maps are still there. So only useful if you ever made them once, then changed your mind.


@Hudell: Placeholders can go a long ways though while working out mechanics.


@Doktor_Q: That feedback from that first demo can be invaluable! Good luck with that.


@Sharm: 5 autotiles from scratch in one day is still probably 5 more than I could do in one day. Good luck with the rest of the tile making!


 @M.I.A.:  Suggestion. Leave a few blank spaces. You'll thank me later.


@Engr. Adiktuzmiko: Sounds like a decent change.


@Volimance: I was told an alpha is everything is in the final game, but not 100% functional (so some placeholder stuff). At least I think that is how it is termed in software dev?


@Schlangan: How many more missions until you decide to move things into a new game? I think you told me once and for some reason I'm thinking you're close to that number now.


1.3 Update: Finished the Dwarfen Training Caves. May have to return to the balance of the monsters, as it is meant to be a super dungeon in the end (aka the hardest monsters in the entire game), and I only have saves from my speedrun right now, so my party is way too weak to test it out. Also placed the final monster in there, which is one of the ultimate bosses. Though if you can defeat it, you get an accessory that doubles all main stats (HP, MP, ATK, DEF, MAT, MDF, AGI, and LUK). Let's just say it breaks all balance at that point, but that is the point of completing this super hard marathon run against monsters about 20+ levels ahead of you.


Also mapped out the town of Gnoa, which is right by these Training Caves. Small town, so was easy to map. Now to populate it with NPC's, which, since the town is small, will probably not take too long (I hope).


And finally, investigated more into a business license, as I will probably need one before I can sell my book that I wrote last year. Seems my state is a little weird on things, so I may have to shell out the $$$ to consult a business lawyer (I found one that promises $25 for 30 minutes, and I doubt I need much more than that) to be sure everything is covered legally. Will research this some more tomorrow.

 

Been a bit since I posted, working with playtesters from the game I wrapped up in december so that's sort of a constant sporadic goal to work on.


That aside, I want to get an exterior tileset I've been making for MV done soon. I've been working on it on and off for awhile now and only need a few more parts to get it done; A couple walls and a couple recolors of those walls, a stone bridge and a recolor of the bridge and some manner of water. 


I've been doing it to occupy my time in the meantime and start to practice pixel art which Sharm has inspired me to try as I absolutely love using her tiles. It'll give me something to make a small game with in MV to when the time comes (will eventually make a whole small set but exterior is my goal for now) and help ease the transition to going from ACE to MV. I've had MV for quite awhile now and haven't done anything with it so its definitely going to be something I want to get into this year!


Well, Let's do good this month everybody! Holidays are over, its a new year, let's get back into business!

 

@ksjp17 The position is a bit of a problem, but the biggest issue I'm having is that the default generator doesn't have an easy way to have multiple layers of items.  I want the shield to go behind the clothes for some poses of the sv battlers, so I tried putting it in the cloak slot but that means it appears under all the accessories which can look pretty weird.

​

I've played around with ways to get shields to work, and it seems that using the cloak slot is going to be the best way.  Common sense (and possibly liberal use of gimp) will have to go into having the shields look perfect on different sprites but it does seem usable at this point.