July Goals & Progress Thread

[Mimironi]

@TheGreatEater

Ooo mana khemia 2, love that game as well as the first ^o^

@hiddenone

Hm... Here's my opinion :v

I think I like your first idea the most, then the third, lastly the second.

And i think I see all familiar faces in that first picture.

 

[TheGreatEater]

@Mirpono, I do too, already beat the first game recently [well my most recent beating it], and I thought I'd play MK2 again. Got all the way to where you can start gathering / synthing on your free time. Only to find that I couldn't save my progress, and when I restarted the game. It wouldn't load my save data. 21 hrs of playing gone out the window. I'm seriously bummed at that. So I'm going to restart the whole thing (but as Ulrika rather than Raze whom I like better [well the supporting cast]) and hopefully in my NG+ when I play as him a second time. The game won't murder my save data. Seriously the most worst glitch any game can have is one that makes hours and hours of game play gone in an instant.

 

[Marquise*]

@Hiddenone


JAILROCK! errr nevermind!


Reporting simply RPGMwise


http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/441700756153583229/F16C8FCE993E3D1265774228687E5DA460BF3726/


I also almost adopted a plushie today... a green or an orange dragon. HELP!

 

[Another Ned]

I completely forgot to post yesterday, and now I don't have much time, so I'm rushing out some replies. Sorry to everyone I don't reply to/comment on, I've read everything and can only say "Yay! Progress!" and "Yay! Motivation!".

@Hollow: Love how much personality is conveyed in only a few sketch lines.
Think of the Ancient Dungeon tiles like this: You can always use them for the next game.
@Marquise*: This is why I said flip a coin! : D or create one or two additional settings and roll a d4.
Hey, I only said I pictured the dragon as a statue coming to life, not that I would make it. ; P (sadly, I can't fit dragons into my game projects as of yet since I still have to make the storyline of bringing dragons back into that world. Plus, my dragons grow from trees)
And that screenshot is looking nice!
@Exhydra: I love this type of setting. I need to keep an eye on your progress so I don't forget that I want to play this when it's done.
@Kyuukon: I hope you eat and sleep enough and take breaks in-between working on stuff! D: People not burning out is something very dear to my heart
@ksjp17: Tutorial on writing strategy guides? Sounds very interesting. I have to admit I never before thought about something like that.
@bgillisp: Option 3 actually sounds most interesting to me if thinking in a player-mind. It also seems to make lots of sense in-world.
@hiddenone: The first one speaks to me the most – I love stories of how characters meet and the social dynamics in the group are established and stuff. But I'd fear that so many characters could make the scope too big for a one month game.
The second one sounds classic at first glance, but can be made interesting by weird stuff. I mean, my first thought reading your description was "and how could the poor owner afford a butler?!". (The first mystery to be solved!) x"D
The third one – I would be thrilled if by the end it is revealed that the princess did all of this so she/the guard didn't get bored or some fun twist like this. : D

Progress, 8th:

• thinking about the layout of the base and its surroundings, and how they change – since the player can swim, more water means "more areas accessible". And since the ancient civilization was renowned for their engineering (like Romans without warfare, so to speak – though my current WIP high concept for their visuals is "water-obsessed Minoans in the jungle"), this allows for puzzles to control which areas are under water to make them accessible at later times (I hope I won't suck too much at devising such puzzles). Plus, there's that plant I read about some time ago that could easily change from its water-plant-form to its land-plant-form, which is an idea-spawner
• have a bit more backstory for the first dungeon now (which is important, since there will be only one battle at the end of the dungeon – so it needs to be short, but not too short, and interesting, setting the tone and opening up some questions)
• planning: pretty much a roadmap of what things to do before I could think about releasing a demo. Went into some detail about things I need to know at certain points. I hope I divided everything up so that I won't feel overwhelmed with tons of things (I have lots of notes on the side saying "use placeholders for this" and "don't worry if it's ugly for now")

Progress, 9th:

• modified the tilesets for the base a bit, and, of course, a few more edits happened on the way. Hopefully, I can do some more (but this depends on the temperatures staying low)

 

[Marquise*]

@ Chiara... Uh no! No! No!... >.< Ack you've done it! I got a calculated 12 frame of a side $dragon statue shedding its rock scales away with a bang and ready to attack now... ARRRRRGH! If you knew each time I do a sprite in how many anims I would like to make it in? Ask Dread! ^^; And... Awww... I should get the cybermental imagination diaper out as it is now obvious I still have that hard time not to have another of these imagination leak. (and it HURTS! For real! Somewhere in my soul, it hurts to have to refrain for 10 months to use my hypercreativity/imagination.) and IGMC is on... *sigh*!

 

[BlackRoseMii]

Update:

I've been able to do a few more things, but it's still going slow. I don't have much motivation on working on my own projects, but I still get requests once in a while and I've also got someone I help with the IGMC, so I can at least do something. I hope I'll get my motivation back soon TT.TT

 

[TheGreatEater]

Progress report.

So I go to narrow the barrel on the X axis. Then I notice the hips and rear are extremely out of proportion. Spend 3 hours on that. Only to see that while rearanging the sizes of everything the hooves [aka the most intricate part of the body so far [so that they have the ability to flex / pick things up, and have a degree of opposability [the ability to move towards and [almost] touch to other part of the hoof]. As well as to give it that nice indent of the frog. Which took another two hours to get the legs re-worked, fixed other scaling / size issues as they kept popping up. And now I'm just going to call it a day for a while. Work on fixing the hooves later, or do it tomorrow.

 

[Kes]

So it looks like a Strategy Guide tutorial might be useful - okay, I'll do one after I've got this game sent off for balancing etc. 

@bgillisp

I prefer the 3rd option on the weapon thing.  But maybe I'm not the best person to give an opinion.  Your first option speaks about the sword being (restricted to?) +50ATK.  I've just checked.  My most powerful weapon only has +26ATK, but on the other hand it has 30% chance to inflict Stun, increases TP gain by 10%, EVA + 4%, and CRI +5%.  It's just a different approach to balancing weapons.  My figures are never that high.

@hiddenone

I prefer the second idea, if you're still taking opinions.

@Marquise*

I like the beginnings of that face. 

@Chiara

Water obsessed Minoans in the jungle - Yaaayyy!  go for it.  I do like the idea for a background context, and the underwater thing, that would be a nice change.  Modifying tilesets- hmm, you do know that once started it becomes very difficult to stop?  At least, that's what happens with me.

@BlackRoseMii

Maybe the lack of motivation is because the ideas have gone a bit stale?  Perhaps put them to one side completely for a week or so, rather than try and force yourself to think about them, and then come to them with fresh eyes.

@TheGreatEater

My guess would be that having refined the shapes (as in, fined them down) you'll be pleased with the result.  They were, as I think I said in one post, a bit chunky, and I do think that there is a place for a bit of lightness and elegance in the equine world.  I know that a pony is not a thoroughbred racer, and the shape will be different, but they were a bit closer to the shape of a Shire Horse than perhaps was appropriate.  I know nothing about US breeds of horse, so cannot give an equivalent to a Shire Horse.  

My Update

Strategy Guide.  It's going to be that for several days.

However, in order to maintain my sanity, I shall also do a little something else each day.  Today it was giving continuous State animations - you know the thing, e.g. when someone is afflicted with sleep in battle, there is a continuous string of zzzzzzzz's going up, or if they're confused, then stars spin round their heads.  I've done poison, sleep, paralysis, confusion, silence, blind, bleed, decay/venom and acidic erosion.  They are immensely fiddly to do, because they have to be at a zoom of 20% but I like the effect, and I do think it helps the player to be able to see at a glance who is afflicted with something like that.  It's much easier (IMO) with a continuous animation than to rely just on an icon on the player in the HUD.

 

[TheGreatEater]

@Ksjp17, I agree in it looking clunky. Honestly a part of what I was doing when fixing it up was making it less bulky. A mix between these two reference images.



[main base]



[for musculature, sleekness,  and tone].

Since my first one is going to be for the heavy variant it's going to be a tad thick / bulky [since those variants are heavy buggers], but I've been thinking of adding a bit of elegance so when I scale it down to the light variant [more like the IRL horse pic] it'll have a more sleek, graceful look. Which honestly you're opinion was actually helpful in shaping. So even if you don't think you're an expert, constructive criticism from someone with fresh eyes so to speak is greatly helpful. 

 

[Marquise*]

@TheGreatEater


Aww stylized. May I recommend something more proeminent as the tight? Seems you got a chop of a straight leg from my POV. But if it is aesthetical for you, don't mind me!


@KSJP17


TYVM


Sorry if I miss a few replies ... I think Daughter cat is kinda sick (Hope it has nothing to do with the anti bed-bug poison in my apartment) might be just a hairball but she doesn't seems to drink or eat or go at the litter box very much despite her energy and my month is already spent!


So I'll be on some teeth now. Sorry for the lack of textwalling!

 

[VideoWizard]

@ksjp17 I know it takes a lot to just write a strategy guide for the game, as I've done it myself. It helps me go back to my own games years later and know what to do.

@Marquise* A dragon faceset to go along with the dragons, I take it?

@Chiara I guess it's cooled down a bit, to get so much work done. I didn't know it broke 40C in Central Europe in the summer. That's actually hotter than it ever gets here (all-time record is only 37C or 99F). Today was 35C or 95F, so it's getting close to that...

@TheGreatEater I suspect we're in the same boat, being in the same state, but good progress anyway. A/C is standard in Florida, almost to the point where I get CHILLED going into some stores.

@BlackRoseMii I agree with ksjp17. This would be a good time to focus on something else. It's probably not quite burnout as just fatigue, but it can turn into burnout if you try to keep going at this point. Wouldn't want to end up hating your own project, after all.

@Kyuukon Seems like this is the season for burnout. And welcome to the thread!

@Mirpono Nothing wrong with a video, IMO. It counts as progress. Hopefully it stays fun for you this time!

Wed 7.8.15- Fixed the Lakeland Sands maps.

Thu 7.9.15- Fixed the Spiral Mountains map. 

Fri 7.10.15- Fixed the maps in Lakeland Ranch, Lakeland North Camp, Beekeeper's Cabin, and Mysterious Forest. Actually found an error where I had one too many tiles of cliff in the North Camp.

Thinking that Saturday will have me fixing the remaining Lakeland maps, before the adventure can continue Sunday. I'll probably test Tough difficulty now, as I'm about out of mapping for the time being (there's plenty to make, just the well is running dry). Might do Wave 6 (and updated Wave 1) of screenshots in the new week, as well.

 

[Mimironi]

(sorry that this is a video)

Yesterday and today I worked on some portraits for this girl... I've gotta say, im currently having fun with this. =O

(Im saying 'currently' because I may end up randomly stopping/quitting a few days from now as usual)

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Progress for today (on-going)


- Making the finishers of the defend set, making the drive change animations and icons.


- Changed the way I display the exp and level of your Arts. Before I showed it on the description window, now it's only visible on the Arts menu as part of the name display.

Spoiler

 

[TheGreatEater]

@Mariques*, "As the tight"? But yeah I'll be showing more PoV's on my next showing. It'll look similar to the Sprites I made months ago (which were based loosely off the first Sprite), but now that I have access to 3 dimensions, and can manipulate more than I could with the line tool, I can really add my own style to it. 

@VideoWizard, Yeah I live in Florida as well and the summers are brutal. I'm thankful that I take cabs rather than the bus. Buses in Florida summers are like walking into refrigerators.

Edit:

Progress report:  After an hour on the hooves, I've decided to just redo the entire limbs. The hind-legs below the knee joint. The fore-legs from the shoulders. I'm just not happy with how the turned out, and trying to fix them normally pops up hundreds of other problems that pop up like ants from an ant mount. But yeah, basically I'm using the mlp body base [i find the style of FIM to be aesthetically appealing, and artistically inspiring], but adding realistic joints and muscle tone, along with actual fur [which I find elegant and graceful ... I just dislike a normal horses head, and their limbs are too scrawny.], with my own touches / artistic sensibilities. 

But yeah I'll be posting pics once those're done so I can get some critiques, and thoughts to make them more appealing. 

 

[Schlangan]

@All : Nice progress as usual, congratulations !


Today I finished the second island on my new mission, as well as the underground cave linking both. I also managed to deal with a bridge to connect them when you're done with the second island, to gain time for the player. The central mechanism that requires to explore the two islands is also completed. Now, I need to create the enemies for the island (sprites, stats and AI), as well as the few remaining military underground rooms. Obviously, the boss of the mission will lie there, and I'll have to create it too (I got the idea of what it'll be, now let's try to convert the image within the brain to something in the computer ^^)

 

[Ossra]

@Exhydra: I have to say the concept looks pretty neat and controversial. I like it! I'll make sure to play it next month

Unfortunately, the controversial part of the story is probably going to be dealt with in another game, if this game is well-received. This game will be setting up the back-story.

@Exhydra: I love this type of setting. I need to keep an eye on your progress so I don't forget that I want to play this when it's done.

Thanks! I'll try and keep up on the updates, but I turn into a terrible hermit whenever I am buckling down on something.

Yesterday and today I worked on some portraits for this girl... I've gotta say, im currently having fun with this. =O


(Im saying 'currently' because I may end up randomly stopping/quitting a few days from now as usual)

Hah! I really like the movement of the image while dialog is going on. Snazzy work!


I've been listening to a lot of Ninja Gaiden (NES) music, and I think it is starting to show in the cut-scene introducing Auco and Dead//Oracle. What are they doing outside a psychometric lab? Probably about to get into trouble. Also, doing two-color backgrounds is a bit rougher than I first thought.

Dead//Oracle Face Shot


EDIT: Bonus shot of Auco about to log in (scene is unfinished/unpolished) :

 

[Kes]

@Marquise*

I hope daughter cat is feeling better.

@Video Wizard

It's not surprising that you're out of mapping zest at the moment - you did a whole load and then went back and re-did many of them.  I personally think it's important to change task pretty often so that I don't get stale on one of them.  Perhaps you're the same as well, and once you've had a chance to do something else, inspiration will come back.  This might be a moment to do something very non-visual, like plan out some more of your music/sound effects.

@Mirpono

I love your portrait; I think it's so full of character, and you've got the movement during the dialogue off extremely well.  I do hope that you don't randomly quit it in the next few days.

@Engr.Adiktuzmiko

Normally I prefer thinner, more elegant fonts to clunky ones, but I think maybe yours has got a bit too thin.  It's actually quite hard to read the main text - though it could also be that there's not quite enough contrast in the colour of the text compared with the background.  I like the general layout, though, and it's cool the information you're giving.

@TheGreatEater

...like ants popping out of an ant hill.  Too true!  I know the feeling and can sympathize.  Knowing that the finished product is going to be so much better than what you started with ought to be enough incentive to carry on in a cheerful frame of mind, but realistically half the time it's not.  It's a good thing that perseverance is one of your strengths.

@Schlangan

Is this mission #9?  Or have you got further than I think you have?  I think I must have missed some crucial posts at the beginning, because I don't know who's dishing these missions out.  Why is our hero rushing around completing them?  Or is that a spoiler?

@Exhydra

2 colour backgrounds are a killer to do.  Good luck with them.  Looking good, though.

My Update.

Strategy Guide. All the constant stopping to write the text makes this a very slow process.  I am using the opportunity, though, to pop in a few more bits of dialogue to fill out a character who is looking a bit thin in places.

My distraction activity for today was making a couple more sound effects.  I wish I had proper software, but I haven't, so I'm quite restricted in the range of what I can do, but over time I've managed to replace quite a number, and with all the SFX from Blinn and Ashedragon, I think I've nearly got that whole area sorted now.  Or at least as much as it's going to be for this game.

 

[hiddenone]

Thanks for the opinions, guys.   Yay for progress!

@Mirpono - I like how expressive that portrait is.  I hope you continue.

@Exhydra - It may be tough doing two-color backgrounds, but it looks pretty cool so far.

@ksjp17 - Great to hear that the sound effects are almost done, and that you're making progress on your strategy guide.

I spent part of today still trying to decide which idea to do.  Each has such a different list of pros and cons that I thought about just flipping a coin to decide.  Then I remembered that coins only have two sides...  So I did the next best thing: I put my fate into the hands of the RM gods.  Plopped an event down in my testing game that picked a random number and then let it choose what I'd be doing.

Spoiler

With that decision out of the way, I'll be able to spend tomorrow actually planning out the game. 

 

[Schlangan]

@ksjp17


No, I'm still at the same mission I said I was working on this month ^^ To be short, the four soldiers party that we control at the beginning of the game fulfill the missions. Primary missions make the story progress while secondary missions are for gaining XP and getting more background for the main story (typically, I wrote the main story, secondary missions are new parts that I create accordingly). All the game is based on missions since it would be crazy to try to map an entire universe ^^ And right now, I'm drawing a bear from scratch. Front view done, side view at 80% right now.


Don't rush for your strategy guide. As it can be expected, pinpointing some details often leads to add new things while writing a guide. But be careful to not add too much, as usual, it's hard to keep a correct balance

 

[bgillisp]

@ksjp17: Sound effects. I'm just starting out on those myself (replacing some of the defaults in the animations until I get the hang of the animations better). I don't envy you.

@ExHydra: Understandable. Right now I'm traveling some and on a slight break from game dev, so its been harder to post.

@Schlangan: I'm behind...is this mission 9 now? Or are you up to 10? Also I'm disputing making a mission based game next, though it is technically the prequel to my current game. We will see what I feel like once this game is done.

@hiddenone: I suppose that is one way to decide. Best of luck with the game designing!

On limited internet tonight, so have to cut it short there. I'll try to respond to more next time.

Last few days update:

So based on the feedback above, it looks like #3 was the winner. That means I change nothing and just move on with the game for now, though I might tweak the numbers some. Now I have to debate more my damage formula. Did a little research on the net for the damage formula of some popular games for ideas (or as much as I could on this limited internet).

I did fire up the game a little this evening (had a quiet night on the traveling), fixed a minor bug in one of the shops, and tested a couple side events. Nothing too big, but at least there is more than 0 progress at least.

Heading back late tomorrow, then got to work most of Mon and Tues. Hoping to have a little progress more on Monday, even if it is just an hour or two of testing.