May Goals & Progress Thread

[Another Ned]

@bgillisp: Finding a bug after uploading sounds like it feels a lot like noticing a major typo after handing in an assignment (after spellchecking it like mad before). D:
@ksjp17: Resource management definitely counts. It tends to increase productivity in the long run.
@Hotfirelegend: This sounds like a lot got done.
@Hollow: (they're all taller than me! D: and thanks for adding the height in cm)
Your drawing style is so pretty. <3 Not a single line feels unneccessary. Just thinking out loud: Have you thought of adding some blue (like the hair colour) into the shadows of the blue-haired person's skin? (note: I tend to exaggerate a bit when adding reflected colours to skin, so thinking of that first is a habit)
@hiddenone: D: As yet another person with a pollen allergy I can feel your pain. And I just noticed that I really like this style of roof.
@Denna: Encryption can cause the game to break? This sounds very creepy. D: But yay for fixing so many bugs!

Yesterday's progress:
again, only worked on Island Crawler, but I had the most productive day in quite a long time.

• tried to make a list of all the information and gameplay elements introductions I have to make over the course of the game to get an overview. Noticed some possible connections between pieces of information while doing so
• changed the connection between some of the characters and noted parallels between the two characters that make up the antagonistic force as well as the main character and one of the party members. Unintentional but interesting
• while writing down an event from the main character's past I accidentally recycled an old character (as in from a story I've written in 2008) and realized that I can actually re-use him as an NPC (though depending on what else I'm going to decide he can be cut just as easily)
• quick photo studies of faces (approx. <10min per face). Need to do more and have more patience while sketching

 

[Denna]

@Chiara: Yeah, we didn't expected that either. But we crossed the 128mb (it's something like that) mark of the inbuild maker encryption and were forced to use another method. This method only supported ASCII in filenames. And someone... someone stupid didn't name some of the graphics with ASCII only. So the game broke then it came to an graphic that included an non-ASCII character because it couldn't find it.

But I learned some important things for the next time: name all your files in english only and you don't have a problem with ASCII or not. Name your files correctly and constantly in the same way, so you can find animation X from an certain character without much searching. E.g. Charactername_Animationname. not Charactername_Animationname and OldCharactername_Animationname. Organisation is everything.

 

[rondchild]

Hello everyone nice to see you again,


Im back with my new goal for this May !


My goal for this may :


Complete Potrait Edgar for Kitten Mita.


Complete New Battle System Kitten Mita.


This is new battle system Kitten Mita.




What's new !?


+ Add melee and range mode.


+ Add slot item.


+ Add new face for Mita.


+ Zoom in / out character during melee or range mode.


+ Different skills every battle mode , so that more strategies.


+ No need to press enter in every action.


+ Faster than before.


Ongoing :


- Implementation name of the skill.


- Add number of HP and BP.


- Add zoom in/out background.


- Add state


FAQS:


========


Q : Why Luna always run in melee mode ?


A : Luna melee mode just have 2 skill, Healing light and Illuminate(This is not installed in video, still ongoing).


========


PS : we need tester for new battle system, if everyone interest with Kitten Mita please PM me. We need your advice and find bugs.


=========


@Marquise : wow so much to do list, good luck !


@VideoWizard : I've waiting for new screenshots ^^b

 

[Hollow]

@hiddenone: ...Wow, I didn't even notice that, lol! Thanks for pointing it out.
@Denna: Thank you! And oooooh, those designs are neat. Are the Maskierten antagonists of some kind?
@Chiara: Ah, thank you!! Oh man, I always forget about reflective light, but I'll definitely go back in and add some. And wow, it definitely sounds like you had a productive day! Finding all those connections makes foreshadowing a whole lot easier, and in the case of tutorials, easier to group information to help the player understand better.
 
 
May 4, Progress:
So, I did finish Nikhail's face, but I didn't quite get around to starting on the last one (mostly because I fell out of the drawing mood and couldn't be arsed).

(The veil's shading is a bit messy, but eh, the player's not gonna see most of it.)
 
I did, however, start amassing icons for the items and states, both of which are finished. I also changed the item descriptions from the placeholder "HP + 33%", "Cures Bleed", etc. into proper descriptions.

(Note, most of the items are grayed out because there aren't any states that persist outside of battle, so the player has no need to use them in the field.)

 

[Kes]

@Hotfirelegend

That is indeed a heck of a lot of stuff to get through.  All those bugs must mean that you've got some decent beta testers, which is always a great positive.

@Hollow

I like the style of the faces, looks good imo.  I'm wondering about your description.  As a player I wouldn't find that very helpful, unless it means that it is a "cure-all" in the sense that there are no states it doesn't cure, in which case, that's fine.  But then, I'm one of those players who wants extremely precise information in battle so that I can concentrate on other things.  I don't want guesswork for my items.

@hiddenone

It is not possible to have too many roofs.

@Denna

Bugs from encryption, yeah, I've had that too (though not for the same reason).  It feels pretty devastating when it happens, so I'm glad that it sounds as if you got it all fixed.

@Chiara

I find it fascinating that you've found links/parallels between your characters in that way.  It should make for a richer story.

@Ronchild

that's an interesting video.  I was having a bit of difficulty working out how the battle system worked just by looking at it, but I assume it will be much more obvious in game.

My update.

Most of my battle animations are now custom rather than default and I've gradually been working out the new sound effects for them.  I finished off the last of all the current skills and items, and while I'm satisfied with all of them, there are some that I'm particularly pleased with.  I can say with great conviction that the animation for my revive item is to die for. If, however, you decide to neglect this admirable remedy, my Game Over screen is now looking pretty good.  Enjoy!

 

[bgillisp]

@ksjp17: But is your Game Over screen to die for?

@Hollow: Item description fun. You get all of them finished now?

@Rondchild: Hope the beta goes well!

@Denna: 128 mb limit? Mine's 230 mb and I have no problem. What do you mean by that?

@Chiara: Yep, exactly like that. I changed a tileset on the very last map in the demo (as that map was being worked on in Chapter 3 as well), and didn't notice that my mushrooms were a tad...strange now. Let's just say there were kitchen counter tops growing in the wild now.

5.4 Update: Drew the map for the next zone in the editor. Also went through in my head how this sequence was to play out, as this is now the 3rd sneak in/get something/sneak out scene and I didn't want it to be too similar to the others. I think this time the sequence will go exactly as planned, all they will have to do is find the person they need to talk to and get out. No complications this time (for a change). Sometimes I find letting things go exactly as planned by the party for a change is a good change of pace.

 

[Kes]

@ksjp17: But is your Game Over screen to die for?

Oh most definitely!

 

[Hollow]

@ksjp17: Thank you! You guessed right, btw--it cures every negative status effect except death. I don't really check numbers when I play RPGs, personally. So, rather than see a number and try to think of what percentage of my HP that is, I like a short description so I can be like "Does it heal me a lot? OK, cool.", haha. I'm definitely making use of keywords (like the name of the state it cures, for example) in the descriptions to keep players' guesswork to a minimum.

@bgillisp: Yup, every item you see there has a proper description now.

Hm, for your scene, maybe you could still have something a bit surprising happen--like, maybe the person they find or the information they learn isn't quite what they expected it to be. Nothing ever goes exactly as planned, after all, haha.

 

[bgillisp]

@Hollow: There will be a little twist in the information they learn, sure. But what I was meaning was for once they can slip in and slip right back out. No guards suddenly chasing them out, no being caught by the wrong people with your hand in the cookie jar (so to speak), etc.

 

[Denna]

 Are the Maskierten antagonists of some kind?

No, not at all. But they're feared by the humans nevertheless. The most of the Maskierten are a kind of mutated humans which got in contact with magic but not all of them some are normal humans. This group doesn't want to be judged by their appearance so they hide their body under shapeless clothing. They stand under the protection of Ienis, the ******* of equality and justice.

Bugs from encryption, yeah, I've had that too (though not for the same reason).  It feels pretty devastating when it happens, so I'm glad that it sounds as if you got it all fixed.

Yeah, I hope we fixed everything.

@Denna: 128 mb limit? Mine's 230 mb and I have no problem. What do you mean by that?

I don't know which engine you use but we made our game with the rpg maker xp and their it seems that the limit is 128mb. Our project is around 180mb big by the way.

 

[Kes]

I don't know which engine you use but we made our game with the rpg maker xp and their it seems that the limit is 128mb. Our project is around 180mb big by the way.

I have a commercial XP game on my hard disk which is 231 mb in size, so it can be done.  I'll send you a pm.

 

[esby]

@Rondchild - I think the character's should be facing each other, so it's more apparent they're fighting. Maybe have Luna's bars and UI in red so it's obvious she's the enemy.


@Hollow - Art looks great and the icons, window skin & font look really clean together.


@ksjp - It's good that your customizing your game more, I'm not a fan how most games share battle animations.


Update 2

Spoiler

Been, unsuccessfully, trying to get GTBS to work with a Fog of War script but due to the way GTBS handle turns I can't get it to work past the very beginning of the battle. It's a shame because I was hoping to have exploration and battles to be seemless on the same map.

Spoiler

Mapped a fair chunk of the first floor but I think I'm going to go back and make things a bit more open to make battles a bit more free flowing.

 

[Marquise*]

Woah I really skipped 2 days and got into a lot IRL... And yeah, each time I tell myself ITS OVER! NO MORE BEDBUGS! they appears... *sigh*.


All righty, someone used a Minotaur of mine in a simple contest and I think I wanted to enter that contest because it seemed a fairly simple task to do and it would be something that FORCE me to be creative since I putted the lid on the bottle for too long. So here what I accomplished today and the limit was tomorrow http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/39451-writer-mapping-contest/page-4#entry394204 Hope my French isn't too neurons grinding trough my lack of English vocabulary and dumpy syntax. Well, apart cooking on one foot square space, I still have some city housing papers to get trough now that I found an alternate place for the photocopies (Our Staples sadly closed... ( And I was to hand assemble my comic in their print shop some day :x ... so sad!)


So that was my news for today... I might work on something more invisible for a bit (The special secret sprite project). Grrrr If it was just for me Ah là là, discipline!


Aww started browsing on rondchild videos and lost my answers.


Well @Deana, your character research reminisce me of Logan's Run 30 year old ritual clothes.


@rondchild , I wish I could take on new volunteering but I can't because I want to grind my list until June.


@KSJP17 yeah I still had one or two more caught and I also busted my camping siege that I now use to use my computer so it hurt my lower body.


@Hollow, nice hand drawings!

 

[bgillisp]

@Denna: I'm using VX Ace. Didn't know XP even had a limit.

@???: I don't have the ability to type your name on my keyboard, sorry. I've never tried using GBTS though, is it semi-easy to use?

@Marquise: I think that Minotaur of yours is really popular. You probably didn't see the old screenshot of my game from when the party stumbles into the Minotaur dancing the can-can. Let's just say that in my game, Minotaurs are surprisingly good dancers, and use dance skills to decimate the party if they are unprepared.

5.5 Update: Put the rest of the NPC's on the map, added events. The party can now go in and learn what they need, and get out. Now need to write the scene for when they leave, then it is on to rescue the third and final missing party member. Incidentally, once you do this, you will finally have your main party of 8 for the game, one person for each element of magic.

 

[Kes]

@Bear

2 nice looking pieces of maps.  I personally wouldn't go near GTBS, as I've heard so many tales of its bugs.  I'm interested in how you're handling this, because if it can be made to work properly it would be an awesome addition to the repertoire.

@Marquise*

Saw your entry, and thought it was good.  Okay, the English was a bit shaky in places, but you managed to build a really good word picture.

@bgillisp

Dancing minotaurs? Bring 'em on! I love the idea.

My update

The bit I've been dreading.  I finished the cut scene in the last location and now my second team has also arrived at my capital city.  This is the first time I've got both times to the same place.  Now I'm having to add another layer of dialogue to all the NPCs (and believe me when I say that there are lots and lots of them) because they all have proper dialogue with the first team, and so none of it is usable with the second team.  As I cannot know what the player has done with all these NPCs, it's very tricky working out dialogue that makes sense both if the player has interacted with this particular NPC and if they have not.  I know that when I've finished I shall be glad that I did it like this, but at the moment I'm just thinking "why the hell did I decide to do it like this?"

 

[Sharm]

Today I made some really good progress on a battle back I'd been working on for a while now. It's still not done but it feels done because the only part left is the part that will be normally covered by a dialogue box.  I also made a bit of furnature for my interior b tiles.  I'd tried to map with it and realized how much I was missing still.

 

[esby]

@bgillisp - Most people seem to go with bear It's like Luna in that it's easier to just work off the demo project rather than trying to import each individual script. I'm finding in simple enough to use and there's pretty in depth documentation over on Gubid's site that I could use if I get stuck. Do you use all 8 party members at once or can you switch them in and out of the active party?

@ksjp - I've not encountered any bugs so far but it's still early days, I'm trying to keep everything pretty simple and only as complicated as it needs to be so hopefully that will help on the bug front. I'm dreading any incompatibilities when I start to add more scripts though

 

[bgillisp]

@bear: 4 at a time. You can swap the others in using Yanfly's party manager. It took some editing to make it so that those in reserve gained JP as well, but that's now working (thankfully).

@ksjp17: I was going for unusual for some monsters when I made the game, break a few stereotypes here. Also the dancing version is harder than the regular Minotaur due to the extra dancing skills they have (and the high AGL they have too, making them usually go first in battle).

 

[Marquise*]

@Bgillips


Wait I ask Zoag if his super secret script to animate busts would include dancing Minotaur battlers! XD *cybermentally flee before the shoe rain*


(I'm doing a collection of why it is so important to continue to enhance the basic set. If your project is non-commercial and on-line somewhere, I'd peek an eye on it in June. :3 -I would need it I will be animating the Evilgod 8x -)

@Marquise*


Saw your entry, and thought it was good.  Okay, the English was a bit shaky in places, but you managed to build a really good word picture.

Ouf! I thought it was as readable (laughable) as Invasion of the Robot Gabber! You know... "All your bases are belong to us!" (it took me a while realizing what was wrong with that sentence.) Hey, maybe it will be readable like a tribe from another planet should speak.


So everyone... Keep up the good work or... ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US! <jk> XD

 

[Denna]

Well @Deana, your character research reminisce me of Logan's Run 30 year old ritual clothes.

Really? Never heared of that.