RMMV Moiety: Rise of an Archon

[Gabrelik]

Hello, friends, strangers, and fellow devs! This is a project that has been near and dear to my heart for some time now, and I'm ecstatic to say that we have officially broken ground on what I hope to be a wonderful and exciting new adventure! Please take a moment to explore the world of Ellie, a young huntress of the People of the Dawn, and second daughter to the aging Archon(Chief). Her tribe is an ancient one, and guards both a wondrous and terrible power. Explore the world through the eyes of this young woman as she faces betrayal, heartache, and ultimately embarks upon a journey that could change the face of the world forever.

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In the beginning, there were two brothers. They were the Gods of Sun (Oron) and Moon (Tirich). The two siblings eventually grew lonely, and decided to create new life in their own image. These creatures would be molded of the earth and the stars, and would be given free will to grow and evolve of their own volition. When it was done, the Gods were proud of what they had created. Humanity was their greatest achievement, and for a time, all was right in the world.
As the millennia passed, however, Tirich began to notice the inherent greed and selfishness of man. They fought over trivial things, and destroyed their world and each other over pointless nonsense: power, wealth, etc. To Tirich, this was unacceptable. He brought his unease to his brother Oron, who urged that the two stave off interference, and let humanity grow as it would. Oron was sure this was but a phase that would pass in time. Only it would not.
As further centuries passed, man grew only more quarrelsome with his neighbors. Wars became world changing events. The planet became scarred, and humanity seemed a lost cause. Tirich soon decided that there was no hope for mankind. Their creation was flawed, and it would need to be purged in order to save the rest of creation from their toxicity.
Tirich again turned to Oron, only this time to help him cleanse the world of human kind. He argued that they had made a mistake, and they needed to right that wrong. Oron disagreed. He knew that mankind was flawed. He saw the capacity for great evil within them, but he also knew they were capable of such love and understanding, that the many should not be held accountable for the few.
Oron chose to defy his brother's wishes, and as such, Tirich himself grew angry and quarrelsome. The two argued and argued, but neither could be swayed from what they believed was right. Eventually, their argument turned to an all out brawl, and the heaven's shook with that battle. The Gods fought against each other for mankind's fate for what seemed an eternity. Neither wishing to do so, but neither willing to concede. Finally, Oron realized that the only way to stop his brother from destroying humanity, was to lock him away. Using all of his power, he sealed Tirich, along with himself, within a runestone, which had been entrusted to the People of the Dawn, the chosen tribe of Oron. They were tasked to keep it safe, and Oron bestowed upon their chief the power of the Archon, or regent of the Sun God. This power would grant the chief the means to protect the stone, and humanity as a whole, from any evil that would encroach upon them again. It is now present day. Ellie and Amari are the daughters of the village chief. Their tribe lives far removed from the bustle of mankind, and they like it this way. Amari is the eldest, and in line to inherit the role of Archon. She is capable, but more self-focused, and does not have the needs of the people at heart. Ellie is carefree, and lives her life with her head in the clouds. She loves her sister, and cares not for things like leadership and responsibility. Her world, however, will soon be forever changed by a single act of weakness...

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We will be implementing Mog's Chrono Engine for an amazing on map, ABS experience! There will be a FF9/FF7 Trance/Limit Break system with a powerful transformation upon meter fill, and we will include several mini games, such as spear fishing, a chase with a flying cat (yes, we said that correctly), and even a hunting mechanic! The maps are almost entirely parallaxed, and there will be plenty of animated doodads to set the mood. Stay tuned for this section as we continue development for more exciting new features! Sooooo many stuffs!

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Coming soon! Date still TBD

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Artwork (and there really can't be enough love here for those involved)

ImajeTrain
Plueschkatze - A dear friend and amazing talent. Check out her latest project, Ceress and Orea!
Kim_Shyuen - A wonderful lighting and shadow specialist I've recently become acquainted with. Please check out her profile!
Me - Well...it's me.
First Seed Material
PandaMaru - Thatched cottage roof

OST (Only one person I'll get music from anymore)

Futrchamp - Phenomenal composer. Check out his stuff!

Plugins (A big thanks to all of these wonderful creators)
Moghunter - For many...many plugins
Hudell - For his Orange Overlay
Yanfly - For the Grid Free Doodads!!

So much more to come and this page will be updated regularly! We'll also be adding a Character section as the artwork completes, which will include a brief bio of everyone involved. Follow this thread for polls on upcoming features, as well as development news! You can also find us on Twitter! Happy deving!

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[Plueschkatze]

YAY! The thread is up! *runs in, steals Amari and Tirich and runs away again* DONE!

But honestly, I can't wait to see more progress of this.
It's such a promising project. <3

 

[Gabrelik]

Thanks, Plue!

Not much to showcase yet, unfortunately, but I'll certainly be posting updates as we get them. Here are a few of the sprites we're working on: Ellie's sideview idle, and Shroombie!

 

[Gabrelik]

Time for an update!

Progress has been a bit slow while I work out all of the kinks for the Engine we've chosen, but progress is happening, suddenly, violently, and all over the place! XD We've been working on some additional portraits, mapping, music, and of course, more of the gratuitous adorable sprite work everybody is coming to love. There are also a few concept sketches for the next set of cute little creatures. Stay tuned for more, on the next exciting episode of, Moiety: Rise of an Archon!

A few absolutely gorgeous emote additions to Ellie's portrait:

A bridge WIP from Ellie's house to the outskirts of the Village:



This OST is coming together so beautifully, and so much more to come!

An adorable little sprite of Ellie's faithful sidekick, "Fork":



Finally, some concept sketches for the next few enemies. These little guys will accompany "Shroombie" in the forest setting where Ellie's story begins:

 

[Gabrelik]

Update time! Yay!

So, this week we've been focusing on spritework and portraits for some of the main characters, though we did get to a little bit of mapping, as well as a somber, though touching new track from @futrchamp!

Here is a beautiful and snarky little portrait of Fork, Ellie's daring and ever-hungry sidekick:

We also completed another emote for Ellie. Very sad face

Here we have a WIP map of the trading post near Ellie's village:

Here is the heartwrenching new track from the Moiety OST:


And finally, (these little guys are very rapidly becoming the popular demand) the newest additions to the Moiety sprite family. Here we have a Nimmersatt, (thanks for the great suggestion, Plue!) who eats everything in sight. We also completed Shroombie's attack animation! Woooo!



That's all for now, but please keep checking in, and feel free to let us know if you have any suggestions or creature ideas! The cuter the better, so don't hold back!!

Also, we have a Twitter now, so you can also keep up with us there! Happy Dev'ing!

 

[Gabrelik]

Hey, everybody!

A bit of a slower week as far as progress goes. At least, with what I can show here. We've been developing a small mini game that you can play with the natives, which should be a great deal of fun! I'll hopefully have something up for that soon. Mapping was unfortunately put on hold for some computer issues, but we did manage to complete Amari's portrait, as well as the attack animation for the Nimmersatt! I've also added another sketch for the next little guy!

More updates soon! Also, we're still developing cute little creatures, so please let us know if you think of anything you'd like to see! Happy dev'ing!

 

[Alexander Hawksmoor]

Super cute and super awesome, not the sort of enemy you'd want to take lightly.

 

[Plueschkatze]

Amazing progress!
Can't wait to see all of it in action.

 

[Gabrelik]

Hey everybody!

Been awhile since we did an update, and I'm sorry for that. It's been a crazy week! We've been experimenting with VA and SE for Ellie's battle motions, as well as the ABS itself. While there is still a great deal of tweaking to be done, you can see it starting to come together:


We've also been hard at work on the little creatures everybody has been getting so excited about. (I appreciate the suggestions we've received, and I'll do my best to implement them!)




Also, I've begun mapping out Ellie's village, (the cabins from before are a trading post nearby) and would love any feedback you all might have. We're going for an Incan/Mayan inspiration here, and a big thanks to PandaMaru for the thatched cottage roof. It was perfect for this application, I think:

There's still a great deal more to do, and we'll keep the post coming as the development bears fruit. Hopefully this coming week will yield a bit more, but as they say, any progress is better than none!

Thanks for all the support, and happy dev'ing!

 

[lianderson]

Looking good. Any idea when it'll be finished? I'm looking forward to checking it out.

 

[Gabrelik]

Hi, and thanks! We're looking to have a demo released by May 1st, which we'll use to gauge reaction and see what people would like done differently, etc. It's a short project, so hopefully we'll have the full game ready for beta not long after.

We'll definitely keep updating this thread as we go, and there's steady progress each week. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Thanks again.

 

[Gabrelik]

Hey, everybody!

A few updates for you as the weekend draws to a close. We've been working on a little bit of mapping, as well as one of the first big creatures Ellie will be able to track for the hunting mechanic we will be implementing! I've also been consulting with my very talented friend, @Wavelength, whose programming expertise is becoming instrumental in solving a few of my ABS conundrums. We should hopefully have something to show you very soon!

River WIP:


King Hoppin:

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Our next post will be quite a bit meatier, so stay tuned!

 

[Caitlin]

Oh! I just <3 the artwork of the monsters, the character and the character bust... I am so going to keep an eye on this topic. *clicks button* ^_^ I am looking forward to seeing more updates, because I like what I see thus far.

 

[Gabrelik]

Thanks! There's a great deal of talent lending their skills to this project, and I'm so happy to see it all coming together.

 

[Alastor01]

Wow, the screen-shots are beautiful! Great art

 

[Gabrelik]

Well everybody,

Unfortunately, we hit a little bit of a speedbump. Moiety's original portrait artist will no longer be a part of the team. We wish her well in whatever endeavors she may choose to pursue, but we will need to continue forward without her. Fortunately for us, a very dear friend has agreed to pick up the mantle. While we will need to shift slightly in terms of style, I really believe these new portraits will be even better than before, and more closely suit the aesthetic we are going for here. Please stay tuned for updates on that. In the meantime, here is where we are in terms of progress:

• With the help of some very talented programmers, we've developed a duel battle system plug-in, which draws quite heavily from the Suikoden style. We'll hopefully have some shots of this to show you in the very near future!
• We've mapped out the river crossing that will serve as the entrance to Ellie's village. Still some work to be done there, but @Kim_Shyuen has done a wonderful job with the lighting/shadow on all of our maps. She's absolutely great!
• We have a few new tracks completed by the most amazing composer, @futrchamp! These are similar in style, as one depicts the village atmosphere, while the other was created for the temple. Both are amazing, and we're sure you'll enjoy them.
• Finally, we've created some swimming sprites for Ellie, which will be utilized in the spearfishing mini games, as well as any other underwater shenanigans that our young heroine can get herself into.

While we may have hit a snag, we realize that gamedev just would not be gamedev without the occasional hiccup and beating your head against a wall. XD So, we shall adopt a mantra, though I'm not sure which one yet...damn the torpedos? We shall rebuild? My name is Indigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die? I don't know, but we'll get there. XD

Hope everyone is doing well! Please let us know if there is anything you would like to see, and as always, happy dev'ing!

"Umm...ribbit?"​

River Crossing WIP


"I can swim! Wooooohooo!"


"I can swim AND poke things with my pokey stick!"


Check out the new tracks for the OST!


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[Alexander Hawksmoor]

Sorry to hear about the speedbump, hopefully you wont have as many as I have and it'll be plain sailing from here.

 

[Nightblade50]

This game looks really good! I would love to see a demo! The maps are extremely beautiful, are you using FSM?
And I love the cute enemies

 

[Gabrelik]

Thanks! And yes, we're utilizing the FSM tiles, editing where we need to, and adding a bit of original work along the way. Hoping people will really enjoy it. The creatures are stealing the show, though! XD

 

[Nightblade50]

I very much like the sketches you made!