Week 7: Polishing old content

I've spent most of past week fiddling around with some of the older content. As a few of you had kindly pointed out, there was starting to be a big disparity between the early chapter 1 and the latest content I've shared. I've already mentioned that a very large part of this was due to the fact that I have a lot more resources available now. But some of it also has to do with my understanding and level of comfort with the VX style.

The biggest thing that's changed in the later screenshots vs the early ones is the palette. When I started TUAH, I had jumped into it straight from using RMXP. Not only did I find that VX had a completely different style (painted vs pixel), but the palette was very different. XP favored less saturation and range in value.

I've grown to love the rich and saturated colors of VX and you can certainly see that in the later screenshots. But those first ones? Not so much. It also didn't help that I relied a lot on Mack's tiles. They're less saturated than the RTP and end up giving the map a more faded look. It's very useful when going for that sort of atmosphere, but it starts to stick out when it's beside the RTP.

So, I've gone back and changed some of the tiles around. It really helped that I was using lots of layers. It took almost no time at all and I think it makes a huge difference in making the game more cohesive. I will eventually go back and change Burgunda Port, Summervale and Sparrowight Academy as well, but I will try not to delay releasing the new chapter just for that.

Other than that, I've done some error fixing and script customization. A couple of you mentioned that you'd like to have a record of completed quests and I really like that idea. I had already planned to do that with the main quests - since they're almost like a record of the events that happened. I'll be spending a day or two doing the same thing with the side quests as well.

I'm also pondering doing an open beta here on the blog. I know there are at least 4 people willing to beta for me and I'm super grateful. But maybe errors and feedback would go faster with an open beta?