Weekly Screenshots

A couple of screenshots of areas that are now mostly complete (save for NPCs and events).

The first screenshot is of a forest that will be one of the areas you explore for various quests and to gather materials for alchemy, cooking and blacksmithing. I fixed that one spot in the waterfall since.

The second is a gypsy camp, filled with wonderful music and a lot of spirituality. This is the quest hub for the other side of the forest as well as a resting place between the forest and the caves.

I'm currently mapping a major town, which is the home base for your party. Look forward to more spiffy screenshots once I'm done! :)

Progress Report

I have not had a lot of time to do any game development lately.

I am still slowly working on TUAH, though it's going at a snail's pace. I've been chatting with some of you about possibly transferring it over to Ace. It would be a huge setback and it would really require a ton of work. But it should allow me to make future updates much faster! So, I'm very much on the fence about it. Almost all of the scripts I was using are either translated or have an equivalent script available already. The database will be a giant pain, of course, but a huge chunk of it will be very simple thanks to traits and custom formulas.
 

I'm happy to say that I have finished a total of 14 maps for the side project (3 whole areas). Since Ace has unlimited tilesets, I'm just going to stick with primarily tileset mapping, and it's much faster. Once the tilesets are set up, that is. At this rate, all the maps I'm planning for the demo should be completed within a month. I'm a bit amazed at this, to be honest, because it took me a solid 4-6 months of mapping to have the same amount done in parallax for VX.

I've felt tempted to make this side thing my main project for now (which is sort of how I ended up working on TUAH in the first place), but I don't want to disappoint anyone by putting TUAH on hiatus. So, I'm spending roughly the same amount of time on either project for now. We'll see how long that will last!

S. Project: Decisions

Well, I've had a chance to spend a bit more time working on this secret side project, and I have a few more things to share.

1) I'm not going to do battles.
After thinking about it long and hard, I've decided against a battle system. It's something that makes sense story-wise. It also allows me to focus on what I want to achieve with this project - which is to have emphasis on gameplay and exploration.

In that sense, this will be more likely closer to the adventure genre then a classic rpg.

2) There are 4 separate elements I'm going to focus on.
- Various quests, most of which will be chosen by the player instead of being introduced in a completely linear fashion. There will still be a degree of linearity, as I don't want to tackle a completely open world. But I want to give you more to do than just follow a straight path from A to B.
- Synthesis system, primarily cooking and alchemy. This will involve gathering resources, so it should encourage exploration.
- Puzzles. I'm not going to go with complex puzzles, mind you. Mostly it will be using one or two simple concepts and making use of field skills/items.
- Classic adventure play. Things like fetch item X to advance through area, or use Y skill to open up the path.

3) I have waaaay too many ideas and way too many ways to add features. I want the project to be simple, but what I've planned is already more complex than what I'd imagined. So, I'm going to have to cut out some things.

One of the things I really wanted to do was art scenes for the intro and the endings. But there's a total of 10 endings, each of which would require at least one picture. And the intro would require at least 3. While 13 pictures isn't a gigantic amount, it's still way more than I'd be comfortable requesting from any one artist.

Thankfully, pictures are easy to add, so I can always change my mind and add them in at a later time. Completing this game will still take some time, so maybe the art bug will bite me and I'll have a bout of motivation.

--
That's all for now, folks. I will try to update again soon and let you all know how I'm doing.

Secret Project: Some info

In this entry, I'm going to talk a little bit about the Ace side-project I'm working on. I won't be sharing too much about the plot, mind you, as I'd like most of it to stay a surprise until I can give you guys a demo.

I will say that it's a fairly lighthearted and sweet game that will be relatively short. I want to complete it quickly, preferably before fall. I guess all will depend on timing and how much work I can do in a given day. To this end, I've settled on a total of 30 locations. This includes all dungeons/exploration areas, towns, and cut-scene places. The map count will probably be only slightly larger, and that's mainly due to having individual maps for inner town homes.

I haven't decided whether I will be including battles or not. On one hand, I think most players find them quite fun and they're pretty necessary. On the other hand, I seriously despise all the hair-pulling database work that comes with it. Maybe I will recruit someone to help me with that portion of the game.

The rest of the game will be focused on doing variously-themed quests. There will be a single item shop in the main city. A blacksmith, a cook and an alchemist will have equipment and items you can trade materials for. And, of course, doing quests will give great rewards.

There won't be any morality points, but there will be opportunities to build relationships with party members. Doing quests that fit into the party members' area of expertise will also raise your relationship with them. This will unlock possible endings (yes, multiple endings!) and quest trees.

I have to pace myself to not add too much stuff, so I want to aim for 6-8 hours of total gameplay.

I'm also archiving some ideas for possible sequels.

Lastly, a screenshot (which most of you have probably seen by now):

Non-commercial

I had been doing research on going commercial for a while now. Mostly it's been market research and general game theory. I figure that I have the best chance to make a profitable game if I know what kind of thing sells. Gamers can be a difficult bunch to please!

One thing that I had left for last was the personal business aspect of it. Things like establishing a business license, taxes and that sort of thing. In part because this info wasn't as easy to access, but also because I wanted to know enough about how the business works before investing time/money into personal business paperwork.

After chatting with a few developers, I've come to the conclusion that it's not something I want to do right now. I like the process of making games, drawing art etc, and I'm afraid that going commercial will result in me spending more time on the business part than the design. Not to mention that there is incredible pressure that comes with being paid to do any kind of work.

So, this little VX side game will be free.

And here's a little eye-candy screenshot.

I'll probably make a more elaborate post once this super-secret project is more underway.