I've been driving myself insane with going back and forth on the graphical style. I'm still very much torn between wanting completely custom sprites and making life easier for myself by reusing RTP. The sprite you see above is my latest effort, and I think I'm just going to stick with it. It's a combination of my custom template and XP RTP with some heavy editing.
I think it looks unique enough to be memorable, but I'm not going to be spending the next 5 years making all the sprites I need for the game. It also has the added benefit of looking exactly like the portrait and the faceset.
Other than that, I've finished the last and final versions for all party portraits, as well as all the emotion facesets for the girls. Still need to finish the guys, but that shouldn't take too much time.
I've also gone through the game plan again and cut out some of the mechanics and features I was planning to incorporate. Though they would fit into the game well, they would take a lot of time to develop and implement - and they might not bring as much fun as I was thinking. The list of ideas is much smaller now, but definitely more manageable.
I've set a very loose release schedule for myself. I want to try and complete a portion of the revamp (first town and dungeon) by then and have a demo for everyone to play. It will be a lot of work, but I'm more motivated than ever.
Big Boss also set a date for him to get something playable done for Ghost Shards! Hurray!
ReplyDeleteI wish I could see the portraits! I love that stuff. :D I'm pixeling my own portraits, though they are mainly for fun than anything else. :P
I posted the portraits for you to see!
DeleteThey're not entirely 100% original, but they're pretty much how I imagine the characters in my head - and that's what matters.
You should share your portraits too, sometimes. :D
You go, girl! :D
ReplyDeleteThe sprite looks really good.
Looking forward to seeing the other sprites as well. ^^
Thank you! I'm going to be spending some time finishing them up and making them really unique. :D
DeleteI also want to see the portraits ^.^
ReplyDeleteGood luck on Twice Upon a Hero further and I hope you get lots of stuff done :3
Thanks, I posted the portraits for your viewing pleasure. XD
DeleteI'd like to hear about what features and mechanics didn't make the cut. It's something that might make me further reflect on what I can realistically do.
ReplyDeleteI created another post about it. It was a really difficult process, as they're all good ideas. I just had to sit down and make a decision on which features are both fun and worth the time it takes to implement.
DeleteIt really helped to try and anticipate how much time it would take to implement XYZ. Some of the ideas I thought were great (like changing cutscenes/dialogue based on the player's party) actually involved too much work for such a small detail.
Seems like you are at the same point as I am, except that I am on my first project ever.. hehe.. I want to also get the first/intro section and first dungeon finished by the end of April and get some kind of demo together. Not sure how realistic that timeframe yet is, since I am new to RM development.. but might as well set a goal and try to achieve it! :)
ReplyDeleteGo for it!
DeleteYou never really stop learning, and even though you may get better at estimating how long things take with some experience, you still continue to have challenges.
As long as you keep working on it, though, you'll get there someday. :)