It's already almost January, and I'm just now starting to get back into the groove of working on my game after putting it on hold to deal with school.
This new inspiration was fueled by my experience with a Japanese visual novel called "Hakuoki," which features an amazing story and loveable characters. Playing through a bit of it and watching the anime reminded me that a visual novel is just that: a novel. It's not about the fancy features or even the gameplay, but about the story and the characters.
I realized that "feature creep" had been causing me to lose sight of what's important, and served to make an already overwhelming project seem impossible to complete. Perhaps it is impossible, but I still want to try, and to do that, I need to step back and rethink what direction I want to take this project in.
The plan, then, is to cut back on some of the features I had planned and to focus instead on serving the plot as much justice as possible. This means expanding the timeline a bit so as to fit everything in. So, the first half of the game will be as originally planned: go to the three main cities, recruit party members (just the four), and figure out who killed Osirus. But instead of it then going right into the final confrontation, the story will continue. The second half will explore the rebellion and building civil war, and this is when Zuleika must find the means and the will to overthrow the emperor/take back her throne, if she so desires. I'm in the process of fleshing everything out now, and I hope to start writing for real soon.
That being said, my backgrounds are still bugging me. I ended up scrapping the photograph background idea, but I don't have enough free resource backgrounds to do everything I want. Specifically, I plan to have Chael's and Kirile's personal quests lead to their respective homes, but that would require very specific architectural backgrounds. I'm not sure I can even find suitable placeholders. Ah well... I'll just have to make do, I guess.
Anyway, I would like to thank everyone for their patience. This monster may not be finished any time soon, but I'll keep working on it as I can.
Dec 28, 2011
Nov 17, 2011
Birthdays
I've been doing some work on the calendar system lately, since I haven't had time to sit down and write, or otherwise do anything...you know...productive. The "months" are still based on the seasons, but instead of four "months" of 45 days each, there will be eight "months" of 30 days each. I know, I know, it's just some technical mumbo-jumbo that doesn't really matter to anyone but me, but there it is.
To tie it in with the title of this post, one of the main things the calendar system will be used for is birthdays. There may be events of sorts that correspond to the boys' birthdays, but at the very least, you'll be able to get extra "approval" when you give one a gift on his birthday. But Zuleika's birthday will also play into it. There will definitely be an event for hers, and the boys (and perhaps even other characters) will give you gifts depending on how much affection they have for you.
So, since birthdays are kind of important, I decided to implement a system where you can choose the main character's birthday. I was going to have it in the beginning, during the opening scene with Osirus, but that didn't work out too well, so... I'll have to work it in some other way. I'll figure out something, I'm sure. But anyway, you'll be able to enter the date in our calendar and have it be translated into the equivalent date in theirs. It was way more complicated to code than I thought it would be; I ended up having to do something entirely different than I originally planned. Such is the life of a programmer, I suppose...
Besides for that, I received the last couple of loading screen art pieces. Here are the previews for your viewing pleasure:
To tie it in with the title of this post, one of the main things the calendar system will be used for is birthdays. There may be events of sorts that correspond to the boys' birthdays, but at the very least, you'll be able to get extra "approval" when you give one a gift on his birthday. But Zuleika's birthday will also play into it. There will definitely be an event for hers, and the boys (and perhaps even other characters) will give you gifts depending on how much affection they have for you.
So, since birthdays are kind of important, I decided to implement a system where you can choose the main character's birthday. I was going to have it in the beginning, during the opening scene with Osirus, but that didn't work out too well, so... I'll have to work it in some other way. I'll figure out something, I'm sure. But anyway, you'll be able to enter the date in our calendar and have it be translated into the equivalent date in theirs. It was way more complicated to code than I thought it would be; I ended up having to do something entirely different than I originally planned. Such is the life of a programmer, I suppose...
Besides for that, I received the last couple of loading screen art pieces. Here are the previews for your viewing pleasure:
Nov 11, 2011
Hey, it's November
It was brought to my attention today that I haven't posted since October, and it is now almost the middle of November. I haven't posted because I was waiting to make some progress on my battle system, but between all the tests and papers and mapping out my future, I just haven't had the time.
I'm happy to say that I have, indeed, made enough progress on it that I can at least show a quick preview. It took me a long time to figure out just how I wanted to go about doing it; I was torn between a static system, where you would just choose an attack from the list and go with it, or a grid system, where you would have to strategically map out the formation of your party and would have animated sprites (that I can't afford...). In the end, I found an online game that combined the two and pretty much copied the format.
The result is a grid of portraits, the placement of which makes up the formation. Attacks will have ranges within the grid, so that fighters in the front will take the brunt of physical attacks, while mages and archers can attack enemies from further away. The six gray slots to the left are your active attack slots. When a character learns a new skill/attack, you'll be able to add it to their active attack slots from the character menu, up to six slots. The three slots below that will be for general battle actions: transform (which will only be active when the rage meter is full), focus (which means you pass for a turn, which helps refill your stamina), and retreat. You'll also notice that all the fighters will attack in a certain order, based on some stat that will be equivalent to quickness. The order here is kind of inaccurate, as rogue types will generally have more quickness than warrior types.
With all this thought about the battle system, I started thinking about the original stats I had from the old game - Intelligence, Strength, Charm, and Kindness. They were meant to be part of the whole dating sim aspect, but this time around, there will be a lot more choices and therefore more opportunities to earn affection that don't involve raising stats. So these stats kind of became useless, except that the one you said you wanted in the beginning determines your class. But then I got to thinking "Hey, I could incorporate these stats into battle!" Strength would be melee attack power, while intelligence might be dexterity or something. Kindness would be changed to Divinity and would determine magic attack power. Not sure about Charm yet, but I'll figure it out.
And yet another addition with the battle system will be more characters you can add to your party. The biggest one is Ahzi, who will be able to join the fight as a mage, but many of the side characters I'll be adding throughout will also be able to fight alongside you. That can be seen in the example above, where Lilah is helping you in the fight against Kirile. They won't be companions in the same way that the love interests are (except Ahzi, of course), but once you've recruited them within the main plot line, you'll be able to add them to your battle party at any time.
Suggestions? Critiques? Please leave a comment.
P.S.: Here are previews of the loading screens for Kirile and Duren. Yay. :)
I'm happy to say that I have, indeed, made enough progress on it that I can at least show a quick preview. It took me a long time to figure out just how I wanted to go about doing it; I was torn between a static system, where you would just choose an attack from the list and go with it, or a grid system, where you would have to strategically map out the formation of your party and would have animated sprites (that I can't afford...). In the end, I found an online game that combined the two and pretty much copied the format.
The result is a grid of portraits, the placement of which makes up the formation. Attacks will have ranges within the grid, so that fighters in the front will take the brunt of physical attacks, while mages and archers can attack enemies from further away. The six gray slots to the left are your active attack slots. When a character learns a new skill/attack, you'll be able to add it to their active attack slots from the character menu, up to six slots. The three slots below that will be for general battle actions: transform (which will only be active when the rage meter is full), focus (which means you pass for a turn, which helps refill your stamina), and retreat. You'll also notice that all the fighters will attack in a certain order, based on some stat that will be equivalent to quickness. The order here is kind of inaccurate, as rogue types will generally have more quickness than warrior types.
With all this thought about the battle system, I started thinking about the original stats I had from the old game - Intelligence, Strength, Charm, and Kindness. They were meant to be part of the whole dating sim aspect, but this time around, there will be a lot more choices and therefore more opportunities to earn affection that don't involve raising stats. So these stats kind of became useless, except that the one you said you wanted in the beginning determines your class. But then I got to thinking "Hey, I could incorporate these stats into battle!" Strength would be melee attack power, while intelligence might be dexterity or something. Kindness would be changed to Divinity and would determine magic attack power. Not sure about Charm yet, but I'll figure it out.
And yet another addition with the battle system will be more characters you can add to your party. The biggest one is Ahzi, who will be able to join the fight as a mage, but many of the side characters I'll be adding throughout will also be able to fight alongside you. That can be seen in the example above, where Lilah is helping you in the fight against Kirile. They won't be companions in the same way that the love interests are (except Ahzi, of course), but once you've recruited them within the main plot line, you'll be able to add them to your battle party at any time.
Suggestions? Critiques? Please leave a comment.
P.S.: Here are previews of the loading screens for Kirile and Duren. Yay. :)
Oct 30, 2011
Travel System
This weekend, I made great progress on town navigation and the travel system. You can now travel to any location on the map flawlessly, and each location is equipped with the proper facilities.
I actually put a lot of thought into what towns would have which of the facilities (because only the capital of each province has all six). All of them have at least a shop and an inn (though the shop items may vary depending on where you are), but for the rest, I had to do a bit of thinking about the provinces themselves - what makes them unique, how religious they are, etc. I might have mentioned that I'd been thinking about that before, but this is where that stuff starts to come into play.
Travel times have also been fully incorporated, which means that the further from your current location you're trying to go, the longer it will take to get there. When you choose a destination on the map, a pop-up will tell you how many days it will take to travel and ask for a confirmation, so if you decide you don't want to go there after seeing how long it'll take, you can cancel. The time component will probably be largely unimportant, but it may come into play with certain quests...none of the major plot quests, so it wouldn't ruin the entire game if you failed to make it in time, but perhaps some companion quests where it might hurt your relationship if you put it off for too long.
There will probably also be other things that will be related to the time factor, namely birthdays. If you give one of your companions a gift on or around their birthday (within a couple weeks), you'll get extra affection with them. On your birthday, if you have enough affection, they'll give you a gift. This will be how you receive the gift accessories mentioned in a previous post.
Anyway...point is, I did good stuff this weekend. If I can work out the background situation and do some writing and finish up the town navigation stuff (i.e. coding the individual locations), I may be ready to release a new, more substantial beta pretty soon. Yay. :)
P.S.: I finished the maid's sprite and named her Ange (might change to Angee later...we'll see).
I actually put a lot of thought into what towns would have which of the facilities (because only the capital of each province has all six). All of them have at least a shop and an inn (though the shop items may vary depending on where you are), but for the rest, I had to do a bit of thinking about the provinces themselves - what makes them unique, how religious they are, etc. I might have mentioned that I'd been thinking about that before, but this is where that stuff starts to come into play.
Travel times have also been fully incorporated, which means that the further from your current location you're trying to go, the longer it will take to get there. When you choose a destination on the map, a pop-up will tell you how many days it will take to travel and ask for a confirmation, so if you decide you don't want to go there after seeing how long it'll take, you can cancel. The time component will probably be largely unimportant, but it may come into play with certain quests...none of the major plot quests, so it wouldn't ruin the entire game if you failed to make it in time, but perhaps some companion quests where it might hurt your relationship if you put it off for too long.
There will probably also be other things that will be related to the time factor, namely birthdays. If you give one of your companions a gift on or around their birthday (within a couple weeks), you'll get extra affection with them. On your birthday, if you have enough affection, they'll give you a gift. This will be how you receive the gift accessories mentioned in a previous post.
Anyway...point is, I did good stuff this weekend. If I can work out the background situation and do some writing and finish up the town navigation stuff (i.e. coding the individual locations), I may be ready to release a new, more substantial beta pretty soon. Yay. :)
P.S.: I finished the maid's sprite and named her Ange (might change to Angee later...we'll see).
Oct 29, 2011
Sprites
I mentioned in my last post that I decided to try to make sprites for all the minor characters who need to be represented on screen.
Well, I've been working on that some more today. I finished Lilah's sprite, and also started on a sprite for Zuleika's maid back at the castle. I haven't thought of a name for her yet (but with that red hair, I can't help but think "Molly"), but she's Zuleika's main servant - the one who prepares her clothes, cleans her room, and, most importantly, keeps her company during those long, lonely days locked in her tower. So, by that, you can already gather that they'll have more of a relationship than just a lady-servant one. She's kind of ugly, I know, but hey...not everyone can be stick-thin with perfect features like Lilah here.
Well, I've been working on that some more today. I finished Lilah's sprite, and also started on a sprite for Zuleika's maid back at the castle. I haven't thought of a name for her yet (but with that red hair, I can't help but think "Molly"), but she's Zuleika's main servant - the one who prepares her clothes, cleans her room, and, most importantly, keeps her company during those long, lonely days locked in her tower. So, by that, you can already gather that they'll have more of a relationship than just a lady-servant one. She's kind of ugly, I know, but hey...not everyone can be stick-thin with perfect features like Lilah here.
Oct 27, 2011
So Lazy...
Seriously, I've done...like...nothing. :/
Well, okay...a couple days back, I went through and tried to flesh out the City of Jarconia arc. As I was doing so, I quickly realized that I'm going to need a lot more sprites for various characters that show up and talk...but I'm not willing to wait 2 years or whatever to get more finished lineart, nor am I willing to fork over the cash. That means either using silhouettes (which didn't work very well for me in the past), not using any sprite and just have them speaking from off-screen (which is pretty lame and boring), or *gasp* making my own sprites.
I have attempted to do just that by piecing together various things and then somehow making it look decent. Here is the first one I've done this way (flat color only, no shading yet) - a woman named Lilah who plays a pretty large part in the Jarconia arc, since the main goal is to find her before a major conflict breaks out between the human and demon factions of the city. I'm not sure if I really succeeded in making her look good, but...at least I tried. And even if she doesn't turn out that great, it's not like she's a main character, just important enough that she at least needs to be represented on-screen.
If I can make it work, then this will help a great deal in showing what demons and elves look like in this world, as opposed to the silhouette portraits I had planned to use before. Yes, it will take a lot of work, but it'll be worth it, I think.
And on an art-related note, I still haven't figured out what to do with the backgrounds. I'm leaning towards taking photos and tweaking them to make them look more "cartoon-ish" without going through and re-drawing them all. It's not an ideal solution, but it may work until I can figure out something better.
In the meantime, here is a preview of Chael's loading screen for your viewing pleasure. :)
Well, okay...a couple days back, I went through and tried to flesh out the City of Jarconia arc. As I was doing so, I quickly realized that I'm going to need a lot more sprites for various characters that show up and talk...but I'm not willing to wait 2 years or whatever to get more finished lineart, nor am I willing to fork over the cash. That means either using silhouettes (which didn't work very well for me in the past), not using any sprite and just have them speaking from off-screen (which is pretty lame and boring), or *gasp* making my own sprites.
I have attempted to do just that by piecing together various things and then somehow making it look decent. Here is the first one I've done this way (flat color only, no shading yet) - a woman named Lilah who plays a pretty large part in the Jarconia arc, since the main goal is to find her before a major conflict breaks out between the human and demon factions of the city. I'm not sure if I really succeeded in making her look good, but...at least I tried. And even if she doesn't turn out that great, it's not like she's a main character, just important enough that she at least needs to be represented on-screen.
If I can make it work, then this will help a great deal in showing what demons and elves look like in this world, as opposed to the silhouette portraits I had planned to use before. Yes, it will take a lot of work, but it'll be worth it, I think.
And on an art-related note, I still haven't figured out what to do with the backgrounds. I'm leaning towards taking photos and tweaking them to make them look more "cartoon-ish" without going through and re-drawing them all. It's not an ideal solution, but it may work until I can figure out something better.
In the meantime, here is a preview of Chael's loading screen for your viewing pleasure. :)
Oct 22, 2011
Stuff
It's late and I'm tired, so I'll keep this short.
Today, I worked on mostly trivial things. I started out preparing to write the first major section, but then I got side-tracked...as usual. First, I got the completed art for Zuleika's loading screen, so I messed around for a while to put that together. I tried a lot of different backgrounds and effects, but I think I'll go with something simple. Anyway, here's a small preview:
Second, I spent a good chunk of time scaling my maps, and by that I mean figuring out how much distance each map represents (for example, I determined that 1cm on the empire map equals 90 miles). I did this so I could start working on coding the traveling system, because days will go by depending on where you're traveling to and where you're traveling from. I knew that I wanted it to take about a month/season to go from the Imperial City, where you start, to any one of the major quest locations (which all happen to be about the same distance from the castle), and decided that a good average traveling speed would be 30 miles a day after some research, so I just worked it out from there.
Developing a scale definitely helped to put some things into perspective. The empire looks kind of small on-screen, but it's actually quite large....which is good, because, you know, it's an empire. But it also made me realize that the provinces are kind of spread out and that they'll each have their own characteristics that make them unique, so I started working out details about each province - what they're known for, general socioeconomic status, religious beliefs (or rather, whether they go with the religion preached by the capital or not), some unique cultural things, etc. In reality, they would each have their own detailed histories...but I may or may not go that in-depth with it.
...Whatever happened to keeping this short? I think I'm rambling while nodding off... Time for bed, methinks.
Today, I worked on mostly trivial things. I started out preparing to write the first major section, but then I got side-tracked...as usual. First, I got the completed art for Zuleika's loading screen, so I messed around for a while to put that together. I tried a lot of different backgrounds and effects, but I think I'll go with something simple. Anyway, here's a small preview:
Second, I spent a good chunk of time scaling my maps, and by that I mean figuring out how much distance each map represents (for example, I determined that 1cm on the empire map equals 90 miles). I did this so I could start working on coding the traveling system, because days will go by depending on where you're traveling to and where you're traveling from. I knew that I wanted it to take about a month/season to go from the Imperial City, where you start, to any one of the major quest locations (which all happen to be about the same distance from the castle), and decided that a good average traveling speed would be 30 miles a day after some research, so I just worked it out from there.
Developing a scale definitely helped to put some things into perspective. The empire looks kind of small on-screen, but it's actually quite large....which is good, because, you know, it's an empire. But it also made me realize that the provinces are kind of spread out and that they'll each have their own characteristics that make them unique, so I started working out details about each province - what they're known for, general socioeconomic status, religious beliefs (or rather, whether they go with the religion preached by the capital or not), some unique cultural things, etc. In reality, they would each have their own detailed histories...but I may or may not go that in-depth with it.
...Whatever happened to keeping this short? I think I'm rambling while nodding off... Time for bed, methinks.
Oct 16, 2011
About Time
I finally finished writing the damn prologue last night. Huzzah! Granted, there wasn't much left to do...just had to finish fleshing out the questions at the end. But now it's done and I can move on to the good stuff. :D
On that note, I worked on my characterization some more today. I really fleshed out Chael and his relationship with Zuleika, what draws them together in the first place, what makes them "right" for each other, etc. Some people complained that the romances were too simple before, that there was nothing that showed why they should even be interested in each other, but that will definitely be different this time around. In part, I can develop the romances much more because there will be more flexibility in the story line, plus the story will be longer so I actually have time to develop them instead of having to cram everything into a set, short time frame.
I was making great progress, but somehow my commitment to fleshing out my characters devolved into watching Nyan Cat, which led me to the eHarmony cat lady, which led me to a fake newscast report about it, which somehow led me to the Numa Numa guy, which led me to........you get the point.
In addition to all that, I implemented the updated character customization screen that will be used to "disguise" yourself and such. You can view a screenshot of it below:
You'll notice that you now have the ability to switch between wearing the "Warrior's Garb" and the "Princess' Dress," or rather, you will eventually. The princess dress will be unlocked once you've achieved a certain level of fame, to where it's no longer necessary (or useful) to hide your identity. The "Accessories" section refers to the accessories that you have unlocked through receiving gifts in other play-throughs (all of the love interests will give you a gift to wear when you have enough affection with them). So, if you pursued Chael in a past play-through and received his gift, then in the next play-through you can equip that gift from the start, plus receive another gift from a different love interest and wear that too (unless the accessory and gift are in conflict, such as the two necklaces).
With this change, I had to completely re-code all of Zuleika's sprites. I needed to do so anyway because the way I'd coded them was an inefficient, garbled mess, but...it was still tough, and took a long time. I also added Ahzi's gift while I was at it. I'm not sure if I like it, because the style kind of clashes with the sprite...which is entirely my fault, of course, because I had to draw it myself and I'm not an artist. But it's simple enough that it should be okay, I think....I hope.
On that note, I worked on my characterization some more today. I really fleshed out Chael and his relationship with Zuleika, what draws them together in the first place, what makes them "right" for each other, etc. Some people complained that the romances were too simple before, that there was nothing that showed why they should even be interested in each other, but that will definitely be different this time around. In part, I can develop the romances much more because there will be more flexibility in the story line, plus the story will be longer so I actually have time to develop them instead of having to cram everything into a set, short time frame.
I was making great progress, but somehow my commitment to fleshing out my characters devolved into watching Nyan Cat, which led me to the eHarmony cat lady, which led me to a fake newscast report about it, which somehow led me to the Numa Numa guy, which led me to........you get the point.
In addition to all that, I implemented the updated character customization screen that will be used to "disguise" yourself and such. You can view a screenshot of it below:
You'll notice that you now have the ability to switch between wearing the "Warrior's Garb" and the "Princess' Dress," or rather, you will eventually. The princess dress will be unlocked once you've achieved a certain level of fame, to where it's no longer necessary (or useful) to hide your identity. The "Accessories" section refers to the accessories that you have unlocked through receiving gifts in other play-throughs (all of the love interests will give you a gift to wear when you have enough affection with them). So, if you pursued Chael in a past play-through and received his gift, then in the next play-through you can equip that gift from the start, plus receive another gift from a different love interest and wear that too (unless the accessory and gift are in conflict, such as the two necklaces).
With this change, I had to completely re-code all of Zuleika's sprites. I needed to do so anyway because the way I'd coded them was an inefficient, garbled mess, but...it was still tough, and took a long time. I also added Ahzi's gift while I was at it. I'm not sure if I like it, because the style kind of clashes with the sprite...which is entirely my fault, of course, because I had to draw it myself and I'm not an artist. But it's simple enough that it should be okay, I think....I hope.
Oct 14, 2011
Random Stuff
First off, some of you will be excited to see that I've added a new download link to the panel on the left. It's just a beta of the first 5-10 minutes of the game as it is now, which is essentially the prologue. It's almost complete except for the bit of questioning at the end with Chael; finished the first question, but not the other two. You'll notice a lot of similarities between this and the old "demo" that was up, but it has (hopefully) been improved a lot, both graphics-wise and story-wise.
There shouldn't be any bugs (since it's short enough that I've been through it many, many times), but suggestions would be greatly loved and appreciated. I know it's not really long enough to make a quality assessment, but the beginning is often one of the most important parts of a game because if it's bad, the player may be too turned off to play the rest of it. So...yeah, suggestions for how to improve it (particularly the writing) would be great.
Other than that, I haven't done much. I've been focusing on reviving my LOTRO guild instead, and making sure I don't fail this school project I'm doing based on it...
But here are some WIP sketches of that "loading screen" artwork I mentioned a while back to make you (and me) happy:
There shouldn't be any bugs (since it's short enough that I've been through it many, many times), but suggestions would be greatly loved and appreciated. I know it's not really long enough to make a quality assessment, but the beginning is often one of the most important parts of a game because if it's bad, the player may be too turned off to play the rest of it. So...yeah, suggestions for how to improve it (particularly the writing) would be great.
Other than that, I haven't done much. I've been focusing on reviving my LOTRO guild instead, and making sure I don't fail this school project I'm doing based on it...
But here are some WIP sketches of that "loading screen" artwork I mentioned a while back to make you (and me) happy:
Oct 9, 2011
Approval System
Most of what I did today was add an "approve/disapprove" system. It's not really a "system" in that there's a chunk of separate complex coding, but it's just a little graphic that pops up to let you know when you've made a choice that increases affection versus one that decreases it.
So, if you're like me and stress out about making the wrong choice all the time, then you can easily rollback if he "disapproves" and choose a different option instead. Most options are pretty self-explanatory (i.e. if you "make accusations" at Chael, he's obviously not going to be very happy), though, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out which ones are bad choices for certain characters.
Not all choices will affect only one person. Some choices may lead to one character approving while another character disapproves, depending on the character, so it's all about what's most important to you.
You can see it in action here:
...Wait, who's the guy with the glasses? The vague answer is that he's a character you'll meet in the demo, which has been titled "Memoirs of an Angel: Before the Storm." If I end up making a stay-in-the-castle path (I'm not sure if I will), then he'll be a romanceable character there.
The slightly more specific answer is that he's Duren's former mentor and Zuleika's current tutor (current at the time of the demo, anyway...obviously, by the time the game starts, his employer is dead so his job is over).
If you can guess who he really is, I'll give you a cookie. ;)
...And ugh, I really need to fix my backgrounds. -________-
So, if you're like me and stress out about making the wrong choice all the time, then you can easily rollback if he "disapproves" and choose a different option instead. Most options are pretty self-explanatory (i.e. if you "make accusations" at Chael, he's obviously not going to be very happy), though, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out which ones are bad choices for certain characters.
Not all choices will affect only one person. Some choices may lead to one character approving while another character disapproves, depending on the character, so it's all about what's most important to you.
You can see it in action here:
...Wait, who's the guy with the glasses? The vague answer is that he's a character you'll meet in the demo, which has been titled "Memoirs of an Angel: Before the Storm." If I end up making a stay-in-the-castle path (I'm not sure if I will), then he'll be a romanceable character there.
The slightly more specific answer is that he's Duren's former mentor and Zuleika's current tutor (current at the time of the demo, anyway...obviously, by the time the game starts, his employer is dead so his job is over).
If you can guess who he really is, I'll give you a cookie. ;)
...And ugh, I really need to fix my backgrounds. -________-
Oct 8, 2011
Game Menus
I finally got my game menus designed and implemented today. This is something I've been meaning to do for a while (see "Current Goal" in the progress panel to the right), but was avoiding due to fears about how it would turn out.
I'm proud to say that after roughly ten hours of hard work and frustration, the game menus are fully functional, and they even look half-way decent! Good-bye, ugly default menus; hello, pretty not-so-blocky menus.
I still don't have Character Status, Inventory, and Journal (quest) screens made, but those will probably feature a similar design. Since they're not absolutely crucial to basic gameplay, I'm not in a rush to make them; it's probably more important at this point to focus on creating some actual substance...you know...so there's actually a game to play. Unfortunately, writing is my least favorite part, so I have a bad tendency to keep putting it off and do everything else I possibly can first...and then re-doing it, causing the writing portion to be pushed back even further...and then scrapping everything and starting over with a whole new theme, which means rewriting anything I might have done by that point. *kicks self*
As a final note, I would like to thank everyone who reads this or past blogs, whether you're a visitor or a subscriber. It really does help to keep me going when I know that there are people interested in the project and I'm not just pouring all this time and money into nothing. Of course, I'm making the game mostly for myself, but the part I enjoy is the process...so, then, who will enjoy the fruits of my labor? If not me, then it must be the ones who will eventually play my game. So, when I know that it will, in fact, be enjoyed by someone, it helps inspire me to work harder to make an even better finished product....even if it means spending ten hours working on some stupid code for menu screens that could have much more easily been left in the plain, default style.
I'm proud to say that after roughly ten hours of hard work and frustration, the game menus are fully functional, and they even look half-way decent! Good-bye, ugly default menus; hello, pretty not-so-blocky menus.
I still don't have Character Status, Inventory, and Journal (quest) screens made, but those will probably feature a similar design. Since they're not absolutely crucial to basic gameplay, I'm not in a rush to make them; it's probably more important at this point to focus on creating some actual substance...you know...so there's actually a game to play. Unfortunately, writing is my least favorite part, so I have a bad tendency to keep putting it off and do everything else I possibly can first...and then re-doing it, causing the writing portion to be pushed back even further...and then scrapping everything and starting over with a whole new theme, which means rewriting anything I might have done by that point. *kicks self*
As a final note, I would like to thank everyone who reads this or past blogs, whether you're a visitor or a subscriber. It really does help to keep me going when I know that there are people interested in the project and I'm not just pouring all this time and money into nothing. Of course, I'm making the game mostly for myself, but the part I enjoy is the process...so, then, who will enjoy the fruits of my labor? If not me, then it must be the ones who will eventually play my game. So, when I know that it will, in fact, be enjoyed by someone, it helps inspire me to work harder to make an even better finished product....even if it means spending ten hours working on some stupid code for menu screens that could have much more easily been left in the plain, default style.
Oct 7, 2011
It's Friday...Again
I got all sorts of good things done today, thanks to the awesome feeling of having finished with all my tests and papers for this week (too bad I have even more next week...). :D
The most important thing I did today was that I got the calendar system working. When you travel to different places, days pass. Every 30 days, the season and "month" changes. Thus, what you get is an overlay like this, where "Ortus" is the "month" name and "6" is the day of the month. The rose changes colors according to the season. The bit below it is the time of day, which will be important because when you go to a town, you can only do one action per time of day, and only during the Morning, Afternoon, and Late Afternoon portions of the day.
You'll notice also that the textbox has changed a bit again, reflecting some of the changes I mentioned before. Roses more red to stand out, plus the click-to-continue indicator. I'm actually satisfied with the quality of the textbox and layout now, but the free resource backgrounds are bugging the heck out of me. :/ I wish I could afford to commission custom ones, but I'm already "over budget" with the CGs and such that I'm buying. But I'll experiment and play around with them a bit. If nothing else, I may at least be able to re-color them in such a way that they're consistent.....but it will take a looooooong time to do.
On the topic of backgrounds, the next thing I did was to add little flourishes to the backgrounds, so every few seconds, you'll see some flowers, leaves, or snowflakes (depending on what season it is) being blown around, assuming you're somewhere outside. It's not a big deal or anything, but like the little sprite animations, it just helps to make an otherwise boring static screen a little more exciting. It also increases the overall file size, though, so I may take that feature out for the special download for slow connections.
Finally, I mostly rewrote my "morning after" scene to make it more serious and to show a bit more of Zuleika's frustration by that point (though it still isn't enough, I don't think, but the point of this scene is to introduce choices, so substantial dialogue is a bit lacking on purpose). Before, like in the original, it was a fairly light-hearted scene that showed the sort of antagonistic relationship Zuleika and Chael start out with, but...let's face it: she's been running for her life in the rain all night long, and that's after finding the man who was practically her father lying dead in a pool of blood, so she's not going to be a happy camper. But then again, she's also the kind of person who won't let anyone else see her sad or upset, so don't expect to see her outwardly mourning for her master.
As a side note, I've decided that the demo will be kind of separate from the game, but will still tie in and fit within the overall game (like a DLC, hehe). Specifically, it will take place the day before/day of Osirus' death, so you'll kind of get to see how she got to where she is at the start of the actual game. I'm not sure how long it will be, but it'll help to set up the game and will showcase some of its features...mainly the exploration system that I have yet to develop, haha.
Anyway, I expect that tomorrow will also be very productive. :) Sunday...probably not so much, since I have a bunch of schoolwork I need to work on instead. But we'll see.
The most important thing I did today was that I got the calendar system working. When you travel to different places, days pass. Every 30 days, the season and "month" changes. Thus, what you get is an overlay like this, where "Ortus" is the "month" name and "6" is the day of the month. The rose changes colors according to the season. The bit below it is the time of day, which will be important because when you go to a town, you can only do one action per time of day, and only during the Morning, Afternoon, and Late Afternoon portions of the day.
You'll notice also that the textbox has changed a bit again, reflecting some of the changes I mentioned before. Roses more red to stand out, plus the click-to-continue indicator. I'm actually satisfied with the quality of the textbox and layout now, but the free resource backgrounds are bugging the heck out of me. :/ I wish I could afford to commission custom ones, but I'm already "over budget" with the CGs and such that I'm buying. But I'll experiment and play around with them a bit. If nothing else, I may at least be able to re-color them in such a way that they're consistent.....but it will take a looooooong time to do.
On the topic of backgrounds, the next thing I did was to add little flourishes to the backgrounds, so every few seconds, you'll see some flowers, leaves, or snowflakes (depending on what season it is) being blown around, assuming you're somewhere outside. It's not a big deal or anything, but like the little sprite animations, it just helps to make an otherwise boring static screen a little more exciting. It also increases the overall file size, though, so I may take that feature out for the special download for slow connections.
Finally, I mostly rewrote my "morning after" scene to make it more serious and to show a bit more of Zuleika's frustration by that point (though it still isn't enough, I don't think, but the point of this scene is to introduce choices, so substantial dialogue is a bit lacking on purpose). Before, like in the original, it was a fairly light-hearted scene that showed the sort of antagonistic relationship Zuleika and Chael start out with, but...let's face it: she's been running for her life in the rain all night long, and that's after finding the man who was practically her father lying dead in a pool of blood, so she's not going to be a happy camper. But then again, she's also the kind of person who won't let anyone else see her sad or upset, so don't expect to see her outwardly mourning for her master.
As a side note, I've decided that the demo will be kind of separate from the game, but will still tie in and fit within the overall game (like a DLC, hehe). Specifically, it will take place the day before/day of Osirus' death, so you'll kind of get to see how she got to where she is at the start of the actual game. I'm not sure how long it will be, but it'll help to set up the game and will showcase some of its features...mainly the exploration system that I have yet to develop, haha.
Anyway, I expect that tomorrow will also be very productive. :) Sunday...probably not so much, since I have a bunch of schoolwork I need to work on instead. But we'll see.
Oct 5, 2011
School Sucks
There isn't much to say today, really. In the back of my mind, I'm freaking out about the major exams I have coming up over the next few days, so that makes it difficult to get any real work done without feeling guilty about not studying.
What I did do today was make some very, very small edits to my textbox. I ended up not changing it radically like I had thought about doing, and going back to what I had before...then making small tweaks. As part of that, I added a cute journal-writing click-to-continue indicator in the corner. I may or may not end up keeping it.
More importantly, I commissioned the "loading screen" art I mentioned before. Trying to organize over 50 references in a coherent manner that the artist could understand was one hell of a job...and was probably one of the longest commission notes I've ever written. It should be worth it, though. This artist hasn't let me down yet, so I'm confident that the art will be amazing.
I can't wait to see what she comes up with~
Due to night class tomorrow, and the paper I have due and the test on Friday, I probably won't make any progress tomorrow...but if I can just make it to 3pm Friday, then I'll be free to write as much as I want during the weekend. :) ...Until Sunday night, and then I'll need to study more and write more papers. School sucks.
What I did do today was make some very, very small edits to my textbox. I ended up not changing it radically like I had thought about doing, and going back to what I had before...then making small tweaks. As part of that, I added a cute journal-writing click-to-continue indicator in the corner. I may or may not end up keeping it.
More importantly, I commissioned the "loading screen" art I mentioned before. Trying to organize over 50 references in a coherent manner that the artist could understand was one hell of a job...and was probably one of the longest commission notes I've ever written. It should be worth it, though. This artist hasn't let me down yet, so I'm confident that the art will be amazing.
I can't wait to see what she comes up with~
Due to night class tomorrow, and the paper I have due and the test on Friday, I probably won't make any progress tomorrow...but if I can just make it to 3pm Friday, then I'll be free to write as much as I want during the weekend. :) ...Until Sunday night, and then I'll need to study more and write more papers. School sucks.
Oct 4, 2011
Back in the Writing Spirit
Just in time for mid-terms, I finally got back into the writing spirit...but with no time to write. Such is life, I suppose...
I did do a bit today, though. Specifically, I got through the first major choice you get to make: which major plot quest you do first out of the three. Originally, this was going to be a fairly trivial decision...but I think it would be cool to have it mean something and to have consequences happen as a result. For example, if you choose not to go to the Port of Sileas first, then you'll see (or hear about) the empire's main import/export center shutting down due to plague and what that's doing to the economy, somewhat similar to the rumor system in some Bioware games. Nothing would be so severe as to be game-ending (or even game-ruining), but just little reminders that the world is still moving along, with or without you. :)
I also thought about what I'm going to do about when you're traveling from place to place. When going to a new province, you'll get a scene usually (at least the first time), but what about when you're just going to a different town? Showing up there instantly as soon as you click on it would be pretty lame, especially since it would be a few days later according to the "calendar." So I thought of putting "loading" screens in between...but they would have to be interesting or it would just be annoying, right?
Thus, I came up with the idea of showcasing the characters for the loading screens, with a random selection of the characters you currently know, kind of like how they showcase a character before a commercial break in anime. Loading screen art will be done by the same artist who is doing the new CGs, so they're bound to turn out well. Now the hard part is deciding the pose!
I did do a bit today, though. Specifically, I got through the first major choice you get to make: which major plot quest you do first out of the three. Originally, this was going to be a fairly trivial decision...but I think it would be cool to have it mean something and to have consequences happen as a result. For example, if you choose not to go to the Port of Sileas first, then you'll see (or hear about) the empire's main import/export center shutting down due to plague and what that's doing to the economy, somewhat similar to the rumor system in some Bioware games. Nothing would be so severe as to be game-ending (or even game-ruining), but just little reminders that the world is still moving along, with or without you. :)
I also thought about what I'm going to do about when you're traveling from place to place. When going to a new province, you'll get a scene usually (at least the first time), but what about when you're just going to a different town? Showing up there instantly as soon as you click on it would be pretty lame, especially since it would be a few days later according to the "calendar." So I thought of putting "loading" screens in between...but they would have to be interesting or it would just be annoying, right?
Thus, I came up with the idea of showcasing the characters for the loading screens, with a random selection of the characters you currently know, kind of like how they showcase a character before a commercial break in anime. Loading screen art will be done by the same artist who is doing the new CGs, so they're bound to turn out well. Now the hard part is deciding the pose!
Oct 2, 2011
More Coloring
...and I've still got a long ways to go.
But as promised, I finished tracing and flat coloring the last couple of animal forms.
Despite the fact that Chael is supposed to be a frightening, ferocious wolf spirit...he looks more cute and cuddly than anything in the picture above. Seriously, while I was working on him, I just wanted to cuddle him and pet his pretty, soft fur. I attribute that to the fact that he looks more like a dog than a wolf...but he also acts more like a dog than a wolf, so maybe it's okay in the end. His isn't the only animal sprite that isn't accurate; Zuleika's is patterned wrong, for example.
Ah well...the point is that I have them and they look pretty good.
Yay for progress. :)
But as promised, I finished tracing and flat coloring the last couple of animal forms.
Despite the fact that Chael is supposed to be a frightening, ferocious wolf spirit...he looks more cute and cuddly than anything in the picture above. Seriously, while I was working on him, I just wanted to cuddle him and pet his pretty, soft fur. I attribute that to the fact that he looks more like a dog than a wolf...but he also acts more like a dog than a wolf, so maybe it's okay in the end. His isn't the only animal sprite that isn't accurate; Zuleika's is patterned wrong, for example.
Ah well...the point is that I have them and they look pretty good.
Yay for progress. :)
Progress, finally!
As the title implies, I actually got stuff done today. No, I didn't get actual story stuff done, but I did make quite a bit of progress on my sprites.
First, I finished shading Honhelm and Ustyz. So now that I've got all the new people sprites fully colored, resized, and functional, I need to work on the finishing touches: expressions and blinking animations. Anyway, take a look at my handy work:
Second, I started working on the angels' animal form sprites. You may recall that the lineart I posted before was done traditionally, with pen on paper. That makes it near impossible to resize and color properly, because no matter what, it would be too difficult to clean out the fuzzy white background and leave decent-looking lines. So, in order to get them the way I want, I have to first trace over the lineart in GIMP, then color. It's a long process, but the end result looks much better than if I had tried to simply clean out the background.
So far, I've traced and flat-colored Kirile and Zuleika. I'll do Chael and Duren tomorrow, most likely.
I'll be so glad when I'm done with all this coloring!
First, I finished shading Honhelm and Ustyz. So now that I've got all the new people sprites fully colored, resized, and functional, I need to work on the finishing touches: expressions and blinking animations. Anyway, take a look at my handy work:
Second, I started working on the angels' animal form sprites. You may recall that the lineart I posted before was done traditionally, with pen on paper. That makes it near impossible to resize and color properly, because no matter what, it would be too difficult to clean out the fuzzy white background and leave decent-looking lines. So, in order to get them the way I want, I have to first trace over the lineart in GIMP, then color. It's a long process, but the end result looks much better than if I had tried to simply clean out the background.
So far, I've traced and flat-colored Kirile and Zuleika. I'll do Chael and Duren tomorrow, most likely.
I'll be so glad when I'm done with all this coloring!
Sep 28, 2011
Lameness
I'll be honest: I've been very...distracted lately. So distracted, in fact, that I've gotten absolutely nothing done, whether it be with my game, school, or MMORPG. No progress what-so-ever. Just watching Dexter and doing...other things.
Well, I guess I did get Ustyz colored (flat only, no shading) a few days ago, but I never finished shading Honhelm like was supposed to. And I started filling out characterization sheets for everyone, but only got through Zuleika's. Still, even that one alone was quite enlightening. I can't believe I'd never thought about her fears before, and how those would impact her actions and relationships.
So...that's the story. Not that I actually told the story, but...well...there it is. I'll get back to work soon-ish, I swear.
Well, I guess I did get Ustyz colored (flat only, no shading) a few days ago, but I never finished shading Honhelm like was supposed to. And I started filling out characterization sheets for everyone, but only got through Zuleika's. Still, even that one alone was quite enlightening. I can't believe I'd never thought about her fears before, and how those would impact her actions and relationships.
So...that's the story. Not that I actually told the story, but...well...there it is. I'll get back to work soon-ish, I swear.
Sep 23, 2011
Characterization
Warning: Big block of text and possible spoilers ahead!
First things first, I did continue my coloring work today. Specifically, I got Honhelm the governor tweaked and colored in, but haven't shaded him yet. He's like a strange cross between Dracula (because of the clothes and creepy expression) and an Asari from Mass Effect (because of the hairstyle).
...Is it weird that I think he's actually kind of handsome? Ustyz even more so. Even though he's a grumpy old man now, I bet he was quite a stud back in the day.
The other important thing I did today was think about characterization. This thread on the Lemma Soft Forums reminded me that 2D characters aren't nearly as interesting or attractive as multi-dimensional ones. Unfortunately, the way I think of characters tends to be very simplistic; I come up with one or two words that sum them up, and then base everything on that one characteristic. Then I'd throw in a short back-story and call it good.
In my head, there's actually much more to these characters, because I've been developing them for several years now. But it's hard to get that down onto paper, specifically in the medium I've chosen. In many cases, I had to deviate from the true image of the character to make them more appealing, since the main point of the game, after all, is the romance. So even though I have these very detailed characters, I end up falling back on classic stereotypes and simple character traits to incorporate them into the game.
For example, Chael is, originally, not a friendly person at all, mainly because he can't feel anything, neither physical sensations nor emotional "feelings," due to years of extreme physical and psychological abuse. The only reason he "rescues" Zuleika is to use her as leverage; in other words, she was his hostage. He generally sees people as tools (because that is how he was treated all his life and has never known anything different) and would therefore reject any sort of intimate connection with another person. The fact that Zuleika falls in love with him anyway exemplifies her fatal flaw, which is her belief that people are inherently good and refusal to see the bad in people. She believes she can "fix" him, but she can't.
While that wouldn't be a bad story by itself, and it's realistic in that you don't always get the happy ending you wish for, it makes for a pretty lame romance path! Imagine spending years trying to woo this hot, single elf prince, only to have him say, "No matter how much you love me, I can never return your feelings. No, really, I literally can't." But this is a game; the point is to fight to achieve a goal so you can get the reward at the end. Complete rejection is not much of a reward.
And so, stereotypical "quiet guy" Chael comes to the rescue. He starts out as the stoic, silent type, but watch as his cold exterior magically melts away due to the warm, friendly influence of the MC, leaving a cute, blushing, shy boy in its wake. The fangirl chorus goes "awww" as he awkwardly admits his feelings for the heroine, then gives her his first kiss, then goes back to being serious...except when he's around the heroine.
See what I mean? While "quiet guy" Chael is cute and loveable, he's lost all of the dimension he had before. Thus, my task over the next few days (in between all the coloring) will be trying to add dimension to my characters (or bringing the dimension back, as the case may be) without alienating possible players of the game at the same time.
...Why is writing a story so difficult? ;o;
First things first, I did continue my coloring work today. Specifically, I got Honhelm the governor tweaked and colored in, but haven't shaded him yet. He's like a strange cross between Dracula (because of the clothes and creepy expression) and an Asari from Mass Effect (because of the hairstyle).
...Is it weird that I think he's actually kind of handsome? Ustyz even more so. Even though he's a grumpy old man now, I bet he was quite a stud back in the day.
The other important thing I did today was think about characterization. This thread on the Lemma Soft Forums reminded me that 2D characters aren't nearly as interesting or attractive as multi-dimensional ones. Unfortunately, the way I think of characters tends to be very simplistic; I come up with one or two words that sum them up, and then base everything on that one characteristic. Then I'd throw in a short back-story and call it good.
In my head, there's actually much more to these characters, because I've been developing them for several years now. But it's hard to get that down onto paper, specifically in the medium I've chosen. In many cases, I had to deviate from the true image of the character to make them more appealing, since the main point of the game, after all, is the romance. So even though I have these very detailed characters, I end up falling back on classic stereotypes and simple character traits to incorporate them into the game.
For example, Chael is, originally, not a friendly person at all, mainly because he can't feel anything, neither physical sensations nor emotional "feelings," due to years of extreme physical and psychological abuse. The only reason he "rescues" Zuleika is to use her as leverage; in other words, she was his hostage. He generally sees people as tools (because that is how he was treated all his life and has never known anything different) and would therefore reject any sort of intimate connection with another person. The fact that Zuleika falls in love with him anyway exemplifies her fatal flaw, which is her belief that people are inherently good and refusal to see the bad in people. She believes she can "fix" him, but she can't.
While that wouldn't be a bad story by itself, and it's realistic in that you don't always get the happy ending you wish for, it makes for a pretty lame romance path! Imagine spending years trying to woo this hot, single elf prince, only to have him say, "No matter how much you love me, I can never return your feelings. No, really, I literally can't." But this is a game; the point is to fight to achieve a goal so you can get the reward at the end. Complete rejection is not much of a reward.
And so, stereotypical "quiet guy" Chael comes to the rescue. He starts out as the stoic, silent type, but watch as his cold exterior magically melts away due to the warm, friendly influence of the MC, leaving a cute, blushing, shy boy in its wake. The fangirl chorus goes "awww" as he awkwardly admits his feelings for the heroine, then gives her his first kiss, then goes back to being serious...except when he's around the heroine.
See what I mean? While "quiet guy" Chael is cute and loveable, he's lost all of the dimension he had before. Thus, my task over the next few days (in between all the coloring) will be trying to add dimension to my characters (or bringing the dimension back, as the case may be) without alienating possible players of the game at the same time.
...Why is writing a story so difficult? ;o;
Pretty Sprites
I forgot to post yesterday...oops! Ah well.
What I did yesterday is the same as what I did today: coloring my sprites. Much to my surprise, they're actually coming out pretty well. All the practice I got from coloring all those chibis did me some good after all. :)
So far, I finished the two simplest sprites, Ahzi the enchanter and Rothkin the merchant, as shown below (click to see the big versions):
Some observant people may have noticed that they look quite different from their respective linearts. That's because I had to do a lot of tweaking - mostly erasing extra lines and cleaning up other lines - in order to get them close to the simpler style of the other sprites. It's unfortunate, but yes, details were lost in this process. Specifically, Rothkin looks younger and significantly less wrinkly than he did before, and Ahzi's creepy grin has been turned into a pleasant smile.
Despite all my efforts to make them look similar, they still look a bit out of place when placed next to one of the old sprites. With the exception of Ahzi, I'll probably make an effort to have them be the only one on screen when they need to be shown.
I also received the animal form linearts today, so between those and the sprites I still have to finish coloring, I've got lots to keep me busy for the next several days.
What I did yesterday is the same as what I did today: coloring my sprites. Much to my surprise, they're actually coming out pretty well. All the practice I got from coloring all those chibis did me some good after all. :)
So far, I finished the two simplest sprites, Ahzi the enchanter and Rothkin the merchant, as shown below (click to see the big versions):
Some observant people may have noticed that they look quite different from their respective linearts. That's because I had to do a lot of tweaking - mostly erasing extra lines and cleaning up other lines - in order to get them close to the simpler style of the other sprites. It's unfortunate, but yes, details were lost in this process. Specifically, Rothkin looks younger and significantly less wrinkly than he did before, and Ahzi's creepy grin has been turned into a pleasant smile.
Despite all my efforts to make them look similar, they still look a bit out of place when placed next to one of the old sprites. With the exception of Ahzi, I'll probably make an effort to have them be the only one on screen when they need to be shown.
I also received the animal form linearts today, so between those and the sprites I still have to finish coloring, I've got lots to keep me busy for the next several days.
Sep 20, 2011
Arts!!
Let's just say this up front... I got absolutely nothing done today.
But someone was actually productive today. My sprite artist finally finished the set of linearts I commissioned, and they look great~
I'll start the long process of coloring them tonight...or rather, I'll try. If it turns out that my coloring is no good, I'll have to find someone else to do it, I guess.
A particular Abba song always comes to find at times like this...
But someone was actually productive today. My sprite artist finally finished the set of linearts I commissioned, and they look great~
I'll start the long process of coloring them tonight...or rather, I'll try. If it turns out that my coloring is no good, I'll have to find someone else to do it, I guess.
A particular Abba song always comes to find at times like this...
Money, money, money
Must be funny
In the rich man's world
Sep 19, 2011
Titleless
As promised, I finished coloring Ahzi's chibi today. I have no real sense of how to shade correctly, but...I tried. It turned out pretty well, too, if I do say so myself.
Click here to see awesome cuteness~
That's...really all I did today. To be fair, it does take a long time to color something like that. And I'm still waiting for my linearts. And I still can't figure out what to do with my damn GUI.
Moving away from the topic of my utter laziness...I was inspired by a thread I saw on the Lemma Soft Forums today about ideas for classic fairy tales in which the roles are switched (i.e. the girl is turned into the beast, and the guy has to find a way to love her anyway). Me, being the feminist I am, thought this was a great idea. I was particularly enamored with the idea of Sleeping Beauty with roles reversed - the prince falls into an enchanted sleep and it's up to the princess to wake him up. I want to doooo eeeet~ Seriously, I think it could be a great story, even if I don't turn it into a game.
Tomorrow, I'm going to spend some time with Lord of the Rings Online, which I've been neglecting lately. So... I may or may not get anything done tomorrow. We'll see.
Click here to see awesome cuteness~
That's...really all I did today. To be fair, it does take a long time to color something like that. And I'm still waiting for my linearts. And I still can't figure out what to do with my damn GUI.
Moving away from the topic of my utter laziness...I was inspired by a thread I saw on the Lemma Soft Forums today about ideas for classic fairy tales in which the roles are switched (i.e. the girl is turned into the beast, and the guy has to find a way to love her anyway). Me, being the feminist I am, thought this was a great idea. I was particularly enamored with the idea of Sleeping Beauty with roles reversed - the prince falls into an enchanted sleep and it's up to the princess to wake him up. I want to doooo eeeet~ Seriously, I think it could be a great story, even if I don't turn it into a game.
Tomorrow, I'm going to spend some time with Lord of the Rings Online, which I've been neglecting lately. So... I may or may not get anything done tomorrow. We'll see.
Sep 18, 2011
GUI Blues...
I spent most of the day avoiding working on the game because I felt, once again, that my GUI is inferior and that I might as well scrap the whole thing.
I tried messing around with it a bit, but after asking for suggestions, the consensus was that I was better off with my original design. But I don't like my original design. It's not bad, but it just doesn't reach my standard of what is "professional." So....I don't know. I guess I'll just have to mull it over for a while. Maybe some miracle will happen and I'll wake up tomorrow with the inspiration I need to make an awesome GUI.
On a brighter note, I now have a chibi for Ahzi to go with the others. It's by a different artist, but I spent quite a bit of time tweaking it to make it match the others as closely as possible. Hopefully my efforts weren't in vain...
What will make him stand out more than anything is the colors. If you look at the other characters, it's...black, black, white and black, white, blue and black. Then suddenly it's BAM! Yellow, brown, green, white, all in the same person. He's the most colorful character in the game, which I guess reflects his personality well. xD
Anyway, he's just got flat colors for now. I'll finish shading him tomorrow.
I tried messing around with it a bit, but after asking for suggestions, the consensus was that I was better off with my original design. But I don't like my original design. It's not bad, but it just doesn't reach my standard of what is "professional." So....I don't know. I guess I'll just have to mull it over for a while. Maybe some miracle will happen and I'll wake up tomorrow with the inspiration I need to make an awesome GUI.
On a brighter note, I now have a chibi for Ahzi to go with the others. It's by a different artist, but I spent quite a bit of time tweaking it to make it match the others as closely as possible. Hopefully my efforts weren't in vain...
What will make him stand out more than anything is the colors. If you look at the other characters, it's...black, black, white and black, white, blue and black. Then suddenly it's BAM! Yellow, brown, green, white, all in the same person. He's the most colorful character in the game, which I guess reflects his personality well. xD
Anyway, he's just got flat colors for now. I'll finish shading him tomorrow.
Blog Pages Added
Pages weren't really added...rather, I just filled the empty ones that I'd created at the beginning. So now there's a complete information page for "Starlit Dreams," as well as some stuff about donations on the Support page. And see that new shiny "Donate" button to the right? ;)
On the game front, I did some more random tweaking today. Previously, I had it so that the sprites would darken when a character was idle and light up when they were speaking, but...that was pretty lame. I mean, yes, it made it more obvious who was speaking - that was the point - but it was kind of ugly, to be honest. I decided to go with a little "portrait" system similar to that of SD (Starlit Dreams), so when someone is speaking, a little portrait shows up next to their name. Serves the same purpose, but looks a lot better.
Unfortunately, since I can only have one side image per character, that means I won't have the little heart stamps in the corner when they speak... but I couldn't get them to look good with the new black textbox, anyway, so that's okay. There will be other ways to view the boys' current relationship with you in the character panel.
I also hired a watercolor artist to color the final couple linearts I got a while back. For being the ending art...they're pretty plain (totally not worth the $80 I spent on them, but that's beside the point). I'm hoping that the addition of pretty watercolors will make them more worthy of being in the finale.
...Yes, I'm still putting off the writing. I'll get into it for real once I receive the last set of sprites I'm waiting on, I promise. ;o;
On the game front, I did some more random tweaking today. Previously, I had it so that the sprites would darken when a character was idle and light up when they were speaking, but...that was pretty lame. I mean, yes, it made it more obvious who was speaking - that was the point - but it was kind of ugly, to be honest. I decided to go with a little "portrait" system similar to that of SD (Starlit Dreams), so when someone is speaking, a little portrait shows up next to their name. Serves the same purpose, but looks a lot better.
Unfortunately, since I can only have one side image per character, that means I won't have the little heart stamps in the corner when they speak... but I couldn't get them to look good with the new black textbox, anyway, so that's okay. There will be other ways to view the boys' current relationship with you in the character panel.
I also hired a watercolor artist to color the final couple linearts I got a while back. For being the ending art...they're pretty plain (totally not worth the $80 I spent on them, but that's beside the point). I'm hoping that the addition of pretty watercolors will make them more worthy of being in the finale.
...Yes, I'm still putting off the writing. I'll get into it for real once I receive the last set of sprites I'm waiting on, I promise. ;o;
Sep 16, 2011
It's Friday
Warning: Big wall of text ahead!
As I was telling a friend of mine earlier today, it's amazing how changing one little thing can create a domino effect that requires a dozen other things to be changed.
For instance, I added a header to each page a while back that shows the current chapter, how much money you have, and what time of day it is. Well...the fact that that and everything else is black made my textbox look out of place, so I made my textbox black. But then that made my backgrounds look too bright, so I added a small black fade around the edges. But then the drop shadows I'd added to my sprites weren't visible enough anymore, so I had to darken the shadows around all my characters. But then the shadows got cut off on some of them because they didn't have enough extra space around them, so I had to go through and resize them all. But then that broke all of the composite images I'd defined, so then I had to go through and recode all of my sprites.
...That's what I spent my day doing.
The average person probably wouldn't have been bothered by any of that and would have avoided the whole chain, but I am, unfortunately, a bit obsessive when it comes to things like this. To be fair, I have somewhat of a reason to be: in this "market," the best way - and in some cases, the only way - to get your game noticed by any decent number of people is to have a "professional"-looking game. Free games like mine are generally made by people who don't have a lot of money or skills, so they feature "okay" stories and "okay" art. But in that kind of environment, if you can make something that isn't just "okay," and is praised to the point of being "professional" quality, then that is true success in the world of free games like this. "Professional," then, is my goal, and it's not easy to achieve.
What else did I do today besides feeding and justifying my obsession? Well... I read a bunch of feminist articles about the gaming industry that were pretty interesting. That made me stop and reflect a bit on Zuleika's character. I figure that even though she starts out representing everything that is bad about how female characters are portrayed in games - infantile, irrational, overemotional - she does develop into a strong, independent female character who is (hopefully) worthy of being the heroine of the story by the end. That character development is important and shows how different environments affect people. Zuleika starts out child-like because that's how Osirus treated her; even though he tells her that she can "choose her own path," the choices he offers are superficial, with powers granted by him, reinforcing her dependence on him. He wanted her to rely on him for everything, and she did. There is, of course, also the way that she is viewed by society, which impacts how she views herself. Tyraca is definitely not a nation in which women are well-respected or have many rights (and this will probably come up in-game). Chael's country, on the other hand, is based on a matriarchal society, so from the get-go he expects Zuleika be the leader and to take charge....which is completely opposite from how she has always viewed herself. It slowly forces her to reevaluate who she is and what she wants to get out of life.
Okay, that's enough ranting for today. :) Makes me want to take more Women and Gender Studies classes...
As I was telling a friend of mine earlier today, it's amazing how changing one little thing can create a domino effect that requires a dozen other things to be changed.
For instance, I added a header to each page a while back that shows the current chapter, how much money you have, and what time of day it is. Well...the fact that that and everything else is black made my textbox look out of place, so I made my textbox black. But then that made my backgrounds look too bright, so I added a small black fade around the edges. But then the drop shadows I'd added to my sprites weren't visible enough anymore, so I had to darken the shadows around all my characters. But then the shadows got cut off on some of them because they didn't have enough extra space around them, so I had to go through and resize them all. But then that broke all of the composite images I'd defined, so then I had to go through and recode all of my sprites.
...That's what I spent my day doing.
The average person probably wouldn't have been bothered by any of that and would have avoided the whole chain, but I am, unfortunately, a bit obsessive when it comes to things like this. To be fair, I have somewhat of a reason to be: in this "market," the best way - and in some cases, the only way - to get your game noticed by any decent number of people is to have a "professional"-looking game. Free games like mine are generally made by people who don't have a lot of money or skills, so they feature "okay" stories and "okay" art. But in that kind of environment, if you can make something that isn't just "okay," and is praised to the point of being "professional" quality, then that is true success in the world of free games like this. "Professional," then, is my goal, and it's not easy to achieve.
What else did I do today besides feeding and justifying my obsession? Well... I read a bunch of feminist articles about the gaming industry that were pretty interesting. That made me stop and reflect a bit on Zuleika's character. I figure that even though she starts out representing everything that is bad about how female characters are portrayed in games - infantile, irrational, overemotional - she does develop into a strong, independent female character who is (hopefully) worthy of being the heroine of the story by the end. That character development is important and shows how different environments affect people. Zuleika starts out child-like because that's how Osirus treated her; even though he tells her that she can "choose her own path," the choices he offers are superficial, with powers granted by him, reinforcing her dependence on him. He wanted her to rely on him for everything, and she did. There is, of course, also the way that she is viewed by society, which impacts how she views herself. Tyraca is definitely not a nation in which women are well-respected or have many rights (and this will probably come up in-game). Chael's country, on the other hand, is based on a matriarchal society, so from the get-go he expects Zuleika be the leader and to take charge....which is completely opposite from how she has always viewed herself. It slowly forces her to reevaluate who she is and what she wants to get out of life.
Okay, that's enough ranting for today. :) Makes me want to take more Women and Gender Studies classes...
Sep 14, 2011
Assorted Graphic Stuff
Yes, I'm still putting off writing the end of the prologue...
But that just means that I'm being productive in other ways instead. :)
First, I implemented the second of the CGs I recently commissioned. Some of you may have been thinking, "Why the heck would I want to date the evil douchebag who got me kicked out of the castle?" Well, here's a preview of your answer:
And on that note, being inspired by the CG, I decided to try to fix up Duren and Nef's sprites to make them look a bit better. This is the second time I've given Duren a facelift; if I had the true original I'd show it to you, but alas, I've already destroyed all evidence of that hideous honker he used to have... This time, I tried to shorten his face a little. It may not even be noticeable, since I just changed the positions of the nose and mouth by a few pixels. Nefferon's facelift should be a little more obvious. I slimmed down those big, bushy, ridiculous-looking eyebrows to make them more like in the CG. Also made his mouth smaller so it's more...um...proportional, I guess.
Before After
Finally, I spent some time working out the layout for the new-and-improved battle system. I cut out different colored scraps of paper in the shape of the elements I wanted using the screenshot from Aleema's game, featured in my last post, as a reference. Once I had a layout like that, I moved the scraps of paper around into several different arrangements until I found one that I felt was interesting and dynamic, but made sense. Then I threw together some shapes on a background in MS Word and added a few images to create a "sketch" of the layout. Here is what I came up with.
In the blank areas, there will be things like name, class, health bar, rage bar, etc. The big box on the bottom-left is for your current fighter. The tabs are to display different things in the box - stats for health, rage, and EXP meters; attacks to choose which attack to do; items to use an item from your inventory; and "run" will probably be replaced with "Options" to run (skip the battle), switch characters, etc. The three rectangle boxes to the right of that are to display the current status of the other members in your party.
The big box above that is to display the enemy and their health, status, etc. The large rectangle is for the current enemy you're fighting, and the smaller squares under that are for the other members of the enemy party. Yes, the enemy can have more members in their party than you can, but I doubt I'll ever actually use all those slots, except for like big end-of-area battles.The final piece - the box currently showing a random background - will eventually display little illustrations corresponding to the attacks being used.
Hopefully, this new set-up is an improvement over the last with its sucky silhouettes and even suckier animations. Yay for dark black and red themes. :)
But that just means that I'm being productive in other ways instead. :)
First, I implemented the second of the CGs I recently commissioned. Some of you may have been thinking, "Why the heck would I want to date the evil douchebag who got me kicked out of the castle?" Well, here's a preview of your answer:
I'll make Neffy fangirls out of some of you yet!
And on that note, being inspired by the CG, I decided to try to fix up Duren and Nef's sprites to make them look a bit better. This is the second time I've given Duren a facelift; if I had the true original I'd show it to you, but alas, I've already destroyed all evidence of that hideous honker he used to have... This time, I tried to shorten his face a little. It may not even be noticeable, since I just changed the positions of the nose and mouth by a few pixels. Nefferon's facelift should be a little more obvious. I slimmed down those big, bushy, ridiculous-looking eyebrows to make them more like in the CG. Also made his mouth smaller so it's more...um...proportional, I guess.
Finally, I spent some time working out the layout for the new-and-improved battle system. I cut out different colored scraps of paper in the shape of the elements I wanted using the screenshot from Aleema's game, featured in my last post, as a reference. Once I had a layout like that, I moved the scraps of paper around into several different arrangements until I found one that I felt was interesting and dynamic, but made sense. Then I threw together some shapes on a background in MS Word and added a few images to create a "sketch" of the layout. Here is what I came up with.
In the blank areas, there will be things like name, class, health bar, rage bar, etc. The big box on the bottom-left is for your current fighter. The tabs are to display different things in the box - stats for health, rage, and EXP meters; attacks to choose which attack to do; items to use an item from your inventory; and "run" will probably be replaced with "Options" to run (skip the battle), switch characters, etc. The three rectangle boxes to the right of that are to display the current status of the other members in your party.
The big box above that is to display the enemy and their health, status, etc. The large rectangle is for the current enemy you're fighting, and the smaller squares under that are for the other members of the enemy party. Yes, the enemy can have more members in their party than you can, but I doubt I'll ever actually use all those slots, except for like big end-of-area battles.The final piece - the box currently showing a random background - will eventually display little illustrations corresponding to the attacks being used.
Hopefully, this new set-up is an improvement over the last with its sucky silhouettes and even suckier animations. Yay for dark black and red themes. :)
Sep 13, 2011
Lazy? Yes.
Today I did, as my cousins would say, diddly squat.
In other words...nothing. At least, nothing tangible.
I'm still stuck on how to go forward now that I've perfected the opening scene. Or rather, I have an idea of how to handle it, but it's hard to plan it out without a decent battle system, which I promised myself I would save for later.
That, of course, led me to start thinking about the battle system. I originally had it set up in a Pokemon-style format, of which you can see a quick preview here. I decided to use silhouettes to represent the characters because it was a waste of money to commission someone just to draw the backsides of my characters, especially since the sprite artist's style has changed so drastically since then (which you'll see when I get Ahzi and the other allies' sprites up). There's also the issues of enemies, many of whom, again, don't have sprites, and I simply can't afford to commission all of them.
But I was never really happy with the silhouettes, and a friend who tried the demo said that they were a bit off-putting. So, as I often do when I get stuck on layouts, I took a look at some of the work of my GUI hero, Aleema. She has a unique battle system in one of her games that manages to look good without needing battle sprites or a grid system or anything like that. Now, if I could go for a graphical layout somewhat similar to that, but with the battle system I currently have in place... I think that could work out well.
Even with something like that, though, there is still the issue of the angels' beast forms1 and enemy sprites. To help rectify that, I went ahead and commissioned some lineart for their beast forms (I managed to find a bargain >D). It'll be good to have the art, anyway, so it's all good. What about the enemy sprites, though? There's no way I'm spending the money to buy 20+ sprites for stupid characters that you're just going to kill off anyway. I'll figure out something, I guess, but in the meantime, I'm open to suggestions. :)
1 = In battle, as an angel takes damage, they accumulate "Rage." When they have enough Rage (the "enough" amount is different for each character), they transform into their "true," or beast, form, which features a new set of more powerful attacks that can save you in a pinch.
In other words...nothing. At least, nothing tangible.
I'm still stuck on how to go forward now that I've perfected the opening scene. Or rather, I have an idea of how to handle it, but it's hard to plan it out without a decent battle system, which I promised myself I would save for later.
That, of course, led me to start thinking about the battle system. I originally had it set up in a Pokemon-style format, of which you can see a quick preview here. I decided to use silhouettes to represent the characters because it was a waste of money to commission someone just to draw the backsides of my characters, especially since the sprite artist's style has changed so drastically since then (which you'll see when I get Ahzi and the other allies' sprites up). There's also the issues of enemies, many of whom, again, don't have sprites, and I simply can't afford to commission all of them.
But I was never really happy with the silhouettes, and a friend who tried the demo said that they were a bit off-putting. So, as I often do when I get stuck on layouts, I took a look at some of the work of my GUI hero, Aleema. She has a unique battle system in one of her games that manages to look good without needing battle sprites or a grid system or anything like that. Now, if I could go for a graphical layout somewhat similar to that, but with the battle system I currently have in place... I think that could work out well.
Even with something like that, though, there is still the issue of the angels' beast forms1 and enemy sprites. To help rectify that, I went ahead and commissioned some lineart for their beast forms (I managed to find a bargain >D). It'll be good to have the art, anyway, so it's all good. What about the enemy sprites, though? There's no way I'm spending the money to buy 20+ sprites for stupid characters that you're just going to kill off anyway. I'll figure out something, I guess, but in the meantime, I'm open to suggestions. :)
1 = In battle, as an angel takes damage, they accumulate "Rage." When they have enough Rage (the "enough" amount is different for each character), they transform into their "true," or beast, form, which features a new set of more powerful attacks that can save you in a pinch.
Sep 12, 2011
Yay, Prologue
After receiving one of the two beautiful new CGs I commissioned, I was inspired enough to actually do some writing today. I didn't have time to do much, and being sick certainly didn't help, but...
At least I got something done. And I'm happy with it. Considering how many times I've redone that stupid opening scene, it's truly a miracle. But you know, creating the perfect opening scene for a game or movie really is a delicate art. If you don't hook the player in the beginning, they may decide "this is too boring" and not even give it a chance! So you have to make it exciting and interesting, which can be very difficult to do with a medium like this. Sure, an action-packed chase would be awesome, but with my limited budget and resources, it's also not very feasible. Such is the life of an independent developer...
The prologue still isn't done. It's like...half-done maybe. I'll work on it more tomorrow if I'm feeling better. But at least I got the hard part out of the way.
Also, for those who may be curious, here is a small preview of the CG I mentioned (I was experimenting with the eye blinking animation):
At least I got something done. And I'm happy with it. Considering how many times I've redone that stupid opening scene, it's truly a miracle. But you know, creating the perfect opening scene for a game or movie really is a delicate art. If you don't hook the player in the beginning, they may decide "this is too boring" and not even give it a chance! So you have to make it exciting and interesting, which can be very difficult to do with a medium like this. Sure, an action-packed chase would be awesome, but with my limited budget and resources, it's also not very feasible. Such is the life of an independent developer...
The prologue still isn't done. It's like...half-done maybe. I'll work on it more tomorrow if I'm feeling better. But at least I got the hard part out of the way.
Also, for those who may be curious, here is a small preview of the CG I mentioned (I was experimenting with the eye blinking animation):
Sep 11, 2011
Maps Implemented
As promised, I got my map system up and running today, complete with all working links and even a cute little indicator to show your current location.
I also planned out the town system a bit. The way I'm imagining it, you'll be able to go to the different locations and possibly find one of your companions there (it'll be a random chance sort of thing). Not every town will have all of the 'facilities,' so smaller towns may not have a library or a training hall or something like that. The large towns - the Imperial City, Duggary Village, City of Jarconia, and Port of Sileas - will have everything available.
That's...really all I did today. I was hoping to start working on the prologue again, but alas, I just don't have the time or the energy to do it tonight.
As a head's up, this week will be a very busy week school-wise. I have a major exam nearly every day this week. That means I probably won't have much time for game stuff. ):
I also planned out the town system a bit. The way I'm imagining it, you'll be able to go to the different locations and possibly find one of your companions there (it'll be a random chance sort of thing). Not every town will have all of the 'facilities,' so smaller towns may not have a library or a training hall or something like that. The large towns - the Imperial City, Duggary Village, City of Jarconia, and Port of Sileas - will have everything available.
That's...really all I did today. I was hoping to start working on the prologue again, but alas, I just don't have the time or the energy to do it tonight.
As a head's up, this week will be a very busy week school-wise. I have a major exam nearly every day this week. That means I probably won't have much time for game stuff. ):
Sep 10, 2011
Maps Created
Tyraca, the land which is home to the Osirian (and later Neffronian) Empire, takes up the larger portion of a crescent-shaped continent. The empire is then divided into four provinces - Normund, Mendebal, Cadmus, and Dimona - each named for the kingdom which ruled there before Osirus conquered the area. To the west of Tyraca are the "Wildlands," home to the demons, and to the south is "Witch Territory," home to the elves (you'll learn the proper names for these areas in-game, but this is what most people call them).
Today, I managed to finish all of the maps which will be used to travel to the different areas, including the empire map and a map for each of the provinces. They're fairly plain and aren't all that great (the areas look too small to be provinces...), but at the very least, they're better than the last several versions I've come up with. xD See for yourself:
In addition to what you see above, there will be buttons on each province map to go to Camp (which is where you can talk to your companions and such) and to go Back to the empire map.
Tomorrow I'll start actually programming the map system.
Aside from working on the maps, I made an important decision today regarding the romances. I decided that since this is an adult game and all, it would be acceptable and would even make sense for sex to be involved somewhere down the line. Nothing explicit, no graphic details or full nudity, but certainly implied. It wouldn't be anything worse than what you would see in a PG-13 movie, probably. And then I started thinking...if I were to commission just one CG for each couple (because the artist I want to hire is pretty expensive), which would be more important to show: confession or sex scene?
Confessions are cute and make girls squee, but they're also...awkward. The boy in question doesn't really know how you'll react, so he's testing the waters and hoping he doesn't drown. On the other hand, by the time you have sex, it's already established that you're deeply in love (no one-night stands here!). Thus, it's a much more sensual experience, and for that reason, I think it would be more valuable to have CGs of that moment rather than the confession. Another reason is that the character sprites I have are just completely insufficient for something like that, whereas I can probably make due with using sprites for the confession. But nevermind all the minute details, who doesn't want to see nearly naked men (or...um...a nearly naked Zuleika)?
Now, if I received some donations by some miracle, I could commission two CGs per love interest... ;D
Today, I managed to finish all of the maps which will be used to travel to the different areas, including the empire map and a map for each of the provinces. They're fairly plain and aren't all that great (the areas look too small to be provinces...), but at the very least, they're better than the last several versions I've come up with. xD See for yourself:
In addition to what you see above, there will be buttons on each province map to go to Camp (which is where you can talk to your companions and such) and to go Back to the empire map.
Tomorrow I'll start actually programming the map system.
Aside from working on the maps, I made an important decision today regarding the romances. I decided that since this is an adult game and all, it would be acceptable and would even make sense for sex to be involved somewhere down the line. Nothing explicit, no graphic details or full nudity, but certainly implied. It wouldn't be anything worse than what you would see in a PG-13 movie, probably. And then I started thinking...if I were to commission just one CG for each couple (because the artist I want to hire is pretty expensive), which would be more important to show: confession or sex scene?
Confessions are cute and make girls squee, but they're also...awkward. The boy in question doesn't really know how you'll react, so he's testing the waters and hoping he doesn't drown. On the other hand, by the time you have sex, it's already established that you're deeply in love (no one-night stands here!). Thus, it's a much more sensual experience, and for that reason, I think it would be more valuable to have CGs of that moment rather than the confession. Another reason is that the character sprites I have are just completely insufficient for something like that, whereas I can probably make due with using sprites for the confession. But nevermind all the minute details, who doesn't want to see nearly naked men (or...um...a nearly naked Zuleika)?
Now, if I received some donations by some miracle, I could commission two CGs per love interest... ;D
Sep 9, 2011
The Plot Thickens...
Warning: Long, boring post (and possible spoilers if you haven't read the game description) ahead.
My project for today was to work out the kinks in the plot. Before, what I had planned out was all the main activities that Zuleika is focused on: traveling to different areas, fighting bad guys, saving villages, etc. But that's not all there is to a story, especially not one as complicated as this!
So I started thinking about all the different layers to the story. On one hand, you've got Zuleika trying to save the day, but on the other, you've got Nefferon leading her along. This second layer - the bigger picture that Zuleika can't see from her perspective - is what I call the "meta plot." It's the plot behind the plot, the overarching story behind the main story. Since I've already scrapped the idea of trying to make the whole game like a journal, it's okay to include shots of Nefferon's perspective even though the game is mostly shown in Zuleika's first-person point of view. More importantly, the story doesn't make sense without Nefferon's perspective; without his overarching scheme, the events you play through just seem random and thrown together without reason. Well, now there is reason.
But between Zuleika's story and Nefferon's story, there's also Osirus' story. I can't imagine Zuleika saying, "Yes, I was framed for his murder, but I don't care who actually killed him. All that's important is that he's dead." No, she would be compelled, even obliged, to find the true killer. Thus, a third layer comes into play: the murder investigation. Clues are hidden throughout the empire, some of which tend to imply that the killer wants to be found, but he (or she) certainly won't make it easy.
And what about Zuleika's past? She didn't just get where she is now by chance. She is the way she is because that's how Osirus taught her to be. So another layer, then, is flashbacks showing their relationship, which help to give some insight into Zuleika's history and background. More importantly, they add additional insight to related events that she's going through now, and why she reacts to them the way she does.
Finally, no GxB visual novel can be complete without the romance layer. The thoughts, beliefs, and actions of the boys are influenced by Zuleika's thoughts, beliefs and actions, and Zuleika's actions will also be influenced by her feelings towards them. These are her trusted companions and the only friends she has ever known; they travel together for months on end, sometimes without ever seeing another soul as they cross the unpopulated areas of the empire. Therefore, it is obvious that they would become close, close enough to ask great things of each other out of trust and friendship (i.e. companion quests). Along with these companion quests, their conversations and heart events also fall into the romance layer, which spans across everything else.
In summary, the complexity of the story is now better fleshed out, and more of it should be able to make its way into the actual game rather than just being stuck in my head.
For those that are curious, the way I keep all this organized is with color-coded index cards which are then sectioned off into major sections with paper clips. After my work today, the stack of cards is now very big. C:
My project for today was to work out the kinks in the plot. Before, what I had planned out was all the main activities that Zuleika is focused on: traveling to different areas, fighting bad guys, saving villages, etc. But that's not all there is to a story, especially not one as complicated as this!
So I started thinking about all the different layers to the story. On one hand, you've got Zuleika trying to save the day, but on the other, you've got Nefferon leading her along. This second layer - the bigger picture that Zuleika can't see from her perspective - is what I call the "meta plot." It's the plot behind the plot, the overarching story behind the main story. Since I've already scrapped the idea of trying to make the whole game like a journal, it's okay to include shots of Nefferon's perspective even though the game is mostly shown in Zuleika's first-person point of view. More importantly, the story doesn't make sense without Nefferon's perspective; without his overarching scheme, the events you play through just seem random and thrown together without reason. Well, now there is reason.
But between Zuleika's story and Nefferon's story, there's also Osirus' story. I can't imagine Zuleika saying, "Yes, I was framed for his murder, but I don't care who actually killed him. All that's important is that he's dead." No, she would be compelled, even obliged, to find the true killer. Thus, a third layer comes into play: the murder investigation. Clues are hidden throughout the empire, some of which tend to imply that the killer wants to be found, but he (or she) certainly won't make it easy.
And what about Zuleika's past? She didn't just get where she is now by chance. She is the way she is because that's how Osirus taught her to be. So another layer, then, is flashbacks showing their relationship, which help to give some insight into Zuleika's history and background. More importantly, they add additional insight to related events that she's going through now, and why she reacts to them the way she does.
Finally, no GxB visual novel can be complete without the romance layer. The thoughts, beliefs, and actions of the boys are influenced by Zuleika's thoughts, beliefs and actions, and Zuleika's actions will also be influenced by her feelings towards them. These are her trusted companions and the only friends she has ever known; they travel together for months on end, sometimes without ever seeing another soul as they cross the unpopulated areas of the empire. Therefore, it is obvious that they would become close, close enough to ask great things of each other out of trust and friendship (i.e. companion quests). Along with these companion quests, their conversations and heart events also fall into the romance layer, which spans across everything else.
In summary, the complexity of the story is now better fleshed out, and more of it should be able to make its way into the actual game rather than just being stuck in my head.
For those that are curious, the way I keep all this organized is with color-coded index cards which are then sectioned off into major sections with paper clips. After my work today, the stack of cards is now very big. C:
Sep 8, 2011
Drop Shadows
Tonight was my night class, so, unfortunately, I wasn't able to get much done. Such is the life of a busy college student, eh?
What I ended up doing was adding drop shadows to all of my character sprites. It's a very minor change, but it helps to add some dimension to an otherwise flat screen. I got the idea after seeing how much better it looked when I added a shadow to my text box, so now lots of things have shadows. :D
See if you can spot the difference (click for a larger view):
Before After
As a side note, I officially decided today to include Ahzi as a love interest (he's just too cute not to be!). He won't be one of the advertised ones, but rather more of a secret bachelor whose romance option has to be unlocked.
In the same way that Chael and Kirile will be rivals of a sort, Ahzi and Duren will have a friendly rivalry going on...and maybe something else entirely if you choose not to pursue either of them. ;)
What I ended up doing was adding drop shadows to all of my character sprites. It's a very minor change, but it helps to add some dimension to an otherwise flat screen. I got the idea after seeing how much better it looked when I added a shadow to my text box, so now lots of things have shadows. :D
See if you can spot the difference (click for a larger view):
Before After
As a side note, I officially decided today to include Ahzi as a love interest (he's just too cute not to be!). He won't be one of the advertised ones, but rather more of a secret bachelor whose romance option has to be unlocked.
In the same way that Chael and Kirile will be rivals of a sort, Ahzi and Duren will have a friendly rivalry going on...and maybe something else entirely if you choose not to pursue either of them. ;)
Sep 7, 2011
Blog Created
After seeing the awesomeness that is the Tailor Tales Blog, I just had to make a little dev blog of my own. But rather than it just focusing on one game, it'll encompass all my games...all two of them, that is.
"Starlit Dreams" is still on hold, but I've recently started working on "Memoirs of an Angel" again after falling into depression for a few months and losing interest. I promise to get at least one thing done every day and post about it here. Hopefully, that will help keep me going. C:
There's not much here on the site yet. Most of the pages are empty, but I'll fill them up as I go along.
I don't expect to have many followers, and I won't even try to advertise this place until I get a bit closer to completing Memoirs, but... I figured I would get this out there regardless. To anyone who may be reading this, thank you for your support.
"Starlit Dreams" is still on hold, but I've recently started working on "Memoirs of an Angel" again after falling into depression for a few months and losing interest. I promise to get at least one thing done every day and post about it here. Hopefully, that will help keep me going. C:
There's not much here on the site yet. Most of the pages are empty, but I'll fill them up as I go along.
I don't expect to have many followers, and I won't even try to advertise this place until I get a bit closer to completing Memoirs, but... I figured I would get this out there regardless. To anyone who may be reading this, thank you for your support.
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