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Work in Progress / [NaGaCreMo 2012] Abeyance

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 31st Dec 2011 18:40 Edited at: 30th Jun 2013 15:46
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[Updated 25/07/2012]

It's the new year (almost) so may as well start documenting my progress for NaGaCreMo.


(Logo by Cian Rice/Animeblood)

Abeyance was a previous WIP that actually dates as far back as 2006. It's had a few attempts to get started up as some might remember. But I suck and have always been unrealistic about how manageable my project ideas are.

My approach this time round is different. I've gone for a style that's easy to maintain. Think along the lines of PS1 games like Final Fantasy, Chrono Chross, Resident Evil (with the fix camera backgrounds). It also means it should just run on about anything. The project has moved to Unity3D, which gives me some advantages, particularly as far as speed and compatibility is concerned. Load times are quicker for a start.

An idea of style here (before and after shot from up-to-date changes):
PROJECT IN DARK BASIC PRO

PROJECT IN UNITY3D

NEW TITLE SCREEN



The Plot:

You follow the perspective of Keats. A man living in a totalitarian world being pushed to follow the same routine day in and day out, working the factories, staying quiet, staying to himself. With no place for him to freely express himself as an individual he, like many people, finds himself suffering from repression and as a result Keats enters a dream world that blends with reality as he grows more and more insane. Hence the story starts with his first encounter with this dream world.

The Design

The game is made up of two parts. The turn based battle system, which I'll explain below, and puzzles. So in the first map you are exploring a warehouse and it's full of various fiends and at the end is a boss fight. For every fiend you kill they will drop a clue and you need each clue to be able to beat the boss. In the first map you have to be able to translate what the boss says, as there's an important message that'll help you decide how to win the fight.

The complicated bit is actually the battle system, but it'll make sense. Like any RPG you've got stats and these are how the stats are laid out.
Stats:
HP - Health
Concentration - Mana
Strength - Physical attack power
Vitality - Physical defence
Mind - Neuro ability power
Delusion - Psycho ability power
Dexterity - Accuracy/Ranged attack power
Agility - Evasion
Threshold - Resistance to different attack types.

Abilities:
Attack - Strike with a melee weapon
Ranged Attack - Strike with a projectile
Neuro - Mind based attacks (uses concentration), these never miss.
Psycho - Rage based attacks (uses concentration)
Cower - Improved Defenses

Thresholds
Curse (Mental boost)
Blood (Delusion boost)
Frantic (Strength boost)
Nerve (Dexterity boost)
Fear (Agility boost)
Empowerment (Vitality boost)
Lucid (All stat boost) - can only be activated through item use.

Maths

Melee:
Damage = rnd(pSTR)+WeaponStat - RND(eVIT)
Accuracy = rnd(pDEX) - eAGI
If ACC < 1 then miss

Neuro/Psycho:
If pThreshold = Weak AND eThreshold = Strong then Resist = double
If pThreshold = Strong AND eThreshold = Weak then Bonus = double
For Fear vs Empowerment: triple word score.

The way in which Thresholds work is that whilst in battle you're able to use your turn to change a Threshold based on the attacks the enemy is using. If you can work out the enemy's Threshold you can adjust your Threshold to give you an edge.

Your Psycho and Neuro abilities can be aligned with a Threshold.

So here's a fight:


Lets say the enemy is Curse based

Cursed enemies are weak against Frantic. As a Cursed enemy he might be using more Neuro attacks - so if he's got some hard hitting attacks, you might be comfortable with an Empowerment Threshold and just launch your Frantic abilities. If he's hard to hit, you might use a Nerve threshold. Or you might just go Frantic because it fortifies your strength and makes his weaknesses weaker.

I've done it this way because I want to make tactics an important part of the battle. Some RPG's become easy because you can just grind them. With the Threshold system you can potentially triple the effectiveness of an attack.

Anyway, I hope that makes the system clear. Have I over complicated it a bit? The game will ease you into it enough instead of throwing you in the deep end.


Progress:


Battle System: Done
Inventory System: Done
Scene Transitions: Done [DBP demo] | Partially Done [Unity3D]
Save System: Done [DBP demo] | Not Done [Unity3D]
First Map: Done [DBP demo] | Partially Done [Unity3D]
Overhaul: Done [DBP demo] | Partially Done [Unity3D]


Aim for NaGaCreMo: A polished version of the first map and to work out the best method for completing this project. [Achieved]

Visit the game's website for more explanations about the game's system or to download the NaGaCreMo demo and any up-to-date demos.

http://seppukuarts.wordpress.com/abeyance/

Demos:
v0.1 - Original Concept Demo for NaGaCreMo
v0.2 - Overhaul Demo in DBP
[edit]
YouTube Demonstration:


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Blobby 101
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Posted: 31st Dec 2011 19:18
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Looks good Sepp! Slightly confused about the style though, is it mostly 3D but with 2D battles?

Either way, hope you get finished in time.

P.S. Do you want me to change your entry on the list with the name of this project?

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MrValentine
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Posted: 31st Dec 2011 19:20
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Woah... need time to digest... hate you right now as I do not have as much in comparation to write... (love you really hehe)

Will comment shortly...

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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 31st Dec 2011 19:26
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Looks awesome, Sepp!


Click to go to my blog!
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TheComet
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Posted: 31st Dec 2011 19:35
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I really like the story behind it! It looks a little ambitious to complete in 30 days, but I have all of the confidence you will succeed. Good luck and have fun

TheComet


Timeplan : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmuAKJolqASndEVYOWMxb3l2OWV0UkV1anRSczZScHc
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MrValentine
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Posted: 31st Dec 2011 19:40
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Well Comet he just needs to release a deno at minumum

guys expect 2 threads from me tonight...

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 31st Dec 2011 19:55
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Quote: "Looks good Sepp! Slightly confused about the style though, is it mostly 3D but with 2D battles?"


Cheers. The battles will actually be in 3D but with 2D characters. I just slapped in the 2D background whilst I was programming the battle engine itself. I wanted something more manageable.

Look at this Star Ocean 2 video. I'm not going for the same battle system, but the battle should give an insight to how I'm doing the 2D+3D.

Quote: "I really like the story behind it! It looks a little ambitious to complete in 30 days, but I have all of the confidence you will succeed. Good luck and have fun"



Thanks. I'm only aiming for the first map, so it gives me time to iron out anything that doesn't work or make improvements on the system. Going for the whole thing would be suicide...yes, I do realise 'seppuku' is a form a ritualistic suicide, but that's beside the point.

The point of NaGaCreMo for me is to see if I can successfully take one of my ambitious project ideas and make it manageable.

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MrValentine
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Posted: 31st Dec 2011 20:01
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Did I just find another SO2 lover?

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Ashingda 27
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Posted: 31st Dec 2011 20:47
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Wow this is awesome you put alot of thought into this keep it up.

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WLGfx
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Posted: 31st Dec 2011 21:22
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Hey that's cool, I might have to pack mine in after seeing that...

Mental arithmetic? Me? (That's for computers) I can't subtract a fart from a plate of beans!
Warning! May contain Nuts!
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MrValentine
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Posted: 1st Jan 2012 05:43
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this game sould turn out good... have you played LSSSC?

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 2nd Jan 2012 16:41 Edited at: 2nd Jan 2012 16:49
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Added a video. I'm still working on the battle engine - I need to do things like add enemy attacks/AI and animation...currently it's a case of standing still. And the different between walking sprites and battle sprites won't be so massive, I'm just borrowing sprites from the CharasProject until I do my own.

But the video should add something in terms of visualising what I'm doing it.


So it's simple to start with, but you should see how it works. I can spend my turn switching to a different Threshold to empower attacks. So I go from Neuro attacks under 'Curse' to Ranged Attacks under 'Nerve', so I make a change in my Threshold. Of course Keats is level 50 in this video and the enemy is only level 1, so that's why it ends so quickly. When he dies, you see the first clue.


Anyway, thank you all for your kind comments.

Also, yes Dr V, I am a SO fan, I'm a big lover of Japanese RPGames and I don't know what LSSSC is.

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MrValentine
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Posted: 2nd Jan 2012 16:58 Edited at: 2nd Jan 2012 16:59
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WOAH reminds me of Legend of Legaia.... [vid]

LSSSC = Lunar Silver Star Story Complete thats a mission to type lol

Me too I did not play FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus in English I completed the Japanese version instead...

Woooo dude lets compile a list of games lol

EDIT

Quote: "this game sould turn out good..."

I see where the DR. comes from XD

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TheComet
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Posted: 2nd Jan 2012 17:25
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Nice work sepp One thing I could suggest is changing the camera angle as I find it a little too flat... It looks like it's hard to navigate through thin areas, and the player can be fully hidden behind walls.

TheComet


Timeplan : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmuAKJolqASndEVYOWMxb3l2OWV0UkV1anRSczZScHc
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MrValentine
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Posted: 2nd Jan 2012 18:52
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ummm if you can make it use say an x360 controller it would be ace to use the right stick to LEFT RIGHT spin the cam and UPDOWN zoom in and out the cam... not too bothered about angle I think but guess that can be assigned to the HAT keys?

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 3rd Jan 2012 11:20 Edited at: 3rd Jan 2012 12:33
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What about just a camera that can be rotated, like on the world maps in many popular JRPG's on the PS1? I don't think the effect of the sprites is lost too much - I tried doing it so the sprite frames change direction based on the rotation of the camera, but I'd have to go for the 8-directional approach for the to look effectively (like in SO2's world map) - given in some 3D games the model rotates with the camera, I don't think it loses too much of the effect with this simple method:



Or any suggestions for improvement?

[edit] wrong video

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MrValentine
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Posted: 3rd Jan 2012 11:23
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That was the same video.

try Xenogears sprite system it was ace

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JLMoondog
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Posted: 3rd Jan 2012 13:25
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Wild Arms fan? They used the 2d char sprites on 3d scenery.

My suggestion for the camera is to have it fixed either at a slight angled front view or quarter view. Unless the player has to be able to see every wall or scene angle to solve puzzles or some other mechanic I don't see any reason to rotate the camera. Keep it simple.

http://www.jlmoondog.com/
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MrValentine
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Posted: 3rd Jan 2012 13:29
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In fear of feeling like I may be spamming the thread.

I have a legitimate reason for this message... I am sat here with a PSONE in front of me and the borrowed telly and Wild Arms in a case just to the side... its Josh's fault lol

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TheComet
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Posted: 3rd Jan 2012 17:47
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Looks much better with rotating camera, keep up the great work mate!

TheComet


Timeplan : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmuAKJolqASndEVYOWMxb3l2OWV0UkV1anRSczZScHc
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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 6th Jan 2012 18:40 Edited at: 6th Jan 2012 18:42
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Cheers for the extra comments guys.

Quote: "My suggestion for the camera is to have it fixed either at a slight angled front view or quarter view. Unless the player has to be able to see every wall or scene angle to solve puzzles or some other mechanic I don't see any reason to rotate the camera. Keep it simple."


I'll try that and see what effects comes out of it.

Quote: "try Xenogears sprite system it was ace"


I'll check out Xenogears and see if I like what they've done as far as sprites go.


Anyway, I've done some extra work today, just trying to get some animation into the battle system. The attack animation looks awful, but I'm just using random place holders I've found on the net - I wanna get the programming out of the way before I start adding my own sprites.

Now, I think it still needs a lot of work - smoother anims, the camera was just thrown in without much thought, so I will need to work on that, but this is what I've dished out from today's work:





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TheComet
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Posted: 6th Jan 2012 20:52
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Looks cool Is it me, or does the other guy not do anything?

TheComet


Timeplan : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmuAKJolqASndEVYOWMxb3l2OWV0UkV1anRSczZScHc
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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 6th Jan 2012 21:12
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I've got some attack AI for him, but I've not implemented it because I'm still building the battle system. I figured in my list of things to do that enemy AI would be further down, so at the moment he's just a dummy. It's the battle system that's taking the vast majority of the coding so far, so I'm just going through it layer by layer.

To do on the battle system:
Code a better camera
Make the animations more smooth
Tidy up Thresholds
Fix some of the maths
Build up a complete inventory (the inventory system exists, it just needs to have every item and ability coded in)
Make 'Cower' and 'Medicine' functional
Add display for current actions, for example - displaying how much HP is being deducted when hitting an enemy or if the player misses.
Add Enemy AI + Animations (Given this is pretty much coded, it's a guess of adding it and tidying it up a bit)

Once all that is done, I'll need to make sure I can use the same code for each enemy that you will have to fight.

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MrValentine
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Posted: 6th Jan 2012 22:52
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Woo from the pic he reminds me of BoF III

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 6th Jan 2012 23:15
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Lol, I can see why. None of these sprites will be final. Keats actually looks like this (I'm not that brilliant at drawing):
http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/dd451/BrynP/Abeyance/keats-1.png

I will start working on spriting him up soon...at least once the battle system is complete.

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 8th Jan 2012 16:45 Edited at: 9th Jan 2012 02:53
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Here we go, another update.

I've included player and enemy stats to show you what's going on with Thresholds.



I've created instances for every Neuro and Psycho ability, though I've not given them their individual animations, but that will come when I make the sprites. As I've fixed (as far as I can see) the damage calculator and cleaned up the Thresholds, I this video will demonstrate how Thresholds work, plus at the end you'll see the Neuro Ability 'Power Strike'.

These are the abilities (you will learn these as you level up):

Neuro:
Hex - Curse based Damage
Twitch - Nerve based Damage
Scream - Fear based Damage
Sacrifice - Strong Curse based Attack, will sacrifice player HP to cause damage
Death Wish - Strong Nerve based Attack
Call of the Valkyrie - Strong Fear based Attack

Psycho:
Leech - Blood based Attack, will steal HP from enemy
Brawl - Frantic based Attack
Power Strike - Empowerment based attack - uses player VIT for extra damage
Sever Limbs - Strong Blood based attack
Manic Destruction - Strong Frantic based attack - uses DEX
Death's Scythe - Strong Empowerment based attack - drain's user HP (more so than sacrifice)

The Threshold Tree(arrow suggests strength):
Curse -> Nerve -> Blood -> Frantic -> Curse...
Fear <-> Empowerment

Fear and Empowerment attacks are the strongest but also take the most concentration. When using an Empowerment threshold, you are weak to Fear and vice versa. Bosses tend to be the enemies with a Fear/Empowerment Threshold, so choose wisely. If you've got a boss that does hard melee attacks you might be tempted to use Empowerment for the extra VIT, but if he's heavily using Fear-based attacks, then Empowerment will only make you weak against them.

[edit]
I forgot to mention about 'Lucid' Threshold. This can only be activated through one of your medicines. Basically, it'll allow you to gain all strengths from all Thresholds. However, such an item is rare.

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TheComet
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Posted: 11th Jan 2012 16:02
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Very cool! I like it a lot

You really need to increase the speed of how fast he lashes forward, it's way too slow right now. The speed he moves back with should be slower than what he moves forward with, so you could probably keep that as it is.

TheComet


Timeplan : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmuAKJolqASndEVYOWMxb3l2OWV0UkV1anRSczZScHc
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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 11th Jan 2012 20:10
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Cheers for the comments.

I could probably do that. Also, one thing I should probably note is that Fraps is recording it slower than it actually is, the game is running at 60fps, but fraps (even when I tell it to record at 60fps) runs it at around 30fps. So what you're seeing is at half speed.

I will make the suggested tweak, it only makes more sense for him to move back more slowly.

I started getting to work on sprite ideas (because I was feeling a little artistic), he's one I've actually animated and thrown into the engine, I think he needs a better pose and the weapons need to look better, but I'll work on that.

And also his out-of-battle sprite, but I think it's too small, because it'll look horrible stretch, so I'm gonna make him bigger. This should also give you an idea of what I'm going for.


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Posted: 15th Jan 2012 00:49 Edited at: 15th Jan 2012 00:51
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Sorry I've had a few distractions, however, I've got my battle engine fully functional - the code needs a bit of tidying here and there but it all works. The only downside is I need to work on fully animated sprites, so excuse how crap some of it looks, it's been a while since I've done any art content.

Anyway: latest video. It explains how everything works too.



[edit] I forgot to implement the suggestions before the video, it literally is just as simple as changing numbers.

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TheComet
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Posted: 15th Jan 2012 11:24
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Nice!

Is the battle real time? What I mean is, what happens if I don't attack straight after the ATB bar has recharged again? Do I allow the enemy to do more damage to me in the long run, or is it turn-based?

TheComet


Timeplan : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmuAKJolqASndEVYOWMxb3l2OWV0UkV1anRSczZScHc
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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 15th Jan 2012 12:03 Edited at: 15th Jan 2012 12:10
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Basically, like you the enemy has an ATB bar, so once his is full he will attack, what attack he uses can depend on either random variables or what he'll do at a certain stage in battle (say if low on HP or out of Concentration), he might use one attack more often than another, these things will help you decide what to use in battle, but in the video he only uses 'attack' because it's the first fight. To help the player get used to it, all enemies in the first zone will be 'Nerve' based and therefore use 'Twitch', 'attack' and 'ranged attack'.

Think of the period as your ATB bar charges is the time you decide to act, so it may mean thinking on your feet a bit but I don't want the process to be too slow.

I figure if the enemy is waiting for you to take your turn then it'd be a bit easier because the player could take forever to decide which attack to use and as you probably can see from the video you can't just spam 'attack' and hope to win, the only reason the player was doing well in both the first and second fight is because they've got the items to do it.

However, you're not going to be packing lots of Stamina meds. So, basically, it's up to you to find their weakness, exploit it and stay alive. Yes, I realise the fight in the video would be impossible without meds, but I knocked the enemy's level up for the video.

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Posted: 17th Jan 2012 00:07
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Looking really cool! I'm also working on a RPG if that's what you call this. Nice to see another one on the forums. Good luck with it!

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2012 02:37
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Thank you.

Not updated this for a week and it's not that long before NaGaCreMo is over. However, the demo shouldn't be too far off. The majority of the work is done now. The important thing is that my battle code can support multiple enemy encounters and now it does...so it's just a simple case of coding in the extra enemies and making sprites.

Unfortunately this update doesn't have a lot to show.

As you'll see here, any clues you pick up will be stored. Given there's 2 enemies to fight, there's 2 clues on the list.

And here, you'll see the appearance of another enemy.



I've also been doing some other planning, stuff I probably won't implement for the NaGaCreMo demo, but something I'll do after and that's give the player a choice of different classes to choose from or as we'll call them 'paths'. However, the demo is using Whisperer's skills and stats. The idea is that the player is able to pick a path that suits how they may choose to play the game. Plus 2 paths will increase the difficulty of the game.

The choices will be:
Whisperer - Heavy Neuro User. Skills dedicated to dealing damage. Increased Mind, more benefits from Curse Threshold, more concentration
Psychopath - Heavy Psycho User. Skills dedicated to dealing damage. Increased Delusion. Greater benefits from Blood Threshold.
Manic - Melee Master. Increased strength. Strength influences Psycho attacks more. Skills based around increasing melee damage
Trigger Finger - Ranged Master. Increase Dexterity. Neuro attacks will be fired from his gun, meaning Dexterity will boost Neuro attacks. Skills based around increasing ranged damage
Tormentor - Defender. Enemies will be tougher. Increased Vitality, increased health. Skills based on improving defences and enfeebling enemies. ATB Regenerates slower.
Shadower - Evader. Enemies will be tougher. Keats will be harder to hit. Increased Agility. Skills tailored to avoiding damage, but also increasing your own (in later levels). ATB regenerates faster.


So whilst matching weaknesses is advantageous and essential to some fights, you'll no doubt find some classes cope better with certain enemies than others, but where say 'Tormentor' is weak, he can't evade damage so easily, so if any enemy is striking hard, Tormentor will need to be equipped to deal with it - the right Threshold will help, plus, Tormentor can lower an enemy's strength, therefore making the strikes hit less hard, but he can also drain health from an enemy better than any other class.

So I'm going to try and make it balanced enough and offer the player a choice for how they prefer to fight.

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MrValentine
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2012 03:34 Edited at: 22nd Jan 2012 03:35
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Sepp you never sieze to amaze me... keep it up!

EDIT

I finally got the spare pc home so can try your demo its a shoddy old single core pc havent benched it yet though...

And just 1 gig of memory...

Cant wait to finish my app soon...

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Ashingda 27
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2012 06:30 Edited at: 22nd Jan 2012 06:31
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Nice I like what you've done with it. That dialog box looks very appealing too, what font face are you using it looks nice. Those class are very cool and quite creative!

It's true we only got a few more days left, hope all goes well.

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2012 11:57
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Cheers, best of luck to both of you.

The font is Calibri, not sure if it's going to be my final font it was just the first one that came to my head. I'm using this D3D plugin for DBP so the text looks smoother, can wrap (useful for the dialogue) and is more resource friendly than DBP's built in commands.

Quote: "I finally got the spare pc home so can try your demo its a shoddy old single core pc havent benched it yet though...
"


Awesome, cheers. I know I've got an ancient PC lying around the house somewhere, perhaps I can try it on that as well. I might see if anybody's got a netbook to test it on too.

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Ashingda 27
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2012 12:05
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Yes I have a crappy netbook I can test it for ya.

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TheComet
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2012 13:02
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At your service, I have a very old computer with an 800 MHz celeron processor and 128 MB of RAM

Textures look great and I like the textbox

TheComet


Timeplan : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmuAKJolqASndEVYOWMxb3l2OWV0UkV1anRSczZScHc
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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2012 17:43
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Awesome!

I'm probably not that far off from releasing a demo now, I just need to do the art, menus and maybe a bit of tweaking. I'm not sure if the first level is too difficult.

Anyway, at the end of the level, where you encounter the boss is a riddle and solving it will help you when fighting the boss.

The abilities you can use are:
All Thresholds...including Lucid (you've got a Clear Mind item on you, if you've not already used it on an another enemy)
Attack
Ranged Attack
Hex - Your Neuro/Mind attack
Cower
Medicines

At Level 7 you can use the Psycho attack, 'Leech'. Defeat all enemies before the boss and you'll hit level 7.

If you match Thresholds to spell elements their effectiveness will increase. Hex is of a Curse Threshold and Leech of a Blood Threshold. Thresholds are associated with stats, so STR (melee) is associated with Frantic and DEX(Ranged) is associated with Nerve. Blood is with Psycho and Curse with Neuro. Empowerment works with Cower and Fear is good for evasion.

The clues are:

If a name is a noun, then its verb is 'heitir'.
The 'Nótts' are 'the night', the noun that describes these fiends.
To fight is to battle, some may call it 'bardagi'.
To have many battles or to have fought many time is to have 'margar orrustur'.
If a weapon hurts, then it bites, then 'vápn bíta'.
If it is not, then it is 'Ekki'.
All things 'gœðalauss' are simply useless.
The geð belongs to your brain, like the mind
If you wish to kill somebody, then you will 'drepa' them.
'mik' and 'þik' are like me and you. But 'Þú' and 'ek' are like you and I.
Those that like to 'hlaup' are only cowards.

The boss will speak to you in an ancient language, so you have to work out what he's saying and figure out the best way to fight him.

Ek heitir Jór.
Þeir eru nóttinn.
Þú átti margar orrustur með Nóttinn. Vit bardagi. Vápn bíta ekki á mik.
Those things...they were called 'Nótts'
Hlaupr ok geðinn er gœðalauss.
Ek vill drepa þik.

Out of all the battle options, which do you think is the most sensible? Bonus points if you can figure out the enemy's Threshold from it.


Also, place holder for Mr Boss man


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WLGfx
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2012 19:09
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I'm waiting to see a demo of this now. Been watching this thread as with the other WIPs lately. Excellent work man! I love the way you get away with using the images instead of actual 3D models, definitely something I'd do. I ain't patient when it comes to graphics but I can spend forever programming. The early videos are good too.

When it come to the final release, you might need to work on the brick wall textures. The mortar shouldn't show on the top layer.

How big are you planning on making the final game by the way?

Mental arithmetic? Me? (That's for computers) I can't subtract a fart from a plate of beans!
Warning! May contain Nuts!
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TheComet
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Posted: 22nd Jan 2012 21:07
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That monster looks super awesome! Can I blow it's brains out now?

TheComet


Timeplan : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmuAKJolqASndEVYOWMxb3l2OWV0UkV1anRSczZScHc
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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2012 02:08 Edited at: 23rd Jan 2012 02:09
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Quote: "I'm waiting to see a demo of this now. Been watching this thread as with the other WIPs lately. Excellent work man! I love the way you get away with using the images instead of actual 3D models, definitely something I'd do. I ain't patient when it comes to graphics but I can spend forever programming. The early videos are good too.

When it come to the final release, you might need to work on the brick wall textures. The mortar shouldn't show on the top layer.

How big are you planning on making the final game by the way?"


Thanks.

The media is all a WIP itself at the moment, I think that's where most of the work is left - I replaced the textures with CShop ones because I got sick of looking at the crappy ones I made. Plus I hadn't quite got a style for what I want.

For how big the final game will be, I'm not actually that sure, out of my collection of project ideas and failed attempts this is actually one of the smaller scaled ones. But I hope for the player to be able to get a few good hours out of it.

Quote: "That monster looks super awesome! Can I blow it's brains out now?"


That's why I chose him for a place holder. I'm gonna be working harder on this during the week, I do have a couple of news articles to write up but they won't take all of my time. Ideally I should have something done this week...if sod's law has it, next week.

However, I did make a video of me fighting him, without giving away how you exploit his weakness. Oh, and there's a mistake in the video, it's 1am and I've been coding most of the day, it's got to be excused.



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MrValentine
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Posted: 23rd Jan 2012 04:34
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Quote: "Awesome, cheers. I know I've got an ancient PC lying around the house somewhere, perhaps I can try it on that as well. I might see if anybody's got a netbook to test it on too.
"


I got access to a netbook too a modern one... and also now two systems to test on one with a 64 mb graphics chip on board... soon will get something like an 8600 or 200 series for it... need a darn dedi card lol...

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 24th Jan 2012 01:57
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Nice. It'll be cool to see how well it runs on low spec machines, well mine's pretty low spec in the fact it's Intel GMA. The game runs 60fps for me, the only slow downs are at 1920x1080, but still faster than what FRAPS will record it at. My only concern is that I've taken advantage of Dark Physics, but then I've not got anything complex at all.


Anyway, some new shots, I've restored the old textures for now and some some spriting. I can't say I'm completely happy with the results, but I'm gonna get cracking on some tutorials alongside the project.

Here you'll see the boss in widescreen. The game will run at your desktop resolution, so the shot is taken when using my HDTV.

Another battle shot:

And a couple of sprites



To Do:
Music
Menus
*Possible* Retexture
Release Demo

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Ashingda 27
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Posted: 24th Jan 2012 03:26
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Awesome cant wait to test this out.

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MrValentine
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Posted: 24th Jan 2012 07:10
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PhysX ftw

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 25th Jan 2012 17:40 Edited at: 26th Jan 2012 11:10
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Inventory:



Oh...and this thing called a demo.
Controls:
Arrow Keys - Move/Change Selection
'i' - Inventory
Space - Cancel
Return - Action
1-6 (In battle) - Select Threshold (Curse, Blood, Frantic, Nerve, Fear, Empowerment)

All battle actions can only be delivered when ATB is full, even Threshold changes

There are 3 .exes files. The demo, the demo with some cheats and a window mode with cheats.

Why did I put cheats in? To demonstrate how levelling up effects your stats and to give full access to skills, weapons and items to play around with. If you want to increase your level in battle just hold down the shift key - the stats won't update until the level is finished.

The object of the demo is to kill the boss at the end of the level. Along the way there are enemies and they're good for 2 things, giving you experience points and giving you clues. If you can translate what the boss says and solve the riddle then you'll know his weakness. If that's not for you, you can still try to work it out during the battle.


Also, you'll tell that my 2D art skills aren't brilliant...nor is my ability to make music, but it's something I guess I'll have to work on. I'll probably buy Fruity Loops when I've got the cash.


You can either download from here
Or by clicking 'Download' beneath
(Warning: Contains bad language)

You'll need these PhysX drivers if you don't have a nVidia Card with PhysX

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Ashingda 27
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Posted: 25th Jan 2012 19:07 Edited at: 25th Jan 2012 19:09
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Very nice.

Pros:
Good intro to set the pace, tutorial is short and useful just the way I like it. I'm more of the type who explores what can be done first hand then look through tutorials or information. Control was easy to figure out and the battle works well. Didn't take long to figure what everything was. Like how mobs dont show HP it's more frustrating in a good way. Dialog system and plot is pretty good, it reveals alot with just a few short comments.

Cons:
During battle the menu selection is too slow, trying to go from attack to medicine took so long because there seems to be a timer/delay with the key pressing, try flagging the keys on/off instead of timing? The ATB dont show the max so it's hard to gauge when it's going to be full, although there is a "Ready" indicator it only pops up after it's full, you can simply try to outline the ATB bar perhaps? When walking around on the stage, the mobs seem to rotate towards the center of the screen, not sure if you mean for it to happen.


Very good progress within a month's time, RPG types are very hard to make. Had many failed attempts myself. Not sure about many people but I find dialog coding to be very difficult to pick up as well.

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 25th Jan 2012 19:58 Edited at: 25th Jan 2012 20:12
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Cheers for the feedback.

Quote: "The ATB dont show the max so it's hard to gauge when it's going to be full, although there is a "Ready" indicator it only pops up after it's full, you can simply try to outline the ATB bar perhaps?"


Good idea, don't know why I didn't do it in the first place.

Quote: "During battle the menu selection is too slow, trying to go from attack to medicine took so long because there seems to be a timer/delay with the key pressing, try flagging the keys on/off instead of timing?"


Noted. You're right, I am using a timer. But I will explore that method and see how I can make it more responsive without being ridiculously sensitive.

Quote: "When walking around on the stage, the mobs seem to rotate towards the center of the screen, not sure if you mean for it to happen."


I had "ums" and "ahs" about this one, it wouldn't be too difficult to make different directions for them. In the early stages I kind of liked the idea of them all facing the player in a 'we're watching you' sort of way, but am still not sure if it's effective.

Quote: "Very good progress within a month's time, RPG types are very hard to make. Had many failed attempts myself. Not sure about many people but I find dialog coding to be very difficult to pick up as well."


You and me both, I've tried many and this is the furthest I've got on any of them. I took this approach because it lifts off some of the strain from media and allows me to focus more on coding the dynamics behind it. The battle engine is the bit that takes the longest because there's so much to consider as it's not as simple as "X takes Y damage". But of course, if you play RPG's you can kind of work out methods of working out how they work, for example my basic damage calculation (for a melee attack) is:
damage = (STR/2) + rnd(STR) + Weapon Damage - rnd(enemyVIT)
The randomisation is just to create a chance for less damage to be resisted or for the player to not hit as hard. That's how I think of it.

Anyway, just as a question, did you work out the boss's weakness through the clues or by action? I am hoping the clues weren't too OTT.

[edit]

Quote: " I'm more of the type who explores what can be done first hand then look through tutorials or information. "


Glad to hear it, I hate getting bogged down in tutorials - I just want an indication of how the game works and work the rest out. One of my annoyances with FFXIII was that the first disk was pretty much a tutorial.

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Ashingda 27
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Posted: 25th Jan 2012 21:24
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Quote: "I am hoping the clues weren't too OTT"

They was very obvious.

Quote: "One of my annoyances with FFXIII was that the first disk was pretty much a tutorial"

Yeah I never got through 30 mins because of that reason. It's still sitting in my closet probably wont touch it anytime soon maybe in the future.

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