Progression on progression

Lots of reworking being done with still plenty to finish.  Been also trying to design easier to use sprites so I don’t spend nearly as long working on them.

Accelerating with Excel

I think I’ve gotten more done these last few days than I have all year.  I’ve decided I’m going to use Excel to keep detailed information on everything, which I’ve been fattening up like mad.

I’ve been retooling the game quite a bit.  I wasn’t too fond of story and was having a hard time making it work.  The story is going to be still there, it’ll just a lot more compact with most of the unnecessary filler cut out.  Does this mean the game is going to be really short?  Not at all.  I’ve decided to switch over to a chapter format.  What was originally the bulk of the game will now be just a few chapters of it.

The main reason for the change is because of the world I’ve created.  Every game I have created, or planned on creating, take place in the same world and in around the same frame of time.  They’re actually all related to each other with its heavy lore, I just originally started making each of them as their own separate game.  This unfortunately meant I had to really cut down any referencing to other games so that the player doesn’t feel utterly confused (ie Azure’s demon rambling on about stuff in WoS).  This means that my older games, Heart of the Ancients and World of Shidel, will be part of this game with slightly altered and trimmed storylines.  Painted Red is excluded from this as I feel it belongs as its own game.

I’ll detail how this will actually look in a future post.

 

Time is short, mortal.

Week 3

Have been trying to work on tiles.  Nothing all that interesting to show unfortunately, it’s mostly just rough sketches before I start pixelating them.

Busy busy

Week 2

Didn’t think school and stuff would dig into so much my time.

Mostly worked on database more.  Not the most exciting thing.

Drive it Home

Entered another game making drive.  Since I’m in school now, I won’t be updating quite as often.  Instead I’ll be posting weekly digests of what I did over the week.

Week 1

Been working on the item database.  Most stuff had generic names and no descriptions.

Not much else to say, week has been busy with preparing and settling in for school.

Say No to the Dress

Between not feeling well and a recent WoW patch, I haven’t gotten a whole lot done in the past week.

I decided to scale back on the size of my battlers.  As cool as it would be to have large sprites, they’re more difficult and time consuming to make … as if the smaller ones weren’t hard enough.  Currently working on Phanoire; who also got a few touch ups on her design such as an added necklace.

I don’t like how her dress came out, I’ll have to work on it more.  The bottom doesn’t form around her leg properly and the right leg is crooked.  I should of designed my characters to be nekkid or have skin-tight clothing so I didn’t spend so much time making it look right.  Her base sprite took me about an hour to make while adding a stinkin’ dress took 3.

Victory!!!

Day 30: Final

The Game Making Drive has come to an end.  Apparently I did about 90% of the damage to the sudden chain break that struck Team Emily near the end, yay.

Looking back on the past month, I didn’t seem to get a whole lot accomplished… but that’s kind of to be expected when working alone.  Most of what I did was revamping and refining characters, making some tiles, and putting some of my ideas onto “paper” since I’m usually lazy about that.

It was a good experience, although trying to accomplish something every day started to wear me out.  I’ll still keep updating, although probably not as frequently (for all 1 or 2 of you that actually bother to read what I post).  Even if I don’t post, I still get work done here and there.  Maybe one day this game will finally see the light of day… or hopefully at least be playable so that I got something more to show than just sketches and sprites.

The Menu

Day 29:

System – Leveling

• Winning battles earns you both EXP and AP.  EXP increases the party’s level, where as AP can be spent on gaining bonuses and learning new abilities.
• Characters do not level individually.  Instead the party earns experience and levels up, meaning no will end up falling behind.

System – Skill Grid

• Every character has their own unique skill grid.
• Characters can gain bonuses or learn new skills by unlocking tiles by spending AP.
• Only tiles next to the ones that have been unlocked can be opened.
• There are various types of tiles.
• Stats: These permanently increase a character’s stats.
• Attacks: These grant the character new attacks to use with the Attack command.
• Magic: These grant the character new spells to use with the Magic command.
• Skill: These grant the character new abilities to use with the Skill command.
• Passive: These grant special abilities that are always active.  Only a certain number of passive abilities can be equipped at one time.

System – Attacks

• Characters can chain up to 5 attacks together, ranging from Weak, Medium, and Strong attacks.
• Attacks are learned through the Skill Grid and can be customized from the menu.
• Up to 4 different attacks can be equipped for each position in the sequence.
• Every attack deals bonus damage to a particular enemy.  Using the correct abilities on a given enemy will result in more potent attacks.
• Weak Attacks: These can be chosen to strike between 1 to 3 times.  Each strike costs 1 SP.  These are good for raising the Hit counter.
• Medium Attacks: These usually apply special effects to the enemy, such as increasing the damage of all attacks by 20% for 2 seconds.  Proper usage can have a great effect on the enemy.  Costs 2 SP.
• Strong Attacks: The number of times these strike varies and always cost 3 SP.  Their power scales with the Hit counter and are more potent when used later in the chain.

System – Magic

• Once a spell is learned it can be used any time in battle.  Unlike Attacks, they do not need to be equipped.
• Spells can be offensive or supportive.
• Magic cannot be cast outside of combat.  Characters have their health and stamina fully restored and all effects cleared after battle.
• Team Magic skills are hidden until they are used for the first time.  Any 2 spells can be combined.  Experiment!  See previous post for examples.

System – Items

• Due to the isolation of Pokan and Ashenwood, currency has become useless.
• Shop Owners have no way to import new goods so they have nothing to sell.  Instead they’ll help you make various goods if you bring them materials.
• Materials can be found from enemies or gathered at specific locations.  Gathering locations respawn after leaving the zone.
• Herbs and plants can be planted in Chelsie’s garden.  Certain plants can be combined to create new types of plants.

System – Equipment

• Like items, weapons and armor must be created.
• Weapons and Armor can be further upgraded by using crystals.  Crystals can be obtained from enemeis.
• Weapons and Armor have a certain number of slots depending on how strong they are.  Early game equipment has 3 slots, where as end game gear has 8.
• The bonuses granted from a crystal are different depending on what it’s inserted into.  For example: A Power Crystal will grant +5 Attack in a Weapon or +5 Defense in Armor.
• Crystals cannot be removed once inserted.
• No piece of gear can have 2 of the exact same crystal, however two different strengths of the same crystal can be used.  For example: A Power Crystal (+5 Attack) and a Power Fragment (+3 Attack) can be used, but 2 Power Crystals cannot.
• Weapons can be disenchanted, leaving behind a Jewel.  A weapon with +8 Attack and +5 Intellect from Crystals will leave behind a Weapon Jewel with +4 Attack and +2 Intellect.
• Jewels retain 50% of the bonuses that the Weapon or Armor had and can be reinserted into equipment.  Bonuses granted from Jewels are not included when disenchanting.
• Only Weapon Jewels can be inserted into Weapons and Armor Jewels into Armor.

Nothing to really show in ways of pictures.

Four Weeks

Day 28:

This is a continuation of my last post.

Combat – General

• Characters can skip turns and will Auto-Defend until the next character gets a turn.
• Defending characters take less damage and will not be unbalanced as easily.
• Using items costs no SP and drops WT to 0.
• Quick Action allows a character to immediately go after the current actor (player or enemy) at the cost of some SP.  Proper use of Quick Action is key to winning more difficult battles.
• Enemies don’t get Quick Actions.

• Turn order is determined by the Speed of each character and enemy.
• When a character’s turn comes up, they are given the following options: Attack, Magic, Skill, Defend, Item, and Escape.
• Attack will allow the player to input a sequence of attacks.  Up to 4 attacks will be shown and can be quickly inputted by hitting the corresponding key (current Up/Down/Right/Left).  After inputting the attack the player has the option to now execute the sequence of attacks, or if they know the Team Attack passive they can have another character join in.
• Magic allows the character to cast a single target spell.  If the character knows Team Magic then additional characters can join in to combine spells together and increase the power and effect.
• Skill is for any abilities that aren’t related to Attack or Magic.
• Defend will put the character into a defensive state, allowing them to quickly recover their balance and reduce damage and unbalancing.  The player can also choose pass on their turn and wait for another character without wasting SP, putting the character into a defensive state.
• Item allows the player to use an item.
• Escape allows the player to try and run from the battle.

Combat – Burst

• Players and certain enemies have a Burst meter.
• Burst fills up by dealing and taking damage.  Defending, performing combos, and striking enemy weak points will increase the Burst meter faster.
• Burst automatically triggers when it’s full, instantly filling team’s WT and enabling use of a Burst Attack.
• Only 1 character can perform a Burst attack after an attack combo and finisher.
• Burst can only be used on the turn that it is triggered.

Combat – Enemies

• The power of enemies is affected by the difficulty.
• Easy: Enemies have reduced HP and damage, have a more limited skill set, and will not perform Burst Attacks or Team Attacks.
• Normal: Enemies have normal HP and damage.  Certain enemies will occasionally perform Team Attacks.
• Hard: Enemies have increased HP and damage, new skills and abilities, and are more likely to perform Team Attacks.  Many enemies will have Burst meters and powerful enemies and bosses can unleash Burst Attacks.
• Enemies may immediately go when their turn comes up or wait for fellow monsters to perform a Team Attack.
• Enemies that plan on using a Team Attack on someone will display a bubble with the character’s head before attacking.  Proper use of Quick Action and Defending is key to surviving on higher difficulties.

Team Magic -Examples

• Flame + Deluge = Geyser:  Blasts enemies with scalding hot water, dealing Fire and Water damage.  Has a chance to inflict Burn on the enemy.
• Deluge + Upheaval = Mudslide: Dumps mud on all enemies, causing Water and Earth damage.  Has a chance to reduce the enemy’s Speed.
• Upheaval + Upheaval = Earthquake: Causes wild tremors, inflicting Earth damage to all enemies.  Has a chance to inflict Paralyze.
• Restore + Empower = Overpower: Restores a bit of health to all allies and increases the amount enemies become unbalanced from their attacks.

Combat – Status Effects

• Unconscious: Cannot act., HP is equal to 0.  Game ends if all characters are unconscious.
• Stun: Character is unbalanced and cannot act for 1 turn.  Damage taken is greatly increased.
• Poison: Health is reduced each turn.
• Burn: Performing any action causes the character to suffer damage.  Can be quite deadly if using a combo of quick attacks.
• Paralyze: Cannot use Attack or certain skills.
• Amnesia: Cannot use Magic or certain skills.
• Fatigue: Stamina cost is doubled and the power of spells is reduced.
• Disease: Stats lowered and healing taken reduced by 75%.
• Sleep: Cannot act, removed on damage.  Damage taken has increased chance to be a critical hit.
• Mushroom: Cannot for 3 turns, slowly regenerates HP.

Take that, Sairen Gem!

Day 27:

Lets talk a bit about the combat system.

Statistics

• HP: Health.  Character falls unconscious when it hits 0.
• SP: Stamina.  This is the main resource used to perform actions and cast spells.  It refills over time.
• WT: Wait.  Character can act when it reaches 100%.  The rate it fills up is based on the character’s Speed.
• Balance: A planned mechanic.  Characters and enemies hit in quick succession will lose balance.  If this falls to 0, the character becomes stunned and takes extra damage.  Landing combos and team attacks increases the amount the target is unbalanced.  Recovers over time, max amount is based on Guard.

• Attack: Affects the power of physical attacks.
• Defense: Decreases physical damage taken.
• Intellect: Increases magic damage.
• Resist: Decreases magical damage taken.
• Speed: Affects wait time and duration of status effects.
• Guard: Increases maximum Balance.  I might just combine this with the Balance stat to simplify things.
• Recovery: Typically a fixed stat and normally hidden.  Determines how much SP a character gains between turns.

• Critical: Crit chance, increases damage by 100%.
• Elemental Resist: There’s 6 versions of this stat, one for each element: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Holy, and Shadow.  Unlike the Resist stat, this reduces damage by a percentage and is only affected by spell buffs or equipment.
• There is no Hit or Evasion stat.

Combat – Attacking

• Characters have 3 different attacks: Weak, Medium, and Strong.
• Weak attacks cost 1 SP, Medium costs 2 SP, strong costs 3 SP.
• Characters can execute up to 5 attacks as long as they have the SP.
• Characters can “equip” up to 4 different attacks for each action in the sequence and can pick the same attacks multiple times if they like.
• When “equipping” Weak attacks, they can be chosen to strike multiple times in succession by increasing the amount of SP used.
• WT is always dropped to 0 no matter how much SP is used.
• Each attack increases the damage and unbalancing of additional attacks, including those in team attacks.
• A character will perform a finisher if they land at least a certain number of hits.
• Striking an enemy’s weakness increases hit counter faster.

Combat – Magic

• Magic uses up a percentage of max base SP.  Weaker spells use up about 50-75% where as strong spells use up 100%.
• Casting spells drops WT to 0.
• All spells are single target.

Combat – Team Attacks

• Another character can join in on an attack after inputting a combo.
• The leading character must know Team Attack passive.
• Multiple characters can assist based on level of Team Attack passive for leading character.
• Followers must have at least 50% WT and SP to execute a team attack.
• Follower can only use the amount of SP they currently have.
• Certain attacks cause temporary effects that affect other character’s attacks, faster input allows a larger benefit (might change this based on testing).
• Landing a certain number of hits will allow a character or multiple characters to perform a finisher.
• Finisher costs no SP and is automatic at end.

Combat  – Team Magic

• Allows multiple characters to cast spells together and combine them for different effects.
• All team spells are AoE and hit all enemy or player targets based on spell.
• Leading character must know Team Magic passive.
• Multiple characters can assist based on level of Team Magic passive for leading character.
• Only 2 spells can be combined, additional characters increase power or effect of spell.
• Followers must have at least 50% WT and SP to use team magic.
• Multi-elemental attacks add resistance values together.  For example if an enemy takes 200% damage from Water and Wind, casting a Water/Wind (Ice Storm) will do 300% damage (might change this to average).