VXA Pantomime: FFVI

Just a quicky post:

Have finished the Pantomime project I mentioned in my last post!

It’s mostly reading/watching as the dress-up characters run around acting out their lines in an only token effort to really convince you, and the set pieces are all cardboard cutouts (based on FFVI maps), but with ripped MIDIs from FFVI playing constantly (and relevantly) in the background and at least one audience-themed interactive section, the project really is intended to feel like it’s a real Pantomime, like you’re a part of the audience.

Whole performance clocks around half an hour with minimal action required on your part.  Just try to sit back and have fun with it!

Also, since the filesize is so small (<3MB) due to short runtime and few resources being used (and each MIDI being like only 3kb each) I made a duplicate version of the project that contains all relevant RTP files, so you don’t need to have the VXA RTP installed to run it!

Links regarding the project, complete with screenies and downloads:

http://rpgmaker.net/games/4937/

http://rmrk.net/index.php/topic,47775.msg543381.html#msg543381

Syma – Episode V

Syma

Syma is the spiritual successor to Scima Invasion Crew (SIC).  While SIC was fun to play about with the concept, after a while I started to feel like I was cramping it’s style by trying to cram too much extra stuff in when there was no plan for it in the original.  SIC was, after all, designed as a two-day-to-make game.

Syma is a reimagining of that concept in the form of a Hub-Based Missions system that allows me to glue on extra content whenever and wherever I feel like it, as I come up with it, without affecting the style or theme of the game.
Overall it contains most of the basic stuff that SIC had, but in a much neater and more refined way, as well as containing several new tilesets, classes, scripts and challenges!

I consider the game technically complete, as the core gameplay is all there and working: the missions, classes, skills, levels etc.  Everything fundamental is there and working, and from now on there’ll only be additions and updates.  Instead of try to just pointlessly define when it’s completed and never update it again, I’ve decided to declare it complete now, and update it MMO style every so often as I come up with new content in the guise of “Episodes”.
Not that there’s nothing in it already!  By now, it’s already in Episode V and includes hours of gameplay and over a dozen missions, and Episode VI includes more classes, side missions and more options overall.

Since I update it just as and when I feel there’s enough new content to justify an update, I don’t want to have to sit and reupload stuff to Mediafire every time then run around updating hyperlinks, so instead of focussing my attention on RMN, where I can just update the file freely and easily.  RMN also has more screenies than I have on this blog, as well as more in-depth information and better coverage of the features:

Syma on RMN!

Pixel Brady: Scima Invasion

Some screenies to go with this blether?

Scima Invasion, lazily titled by breeding Sci-Fi and fantasy magic into the system, is a short repeatable game based around a small crew of specialists who invade a rebel base to save the world or some such. Truthfully there’s not really much of a story!

Features, you ask?

• Sci-Fi & Magic! Handguns, grenades, combat specialists and magicians all wrapped up together in a mission to punch through an evil base!
• Simple maps, simple graphics, simple story. It’s a simple game with simple mechanics. Sounds boring maybe, but that’s part of the point; to just be able to dive right in and play with class combinations!
• No free recovery points or Inns to stay at. You need to rely entirely on your crew and any supplies you find. You begin with plenty of supplies but they start running out as the enemies get stronger! Conservation is key!
• No levels! Your crew is always stronger and better than any baddies you find (except bosses!) so your only worry is supply attrition; can you save all your best stuff for the bosses?
• Ten available classes to mix, match and combine into your crew. With eight common skills between everyone and four unique skills per class, there’s plenty of tactical differences between using each class.
• All skills have unique and varied damage calculations which are shown in the descriptions for you to accurately and tactically decide which skills are best used at any given time.
• Permanent death! Losing someone hurts your chances of completing the mission, but airlocks across the base allow you a chance to request backup from four other crew members waiting to aid you!
• Three different paths leading to the bases inexplicable core. Each path can be backtracked and taken (if you want) to give you different bosses and paths to take when trying different class combos.
• Unlockable Boss Rush Mode!  Fight every boss in the game in direct succession with no ammo refills, no backup calls and no breathing time between!

Oh, it was Details you wanted?
It’s a simple game based off a simple concept I wanted to try implementing. There’s literally more tutorial textboxes than there are dialogue/story, as that was never really a part of it. I liked the idea of seeing sci-fi and fantasy magic put together (which is something I rarely see) but wasn’t as interested in story as the concept itself.
It also helped with the skills, as I mixed together “tech points” (a victor script) and mp use. Between the ten classes who have their own skilltrees, everyone has a various mix of skills utilising both of them to different degrees. By then putting unique damage calcs to each skill that involved a mixture of stats, and then limiting ammo boxes and mp tonics, it forces you to tactically decide which skills to use when, so you always have some left over for the boss.

These classes include a Marine who uses firearms to attack. These weapons do very strict damage that’s modified only by an enemies defence. They target single enemies, while Grenadiers will use explosives that target everyone.
There’s also a Healer who uses magic that heals based both on their magic attack, but the targets own magic stats as well. Healers use magic to heal whole groups at once, while Medics use single target heal and buffs that (non-magically) deal strict amounts rather than stat based.

The rest of the game? The mapping is uninspired visually, although the game as a whole is mapped out in such a way that there are three separate routes to the boss (with backtracking possible) so I just spent more time actually planning routes than trying to prettify it. I kept one tileset throughout the whole game, but made an effort to change the basic visual look after every couple of bosses.

But besides that; you can save anywhere, death is a permanent feature so you have to conserve even peoples lives, but every so often you’ll find an airlock where you can request up to four more people to come and help you.
Most importantly is just the cute, chibi battle appearance! So harmless looking, but I think it goes well

Anyhoo, blether over.

The game was made in a couple of days so is the main reason it appears so simplistic or even sparse, but again; t’was more about putting the concept into practice than making a pretty game.  These types of games can always be remade if they work after this stage!

Will be out soon; just wanna finish playtesting it and polishing it up.

Database Makeover: Changes

As described here, Wee Hero needed a revamp of the database.  Mostly it was just messy and would have benefited from a better organisation, but there were some nagging issues beneath it all that are the kind of thing you’d rather start from scratch now than wait till the end and find you just don’t like it anymore.

So to that end, materials for crafting has been reorganised completely, and gear to suit.  Materials are split into three tiers now with multiple weapon and armour choices available to craft with each tier of material.
The pickup events for materials have also been redone, so instead of being predetermined mats, now they give a random mat based on chance, and give a random amount based on your luck.  The events are separated into their respective categories (armour, weapons, herbs) so you should never find yourself completely incapable of crafting armour with a surplus of weapon mats, for example.  Although, the mats do also crossover with each other, so there shuold be a good margin of error no matter what you do.

Also fixed a few bugs and issues here and there, mostly small event related things, but everything seems to be running smoother now.  There’s also now an option to toggle the in game clock so it doesn’t sit rudely behind message windows unless you ask it to.

Stealing is now involved!  This is a method to cherry-pick specific mats you need or are running short on from monsters.  The steal rates are fairly high (so should only cost 1~2 tuns to get your mat) however you can only take one at a time.  It’s there to assist mor ethan be your primary method for material collection.  However, bosses will have access to rarer or later tier mats.

Speaking of bosses: they now have shiny Boss Cards before the encounter, which give basic details about them, including their attack and defensive elements, hp and what the penalty for letting them defeat you will be.
We’ve gone with a “no game over” style in an effort to just let the game perpetually advance and progress without that burning feeling that you just lost an hour of running around collecting stuff.  Of course, this means that bosses just teleport you back five minutes in time to before you challenged them at full health…not very threatening now, is it?
So they have various penalties attached now, such as loss of gold or permanent stat decreases to keep the intensity up.  You have the choice to reset to your last save however long before that, or just take a hit on the chin and try again!

Finally, we have the new “Enemies Levelling” script from Yanfly.  This seems like the perfect type of script for a game such as this, by helping maintain a steady difficulty curve.  On the first country area, there are three different methods to get across to the other side of the island (of varying difficulty and reward) but it was hard to balance it out so it wasn’t just railroading you based on how much you had grinded.  With enemies levelling as you do, we have a more dynamic playstyle where you are a lot more free to explore whichever direction you wish first.
As well as that, going back to find respawned materials won’t be quite so “trawling through  the noob cave”, since the monsters will be capable of fighting each time you visit!

Anyhoo:
All I have to do now is twiddle-dee with the monster/boss stats so they feel appropriate, and it’s more or less ready for some basic alpha testing to check the balance of monsters and material pickup.  Unfortunately, NPCs and flavour text are still at a bare minimum, and probably will be until I’ve had a few reports about the game’s core issues first.

Wee Hero

So I’ve been out of commission for the past few months.  A fairly long story to be sure, but suffice it to say that some meds I was prescribed interfered with my creativity…a lot.

I’ve been having trouble thinking and coming up with ideas or even just thinking creatively at all.  Drawing blanks, white noise and mental blocks are what I’ve been working with, so haven’t had much luck progressing with anything.

But it’s been a while and I’m now on new meds to essentially try and counteract the old ones and I’m being encouraged to “train my brain” in essence.  Forcing creativity isn’t good, especially not for the state I’m in right now, so instead of trying to pressure my mind into working at what it just can’t do, I’m instead just taking time to indulge an old idea that’s I’ve at least got some fresh ideas lying around for.

So we have “Wee Hero”.

This is pretty much an experimental mix of different ideas thrown into one non-linear open-world/exploration-driven RPG.  And I’m making an effort to take those terms very literally, rather than just tagging them as attraction points.  When I say non-linear, I mean you can skip most dungeons, there are alternate routes to the ends of the area, equipment is attainable via any route and you’re given no set direction to go in; just left to your own devices.
Open-world/exploration is the main focal point, as the game is driven around collecting crafting materials (the method for creating weapons and armour), there are plenty of random maps/events scattered around the place with varying degrees of usefulness and a cool Fog of War effect is layered over the world map and dungeons, encouraging the idea to actually explore every corner of the world (as opposed to taking a quick glance over the map and realising that nothing is to be found).
RPG?  I do not mean the typical JRPG where you are told who you are and have no control of your growth, weapons, stats nor even most decisions the character makes.   I mean you choose your own backstory (and thusly, starting stats), you choose which dungeons to enter, you choose which weapons and armours to craft, and which medicines to make, and you choose whether to take karmically good or bad options when presented with most situations.

“Karma?  Moral choice systems?  Pssh!”  I hear you say.  Well scoff at someone else who took binary moral choice systems down the shitter and made it basically a box-checking exercise.  I’m aiming for the realistic approach, oh yes.  There is no good/bad ending to be concerned about, and there are no better weapons for either good or evil actions.  No, this game does not encourage you to be a dirty cocksection and murder innocents to get some “Devil Sword” at the end.
No, this is karma as we know and understand it in the real world.  You are presented with a choice to do good or evil (and either one may or may not have benefits/consequences), but what happens is it affects your Karma.  Now, you can take the evil route and possibly never see any consequences for your actions.  However, the more negative karma you have, the more likely you are to run into various things shitting on you throughout the game.
Those who take the good choices will simply find that the game likes them more.  You won’t even realise it has to do with karma as it happens; the events in question could be miles away from and completely unrelated to your decision, but those who did good will have a happier outcome.  For example, drinking at a well may be fine for anyone normally, but those with bad karma may find themselves taking a sip of tainted water instead.  Of course, you could always take the “neither” option (or just do an equal amount of good and bad to cancel it out) and you’ll find yourself fairly unencumbered by karmic events, either good or bad.  Those with a clean karma will find little happens to them at all, but that’s your choice now, isn’t it?

Anyhoo, now that I’m finished my justification for using bog-standard descriptive words for something I intend to be rather different from the typical games that use such words, let me direct you to the RMN profile where I’ve tagged this up, as it has some pretty screenies and will be where I focus trying to get Alpha Testers and such.  Right now I mainly need to balance out the collectible crafting materials and some of the monsters (as with non-linearity comes a completely schizophrenic difficulty curve).

Alpha Demo shouldn’t take too long to come out, as I’m more or less finished the first continent already. Cleaning up current stuff, one more dungeon to make and flavour NPCs are really all that’s left.

Coursework Videos

So!  I’ve decided to expand the scope of this blog, figuring that I needn’t have more than two.  Now, Circle of Tangents is my original blog, made primarly for blethers, rambles, rants and general shite-talking about anything I might want to discuss or rant about.  Pixel Brady was made to cover my gamess, side projects and such, so I’m extending that to cover my coursework as well, since it’s all about animation, games, art etc.  I figure that Pixel Brady can become my unofficial “portfolio” site, as it were, and just give a general cover of everything I’m up to, should anyone ever be interested in my works and how I spend some of my spare time.

Badly, of course.  I waste time.  Lots of time.  By playing and making games and animations.  S’fun, but certainly not productive.  At least not until college starts back again, then I can say I’m doing serious work with a (semi)straight face.

Anyhoo, I haven’t put much up for it yet, as there’s a *lot* of images from concept etc that I could be piling on, but that can wait for now.  For the time being, I’ve just added a new page for my completed and concept works that I’ve handed in to someone at some point or another.  These are just videos, but get across what I’ve spent the past year doing.

Have fun!

Coursework Videos!

Dog Days – Curing The

So, the Dog Days competition is going down the shitter, as basically my whole guild has given up.  And I didn’t get notice as such until the first Challenge was due.  So, working on my own, I changed the game to a simpler, more do-able idea (and unfortunately just couldn’t get the first challenge completed myself before the deadline, for which we scored a 0).  One of them (Pacman) has kindly finished off the script he was doing which I’m using now, giving a nice, succinct menu for the game.

Anyhoo, the game is now “Curing The” (left blank, as the exact disease is never stated), which is about a wealthy businessman who was struck with a lethal disease that drives one insane before killing them.  His final option is to go to a top notch research facility and be cryogenically frozen until such time as the disease can be cured once and for all.

HOWEVER, he wakes up suddenly with the facility looking destitute and barren, somethin’ went horribly wrong.  And to make matters worse, the disease is still ravaging his mind!

The cryo facility looks far worse for ware than when you went in!

The game continues along the horror-survival theme (although with only myself working on it, and zero experience working on horror games, it’ll probably wind up less horror, more survival) and a race against time, as both your mind and body deteriorate slowly unless you find medicines to help keep you in shape.  The exciting feature (which is what Challenge Two is all about: making a demo of the coolest feature in the game) is that after a certain amount of sanity being lost, you will go insane; the entire map around you will twist and contort into an even darker, more horrific version of the world and the very objects and landscape around you will become evil and try to kill you!  Simple safety features such as fire extinguishers will become twisted and try to assassinate you in your insane, paranoid mind!

Colonist Alpha Success!

(just realised how daft some of this all might sound, but I’ve taken a double dose of my painkillers today and I’m a bit spacey, so forgive this post for sounding totally stupid, if it does)

So, putting the Colonist Alpha out nice and early turned out to be a smashing success, despite its many flaws.  A lot of people have given substantial feedback, both covering known issues and things that I’ve utterly just overlooked with the ole’ tunnel vision.  Some of these problems will be tricky to fix or have some fundamental problems (such as a problem with getting the ABS to refresh upon stamina depletion) but fortunately most of the problems so far will be easy to fix and should lead to a far improved game.  By the time the game is polished up enough to have a “proper” demo released it should be a much sharper and more flowing game.

One thing that will be getting largely improved is the dialogue, as right now it’s dead basic (as we punched it in just so we could get all the eventing done) and with that, the instructions and story to the game suffered greatly, leaving a large tutorial gap for players, with much of it expecting the player to already know what to do.  The instructions, at least, will be redone completely to allow players to know completely how to play; the game itself is quite simple, but at a first glance it’s a bit complicated and requires some better tutorials.  Hopefully the caves will be improved with this as well.

Also, on top of this we have a new team member, Levi W, who is drawing up some music for us (damn good music at that) and is firing down the right path very fast, so the demo should also sound vastly improved as well, with getting rid of the RTP in favour of some pretty ideal new soundtracks!

Survival Horror MiniProj…empty!

I’ve had an inkling of a want to make a survival/horror mini-project, but am preoccupied with Colonist and DotI, so I said I’d keep it simple.

Problem is, I spent an hour making it and so far there’s 2 types of enemies (Zombies and Skeleton) with the skeletons with 14 different graphics.  They all have respawn points, as much health as you, come in groups, high attack (but move slowly, of course!), but there’s only the one map (gridlocked streets) (well, two if you include the intro room that lasts for three seconds) and no point, purpose or anything fun to do, except look for the face-smasher weapon that can help you fight…barely.  There’s also an option to turn on a torch (it is daaark) but it only lasts so long and the recharge is longer.

That’s it!  I would love to put more time into a survival/horror game, but I don’t think it’s beneficial to be focussing on three large projects at once, so will keep this as a mini-project for the time, maybe add some stuff over time when I get bored doing other stuff; who knows what it might become with small edits here and there!

TDS’ Scriptmakin’ Skills – Fog of War

Small update before the main post: have come up with a newer look for the dungeons.  It keeps the 3/4 cross-section view, but now far better allows for deeper dungeon appearances, to prevent it just looking like some really long, weird shaped cave.

Anyhoo:

http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/2687-scripting-services/

So we realised that a key problem with the style of gameplay we’re going for with Colonist is that the entire dungeon can be viewed easily, without making it worthlessly massive, which kind of kills much of the exploration aspect of the game; you can already see which path has the good ore, so why even bother going down the other?

What we needed was Fog of War (a term well known to fans of Age of Empires, Dungeon Keeper etc) so that the dungeon is “blacked out” when you first enter; you’ve no idea what or where anything is, but as you explore you clear the fog (which will remain permanently cleared thereafter) and you can see.  This allows dungeons to be quite small (which is needed for Colonist) without just revealing all the secrets straight away; it also means that coming back for repeat runs (as will be expected of many caves) you’ll also immediately know where hasn’t been explored.

So, since there’s no such VXA script that I’ve ever seen or heard of, I got TDS involved, who promptly turned a problem into an interesting game gimmick.  For anyone needing scripting works, my recommendation falls to TDS, who is not only professional in his work, but to the point and even explains the script both before it’s written and commented on the script itself.  Fantastic stuff!

So now the game has back that dungeon cave excitement for exploration and in the doing so, have a nice unique feature for the game that not many others have.  Looking good so far, am excited to get the demo out!   Screenies will be up soon!