Stage Left Devlog

So I had a a dream the other night that I made a game in RPG Maker, so I decided to make the game a reality. I spent about 6 hours developing this game and tried to reuse some character sprite assets I already had so that I could focus on the game mechanics.

 You can download and play the game here:

I didn't end up taking screenshots along the way while I developed, but I'll dive into the development process here. I started off by making an event that sets a random number between 1-4 to each of the characters. Then, it checks if those random numbers are different. If they're not, it loops through until all 4 numbers are unique since they're associated with each character.

Then I set each of the slots to a character name and show their appropriate sprites in the slots that they're associated with. This is so it can briefly show their positions to the player so they can spot where everyone is for the memory portion of the game.

I made a quick console check before I even showed the sprites though so that I could fully test one of the characters and know which each position was.

There are 4 character sprites on the map that I set up. And like I said, I started with one before I really split everything up. I later split everything into common events so I could reuse the code, but it was originally in here. Basically, when you interact with a character, it'll set some variables and visuals, but then change the sprites back to their characters and reveal whether you were right or wrong. Depending on the round you're in, that'll redirect you to see the success or incorrect sequence.

At the start of each round, it briefly reveals the characters for a set amount of time. This speeds up as the game goes on to make it more challenging. Then, once you've seen them all, it changes the sprites back to the mystery sprite so you can't tell who it is.

 

 

And once you answer correctly, it moves on to the next round until you've guessed them all correctly.

If you answer it incorrectly, it still reveals the character, but reveals who that was to indicate you answered incorrectly. It ends the game and starts over.

I ended up drawing my own background so it would be integrated a bit more. I made it super simple, since the lights are out and you don't see it in much detail anyway.

I also drew the lights that shine down and made those be individual picture files. This was a simple ellipse and straight lines, but I think it works for what it is. I also added a custom blend mode and opacity to make it look more like a light.

And then I wanted Clove, the player, to stand out when walking around. So I created a following parallel event where it follows her X and Y positions when the player is able to walk around. I added a bit of an offset so it would show up where I wanted it to.

I also added moving pictures for the curtains so they would open at the start of the game and close at the end of the game. This is 2 picture files moving towards or away from each other.

Because I wanted this to be a very quick one-night project, I reused a lot of sprites I already drew and used RTP music and sound effects from RPG Maker. I just used some custom fonts and basic plugins so it wasn't entirely default. But I added sound effects for each instance of something changing on the screen to help show that.

So this was a fun short little project to keep me motivated since it's been hard to find time lately to work on projects. So taking a break to finish something in about 6 hours really helped with this.

Linkship Competition Devlog 5: Core Battle Mechanics Continued

I came back to working on this game after about a month or so break. I continued to focus a lot on figuring out core battle mechanics and trying to really get that MVP there.

The first thing I did was update the resources and other HUD elements so they would line up properly with our placeholder assets. I also updated the enemy resources to associate with those enemy variables.

Then I started creating the functionality for the health bars so that they'd be tied to the variables and scale based on where the health was at. I also updated the special attack bar to work similarly to this. 

To make this all functional, I started working on the Knight teammate's abilities. I started with an attacking feature where it would deplete health. I also added a healing mechanic to heal them.

While I was adding these, I decided to update the characters (which are actually listed as Armors in the Database) to use the Armor Types. This way, I could check if they're healing, attacking, defending, etc. with just checking their type instead of having to cycle through every character we set as that.

And then after that, I worked more on the cooldown timers. I updated the visual to show their face icon filling up when a cooldown is active, so the player can tell how close they are to completing them. Then, an animation plays on the character to show that they're ready.

Then I took a little break from game dev to draw some rough animations. I decided I wanted to do run cycles instead of walk cycles for the characters to look more natural with the actual speed that they're moving at. So I started with Ralphie. Just doing roughs for right now.

Then I got the animation working in RPG Maker after using Galv's plugins. It took me awhile to figure out how to get it working, but I was able to adjust the animation speed and also show different animations for idle and walking. It allows me to use 4 frames instead of 3 also, which makes it overall more smooth than the typical RPG Maker limitations.

After our full work day, I decided to update some mechanics we talked about. I started with changing the Knight's ability to be a regular cooldown and then the healing and attacking to be button mashing instead.

Then I changed the orange resources to automatically fill up your special meter when picked up instead of acting like a regular resource.

Then I fixed our current issue of resources being stuck on the page with self switch B even after you turn them in to the Inventor. I wrote some code to find the last event on the map, and work within a range to reset those and turn self switch B off.

And I bought Kadaj's Parallel Lives plugin since he added controller support. It had some conflicts with some of our existing plugins and I couldn't quite get it working correctly, but I was messaging with him to try and see if it could get fixed in the future at least so we might actually end up using it. He made some updates and we're still working to see if we can get the rest of the plugin conflicts figured out.

Then I started working on the hacking mini-game functionality and loop. First, the player destroys the room door when they have their weapon. Then, it turns off the roof of the room to reveal what's inside of the room.

And from there, the player can interact with a control panel. If they complete the mini-game, they successfully destroy it. I haven't actually implemented the mini-games, but it does work for what would happen if you did complete the mini-game, as the HUD updates with it.

I added all of the door and control panel events with some placeholder art so I could properly test out all of the mechanics.

I also added a cooldown timer that refreshes where the enemy will actively destroy the player's control panels as well. This is on a timer and it randomly selects one of the rooms to destroy if it hasn't yet.

With most of the core win and lose mechanics set up, I decided to actually implement the win and lose conditions to show that. So I created an event that checks for all of the win and lose conditions, and triggers the end of the battle when that happens.

I did a few performance optimizations since I noticed some lag. So I added a loading screen and set it to fade out when it goes there and back in once everything has finished loading. I'm hoping this will help a bit.

Add that's the update for this time! I spent a few days on all of the updates in this post and our battles are getting closer to including all of the core mechanics needed. Only a few parts left in the battle for the MVP to be fully there, then we can work on polishing things up and testing the fun. I'm looking forward to having everything in place so we can also figure out some of the timing on the cooldowns and seeing how it all works together.

CUPdate 104: Web Projects, Eventures, & SN World Returns

The past few months have been a struggle to find time to work on many projects due to how crazy work has been. When I did work on projects, it wasn't anything super big, just a few small mini-projects and then finally some writing for The Nays. This CUPdate post is a bunch of those projects that don't all exactly go together but are what I've been up to when I have the time.

I decided to spend a few hours one night making an HTML website in p5.js. I wanted something quick with a WYSIWYG interface and realized p5.js would be a great place for that. My brother and I were reminiscing on our old projects, which sometimes included making our own HTML websites, coming up with stories about our characters, and making various mixed media mini-projects. We also really wanted a throwback to old websites from 20+ years ago. So I made this little website with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript just testing out various fun code and adding effects to the website as I explored the W3 Schools pages. You can view my website, Woobin's Judgment here!

Another little web project I did was updating the Google Scripts that I made for turning Eventure documents into Twine formatting. Previously, it would sometimes freeze halfway through because of the way I had my script set up when I would add more names to the list it was searching for. So I updated it to read a Google Sheets list instead and populate the colors and everything based on that instead.

I build upon my already existing p5.js project where I auto-populate an Eventure Twine template, but made it even more automated with Google Docs, Sheets, and Scripts!

 

I reused some of the code from the Twine converter but optimized it and cut it down to only add the variables to store the data from a sheet, then added to the page with the HTML text that I use for Twines. This is a lot more automated so I don't have to manually copy passage names anymore and speed up this process even more.

And not necessarily a web project, but The Nays-related, I wrote a few more Eventures, so figured this would be a good place to mention those. My brother and I wrote the Tag World Eventure, adding a lot more to that one that I started awhile ago. We wrote the beginning together. Then the parts that had just my brother's characters ended up being a time where I sketched out some rough storyboard moments while he was writing. It was a fun little way to stay involved and watch the Eventure be written in real-time. We still have to write the end of the Eventure, but we're making progress on it.

I also drew some sketches for the Fox Competition Eventure while I was planning some story moments. I wrote that Eventure solo in a couple of nights, and decided which of these story moments are actually canon (as some were rough ideas that didn't end up happening).

And then I came back to an old activity that we called "SN World Returns" where I would draw my characters in the style of Shonen Jump manga using panels as a reference. So this is Akuma, Lisha, and Skine.

 

So it was good to get back into writing The Nays for a few weeks. But it was still difficult to keep that motivation up while I was working extra hours and exhausted at the end of each day. I'm hoping to get back into my personal projects more consistently some time soon though!

Linkship Competition Devlog 4: Battle Mechanics Begin

So after another break between working on the project, formerly known as The Note Competition/The WING Competition, I got back into it! And we're currently calling it the Linkship Competition. Still another name we're not sure if it's the final, but it's closer!

To start off, I set up the Inky file for the dialogue and then threw together a quick layout for the text box so there would be something in there. This was a quick task I could do to ease back into the project.

We spent our first full development day together on this project, which meant really digging into the mechanics and how this game plays. We started with a lot of brainstorming in our Google Docs and just re-reading everything.

Then we started to figure out the different roles of the characters, using the LINK acronym (Leader, Inventor, Navigator, and Knight). So we made a Google Sheet to figure out the abilities and whether their role would be passive, attacking, etc. This way we could balance and figure out what they all did.

After we had the battles pretty figured out, we went into the actual game project to start building it. I cleared out some of the old parts we weren't going to use and started by programming the mechanic where you hold a button down to make Cipo move forward. He moves backwards if you let go of it. I had this printing to the console first, then got him to move on the screen. We're still using very placeholder art for now as we figure out mechanics and get the MVP in there.

Then my brother was working on some basic HUD and background layouts just so we could get some of the spacing figured out. I added a button mashing mechanic in there for the healing, attacking, and defending in the meantime, since that was pretty similar to what I made with Cipo.

Then I made some cooldown mechanics. A lot of our character abilities involve having cooldown mechanics, so I wanted to work on that. I was going to use plugins, but they seemed more complicated than just using events myself, so I made some basic events for the cooldowns.

Then I implemented that into our Navigator's role. Part of this gameplay is that you infiltrate the enemy's linkship, and open doors, navigate a maze, and destroy parts of their ship. You can only destroy parts of the ship when you have a weapon equipped. And that weapon must be recharged after every use. So I used a lot of events, conditional branches, variables, and cooldowns to get that working overall.

After that, I started to rework some of our battle stats in the Database to reflect our new battle system. So I updated some Common Events and how characters are set up in the Database.

Then I also put some placeholders in for the teammate icons so I could code it to change, depending on who's in your party. I just used existing art I had of the characters for this. I also added the resource spawning into the battle map.

I cleaned up a lot of our Common Events after we had a more clear plan on the battle mechanics. I had some various stats that weren't really being used anymore, so I removed those and streamlined them. I also updated our Actors to the current list of characters we have.

So overall, we really decided we want to start with the basic mechanics and making it fun and functional with basic grayboxing and rough sprites until we do any of the final art. So we revamped our schedule a bit to really focus on these core aspects before diving into some of the art tests we were going to originally start with. But overall, we've made some pretty good progress to get some of the basics working. Next, we're going to work on more of the mechanics in the battles and figure out if we need to adjust anything before getting deep into it.