The Nays Origins Devlog 3: Music, Game Progression, and Placeholder Art

I made a lot of progress on my game this time! I started with music, then worked on some game progression, and got some placeholder art assets in there to help with the progression and testing.

So I started out by proofreading the script and sorting some parts of it. So the script is officially ready to go!

Then I actually decided to make some music, because there were a few parts that just didn’t sound right with the songs I had. I found this free online MIDI site that has a basic piano roll (https://signal.vercel.app/). It ended up being really useful! I made three of the songs that I wanted to make. I might come back and edit them later, but for now they’re good to go. 

The first one I made was Rotle’s "private times" song. This was based on a song I used to hum as a kid when playing with toys. I started with this one:

I didn’t really like how it came out, so I tried again. I used my MIDI keyboard to make a basic melody and then cleaned it up a bit and it improved.

I also ended up converting this into a MOD with Open MPT to use in GB Studio! I made some discoveries about the template.mod file. It was adding all of these weird sound effects, and I found out if I delete the noise instruments from the template, those aren’t added to the final GB Studio version, which is good. So I just edited the template that I use for converting. I still need to play around with them a bit more because my MOD files are sounding weird in GB Studio still in some ways.

I also made a few other songs. One was for when Rotle meets The Gek.

And then the other one is for some of the parts involving Pearl.

I made all of the base image files that I'll need (copying template files) for all of the backgrounds and character art. That way I can add the templates in and then just replace the art files to upload them. With that, I can start to prototype more quickly without needing to worry about the art yet.

So with that, I laid out every scene in GB Studio! I used my script and sketchbook layouts as a guide for where to place them so it would make sense with where they connect.

And then I started to actually create the events in GB Studio! I’m basically just connecting all of the scenes and putting them in order so that they can transition, using my script and sequence of events as a guide. This is so I can start putting together my MVP. I was able to get the whole game progression done so I can play through the whole game from start to finish, in terms of progressing through scenes at least.

While I was laying out the levels and the MVP, I realized it was a little hard to test the progression through the puzzles with the default backgrounds. So I decided to translate my sketchbook layouts into very rough placeholder digital art that I could use as backgrounds during my tests. This way I could lay out the triggers in the scenes a little better. I still have some work to do on layouts and figuring out the size of them, but the placeholders have been helpful for this stage. 

Some of them have too many unique 8x8 pixels because I haven't optimized them yet, and some are actually just too big, so when I've been testing, they do turn into some weird glitches, but that'll be fixed when I have the actual art in there.

I have been trying to resize some of the maps though to fit better with how the player travels around them. I’m mostly cropping some of the bigger ones and making them smaller, especially for some of the flashbacks that the player doesn’t move on. That way I can simplify them a bit. I’m also measuring how big sprites will be in them so parts of the backgrounds aren’t overly huge.

To do this, I made a template that has a border around it that I can drag on the maps. I also have a default textbox in there to see what areas will be covered during the dialogue, and a 16x16 square to know how big the character sprites will look on there.

I also got my old GBA from my parents' house so I finally got to try out the EZ Flash Junior. It was pretty easy to set up and I was able to actually get my demo project working on the physical GBA! It was exciting to see, even if I am still in the rough stages with default sprites.

So overall I made a lot of progress this month! There’s still a lot to do, but I’ve also come a long way and I have enjoyed seeing things come together.

The Nays Origins Devlog 2: Music, Writing, and Level Concepts

I finally came back to this project after about a month and a half. It's been awhile, but I'm getting back onto this project! I ordered the EZ Flash hardware and I'm planning to get one of my old GBAs from my parents' house when I visit next week so I can start to do some hardware testing. But for now, I worked on the writing, level designs, and made some music discoveries.

So to start out, I was looking at my plans and where I left off. During that time, I did do some planning though. On a plane ride that I took, I planned out the entire backstory of The Worlds, including information about Malik, Sagun, and Jesper (formerly known as The Man Who Does Not Speak). I also came up with CourtNay, and was able to bring her in to play a major role in the intro to the story for this game. I talked a little bit about this on my CUPdate post here.

After that, I decided to actually flesh out the story a bit more. I updated my sequence of events script page and put some of the notes I had in there. Because my notes were kind of all over the place, I organized them into that page so I could better figure out how all of those ideas fit into the storyline.

And because I was coming up with story, I was about ready to start writing. But before that, I had to find some music. I can't write without music to set the mood, so I decided to take a sidetrack and find GB Studio-compatible music. So I did what I would normally do with an Eventure, and wrote some key story moments in a Notepad txt file and started to listen through GB Studio community assets (found here) to figure out what would fit with each scene.

I ended up being able to find music for most moments, but there were a few moments that just didn't sound right. For example, the Timeless Abyss. I've always associated the Timeless Abyss with Gymnopedie, so I found a midi of it online. The song is public domain, so the good news is that it can be used in The Nays media officially.

I discovered that midi files can be converted to mod files (thanks to this video!), which can be used in GB Studio. This was great news, and I felt a bit more hopeful that I could find more songs (or even make my own?) that I could use, outside of the community assets that most people are probably using in their GB Studio games. The process is pretty manual, so I ended up writing my own steps (here) so I could remember them more easily for next time.

So I ended up converting the Gymnopedie midi to a mod file and was able to get it working in GB Studio! I have to change the music format to use mod files, which means I can't use the built-in UGE editor, but it'll be worth it if I can use all of the external resources that I found. I may even be able to find a midi music creator that I can learn to create my own if I end up doing that for any. Because of the conversion process though, some of the instruments and notes are a little off, so I do still have to play around with it at some point.

I also ended up learning more about how OpenMPT works. Previously I had only ever used this software to convert midi files to mp3s so that I could use them in my Twine stories. But now I understood the interface and how to edit songs. So I created an unsettling remix of Gymnopedie using that midi by playing the patterns in reverse order. This was made for an unsettling scene with CourtNay that I planned out. I might still mess around with it a bit more, but it gets the overall mood I was aiming for.

Then after I found the music, I was finally ready to start writing! I decided to do this where it feels most familiar: in mIRC! I spent the first night writing the whole intro (which includes 2 dungeons) and the first R Nay character's dungeon as well. So I made a lot of good progress!

Then I continued to write these parts throughout the week and ended up finishing the whole story. It ended up being pretty long (~12,500 words), so I'm hoping I can actually fit all of this into the game!

I also did a lot of quick doodles for ideas of the levels for the whole game. I made these really quick prototype layouts in my sketchbook just to get the basics on where things are located. This helped me stay really loose and only show the MVP, which was really helpful to know the bare minimum on what's there. I designed every map that I'm planning on having in the game, which actually comes out to quite a lot (~90).

With all of the story written and levels designed, I also made an asset list. There are a lot of assets, but I'm hoping since these are tiny GB sprites that it'll be a lot quicker to make a lot of these. I can also reuse in a lot of places.

And that's all for this devlog! With the story and level designs in a good spot, next I'll likely work on starting to create some blank scenes using the story and sequence of events as a guide. I also may start working on some art from my asset list, but if I don't get to that until next month, I'll still be working on it according to schedule.

The Nays Origins Devlog 1: Learning and Planning with GB Studio

Welcome to the devlogs for The Nays Origins! These were written last year as I was creating the game, but I haven't publically posted these until now. So you'll get to see what I was thinking back when I started this project. I originally wrote these in Notion just to present during CUPdates.

As I may have mentioned in a previous CUPdate, one of my goals for this year [2023] is to create a GameBoy game and actually port it to a real cartridge. So far I’ve been learning GB Studio and basically trying to figure out how I can use it to create a game.

One of the first things I did (other than reading the documentation and taking notes) was that I found some of my old RPG Maker 2003 games and tried to recreate a few scenes from them in GB Studio. This was a fun exercise to help me learn the engine and compare it to something that’s familiar: RPG Maker. So I started with The Nays Detective Game and Intense Nay Eventure.

I also started to plan some ideas. I had about 20 different ideas for games I could make when I was just writing down ideas and looking back at my old game idea documents. One idea I came up with was actually what turned into our GGJ project, Tag World Roots. That was too complex so I didn’t end up going with that for this GB project.

The idea I started concepting is a game called The Nays Origins. This is a game about The R Nays and The First Generation Nays, and exploring what happens with those characters before they’re introduced in The Nays.

Right now I’m leaning towards this being more of a puzzle adventure game where you unlock characters with unique abilities that will allow you to progress through levels. I got inspiration from Dragon Ball Z: Buu’s Fury on GBA, where you’d need characters to be at a certain level to be able to break down specific doors. I originally was thinking of doing something similar, but the action battle system is more of a secondary idea for this game that I’m not sure if I’ll have the time to actually implement, so I figured abilities and puzzles might work out better.

I started by concepting some menu ideas on paper, I was trying to go with a really simplified layout because creating in GB Studio comes with a lot of limitations. So I started pretty simple.

And even with those simple designs, some were a little harder to accomplish than others. I started with the easy built-in menu. I wish I could center this or customize it a little more, but this might have to do for now. I at least laid out the different options available (though First Generation Nays was too long so I changed that to just Origins). I’m not sure if I’ll need an Items screen yet, but I did get the rest of them started.

Then I started to figure out how the individual menus worked. I started with just a series of choices, but you can only have up to 8 choices, so that wasn’t exactly going to work for the R Nays or Origins menus. So I decided to make it more visual. I figured out how to add one background picture to a menu that you can technically navigate, but I haven’t figured out how to change that background image based on variables or which is selected, so I might just have to switch between different scenes depending on which is selected. I’m not sure if that will be too wasteful of resources that I don’t have a lot of though, so I’m still working on that. Once I figure it out, I can duplicate it and turn it into the R Nays menu as well.

I also made a mockup of the Worlds menu though. This one was easier and more straightforward.

Then I wrote out a detailed sequence of events, where I detail out each scene and the progression of the game. There are a few parts I’m still figuring out, storywise, but I’m sure I’ll get there! For now, I at least know the progression that I’m planning. I also read through some related Eventures to get inspiration for this game, so I could get some of the facts correctly related to the story.

I also started to program some of the mechanics. So I started with coming up with a basic plan for what a map could look like that has all of the abilities in it. This was just a quick doodle layout and I ended up changing a few of the abilities later anyways, but it was just a quick idea.

I also originally concepted some ideas for HUDs while you’re playing the game, but because I’m limited to only 20 actors per scene, I don’t think I want to waste half of those just with HUD elements. So instead I’m going to make the start sub-menus be a bit more detailed to save on some screen space and actor limitations.

I did a little test on how I want to set up the abilities for each character, and set up some variables for each of them. Some are triggers and others are actors, so that will actually be a good way to make use of resources more efficiently! I was able to get scripts set up for all of the ones that had actors, but wasn’t able to figure out how to get the scripts to work for the triggers, so I might have to just copy and paste those events and hope I don’t need to change anything big for those!

Then I started creating a name box for the dialogue. I didn’t get far on this though, so that’ll probably be a post for next time!

2024 Plan

It's time to talk about my 2024 plans!

This post expands upon what I went over in my 2023 Recap blog post here. You can read that first to learn about the context around some of these goals.

Before I get into goals, here's my updated art improvement image (open the image in new tab to zoom in and view it fully):

So as I mentioned in my previous post, my goals will be less drawing-focused than they may have used to be. A lot of my goals still involve drawing, but I won't have any goals like drawing daily or posting drawings monthly.

My goals this year will focus a lot more on projects overall. I want to keep working on The Nays as usual, so I want to again try to make at least 2 Twines this year. If I get farther, great, if not, at least 2!

I also really want to write more Eventures again. Now that I'm on track and have proofread all of the existing ones, I'm hoping I can dive in and start to rewrite more and finish more of those beginning ones. At minimum, I want to write Complex.net and potentially the Frank Lady Eventure. Obviously I'll want to do more.

During our bi-weekly Nay Days, we usually don't actually work on The Nays, but instead play games or talk. I'd like to organize those a little better and maybe get back into talking about The Nays and maybe writing or at least planning Eventures during those if we can. If we can do more full day chats where we write, that'd be great, but life will likely get busy again like last year so I'm not promising anything.

And then now that I've read all of the Eventures, I'd like to really dive in and connect more moments and check on overall consistency as much as I can. I would also like to go back and write the scripts for every Eventure Trailer. This will help me recap myself on where the story was at so I can rewrite parts more quickly without having to reread everything every time that I want to write. I might even record some of the voice overs for them after I've written them.

While I know I said I wasn't making drawing-based goals, I do want to revisit my Nay-A-Day project where I draw full body drawings of characters that I don't have a detailed drawing of yet. I'm not committing to how often I'll do them or anything (certainly not every day), but I do want to do at least a few more of these throughout the year. So my goal can just be to try and do a few of these when I feel like drawing something! And then I do also want to just sketch for fun without it being a project. So I'll try to draw when I'm feeling motivated to!

And then I really want to work on games more, so the rest of my goals will be game dev-related. First, I want to just work on a game this year. That could be a whole game on its own, which I've been brainstorming ideas for, or it can just be to revisit Compass Nays and make progress on that. I'll have more information about this after I make a decision.

Going along with games, I've been working on a game dev portfolio and resume, so I'd like to finish those. I've been making game dev vlogs that I'm putting on there, so I'll continue to make these when I'm motivated as well. This goes into my goal of wanting to talk about my projects more. I'm not really going to make it a goal of a certain number I want to finish or anything, but I'll want to make a few throughout the year.

And going along with talking about my projects, I'd like to attend more game dev meet-ups and talk to people about games. There's a local game conference called GDEX that I'm thinking I might try to attend this year. I basically just want to talk about games. Usually I'd be pressured into attending these for job hunting, but because I'm in a position with a stable job that I enjoy, I'd like to get back into this more with a different perspective and how I wished networking was. I'd like to genuinely make friends and connect with people who make games for fun, rather than the stress of asking for a job. This might force me to talk about my projects more with people too. So my hope is that I'll be able to attend one at least this year!

I also have been wanting to publish a game on Steam. So my thought is that I can go through the process and learn how it works by taking one of my Global Game Jam projects and put it on there for free. I basically just want to have a game on Steam and know how it all works. That way, if I ever sell a game in the future, I'll have this part under my belt.

So overall, here are the goals I'm working towards:

• Write at least 2 Eventures.
• Create at least 2 Twines.
• Write (all of?) the Eventure Trailer scripts.
• Draw a few Nay-A-Day drawings.
• Make a game (either progress on Compass Nays or a new game finished).
• Finish game dev portfolio and updated resume.
• Create a few game dev vlogs.
• Attend GDEX (or another local game convention).
• Publish a game on Steam.

I know this looks like more than last year and I said I'd try to do less, but most of these are fairly straight-forward and not super intensive. This will just help guide me to creating projects and continuing to work towards my life goals now that I'm in my 30s.

So anyway, I'm looking forward to 2024! I feel a lot more focused and I know what I want to do, so I'm excited to make progress on my projects with this plan.