CUPdate 28: Stage 1 of the IGMC Project Wrapping Up

So for this CUPdate, I mostly worked on my game more for the IGMC2022! I've been making a lot of progress on the first stage of the game and tried to get most of that finalized by this CUPdate so I could present as much of it as possible before it's finished (which is the goal for the next CUPdate!).

I started out this CUPdate by finishing some character art. I made digital drawings of all of the character portraits. I started with at least one drawing of each of them, then built off of that to make all of the expressions that I needed.

Then I started to work on the dialogue system. I set some things up in RPG Maker and set up the ink dialogue system. Then I wrote the whole first stage of the game (besides one character path). I made a bunch of branching story paths and wrote it all in Ink! This was my first time writing something this in-depth directly in Ink, so it was fun to fully utilize this powerful plugin. I really love it for longer story-focused games, so this was the perfect time for me to use it and test its full potential. I ended up writing a lot throughout the week (~3000 lines).

The transition from Ink to RPG Maker went fairly smoothly and it was honestly maybe my favorite part. It just felt so good seeing everything come together and working with more simple switches and variables to progress the story. I've been working so much on setting everything up with more complex code that I forgot what it was like to do the more simple parts! Those parts wouldn't have been possible without all of the setup I've been doing though, so it paid off!

Then I started to figure out the UI for all of the stages of the game. I used my initial concepts and added color to them so I could start to figure out what I wanted to do with them.

And then I finalized the UI and imported it into the game. Here's my first official final screenshot:

While working on the UI, I made the menu for the game. I wanted to keep it simple and really only include information that would be needed. Right now it's entirely mouse-based, but one of my wishlist tasks is to see if I can make controller/keyboard support too. Not sure if I'll get there, but maybe!

Then I worked on making some sound effects to replace some of the default ones. I plan to come back and make more, but there's at least something there for the minimums now!

And then I made the transition scenes to the second stage of the game. The writing for that is done and I have basic events working in RPG Maker, I just need to make the art so it all comes together. I'm having some trouble with plugins not working well together, so I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with the text boxes for the second stage of the game, since my original plan isn't working out as intended. I might end up using more manual coding of window positions than a plugin since I couldn't get them to work well together, or might just stick with something a little more simplified.

So for my next CUPdate post, I hope to have this game finished and playable!

RPG Maker Games

I've been working on RPG Maker games during my weekends for fun recently. These have been fun weekend projects overall!

I figured out the functionality on the programming side and have been working on the interface/art for one that is supposed to be a psychiatrist simulator.

I've been making progress on my custom Turn-Based battle system for one of my games! The art is still super rough, but I've been working on getting the gameplay mechanics functioning in RPG Maker.

Terra's Dreams Remastered

Over the weekend, I made a quick opening to a game and made some resources from scratch. Sometimes it's fun to take a break from games and projects I'm currently working on and just make something new for fun. It's not anything serious, more of just a little activity I did for fun!

Also this game was based on a really old RPG Maker 2003 game that I made over 10 years ago, so it was fun to re-invent the basic ideas using my updated art and an updated game engine.

Some screencaps!

And then these were some of the new faces I drew for this game.

Global Game Jam!

After 30 to 40 hours of hard work and little to no sleep, I finished my second Global Game Jam! This time me and Steve created a game in RPG Maker MV, but we used entirely our own art. No pre-made stuff this time! We spent a lot of time on the art, and were also able to make a few puzzles. This game's definitely a lot more polished than last year's. And it was a lot of fun to make!

Download the game here!

Alternate download link here

Here's the final menu screen that I created for our game! It was entirely made from pictures, and no pre-made menu.

This was the final text box that I created.

Here was the title screen that I made. 

Steve painted this background for our jungle maze! I created the character sprite and menu button. 

 Another background by Steve. I created the UI elements. I was also the one who programmed this part to function in RPG Maker.

And this is another shot of the same map as above. I created the sprites of both Mr Dude and Mar.

And this is another shot of the same map as above. I created the sprites of both Mr Dude and Marr. I also made the UI and Marr's portrait drawing.

I drew a bunch of mushrooms for our cave puzzle! 

And then this was our splash screen. I created the text based on the font we used in our game, Bubblegum Sans. And that was a picture of The Gek that I drew awhile back that I decided to incorporate!

Game Jam Progress!

I'm participating in the Global Game Jam again this year with Steve Rakar! This year's project has been a bit harder for me so far, but we're getting a lot done. I'll post our final game tomorrow or the next day, but this is the progress! Check out my Twitter for more frequent live updates!

This is a sample of what the GUI and character portraits will look like. I did this test in Photoshop, so the text and BG is not final.

And then this was a test that I did for how our menu might look. We'll probably end up using a bunch of pictures instead of an actual menu plug-in.

And here's what I spent the majority of last night on! Mr Dude is our main character, so I made sprites of him walking. I'm a bit out of practice on animation, so this was a lot harder and more time consuming than I was hoping for. But now we have a walking character!

Nays Doodads Game!

So I started working on another RPG Maker project last week. It was only after I read up on Yanfly's Grid-Free Doodads Plug-in that I got super inspired to make a new game using it! It was really useful to be able to place objects without having to worry about them being stuck on a grid. I didn't make more beyond the opening, but it was a fun activity for one night.

Here's a quick interface that I put together!

And then this is the temporary title screen that I made just to have something in there.

Lonely Boy Game

One night, my brother and I worked on some RPG Maker games together. We both started off with our own versions, and then collaborated and worked on each others' games. It was a lot of fun!

These are some screenshots from the Orange Version, the one that I started and created all of the visuals for.

Some Quicklings

Yesterday was kind of rough but I managed to stay up later and work extra hard to get in a few extra doodles.

Some vent art of Sarah

So this is part of a game I'm working on. In The Gek's World, The Nays used to do this thing where they would draw fusions of themselves and a character. Well this is that but with a different element. They had to draw themselves with another Nay. Sooo I tried to draw them partially different styles to fit with how I think those Nays might draw. Obviously these were quick and I didn't focus a whole lot on the styles themselves. But from left to right: Malphie Reys, Jr Gair Saknah, Zandrou Roku, Scozu Ragsu, and Shed Braves.

Quick RPG Maker Games

So the other night, my brother and I voted on what to do, and had our OCs suggest different things, until eventually we came up with the idea to make RPG Maker games in second person. And once a decision happens, it splits off into different paths. So we made two and switched off who worked on it after about an hour or two. These were super quick and fun little games to make.

This is the start of the flowchart that we made for one of the two games.

And then this is the custom choice menu that I made. I made the choice graphics based on his general layout for the game. I really like the limited palette that he chose.

And then this game took a completely different turn, in terms of mood. It is very lighthearted and has a music story vibe. Each character speaks in a different color and font, and it is about Pigger telling the little ones a bedtime story. So I tried to make it look like it was drawn by a little kid, with paper cutouts on Popsicle sticks.

Global Game Jam 2016

So this weekend I worked on an entry for the Global Game Jam with Steve Rakar. We made a game called Nays Living in Houses. You can check out more information about the game over on our Global Game Jam page here! There are also download links on there for you to play!

If you Download the game, that is probably the best method to play it. It will have less loading times and be an overall better experience. (P.S. If you have any lagging with the downloaded file, I highly recommend updating your Direct X to this version here.)

If you cannot download, then you can Play it in your browser!

This overall experience was super valuable, and I would recommend to anyone at all interested in game development to participate in the years to come. I didn't actually attend the event itself, since my brother and I didn't want to lug our equipment out there, but we worked from our studio at home collaboratively, so we still had a great time.

This experience overall gave me a confidence boost, since I impressed myself with how much I could produce in two days. Although we didn't get a whole lot done in the game itself, we produced a lot of artwork and maps, and were able to get things functioning well enough to be playable. Sure there are some glitches here and there, but the fact that it's this playable and we made it in under 48 hours, I think that's pretty cool.

Overall, I only spent a few hours working in RPGMaker on the game. I placed all of the characters on the maps and made up the majority of the NPCs single dialogue lines. My brother was the one who really took the resources that I created and put them into the game. He also made all of our 30-something maps and put together the dialogue for our opening scene and first quest. He also spent a lot of time working on getting our plug-ins working, and even getting into the code itself to modify some to fit the needs of our game.

So as I mentioned, I focused heavily on the artwork. My original plan was to fully draw out facesets for every single character. Of course I was not THAT fast at drawing them, or else they would have turned out lot worse. I ended up being able to draw facesets for seven characters, and then for the remaining characters, I simply used previous illustrations that I had done and turned them into facesets. I spend the majority of my time on the UI and menus though.

Without further ado... below are tons and tons of screenshots and concept art that we made for the game!

This a screenshot of our opening scene! I was responsible for all of the art here, but my brother made the dialogue.

I made lots of new facesets/character portraits for this game. This was probably my favorite part of working on this game, actually!

Since our game relies heavily on the day and night system, I created two different UIs for when it is day and when it is night. I also made some little text advancers that you can see in the bottom right corner (animated). I wasn't able to import that into the demo for yesterday, but we're planning on implementing it when we get the chance to.

We made a Friendship system, so here are all of the different groups' pages. I was responsible for the menu layouts and the images on the right, while my brother edited the existing plugin, wrote the descriptions, and made the pixel art icons.

This is the main menu for our game. I was responsible for the menu layout and art, but my brother drew out that map on paper.

We also made a quest system for our game, using an existing plug-in. My brother was responsible for inputting this quest information and making it work for our game. I created the UI image though.

And then all of the other menus! I made all of the layouts

This was a little element I added in, where once you enter a new map, that image drops down to let you know which area you are in. This will come in handy a lot when doing quests.

This was a map that my brother made. It's Town Square. And this is the opening sequence in which Finnchuk is dropped off. He also made edits to an existing car sprite to turn it into a taxi.


And here are our credits for the game!

Thanks for reading this super long post! I hope you'll take the time to check out our game. We also would appreciate any feedback, so just leave a comment if you would like to give some feedback. :)