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UNNAMED (I'm terrible at titles, really)

I started a solo game, and I'll use this place for my blog and woes.

LORE

The world of Taern was created using the essence of (magic/mana/aether/astra/etc.), controlled by a majestic creature known as the Dragon Matriarch. She was an entity fused from flesh, scale, and (magic/mana/aether/astra/etc.) With each use of her essence, followed the fading of her own being.

Before taking a deep slumber, the Matriarch created the Spiritway, a realm that would store all excess (magic/mana/aether/astra/etc.) as well souls from the dead. While the land-bound races remained sheltered from this knowledge, they were still vulnerable to it.

For around Taern fragments of (magic/mana/aether/astra/etc.) still leaked from the Spiritway, allowing it to still be used and affect the mentally defenseless.

It's been said that too much of anything can cause corruption.


BASIC SYNOPSIS
The story follows Sylphia, a Nyulkith girl in her late teens 4 years after a mysterious man purged her home of Mystwood - killing many of her kin and kidnapping the young girls, including her sister.

After fleeing with her twin brother and new father, they head to the capital city of the Valhad Kingdom, Laisa. Her brother immediately joins the (church/sanctuary/temple/etc.) as a priest to help orphans. Sylphia struggles with society's simple, and low expectations of women. As soon as she's able to, she signs up to join an order dedicated to dealing with problems from the Spiritway, as well as mercenary work on the side.

Sylphia hopes to find answers about what exactly happened the day Mystwood was destroyed and land of Valhad began to die. Only more questions are given to her as she learns of similar situations elsewhere around the world.[/b]



MY PROGRESS

I began this project last month, only really defining the world as practice. My initial want was to have a tactical-turned based battle system, but I'll be settling on something less difficult as I'm alone.

To begin at a decent place, I started making Laisa. This is where things have been at for awhile now, due to indecisiveness and possible lack of resources.

As I cannot map towns, I originally wanted to go this route:
large.jpg


Using a background with a menu for places to go to in town. Of course, I can't access the menu when "show choices" is being used. I thought it would be annoying for players not to have that option and always have to click it in the menu.

My other idea was this:
neptunia_v_pt_02_thumb.jpg


Which I badly tried here:
lunaengineee-1442217872-693804.png


After getting fed up with that idea, tried to map again:
lunaengineee-1442808455-238426.png


Help, I don't know what I'm doing and nothing makes sense. Everything is so random.

When I keep thinking about it, I'm totally wanting something like Dragon Age or Atelier Rorona:
map_-_denerim.png


atelier_rorona__the_alchemist_of_arland__screen_73-e1443029385598.jpg


You click a spot and you get to explore that area or an event occurs.

The only issue is...

I don't know how to make maps like those. ;_;

I wonder what I should work on in the mean time..? Maybe the first dungeon. XD

First "post" done!
 
Instead of being hung up town exploration, I decided to just go ahead and get to the actual first dungeon.

I feel the mapping is better than my town attempt. The lighting? Not so much. o.o

lunaengineee-1443123803-937550.png


Now the fun part begins! Battles! :haha:

:cry:
 
I lost the images, so I can't get them anymore. Sorry. :(

EDIT: Not allowed to continue since I was told "I never finish things and should spend all that energy on Ghost Shards instead".
 
Some people consider finishing a skill of it's own. Especially among writers - I'm sure you've heard of world builder's disease. Projects like these can grow into infinitesimal details like alternate timelines and flow charts and unicorn migration patterns.

But sometimes finishing means tying your shoelaces and stepping out the door - with or without your pants. I know that sounds absurd. Why would anyone do that? It's learning how to get to that point from any stage.
 
How far are you guys into Ghost Shards? Isn't it a big project that's been up in the air for a few years?

I agree that finishing things is a skill. Strawberry, I think what you should do if you want to finish something is set a short period of time (say a month or two) and make a short game that's like half an hour long. Just using RTP and the default battle system or whatever. Your first project won't be your magnum opus, and that's perfectly fine. It's really important to finish things, and you have to build up to a big project.
 
coyotecraft":dotxvgpe said:
Some people consider finishing a skill of it's own. Especially among writers - I'm sure you've heard of world builder's disease. Projects like these can grow into infinitesimal details like alternate timelines and flow charts and unicorn migration patterns.

But sometimes finishing means tying your shoelaces and stepping out the door - with or without your pants. I know that sounds absurd. Why would anyone do that? It's learning how to get to that point from any stage.
That's why those huge thirty volume epic novels are a little poor, because it's one thing to be able to write lots and lots, but actually finalising it and signing it off is perhaps even more important and skilful.
 
That's a little different. Vaporware vs. The never-ending story.
The never-ending story has endings to each of it's installments. Vaporware can be stuck in revision limbo.

A college instructor of mine said something like, "Art takes 2 people. One to make the Art, and a second person to say when it's done."
 
Honestly, I've started so much shit I haven't finished over the years, but good things come from them. I've learned a bunch of scripting languages. I've written a few songs and many themes. I've written books worth of poems. And all because I tried doing things much bigger than myself.
 
Ghost Shards is always... Gah. Star sometimes works on it for days, then doesn't touch it for weeks, or even months. And he's the one coding, drawing portraits, making tilesets, eventing... It's the reason! XD

I did "finish" a game in a month once. Still have it too. Did I even post it here..?
 
He has no business telling you what you can and can't work on, especially if he doesn't touch the game for months at a time. Make stuff for yourself, not for other people. Besides, you have plenty of time to work on two things at once, especially if you're only matching his pace of intermittent work on Ghost Shards. The correct response to "you never finish things" is to prove the person wrong, not give up.

It's good to hear that you finished something, though! If you're still worried about realistically finishing things, more short project is a good idea.
 

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