What are you working on? (Game Making Thread)

[coyotecraft]

Made a lot of progress with this. It's more or less functional . Aside from a database full of stat changing magic.
I don't know where to go next. A G.F. ability window maybe? Idk. It's tempting to want to recreate every detail of FF8's menus.

It's hard to develop the rest of the systems to work with RPG Maker. Like, I guess to unlock the Stat Junction slots I could have the G.F. learn HP-J, for example, as an "Equipment Type".

 

[coyotecraft]

Update.
I kept adding the bells and whistles to it.

 

[Remi_Chan]

So Pjcr contracted Covid-19 shortly before his trip, so he was placed in quarantine and has recently gone back home to recover. On the upside, he did get some files through to me while in quarantine.

Mad E. Lin

In case you're confused, yes- this is a character that does not even really have much part to play until Disk 3. Despite this, it was one of the first work orders in PJCR's work orders sheet, and so after prioritizing what was asked to be prioritized, Mad E. Lin was the first to come along.

This was by design, because having even some of Mad E. Lin's assets (5/8 at time of writing) meant i could begin development on the first of the projects I intend to make in Pixel Game Maker MV. Flight would serve as the basis and test run for the engine and allow to me test its capabilities before moving onto more ambitious projects like Crowfeast and Seraphim. Fyori and all other characters that have a major role in that story already exist to some degree in pjcr's work, even vanilla Fyori before she attained her bolder outfit to suit that more bold and later psychotic personality.

Xiiie has said she would be back by the 29th but I've yet to hear from her since that correspondence. I have my fingers crossed that she's simply had her hands full dealing with the aftermath of the extended duration away from home. She already has gone through Covid and so at this point is immune to the virus, she also suffered through the worst strain of it.

As for me, i'm enjoying an extended break after i implemented all but one of the Mad E. Lin portraits I received. I really need to get back into gamedev before long though.

 

[Remi_Chan]

Sooo... I haven't posted aught of it yet. But I might have started making a new game because I'm presently at a stage where I'm just waiting on resources for Fantasia.

So, with that, may i introduce you to:

Flight

As the name suggests, it's a game with a large emphasis on flying. It transitions between a sort of multi-layered world map where you can descend to lower levels where harder and harder challenges will appear. Then during all the bullet hell sequences, you're flying too.

Into Combat!

I'm using Galv's Map projectiles as the basis of this game's combat, which is working very well. It's WASD movement and mouse aim and mouse-click for shooting. it's very modern-day controls and it's so nice to have mouse support for this game.

Did all the battle stuff seen in this video in the span of today. let's see what I achieve tomorrow~!

 

[coyotecraft]

I've been spoiled by the post limits that other sites have. I just type until I hit the 2000~4000 character limit.
But then I come here and start typing...and I keep typing....and then 3 hours later and I'm looking at a wall of text that I really shouldn't post.
So I delete half of it and condense my thoughts. But then the sun comes up and I'm forced to close the browser and crawl, hissing, back into the shadows without saying anything.

It don't matter. Nothing matters.

 

[Remi_Chan]

Ah, the dank fog of Nihility~

Oh, as for me I uh... I mighta just finished one of the coolest things I've done in a while.

Spent the whole day on the introduction and tutorial level. This is the tutorial boss essentially.

 

[coyotecraft]

Exploring the exciting new frontier of AI image generation.

Image models aside. I would be excited to see someone make a proper map generator for Rpg Maker. Some more sophisticated tile placement rules.

 

[Remi_Chan]

The whole fun is crafting a world your very own, not let programs do all the fun stuff for you!

Now yes, I am known to use a character generator to fill in for placeholders, cause i don't enjoy pixel art, but I usually do end up paying someone to make it, I even tried to pay you but alas, you wouldn't let me! xD

But I guess if you don't like making maps n stuff a map generator might be cool. Samplemaps already exist though and while they aren't great, they can serve as a good basis or fount of inspiration.

I'm so-so about maps, I love doing it when I'm inspired, but sometimes I'm just "eh".

In Flight comparing the first dungeon where you find Mad to the tree hollow dungeon shows a very good example, the first is me just making a map to make do, the second is me having an absolute blast with it.

Speaking of Flight, I didn't like those weird towers protruding through holes in the ground in the castle, so I opted to place some scenic indoor gardens instead.

Oh yeah, I made an Anime Opening for it, you can actually play this in game by choosing Cinematic from the title screen.

 

[Remi_Chan]

Saga of the Starchaser

If you ever wanted to know my backstory in comical storytelling fashion, well, here it is!

 

[coyotecraft]

My game development history isn't nearly as inspirational.

I've been part of so many abandoned projects it's not even funny. Happened again recently. I offer to help someone. We talk like twice on discord. I made 1 battler and a handful of sketches, and just when I started feeling feeling guilty I wasn't committing myself to doing more - they cancel the project. But at least they let me know right away.

There's a "long" jam I'm not all that interested in submitting to. I had my fun making the FF8 junction menu for it, but the rest is just writing practice. I've still got a week or 2 to extend the story past the 1 town 1 dungeon I've made for it.

I had this whole thing I was writing up about using AI art for projects. I was all
But then Dall-e 3 came out and made me reevaluate everything. Everything feels like a waste of time. But the only thing I would have done instead was play video games.

 

[Remi_Chan]

AI is at best a crutch. I've seen your skill enough to know you don't need it.

I definitely recommend you make a game on your own. Relying on other people comes with caveats and as a bonus, it will teach you the kind of crap involved in developing and releasing a game.

If you aren't feeling it, you aren't feeling it. My dev history only seems so inspirational because I lucked out by finding an IMMENSE passion for game design that also is practically bottomless.

Game design is a multi-faceted monstrosity that requires loads upon laods of tradeskills, with more being added the more ambitious your game is.

I mean just look at all the positions I take in the credits and I barely do any art and do zero of the music or sound.

The only exception to that is I'm the voice of Pep, Kara, Rolly, M.F. Lazarus and presently Xali (probably will get an actual VA in release). There might be a couple others.

It is not a field for everyone. Even with where I am now, it has taken me 25 years to build myself up to that level.

Don't give up on your dreams, but don't be afraid to question what your actual dreams are. Maybe game-dev isn't in the cards? maybe what you like is the visual side of things? My advice is do what you want to do most, even if the notion is ridiculous. I have always made the games I want to make, and that has ensured I've been able to see them through to the end.

In personal news, I have been productive!
So despite having a severely terrible cold I still manage and did a bunch of rewriting to flavor text I wasn't happy with. So here is that.

This thumbnail definitely does not foreshadow nothing!

And here's a couple more examples, these are only a small sample of the huge amount of modifications, they aren't even the funniest.

I also went and fixed the skedaddle animation for Sacreblu to not ever extend beyond the borders of the battle arena, which uh... took some good (40 minutes) time to fix something that shouldn't have been there in Demo 3's release at all, woops! No way to really show this in action so just trust me, it works now. (In my build not in demo 3's release.)

I also added some conversations on the Starship between Svana and various other characters after retrieving her from Byteopia.

OH GOD HER PLACEHOLDER PORTRAIT IS SO BAD GOD DAMN IT.

Right, which reminds me, I have something to confess.

I LIED TO YOU!

Because Pjcr accidentally lied to me because he has a cat emoji in place of a brain.

Proof:

might be *slightly* doctored!

But the good news is one among the babylon whores is back.

Yeah that's right, in this completely undoctored log we see Xiie is back, and unlike 3d women, this 2d whore of babylon comes bearing love and also gifts.

More are on the way, but suffice to say, Xiie is back. Not sure if I'll use these as Coyote's kinda blows them out of the fucking park.

So remember when I said?

"This thumbnail definitely does not foreshadow nothing!"

Well, it turns out, that foreshadowed that I LIED again. Kind of.

Pjcr won't be making his trip until next month, but he did get me some files.

So now, we have all the Mad E. Lin portraits. These are the final three I was missing.