I was going to use today to work on the event system, but stuff came up, so I am just going to do some planning and thinking about how I will spend the next 30 days. Mostly I just spent a little bit of time in my ticketing system (bitbucket for those interested in that sort of thing, it's close to jira which I use at work but free) creating some tickets and rearranging priorities.
I've pretty much decided to stick with my original plan and not really do any pivoting. Every time I doubt my concept, I always come back to it, which I hope is because the concept is strong, and not just me being stubborn. I am planning to finish the game this year, at least as a prototype. And that is more to give myself some direction and motivation than to set up any kind of release date.
Step 1 is to finish Act 1, at least as far as I've envisioned it so far. I'm going to spend less time on features, making them just the bare minimum that it needs to hold the thing together. It will give me an idea of what features are actually important and need the extra care, and which ones I should cut or just not spend as much time on.
Step 2 is to make a quick interactive "sketch" of the whole game as I see it. It will only have the clearest decision points in the plot, the most basic outline of each area, and very quick and dirty dialog. I want to get to where I can play through the whole game. Again, this will help me decide which areas and features need to be polished.
Once I have, essentially a minimal but complete act 1, and then a VERY minimal full game sketch, I can come up with the right plan of how I will be able to finish the project. Yay!
I also realized a hole in the features and a way to fill it, I think it will be a great third tier of development. It unifies the endurance bar used for running into other game actions. Rpg without combat? Easy peasy. Most jRPGs are an optimization problem. HP + MP + opponents, how do you maximise the first 2, and minimize the last one? My game is about managing resources, time, and objectives. Which objective can you actually complete within the limited time, using your available resources.
How I handle time is now the most up in the air part of the design. The point of working on Act1 is really to answer that question.
Tomorrow, events.
Played around in the level editor for not long enough, added some new decals from the artist into the build.
Today I've been mostly just cleaning up old game stuff.
Nyuu myukunyinyo kuu ku nyui nyo. Yomyuo konyooki nyi yu myii nyiunyo. Nyo younyi myu myuurri sonyi so nyu.
Nothing of substance insofar as rules of grammar or script, but I have a fairly strong idea of what I want it to sound like, and how it would affect the accents of the alien folk. In the meanwhile, drafting a magic system where you grab objects that are on screen, convert to runic form, and spit it back.
See a lightning strike in the background? Press Y, stop time, get that glyph - add a gun - boom, lightning blaster.
I've been trying to keep up with my remake of my LD entry "One Room Dungeon," but I'm going to have to delay it's release (again.)
I have some very important things to attend to this week, so the game will be releasing closer to the 14th of March than the 7th.
I don't have anything to show today. Work is continuing to go on behind the scenes. (Boring menu coding.)
Mondays are not the best days for Crystal Kingdom development - lots of other things to do. I did, however, work a bit on the save system, hoping to finish it tomorrow. :) I added a picture to show you how it currently looks.
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Yesterday's update can be found here.
In a case of any questions or suggestions, don't hesitate to contact me here or on twitter. ;)
