Monthly Archives: July 2014

Dreamblazers Devlog: Week of July 28, 2014

Last week’s achievements

* Implemented all of the papered-out new moves from last week into the framework except for Defense Command and Neutralize
* Created, papered out, and implemented other new moves: Counter Stance, Dark Flare, Dark Force Horn, Draining Field, Flashy Flips, Piercing Horn, Regenerate, Shadow Beam, Silence, Spirited Steps, Touching Twirls
* Created and papered out other new moves: Binding Blade, Cleanse, Dousing Slash, Energy Slice, Feint Critical, Healing Ebb, Siphoning Edge, Sopor Slice, Teasing Edge, and two more with placeholder names
* Created and haven’t yet papered out one last new move: Compel
* Finished AI for 9 of 13 enemies from last week
* Started “Musical Inspirations” section on the wiki

Current focus

Battle balance followed by the transition to 2D.

Sample stuff

Red = Leaf
Green = Celty
Blue = Recca
Purple = all

♫ No excuses, no regrets, no hesitation ♫
♫ We’ll ride the wind! We’ll live the dream! ♫
♫ Find what we seek! Say what we mean! ♫
♫ No excuses, no regrets, no hesitation ♫

♫ Somewhere out there is the good and right ♫
♫ We’ll pursue that place with all our might ♫
♫ Something more and pure, something real and true ♫
♫ And I’ll chase it forever along with you ♫

♫ With our hopes and prayers, with courage and whim ♫
♫ We’ll find it! For sure! From our fire within ♫
♫ Stretch our legs and run, stretch our wings and soar ♫
♫ Finding wonders we’ve never dreamed of before ♫

♫ No excuses, no regrets, no hesitation ♫
♫ We’ll ride the wind! We’ll live the dream! ♫
♫ Find what we seek! Say what we mean! ♫
♫ No excuses, no regrets, no hesitation ♫

♫ I cast off safety, I shrugged off the bore ♫
♫ Life is nothing if it’s not a thri~~~ll ♫
♫ We flourish in rain and we thrive in the storm ♫
♫ All a matter of spirit and wi~~~ll ♫

♫ Come trouble or delay, come whatever danger may ♫
♫ We’ll face it down and ask for mo~~~re ♫
♫ We won’t find our fill until we’ve climbed every hill ♫
♫ We’ll open each door, we’ll search and explore ♫
♫ We’ll welcome each day and toss the past away ♫
♫ Whatever besets us, we’ll adventure still! ♫

Weekly goals

* Finish the other four enemies’ AIs
* Balance test all 13 of the latest enemies
* If character design rounds resume immediately on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, those become top priority

Comments

Stretched in different directions this week! Stuff to talk about:

Lyrical Considerations

Hearing the title theme for Vanguard Valkyrie inspired me to further flesh out the lyrics of Leaf’s/Celty’s/Recca’s song. Above is what I came up with for the week, although anything from an initial draft is subject to change. =)

I’ve toyed around with the idea of how many lyrical songs I want and whether I want them vocalized or not. Besides the one above, Cotelle, Minori, and Star have three songs conceptualized between them. I’m not a songwriter by trade, though, so I don’t want to fall into a “lyric creep” trap. It might only be two songs in the end.

If I Had A (Hundred) Million Dollars

A common question for indie game developers and designers is what kind of game they’d make if they had a hundred million dollars (or any number meant to be taken as unlimited funds). Honestly, the Dreamblazers I’m making is exactly what I’d make except that:

A) I’d have a five-minute anime intro video if you wait on the New Game screen.
B) I’d have a Musical Mode. Turn it on and all major scenes are fully vocalized songs.

(If I had a hundred billion dollars, I’d pay for every indie RPG that wants one to have a Musical Mode!)

Wiki

I rarely mention the wiki because I rarely update it (except for the Designs in Progress page) due to how time-consuming it can be. I just got in a mood this past week to hunt down video game themes, though, partly because of that Vanguard Valkyrie theme and partly because I might need a composer soon…

Crossroads

Since I accomplished most of what I intended this past week, I’m approaching a major crossroads.

Any indie designer or developer naturally considers how much of the game should be finished before they release a beta into the wild for play testing. I’d always intended to complete one continent, which meant four dungeons, but now that I have two dungeons mostly done at least in terms of enemy stats, moves, and behavior, I’m questioning whether an earlier start would benefit me. If so, then I need to begin looking for a pixel artist and possibly a composer pretty soon.

No matter what I decide, my next major project after balance testing this last batch of enemies is to begin getting everything set up in 2D (with placeholder pixel art for now). That’s uncharted territory for me, so I have no expectations about challenge or difficulty. Still, I’m convinced that I have to do it now rather than later. Adding more enemies and testing battles is wonderful and fun, but it’s also in my comfort zone and—well, my own characters told me this week what they think of comfort zones. =P

The time is nigh to start roaming the land of Miharu! In 2D!

Dreamblazers Devlog: Week of July 21, 2014

Last week’s achievements

* Rebalanced HP formula
* Altered battle menu displays
* Rebalanced damage formulas
* Fixed HP displays
* Added elemental resistances to all enemies
* Added remaining enemies and bosses of first and second dungeons: Centaur Warrior, Dryad, Elven Archer, Feligas, Grisly Bear, Slimectric, Slimelter, Slimercury, Slimerime, Sylph Mage, Zanari Arcadian, and the two bosses who I won’t name
* (Mostly) Papered out new attacks, magic, and other abilities: Acid Barrier, Angel Blade, Angelic Clasps, Angelic Protection, Aqua Rush, Archsilk Bolas, Arrow Hail, Ballad of Bravery, Barrier, Blazing Arrow, Chain Lightning, Clarity, Crystal Shield, Defense Command, Divine Intervention, Draw Slash, Dual Slash, Electrical Aura, Enduring Echoes, Fearless Faith, Fiery Cling, Flame Jelly, Freezing Cling, Full Bloom, Harpoon Thrust, Healing Arrow, Healing Horn, Holy Field, Icy Jelly, Inspiring Stand, Intangibility, Intuition, Jolting Cling, Light Healing, Mercury Cling, Mighty Burst, Miracle Healing, Neutralize, Noble Salvo, Poison Jelly, Poison River, Purifying Burst, Reinvigorating Rondo, Remedy, Restabilize, Revitalize, Run Down, Rupturing Quake, Sacred Salvo, Scalding Wave, Shield, Shining Flare, Shock Torrent, Snow Sweep, Solar Arrow, Spinning Spear, Spirit Beam, Stun Jelly, Tangling Vines, Torrential Waterfall, Toxic Brambles, Trample, Unbind, Whispering Wind

Current focus

Battle balance.

Sample stuff

I still have a bit left to do here this week! Green indicates an upside of an attack, such as how much it costs to use relative to how much damage it deals or extra status effects it inflicts; yellow indicates a downside, such as how much it costs to use period or how inaccurate it is.

Not shown, though, is another hidden element of balance: distribution. Flame Spray is all around superior to Fire Wall, but the latter can be used by almost any mage with a fire affinity while Flame Spray is reserved for wyverns, dragons, and other rare fire breathers.

…also, looking this over again, somehow I only now noticed how fundamentally flawed my Power For Tier column is. I’m leaving this picture in untouched, though, as simple evidence that I’m not perfect. =P

Weekly goals

* Make tentative “final” decisions on Jelia’s moves
* Finish papering out damage-dealing attacks
* Implement all the new attacks into the game
* Give the new enemies their AI

Comments

I finally pinned the damage formula to a comfortable level, then wound up creating more moves than expected! Similar to Pokémon, most enemies in Dreamblazers appear in multiple areas at different levels and share from a large pool of moves. For example, the Greatwolf and Feligas monsters share attacks such as Mega Slash and Vital Fang and recur on several continents because wolves and big cats are everywhere. (No, there won’t be any Zubat or Tentacool appearing all the time.)

This type of setup means that move creation is very front-loaded. Since I didn’t have any archers until this point, suddenly five new moves appeared for the Elven Archer enemy—five moves that I won’t need to create again for any of the Ranger enemies! Likewise, the Dryad and Sylph Mage had twelve new moves created between them, but other magic-using enemies will share their attacks.

Again, Pokémon is a useful analogy. If I created moves in Pokédex order, then I’d get through 18 Pokémon with only one Electric-type move before suddenly several show up at the Rattata mark (#019) and even more for Pikachu (#025). However, by the time I hit Gengar or so (#094), I’m guessing that over 85% of moves would be created for only 13% of Pokémon. Not that I’m operating on such an enormous scale, of course, but the ratios are a great point of comparison.

All of this does entail lots of spreadsheet legwork to creating attacks before I can even touch Unity or ORK. I don’t mind, but progress feels more tangible in a playable demo than in rows and columns, even if it’s a playable demo loaded up on placeholder everythings.

Dreamblazers Devlog: Week of July 14, 2014

Last week’s achievements

* Sent art feedback for Jig (normal outfit round 1), Star (round 1), and Mina

Current focus

Battle balance.

Weekly goals

* Add remaining enemies for the first two dungeons in terms of stats and AI (several enemies in these dungeons also appear on the overworld, so they won’t need to be added), including the two bosses
* Test a range of player party attacks against various early-game enemy groups and vice versa

Comments

One downside of weekly updates is that it might make me look erratic at times. We’ve extended art deadlines for reasons that it wouldn’t be right for me to disclose, so character designs will return to the backseat for a little while and I can get back to balancing the stats of friends and foes!

Taking a break from battles has cleared my head a bit, which was very needed. Right now I’m adapting a similar HP scale to Pokémon and Dragon Quest, but the balance has felt off to me compared to either game. I was just getting stuck on that point when the big news hit, but a little distance has given me some perspective and ideas, so it’s time to run through all of them.

Dreamblazers Devlog: Week of July 7, 2014

Last week’s achievements

* Sent art feedback for Kelly (final), Lash (round 3 and final), Faray (happy accident final), Jig (alternate outfit: round 3, final, minor revisions), Princess Leaf (final, minor revisions), Telia (round 4 and final), Tango (round 2), Minori (round 1)
* Sent art requirements and references for Eris, Star, and Mina (also coincidentally a model for the Imperial Uniform)
* Wrote but have not yet sent art feedback for Winter (round 1) and Eris (round 1)

Current focus

Character design.

Sample stuff

Click for full size!

From left to right, top to bottom: Kelly, Faray, Lash, two variations of Leaf’s princess outfit, Jig’s magical girl outfit, and Telia. Just try to match up the character classes: Artisan, Berserker, Hero, Paladin, Warrior, and Warrior Mage.

Weekly goals

* Send in art feedback for Jig (normal outfit), Star, and Mina plus feedback for any updates that come back

Comments

Whoops! It’s a few hours past Monday here and I forgot about my weekly devlog. With the one precious transition month we have, my days and nights have blurred together into intense 12-14-hour sessions, so I lost track of time.

As seen above, though, it did pay off! We’re moving along like nobody’s business with six new finished designs. We had a total of thirteen before this past week, so that’s almost a 50% increase—and Eris’ first round was so solid that she’s almost completely done as well. Not only that, but we accidentally stumbled onto a near-finished Misty design during Winter’s process. Even if Flora doesn’t have time to go through with her (Misty), I’m still further ahead with her than I would have been otherwise.

Needless to say, I’m incredibly grateful for this bursting, hectic period of character design. My sleep may be troubled, but my soul is satisfied.

The remaining goals of this month are finishing Tango, Winter, Jig, Minori, Eris, Mina, and Star, then drawing the title screen image if we can fit it in. Because she’s my first artist, I’m giving Flora dibs on the first picture that every player will see.

Even though we technically finished six designs in the last week, all of them were deep into the creation process; out of these other seven, only Tango and Eris are well along. Still, I believe we can do it. Ideally I’d like to cram in one other character, but that’s just my idle hope—it might be unrealistic and I won’t be selfish with Flora’s time.

Only 23 more days of art await.