Category Archives: Dreamblazers

Dreamblazers Devlog: Week of August 18, 2014

Last week’s achievements

* Found out that there’s an even easier way to make tilemaps than what I did last time
* Scoped out pixel artists (and I might have found a good one for environments!)
* Learned how to create animations and collisions with 2D Toolkit in Unity… kind of.

Current focus

The transition to 2D.

Weekly goals

* Figure out how to use 2D Toolkit (and other Unity assets if needed) to get basic top-down map movement functional
* When character design rounds resume, those become top priority

Comments

Next Wednesday, I’m taking a brief family trip, so I spent some of this past week preparing. I’ve realized that I need either an iPhone or an iPad for times like this so I won’t have down time on planes, in cars, and so on—and a side benefit is that maybe I’ll put the game on iOS eventually! (I wasn’t planning on it since I don’t want to push beyond my means, but if I already have the hardware available for testing…) I’m leaning iPad, but in either case, hopefully I’ll still be able to get stuff accomplished while away!

As for what I did get done… This past week is when my will smashed up against my lack of knowledge. =P Now I know how to turn sprite sheets into animations, but not yet how to convert that into a functional game object. I’m probably missing something obvious.

In hindsight, it’s crazy how much I’ve accomplished without truly “knowing” what I’m doing. I’ve learned so much about ORK and 2D Toolkit only to discover that I’ve learned almost nothing about Unity itself. So now I need to step back a bit and grapple with Unity fundamentals in order to advance forward.

Dreamblazers Devlog: Week of August 11, 2014

Last week’s achievements

* Learned how to create and use tile maps with 2D Toolkit in Unity, including colliders
* Learned how to not have Unity distort 2D sprites on me with anti-aliasing or lossy quality or various other things (and by “learned how to” I mean flailed about like a Magikarp for a while until Kirb, the developer of 2D indie Metroidvania Dead Gear, explained how to))

Current focus

The transition to 2D.

Sample stuff

Using placeholder tiles from OpenGameArt.org for now, this is the current draft of the continent of Miharu in Unity! The real version will, of course, have proper-looking rivers, bridges, some rounded coasts, probably triangular coasts, and most of all it’ll be a 16-bit aesthetic instead of 8-bit!

Showing it off at this scale is a bit small, so here‘s a full-resolution version of an earlier draft. If you squint, this continent kind of looks like a three-leaf clover; if you squint even harder, it looks kind of like a bird. I’ll probably play up one of those elements further!

Weekly goals

* Figure out how to use 2D Toolkit (and other Unity assets if needed) to get basic top-down map movement functional
* When character design rounds resume, those become top priority

Comments

Three steps down, more to go! Before top-down map movement can be functional, collision detection needs to be functional; before collision detection can be functional, top-down maps (AKA stuff to collide with) need to exist; before top-down maps can exist, sprites need to look pixel perfect.

With those three issues resolved, there are still at least three more factors: character animation, character movement, and camera movement. It’s slightly concerning that Kirb said it took him nearly a year to get his 2D aspects fully working, but for now I’m hopeful that it won’t be the same story with me since a 2D action platformer has more complex physics than a 2D RPG. Besides, there’s another self-professed Unity newbie who managed to get an extremely basic RPG pretty functional within three and a half months, so I’ve got to keep up here. =P

Dreamblazers Devlog: Week of August 4, 2014

Last week’s achievements

* Finished AI for remaining enemies
* Started a secondary blog for general musings (this is only tangentially related to game development, but I already have a couple posts planned talking about ideas I’ve left on the cutting room floor, so following the Dreamblazers tag will be pretty complementary to this primary devlog side of the site; any mainly-game-focused entries will be posted or cross-posted here, though)

Current focus

The transition to 2D.

Sample stuff

My Sylph Mage enemy has the crown jewel of AI so far. I could probably even stick her into the player party as a CPU-controlled character and she’d do fine!

Weekly goals

* Figure out how to use 2D Toolkit (and other Unity assets if needed) to get basic top-down map movement functional
* If character design rounds resume immediately on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, those become top priority

Comments

This is a week mixed with excitement and dread. =P I’m assuming that 2D is in enough demand that the creators of various 2D-related Unity assets are totally on the ball in making implementation easy for designers like me. If I’m wrong, then I fear a long road ahead.

If I’m right, though, then fairly soon I’ll be making layouts for dungeons and towns and such. That’s exciting, but out of all the things I’m capable of doing—basically anything except music, art, or any direct C# programming other than the most basic—map-making is by far my weakest area. I’ve already gathered hundreds of placeholder sprites in various sizes, but putting them together into playable areas that feel natural is uncharted territory for me. I can name many RPGs with great puzzles, but dungeon layouts themselves never stick out enough in my memory to help me learn anything from them.

But as my character Leaf would say, “Press on with it!” I’ll climb that mountain when I get there. =) First off, time to see what these 2D Unity assets are made of…

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.