I finished the miniquest (I hope to hear some good feedback about it, when the time comes), I tested almost everything (since it's short, I hope it will work and just ignore it, because to properly test this I would need to do a long-ish playthrough, and I don't feel like it), I finished implementing a way to get yourself a fighting drone to help you during combat (this wasn't fully implemented, but there was already the beginning of this mini-quest in the game), and I added an "interesting" random scene during space travels (it took me too much time, because it's slightly less straightforward compared to the usual things, and I also wasted a lot of time for picture hunting, without even finding a good picture to close the scene, so it's just the black screen and the description, because I am cheap like that). I also made a behind the scenes change, which should allow me to interrupt a journey midway, if I want to add some random events that aren't just simple scenes (it was a relatively small change, but I was happy I did it). It wasn't the most productive week I have ever had, but it wasn't the worst one, either.
So, now I should work on Piper and Malena's romances, which should close finish the works on the main parts of this update. After that, there is going to be a closed beta, then work on side-quests, improving Kantor and Verania, and then it should be a closed beta followed by a public release once the bugs are fixed, and every suggestion I approve of has been added to the game. The public release is still far away, but we are getting there, I think. This pretty much sums it up for this week, and the short-term plans for the game.
Now, for the one and only weekly anime intro/review of the week!
This time around, I was thinking about pulling out something old, but I got a sudden flashback about this anime, so I'll talk about this one, instead (sorry if you were expecting some ancient relic from the past ^_^): Nana!
Please insert funny yet insightful remark here
Let me start by saying that 1) I like this anime and 2) The author got sick sometime ago, and even if she is now at home, she stopped working on the manga, and she might never finish this work, so bear in mind that you are probably going to be disappointed, whether you like it or not.
To briefly summarize the plot: It's the story of two girls with the same name (Nana), who meet on a train during their journey to Tokyo, and then again at the apartment they both intended to rent, where they will decide to become roommates. The story will follow their friendship, and generally their lives, who they meet, who they love, etc. It's a fairly basic premise, but I must admit I like both the art style and the writing style of Ai Yazawa, so maybe I am biased when I say that I really like how she makes a good job out of it. The characters are really fun, in my opinion, and the seriousness never becomes overbearing. It's a nice show, and the only reason I can't recommend it is because, as I said, it's unfinished, and there are no indications whether it will ever be or not (but doesn't stop most people around here from playing my game, so what do I know? XD XD XD).
Well, this is it for this week! I hope you enjoy how much tease I can squeeze out of so little work done, and that you'll be back next time for more! ^_^
So...in other words, we will have to wait till Autumn for the public release. :P
ReplyDeleteWell, it depends on how long it takes to improve Verania and Kantor. I might leave Verania as it is, maybe, and just focus on adding to Kantor something for the players to do.
DeleteI COULD finish everything within a month, but knowing myself, I can't promise anything, since I get stuck or busy when I less expect it... There are also a few loose ends I have to tie up, since whenever I add to the main quest, there are a lot of others scenes/chains of quests that need some updating, so I am probably a bit behind the curve, there. Also, adding Piper to the love interests, means adding a bunch of checks and alternative dialogues everywhere, to avoid abnormal behaviour, which is a pain in the ass, frankly, and I'll probably miss a lot of these things.
All in all, Keeping the game completely as freeform as possible is a bit counterproductive, when things go over a certain size. I should have probably gone down the route of games like Deus Ex HR, where the game is divided in chapters, so not all locations are available at all the times, but you still get a lot of non-linear gameplay and exploration. Of course, there are limits to what I can do with RAGS in regard to the gameplay, so maybe it wouldn't have worked either...
Oh great, I am almost starting to get depressed... XD
I was going to add more areas for more an open style of gameplay, but that really make things complicated. Being a lazy person, I chose to do the chapter style instead. XD
DeleteSee, great (and lazy) minds think alike! :D
DeleteI just wish I had thought of it before, right now the game's development is too advanced for me to change the system.
Separating the game in chapters can work pretty well, one doesn't have to sacrifice complexity for that, it just saves a lot of troubles being able to close off completely old areas once you are done with them. I really wish I had done that... T_T
Oh well, at least you close off rooms after quests. I made a beginner mistake of trying to have multiple events happening in the same room, ended up have to give up a lot of ideas. Although those ideas ultimately are used in other areas, the coding mess I made was a horrifying experience. =__="....
DeleteLook at the bright side, for you next game, you won't be making the same mistake again. Kekeke, there will be a next one, right? ;)
Well, my main problem is that the crew travels with Celeste, so they are always around, and have to interact with her during scenes, which means everything relevant that happens to them must be shown in said scenes. They also have a LOT of triggers for various events on them, so things are getting crowded on that side, and it's harder to navigate the various commands. And I still have a number of locations you can visit all the times, which is bothersome, too, so I feel your pain... -_-
DeleteYeah, the nice thing about mistakes is that you never run out of new ones! XD
If only you divided your game into two big chunk, then you can just kill them off in the code and make a replacement character in the designer for new event trigger. I am planning to do that for the whole city for the second half of my games because of all the new event triggers, hopefully this will help me minimize buggy codes. ^_^
DeleteMy original idea was to do just that (split the game in two parts, and "clean" the characters), but it's going to be a lot of work, regardless of what I do (just thinking about all the variables I'll have to export makes me dizzy @_@).
DeleteHonestly, the main reason I will probably end up splitting the game is because of its size. If I kept everything in one game, I don't know how big it would end up being, and how slow it would actually get. I would manage the code, one way or the other, but there is little I can do to prevent the performance decay.
No public release for a while longer? Awww nuts.
ReplyDeleteWell back to the TG board.
I shouldn't say this, being the game author, but that's what I do, too, most of the times. ^_^
Delete