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[Amp]

PLEASE LOOK STARTING HERE.

Important information:

This is a project of mine that I've had in my head since, like, the sixth grade. No, seriously. It's been scrapped and rebooted no less than 8 times since then, jumping genre and style and mechanics along the way.
The latest version has been A Thing since arguably-actually-2013 late 2012, and no shortage of school and work has kept me from working on it to any notable extent. In spite of that, we have this:

Yo. Check out the latest post: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=21042.msg1060890#msg1060890


So, as far as I know, this is a board for cataloguing developer's progress on things.
Well then, let's get this started.

I must be running a world record for Longest Indie Game to Develop Ever (by a high school student), because I am making an RPG (heh heh) in Game Maker (heh heh) that will be entirely freeware.

(This game has been in production since 2006)

the story of
Chaos Weapon

One of your classmates is acting weird.
He resurrected dark magic and is trying to summon element gods to fuse them together and make an enormous laser weapon to lay America in ruins.

...Go and beat him up.

Gameplay!
You control four of the ten characters down and up several (may or may not be) randomly generated dungeon maps fighting enemies in Turn Based Battles.
Each character has innate affinities for certain weapons and magics.
Despite this, every character is capable of being taught everything.
(I don't suggest you turn the warriors into mages; they suck)
The rest is somewhat of a spoiler. Read at your own risk.
You can summon things! They replace party members, act on their own and will inherit an ouline of the stats of the replaced party member!
There's a Final Fantasy Twelvesque Licencing System (except changed somewhat) and Guest System!
What is a damage cap?


What I have done
The gameplay skeleton. Right now, you can walk around, encounter enemies, and escape.
You can win, but enemies aren't programmed to die.
The menu also partly works.
Text engines in, cutscene skeleton in, some areas programmed.
The database that enemies are scripted in is done.

When can we play?
You can contribute original graphics or sound to recieve a copy of it.
When it's time for beta, a select few would be chosen.
Otherwise, I'm pushing for November of 2012.
(Unless I have to do the graphics and sound myself! In that case, 2016!)

YouTube

[leonelc29]

this sound promising, if you trying to finish it. any screen-shot or mockup? since pretty much thing has been done.

and by the way, since you gonna show us the development, don't cover your text.

good luck   

[Amp]

this sound promising, if you trying to finish it. any screen-shot or mockup? since pretty much thing has been done.

and by the way, since you gonna show us the development, don't cover your text.

good luck   

Screenshots momentarily. I'm trying to get the battle system running fluently right now, and then screenshots will appear at that point.
I'm having a hard time with not Atlus Difficulting the entry-level enemies.

The point to covering the text would be to keep people who love finding things out by themselves finding them out by themselves.


Especially since the game makes a conscious effort to keep them from you until you get them.
Latest development: The Slimes now know the first Water spell! They only have a 20% chance of using it, but pray that they don't on your weak-to-water Glass Cannon 

Edit: Actually, I just reviewed the tables.
Two members of your beginning party are weak to water!
(By weak, I mean they recieve a 1.1 multiplier on it. This isn't Persona... or is it?)

.... well, here

[Amp]

I've solved the three-hour problem that was turn dictation. Damn you, sorting algorithms!
Enemies' dying throwing off the turn system and all.

Battle results page is next, as well as item drops, and changing your equipment.

I can also begin incorporating magical damage.
I smile at this because your beginning party has absolute bollocks for a magical defense stat.

In the battle screen, I'm also going to work in the Guard mechanic, and include the functionality for stat buffs and debuffs.

And if I'm lucky, I can get all this progress in before eight this morning.

[Amp]

I've just solved the two-hour problem that was getting enemies to properly use magic.

I'm so proud!


>Red Slime uses Hydrogon Sortori!
>Zep takes 11 damage!
>Gideon takes 31 damage!

DAMN YOU, SLIME

~Naming System~
[name 1] [name 2]
Name 1 = Element
Name 2 = Targeting and Power

Hydrogon = Water
Sortori = Weak, Targets All

Fixed an odd bug that granted you extra turns when you defeat the slowest enemy
Fixed a worse bug that caused enemies to only use the first move they knew

[Amp]

YOU'RE WINNER.

Coming up next, players using attack spells, stat mod spells, and reviving dead players!

After that, have usage of inventory items, and giving you a Level Up screen. Right now, it just kinda... happens.

(There are four me's because I'm the only one with an almost complete spriteset)

[Amp]

Here's a YouTube video!

[leonelc29]

(am i the only one that follow this thread? )

hey hey! i'm back.

i've watch your footage, and one thing i though is, it's actually pretty cool! apart from the graphic, very much of the thing has come together!

there's something that bug me with the after battle status though. did the player actually able to acquire that much party member? it's like 10 playable character in here!

ohh, and another thing, while walking around, why don't make the camera stick to you all time rather than having the scrolling view? i don't know how to express the thing though. what i wanna say is, GM build-in view scrolling are very stiff, so it will make the gameplay look stiff too.

other than that, well done, and also your patience!

[Amp]

(am i the only one that follow this thread? )

hey hey! i'm back.

i've watch your footage, and one thing i though is, it's actually pretty cool! apart from the graphic, very much of the thing has come together!

there's something that bug me with the after battle status though. did the player actually able to acquire that much party member? it's like 10 playable character in here!

ohh, and another thing, while walking around, why don't make the camera stick to you all time rather than having the scrolling view? i don't know how to express the thing though. what i wanna say is, GM build-in view scrolling are very stiff, so it will make the gameplay look stiff too.

other than that, well done, and also your patience!

Thank you!
There are 10 playable characters because, well, you get that many over the course of the story
You can just have four out at once, is all. You can switch among them however you like.
I've just modded the game such that they're all in my party.

I'm not sure what you mean regarding the scrolling view, I'm sorry.
I have a view object that the game is centered around.
The view object, under normal circumstances, gravitates to the player. I've just tightened up the gravity because having the camera loose and flying around looked sloppy to me! :V

New video~!

This one shows off the addition that enemies can now use stat buff/debuff spells, and healing spells.

The player using magics is next! Hopefully! This is the third time I've said this!

[Amp]

Page 2 :/

Something before the large update tomorrow.

The Technical Shop List is now functioning.

This is a menu on the pause screen where eligible characters learn new abilities.

More info tomorrow when it isn't 2:30 AM

[Amp]

IT'S MAGIC TIME!



Well damn it then
I guess we might as well go and learn some



THERE WE GO.



There you are, Slime! Prepare to snack on my wrath!



NOOOOOOOOOOO

(slimes absorb water -_-)

So yes, then. All of the player's magic works now. You can buy them with Tech Points, which are gained by defeating enemies.
Items are next!

[Amp]

Okay, now you can use magical abilities in the field.
Items are next.


In the field.


I don't want to mess with the battle controller. It's so inefficently programmed. 

[Izanagi]

Inspired of P4 much? 
I'm a really big fan of that game, and I thought so only by looking at the video, the story pretty much confirmed it. I found a link here somewhere on the gmc.

Keep it up.

[Amp]

Inspired of P4 much? 
I'm a really big fan of that game, and I thought so only by looking at the video, the story pretty much confirmed it. I found a link here somewhere on the gmc.

Keep it up.

Ahahaha. I love Persona 4. I'm actually tearing my way through P3 now. That damn Priestess

So yes. I'm drawing a little bit of inspiration from it. I don't remember fighting my way through my school in Persona though :D
(TARTARUS DOES NOT COUNT.)

As for the GMC, there's also the fact that my avatar there is Izanagi

And thanks, and stuff. I'm updating it now, actually.

[Amp]

Magic in the field works, but...

Is my mage supposed to be healing everyone fully and more so with the weakest healing spell?

Conversely, the weakest mage in the game (He has a SPR stat of 2 >_>) can heal everyone for 10 HP using the strongest! Yeah!

(in case you haven't noticed, 10 HP is balls. Good luck with that.)

Consider the following:

[oahda]

Went to see your YouTube video and my entire computer froze up (except for the cursor), so I went to take a shower, and it was still frozen when I got back, so I had to force restart it.

Probably a coïncidence, but just saying.

Out of the little that I saw, I can only say that I like isometric stuff, and that the programming seems solid, and I'm impressed, but I would like to know if you're going to make new graphics before you consider yourself done.

[Amp]

Went to see your YouTube video and my entire computer froze up (except for the cursor), so I went to take a shower, and it was still frozen when I got back, so I had to force restart it.

Probably a coïncidence, but just saying.

Out of the little that I saw, I can only say that I like isometric stuff, and that the programming seems solid, and I'm impressed, but I would like to know if you're going to make new graphics before you consider yourself done.

Oh, but of course I am
It's just that I'd much rather find someone else to delegate it to, considering how time-consuming it is for me. I want a lot more programming progress in than I want graphical progress, mainly because I'm kind of terrible with graphics from the get-go and programming is the main pillar I would stick with anyway.

Thanks for checking it out :D

[Amp]

So I rebooted the project about 34 days ago.




This time, not focusing on building the game before building the engine.
It's looking a lot more promising than I remember. This will probably continue for about the next month before I drop out again and re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-reboot it in 2014.

[Amp]

THIS iteration of the game is looking a lot more legit. 9th time's the charm!
(Hey DSG, how many times have you restarted Depths? Do I have you beat? :3c )

Saving and loading works, and the cutscene handler appears to be working fine.



(Charlie hasn't produced any charactter graphics. Everyone is going to be Tobias from New Estherson until he makes the character cut-ins.)
(Those walls will also remain looking like that until he addresses that.)

I've implemented multiple turns, for the enemies. (Bosses will take 2 turns, you see.)

I tried setting the weakass placeholder enemies to take 10 turns at a time.
The end result was them blasting apart my party with 10-HP-damaging introductory magical spells in a single turn.



I also put in another recolor, one that's like level 50.

It's much more formidable.
(Yes, all of the enemies will be shapes until yada yada yada)
(At least it's no Airbrush Monster)

Stat buff spells are in! (Debuffs too!)
Boosting your attack stats is perhaps... overly effective, as it essentially doubles your damage output for three turns.
Since defense is square rooted, boosting defense is only marginally as useful. But it helps nonetheless.




You'd be better off blocking things more directly. (Because the 'Defend' option works now!)

Blocking things cuts magical damage in half and physical damage into a third.
I was also considering covering up elemental weaknesses with defending, but that'd be stupid.

Speaking of elements, elemental affinities are also in.
Your characters have innate elemental alignments that the game doesn't make any mention of whatsoever, for instance. Your only clue would be Character A, having a lower magical defense than Character B, oddly takes less damage from fire-aligned magic.




Revival spells are also now effective.




Well, the stronger one is, anyway. The weaker revival spell only brings you back with 5% HP. This is probably not going to help you at all if the turn list hates you enough.

All of the voices in the game have been cast, and most of them have signed on already to begin work. There'll be somewhere within the ballpark of 800 voice clips in the game, and I've also received a number of extra songs pieces from Benjamin, the composer.

At risk of getting yelled at by him, I present to you two of the newest songs pieces:

Theme of the Town
Theme of Home

Um, I'd show you new graphics things, but that's Charlie Carlo's division.

Release dates? Ummm, probably somewhere around never.
2800, at a conservative estimate. But when that rolls around, I do expect you all to laugh at how difficult it is!



Do you see this? This does nothing.

Well, that's everything I have for now. Until next time, I suppose.

[Amp]

(Original blog title: Chaos Weapon Progress Video for This Month)

God, I hope that doesn't imply that I intend to make one of these every month.
Rather, since about a month ago, I've been going HAM on this game.
In fact, there's nearly 30 minutes of gameplay to be had already.
More on that later. For now, do watch this:





A list of things in the video that you probably would scoff and go, "Yeah, whatever," at, include:

- I've implemented behavior-modifying status effects, now.
- The idiotic sound effect handling has been replaced with one that is much easier to work with. I've started by effecting all of the magical attacks.
- New graphics for the victory screen have come in.
- The game no longer boots you to title automatically if you lose. No, that's reserved for Hard Mode. Rather, you'll now get an option to retry the battle, or, if you're playing on Easy, warp back to the last save point you stepped on. No more irritating loss of progress!

Progression not noted by the video:

-The first half of the game's Day 1 has been made.
- I've gone and added some new equipment. They permanently apply a stat buff to the wearer.
- A smorgasbord of saving-related bugs have been fixed.
- Shopping menus no longer cause the game to crash.
- All the items actually have prices associated with them now!
- The framework for treasure chests and the like has been put in.
- I now have over thirty rooms all linked up and explorable. The number of rooms fully tiled is slightly lesser.
http://puu.sh/bjT3S/4153c05e44.png
http://puu.sh/bjnap/da259c0d8f.png




I think I'll push for more miscellaneous crap like overworld NPC sprites next.



Expect my next set of photos from the Philippines shortly, as well.