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[pluckyporcupine]

Everything's looking good so far.

I don't know what you plan to do with the inventory screen, but since there's so much empty space, maybe a pattern (that doesn't grab attention from the information and doesn't make things hard to read) in the background wouldn't be such a bad idea?

One thing that would make the inventory screen more readable, have less empty space and is relatively easy to do is to have a little pictogram (of similar shading as the current background) of the type of equipment that's supposed to go in each slot, for example, a generic helmet in the head slot.

The charms sound good. Maybe add some charms for good times or something, if time is a factor?

Oh, seeing the inventory and how many spaces there are in that shot:

1. Is that all the bigger the basic inventory is or will more spots fill the giant space that consists of the inventory as you get more items?

2. Are there plans for a bank or something similar to store stuff and transfer between characters?

[crazyheckman]

1. Is that all the bigger the basic inventory is or will more spots fill the giant space that consists of the inventory as you get more items?

2. Are there plans for a bank or something similar to store stuff and transfer between characters?

I've been trying to find a way to fill that space, the pattern seems like a good idea.  Either way I plan on making the inventory a lot smaller.  I've been toying around with different menu styles so they all look pretty inconsistent right now.  I have a new style for them planned, but probably won't have time to put it in the demo next week.  When they're in, it should look more like a frame laid on top of the town rather than an entire other screen.

There's no plans for a bank to transfer items, I kind of wanted to prevent people from getting a really rare item and then tediously swapping it in between characters that they were playing at the moment.  Each character should earn his own items.

I'm willing to change any ideas I have based on feedback once this demo is ready.

[crazyheckman]

I know I said I was going to release something tomorrow, but it's just not looking that way right now.

I ran into a bunch of crap this weekend with the holiday, work, and a particularly nasty virus that forced me to reformat my computer.

So there won't be any public demo until at the very least next week.

However Johnki, since you're so interested in it, I plan on getting everything stable over the next few days and sending you a private message with a demo sans some of the bells and whistles that I want the public demo to have.  So you'll be able to send it to whomever you want and do a little testing for me to root out some of the crashes, bugs, and gameplay issues.

[pluckyporcupine]

That sucks. I had to reformat the last computer I had, and that's when I upgraded to Win7. Took a virus to make me want to go through the crap that new Windows releases come with.

Anyways, awesome! About how much content is there so far? Granted, I could probably do a few runs with a few people using different classes this weekend.

[pluckyporcupine]

Any news with this? It's been over a week.

[crazyheckman]

Sorry about that, I ran into some unexpected trouble with the equipment and it took me longer than I wished.

I'm still trying to wrap up the loose ends to get the game functioning in a solid state.  Most notably the equipment is giving me a little trouble syncing between clients.  But my list of things to get ready before I get you a build is: Equipment Syncing, Volume Options, and Heal Threat.  Once those 3 miniscule things are done I'll be able to give ship you a build.

That brings me to another matter I was experimenting with this weekend.  The backgrounds have been switched from flat pixel art to an actual 3D scene.  Which I got probably a little too excited about and stopped working on those bugs on my list (again sorry, I should learn to focus a bit more).  But I managed to finish a 3D background for the Clock Tower stage and recorded a little video of it.

I'm about 1/4 way through redesigning the main town for the billionth time, but I'm going to switch back to fixing those bugs so I can get you a build with the old town.  I'm going to need a lot of heavy balance testing since the equipment caused me to create a whole new arbitrary stat system and all the enemies are using the old stats.

[pluckyporcupine]

The 3D background looks pretty nice. Can't wait!

What are some of the differences in stat systems?

[crazyheckman]

The 3D background looks pretty nice. Can't wait!

What are some of the differences in stat systems?

Basically, all the stats for players got increased because the equipment started giving bonuses, but none of the spells in the game benefit from your spell damage.  So I have to rework a lot of the spells to compensate for that.  As well as none of the enemies accounting for that big stat bonus.

[pluckyporcupine]

Hey, it's been a week. Just dropping in to see how this is going.

[Connor]

ANY DEMO OUT YET?

edit: shiz just found out i had capslock on, sorry bout that.

[crazyheckman]

I've been working furiously to get a rough demo out for those who are interested in it.  So the time that normally went to the weekly post goes into development.

I did a local test run the other day and a few connection bugs worried me, but I got a great deal of them situated.  As well as a myriad of balancing issues that destroyed gameplay.  Don't know if it's quite possible for me to get everything done in time, but I want to have something (even slightly broken) for you guys late Friday/Early Saturday to get some feedback.

EDIT: Here's some screenshots of that test if you want to see how it's looking in action.  Most of them are of us dying because mana regen was completely broken and you'd expend your entire mana pool in about 10 seconds.
http://imgur.com/Yndqf,9eVMX,ma0JD,FFGbk,mm4z5,FvcIF,EJyBG,788aF#4

[pluckyporcupine]

Looking good.

Has not everything made it to the point where it has a 3D background yet?

[jeko88]

Cool pic, great work!!

for the soundtrack you already okay?

[crazyheckman]

Looking good.

Has not everything made it to the point where it has a 3D background yet?

I still plan on redoing some of the menus, your version will have the crappy but workable version.  But the Town and Clock Tower have full 3D backgrounds, the Town being about half finished because I stopped working on it to tie up some bugs that needed to be fixed.

Cool pic, great work!!

for the soundtrack you already okay?

Thanks!  And yea, I did find a great musician who has already given me some awesome background tracks.  I'd love to hear some stuff you have though just for future reference on other projects maybe.

[pluckyporcupine]

I still plan on redoing some of the menus, your version will have the crappy but workable version.

Whatever works.

So I don't think I ever asked. Is the Clock Tower a single mission with a single objective?

[crazyheckman]

I still plan on redoing some of the menus, your version will have the crappy but workable version.

Whatever works.

So I don't think I ever asked. Is the Clock Tower a single mission with a single objective?

Most stages will have multiple quests associated with it.  It's based a lot off of Monster Hunter, where one stage can have 4 to 5 monsters associated with it as well as some smaller quests.  Right now there are only a few sample quests in the Clock Tower, but once the demo gets further along there will be more zones to choose from and more interesting smaller quests.

Another thing I should mention, now that the demo is nearly complete.  It is XNA right now, so it is Windows only.  I do plan on porting it over to monogame eventually, but it's not in the works as of right now.

[crazyheckman]

I am now accepting tester requests for a week long private prototype session.

I'm requiring that each person contact me personally, so that I can keep direct track of who has copies of the game and what bugs they are reporting.

If you would like to have access to the prototype download, please leave a comment here or send me a private message.

Johnki and Yuotta have already received their download links.

Public testing will start next week.  Although it may be delayed if the game proves to be too unstable.

[pluckyporcupine]

Sweet. Going to see if I can't get a group together to test it later tonight.

[Connor]

definitely wanting to test O_O

[crazyheckman]

I took a little bit of a break over the holidays, but progress is picking back up now.

I got some really helpful feedback though, a few people tested and it really brought up some concerns I want to address very soon.  Most of the issues in the game have to do with the lack of feedback and information given to players.

So I'll be wrapping up a few more features to fix that and will be releasing a public demo of the first level early next week.

You won't have to get ahold of me this time, I'll just throw a link up here once it's done.