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[Tumetsu]

Day 77 - 16.8.2011
Not much done today since I had little hangover after little drinking yesterday night and also got back home in afternoon However, I did some coloring work for new enemy design and also messed with Flex to see if I could make .ipa file to test with my Ipod Touch without actually getting Apple's license (just for testing purposes to see if it would run on iOS). Didn't get it working :S

What's next?
I think tomorrow or maybe this evening even, I probably replace textbox graphics with new ones which fit better for rest of the graphics. I'll also try to add some sounds and start programming battle preparations screen.

EDIT: Just added couple of sounds for one attack and in a one menu

[Tumetsu]

Day 78 - 17.8.2011
Today I finally finished pile of small tasks I have had to do sometime now. Most notably textbox graphics. I colored some frames for new mist monster. Most of the time went to coding of the battle preparations screen. I have some serious problems with how place enemy pictures in menu, since I want use their fight sprites, but many of them have empty areas in first frame (since they are strip) which leads to weirdly placed images in menu. I don't have idea how I could detect where the actual image starts and so place the sprite to correct position.

What's next?
Tomorrow I have some moving tasks but I think I can continue battle preparations screen and try to find a way to place enemy graphics correctly. I just hope I don't need to make special cropped images for them though since it would require bigger file size 
 

[Tumetsu]

Day 79 - 18.8.2011
Today I spent most of my time programming battle preparations screen. Now it shows enemy's picture, description of it and on other page the element table with random description of one of the elements. I also did some graphic optimization by reducing color amount and therefore lessening file size. I did this to characters only though, and I have to apply it later to other graphics as well.

What's next?
Tomorrow I'll add buttons to preparations screen to allow player to start fight and edit their deck. I should also color the mist monster. My musician is getting some good tracks done and I think I'll incorporate them into game soon. After that game will be almost ready for it's first test release

[Tumetsu]

Day 80 - 19.8.2011
Today I finished the battle preparations screen. It was surprising easy, there were one thing in my system which I had feared might cause some problems but things turned out great
I also colored mist monster, added it to game (stats and deck still unbalanced) and named it "Hedgefog" from my sister's suggestion.

What's next?
Tomorrow I'll dedicate time to design basic deck and stats for Hedgefog. I have some ideas, but I may have to create some new cards. I might also revisit some of the stats from earlier enemies. I'll probably embed music into game too. After that I'll probably need to think about the current enemies and see if I should design some more different cards before test release. I should also finally get into crafting those damn EXP and stat curves.

If things go well, I may be able to release first half public (meaning in FGL) playtest build

[Inanimate]

Somehow my brain kept skipping over this thread. Just wanted to say: your element system is quite interesting. I love the multiple 'cycles' it has.

[Tumetsu]

Hmm, maybe it is the name which doesn't attract attention...? 
Yeah, I think that multiple cycles could add some more interest for mechanics. I'm still a bit nervous how easily players can remember them, though Pokemon has even more complex system and I have provided the element table before every battle so it should be easily enough visible but time will show.

Day 81 - 20.8.2010
Let's see, today was a rather productive day even though I had much of other things to do too and was little on lost what to do.

I designed the basics of Hedgefog's stats and deck. It isn't yet completely ready and rewards are not thought out. I also did some minor changes to other enemies. I also noticed that I probably have to weight armors bit more. Right now they give rather minimal defense. I should somehow balance things so that armors are vital for survival, but one turn without them isn't game over either. I just have to design it so that player can't make the deck from healing potions and attacking items but also use armors. I either have to limit healing items somehow or scale armors up. Probably both. Another thing related to this observation is relatively short battles. You either die fast or win fast. This is mostly because player can deal rather high damage overall per turn. I suppose I need to make some modifications in to system which enemies use to defend themselves. Right now their only defense against elemental attacks is their possible resistance.

I also added music to the world map and battle screen They work very well IMO, though my musician needs to do some adjustments to them.

Just before this post I also added new status condition, Regeneration which heals certain percent of character's HP every turn certain amount of turns. I was delighted how easy it was to add new conditions since I had programmed the system very easy to add new conditions. I'm so good heh

What's next?
Today I did little list of things I need to do before first release. It isn't comprehensive and will grow before release. Right now it holds at least some more sounds, exp curves, few new cards, editing tutorial a bit and thinking and experimenting with things affecting to problems mentioned above. Battlesystem also needs some polishing since there is few things which really aren't that great solutions right now.

[Carefree games]

Enemy defense... Dodging comes to mind as another way to defend against elemental attacks. Good luck on the rest of the combat balancing.

Looking good. I read what you wrote about a playtest...

[Inanimate]

Yeah, I'd say dodging, and maybe higher defense totals if the player is going to be so strong.

Also, the name is nice, it just doesn't explain what the game is like - maybe add a descriptor after, like: "- Card based RPG!".

[Tumetsu]

Hmm, I'm not sure how well dodging could be integrated into rest of the system, though cards which provide certain dodging percent may be interesting idea...

Yeah, I'd say dodging, and maybe higher defense totals if the player is going to be so strong

Yes, I think I'll scale HP of the enemies bit upwards and make their defensing identical to player meaning that they have certain defense cards which they can play in their defensive turn. Right now they have those, but only against physical damage.

However, player is powerful because long chains. Enemies for now do rather short chains but with more attack power. One of the reasons for current easiness of enemies is due player's stat growth which is REALLY fast. Attack doubles after some levels as well as CP which allows rather long combos. This is because the current stat growth system was just thrown in place randomly. I think I should design proper one first and see how it affects to battles and from that base start to tweak enemy stats. However, I still need to look into armors' usability.

Also, the name is nice, it just doesn't explain what the game is like - maybe add a descriptor after, like: "- Card based RPG!".

True, added the description in the topic name

[Tumetsu]

Day 82 - 21.8.2011
I managed to shrink my to do list a bit today First, I figured finally how to export XML-files from Excel 2010. What this means is that instead of using functions determining player stats, I can insert them manually into XML-file where stats are retrieved when player gains new level. Though this requires bit more work, it should be more flexible since I can custom design stats for each level meaning that I can basically determine what stats player has when encountering certain enemies if s/he hasn't grinded much. I might also rework some of my other XML-files to use Excel as an input method since it is rather clumsy to find certain enemy's information from long text file. It's not top priority right now and has some serious drawbacks too.

I did first experiment regarding armors. I boosted them significantly and now they do more difference in battle. However, I couldn't do very sophisticated experiments yet due rather few armor cards and enemies. Actually I was supposed to add new armor today but didn't have time for that 

Battles also suddenly got bit longer after more sensible stat-growth and for example Lanternking fight I had was rather long as well as other battles. It is now certainly better direction though there is still some tweaking to be done but before that I have to introduce some new cards to get grasp of how things will work in practice.

I also spent some time renewing graphics of icons which show if player has some status effect going on and now it also shows icon for Regen too

What's next?
Tomorrow I intend to enhance enemy AI. Right now they may heal themselves with full hp, or not use stat boosting cards even if they have one in hand and stuff like that. I'll also draw and add nature element armor and perhaps light armor. Some other fixes I should do are to show healed HP amount better than right now (it is almost impossible to see) and fix one rather annoying bug in card editor where hovering mouse over card may show another card's information.

Finally, here is one new screenshot from battle preparations screen

[Tumetsu]

Day 83 - 22.8.2011
Today I added Nature type armor "Mosscape". Bigger tasks were fixing the bug from deck editor. Turned out it wasn't really hard to fix

Biggest job was improving enemy AI. Before they chose just first playable card from their hand and used it. Now they have two modes, "aggressive" and "healing". In first one they ignore healing items and prefer attacking and status changing cards. In latter one they play possible healing card first, otherwise they act like in aggressive mode. In general they work so, that in aggressive mode they first scan if there is status changing cards, check if their effect is in use, if not, they use it. Next in priority comes attacking card. Later I might add some variance and random element here, where enemies might pick healing item in aggressive mode too (they can do it now if it is only playable card) etc. but that's not priority right now.

I also enabled elemental defense cards for enemies with AI which tries to pick correct armor card from hand against the attack player does. If it doesn't match, they pick anything, and if there isn't armor cards at hand, they don't do anything.

What's next?
Tomorrow I'll improve way how healing amount is shown, which I actually was meant to do today but which left undone because AI improvements took time. I should also finish Hedgefog's deck. Right now it is far too simple. It means also that I might have to create new card or two. After those I have to go through little list before release. Some of my to do list items are rather important, some not that so it might shrink a bit. Though I'm sure I still find things which I have to fix before release

[Inanimate]

Glad to hear you're adding more AI! Having strategic fights is always fun.

[Tumetsu]

Yeah, though right now I simply upgraded it to level of "do not make obviously stupid things" However, if I get excited later on this, I might create more AI profiles and give each enemy one of them and trying to make enemies act differently based on their personality. And if I get REALLY interested in AI programming I might consider adding AI which could plan a bit forward or look at it's hand and make best combination available from cards in it's hand. But that is something I'd likely do only if I don't have anything better to do and I think I have for some time now :D

Day 84 - 23.8.2011
Ok, first I admit that today wasn't really that productive as I had hoped since I somehow felt myself a bit tired whole day. Despite of this I managed to shrink my todo-list before release by half

Now healing effect has more visible effect which shows the amount of recovery. I might do something similar to other stat boost and debuff moves, but not anytime soon. I also finally added a sound effect for Lanternking's Soullamp attack. I really suck in magic like sound effects, and I had to resort into Bsfxr though I'm not sure how well those sounds blend with the rest of the game. Still, I think I managed to pull off something which should be fine for now.

Finally I disabled some cards from player's card storage to simulate the beginning of the game where one has only few cards. I noticed that fights got a bit harder and longer, some even bit too long. I'll need to make some adjustments on enemy stats etc. still. I also noticed that I probably have to add new attack type. Right now at the beginning your only physical weapon is sword. It gets a bit boring to look character do over and over again same attack with same effect. I'm thinking if I should add another weapon type to the beginning with almost similar stats as sword just to give battles more variety. Not sure though which weapon it should be. Maybe spear, gun, chakram, bow or something. Not sure if I'll do that before playtest release though since I'm rather sure it would take some time.

What's next?
Tomorrow I'll have to do some more adjusting with enemy stats and try to find values which please me. I try to get them roughly ok now, but final refining will be done after playtest feedback. I should also look into Hedgefog's deck and think some new attacks for it. It'll probably be some kind of ice/water attack. Making of all these attack animations is just so toilsome... I could also look into that new weapon type, not sure though. The list before release is getting rather short with most of the tasks something ~5min jobs. Most time consuming are probably fine tuning of the enemies and polishing tutorial a bit and of course that new weapon type if I decide to add it.

[toad]

Whoa man! I really like this kind of game and I plan to do one myself too one day, when I feels that I am mature enough.

While this doesn't happen, I keep making more simple games and just trying to figure the whole game in my head.

Keep going. I want to play this ASAP 

[toad]

Oh, and I think you should consider another name for your game.
For the medicine fits well in the game's story but I think it doesn't
caught the attention that the game deserves.
Put "card" into the name may be not a genius thing, but it calls the
attention of people who likes this kind of game.

[Tumetsu]

Thanks toad!
I'm been thinking the name of the game. Another candidate were "Vital Cards". As of now I'm not sure which one is better or should I invent something completely new. As of now, adding description Inanimate suggested hasn't seem to brought much more interest in topic, though I haven't kept eye on views. I'm just no good at inventing catchy names or evaluate how good they are 

[JWK5]

This project looks awesome, Tumetsu! As for the name of it, how about 'Rememdium', which is the Latin word for medicine.

[Inanimate]

Latin is always good for fancy names. It also would make for a neat title screen.

"Rememdium: Story of the Cards" or whatever.

[Tumetsu]

Thanks JWK5! I'll keep that name in mind Also, nice to see you are back in TIGS

"Rememdium: Story of the Cards" or whatever.

Something along those lines could be nice, I have to do some brainstorming for it.

Day 85 - 24.8.2011
Okay, today I completed two tasks. My pace has slowed a bit which is probably mainly because my task list is shrinking and I'm not willing to start anything too big before release. That being said, today I added stat-growth for few more levels and added level limit, or more specifically player can still raise their level, but stats won't grow. This is more or less temporary solution to avoid possible errors or endless loops for people testing the game.

Second thing took a bit longer and involved balancing enemies. There is still some rough edges I'm not happy but for now I think they have to do. I'll edit them more when I get some more feedback outside.

What's next?
There is only minor tasks left before I can release the build. Most of involve disabling my debugging and development related features while the biggest one is to edit tutorial texts and polish tutorial engine a bit. Right now player can screw tutorial resulting not seeing all tutorial texts. I'm not sure if I can handle it to proper condition tomorrow, though I believe I can This means that I'll release build either tomorrow or day after tomorrow in FGL's developer section for feedback unless something unexpected happens. I'd like to release it publicly so that members here not in FGL could test it but I have understood it is forbidden if I hope to get sponsor But in any case stay tuned here and in Feedback section

[Tumetsu]

Day 86 - 25.8.2011
I'm afraid today was rather unproductive. I had strange headache which was rather annoying and killed the mood for any serious thinking. Another thing was that I got sucked into book and spent some hours reading it. Headache was perhaps caused by it since I read it from my iPod Touch's screen which may not be best screen for reading that much and which also tired my eyes. At least I hope it was that and not something serious.

Regardless of that I fixed few little tasks and started revising tutorial texts though I didn't got very far. I intend to complete it tomorrow and prepare for release. It involves some problems I have to fix but I think I manage to pull it through if I just get on to it. Somehow all these little tasks are most hardest to do while tackling big things is so easy

EDIT: I still managed to revisit tutorial texts till end for now, though I probably need to polish it tomorrow. I also have improve tutorial system a bit but other than that it's ready