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[Quicksand-T]

The new art is looking good but I think the small canvas, so to speak, is making everything a little cramped. You show allow yourself more room overall, open everything up.

[JobLeonard]

I don't think I've heard of the term ERPG before either, but that sounds ridiculous in itself because it's such an obvious one

[Zizka]

@Quicksand-T:

Is this any better?


@JobLeonard:
That expression is from now on copyrighted to STX for eternity +1.


In other to generate funding to pay the programmer, I'm thinking of changing the structure of my Patreon. Instead of promising for the game when it'll get done, I'm thinking of adding icons to the Dojo of people who donate 10$US. I'd like to have 250$US to fund the first week of coding so we can have something playable.

It would sort of be like a KS without tons of different rewards and a whole campaign.

I've shown this on the second floor of the dojo. The stairs are still missing but I'll do them soon. Basically, people who donate will get something that represents them on the second floor with a little golden plaque just like with the samurai armor. I'm thinking to include people who have helped with the game there too with their own little icons. If 25 different people can participate, I'd be able to fund the first week and we could have something to test out with.

People who donate would thus be immortalized with a custom message on the plaque as well as an icon which represents them.

[Zizka]

Ok, got some more .gif done. I think this one took me about 6/7 hours.

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

there's something i am curious about,how will the game look like on full screen? How are you going to scale up? From the last gifs, it looks like it's made for mobile, is it the case?

[Zizka]

I think we'll stick to the same resolution as before. I don't think the game would work well on mobile to be honest considering you need to type stuff quickly. I also don't like mobile games but that's just a personal bias.

I've started working on the log function. Basically, in between fights you can scroll and check out your vocabulary pool. You'll also notice the poison icon under the card there with a single plus sign underneath it. The idea is that certain attacks can trigger status effects. The more the + signs, the more likely the status effect will trigger. There's also a sample sentence there to give an idea of how the word is used in context. This came following nnyei's comment about the vocabulary. I don't know if I'll be keeping the sentences or  not, we'll see. This presentation is of course temporary, it's just to sort out the elements right.



I'm hoping status ailments will be enough to keep combat fresh and interesting.

[Zizka]

Some new status effects:




And an improved version of the game menu (compared to the one in my previous post):


I'm still looking for a programmer by the way so if you have some coding skills, do get in touch with me, thanks!

[aamatniekss]

You seem to be having real trouble with the programmers man. Why dont you just try doing it yourself? I mean there are tons of easy to use engines now - GM,Unity,Construct,MMF, godot, etc. That way you wouldn't have to worry about that anymore, finding people you can trust is hard..

[Zizka]

I have tried. You know how some things come easy to some people? Like animation comes easy for me. I sorta know how things are going to end up looking good.

Code is the opposite. It just doesn't come to me instinctively. I've tried learning game maker, trying to do one of those tutorial games and I was struggling real bad. Maybe other engines are more simple and robust to understand. If that's the case, I will look into it. You're right that it would be a solution to my main problem though. The harder I try to find a programmer, the more I am tempted to go for that avenue.

[aamatniekss]

I have tried. You know how some things come easy to some people? Like animation comes easy for me. I sorta know how things are going to end up looking good.

Code is the opposite. It just doesn't come to me instinctively. I've tried learning game maker, trying to do one of those tutorial games and I was struggling real bad. Maybe other engines are more simple and robust to understand. If that's the case, I will look into it. You're right that it would be a solution to my main problem though. The harder I try to find a programmer, the more I am tempted to go for that avenue.

Hmm, I see. Well you wont be amazing at the very beginning with coding, but if you keep at it, you'll  soon be able to do all you need to. GM is perfect for what you're trying to do here. I would stick to it in your case.

[Zizka]

To be honest, I'd rather spend my time improving my artistic ability.

Another solution I'm considering is starting off a small Kick Starter just to cover the programming fees.

[Crabby]

I agree with aamatniekss. Stick with GM, and if it's really necessary, go for that small kickstarter.

[supermega_peter]

I use Clickteam Fusion 2.5, it's the latest version of Multimedia Fusion, which maybe is a more familiar name.

It's being used for increasingly impressive projects recently, and is a powerful and easy to use engine, with a shallow learning curve.

I honestly recommend it, especially in your situation as it's tagine is something like "write games without writing code".

That admittedly sounds like it would be awful when I write it out, but actually it's quite an intuitive system, that is flexible and powerful to do whatever you want.

There's a free version if you wanted to try it. It may not be as popular as GMS around here, but it might work better for you.

[Zizka]

I don't know, Game Maker is really counter-intuitive for me. I've heard bad things about Clickteam Fusion too. I've received a couple of offers through Private Messaging so we'll see how that goes.

I've started working on the rewards for people who have supported the project:


From left to right:
siskavard, Princessa, Crabby, aamatniekss, zorg. There will also be a small, personalized text with the picture. The dojo is the main hub for the game and will therefore be visited often during the game. EDIT: I'm not done yet. 

[supermega_peter]

There's good and bad things with any game engine. Admittedly some of the bad things with Clickteam Fusion are kind of weird, but it's different enough to gamemaker that it could click with you.

If you've found new programmers though then maybe it's okay. Good luck

[Zizka]

@supermega_peter:

Thanks for the suggestion! You're well on your way from reaching the dojo!

You'll notice the devlog this week is very concise and to the point. I want the devlogs to stay way. For one thing, well written concise devlogs are more likely to be read because they're short. Also, they are more "exportable". I've increased the font to make sure the writing would be appealing to as opposed to be being too small like last week. I love mistakes, you learn so much from them.

Now the graphics I talked about (you won't see some of them well because of the white background):

New blocking animation:


Reworking the HUD (this goes at the bottom of the screen):


The store complete with animations:


New shooting animation for the Hell Drier:


ANNND... this is where some input would be much appreciated. I'm working on the progress tree.

The green dots that you see need to be purchased in order to go from grey to green. This allows further progress in the tree. Reaching an icon means acquiring this power-up or ability. Green points, BNA, are acquired by getting levels and must therefore be spent wisely to progress further and acquire useful and meaningful improvements.

What I'd like to know: Which progress path do you think looks the best?


Your support and feedback really helps me and I am grateful for it and I'm not taking it for granted.

[JobLeonard]

Just to be clear: we can choose between left, bottom and right path? I like the simplicity of the left path best.

Also, as a colourblind person: please also change the shape and lightness of the dots, not just saturation; colour-based hints can be problematic.

[Zizka]

Yes, that's right, three paths. Thanks for pointing up the color blind thing, it's not something I had considered when working on the game to be honest.

Also, check your PM! 

[Zizka]

So... following Bakkusa's information on Steam I did 5 emoticons. Apparently you can do a max of 10 so I figured 5 would be enough. They're all 54x54.



And I've done one card, I've tried to loosely follow the design of Magic the Gathering Cards:


I'll wait until the game is finished for the badges for obvious reasons.

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

Might be a bit disappointing but detailed emoticons aren't that good to use since they are going to be downscaled or cut on use.
see the preview: