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[Joh]

thanks, it feels great to find out people are still following.

-Entry 20-
Meltdown continues

Fairly small update, but I wanted to post something for screenshot saturday!
I worked a lot on the characters reaction/emotions models so they aren't always neutral and indifferent.

I felt it was very flagrant in the meltdown exchange and went to remedy that.
I also wanted to show how it looks in movement because its probably the most "animated" part of the trial. So im curious on if the whole thing is fitting.
It's still missing some little things like the health bars, impact & maybe a bit of flash/particles but its what im going for.

Ever had a friend so out of it he had to clam down?

what do you think?

Thats it for today, short & sweet!

[wizered67]

Really interesting presentation. I like how the speech bubbles turn into the animation. With a little polishing I think it will look really great!

[Pixel Noise]

I agree - the speech bubbles and general animation in the scenes is pretty cool! Been reading about the dialogue/relationship coding, etc - I imagine coding a "faction" system like that (in a loose sense), is rather involved and challenging.

[Joh]

-Entry 21-
Weekly update

Alright! its good to be back on this!
Very happy to see the speech bubbles be liked! I had that idea pretty early on, and thought it would look pretty cool!
Little story on that
It was inspired by comics and "hurtful comment" bubbles portrayed as arrows piercing the target.
turning a bubble into a shield just felt appropriate, reflection came later on.
-I originally planned on the mode having an attack and defend phase.
-when it came to it, attack phased seem hard/not implementable.
-it became defense only making it kind of unfair.
-the solution was reflecting successfully defended attacks!
-I also added (at least when receiving an insult) insulting back: It doesn't bring up a shield, it straight up throws an arrow at the opponent.
-failing to respond in time will leave you defenseless
-responding a bad answer will bring up a shield... that gets shattered by the upcoming arrow. (but not done yet)
---

The whole project has been quite challenging, I also happened to take a courses that thought me a lot and is making me feel bad about some implementations (as in I could have done them better). But hey its working so its all good! might still go back over some stuff though. The dialogue is very much insane and i'm kind of postponing it a lot (lots of placeholder) the faction stuff should be a lot less challenging as its more of a number thing. Strings are really annoying to play with.

Anyway, don't have much to show for today, just did a little warm-up and added health bar shake upon damage!(and size increase!)
Agree gone wrong?!

Don't think I ever showed agreeing.
the opposite of objecting should cause a mutual healing.
but you can't just agree with anything, if you agree to a Lie, that someone else can spot, you all get called out.
oh and people have reactions and talk now.

I really like that "NOT THE PLAYER" using objection!

Anyway, not sure what ill do next, but more updates should come soon.

[wizered67]

Looking nice! Always glad to see more progress. I love the Ace Attorney-esque "No Way" graphic, but I'm not a huge fan of the "True That". Maybe you could make it look like the same size and font as the "No Way" but in blue instead of red? Also I don't know if it's placeholder but the phrase "True That" sounds kind of informal and out of place... what about something like "I agree!" or "That's right!" or "Of course!". Just a thought. Keep up the great work!

[Joh]

I just realized I didn't change the agreeing  . It was always meant to be smaller though, Objections litterally stop the progress of the trial and go on a tangent. I want agreeing not to be intrusive, more of a btw sidenote. I wasn't even sure I should make the camera go to the agreeing person. but yes the font would have to change. The phrase is not a placeholder, it is meant to be informal but its not the only one.I had others like "yep" and "agreed" but those you suggested are great and i'm suprised I didn't think of them.
Speaking of those bubbles, Objections also used to be multiple different ones, and I do plan on going back to that. but each character would have their own "objection" phrase.

Thanks for the criticism and the ongoing support you provide, it's really appreciated!

[wizered67]

Okay, I think I have a better idea what you're going for now. Sounds good and I'll be looking forward to seeing more!

[Slader16]

Wow, this looks really fun.


I'm definitely seeing an awesome mix of Ace Attorney and DanganRonpa, keep it up! 

[Joh]

Thanks guys!
Things are moving along quite nicely, and im hoping to reach quite a milestone soon!

I have been on the trial side of things for a while, decided to make a little return in the everyday life side.
Added a whole new room, the gym.

It's pretty useless so far, but when I add a stat system(i decided ill go with it), it should have plenty of use.
plus location count is important, the more rooms, the more spread out people can be and...

Also fixed the object interaction (got broken when I changed the talking)


now ill be working on animations, for when all the other characters move around, doing art is quite long but i hope to do more than just that.

[wizered67]

I like it! The gym looks nice! How will the Stat system work? I assume there will be some combat stats that make it easier to kill people? Will there be other stats too? Looking forward to seeing more!

[Joh]

Can't say I really started working on the stats, but I had it in mind for a long time, so i can share what I have.
Everything subject to change of course.

I was thinking like a good old rpg;
Strenght: Better combat abilities
>Gym
Intellect: more ideas/possibilities; leave less evidence.
>Reading
Charm: more convincing, get more info
>interacting with others
?Speed: move between rooms faster, better combat evasive abilities.
>moving around, gym
Looking back at the first time I brought it up, I also had luck, but I guess I no longer feel like its relevant.
im also unsure on if I should have speed.

By ideas & possibilities i mean essentially unlocking "actions" or giving ideas that can be executed in the game.
More convincing would be an effect in trial, getting more info would apply to investigation.

given the amount of opportunity to raise these stats, they'll probably function with xp/lv.

That's all for now, open to suggestion & feedback on it.

[wizered67]

Sounds interesting, althought I'm sure how they're implemented will make a big difference. I like the idea of a stat giving access to more possibilities!

[Joh]

Happy new year!
Been working like crazy on the game, but I'm at that awful spot where progress doesn't translate in visible improvement.

-Entry 22-
My statements

I made the first one a long time ago to test the feasibility of the feature, but as the Trial comes together, the time to add all the others had come.

Basically, My statement is where you select the Information YOU are willing to share. Everyone else does that when they mention where they have been and what they have seen, it is only fair that you do it too. (note, the others are just as free as you are to lie and omit information.)

The first one I made was choosing the location you have been at. Looking back at the devlog, it seems I never shared it. It was reused in the Opinion Clash though, its the part where you select where you think the murder happened.
Anyway when it comes to "my statement" in alibi, you choose the locations where you have been.

If you recall the trial flowchart (top page 3) I made an input equivalent for every section (excluding Other that doesn't exist yet)
One big thing I did was add an evidence use option. I felt it might be a pain to manually select every input when some evidence flat out lays it out.(directly or indirectly) When using evidence, only evidence related to the question will show.

For time, you can simply select the time period you will claim to have last seen the victim. (thinking of adding location too)


For location you actually use evidence of "suspicious" elements in rooms that COULD be the crime scene.
can also claim you have seen nothing.


Weapon, you can suggest a weapon that could have done it. Directly select it from your "known weapon database" or select it through evidence (ex: I saw knife in kitchen = could be the Knife)
Alibi is the one I first explained, you pick the locations you have been at.

And finally weapon access is simply stating whether you Knew of the weapon or not and if you did, did you have access to it or not. Can be selected directly or through evidence (Automatically known, but will select access depending on if you saw it or not)

Oh all the input you choose obviously gets translated in full sentences, variation is a problem though.
under the hood, every evidence has some "bullet points" about what it entails and when they are selected those are added to list of claims. That's what can be used to retrieve contradicting claims and place people at scene of crime, access to weapon etc.

That's all for now, got a bit of fine tuning to do and after that, not sure. Ill probably stay on the trial side, working on either sentences making more sense when generated (mostly the older ones) or Others (AI) detecting and calling you out on your lies. Looking forward to that, hope you do too 

[Joh]

-Entry 23-
Weekly update

Can't believe its already been more than a week, time flew by. Nothing major to announce or new element to present, but got to keep the dedication and i overall like to leave updates, keeps me focused and its always nice to reread this.

speaking on focus, can't say i was as I strayed from my previous intentions of next implementation.
Actually a lot of bug fixing happened instead of progress, I mean,its still progress, but not what I expected.


I fought the lamest bug, it drove me crazy! (somehow I got really into it so)
Joh vs the rebelious player
In the streamlining/improving text, I decided it was time to make sure the PLAYER is not included in the talks (as in "player" doesn't say a line in the discussion) fair enough and simple.
But for some reason, in ONE discussion (Location) No matter how much I made it so the player wouldn't talk, he always would! And someone else would say his line! ("My entry time").
Didn't take long before I assumed one "speaker"(player) was being inserted, offsetting all speakers by one.
I check like crazy what could possibly cause that insert?! as far as I coded it, I can't insert a speaker without a line associated with it, so it made no sense.
Went full in debug,and realized that the creation of the discussion was how I wanted it.
The problem occured only when it was being loaded later. checked my loading mechanism, all makes sense.
but then I notice, to load the speaker I check for "person" and pick the number its associated with.
that's when it hit me... the "=" was missing. It never made any difference because the other inputs were more obscure terms, and all other discussion never had the word person in them.
But when I updated the "location" discussion, the word person happened to be in it.(in speech part)
So it would see "person" load the number after inexistant "=" ->0, 0 is player number. MYSTERY SOLVED (Hour(s?) wasted).
Best part is, That didn't even resolve things.
Imagine my surprise when after face-palming and fixing that stupid mistake, it still didn't fix it!
I'll end the story with that, but know that everything works now.


Other than that, after thinking a lot about how i'd make the AI object and hitting a wall. I realized I already made an objectionable detector (I love my past self) so now Player entries are also tagged with "the objecting/supporting evidence".
Still need to make it so AI can actually act on them, but it's nice to have a very egalitarian method.
Even recognizing this ill still have to implement unique interjections and that will not be fun. (if you mention you were the last to see the victim, its not something that's "objectionable", but it's kind of noteworthy).

Finally did a bunch of work on the everyday life side (all the above was tiring). Worked on the investigation, making the movement better, bit of randomization, actually using the right exits when changing room.

I also did a bunch of drawing, i'd really like to be able to draw cool promotional and key Art. Who doesn't want to  be a bit more well rounded!

That's all for now, I guess as much as I advanced everything my next goals remain the same as last entry's.

[wizered67]

Always nice to see/hear more progress. Sorry to hear about the bug though haha. At least you know what to do if something similar happens in the future!

[Joh]

-Entry 24-
Accusation

I showed my game to a friend,  Impressed by what I showed, the first thing he asked was:
I want to see you lose, what happens when they accuse you etc…   
Unfortunately I hadn’t done those things so they were bumped up in priority.
Thus I worked on accusation, I had already worked on it and all the decision making side of it, Improved the selection screen and overall flow of it.
As I had explained in entry 16, multiple elements of the trial (at the time of accusation) are taken into consideration for the verdict.
Back then I was thinking of converting the reasons into text and having every person explain their decision.

Now I’m also considering not giving the reason and simply having everyone answer Agree / Disagree in style of Disgaea awesome courtroom. (probably my favorite unnecessary gameplay implementation ever)

It’d be simpler and more stylish; the more “not text bubble” the better.

Still in that direction, I was thinking maybe also having verdict weight, as in the more “sure” the person is, the more weight its verdict (dis/agree) has. And the final judgment would be the sum of those.
Right now it’s still majority rule and I feel its quite fair, It’s unfortunate that the degree of “dis/agreement” is lost, but its more in touch with the actual reality of the game.



But all that didn’t resolve anything in terms of losing. Ai, anyone else, needed the ability to launch an accusation. And I also did that. When in the Overview menu, other member can initiate an accusation if they feel someone is guilty (you included). It pretty cool because it’s exactly the same thing as you accusing someone except  you are a third party (or the accused one).



Well, I guess I still don't have game end states; making someone else guilty is essentially "victory"
Being found guilty is "game over" still not sure how ill go about it.
Other than that, things are moving along great, I hope to have another update shortly.

[wizered67]

Wow, looks like its coming along really well! Can't wait to see more! 

[Joh]

-Entry 25-
Accusation continues

So I further worked on the accusation, after some discussion, I decided to go with simple decision prompts  for the verdict.  The repetition of iterating through all justifications, was a drag, and not very relevant. One thing I will do is have the  bubble have different emphasis depending on how strong the dis/agreement is, so you can at least have an idea who could switch side. I will however maintain the Majority vote for final verdict. It just makes more sense.

Accused doesn’t vote and Tie has the accusation rejected.

Little other elements I added are a light focus during accusation pick and a little distribution bar, so you can know “Live” how the voting is going, its very bland now, ill probably make it more exiting. Its also not very relevant right now with 4 people, but I expect it becomes more useful as the cast grows.(totally casually hinting this is only a test cast)
Also made the trial End, if anyone else is found guilty. There is a nice (placeholder) screen prompt that shows the guilty individual being branded as such and serves as a transition back into the everyday life mode.

[gimymblert]

Amazing concept, kind of a rival to Yandere simulator which is very popular right now.

Concerning the art style, you moved from charming to generic, between charm and talent you want both. Talent will do nothing for you if it doesn't provoke areaction. The stupidly open mouth with minimal graphism tell more story than the new one IMHO. Good style is not about execution, it's about the reaction. Also the former style is WAY MORE clear and readable, the sillyness complement that greatly.

However I hope you select an artist with some damn personality because this has so much potential!

[Joh]

Amazing concept, kind of a rival to Yandere simulator which is very popular right now.

Concerning the art style, you moved from charming to generic, between charm and talent you want both. Talent will do nothing for you if it doesn't provoke areaction. The stupidly open mouth with minimal graphism tell more story than the new one IMHO. Good style is not about execution, it's about the reaction. Also the former style is WAY MORE clear and readable, the sillyness complement that greatly.

However I hope you select an artist with some damn personality because this has so much potential!

Oh Yandere simulator  was wondering if it would ever be brought up! Wish I had had that idea, pure genius.
Its funny though, I learned of Yanderdev shortly after I started to work on this and honestly, it kind made me reconsider making the game. On one hand the fact that it was popular gave me confidence my idea wasn't stupid, on the other, well since someone was already attempting it and further along; I wouldn't want to come off as a rip off. In the end I convinced myself the games were different enough and that my game would be just as worthy an experience.

Interesting take on the artstyle. Is it the pixel art or model? ill assuming both. First off thanks for calling the original charming, I think that's a first. It's a style I made for myself over the years, thinking it was both simple yet cute and inoffensive. I still use it whenever I work on a little something (mostly jams) and reaction is mostly positive but they tend to be in small silly games. Anyway, that's not the reception I had here. If anything I felt it might scare away people that wouldn't even reach the concept after being terrified by the screenshots.
The response to the change has been overwhelmingly positive, even though its still placeholder, I at least feel like it could be played as is.
Needless to say, I didn't aim generic and the look i got came from actively avoiding what I felt was generic (even if I thought it looked better).
As for models, im fond of them, and wouldn't want them improved because if they change (that is my intention), I want it to be for an entirely different and unique style.
When the time comes, I too truly hope I can find an artist with a unique captivating style that can elevate the game.

When it comes to the superiority of the original artstyle in terms of readability do you have any specific pointers or overall tips? because ill admit im not sure I follow on that.