don't mind the month long break. Summer is here and I only have 22 days left of school, so this is slowly switching back to my main full time focusWell shit.
I think I backed myself into a corner with this game.
Everything I've planned is stuff that I feel like I can't get a proper hold of, design-wise.
I feel like the core of what makes a game fun is good design, and I might be shooting for the stars with how much content I have planned.
So it's cut'n time.
The friend system was a cute and charming idea, but I feel like it boils down to a repainted "ability" system.
I don't want to cut it entirely, I want the feel of a text adventure. Not visually or with game-play, but the feel of real adventure and exploring an interesting and developed world full of characters. Having friends/companions really adds to that.
I feel the best thing to do is to switch over from a mindset of having the secondary game-play be puzzles, and make the friends system more based on a lock-and-key style system. They'll still be central to progressing, but you won't feel like you're useless without them.
So with that out of the way.
Mini-games planets are going to become a stretch goal. No I'm not doing a kickstarter, I just mean I will cut them entirely until I have finished the core game and then evaluate if I have a reasonable time to make them.
Dialogue.
Bleh. First thing, I need to learn how to spell dialogue without auto-correct
Graphically, I need to re-haul. The rescaled version looked snazzy, but I can't draw and rescale every bit of artwork, so I've redrawn everything in the new real resolution. It all turned out alright, expect the character images.
And mechanically, dialogue is hard for me. I have never used GameMaker's timeline system, but I might have to if I can't figure it out on my own. My plan is to transition dialogue to be more of a flavor instead of a texture to the game as a meal. Characters will work as humanized signs describing the world and themselves, but not taking your focus away from just wandering around and interacting with the planets.
Overall, the whole game needs a re-evaluation so I can have a single vision for a completed project, and so it won't take me 5 years of on and off work to make.
In a sentence, the game will be a mini-game battle adventure RPG.
Enemies will be stationary and will fight you when talked to, there is no losing. Only not wining.
Populated planets will probably be larger than just one screen, if it's an adventure there should be some space to do adventuring in.
Friends will just follow you and say nice things, they won't hold any meaning besides just making a friend. Although you might be able to enter certain areas without a lot of fuss if they decide to help you out in battle.
I'll re-upload the design document when I sort it all out.