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[Tyro]

Life has been keeping me pretty occupied lately, so no time for a proper log at the moment.

The menu is still being worked on and nearly complete. I'll be excited to move on from that and revisit the battle system and overworld soon.

I did have a chance to work on some more music though. It's always nice to focus on that in-between bouts of programming.

• Dance Tune

Not really sure where this song will be used in the game. I just felt like composing something dance-y that ending up having a feeling of urgency to it. Maybe it fits a late-game dungeon?

[Tyro]

Log 16
Bad Guys, Heads Up


I recently took a break from the menu and revisited the battle system. It's kind of annoying not finishing the menu in one go, but I was getting bogged down by the tedium of implementing the curio system. I needed a breather and decided to focus on something that was more creative/fun to work on. I ended up designing two new enemies in the process.



Like all the baddies you'll encounter in the game's first chapter, the Rokken and Sniffoo teach the player individual facets of the battle system. I've had a solid (pun unintended) idea of what the Rokken's purpose would be for a while. It's the only enemy you'll encounter in the chapter with a static 1 defense, meaning your basic attacks will have to be perfectly timed to damage it. Not even King's Monarch blade technique - which inflicts 1 damage up to 4 times at level one - will be able to hurt them. Of course, you'll have a few items and curios at your disposal that can deal with these guys.

In general, enemies with defense in this game will be rare. Unlike the Paper Mario series, the damage of basic attacks will never scale based on an acquired item related to progression (i.e. upgraded boots or hammers). Nonetheless, basic attacks will always be relevant late game primarily due to the DP you get from executing them. Plus, some techniques increase basic attack damage, and certain curios function similarly or reward the player for using basic attacks in different ways (for example - landing a finishing blow on an enemy with one.)

The Snifoo is... a ghost with a bowtie. I'm not entirely sure what its going to teach to the player, but I needed some enemies for a castle section later in this chapter and a ghost came to mind. It might have a special attack which teaches players about enemy positioning, or maybe it'll just be a spooky ghost.

Since I haven't properly coded the attacks for these guys yet, here's some weirdness of them clipping into the ground and running in place.



Also, for some reason the Rokken's face ended up looking like pic related:



Next time, on Game Over Odyssey:

Log 17
Curios and... Curios-er?

[Tyro]

Oh geez - work and everything is crazy right now. But hey, I've got a three day weekend ahead of me and some time to work on Game Over Odyssey again. 

I'm getting a lot of the assets ready for the game's first demo. Here's a few more music tracks from the game's first chapter for anyone interested.

• Cool Cat Cacophony
• I've Seen Better Castles

Expect a proper dev long sometime over the next three days. Until then, TIG peeps.

[Tyro]

Log 17
Curios and... Curios-er?


I've been doing a lot of work lately designing curios to be used in battle. Though this game is a story-driven RPG, I wanted it to have replay value of some sort. A lot of that will come from them variety of items and curios you can find, enabling a variety of different character builds. Giving players the option to alternate between leveling 2 of their six stats per individual character level also helps in that regard.

I'm trying to ensure the effects for all the game's curios allow for true flexibility when allocating stat points. If you want to keep your character at base 10 HP for the game's duration, you should be able to through creative item/technique use and curio management. Similarly, having 5 base DP won't prevent you from using techniques that cost more than that if you'd rather level DR and something else. Though primarily used for defense, TP can provide some offensive capability if you want to max it out.

I'm gonna dump the game's curios below, which will surely be tweaked over time once I start implementing them to discover how broken/balanced they are. Also, in case you don't want to read through the devlog to know what the aforementioned stats mean, I've got you covered.

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Character Stats:

HP - health points for your character; if it runs out, they're unable to perform any actions in battle. If both allies on the battlefield run out of HP, you lose.

DP - drive points for your character; lets them perform characters-specific techniques.

DR - drive rate for your character; when blocking or performing basic attacks, generates DP for your character based on its level.

IP - item points for your character; lets you use or enhance (i.e. unlock an item's secondary effect) items. This stat regenerates at a constant rate of 1 per turn in battle (which I may increase by 1 each time an item is used in succession, I'm still debating the merits of this from a late-game/scalability standpoint for the stat.)

TP - tactics points for your character; lets you reduce additional damage while blocking, switch partners out of battle at no turn cost (a.k.a quick swap), and move on the battlefield at no turn cost. This stat is set to its max value at the beginning of each battle and normally does not regenerate.

CP - curio points for your character; for each CP you have, you can hold an additional curio in your curio inventory (this stat maxes out at 10.) Curios have a wide variety of effects depending on your battle status and operate on a 'cooldown' system, where they can be used without costing a turn but can't be activated again for a set number of turns afterward. Unlike items, curios are not (normally) consumed on use.
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Planned Curios:

These are divided into groups according to what stat they are primarily useful for. I'm hoping to make 100 total, with about 75 total items (each with unique use/enhance effects) to compliment them.

I don't have names for the majority of these, but I'm sure they'll be something punny like the two named ones that are currently in game. The first demo I plan to release for the game - which will feature it's prologue + entire first chapter - should have anywhere from 8-10 fully functional curios.

Since the descriptions for these were too long to fit in a post, I included them in a separate, downloadable text file below:

Planned Curios - Descriptions
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Status Effects:

To give some context to what some of the above curios do, here's a list of the fifteen status effects that will be in the game. These can be applied to both allies and enemies (including bosses):

Harmful:

Burned: take x damage minus 1 per turn for the effect’s duration; initial damage is equal to the total duration (ex: 3 turn duration - 3
damage, 2 damage, 1 damage).

Crippled:  receive x damage per spaces moved on the battlefield for the effect’s duration; damage is dealt immediately after moving (ex: move 1 space, take 1 damage).

Blighted:  take 1 damage per turn; can be reapplied to the target, resetting the effect’s duration and increasing its damage by one.

Chilled:  take 1 x turns damage for each turn spent on the same battlefield space for the effect’s duration (ex: 1rst turn - 1 damage, 2nd turn - 2 damage, 3rd turn - 4 damage, 4th turn 8 damage, etc.)

Nausea:  stat restoration items give 0 and IP gain set to 0 for the effect’s duration.

Despair:  lose 2 DP per turn and DR gain set to 1 for the effect’s duration; 25% chance of forfeiting turn.

Panic:  50% chance of forfeiting turn and doing 1-3 damage to self

Shackled:  unable to switch partners or move on the battlefield for the effect’s duration.

Stupidity:  unable to use techniques above level 1, enhance items, or spend TP on tactics for the effect’s duration

Beneficial:

Rejuvenation: gain x HP per the effect’s duration

Protected: cannot take damage from enemy basic attacks and techniques for the effect’s duration

Barrier:  damage from any incoming source is ignored and the effect’s duration is reduced by 1 turn

Evasive:  25% chance to avoid damage from all sources except status effects

Pumped:  automatically moves to a random battlefield space at the beginning of each turn and gain 1 DP per space moved

Empowered:  basic attacks have a 50% chance of doing triple damage for the effect’s duration
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Phew, that's a lot of text.  

In case you hate reading yet somehow got this far, here's something visual that will tie into the next devlog:



All the best!

Next time, on Game Over Odyssey:

Log 18
I'll Put a Cool, Punny Title here Retroactively

[Tyro]

There's a chance I'll be demoing Game Over Odyssey at DreamHack Austin in the next few weeks. Hope to have time for a proper update soon-ish.

For now, here's a copy-pasta of an announcement post for the game I made.

Game Over Odssey is a turn-based RPG set in an alternate universe where games loosely based on our own exist. Gameplay-wise, it's a spiritual sequel to Paper Mario: TTYD.

Key features:

• 7 chapters based on different video game genres such as platformer, SHMUP, arcade, puzzle, and JRPG.
• Simple but tactically deep turn-based combat. Use items, curios, boons, and battlefield spaces to gain advantage over opponents.
• Customize your playstyle by leveling 6 unique stats per party member. Do you want a dedicated item user/enhancer or a formidable, 5 HP technique spammer? You make the call.
• Gameplay modes and unique per-chapter content that encourage multiple playthroughs.

A playable demo containing the game's complete prologue and first chapter will be available later this year. For now, here's some screenshots.