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[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

ah, i see. you can change the text speed in the options, and by pressing the next text box button it instantly shows all the text in a textbox (the way it works in most jrpgs). but if you don't like waiting you can set it in the options to instantly display all the text. there's lots of different options

[e_va]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1DYVMaRCVs

[e_va]

[gf11221]

 

[orihaus]

I second that, gf11221!

[eyeliner]

Most impressive. Considering it's Game Maker, it's double OMFG.

[Eigen]

It's looking rather pretty indeed ...

... but oh so strange.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

eva forgot to post this original teaser-trailer:



i'm going to work on a full-length trailer still (i recorded a bunch of footage for it already) but i want to wait until dream mode is finished before finishing that trailer

anyway, update: i've been working on "dream mode" still; it's been going slower than i anticipated (but it's hard to predict how long something will take to finish). i took breaks from it to work a bit on the music (with others who are helping me arrange it), and on the gui (a box that tells you which function is equipped, some hearts which tell you different info depending on which mode you're in)

there are 202 tasks left on the masker task list (down from 840 of them back last april when i originally created a list of tasks necessary to finish the game). the remaining tasks are grouped like this:

dream mode tasks: 87
exploration mode tasks: 29
art/music resources tasks: 15
options menu / options features tasks: 7
polishing/aesthetic tasks: 32
performance/bugs tasks: 5
playtesting/balancing/open/misc tasks: 12
demo/installer/marketing/release tasks: 15

so as you can see, the last major grouping is dream mode tasks, which makes up 43% of the remaining work to be done on the game, and i plan to concentrate on those until that's over with in a few months, after that the rest of the tasks should be just clean-up / much easier, then it'd go into beta testing for a while, then release (my guess would be release late this year, around oct/nov/dec, but my guesses have been wrong before)

[orihaus]

Looking amazing, the Paralysis trailer oozes atmosphere. Exploration shmup with a interesting story?

However, I do have a few issues with what I've seen from the trailers. The music for the Lake Rises trailer really doesn't fit, and the one for the Paralysis trailer only marginally works. I'm worried about this, as I think music will either make or break this game.

I'm going to comment on the writing seen in Paralysis, because though you do say it's not final, it doesn't seem to be on your tasklist. And it needs work. The story itself however, seems both original and strong, so I really wish the final text does it justice by not being as dry as in the trailer. If you want someone to look over it, I'd be happy to help!

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

it is on the task list in the 'resources' part actually (i include text as sort of a resource), and do have a professional writer / editor editing the script (he also wrote the first draft of some of the scenes) but if you have any specific recommendations for edits/changes to the text i'll pass it along to him to help him in the editing process. but i think it'd be hard for an outsider to help with specific issues regarding it since the writing in part relies on a full knowledge of the story / characters. for instance, the dryness you speak of is intentional, because mercedes (who is narrating for much of that trailer) is supposed to be a dry / scientific character. it'd be out of character for her to speak much differently, since it's an important part of the story that she talks like that. other characters speak differently

[orihaus]

I'd say that even scientists speak less robotic than that, but your right, I don't know the character and it's nice that you do have justification. I also listened to a music sampler video, don't know how old it is, but it sounds pretty tight. So I'm not going to comment further on that until I see it in game

I'm pretty torn with helping out actually, I'd like to help, but checking your script might spoil the game for me!

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

what i'd suggest is that you can be a beta-tester in a few months (along with others who have expressed interest in this thread), and then, after you play through the game, or as you play through it, you'd be able to make specific recommendations about what to improve

also, the script is non-linear, so it probably wouldn't make sense apart from the game. it's about 200 pages but divided up into about 900 individual files, most of which can be read in any order. the story was designed to make sense no matter what order you read it in, because the game is non-linear, but it's also procedural in that particular types of game events bring up particular dialogue. so reading 'the script' separate from the game isn't really possible, because it'd make no sense alone, so that's why i think it's better to play it during beta testing and read it along with the game

[orihaus]

Sure! I'd love to help test and give you feedback if your interested. My email is orihaus [at] gmail [dot] com if you feel like sending anything over. :D

[Uykered]

Did you decide on voice acting yet?

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

not yet; my main thought is that i may add it after release, in a later patch. i don't want to delay the game just for voices, but i do think it'd add a lot to the game and want to eventually add it. plus, after the game is on sale and making money, i'd be able to afford to pay voice actors

basically i have a bunch of tasks that i want to do by launch, but i also have a secondary, loose wish-list set of tasks that i want to do *after* launch, for improvement patches, and voice acting currently is in that second group of tasks

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

SD uses a system that i don't think very many (or any, to my knowledge) other GM games use, in that the entire world is persistent; the location of every object, the color of every blade of grass, all of that can be changed and if you leave the area and come back it's just as you left it. the only things that aren't persistent are temporary stuff like projectiles that disappear after a limited time

basically there's a script i have to save the room state and load the room state. it goes through every object and saves all their data to file. it's the same thing used in the level editor (SD has an internal level editor within the game, i don't use the GM room editor)

basically the game saves two 'copies' of the world -- the 'default' world that's the way it is when you start the game, which is loaded from if the player enters a room and has not been to that room yet. and the player's 'personal' world which is saved to a different folder, after a player has been to an area

the drawback of this method is that each save file can get very large (as large as the world data). i think if you explore everything, your save file would be like 10MB large, since it's storing the state of every object in the game in your save folder. but i don't think that's that much of a drawback considering how big hard drives are these days

i wouldn't necessarily recommend this method for every type of game however. in some games it won't work, because you don't *want* everything to be persistent in some types of games (e.g. puzzle games). but because SD is so loose/non-linear it works for this game in particular

the more traditional way to do what you describe is to have what are called flags. each treasure chest, door, or whatever, would have a unique flag that is saved to file (just basically a huge array that can be either true or false). if a flag is off, the default state is used (door closed, treasure unopened) if it's on, the other state is used (door open, treasure closed). basically you'd give each door/treasure/etc. a number, and make sure it's unique. say, between 0 and 32000. that's your array element. then have a global array that you save to file and load from file (gml scripts which let you save/load arrays to file are pretty easy to write, but i could send you mine if you need it)

[Uykered]

You could add a secret option of just you doing every voice, that way there will still be voice acting at launch.

[rdein]

@Gabriel: global variables?

also
definitely do this:

You could add a secret option of just you doing every voice, that way there will still be voice acting at launch.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i don't see how they'd be any more likely to accidentally delete the folder that contains their save files as they would be to accidentally delete the folder that contains the game's sprites, or the folder that contains the game's music. i don't encrypt them no

[eyeliner]

Stop teasing us already!