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[Beastboy]

For me the pixel tone was allright but i do like the new tone as well.

If you also add avatar visual changing based on clothes/armour that would also boost the experience by a lot.

[EmanuelMontero]

All right! I'll make some tests on customizing the portraits too

[Beastboy]

All right! I'll make some tests on customizing the portraits too

By avatar i ment just the map view, the portrait is ok but if you want to add that extra even better. Still i hope you dont feel obligated to follow our suggestions, never forget: it is your game and you can do what you want no matter what others say.
Good luck Emanuel

[EmanuelMontero]

Haha don't worry! The game needs a second round of prototyping so there's still room for experimentation. Thanks for your feedback and support!

[Beastboy]

Anynore news about updates ? 

[EmanuelMontero]

After a well-deserved vacation, I have returned to Bloodlust 2: Santa Monica with renewed energy. The project needs a new direction since the RPG demo didn't work out as expected and I think the best for the game is to go back to the origins and focus on making a remake of the original Bloodlust: Santa Monica.

From this new perspective as a graphic adventure, there are elements such as combat, drinking blood or inventory management that will undergo major changes. But overall, the quests and story will benefit greatly from the linear puzzle structure. I have started rewriting the quests for the whole game, but for now I don't want to show the changes to avoid spoiling the puzzles. What I can share is that the total number of quests has increased to 22 and there's an additional ending cutscene depending on which faction you choose to ally with. Also, here's a mockup of the new graphic adventure layout:

I will try to post monthly updates when there're relevant changes to show (new locations, new characters, etc). And eventually I will post another demo of the adventure game to re-evaluate if the direction of the game is still right.

[negator2vc]

Hi,
Sorry to hear that the RPG system didn't work.
So this mean that you are going back the previous style or are you keeping some of the rpg
elements from this version like the visible stats?

[RealScaniX]

Wow, that is a brave move to change so much of the game to improve it. Feels a bit like cutting off your leg to not die of poison. Xd
I love the visuals and I liked the look of the RPG fights, but if it didn't work out it might be better to make the experience smoother for the player. And if it makes the development easier, it is a bonus.
It's great that you keep going! 

[EmanuelMontero]

So this mean that you are going back the previous style or are you keeping some of the rpg
elements from this version like the visible stats?

I'll try to reuse as much of the RPG elements as possible but I honestly don't know what things will make the cut. Now that the game is a graphic adventure it all depends on how each feature fits into the puzzles and quests.

Wow, that is a brave move to change so much of the game to improve it. Feels a bit like cutting off your leg to not die of poison.

You're rigth! I know it's a big change but the time needed to "fix" the RPG is far superior to adapting the game to the graphic adventure formula.

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

[bram_dingelstad]

Hey Emanuel

Really nice to see you picked up the development again, super hyped to see where you take it next! It's always hard to kill your babies or to cut large pieces of your babies(?!), so it's super strong of you to go through with it.
Do you have any of those previous demos still available? I would love to try it out just to get a grip on your general ideas and aesthetics of the game.

[EmanuelMontero]

Hey Bram,
 Thanks for your support! Here's the link to the RPG demo on itch.io

https://emontero.itch.io/bloodlust-2

 I'm really confident that it's easier to complete the game as a graphic adventure but we'll see how it goes!

[EmanuelMontero]

After a couple of months, the graphic adventure game is taking shape. I've designed about a third of the quests, which has already made it clear that I need many more locations, characters and items than I anticipated. Fortunately, the process for making new inventory items is relatively straightforward. I do a first sketch at 16x16 pixels which can take a few minutes and when I'm comfortable with the item shape I make a copy at 32x32 pixels and start adding details, lighting, outline, etc. I leave a few inventory items as an example of how they are looking.

The character portraits are taking more work but I think the result is worth the effort. The more sober palette and outline color adds more seriousness to the characters. The new missions take place in several new locations (the blood bank, the cult warehouse, the sewers, etc). Fortunately, adding new locations is going fairly quickly as I can reuse tiles from the RPG version. This allows me to change the puzzles to make them more understandable or fun and adjust the map and items with relative ease.

In addition to the pixelart, I have started designing an engine for the game. I'm going to use a very simple CSV database to store information about locations, items, containers, characters and inventory. So far I haven't encountered any stumbling blocks. The process is taking quite some time, because there is a lot of content to design and draw, but the puzzles are falling into place and the story is much simpler to spin.

[negator2vc]

Nice to see progress!

Providing you still use Godot as the game engine why don't you use Godot internal formats
instead of using external csv which if I remember correctly caused you problems (RPG version)?
Personally I have made several games which have similar requirements for data (from rpg and adventure games to strategy and space trader like games) and the internal formats of godot are the best.

I can give a few examples if you like for either conventional uses (resources, etc...) and for others sometime unconventional uses (for ex. using an autoloaded scene containing node - simple nodes - for game event data or using a autoloaded tool scene for a complete game map inside Godot Editor).

[Beastboy]

Great comeback
Those character portraits look very good

[EmanuelMontero]

Providing you still use Godot as the game engine why don't you use Godot internal formats instead of using external csv which if I remember correctly caused you problems (RPG version)?

Hi! Very good question! Indeed, I considered both options for saving game data but finally I went for CSV files as they are less verbose than JSON and I can edit them faster while working on the puzzles. In each scenario I have many items and each item has several actions that connect to Ink story nodes, so it suits me to use a simple format that I can edit without reloading the game. If I have to add many new items I can insert them very easily by duplicating the rows and if I have to move many items from one location to another, CSV tables allow me to do it with a single find-replace, something that neither Resources nor more robust databases like CastleDB allowed me to do.

All in all, I chose the format that best suits my way of working, but as Godot prefers JSON files I had to make a small converter that internally transforms the CSV tables into JSON dictionaries to manipulate the data.

Great comeback
Those character portraits look very good

 Thanks! I'm glad you like it

[Beastboy]

Just droping by to ask how is the new development scope path going

[EmanuelMontero]

Here comes another monthly update for Bloodlust 2!

This month I've been working on the graphic adventure prototype tool in Godot. Now the game has locations, items, characters and doors. In the game, you can interact with items, characters and doors with the left mouse button (the right button is used to inspect items). It is quite simple and is almost a standard in point & click adventures. Also, I've added a visual aid system similar to the one featured in the Deponia games. You can press the space bar to see all the items and doors in a room, so there's no need to pixelhunt to find them.

The prototype is going quite well and I have already added the first 3 rooms of the game. I have another 8 rooms ready to add in the next months. The prototype needs a couple of additional features: the inventory, showing the main character, dialogues and puzzles, but overall I'm quite happy with the small scope of the game as an adventure game. Here's a small GIF to show the progress so far.

[Beastboy]

Thank you for sharing this with us

The progress is visible

[EmanuelMontero]

This month I've added the inventory, the player character and most of the rooms of the game (half of the entire city but I think it's already a good chunk). The process is easy but it takes some time adding animations and small details like the water effect on the beach. I've added all CSV files in a single google spreadsheet so I can edit all the puzzles more easily. It's nice to have all the game data in a single file, it has definitely improved the workflow a lot. Next steps are probably working on the dialogues, puzzles and portraits.

[Beastboy]

I like the wave effect. Maybe also add one more wave under it with a more similar collor to the ground that moves at slower speed when the wave retreats.