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[augfuturetg]

I've been working on this game for a while. I have technically been posting about it (and you can also check all of the screenshots and short videos here), on instagram, https://www.instagram.com/augmentedfuturetbg/, but I can't really get a good dev log going with only pictures. So I'm starting this blog but I am starting it halfway into the game's development.

So far in the game I have completed:

Story
Initial Design
All locations
Initial monster designs
Menus (all of them, I think)
U.I.
The game has “gone gold”

That about gets the jist of it. I've definitely got the clay into a rough shape of what it should be. I only need to form it to it's final shape. Currently I'm finishing the battle system, when should be ready within the week. After the battle system I will be touching the story up, adding the two dungeons, getting in some side content such as the rumor system and the partners' side stories and also working on getting the progression/growth system in properly.

So far in the battle system I have:

All monsters prepped
All player systems mostly finalized
All skills for player implemented
Setting monster A.I. is close to finished
Ally system still in progress
Proper experience and monetary reward system needs to be worked on

After finishing the monsters and getting the battles and all enemy fights prepared, I can move on to the two dungeons.

Anyway, forgive me for the lack of hardcore blog posting like some others do, outreach isn't my main skill haha.

If anyone has any questions about the game or it's development, ask and I will answer.

[augfuturetg]

5/24/2021

Prepared all designed skills for all Rank 2: Altered monsters.

[augfuturetg]

5/25/2021

Finished implementing all skills for all enemies EXCEPT FOR 2 main story bosses.

Rank 1 Enemies fully complete.
Rank 2 Enemies fully complete.
Rank 3 Enemies fully complete.
Lethal enemies: Rank 2 fully complete.

What should come next?

Battle trigger placements.
Dungeons.
Economy polishing.
Travel events.
Fixing up the dialogue and story even further.
Side events.
Rumors.

[augfuturetg]

5/26/2021

 -Expanded on test format for the battle starting algorithm.
 -Implemented all cooldown trackers and algorithms for all status effects.
 -Implemented battle triggers into 2 locations.

The balance between lethal combat and nonlethal combat encounters is still to be tested.

[augfuturetg]

​5/28/2021

-Implemented all battle triggers in all locations.

[augfuturetg]

​5/29/2021

-Brainstormed a few more travel events.

-Mostly implemented all travel events for jungle and city. About 90% done.

[augfuturetg]

Devlog 6/1/2021 (more in depth explanation for this one)


So I thought I was going to jump in and get some of the game straightened out by playing it. Then a certain battle turned out not to be working and I had to fix ALL of the battle triggers because I didn't notice I did not have a proper "checking system" for making sure if the battle was won or lost.

After getting that straightened out, I noticed the inventory was buggy in the main menu. So I took a bit to fix the inventory back up so that it doesn't randomly jump around from function to function. Like it would jump straight into showing what items the player had without being asked, and also for some reason two items were set to be shown as had even when there were 0 of them.

I fixed that up and then I found that ambushes weren't working correctly. The monsters weren't displaying properly and it was teleporting me all the way into the jungle after an ambush at any other location. I made a specific switch to trigger for every single location that the ambushes can happen at, which is about 30 locations, because they have to be able to load back into the level. And I set up an individual battle process trigger for every location. And after all of that I realized I could just use "return to previous."

I was planning on using "outfits" to give players some customization for their imaginations and also, outfits were going to add buffs or attributes or elements to the player. However I decided to reduce scope and eliminate the outfits from the game completely, as well as the option to only be wearing outfit or armor over outfit outside of the jungle. Since you can't actually see the outfits and it's mostly only for helping your mind make a good mental model, I decided it wasn't important enough to the core of the game to keep. If I finish the game faster than I think I will (I won't) I will consider adding in outfits again.


-Expanded battle triggers for travel events.

-Implemented all ambushes.

-fixed the inventory.

-Reduced scope by deleting outfits and choices for other locations main cities.

-Was planning to modify the story but decided I actually like the story the way it is so I will only edit it.

[augfuturetg]

​devlog 6/2/2021

-Tested, bugfix, polish


Today I played the game, noting what was off, what wasn't smooth, what wasn't functioning correctly, what broke the flow, etc. I fixed up some of the triggers, I fixed up some of the things that were skipping and not loading correctly. It feels like I've found more problems than I've solved but to some degree, everything is progressing.

Some of the text seems to separate itself too far apart and some of the other text seems to bring itself too close together, even though I've taken the time to smooth all the spacing out before. Which means I have to ignore this bug until basically the very end, since it keeps happening for no reason and the only thing it affects is the flow of the reading and attention but doesn't actually impede the progress of the game.

I found that there were some text mistakes in the battles, which I finally got to start loading up correctly during ambushes. Of course it's something as small as, for some reason I had the commands spaced one little space out instead of perfectly against the start of the page.

However there are other odd errors, for some reason, when battling bandit bears, the health for the enemy nor the player seems to be calculated. Since battles against human enemies like the bears are "lethal," it uses regular health instead of energy because of the implant such as in battles against the monsters or duels. However I already had health set to function the same as energy and I already swapped the variables from energy to health, so I am not sure why it is not functioning correctly yet.

I am surprised to find out that the battle system alone, which I expanded in scope and then reduced in scope turned out to take up more than half the time of making the game. It would be cool to work with a group where multiple people completed things at the same time. I bet if I worked with a group this game would probably already be finished.

[augfuturetg]

devlog 6/4/21

-Got some bugs out

-Edited some text

-fixed a couple things

-worked on getting all of the combat working properly.


My plan today was to get the economy worked out. Players don't level up through gaining experience, they buy all of their power ups. Players can buy upgrades for their weapons, armor, implant and more. Players can also buy items and food to buff their stats if they want. So I was going to get all of the currency worked out. Basically, you fight a monster, which is part of the Environment glitching and manifesting into bad data. You defeat the monster and it turns into a data packet, which you sell to the Data Clerics (or more like, you are rewarded for fixing bugs and bringing them the buggy data). They pay you for the work and collecting the data. You take that money and buy upgrades to your gear which gives you stronger software to defeat the monsters with so that you can destroy more terribly corrupted data/monsters.

Instead, I found that the game wasn't returning to the scene correctly after battles. So I had fun experimenting with different ways to trigger the battle ending and return to the previous scene. You can't just call, "return to previous scene," because for some reason if you use the hoverboard to fast travel anywhere, it replays the hoverboard sequence and then takes you to the wrong location.

[EricMk87]

Interesting game; I think I have never played a text-based game...

So what is the battle system like? Do you have some kind of elemental match-up table (fire is strong vs ice, etc.)? What stats do the battlers have and how do they work in the battle? Do you have critical hits and how do they work? Can the attacks miss? Status ailments like poisoned or dazed? Etc...

Also what engine, framework or language do you use to develop this game?

Just curious...

[Ashedragon]

That sounds quite interesting thus far. Don't see a lot of text based games, and the ones you do see either fall by the wayside or standout in a big but still niche way (Sanctuary RPG). I imagine the combat in your video will be a little more impactful once the actions have a relevant audio response!

Excited to see more.

[augfuturetg]

I imagine the combat in your video will be a little more impactful once the actions have a relevant audio response!

Excited to see more.

Thanks for the kind words! Eventually I will get to adding more audio and hopefully adding more songs too but that will have to wait until I get more of the base systems locked in.

Well, in regards to being a text based game, most of them have pictures, right? Because they are text based. I'm actually not sure if my game counts as text based or is simply a text game. Of course, in a perfect universe, it would have art haha. But yeah, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by how fun the game will turn out!

[augfuturetg]

​Devlog 6/7/21


-Got battle transitions to and from the battle scene working properly.

-Fixed up all of the text in battles (I hope) except for some weird damage representations that claim twice the actual damage is being dealt for some reason.

-Made sure that the implant can be safely depleted and juiced, and the switches are set to turn it on and off properly.

-Made some notes on Hoverboard use.

Next is to:

-Spend time implementing all of the upgrades into the game. Will take some work to complete but will create the progression system.

-Find a suave way to let the players know that they need to buy upgrades in order to "level up."

[augfuturetg]

Devlog 6/9/21

-Finished stitching all of the upgrades in to the game, made the events and implemented them. This includes:

      - The upgrade progressions.

      - All of the labels and text transitions, event transitions, choice buttons, organizational placement in the script, etc.

      -The conditionals for checking for gigabytes (money) and reducing the amount in the players inventory.

      -designy stuff

Next I should:

- Test all of the progressions to make sure they work smoothly.

-Test all of the progressions and see how long it takes to level up, then edit it however it needs to be best.   

-Change the introduction to a more interactive, exciting experience.

-test play, test play, test play, test play.

[augfuturetg]

Devlog 6/11/21

Worked on story progression. I took the game out of "gold status" as I expanded one of the story events and then I also put it back to "gold status" as I strung the fleshed out event back together.

-Lethal battles now have to be unlocked by story progression (which was the plan in the first place)
-story battles prepared
-text fixed
-new text added
-quest log fixed
-added bold and shadow effects to make the main quest button look more like a button
-Did some detail work on the travel events to keep the "flow" going.
-Changed the start of the player's control to transition them into knowing what the quest is from the get go.
-Did a lot of little edits to make sure everything flows and looks smooth and professional.

Work on next
-Economy, play test
-Add all of the lethal conditions so they dont activate too early
-Add the Hoverboard to be taken from the Jungle Bear Bandit hideout after unlocking lethal battles
-etc
-Play test

[augfuturetg]

Today was a weird day for my development. There were some bugs that pushed me off course. There were things I hadn't noticed while implementing the events that I had to go back and fix. A lot of little things that are easy to miss but take a long time to adjust.

-Checked sales

-Added Gigabyte display in U.I. all the time.

-Played around with ways to get information to refresh but couldnt find a solution yet.

-Fixed some battle issues where multiple enemies had to be fought in a row outside of story events/quests etc.

-Switched everything to run inline where necessary.

-Found out there was a problem with levels updating and there still seems to be even though I fixed a handful of problems relating to that already.

-Started adding long range communication into the game.

-Finished getting the story event together, reworded the text and some transitions, added obtaining the hoverboard.

-Started writing the outline to the new introduction, currently caught between two possible ways to do it but wont get to test it until later.

[Devilkay]

any screenshtos?

[augfuturetg]

Today I was a bit lost at first. I had to do other stuff for the past couple of days so I was a little late on working on the game. However I managed to fix up a lot of battle stuff, get certain things right, test out a bunch of stuff, etc. Finding one bug took me over an hour, though. But once I found that bug and fixed it, the flow of development sped up pretty quickly as I was free to put together other pieces of the game more quickly without anything blocking the way.

>Fixed some battle transitions.

>Fixed some battle text.

>Got the common events for weapons to be called properly.

>Fixed a bug where the "body only" target switch wasn't turning off.

>Fixed a bug where the game was skipping from choosing a lethal weapon to shooting the nonlethal version of the gun "snapshot" automatically without letting players choose what skill on other weapons.

>Spent a little bit of time finding some basic sound effects online.

>Added temporary battle music for the battles.

>Added a little introduction to the nonlethal battles against data monster packets.

>Added a back option for the hoverboard that should have already existed.

>fixed some stuff I already thought was fixed with a story event.

Here's an example of how the game is coming along.

@

any screenshtos?

Good timing on the ask! Here's a short video of my current progress for battles. I also have a link to an instagram, at the top, which shows some of the work I've done as well. Also: I included some screenshots because I couldn't figure out embed for videos lol

https://streamable.com/e/2getgg

[augfuturetg]

DEVLOG 6/19/21

The bugs were really persistent today. I had to go in to every location and manually put in something to trigger text refreshing on the spot which ended up not even working even though it works in battles, which it didn't use to and I'm not sure why it started too. Secondary upgrades were going into main upgrades so instead of having like 3 levels in sword and 3 levels in bow I had 6 levels in sword and 1 level in bow, which isn't even the right output. I got all of the battle variables presented to the player to come out nicely, though, so that's good.


I might need to add some little side quests to help players get upgrades at first until they understand how to manage the system themselves, at which point they should be able to take on better quests that are more for being interesting and supplementing the world rather than tutorializing the game. ​Rank 2 monsters are a little tougher than I thought but are as tough as I was hoping which makes me more hopeful for adding in party members (all they do are automatic attacks after you choose your attacks to start, if more time can be spent on it after everything else then I will maybe expand it).

>Bugs

>More bugs

>Glitches

>Problems

>Battle system coming together better

>Upgrade system coming together better


I want too...

>Add a debt tracker

>Add juicer packs to purchase from the rez cleric to re amp implants on the fly

>Give the NPC's more active standby's

>Add intrusive advertisements into the U.I. while wandering/traveling to give it that hint of cyberpunk

>Add in contact with the priest to ask general tutorial questions about the systems from anywhere through the implant

[augfuturetg]

DEV LOG 6/20/21


So one thing I noticed today was that, all the time I originally spent at the start, adding the script/dialogue I wrote for all of the characters and NPC's? That was all done at the wrong time. I mean, it wasn't a "waste of time" exactly, but it didn't push the game towards a "completed" state because technically, I could have made the game without most of that dialogue. What I'm saying is, even though the dialogue adds information and deepens the world, making it more vibrant with knowledge and lore, making it more real and believable, it isn't necessary for the game to actually be completed. Some of the dialogue could be cut out from the npc's and the game's story and essential plot could still be written from start to end.

I'm not saying it's wrong to have these things. Absolutely not, as that kind of experience is exactly what rpg gamers love, myself included. The reading and the learning is part of the fun, taking in all of this interesting lore about a new but somewhat familiar world. However, I should have waited until I had the rest of the game - at least most of the rest of the game - finished before I added most of that npc dialogue in. Being able to ask a shopkeeper about themselves and their shop isn't exactly necessary... yet it's interesting!

However when testing the game to get it all completed and figure out what prevents progress and how all of the variables need to be adjusted for proper playtime, most of this dialogue gets skipped over or not triggered at all because it's unessential to the core of the main plot. Again, all that means is I should have waited before adding that stuff - I only wrote out all of the dialogue and figured out all of this side information about the world because I was waiting for the VN maker to go on sale for christmas anyway, or else I might not have even written all of it yet and I know for sure that next time, at least if I work alone again anytime soon after this, that stuff should be held for later.

So I mostly bug tested the combat today (like 4+ hours of this). I added a debt tracker underneath the giga tracker. What today has shown me is that I need to add sidequests. So far I think the rate of progress is okay, such as leveling up and stuff. However I might want to make it happen twice as fast once I add the physical upgrades for health and stuff and armor upgrades for defense. Which only means doubling the amount that a data packet sells for.

I've also fixed the reward system so that it properly compensates the player for the difficulty of the match based on the level of evil of the enemy, their difficulty rank. I only had it set so that all monsters rewarded the lowest value reward for initial testing but found it time to expand to what the intended version is.


>added debt tracker

>bug test

>test bug

>punchy kicky buggy

>built the full and proper reward system for monster fights