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[LucierBlazquiz]

I'm currently working on a 2.5d game called 'Another Plexiglass Ceiling'. I have multiple goals with this project but the primary goal right now is to create 'fake' 3D graphics I.e. not utilizing a GL or directX backend at all. This is all done through SDL2 and some very DIY perspective math. This way I create kind of a 3D that's somewhere between the SNES and the PS1. In fact, apart from true color and some rotation math that the SNES wasn't great at this isn't far from 16-bit era attempts.

It's not 100% accurate now in the way it translates stuff, but some parts of me want to keep it that way to give a surrealistic effect. I'm deciding on a case-by-case what I want to tune to be more realistic and what I want to be more sort of intentionally disorienting. More of it will make sense when I feel the story is ready for presentation.





What this showcases is:

* Basic sky pattern (there will actually be 2, one that kind of grows as you get close to teleport points but it's not been implemented yet)
* 'Tank' style movement
* Zooming the vision cone in and out
* Hudmap
* other NPCs which can be targeted and examined in the menu
* pausing - 'mode timer' and 'game timer' (the distinction will become more evident in later blog entries)
* mode and area labels (ditto)
* character animation (facilitates 8-direction sprites like Xenogears and Grandia)
* infinite parallax (which is optional)
* diagonal rotation
* generated map areas (the checker patterns are generated here, more types of simple algorithmic tile generation will be available)

More actual gameplay details will be released. Right now, I can say it roughly will play like an early JRPG with some unique fixtures but more on that later.

This currently builds to Win32, Win64, and Linux however I want to refine things before releasing it in playable form. It has quite a lot of customizable config stuff, too. But it's probably not stable enough to release these few bits.

I also hope to release source code but, tbf, it's a clustermess right now. A lot of spaghetti of functions I decided to forward declare in different spots, functions I ended up not using, things in odd spots, etc. I will release some early engine code when it's actually presentable, though.

Since I'm pretty much working on it in a daily basis in small increments. I will be able to present more and more as I work on it.

Right now I'm working on early stages of the combat. I'm going to be flipping around combat and navigation(or 'Explore' as it says on screen) for a bit, trying to focus on one element per month and small bits at a time.

[LucierBlazquiz]

Working on the combat right now. This is very very early and more or less a bunch of placeholders. But shows basic targeting and selection between the player team (blue) and the enemy team (red). At the bottom of the screen I'm hoping to put a bunch of selectable menus/options like the navigation (which will also have more options eventually, of course).

[LucierBlazquiz]

Working on the framework for making a surreal and complex, overly complex, battle system. Not pretty yet but I feel I'm working towards something.

[LucierBlazquiz]

Adding stance switching to the playable characters. Of course, the actual graphics for the stances will be significantly more polished in the end of course. But it's a neat little early feature which will have stat boost and reductions. Also it will allow different skills to be performed.

[LucierBlazquiz]

I've been working on this sparsely over the past month but I'm adding early inklings of gameplay. I have added 2 basic types of skills: attack skills, and defense skills. Defense skills trigger when a player is attacked or has an offensive skill passed on them and charge. Attack skills also charge.

Attacks have the player gain pieces of momentum which can be expended like MP. Selecting an attack constantly executes until cancelled and executes when the bar is full. The general idea is you select an attack for each of the up to 5 playable characters and they build momentum at different rates.

Attacks contain generally 3 elements: trigger speed, momentum gain, and damage. Each will be tweakable and each has a trade off.

The red guys at top consist of the enemy party, the blue guys at bottom consist of the player party. Beside the selected player to the left is an HP bar. To the right is a momentum bar. At bottom a red attack bar and blue defense bar.

When the graphics clear up I'm sure it'll be better to see what is actually going on here. Also, I'm realizing already that this thing will probably end up being pretty chaotic with up to 10 different players and enemies attacking at once but I actually want to encourage throttling the space for pause (in fact, you can select and deselect skills while paused. I'm also probably going to add the ability to undo any selecting and deselecting while paused later on).





The idea I have is that instead of like an atb style battle system where you're constantly selecting the same attack over and over again, you just equip the characters with whatever attack you need and watch. When you need to switch strategy or have enough momentum to cast a spell you just select the character. Select the caster and the target.

That way the battles are instead of clicking, clicking clicking they are more sitting and contemplating.