Oceans Dream

Got a tumblr now, I’m sure a few of you already know about it but if you don’t, it’s here:

http://oceansdreams.tumblr.com/

So if you have a tumblr yourself, feel free to follow! Basically, that tumblr will be used for smaller updates. Screenshots, a very short post of what I’m doing, or sharing interesting things from other users. I’m not going to do that too extensively, more for things I really think would be helpful to see.

This blog is still reserved for the bigger updates and design posts. I take recommendations on what to write too, but I don’t always get around to it, or sometimes I just forget. You can always remind me later if that’s the case.

I’ve been playing the old version of Adalyn. Lag city, but it made me get what I was doing with it and what I planned to achieve with this remake. It was a short game, and while I do want to make it longer, I don’t want to really add a bunch of filler (grind for 30 bear ears) in doing so. I’ll communicate with Rayne on the story part soon.

In the mean time, I’ve been working on adding new tiles, making some new sprites, fixing up the battle system a little bit. Trust me, I’m doing it mostly by events and I’m not a scripter so it does take a while to make sure that everything is fine. I need to come up with new animations, sound effects, and enemy AI before I can consider it ready to use.

I had a few ideas for how to plan out the map design. I could do it like the old game and have the main town and have a person bring you to the other part of the country for missions. Or have you walk around to them like a big connected area. I had thought of it as the big connected area but doing it as I did for the old Adalyn is a possibility too.

Basically, while there are some graphical updates being done, there’s still plenty of work that needs to be done so sadly I can’t say a release is anywhere near. I think it’ll go more quickly when the battle system is finished. Wish me luck!

Go over here and check out Rainbow Nightmares intro too while you’re at it!

Lately, we’ve been having workathons over at Meridian Dance. Basically, a few hours a night to work on your game while someone livestreams their own game progress. Helps you get stuff done! I was doing various commissions and wanted to take a break and work on my own projects.

I implemented the new ammo system for Adalyn. If you have played the old Adalyn demo, you had to go by ammo pickups or buying ammo because your weapons had an ammo capacity and could run out of ammo. I changed that system and now you can shoot up to a certain amount, but then you have to reload. Each weapon has a different attack speed, reload speed, amount of shots before reload, and range. This is mostly implemented, with some slight bugs upon entering the battlefield depending on which weapon you have equipped.

Also, items are implemented. I want to put a cap on them so you don’t go hoarding them all but yeah they all work fine. You have stuff like Tigre Tequila which boosts Attack power with a chance of getting Drunk, Wine for regenerating health, Blow Needles for attacking in multiple directions, Lasso for stunning, Cloak for evasion and things like that. Those effects work. Also have 5 enemies max in a field instead of 3. I won’t always use 5 in a battlefield but at least that is possible.

The sprites other than Adalyn are placeholders. I used a Poison Sack (a future enemy drop…. oh yes I forgot I have to apply enemy drops) to poison all the enemies so the damage numbers pop up for each of them.

What’s needed now is to have enemy item drops, animations, enemy AI (other than move up to the player and attack), and some fixes to the weapons (mainly when starting the battle) so then I can start placing the battles around the game. The issue is mainly that they are built onto the map so I can’t really go making lots of maps until I have the battles in because they are part of the map.

Then I will need to do tilesets, sprites, and fix up the menu system. I have a better idea for it than I had before so I’ll be getting to work on it.

EDIT- Got someone to try the newest battle demo. It doesn’t lag like the old battle system for the demo did, which is a good sign.

On non-Adalyn news, I added Broken Moon blog to the links! Also made a guest review for another blog, reviewing FF12. Also have a guest post on Final Fantasy adventure which some of you might have read already, and Threads of Fate. Have some commissions to do so I’m closing future commissions for now.

I will likely have more info soon on Alcarys Complex, a game by Pasty that I am making the graphics for. I’m a busy person!

So in between doing commissions and work for people, I had asked for some help in the HUD display in Adalyn.  YDS helped me out with the graphical part so I was able to get that and finally finish up the HUD. It works too, not just a mockup:

What’s next for me is to fix up the equipment screen (I want to make more of a graphical representation of the equipping like setting it onto that display) and then working on the skills themselves. I am using the blue bar as MP now instead of armor. Armor will be unbreakable and there will be some protection skills that wear out over time. Then I need to make 2 more enemies per map and set some better enemy AI. May need some help with this point though.

Still mostly doing commissions at this point though so my progress is slower.

I also played Chantelise, which was recently translated and released as a demo (and is now on steam). It’s made by the same people who made Recettear, but it was earlier i believe. You can see the playthrough here!

If you are curious on progress on RM20XX (a custom RPG engine based off of and expanding on RPG Maker 2003), then you can see the demo here at Meridian Dance. There’s also an article on Vaporware by Mellytan!

Nessiah is working on a short project for now called BunLegends, you can check it out!

OK, I have made the iconset and did most of the work for the HUD on Adalyn. I forget if I mentioned it in the previous blog, but the lag issue is fixed and Mary4D tested it as well. I probably did not! Anyway, have a screen of the new HUD!

It shows the Health and Armor on the left, the skills and their key inputs on the top middle, guns/ammo and their key inputs on the bottom middle, and Gold on the right. The bottom right will have keys or keycards but I did not have an icon for that yet. I also have to add a cooldown bar or something for the skills.

I felt this set up took less space and gave more info.

Skillswise, I have planned to remove the Heal skill. It is too useful and will cause people to just wait there for the long cooldown period to be finished. Instead, I will have full healing before a mission, and a little more health opportunities like perhaps secret areas and stuff.

The new skills will be this: “Berserk (You take extra damage under this mode, but you do more damage as well), Explosive Mine (Nearby enemies take damage when activated), Confusion Mine (Nearby enemies get confused when activated), Push (Forcefully pushes all enemies far away), Slow (Makes enemies move slower), and Stealth”. Unlike the initial release of Adalyn, you will be able to equip any of these skills in the 2 skill slots rather than each in their own slot.

Fixed up another issue with Adalyn as well. Now you can hold down the key for Flamethrower and Minigun to have it keep firing. Before you could do that with all guns but they’d only remove ammo once while it kept firing. That bug is fixed, and now you have to press the key for each shot for any other weapon.

Anyway, that is about all for the Adalyn updates. The next thing is that I’ll be taking a break from this so I can work on commissions. Pasty has been very patient with me but I still need to get this done. I’m working on sprites for Alcarys Complex, and while a good amount of sprites are done, there’s still more to go. I hope to get it done by the end of this month and that soon you’ll be able to play it.

I also have some backgrounds to do for YDS on the Long Goodbye. As I haven’t heard from any other commissions, I’m pretty much doing that for the moment.

I hope to get back to Adalyn so I can make a good re-release sometime this year!

Now that Adalyn has been released, it has received Two Reviews so far! I am very happy at this and for the feedback that they provide. Honestly, I did not have much time to fix things as it was for a contest so there are issues that I just did not have time to fix. However, feedback and criticism is still appreciated. You don’t really learn by going “You are wrong, I CHOSE to do it that way!” for everything or saying “You’re mean or just jealous! I’m keeping it the way it is!”. Perhaps someone has an idea that I never thought of! I will encourage longer comments in this, so please don’t feel lazy for just this once and try to reply here. I don’t mind using the chatbox for other things generally, I encourage that.

It is very likely that I will continue Adalyn once I get the contest scores up. I don’t want to mess around with it much just in case, but I think they are judging as we speak. I don’t know if I have much competitors but we’ll see how that goes. Will this push Azuleas development back? Honestly, not by very much. Azulea is still in the battle system phase, so until I can get that finished, it is really not that far in. Working on Adalyn and re-releasing it will be faster.

I have a few questions that I’d like you to answer if you have played the game:

- What weapons were your favorites? Your least favorites? Why?

-Any suggestions for weapon swapping during mid-area? Adalyn did not have this, so you had to pick your 2 weapons before you went off. It is compensated by the areas not being very big. If they were bigger, this could become more of an issue.

-Did you feel that it would have been better to experiment with weapons before entering an area to do so? How would I pull this off?

I might have left out a few things, and some issues I am aware of. For example, I would have liked to show a cooldown graphic in the HUD for when you’ve used a spell so you can see how long until it comes back, reduce the HUD so it doesn’t block so much, lag issues and such. If you have any other potential issues or suggestions, feel free to let me know!

Story:

The nation is recovering from a very recent civil war, only two years ago, fought between the ‘Democracy’ and ‘Monarchy’. The Democrats pushed for a ‘modernization’ of their nation, trying to throw out the outdated government system that had been used before then. The war went on for several years, but eventually the Democrats lost, and the Monarchs strengthened their hold on the country, under the pretense of ‘rebuilding’ their nation, restricting resources and increasing taxes. Corruption and poverty is everywhere.

As Adalyn, you are a girl who has been labelled an outlaw. Looking to escape, you head down south hoping to avoid being caught. With a gun and a knife, you’re able to defend yourself against whatever comes your way…

Screens:

Download HERE
Controls:
Z- Primary weapon (Initially the Pistol. Becomes the knife if you are out of ammo in your primary weapon)
X- Secondary weapon (Initially the knife.)
A- Skill (Can be used without cost, but takes time to use again)
S- Second Skill (Can be used without cost, but takes time to use again)

Credits:

Ocean’s Dream

GreatOldOne: Story

Marimo: Faceset

Scripts from: BigEd, Jens, Yanfly, Gameclover, Shanghai

Thanks to rhyme, linkz0r and Jihaus for assistance
Made in a week for a contest! Wish me luck!

What’s next?

Now what’s next to come, is deciding what game to do next. Should I work on fixing up Adalyn first? Rubi first? Work on releasing Azulea next? I will try to set up a poll for this!

Blog updates

Also, please check out Meridian Dance! There are new updates on it from various members. I have Adalyn on there as well, plus there are interviews, updates on new games, and articles to read. I liked the interview for David Miles Carter, i’d recommend checking that out!

I wanted to have a post with all my games listed for easier access. I will also place this on the sidebar as well for easier download access in the future.

Completed Projects

Rubi
A 3 day event game. It is a light hearted action RPG, inspired by the Mana series (Using a mix of custom graphics and Mana because of the short deadline). It is the winner of that event as well.
Download here

Paradise Blue
A quest based old school styled RPG. 40 quests to take on, with class/ability customization. Was featured in various forums/sites as well, and rated 4/5 by multiple reviewers.
Download here

Ever Blue
An event game as well, made in 2005. You control a UFO, going around shooting silly things like Kiwis in various locations.
Download here

Island Sky:
A fast paced tactical style RPG released in 2005. With a full custom soundtrack and a light hearted tropical setting.
Download here

Projects in the works:

Azulea
An adventure about Tisa and her job in an underwater lab. Things get complicated when the government starts to interfere.
Game page to come soon!

Chain of Retribution:
A collaborative game with my friends, on the adventures of Siegmund and his brother Reinhardt, as their goal to escort someone to the capital becomes more than just that…
*No game profile up currently*

Azulea Reminiscence:
When two factions go hand in hand to search for the said artifact, an unlikely person gains possession of it and maybe, just maybe, the last days of being a college student would be more interesting. A collaborative game with Nessiah.
*No game profile up currently*

Feel free to download and talk to me about my projects! Let me know what you liked, what you disliked, and any feedback would be appreciated!

Also, the main website is in need of an upgrade. I think I can either give it the same layout and add more content, or use it as a portfolio. I will decide this soon!

Summary

Your name is Rubi. You are a child, in the family of the Mountain Shrine. Here, they honor the spirits. You are part Spirit, having the power of fire and the power to see the spirits roaming around the world as well.

I haven’t updated in a while, and I’ve been meaning to. I also wanted to write a post about a particular topic but nothing really came to mind.

Well, we are just about done with our chaingame, we need one more turn before we can go getting it beta-tested. I can’t say how long that will take, but hopefully it’ll be done before January is over! If anyone is good at making facesets and can make them quickly, let me know! We’ve got 16 faces (48×48 size, so they’re small) that we’d like to have made. This is entirely optional but something we thought might be nice for chaingame! Lemme know if you’re interested, a sample of your style and all! Right now we’re using their battle sprite as the faceset for the characters, and we might end up sticking with that if needed.

I’ve got a lot of other things I’m working on as well, like making sprites for Alcarys, helping out my friend with her game, my own project, and other things. Honestly, I’m sort of stalled on my own project. I want it to be more interesting than it is now. I am pretty unimpressed with the battle system as it is now, and I’m still at the point where I feel like I’ve been at this same map and place for ages. I will of course not give up, it just feels like a bit of a drag. I think I’ll talk ideas with my friend to spice it up.

When we do have our chaingame up, I will post the link here and let you know! I hope it’ll come out good.

Before I get to that, we have some work still to do in chaingame. Dajhail and I are trying to fill in the last parts before we send it off to Jihaus to check it and do his changes before we have someone test it and make last changes. I don’t know when it will be done as that’s up to how fast we all work on it.

I have made a few stealth edits to Azulea, i’ve been relatively quiet about it but there is still progress being made. I just sort of feel like it’s not all that visible since I am still on the testmap working on system stuff. Anyway, I got a system for checking enemy detection. If you are far from an enemy, either they’ll flash green or won’t flash at all (right now, they flash green). If you are getting close, they’ll flash yellow and start to go after you. If you’re very close, they’ll flash red and chase you.

There was a bug before though where if you were in the item menu or in a message or something, the enemy still chases you instead of standing still. Linkz0r fixed that (as it was his script, thanks linkz0r!).

I also made some of the items in the on screen item menu work. So chocolate and stealth work. You can avoid being detected with the Stealth. Other items will just give an effect when you start the battle. Not all coded yet, will do that soon.

I changed the picture menus to use a windowskin now. It looks a lot more like the RM2k3 version. I know some people might be upset at the change and I wish I didn’t have to but I think it works better and is less messy overall. I’ll show a menu example:

I think you can click for full size. Anyway, that reminds me, I need to fix that since I changed the resolution to 640×480.

Added the encounter bar back from the RM2k3 version. So every battle you fight, the gauge will add up. When it’s full, you can open a treasure chest on the map, a special one. They have nice stuff in it. Of course, not all of them will be as easy to accomplish, but you can be sure you won’t be just getting “10 gold” or “Potion” from it.

I removed Karens dance command and just placed them as general skills with their own LB costs. The stronger attacks will cost more LB, but there are skills with other effects so you might want to see if you’ll save up your LB for that strong attack or use the other skills first.

I tentatively have colored equipment. Like Diablo, this is stuff like Rare equips and stuff. I might scrap the idea but I’m just planning it all out first. I know my weapon system isn’t great as it is now, since you pretty much just have Level 1 equips and other than situational based encounters, pretty much any weapon is as good as another.

I’m sure I’ll add to here once I remember what else I changed.