[CC][XP-Demo]Oh, Brother

There will still be some time between demo release and a new chapter. Not just for the testing/feedback stage, but also because I've been spending all of my time on the demo and most of the next chapter is just in writing right now.

Which is why I want to figure out how to do this more efficiently. Hopefully the feedback will help that a bit.

Glad to see a vote for chapters! I think it will go more smoothly that way. = )

Everyone benefits from this choice. The only downfall would be players having to wait to get the full picture of the game and having to base their loyalty to the project on the potential of what's to come.

Chapter based releases usually have a greater chance of full project completion with constant feedback, set milestones, room for improvement and adjustments, build of anticipation, and higher overall morale for team members.

I would strongly recommend this for free, short staffed projects like this one.

I'd like to apologize for the slight hiatus. There were a lot of betas out that I had to try, and some personal matters to work on as well. I will begin work again on Thursday.

I have someone testing what I have now, and I've been going through myself. There are maybe three NPCs left to write dialogue for, portraits still to do, the optional dungeon to tweak and the only battle still to test (small numbers are surprisingly difficult to manage in RPGMaker, but I think I have the values where I want them).

Once that is done, I'll put out a call for more testers and there will be something playable up.

I've had to make quite a few changes already just from what my friend found. I wasn't making some things clear enough, and there was a situation where Nini would get in trouble for something without any warning - which was unintentional, the event was arranged wrong. So I'm already getting great feedback and the game is improved because of it. It's something. = )

As soon as I'm finished up and can release the demo, I'll focus my time on the next Chapter. I am going to release the game in Chapters. It seems the best choice all around. I'll try to have little testing phases between releases too, so I can get bugs worked out. Also, I have something planned as an extra bit of content and the Chapter method affords me more time for that - and a nifty way of adding it on as bonus content when all the Chapters are finished and released in one project.


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Well, there's the update. I'll post again when I have something significant to share. Sorry for the delay.

==Update==
Only two (I think) NPCs left to write dialogue for and the end event to tweak. And then all the testing (which I've found some help with, but if anyone is interested send me a PM - I'd love the extra eyes on it ^.^).

In the meantime, I've been sketching out the expressions for the portraits (Nini's anyhow, as she has the most). Thought I'd share them. I think I posted these before, but I've added a few since. Keep in mind they are roughs and will be cleaned up and colored later. I'm trying to keep them uniform in size, but a few may break that.

I'm not skipping any(it's good practice even if I don't use all of them), I just did the ones that I could see poses for first (and may actually need for the demo). I plan to do this exercise/meme for all of the characters with portraits (including the dolls).

I may have all the ones of Nini I need for the demo, and only need maybe three a piece for Nini's parents and her first doll, so it shouldn't take too much longer.

Spoiler for Sketchy Faces:

..It is a bit obvious that there was a time gap between sketches. I think I'm getting better at this though. So, that's something.


=Edit=
Wanted to add a traditional sketch of Kirin (the hero of the little adventure story side-quest). I didn't have the time to myself to use my tablet the other day, so I decided to pick up a pencil for the first time in a long time. Not sure I like it, but it's a start. It shouldn't give much away about the character. It's just a design concept.

Spoiler for Kirin:

Gosh this project seems like so much fun! As soon as I finished reading the story I was like "Woah! I need this now! I want to know where her brother is!". :p It is a simple story but the way you've portrayed it is extraordinary.

Oh, and, the facial expressions are adorable ! Excellent job on them as well.

Thanks. Glad you like what you see. Hope to have the demo playable soon. ^.-

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A mini update, redrew Nini's dad because he didn't look like a man. Will be redrawing her brother next. It's sketchy, but there's color.
I am working on portraits because everything else is about done.
There's a bit at the end that needs work still but that's it. Just waiting to hear if everything plays correctly.

Spoiler for A Man, I swear:

Just to update, testing is going very well. I now have quite a few things working as I meant them to and have been adding in more books here and there. Portraits are going a bit slower due to lack of..well...my hands they hate me. So, there's that.

As soon as one of us manages to make it to the end of the demo and I can see if the things play well all the way through - I will open up the testing to more people.

If anyone else is interested, let me know. I could always use more people telling me things are broken. I can't seem to make it through the first map without stopping to change things. I am obviously not the one who is supposed to test. ><

This has been really fun though, I'm learning a lot. The other areas should go much smoother now that I know how to stream-line things and have finally discovered how the day/night script I'm using actually works.

I am also getting good responses from the dialogue and story elements, so I know I'm on the right track there.

Will update when I have more to say. Or a portrait to show. I need to go tackle a redesign of Nini's brother. Make the boy a young man. Because he looks like a bit like a little girl right now.

==Update==
I've been informed my end event is not working, which makes sense as I apparently didn't arrange things properly (it is mostly working now).  I have a few more books to put in, but all of the text for them is written out (formatting for in-game messages is time-consuming). Then it's portrait, portraits, portraits - and monster battlers (they may remain defaults for the moment). And Then The Demo Is Ready for Open Testing!...sort of.

Still have kinks in the battle system to work out. The small numbers are giving me issues, but I think I know how to make it work. If anyone knows of a script that changes the default algorithms to something simpler that uses smaller numbers, I would be appreciative.

Does give me an excuse to test out progression more though, so that's something.

==Update==

Well, I may just make sure my end event is working and release what I have as-is. It will serve as "proof of concept" at least, to let everyone know the game -is- happening.

It just wont be happening in XP.

I may switch to VXAce, on account of many of my issues are solved in that engine and many of my common events are default options. I'll need to do something to the default battle system and find a way to get my portraits to work but it appears to be a good idea.

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I'll release what I have when the end event is tested and working. After that, it may be a while as I have to make new sprites and figure out how to use VXAce, and transfer everything I've already done.

It'd probably be for the best to move to Ace, so I say take as much time as you like.

Demo is out! Download link added to main post.

It may still be buggy, but read the message in the main post.

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It may be a while before I have anything else to show, but at least there's something playable now.
Even if it is in a different engine than the rest will be.

Let me know of any bugs, I'll definitely keep up support for it until the VXA version is complete. ^.-

=Update=
Put up a portrait for Fluffy, Nini's VXA sprite, and a shot of the World Map.

The addition of a World Map made me want to actually use it.
Everything will still be primarily area to area, but there will be bits of wandering in the middle.
As well as a few special events, encounters and unique areas only found by wandering around the open areas.

Also let's me put in more of the classic rpg stuff I wanted. Not that a World Map is impossible in XP, it's just easier in one that has it as a default mechanic.

Will update again when I have more sprites or something to show.
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XP Demo updates will be added to the main post.

Here is a test of Nini portraits in VXA (I may stick with the way it handles faces by default).

Spoiler for Nini Faces:

These are during a test of a quest log script, so the dialogue is there to try and match the expressions.
I like the tilesets a lot, didn't think I would, but just playing with them to see how things work came out pretty nice.

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Well, that's all I have to show for the updating of things. There is a lot of stuff in VXA that just wasn't in XP, so I'm a bit overwhelmed and need a time to figure things out. The custom damage formulas alone are enough to make my head spin. In a good way.

Hope you guys don't mind the wait, and that people are enjoying what's in the demo. As that is how the dialogue/story will be, but there will be more to do, more to explore, and more NPCs to chat with about things. Also, combat will not be so silly.

And I never apologized for it, but the battleback was a quick job to have something other than a default and it looks terrible. I am sorry.

Oh hello Dyre, not passed by a little 'time on the topic.
I wanted to ask a question: why you went to VX ACE?

There are a few reasons;

Small numbers are possible without extensive scripting.
The message system functions much better by default.
Custom damage formulas for every skill and item.
Default settings for weapons granting skills on equip. (this is a big one)
Quick-creation events for common things (I'd made my own common events for most of these functions in XP, not having to is nice)
World map by default, I enjoy the way tilesets are handled, and regions in addition to terrain settings.
Nicer look to the sprites (more fitting for the cutesy style I'm going with anyway)
A lot of the scripts I'd planned to use have much nicer versions for VXA available, or are just not necessary now as the functions are in by default.

I hadn't planned to switch, but the small numbers were a serious issue.
As were the weapons. I had a common event set for this, but it could only do so much. I was using states to apply health bonuses which looked awkward.
I know a script could have done this also, but all I found were ones with far more than I needed.
In VXA it's all in the default settings.

Overall, it just seemed like a better idea. I like what I've seen and I think I can do a lot more with it than with XP.
Again, I am going to mention the sprites. I didn't like them before, too chibi, but they fit for this style and the colors are more vibrant.
The entire program's colors are more vibrant. I'm a little ashamed I didn't give VX a real try before.

This looks amazing. Definitely the RPGM game I'm most looking forward to playing.

Thank you, I'm glad people are into this. ^.^

There is a playable Demo. I'm still working on it, to make sure everything works properly and there is at least something to play while waiting for it to be moved to VXA. It should serve as a decent representation of what to expect from the game, overall. Writing, quest-types, how NPCs are handled, exploration and it's importance, choices, how Dolls interact with Nini.

The only thing not really shown properly is the combat, and there's not nearly as many interactive events as there will be, but still quite a few. I will say I put it in way too many items and if they are all found, the end battle will be extremely easy. So, that will change but it's not all that important for this part anyway. The first Chapter is more meant to set up the story and show how things work. I think it does that.

--Update--

While testing the demo, and adding a few more things for NPCs to do (it was a bit empty outdoors), I had an idea for a little aesthetic touch to the areas. Not relevant for the Demo, obviously, as it has the Intro for it's set-up, but for the following areas.

I was thinking I might try to have a little picture (drawn by Nini, of course) of the areas as she enters them. Since I'll be using a World Map now, she'll enter the areas from the map. Instead of the typical splash of an area's name, have an image of her entering the area with the name of it and a little blurb about it, written by her? The storybook pictures seem to be a favorite, and I'd love to use them more, but wanted to see if that's something people would like or if it would be too much. I have most of the actual content for each area planned out, so I'm more concerned with how to present the areas and get them in-game than what happens in them.

For a timeline update, I've tested the Demo almost to the end, taking care to try everything and make sure it all works. Once I've finished that (I'm done adding things, I need to work on moving everything over to VXA now), I'll work strictly on the VXA version. I'll still go back and fix bugs though, if anyone mentions any.

If anyone's played the current build and found anything, let me know.

Will update again when I have something significant to show. Enjoy the Demo, don't be afraid to tell me if it's terrible. I like honesty. = )

Wasn't able to play the demo yet, but wanted to comment on the storybook pictures for the areas anyway ^^

I think it would be a really nice thing, however, you should be careful with how long they will be displayed or if one can press a key or anything to stop them, since it can become quite annoying if you have to change the location often and need to wait for the image to vanish every time.

I'm thinking a short wait time will be enough, since it will only show a picture for the main area. As in, Nini enters a forest and it shows a picture. If the area switches to another part of the forest, that is named differently but still part of the same forest, it will just show the area name.

I could also try showing the image and a choice box to ask if the player wants to enter that area?

I made a little example for area pictures, may have a choice for entry. For this one it would be, "I'm not scared!", "Too Scary...", or something similar for "Yes" and "no", respectively.

Also, perhaps a new way to draw the storybook pictures. Since I'll need to go back and edit them anyway, since Nini's hair is different now.

Spoiler for "Dreamer's Forest":

If you removed the white background and the text, and just used that image, you could use that as the image you see the first time you enter a new area. Sorta like how Kingdom Hearts does it. That's at least what I thought of when I saw the picture.

Unfriendly:
http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=11707141&q=hi&newref=1

The first battle theme for the game, which comes in during the tutorial/introduction to combat sequences at the end of chapter 1. It may appear later on in other chapters.

I tried to keep it light, but exciting without pushing to far into the realm of very epic.

Hiro, I like the idea and thought of going with that already. I'm not sure it'll fit the theme though, since the pictures are supposed to be in her diary.

I'll try it anyway, see how it looks. ^.-

Nice song, maybe a bit 'too big for the rest of the game but that's okay.
Rather Dyre, what are you going to do?
I mean, you're going to continue the game on both the tools?

What? No, no. I released the Demo in XP because that's what I had planned to use and what I've worked on all this time. But, it doesn't support some features I wanted, and VXA has more to offer.

I still want to give something to show for all that work. So I released what I'd finished in XP. Which is the Prologue. It provides a solid look at the writing, quests, and gameplay to expect when I'm finished.  It's also a way to maybe garner more interest/feedback. As now people can actually play it and experience some of the game instead of just reading ideas and looking at pictures.

The rest of the game, and a remade version of the Prologue, will be made entirely in VXA.

Before moving everything to the new engine, however, I'm trying to make sure the demo actually works all the way through. There may not be as much going on as I'd planned, but it's enough to show what to expect. So it would be nice if people can actually play all of it.

So far that has been a bit time-consuming. The main progression through the town was working fine, but the side-quests were not and the time was moving too fast, making it seem like the town was empty because their events already finished by the time the player reached them. Everything appears in order now. I'm just a little annoyed at myself for not going through it more closely before releasing it. =/

I'll be sure to take care to keep better notes and arrange things in a more structured manner when reworking everything for VXA. If anything this has been a tremendous learning experience, and I think a sort of "fresh start" in a new engine is a good idea.