Made some renovations to the battle UI this week, adding a counter that shows distance to the nearest enemy.
The desert city of Mayka Marr.
Made some sprites for the city of Arkos, known for its tall estates.
Our heroine is taken prisoner and locked in a tower. The room was a little too warm and "homey" using my default interior tileset, so I gave the room a revamp to feel colder.
I'm finally giving my snowy city it's own chipset. Wayyyyyy overdue.
I've shown a couple videos of environmental effects in the battle system before (i.e., boulders randomly falling on the battlefield in ravines, lightning striking the ground, etc).
Further into the game, the player gets to control them. Here we are commanding a group of archers to help us, while one of our characters has a "helpful" spirit possessing him that adds lightning damage to the battlefield. The player has to plot a turn ahead to try and determine where the AI will move their soldiers.
This is hands down my favorite feature of the game. I hope future players feel the same!
A lightning surge battle animation.
Raven and her mercenaries idle about town, looking tough and cool like an 80s punk band.
We go before the useless council, seeking aid. (lots of chipset making this week)
Upgraded an old scene to have fantastical cave walls.
The environmental effects have quickly become my favorite feature of the battle system. This week created directional effects that hit the first target in its path, like this poison arrow.
New tunes! Sounds like we're solving a mystery, not sure where exactly where it will get used yet. (I usually don't have a plan when making music... whatever comes out is what ya get...)
Pixel art-ed out this balcony scene overlooking the ocean. Those bottles on the right side are clipping into the wall, I'll go fix that right now...
This is one of our end-game optional bosses, encountered if the player party cuts through this swamp shortcut one too many times.
More pixel renovations - this King gets a new throne room and wardrobe this week.
Gave this church a renovation with a new statue of their goddess and blue and green sparkles that come out of her palms when you're nearby.
Been a while since we had a good old fashioned combat system video. Here are some of the new animations and environmental effects.
The crew overlooks the Old Quarter, a part of a nearby city that fell to the darkness.
Also, solved a bug this week that has haunted the project for nearly 6 years!
Adding more "environmental effects" to the battle system. The team gets caught in a flooded alleyway and zombies spring out to attack them. More zombies lurk beneath the surface of the water and come out to scrape and scratch.
The effect damages friend and foe. The player gets some advanced warning of where this is going to happen, so they can potentially use this to their advantage if they lure enemies in, or push/pull them into the effect.
Created this character, dubbed Townsperson #1. I like her. I have the feeling Townsperson #1 might have some near-identical twins that have different hair colors and different taste in clothing colors.
You can now pet the dog!
The party takes a much needed break underneath a golden tree that mysteriously lights up the darkness.
This week, I added in environmental effects that can damage both friend and foe. With some planning, you can line this up to bait enemies into the danger zone or use abilities that push them into it.
The light of every city only extends so far. The undead shades pile up on the other side, waiting for the light to go out so they can get in.
Some light ambient music for last week's campfire scene. Having fun creating these, pulling melodies out of the main songs, then adding ambient sound effects and experimenting with various pads. Fun shit!
I've been going back and giving face lifts to old sections. Happy with how this one turned out!
Here's the old scene, probably built more than a decade ago. So basically a 99x improvement.
Made some ambient music - going for serene calm, hopefully it came out. It has some faint callbacks to other tunes in the game that hopefully players will pick up on.
All in all, one of those weeks where I had a development tail wind at my back and things just seemed to connect. Need about 47 more of those now.
A ripple effect I created on player movement for this area.
A gateway opens to paradise.
3 years of weekly updates, no beats missed! Usually I have a big update for an annual checkpoint, but this year I got something for myself instead - a metal poster of the title artwork!
A desert city in the distance.
"This is fine."
Festive ice cave to celebrate the recent snow storm that just tore through my area.
Splash screen for the Chapel of the Archangel. Players get hinted at an underlying transparent mechanic in the game here, where their decisions need to balance the line between mercy and justice.
This is the other logo I was considering, but it lost out to last week's.
Created this logo for the game!
One of the end bosses has a cybernetic-theme going on. Here is one of his little wispy minions.
The full tune as we approach the black tower.
Was there always a menacing black tower there and I just never noticed?
The party passing through a dark swamp - something's out there.
More ambient sound effects - here we are traversing a dark canyon.
Happy New Year! Making more sound effects for splash screens this week. Honestly, spending a lot of time on what is a very small part of the game, but sound effects are fun, so whatever!
Merry Christmas!
Making sound effects for a machine that the big baddie uses to power up.
Added a neat component to the main website page!
Splash screen for the Alabaster Library. Its shelves contain all the world's knowledge, but the curator has some ... questionable ethics.
Created this showdown scene between the player party and the final boss duo.
To do: Add player party and final boss duo.
I sprited out this tough-looking guard this week and then assigned him the important duty of guarding these potted flowers.
Giving some more life to the cities this week. Banners! Flowing in the wind! Birds! Flying by!
The big baddie's house.
This week was a lot of long-planned changes finally making it into the combat system. Spell-effect animations, spell-casting animations, grid overlay, and new facesets.
Re-did the shipwreck from several weeks back - I think it's looking quite a bit better, complete with undead shades walking around the beach.
The Assembly of Arkos, where the Houses gather and scream at each other in political discourse. Influenced by real world events.
The mansion of House Anderson lies abandoned on the outskirts of town, overgrown with vegetation through years of disuse.
The party finds a large golden tree and takes a break underneath. The colors and shading aren't quite coming together how I wanted, so the scene still needs some work.
A foreboding mansion, overlooking the rest of the city.
The castle of Lyntori, surrounded by mountains and a mining city below it.
As a side note, I finished writing out a draft of all the remaining dialogue into a word processor this week. Total word count of the entire game clocks in at 84,000. Almost like I wrote a novel, so that's something to celebrate!
Deep in a blizzard, you come across a mysterious ice cave. Do you enter, pass by, or take a break for lunch?
Mayka Marr. The streets are suspiciously silent when you arrive...
The Royal Gardens of Sathia, where the nobles get to smell flowers, host over-extravagant parties, and kiss the Prince's ass (figuratively).
Splash screen for the White Pass, where it's always a blizzard any time of year.
City Hall, where nothing of real value is ever accomplished.
That's a spooky cave. You go first.
An overworld splash screen for a tavern called the Armored Duck, complete with duck sign.
I also worked on the navigation menu to be able to handle multiple areas of interest at one overworld map location.
Splash screen for the first set of ruins the player encounters. Inside, the player gets some witty banter from the party's characters and has an optional puzzle to complete for some loot.
The puzzle itself is kind of like cracking a combination. The top switch drops water from the top of the screen which then spreads until it all drains into holes in the floor. The bottom switches change where the holes are. Your mission is to find the right combination of switches that allows the water to reach the bottom.
Putting the shipwreck image to work from last week, I'm going through and adding splash screens to each area of interest on the overworld map. The plan is to come up with a unique sound effect for each area to pair with the "discovery" tune.
Early on in the game, the gang explores a shipwreck. To set the vibe, this is the splash image that pops up when you approach it on the world map. (Disclaimer: Not yet added in-game, just the image this week)
Some sprites I made to match this portrait.
Leandra getting ready to punch something. It probably deserved it.
I'm adding "skill-using" animations to the characters. Here's casting a spell.
Recently, I've been adding little battle animations for each of my characters. I've recently learned this is 4x more painful for tactical battlers compared to side battlers.
Here's our heroine getting ready to punch something in each of four directions.
The five unwritten rules to financial success and fame.
This is my personal favorite of my character portraits.
Graves is a smart-ass rogue with a metal arm and a penchant for gaudy trinkets. He attracts trouble like a magnet.
Down to my last two character portraits - and I saved my two favorite for last.
Leandra was a crime boss with an endless appetite for power. One evening, she won a literal city in a card game. Mayor, Dictator, or Queen of her own city, what more could she want? But much to her chagrin, the ensuing responsiblity and change in perspective has changed her and what she thought was important.
This week's portrait is for Rodrik, the imperial loremaster.
Rodrik is charged with knowing the unknown, the Emperor's go-to consultant whenever something happens that conventional wisdom can't explain. This is a frequent occurrence lately.
Rodrik's magical mutation is his eyes are constantly changing color. When his portrait is up on screen, his eyes will slowly shift color. (disclaimer: not yet developed, idea came from staring into some color-shifting RGB panels while lost in sight)
This week's portrait is for Edwards, the soldier.
Edwards' fate is decided by the player in the first ten minutes of the game. He can end up dead or become a playable character much later on. Gotta set the tone early!
This week's portrait is for Mayze, the court magician.
Mayze is court magician, whose job duties include and keeping the air a comfortable temperature. The King "loans" Mayze to the player's party, despite his protests.
Like the other mages, magic use has physically changed Mayze, causing runic shapes to appear on Mayze's face. No one knows what the runes mean. Yet.
This week's portrait is for Lumen, the antiquarian. She's obsessed with learning the secrets of the darkness and always has her nose in a book. 99% of the time, Lumen's mind is not in the same place as her body.
Users of magic undergo physical alterations and for Lumen, her hair completely changes color after major events.
This week's portrait is for Hayes, the warder.
Whenever the group travels outside cities into the dark, Hayes holds the important task of safekeeping the wardstone. The wardstone shines light upon the darkness and keeps the shades at bay.
When she's not navigating the never-ending darkness, Hayes enjoys gardening.
This week's portrait is for Anderson, the learned veteran. Any time the party stops in a city, he generally heads straight to the local library. Anderson is a sponge for information and recalls every little fact about everything.
This week's portrait is for O'Brion, the silent genius.
O'Brion's metal crafts are otherworldly, brilliantly blending magic and metallurgy. One of his most impressive creations gave another companion a mechanical prosthetic arm.
Still, no one has ever heard O'Brion speak a word. His dog, Bandit, accompanies him everywhere.
This week's portrait is for Autumn, the wild child of the player's party with apparently no past. Raised by wolves?
This week's portrait is for Rion Senker, the rookie of the player's party. Tall, strong, kind-hearted... and often well out of his element.
Two years of weekly updates! Hopefully there won't be two more years, because the game will be finished. I've been told a daily dose of optismism can be healthy.
Julianne Stone illustrated portraits for all of my playable characters and they are pretty damn great. Here is our protagonist, Taylor. (I'm going to release the rest one week at a time so I have visuals to cover while I finish writing, hah.)
One week shy of two years of weekly updates!
A squid monster reaches out and gives us a bear hug.
A variety of effects can cause allies and enemies to become disoriented, causing random movement on their turn.
(More skill animations while I continue the quest to complete all the writing!)
I re-pixeled one of my main characters, Graves. He's a smart-ass rogue with a metal arm and a penchant for gaudy trinkets.
Meanwhile, I've been writing a lot of dialogue - finishing that up is my next major development milestone.
Happy 100 weeks of updates! Some new music to celebrate - not sure where it'll be used yet, but sounds kind of explore-y to me.
Scarab swarm! This one needs the sound effects for the full gross-out effect, but I broke my recording software somehow. Computers are hard, OK?
Skill animation progress: 130 of 130 completed. Animations are done! Insert Frodo meme here. Now I'm not sure I remember how to build the other parts of the game anymore.
The purify ability cures status ailments when used on an ally and causes some minor damage when used on an enemy, with a large bonus against undead.
Skill animation progress: 121 of 130 completed.
The swap ability does ... well, pretty much what you'd expect. Swaps the position of two characters on the battlefield.
This was originally one of my "filler" abilities that I wasn't sure was going to make the cut. But after testing with it, I found it to be very rewarding as a player. Swap a tanky frontline enemy with a squishy backline enemy and smash them before they can run away. Or rescue an out of position friendly character that is low on health. Or just move an enemy so that their backside is exposed for bonus damage. Upgrading the skill gives you the ability to take a second action after swapping the targets.
Skill animation progress: 110 of 130 completed.
A big, nasty tree entangles the party in its roots. This is an area of effect skill that does more damage the closer the target is to the tree and immobilizes everyone for a turn.
Skill animation progress: 103 of 130 completed.
"I've got them in my sights."
Skill animation progress: 93 of 127 completed.
The radiate skill damages all enemies in a straight line. It also shields all allies in that line and the effect amplifies for every target hit. So it's a "big payoff" type of ability that won't get used every fight, but will feel good when it hits for value.
This animation was one of those where it was trickier than it had to be, based off some decisions I made 8 or 9 years ago. There's a weird phenomenon that occurs when you're looking through ancient code and you can't help but think "What kind of idiot wrote this?" when you know full well what kind of idiot wrote it.
Skill animation progress: 88 of 127 completed. I'm starting to get "animation block". Running out of ideas, send help!
Whenever these scarab abominations get hit in combat, a few scarabs splinter off and become their own enemy.
Skill animation progress: 85 of 127 completed.
Got a bit of a holiday hangover heading into this week and the update is late! After all these battle animations I realized an animation of some type should play when an ally or enemy is vanquished in battle.
Skill animation progress: 81 of 127 completed.
Merry Christmas! And nothing says Christmas time like some spooky dark clouds, right?
Skill animation progress: 77 of 126 completed.
We just got barfed on.
Skill animation progress: 71 of 126 completed. Good progress this week - checking in that animations are still fun to create at the halfway point, but now I feel like I don't remember how to do anything else.
The heroine summons an elemental spirit to the battlefield.
Skill animation progress: 53 of 126 completed.
An angry mushroom releases choking spores upon the party.
Skill animation progress: 39 of 126 completed. Slow week, will have to make up ground next week!
Magical runes swirl around a foe.
Skill animation progress: 33 of 126 completed. Chugga chugga.
The battle animation fiesta continues with a barrier spell.
Skill animation progress: 26 of 126 completed. "Only" 100 more to go!
Creating more battle animations. The note directions and "spinniness" on this ability are randomized to make it look just slightly different on each use. The sound effect for the ability is also slightly randomized, playing a short bit from this tune that is used throughout the game.
Skill animation progress: 16 of 126 completed. Slow and steady.
A villain uses a smoke bomb to escape!
I've been dreading doing combat animations all this time, worried they would be a disaster. Results so far are ... surprisingly decent. It's also actually really fun, but I'm also just starting. Skill animation progress: 9 of 126 completed. Let's see if I still think it's fun when I get to the slog around #70.
Happy Halloween! The gang investigates a dissappearance and uncovers a little old lady with a dark secret. (Yes, she ate all the cake in the fridge and then left the empty plate in there)
Here are some timestamps if you want to skip around:
0:02 - Menu system & upgrading skills
0:44 - Upgrading items
3:50 - The gang solves the mystery
5:23 - The gang finds themselves surrounded by ravens
6:08 - Battle!
The mysterious old lady summons a swarm of ravens to attack the party. (Started building battle animations this week.)
Bit of a visual overhaul of the game's main character this week. Out of nowhere, I decided it would be interesting if magic users have streaks of wild colors in their hair, perhaps due to the magical energy in their bodies. World building be like that sometimes! So Taylor now has a streak of white for flair and cool-factor.
Putting together some sound effects to go with last week's scene. Here's a "conspiracy" of ravens squawking in unison.
The gang steps outside to find themselves ominously surrounded by a conspiracy of squawking ravens. (Fun fact: a group of ravens can apparently be called a flock, a conspiracy, or an unkindness).
I present to you: the world's most ineffective scarecrow.
What is the best way to drive up excitement about your game? Yep, you guessed it - flow charts!
For real, though, I am pretty excited about this. Branching paths and choices are one of Into the Evernight's main features and this represents the different possible paths for the endgame sequence. And I've finally started work on it. The end is in sight!
Blue boxes represent cutscenes or short little areas to explore. Red boxes are battles, orange boxes represent the end-game bosses, and green boxes are dynamic areas that have too much going on to bother with flowing out.
Hooded rogue with a bow, waiting in an alleyway with his buds to mug some unsuspecting passersby. (that's you, the player)
Some new tunes this week - don't know where it will fit yet, but it feels like background music I would be exploring a dungeon to. I guess I would describe this as "fantasy Egyption-style kingdom with a Secret of Mana style beat".
More touch-ups on some of the playable characters. The wizened veteran Anderson gets a beard, a man-bun, and big boots to kick arse with.
Another puzzle this week. To give some context, most of Into the Evernight's battles have the player controlling two parties of characters. The plaque here reads: "Sometimes you just need to put your heads together."
The graphics here need a big overhaul yet, but the plaque in this hallway reads: "The path is clear to those with weary soles". Can you solve the puzzle?
When standing outside a city on the world map, you get faint tunes of that city's theme that fade in and out. Here is last week's city music with this effect.
More new music this week - this will be the "town music" for Lyntori. Each city will have its own unique jam when this is done!
Week #69! Heh, OK, I guess I'm the only one that thinks that's funny.
This week, a piece of music that plays when the party is exploring the old mines beneath Lyntori.
Quick look at the skill system this week. When a character levels up, they earn a skill point. There are 4 main classes, each with 15 unique skills. Skill points can be used to learn new skills or upgrade existing ones. Each skill has 4 upgrade tiers that generally make the ability stronger or change its functionality slightly. (For example, the lightning skill gains the ability to disorient enemies that are hit by it).
So essentially 60 skills, each with 4 upgrade tiers. Testing has been insane, but I really like how it's come out so far. The current development status is that all skills and tiers are tested and working, but I'm occasionally replacing or redesigning some skills that are redundant or just don't feel very fun.
Equipment upgrades - gotta have 'em!
There are 11 unique weapons and 11 armors, each with five tiers of upgrades. Each upgrade tier of course boosts stats, but some unlock new abilities as well. In addition, there are 5 tiers of "proficiency", which automatically become unlocked as a character keeps using the equipment.
Continuing to flesh out combat this week. This enemy is a three-headed snake creature, which I have named "baby hydra". It seeks out the player character with the lowest HP and bites three times each attack, randomly causing damage or inflicting status ailments on each attack.
Tentacle monster uses Tentacle! It's super effective!
I had a development blooper this week. I was trying to build a new monster that has these fleshy arm cannons that shoot bile up into the air. The bile falls randomly around the map, but the player can see where it is going to fall and has a turn to act and move out of harm's way.
So I thought, why not have the enemy do a slight movement before it shoots? So I did some rough animating in Photoshop real quickly and opened it in the editor to find... I had built a dancing cactus.
I kind of love it. Some bit of this is going to stay for good.
These slug monsters are carrying off townspeople! Though, they're kinda adorable in their own way.
So... I'm thinking don't go in there.
The surrounding area has always suffered from earthquakes. The party soon learns the source of the quakes is this enormous demon monster living in the depths of the mountain.
Some new sound effects for a new big, bad monster. I'm starting to build out some optional, side content. This monster will have its role in the main story, but defeating it isn't necessary to complete the game.
It needs animations yet, but the blink ability lets you warp around the battlefield. It combos nicely with abilities that have positional requirements (such as Stab) and then allows you to warp back to safety afterwards.
Here's a scene I've been writing and animating out, loosely related to Elizabeth Bathory lore. It follows an old queen "transferring bodies" via a ritual (which fits the game's world lore, I promise). It's not complete yet, so I'll story-tell it over these static images:
Some more animations on this character. This week a hair-blowing-in-the-wind combat pose that I hope to use in overly dramatic fashion. Next steps will be to also apply it to the combat system whenever a character prepares to use an ability.
This week, I've been touching up some of the cutscenes and dialogue-heavy areas of the game. Animations add a bit of life to these sections without needing to rely too heavily on "expression bubbles".
Early on in the game, the player optionally encounters the small dungeon on the left. They can toggle the switches on and off, but there's seemingly no way to solve it. Towards the end of the game, they encounter the small dungeon on the right.
Experienced gamers will probably pick up on how to solve this pretty quick. The trick will be remembering the old dungeon from much earlier in the game.
Amongst a bunch of boring playtesting this week, I made this pixel cat and a pillow. I have no regrets.
(His name is Mr. Tibbs)
Constructed an enemy that randomly self-destructs after 3-4 turns damaging everything around it. Still needs animations, but I was happy to get it working.
I put together some sprites to make General Novias this week, the Queen of Lyntori's strong arm and have been writing their portion of the story.
The player's party uncovers their dark secret - that the Queen and Novias have cheated the laws of life and death for ages. When they age or become ill, a citizen is secretly arrested and brought to the castle. Through dark magics, the ailing Queen or General swap bodies with the prisoner. Soon, a new Queen or General is suddenly announced. The citizens mourn for the old Queen or General and then celebrate the 'new' one.
The scenario is slightly based around the legend of Elizabeth Bathory, just, ya know, without the whole bathing in blood thing.
It's been a full year of weekly updates! And only 16 years of glacial development to get to this point! Hurrah!
First bit of news, I'm slightly rebranding the game to be Into the Evernight. Turns out, there is a lot of stuff called Evernight already out there. You'd think someone would have Google'd that and made an educated decision about the name several years ago, but here we are.
Next bit of news, new website domain! My own dot-com!
And last but not least, I created a trailer for the game to help celebrate this little milestone. Next major milestone, finish building this damn thing!
Another character fix-up this week, Rion Senker one of the protagonists. Slowly but surely, going to revamp every sprite in this damn thing!
Just enjoying the view.
16 years in and I finally built the game's opening scene! #fastdev
This is also going to be part of something fun to mark 1 year of weekly updates. Only 3 weeks away, so, uh, hopefully I get it done in time.
A couple party members sneaking around past guards during a curfew.
Not everyone loves stealth sequences, so I try not to overdo them, but they are extremely fun to build. If the player fails and the party is detected, the player simply restarts from a close by checkpoint.
As the party escapes danger, running from city to city, this mysterious stranger keeps appearing. How does he get around so quickly? Is he somehow following the party? He offers the party dark blessings from a mysterious god, but in exchange for what?
Evernight's story is intended to be urgent and pressing. Because of this, the player is unable to go around and farm experience and resources as they can in most RPGs - that would heavily distract from the urgency of the story, I felt. The stranger, here, is one way the player can become stronger in a pinch if they find themselves in a jam that they cannot get out of. Accepting his god's blessing enables mid-combat save points and can outright boost the party's stats.
Hello there.
(He's not friendly)
Some behind-the-scenes website updates this week. Every page should load about 90% faster now. (Turns out image optimization is important, who knew?)
A mysterious singing voice awakens one of the party members and she wanders off to investigate...
Going for a "16-bit" style to it. I always remembered the FF6 opera scene voices and wanted to try and get a little bit of that effect here.
Some small visual upgrades to the "shroud of darkness" that is used when the team is outside of a city. Previously, it was just a static black boundary. Now, the black boundary shifts around, there's an inner glow that pulses in and out, and I've added random dust particles in the air. The game also now shifts between blue and orange tints, matching the wardstone cycles. (Since there is no day/night cycle, the light emitted from all wardstones changes colors over time)
A pretty neat milestone reached this week: Evernight now has 100,000 words of dialogue, readable books, and other lore in it. If I somehow jammed all of these words into a book, it would be about a 300-page novel. So I think that means I'm a novelist now. Yea, I'm gonna call myself a novelist.
After 16 years of using a placeholder, I finally created the sprite for one of my main characters. Maybe I'll get around to drawing another main character in another 16 years!
Happy New Year! I'd love to say this is the year I complete Evernight, but history says "probably not", haha.
An underground tomb houses a puzzle with runes labeled one through five. The same rune symbols are scattered around the tomb. Do you know how to solve it?
Merry Day-Late Christmas!
Here's your gift: A snowstorm effect, traversing a virtual winter wonderland.
Made a new chunk of music this week. Don't know where it's going to go yet, but it feels like maybe a "good guy / determination" type of theme.
With this, Evernight now has over 30 songs!
After being seperated in a snowstorm, a few of the characters find shelter in a nearby cave.
This is a short music puzzle, where the player has to recreate a melody by hitting each key in the correct order. Afterwards, the tune from the puzzle becomes the melody of the background music.
Treasure hunting mini-game, go! The party occasionally acquires treasure maps throughout the game. A strange man will help decode them and offer mostly unhelpful insights about where the treasure is.
The treasure map is essentially a super zooomed in look at a 3x3 area on the overworld map. Once the map is decoded, the party can find treasure at these locations.
This week I added to the stable of "scarab people".
The good guys learn that a curse has befallen the city, turning the residents into scarabs. They player will have to make a number of sacrifices if they want to undo it. From the a story perspective, the playable characters will need to do some less than scrupulous things to overturn the curse and may lose some characters close to them in the process. From a gameplay perspective, the player will miss out on a good deal of treasure and XP, essentially making the rest of the game more difficult.
Created a bunch of character sprites this week and liked how this one came out.
Whipped up some sound effects for our little scarab friends.
When the scarab mob is damaged, a scarab falls off and becomes it's own enemy. Damage-over-time effects can get you in trouble really quickly. This probably looks pretty simple, but took quite a bit of effort to jam into the battle system due to how RM2K3 handles obstacles.
Update day falls on Halloween, so Happy Candy Holiday to all!
I've been tinkering with "summon" skills this week.
Behold the majestic giant coy of Mayka Marr as it swims circles around a courtyard pond.
The gang enters Mayka Marr and learns of a terrible curse that has overtaken the city.
Built some sound effects for last week's forest guardians. Groaaaaannnnnnn.
Big brother and little brother strolling through the Brightwood.
(some sprites I made this week)
Half a year of weekly updates, woo!
The Archangel Romi has been hiding out in the Brightwood for untold ages, sustaining the world. Her work requires intense focus. If she were to leave her sanctuary, the world would grow cold and die out within hours.
The imagery I was going for was for her hair to turn to a river and for her dress to turn to soil. The river turned out pretty good, the dress a little less-so.
A villain tries to drop a bookcase on the party.
The Alabaster Library, from a few updates ago now has its own "melody". Here are three songs with the same core melody all used around the Library.
0:00 - Taking shelter in the ice caves 3:00 - The Alabaster Library 5:58 - Battle in the library
Music in RPGs is generally pretty connected to the game world, with tunes that match the current area or character. I made a song, and it's kind of all over the place, so I'm not sure it will find it's way into the game.
Behold, the infinite joke book. It's not quite infinite, but does have 100+ terrible dad-worthy jokes.
The player can sell it for some quick cash, keep it around to read terrible two-liners all day, or gift it to a bored little girl later in the story to brighten up her day.
Obsessed with accumulating knowledge and secrets, a being calling himself "The Curator" (left) started creation of the Alabaster Library in a secret pocket dimension. By distributing his white-clad books around the worlds, he lures in curious visitors, eventually enthralling and enslaving them to help maintain the library. One of the player's party members gets ensnared this way and it's up to the others to get her back, but they'll have to get through all of those he has enthralled.
I wasted/spent most of this week's development time making a fire ember effect and animating some sprites. The embers effect is all 1x1 pixel pictures that start in a random position near the bottom left area and then randomly move up and to the right as they fade out. Each particle has it's own "behavior" type... some fly up quick, some take their time, others just have more randomness). The behavior has a small chance to shift as well, making it look like a gust of wind sometimes picks up an ember here or there.
The same strategy makes for a nice "indoor drifting dust" effect too, just slowed way down and using gray-blue pixels instead of orange and yellow. Will save that one for a week when I don't have anything new to show, heh.
I put together a video showing the entire Sathia area and Evernight's core gameplay loop of combat, upgrades, and story decisions. The entire video is an hour long, so here are timestamps to the highlights:
0:00 - The main menu
0:45 - Fast travel system
1:50 - Shop system
6:00 - In-game menu & equipment upgrade system
7:00 - Skill upgrade system
20:35 - Mostly pointless dancing mini-game
34:55 - Battle system
38:58 - XP system
50:30 - One of the main story choices from this area
58:30 - One of the alternate choices
The main in-game menu was rebuilt this week to add a little extra flair. Kind of hilariously, the old menu didn't have a way to quit the game. The statistics portion will be moved to the end of the game (in addition to a mapping of all the player's decisions).
This week I continued the never-ending journey of replacing default chips with my own. Here is the city of Sathia on the overworld map:
The city of Sathia is built into a cliffside. The lower recesses of the city, known as the Old City, have long been abandoned and are overrun with ghosts. The citizens of Sathia also dump their trash down the old elevator shafts to quickly get rid of it.
The gang runs afoul of the prince of Sathia and is sentenced to death in the Old City. Here they are riding the lift down to their doom where they will presumably die in the trash.
Ghosts play a big part in Evernight's setting, so how about some unique sound effects.
Replacing some of the old placeholder character sheets with originals this week. Here are some of the characters you'll meet/fight/dine with in Evernight.
In Sathia, the party attends a fancy outdoor party. By the end of the event, everyone is sentenced to death or abducted, but what is important here is there's a Dance Dance Revolution / Guitar Hero-like rhythm mini-game where you have to try and blend in with the other dancers.
Afterwards everyone comments on your skills (or lack of).
A couple minutes of the battle system in Evernight. Some quirks compared to other tactical battle systems you may have played:
Anderson is the old, veteran soldier of the player's party, a man that is meticulous about everything and loves to read. If the player 'surveys' in battle to look around and hovers over an enemy, they will now be treated to "Anderson's Notes" on the enemy.
These notes will be a combination of lore drops mixed with hints as to how the enemy will behave in combat and how you would best defeat them.
Through some storyline choices the player makes, Anderson can later quit the party or end up dead. If that occurs, the sarcastic smart-ass of the group takes over Notes duty and the descriptions change to non-helpful things like "Uh, it has a spear. It looks sharp."
Bandit serves up some justice, Interceptor style.
This attack randomly triggers when O'Brion (Bandit's owner) ends his turn within five spaces of an enemy. In addition to damage, the attack also has a chance to disorient enemies or cause bleeding (a damage over time effect).
This adorable, little fellow hangs out in the darkness waiting for unsuspecting prey to step into one of its traps. Once the trap is activated, it then fills the victim full of arrows, fashioned out of the bones of it's previous victims.
Afterwards, I assume it eats you.
Battles in Evernight are generally 15 to 20 minutes in length, during which the player cannot save the game or heal.
One way the player can make the game a little easier on themselves is by receiving the blessing of the Vagrant, a pagan religion that believes in an immortal traveler that forever roams the world. Once the blessing is received, the player can see these statues that are seemingly everywhere. The statues work as single-charge save points (the purple gem in it's hand vanishes after use).
However, it quickly becomes apparent that the Vagrants have nefarious motives. The player is forced to decide if keeping their blessing is worth it or not.
We're lost in a snowstorm this week! To simulate the feeling of disorientation and being lost for the player, I created two maps that are vertical mirror images of each other. The snow picks up every 10-15 seconds and the screen goes white, during which the player is swapped onto the other map.
Using last week's map, I created a quick travel system. Something is slightly wrong with the cursor rotation still - I've put that on my "get around to eventually" list. Additional travel locations are unlocked as the game progresses.
From a lore standpoint, the player's party discovers a magical coal pen on their journey. Drawing doors on the side of buildings opens a gateway to another world. All kinds of fun things happen there, but most importantly, they can exit through another door and re-appear in the main world.
Made a world map of the Evernight world in Wonderdraft and Photoshop. This map will be used for quick travel in-game (and was a very fun world building activity, otherwise).
A website is born and you're on it!
Evernight introduces early on the concept of mercy and justice and throughout the game you are faced with tons of choices (I love branching paths in games). If you make merciful decisions, you earn mercy points behind the scenes. If you make just decisions, you earn justice points behind the scenes.
Sometimes the decisions pit mercy against justice: you witness a (relatively) minor crime, you can turn them in (+justice, -mercy) or look the other way (+mercy, -justice).
Other times, the decisions come at a cost: you defeat an enemy and can finish them (-mercy) or let them live, though they will go on to cause problems for you later (+mercy, +game difficulty).
The better endings to the game will rely on getting high mercy & justice, but to raise both, the game difficulty will rise quite a bit and you will have to make many other sacrifices.
Anyways, you find these orbs, and they light up when you walk by, essentially showing the player their approximate mercy & justice scores, hopefully without bludgeoning the player over the head with the mechanic.
This week, a little puzzle - the player needs to clear a path to allow water to flow from the top to the bottom. Switches re-arrange pitfalls that the water drains into, so the player needs to find the right combination of switches to have on by observing what slots are opened/closed.
Evernight is a project I started way back in 2005. Clearly, I have worked on it at an absolutely glacial pace, but most nights I do spend about 10 minutes doing something small.
In an effort to stay motivated down the home stretch, I'm going to try and post an update every week until it's done - which will probably be in another 15 years.
This week, I added a pulsing effect to show the player ability ranges in combat. Hooray!
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