Last week's scene, now with animations and sound effects.
Been working on this scene towards the end-game where the skeleton of a dead giant awakes and attacks the party as they walk by his swamp.
The party is harassed by a pirate throughout the game. We finally catch up to him and Leandra is none too pleased.
Sometimes you feel like you did a bunch of work, but there's not a lot of graphical accomplishments to back it up. This was one of such weeks. Here's a dead tree I made.
A pirate with horrendous breath poisons someone on the team.
At the beginning of every battle, the objectives for that fight pop up. I thought this one was entertaining.
Depending what path the player goes down, this friendly spider mutant can potentially be the final boss.
This is mum. Hi, mum.
One of the main party members can potentially lose an arm during a critical scene. With enough resources, her arm can be replaced with a mechanical one later in the game.
Ahoy, it's Captain Samuel!
The party buries a fallen comrade.
King Claymoore stuffs his face in front of the party.
A pirate approaches! He's got bad breath.
Another ending panel. This character's story is entwined around a mysterious white book that is found. If it's not dealt with, she meets an ominous end...
Another ending panel - if enough things line up, the main character becomes Empress.
Another ending panel - the main character takes over as head of the Enforcers, the Ghostbusters-esque part of the Empire's armed forces.
I built a quick section into the game where the player gets to play as the dog. He fearlessly jumps into a burning building to save the governor while everyone else stands around outside.
Another one of my ending panels, foretelling an ominous end...
I built my credits scenes this week. It feels... weird. There's still some alternate paths to flesh out, but kinda closing in on the end here.
Nearly 20 years in, I finally have my own house sprites.
I've been building out these freeze-frame type panels for each character as part of their ending for the last couple weeks. A paragraph or two of text combined with some pixel/sprite art. There's about 55 in total. I think it's the most layers I've ever had in a Photoshop file.
The gang retires and grows vegetables to sell in the market. Yes, this is a real potential ending!
Here's a group of intellectual robot cyborgs.
One of the characters picks up a tattered banner.
At a pinnacle moment, one of the playable characters can "transfer" themselves into a machine permanently. Here's their character portrait if they do.
Another character unique ability increases the damage done by the natural environmental effects on the battlefield (represented by yellow squares). So if the player likes to line up or lure enemies into these effects, this new passive ability caters perfectly to that playstyle.
Most of the game's treasure comes in convenient brown boxes, though some of the good stuff is locked in silver and gold chests. Continuing the theme from prevoius weeks, one of the playable characters has a unique passive ability that can unlock the higher end treasure.
Continuing out the unique combat abilities for characters - Senker is the new guy in the group and always gets assigned first watch.
The amounts here make little sense until you play the game, but the last tier doubles movement on the first turn which combos really well with many of the other abilities in the game.
To drip-feed that world lore, there are many readable books in the game. One of the characters is obsessed with reading and now has an ability to slightly power them up whenever the player reads a unique book.
Continuing out the unique combat abilities for characters - this character is extremely hyperactive and twitchy, so she gets a timing meter that pops up when doing damage. If the player hits the green area, they get bonus damage and effects (in this case, stuns the enemy). The location of the green band is randomized each time it occurs.
This was one of those rare times where I made the pictures, coded it all up, made the sound effect, and slapped it together - and it just instantly worked. So I'm feeling like an RPG Maker 2003 pro right now. Can't wait until a bug with a single switch trips me up for a half hour later today.
I'm in the process of granting each playable character a unique, upgradeable, passive combat ability. Something to spice things up and give each character their own little playstyle.
Taylor, the main character, is getting an old standby that you've probably seen in other RPGs - each time she casts a spell, she builds up a counter. When she gets to four counters, her next spell is ultra effective and often can be a turning point in the battle.
I was able to get this working this week, including some UI components in the bottom left of the screenshot here.
New tune! I was originally trying to make this sound happy and lighthearted, but it ended up moody and ominous. Still gonna use it.
More epilogue sequences and alternate wardrobes. Here is our main character if she becomes the Empress.
I'm building out some epilogue sequences and some of the endings require some wardrobe changes. Here is Anderson if the player's choices result in him becoming King.
Today marks four years of weekly updates!
One of the final bosses reveals some magical and mechanical upgrades they've received.
Ye olde fireball sound effect.
A portal sound effect!
I've been developing out the end sequences of the game this week and hit a milestone - that's right, I beat my own game for the first time ever.
OK, that sounds less impressive than it felt.
Ambient sound effects from a flooded alleyway scene, where the gang battles some undead.
Couple weeks ago I posted a gif of petting the cat. Here's the sound of petting the cat, because you gotta commit to it.
Sound effects from one of the final baddies.
Ambient sound effects when one of the characts is alone in a creepy cave.
I've got a batch of new sound effects - this is for an enemy that launches a bunch of bile up into the air that then rains down on the battlefield.
The player places this delayed lightning effect on the battlefield. When it goes off a turn cycle later, any enemies or allies still caught within take heavy damage.
You can now pet the cat!
Get caught standing around in the desert and scarabs swarm you.
The mining city of Lyntori. The stones that light the world are mined exclusively here and the party uncovers their ancient secret.
Filling out the roster of NPCs - this is Alma. She meets a tragic end at the hands of her sister.
After almost 20 years of using the default ship graphic, decided it was time for an upgrade.
Work in progress music for the last town.
The second half of the tune seems like it should probably be the town music by itself, but I kind of got attached to the (long) intro, so it's going to be tough for me to cut.
Oh, and hey, HTTPS on the website now. (got tired of seeing that broken lock image in the browser)
I'm retiring my old overworld music in favor of this tune. I can see myself jamming to this while allocating skill points and choosing weapon upgrades.
I've been continuing to refine this scene over time, where the party meets one of the deities of the world. This deity's symbol is three vertical lines (as seen in last week's update). One of the more "hidden" things from this scene that I hope players pick up on is the formation of trees matching her symbol.
But yea, slow, steady improvement.
Late update this week.
A spirit haunts one of our main characters, leading him on a lonely quest to a distant underground shrine capable of dispelling the haunting. However, the spirit bestows upon him formidable combat magic along the way. When he reaches the shrine, he must decide whether to relinquish his newfound magical abilities in exchange for ridding himself of the haunting spirit once and for all.
Slug-tentacle-monsters burst out of the wall and attack!
Filling in some missing animations for the battle system. This is the base spellcasting animation for the main character in an alternate wardrobe.
A quicker version of last week's desert theme, used for the area's dungeon.
Music for the desert city of Mayka Marr.
A wild battle video appears!
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