Known Issues with ABS Chapter One Re-release

I’ll be leaving this post to cover any and all discovered bugs and issues with the ABS Re-release  as I don’t plan on releasing and patched versions unless a severe, game breaking bug is discovered, and after going through several dry runs today, I’m fairly confident there should be none of that.  This will just be covering other issues so you can look through and see what bugs you may encounter, or add to the list if you find one.  Will also help me keep up to date on what I need to fix.  Hopefully this list will be fairly small by the time Chapter Two is out 🙂

I’ll mention if each issue has been fixed or not, but these fixes won’t be patched into the current version unless there’s something massive.  Assuming the issues remain superficial I’ll just fix them now and they’ll be sorted by the time the next Demo is released

Chapter One Demo! +Chapter Two plans?

Download the Demo via Mediafire here and play now! 🙂  (link for known issues post at the bottom)
http://www.mediafire.com/?3m05nrxskgs2ycn

Chapter One Demo is now out, after spending the whole day going over it with a fine-tooth to clear out as many bugs as possible and add in as much polish as I could manage before I KO’d! 😀

Chapter One includes:

• 1~2 hours of gameplay, varying on your preference for optional content and cutscenes alone; spend more time exploring for those optional cutscenes and find that optional dialogue; it’s all these tibdits of information that reveal more about the characters and the plot!
• Access to one title, a dozen and a half character costumes, and three classes – the code for the third class will be revealed at the end of the demo
• Two exciting and varied boss battles
• A kick-ass stealth level that’s really pretty basic, but fun nonetheless
• Play as Three different characters, each with a variety of optional party members to join you, including a badass Goblin War Chief
• Tasks Log covering two missions; keep up to date with them
• Some monsters will now flee from you instead of chase you
• Many more items overall and more to be found planted across the levels
• Much more random dialogue crap in the NPCs that you will never talk to! 😀

As for Chapter Two, it’ll be the same theme but the intention is to free the reigns a bit.  Chapter one has been heavily story driven with a lot of compulsory cutscenes, but chapter two will finally open up the open-world view a bit more, giving you access for a choice of quests and missions and a bit of “you time” before blasting back into the thick of the story.  Although what happens in chapter two may appear as a break from the intense War story, it’s actually more relevant than any of the characters might have guessed at first!  Dum dum dummmm!

There will also be more of Khas’ cool lighting script and a bit more focus on puzzle dungeons rather than just mob-fests, as well as a bigger, happier hub area.  So far, I’m pretty excited about it!

Finally, if there’s any bugs, discrepancies, problems or even just “it’s crap”nesses about the Chapter One demo, do let me know so I can get around to fixing it! I’ve made a separate post for Known Issues to list out such problems.  Anyhoo, hope you enjoy it 🙂

The Wee Touches

After spending an hour now writing up a variable and dozens of conditional branches combined with self-switches so that each and every NPC, villager, and otherwise non-story-essential person will not only have different dialogue options when you talk to them, but never repeat the same line twice in a row, I start to wonder if anyone will ever, ever notice this.  Typically, a normal person (myself included) will just clicky a person once to see what they say.  Twice maybe, if they’re curious and happen to know there’s multiple chat options…but when you’re in an area with a half dozen people and have an exciting mission to go to kill a dragon or save the girl, you’re never really that inclined to keep testing the limits of the NPCs ability to talk shite to you, so all the other available chat options become wasted, lost, forgotten.

Yet I can’t convince myself to stop doing it and just leave it as a static chat box.  I just feel compelled to make sure that I’m trying to pay attention to the small touches.  They’re the ones that count after all, eh?

Context

Context changes a lot of things, I believe.  It’s a heavy basis of how the story of DotI came around, knowing that something that comes across as irrefutably evil and wrong can be seen in a completely different light, given the right circumstances.  The story is about people who change their stories, hidden figures, deceit, disguise and mystery, all the things that cloud judgement and cloak context, making the true nature of any one event hard to read.  To add onto that, the characters all have ambiguous natures and goals; it’s never exactly certain what they’re thinking or why they’re doing this, and I’m trying to bleed that into the story from the start; giving a very one-sided, flat concept, then throwing some ambiguity at it to create that speckle of doubt about it.

It’s the “Dance” of Immortals because nothing is just a straight line, no one is just a mug shot, nothing’s that simple.  Everything is in constant motion, the characters are all moving around and changing their minds and having secret agendas… it’s more like a dance: looking at it in pieces and short segments looks like people just falling around aimlessly, but from my side, when you know what’s happening with everything at once, it’s more of a dance, more flowing than that.  Everyone’s going to where they’re supposed to be, but they’re not just walking there in a fashion that makes it simple to uncover from just looking at a step at a time.  Question really is; which one of them is who they appear to be?  Which one of them is actually evil?  Any at all?  Everyone

As an example, Chapter One introduces the Imperials fairly strongly.  They’re our bad guys, they’re destroying an innocent archipelago full of innocent folk.  Take that one piece of information and we have a typically “evil empire” scenario.  But that’s too boring, too cliche, no?  So we throw in a few curve balls at their story.  There’s a few cutscenes on the island as you run around as Kata, each tossing out some other viewpoints.  Then at the end of the chapter they’re brought up again and once more you get a different question about their motives.

I believe that context can change the world; had my fair share of being judged and abused based on one snippet of information taken out of context and it happens a lot.  People have a habit of seeing one side of things and accepting that as the raw truth, forgetting that everything is three dimensional and has different viewpoints.  I’m trying, I’m hoping, that I can bring that sense of context into this game, and really encourage the idea that you need to focus on more than just what you see at first.

“Khas’ Awesome Lighting Effects” script

Just got alerted to a lighting script by Avanura Seta, on the rpgmakervxace forums, in the name of improving the Hideout Tunnels level, where the gimmick is that bats only attack from the shadows.  I had just abused shadow pen all over the world and think it looked pretty good, definitely served it’s purpose at least.  Will continue to use shadow pen around as it gives good wee shadowed areas without the need for hasslesome tint screen effects for the sake of small corners and such.

However, for that particular map, the script was perfect; creating a dark, hazey light in the dungeon with some glowing torches around the walls, candles on tables and such.  It intensified the vibe to a whole new level, really giving the feel that the Hideout is underground in some dank tunnel or cave, rather than a badly lit basement.

The difference is crazy!  Not only just the glowing light, but the general mood has been brought to life, really creates that atmosphere you want.

http://www.rpgmakervxace.net/topic/1003-khas-awesome-light-effects-10/

The Tunnels with the shadow pen only.

The Tunnels in the same spot with Khas’ lighting script.

Bannertime!

Got myself wanting to improve upon my signature image.  Instead of having just a cut-out of the Title Screen image I went for a banner!  Of course I’ve never really got down the knack of making beautiful looking banners; mine always come off looking a bit stale, but what the hell!  Still looks better than a big blocky cut-out.  I have a couple more variations on the characters chosen, and will try to come up with more to have more of an option and add them to my Support page at the top and see if I can’t get someone to help out and make some perfect and shiny ones for me! 🙂

Vuroja makes an appearance for my first DotI banner!

Chapter One: what to expect!

So far the Demos have been just smaller updates of the previous ones.  I’ve only got the three important ones listed within the version history as they have the greatest changes; from the 2k3 alpha, to the VXA transfer, then the update with various scripts and style changes, that basically changed the whole flow of the game.  For the fourth demo I’ve been waiting for a more significant milestone, and the end of Chapter one seems like the way to go.  Some notes on what to expect in the Demo are at the bottom.  I plan on taking a bit longer to really polish up the first chapter and make sure it has as few bugs and problems as possible so it’s the top of its game, allowing me to leave a fair time till the next demo.

I’ve focussed on balancing much of the enemies, making them easier within the Hideout so that they don’t tear you apart as soon as you start, but progress smoothly from therein.  Skills have been balanced slightly and much more have been added in, now giving every character two sub-skill types and access to skills therein at different levels, keeping the classes varied and different from each other.  This as well as parameter changes and stat balances I think I have the two classes nice and equal, for all intents and purposes.  I’ve also been going over and polishing up odds and ends, fixing bugs and trying to make everything look cleaner, as well as bringing in random chats for NPCs and making the areas feel a bit “fuller”.  Also added in lots more items and weapons.

The rest of chapter one also includes a mini stealth level that has no combat and is mainly about timing to dodge the guards watch, and a heated battlefield area with a much higher level character.  The story advances a fair amount as well, and introducing plenty more questions about what’s going down in later chapters and preparing for the stage of the game where you get a bit more freedom.

Chapter Two will start off with more freedom in the game, giving you some open-choices and versatility rather than locking you down into a linear path, although it has to be kept in mind that the game is reliant on the story being played out, so freedom does come with some restrictions.

By the end of the Demo, you’ll receive a code that will unlock some more character costumes and another class to playtest the game again with, giving you some replay value for the first chapter, although this won’t much affect the sections where you don’t play as your main character.  There’s also some other character costumes that can be unlocked and discovered; the unlockables are all logic based and can be guessed, and the hidden ones just take a bit of exploration.  There will be more and more costumes being added to the selection as I advance the game, as well as classes.

What’s in the upcoming Chapter One Demo, you ask?

• Play as 4 different characters and have many more team mates in different situations, most of them optional!
• 18 possible character costumes (although to be fair, one of them is inaccessible until chapter two is released), including two monsters!  Unlock these with secret codes, finding secret areas or by accomplishing specific tasks and goals
• Keep up to date with your objectives with a “Tasks Log” that describes your current goalss as you advance
• 3 “pages” to be collected that give small insights into the history and background of the world
• Dynamic monster encounter situations, with both random battles and enemies that chase and run away from you
• 2 exciting boss battles, as well as a few more mini-bosses
• A stealth area requiring you to sneak through city streets
• An intense, high level section with lots of combat and theatrics
• Multiple insights into the story progression from the point of view of various characters

The blog begins!

So, I first had my project listed only on one forum, hoping for some critique, inspiration, suggestions, advice etc (and aye, just that wee bit of gratification, who doesnae?) but upon realising the forum was relatively dead compared to when I first joined some years ago, I moved up, listed the game and my thread across a couple of other forums.  Then realised that updating it in even the slightest was a total hassle, having to do it three times and taking so, so much longer.

So!  I’m bringing everything together into a central hub, where I can make all the updates, blether and everything I’d like without having to triple up or spam posts and feel like I’m double/triple postin’ out the ass.

I’ve put all the main details stuff in the Game Details link at the top, including the blurb, a wee “about me” section, features of the game and then another area to cover screenies, links to demos (with version history) and videos when I can get one made.  The rest of the posts will just be my blether about the project, and/or updates and monologues! 🙂