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KickStarter Himeko Sutori, tactical JRPG, 100+ unit armies

Nathaniel3W

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Alright, here's the big world map update:



I've tried to take the advice from this forum and elsewhere to improve on the stuff you saw previously. It's not quite perfect yet, but I think we've come a long way. More detail on the process over at the Kickstarter page. Thanks everyone for your help and input.

Oh, and Mr. Pink I've downloaded the mask and bookmarked those pages. I'll definitely use that first the next time I start on anything the user will have to look at.
 

Bigg Boss

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I've been following this thread for some time now. I really like the progress you made. Keep up the good work and don't give up.
 

Nathaniel3W

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I've been following this thread for some time now. I really like the progress you made. Keep up the good work and don't give up.

Thanks so much. I actually looked back at some of my videos and realized that two years ago I launched my first (failed) Kickstarter. At the time I thought I had most of the big systems fleshed out. ("Ha! Foolish mortal!" --some videogame god, probably.)

I think I'm actually going to finish this game. Hopefully in two or three months I'll have a simple campaign (not the full, deep story I promised so long ago) and a fully functional campaign builder that I'll release to Kickstarter backers and maybe some others who want to test and maybe help me build the main campaign.
 

Bigg Boss

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I've been following this thread for some time now. I really like the progress you made. Keep up the good work and don't give up.

Thanks so much. I actually looked back at some of my videos and realized that two years ago I launched my first (failed) Kickstarter. At the time I thought I had most of the big systems fleshed out. ("Ha! Foolish mortal!" --some videogame god, probably.)

I think I'm actually going to finish this game. Hopefully in two or three months I'll have a simple campaign (not the full, deep story I promised so long ago) and a fully functional campaign builder that I'll release to Kickstarter backers and maybe some others who want to test and maybe help me build the main campaign.


It has come a long way. Props for sticking to it. One thing I have learned is to dial back your aspirations when it comes to story. Darth Roxor's latest article on writing drove the point home.
 

Mustawd

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Not a bad update!

Question, is your main campaign going to have randomized placement of enemies, or will you hand place them?
 

Nathaniel3W

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Question, is your main campaign going to have randomized placement of enemies, or will you hand place them?

It'll be a mix of both. This is how it works: In the campaign editor I make a new object called an army template. The army template has some fields I can fill in, which include infantry templates, archer templates, min and max army size, desired squad size, and some booleans for whether the army is organized/disorganized and aggressive/nonaggressive. Then I give those army templates to the game loop and tell it to make some armies every hour until it reaches maximum desired instances. When you fight one of those armies, the game looks to see whether the enemy army is organized or disorganized. If organized, it'll line up the troops. If disorganized, it will place them randomly across the battle map. I haven't implemented aggression yet.

Slimes, wolves, and unled undead will be disorganized. Goblins, orcs, ogres, human troops, and necromancers with undead will all be organized. Most of them will be aggressive, meaning they will attack you first if given the opportunity. Slimes will be nonaggressive, which means they will sit there until attacked.
 

Nathaniel3W

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March update is here: campaign switching from the main menu, more variation in character portraits, graphical improvements, random loot, and level-up cards. We're really fleshing out the minor systems and making the game look presentable.

 

Nathaniel3W

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Screenshot dump time! New test campaign is underway. I have a couple more major bugs to fix before uploading this build to Steam, but the game is playable with all major features more or less working as intended.

Scripted stuff from the introduction. Some of the testers mentioned not knowing how to control the game, so there's a very brief tutorial-and-story-introduction section in this test campaign. I'm getting better at gameplay scripting, so I should be able to put together cutscenes much faster now.
EmiTalking.jpg


Latest iteration of the world map implements some tricks to optimize depth precision for faraway views. I also implemented a depth-of-field focus effect. As you zoom in on your characters, the view levels out, and as you zoom out, the camera tilts down for a more overhead view.
WorldMapArmies.jpg


Making new battle maps, trying to give each one some personality. On this "grasslands" map, I thought a bridge battle would be more interesting than just slugging it out on an open field.
AttackBridge.jpg


Here's a forest battle map at night. I think the hand-crafted battle maps are prettier and more interesting than the World Machine maps I was trying to make before. I think it also just works better with the cartoony sprites and tactical gameplay.
ForestNight.jpg


And the same map during the day:
ForestDay.jpg


And here's a cave map. Right now there's a major bug somewhere that's preventing the nodes in only this level from connecting to each other, so the player and computer armies can't reach each other. That's going to be the first thing I tackle in October.
Skeletons.jpg


It's probably for the best though that I can't fight this army yet. They would tear my guys to shreds. And right now I think the game difficulty is too hard in general. I need to give the player more starting units and make the battle loot worth enough to pay for losses and then some, so long as you're fighting battles you can win.

So I still have some bugs to fix, and some balancing, and I'd like to add a little more content. But I think that October is finally the month when I can release a playable test campaign.
 

Nathaniel3W

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OK, time for another screenshot dump. I like the battle maps from the beta, so I'm going to keep those in the official campaign. But I'm redoing the starting town. It has tons of scripted camera movements, dialogues with the player, and even some conversations between NPCs. The detail and the scripting is a little time-consuming, but I think it makes for a fun introduction to the game.

A view of the town from the opening credits:
Sunrise_Falls_credits.jpg


The same town, which you get to explore in-game:
Sunrise_Falls.jpg


Your first task involves checking on parts of the city, to get you used to the controls and to provide a little plot exposition:
Sunrise_Tower.jpg


Everyone reminds you to stay away from the town's world gate, but what you do is your choice:
Sunrise_Gate.jpg


You should be able to win the first battle in the game, but you'll still want to take care of these characters. Your dog and your fairy companion can die this early in the game if you're not carful.
Sunrise_Battle_2.jpg


Here is the tavern where you'll collect a few more party members before heading out into the world. I still need to add some people to the tavern.
Sunrise_Tavern.jpg


Right now, the starting town is mostly done. After this, we'll have some encounters outside of town, and then when you return, the story's catalyst kicks everything into action.
 

Mr. Pink

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Are the portraits temporary art or will they be in the final game, because they're really ugly looking and I think even I could draw better ones.
 

Nathaniel3W

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Mr. Pink You're not the only one who dislikes the portraits. But honestly, replacing them is pretty low on my priorities list. If someone were to suddenly hand over a bunch of Tactics Ogre portraits (with swappable hair and clothing layers) I would gladly put the new portraits in. But I have exactly $0.00 to spare on this project right now. Maybe I could offer revenue share to a good artist, but most serious artists want cash up front.
 

Merlkir

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Considering they're probably modular paperdoll kind of portrait, they look fine.
 

Nathaniel3W

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Gif time:

Walking around the tavern
HS_Tavern_optimized.gif


Start of a story battle
HS_EnteringCamp_optimized.gif

Oh, and the autosave actually works now.

Combat
HS_BellamyFight_optimized.gif


Cutscene with some custom color-grading. I used color grading before to change the scene's tint based on time of day. This is my first time trying to change it manually.
HS_TimeGate_optimized.gif


And we are almost done with chapter 1. I've got one more area to build, and one more story battle. After that, we go into chapter 2.
 

ERYFKRAD

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What're the odds we can de-weeaboo the characters? Game itself seems like it'd lend itself well to a Black Company-style game.
 

Nathaniel3W

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ERYFKRAD It should actually be pretty easy. I'm including the editor with the game. The characters are just layers of sprites and when you make a new character you can put in any sprites you want. The portraits too. The difficulty is mostly a function of variety. If you just want a couple of different weapons, and a couple of different uniforms, you could do that really quickly. But if you're making a game with hundreds of different items (like what I'm doing) that will take a while.
 

Nathaniel3W

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And we have started chapter 2 with the heroes stepping through the world gate and into the Shadowlands. I wanted this world to feel dangerous, but not so much that the player wouldn't want to explore.

We've got some new enemies.
HS_Shadowland_Battle_01.jpg


You won't find many settlements here, but you can trade with the caravans that are passing through. (Error in this screenshot, where the characters have lighting that is much later in the day than the environment. I fixed it, but didn't take a new screenshot.)
HS_Shadowland_Caravan.jpg


The world is much less inviting than the previous world map. Maybe I need to do something to make it less drab.
HS_Shadowland_04.jpg


I'm aiming for kind of a haunted forest feeling. Now that I'm looking at it, something seems wrong with that grass. I'm going to go make it darker.
HS_Shadowland_Outpost_a.jpg
 

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