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Weekly Update 2020-5 (Development)

5 years ago3,720 words

Here's a brief review of what I achieved in January, a bit more about field mechanics, a model for Deugan, the conversation system, and some stuff about character progression (and menus).

It's February now! Already! I say, even though it feels like these weeks have actually stretched on quite a while for me, and I've got a lot done. Since it's the end of the first month, I thought it'd be interesting to briefly review how much I've done on Divine Dreams since the start of the year.

January Review

This started a bit before January, but I've mostly planned the plot of six reasonably-sized chapters, divided into two trilogies - Belief and Divine Dreams - the second of which I'll make first. I've got most of the characters planned, as seen in this set of silhouettes that I'll start revealing when I start actively trying to build hype for the demo/Kickstarter/whatever I decide to do:


I've built a traditional turn-based battle system, which takes stat simplification to an extreme degree (characters' Body and Mind determine attack, defence, and HP), and which expands on reactions from MARDEK.



I've planned the world to some extent, though some suggestions for new place names weren't well-received. We can work on those at some point, but for now, I'm at least thinking of changing "Lake Lacrimosa" to "Lake Lachryma" or something.



I've started composing some of the music!! Yes!!!

And I've built some basic field mechanics, where areas are built out of blocks, arranged in 'chunks', but I've been unsure how to handle travel between these chunks.



That's quite a lot for one month considering I'm doing it all alone, I'd say! These things do take a lot of time.

This Week...

I've played around a bit more with the field stuff. First, I made some new tiles/objects, and this area, to demonstrate how the actual game areas (rather than just test ones) might look.



The chunks are now a bit wider than they were before, though not hugely so. This is the zoomed-in view, so they fill up most of the screen (with this resolution, at least). Here's how they look zoomed out:



I'm still interested in giving the tiles proper organic borders rather than keeping these hard edges (especially with floor paths), but I've not got around to that yet.

I do quite like those trees though; they turned out a lot better than expected! The same goes for the houses, which are directly based on ∞ the ones in Gemsand in Taming Dreams ∞ (though I want to make the smaller variations too).

Here's something that I experimented with:



This is the result of setting the camera to orthographic mode, which draws the 3D models without any perspective, so they don't even really look 3D. It simulates the look of early RPGs - and of MARDEK - in a way that could be nostalgic... though personally I don't much care for it. These perspectives were only used in the past because the alternative wasn't available, and it feels like a loss to give up on a feeling of a wider world when the potential is there.

A couple of people on Twitter suggested just including both possibilities with a toggle, but I don't want to go down that path. It's important to make a decision and stick to it, because all the areas would need to be built with it in mind. I don't like the "why not both?" path in general, since design doesn't really work that way. It's like if the developers of Wind Waker, uncertain about whether people would like the bold new graphical style, also included a toggle for a more 'standard' look. Would it have diluted the influence that style has had? Or would it have been praised for giving the option? I wonder. I do think it's best to decide on a direction and focus on it though (says I, the technically-unemployed artist/programmer/composer/writer/modeller/animator/whatever with a whole bunch of abandoned projects under my belt).

In that image, the chunks are also stitched together, rather than fading out and in while in view. This is definitely a possibility I can stick with, though the boundaries of the area leading to the void are of course still there. Either I could just leave them connected like this and keep the void surrounding them like this, or another possibility is that I build a large overworld out of many connected chunks that you can walk freely between on foot.

The way the game's structured currently, the game world is made of a bunch of objects called "Areas" that each consist of a 6x6 grid of "Rooms" (like in AFC, if you've played that). The intention was to use a separate "Area" for each, well, area, so a dungeon would be an Area, a town would be another Area, and you'd use a node-based World Map like in MARDEK to instantly leave the current Area and replace it with another. Or maybe it could be a more interactive 3D world map like in the early Final Fantasies.

I could restructure it though so that the overworld consists of one large Area, with dungeons also consisting of their own Areas. The overworld would be larger than a 6x6 grid, though I'm not sure how large. It would be of the northern continent seen in that world map concept ("Godsmind", though I'll likely rename them based on the response to those names). Maybe all the external areas (forests, towns, routes, the lake) would be part of the overworld, while areas like the Cloud-Clad Castle and the Dreamcave would be their own separate internal Areas. An ocean would surround the edges of the map, rather than a void.

(Or maybe - as a technical note-to-self - rooms could be stored with x, y, and z coordinates, meaning that caves or house interiors could be underneath the main overworld, meaning there'd only be one big Area for the entire world... HMM.)

You'd be able to freely bring up a node-based map as well for quick travel between already-visited places.

So overall, it'd be similar to the game world in Pokemon games.

I'm unsure about it, though. Travelling on foot between all the connecting areas would likely aid in immersion, but having to actually build and populate them all would be more time consuming and a greater challenge for me. It might also be like the jumping mechanic in that it detracts from the purpose of the game by cramming in stuff that works better in other genres... though it didn't distract from the primary point of Pokemon? It just made it feel more like an actual adventure, like you were really exploring the whole game world rather than just select bits of it.

Something I quite like is the idea of having "Godsmind" or whatever as this big overworld, but then in the next chapter introducing "Godsbod" as an additional overworld, with travel between them. Ever since playing Pokemon Gold and Silver, I've loved the idea of being able to revisit a prequel game's entire world (I imagine many people who played those would feel this way!), and this might be a way to finally make that dream come true. This was technically the case in MARDEK, but all the areas were just dots on a map so it didn't really feel like it.

Also, MARDEK had those connecting areas between Goznor and Canonia, which I was just going to discard as unnecessary in this, but they'd be granted new life if I decided to do the overworld like this.

The more I think about it, the more I like it, but I can't say I'm decided about it yet. I'm interested to hear your thoughts!



I want to have everything planned before adding more character graphics, but I'd already added Mardek and wanted a non-placeholder ally for him, so here's Deugan:



Unlike Mardek, his look has stayed mostly the same since MARDEK, though here he's given more visual personality. He's meant to look like a sort of nerdy 'beta male' type; the sort of person who'd never had success with women, but who believes that by being confident and protecting them he'll be a good and worthy person. Since I'm that kind of unsexy 'beta male' myself, he looks somewhat uncomfortably like myself in some ways, though - unlike a lot of characters I've written in the past - he's not supposed to be some kind of stand-in for me. He's the sort of person who's embraced being confident in a 'fake it 'til you make it' way, which I never have. He wears a mask, metaphorically, which I can't relate to, but which I imagine more people would be able to relate to than someone more based around my own bizarre insanity (I don't think there's anyone in this story who's very close to my own personality).

I'm unsure about the orange pattern! It's from Taming Dreams, where he was inspired by Enki's mhandisi design sensibilities, but none of that's relevant here. It makes his tunic look less plain, but maybe I'll think about what else I could replace it with that's more relevant to the character. Something he might have chosen to wear to say something about himself. As it is, this reminds me of a jester, or maybe it just looks mediaeval; I've seen the 'gear teeth' thing used as a motif in (fantastical) depictions of clothing from that time.

I like how as this model turns, it's as if he has two different expressions: smirking confidence giving way to the worry within. Not intentional, but a nice outcome!



I've also copied over the conversation system from Belief:



(Also, the beginnings of an interior tileset. Lots of pots, like in my old games!)

I like this because you can see multiple characters' faces at once, which I think adds much more to the interaction than just seeing one character's, or even just seeing a static portrait for a character, or nothing!

My go-to thing when writing silly temporary demo dialogue these days seems to be absurd, inappropriate anger, for whatever reason; it's something I did several times in that brief demo of Belief (":D I'm Salvia!", ">8U Why?!?"), and here's another example. Deugan mentioning that he's Deugan makes me laugh because it's an irrelevant non-sequitur, but I get the feeling it's one of those things that'd be less funny to anyone who's not me.

It's interesting though that Mardek is a participant in this conversation, as shown by his facial reactions. There's potential to 'tell several stories at once' with this kind of thing, I feel.

I'm intending to add varied poses eventually. I've not got around to devoting time specifically to animation stuff yet! All the models have the same animations for that reason.

The game area actually blurs currently when you enter dialogue, to direct your focus away from it, but the gif of that was monstrously huge for whatever reason, so here's a static screenshot:



This Bloke model is just taken from Belief, by the way.



Finally, I've added some basic menus, which means also making decisions about the mechanics-based stuff that the menus actually display. I posted this on Twitter the other day:



That was designed by assembling non-'working' game objects in Unity at runtime, but here's an implemented version of it (a distinction that wouldn't really mean anything to anyone other than me):



I'm not sure though whether I prefer that layout or this one...



...which has the item icons 'float' like in Taming Dreams...



...and AFC:



I've made many menus over the years, and I like how this one's turned out so far. I've been noticing how other games handle menus too; I particularly like...



...the one from Breath of the Wild (very subdued, consistent rather than colourful, somewhat minimalist while also sufficiently complex, blur effect in the background to remove attention from the background without transporting you away from it completely, which I like and ∞ already did in MARDEK ∞ and will do in this too once I figure out how)...



...and Pokemon Sword and Shield (bold, flat colours, different colours for different screens, a cool angle dividing with white to keep things interesting, clean iconic symbols, black and white with circular or straight edges for many menu elements; a lot more modern than some of the ∞ eclectic, colourful, all-over-the-place menu aesthetics from earlier games ∞).

I suppose mobile interfaces have been a big influence on modern UI design, especially with the clean pictoral icons and flat colours. I'm just glad aesthetics have moved beyond elaborate rocky textures, which I never liked and wouldn't have much luck reproducing!



Anyway, back to this menu I've made!



These item sprites are directly lifted from Taming Dreams for the sake of demonstration. I like how they look, since they're reminiscent of my old games and MARDEK's origins, but pixel sprites are annoying with non-fixed resolutions because they become very distorted with even a little bit of scaling. I have an idea about how to remedy that, but it's an annoying technical snag (essentially, enforce the absolute pixel size as a multiple of 16 in whatever screen space the player is using, meaning they'd take up slightly more or less space on different resolutions).

But that's just aesthetics. What you're likely more interested in is the mechanics these screens hint at, so here's what I have in mind:

Equipment
The sole purpose of equipment here is to determine which skills the character can use. Characters could only use skills they had on equipment; they can't master them. All equippable items would be unique to a single character... maybe.

Weapons and shields don't alter attack or defence values; instead, they grant entirely different skills. As such, there wouldn't be many of them, just like how there are a limited number of swords in Zelda games before Breath of the Wild. Each would mean something to the character, then, and acquiring a new one would be a big deal; it wouldn't just be a case of buying a new arsenal in every new town and chucking your old weapons in the rubbish.

Outfits would change the character's appearance, but there wouldn't be many of them. They'd be mostly or entirely plot-related, with probably limited ability to switch between them (Mardek could change between his casual clothes and cherub uniform, maybe, but couldn't remove his seraph uniform and helmet once he has those).

Mementos are essentially accessories, but they're specifically items that remind a character of certain feelings, allowing them to channel those feelings into manipulating the miasma. So they'd all have connections to the character too rather than just being random things you could find or buy (though many/most could remind a character of things you've actually done rather than their unseen past; a boss might drop a memento that reminds them of defeating it, with a skill relevant to that boss, for example).

Here, you can see Body and Mind attack skills, like I showed in the battle demo a few weeks ago. One sword might have "Slash" which, say, deals 40% Body damage, but another might have "Silver Slash", which is Bliss elemental and deals 30% Body damage instead, or 60% against Undead. So it's not a case of being absolutely 'better', and more about increased choice.

"Block" here is a reaction skill, which would activate when you reacted to an enemy's skill. Maybe your reaction could apply to all incoming attacks, but some, like this, might only block Body damage, or Mind damage. I'm still thinking about this.

Skills marked with green and a "..." - like "Naive" here - would be passives, which would always be in effect. Outfits would always have passive skills.

Mementos could grant Body, Mind, or Passive skills. So the slots could be seen as: Main Attack Skill, Reaction Skill, Main Passive, + 3 additional skills.


Skill Development
Skills could be levelled up to Level 6 to change their effects. Each new level might add a bit more damage, or it might add an a chance of additional effects. Like this (from Marvel Strike Force, the gacha game I spent too much of my life playing and have only recently quit):



I'm not sure yet how skills would be levelled up. In that, you used exclusively items to level up skills (and characters in general), but I feel that a big part of typical RPG progression is tied to actually using skills. _So perhaps using them could grant them 1 XP/AP/SP/whatever, and you need increasingly more for each new level, and perhaps you could also find fairly common items which can give points to specific skills. That seems like a nice and easy prize to put in chests or which could be dropped by monsters.


Essences
Since equipment doesn't directly affect stats, the "Essences" here present another possibility, drawing on some of my previous game design ideas.

Essentially, dungeons would have a limited number of battles, and such could be 100% cleared (this would also mean the number of battles was limited, though if I did the overworld thing, perhaps that could use random battles and dungeons could have the fixed encounters?). Each dungeon would have a limited number of monster species, and by clearing out all of that species, you'd acquire its Essence.

Each character could equip six of these Essences. Each one would grant a positive or negative stat change to Body and Mind, plus some degree of resistance to the monster's associated element (the numbers in the lower right are resistances). This would replace the typical level up progression.

One of the issues with MARDEK was that Mardek grew to a huge level quickly since you always had to have him with you, but other characters would join you at too low a level to be useful, and grinding them up would take a long time. Also, characters that you weren't using would fall too far behind for you to ever be able to switch to them.

One common solution to this would be to have characters join at higher levels, and for XP to be distributed even to non-participants. I don't like this though, because what then are XP level even representing? Why would a never-battled self-professed-pacifist inventor be on the same level of battle prowess as a trained knight? I know it's hardly the least realistic thing in the whole swords-and-sorcery fantasy setting, and I don't care much for realism generally, but it's just always annoyed me for some reason.

With these essences, character development becomes reversible and interchangeable. If you decide you want to use a different character, you can remove the essences from another to give to them. You don't have to make any permanent decisions about how you want your character to grow; you can change your mind as much as you want later. And there's a lot of potential for customising different character builds, since everyone could equip every essence.

Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes - a gacha game very much like Marvel Strike Force - had a feature called 'mods', where you could attach six modifier items to change a character's stats.



It was - and is? - widely reviled. That seems to be due to the random nature of these mods though; like in all gacha games, you have to rely on a lucky 'pull' if you want to have the optimal mods for a given character, and of course those use up resources that are bought with real money or accumulated very slowly for free...

I mention that just because it's the first thing that came to mind when I started describing what I have in mind for essences, so I thought other people might think of a similar thing, though I do feel that the non-gacha aspects of it make it completely different. There's no randomness anywhere.

Lore-wise, in a typical RPG progression system, a few monster fights means your swords somehow deal hundreds or thousands of times more damage than they did when you'd just started. What, in those cases, do those numbers even mean? Becoming twice as strong after a long adventure might make some sense, but thousands of times stronger? With this, perhaps the essences could be explained as fragments of elemental power that the characters can call upon to literally alter the fabric of reality, which is how they're able to adjust their own stats and resistances.

When I made Taming Dreams, something that I wanted to do was to keep the traditional dungeon loot chests, but to make them all matter, and to reward finding as many as possible, since that's how I typically play RPGs. I also wanted each monster species to really count for something. Both of those have influenced this idea. I didn't want to have characters actually equip or summon the monsters themselves like in Taming Dreams (even though I really like that system!), but this still gives the feeling of 'capturing' monster species that I quite like.

I've been planning to have at least one character whose main combat role is summoning monsters as additional allies (maybe they could summon just one at once, and it stays until it dies or it's replaced), so perhaps that character could summon any of the monsters they had equipped as essences.

It's still all very conceptual at this point, and I'm curious to hear your thoughts about this!



Finally, here's Deugan (or rather "Dingle", since I've definitely and permanently renamed him to that now) with temporary abilities, Mardek's battle pose, and placeholder equipment, spinning nauseatingly quickly while trying - not very successfully - to maintain eye contact with the camera!