Alora Fane

This week, I've redesigned the overworld a bit, composed some music for it, and planned and started making some monsters to populate it!

Depression got in the way a bit this week, so I didn't do as much as I might have liked. I still got a few things done though! I'll save the rants about the causes of that for the personal and new promotion post categories.

Also, this isn't really week 3 since I've been working on this in some way or another for months now; I talked about my uncertainty about what week to label these posts last week. I think I'll just use this number though, whatever!

Progress Bar

Despite setting this thing up, it's pretty much unchanged since last week even though I have got some stuff done, and I'm now quite far behind my predictions.

This is entirely because of how vague the tasks on it are. The remaining tasks for the second week are "Build overworld" and "Plan and make monsters for overworld", which seemed entirely doable when I wrote them in, but ludicrously vague in hindsight. I also haven't ticked off this week's tasks, though there are only two: "finish making overworld monsters" and "dialogue scenes for overworld".

So this weekend, I'll revise this to include more granular tasks so it's less useless and I'm not complaining about this same issue every week.

Overworld Layout

In last week's post, I included this image:

As I've said previously, Atonal Dreams will be set on a single island which has an 'overworld', 'underworld', and access to the drealm, representing life, death, and transcendence. Originally I planned for this overworld to be one fairly large chunk, which is what I'd started building there.

However, I didn't like the feel of this, either to play with or to make. It felt both restrictive and overwhelming, since the whole game world was one small island, but the layout of that island was rather convoluted, even confusing, with everything crammed in and overlapping.

For a while now, I've wanted to make a game where the playable world is divided into small, easily-mentally-digestible chunks, either floating islands or ocean islands or something similar. It's why I liked the dissolving dioramas concept I had for Divine Dreams early in the year. I personally love the feeling of completion this affords, kind of like a story divided into short chapters, or even a blog post divided into paragraphs.

The petal the Bold inhabit has been an archipelago of small islands in a ferocious sea since their conception, so that means I can do something like this without deviating from what I've already established of the lore.

(As an aside, I've been calling the Bold's petal the "Bronze Archipelago" since the beginning, but I want to come up with a new name. A map for Divine Dreams used "Numina", but that's a continent in the petal rather than the petal itself. I don't know what Atonal Dreams' setting is called and should really give that some thought!)

Previously, I drew out the layout of the island like this:

The structure is carefully planned: you start on the south-western beach in a battle (against Pierce) to introduce combat mechanics. This is followed by a bit of exposition in a conversation between Savitr and Collie. They then travel through a battle-ridden linear path towards the monastery to gradually familiarise the player with the gameplay. After a short route, they reach an obstacle which must be unlocked by gathering six items in any order by travelling down sub-paths; the acquisition of each item would also trigger a dialogue scene hinting at Collie's and Savitr's backstories and relationship. Once these items are gathered, you unlock the boss (in a way I think is interesting but won't spoil), then the monastery, where there's more chance to delve into deeper lore and talk to people before progressing to the underworld section with a new ally. A fairly typical game progression which hopefully appeals to people who enjoy battling, lore, and exploration.

These paths are shown as different-coloured lines on this drawing. It's a mess, though! You weave back and forth around the island's cliffs, and while testing what I built of it, I found it confusing.

So here's a revision:

(Less colour means less clarity; I made it for myself and didn't know I'd be showing it!)

This time, you start on an island in the middle, with the obstacle to the north, and the monastery just beyond that. So the first linear path involves weaving around this little island, then once you reach the obstacle, you have to return to the beach where you started and travel across the seas freely to look for six other islands to get items from.

These islands wouldn't be large! Here's the basic structure of the one you start on:

Adding decorations to the bare ground makes a huge difference:

So having less land to fill in this way is less daunting a prospect for me as the developer. With the larger island, I thought "god, I have to fill it all up with decoration ALL AT ONCE, but that's so mentally taxing that I can't do it now, I'll do it later". Like the thought of writing a whole essay instead of just writing a paragraph. The thought of decorating a smaller island is way more digestible.

I could also use this starting island as the demo.

And the thought of discovering the other little islands by yourself feels more satisfying than just backtracking a lot over the one you started on.

So I like this idea. However...

Crossing the Seas

How do I handle this aspect? I've been thinking about it a bit.

Lore is important to me - obviously - so I needed for there to be something clearly shown in the game world to explain how Savitr and Collie got to the island in the first place. So this is something I'd need to tackle regardless.

Late last year, when the thing I was working on was called Belief (I'd say that's morphed into this rather than me 'giving up' Belief exactly, though I want to reuse some mechanics of that in a future thing if sticking with this seems feasible), I gave some thought to how the Bold traversed their archipelago.

Here's some concept art:

They're called 'paroats', and they're a cross between parrots and boats (and horses). Parrots because the Bold were originally designed with a pirate aesthetic, plus I suppose it works well for a JRPG because they're similar to chocobos. Belief's protagonist - who's riding one there - is called Lileah, so their tail feathers look like a lily pad.

I could return to that idea, maybe. Savitr could have a white one which is long enough that four people could sit on it. Or would just he sit on it while your allies disappear? Would I need to do mounting and dismounting animations? Figure out how to code and animate your character(s) riding it? Would you be able to ride it ONLY on the sea? What would it do while you were off exploring the island??

A boat might address some of those issues, but would be less interesting.

There could also be alternate magical means like water-walking or even flight, which might be easier to implement, but have a lot of implications for the workings of the world.

So this is something I'll need to give some thought!

Overworld Music

I've also composed some music for the overworld, which I'm really pleased with (and keep listening to over and over)!

From now on, I'll post most or all of the music I compose for the game on ∞ my Patreon ∞, as I already have done with this.

Monster Designs

There's little I can actually do with the game at the moment other than run around an empty island. I need to add some monsters, and I don't want to just reuse (all of) the ones I already made for Divine Dreams' dreamcave.

These monsters form from mental states, so I want them to look the part rather than having the generic orcs and lizardmen and bees or whatever.

I've enjoyed designing 'miasmon' in the past, and there are a lot of those I could draw on or even reuse outright. None of them really felt appropriate for this area, though, which is meant to represent LIFE, and which surrounds a monastery full of monks.

Scheduling creativity is unreliable though. So even though I might give myself a day or two to 'come up with monsters', it doesn't guarantee that any good ideas will actually come to me!

Here's some concept art:

I was struggling, so I made a randomiser to give me a random element and two of the 'body types' the game uses:

Some interesting ideas there, though I felt they weren't exactly relevant to the area. So rather than just using these superficial aspects as a starting point, I made a list of all the characters - including the monks - and what their thoughts might be during this story, and how those thoughts might manifest.

Eventually I ended up with this (to-scale) lineup:

A little bit about each monster:

Pawnite (Courage/Warrior/Beast) is chess pawn + paw (dog) + knight. Represents Collie's doggy courage, Savitr's thoughts about being used, and how Pierce sees monsters (as pawns to use). There'd be a black Destruction-elemental variant, which might share the same name. Seems a good first monster to introduce the switching-sides mechanics with (even though that's not something that happens in chess).

Somunculimp (Bliss?/Fey/Cellular) is based on the ∞ cortical homunculus ∞ (putting my Psychology degree to good use!!), and as such would represent 'brain given form' in a general sense rather than specific thoughts. They could be used to fill the 'goblinoid fodder' niche, then. I wasn't sure about the element; none of them really fit for what's essentially a representation of physical perception. Somatic + homunculus + imp.

Brigrrnd (Destruction/Beast/Warrior?) is a bandit wolf, born of Collie's thoughts about the Blight Wolves. I struggled with the name, to the point where I made a grid of 'wolf words' and 'bandit words' and their combinations. Here are a few: Lupandit, Brigrrnd, Outlawolf, Outlupe, Howlaw, Outpaw, Pawrauder. Mania also suggested Desperadog on Twitter, which I like, though I wanted to go with the 'wolf' angle explicitly rather the tamer connotations of 'dog'. "Schoundrel" also came to me later, though that has the same issue. I chose Brigrrnd (from brigand + grr) because 'grr' could also be seen as an emotional expression, which fits nicely. Whatever!

Psyclops (Bliss/Arcane) needs some design improvements! It's based on the monks, but also something else you should understand if you've been following this blog for a while.

Coconatal (Creation/Plant) represents life: seeds, eggs, babies. It's a raw coconut, with a tree as sprouting leaves. Coconoct (Creation/Plant/Undead) would be its undead version. Both were derived from the coconoct design I've been using for many years in other projects, and which I fully intended to reuse here, though I thought this redesign was more interesting.

Contemplato (Bliss/Golem) represents the 'ancient ruins' look of the islands. It's a golem meditating. The name's from temple + contemplate + Plato because of the philosopher and because I think it sounds like the name of a silly robot from Futurama or something.

Rexplorer (Courage/Dragon) is obviously a T-rex combined with an explorer, a representation of pure exploration. It doesn't really make sense for the setting of this world, which doesn't have dinosaurs as a cultural thing like we do, and I've been wondering to what extent that matters, Though you could say that even lore-heavy fantasy games make heavy use of things that shouldn't exist in a non-Earth world, since they're so embedded in our basic understanding of reality that it'd be too alien otherwise. I think too much about such things!

Of the monsters I made months ago, I think I'll definitely reuse Stratapillar, since that's appropriate for the setting. Maybe I'll also include Buddhafly as some optional superboss you can unlock by doing something involving Stratapillars.

Pawnite Model

I posted some progress pictures of this on ∞ my Twitter account ∞, which I'll continue doing (I'm currently trying to decide which posts are worthy of a tags like hashtag-gamedev or hashtag-indiedev...). Here's the result:

Annoyingly, I forgot the tail! I'll need to add one.

Also, since I find this interesting, here's the process in one image:

If I worked in a team where the concept artist and 3D people were separate, the concept would have to be fully refined before any modelling started. But since I'm doing it alone and trying to be as quick as possible, I do have the opportunity to tweak things a lot during every stage. Not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it is what it is!

My goal for next week is to have models and animations for several - or all - of these monster types, so then I can add them to this island and run around battling them. Let's see how that goes!

13 COMMENTS

Astreon152~4Y

I like those monsters design !

Can't help much with the maps struggles, but i thought of something for the Parroats.

Couldn't they be sea creatures you'd call upon only when you need to cross over to another island ? Meanwhile they'd just live their own secret lives under the sea (unless you wanna add some lore there, or a bonus story called parroat"s undercurrent adventures !)

Now, how would you call your parroat when you need it ? Simple: Savitr and Collie are carrying musical weapons, couldn't they just play a melody to call for the parroat when needed ?

You could even add a small musical part to play for the summon, simulating Sindrel's songs (who knows what interest it might draw to it). If you have time, in case of failure (wich would be unlikely unless one really plays random tunes), there can be another sea monster that pops up (with or without a fight ensuing), and Savitr would scold Callie for messing up (or pat her if she did well).

Tobias 1115~4Y

That's certainly an interesting idea! I'm reminded of the ride Pokemon from Pokemon Sun & Moon, which you could summon instantly but which disappeared when not in use. Very practical from a gameplay standpoint.

I wondered though whether having a single paroat with a name that belongs to Savitr might add some emotional connection... though maybe that's not as important as gameplay efficiency.

I would want to stress efficiency and avoid feature creep, though, so turning it into a minigame with a potential for failure with consequences would probably get old quite quickly! Recently I've been playing Pokemon HeartGold, and realising how low my tolerance is for HMs, with all their restrictions and inconvenience...

Having music to summon them would make sense though. And maybe they could have a new aquatic redesign, like seals or something? Certainly something to think about, so thanks for the idea!

Astreon152~4Y

I personnally had Zelda in mind. Windwaker aside, every once in a while you'd have to play the ocarina to activate something, with a very crude melody of 4-5 notes. Failing would be harder than succeeding.

I was thinking something along those lines. Anyway it's not like you'd use the boat, so have the need to call it, more than 5-6 times ?

Astreon152~4Y

Also, as far as gameplay is concerned, it might be interesting if at some point your team had to temporarily split in 2:2, in order to simultaneously activate some sort of 2-step device to clear the path.
Could be on the same island or 2 different ones.

Tobias 1115~4Y

Things like that are always interesting, and I can imagine the silly scenes that might play out if any two of these odd characters paired up! It's not part of the plan I've already made, but maybe something like that could work as a brief side thing somewhere.

Falcon64~4Y

Maybe there could be some sort of extra "sentiment" that represents the combination of all sentiments, or pure "thought" matter, for miasmon like Somunculimp? It could perhaps be problematic gameplay-wise, but seemingly there is already a seventh "Aether" element, so perhaps you've accounted for something like this already?

The first time I saw the name and design of Pawnite, I was sure that "ignite" was part of the name as well! You've never mentioned that, though, and it seems as if you've removed the "candle" element from the final design.

I do think the paroats are much cooler for multiple reasons than more generic means of oversea travel. They add worldbuilding potential, make the setting seem more internally realistic and unique, and provide an element that could stick in people's minds (like FF's chocobos).

Separating the overworld into multiple islands and releasing the first one as the demo sure seems to solve the conundrum of releasing Atonal Dreams to gauge interest for similar projects, but not being able to provide a demo for it!

Though you seem to be dissatisfied with your rate of progress, to me it seems amazing how much you're able to get done in such a short amount of time, especially as a lot of it is creative/conceptual work, which needs inspiration! I personally struggle with doing the latter in any sort of timely manner. Techniques such as randomly rolling a combination of miasmon concepts to bounce off of seem really useful!

The first time I saw the name and design of Pawnite, I was sure that "ignite" was part of the name as well! You've never mentioned that, though, and it seems as if you've removed the "candle" element from the final design.

I do think the paroats are much cooler for multiple reasons than more generic means of oversea travel. They add worldbuilding potential, make the setting seem more internally realistic and unique, and provide an element that could stick in people's minds (like FF's chocobos).

Separating the overworld into multiple islands and releasing the first one as the demo sure seems to solve the conundrum of releasing Atonal Dreams to gauge interest for similar projects, but not being able to provide a demo for it!

Though you seem to be dissatisfied with your rate of progress, to me it seems amazing how much you're able to get done in such a short amount of time, especially as a lot of it is creative/conceptual work, which needs inspiration! I personally struggle with doing the latter in any sort of timely manner. Techniques such as randomly rolling a combination of miasmon concepts to bounce off of seem really useful!

Tobias 1115~4Y

There's already the Apathy element, which is essentially non-elemental/'Normal', which I considered using for Somunculimp. I might, especially if they'd be filling that niche. Makes no less sense than the other elements!

The 'ignite' is why I made it look like a candle! I also associate the -ite suffix with something small or a follower, but I looked up the etymology to see if that was a commonly-known thing and didn't find much.

I'm glad I'm not seeming too slow! I suppose I feel I have to speed up because what I'm making will take months to actually bear real fruit. I often wish I were doing something where I could release a Finished Thing regularly, instead of just bits of that thing over months...

Random generators are great ways of giving yourself ideas for what to make, to stretch the creative muscles! Something I should do more often for fun, probably!

Maniafig222~4Y

Is the progression between the overworld and the underworld linear, or is there some backtracking through the overworld or additional overworld areas once you've reached the underworld?

I don't think you've characterized the sea in the Bronze Archipelago as ferocious before! How does the sea work anyway, does it wrap around on itself, much like the Earth? Or is there some sort of edge if you sail far enough in one direction? Are there Flat Petal conspiracies?!

I do like the idea of having several self-contained islands! It gives more concrete sub-goals to work towards, as each island is finished one by one, rather than having one big island to solve.

I like the design of those paroats!

The way I imagine it'd work is that you talk to the paroat at the beach, choose which island to go to from a list/map, then the screen fades to black and a short scene plays of the party sitting on a paroat going through the water, then it cuts to black again with the party on the destination beach. The scene for crossing the sea could be the same regardless of the starting and destination points.

The headless horsemantis is amusing! That's one I hope you use at some point, it could do all sorts of silly things with its detached head!

I like the Homonculimp too! I would totally hug and smooch it.

I also like the idea of there being black and white Pawnite, just like in a game of chess. And of course the ideas of white knights and black knights are quite evocative, too!

Psyclops is a very simple and elegant pun! I also like how reminiscent the design is of the Atonae, it instantly reminded me of them. I assume their singular eye is much like the awakened third eye of the Magisterium. It also vaguely makes me think of a Bishop, in line with the Pawnite.

I'm glad to see Coconoct is back, and with a new form as well! Is there going to be an afterlife variation too? Coconext World?!

I like Contemplato and it's 50% because it amuses me to read its meditative pose as giving two OK gestures. Aside from that it's also just a good name, and a very clear design.

Rexplorer amuses me! I think Ghraafuar would keep them as pets. Ghraa-fuar-fuar-fuar! I also don't really think it matters whether or not Rexplorer makes complete sense in the context of the world itself, it's more important that it leaves an impression on the player!

Brigrrnd kinda sticks out among the design since it's just not very interesting. It's still just a wolf with some motifs added to it. It feels undercooked, relative to the rest of the line-up.

The finished Pawnite is a lot more reminiscent of the Seraphim than the orginal, which reminded me a bit of a monk in robes. I like the 3D model!

Is the progression between the overworld and the underworld linear, or is there some backtracking through the overworld or additional overworld areas once you've reached the underworld?

I don't think you've characterized the sea in the Bronze Archipelago as ferocious before! How does the sea work anyway, does it wrap around on itself, much like the Earth? Or is there some sort of edge if you sail far enough in one direction? Are there Flat Petal conspiracies?!

I do like the idea of having several self-contained islands! It gives more concrete sub-goals to work towards, as each island is finished one by one, rather than having one big island to solve.

I like the design of those paroats!

The way I imagine it'd work is that you talk to the paroat at the beach, choose which island to go to from a list/map, then the screen fades to black and a short scene plays of the party sitting on a paroat going through the water, then it cuts to black again with the party on the destination beach. The scene for crossing the sea could be the same regardless of the starting and destination points.

The headless horsemantis is amusing! That's one I hope you use at some point, it could do all sorts of silly things with its detached head!

I like the Homonculimp too! I would totally hug and smooch it.

I also like the idea of there being black and white Pawnite, just like in a game of chess. And of course the ideas of white knights and black knights are quite evocative, too!

Psyclops is a very simple and elegant pun! I also like how reminiscent the design is of the Atonae, it instantly reminded me of them. I assume their singular eye is much like the awakened third eye of the Magisterium. It also vaguely makes me think of a Bishop, in line with the Pawnite.

I'm glad to see Coconoct is back, and with a new form as well! Is there going to be an afterlife variation too? Coconext World?!

I like Contemplato and it's 50% because it amuses me to read its meditative pose as giving two OK gestures. Aside from that it's also just a good name, and a very clear design.

Rexplorer amuses me! I think Ghraafuar would keep them as pets. Ghraa-fuar-fuar-fuar! I also don't really think it matters whether or not Rexplorer makes complete sense in the context of the world itself, it's more important that it leaves an impression on the player!

Brigrrnd kinda sticks out among the design since it's just not very interesting. It's still just a wolf with some motifs added to it. It feels undercooked, relative to the rest of the line-up.

The finished Pawnite is a lot more reminiscent of the Seraphim than the orginal, which reminded me a bit of a monk in robes. I like the 3D model!

Tobias 1115~4Y

Originally I was going to do it so that you finished the overworld, then never had to go back to it except for some optional sidequests. Now, though, I'm wondering whether each island could have its own 'mini-dungeon', like just 1-4 rooms (all using the same tileset and music and sharing the same map), and you have to visit them all. I've been wondering whether that'd be more fun for the exploration aspect, or just tedious! It makes the most sense as part of the 'digestible chunks' approach.

I suppose it depends on how the travel is done though. Since all the islands are technically on one map, I've been imagining that you could just travel directly over the open ocean between them. That way you'd be discovering them yourself, and of course there'd be a map to gradually reveal in the process. It'd mean that there'd be a fair bit of just travelling across water, though. Nothing compared to, say, Wind Waker; it'd only take a few seconds to travel between islands. But again, I wonder whether it'd be more fun or less. There wouldn't be any obstacles like random battles (which would be absolutely not fun for most people), but that just means you'd be doing nothing.

One option is to have that as the default, but allow teleportation between save crystals. That might solve a lot of issues - like how you'd discover the other islands in the first place - and it's common in other games!

I imagined the Bronze Archipelago as full of pirates and canyons and wild, stormy seas, though it's not as if anything I've actually made there looks like that! I imagine the petal worlds wrap around like SNES JRPG world maps, though who knows how big they actually are!

I like headless horsemantis too; it's probably my favourite there! Annoyingly long name though!

I'm really surprised I've not seen more things called 'Psyclops' since it seems so obvious, though I refrained from googling any of these because I imagine most of them have been done!

(Hmm, I wonder if a lot of Pokemon have crappy names - like 'Talonflame' - because they copyright the name and not everything's available??)

Brigrrnd seems okay to me, though I see what you mean. It's probably more interesting than the monsters in Octopath Traveler though, I hope?? Can you think of anything else that could be done with a manifestation of 'wolf-themed bandits'?

I suppose it depends on how the travel is done though. Since all the islands are technically on one map, I've been imagining that you could just travel directly over the open ocean between them. That way you'd be discovering them yourself, and of course there'd be a map to gradually reveal in the process. It'd mean that there'd be a fair bit of just travelling across water, though. Nothing compared to, say, Wind Waker; it'd only take a few seconds to travel between islands. But again, I wonder whether it'd be more fun or less. There wouldn't be any obstacles like random battles (which would be absolutely not fun for most people), but that just means you'd be doing nothing.

One option is to have that as the default, but allow teleportation between save crystals. That might solve a lot of issues - like how you'd discover the other islands in the first place - and it's common in other games!

I imagined the Bronze Archipelago as full of pirates and canyons and wild, stormy seas, though it's not as if anything I've actually made there looks like that! I imagine the petal worlds wrap around like SNES JRPG world maps, though who knows how big they actually are!

I like headless horsemantis too; it's probably my favourite there! Annoyingly long name though!

I'm really surprised I've not seen more things called 'Psyclops' since it seems so obvious, though I refrained from googling any of these because I imagine most of them have been done!

(Hmm, I wonder if a lot of Pokemon have crappy names - like 'Talonflame' - because they copyright the name and not everything's available??)

Brigrrnd seems okay to me, though I see what you mean. It's probably more interesting than the monsters in Octopath Traveler though, I hope?? Can you think of anything else that could be done with a manifestation of 'wolf-themed bandits'?

Dingding32167~4Y

For what it's worth I like the Rexplorer and think it makes sense since they're on a quest to investigate and are exploring the island (at least Collie would!). Brigrrnd also works well as a name/ concept.

I don't think I'd have a problem with backtracking, in fact I'd probably prefer that, as I like the idea of things unlocking when I revisit the area again in more detail. Whatever you decide will probably work out and there'll be precedent for all sorts of formats, I'd imagine!

You should probably keep revising your schedule and reformat your plans every week so you don't get too worried that you're not on track, which will make you more likely to become overwhelmed by a perceived lack of progress.

ChuckNorris18~4Y

I drop in occasionally to see how this is going and got to say I'm really impressed with these designs. They have that colourful, slightly surreal boldness that I loved from your previous work.

I like the odd humor too (the 'weird bald men' theme I see developing gave me a chuckle). Interested to hear that a 2020 demo is possible.

I also slightly prefer the new name Atonal Dreams. It has a slightly darker tone to it, and think it's an overall better fit. Good stuff. Keep it up!

Chris

LotBlind53~4Y

Maybe it tends to become difficult to participate as a member of the audience in the game dev process during the long middle part? Initial impressions have been given (novelty worn off a bit), and there's no prototypes or such to test yet. I feel like I don't have any way to be useful anyway. I couldn't form an informed opinion without investing far too much time reading up on your existing ideas. Even this comment feels like I'm not really saying anything.

Coolamog1~4Y

I haven't visited this blog in a while, and it's really fascinating seeing how these new monsters sort of came to life. They're either a mix of different ideas and or the embodiment of one. They definitely have more personality to them than ordinary monsters in RPGs.

It's interesting how you choose to represent the ideas in the monsters' appearances. I always love learning about how a creator interprets simple ideas and builds on them. I'm big on anime/manga and in this one I'm reading, there was a creature that represents the fear of darkness and in its introduction, it walked down a path lined with astronauts. When I saw that, I thought: of course! There's more darkness in space than anywhere else.

I had that same kinda moment with the brigrrnd. Outlaws in pop culture always draw on wolf/wild dog metaphors to show their mentality and strength, so the reverse fits better for someone's perception of a wolf than anything else.