Alora Fane

WELL THIS WEEK I COULDN'T DO WORK BECAUSE MY DOG ATE ATONAL DREAMS AND-... Or no, gasp, I actually did get stuff done this week! I've been revising dialogue scenes based on tester feedback... though everything continues to take so damn long!

So yes, my mood's been a bit better recently - the latest storm is over - and I got back to working on the stuff reported by testers from the second alpha (that ran only a couple of days ago, right??). I decided to tackle the most daunting thing, reworking the dialogue scenes, to get that out of the way.

Why can't I find any screenshots of this?? I had to cut one from a video... I really need to organise my Atonal Dreams screenshots better!

Essentially, there was this battle against Pierce which used to serve as the very beginning of the game, then I added the nightmare intro before it which serves many of the same purposes, but I'd put so much effort into the Pierce scene that I didn't want to remove it entirely. So I kept it in, mostly unchanged. It was really long, though, and dragged on, stalling the pacing.

So I've split that in two - now you battle Pierce thrice in the tutorial area - which probably works better. But...

In that encounter, Pierce summoned a figmon from Collie's mind - Pawnite - which Savitr tamed, and which acted as the first skill you acquired and could equip. But as I cut that bit out of the first Pierce battle, you no longer acquired it as a skill, and a lot of tutorials I already had no longer made sense in the positions they were in.

So I ended up revising basically all the tutorials that I'd spent so much time and effort on! It wasn't just a case of tweaking a few words in a single conversation or anything. Or, to clarify, I did keep the majority of what I already had, but I had to reorder everything and revise lines in pretty much all the scenes. It ended up taking all week, and I've mostly done now, but not quite.

I changed around the order you encounter certain figmon species and get their skills; now Bite, a basic Discord-elemental skill used by summoning a Brigrrnd, is the second skill that Collie gets, which makes more sense in terms of story stuff and gameplay mechanics. So that's good!

The introduction of gameplay mechanics is now more spread out, too. Runes and elements are introduced in parts, and wakefulness and intensity are saved until after the first elemental arena boss. So that's also good! Probably!!

Hopefully I'll be able to finish off the changes next week, and I might upload the revised version for testers... but I don't want to do that a bunch of times for minor things because it'd become increasingly unlikely anyone would bother to replay something which is mostly the same as their last playthrough. So we'll see how that goes.

Also, I'm still working my way through Final Fantasy VII... slooowly. It felt great at first, but I tired of it much faster than I did with any games when I was younger. It's why I'm intending Atonal Dreams to last less than about ten hours, rather than the 50 or so of a typical JRPG!

I'm near the end now - literally at the final dungeon - but there's all this optional stuff to do - superbosses and such - which just feels like such a chore. Especially the breeding chocobos. So I might not bother. But maybe I should?? Ehh... I've only been playing it for like an hour or two every other day though.

(Which gets me going down a mental path of panic about why I'm making games myself if I feel this way about them in general... but I decided I wouldn't rant about anything negative this week, so...!!)

4 COMMENTS

Maniafig222~2Y

It sounds like a lot of work, but I think it's for the best. The intro sequence is the most important to get right, hence why it will take a lot more time to make than other parts. I get the impression this happens often with RPGs, the early bits are neatly polished to a shine, but late in the game players are already invested and will tolerate more hokeyness and jank.

The exception to that usually being projects where the developer grows as they're working on a project and don't/can't revise the early bits to catch up to that standard. then you get games where people give up before they get to the good part!

Spreading out tutorials is probably for the better too! FWIW I did think the runes tutorial was already quite good!

These tutorial changes seem significant enough to warrant playing again, the bits after that which I assume are unchanged don't need to be also tested.

These FF games all have this thing I find, where they have this big cinematic opening and a coherent plot, but as things go on things get more and more incoherent. The final bosses are usually good, but the final bits to get there often feel like a slog. Especially the dumb side content!

Speaking of stupidly long RPGs, I did finish Pokémon Reborn, and it took me only 160 hours!! Talk about a long game.

The exception to that usually being projects where the developer grows as they're working on a project and don't/can't revise the early bits to catch up to that standard. then you get games where people give up before they get to the good part!

Spreading out tutorials is probably for the better too! FWIW I did think the runes tutorial was already quite good!

These tutorial changes seem significant enough to warrant playing again, the bits after that which I assume are unchanged don't need to be also tested.

These FF games all have this thing I find, where they have this big cinematic opening and a coherent plot, but as things go on things get more and more incoherent. The final bosses are usually good, but the final bits to get there often feel like a slog. Especially the dumb side content!

Speaking of stupidly long RPGs, I did finish Pokémon Reborn, and it took me only 160 hours!! Talk about a long game.

Lord_Toby2~2Y

Your game is looking very good. It has some very nice interface, especially in the menus, which I think is something that contributes to a game being good.

I've started to make games and digital stuff as well, and you have been a huge source of inspiration for me, both regarding music, the graphics of games and so on.

I'm not as far with it as you are, but slowly learning. Lately I've made my own website, which can be checked out here.

[LINK]

It is one of my earliest attempt at a website and the CSS is not so prettty again, as I'm more of a backend guy than frontend developer. However I thought you migth recognice some of the style, as I've taken inspiration from you.

Looking forward to Atonal Dreams. It is a fresh take on the otherwise somewhat forgotten JRPG genre. I would definately buy it!

Tobias 1115~2Y

Hello, person who I see is also called Tobias??

I had a look at your site, and was really touched to see influences from my own work! I haven't had the time to explore it as thoroughly as I'd like, but I at least listened to some of your music compositions, and they really remind me of the stuff I was doing in the beginning, midi soundfont and all! Really takes me back to a more hopeful and creatively exploratory time in my life... I hope they've been bringing you as much joy as mine have for me, and that you'll keep at it and continue to impress yourself as you develop your skills! You definitely have an innate sense of what sounds good!

I also appreciate that you included an About section so I could find out a little bit about you! (And I notice you like badminton enough to have listed it twice!)