This week I worked on an overworld, allowing the player to access and unlock different levels across the map. The system was pretty simple, which gave me time to work on a first draft of what the map would look like using tilemaps and animations for the player. Click 'Read more' to, as always, read more!
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This week was the week of menus, saving, pausing and loading. Not necessarily as exciting as the rest of the game, but a vital part. I had to learn about how to save the game by writing and reading data files, keeping 'singletons' throughout different scenes, as well as how menus work with different control setups. This week, I spent my time creating a system that keeps track of the player's party. Since Viola is the RPG where anyone can join your party, it's more than a bit important. Another key feature of the game is playing music, so obviously, these two things have to mix with each other. If you have someone in your party, they'll come out as you play songs on your violin. Every possible party member will have a different instrument, so you can almost create your own band! Click 'Read more' to find out a bit more about the code driving this system. I've started the long, long road of writing music. I followed lessons through Art of Composition, practiced every morning and afternoon, read up on basic music theory, watched videos on video game music composition, tried out software and soundfonts, examined a ton of existing music to figure out how it all works... It's a journey I'm only just now starting. I firmly believe that anyone can learn to do anything, as long as they put in the time and effort. From now on, I'll write music alongside the rest of the game design process, just like I'm doing art, programming, design and writing. The way this blog functions, I'd have to cough up more cash to upload audio files, so there won't be a Read More this week. I'll leave you with just the video: Through the weekend and yesterday, I worked on a mechanic to allow the player to talk to NPC's: non-playable characters. In Viola, any NPC can join your party, so it's important to be able to talk with them. Click 'Read more' to find out what I used to make this mechanic. This week, I finished the platforming concept art I started on two weeks ago. It actually ended up being far simpler and less time-consuming than I thought, mostly because I was able to re-use parts from the RPG concept.
Click "Read More" to see a few more concepts, and some in-progress art. I managed to finish up the 'battle' concept art! Doing the background alone was way, way more work than I thought it would be. At the very least, this project has given me a deep respect for the artists in the game industry.
Press 'Read More' to see a few more pictures and some thought process. This week I tackled Viola's artstyle and look. It was getting hard to explain the game without some sort of visual: everybody has a slightly different idea when you say "JRPG". Plus, I needed to iron out what the game would actually look like, both for myself as well as to talk with others about it.
I worked primarily on a "battle" concept art, and also a bit on what the platforming would look like. I didn't finish up either: had I focused on one I probably would've been able to. Click the read more button to read... more. This week, I worked on expanding the platforming mechanics with several objects and wall jumping. I've always enjoyed wall jumping in games, it's just a satisfying feeling and a great way to make levels a bit more fun. It's a common staple in any platformer at this point, and I'm glad to have figured out how it works. I also worked on several objects like pass-through platforms and springs.
Click read more to go in-depth on what I did this week! This week, as well as the last, I spent some time designing characters for the game. After all, this is the RPG where you can recruit anyone. So if the NPC's are the game's unique selling point, they should be interesting! And making characters has always been the most fun part of making a story to me.
Click read more to check out more of the process I put into designing characters. |
AboutThis is a development blog for my own game project, "Viola". Archives
February 2019
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