Entry posted by Emzee
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It's been awhile since I posted an update on my upcoming Bionicle game. During the period of silence, I've actually gotten a lot of features completed (though they're still virtually all core game features). Anyway, I just thought I post some updates to my project. Check out this entry to learn more about what I'm working on.
Character Customization System
You can probably guess what this does. In Power Lies Beneath, players, upon creating a new character / save file, will be able to choose their character's gender, name, primary color, secondary color, mask color, and mask shape. I may put in other customizable parts like arm and leg type, but these would take considerable amount of work, so we'll see. Also, you can zoom in/out and pan the camera to get a good view. Lastly, the character will do some sword movements to give an idea of how he/she moves.
Spinning Main Menu
If you've played Secret of Mana, then that's pretty much what you can expect the main menu to look like. Five or so icons rotating around the camera. It's one of the very few scripts that managed to be carried over from Influx (that's one of the main reasons that I'd like to keep it, plus it looks cool).
Dialogue System
Dialogue in this game will be simple. Player says something, NPC says something, then player says something, etc. This is an action adventure game, so the branching dialogue isn't really needed, except perhaps exposition. Though I would prefer to do almost all of my plot-explaining through discovery of objects and clues, with some slide shows here and there for massive events that took place in the early days of the Bionicle universe.
Ranged Combat
Your character, lacking any innate elemental powers, must use the objects on the mysterious island of Mata Nui to his advantage. Among these objects is the Madu Cabolo fruit. For enemies who are difficult to fight up close, you can simply throw an exploding fruit at it using the same "sword attack" key, but with your sword sheathed. Also, enemies can shoot their own balls of dark energy. That script has a couple glitches that need fixing though.
Bionicle-themed GUI
I've been taking pictures of my own sets in order to incorporate Bionicle set pieces into the menus and GUIs, like in the cancelled PC game. So far, it looks goooood.*
*Not quite good enough to post yet. Still needs more pieces.
More Sound FX
As per my last entry, I need snag some free-to-use sound FX for the character and enemy's actions (e.g. unsheathing sword, shooting poison blob, throwing madu fruit, walking).
While this may seem like a lot of progress (and it certainly felt like that), all of these accomplishments are, in fact, a mere drop in the bucket in what's needed before I release the public beta. There's still so much to do, but the fact that I'm making semi-consistent progress is really helping me stay motivated.
Right now, I'm working on two major things:
A Complete Walking, Talking NPC Matoran
So far, unfortunately, it looks like I'll have to custom script each and every NPC if I want them to do more than just walk in a circle, which I do. Very much. Ideally, every moving NPC in the game will have places to go and people to see, like in MNOLG2. Otherwise, they'll be behind a table or inside their huts. The pathfinding system I have set up works. Now it's just a matter of programming exactly where I want my Matoran to go, and what that Matoran will do when he gets there.
Addition Enemy AI features like dodging
Honestly, the dodge / deflect mechanism is really the only big thing I need for this enemy AI script. Outside of some glitches and animations that I need to make. The enemies in this game are almost complete. The dodge mechanism won't be very complex at all. I intend to mostly use random values along with a little bit of logic (e.g. it the enemy's at a corner or near a cliff, don't bother dodging, but deflect if possible).
Most of my attention is being given to this NPC Matoran (who is Kongu -- he'll likely be the first Matoran you speak to in this game). I want to know what all it takes to get this character operating like it should. Hopefully I'll be able to use at least some of it for a template for other NPCs.
Lastly, I'm doing more storyline stuff. I may have to change the synopsis slightly when it's all done. Basically, I want Power Lies Beneath to have no ties to my past games. There's no point.
Well, I hope you enjoyed reading these updates, and I'll catch y'all later!
Visit my Gallery to see the screenshots!
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