I'm sorry, but your Christmas present will be very late this year... Don't worry, though. I haven't forgotten. It's just that this particular present takes... a bit longer than most to prepare. It also is a bit big, so instead of wrapping it in paper, I've had to wrap it in a building. Specifically, this one:
I will be giving out the key to it just as soon as it's ready. Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays from all of us.
Signed,
Garten,
Royal Aide
P.S. Please, don't
Sorry about the long wait this time--Finals week was crazy. Essays here, projects there, madness everywhere else... so, I haven't gotten that much done this week with Elders, but something did pop up today:
That is a screenshot from the Abandoned Island, the first area in the game. It's been completely re-mapped and revamped. I've also spruced up the Middle Island, the optional one near the exit to the Tunnel Network, but it's not as drastic and not as interesting. Then there's the Tunnel
Sorry about making everyone wait, but I have a good excuse, or two: 1. Things are getting busy around school, what with finals coming up and all, and 2. I've managed to get some serious work done on the game, including the code for one of the important systems (more important later, but it's necessary for the next Demo): The Character Select screen. I'd show a screenshot, but it's as exciting as watching grass grow (especially this time of year…), and you won't actually see it until the very end
Another week, another chunk of progress. Like I mentioned in the last update, I've completed the enemy graphics for Act II and have started programming them (I'll get to balancing them a bit later). However, I've also been doing a bit of other graphics work, and got all three of the remaining characters' battle charsets DONE! Next in that department is to finish off the weapons graphics, which have the added benefit of not having to do any more of them for the rest of the game, since all the wea
I was going to post an update on Friday, but I'm glad I waited--I've gotten some really good stuff done in the past hour or so with graphics, and ALL of the enemies for Loro-Kava and the last island of Act II, Icosa Nui, are sprited. and they are looking great (some of them ugly--the good, mutant-monster kind of ugly). I should probably mention that, just in terms of regular, non-boss enemies, Act II will have considerably more varieties than Act I, almost twice as many, in fact. There will also
Just like I said, I'm back with an update before another month has passed. I haven't gotten nearly as much done as I'd like, but considering the circumstances, it's a decent amount anyway.
First, there's that window effect I'd posted last time. Remember how I'd said I wasn't quite satisfied with it? Well, I've pulled out all the stops, used all four graphical layers (outside of Pictures) and made a stained glass window that's about as realistic as RPGMaker will allow.
Ah, but quit listenin
Sorry about all the slow updating. Things are just moving that slow on my end here. Unfortunately, as I predicted, the death of the game's topic really dealt a blow to my motivation, so I'm still on the same dungeon I was last time. Thankfully, I did manage to force myself to design the dungeon's sub-basements, one of the big roadblocks keeping me from completing it. I've also come up with some interesting puzzles to accompany this mysterious dungeon, but I won't spoil those either. One thing I
It's been a while since the last blog post, and sorry about that--been busy with life and stuff. There hasn't been too much concrete progress, but what's there is going really well; that second dungeon's chipset now has two floor patterns and a rotunda with a compass rose in the middle (which will feature prominently in the gameplay of the dungeon). The rotunda still needs a bit of work, mostly in the form of decoration and bits of simulated age, but it's coming along very well. After that, ther
First, I'll take care of the status report: I switched gears for a bit, and got some database work in, and all of the playable characters are fully programmed—that includes one that doesn't appear until Act III. All that's left to do with the characters is battle graphics. I'll be a bit busy with college-related stuff for the next couple of weeks or so, so progress will continue to be a bit on the slow side. I'm hoping soon to gather up the motivation to make that second dungeon chipset soon, th
Well, I'm back from a brief vacation, and managed to get some work done on the game. As far as definite progress goes, I've finished mapping the first Act II dungeon and am about 1/4 of the way through programming it. I'm not quite ready to show a screenshot yet, though maybe next time would be good. There are a few things that have to happen before I'll be ready, but they should happens soon.
Also, I've finished spriting all of the Act II bosses, with the last one sprited being the first one
.....He pushed aside a loose stone, and from behind it, piercing white light shot through, darkening everything else. He threw up his hand, obscuring the incoming radiance enough to regain his sight. "Why are you stopping?" His friend yelled. "We're almost there!" He paused for a moment, then returned to clawing out the rocks that kept him inside. Each stone cast aside brought another color into view, and their journey an inch further.
.....Soon, he beheld the beauty of the outside: the skies
.....The wind howled atop the ramparts, but he kept his gaze steady and silent, fixed on a distant ship sailing off the horizon. He grinned lightly, content in the truth of his wisdom. It seemed but a moment before that he had witnessed that Matoran return from the temple, dazed from the onslaught of destiny. This same being, his finest subject, his protégé, now embarked to finish his mission, their mission. He would return here soon, and with him, the greatest change the world had seen since th
.....Early in the afternoon, a figure leaned his staff against the wall, carrying his aged and decrepit form the few remaining steps to his bed. He sat at its edge, and let out a weak sigh, listening as it faded into the waves outside.
....."For so long, we have had this peace," He said to himself, "For so long we have basked in the light of the Great Spirit's grace, freed from the plagues that once ravaged our lands... but still, I cannot shake it, this feeling of dread and terror still haun
This is the last entry in the Project Terra Updates under that name, since the game is now in testing, and should have its own topic by the end of next month, I'm hoping before Brickworld. Now, there is still stuff to do for the game yet, since some non-critical items were withheld from the first round of testing in order to keep things going on schedule. I'll be getting to those within the week, if my new schedule pulls through. Then, I'll be sending the game off to Neya for the second round of
Project Terra Update #11
As far as progress goes, the third dungeon is fully mapped, and all of the puzzle/item finding elements have been added in. There's still a bit of story programming left to do, and a charset to be made for the dungeon's boss, but there isn't much left after that before the game can go into testing. I have to admit that the dungeons, with the exception of the second one, are going to be very same-y in the Demo, but given the locations I've chosen, there wasn't much roo
Well, here's big news: The second dungeon, which I will now reveal was a Sewer dungeon for a large city (and, if anyone remembers Taluka Book 2, is far, far superior to that dungeon in just about every way), is sprited, mapped, programmed and populated; in short, the dungeon is DONE. There's another huge step toward releasing the demo completed. As far as content goes, I've got the rest of the Demo all basically planned out, and should have the game in the first round of Beta testing by the end
This isn't going to be as long an update, but it's still significant: The chipset for the second dungeon, the biggest thing that's impeding progress right now, is about halfway done. There was a minor setback when I realized that the new tiles for the "walls" facing the screen were a full tile too short. I'll have to re-sprite those (these new tiles are unlike anything I've done before, and the results should make this a very interesting dungeon indeed), but that shouldn't take too long. For now
All right, it's been WAY too long since I've posted an update here, which is both good and bad. The good news is that the battle system I've been talking about is programmed, and most of the stuff left to do is in those two dungeons I haven't yet gotten around to. The bad news is that progress has been slower than I'd like, because of schoolwork escalating and the remarkably addictive phenomenon known as Pokemon Soul Silver… so I guess I'll say I've switched from "Development" to "Research" mode
Well, work on the game has slowed lately, but there is still progress being made. The exteriors of the two remaining towns are mapped, and the game is theoretically playable from the start to the time you reach the second town continuously. I need to program the story elements for the second town and make a ship (which will likely end up a placeholder until I can make/find a more fitting graphic, since it's really not supposed to be a ye olde pirate ship, which is what's currently available). Th
Well, there's good news: I've programmed that battle system to the exact level I wanted to for the Demo, which means it's fully operational as long as nobody levels up past Level 16. Beyond there, the programming's incomplete, but you shouldn't need to go past there, especially considering one character in the Demo can't go past level 10.
That said, work on the battle system really isn't done, since I'll be testing and balancing everything out over the next few weeks. Right now, I'm tweaking
Well, this was a bit later than I expected, but I've made some good progress lately. In short, with the exception of one weapon that won't even appear until much later in the game, the battle graphics for the heroes are DONE! – for the Demo, at least. I've also gotten all of the enemy graphics done, with some minor revisions necessary to make the quality more consistent. In that department, that only leaves the backgrounds and some battle animations.
That said, I still have yet to really delv
This is an unexpected turn of events: things are getting done, at a very good pace no less!
Anyway, the battle charsets for the first two playable characters (the ones in the screenshot from earlier) are done, quite a bit sooner than I anticipated, and I even finished an entire SET of weapon graphics, so all the disk-based weapons are essentially done for the rest of the game. That means that as far as battle charsets and weapons go, I'm halfway done for the content of the Demo!--Wait, I ju
Well, it's been entirely too long since I've gotten a blog post in, but there's good reason for that (well, sort of...): I've been waiting until I finished the first dungeon. So... Dungeon 1 is complete! Don't hold your breath in anticipation just yet, though--There's still 2 more dungeons left to make, and they're both longer and more complex than this one. One of them will even require a custom-made chipset, one that I've been wanting to make since Piraka Mania was still only a couple of Demo'
Things are moving along on Project Terra, admittedly a little slow for my liking, but they are moving along. The good news here is that I'm getting past one of the major hurdles in the design process, namely the fact that I hadn't yet gathered the necessary chipsets, meaning that I couldn't map any further. So far, I've got one of the two remaining town chipsets mostly done, with mostly interior stuff left to add (mostly furniture), one of the three dungeon chipsets in about the same condition (
Since I won't start a topic for Project Terra until it's ready for the Demo to be released, I'll be posting status updates here.
As far as progress goes, the gameplay, excluding enemy encounters, through the first section of Act I (a.k.a. the Demo's contents) is basically complete. The same goes for the story up until that point. The other two sections of Act I are only about 10% done each, with most of the work done on them so far being in story planning and enemy programming. Once I decide
