It's a strange thing I've noticed about myself: I have, especially recently, had to make decisions that defied normal classification. They weren't, as one would expect, hard decisions. They've stared me in the face, making the results obvious, and just waiting for me to accept that that choice was the obvious one. Another such decision has presented itself to me over the past couple of weeks, and I don't think anyone who's been waiting this whole time will like what I'm about to say.
For the
Just a note: This entry isn't going to be a very fun one. It's more of a history lesson. Also, there will be some bad news, but also some good news, toward the end of this post.
Now, to all those aspiring gamemakers out there who haven't been on the forums very long (if Piraka Mania was the first game of mine you noticed, listen up): Good gamemaking takes lots and lots of practice. It may not seem like I've had much at a casual glance, but go a bit deeper, and you'll realize just how much I'v
Well, progress has been painstakingly slow right now, but thankfully I've managed to get a decent chunk of time in to get somme serious work done on the first dungeon, the Pirates' Holdout. So far, the top two floors (F1 and B1) are fully mapped, with some programming left to do on them. Floor B2, however, is still only a sketch on paper, and is a bit more complex (and interesting) than the previous two floors (especially considering F1 consists of an empty cave and a staircase ). In all serio
Well, here's a bit of a paradox: I go to college for a game design degree... which takes up so much of my time, I cannot design the game I'm working on... It's a miracle my head is in one piece right now, given that puzzle. Speaking of puzzles, I have good news: I finally managed to retrieve the dungeon plans I made for the first two dungeons of the game, which inexplicably managed to stay home when I came here. Anyway, let the dungeon-making commence! I may as well reveal a few details on these
Well, I know I've been a bit inconsistent with keeping up the Taluka Blog posts (he said, addressing the void), but work has actually continued on the game, with the Bottom of the Bay and Hoi Island areas currently being mapped. With that in mind, the theme of this blog post is Digital Landscaping.
This is probably going to sound very egotistical and snootily artistic, but… with Book 1 Gold, I'm trying to make the landscape look more realistic and natural than my previous games, and to get aw
Well, I'll admit there hasn't been much progress on Taluka over the past couple of weeks. All that's really happened has been in improving the water tiles to look less blocky and mapping a little bit of the underwater area between Ga-koro and Hoi Island. In short, don't expect the next Demo to come rushing out anytime soon.
Part of the reason for this is that I've had my attention stolen away by college (it's starting to get into full swing now) as well as another project that's too early to
Well, I've been planning out side-quests lately, and have since decided to add yet another boss to the pantheon of hideous beasts I posted about a few weeks ago.
Queen Hoto: Bloated Antipodal Insect
This massive bug is the boss of Koraka's side-quest, which is the new place for the melting Ice Lake in Ko-Wahi. I've decided that this boss will be immobile, fitting with both its size/status and my inexperience with massive boss monster AI. Instead, the challenge will come from its environment,
Well, I never expected the forums to go offline, much less for as long as they did. That said, work on The Taluka Chronicles has proceeded at about the pace of forum posts over the past few weeks, probably due to lack of motivation (with no community with which to communicate here, and no other location in which the game is being released), and the fact that I was on vacation last week. So, basically, Taluka's been on hold for the moment, and will continue to be, unfortunately, for the next week
Okay, it's time for some major spoilers! In this entry, I'll be revealing the name of each Chapter boss in the game, and provide some details on their appearance and/or strategy.
Prologue: Granja (Ta)
If you've played the Demo, you'll realize that this isn't really a spoiler. Anyway, on to some tips: If he stops for a second, run away from him; he's about to do a jump attack. Also note that he does a second, smaller jump attack soon after.
Chapter 1: None (Onu)
Yup... there's no boss for
First off, no, I will not be translating The Taluka Chronicles into any other languages. I only know Spanish, besides. What I mean by "Lost in Translation" is that some material won't be making it into Gold Edition for one reason or another.
-One thing that's not going to be added is the Elemental Damage system. With the complexity of the battle system already in place, adding elemental advantages would be too much work and wouldn't add enough gameplay value for it to be worth it.
-On a br
Well, for those who read the topic, yes, I meant that I'd get this blog up today. Now, on to the update.
Since the Demo's release, I've found a couple of little bugs (but then, such is the nature of gamemaking): The training facility in Ta-koro doesn't have the event that enables jumping and dashing, and there is the other annoyance of not being able to die... perhaps not so annoying. Thinking of that, I should probably add some sort of warning for low health, like in Bionicle Paracosmos, as
As stated in the News section of the Piraka Mania topic, I've gotten the developing game back from Anonymous_the_AB. However, there is still quite a bit to be done: Here's the itemized list:
-Graphics for Enemy characters (Monsters, Charsets, and some skills)-Only a little bit done.
-Animations for new skills--About halfway done.
-Battle Charsets for Rondo-Yet to be done.
-A Side-Quest that's a bit hard to explain-Planned out, but not ready by any means.
-Cutscenes and related graphics-Al
Alright--for my first entry, I may as well talk about the game that I'm working on right now, Piraka Mania.
As the progress bat in the topic clearly says, I'm pretty much done with Level 6, at least for now. Level 7 has started, and the dungeon has been designed. This dungeon, the Piraka's Castle Keep (yes, you finally go back to the castle in Level 7), has a theme, much like most of the other dungeons have, and this time around, it's Music. As part of the challenge for the dungeon, you have
Because I have the ability, I've decided to start a section of the blog devoted to the progress on my various video game projects. This may seem like a very boring idea, but if you want to hear up-to-date info on how the next Taluka game is going, you shouldn't be disappointed. You'll also get some sneak peeks at parts of the games that haven't been released yet.
It'll be more interesting than it sounds, I hope...
Last time I typed anything out here, I was yakking all about RPGmaking, and the basics of how it's done. Now... it's time to reveal how I do things-- You might be surprised-- Scratch that-- You WILL be surprised.
First off, for the fans of The Taluka Chronicles out there, just know that the next game is being made, but at a pace that makes a snail look like Roadrunner after 10 cups of coffee. However, since I'm going to reveal a few little tidbits about Book 3 later on.
Now, on to the
For those who haven't been paying attention, I'm an RPGmaker, which means that I actively make and release computer games made with... you guessed it: RPGmaker. That means something else, too: I'm that special kind of geek that can put their skills to use effectively. But, whatever. Back to what I was originally talking about.
If you've ever played a Final Fantasy game, or a Paper Mario game, or something of the like, you know exactly what an RPG is, so I won't go and bother explaining it. Be
And now we come to one of my favorite subjects: Bi-directional Temporal Movement, or, for those who don't have a thesaurus wedged between their ears, Time Travel. It's been a staple of Sci-Fi almost as long as extraterrestrials, and probably has just as many stories surrounding it. Personally, I wish I could make a time machine, then go back and see who came up with the idea.
One thing I find surprising about time travel-- It's an excellent plot device, but nobody seems to use it! Only once i
Ah... where to begin? Where to begin?
How about a statement that surprisingly few people would ever believe, that I only though up recently: Not all Geeks are created equal (a really geeky statement, but I just 1-uped it: It shouldn't be Equal, but Equally. Eh, I'll stick with the standard version). I discovered this when I was in some game store that I forget the name of (something with all that Warhammer 40,000 stuff in it). You know that feeling when you could swear your brain just got a s
