Himeko Sutori (UE3 turn based 100+ unit tactical JRPG)

[Nathaniel3W]

Thanks for the input. You know, I actually hadn't thought about banner ads. That's something I should probably start working on...

 

[Skyler]

Incredible. This reminds me of that game that just came out for PS4 last winter/spring. I can't think of the name atm and cbf googling it. I do know that it's brutal difficulty and its very well-animated like this appears to be. Do you yourself get to organize the squads with each individual character out of the roster? Or is it automatically done for the player?

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Hey Skyler, sorry for not replying on this sooner. I'm usually better about tending my posts. I'm glad you like what you see so far. Let me know if you remember that game you were thinking of.

As for your questions, in the final game (and in the demo coming out early 2016, I hope) you WILL be able to form your own squads. That's going to be an important part of the strategy: Do you put all of your archers together for maximum ranged damage, or do you mix them in with knights to make more fungible squads that are less specialized? It's up to you. For now though, I haven't finished the squad-formation stuff, and I'm faking it by having the computer make squads for me.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Also, new screenshots! I'm working on tying the look of the game together. Lots of people have mentioned that the difference between the 2D and 3D assets is pretty jarring, so I'm trying to make them more similar. Here you see the backgrounds have a palette much closer to the characters in terms of contrast and saturation. Also, I think the cubified terrain works better with the 2D characters.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Added slimes and goblins. Working on more variation in lighting and terrain height. The top screenshot has roughly the lighting settings I'll be going with for underground levels. Art assets have been good for screenshots the last couple of months, but now it's time for me to buckle down on the big coding jobs I've been putting off. I think I have the bare minimum of assets I need to get moving on that demo to promote the upcoming Kickstarter.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

The game is coming along, slowly but surely. Details of progress, plus some of the tips I've learned about making .gifs: http://himekosutori.com/?p=472

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Changing character class and equipment:

Level-up system, recorded from Flash, not in-game:

Details: http://himekosutori.com/?p=484

 

[JoePie]

This is so cool! As a fan of FFT just Can't imagine I never spotted this gem!

 

[Nathaniel3W]

This is so cool! As a fan of FFT just Can't imagine I never spotted this gem!

Never fear JoePie, you haven't missed anything critical yet. The important stuff is coming up very, very soon. And by that I mean tomorrow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neaR6m1p9c8

That's the trailer we'll be showing when our campaign launches tomorrow. I'll come back and post the address of the campaign after we've launched.

 

[ZenVirZan]

Oh wow, that trailer looks fantastic! It's come so far!
I'm looking forward to checking out the Kickstarter.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Yeah, I've learned a TON in the year since the failed Kickstarter. One of the big lessons is that custom music by a real composer makes a BIG difference in the trailer. And you have to have a decent screen recording to begin with... Assuming that the Kickstarter is a success, I'm going to need to blog about the difference between this one and the last one.

And I guess it's about time for me to plug this:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/16 ... nese-style

The Kickstarter is up! And the Kickstarter video has a different (and better too, if you can believe that) version of the song. You should go check it out if only for that.

Thanks everyone for the help you've given me, especially with the pixel art pointers. Let's hope this time goes better.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Edit: Oh yeah, and the Kickstarter was successful too. I'm spending that down for every spritesheet and minute of music. Still not pocketing anything for my own work on the project. Hopefully I can finish the game sometime and maybe I'll even sell a few copies.

New video showing smart sprite layering, changing layer order depending on faching, choosing the right hairstyle to go with the helmet, and more sprite variety in general.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3hh3DVb7Dw

And I guess it's been a while since I've posted here. I don't think I've mentioned Kevin's recording to finish off his master's program.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRk7StuUigE

So there it is. Still under development, and maybe I'll be able to finish it some day.

 

[Jason]

That song is really fucking good, if that's how the soundtrack is gonna' be, colour me interested!

 

[Nathaniel3W]

That song is really fucking good, if that's how the soundtrack is gonna' be, colour me interested!

Yeah, I know! I still can't believe how lucky I was that Kevin came across Himeko Sutori. He saw it after the failed Kickstarter, but he could see its potential. He always wanted to write music for a game like Final Fantasy Tactics and offered to compose the music if I was going to keep working on it.

He's going to keep composing more music, and he recently sent me a work in progress for the next song that's going into the game.

Unfortunately though, this will probably be the only song we get to have an orchestra record. It costs about $15,000 to book an orchestra, a recording studio, and all of the engineers for a single day. And that's for European orchestras when America has a strong dollar. Recording here in the US could cost twice as much.

So for now we're looking at synthesized music for the rest of the soundtrack. This might be overly optimistic, but if initial sales of Himeko Sutori end up being really good, then I have no problem with updating everyone to version 1.1 with a studio-recorded soundtrack.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Here is the October update video, showing some combat starring a randomly generated army:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxrUIPADjBQ

I have most of the major sprites done, but I still need to make lots and lots of weapon sprite sheets. The game is mostly feature-complete, but I haven't started on actually building the main campaign yet. All in all though, I'd have to say I think it's coming along pretty well.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

This month's update: Manual squad placement, automatic equipment optimization.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB9nr0_KUY8

 

[Nathaniel3W]

December update: menu sounds, equipment stats on mouseover, and shopkeepers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb62zXKPshM

 

[Nathaniel3W]

January 2017 update: world map and a bunch of other stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jr0HpjUrfk

 

[Nathaniel3W]

February 2017 update: world map with huge enemy armies and you can see each individual character. Combat, music, and plotting the course from here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3V-16Ao5kA

 

[Nathaniel3W]

March 2017 update: new character portraits, level-up cards, random loot, combat sound effects, and graphical improvements.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIjtDSpOqu0