What are you working on? (Game Making Thread)

[Fayte]

finished designing all the cards for the alpha test. 186 cards in total. now I need to buy a stack of at least 5k mtg sized cards run to staples and get some ink for my printer so I can print these bad boys out and get to test playing. in the mean time I think I'll look for a concept artist and work on the features.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

Finally got a YHWH concept I'm happy with.

Uber Inconceivable Being

The Eight-winged fusion of Yi and Wi Hellrider, YHWH for short.

Originally I was going to have eight dragon-like wings, but I think doing four of those and then four feathered wings was a cooler idea. The level of detail on this character design far-exceeds most, from the golden nails, to the elaborate tunic, the multilayered skirt up until the halo made with her hair. This concept took a while, but, my god-- so worth it!

 

[Nathaniel3W]

I assume the YHWH name is not coincidental. Did you pick the names Yi and Wi with this in mind? What's this character's role in the story?

 

[Fayte]

I assume the YHWH name is not coincidental. Did you pick the names Yi and Wi with this in mind? What's this character's role in the story?

What’s the significance of Yi and Wi?

I ordered 5000 mtg cards. Now while I wait for that to come in the mail.. i need to work out what features are going into AR. Also, maybe thinking about doing a thread overhaul. It hasn’t been updated in 10years. Yikes.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

What’s the significance of Yi and Wi?

No significance on their own. More like Biz wanted the name YHWH and he picked the names Yi and Wi so that he could have words to smoosh together to get YHWH.

In Hebrew, the vowels aren't written, so you only see the consonants. YHWH is the English transliteration for how you write "Jehovah" in Hebrew. It's the name of God as it appears throughout the Old Testament, usually rendered as "LORD" (all caps, but in smaller letters) in the King James version, reflecting the Jewish tradition of not actually speaking the name of God out loud. I could go on for pages: the name/title "I AM," by which Jehovah introduced himself to Moses, and which Jesus used to explain how he could be older than Abraham (and simultaneously claimed to be God, eliciting accusations of blasphemy); Elohim, the other word in the Bible usually translated as "God," which is interestingly enough, a plural; the phrase "Jehovah Elohim," which is usually translated "LORD God" in English Bibles, but which I think has a much more accurate and meaningful translation...

But anyway, Biz basically named that creature Jehovah and I assume he had that planned out before picking the names Yi and Wi.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

Nathaniel3W you are a smart cookie. That was indeed the plan.

There's a lot of Biblical reference in this game, the Planet of Vahnus and it's Seven days is a literal reference to the Seven Days of Vahnus religion/cult, the one who oppose Jehovah are Lucifer and the Four Angels of Prostitution from the texts of Zohar. Lilith, Naamah, Eisheth Zenunim and Agrat Bat Mahlat.

The lore is that in the beginning of Yi and Wi's simulation they created an MCP, sorta like Niirgo (who is the final boss of Intelligence), however they gave him sentience, and as a result, he begun to cherish mortals more than their orders, and so in a short duel, he was shattered into five fragments, an S (White Snake, or Lilith), a T (Solar Monkey, Eisheth Zenunim), two A's (Sanguine Bat, Agrat bat Mahlat and Lunar Hare, Naamah) and finally an N, but it is thought to be destroyed completely. This N is on the timepiece of M.F. Lazarus' eye, and he is the host of Lucifer (The Clipped Crane).

And since about the Year 1,600 (shortly before Menagerie's events on the chronospectrum) Lazarus and Lucifer had been one, and so the scientist and secret vigilante against God disappeared, he created the Pyr4mids (hand-held transdimensional teleportation devices), all the halfbreeds, and has sought to defy god from his beginning. he is also the one who created the fourth wall and let his unwitting subjects of corporation XVI 'discover' it.

Meanwhile, the S was repurposed for the creation of their next MCP, Niirgo, however in the events of intelligence, the aspect of magic, Blu the Spellweaver, incidientally become the new wearer of these robes, and ever since, Lilith and Her have secretly been acting towards a goal to save the "imperfect future" which Lazarus' tampering had afforded them.

Very faint, but the symbolic letter is there.

The Two A's and T's were secured, but after Niirgo's disappearance, the twins Yi and Wi charged Yasondre (aspect of life) with creating three girls, at their birth, Yi branded them with the ennui with the plan to control them later and re-perfect their cosmos.

Yasondre however, didn't approve of their plan, and removed the denui (which are spirits used to control and manipulate powerful mortals) and set the girls- her daughters, free. This enraged Yi, and Yasondre was sent to an empty nightmarish existence for her transgression, the mark they received from the branding bears the letter of their ennui, and their garments have the aspect, with their ennui, they can also unlock powers relating to their icon.

typically out of sight, due to how their arms are somewhat covered.

Fantasia also has the five letters within it.

The final battle is SATA-N against YHWH.

All the letters that don't have an immediate connection to the characters can be rotated to reveal the first letter of their hosts name, the T can be rotated to make the K for Koko (demonstrated above), the the A's can become the L's for Lumi and Lilac, etc.

It's one of the most complex and over-ambitious stories i've written, so far, i've been told i've done well on delivery.

You may have also noticed the amount of Triangles the villains are utilizing in their outfits, they double as the All-seeing Eyes of the universe, the real Illuminati.

This rabbit hole goes fuck deep.

Here's some documentation on how those triangles are relevant, but suffice it to say they are representative of the shape and compartmentalization for each universe in the cosmos.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1enM ... sp=sharing
In other words, what you see here...

Is the cosmos in panoramic view, each triangle there in is a different universe. the twins can look at any two universe in detail at any given time each.

That's why their eyes are triangular. it is the only way to comprehend such a power. You'll notice Lazarus' teleportation Pyr4mid also has that structure, from that thing you can teleport anywhere in up to 4 different universes and their accompanying afterlives. The item if discovered to exist by the Twins, would be seen as an unignorable threat to their simulation.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Complex, ambitious, and a deep rabbit hole. Check, check, and check. You have outdone yourself Biz.

As for the triangles, you remind me of something kind of esoteric in Mormon lore.

Starting off, you have a couple of mentions of seers in the Bible, notably Gad, who was David's seer. Saul also had a seer, who may or may not have been Gad (1 Sam. 9, 2 Sam. 24). The Bible tells us that seer is just an old word for prophet. In the Book of Mormon, King Limhi came across some ancient records that he wants translated, and the missionary Ammon tells him that they need to find a seer and that "a seer is a revelator and a prophet also; and a gift which is greater can no man have, except he should possess the power of God, which no man can" (Mosiah 8). In the same chapter, Ammon says "a seer can know of things which are past, and also of things which are to come, and by them shall all things be revealed, or, rather, shall secret things be made manifest, and hidden things shall come to light, and things which are not known shall be made known by them, and also things shall be made known by them which otherwise could not be known." Ammon says that a seer prophecies by looking into "interpreters" and that "no man can look in them except he be commanded, lest he should look for that he ought not and he should perish."

Mormons identify these interpreters as the Urim and Thummim. The Urim and Thummim first appear in the Bible in Exodus 28, as part of Aaron's breastplate. The Book of Mormon describes the Urim and Thummim as "two stones which were fastened into the two rims of a bow" (Mosiah 28:13). Lots of scholars recognize the Urim and Thummim as having a role in divination, prophecy, inquiring of God, or interpreting his answer. Joseph Smith claimed to have had a breastplate to which the Urim and Thummim were attached, and that he peered through the Urim and Thummim in order to translate the Book of Mormon.

And now we get to the triangles.

As far as I know, there is no photograph or period illustration of Joseph Smith's Urim and Thummim. There isn't even much description of them. But these stones are often depicted as two crystalline triangles, and when one is placed over the other they resemble the Star of David. I don't know whether the triangular Urim and Thummim are a strictly Mormon tradition, but it definitely seems most prevalent there. (It seems most Jewish scholars considered them something more like stones or dice that the priest would cast and then interpret.)

So anyway, at this point of the Mormon rabbit hole, we have two triangular crystals, and a seer can look into them and see all things, past, present, and future. And if someone who is not a seer attempts to look into them, he may look for something he shouldn't, and perish.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

Ooh, interesting! Thanks for the insight, in recent acknowledgement- I could and should make the eyes of YHWH stars of david, instead of the diamonds they are currently (two triangles attached at a parallel edge.)

As for the Twins sight capabilities, they are limited in a sense. They wrote out how their universe would and should unfold, and their pantheon of Denui see to it that the strongest mortals pave the way for such a "Perfect Future", however, thanks to the lingering Lucifer and Lazarus' direct influence on events, the Perfect Future became different and the Imperfect Future which my games have been mostly all portrayed in the timeline of, (a span of 500-ish years), the alterations are things the Twins are blind to, dark spots in their omniscient gaze, Niirgo who was supposedly omniscient, had this same flaw. The Twins and Niirgo can only see what their perfect future would accommodate, not for the alterations which were unplanned. They do have the occult logo in many places though, and from every place it exists, they can see clearly, the window in Koko's room, the symbol on lilac's shirt, several objects around the place, as well as the all-seeing eyes Naxon employs during the saga of Perseverance.

They called the simulation they created Project YHWH, for one it was something to work on that would allow her to impress her sensei, a fantasy she has, while for her sister, it was a way to deal with stress by being a tyrannical dictator and manipulative zealous enforcer of "God's law". Yi and Wi Hellrider project themselves into the game as avatars, which is what we see, I imagine them as 16 year old high school students of Japanese orient, they do tend to use greetings like Konichawa, and use endearments like -san, -sama etc. Deep down they are both just as humane as the characters, but they are pretty merciless since what they are dealing with is super-evolved chunks of data, at least to them. One of the famous quotes of Yi Hellrider is "Much as I created you, I can just as soon DESTROY you!"

The games name comes from the purpose of the Project: Fantastical Ambrosia

A world where you can do anything if you beleive in yourself and try hard enough, and in the past, there have been very clear instances of this being a thing. Feats seen as impossible have been achieved by mortals, mortals have cast down deities. One of the best examples is Mira Crowspeaker- who's lust for power (Megalomania) and inability to see she would ever be defeated led her to felling a Sun Dragon deity called Ra. (based on the Egyptian folklore) Talonqueen Eset (a reference to the winged angel of Ra, also known as Isis, but I decided Eset was less controversial a name.) is the one who helps from a distance Mira to realize her potential and get back at her husband for stealing the world's sunlight, which she asks Mira restore- in whatever way she sees fit.

The Twins not only use it to live out Fantasies they can't make happen in their reality, but it allows data to become sentient and if they believe in themselves hard enough, do the same. Those who progress with such feats are often heavily watched by the Twins incase they show signs of defection, and install a Denui in them if their analysis bears proof.

Been having a lot of both fun and difficulty getting this presentation for it right, but it's been one very fun ride.

The Twins typically use an alias, Yi commonly introduces herself as the Insidious Architect

If you take the initial letters of that and rotate them 180 degrees, you get YI (with a slightly deformed A)

Same gimmick for WI, who typically goes by Immoral Messenger.

They have been shown to use other titles, though. Inconspicuous Merchant, Isosceles Ark, Impending Annihilation, Imperial Marauder, it goes on.

 

[Ellie]

I'm thinking of making a random word plugin if I can work out how to use structs in plugin parameters.

Basically it's a way of making NPCs much more dynamic. Ideally I should be able to do this:


SET VARIABLE: Shopkeeper = "Alan"
SHOW_MESSAGE: {GREETING} {ANONYMOUS}, {WELCOME} to {MYSHOP} {OP(, {INTRODUCE(Shopkeeper)})}.

Where:

GREETING = Hello, Welcome, Salutations, Please come in
ANONYMOUS = Adventurer, Fellow, Friend, Acquaintance, Traveler
WELCOME = Welcome to, Come in to, Let me show you
MYSHOP = My shop, My abode, My store, My emporium, My wares
INTRODUCE(var) = I'm (x), My name is (x), I am {x}

And OP defines optional.

So, for example, this could return:

Hello adventurer, let me show you my emporium, my name is Alan.
Welcome traveler, come in to my shop.
Salutations friend, welcome to my abode, I am Alan.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

Been updating my busts in Fantasia to be animated, done with all of Koko's, I'll do Lumi and Lilac's once I wake from my soon-to-be slumber.

Just a small preview.

 

[MysticTrunks]

Sprites

 

[BizarreMonkey]

Did all those, but I'm not really working on it anymore so I put them in the screenshots thread instead.

Those are some dank Dragon Ball Sprites, my dude.

Currently I'm working on getting more album art prepared for the game's ost. Just did two pieces for Limbo's themes.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

Alrighty, Starship YHWH concepting begins.

Flagship of the Surreal Cosmic Progeny Defense Force, better known as Starship YHWH.

Lore: Given to Sacreblu as a parting gift at the end of the 314th Clash, Corporation XVI then departed Dimension XII, and pursued their destinies in the grand cosmos. The ship, much alike the vessels used to transport Humankind, was built using the height of Bizjalan Technology. The Bizjalan are one of two Monkeet Tribes that originated in Planet Haven, the other tribe are now considered the natives, known as the Havenese, while the Bizjalan left the planet to pursue their inventive destinies and avoid conflicts that may erupt from continuing to persist with entertaining their more peaceful brethren. Among their more famous ventures, was the construction of the Space Pirate Capital of Tekerlek, and the construction of the Rings around Byteopia, turning the ones unfathomable digital planet into a tourist attraction.

Many of these Monkeets spacefared and crash landed on planets, slowly evolving into other humanoid races such as Humans, Dwarves, Halflings, Elves of several varieties, and so on. There was also some rare exceptions who never fully left their simian heritage behind, resisting evolution so that they may continue to invent in their most Bizjalan right, these became what are known as Half-breeds, and 16 are known to exist, the Corporation of XVI, they typically dwelled among humans, but never evolved to meet the same human form, always a tad shorter, possessing larger ears and a monkeys tail, and more of a pronounced muzzle. Most also still possessed a small amount of fur. While they could speak the Universal Language fluently, they typically avoid contact with other races, particularly humans and militaristic sorts who may hunt them down for being different. Typically they disguise their simian additions with clothing and hairdos, and for the most part, they are only seen as strange. Because of their resistance to the evolution, they never suffered the Curse of Memory most of their fully-evolved Brethren did, the halfbreeds of Dimension IV (our dimension) became Corporation XVI, after saving the Earth they'd come to call home by tampering with the fourth wall, using it as a template, they created several PORT4LS and connected a duplicate of Universe XII and assigned it a unique float that had no calculable end, an equation unsolved. Nicknaming it Dimension Pi, the half breeds orchestrated a monumental even on Pi Day of a year soon to come, as theyir gambit to save the World would require the fossil fuel industries downfall, following 16 murders of high-ranking Fossil Fuel pushers and adminstators, the industry fell apart and resultantly, the nations of the world saught to at long last bring the United States to account for their debt, and an enormous armada of airships set sail for American soil with the intent of liberating it's privleges of superpower, however, at the critical moment, an armada of ominous PORT4LS flooded the sky surrounding the planet, connecting it and Universe XII, panicked, the firepower and nukes were redirected into the PORT4LS, as was planned. The inhabitants of Universe XII seeing the effects the nuclear weapons may have, scrambled in panic, but only twelve escaped their fate, these beings, powerful and well-minded, would become the preservers of Peace on Earth, among was Rolly Fatdog, Pep Cookiedoe, Tristy Heals, Captain Crikey, Gib Goldtooth, Jammi, Spooky Schema, Fyori Felicee and the Exile Lyza. After peace and growth of humanity had been assured, the half-breeds fled through the PORT4LS to escape God's wrath, as they had misused the Fourth Walls Power, but also deviated the course of history as it was designed.

In their new home in the remnants of a bombarded dimension, Corporation XVI began the second phase of their plan, establishing a link between Dimension XII and Dimension Pi, from Dimension XII, they sought to over the span of several centuries, bring to fruition the 314th Clash. During this time, the Halfbreeds captured Maw and brought him to their equation unsolved, however Blu the Spellweaver, got hold of Member XII's friend, Member II- and conditioned that they return Maw or II gets erased, XII agrees to her demand, she let's Member II go, hwever, XII is sent to a universe on the verge of collapse, seemingly doomed. Member II however, returns to the Equation Unsolved and with the help of the others, finds member XII and beams him back, only second before he may have met his end.

Now with Maw free, it begins it's rampage on the Humans of Dimension XII, feeling responsible for their fate, Member XII enlists Cortez Ruddings to save what he can of them, to start, Cortez creates 12 Large ships capable of carrying 200,000 passengers, these are the ships we see the humans leaving in during this cinematic.

Only about a fifth of humanity survives Maw's onslaught, fleeing the planet Earth in 2032, leaving the mammals of Earth as the new dominant species. This sets up the stage for the Neo-nonhumanity Earth depicted in both Intelligence and the prequels like Perseverance, Full Clearance.

About 80 years later the 314th Clash comes to pass, and Blu has become Sacreblu, now on the side of mortals rather than Origin (basically God from the knowledge of most at the time), to thank her for her timely aid and understanding, Corporation XVI constructs her the Starship YHWH, ad then take their leave.

Wow that is a lot of Lore! But yeah, basically it goes to show that both were built using Bizjalan technology and now you know who the Bizjalans are. Weird ass hyper-inventive monkey people, to recap.

If you were curious, the Human ships look like this.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

Started on this thing, yet again I was craving a space / planetary cutscene so i just started on a draft, with no real idea if I'd ever use it in a game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0di84unyv4
Once it's done it'll be easily 4+ minutes in length and arc around to every major planet in the Biztopian Cosmos

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Just finished an AI upgrade. The new system is really simple, but it's surprisingly effective.

Before today, the computer squads would just attack their closest player squads, no questions asked. Now they have a ranking algorithm to determine the best place to move and the best player squad to target. And now computer melee units gang up to finish off your wounded characters. Computer ranged units now kite you instead of sitting still and taking bonus damage from your melee units. And I think it would be really easy to add another rule to make wounded units fall back and heal up.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

Oh man, okay guess I should finally reveal that I got some good progress done.

So, while i was drawing out this spaceship, i figured I should make sense of the interior, so here bois, enjoy some SHIP GUTS.

With this understanding I began to draw out a layout for the ship in earnest, which while unfinished, is off to a good start.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK4VLokin1w
I also got a story outline done for the whole Disk (That is, Disk 1, to be clear.)

That excerpt is pretty spoiler free.

My artist Pjcr finally got me the Portraits for Yi Hellrider / The Insidious Architect. So I've been busy implementing those.

Video which has them all if I remember right.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUVkLZ8zO_w

I've also filled all the spots for VA and they've gotten me all the work for not only the six cutscenes so far, and the character hurt sounds, but all of the trailers lines, too.

God it's incredible how much I get shit done when i start bossing people around and giving them deadlines.

Fuseguno is the voice of Kyoshi (He was also the voice of Sped in Perseverance)
PhoenixSylph is the voice of Yi Hellrider and Lilac Grave
Aslan's Joy is the voice of Lumi Fuzz and Koko Spiral
Kitty is the voice of Sacreblu
My Mother does the voice of Yasondre (She was also the voice of Svoli in Perseverance)

If you're a girl and would like to do VA feel free to hit me up, because while outside of Fuseguno, all those VA's are girls, you cannot fathom just how many important characters in this game are female.

In the future I'll need voices for:
Wi Hellrider
YHWH / Jehovah (though I may just combine Yi and Wi voice acting. I think that'd be pretty cool.)
Lyza
Tristy Heals
And probably others. Might be able to find a Tristy Heals locally.

 

[coyotecraft]

No escape pods?

 

[BizarreMonkey]

No escape pods?

Considering they can beam out instantly there's not much need. Lmao.

To be honest I just didn't think of it.

So today I made Skedaddle and iFrames use different switches, so no more restrictive overlap on the two. I should have also fixed the strange speed buff that was occuring fter skedaddle sometimes.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

I implemented a new fight in Disk 0 for Lumi, planning to add one for Lilac too, so that when the day 7 comes, you know how all three girls work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfIHWOTqNIQ

 

[Nathaniel3W]

New gameplay gifs:

Tavern

Enemy is much more intelligent now. Here some archers back up to the farthest node that's still within range.

Going into a story battle

Some combat. Due to the low framerate on these, you can't really see this, but the characters now have a flashing color effect. They flash orange twice when taking damage and they flash blue twice when being healed.

Cutscene that plays with the scene's color grading

And I'm almost done with the first chapter.