What are you working on? (Game Making Thread)

[BizarreMonkey]

Story Trailer finally finish, Pjcr finally got me the Tiramisa Portrait, and I also found an epic voice actor for Tiramisa.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0aJbW7nmnk
I'll be getting her to correct the immortal / immoral mispronounciation. Other than that it's all good.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

I am so far out of my depth. I'm trying to implement Steam Input into my game and I don't know the first thing about C++, and my Epic support agreement expired years ago. Somehow over the course of a week I got to the point where I can detect when a controller gets plugged in or unplugged. And so long as I don't set any of the variables in the game object that calls the Steam API header functions, the game goes along just fine. But if I set handles (variables that are unique typedef'ed uint64's that are used as IDs for various game actions), then the game crashes when my object gets garbage collected. And if I set the handles and then check to see if the player is inputting those actions, the game also crashes. I have no idea what I'm doing.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

I found out what I was doing wrong when an old UE3 dev took pity on me and took a look at some of my code. I was declaring my variables in C++ when I'm supposed to declare them in UnrealScript, then let the build tool link my variables to underlying C++ variables. And although UE3 uses 32-bit integers, I can use a qword, which is a recognized UnrealScript variable type, to hold a 64-bit integer. All of the uint64 responses I get from the Steam API can be stored in the game as qwords, and it all works perfectly now.

I'm glad I got it working, but this is just one example of what can go wrong when working with an outdated and unsupported engine, especially in a language you barely understand.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

Decided while I wait for PJcr to finish I'd do some work on an older project that I've had a remaster of in the works for quite sometime.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyEU1fvInbo
So that's been fun!

Otherwise I've been taking the chance to do art. :3

Oh! Also I went and did a repeat of 2016.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFJVgUJTbro

 

[coyotecraft]

 

[BizarreMonkey]

I just seem to be inspired constantly, lmao.

I wrote this a couple months ago and added onto it yesterday, it's a planned trailer for when I fully release Exile.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Rvd-f7Cf457ypRF2Zh3dTvvNAkmwsNf5dIvs0HzOi0s/edit?usp=sharing
Speakin of music!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKRWVVb7UUE
My composer is back in action! It's nice to hear a Nola theme after so long, last time he wrote one it was for PFC, and this carries leitmotifs from her themes in that game and blasts it up to 11. I love it. :B

I've also decided on what I'll be working on after Fantasia is fully released.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyEU1fvInbo
and...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-sP7Gozzbw
A lot of my followers seem to like this one.

Making a cosmos, endless in scope- means I essentially have endless ammunition for ideas without ever using the same main characters. I've made exceptions for Pep and the intelligence trio somehwat because they have really interesting backstories, but I'm using eash to try out different game genres, so even if i can be accused of reusing a character, i'm build an entirely new gameplay loop.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

https://thehardtimes.net/harddrive/step ... d-giggles/

Did you ever see that discussion between Stephen King and George R. R. Martin? King, when he's in writing mode, just sits down and types and cranks out some number of thousands of words per day. And Martin is just dumbfounded.

 

[coyotecraft]

It's very difficult to give characters motivations in a dream setting. And I needed something that would create a willingness to sacrifices himself, in Sven.
I spent the afternoon reading Lacan's psychology concepts of desire. And now I finally synthesized something I can work into a character arc for Sven.
I wish I could finish it all before the end of the year. But I highly doubt I can make time between holiday travel and family visits.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Finished some portraits and sprites for the Japanese-themed area. The kimonos (also with male sprite sheets) only have walking frames, so for now this outfit is for non-combatant NPCs only.

Huh. The geisha portrait doesn't seem to be working. If it doesn't show up, check it out here: http://himekosutori.com/wp-content/uplo ... rtrait.jpg

 

[coyotecraft]

I played with rpg maker with my niece and nephew. And we made a little game. You play as a girl. May. And you fight a bird. And get a ice crystal. So you can cross lava. Fight a dragon. And make it to school on time! ~yay~
Featuring a werewolf named Wolph. Who lives in an igloo because rpg maker mv is missing a lot of assets and doesn't have a wolf sprite. And nobody wants to see me flex my art skills. *sigh* that's fine.
According to the psychology stuff I was reading the other day, you can't desire something unless there was previously a demand for it. Demand meaning something that is in supply.
Of course it was trying to explain s&m stuff. I can see it explaining a lot of other stuff too. Like how socialism always fails. And why artists are always out of a job.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

According to the psychology stuff I was reading the other day, you can't desire something unless there was previously a demand for it. Demand meaning something that is in supply.
Of course it was trying to explain s&m stuff. I can see it explaining a lot of other stuff too. Like how socialism always fails. And why artists are always out of a job.

I don't follow. There always has to be someone who is the first person to want something. I'm sure demand precedes the creation of supply all the time. And people demand stuff that isn't in supply all the time too, like new video game consoles on release day, or food during a famine.

When you say "s&m" do you mean the same s&m that I'm thinking of? Is that a common topic for microeconomics to try to explain? I don't see the connection.

I know why socialism always fails. Everyone knows it, except socialists apparently, which is the underlying joke behind memes such as

And artists are always unemployed because there's no demand for what they supply... But then there's that guy who taped a banana to a wall and sold it for $120,000, so maybe you just have to be a certain kind of crazy to know what art-consumers will pay for.

 

[coyotecraft]

Yeah I figured people would think I'm babbling. Sadistic & masochist. "Demand", the way they were using it, is something that supply is meeting. In foreplay there's gratitude then withdrawal. So they desire what they had. It's not demand as in supply and demand, its demand as something being continually supplied.

So yeah, artists cannot fill a hole that never existed. In society. They have to do their own thing, outside it, which requires a freedom to create where there is nothing - which is different from where there was something.
The Borg collective doesn't allow, or rather, requires a consensus. It's like kids who are used to constant supervision it's always "who allowed this".

I dunno. The rpg maker community is a paradox. Theres so much practical stuff missing. I can support myself.
But even when I offer my services for free, people are content to do without.
So I'm rationalizing, based on what I read, that it's because they never lost anything.
That's how I should word it. Something missing vs something lost.

 

[coyotecraft]

I'm probably oversimplifying it. The theories go deeper than that. Life and death drives. An illusion of something lost that was always there from the beginning.
That's got nothing to do with what I wanted to say.
Did I really want to say anything at all? Existential crisis intensifies.

Your Japanese sprites are nice, Nath. What's next?

 

[Nathaniel3W]

I don't know much about psychology, but I can confirm some things about microeconomic behavior. (Although I guess there's a lot of overlap in this case.) People are loss-averse. Not losing $10 is more important than finding $10. Tests with monkeys show the same thing: Researches teach the monkeys two games. In one game the monkey starts off with two grapes, and has a 50% chance of losing one. And in the other game, the monkey starts off with one grape, and has a 50% chance of getting one more. The monkeys prefer playing the second game.

And once again, I can't speak about what your psychology book was getting at but in economics, artists (or inventors, or anyone else making something new and unique) most certainly can "fill a hole that never existed." You just have to create something new and then convince people that they want it. It's like that quote usually attributed to Henry Ford, "If I asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses."

Existential crisis, you say?

And thanks! I like how the sprites turned out too. What's next? I've been fixing stupid stuff for about a week, and I still have more stupid stuff to fix. One example of a stupid thing I fixed yesterday: Next/previous button in the equipment menu didn't update the character sheet's character order, so browsing your army from different menus would screw up the order. And I'm discovering lots of other things that work correctly in one context, but not in another.

So if I can ever get past fixing this stupid stuff, what I really want to do is actually finish the game. I think I can honestly claim 20+ hours of play time without undue grinding/repetition, and I think I'm more than half done. If I can ever just concentrate on fleshing out quests, scripting cutscenes, and making end-game content, I'll be able to finish the game.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Someone over at the Epic Forums asked about how you would make a hand-drawn post-process effect. I thought it would be fun to try. I tried something like this years ago. I can tell that I've learned a lot since then. I put this together in less than an hour, building on a few things I had already done.

It's a little disconcerting to see it moving. Because the paper and brush effect are fixed in screen space, but the 3D world isn't, it's jarring to see parts of the image move, but not others. I think to make it more pleasing to the eyes while the camera is moving, I would have to randomly change the offset of the brush texture, maybe a couple times per second.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Once in a while I need to go and do something different just so I don't bore myself to death. I figured my armor break ability could use a new sprite sheet.

 

[coyotecraft]

I should do something else for a change. But this year has been all about writing. And I got a billion things I want to encode and I have to work out the problem of expressing it.
Like I want need to explain that this subconscious domain only contains unresolved thoughts. So you won't see Pep, Sped, or anyone else in Sven's family because they're, duh, familiar to him. The point of this pet project was for me to explore character aspects. But it's not very literary to just flat out explain the world mechanics like that. So, I've decided Kara will make an appearance. It's not the real Kara. Just a nebulous impression of her that he hasn't worked out yet. Because she joined the Perseverance Union by battling Pep to prove herself. So she is manifest in this domain because Sven has suppressed the idea that she has bigger balls than him. Figuratively speaking of course. But it's a topsy-turvy world. *cough* Kara? No, she goes by Caramel here. And my bat character will be there like "It's pronounced Kara(male)" and Sven is like, "potayto. potahto."
"No. You're not getting it. But you'll see. You'll seeeee..."
And then Sensor steps in to censor things "NOPE!" and blindfolds Sven, and bat is like "Come on! He has to see!"
So then Sven is talking out his feelings with Kara like. "I suspected you might be a spy, or some kind of trap..."
and Bat is rolling on the floor laughing. And manages to blurt out "I c- hahah..." while being smothered by the Sensor "...balls"
Which Sven hears as "Eye Balls" which summons new doubts. "Doubts" (name pending) are to "the dread" what the "Unversed" are to Heartless or Nobodies in Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep. They recontextualize things. These new doubts are realized because he's wearing a blindfold and thinks this Kara has something to do with this dad. Like she's in with Esperia who plucked out his dad's eyes. [Insert Close Encounter battle] The "Doubts" have pulled out his eye balls or become his eye balls. So it's a unique First-Person Battle Split screen. Where there's 2 spinning fields of view. Top and bottom. Or left and right. And the player has to stop them like a slot machine by aligning them to Kara. If they align to Sven he takes damage. Idk, Maybe Bat and my Censor character are holding the eye balls. So if field stops on them, they drop the balls and the reels get shuffled or spin of a different axis. Bat and Sensor they're blaming each other like "this is your fault" "You gave him the blindfold!" "YOU said Eye Balls" "No, I said I-Ayiyiyi..."

I intend to foreshadow, or cast doubt, on my bat character. Like, did he know this what going to happen? Does he know more than he's letting on? Seems like he wants people to doubt him because maybe he's nope, can't tell you that

I just remembered I wanted to do a thing where Sensor censors text. But my bat character is like, "I can still tell what they're saying." and Sensor is like "Prove it" so Bat's like ""Prove it""
and Sensor is like "How?!" and bat's like "Echolocation."
The actual effect would be messing with the font color an text box.

 

[coyotecraft]

I hate building up all this momentum only to come to a screeching halt because of travel and family visits. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just a day or two. Or even if my family would let me slink away for a few hours, but I'd probably use it to sleep.

I'm not really good about typing on the road. But maybe I can make a little more progress.

 

[coyotecraft]

I've rewritten my beginning scene introducing Sven for like the 6th time now.
It's been challenging for a lot of reasons. There's things I needed to establish, the sooner the better. It was important to have a battle a.s.a.p. but something had to instigate it. And I needed the characters to converge in someway.
I've been mindful to avoid certain thigns. Like I don't want Sven to just open his eyes like "Huh where am I? How did I get here?"
That's kinda cliche. But I've also started to realize I have bad habits from playing too many RPGs i guess. For example, introducing/recruiting characters 1 at a time. That would be the normal course for a regular game, but in a dream/mental realm it would be drawing attention to the fact that everything just popped into exists, and there was no -before-
But I think I got something.

 

[BizarreMonkey]

Lol I'm glad to know someone who takes writing as seriously as I do.

You should see how many times I rewrite or even entirely remaster my intros.

So! Sorry to be absent so long, had a lot of stuff going on and while I've been on break there's still been a multitude of dramas, from my mum planning to divorce her dipshit husband to my best friend xiie having a major surgery and various other trials and tribulations! But at last, i have progress to report!

Demo 2 is complete, the only reason it isn't out yet is because Pj hasn't gotten me all the files just yet. So chances are I'll be trying to get it released by 02/20/20 (day/month/year).

As of the new year (and decade) I've decided to start working on demo 3 and back up the mainframe for demo 2 so that I can easily release and compile it, and then fix any errors encountered when it comes time.

Welp, with all that said, here's what I've done and gotten ready for Demo 2!
The official Anime Opening-esque cinematic, now with an actual singer to sing the lines!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jLmmbfzKjg

Pjcr
He has gotten me the vast majority of the files, only two poses for Esperia, some stray poses for some characters like Kloe, Kyon and kira, a cloak overlay for Wi Hellrider and Tristy's angelic outfit remain. I've already started construction of work orders for disk 2 for him.

The Exile Lyza

Lady Tiramisa and Splode

Nola Worthington

Xiie
Completely finished her spritework, and so she's taking it easy after a major surgery. I've just started making a list of work orders for disk 2 in regards to her trade.

Jake
Gotten another track done, and more are on the way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBGpQAO4ZJM
Motherfucker is ahead of me progress wise.

Biz
As I've said previously, I've already gotten a vast majority of the writing for Demo 3 done, it'll likely change as I see more valid ways to put things and more decent reasoning. But suffice it to say I know the arc well. As for Demo 2, I've implemented some things!

Taunt System
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEDdq6tCyvE

A new pretty secret optional event.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKeHLup--mc

Pretty large rewrite on this scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySA7Jtjxy08

Updating Portrait facesets to have borders and a background.

Aaand updates to some of the Pamphlets, notably those of IA and IM.

Wew!

I think... I think that's the majority of the large notices! Therefore it is!