#devblog

[allwave-isat-vn]

[image descriptions: digital illustrations of the main party of in stars and time, posing as a group in an oval-shaped frame. bonnie is front and center, smiling at the viewer while clinging to siffrin. siffrin, without a hat, looks very tired, but tries to smile nonetheless. odile stands behind siffrin with a crutch under her right arm; she smiles professionally. mirabelle stands by siffrin, looking happy and holding hands with isabeau. isabeau is grinning, winking, and waving at the viewer from behind mirabelle, with his left arm in a sling. there is a brick wall behind them. the first image is a regular, monochromatic picture, while the second includes artifacts and chromatic aberration for a glitchy look.]

group photo!!

this piece by @therenaissancedungeonmaster will appear in all wave and no goodbye.

[bubblegumrabbitwriting]

Blink Dev Update

Hello!

So where have I been for the past 2 weeks? Honestly, after releasing the last update, the one-week break I took from writing Blink became 2 weeks, became 3 weeks, and so on. It wasn't really a planned thing, but the more that I came back to my writing file, the more I struggled to actually get anything written down.

It literally became me writing a sentence a day and then spending the rest of the week just rewriting the same sentence over and over again. I had the whole of last week off of work, where the plan was to just write a rough draft and get the majority of the next update at least written as roughly as I could. So instead of feeling like I wasn't making any progress, I at least had something to work on if I couldn't think of anything new.

The problem was that I sat down to write and decided to reread the last update so I had a good idea of where I needed to continue from, and I wasn't happy with anything in the last update or pretty much most of chapter 1. That then just spiralled into me spending the week analysing the chapter line by line trying to figure out what wasn't gelling.

And all in all, I haven't come to a conclusion. The last update felt rushed in parts that should have been longer and more impactful and too long in parts that should have just been set up. But as I keep having to remind myself, chapter 1 is just supposed to be a setup chapter to introduce the reader to the MC as a character and their key goal and an introduction to the world before the main plot of the story is introduced.

I haven't really figured out if there is really any way to fix that other than doing a full rewrite, which I'm trying to avoid, as I know it will absolutely kill any enthusiasm I have for writing the story. It would feel like a step back from trying to move the story forwards, and I don't think it would ultimately make that much of a difference in the overall pacing or quality of the game.

So with that in mind, I have started to write the next update. I'm going to write it with the above in mind and hopefully make the overall next update better. I want to at least get all of Chapters 1 and 2 done before I even look at doing anything like a rewrite.

To make a long rant short, work on the next update is continuing at a somewhat rocky but steady pace.

I also wanted to say a thank you to anyone sending in asks over the last couple of weeks. Even when I haven't been answering any, the inbox is quite full at the moment, and I'm going to start working through the asks from the oldest to the newest. So those should start being posted in the next couple of days. I'm also planning on doing dev updates again in between the updates; no real schedule for these, but they will probably be biweekly.

Thanks again as always. 💖

[klaasje]

de devblog - introduction to harry

“The game is set in a time of cold war in a world that never was. Off the coast you can occasionally spot airbound coalition warships keeping the peace. Further beyond the horizon there is the Pale that divides the continents. You play this guy: The finest officer from Precinct 41 of the Revachol Police Department! Sent away on a special mission to investigate a special report from the relatively remote port of Martinaise. There may be a slim chance the higher ups just want to get you out of their hair? There may be some haters who call you "a disgrace to the uniform", but you know what you really are; you’re a Super Star and the only cop who’s capable of getting anything done in that chicken-shit outfit. You’re here to represent the fledgling self-organized and semi-recognized police force of Revachol and goddamn if you’re not gonna rock at it!” (x)

[heartmachinez]

Hyper Light Breaker: Meet Dro

Who was Dro?

Whoever she was, she is now transformed. What does she want?

And what is the pain behind her howl?

A glimpse into our wordless storytelling.

Hyper Light Drifter was a game well-known for its wordless storytelling. A quick Google search will yield dozens of videos and articles discussing the art of worldbuilding without words.

As Jake Theriault artfully describes in his analysis of the opening sequence of Drifter:

“We discover all we need to know about the world in one wordless sequence. And from there on out, all the discovery made by the player is done visually.”

While Hyper Light Breaker will not be entirely devoid of text (there will be UI and some loadout descriptions), we have made the decision to lean back into our strengths and reveal our world and mysteries therein through illustrated vignettes.

There is so much about the Hyper Light universe to discover. With Breaker, we’re excited to share more about the history of the world that led to the events of Drifter.

Our Character Artist, Isaak Ramos, has established a house style for our studio, inspired by the works of Katsuhiro Otomo.

Some key aspects include:

Clearly defined straights and minimal curves

Shading using a halftone pattern (and/or halftone+flat value)

And reasoning includes:

Effectively receives color blend modes

Meaningfully calls back to our influences and to our past without resorting to pixels

Adds gravity/seriousness

Quickly creates a more finished aesthetic that will support looser lines and different drawing styles

Let us hear from you!

What do you think about this return to wordless storytelling? And our panel art style?

And what’s going on with Dro?

[henmesh]

Working on a crossbow

[lamentsofapinkrose]

im making a game. here are some early development screenshots.

[thewakingcloak]

the shadow is back!!! (you probably didn't even know it was gone)

it's a small detail but should help pretty significantly with figuring out where you are when you're jumping or falling off a cliff!

[nextinline-if]

Bug Fix Update - July 9, 2024

Hi, everyone.

I hope you're all doing well and staying safe in this crazy world. There were a couple bugs in the last update of Ch 2, Part 1 from August that I never got fixed. Well, I just fixed them. Sorry about the delay.

I'm getting better mentally. Still have a lot of work to do but after many months of therapy and medications, I am feeling more myself than I have in a long, long time.

Anyway, thank you for sticking around. I appreciate each and every one of you who has taken the time to play NIL.

In this bug fix update, the following changes were made:

High Priority Fixes:

Chapter 1: (preface: I think this is fixed. Please please someone let me know if you find that it is not. I've been trying to fix this for more than a year lol). Some people could not move forward when F and Felix argue if they choose that F is an ex-lover.

Chapter 1: Coding typo in balcony scene with F at the ball.

Chapter 1: When finding out your pet is coming, it now clearly communicates that the pet is male. (someone asked me to add this on Itchio.)

Chapter 2: fixed a scene where Constantine's horse is mentioned incorrectly.

Chapter 2: Carriage Scene - fixed two coding errors.

I know this was only a bug fix, but I hope it helps improve the experience. I'll let you all know when I have something more for you.

Best,

Vi

[entropy-game-dev]

One of the new additions to the build is flagging especially hard enemies. Currently, enemies 1 tier above the current dungeon tier have a 2% chance to spawn. This can mix up the battles to keep players on their toes, and give especially strategic players the chance to earn equipment, and a possible ally, one tier higher than what they'd usually have access to!

However, during playtesting, I got absoutely wrecked by a single monster and I had no idea it was a strong one because I didn't have the chance to scan it. On the suggestion of a friend, if I had big flashing warning symbols on it, I would have been more careful and run away or played more defensively. And so now I do!

It was easy enough to make it yellow, since all sprites are drawn as white to begin with and then a colour blend is added to it in game. The warning symbol is new, but uses the same code as the HP and recruitment UI text, but with an image instead!

[jjeinn-tae]

Welcome to the journey!

Hello everyone, and welcome! I'm Jjeinn, and I'm working on a series where I'm building a retro game inspired by games of the N64 and Play Station! It is under a working title of "Journey Through LoGuo" in the vein of Zelda and the like. Our protagonist, default name Locca, is going to make her way through the Empire of LoGuo, ruled by the sun emperor who as of yet does not have a name.

In her adventures through the lands, Locca will win the support of various scholars dedicated to the 6 elements, learning various spells to supplement her ever-increasing array of... gadgets? I feel that implies a higher tech than we're talking here. In the very-shoehorned reference to Journey to the Wes I have in my working title, there is a rather Chinese-inspired theme to LoGuo, which being my attempt at a N64-era "Zelda" esque game, directly created the name of the empire.

Contrary to most games I've seen of this genre, Locca is not your typical sword and shield fighter. Locca's weapon of choice is the guandao, a Chinese polarm sword, leading to a combat system that will be very active!

To me, this is basically a modern port of a hypothetical game made in a world where the video game crash didn't happen, and thus there was a US competitor to Nintendo that was attempting to match pace. So... "out of universe" but still in-universe somewhat, this is just what was the latest of a series in the 90's. To that end, there are certain things that would be known to players in this non-existent world that the game was made for, but we obviously don't have that context in real life. So, I have been going back and forth on whether to talk directly on that or not. If I do, I will mark such posts as #loguo spoilers

Other tags to follow the project are mainly going to be #loguo but I might add more.

This post will also eventually have the elemental symbols surrounding the crest of Loguo (basically mirroring the medallions around the triforce in OoT) but my pen tablet is angry currently. So hopefully soon.

And a link to my previous master post, about J'ard here:

J'ard is not dead, I've been working on the world for 8 years now, but it isn't the correct start. Thank you everyone who's followed along with my dev logs, and here we start some more!

[echanart]

Seems like Cavina's having some OPINIONS about the second man of the Aria 👀

Also ft. the new background of the entrance of the Dancing Shadows Theatre! I was aiming for a blend of classic and vintage design (if that makes sense?) with elements from older theatres and 20th century ones.

There are many meshes on the scene. I'm sure my old laptop would just die 😵. Thankfully I've bought a more powerful laptop and it can handle so many meshes now! And my god did it run so smooth like silk I'm crying 😭😭😭

[allwave-isat-vn]

[Image description: a black screen with character information. On the left, a hybrid traditional-digital illustration of a fat, middle-aged adult with mid-toned brown skin, a short ponytail, a jacket around their waist, and a stack of books in his hands. The right part of the image reads: Profile: Cyril, they/he, rock type. Age: 49. Height: 160 cm. Dresses: For comfort. Pet peeve: Unalphabetized books. Likelihood to violate own rule about talking in library: 80%. end description]

Meet Cyril, the lead librarian at the Dormont House of Change. Don't let their surly look fool you -- he's really nice.

You'll be able to interact with Cyril and many others in All Wave and No Goodbye!

References below the cut.

[Image descriptions: A screenshot from the ISAT Script Project of the conversation about the frozen librarian on Floor 2 of the House, and a zoomed-in screenshot of the un-frozen librarian from Act 6.]

[bubblegumrabbitwriting]

Blink Dev Update

Hi Guys,

Don't really have any exciting news. Work on the next update has been steady, and I have the high alert route done with one set of choices up until the end of the update; just got to finish the other choices, and then I will be moving to the other route. Pretty much still on track to have the update out by the end of this month unless something pops up and stops me from writing, but I'm working from that timeline.

Hopefully, I should have the next update done to check by the 25th, and then some minor rewrites and moving around I want to do to some of the earlier choices, and it should be out by the latest, the 31st.

Thanks all again, and I hope you are all doing well. 💖

[runecrossed]

Runecrossed Test Build 02: Atien Revamp is finally out!

View the changelog and download it here on Itch.io: https://zerio105.itch.io/runecrossed/devlog/865975/release-test-build-02-atien-revamp

And of course, if the game interests you and you are financially capable, please consider supporting me on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/c/Zerio105

[dankdungeonsrpg]

FF X MtG Revised

Recall Illus. Richard Kane Ferguson

First of all, a big shout out to @uncleasriel for really digging into my last design post on this! Sorry it took so long to put this next post together. I hope to answer (most) of your questions.

One line in particular really stood out to me from their post: "Does this lead to fun gameplay? Or does it slow down the game? I feel I'm trying to make Magic: the Gathering with RP elements rather than a Roleplaying Game with MtG elements"

This is an important design decision that is so easy to lose sight of. Do we want Magic to be central to the game (ie, all characters use it, this is a game about dueling sorcerers) or do we want it to a sub-system within the RPG (ie wizards have this spell mechanic, rogues and fighters have their own things going on)

Personally, I like it as a sub-system. That behooves us to be slim in our design for risk of making the game overall too cumbersome.

Buckle in. This is a long (and somewhat disjointed) post.

Fighting Fantasy Skeleton

Kjeldoran Dead Illus. Melissa Benson

I spend a lot of time in these posts talking about Magic, but let's talk about Fighting Fantasy. I did a whole video series breakdown on the system if you're interested.

But actually, let's not talk about Fighting Fantasy. Let's talk about TROIKA. As I've said before, Troika makes one extremely smart mechanical change that fixes a lot of Fighting Fantasy's issues. It reduces base Skill. This ends up making rolls matter more because in the original game a high Skill (by and large) ensures victory. Let's adapt that.

Sidenote: I've done this before with my game AZAG

So here's our stat generation:

Skill - Roll 1d3+3

Stamina - Roll 2d6+12

Luck - Roll 1d6+6

And how we determine starting spells:

9 minus your Skill Stat are how many Ability Points you have

There are 5 Colors of Magic: Black(B), Blue(U), Green(G), Red(R), and White(W)

Distribute your Ability Points among them. Putting a point in a color allows you to cast it. Also, for each point you may choose 3 Common Spells of that color

Another very good thing to look at Troika for is flavor. Troika is a weird science fantasy rpg. It communicates this through it's backgrounds. They are delightful. Ranging from Burglar to Fellow of the Sublime Society of Beef Steaks.

from TROIKA! Numinous Edition

We could make all sorts of character archetypes inspired by MtG's multiverse. Or we could just do one per color. Lots of options in this framework. Plus both settings have multi-planar themes, they just approach them very differently.

Also worth noting that Troika advises 12 Ability Points when creating a custom background. This makes sense, but I just want to dial that back a bit for testing.

Testing Set: 5th Edition

It's not just the most popular D&D edition, it's also a great MtG Core Set.

For testing, I think a core set is important to keep things simple and avoid expansion specific gimmicks, but why use 5th ed in particular? Mostly personal preference. I think it represents a good cross section of the early days of the game, which are the days I'm most interested in.

Maybe it would make the most sense to use a starter set...

Banned Cards, Rarity, and Finding Spells

So what cards do players have access to? The basic rules are:

Remove the Creatures

Remove the Artifacts

Remove the Lands and land dependent cards (Enchant Lands mostly)

Remove Bounce (Unsummon/Boomerang)

Low cost creature destruction bumps up in rarity to Rare (Terror, Pyroblast/Hydroblast)

Remove Reanimation (Raise Dead/Reanimate)

When players choose their three spells on character creation they're looking at commons.

When they find spell scrolls or spell books? Random cards! Maybe not even in a color anyone can cast. Really make it feel like opening a pack. If they're easy to find then maybe just Commons, but if its the archmages study? Gotta be Rares.

Multiple copies of Commons are fine, a couple copies of Uncommons, maybe okay. More than one Rare? I wouldn't recommend it.

Monsters

Chub Toad Illus. Daniel Gelon

As I talked about in my last post on this topic, summoning creatures slows the game down to a crawl!

They're great as enemies though! (as long as an NPC isn't summoning them)

So right now that's all I'm using them for, but in future play tests I may introduce (very) limited use of them as summons.

In terms of creature abilities, particularly those that cost mana, I'm currently ruling that GMs get a Mana Die (see A Round of Combat with: The Mana Cube below). So creatures can activate or do more later into combat.

There are obviously a bunch of edge cases, even in a core set. Honestly I'm just flying by the seat of my pants on a lot of these.

Players fighting spell casting NPCs is something I've tried a bit. Still not super worth it for enemies to be able to summon creatures but starting with minions is fine.

An evil goblin sorcerer with a Flame Spirit, a couple Mon's Goblin Raiders, and a small deck of spells was a great boss encounter!

A Tale of Two Decks

Here's a thing that may change, each spell caster has two decks: One for combat, and one for narrative.

A wizard can decide which spells from their repertoire go in which deck at the start of the adventuring day.

Combat Decks are similar to MtG

We'll get into Combat later, but you're basically just casting these spells as written. You draw, you have a graveyard, the whole thing. One rule I'm not sure on yet is what happens when this deck runs out. In some instances we've reshuffled the graveyard back into library, in others we just view the casters as depleted for spells for that combat...baring a Feldon's Kane.

This deck lends itself to the crunchy cards we may see as better outside the narrative. I'd rather have a Brainstorm in here than in deck number two.

We just don't really care much about color symbols. If you can cast Green spells and Red spells than any mana you generate (outside of an artifact) is Green or Red in any combination you choose.

Outside combat cards are Narrative Decks

This is all about flavor and role playing. You're taking about taking a card name and interpreting it.

Flashfires creates spreading flames

Stasis holds objects or creates in place

Giant Growth makes a creature big

Portent gives a sign of weal or woe

Tsunami summons a wave

Flight...well you know

In a previous post I referred to this as Miltonian Casting, citing the way spell effects work in Ben Milton's Maze Rats, although unlike that game, we're not really generating spell names on the fly, just what they do. Also, pretty sure Milton is not the first person to do this. So I'm just going to call it Narrative Casting for now.

There are some limits, most obviously that if spells are in your Narrative Deck they can't be in your Combat Deck. Also, Narrative Casting is fire and forget. This allowed me to justify Armageddon. Ongoing spells last a number of Turns (10min intervals) equal to their Mana Value. Saving throws isn't something I've tried yet, but tying that to Mana Value in some way also feels like a good first step.

A Round of Combat with: The Mana Cube

Mana Vault Illus. Mark Tedin

I tried out the Hearthstone mana method mentioned in previous posts. It worked pretty well! We used a d6 (since it's the only die type in FF) that ticks up each round to track mana for casting.

Here's how Round 1 of combat currently breaks down:

Place character sheet, any artifacts or other items you control, your Combat Spell Deck, and a d6 (Mana Die) in front of you.

Set the Mana Die to 1

Draw a card

Take an Action (This can be casting any spell, activating an Artifact, or swinging a sword. Tap cards as normal and consider yourself tapped when you're done. Remove the Mana Die if you spend your 1 mana)

Pass Turn

Subsequent Rounds:

Untap

Increase Mana Die to 1 higher than it was last round (it's like lands, so spending your 1 Mana on Round 1 doesn't mean you're starting over at 1 Mana on Round 2)

Draw a card

Take an Action

Pass Turn

You can do things like activating abilities or casting Instants whenever, as long as you have the Mana.

We were worried this would be slow, but actually the narrowing of choice helped a lot. When players started with a multi card hand and could cast with Stamina it was overwhelming. Remember, it's still an RPG. You can use your action to attack with a sword or climb a way. There's still plenty to do while you wait for your Mana Die to increase.

You may also have noticed that the Mana Die (being a d6) means players cap out at 6 mana. Yes. I may change that later but for play testing right now. It's a workable limit. Get your hands on a mana generating artifact, play a Dark Ritual, or just play Green if you want more.

Misc Rules

Pentagram of the Ages Illus. Douglas Schuler

Artifacts: They're basically just items. Find them in the word and use them as written in most cases. They're not spells so you don't draw them. They're just on your character and thus "in play" when combat starts. Outside, as with any card, we interpret narrative-ly.

Enchantments vs Auras: Currently Enchantments are what you cast on yourself and Enchant Creatures are what you cast on others. Sometimes you can cast Enchant Creature cards on yourself too...its a bit squishy right now.

Lands: Still not involved. Not that there weren't some great ideas thrown out about them, but it's just an element I don't feel comfortable incorporating yet.

Attunement: I really liked the Attunement ideas in @uncleasriel's post. It's something I want to mess with in my next play test.

What even is Banding? Scientists just don't know.

End Step

The next thing to do here is just to write this up as a play test rules doc. That probably would have been quicker than writing this whole dang post...whoops. Anywho, that's my next thing, along with another play test.

[henmesh]

I've had a few questions asking if the game's graphics were made with actual clay or just digital models with a clay filter/texture.

All graphics in the game come from photos of actual clay models! Then I process them in Aseprite to make the in-game sprites:

All animations for a standard enemy like this guy usually need around 70 photos total

A more thorough explanation of the full process will come in a later post.