theuzuki

[theuzuki]

IGMC - Day 0 - Implanting Mechanics

 Welcome back everyone! Today the IGMC officially begins and I’ve been chomping at the bits to get started! Today I started with some of the obstacle mechanics and the party switching mechanic. But before we do that we need a play area to test these ideas and elements without having to make a large portion of the demo.

                            Behold! The Play Testing Area!

 Yes, the classic development room, perfect for any developing need with little to no coherent rhyming. An ever staple that you will find within any game file. It also will allow me to show off stuff without spoiling the rest of the game! :D

 So the first mechanic to show off is the lying down of board planks. In Sweet Home, you will find boards lying all around the manor grounds and can use them to cross gaps. This was probably the hardest one to implant just because I had to figure out how to set off individual switches without having to make tons and tons of switches which would be a nightmare to handle and keep track of. 

 Luckily with a little elbow grease, and some help from the very useful Self Outer Switch Control plugin and Yanfly’s Call Event plugin, a nice event setup is born! Now I can make dozens of these events and it will be much easier to keep track of and edit. It’s not visually impressive or mechanically complex but it took a lot of work to get this working properly. Let’s move on to the next obstacle: Broken Glass!

 This one was a bit easier to make and doesn’t require as many switches. You’ll be able to sweep away glass shards by using a broom to make a path. You’ll have to plan out you’re path accordingly because the broom only has a limited amount of uses before it’s discarded. Alternatively you could just walk through the glass, but that might not be the best idea if you value not getting large shards of glass in your feet.

 And finally we have the party creation mechanic, courtesy of Hime’s Party Manager plugin. You will be able to create two parties from the seven playable characters. You can create a party of up to four people or just explore with just one. Traveling in larger parties has it’s pros, but it also has it's drawbacks: You will be able to carry more items with more characters, but monsters will have an easier time of capturing you and with more characters you will have a wider variety of options both in the field and in battle,  there will be more enemies to deal with. There will even be times where you will only be able to enter an area with a certain amount of characters. And you’ll be able to create, switch, disassemble the entire party or just remove specific party members at the press of an button! 

  Well that’s all I have for today’s work. I’ve gotta say for the eight hours I’ve sunk into the just making the mechanics, setting up items and tweaking various other options I would say I got a nice start for something that I hope that everyone that plays it will enjoy. The next dev log will revolve around the opening scene and how I’m going to have to create a fully fleshed out human being in only a couple minutes and a couple of lines. See you then, gang!

[theuzuki]

IGMC2018 - Day -1

  Hey there! This is going to be a personal development log that I will be writing on my game for the 2018 Indie Game Making Contest! This won’t be an daily update, but rather keeping tabs on progress and to keep myself motivated to actually complete an entry for this year’s contest. I’ve been entering these contests for the past 4 years, but I’ve always had life issues come in and either slow me down or stop work completely. So this year I’m going to give it my all and release something this year! Now, of course I won’t actually be starting until Monday, hence the -1, so for the weekend I’ve been working on story elements and possible mechanics.

  So for the theme of this year’s contest is The Next Big Indie Hit, where you will focus more on making a prototype for an game that can be expanded on later. Luckily if the last 5 years of making games in various engines taught me anything is that I’m a pro at making prototypes! This also plays in my favor in that I’ve been toying with this idea for a game that I feel like could do with a modern take.

                                Sweet Home (Capcom, 1989)

  Ever since I’ve heard of this game back in 2006, I’ve always been fascinated by it. A turn-based survival horror game for the Famicon that was only released in Japan and is pretty much the granddaddy Japanese horror games and the inspiration for games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. It combines my two favorite genres, JRPGS and Survival Horror, into this mishmash of ideas that for the most part work pretty well. And with mechanics like finding board planks to walk across gaps, using tools like vacuums and mallets to clear obstacles and also using those tools to solve some good ol’ fashion obtuse puzzles. On the other hand, battles are relatively simple with only a simple Attack command with one of the various weapons you find around the manor and a Prayer ability that acts as an catch all magic spell that is QTE based to use. Despite this small drawback it is an engaging game and is something that I haven’t seen done since. Which brings me back to my IGMC entry!

  In the one month given I will try to not only incorporate those machanics and elements but expand upon them and make them my own. With a more complex and varied battle system and more fleshed out characters and story, this will be my biggest challenge yet. So join me on this wild journey as I slowly crunch-time myself into insanity while working on: Sweet Home EX*

 You can follow me on Twitter or on here and shoot me a message here for RPG Maker advice, tips, updates or just to shoot the breeze. Be sure to like and reblog to get the page around, it really helps a lot!

*Note: This is a Placeholder/Working Title and will not be part of the final product. Please do not sue me, Capcom.