Back up, I'm backed up

No progress on the actual game at all, I did try to write the script for the intro sequence though but I haven't gone past two or so sentences.

Recently I've been occupied by being a chauffuer for my parents and trying to get some editing done for a couple of voice acting jobs I've cinched.

(And yes, admittedly a bit of procastionation, though for the most part, the game had not been in my mind much this week. Good thing I decided to at least try to blog about BOA weekly though, or else I may have forgotten about the game for months, this blog actually helped! Yay!).

That's all folks!

--Iddie

Hover, hover!

I certainly have been slacking off with the development of this game, however, at least I managed to make some semblance of progress and that is figuring out how to make the exclamation icon hover above the character's head and follow the player character whilst they are under a hotspot/region.

(NB: Image has been edited to show it works on both hotspots)

Initially I tried to script the function via this complicated string of global scripting, but I found out it was much simpler and less hassle to impliment a much shorter script (how many times can I say 'script' in one sentence?) by a room to room basis. 

In all honesty, I might not do much in coming weeks, I'll still try my best to at least add a little more to the project every week though; there's a saying where I come from "Sikit, sikit jadi bukit" which roughly translates to "Little by little it becomes a mountain"...just like my weight.

(ha ha...ha...*sobs*)

--Iddie

Here's a reflection

So I'm here typing up the weekly blog update for 'Book of Akiva' (let's call it BOA from now on), with nothing to update on.

I feel it's still worth blogging something, like putting a mark on the deadline, or for reflections like this, that should help me stay motivated to complete this game.

While I have missed the demo deadline and I haven't added onto the assets since the last blog post, I'm still quite proud of what I have had managed to achieve. I've implemented a GUI (at least part of it) that I only dreamed of doing over a decade ago.

I know I could do better with the art, but I've found a style that is satisfactory enough for me to quickly (loosely speaking) put together and be like "yeah, I'll move on to something else". Maybe one of these days I'll create a project with the intention of pushing my visual art skills to the limit? Who knows?

I have friends who are interested in voice acting for the project, friends who I have leaned onto in the past, in other words, people I know who will deliver.

This month, it's all about completing the demo, then I'll go back to my written schedule.

I wouldn't be surprised if this game took abotu a year to make *knock wood* I'm hoping it would at most be 6 months, but who am I kidding? I just need to keep up the momentum.

Here's to effort and passion,
Here's to ambition,

--Iddie

The Dingswitch!

So I've managed to figure out and impliment that function I mentioned in the previous blog post, where it's similar to FF9- anytime the character nears an area of interest, an exclamation mark will appear to indicate that the player/ character could interact with something there.

I intially wanted the exclamation mark to hover above the character's head, but this is simpler to code, my old English teacher Mr...(was it Mr Yates or Mr.Grace? anyways one of them) always said "Keep It Simple St--Silly!" and I think this will suffice.

A mumbly, drawn out, "um" filled explanation is in the video above, mostly as a reference made for myself, though the first thirty seconds or so of the video shows the function in action.

The month is almost over and I'm not done with the demo yet, however things are still looking up, I'm still making (slow) progress (but progress nonetheless). Experimenting and doing things with the engine that I would have been too scared (insecure?) to attempt a few years ago.

Yeah I'm proud *knock wood*.

--Iddie

Audio/Visual test and title (Finally!)

So I'm almost done with all of the backgrounds needed for the demo (in fact I've actually added one more initially unplanned background- worth it).

Seems I'm fleshing things out more and more each day, which is great, I find myself constantly asking myself "so what are the character's motivations?", "how can I take advantage of this situation/conversation/puzzle to show their personality?", "What definite characteristics do you want to put forth?", "How will you differenciate them? What do the characters agree on? Why would they stick together, do they need to?"

This is kind of why I usually like doing things as I go along, feeling like things are getting done motivates me to actually look at the details closer; I guess I'm a pragmatist?

 Anyways, here's an animation and sound test:

Part of me feels like I should create the isometric parts of the walkcycle, but another part of me is saying, it looks alright (does the job) and that I really should move on.

This will be my first game that uses the keyboard to move the character (using Khris' keyboard module from the AGS forums), I'll have to figure out how the character will interact with their suroundings, I'm thinking Final Fantasy 9 style- basically in that game when the main character encounters a hidden item a question mark or exclamation mark appears above their heads- I'm thinking when the main character of my game hovers over a hotspot that happens and you either press the 'A' or 'D' keys to interact; I still have to figure out how to do/script that, I'll try my best!

The looping music still has a slight pause before continuing so I still have to edit the sound file a bit more.

NB: The snow is a huge character sprite and was a test for a different game (the bg above was a test for a different game as well, I might never complete that one, seemed like a silly idea then and now).

Today I finally decided on a title for the game! "Book of Akiva". Basically the game is set around the kingdom of "Akiva" and it's kind of a "Tales of" situation, I could start it up like a history book, I could even have an easter egg within the game "The Book of Akiva: a history of the past 300 years" or something; if I ever want to make a sequel y'know?

Expected to move faster

Perhaps catching up on all seven seasons of True Blood wasn't a good idea, at least for the progression of this game (surprisingly, I still haven't decided on a name, gotta get on to that).

Yes, yes, procastionation is the curse that hath befallen all of us at least once in our lives and might I say procastionation and I have quite a history, if it was legal, I'd marry it...though I'm not sure we'd get past the engagement...probably would be catching up on the walking dead...

Jokes aside, I have made minor progress this week, I am still quite reluctant to share much about the game's story (since in the end, it is going to be quite short), but since what I'm working on is going to be the first screen (at least in the demo, still haven't decided for the full game yet), it shouldn't be too much of a problem if I shared a progress pic.

I have actually gotten much further with this background, but I figured this back-up saved image would do.

If you're wondering what my process is, I traditionally draw a sketch of the location, then I either scan or take a picture of the drawing (having clear and percise lines doesn't really matter when doing a low-res background). Then I put it into photoshop where I resize the image appropriately (with a sprite placed in a different layer as a scalling reference). I then build up a series of different layers pertainting to rough outlines, colour blocking, rough shading (I'm not too confident with shading, so for this particular project, and most of my previous ones, I just keep is as simple as possible). Lastly, I clean it all up, add small extra details if I feel like it or have the time and viola! It's complete.

I want to give a shout-out to Matt Frith who made the game 'Foundations', we don't know each other, but I got inspired to paint my clouds like I did above after playing that game (I mean, his is better looking obviously, but I wanted to go for a simpler style, I think it works).

One of these days I might even make a "This is how I half-ass it" tutorial on game-making.

Not much else to add on this blog other than that I have figured out how I want to end the full game, that's about it, I'll keep a lot of things vague for now...then again, it's not like people actually actively check out my blog, but who knows, right?

--Iddie

The Spontaneous May

In an attempt to release *something*, I had decided to work on a game as I went along (or semi-spontaneous at least). I had written up some simpe day by day goals for myself to abide by, so I could keep everything in check.

...'course I'm actually a little behind, even on this blog. I had planned to blog about it weekly and I'm off a day lol. Other than that, there are a bunch of stuff in my checklist that I haven't tackled yet for one reason or another (mostly procastination, let's be real here).

Regardless, I feel like things are still coming along nicely, I've been conceptualising the story and puzzles as I go along and it feels good. I've decided to extend my one month schedule to approximately 3-4 months (Guys over at 'Extras' really do know their stuff- NB: I know what they said about setting yourself up to make a game within a month, but this isn't my first game).

So far I'm behind on two scenes, two character walkcycles, two puzzles. The main character's walkcycle took longer than it should but at least I'm almost done with it:

Being so early in development, I don't feel comfortable enough yet to reveal much info on this character, just that she is the main character, that has definitely been set in stone.

Welp! That's all for this post, see ya later sweets!

--Iddie