Dev-Day Episode 47: Club Of The Unseen

here you go

this is a link to the piece of music i'm working on right now.

i'm not 100% sure where i'm going with it, and i'll definitely be changing it, but right now i'm working on figuring out whether or not it'll be for the title screen or the hub world.

it's very bare bones.

i've made this piece from what i've learned from howie.

it's a very ambient piece, but also the melody isn't very strong.

and some of the chords sound off.

i'm trying to go for a peaceful vibe.

but important parts i should look into for this are a stronger melody, bass, percussion.

with more exploration and pointers from howie i should be able to make a respectable piece.

which is what i'll be doing tomorrow.

Dev-Day Episode 46: No Slaves

i did the thing with the house labels.

this was done by making invisible objects that i would just place over targeted objects, and when they were walked over, when they collided with arlette, they would making the respective labels appear.

this is the code for opus' house activator.

alert=0;

if place_meeting(x,y,obj_movement_test){

alert=1;

if instance_number(obj_opus_house_label)<1{

instance_create(view_xview[0]+640, view_yview[0]+64,obj_opus_house_label);

}

}

if (alert=0){

with(obj_opus_house_label){

instance_destroy();

}

}

and to go over this in a little more detail, that alert variable is just so that when arlette is no longer colliding with the activator, the label is destroyed.

i made a new activator for every separate house because it was simpler than messing with the creation code.

simpler is better than faster in my experience.

i also got fruity loops, FL studio.

so tomorrow i'll be messing with that trying to come op with some background music for this hub world.

i don't know to much about composing, but i do know i want something more on the side of ambience than melody.

think firelink shrine vs wily's castle.

Dev-Day Episode 45: Open Minds

once again, the animated sprite coming out of spriter pro is missing an eye.

i don't know why.

it's just, missing.

so once again i had to go through 90 frames putting it back.

this is a problem that needs to be solved.

here she is in game.

looking good.

tomorrow i'll be implementing a system where when you walk in front of a house there will be a little box appearing at the top of the screen telling you who's house it is, because i thought that'd be a good idea today.

and after that i'll make it so you can go into those houses.

i talked to mr bilesky more about hardware, and we talked more about getting controllers.

microphones are also a possibility, for sound fx more than voicework, but i'm not cutting that out of the equation just yet.

maybe minimal voicework will do.

we shall see, it's a lot to take in but i have to keep my scope within control.

one of the biggest downfalls from the last game i worked on was my idea for what i could make it was unrealistic, so not enough things ended up getting done properly.

shortcuts were taken, not here.

it's the day after that last post and the lampost is still wiggling.

it looks soooo silly.

Dev-Day Episode 44: Lurking In The Dark

this is renard.

get it?

it's cause she's got a fox hoodie.

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...........

i'm clever and make good designs.

i'm not sure if she'll have any mechanical functions but i'll be placing her next to milk.

she took a longer time to make than opus so she'l not animated right now.

i might be revisiting some of the npc animations to make them better.

like more moving parts.

but i'd also want to put some moving elements in the world so it doesn't look too weird, like bushes waving in the wiiiiiiind.

on a side note it's super windy outside, one of the lamp posts is waving in the wind.

it looks stupid and i will not be taking inspiration from that.

tomorrow i'll be animating her.

mr bilesky gave me an offer today asking me if i need any hardware, like a microphone for example.

i don't know if i need a microphone to do voicework, but maybe some wardware to connect one of my gamepads to the computer so i can maybe make a game for console would be cool.

i've got my own controller but i don't have anyway to hook it up.

it would also be a nice learning experience to get to know how to code for controllers.

it would certainly be different, because WASD is digital controls, a pressed button is a pressed button.

but with an analog stick, you get degrees of control.

usually in games with an analog stick you can move a lot, not at all, or anywhere in between.

that's bring another interesting situation too, because my grappling hook mechanic works on a point and click method.

i suppose mapping it to the right stick would be do-able, somehow.

i look forward to exploring this.

Dev-Day Episode 43: Coup De Grace

this is opus.

he's the new npc.

his animation is a litter weird, because he's missing an eye, but i mixed that in game maker frame by frame.

maybe a bit tall.

but that's okay.

i am concerned that his colours might be too similar to arlette's but i think with some more characters this complaint of mine will be diluted.

character design is an interesting thing, and it's something a lot of games do really well, especially street fighter.

these are minimalistic styles of street fighter characters, and they are instantly recognizable to anyone familiar with street fighter.

doing something similar with my characters will probably help further individualize them.

and i redid some of remise's colours.

i'm not 100% satisfied, but it's a start.

back to opus.

he's an old character of mine, who's original idea cam from an old scratch game 2-3 years ago.

his deal is that he's a wizard, and the pilot of the hub world floating islands.

he's a cool guy and i like him.

Dev-Day Episode 42: Green Light

ui

that character screen is still a placeholder.

those bars don't really work.

but they will, they'll also be visible while you're playing the game.

like health bars ought to be.

there's also mana, cause magic will be a thing.

i'll make those bars separate objects, and work similarly to the ui.

this isn't a new concept for me.

however i have learned that placement for your bars might be important.

i see that dark souls and most games for that matter put your health bar in the top left.

minecraft puts it in the bottom left/center area.

however i rarely ever see the healthbar in the right side of the screen, except in saints row.

so what's the point?

i'll look more into this but i can't find any videos blatantly discussing this, so i look more into general hud/ui discussion.

tomorrow, npcs.