Days 11, 12, and 13-
So I've come to terms with the reality, that if this is to be considered a complete game by the game jam deadline it'll be an alpha build. I've done a lot of scoping down though I've also had many, many brand new challenges along the way. It's going to "end" on a cliffhanger and I WILL absolutely do a build and upload it for others to check out.
I also have a name. "The Third Time." It FINALLY came to me. For the majority of the time leading up to this I was using a working titled that referred to the central "antagonist" stuff but I didn't want that to be the thing that players enter the game with. This actual title serves a dual person as it goes with the central story theme as well as the "antagonist" stuff. (which one learns about as they play.) It was like magic in how well it overall fits!
The past few days I've actually been quite busy on this, contrary to the lack of Dev Log updates!
My concern about the file sizes of the maps has been resolved! Initially in order to preserve the art work I wasn't compressing the images which led to large, double-digit MBs (almost triple!) in the PNGs. When I fooled around with the buffer size it would degrade the quality that was unacceptable. Then I tried compressing at low quality it helped tremendously while somehow preserving the integrity/clarity, bringing the file sizes down to single digits for most of them I then discovered Crunch Compression. I checked the box and voila! An average of 300KB with no aesthetic difference! It was bothering me that the literal color palette was only 16 colors and I wasn't even using half of them on most of the files.
Original size 66.8MB
Low Quality Compressed size 16.7MB
Crunch Compression size 393.4KB
Last night (Thursday night) I fired up Ableton Live 10 and I created some creepy BGM and SFX "Instruments" using just audio effects and a free Yamaha DX7 inspired FM Synth VST plugin called Dexed. Contrary to the retro art style, I actually wanted to put together more contemporary sounds/atmosphere to the game and, go figure, this is the best of both worlds! 80s synthesizer technology with a real feel for Horror! Very John Carpenter-esque.
As for the maps? I made soooooooooo many. Each PNG has a resolution of 2960x5920, which equates to over 370x370 Codepage 437 tiles, at 4 layers each. Using a stopwatch I found that the average was 45 minutes to complete each map. Over 10 maps I did Wednesday. Looking back I have to admit that it was probably the most productive day in terms of content.
The light is back and revamped in a rounded lantern form rather than a flashlight. The flashlight might come back at a later date but for now I really like the "circle." A functioning dialog box with activation was implemented as well as a status screen that pauses the game. The current stat information is stock stuff and I'll modify it for this build to show the bare minimum.
For today? I'm finalizing audio, finalizing some cutscenes, finalizing a few more maps, title/logo screens, and of course building and uploading the game before the deadline. It'll be mostly linear and narrative based for now rather than having "gaming" elements, much more like a kinetic visual novel though I'm sure players will appreciate what I've done so far.
Here goes! The final hours!
- Randall