Day 9 - Feedback, Demo Update, Chapter 1, and Music!
How is everybody doing this evening? I hope well! Today I have some more feedback to address, talk some more about the demo, a progress report on chapter 1 + an idea to pitch, and lastly, some music to share with everybody from my composer friend, ComposerJF. With that, let's jump right into things!
Feedback
Yesterday SapphireScribe mentioned a possible bug with the text cursor and I was waiting on some screenshots from them before doing much on that front. They came through with those and I confirmed that this was NOT a bug. However, if the cursors are confusing or just cluttering the screen I can remove them. So the question to you guys is: Should I remove the cursors altogether?
What they are there for is to let you know when text continues from the same source. However, I write my dialog and narration in such a way where words are never cut off like-
this or anything.
It looks bad and encourages verbose writing. This way it challenges me to be as succinct as possible with all my dialog. Especially relevant with that hour long time limit for judging. As silly as it may seem, I work diligently on ensuring that Hiro's Ascension is pleasant to look at, listen to, and most importantly, fun to play! I've had to use some placeholder art and assets, and I'm not too happy about that. My point is, I care about polish at all times, not just in the final product. Some dings and dents are to be expected but I want to minimize them as much as possible.
Demo Update
- Realized I teach a concept in the tutorial but in the bandit encounter don't reiterate it by allowing the player to, "talk" to the bandits instead of fighting them. In my mind this was because they obviously want to fight you so why would you try talking to them? That was the wrong way to think about it. Instead you can try and talk to them but they quickly shut you down and the option to talk to them vanishes. However, you are rewarded for the attempted by getting a free 1-time 100% hit chance with the weapon of your choice on either enemy.
- The above change makes the encounter easier but you can still fail it, but only if you really don't understand some basic mechanics or you get unbelievably unlucky (like an enemy gets a crit on you and you die).
- Speaking of dying. Man, it sure is awful to have to restart the WHOLE (well mostly, whole) demo over if you die at the bandits. Well no more! The game prompts you to save before the fight for easy resume on death.
Chapter 1
Last time I talked about how I had one random encounter of four almost finished but it was SO MUCH CODE! Today I finished, and rigorously tested, that encounter. I tried everything I could to break it or mess the logic up but it seems pretty solid. I am confident that it will work as intended at all times. Here is the final version notes:
- Most of what was in the last update remains unchanged with the exception of the super special encounter getting a significant bump from a <1% chance to an almost 5% chance. I felt like it was just too rare, especially with something else I added. However, that's a secret ;)
- Increased a sub-event chance to almost 15% chance, up from 10%.
- Added ambiance and music to this event. Also a few sound effects. It was reeeeeeeeal awkward without something in the background. Since this is the woods at night I chose wind rustling the trees for the ambiance. I wanted crickets, or better yet cicadas, but apparently that is asking too much... then I realized I had tons of both after the fact XD I ended up keeping the wind and rustling though. If you trigger the super secret event it changes to a mystery track that builds suspense, however, it is not a spooky track as it keeps the tone more on the casual end. Sound effects are minor things, that weren't necessary but I thought needed to be included for that extra little push of immersion.
- Finalized all benefits you can receive if you reach the special encounter. Rewards vary depending on your choice but range from a unique item, stat increases, money, or some combination of each.
- Decided this is a mainline story encounter but it still has an 80% chance of occurring. I'm sure that means nothing right now, but trust me, it will be clear when I get to the sub-plot development for this encounter pool later.
- Seamless transition no matter what path you take to ending with music fading as you leave the location.
I know some of you are dying to know what the secret event is up there. I'll give you guys a special taste, but it is just a hint. After all, it is the kind of thing best experienced for yourself!
Hmmm... I'd love to hear your guesses as to what is going on in the forest based on this. You won't see this every run, more like once-in-a-blue-moon, but I wanted to make sure I show at least a peak behind the curtain so you know I have been working on stuff.
For event number 2:
- Dock Encounter - Story development & bonus chances (80% chance of occurrence).
- This is mainline part 2 and picks up right after the previous encounter.
- Currently this does not involve any player choice, but it may. Primarily this is text driven.
- Due to above, special attention has been put into visuals and sound design. Currently there is one background but a second is probable, just depends on time. However, it has two tracks. One is a bustling town ambiance which later transitions to an ocean journey theme, complete with gently crashing waves. The NPC introduced here has one voiced line where he shouts, "Hey!" to Hiro in order to get his attention. Slipped this in here just to show that I can have minor voice acting, which was an unlikely feature that could be included in the final product. For something like this, it makes sense though as it cuts through the busy ambiance and aids in the transition to the quieter music.
I haven't made any more progress than that on the encounters. This leads to the idea I have to pitch and see what you guys would rather have. Here are the options:
- Intro to Válor -> Humor based time skip and right into the meat of the game with the themed floors.
- Intro to Válor -> Coliseum boss battle where you fight a Goliath enemy that alters the playing field with his attacks while waves of minor enemies attack (though they can be hurt by Goliath just like you can). This would allow me to let the final boss have some extra attack patterns.
Music
I have The Ultimate Music Collection and a few other places I get music from, which is making a up bulk of my music and sound library this time. However, I have done work with a composer in the past on a different project and he has agreed to return for this one! Currently he has finished one track for me but he is working on a few more. This one is for the final boss of the game. Please enjoy and give a listen!
That's all I have for today's update. I could do more work but I'm honestly feeling a bit tired and don't want to get lazy on this as a result. Hope you enjoyed the song and other bits of info here. Please let me know with a comment if you have an opinion on the 2 questions I pose above. As a reminder those are:
- Get rid of text cursor?
- Which Chapter 1 conclusion would you rather see? Right to core game or bonus boss battle?
Thanks as always for reading and keep up the hard work everybody!
-JS