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A final devlog from I.

We're not dead. I was definitely more productive at the beginning of the jam, but I think we're on path to push something out. That something might be different from what we had imagined, but it's there.

Where to begin? We've done a "first pass" (partially a joke at this point) on most of the art assets in the game, prioritising quantity. We have 4 enemies for each area including a boss, as well as a final boss, capping out at a relatively small 13 enemies. It's quite a short experience. I've added equipping and using items out of combat, rest stops, implemented the new areas, there's some status effects like poison and a stun ability, a revival move and item, a boss that continuously summons minions, a bunch of new items, all enemies have a unique skill...

Generally this is more of a pre-post mortem, though.

While the RPG system was partially my idea, and entirely my idea as far as implementing it through Ren'Py - it was a little ambitious for a 2 week project. Just getting half of the basic framework into the game took me a week, and that was at a frankly pretty quick pace. While more content can be added quite quickly now everything is done, the basic workings took most of my time. I hope there aren't too many major bugs, and things look to be fine, but we haven't really had time to do many test runs beyond features breaking while we're implementing something else.

The real killer is all the non-code assets that the now base of the game needs. Every enemy, ability, gui and item needs their arts - although we haven't managed ability graphics, and the enemies aren't animated. We'd have all those things at a decent quality as well as SFX in an ideal world, but there's just not enough time for it, even at a rush. Several features were cut as well. Perhaps we'll polish the game up more in the future, especially when I'm done with my coursework.

That aside, I found it to be an enjoyable learning experience. I have a (slightly) more concrete idea of how long things take to develop, and I've had fun tinkering with how to program a turn-based combat loop among other things. I mean, it's a little wonky, but it gets the job done.

Soon, if things go well, I'll be trying ("trying" being the key word) to develop a short VR shooter with some Metroid inspirations, and I'll be taking many of the things I learned during the jam with me.  Obviously not how to program turn-based combat loops, but more general lessons, like knowing the value of sticking to small, easy to achieve tasks is even greater than I originally thought.

This was my last ramble for this jam. Thanks to everyone for participating, making things interesting and letting me see their own creations.

Sometimes, I slot in a graphic, and it feels like all my foundations are coming together. Sometimes.

Hello. If you're still reading this, thank you, and I'm impressed.

Since my last post, I've implemented the levelling system. It mostly involves exponential functions to calculate stat gain and next level exp. There are also now sprites on the screen, and my targetting overlay finally has those arrows I've been raving about for so long.

Everything is...working, now. However, I don't think there's much disguising that I've spent most of my time frantically getting features implemented. There's a lot of polish left to do, and I can only hope we're on track to get most of it done. There's supposed to be a shop of...meta items that have special mechanics, but it's looking dangerously close to the chopping block. 

I also re-did the shop screen for both buying and selling, making things look a bit nicer on that front. Well, it's still not in its final state, though.

As you've likely noticed, I've made a graphic for the game's iconic item and...the slime. I'm working on a wolf, but compared to a gelatinous ball of solid colour with slight highlights - well, it's a bit harder. The shop screen unfortunately has the visual illusion of dark circles between square grids, which I'll need to figure out how to get rid of.

Most of the upcoming work is adding enemy sprites to populate our dungeons, as well as continuing to iron out GUI elements. If only I was capable of art. 

Hope you're all enjoying the jam. Good luck!

I'm sorry GUI designers, I have underestimated you. Well, I never thought it was easy at all, don't get me wrong; but it reminds me of when I first tried to learn to improve my drawing.

I suck, and I have no idea what I'm doing. But isn't what this jam is about?

There aren't any finished elements to show so I shan't showcase the horrors just yet, but I've worked on several more things since my last log. Nothing too screenshot-worthy. Multiple enemies require a loot pool to roll the chance for each possible item drop, as well as tally up gold and exp. Another basic functionality for my collection.

I've also got in most of the implementation for selling things to the shop. I have one last thing on my list before we both move completely on to the graphics; level-ups. Characters gain xp, but I haven't gotten round to actually implementing the level-up process yet. Well, I don't expect it to take too long.  I just need an exponential xp curve and decide how many stats characters should get on level-up...though I suppose skills on level-ups are also pretty RPG-typical.

I've been making major progress on my dissertation project lately - in fact, the first (and by far the most difficult) part is finished! That also means things are short again, even though I didn't post a devlog yesterday. I'm pretty happy that I have 90% of the functionality down by the week mark, though - even if I fully expect many bugs to surface.

I hope you've all had success with the progress of your own projects. Until next time!

Today is a bit of a different day.

Since I pulled Soul's changes at the end of the night, the UI has changed colour, and since they were placeholders I didn't make them part of a universal style. What does this mean? It means I won't be posting any screenshots today, because I'm too lazy to re-open the editor and colour them right now. You'll just have to trust me.

I was working on my coursework for the larger portion of today, but I got a few things done (unlike on my coursework). The AoE system I wasn't sure how to do turned out to be...easier than I expected. So now we have abilities that target 2 adjacent enemies, or the whole party,  and the target selection UI will reflect that. Basic, but it's nice to see. I also implemented healing abilities, finally, and left some room in the loop to do buffs later.

As I wrap things up, it seems I've forgotten things I'd decided were low priority - I need to get the "sell" button in the shop to work. After the shop, I'll probably just be making sprites until we do an overhaul of the GUI elements on the weekend. We have a lot of windows, so I want to leave a lot of time.

As Soul mentioned, I've been considering having an animation during dungeon screens where the party "walks" and runs into the enemy encounter. It's not too complicated, but I think it'd be neat. I used Darkest Dungeon as an example for the animation, but I don't know if we'll actually have "rooms". We'll see. Time is the factor - it's not worth time I could spend on not having placeholder graphics.

Thanks for reading. Hope you're all doing well with your own games. I'm looking forward to playing some.

/// Day 4 ///

Hello. It's very late.

I miss my good friend Soul. They're busy today. I also have classes until tea-time. Yet I still spend a little longer than planned on new mechanics. I still haven't worked on my dissertation project since the start of the jam.

I'm going to do things a bit short today. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. That means two are worth two thousand. That's the size of a decent essay.

Today, I implement several more thrilling things; the system to generate random series of encounters, a placeholder skill page, a system for selecting which enemy/ally you wish to target.  It all sounds very fancy, but Ren'Py is very easy to work with. Most of the time.

I've been trying to think of how to implement AoE abilities. I'd like to highlight every enemy that the ability will hit on the target screen, but I'm not sure how I'll go about it. Ren'Py gets a bit antsy with python blocks around screen elements.

Perhaps when I have sprites, I'll be able to draw arrows over each of them, at least. But still, I feel it would look a little confusing if only one enemy is highlighted on the bottom box. If you have any ideas, please don't be shy. By myself, I am but one idiot.

Either way, thanks again for staying tuned. I know things still look a bit bare, but I think at least I can now work on some more permanent graphics. I am no artist, though.

Good evening. I hope you're doing well. 

The march of progress continues. I didn't cover as much ground as yesterday, but that's fine.  However, I do sleep in again. Life is a struggle, but my bed is warm. Enough about me, though.

The number of new GUI elements grows again today. Or more specifically, the number of placeholder GUI elements. A proper design for each will be necessary, and perhaps I'll regret eating all of the strawberries on my cake first. i just hope that cake isn't a tiramisu, because I find the bottom layer is usually terrible. Anyway, I can only hope they might eventually be a fraction as nice-looking as some of the others in this jam.

First, as mentioned yesterday, I wanted to get the basic shop functionality to a working state.

As they say about all my other placeholder GUI's: "pretty, it ain't". What it is, however, is working.  Right now it's just a button for each item that you press to buy things. My idea is eventually having a grid on the left to select items, and a zoomed in copy with some dialogue from the shopkeeper on the right third of the window, as well as quantity controls.

Ignore the fact the only item in the shop (and the game, really) is the cheese wheel. The second item was our first weapon, the Cypress Stick. It serves to check that the equipable items section works as intended and provides stats. On that note, we have another new element that is useful for checking that.

More future GUI work for my ever growing pile. Even the thumbnails are placeholders from Soul’s sketches. I haven't added a button to actually choose an equipped item without the console, but that will only take a minute, once I figure out where to put it. 

 However, that may actually be the last screen until the next phase. I only just realised that, and it makes me happy. OK, I did say I'd do a screen with an imagemap eventually for the world map, but I'm not sure if that'll get done.

Let's see, what else? There were many minor things today. Not worth a full mention. Going through variables to check that saves work. I helped Soul set a couple flags, set things up so new first encounter dialogue is easy to add. Small things like that.

My next priorities are again the randomised encounter system, and making some kind of actual targeting system (picking which enemy to hit). An imagemap may be the best thing for that, but we have no sprites yet. I’m still mulling it over. Either way, hopefully my dev logs should get a little shorter now.

Not to state the obvious, but that GUI is absolutely gorgeous. The colour scheme, cute prints and the coffee stains gives me strong café vibes, which I don't need to guess was the goal.  Great work so far!

I looked at some of the other threads. One with an author draws extremely pretty, frilly blue hats. I spend several minutes looking at frills.

Hello. I am Aera.

Today, Soul and I both sleep in for later than intended. They spend most of the day drawing. I feel a little bad. Our game needs many...assets to be complete. I've been mulling over how exactly we'll reach the true finish mark. Perhaps, some might say, both genres of this game are not ideal fits for a game jam timeframe, especially lacking a dedicated artist. Either way, things continue. 

With placeholders.

I spend the first part of today's session revising the combat loop. Damage calculation, some structure for multi-target moves and such (an optimistic addition, but it can't hurt). Skills exist, and the first becomes the standard Attack option.  In fact, that is currently the only skill, as like any idiot worth their salt, I was entirely distracted by my next task.

Next, I do some minor GUI work. Ren'Py's GUI turns out to be basically CSS.  While I like Ren'Py for being so easy to work with in all other aspects, making me do CSS is akin to asking me to wash my housemate's dirty dishes.

Now we can actually see all our party member's status. I'll revisit the design and layout when there's no immediate functionality to add. Or, I tell myself I will. I'd like to have some small enemy sprites here as well.

Next, I beat on the inventory until it works how I want it to. Any knowledgeable RPG player knows what I'm going to do next.

To test out the grid and page system, I fill the player inventory with 150 cheese wheels at the beginning of the game, much like a high school mathematics teacher.  The alignment and design of these windows still needs work.

Finally, I make the inventory accessible during combat through the "item" command, and allow the use of "usable" items as a turn action.

It restores 5 health to the one who used it.

Tommorow, I hope to add a functioning shop. If I finish that in time, perhaps finally a party/stat page. The last major functional device after that is randomized dungeon spawns.

These long and pretentiously written devlogs provide me with a weird catharsis. Thank you for the time you spent reading this.

Hello. I am Aera. 

I come here to support my friend as they participate in their first jam. Though I suppose it is mine as well. But I am mostly here to program. Art is tiring and I am not any good at it, and with five university projects to finish by April that I left late, my energy reserves dwindle.  That said, I may end up making some basic battle sprites if things go well.

And so begins the first day.

Soul is in charge of the writing. A compromise is made that if I can think of a better title by the end of the jam, we will use that. But I do understand the irony. Even if it hurts a little. For their penance, Soul assigns themselves to art.

As for me, the first job for today is primarily to set groundwork and flow control. The gameplay loop will consist of a hub location, from which you can shop or go to fight enemies. Ren'Py has everything I need for that, and so the skeleton is instantly set.

What Ren'Py does not have is a combat system. Before the jam, Soul directed me to a framework they planned to use, dubbed the Syrup lite RPG framework.  The inventory system is great, basic and fits the plan well, but the shop and combat system will need tweaking.

And so I grab my axe.

That went...pretty well, overall. I have never used Ren'Py in my life, and Python is not my preferred language. Learning my way around the keywords used in the GUI system can come tommorow. And so I keep the look of the original for now.

Most of today's work consisted of making things more flexible. The original source was designed for a single persistent combatant and enemy. Our turn-based combat loop needs to support a party, each with their own stats, skills and unique abilities, as well as enemy parties. Basic stuff.

Now that we have parties of units and simple combat, I'll probably be working on implementing the per-unit abilities system tommorow, as well as some of the previously mentioned GUI work. If that goes quickly, my sights are set on the shop screen next.

I didn't expect my first game to be a visual novel. Or 2D. But I'm enjoying it so far.