Art Update:

I took such a long time figuring some stuff out with the battle backgrounds. I realize I probably shouldn't have worried about it too much, because i spent HOURS on it. I'm sorry guys lol, i need to keep in mind that there's other important stuff I need to work on in my game.

GOOD NEWS:

I might not even need to publish it on march 22, because im getting a lot of stuff done. I know that might seem like its B.S. because i just talked about making backgrounds for hours, but really what matters is the battle system. I realize I don't need to make a literal beta perfect. I realize i can let some things chill down, so maybe I'll have an earlier download available.

Now there may be some problems. I can only port to windows, but later on I'll see if I can make a Mac and Linux version. Im sorry, ill try to make mac & Linux ports as soon as i can.

Sorry guys i tried to work on the game, but im sick today. i have a sore throat and i feel like my head cant think straight. ill try to see if i can do some work later but my head hurts. Hopefully my head will feel better tomorrow so i can work.

Game Scene Update:

Hey I'm feeling way better. Throat still a bit scratchy but it's getting better and better. 

Anyways, I'm basically finished with the game scene. it has 3 rounds for battle just like Buckshot roulette. However, there are some differences. For one, anytime you accidentally shoot yourself, you still get another turn to try to shoot your opponent unlike "Buckshot Roulette." On the first round the Opponent only uses the revolver so he'll only take away 2 HP. Also on the third round you and the Opponent get reduced health to make it a bit scarier.

There's some secrets in the beta, so I hope you can find them >:3

Game Scene Update:

I don't want to reveal a whole lot in the Game Scene. All I'm gonna say is that in the third round there's "something" I added into the mix to make the final battle scarier. 

Weapons Update:

Do you guys remember when I announced the tranquilizer gun? Well i nerfed it a bit. Basically if you shot the Opponent with the tranquilizer, then that would mean every time he shoots a blank at you, he would get 1 HP taken away. Now it still does that, but now its limited to three turns. So every action the Opponent does, will reduce the turn count and if it hits zero he's not poisoned anymore. This was done to make the tranquilizer less annoying when the Opponent shot you.

Art Update:

The Opponent has two Sprites now :3

Yeah that's it... I'll talk about why I did that when the beta battle test releases.

Conclusion on the Date of Release:

I wanted to see if I could release the beta earlier than March 22, but it looks like I'll be releasing it on that day. Also when the beta comes out, I'll officially put Finished 10%. I remember I was hyped that I got 28 views on my first post, and now as of creating this, it's 487. I'm really happy a lot of people saw my post (even if it may contain viewers coming back which gives an inaccurate number.) Thank you all for reading these post throughout the days. Heck, even if you're someone who just stumbled across this on the Itch.io Devlogs, thank you. I cant wait for March 22.

Items Update:

Do you guys remember the Four Leaf Clover? If you don't, it was an item that would change the chances to a 50/50 (basically it would put one blank round and one live round lol.) Unfortunately you could cheat by using handcuffs and four leaf clover combo to bypass that problem of having to guess. IT WOULD ALSO BE TOO "OP" WITH THE KNIFE ITEM. 

Conclusion

Erm... I would talk about more, but my game is coming out on march 22 so I don't really feel the need to. Also I didnt have time to implement a lot of secrets like I said :(

Right now there's only 2 secrets. But anyways... I'm so nervous and excited to put the project on my Itch page (even if it is just a beta). Please, whenever you can, notify me of any bugs you find so I can fix them. I'd also recommend you send me a video of you playing the game for the sake of bug reports. One more thing, if you guys could give me suggestions about what you would like to see later in the full game, that would be great. 

Expect there to be some stock assets in the game (Don't worry they wont be in the full game.).

I apologize for no Update yesterday. I had some family and friends come over haha.

Anyways, now that I'm done with the Beta... What now? We'll there's still some stuff I need to fix in the battle system, but I want to take a break from the battle system. I mainly wanna focus on art, ACT system, and map design to my open world. 

If you guys wanna know my main plan with the open world, well then basically the idea is that your trapped in a music box world and there's 4 main sections of the world that are divided. I would talk about those more about those sections in detail but... maybe for another time when i feel more confident about what i want to do with the open world. If you guys have any questions you would like to know about the open world then let me know and i will see if i can answer them.

And for the ACT system, I know that I've talked a little bit about how i wanted it to change NPC's moods to happy, sad, angry, and scared, however that's all I really said about the ACT system.  So i might as well tell you that there is some rng thrown in and also I'm taking the FF2 keyword system... Which I know sounds like a bad idea since everyone hated the FF2 Keyword system, but i want to use for ACT system in a cool and creative way to understand the NPC's better so you can pacify them.

Ideas About the Act System:

So with the ACT system, it is in some ways similar to Undertale, in which you pick different things to say in order to pacify someone. However you have to be careful, because what you say, can make some one take it in a bad way, which can be worse. If you read the post above you'll notice that I said "I'm taking the FF2 keyword system." The idea is that I want players to learn certain phrases that can pacify an NPC (also it can help with that NPC's lore). It's also a great way for players to pay more attention to an NPC talking to them because the phrases will be highlighted and you can pick the "learn" button. Also I guess me saying "phrases," isn't very accurate. While it can be phrases, other times it's names. It could be names of a character, a weapon, an item, etc. There's a lot to learn to pacify people, so i hope people enjoy the ACT system when it's fully finished. There's still some stuff I haven't quite figured out yet so expect another update of the ACT system. 

Ideas about the Act system:

Ok so I think i have a better idea of how i want the ACT system. So... Every NPC has a basic question you can ask them. Like "Where am I?", "Who are you?", "What are you doing?", etc. But then there's key words. Which I have explained before, are words you can learn through talking to NPC's or through secrets (Again like FF2). 

Here's an explanation of how it works. 

You pick ACT. Then you pick whether you want to ask questions or answer/tell (might just change it to "Tell"). Then you get to choose main words or key words. After that, you get a list of words to pick and then when you pick one word, it leads to specific sentences you can choose to say with that word within it (I hope this isn't confusing). Like if one of the keywords was "Apple" you can pick apple, then proceed to pick a variety of things you want to say about apple, like "where is apple?", "Why do you have an apple?", "Do you know what an apple is?"

Of course, this is really weird and I wouldn't use something as basic as "Apple", but I'm sure you get the point. If you want an example of how this would pacify someone, then lets say you met an important NPC with a name, and then that name got added as a key word. Now if you encountered another NPC that knows that name and if you used ACT to select that key word, they might be interested in knowing more about you.

Here's a little visual example of how it would work in RPG Makers conditional branch.

(I hope this doesn't confuse you lol)

EDIT: I hope this system can make NPC's more interesting rather than every other RPG. If there's any questions you have about the ACT system, then by all means let me know.

OK SO WOW APPARENTLY THERE WAS A PROBLEM WITH THE BETA. You couldn't go through the final door because APPARENTLY RPG MAKER HAS A VERY SPECIFIC WAY THAT EVENTS ARE SET UP.

Please don't feel scared to tell me any bugs you happen to come across. But anyways, to anyone who didnt see beyond the door here's a screenshot.

You would basically go up some stairs and then end up here:

The sign is just a dev post saying thank you for playing the game and also to get excited for when the full game comes out. Also it says to replay the game again to test out new guns and items. anyways that's it sorry folks lol.

Stats Update:

I'm debating on whether I want a class system or custom stat system. I'm sure you guys are smart enough to know what those mean, but basically, at the start of the game you are given choices of what you want to be. If it's a class system its about choosing which class you want to be. If it's custom stats, then think of "S.P.E.C.I.A.L." attributes from Fallout.

I'm probably gonna do the custom stats, because i want a more roleplay experience, but who knows, i might change my mind. If anything i could use both, i might make the class system like FF3's or FF5's job system.

But any ways here are my ideas for the custom stat system.

Medical Knowledge: can help you understand how to use certain items that involve reviving, healing, or getting rid of negative states (like poison).

HP: increase HP (of course)

Charismatic Luck: Helps with the ACT system. In some situations when pacifying an NPC, it can be dictated by RNG. So this helps increase your chances of pacifying.

Hunger: This dictates how much time is needed to eat food. (I genuinely might consider getting rid of this)

Who knows what I'll add next. The reason i didnt add stuff like agility or strength is because it would break my games idea. Strength shouldn't add damage to a shotgun, a shotgun should do the same damage whether your a weak nerd or not (also its a horror game, i cant make the player too powerful.) And hey! by all means, tell me if you have any ideas you would like to see for the custom stat system.

Weapon Update:

I'm thinking of adding 2 new weapons, "the Taser" and "Double Barreled Shotgun". I plan for the taser to shock your opponent when you shoot a so called "blank." Of course keep this in mind that any opponent you do battle with can do the same to you if you use this item. And for the double barreled shotgun, it's technically the most powerful weapon in the game. It will take away 6HP from your opponent when you shoot them with a live round. I plan for the double barreled shotgun to be a rare item, that can only be achieved through your choices in the story, so I hope you can find it.

Anyways, because i felt like i didnt explain the original weapons that well, I might as well give a better description for what they are and what my plan was for them.

Any weapon you choose, the opponent can use, making every fight basically even. This is something to watch out for.

Revolver: It does +2 damage. This is for the player that wants to strategize with out any annoyances. The idea is that the player may not want to have the shotgun because the enemy does too much damage, making it too fast paced for them to strategize and also the player may not like how they get poisoned by the tranquilizer because the tranquilizer is literally meant to ruin strategy. In short, the revolver is a free strategic experience.

Shotgun: It does +4 damage. This is for the player that is confident they will get more hits on the opponent then themselves. This can make matches more fast paced and also make the player feel like they have to use less items when they can get rid of their opponent so quick (unless your talking about herbs).

Tranquilizer: It does +2 damage, and can poison the opponent (doing +1 damage) when they shoot you with a blank. This is for the player that likes messing up strategy. See, any opponent can use items or shoot you, but that contains a turn. When you shoot a live round at your opponent, they get poisoned and it lasts for 3 turns. So this can mess up your opponent when they're deciding on what to do when poisoned. Does your opponent shoot you, risking if it's a blank? Or just waste items to waste turns?

Anyways that's it for today. What a long post haha, I'm glad to make these after all the other short post I make.

ACT Update: 

So I'm thinking when you talk to an NPC, you can click the "Answer/Tell" button and then click the "Main" button to get a series of things you can say. 

You know when i said that depending on your choices in the ACT system, it can cause an NPC to be mad, happy, sad, or scared. Yeah this is what i mean. I think this will be great.

Ideas about Character Creation:

I'm gonna be honest, I REALLY WANT CUSTOM CHARACTER CREATION IN THE GAME. I just don't know if I will. Not only would it take some time, but the main problem is that RPG Maker technically wont allow players of your game to customize their own character. That really sucks because RPG Maker comes with a character customizer THAT ONLY GOES FOR THE DEVELOPER. However there is one way. 

First, I can instead make Actors into a character customizer. Actors in RPG Maker are basically your party members. So i can make you switch actors, which in reality is actually just you customizing yourself. 

I could use a ruby script that someone already made for character customization, but I don't really like the ones I found.

Don't expect character creation to be in the game, but I'll try my best to add it.

Map Update:

There's not much i can say, because i want to reveal the rest of the map in the 2nd beta, but what i will say, is that I plan to not use a lot of tiles for my map. Instead I plan to use a fully colored in backgrounds that pretends to be the map. The reason why is because tiles are limited to a 32x32 size. I could still make effectively good art with it, but i prefer to use colored in background because i have a bit of problems with size limits. Who knows if I change my mind, but i doubt i will haha.

I'm also really happy with some of the side quest I've been creating. Some of them feel like Twilight Zone stories or Goosebumps stories lololol. I'm sorry I wanna tell you more about them, but I don't want to reveal so much until beta 2.

Class System Update:

So you know how I'm adding a custom Stat system like Fallout right? Well I'm still gonna do it, but I'm adding classes too. Yep, I decided on doing both Stat and Class customization. However Classes are resorted to something like FF5. If you know FF5, you'll know it has a job system so you can play any way you want. I kind of want something like that.

I'll explain some of the ideas I have right now.

Soldier: Can take more hit's and has more knowledge of guns. (This is primarily for battling, so it's probably not the best choice if you want a Pacifist route)

Doctor: Has the ability to revive themselves or party members. Can also remove poison effects.

Spy: Can smooth talk to persuade NPC's and also has more knowledge about guns.

Dealer: You can make deals to make money and smooth talk to persuade NPC's. (This is more for the ACT system, also a funny thing is that you'll look like the "Opponent" in a suit from the 1st beta X3)

I'll try my best to do some more stuff with them, because I don't like how soldier isn't a good option for pacifist route. I want every class to be usable for any ending even if some classes might be better at getting certain endings.

I'll see what I'll be able to show tomorrow.

LOL I'm so dumb. I had to change some of the controls on the page for my beta because i said to use WASD controls for movement lololol. its all fixed now, it says use directional keys.

Map Update:

So I have an idea for how to get classes. There will be a "Job center" placed around the map. If you go into one, that's how you can become a certain class (its also how you change a class).

Other basic stuff you can find in the map:

-Shops and Inn's just like every other RPG. 

-tents that are empty or have NPC's living in them.

-Houses

-Locked Houses (that you can break into >:3)

-small Islands in the ocean.

I plan to have all this stuff in the 2nd beta, just keep in mind its only for the south part of the map. After all, I cant finish the rest of the map haha. I don't know when the 2nd beta will be released, but ill try to make it as fast as possible.

Horror Update:

I wanted to make this post to let you guys understand the type of horror i want to create. I want to have disturbing visuals and decidophobia. I understand this type of horror isn't for everyone, but i hope you stick around because im having some thoughts to add more horrific experiences. Also i would like to list off some types of 'horror' that I either wont be able to do or will be hard to implement.  Some of these include atmosphere, autophobia, eery soundtrack, and vulnerability. I know me saying 'vulnerability' may sound dumb considering horror games are about vulnerability in a way, but ill explain that later. For right now lets talk about atmosphere. This one will be hard to implement because of RPG Maker and the artstyle. First of all RPG maker is not the most technically impressive game. When you look at 'Ao Oni', it doesn't really have any lighting techniques. Although there is a script that someone made for lighting in the VX Ace version that even includes sections where you can use a flashlight, so I might check that out. Secondly the crayon art style might make some people not take it seriously. I'm thinking about making it look scribbly and rough to combat this problem. However i always get that feeling. Im not sure if any of you can relate, but do you get that feeling when your creating something and you say to yourself "will this work?" To me it's always "Is this scary?" I'm constantly second guessing my self. Well then why use the art style if it's such a problem? Because I want to make something unique. I don't really mind this, but it feels like every horror game dev is either doing a PS1 style or realistic style (unless its mascot horror). Again, I don't mind that, I actually think these art styles are great. But when have you seen a horror game with a crayon art style? In short I'm not saying i hate realistic or PS1 art styles, I actually like them ALOT, just the fact it feels like there's not enough variety.

You should check out Mathew Emmet's video on making an unsettling horror game. I recommend giving it a watch if your inspired to make horror games. he talks about atmosphere at 2:15.  But please do watch the whole video.

Eery soundtrack is another hard one. First of all I'm not a music composer but I could use some copyright free music or just use RPG Maker built in music. However I'm very specific with the styles I like.

Okay, now lets talk about vulnerability. The reason its hard is because... it's an RPG. You can just level up to make things easier. The only way i can think to fix this would be to add a leveling limit and making items more expensive. However its hard to find that balance. Balance in horror games is kind of hard, but Mathew Emmet made a video about horror game difficulty so i should probably check that out when im done with this post.

In another post I'll talk about why i chose to use Decidophobia and disturbing visuals.

Update on what im working on:

Its honestly amazing that we got 870 views. I know that its probably just people viewing the same post, but I don't care, I'm happy lol. I need to tell you guys, that you're amazing. I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling, gotta make you understand. I'm never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie, and hurt you. We known each other for so long, your hearts been aching but... you're too shy to say it. Inside we both know what's been going on, we know the game and we're gonna play it. Aaaaand, if you ask me how I'm feeling, don't tell me you're to blind to see. Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie, and hurt you. Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie, and hurt you. Ok ima make another post later lol.

Ok this time its not an April fools message lol.

Horror Update:

I want to talk about why my game relies on decidophobia. First of all it has Russian roulette battle system. That's all about decidophobia. Second it's one of my biggest fears. That's why I like choose your own adventures haha. I also feel like decidophobia isn't used a lot in games. Ok it technically is, like for example in Resident Evil you have to decide on what items or weapons to bring along. But it really does feel underused (kind of.)

Map Update: 

So I'm debating on what i should do for my open world. My original plan was to have 4 open worlds. Now I'm thinking I should decrease it. I have to realize that i cant be too ambitious and also i have to realize that having a big open world doesn't equal good game design. I also have to realize how long it will take to make the game. I mean i have to set a deadline someday. So maybe I should add backtracking. But I really don't like backtracking. I'll try my best to make backtracking fun (if I implement that), but I'm genuinely trying to consider how much i should add in my open world. I made this post because of another one of Mathew Emmet's videos. He talked about being too ambitious and he had this to say at 11:00 on this video

See yawl tomorrow, when I figure out what to do.

Map Update:

So I have an idea on what I should do for my map. I've put the map count to only 2. However the maps can have some changes depending on your choices. If you read my recent post, you'll know that I planned for a total of 4 maps that would be different from each other. I plan to put the ideas I had on those 2 other maps that I got rid of, inside the 2 maps I'm working on. However, that will only happen depending on your choices. To give an example the best I can, one of my maps had an evil ruler controlling it. However, now that I got rid of that map, he will only become ruler in one of the maps in the full game if you kill the original ruler of that specified map (I hope i explained that well lol). I'll see if I can make 2 maps, I'm confident I can, but who knows if I'll reduce it to 1.

Last thing I wanted to explain is how i will manage backtracking. Now I REALLY hate backtracking. However i have a way to make it fun (in my opinion.) Like I said at the beginning of this post, I'm going to change the map depending on your choices. This is to make the map more explorable without it being boring. So that's one point of backtracking. Another thing for backtracking is mystery. For example, games like Tunic and Chants of Sennaar. They revolve around trying to understand the world around you, which is great for making backtracking fun. 

Anyways I think this'll work out, compared to most games that involve backtracking.

Story Update:

Ok I've realized that I need to focus on my story. The reason why is because of this video.

You guys probably already know of this video because of the post I made 2 days ago. His first tip in the video was about winging it. It made me realize i needed a story. NOW i do have a story, but it wasn't quite finished in all areas and now that I changed my open world to only 2 maps (and added a lot of side quest), there some stuff i have to write. So for now on I'm going to make some post about my story. I hope that still interests you. I'm sorry if you're interested in more of game design updates but i really have to focus on my story. If it makes you feel better I'll probably be talking about the ACT system as it is important to my story. Speaking of ACT system.

ACT System Update:

Well this will be short. I have to beat the idea of "don't be too ambitious" in my head, because I want a lot of cool ideas in the act system, but i have to be reasonable and ask myself if I can do it. So I have a plan. The ACT system is mainly used for side quest, so I'm gonna prototype an NPC that can be used well for my ACT system to see how long it takes me. I really hope it goes well, because I like all that I planned for the ACT system. It would be a shame if I have to cut something out in order to meet what I can achieve. I'll see what I can do.

Story Recap:

I feel the need to recap a bit of the story (and some parts that I added to it). You wake up in an underground bunker with no idea of who you are. You meet "The Opponent" (A.K.A my dealer). He's basically your introduction to the game. He introduces you to the battle system and ACT system. He brings you to the surface where you see this huge mountain that has a face on it. The mountain introduces himself as Mt. Go. After that, the Opponent leaves you be, which leads you to talking to Mt. Go. 

Mt. Go is your introduction to understanding the world in a way. He can tell you a lot of stuff, like how this whole world is actually inside a music box... yep. THEN, when you're done talking to him, that's when you're free to explore. 

There's a lot of mystery to unfold, like why are you here? Why is there a lot of weird looking people. Why is this world in a music box? Answers you will find in the full game >:3

Lets talk a little bit about the Opponent:

I want to clarify that the Opponent is different from the Dealer in Buckshot Roulette. I cant talk too much about the Opponent as I want him to be a mystery to yall, but the only thing I will say is that the Dealer and Opponent fit the message about addiction. Which is really the only thing they have in common. If you know, the Dealer represents how addiction is harmful. The Opponent also represents that, but in a unique way. There's still some stuff I have to figure out with his character, but it's getting more clear on how I want to write him. See you all soon.

Story Update:

Ok so right now I have 6 endings that I'm sure I can create. I don't know if I'll ever increase it. 

I guess I should explain how you would even get endings. So for two of the endings are basically pacifist and genocide, which I totally took from Undertale lol. I'm sure it's pretty self explanatory on how you would get them. One is about killing everyone while the other is about pacifying as much people as possible. Admittedly it was a bit of a challenge thinking of how to achieve these endings since it is an open world compared to Undertale's more linear world, but I've got it figured out.

The other 4 are achieved through different means. If you're thinking about how Undertale neutral endings are achieved, that's not what these endings are about. They're achieved through interactive choices. Think of a traditional choose your own adventures.

Map Update:

I guess I should explain how the map works. Basically there's two places that are divided by a wall. The north part of the map and the south part of the map. The south part is basically your introduction and its also easier than the north part of the map. However you're not forced to be in the south part of the map, you can freely go to the north part if you really want to. 

Now that I explained my map, I guess I'll talk about some ideas I have planned. The south part starts out with some stuff to do, but not a lot of stuff. That's until your choices affect the world. For example, lets say you kill someone important to the story. That can affect their involvement around the world. Maybe it's some one evil, and now that he's gone, the world can become filled with more people who don't feel ruled under an evil tyrant. Also sometimes you need to circle around some areas in order to find something you want. For example, I have this vision mechanic in the game. I could've talked about this in the Story Update, but i felt it would be better to talk about it here. This vision mechanic is basically a cutscene where you get this supernatural vision of some one doing something.  This can reveal secrets you would have to backtrack to get. These are both things I plan for the open world.

ACT Update:

ACT system going good so far. I might be able to implement every feature i want. right now im just testing out some side quest ideas with the ACT system. I hope it works out.

Battle system Update:

*HOLY SHOOT, I JUST FOUND OUT MID-WRIGHTING THIS, THAT BUCKSHOT ROULETTE HAD A STEAM UPDATE, ILL DEFINITELY CHECK THAT OUT TO SEE IF THE AI CHANGES OR SOMETHING.*

I know i said i would mainly talk about story but for right now i want to talk about what I plan to fix later on in the battle system.

First of all, the AI cheats. He can use the Four Leaf Clover X Handcuff combo, which is meant to be prohibited. This is something ill finish later. Second lets talk about how the AI works in general

This video also kind of applies to "The Opponent." They're both pretty dumb. Technically, the only difference between them is that the Dealer AI uses Items right away (usually) while the Opponent doesn't. To explain how the Opponent AI works, it basically decides on weather it wants to use items or not. Then if it wants to use items, It is given a random number to pick an item. However it has to check if it has that item first. So if the Opponent doesn't have that item it checks for another item. It basically checks about 10 times before giving up and just deciding weather to shoot or not. I might change this a little bit in some areas.

Another embarrassing piece of so called "AI" is that the Tarp can be used if you're tired of losing you herbs. let me explain. The Opponent has "favorites," meaning he wants a specific item. So if he has a steal card, he'll always try to steal your herbs. Of course if he can see your items and you have no herbs, then he will pick handcuffs instead. But that's where the Tarp comes in. If he doesn't see your items, he will ALWAYS pick Herbs no matter what. Meaning if you don't have herbs, he'll lose a steal card. I plan to fix this bad AI later on.

And hey you can use this info to go against the Opponent if you have trouble, haha.

Thoughts on what i should take from Buckshot Roulette:

ok so i watched the trailer.

It's cool to see he had the same idea as me to add an item that steals other items (A.K.A Adrenaline.) The only difference between the adrenaline and the steal card, is that the steal card doesn't activate the item you stole right away. I'm not sure why he wanted to do that with the adrenaline but whatever...

I'm happy to know he didnt come up with my Four leaf Clover and Tarp Item.   ^w^

Now there is some other new items that I have not come up with. The inverter is a very unique item, I love it. The Burner Phone and Expired Medicine are just Echo fighters lolololol. Now... Will I take these items and put them in my game?... That's a good question. I love the inverter, but I don't know if I will have something like that because RPG Maker is too limited in how I can use the event system. The Burner Phone is kind of just a worse version of the magnifying glass and the Expired Medicine is pretty much luck based cigarettes. So not much variety I can use. I mean... I probably wont add the Burner Phone, but I'll think about it. Maybe I'll use the Expired Medicine, just maybe.

Also from the ending of the trailer, it looks like online is confirmed. Will I add Online? Well, no. RPG Maker doesn't support online functionality, also I don't have that big of a fanbase for this game. Will I make a sequel to this game on an engine that supports online? Well, no. While it would be cool to have this MMO RPG with a Russian roulette battle system and a bunch of people saying the the most horrendous stuff in chat, it's just... I'll never make a sequel to this game. It will stand on its own. Now I have had thoughts on making small games that exist in the same story of this game, but those aren't really that big.

Sorry if that's sad news, but who knows if I'll change my mind. Thanks for over 1000 views :3

Update on the MV version:

Do you guys remember when I said I'll make an upgraded version of the game on the RPG Maker MV game engine? Well... It's Cancelled. Using the MV version really made me miss the VX Ace version. The reason i got rid of it was because i tested out the event system that handles my battle system logic, AND IT DOESNT WORK! 

You can see every time i press the "yes" button, my character attacks. However when the bat dies, MY CHARACTER JUST ATTACKS THE AIR FOR NO REASON!!!!!!

I EVEN COPIED THE EVENT SYSTEM FROM VX ACE JUST TO GIVE ME AN ERROR ON MV! GGGGGGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

THERES ALOT MORE TO THIS STORY!! I COULD TELL YOU ABOUT THE HORROR STORY OF USING A VX ACE PLUGIN TO CONVERT TO MV DATA AND THEN ME HAVING TO RESIZE ALL THE GRAPHICS, BUT IM NOT IN THE MOOD RIGHT NOW. I'LL SEE IF I CAN MAKE ANOTHER POST TODAY ARRRGGGHHH!!!!!

Side Quest Update:

Ok so I realized when making some of the Side quest, that they would get kind of boring. Boring side quest seem to be a common thing in RPG's. I literally was thinking of having a side quest that was about simply giving an old man some money to buy food... that's it. Of course I cancelled that side quest for being too boring, but i would like to explain how I plan to intrigue people to side quest. 

I want to intrigue them with mystery. Oooooohh! Ok so let me give some examples. You hear a scream from a house, do you go and check it out? A little girl tells you that their dad poured them milk with a carton, but the carton showed his face as a "missing" poster. Do you confront the fake father? Last one. You see something shining brightly through the cracks of a house. Do you enter?

I think this is a great way of making side quest fun instead of an NPC saying "Go buy some potatoes and then carve them" or something like that. 

So I realized that making story updates is kind of hard considering that I don't have much to say other than "hey guys i completed another side quest story" or "hey guys, I'm thinking of adding this in the story." Its even harder knowing I cant really reveal these stories for the sake of spoilers.

On the bright side I have a topic I want to discuss.

Difficulty Update:

Id like to discuss difficulty in horror games, because when you think about it, difficulty in horror games is kind of hard to balance. If you make you're game too hard than you get used to the scares. If your game is too easy, then it's not that threatening. So what do I do for my game???

Well my games a wild card, due to it being pretty luck based. I mean its Russian roulette after all. So the difficulty can definitely shift a lot. However I think that works in my games favor, because that's what makes it scary. Of course there is ways to make the game easier, like for example equipping some items to get a bit rid of the luck.

Also i will have a difficulty setting... technically. Ok it's not something like, "Pick Easy, Medium, Hard." If you guys don't remember, I do have a custom stat system. Basically you can make your character have a lot of HP, or let them be really good at smooth talking, so that technically is a difficulty setting.

Of course I will also have level ups. This of of course another way to make the game easier. However, Level ups are more for the classes you pick rather than your normal basic self.

Now is there is some thing I want to add for the sake of making a good difficulty, and that's choosing your fights. What I mean is you can go up to an NPC and sign their waiver if you want to, but really, you just can relax and focus on doing some more safe side quest to get a breather. This is a great way to make the player take break from the horror and settle down instead of being pummeled by random enemy encounters 24/7 and I believe this can add to the horror, as they wont be so exhausted by enemy encounters. After all, choosing to do Russian roulette is a risk for the sake of a reward, not something to be forced. 

A neat idea I have for waivers, is that sometimes they will have different rules applied to them. For example you might have to sign a waiver saying "you cant use items" or "you aren't allowed to use steal cards."

I'll probably make another update about difficulty tommorow.

Im sorry for not posting yesterday, ill make a post today as soon as I can.

Possible Ideas for the ACT System:

So I might change some things in the act system. I'm NOT getting rid of any features, but instead I'm thinking of adding features. So here's the idea. I have two way to talk to NPC's. Advanced and Simple. If you pick simple, you get the basic way to talk to people, like I showed before. 

But then there's advanced.

Advanced is where you can be super specific. It's basically like forming a sentence. For example, you can start a sentence with the word like who, what when, where, why, and how. so if I pick where, then I get the options "are we?", "can I find _____?" "are my items?" So I can create,  "Where are we?", "Where can I find _____?" "Where are my items?" I don't know how complicated I'll make it, but it is something I want to do. However I'm mainly gonna focus on creating the Simple part of the ACT System first.

Story Update:

So as of right now I have created 7 major characters, I think that's a good enough number for my important characters. Then there's 5 side characters. No I'm not talking about NPC's. These characters will have their important roles in the main story it's just, not too much screen time. I want to reveal them, I'm still just figuring things out with their characters. 

Also I'm having too much fun with side quest. I'm having more fun with them then I do the main story lol. 

I also plan to have a way for the story to continue when you die. Yep you wont really be pushed back to your last save. The reason for this is because it helps make it easier to role play. I noticed in games that it's hard to roleplay as someone different instead of just roleplaying as yourself. For example, if I roleplay as a robber, then obviously I'm going to steal stuff, but if i keep dying because stealing stuff without getting caught is way too hard, then I kind of just give up. Sometimes I want a character that does dumb stuff, that makes mistakes, or does the wrong thing for their character arc but it often leads to death to the point i just try to play the best optimally. I don't want a game to tell me "oh you died, just forget everything that happened after your last save point." 

Even in my side quest, when you make mistakes, it doesn't just say "oh you failed do the side quest over again", no no no, the story continues when you make mistakes. I also plan for some cool stuff when you get a game over like getting captured or revived by a doctor in medical room.

Story Update:

Ok so I have an idea for my choose your own adventure part of the story. If you played games like the Tell Tale Walking Dead games, you would know that you are timed on your choices. Now in my game, not every choice will have you be timed, it kind of depends. If there's a choice you have to make in the story that's REALLY major or not that important, then you will not be timed. However for timed choices, we'll have to imagine a scenario to give an idea of how i want to use them. So lets say you're gonna get punched, well you obviously don't want that to happen so your options are to [kick him] or [headbutt him.] You have to make a choice quickly before he hits you. It's in the middle, where its not really a major choice nor a insignificant one.

I think this will be great to add to make choices interesting. I'll have another talk about narrative choices tomorrow as there's way more I want to explain. 

Sorry no devlog post today, I apologize. I'll try to make one tomorrow.

Story Update:

So I'm having a bit of a problem. In my game, you can have the choice to be evil or good. Obviously i have stated that i want pacifist, neutral, and genocide endings. However I don't want a genocide route to be the only way of getting an evil ending. 

This video inspired this feeling:

Also in the video he explains how some gamers always play the good guy because they generally roleplay as themselves and how some games reward good behavior than bad ones. While I think that's true, for me it's mainly because I kind of want to be cartoonishly evil, and a lot of games don't have that haha. 

Again, Ill try my best to implement evil routes, but I don't know if I can.

Anyways if anyone read this long, tell me your thoughts on evil playthroughs, and genuinely give me your suggestions if you have any.

Ok, so tomorrow will be score space jam. I will not be working on my game for 3 days. Don't be all sad, after all I'm still going to make post's on this devlog. Weather that be talking about my ideas, cut content, my progress, etc.

Story Update:

I think a cool idea to add, is the idea to be king of a land. There can be a lot of simple choices you can make, that are pretty big deal to the story. For example, certain NPC's will react differently if you are king, or if you are evil, you can do stuff like taxing people high numbers or have increase security. I don't think this will be too hard, as I can think of some really cool ideas without it requiring too much work to implement. 

Another cool Idea is joining groups. This could be any group that's good or evil. For example you can join a group of thief's, and steal from peoples homes. Or join a security squad, keeping people safe. Although, I will admit that using the term "good" for groups is kind of loose. The way I want to write the story is that everyone is either evil or flawed hero. So you can join a group that has good yet evil ideas.

Since I don't have much to talk about, here's some cut content of the Opponents  design:

This ones a bit messed up lol. It's also kind of different from the the one I used.

Ok, I'm back... well, ill make an actual post tomorrow. Right now I'm going to take a break and play some jam games, because it felt like i was in rush mode lol. You guys know pizza tower right? And you know stuff gets real when "Pizza Time" starts right? Well that was basically my life those three days working on the Score Space Game Jam. Not sure if some people care, but here's my game on the game jam in case anyone wants to play it. 

https://chillitch.itch.io/elevator-escape

Special thanks to Lemonz for some art and Music.

https://the-lemon-dude.itch.io/

Story Update:

Not sure if some people remember but I'm thinking of getting rid of the advanced ACT system. I felt like there's kind of no point to it for my story, but I want it for a more roleplay experience and in case people feel like the simple ACT is too simple.

The next side quest story I'm working on is going okay, just haven't had time to do it. After I finish that i might go back to working on some main story stuff. Anyways I'm thinking of adding more enneagram psychology in my game. Most of my characters are based of off enneagram numbers but i haven't really focused on side characters. I also want to see if I can use the enneagram as a game mechanic cuz I do think it'll be fun.

Another short update on my thoughts for storytelling. I'll see if I can reveal more of the main story tomorrow and also make a bigger update.

Now this wont be a big update, but I do want to reveal another part of the main story. (Also expect some terrible grammar cuz I'm tired) Specifically the main part of the story if you choose to go to the north part of the map. Basically there's a wall dividing the north and south. Not going to explain why, I want that to be a mystery. In the north part you see a bunch of people struggling with money and with food. Talking to some NPC's you can find out that there is a rule where if you buy a house here, you can NEVER leave. You find out it's heavy with cameras and guards. Then you find the golden stairs where a bunch of beggars sit and wait. These stairs have three gates guarding a mansion at the top. When the last gate at the bottom is opened, a man walks down the stairs. He's known as Python. Python is known as the ruler of the town, and the richest of course. That's why a bunch of beggars are right by the golden stairs. They always beg for money to have any sort of living.

I think this would be interesting not only for story but for narrative choice. Right now i have three choices in your adventure through the north side. You can kill python and become ruler, bring change in the town by helping people, or help people escape the north.

Act system update: 

This technically could be put in “Story Update.” But I should honestly just put this in the ACT update. Little bit ago, I talked about making enneagram psychology a game mechanic. Not sure if a lot of people are familiar with enneagram psychology, but one of the the things about the enneagram is that there’s a thing called “integration” and “disintegration.” “Integration” is the personality you’re assigned to when in health and “disintegration” is the personality you’re assigned to when unhealthy. (I heard disintegration can be healthy, but I don’t know too much info about that.) 

But anyways, I’m debating on if I truly want this to be a mechanic since I already have ways to change someone’s emotions. 

Story update

So I wanna start off by saying Buckshot roulette and my game have the same message about addiction. However there’s other messages I wanna teach. Like, fear, anger, avarice, sloth… basically the 9 deadly sins haha. I know that everyone thinks of the “7” deadly sins, but in enneagram psychology there’s 9 deadly sins. This is going to sound confusing to some people who don’t know much about the enneagram, but basically there’s 9 deadly sins that are something to really watch out as they are very unhealthy, for example mine was avarice. I think it would be interesting to talk about these in my game. 

also there will not be any post tomorrow because I have to go to a wedding. I’m sorry

Item Ideas:

I know I said I wasn't gonna talk about items and instead more about story. But these ideas popped into my head. 

Pad Lock: This is technically an Echo fighter for handcuffs lol. Or should I say, Echo Item? Can I coin that term? Basically its locks your items, but you can use your items after any opponent has shot you with 2 blanks.

Gift Box: Gives you a random item. Could be either good or AMAZING. I'll have to balance this item out with money cost haha.

Story Update: 

I would like to discuss some lore of my world that i have completed for the story, but not too much to where it would break. 

#1

Depending on your choices, You will find a thing called a wish stone. No one really know where it came from, but it's a stone that everyone wants. However, everyone is too scared to catch it. Why? Because it's being guarded in a castle by a...

Ķ̴̨̨̢̛̜̘̼̣̜̺͉̹̲̻̻͈̟̫̺͉̻̙̟͕͙͍̺̋͊̐̌̆̓̓̆̃́̌̈̽̿͐̈́̔̅̀̃͒̓͌̒͘͘͘͝͝i̸̛̛̫̙̥̪̱̫̭̠̳͓̮͉̹̻̻͔̳͈͈̺͚̩̖̇́͛̑͒͒̒̈́͛͊̀͆̈́͛̈́̎̆̔̔̍̉̓͛̽̂̎͑̊͗͋͊̀͌̈́͆̈́͐̉̒̒̄̿͐̚̚͘͘̕̚͝͝͝n̷̨̨̡̨̢̡̧̡͓̟̥̗̦͎̘͚͉̹͚̳̞͈͚̲̥͓̰̬͖̙̦͉͍̜͉̮̟͎̠̟̰̥̯̜̻̹̜͚̫̹̙̞͈̙̭̤̤̤̖̝̟͖̫͖̮̲̪̟̘̻͎̟̗͕̳͎͕̫̩̫͉̮̰̙͖̳͓͓͕̣̠̼̖͛͐͋͗̈́͂̑̂̉̀̾̽̀̉̄̈́̌̃̽͆̓̐̌̀̆̈͋̎́̀̃͗͌͑͊͂̉̈͊͗͗̔͋͆͆̾̀̎̐̽͛̇̅͋̽̀̋̍͆͒̽̉͗̈́̐̈̌̕͘̚͜͜͝͝͝͠ͅͅģ̵̧̡̡̢̧̡̧̛̛͚̣͉͎̼̫͚̬̦̜̤̺͉̲̲̭̹̝̺͉̹̭͖̼̳̙͈̭̮̻̻̩̬̫̟͍̖̦̜͈͇͈̣͚͍̻͎̹͉̲͍͓̪͕̠̇̈́̑̋̌͛͛̽̔̔͒̓̋͛͒̈́̉͑̄͂͊̒̅̏̊̇͑̅̓̂͗͆̐̃̃̆̂̈́͒̑̏̐̆̅͋͑̋͋̍̄͌̐̏̋̾̉̅̊̂͛̓̏̈́͛́̇̚̚̕͘̕͝͝͠͝

      ̷̡̨̨̜̮̱̜̰̯̘̻̯̠͙̰̙͈͈͈̪̖̼̤̰̪̤̦͎͎̟͇̮͍͉̰̠̹̫͍͎̻͓͙̍͗͌̄̄̃̃͛͆̉͊̂̏̏̎͗͋̉̈́̒́̇̈́̑́̑̒̓̑́͋̾͆̾̋͘͘͜͜͜͝  ̴̡̨̫͕͙̯̭̰̝͈̥̲͓̎͌͋̈́͆͛͗̇̌̎͂̿̂̎͐̈́̆͋̿͋͌͌̍̔̌̎͛̏̔͋͗̑̚͝

The wish stone used to be heavily guarded with a lot of people, but due to some unfortunate circumstances, everyone tried to get the wish stone. But their lives didn't last long. 

I t   w o u l d  h a v e  b e e n  b e t t e r  f o r  t h e m  t o  k i l l  t h e m s e l v e s  t h e n  t o  e x p e r i e n c e  t h e  h o r r o r   I n  t h e  c a s t l e. 

#2

A house owned by a man named Ruvy has been pretty much the talk of south side. It's been noted for the weird and creepy sounds that come from it. Someone even heard a scream from the house. If you choose to break in you can go down in the basement and find 4 cells and some deformed dead body strapped to a chair. These four cells have some interesting history. Three of the other cells have a bunch of deformed dead bodies as well, but the fourth is different. There's some thing in that cell. It has unintelligible speech, and constantly laughs. However what's scarier is the words "experiments failed" written with chalk on the wall and below it is a bunch tally marks counting up to 100.

Ok now to be honest, there's more stories I would like to talk about, but I wanna keep the rest hidden... for now.

sorry update will be tomorrow. I hate delaying devlog  post, as I’ve been doing that more frequently it seems like due to unfortunate circumstances 0_o

First scorespace, wedding, being sick, etc. WHAT ELSE. hate doing this to you guys but hopefully I’ll have one tommorow. :)

Story Update:

A recent talk about my main story made me think back to some of the stuff I wrote for it. I wonder, "should I have wrote this differently?" This is a very common thing with me. It's where I write something I think is cool, but then second thoughts come in. Basically I'm having a problem deciding on how long my main story is. As you know it has a lot of branching paths for being an interactive story. So all branching paths have different lengths, and that's throwing my mind for a loop, because I cant decide on if I should make some longer or shorter. I'm still planning to achieve 6 endings, but I've been thinking if I should reduce some branches of their length or increase it. Of course I'll keep in mind to not be too ambitious. 

I also rewrote some things on the pacifism route because I looked back on it to see that it was kind of boring and hard to get the ending. I fixed it now.

Item Update:

Sorry just felt the need to say i should change the gift box to "give and item or not." That'll make it way more tense and balanced. 

Story Update:

I plan to add some stealth mechanics into my game. This will be for both side and main stories. I'll be using the disguises mechanic from Hitman. Also I plan to use the ACT system for stealth in some way to smooth talk your way through something or to get someone to do something specific for you.  I think this can be great for building a characters story and roleplaying.

As of right now there is many places you can use stealth in. Like a Prison, Castle, Mansion, etc.

Now lets talk about Show don't Tell vs Tell don't Show.

A lot of people say "Show don't Tell" is always better than "Tell don't Show." However that's not true, in some ways "Tell don't Show" can be better. One advantage of "Tell don't Show", is Imagination. For my game that mainly uses visuals, this is really good for me. I wanna use Imagination so the player can fill in all the details themselves. It's also great for horror too. I can imagine a voice tape a player found and then the voice in the tape describes some horrors that happened in the area they're in. Or I can imagine a player talking to an NPC about the world around them and they might give some grave details about how the world works. 

Of course I will be using "Show don't Tell" in some areas. For example my vision mechanic (if anyone even remembers that) will be great with "Show don't Tell." 

Overall, it really bothers me when people think "Show don't Tell" is better. Really both of them have their advantages and disadvantages. 

Story Update:

I think it would be interesting to explain my cutscenes. I know this may sound like a weird thing to talk about but I feel like it would be important, so that people would get the mood that I want to give. 

I kind of want the cutscenes to be like how a lot of YT creators make analog horror. NOW, I'm going to try my best to avoid using analog horror clichés, as I know a lot of people find those annoying. However I do want to use S.A.M. voice for characters.

S.A.M. voice generator

Not only because I feel like its uncanny which gives it the creepyness factor to it, but because I feel like it fits the mood that this world is unnatural. It's also a great way for my poor peasant self to have some different voices without voice actors. T_T

Also I might do what some analog horror does where they have portraits of a character and then have some text to display what they're saying. However I don't want to do it like what every other analog horror does, where they just use it to convey info to the audience for the next part of the segment. I want to use it for imagination. Since there's not a lot of visuals with just showing portraits, I think this will be a great way for "Tell don't Show" where the characters will have to describe something for the audience to use their imagination. I want to remind everyone that I wont do this for every cutscene. After all I would like to use some cell animation for cutscenes.

To give a better example of how I want my cut scenes to be, would be this video.

Media Update:

Hey! didnt expect a weird update like this right? I've been thinking of using a YT channel for updates and also as a way to advertise my game. Of course this wont replace the devlogs I have on Itch.io. Also I shouldn't expect my game to be popular just by advertising it, it takes time to be popular or at least have some sort of following. Really I'm kind of hoping for 1000 downloads. But really, even if 1 person plays my game, I'm happy.

So basically, YT videos will be for more long, edited visually interesting updates while Itch.io updates will be about my daily thought or daily progress. This is what the developer of rain world said. He basically said post an update of your game to your audience everyday, even if it's little. 

Anyways, I'm just doing YT because that's what makes me feel more comfortable. I might do Instagram, but my Instagram channel is kind of miscellaneous content for anyone who randomly finds it and enjoys it. 

Story Update:

Ok, I rewritten some things again in my main story because some of narrative branches were kind of short, basic, and boring. I said I planned for a total of 6 endings, however technically there's more endings.

I getting more confident with the Main story since I rewrote some stuff to my liking. Still have to focus on some of the unfinished parts of the story though. 

Story Update:

Ok, I'm finished with the endings. Who knows if I rewrite the main story again which involves more endings though lol. That's honestly my experience with writing choose your own adventures. It's where I plan for a small amount of endings, but it always ends up being more due to some consequences. There's still technically 6 endings, its just that there's some endings that are similar to other endings, which basically means that there's more... Yeah.

Sorry very short update, but I'll see what I can produce tomorrow.

Update:

I not sure if I should call this a graphic update, visual update, or... Whatever else. Basically I'm thinking of using a visual novel way of displaying characters when you talk to them. So basically showing a full body with facial expressions. Don't expect this to be in the game, it's just something I've been thinking of having. One thing I'm planning on doing is adding light effects. There's a plugin that gives you a flashlight when in certain dark areas. It also has the ability to give light effects in other areas too. This is perfect for my game since its part of the horror genre.

Story Update:

I'm thinking of getting rid of the vision mechanic. Just in case no one remembers, the vision mechanic was basically the same as Daniel from Amnesia: the Dark Descent, when he would remember something from his past. The only difference being that my vision mechanic would be a cut scene. Also I guess calling it a "mechanic" is kind of dumb since its not really a mechanic. Anyways... I'm replacing it with cassette tapes. These are items that would reveal some history of the people who live in the music box. The reason for this change is because I want players to choose whether they want to listen or not. Rather than being forced to, like the vision mechanic. This also provides more imagination since there's no visuals, which helps with... "Tell don't Show." Sorry that this idea keeps getting brought up, haha. Also I want to clarify that there will still be animated cutscenes, (especially with some side quest) but there wont be too much cutscenes, that's it.

Story Update:

Ok so I have this idea for a mechanic where every time you die, you get brought back to life. I know that sounds stupid since every game allows you to come back to life. You might say "just go back to your last save." However what I mean by "coming back to life" is there will be NPC's who react to your revival. 

There's a good reason for why you come back to life as well. You can use an item called a "revive syringe." you can use this to revive your partner and yourself. However you don't use the item on yourself if you want to revive yourself. Every time you die, a certain someone will revive you. 

I'm not sure If I'll do this but I also want some of the main characters to come back. For example if you kill someone important they might actively want to seek you out. Or maybe if a person who is part of a clan kills you, then when you come back to life and meet that person again, you'll notice that he's been promoted to a higher degree. Again, I'm not sure if I'll add this but I REALLY want to. I'll have to think about this a lot more before I implement it, because then I have to write some more for the main story.

Sorry for no post yesterday. I feel embarrassed when I say "I'm gonna update you all every day", and then I don't do it T-T.

Story Update:

I've (technically) finished the entire story... I don't know if I'll change it (again), since there's much I'm still doing besides the Main story. Also I'm still thinking about inputting that... erm... What should I call it? "Revival Mechanic?" It's what I was talking about in my last update. 

I guess I should explain the "Opponent" again. You can call him the Dealer I guess, but it's easier for me to call him Opponent because then I get confused with Buckshot roulette. I've already explained that I want him to be similar to Buckshot roulettes Dealer, however there is a lot of differences with them. The Dealer is basically some monster who SOMEHOW killed God himself and provides the player with a fair play challenge all just for some cash. A good villain representing addiction. While the Opponent is... Something. I did say I want him to represent addiction, but all I can say is I'm going to make him completely unknown. You wont know his intentions. He'll still be the tutorial and he will still battle you. However, you wont really know what this guy wants. Also I guess me calling him a guy, might not be true for the future of this game. Depending on your choices, he might be a male or female. Yeah, I'm going to create two versions of the character. I'm not doing it just because I think it'll be fun to have as a little detail, there's a special reason. I know that sounds dumb, but I really do have a good reason for it. I just wont say >:)

Thanks for over 2,000 views :3

I'm glad people are still reading these.

Story Update:

I worked a bit on some of the main story and side quest. I'm feeling really good about where my game is standing......... It's getting really hard to make daily updates when I don't know what else to say. The thing is that I want to make my devlogs entertaining or informational, but that's hard to do everyday. >_<

I Wish I could say more than "Yay I finished some more stuff."

Overall thank you guys, it makes me happy to know that there's people rechecking this devlog. I believe yesterday had 1,957 views, then it bumped to 2,006 when I woke up today. I'll try my best to add another beta as soon as I can. Although I'm debating on what I should do for my beta since I don't want to reveal a lot.

Story Update:

So side quest will also be important for the main story (kind of). Basically every character, even ones you think may not have much in common with the main story, kind of do.

Ok, they don't have meaningful impact, but they know the main characters in the story and might have met them. This is where the ACT system and keywords come in to play, because you can talk to these side quest characters about their experience with the main characters, or at least what they know about them. This is also a great way to get info on some characters that you may want to figure out. Which is very unique compared to most NPC's you talk to in other RPG's where it feels like they have no input on the world around them. 

It's definitely a challenge to make a story for an open world game, but I think I did a pretty good job of doing it. The ACT system and keyword system really help for people to get info on the story without making it linear.

I wished I talked about this sooner as it was something I've already been implementing.

Media Update:

I mainly have experience with the Clip Champ editor to edit videos, but it uhh... sucks, really, really bad. So I'm thinking about another editor. I'm thinking of getting Shotcut or Openshot.

Story Update:

I guess I might as well talk about when the side quest stories will be complete, since I don't have much to say today haha. Erm well, I'm not even sure how much side quest I want in the game. Well, I actually want 12 side quest, but I'm thinking of adding more. I know that sounds low, but it's because the side quest are kind of deep, also it's better than other games that have a lot of side quest, but are super boring. I'm debating on completing the side quest stories at around August - September. HOPEFULLY, I can stay true to that. Or even better, maybe I can finish them in July. 

I still have to think about if there's more I should add to the main story. Which might result in me canceling some side quest. However I'll try my best to add all 12 of them.

Story Update:

Lets talk about Pacifist route and Genocide route. 

Pacifist route Is technically the same as Undertale's. You have to pacify the main characters to complete the story, however in my game, you can choose who to pacify first. But I have a bit of a problem. In Undertale's pacifist route, you have to pacify EVERY ONE you meet, not killing a single soul. But in my game you can still get a pacifist ending, even if you kill some people. This is because I wasn't intending on adding a neutral route like Undertale. Now I realize I should've added it from the start. I guess I have to write some more for the main story T-T

The Genocide route is kind of like Undertale's, where you have to kill everyone. However I'm thinking of changing it. This is because mine might be a harder, considering the fact you don't encounter enemies randomly in my game. The only way you can go to a battle is by finding those enemies. So I have to think about how to fix that problem too X_X

I'll see what I can do, I have a lot of work ahead of me.

Story Update:

Ok so I have a pretty good idea for how I want to execute my neutral ending. I'll be taking a bit out of Undertale's book, where you get a talk from some of the characters, after you escape. There's a little more than that, but that's basically it. 

Also fixed up some parts with the "Opponents" character. I have an amazing lore for him, I think you guys will like the character a lot. He's essentially become the mascot for this game, haha. Sorry for such a short update, I don't have time to really talk, so I'll try to make a more engaging update tomorrow. 

If you have any questions about the story, please let me know.     :3

sorry for no post today. Today is my birthday so I’m taking the day off. I know I said I’ll try to make an engaging update, but somehow I forgot today was my birthday… I’m super incompetent.

See you guys tommorow 

Story Update:

Ok, I'll be honest, I did not have a lot of time to make my game today or even these past three days (yes, including my birthday). I've been doing a lot of stuff so it's been kind of hard. All I can say is the way I'm having the story laid out is getting pretty good but Worldbuilding is getting a bit hard. I know that sounds kind of dumb for an RPG, but there's some areas that need to be fleshed out, that I'm not quite sure how to fix. However, I'm sure I'll figure it out, I'm learning how to use "soft world building."

If you don't know what that is, then watch the video below.

Story Update:

I've been writing some more stuff in the main story. It's been going good, despite a few bumps, haha. I'm still kind of wondering how my world building should be. Well... There is people to talk to, who can tell you why the world is the way it is, but I'm mainly talking about soft world building. I really like soft world building but I also debate on if I should add a hint of "Tell don't show." So I'm mainly debating on what parts should have it in.

This is especially a problem with "MT.Go"... Does anyone even remember that name? If you guys remember the lore, you would know that "Mt.Go" is the mountain with a talking carved face. He may not seem that special of a character, but he does indeed have a MAJOR role in the story. It's been hard figuring out what I should do since soft world building is kind of hard in certain areas, where I feel like there's no other way than to explain it right in front of the users face. 

Weapons Update:

I know I said I would talk about the story more in these devlogs, but an idea came in my head. I'm thinking of adding a gun that gets more powerful the more you shoot a blank at yourself. So basically +2 damage every time you shoot yourself with a blank. It can be a good competition for the Double Barreled Shotgun on who's the strongest weapon. In my game there's 9 blank rounds and 1 live round. Meaning it has the chance to bump up to 18 damage! I'm thinking of nerfing it, but it's such a fun Idea.

Story Update:

I had a problem in the story. In the pacifist run, I realized that it would be a problem if you didnt kill anyone, but you would be mean to people. Since the ACT system in my game allows you to be a total a**hole, it can make people mean or evil. Of course this isn't pacifist worthy, so I will count the act of changing someone into being evil as killing someone. I mean, making people evil is way worse than killing them. After all, just like Jesus said "do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." >:) >:) >:)

Will making people evil count towards the genocide ending? That's a good question... I don't now how to answer that. Either I will make a new ending or maybe just put it as a genocide ending, but I'm really not sure, I'll think about it. 

I'm getting better Ideas with the story. I cant wait to reveal some of the more important characters I haven't showed off yet. 

Also I'm debating on the cassette tape mechanic becoming a VHS tape mechanic. Does anyone remember the cassette tape mechanic? As of typing this, it was an update 13 days ago. For anyone who doesn't remember, these cassette tapes were something you can find to reveal more of the story. Anyways, I'm thinking of making it VHS tapes instead, for more visual parts. Now I still want to use "Tell don't show" so not all of it will have visuals, but it is something I'm thinking of.

Just a thought!

Story Update:

Lets talk about LUCK! Of course we all know luck will be in the battle system, but this goes for the story too. The story will have moments where luck is involved. Think of it like "Dungeons & Dragons" when you roll the 20 sided dice to get the best outcome in a story. Ok I never played D&D before, but I kind of understand the concept of the 20 sided dice.

I guess to give you an example, lets say someone tried to punch you. If you want to kick them and rolled a 1. Then when you kick the person, not only does your kick do nothing to him, it hurts your leg instead. However if it was a 20. Then when you kick the person, he falls and hit's his head hard on the ground so hard it instantly knocks him out. Also, just like dungeons and dragons, I want to reward the player for creative thinking. In D&D, you can do aaaannnnyyythiiiing you want (technically), since you cant really deny any players request. So I plan to make a lot of things a possibility in this game. For example, lets say you encounter a locked door. Well other video games will tell you to find a key. You can choose that approach in my game, but you can also break the door. As long you roll a high number. Of course I don't wanna be too ambitious, so I might not have this feature in everything, but I'll try to implement it in as much as possible.

However to help me make it more balanced and also to give myself not such a headache when I put it in my game. I'll be using the "YES, AND." 

What's a "YES, AND?"

This is a 3 minute video on the "YES, AND." I HIGHLY recommend you gave it a watch to understand what I'm gonna do with my game.

Much like he said in the video, it still can break the story. For example, right now I plan to have a side quest where you can explore a haunted mansion, and you can bypass all of it if you have a good roll.       T-T

But that's ok because I want people to have freedom. This helps make my game more about roleplaying, so the player can be encouraged to act exactly as their character. Much like what he said at 0:54, if you have a character that wants to do something, even if its outrageous, he can still (technically) do it, but it comes at a cost with the "YES, AND."

Story Update:

Wow I'm happy with what I got to do today. Right now I'm writing how the ACT system should go for a special character and I feel really proud about it. The ACT system is getting better and the characters are getting more development. I kind of dreaded writing for the main story at times, but I'm getting more happy with it. After all, I really feel like I got a lot done today. 

Also I really wanna say I'm inspired by the "Fools Gold" Series by DingoDoodles. If you read the update above this one, you would know she's responsible for the "Felix D&D Tips" video as well. Dingo and her boyfriend Felix really inspired the way I write the story for this game. If you don't know "Fools Gold" is a series that she does where she animates her D&D campaigns. Its a really entertaining watch, go check it out.

Fools Gold

But what really caught me was the fact that this wasn't just some writer making this story. It was her group of friends having a D&D campaign where luck was involved and there choices mattered. It made me wonder "Man what if RPG's had something like this." And that's kind of one of the reasons I wanted to make this game. It made me feel like RPG's could be so much greater, and yet RPG's were based off of D&D (So I've been told). While my battle system is mainly Russian roulette, there's times in the story where you have to do traditional fights. No, it's not like every other RPG where there's a menu system to select what you wanna do and having to do big numbers. It's more like a choose your own adventure way of fighting. Which I know sounds dumb since I just said its not like a menu system. 

To give an example, lets say you fight a thief. In a traditional RPG, you would basically have to dwindle the HP on that thief till he hits 0. But in my game, not only can you attack the thief, lets say you can shoot a padlock on a cage for a bull, now the bull can run out and chase after the thief. Or lets say your riding on a motorcycle on top of some canyon and your being chased by a biker gang for whatever reason. You can ram them into the ravine, or maybe trick one of them to ram you, but then right as he gets close, you floor it and he accidentally crashes into his buddy's. It feels like there's more story involved, and you can use the environment around you to make more interesting choices. Rather than just, "You use 'attack'. oh you did 20 dmg... You used a 'special'. Oh it missed. You used 'attack'. Oh you did another 20 dmg."

Sorry,  just wanna say I'll be using stuff like the environment and story to make more engaging fights, thanks to "Fools Gold."

Story Update:

Story Update:

I'll be adding robots to the story     :D

Ok, well what's so special about them? well first off you can have one as a partner for the partner system (if that ever gets implemented.) They also might be involved with some side quest. Also you can put someone's conscious into a robot, which can be really interesting for some story parts if you want to revive a character. That actually reminds me. Whenever your partner dies, they stay dead. It's not like every other RPG where your partner faints but comes back when out of battle. Nah bro, they really dead, unless you give them a revive syringe or put their conscious into a robot.

Why would you add that? 

Because for a horror game, if your partner dies, it makes your choices feel more anxiety driven. Like you don't wanna pick the wrong choice, so your friend doesn't die, which gives off decidophobia.

Story Update.

Remember when I said you can choose to be in groups (clans, organization, whatever). Right now, there's one where you can join a murderer on his quests. It's one of the ways you can unlock the double barreled shotgun. He goes on a total killing spree for a horrifying reason. If you agree with his actions, by all means... join him.

Also the ACT system is getting better. I'm glad I'm not second guessing my decisions any more, and am feeling more confident with how my game should be.

sorry for such a short update, haha, I'm making this pretty late.

Battle Update:

So another thing I might do is have the boss be a little cheeky cheater. This will really fit the boss.

Also, there's a problem with how Russian roulette works.

Not sure if people remember, but does anyone know about that one weapon idea I had about where you could shoot yourself with a blank to get more damage on your gun. Well I'm thinking of turning that into an item or apply that effect to all guns.

Also, speaking of ways to encourage players to shoot themselves....

Item Update:

Explosive round: You can put in an explosive round in the gun. If anyone activates the explosive round when shooting at someone, the explosive round well... EXPLODES giving themselves damage. So you have to guess where the explosive round is, so you can deactivate it. How do you deactivate it? Well... by shooting yourself.

Battle Update:

Ok so I will probably not make the Explosive round an item but integrate it into the battle system. Again this is just to encourage people to shoot themselves more often.

Item Update:

This is just an idea that popped in my head when I watched Vsauce Kevin's video on Russian roulette.

Bullseye Card: You're allowed to shoot the enemy two times instead of one time.

Story Update:

All I can say is that I'm making great progress. Especially with the pacifist route and the ACT system involved with the main characters (Yes I'm working on the main story again /: )

Also I have another character that I might make as one of the main characters. Remember when I talked about robots being on your side? Well there's one robot you can talk with, to put him on your team. Although he doesn't feel emotion so you will have to use some clever talking to get him on your side.

It's been hard making the story, but fun at the same time haha. Hope you guys been doing great. Really wish I could talk about the story more, but I cant really reveal a lot. 

Hey guys, I wanted to tell all of you, that I have a bit of a problem. I suffer from something. Something that's been hurting me these past days, escpecially when I made yesterdays post. I suffer, from being a complete utter moron. I'm not sure if anyone read the post I made 2 days ago (I know it says 1 day ago, but it says that even when I forget to make a devlog everyday), but anyways, I made a post saying "HeY GUys i MaDE A nEw IteM" when in reality it's no different to another item. I called it the Bullseye Card, which allows you to shoot the gun two times. EVEN THOUGH THE HANDCUFFS DO THE EXACT THING. So I'm changing the Bullseye Card.

Also, I'll admit I didnt really do any work yesterday (Now you know why I forgot to make a devlog yesterday) because I wanted to reflect on somethings on my life and also because I had church. But anyways, I'm hoping to change the 10% to 20% sometime, as I really wanna show that I've been progressing. BUT MAN! Getting this main story and side story done is kind of rough, but oh well, I can push through it.

Item Update:

Bullseye Card allows three shots instead of two. Not sure If I'll ever add any more items but I don't know.

Future for this game:

I've had a lot to think about the future of this game. So here's my plan.

If the game gets pretty popular, I'll make a free online versus mode (Hopefully up to 4 players) and make it in Godot, since RPG Maker doesn't support online.

Else, I'll probably make references to these characters in my other games, or maybe put them in the actual stories of my games.

Again I'm not going to make a sequel to this game. I've had thoughts of making a spinoff, like a "Fates Gamble: Halloween Hack" (based off of Toby Fox's Halloween Hack), but again, at the same time I don't really wanna do that.

Story Update:

So I've been doing good progress on rewriting some of the main characters for Fates Gamble. However I might cut some characters from the game. Right now I have 6 main characters, however it might go down to 4 main characters. The reason isn't because of time constraints, it's because I felt like one of my characters is too similar to another and the other makes me feel like he would be better as a side character. 

Also, I will most likely change the name to the ACT System to avoid being like Undertale

Some names I have in my head are:

• ROLE
• CHAR
• TALK
• SPEAK
• AFFECT
• PERFORM

These are all just to possibly replace ACT. I'm leaning on Perform or Role, because those names fit for what I'm going for.

I still haven't decided on what I should do with the name "ACT." I still haven't really decided yet. BUT I am thinking of changing the item names. Specifically the ones I took from Buckshot roulette.

So here's my list of what I might do for the items:

• Handcuffs is now Zip Tie Cuffs
• Knife is now Plasma Cutter

Those 2 items are the only ones I took from Buckshot Roulette. However I took the name "Herb" from traditional RPG's. It's because a lot of RPG's had herbs as their basic healing item. So I'm thinking of changing this as well.

• Herbs is now Heal syringe.

...Yeah I know, it doesn't sound much different from "Healing Potion," but having "syringe" fit's the context of my story.

I'm using ROLE for the name of ACT system. For now on, its ROLE System. 

Media Update:

Ok I will be using ClipChamp for my editing. If you read my last Media Update, you would know I talked about HATING it. When I would use ClipChamp, it was just for fun when I would record peoples games on discord. It would always seem to have audio problems. But now it's working just fine. 

So I'll be having my channel up soon. Just cant decide on what I want it to be. Should it just be a channel about being a gamedev while showing my projects to the public? Or channel about anything gaming, because I don't just wanna be a gamedev channel and I have a gameplay video of Reanimated coming on my channel soon. I'm even thinking of having two channels.

Item Update:

Silencer: If you shoot yourself with a live, it doesn't hurt. Think of it as an opposite of the plasma cutter item. It's good to use this item if you don't have a lot of eye cards or red flags since those get wasted every turn you use them. 

What's the point of the red flag then, if the silencer is just a better version?

Well that's actually a good point. I was thinking the Silencer in the game will have a higher price point, but I know that's not enough for people to use Red flags. To be honest I'm thinking of getting rid of the Red Flag. Another reason I will probably get rid of it, is because of how my game works. I'll explain later in the next Devlog.

I might think of a balance change to help it, but Idk.

Battle System Update:

I had a problem with my battle system before. My main issue was that you could battle enemies but there was no point to it. You would get gold, but that was just to spend on items for battling. There's no XP in the game. Also it could be easy to just use a bunch of items to beat battles. So there was no point. And now that I introduced the Silencer, it meant that the Red Flag is gone.

So I have an Idea for my battle system. First off let's talk about how to discourage item hoarding. 

You'll be able to put in a certain amount of money to bet on. So basically if you put in 1000 Gold and you win a battle, you get twice that amount, so now it's 2000 Gold. This is a way to make players think about how much they want before they leap, and it also makes them think about how much items they want to use, because items cost money so now they'll have to probably up the gold value in order to get payback for their items. 

Another way to discourage item hoarding is classes. If anyone doesn't remember, I talked about adding classes like, Soldier, Doctor, Dealer, Spy, etc. to affect the players playstyle just like FF5. My RPG game was made with no XP in mind, so there's no leveling up. But since there is classes, they cost money, also if you want to master a class, you'll have to pay up more money. So it's a choice of items or money. Also, not only does this discourage item hoarding, but this is also a way to encourage people to battle, so battling isn't totally useless if you choose to do it.

What About the Red Flag?

Well first off, you know how in buckshot roulette you get random items when doing battle. Well I'm thinking of adding that in the battle system. Don't worry, there's still a good reason to buy items. I'll only allow one random item to be given in battles. So the Red flag will appear when given randomly.

Is there a good reason to buy it?

I'm still figuring that out. I will admit it's still not that great of an item. Maybe dropping the price down will work, but I don't know what price to give it in order for it to be balanced.

Item Update:

There's some Items from Buckshot roulette that I will be renaming in Fates Gamble. Specifically Burner Phone and Polaris. Before, I talked about not really liking them, but when I played the steam version I really started to like them a lot more.

Burner Phone will become a Fortune Cookie

Polaris will become Averser.

Also, I'm getting rid of Bullseye card. It was basically a better version of the Zip Tie Cuffs. However, I realized it's really not that fun to fight against or use, so I'm getting rid of it. Also new item Idea.

Chains: It can lock one of your item types, so it cant be stolen. So basically, if you use Chains on the Heal Syringe and have two Heal Syringes, those two will be locked, because it matters what type it is, not which one.

Now, I'm not sure if I'll use this item because I'm not sure if anyone would be willing to even buy this item, and also I'm debating on if it will be even fun to use. But it is something to think about.

Also Mike Klubnika announced doing specific items for multiplayer on Buckshot Roulette.

I'm not sure why he's making them exclusive for multiplayer, but either way, I may or may not put them into Fates Gamble.    :)

Media Update:

Unfortunately I was going to have my YT Channel up and ready but due to some problems I wont be able to have my channel up today, hopefully tomorrow.

I'm still having thoughts about what I should do with the channel. I'm thinking of making it mix of the Sonic The Hedgehog YT Channel and Goodgis, where they do nothing but post anything related to their games. I'm thinking of doing something like that. So since I have Fates Gamble, I'll probably do videos related to that whether that be gameplay, trailers, horror entertainment, devlogs, game development, etc. Not saying I'm only doing Fates Gamble stuff. Just saying for right now, It's mainly going to be about Fates Gamble.

Unfortunately I cannot have the channel up today, will have to delay it for tomorrow. I swear, I keep trying to get youtube to contact me with a verification code but it's not working, ugh. 

Ok well, I do have the channel up, I just cant upload videos on it yet. 

Media Update:

The YT Channel is here!

YT Channel

Right now I only have two videos. Ones a gameplay video and the other is kind of just an introduction video. There's still a lot to learn, as I plan to understand what I want my videos to truly be. Also I plan to get better at editing.

Shut it about my mic being bad     ):<

Game Scene Update:

Also I did update the zip file of the game, but its nothing too interesting. All I did was get rid of the text that would pop up when you shoot yourself in the first round. It would give numbers for the blank and live rounds, because I realized I made them too confusing. Also in the first round live rounds wouldn't hurt you if you shot yourself. The reason for this was to make it "easy" but I feel like it just made it confusing and dumb.

Might do a "double or nothing mode" (Although I'll probably just call it "Hard mode"). Hey, maybe I'll even add more modes just for fun. After all, I hate having to let you guys wait for the full game, so I might add some small new things to the beta, just to ease the wait. 

I will admit I didnt really do much today, so I'll probably do more on the story tomorrow. But I'll bring some ideas for any "modes" I have.

Ok, no post today, but hopefully tomorrow. Also I do plan on using the "explosive bullet" for double or nothing mode.

I apologize for no update yesterday >_<

Game Mode Update:

Yeah might as well add "Mode" to the name. Right now I have 3 new ideas for "modes".

• No Items Mode
• Chance Mode
• Double Barrel Mode

And of course there is normal mode, which is basically the vanilla battle system you all played already.

I'll basically explain these three modes. 

(Also, in case no one remembers. Explosive bullet is a bullet that you cant activate or else it will...explode. To deactivate it you must shoot yourself.)

No items: This is what it sounds like. Literally the same thing as the vanilla battle system but no items and 1 "Explosive Bullet" will be in the ammo, so be careful.

Chance Mode: This is basically the "Double or Nothing mode". It goes on and on till you give up or die once (Also, you are given random items). However the ammo count will be always 6. Wont go up to 8 or 10. Also, 1 "Explosive Bullet" will be in the ammo count.

Double Barrel Mode: This is the only to access the Double Barreled Shotgun. In case no one remembers, Double Barreled Shotgun can do 6 DMG and it has only 1 live round and 1 blank round, making it a 50/50 chance. 

Story Update:

I'm almost done finishing rewriting this one characters Role System. There's possibly 2 more characters I have to complete. But when I'm done with rewriting this one character, I may or may not work on the other modes.

Story Update:

Ok so I'll probably be able to work on the game modes this Wednesday. I'll see if I can finish rewriting this character tomorrow. Thanks for staying with me guys, hope I can ease the wait with an update.

Story Update:

Ok I may or may not, work on the game modes on Wednesday. The reason is because I made a mistake. When I was writing my story in Twine I had a wi-fi issue. Twine was working just fine, but it's auto save feature was kind of messing up so I was working on my story but nothing was auto saving. So when I closed my computer, I lost some progress   >_<

It's ok, I'm still sure I can work on them Wednesday.

Story Update:

Wow I added a lot today to this one characters ROLE System. Everything is going good so far, however, now I'm not even sure I'll be able to work on the game modes tomorrow either. Also I wont be here this Friday through Sunday because I'm going on a trip. I hope this isn't bad news. I want to finish this character first before I make the game modes.

But I guess I could mention a few things...

Game Mode Update:

I might have some improved art, but not for everything. I'm also thinking of remaking the art for some of the items, since I changed their names (don't expect the animations to be that good though).

Also one quick thing I'm considering is adding super moves. I plan super moves to be a 50/50 coin flip though. When you activate one, it either can really hurt you or really help you.  However, I'm not sure If I should add them, as I would hate for super moves to ruin the horror of my game.

Story Mode Update:

Yes I wasn't able to work on game modes today, but I almost was. Again, I wont be here this Friday through Sunday, because I'm going on a trip. However I'll see if I can make some kind of update tomorrow. Thanks for staying with me guys

Game Mode Update:

Yes I got to work on the game modes a bit. So let me tell you the things I added as of right now.

• For some reason I referred to the Revolver as "Gun" rather than just calling it what it is. This is fixed.
• I added the Opponent giving details about how each gun works.
• Added Double Barreled Shotgun into the game

Hope to make more another day. I wont be able to update you all tomorrow. I'm going to be working with someone tomorrow.

Ok so I just saw the news on steam about buckshot roulette. 

Ok so there's 2 things to looks at here. There's 4 player online BABBYYYYYYYY! I wanna know if there will be a teams mode though. This reminds me about my partner system. Something I've been wanting to mention is my thoughts on how much enemies you should fight in game, because if you have a partner, then it could definitely be easier to go against one opponent. I might have the player able to fight 2 enemies, but it's hard because battling runs on RPG Maker event system so it would be hard to implement that. I would explain what's specifically challenging me, but I feel like that's boring to talk about.

Also, NEW ITEM! If you look on the left part of the screenshot I gave you, you'll see some kind of tape recorder???? Mike did say he was making items specifically for multiplayer, so I'm not sure what it does, we can only go off of educated guesses. Surely it cant be some Echo Item, since it's about multiplayer. Also how would turns work? Since it is a turn based game, would they have to do it like Uno, where they take turns clockwise or counter clockwise? 

If so, my best educated guess, is that this item is some kind of "Reverse Card" or "Skip Card."

Not much of a post about my game, just wanted to tell you all I'm thinking about what I can base off of.

Game Scene Update:

Double Barreled Shotgun Mode (DBS Mode) is completed. Just two more modes then I'll be done with the gameplay part. 

Item Update:

Also I changed some money values around. The four leaf clover is now 1000G and the Red Flag (Also know as Tactical Vest) is now 500G. When looking back on the Red flag being 2500G, I realized how outrageous that was.

One more thing. DBS Mode will only have Herbs and Red Flags as items. You cannot buy or use any other item in DBS Mode.

Game Mode Update:

Ok so I implemented the random items mechanic. I didn't finish Chance Mode, but I was close to finishing it, haha. 

Item Update:

The Eye Card now costs 2000G and the Steal Card costs 2500G.

Game Mode Update:

No Item's Mode is completed. 

Item Update: 

Been doing some animations for the items, to replace the old animations. Right now I finished an animation for the Four Leaf Clover.

Sorry if this update is a little short, I didnt really get to so a whole lot today. Also I will not be making any devlog updates on Sundays.

Art Update:

Ok so I finished the animation for the the Four Leaf Clover, the next one I'm doing is the Heal Syringe. I'm trying to replicate a bit of Martin Walls scribbly art style while also sprinkling some originality. 

Here's a GIF:

This is specifically for the player. Might do something a little different for the Opponent. It's simple, but I think it's effective. I'm still using the sound effects though. I'm really in love with the stock RPG Maker SFX.

Art Update: 

I finished the Heal Syringe animation. I'll see if I can show it off tomorrow.

Battle System Update:

Explosion round now does 2 damage.

Item Update:

I'm cancelling the Averser. It was basically the Inverter from Buckshot Roulette. The reason I'm getting rid of it, is because of my "one live round" gimmick. Since there is always one live round in the chamber, it would be too OP.

Art Update:

Alright so I finished the animation on the syringe...Technically. I didnt add any scribbly outlines, because I'm trying to decide what would look better. I might show another version of this animation.

Heres a GIF:

Might also add a little more frames next time.

Sorry, I've just been working on this the whole day (and also I had to go to the gym which took some time). Trying to replicate "cell animation" is quite hard in it's own way.

ALSO I REALLY HATE THAT KRITA NEEDS FFMP INSTALLED. GAHHHHHH!!! The last animation I did was in krita, but edited with ClipChamp. This time I used FFmp.

This is an update...But it's more about whining and complaining about Krita.

Here's the completed version of the Heal Syringe. sorry the GIF makes it look worse.

UNFORTUNATELY, THERE SEEMS TO BE A PROBLEM WITH THE OGV FILES WHEN USING KRITA TO RENDER THEM!!!!

WHAT THE HECK!!! The one's with the purple faded background doesn't work for some reason in RPG Maker. Also the color is missing on them.

I think this might be because the one with the black background was made using JPEG's and manually editing them in ClipChamp instead of the new one being made with PNG's. I would try to change it but Krita's automatically makes my videos in PNG, and I don't know how to stop that. Stop giving me headaches Krita! Either I find out the problem or export all these frames into JPEG's and manually edit them in ClipChamp frame by frame, which I don't want to do.    XP

I'll try to figure out the problem later, right now I need a break.

Also here's the Zip Tie Cuffs.

Sorry, had a kind of tough day today. I'm trying to understand how to fix the problem, had to take care of some kids, and clipchamp cant help with my problem, because it squishes the screen too much. Uuuuuuuggghhhh.

I would have an update tomorrow but I don't do updates on Sundays anymore. Sorry guys, I'll figure it out, I just needed more time.

Item Update:

Challenge card: Challenge an opponent to rock, paper, scissors. If you win you get +4HP, if not, then you get -2HP.

I might add a variant where you can damage your opponent.

Art Update:

Doing animated work on the Eye Card. Using rodoscope to help me out.

Sorry had to take care of my nephews today. I might be able to work tomorrow but not for a very long.

Art Update:

I finished animating the card, I just need to add the red eye art on the front. Not sure if anyone remembers, but the Eye Card had a red eye on the front, so that's all i need to animate. Rodo scope animation really helped me create it. Hopefully I'll finish it tomorrow.

Art Update:

eyyy, I got to finish it. I'm thinking of keeping the wobble on the red eye for inconsistency.     :D

Cant wait to make the others. It kind of sucks when I realized i cant use the paint bucket to color in stuff for these animations lol.

The next item I plan on creating is the Plasma Cutter (Although, I might add some more details to the Eye Card animation to make it more visually interesting). I may or may not be able to work tomorrow, it depends. 

Art Update:

I've been working on the plasma cutter, I will probably finish it tomorrow.

Also I realized I didnt put a Scribbled outline on the Eye Card, so I'll finish that too.

Art Update:

Added the scribble outline.

Finished the Plasma Cutter.

I'll do Tactical Vest (originally Red Flag) next.

Art Update:

Been doing tactical vest, hopefully finish it tomorrow. usually these things only take like 2-3 days, haha.

Art Update:

I still don't have the tactical vest animation ready, but I did finish the animation where the players hand grabs the vest.

Item Update:

Ok I'm not sure if I'll actually add this in as an item but it's an idea I've planned in my head.

Mask-on-a-stick: If you wear this item, you can read your opponents mind, giving you hint's about beating your opponent.

I have to go to a party in a little bit as of writing this, so I'll stop working for today.

Art Update:

I have finished the Tactical Vest Animation.

It shows a little too fast, but it wont be like that in the 2nd beta.

Battle System Update:

If you read the really long reply above this update, you'll know that I'm adding more live rounds to the mix. It was only 1 live round before, but now there will be more. 

Here's what it basically looks like for right now.

Art Update:

I've been working on the Steal Card. I'm using the same rotoscoping technique from the eye card. I will finish it tomorrow. :3

Art Update:

eyyy, I finished it. It's a little hard to see the yellow arrow though on the card. I'll see if can fix it.

the only one left of the OG items, is... Tarp. I'm not gonna like animating that one. Uuuuuuugggghhhh. I'll see if i can make another rotoscope animation to make it easier, but I really don't know how I should animate it. After I'm finished with the Tarp, I'll proceed to animating the new items.

HOWEVER, keep in mind that I wont do the Gift Box item, because I can only see it doing good in the final game.

MV Update:

So I'm not sure if a lot of you even remember, but back then I used RPG Maker MV to develop a high quality version of the game. It didnt work though because I either got bugs or errors whenever my player died. My Idea was to make Fates Gamble a Dual Release game (kind of like Pokémon). Now I'm thinking about using MV again. To fix the problem with the bugs and errors, I needed a conditional branch to detect if the player is dead (for some reason). I just need to tediously find every time the player would die in my event script so I could implement that logic.

So basically Fates Gamble might have two version of the same game. There will be "Fates Gamble VX Ace" and "Fates Gamble MV." I might change their names, but right now I'm keeping them. 

What's the point of VX Ace when MV is basically more modern and nicer looking?

RPG Maker MV isn't better at everything. First of all, UNEXPECTED BS DOESNT HAPPEN OUT OF NOWHERE WHEN EVENT SCRIPTING. Second, VX Ace allows more Map space. Lastly, VX Ace will have more personality and engagement in the NPC's. I cant really explain "why" for that last part for those who don't understand RPG Maker that well. 

Here's a list of the upsides and downsides.

Fates Gamble VX Ace:

• +More engaging NPC's
• +Bigger Map
• +Works on older windows PC's like "Windows XP"
• -Looks worse
• -Smaller screen resolution

Fates Gamble MV:

• +Looks way nicer.
• +Bigger screen resolution
• +Works on Mac, Linux, Windows.
• -Smaller Map (Which could mean some removed content also T_T )
• -Less engaging NPC's

Art Update:

Ok so I rotoscoped myself with a blanket to get a Tarp animation. To be honest I don't think I'll be able to finish it in 2 days like all the other. This animation might take me 3-4 days. Also I still need to finish some parts on the Steal Card and I forgot to give tactical vest a purple fade background.

Art Update:

Ok, so my art program Krita is lagging lol, it's a bit hard to use at the moment but I'm sure I'll finish the Tarp animation tomorrow.

Cut Content Update:

I'm canceling Super Moves. The problem is that an opponent could use it when at very little health. Imagine getting so close to killing an opponent and then losing your turn, just so he could use a super move on you    ):

not very fun...

Art Update:

*OK FOR SOME REASON I CANT POST THE TARP ANIMATION I DID! WHATEVER I GUESS*

At least I finished it, I'll see if I can post it tomorrow.

Right now I am doing fortune cookie item. Which is something I wanna bring up... I'll (possibly) only be adding 2 new items to the 2nd beta and leaving the rest for the final release.

Art Update:

I finished the fortune cookie.

Ok so apparently I need to dumb down the resolution a bit for the tarp, sorry it looks so bad and slow. It wont be like this in the final game.

I'll probably make the challenge card. I'm probably gonna use the same rotoscope video again. Also I know I said I'll only do 2 new items, but I'm thinking of adding one more item to the second beta, so I'll see what I can do.

Art Update:

ok I finished the challenge card.

There is only one more item to do, and then I will go to RPG Maker VX Ace and implement the new items.

Also, I'll be fixing fortune cookie and tactical vest animation, as they are missing some scribbly outlines.

Yep, I did the Padlock item, so now I'm done with the items.              :D

Also I had to do some finishing touches on the fortune cookie and tactical vest, like adding there eoutlines.

Now that this is done. I'm going to go back to RPG Maker VX Ace and implement these items.     :D

Item Update:

Hot potato is being replaced. If your opponent was at low health, It wouldn't be fun for him/her to use a hot potato and then do a lot of damage that you couldn't prevent. So I'm changing it to....

Briefcase: There's a chance to get a big damage buff if you use this item. To use this item, you tell your opponent "Deal or No Deal". If they say "No Deal" then the challenge will not begin and you keep your item. However, if they say "Deal", a challenge will commence. You'll look inside the briefcase to see if there's a bomb or not. Then you can tell your opponent what's inside the Briefcase or lie and then proceed to say the words "Deal or No Deal". If your opponent says "Deal" they'll take the briefcase, if they say "No Deal" you keep the Briefcase. If there's a bomb in the Briefcase, then whoever has the briefcase gets a bunch of damage dealt to them. If there isn't a bomb, then whoever has the briefcase gets damage boost. This weapon is great because then if your opponent uses this item, you can just decline the challenge, so it wont be annoying. Think of this weapon as an Echo Item for the Plasma cutter. (I love using that term)

Maybe I'll use Hot potato as a rare/secret item, but idk.

Also I implemented the three new items in game, however I'm going to add the Briefcase to the 2nd beta, so there will be more variety with my item collection.

Art Update:

I finished the animations for the briefcase... well kind of. I'll show the finished product on monday.

Art Update:

Ok so, I am working on the tranquilizer, right now its looking alright, but definitely needs more time for the animation. I'll probably be able to finish it tomorrow.

Art Update:

still needs some fixing, but it works for now

Also I finished the revolver.

I made it a little too fast though... oops.

Item Update:

ok so I technically finished the Briefcase item, however there's still more I have to add to make it the way I want it. Also I want to mention that when you activate the briefcase, the opponent wont have a 50/50 chance of saying "Deal" to take the briefcase, he thinks before he leaps. So you have to think about the best option when challenging him.

ALSO, I've been working on rewriting some characters, due to some new ideas flowing in my brain, haha.

Art Update:

I apologize for no updates these days. Work has been hitting me hard. Unfortunately I wasn't able to do much today, but basically I'm importing the animations into rpg maker. Also, I'm adding unique different sound effects for some of the items animations, so I wont just use stock RPG Maker SFX.

Art Update:

Again I wasn't able to do much today, but I'm sure tomorrow I'll have way more time to work. Right now I'm working on some animation for the brief case and also still working on getting ogg files for rpg maker.

might get rid of outline for the dynamite.

 Krita tends to take some time loading animations, haha.

Art Update:

I'm almost done with everything with importing animations. I just need to give them some sounds and stuff. Also I thought I'll be able to do more today, but due to some unfortunate circumstances I wont be able to do it. For some reason importing animations was way slower. It felt like every time I did 10 minutes of work, I would look at the clock to see that it took 30 minutes.    /:

Art Update:

OK FINALLY. I was having a bunch of trouble. For some reason VLC Media Player wouldnt be playing my animations. It just stopped...for NO REASON. SO I HAD TO FIND OUT WHAT TO DO FOR LIKE 2 HOURS. I realized I needed to mess around in preferences and update VLC. So then when I fixed it, what do ya know NOW RPG MAKER VX ACE DOESNT PLAY MY ANIMATIONS... FOR NO REASON. So I started thinking, it it VLC's problem? Is it RPG Maker? I mean RPG Maker has be pretty bad when using kritas renderer...But, no that doesnt make sense because I would fix it with VLC, but now VLC just stopped working for no reason, so then... WHATS THE ISSUE. I tried to see if i could fix the issue, with so many ideas, just to end up with no explanation or fix...

LUCKILY, I found a website called Convertio. If you dont know, RPG Maker only allows OGV files. So instead of using VLC, I'll render my animation in MP4 with kritas renderer THEN use convertio to convert it to OGV...Ugh.

https://convertio.co/mp4-ogv/

Well anyways, Importing should be way easier now. I hate that I take so long fixing weird stuff instead of making my game.

Item Update:

I'm almost finished making the tactical vest. I cant believe I almost forgot it. the item should be finished tomorrow.

Item Update:

I'm messing around with the items mostly, Also I finished that Tactical Vest Item. Now I will add no more items

Art Update:

I realized that I have to make a few more animations. I have animations for when the player shoots an opponent but not for when they shoot themselves, so I'm going to fix that.

Miscellaneous Update:

I'm thinking of adding pets to the game. 

For what reason?

Well, I actually have a lot of reason, but mainly it's just because I think it would be fun to have some little buddy by your side. They can also help with certain quests you have. For example a dog can be used to sniff out a dead body.

Also I'm adding more secrets, there's only two secrets in the first beta, but I'll see if I can add more. 

Another thing I might add, is DLC. Ok it wont be "true" DLC, it will be more like an expansion pack (think of street fighter 2 and SUPER street fighter 2). Again, I may not actually do this idea, but as someone who wants being a game dev his future, I think it's something I might do.

Art Update:

Ok so I've just been working on animations where you shoot yourself. Right now I finished the shotgun, now I'm going to do revolver, tranquilizer, and Double barreled shotgun. I cant believe I forgot to do double barrel in the first place.

Animation Update:

Alright I'm almost done with the first three guns. Then when I'm done with those, I need to do the animations for the double barrel shotgun.

Animation Update:

Yes they're pretty simple, but that's because KRITA KEEPS F-ING EVERYTHING UP, and also I didn't animate them firing because then it would look kind of weird when you or the enemy gets hit. Especially the sound of the gun firing would be delayed.

Also I'm sorry if I don't get to show much today, Krita has really been a pain in my butt, but hopefully, I'll have more time to work on the game then the art.

Item Update:

I was fixing some of the items, especially the briefcase. I'm getting really confident in these items, I hope you all like them. Also I'm gonna keep the red flag for this beta.

Art Update:

I'm going to be completing the double barrel shotgun animation tomorrow.

Art Update:

Not really much of an update, since today is labor day, I decided to take another break haha. But just to let you know, I'm almost done with the double barrel shotgun animation.

Art Update:

I finished the Double Barrel Shotgun animation. 

ugh it goes way too fast again.

Unfortunately didnt get to do much today (I had a lot to do), BUT I can do way more hopefully by tomorrow and this next week, since work wont be bothering me and I'll be having more time to do gamedev.

Also I'm almost finished with double barrel shotgun shooting yourself.

Art Update:

I finished the double barrel shotgun, also I forgot to add outlines to Double Barrel Shotgun and the "shoot yourself animations"

Battle System Update:

I'm working on adding the new items for the Opponent so he can use them against you. Then when I'm done with that, I'll add the Opponents animations. Guy's I'm really excited I cant wait for the 2nd beta for the battle system to be done.

Battle System Update:

Mainly I've been fixing bugs in the battle system and also implementing items for the Opponent to use. Yeah not much other than that, but I'm almost done implementing items for the Opponent. and then that means I have to do some animations for the opponent. 

Battle system Update: 

I finished the Opponents items, now all I have to do is add animations. just needs a few more test, and then I'm gonna do some art for the Opponent.

Battle System Update:

Ok... I had to do way more test than I thought. HOWEVER, that's a good thing because it made me realize some problems with the Opponent. I've improved a bit of his AI, and I plan to do more to make him smarter    :D

I had to do a lot of bug fixing with the items, so hopefully tomorrow I'll be doing Opponent animations.

I didnt really get much to do today, I'm sorry for the bad news. Basically today was pretty tough. Right now I'm kind of just making another gameplay video of Reanimated, and then tomorrow ill do more work. Sorry guys, just had a rough day is all   :)

Battle System Update:

Ok, I should be done with testing the items now. When I do the art, I'm starting on remaking the Opponents art and then doing some animations with him.

Media Update: 

I'm making another gameplay video on reanimated, also I do plan on making another devlog on my YT channel, so I can basically put all this info into one video. I might even make some exclusive devlog videos on my channel to talk about my various ideas for my game, whether that be enemy design, art design, map design. I'll still use this devlog on Itch, but I wanna see if I can make a following on YT to get people to play my game. Expect more videos :)

Art Update:

I like this one. It feels just right. Maybe I could make the head smaller? But anyways, I'm gonna be using this one.

The ones I wont use.

I'm sorry it took me so much time. I really couldn't decide the way I wanted it to go. Also I'm gonna see if I can delete the post I made yesterday. 

ALSO, I'm probably gonna make another update today as well since this post is early.

Art Update:

Ok right now I'm working on the healing syringe animation for both Female and Male Opponent. Also I tested them in Rpg Maker VX Ace. I think they look good, but probably need a slight bit of work done on them when imported. 

Media Update:

I'm sorry if you guys were expecting art, but I really need to focus on my YT Channel more often. Right now I'm editing a gameplay video on "Reanimated" and I plan to have an exclusive devlog on my YT channel on hopefully this week. I need to make more videos to get an audience. The thing about being a game dev is that you have to imagine yourself being put in a room of people shouting about their game. Whoever's the loudest basically wins. And so I need to really focus on my channel (and also get verified lol).

But do expect some more engaging devlogs on my channel then the short daily updates.

If you haven't already, please subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@ChillDev_Official

Media Update:

I should be done by tomorrow or on Friday. I'm adding just one more part to my video, and then I should be doing the editing.

I really hate clip champ sometimes. Video will have to be tomorrow unfortunately, I really wanted it to be today. But I hope it serves as a good video to keep you guys invested in what I'm cooking up for my game.

Media Update:

Hey, the video wont be out today unfortunately but it will be tomorrow. Sorry guys, yesterday hit me like a brick. It's my fault for the delay, but also just a bunch of other stuff too. 

Game Scene Update:

I was intending Chance Mode to be timed, just like the 3rd fight with the Opponent. But instead it's going to limit your moves instead. So you have to be wise with what you choose.

Art Update:

I'm really close to finishing the syringe animation. I cant wait to show it tomorrow. After that I'll probably do the zip ties.

Art Update:

Ok so I finished The healing syringe, and I'll probably finish the zip ties tomorrow. Also I would record the healing syringe animation but I need to do that tomorrow.

Art Update:

Excuse the bad GIF quality. I used clip champ to make it. Also the Male Opponents arm is a bit messed up on the Four leaf clover and Zip tie. I need to fix that. Don't worry about the Male Opponents arm clipping when using the Syringe, my plan is to remake the table to hide the clipping.

Can they look... better.

Well, I actually wanna keep it this way, as long as its like "cell animation", also It would be slower if I tried to import more frames. The reason being that RPG Maker doesn't allow animations for enemies, I had to trick RPG maker into thinking the individual frames are enemies. 

So since I cant use Krita's animation renderer I have to crop and save them individually. Then I use RPG Maker's event system.

Also I can only add 999 enemies in rpg maker. I don't think this would be a huge problem. However, keep in mind I'm going to add more items, that need animations, and also more enemies which means even more animations.

Thoughts on Buckshot Roulette Online:

Critical Reflex has made another post on Steam stating:

"To celebrate we have prepared many, many surprises for you throughout the whole month waiting to be unpacked, like an advent calendar of sorts. And we’ll be launching the BUCKSHOT ROULETTE Multiplayer Beta as one of the gifts — sorry for spoiling the surprise a little. Hope you don’t mind."

I'll indeed be looking out for any content I can stea-... borrow. If they state anything that I feel like I would like to have in my game, then expect me to talk about it.

Art Update:

I almost finished the Plasma Cutter animation. I'll show it off tomorrow. After that, I'll probably do Eye Card, but that will be easy :3

Art Update:

Well I still need to finish it. I'm surprised it took this long, for some reason I'm really fast with work and then just slow. ALSO KRITA AND RPG MAKER JUST BECOMES RANDOMLY SLOW!!!!!!!!
I plan to show way more that I finished, I'm just showing the male dealer with the revolver for right now.

WHY IS IT A SLOW STUTTER????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

definitely working on the eye card tommorow.

Art Update:

Ok I finished Plasma cutter with the other items. Also I fixed the arm issue with zip tie and Four Leaf Clover. 

ALSO, I finished the animation for eye card. I'll show it off tomorrow. Right now I'm working on the Padlock.

OK MIDWRITING THIS, someone from a discord server I'm on, made these pieces of art for me. They go by "Tem"

Male:

Female:

I might use something like this for some kind of "boss phase", or Idk, BUT I DEFINITELY WANNA USE THIS FOR SOMETHING. Tem was telling me about how I should take into consideration about making the "female Opponent" waist and chest thinner, so he cooked up these designs. Overall, this design looks so cool. It's way more monstrous than my mischievous look I gave the Opponents.

:3

Art Update:

Also I do have the Male Opponent using the eye card and the Female using the Plasma cutter, I just decided not to show them so I can get this out a little quicker. 

Also some of my friends said they liked how the CUT design for the female opponent looked adrogyneous or ambiguous. They also suggested making the waist thinner.

Honestly I kind of wish I used it, because by it looking ambiguous, I wouldn't have to make 2 design for each animation like what I'm doing right now. Oh well, I like the male and female designs anyways. I probably wont use this design, I mean... who knows, maybe if my friends REALLY want it, but Idk how to this design in my game.

Also I would have to do more animations...    T_T

Art Update:

Ok, so I finished The padlock animation for the Male, now I'm doing the Fortune cookie animation. I'm sorry if I've been very slow, I've had some unexpected work the past days. hopefully ill finish it tomorrow.

Art Update:

I finished the fortune cookie animation. Now I plan to do some more card animations and then what's left is the briefcase animations. I'll show my progress tomorrow.

Art Update:

Ok I finished the card animations and others.

Tomorrow, I'll be hopefully finishing the Briefcase.

Art Update:

Ok I plan to finish the briefcase tommorow. Im almost done with it. 

:3

Game Update:

there's a video I just watched today, it made me realize something. In short he talks about games tricking you (for example, "Mimic Chest")

Art Update:

I have finished the briefcase, the one I'm doing now is the Tarp, when I finish that, I will show you the briefcase and the tarp animation.

Media Update:

I finished recording audio, now all I need to do is edit the video. Hopefully it will be out by tommorow or saturday.

Media Update:

Its out now! Another Exclusive video for my devlog. In this video I explain what Phobias I will use in my game. I know I talked about Decidophobia in my game before, but there's NEW info about my game in this video, that I have not talked about before.

:3

Art Update:

I Finished the Tarp animation and almost finished the tactical vest animation. Unfortunately I had to take care of some kids so I couldn't do too much work other than rethinking the story. speaking of which

Story Update:

I may or may not rewrite some parts of the story. I felt like my characters didnt have enough screen time or didnt have any impact on the story. Right now I'm rethinking some things and might add more stuff to the story.

Art Update:

OK, All that needs finishing is the red flag (also I need to do an red flag animation for the player)

Story Update:

I'm having a lot of thoughts about the story. Basically I was watching a YouTuber called "Dumbsville" and I watched his Metal Gear Solid review videos. I was really inspired by their villains personality, and wanted something like them in my game. 

when looking at my OG story, I realized some of my characters didnt really have that much going for them. See in something like Undertale, the characters got a lot of screen time and more character. Of course I'm not saying my characters need Huge amounts of screen time, but to give an example, when playing my game, you would meet a main character and then pacify/kill them at the get go without any buildup or any other time you would meet them. You got some build up of Undyne, you got to go through Papyrus's challenges, you even got to have a warm moment with Toriel. They weren't just "a character you had to pacify/kill" so I'm gonna see if I can make my characters have more important scenes, while still being optional to meet. Undertale has it easy, being a more linear game. 

Another thing about my OG story, is how I treated the ROLE system. See I did say in Devlog #3 that I would like to use gimmicky and goofy ideas to pacify enemies. However this wasn't the case before. It would take way longer to pacify because I wrote so much for dialogue, so the player would be invested in the character through the ROLE, rather than Undertale more focusing on cutscenes with their characters. See if I could pacify a character quickly like Undertale, then My ROLE system would have shorter scenes and my characters would feel less interactable. The ROLE system is supposed to be a more interactive, less limiting, and not repeat as much as Undertale. It made it feel like you could be yourself and have interactions that feel real. If the game had a more Undertale styled ACT system, not only would my characters not get a lot of screen time, they would be broken. What I mean by that is... Lets say I used Undertale's "flirt command." If I make that work, then my more serious characters would break character, just for your flirt command to work. Also, most of my main characters get their characterization from the ROLE system anyways, so it would be very bad If I chose this approach.

Anyways, I don't think having these One dimensional characters that you barely even meet are a bad thing. At 36:50 of this video, it made me wonder "Is there's a way I could have these types of villains in my game." 

It made me realize a mechanic I totally forgot about. I'm not sure if anyone remembers, but I talked about adding a mechanic where if you killed someone, they have chance to come back to life due to a "revive" item and become your rival. If you died by them they would probably have a better rank (for example, they could get promoted for killing you or become a better fighter.) This is something I wanted in my game so it would help create a unique rival for every run. But of course, you could just pacify them. This where the ROLE system would get more fast paced and fun, because I don't have to worry if I "break the character" or "make the character have little screen time." Having a villain be one dimensional can help you give them character. Lets take the "flirt command" again. If I used "flirt" on someone who is one dimensional, well I'm not really making them one dimensional anymore (Kind of). I'm giving them character. Also they don't really have a lot of character to begin with, so I'm not really breaking them.

This is especially great considering my game has an interactive story. 

In short, My main villains/characters get a more compelling ROLE system where you can be yourself and deeply feel the character and the others get a fun and fast paced ROLE system, while still being a huge part of the story.

Art Update:

I have finished the animation for the red flag and the opponent using the red flag. I'll show them tomorrow.

Art Update:

I will admit I didnt really work today. I think I couldn't focus due to me being sick and also I had to focus on some other things than my game.

 

Miscellaneous:

New Update on Buckshot roulette says:

• New items  for strategic mutual annihilation. No pills included.
• Round customization  from more health points to item load outs for your convenience

Also, they said they're allowing beta test on their discord, so I plan to test it out when I get a chance so I can see any Ideas I can base off of.

Also I was working a bit on the game adding animations and event changes.

Art Update:

I'm doing weapon animations now. I forgot to work on them... my fault haha. I didnt get a whole lot done, but I'm doing the shotgun animation for both the female and Male dealers. Hopefully I'll finish them tomorrow.

Art Update:

Ok I finished the shotgun animations for the opponents, now all I have to do is finish the revolver animations for them.

Art Update:

I finished the revolver and the tranquilizer. I will hopefully show them out later. Next up is the double barrel shotgun.

monke

Media Update:

Ok so I'm almost done with the script BUT, I'm going to see if I can fix the revolver and tranquilizer animation and then work on the game tomorrow. 

I'm getting even more excited to make this game, because I feel like I'm understanding what I want my game to be. In the video I'm making, I talk a lot about the story of course, but there's a lot of mechanics in my OG story that made me feel like somethings missing in the game. You'll see what I mean once the videos up, but for tomorrow I really wanna work on my game.

Art Update: 

Ok I finished reworking the Revolver and tranquilizer, I'll show them off tomorrow. 

Yes, I did redesign the double barreled shotgun, which looks nothing like the OG. I didnt like the first design so I'll be redoing the players double barrel shotgun animation for the full game.

Battle System Update:

It really embarrassed me how much bugs there were haha. It's really hard finding bugs with events considering just how awful they are to work with. But oh well... I wish I got more done today, but it's hard while taking care of 3 kids. I hope to do more on Monday.

Ugh I feel so bad that I haven't updated in a while. I'm sorry guys. I didnt have time to record the animations and I said I would >_<
but really I do have them up, they were easy to make. Also I realized I need 4 more animations haha, I forgot I need to create an animation where the Opponent shoots themselves with all 4 guns... oop.

Thoughts on the Buckshot Beta:

I tend to mention Buckshot roulette a lot. I'm sorry I don't want to come off as someone being a copy cat, haha. I just wanted to see what they added, so I can see if I could take some inspiration.

Should this count as spoilers? I mean people who have buckshot roulette are gonna get the Multiplayer Update. But anyways, I was on the CR channel and I got the notification for the buckshot beta on Monday. Wanted to tell you guys my thoughts on Monday but I unfortunately didn't >_<

To start off, one of my educated guesses were right! One of the items ("Remote") really is an Uno Reverse card. 

However the other item ("Jammer") in the game is really disappointing. It's just the handcuffs... but for multiplayer. I was disappointed because one of them I already guessed and the other is just a reskinned handcuff. It really is a shame, but oh well, the multiplayer was fun. Although I got too addicted to it, to the point where I didnt want to do work on my own game >_<

I might make an item like remote, which would be good for maybe partner based battles in my game.

Media Update:

Started recording for my video about my story. I hope you guys like it, I also mention a new mechanic and a little more about the keyword system. If you haven't already, you should check out my YT channel for exclusive updates.

https://www.youtube.com/@ChillDev_Official

Media Update:

Ok so hopefully the video will be out by tomorrow. I'm a little sad I didnt get to do much today though. Hopefully I will have a lot of time tomorrow. 

:3

Art Update:

I kind of wish I could do more than say sorry. I was going on a trip to Disney land, but somehow forgot the Ac adapter to my laptop so I couldn't even do work /:

Oh well, I didnt get enough time anyway. You guys might think I'm preparing for something special but... no i just went on a trip >_<

Hey at least it over, I will hopefully have enough time tomorrow to work.

Art Update:

Ugh, I realized the Male Opponent doesn't hold the revolver right. HOW DID I NOT NOTICE THAT. Also the Tranquillizer animation is messed up on the Female Opponent.

Also here's what would happen if you hit the Opponent. I always imagined them with a "Kermit the Frog" neck. Maybe you guys don't like it, but It's how I imagined them.

Apologies for no Update yesterday. I had a massive headache and it felt like I couldn't even look at my computer screen. I did some things yesterday but couldn't do much due to me being sick. 

I'll be making another update today.

Items & Game Update:

If you read the conversation with me and O_tire, you'll know that I'm taking Orange Roulette as inspiration.

This will now be the main focus. I will discuss it more in a later devlog.

Also the video is important as it's the reason why I'm unfortunately canceling 2 items. The Fortune Cookie and the Tactical Vest. I'm very sad that I have to cut these items, but If I'm using this game as inspiration, then I cant use them. If the player is allowed to spin the cylinder, then the item wont matter. Also the Tactical vest was useful, but since the gun passes to your opponent when you shoot yourself in orange roulette, it's not really that interesting. The player might as well just have a heal syringe and a red flag. I mean I guess it could be helpful... if you had 4 HP.

Goodbye Fortune Cookie and Tactical Vest. You will now be put as "Cut Content."

Also I was fixing a whole mess of bugs on the briefcase item. Also Dealer is smarter when dealing with the Briefcase Item.

I apologize for no update today. I took a break on this day, since I forgot yesterday was Sunday. Plus it's veterans day anyways, haha.

Battle system Update:

Was gonna make this yesterday but when I was done with everything, I noticed it was already 12:00 pm for me so I decided to just make this post tomorrow. 

So here's some things I'm planning. 

• Spin cylinder button
• No blank rounds will be ejected
• Don't let player use eye card for four leaf clover.
• Ammo reloads ONLY once live round is found.
• Get rid of Explosive rounds.

Yes I am getting rid of explosive rounds... Most likely, not that I'm absolutely sure, but "most likely." Explosive rounds were there to encourage the player to shoot themselves. However using Orange roulettes system, you're encouraged to shoot yourself so much, that I don't think there's a point to keep them.

Also still working on adding more to the event system/script. I'm very confident about this whole "Orange roulette" thing.

EDIT: Expect another update today.

Battle System Update:

Ok, There probably still needs to be some more test in order to bug test it, but the Orange roulette system is now in place! There will be no more Buckshot roulette inspiration. Also Might change the title of this Devlog. 

Weapon Update:

I probably don't need to really say this since I haven't talked about it in a while. But whatever. Do any of you remember when I talked about a gun that would get stronger the more you shoot yourself. I was thinking of calling it "Sniper Rifle", but I may or may not be getting rid of it. I'd rather have the Double Barrel Shotgun be the strongest weapon and also it sucks to see an opponent just shoot themselves a lot and then do massive damage to you /:

It's the same reason I got rid of Supers.

However I'm thinking of another weapon idea. It's sort of an opposite to the shotgun. It does only 1 damage instead of the revolvers 2 damage. It's called the "Silenced Pistol." What do you think? Much like how the shotgun is for players who are confident in winning, the silenced pistol will be for players who aren't confident. ALSO, it can be for people who find the Plasma Cutter to be an annoying item.

Item Update:

Red flag will no longer get rid of a round. It will instead skip it. Also I'll be declaring Red Flag as an echo Item to Eye Card. I mean The Red Flag is basically just an Eye Card except it skips the round.

Conclusion:

There's a slight problem. When making Items, weapons, etc., I noticed a slight problem. I was making these with the OG battle system in mind. Now that I changed it, I need to rethink some of them, to see if they still work with this new battle system I'm proposing. It's what happened to Red Flag. I'll need some time to think. I'm starting to realize that things don't work as well with this new game mode.  I hope I don't get rid of anything, I'm thinking of getting rid of Double barrel shotgun, but lets see if it survives if I change some things about it.

Again I apologize for no update yesterday. I was trying to figure out some bugs mainly. Also, my attention span has been pretty bad, but that's probably because I haven't been used to working on the Event System. When doing art, story, or whatever else, my attention would be very good. But it's ok, I just need to remember my habits to keep my attention. Habits are very important and I've completely forgotten about them, so I need to start using them again, because it's what's been helping me work on this game from the start. Overall the Battle system is looking promising.

Also, I haven't been working today, because my friends wanted to play L4D2 with me, and I didnt wanna wait till Sunday (my usual break) since I never really get time to spend with them (If you're wondering, yes it will be a gameplay video on my channel). Also I had to help my mom with stuff, so I didnt wanna work on my game because I wouldn't have too much time to really update yall about my progress.

On the bright side...

Media Update:

I think I'm gonna be making a new devlog on my channel. I'm thinking of making it a mix of talking about the date my game will come out and what I'm implementing in the battle system.

Battle system Update:

Ok, I finished with a lot of bugs, and also I'm working on the Opponent AI when using the red flag. ALSO, I've realized how unfun the Double Barrel Shotgun is. It does a lot of damage, but the fact that it can only has an ammo count of 2, makes it way to easy to end yours or the Opponents run of the game. Of course that was the intention, but the more I played it, the more I realized how unfun it was. So I'm making the Double Barrel Shotgun an ammo count like the other guns instead of just being capped at two. 

I also might have a new mode. Insta-kill mode! This will be more like how Orange roulette is played. 

Guys, I'm almost done with the mechanics and modes. After that I need to do some pixel art and put in some spice to make it look good. I've mainly been calling this a beta, but really I should be calling it a beta/playable teaser. Not only does it show what I'm creating but it's also meant to be a unique experience to show what's happening.

Stay tuned!

Media Update:

Ok so I'm working on the video. Still trying to figure out what to do with when I want the game to come, especially since I'm changing things. I'm still hoping for 2026 to be when my game comes out, but again, don't count on it.

Media Update:

Alright hopefully, Ill be doing some voice work tomorrow.