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Announcement

Eps 1-6 Released! Downloads added!

I have just finished uploading two versions to RMN. The first (main download) is just the game, while the second one includes the rm2k3 program for those who don't have it.

As you can see, I messed with the colours of the profile a little bit. The sequel has been done as well.

I'll wait for feedback on these 6 eps for right now, but I am progressively adding to the 7th episode as time goes on. Hopefully everyone gets a few laughs out of what's there so far.

Announcement

Eps 1-6 release next week!

FRAGILE HEARTS NEWS
Damn, this project just keeps going and going. I added the new episode 5 dungeon area today, just a day off from sending out the newest beta to my testers, so they won't get to play it. I'll get my bro to do a playthrough this week though, and the release is scheduled for next week. The added area isn't anything huge, but it is just enough to make the episode as long as the other ones. I just need to add the monsters to it.

I also started building the underwater levels for episode 7 this week. I like the look and feel of it so far. I have a good portion of the episode planned out now, although it's probably only about half what I need. I also have the endings plotted out for episode 8, like completely! It'll be fun implementing all of them into the sequel, and it'll determine how players build their parties as well. All in all, the game is getting pretty close to finished! I must say, I can be pretty quick when I'm really set on the project.


SEQUEL NEWS
Meanwhile, some of you may have seen the screen I added last week for the sequel. I've been having fun playing around with the new chipsets lately, so I'll probably have all the areas for ep1 finished by the time I finish Fragile Hearts 1. Neat, eh? No.

Pre-production is going to be a lot of work yet. To remedy this, I'll be designing the areas while I do other things, not worrying so much about cutscenes or anything until I'm at the point where I can fully implement them with the portraits. Each characters has at least 2 different pics with a number of facial expressions for the sequel, which is a MAJOR upgrade from the first game. I'll be trying a few new storytelling tricks for this game, which I'm not too certain will go over well, but we'll see. Announcements will be coming soon.

Announcement

Beta Testing has commenced

Just sent off the new demo to amerk and lyn, and eventually I'll set my bro's comp up for it so he can try it as well. Amerk has already gone through episodes 1-4, so he'll be starting up right from the new parts (he's a bit busy but will probably go at it next week).

I played through the 2 newest episodes myself the other day. The length of episode 5 depends purely on players and how much they explore the little town, so I'll have to add a bunch of hidden items and stuff before the release. I also have a new dungeon area planned for the beginning of the episode to help raise player stats a bit. I skipped a whole bunch of battles over the last couple episodes, and though I was still able to get by, it was tough (should probably be levels 10 or 11 by the end of ep5). So yes, short game overall. However, this was never meant to be a 15 hour plus epic like the EL games. A lot of people here actually prefer shorter games anyway. I still have 2 episodes left to do as well, so my guess is it'll be somewhere between 6 and 8 hours in total to complete.

Episode 6 was a breeze to get through, since there were no battles or anything. It felt exactly as it should be as a filler episode, with plenty of laughs along the way, which is what this game is really about.

The steady progress I've been making has pretty much come to a halt now. I want to see how the demo does in the community before going back and finishing it off. I have some reservations about this, but I don't really see any other way since I need to get back to EL4. At some point over the next couple months I'll do the follow-up to Esoterica as well, despite how few downloads it has. Hopefully for yet another contest.

I'm quite happy with how the game is turning out, nonetheless. I'm sure some of the reactions to the new version will spur me on to completing the final 2 episodes in the near future, but I "HAVE" to get going on Eden Legacy 4 and the trilogy editions in the meantime. I'm very committed to all my projects (except of course for the Gundam game, which is decent enough as a simple demo), and it is my hope to keep making games as long as I have ideas for them. Obviously it won't always be to the extent that I'm focusing on them right now, since I'll (hopefully) be busy working in the future... but it's too much fun to ever give up altogether. Anyways, next update: release.

Announcement

Episode 6 complete!

I've finally finished off the whole episode and am in the middle of testing episode 5, then 6. As usual, I'll then send it to my beta testers (I have 3 this time).

I confused the heck out of myself for a bit there with the most current episode, as I wasn't quite positive how the order of events would occur. It features:
- 2 maze-like areas
- development hell (complete with hell area, director commentary, and extras)
- current event sequences
- flashback to the past sequences

It's mostly a movie for this episode, but it's a nice little break from the rest of the game and it features some pretty hilarious scenes all around. Plus, you get to play as Gulliver, finally.

The beta testing has gone better than expected so far, I just need to add a couple more save points here and there and the rest of ep.5 should run pretty smoothly. I'm fairly confident that ep.6 won't give me too many problems either, now that I've properly set all the teleportations.

It's been a rough couple of weeks but I eventually managed to get this stuff done. I'm sure my beta testers won't let me down either, so the demo should be available very soon. I'm really happy with how everything has turned out so far, and I'm hoping the final 2 chapters will tie things together just as well. Meanwhile, on the sequel front, I'm still dotting away at new character art, so I'll reveal some new stuff for that soon too.

Miscellaneous

So... anyone want a cameo appearance?

Development hell (the director's cut area in the game) has a bunch of space to fill yet. Anyone want to be in it? If you have anything specific you want your sprite to say, just lemme know. I'm looking at you, subscribers!

So here's my small to-do list that I hope to get finished off this week:

-2 small cutscenes
-add new music to eps 5 and 6
-ensure teleports work correctly
-complete a couple events for ep6 dungeon area
-test

It's a lot to do, considering school is in full swing now, but I'm very determined. While my testers (amerk, lyn, my bro) are working through all six episodes I'll be adding one extra dungeon as well. Just a short little transitional one to the beginning of ep5 (to make buying from the ep4 merchant worthwhile). Amerk has actually gone through the first 4 eps, so he's well on his way through the beta phase already.

Okay, time for class.

Progress Report

Hate College, Miss University

I know, I know, I know... college will get me a job. But seriously, this "all online" bs is completely fucking me up. 7 courses that I've got to check fifty different links for everyday, with the content placed in all different places for each just to be even more confusing, poorly worded quizzes that can be taken to meant two to three possible things... it's a bloody nightmare. Not that my masters program was all that professionally handled, but at least I only suffered through one online course for it.

Anyway, the reason for my complaining above is merely an excuse for my not having worked on this game for the past couple weeks. Here I had expected to be finished episode 6 in all of 3 days (maybe 4), and it's been 2 whole weeks without even a dent made in it. We haven't even got to the major assignments yet, I'm having enough of a hard time just FINDING the due dates for this shit.

The main point I'm trying to make here is that it'll be a little while longer before I can get the new demo tested. I don't even know when I can start back up on it. I'm hoping to have all the due dates sorted out this weekend, but ya never know when something will leak through the cracks. The only thing I can promise is that as soon as I do finally get some free time and am feeling a little less frazzled, I'll be back at it again. At the soonest it'll be Monday.

Miscellaneous

New plan. Call for 2nd beta tester!

Alright, I'm making WAY too much progress on this right now. By next week the game will be 3/4 complete which got me thinking... is there really any point to releasing episodes 1-4 demo when I could release an eps 1-6 demo a week or 2 later? No, most likely not. For this reason, I've decided to get a 2nd tester so as not to pile even more crap on Amerk's plate (he found a huge bug in episode 3 that may have been affecting episode 1 and 2, and I'm not going to make him replay those a 4th time). It'll be nice to have another person's opinion as well.

Anyways, for this gig I'm going to need a quick and experienced tester. Normally I don't have qualifications listed for tester jobs, but I fear with the time constraints I'm putting on the project lately that someone fast is really needed.

Here are some of the perks of being a tester:
-full credit
-get to appear in the game (in the director's cut) and choose your lines of dialogue
-umm... we'll be friends?

Since I've already gone through the game a number of times (so has Amerk), I'm not overly concerned with bug finding efficiency in eps 1-3. I'm mostly looking to make sure that the cutscenes are working at 100%, balancing is fine, and that I haven't created any new annoying bugs during the latest testplay. Anything else you find will be taken under advisement, but perhaps not changed or implemented until the release of the full version (all 8 episodes), depending on the severity.

Finally, the job won't begin right away. I have one boss battle to put in before episode 5 is completely done, and I'm still making a few cutscenes for episode 6. I'm thinking sometime next week it will be ready. I will be on vacation in Ottawa from the 2nd-6th, so it will most likely begin right after that.

I know I promised the demo for the beginning of the month, but by adding a 2nd tester I believe I'm only prolonging the release by a couple weeks (plus you'll all get 3/4 of the game instead of 1/2). At the rate I've been going I'd like to think the final two episodes will be finished just as quickly, but although ep8 is completely planned out, I have absolutely no clue what I'm going to do in episode 7. Basically I'll have to find an interesting way to get the party from one side of the continent to the other... not important right now.

So, to apply, just tell me:
-what games you've tested before
-what interests you about the project
-what you want your character sprite to look like (hair colour and other features) and what lines of dialogue you want to say in the game.

For anyone else who wants to have an NPC of themselves in the game, let me know. You won't be in the game testing zone, but I can definitely fit you in somewhere.

Miscellaneous

Episode 5 and 6

Work has continued on this game, despite my determination to get back to the EL series (I actually did something for that today!). Episode 5 is coming along at a regular pace, while episode 6 has been much easier to work on.

Episode 5 is a standard episode, but will mostly take place in a town (pic has been submitted and can be viewed in the images page). I worked extremely hard on making graphics for this episode, mainly the "chosen one", which I'm proud to say is my finest graphical contribution to anything to date! I can't show it off, unfortunately, as it would ruin a very funny moment in the game. Just know this, it will not disappoint!

Episode 6 is kind of an off beat episode (the only one of its kind, I promise). I will be lacking in gameplay, but there will still be tons of things to see. It will be divided into 3 separate parts: The meanwhile events (showing what is happening on the other side of the continent with secondary characters), a director's cut (commentary on game history, a strange world know as "development hell", and an unknown place), and finally the history events (which will delve into the pasts of the 4 main characters).

I've done the director's cuts before, but this will be much better than previous ones. Development hell will have many areas to explore, funny scenes to watch, and a whole bunch of of extra unused content for the game.

Because these 2 episodes have been progressing at around the same pace, I hope to have them completed at the same time, thus making the 2nd official release include 6 episodes, rather than the originally planned 5.

As for the first demo release (ep 1-4), we're still testing. Amerk helped with a major bug plaguing the cutscenes and I think it's been fixed for all of them. As soon as he completes the 3rd and 4th episodes, it'll be loaded onto this site. Thanks to all the followers, and I hope the game lives up to (or surpasses) expectations!

Miscellaneous

News + Sequel page submitted :)

Okay, quickly for the news... I posted a pic of a new town I'm working on, just to show that I am still actively progressing despite the contest this month. I also FINALLY got around to editing the pics, so the game will look a lot cleaner when it is released (hopefully) at the end of the month. Amerk is currently testing it and I've already gone through his first list of bugs and suggestions.

Sequel
Now, since I've been extremely busy gathering resources and experimenting for the sequel (and also since they will eventually be released together as a 2 for 1 sorta deal with save carry-overs), I decided I would like to show off some of what I've been tinkering with. Those who know my games know that I like to post the sequel pages well in advance of finishing the others, as a promise of finishing. All of the eden legacies were released within one year, so I'd like to think that my dedication and progress speak for themselves. Fragile Hearts took me months of planning and grabbing resources before I was able to begin actually working on it, and I'm only at that stage for the second game (so no worries, this isn't taking away time from FH1).

I'll be slowly editing more character portraits over the next little while and I'll be posting them in the new game page. Don't worry about story spoilers in the new page, as you basically get to choose how the story begins by using your old save states from FH1.

As a day-before preview, for any who are interested: it is not called Fragile Hearts 2, it is called Fragile Hearts SD (Fragile Hearts: Shattered Dreams). For a long time I was calling it Fragile Hearts, Tearful Eyes... but this just seemed to make more sense (the ironic names aren't as funny as I want them to be anyway). The game will use new zelda chipsets mixed with a few similar ones (for a bright anime and 3dish feel), and I'll use "Tales of" sprites for characters and NPCs (because they just seem to fit to me, and the matching portraits rock). Overall, I think it'll be a much more fitting graphical atmosphere for the series, and I'll apply all the knowledge I've acquired from FH1 in making it.

Anyways, I'll be back soon with more FH updates and Eden Legacy 4 news!

Miscellaneous

Ep4 done, finishing my playthrough

I've worked tirelessly on this over the past couple weeks, and it has really paid off. I decided not to make the final area for this episode that I had planned, as the episode is about as long as the others as it is and episode 5 will be needing the area a bit more (it's really pretty small anyway). Episode 4 is more of a serious episode than the previous ones, so I did my best to add as much humor as possible, but it is definitely a bit of a step back. Still, the story needs to maintain coherence, and so I've given that the top priority this time.

Pertaining to my personal playthrough of it, I've made it through the first 3 episodes. It's definitely not the same experience I had with the tech demo, so I'm happy with the changes that have been made. It's simple rm2k3 fare, but it works, unlike my previous attempt. I'd play through episode 4 right now but I'm just way too tired to focus on it anymore (I put in 3 hours worth of editing this morning and I feel like I'm done with it for the day).

As soon as I finish, I'll send it off to Amerk and he'll give me his standard outline of bugs and suggestions. While he's working on that, I need to finally sit down and re-edit the character portraits (I've put it off much too long) and make a quick fix to the intro vid. I'll probably tweak some more dialogue as well.

Other news
I'll be entering the summer games contest here on rmn this month. I'm pretty excited as it is the first time I'll be participating in one of these. It won't affect progress of FH, as the demo will be ready in the next few days and posted. I have my rm work cut out for me this month as I plan to do the contest, re-release EL1.T.E. and finally release EL2.T.E., all the while finding time to work on EL4. Needless to say, this game isn't gonna be getting much love this month anyway.