During my hiatus I thought about this game. A lot. I have had plans for a revamp for a while but haven't gotten around to it, and it's currently staying that way-- Blood Rose is on an indefinite hiatus since ReEvolution and SLH are still priorities.

However I can still announce that I am doing several things:

• Complete plot revamp, same basic idea but with more solidarity.

• Graphic and system overhaul-- original graphics, I still have to discuss the battle system but it will have reliance on utilizing each and every character's strengths and weaknesses

• Cast Overhaul-- the biggest thing here. Four brand new characters are being introduced and one is being kicked out of the cast and replaced. This brings Blood Rose's cast total to eight members, however only four of those participate in the final dungeon.

• World Expansion/Overhaul of Game Flow: the original design had the final dungeon area as the only area and the concept didn't work too well, draining most of my inspiration and leaving me unmotivated. The overhaul will have new environments and a different way of telling the story that WAS touched upon in Brethren mode but will be expanded in the new upgrades.

So, tl;dr: still on hiatus, but the game's being overhauled.

I had homework I needed to finish up and I've been helping out the wonderful Nessiah (you can thank her for idea of ukeFionn btw XD...not that I really mind). But I did do some work today. I'm trying to compile skill lists so I can get to setting up battles/skill trees. Normally I'd be a bit more flamboyant about all this, but Blood Rose has this:

-Rapid Cast (takes less time for the next turn) Tag: RC
-Multi-Hit (Hits multiple enemies, can be random, x number of hits, various targets) RMH
-Slow Cast (opposite of Rapid Cast, takes longer to charge) SC
-All (hits both enemies and characters) ALL
-Critical (hits enemy for maximum damage attainable for the user) CRIT
-Exhaustive (drains HP as well as MP for use) EXS
-All MP (uses the MP of all party members)


Right now the only ones I haven't figured out how to configure in Melody are AllMP and Critical (because I don't know how to tag a skill to always deal Critical damage). These effects not only add more strategy to Blood Rose but balance out some skills. For example Emile's Frozen Terror is a decent skill in general, but because Emile isn't the best magic caster and the skill derives from 70% Magic and 30% attack for its damage calculation, even with its status effect properties it's not going to be as effective as Cold Sword (the previous skill in the tier). However it's also Random Multi-Hit, so if you use it against a heat-weak enemy group it'll be effective, but against singular enemies you'll want to use Cold Sword.

My goal with majority of BR's skills was to make them effective at all times. So Skills learnt early in the skillsets (such as Emile's {I will admit to knowing Emile's skillset better than everyone else's.} Betrayal skill(lowers ATK) can be used on majority of enemies and bosses right up to the final battle. Gaining new skills is to deal with new situations and figuring out the best way to approach them.

Anyway, I do have several skill lists done which are

-Magick Attacks (excluding Holy and Corrupt tiers)
-Restorative
-Basic Buffs
-Basic Debuffs
-Elemental Attacks (excluding Holy and Corrupt tiers)

I still need:
-Holy and Corrupt tiers (duh)
-3 more basic skills for each character
-Miscellaneous skills (such as Purify and Confession {remove debuffs/buffs respectively}

Anyway, I need to sleep now. School tomorrow, but then the weekend and hopefully lots of productivity!

Fun Fact: As of right now, no skill in Blood Rose has 'Attack' in the name. Not even the default attacks. *feels proud and kinda hipster*
Attack is too mainstream!

A big thankyou to my 40 subscribers! I don't feel as guilty about these ones as I do about CC's, since I feel those ones are undeserving because of the...crap aspect.

Anyway, portraitsportraitsportraits. I have been very busy with uni and what not, trying to get stuff done. For example, the other day I had to give a presentation...and I didn't remember about it until 2am the morning I had to do it.
Thankfully I'm badass at presentations! (~-3-)~

Anyway still trying to get Sidian done...but the main cast of BR's portraits are done! Though I'm tempted to redraw Rosalin.

I have a few more (i.e- three) characters to go, Rosalin's emotions and human!Fionn's emotionset (his other one is finished). Emile's special emotions are mainly done, but I might end up adding more depending on how things pan out.
Sidian's faceset is still being a pain.
I haven't done much gameplay wise due to lack of time management...I've been getting stuff done but not core stuff. Secret gam is still biting on my heels and inspiration for both it and BR is random and often fleeting. Plus I spent something like six hours on a concept art for secret gam today and it still isn't finished...

This blog is kinda turning ranty so I'll just post some of the portraits and be done with it :)

ukeFionn

human!Fionn

Rosalin

wat


And before anyone comments- ROSALIN IS NOT A DELICATE WOMAN. SHE CAN AND WILL PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE VERY HARD.

She also likes to keep her shirt open because she's unfortunately well-endowed and she heats up really quick otherwise~
PRATICAL (NOT) BOOBAGE GO

To begin with:



I think the previous version was...February 2011? About a year ago I think. I wasn't working actively on BR then- plus, I've had some really major breakthroughs with my pixel art since then.

Look at that fat ass. LOOK AT HIM. Now look at my new version :>

(I know the hair on the first is probably better- I'm thinking of switching).

So, what have I been doing? Well, I encountered a fairly troublesome roadblock in the form of where enemies appeared on the screen. I finally, FINALLY, found out how to change this (the answer lied in Battle Engine Melody! what a surprise ._.) so full steam ahead with enemies! I've also pretty much finished the mapping for Floor 1, and have picked out the boss graphic. I still have the intro scenes to do and make sure everything's working right.

I might have mentioned this before, but I've implemented a New Game+ mode known as 'Brethren Route' or the 'Black Rose Route'. This version of the game is unlocked after one full through playthrough and changes the game slightly. You have the same items from the previous playthrough, but reset levels. Enemies are stronger in Brethren, and the game is played with Emile as the player character instead of Rosalin. Rosalin's route only covers half the story- Brethren adds story points that couldn't be covered in the original route because of spoilers. Brethren assumes you know how Blood Rose ends, so it doesn't hold back with spoilerific content earlier in the game. It also has a new introduction sequence, with how Emile arrived in Valence to begin with.

So, with physical progress, I have 3 out of ??? (I'm not telling you this) of the character busts done (Rosalin's the one missing from the playable cast). I also have three sprites done, but I'm making good progress on Sidian because he's tiny and easy to sprite hahahahaha *flailed*

Now everyone remembers my mentioning of how Sidian can mix items? Right? RIGHT?! It was in something like, the first blog post. SO HE WAS MEANT TO BE MIXING ITEMS FROM THE VERY BEGINNING, OK?!

Well...thinking about it Medics don't really do that do they? And though I am almost loathe to do this, the closest term to what Sidian does would be alchemy. And not just the mixing items. Sidian is in pursuit of an elixir of sorts...just not the immortal kind. Unfortunately I was unable to find a script that allowed mixing during battles, so now it's menu based. There are no shops and no money in Blood Rose, so your source of items is completely reliant on a) being SMART about it and b) Relying on Sidian's abilities. Enemies drop loot and you start out with several healing items, so being crafty is what counts. There are 'resting places' that fully restore HP/MP, so monitoring enemy drops, which combinations work, and what items are easy to make will be one of the keys to survival.

There's one last thing I want to cover in this blogpost and it's the concept of 'Purpose'. Not on a big philosophical spiel but what role it plays within the Blood Rose universe not as a concept but more of an object.
Naturally human beings do not have access to magick. Normal people don't run around casting spells at each other. It takes something people refer to as Purpose. When a person becomes fiercely attached to a goal of some sort, the person may unlock magick from deep within them to help them fulfil that purpose. It all occurs naturally, but people with purpose are generally respected since it actually happens quite rarely. Other beings are capable of magick- faeries are capable of illusions and dream-inducing, and vampires have a special brand of magick of their own that is mostly dark-based. Werewolves are not, but if they gained purpose before being turned, they will retain magick.
Magick does not disappear once a purpose is fulfiled, but it may fade.
Blood Rose's cast as a whole is capable of magick. Most people don't like disclosing their purpose as they're very personal and close to the heart, which is the cast with most of the members.

To finish up, have a Gabby and some music because I like ending a blog post with music.

Currently kinda working my ass off to get this game out of the way so I can focus on other projects. More importantly this blog is to announce:

The game is plot heavy.

And I am no longer animating the battle sprites and switching to front view. This is to reduce my work load (SIGNIFICANTLY) so I have more energy to spend working on maps and getting battles right. This doesn't mean I'm not doing any graphic work at all- I'm just more or less switching over to drawing instead. Which although I am worse at it will take me several hours less time (since I'm only doing on default pose...and I might do emotions).

I've almost finished the HUD, notably. I'll have some screenshots up of that soon. You know what a vampire game needs? Red. Lots and lots of macabre red.
Maybe some purple too.