Between having to plan a move during a pandemic, and having to finish my doctoral thesis until October, I highly doubt I'll be putting my game out before the deadline. With that being said, I promise I'm still working on it from time to time, so it will eventually get done.

My question is: is it gonna be a less valuable piece, so to speak, if it doesn't make the deadline?

Gregtor, I'm partly asking myself that same question. Don't be afraid to get cruel on the cutting room floor. We've got almost another month to construct game -- take that time to focus on what matters the most.

Aegix, I'm elated I got you to concoct an idea! I had no idea the enemy also had a countdown-to-disaster in the form of their own Limit Meter. Having an ultimate move for the Doggo that cuts down their own gauge seems legit. *_*

author=AtiyaTheSeeker
Soooo... here's my ideas for the missing moves? I do like giving Fighters a counterattack move, but it's a bit OP in VX Ace/MV as it's basically a Physical Attack reflector, IIRC.

Yeah, I learned how insanely OP that was waaay back when I made Illusions of Loyalty. XD

-and a support-but-harmful move for Doge.

I thought along these lines and this led to a breakthrough.

I've decided to use the Party Limit Gauge on the enemy's side as the warning for when a super powerful attack is about to happen, instead of "At turn X the boss starts charging up. Next turn he does a thing".

So, with that in mind, the dog's final Advanced skill will reduce the enemy's Party Limit Gauge by a bit (and do some damage). Thanks for the brainwave!

-those moves are as intricate as I'd expect from Mayhem Maiden.

SHHH!!! :o Anytime that game is mentioned, you will summon people who start asking me how it's coming along!

I swear I intend to finish it, it's just that the next dungeon I'm making is a tremendous pain in the ass to make. I really REALLY shouldn't have committed to having each one have a unique puzzle gimmick, it gums up the whole works! XD

Soooo... here's my ideas for the missing moves? I do like giving Fighters a counterattack move, but it's a bit OP in VX Ace/MV as it's basically a Physical Attack reflector, IIRC. If Doggo is a buff-support, I'd been tempted to suggest a debuff, perhaps by tripping?

My main thoughts are to give a move that are similar to the Fighter and Doggo's niches, but are also different. In this case, a defensive-but-still-offense move for the former, and a support-but-harmful move for Doge.

I do like the party-based limit breaks, and those moves are as intricate as I'd expect from Mayhem Maiden. I also dig that lesser moves boost TP. The moves with setup are also lovely -- the Huntress' ones to punish buffs/debuffs, and the Doggo's moves to grant a boost if the dog is already buffed.

Edit, to prevent double-posting...

author=Gretgor
I need some help figuring out how to communicate that a certain optional secret is in fact an optional secret. I really don't want to outright say "this is an optional item, but props to you for finding it!" but I don't know what else I can do.

The items in question are keys to the characters' houses, intended only as a way to get the player to know more about the characters' backgrounds and lives. None of the houses contain any key items or anything necessary to beat the game, so some people may end up being misled as they enter a character's house in search of key items only to find out that it does not contain any.

What I'm doing right now is showing a message like "Ha, I can now enter X's house! I don't really need to do that to finish my job here but, you know, I might do it out of curiosity!"

You seem on the right track, alluding to this optional item with text. Maybe NPCs can hint at a potential way in, but note that they have no idea? Then later, another vague hint can be dropped on finding it, but can be shown it's optional?

author=AtiyaTheSeeker
Aegix, what's the existing skill sets? I'd say to either fill a missing gap, or even a weaker version of an existing move. Things like, say, a Monk getting a self-healing move instead of a heal-anyone move that a Cleric might have?

Ok, so, this uses my old combat system, with 6 skills per person, you use the 2 weaker ones (or a normal attack) to generate TP, which is needed for the stronger skills.

Basically:
Attack or - Basic Skill +20 TP
+ Intermediate skill costs 40 TP
* Advanced Skill costs 60TP

Fighter:
- ???
- Heal and Status Heal
+ Damage over time
+ If this one kills an enemy, next hit is a Crit
* Damage and Debuff Defense
* Some kind of Finisher move or risky move (lower health = more damage?)

Huntress
- Ally +50 Evasion for one turn
- Damage and lower Agility (important since this is ATB)
+ Silence Mouth-based skills
+ Bypasses Taunt and Hits an enemy with Taunt (so you can open them up to your allies)
* More damage for any stat buffs the enemy has, and removes them.
* More damage for any Debuff your enemy has, gain agility for one turn if they have a debuff.

Gunner
- Damage, penetrates any Barrier then enemy has, and remove a lot of extra barrier on top of that.
- Remove evasion for 3 actions, lower defense for one hit.
+ Damage and Debuff Attack
+ Enemy Accuracy debuffed by 75% for one action.
* Charge up for a bit, then hit all enemies
* Charge up for a bit, then do unblockable damage that ignores defense.

Doggo
- Gain Taunt for 3 turns, Buff Self Attack and Defence for a turn.
- Provides Barrier for 2 turns, target ally also heals 20% HP for 5 Turns. (Basically a delayed heal)
+ All allies gain DEF. Use while Doggo has the buff, and everyone gains some Barrier.
+ All allies gain ATK. Use while Doggo has the buff, and everyone gains some ATB bar
* ????
* Heavy Damage, empty enemy's ATB bar and lower their agility heavily for one turn.

And finally, I have a stack of "Party limit breaks" that don't use up your turn to cast, but are limited by a second bar that the whole party shares.
- Boost an Ally's ATB bar by 50%
- Revive an ally
+ Big Defense boost for one incoming hit
+ Immunity to status effects for a short while.
* Remove any "charging up" effects on an enemy, and empties their ATB bar
* The caster gains their next turn almost instantly
! Whole party gains huge attack power for their next move
! Whole party is nearly invincible for a short while.

I've basically covered all my bases already. XD

Combat system mostly done, half of it's actually implemented...

But now I'm blocked on the fact I'm missing 3-4 skills for my characters.

My fighter needs one weak one and maybe one advanced one (since the Huntress already has a "Gains power if enemy is debuffed" skill).

Gunslinger/alchemist needs a basic one.

Support Doggo needs an advanced one.

And I really feel like most of the niches I need are already taken by other skills.

Since fun/tough bosses are once again going to be the centerpoint of my game, I feel like I really need to get that aspect down pat before I can really do more than little nuggets of story scenes.

author=karins_soulkeeper
Still trying to figure out how to go to space...

People usually use rockets, or UFOs, or absolutely gigantic trebuchets last I checked.

Gretgor
I just realized I have no idea how to use certain REFMAP town tilesets I've downloaded for this project, and I can't find examples anywhere. Gosh darnit.

I guess I gotta look harder.

Shackled Seas by me and Fomar use those. It's VX Ace but we just enlarged the 2k3 graphics. There's plenty of town maps for you to see.

Gourd_Clae
I've got one dungeon done - going for two! Hopefully the game comes across as fun and lighthearted. that was really my only goal going in!

the concept is basically; 'in a world where people who experience extreme emotion can become monsters - rock star gays go globetrotting to revert the monsters lost in the corners of the world back into people via their sick jams'

there will be the power of rock and roll, the power of gay, and, of course, the power of Friendship! I even got Punky to help me out!

this sounds like a rollicking and even gayer version of zesteria/berseria lol. i'm all for it

I've got one dungeon done - going for two! Hopefully the game comes across as fun and lighthearted. that was really my only goal going in!

the concept is basically; 'in a world where people who experience extreme emotion can become monsters - rock star gays go globetrotting to revert the monsters lost in the corners of the world back into people via their sick jams'

there will be the power of rock and roll, the power of gay, and, of course, the power of Friendship! I even got Punky to help me out!

Holy smokes, 8/29 means that fifty days total is a a lot longer than I realized. I've been having some procrastination issues, but this seems a sigh of relief.

Right now, almost all the assets I wanna use are assembled. Some cutscene maps are done too. Oddly enough, I don't have the protagonist yet. If the game needs to meet twenty minutes, having more time means I could lengthen things more than I thought. I could even include a more full-fledged dungeon, if needed.

Procrastination aside, I'm really glad to be working on a game again. Doing it solo for a bigger project has been kicking my butt. I've also been unenthusiastic about using my MC and her setting. This jam is helping me feel good about using her again, heheh.