Legacy

Legacy is a fairly ambitious project, but not nearly as ambitious as it used to be. In my earlier days of working on it, I began to feel intimidated by the concepts I had come up with. It sounded great when I was planning on, but as I began actually doing stuff in the editor, it suddenly felt really difficult. It got to the point where I didn't think I would ever get close to finishing it.

"Kill your darlings" is a commonly used phrase that basically means sacrificing a piece of your work that you like for the sake of the whole. Eventually, I figured out that I needed to go on a killing spree.

That might be a little exaggerated, but the most significant casualty was Peri's role in the game. Originally, I had a whole day/night cycle planned where Peri would have just as much freedom to explore Gallia at night as Bradley does during the day. Sounds great, right? I thought so but after all the work that went into just making the days that Bradley experiences before Peri arrives in Gallia, I didn't think it was possible. At least not if I ever wanted to finish the game. Peri's in a bit of a weird place now. She's going to have her own little adventures each day but she no longer feels like a second protagonist. I suppose that's the price to pay for making this thing a little more manageable.

I'm at a similar point when it comes to the question of how many people you can have in the party. At this point, Bradley can only have one classmate with him at a time. When you recruit one, the others leave home to go do whatever they planned on doing. By the time I had finished the demo, I had a nice system of switches, variables and common events to manage the daily process of recruiting a classmate and going adventuring.

I had always thought the maximum party size would eventually increase to 3, probably around the second half of the game. But now I can see that it will completely blow up this whole system I've got going. I didn't foresee just how much this game would become built around the idea of having a two-person party. Ironically, the aspect of a three-person party that I think most people were looking forward to (three person combos!) is not an issue at all. The combo script will handle that no problem.

At this point, I've come to a tentative compromise. Three person groups will happen but not in the free-roaming sections. It will be reduced to several specific story-driven moments...and there will be combos to play around with. I think that's better than just avoiding it altogether. So that's the plan for now.

The other work on the game has been going well. The Badlands is almost done and pretty packed with things to do. I've also started on the Salvin Islands. Here's a very early screenshot of the resort area on the shore. You'll be able to take a ferry out to the islands themselves where adventure can be found. Peace bros!