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Progress Report
THE GAME COMES OUT IN ONE WEEK
zDS
RMN IS BACK BABY!!!
While the site was in a deep slumber, I worked my freaking ass off on this game. The scope should have been impossible. The game is practically unmarketable. Kissed By A Star is a passion project to the extreme. I was utterly foolish to do this. But I did. And here we are.
The game is vastly more ambitious than my previous works. If you liked Cope Island, Three Ghostly Roses, A Ghostly Rose, Mownt: For Peace, or even Amort: Please give it a try!
Out on February 2, Wishlist Now!
Enjoy a bunch of gifs.
While the site was in a deep slumber, I worked my freaking ass off on this game. The scope should have been impossible. The game is practically unmarketable. Kissed By A Star is a passion project to the extreme. I was utterly foolish to do this. But I did. And here we are.
The game is vastly more ambitious than my previous works. If you liked Cope Island, Three Ghostly Roses, A Ghostly Rose, Mownt: For Peace, or even Amort: Please give it a try!
Out on February 2, Wishlist Now!
Enjoy a bunch of gifs.
Progress Report
4/23/23 MAPPING
The roaring crowd (of 2) have demanded I explain how I map for this game. I do it differently from my prior games.
I have a few things I use to work together to bring about this smooth way of mapping. TileD. GALV Layer Plugin (RPG Maker MV). Yanfly Region Restrictions.
You might ask me: why TileD and not the RPG Maker map maker?
Freedom. So much freedom.
Here's how I made a simple map today:
This is in TileD. A simple forest path. As you can tell, I used a LOT of layers here. I find it much easier just using a bunch of layers and using a SINGLE tree sprite than performing brain surgery on a sprite sheet to get the same result. It becomes super easy to make subtle variations to the repeating trees as well. (the trunk bottoms are current erased for a reason I’ll explain in a second)
With TileD you can use as many spritesheets as you want, with any size you want. It's just easy to make a base this way.
I export that as an image then use my preferred paint . net to add details.
You can do anything. Add details to the ground. Change colors around. I prefer to keep it simple for this game and add simple touches. I just paste the flowers and taller grass in a different layer. This allows for more freedom than doing it 24x24 at a time or whatever your sprite size is.
So when you are done with the map, flatten it and save it into your Parallax folder. ALWAYS make sure you add the ! at the start so it stays still.
To make this work, you also need to make use of GALV's Layer plugin, or something similar. So in TileD, I simply hide the ground layer and only use the trees. I also erase the bottom of the trunks. I save this in a Layer folder as GALV instructs for the plugin.
So what does this do? I'LL GET THERE, HOLD ON.
You add it in the engine by doing this in the Notetag. (The Plugin explains quite well how to do this)
So now we have the trees in a Layer above the player at all times. There's one last step to make this work. How do we work in the o tiles and x tiles? Yanfly region restrict!
The 7's block the player. Everything else is passable. You can CLEARLY see where your player can move. (I did this quite fast, there might be some whackiness in the 7's until I properly play test it)
The end result is this:
You can do a LOT with this method. If you need a scrolling sky in background, just make all of the ground in a layer. You can change all Layers in game so you can create some fun effects, even animated stuff. For water, I still use the RPG Maker engine to use animated tiles, but that's it so far. You can still technically do it with this quite easily.
Once you get used to all the different steps, it can drastically reduce the time it takes to make a map. There are several maps where I don't even touch TileD and make it all in paint . net.
Thanks for reading! I hope this helps anyone who might want to do something like this.
I have a few things I use to work together to bring about this smooth way of mapping. TileD. GALV Layer Plugin (RPG Maker MV). Yanfly Region Restrictions.
You might ask me: why TileD and not the RPG Maker map maker?
Freedom. So much freedom.
Here's how I made a simple map today:
This is in TileD. A simple forest path. As you can tell, I used a LOT of layers here. I find it much easier just using a bunch of layers and using a SINGLE tree sprite than performing brain surgery on a sprite sheet to get the same result. It becomes super easy to make subtle variations to the repeating trees as well. (the trunk bottoms are current erased for a reason I’ll explain in a second)
With TileD you can use as many spritesheets as you want, with any size you want. It's just easy to make a base this way.
I export that as an image then use my preferred paint . net to add details.
You can do anything. Add details to the ground. Change colors around. I prefer to keep it simple for this game and add simple touches. I just paste the flowers and taller grass in a different layer. This allows for more freedom than doing it 24x24 at a time or whatever your sprite size is.
So when you are done with the map, flatten it and save it into your Parallax folder. ALWAYS make sure you add the ! at the start so it stays still.
To make this work, you also need to make use of GALV's Layer plugin, or something similar. So in TileD, I simply hide the ground layer and only use the trees. I also erase the bottom of the trunks. I save this in a Layer folder as GALV instructs for the plugin.
So what does this do? I'LL GET THERE, HOLD ON.
You add it in the engine by doing this in the Notetag. (The Plugin explains quite well how to do this)
So now we have the trees in a Layer above the player at all times. There's one last step to make this work. How do we work in the o tiles and x tiles? Yanfly region restrict!
The 7's block the player. Everything else is passable. You can CLEARLY see where your player can move. (I did this quite fast, there might be some whackiness in the 7's until I properly play test it)
The end result is this:
You can do a LOT with this method. If you need a scrolling sky in background, just make all of the ground in a layer. You can change all Layers in game so you can create some fun effects, even animated stuff. For water, I still use the RPG Maker engine to use animated tiles, but that's it so far. You can still technically do it with this quite easily.
Once you get used to all the different steps, it can drastically reduce the time it takes to make a map. There are several maps where I don't even touch TileD and make it all in paint . net.
Thanks for reading! I hope this helps anyone who might want to do something like this.
Progress Report
4/16/24 Update
those damn trash birds, song by me, painting by my lovely wife Mrs. zDS
I’ve been pushing a LARGE boulder up a hill. A little bit at a time. Every single day. I am growing stronger and stronger. The heavy boulder is feeling lighter. But now I can’t see the bottom or the top. I’m loving this.
I’m in the last arc of Part 1 of my game. Which is a massive milestone. For months now I’ve been seriously considering RELEASING Part 1 as a whole once it is done. I’ve had dueling ideas in my head of how to go about releasing this game since I began building the concept.
My initial idea was to release the game a chapter at a time, like an ongoing comic/manga. I would have loved to do that, but I’m not there yet in my game development journey. It wouldn’t work. So I considered the game in parts, so it would feel less overwhelming for me. I thought about releasing Part 1, then after I would have just added to it once I made it.
Something that felt impossible for so long is becoming possible: I see the top of this first large hill.
As I creep closer to this first major milestone, it is becoming clearer and clearer to me.
I need to release the game FINISHED. Ongoing game was a good idea, but not for where I am in the grand scheme of my game development journey. So I have to release it when it’s completely done.
I felt overwhelmed by this for a while now. Almost trapped even. But I kept on pushing and pushing. I got into a groove where I am going quite steadily. Part 1 is ending semi soon and I don’t feel overwhelmed anymore. I feel stronger and ready to keep on going. I will finish it. At a good pace even.
I won’t be done for at least another year. Maybe a year and a half. Assuming I go at the pace I’ve been going. Which has been very fast. I’ve been a machine this year.
I am going to try and add social media presence to my weekly agendas. I am making new content nonstop. A lot of it is spoilers, but I can make more effort to show other stuff.
It’s been real, see you next time! I’ll go back to this dark and dangerous forest, where there is howling and worse things lurking.
Random Stats So Far: About 7 hours of playtest. 56 minutes of OST. 124 character portraits and variations. 133 maps.
Game Design
Game Design
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