KiraStar: The Polybius Problem

So, the demo's out, and it's already out of date, and here's the reason why.

After taking a good hard look at both my spriting and the maps for the city, I came to realize that it all looked a little samey, and a little bland. So, I figured since I was still in the early stages of making the game (as well as in game making in general), I'd give the whole city a bit of a make over.

There aren't as many buildings as before, but this is a good thing. Before, it pretty much went brown building, grey building, brown building, grey building (and repeat until done). I thought this looked okay in the early stages, since this is the first time I've made my own tiles from scratch. Here's a rough example:



It's supposed to represent one big apartment building, but it looks a little messy. There are too many doors, for starters, and the different coloured segments, combined with a single roof, just looks a little off. It doesn't look bad, but it doesn't really look good either.

I've been taking a good hard look at buildings as I go to and from work, and most apartments have a single (perhaps maybe two or three) entrances, and you get to each actual apartment from the hall. That's quite obvious, but at the time, it didn't really occur to me.

So, the new buildings will hopefully represent that. As shown below:



I personally think it's quite an improvement. It's still very much a work in progress, but I do believe there's quite a big difference between the two screenshots.

The other thing I'm working hard on are interiors. If you've played the demo, you'll have noticed that when you enter a building (mainly shops), you can't walk around of your own accord. A script plays out, and the character just does whatever I tell it to. I liked this idea, as I love River City Ransom and the original Mystical Ninja games and really like the concept. But this is an RPG, and players should be allowed to freely explore an environment and reap any rewards and secrets that they find, whether it's just some random bloke to talk to or a delicious cookie, or maybe something even cooler.

I'm leaning towards the idea of having the city be much larger than it originally was. Well, I say larger. What I mean to say is rather than having the various districts, where you move to the edge of the screen and it warps you to a new area, but have it as one big map. It doesn't take any longer to explore, and it keeps the game flowing nicely. Obviously there will still be districts, such as the shopping area and the residential areas, but it's now more seamless.

Oh, the Town Hall looks nicer too! I took on board what people had to say about it and made it bigger, and hopefully nicer to look at too.

The old:



The new:



Anyways, I think I've rambled on enough about what I've been tinkering with, but just wanted to delve a little more into the process of how I'm (hopefully) improving the game, one little step at a time.

As usual, any thoughts are greatly appreciated, and I thank you all for your continued support. :)