Breach: Awakening

Fixed by this update:

-The conversation loop with the first Spirit
-The Faery's "Wind" skill should work now
-Changed encounter rate of "helpful" monster set
-Corrected a couple of door graphic glitches

Update

To use this update, just copy the files into the game's folder and you should be up and running!

All enemy types for the demo are working in game, as are the optional encounter and the end-demo boss.

Now I just need to finish up my Demon Database (keeps track of enemies you've scanned), flesh out the demo location a little more, and complete my intro sequence and I will be ready for a NaGaDeMo release.

Of course, as I'm currently under a tropical storm warning and have already lost power a couple of times since yesterday morning, whether or not I get in before the deadline is a little iffy.

If my lights stay on this evening, I'll keep working.

The short version goes like this: Had an injury, got medicine to treat it and try to keep me comfortable. The medicine made be feel really foggy, and I wasn't happy with any of the "progress" that I made during that time so I have things to re-do before I can actually move forward again. I stopped taking the painkillers and shifted to aspirin, which unfortunately aggravated an existing stomach condition which has put me in really bad shape.

My main objective is to try and NOT have to go into the hospital again, so I'm not able to focus on my main projects the way I would like right now, and I apologize for missing the demo-release dates/milestones I announced.

Instead of throwing up blogs to promise that I will have x amount of work done on y day, the next time I make an update for one of my existing projects, it will be with a new download for it.

Thanks!

...I figured I might as well fess up to the inspiration for the game.

Originally, the ally recruiting/creation worked a lot differently. I thought up the systems with the intent of having it be a cyberpunk theme. You would decompile hostile programs in the 'net and make your own attack ware and barriers. Eventually, those ideas splintered off into a different game and I decided to try something else with this.

I figured I would change the enemies into demons. The player either summons or captures them, and could train them as well as extract their energies to give new skills to other units or just build new forms.

My backstory was that a huge corporation (I kept some of the cyberpunk theme) tried to create a teleportation network and instead opened a dimensional portal that allowed demons to flood into the real world. The main character was originally designed as a bounty hunter that took contracts from the company, capturing demoniac essence in prismatic orbs (materia rip-off... I know) that allowed them to summon their skills during battle against other demons.

I was talking with a friend about my ideas for the game and she said that except for the bounty hunter and orb things, I'd pretty much come up with a lot of stuff from the Shin Megami Tensei universe.

Aside from reading a magazine article on it back when Nocturne came out, I was shamefully unaware of the SMT games.

Between then and now I've played Innocent Sin, the SMT translation for the SNES, and started Nocturne and P3:FES. Unfortunately, my PS2 died out on me so I haven't been able to finish that last two. I even dabbled with SMT:Imagine for a while, but I lost interest around lv 30 or so because the people I usually grouped with moved on to different games.

Why not do a straight fangame then? Quite simply, I don't know enough about the SMT universe to do that. I don't want to research chronology and nest the game into an established universe since pretty much the only benefit to my project would be people raging at me for all the things I got wrong.

So instead, now that I am aware of the SMT games, I cite them as an influence/inspiration. This is my take on that type of game.

For anyone who has played an SMT game, there should be plenty of familiar things around. There is demon capturing and summoning. Demons can absorb weakened enemies to gain energy that allows them to learn the consumed enemy's skills in time. Elemental weaknesses are a big part of winning battles.

As you might have noticed, I'm using 95% stock sounds and animations. I usually get bogged down in art generation for my projects, so the goal here is to use as much out of the box as possible, albeit with a little twist. I am planning on changing up the arrow graphics though, since a cute little bouncing hand doesn't really fit with the general feeling I'm going for.

During the video, when the "Critical Break" animation pops up, this indicates that the enemy's resistances have been broken. Enemies have both Weaknesses and Critical Weaknesses. A Weakness usually means they take more damage from a weapon or skill type. A Critical Break occurs when an enemy is hit with the specific combination attack they are vulnerable to, Snap-Freeze, in this case. When Broken, an enemy cannot act, and suffers reduced defenses.

Of course, enemies can also do this to your main character and party members, so it is important to put a team together that compliments each other and is not all vulnerable to the same things, otherwise one "target all" spell from an enemy and the team is stun-locked and unable to fight back as they get decimated.

Contrary to how it appears, I am not using the default Random Battle system. Mine runs on dice rolls and a random delay timer via a Common Event. I've tailored it so that if the same encounter is generated twice in a row, it is not a viable choice the next time the event is triggered. Nobody likes fighting the same guy seven times in a row. Also, in the starter area, the enemy encounters will scale so that the party has a chance to build up some before they start facing stronger challenges.

Since the game permits players to save anywhere they want, there was no need for me to include dedicated save rooms/points. Instead, once a properly fortified area has been cleared of hostiles, it can be used as a rest area, allowing the party to heal.

The game is intended to be somewhat difficult. Healing items are rare, mostly coming in the form of item drops. Since I'm using a custom system for my enemy encounters, I can increase the likelihood of the team running into one of these foes when someone's health is critical.

The other option for recovery comes from crushing your opponents. In the video, you'll see that a bonus was awarded to the team for beating the enemy before they were able to take any offensive action. That type of victory can net either XP or a recovery event. The idea is that a party that is getting weak doesn't always have to try and high tail it back to the last area they cleared to rest, if they put their skills together properly, they can fight their way out of trouble and press on. When someone is in critical health, or drained of stamina, the bonus is converted into a restorative one. I am considering allowing the player to choose their bonus with a timed keypress, though, so that if they really wanted to give their dying team an xp boost instead of healing them, they could.

In the case of Bosses, there will be special bonuses based on the number of turns the party is able to defeat them in.

I have a lot of work ahead of me when it comes to balance. I want to reward players who gather up new skills and combine them to take their target down fast, without really beating people who might not have the right/team/build for a given boss into the ground.

Even though escape is not permitted against non-optional bosses, I'm planning to give the player enough warning about what is coming up so that there will be no excuse for them not to throw down a save just in case they are woefully unprepared.

Well, that is it for now. Hopefully I'll be able to get some more work done this weekend.