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Progress Report

Persistence

Well it's Tuesday, so time for another progress report.

This week's progress report is even less exciting than last week's.

I added Grayscale Armor (made from chitin (from Greatleaf Beetles), leather, and trollskin) which is a light armor that's about as protective as somewhere between iron chain and steel chain, and has Magic resistant properties (note that means the specific 'Magic' damage type, not all magical damage). I added the ability to make it from the requisite components, leveled up till I could hunt those components, found them, made it, fixed a bug where I couldn't equip it.

Since then I've been testing the Northstar mine. 1F is manageable with partial Grayscale, partial Studded Leather, Flare, Cauterize, Recurve Bow and a liberal helping of potions, elixirs, and poisons. B1 is still very, very tough on the lightly armored archer. Particularly the gremlin enemies (flighty, agile mages that go down in one hit, but are hard to hit and have many powerful spells) but I think they'd be tough on any build. I did some bugfixes on B1, since I set up some of the switches wrong for the monsters and ore veins. Makes sense that I screwed up; last time I worked on this game was last year, IIRC.

After Northstar B1, it's B2 and the Greater Demon there. Then it's Ilandria City. Then Gloaming Grotto. Then Addison Plantation. That's all the content I'm planning on including in the Normalgame. The final two dungeons/mines, Wintermute Cavern and Ancient Nadir, and the final "friendly" location (Frostpointe Tower, a wizard tower that is your starting location as Epic Gordon) will be reserved for the Epic Game. The next public release of the game will probably coincide with the completion of the Normalgame content, including various new quests and the endgame gameplay, which I didn't mention in the foregoing list.

Even though all the mapping is thankfully done for me (before the project even began), populating all of the content seems like a long, insurmountable road before me. Just got to try to do it one step at a time, even though I will still almost undeniably fail. Always I think a project I've conceived is manageable, reasonable, self-contained, "aiming low". Always it turns out to be a dauntingly, unrealistically epic endeavor.

I think what I really enjoy is starting games, not necessarily finishing them. It's a shame, completing a game is a great sense of accomplishment, but the process of getting there is hard work, plain and simple.

Making fun games really ought to be fun, since it's a non-paying hobby, an avocation, but all too often it's unrelenting drudgery.

I've also hit a snag with regards to controlling the regrowth of some harvestable plants due to poor planning early on. I've asked for help here and it looks like...received it.

Progress Report

It's Hot

Or at least, it was hot today. 95 goddamn degrees or something.

I have a very limited amount of time to dedicate to RM. Basically just Tuesdays, honestly, although I'm trying to be religious about those.

Here's today's updates.

* Making this game seems to be 90% testing this game.
* I added enemies, minerals, carts, and teleport events to B1, the second floor of Northstar mine.
* Most of my time spent testing and tweaking battle difficulty (this time a straight light armor/archer build). I'm strongly suspecting the game is in fact much too hard, although not necessarily for the reasons some people said. Anyway, I'm decreasing difficulty little by little, point by point. To be honest, it's an immensely frustrating process. At least the storage container seems to be working right for the most part. As of five or so hours of testing (accumulating less than three hours playtime do to dying and restarting numerous times) I'm still not at the point where I feel confident going down to B1 of Northstar, though. 1F of Northstar is still really scary.
* Removed the possibility of a Brown Bear encounter in the wilderness surrounding Lennisgrove. They're just too deadly.
* Lowered Brown Bear Defense stat by 2 so they're manageable when encountered in Bloodgully Mine, if you have decent arms and armor.
* Nerfed the beach area enemies in various small ways. They're probably still too tough, and they and the forest enemies definitely need more work, but at least they're not ridiculously stupid broken anymore.
* Increase Gordon's starting Health and Defense slightly to increase early game survivability. I STILL don't recommend going outside naked or mostly naked. Armor is still really essential.
* I've determined that LIGHT ARMOR needs a boost, somewhere to go from Studded Leather when Iron Chain goes to Steel Chain and Iron Plate goes to Steel Plate. Rather than just go with something like "Steel Studded Leather" I think I'm gonna go with something a bit more unique and magical feeling.
* Crafted the recurve bow for the first time. It works great. But the archer build (studded leather armor, recurve bow, iron ammos) is a major glass cannon without magical support.
* Considering which resources should be renewable/non-renewable. I'm still fine with limited wood, I like the challenge/resource management access of having non-renewable wood but running out of Evening Primrose/Synkefoil/Yarrow can really screw alchemists. Unless I'm forgetting something, without Yarrow there's no way to make healing potions and without healing potions...yeah. Oh, right, King Bolete. Time to go spelunking down in Bloodgully again.
* Unsuccessfully (tested?) alchemy with some of the saltwater fish and other new components. Either I forgot to add those recipes, or they're not working, or I forogt what they were. Gotta check.

Next week, if I'm feeling up to it, I want to add some actual new content. One idea I had was a teleport spell, for returning to town easily from dungeons. I should probably start working on the "High Arcana" type spells in general, the ones with non-combat effects.

I know these updates are kind of boring, since there's no ZOMG NEW GFX or ZOMG NEW SYSTEMS. But some people want to know that this is being worked on, and journaling my process helps somewhat alleviate the intense boredom and drudgery that comes with trying to slowly and steadily build a full game to completion as a one-man studio. The temptation to start new projects or switch to other projects is constant, and my limited self control is tested every day. But for now Journeyman is still actively progressing, bit by bit.

Progress Report

Advancement

Progress report for this week!

* Much and more ongoing testing. Finally beat the demon Ye'zhorl'andexus myself, among other things (Steel helps, as do spells and venom). Right now testing out an archer/mage build as medium/heavy armor warriors are pretty much tried and true. The spell 'Sandstorm' is awesome once you get it, and makes otherwise scary encounters with multiple enemies much more manageable.
* Added Bronze tier of items. Bronze Scimitar, Bronze Handaxe, Bronze Falchion, Bronze Trident, Jeweled Bronze Statuette, Bronze Bell, Bronze Belt, Bronze Medallion, Bronze Circlet, Bronze/Aquamarine Amulet and Bronze/Red Spinel Diadem. As a "firm" metal, bronze can be used to make some jewelry and goods, and some weapons. But not as many weapons as hard metals like iron or steel, and not as many luxury items as soft metals like copper, silver, and gold. It also can't be used to make armor and shields like hard metals can. Weapons made from firm metals differ from the standard weapon sets for hard metals. Also, firm metals can be enchanted, but enchantment hasn't been implemented yet. Bronze is made from Cassiterite and Malachite.
* Fixed a bug where the Normalgame still ended on Day 8. Whoops!
* Implemented Steel arrows, the first arrows that don't use wood to make. They're all steel construction, and made at the Fletcher's workshop. They're the most powerful arrows in the game so far.
* Considering changing the availability of Spiderwebs or the crafting cost of things that use them. Right now spidersilk thread and silk are really hard to get, making the silk sets hard to make.
* Added a storage chest script. While Journeyman doesn't have item weight/encumbrance or limited inventory systems, the sheer number of items, even with the item category script, makes it desirable to have a way to set aside some items for picking up later...like if you want to do an extended alchemy session, now you can put down everything but your alchemy components. The storage chest is located in your house.

Progress Report

Resumption

"Codename: This is not the greatest game in the world, no, this is just a tribute/Feature creep is our business model" is resuming production as of today. Considering the wide, broad, and deep field of other creative interests I have (running my larp, running my tabletop campaigns, writing for Shadowrun, making my own tabletop games...and sometimes I even think about actually writing serious fiction again) we'll see how long that lasts.

In the meantime, those of you who were testing this, I will have need of you again soonish, so here's hoping you're still around. *fingers crossed*

Journeyman is a vast project with a ridiculous array of in-game items. Reacquainting myself with it all is daunting as a motherfucker but I'm trying to dive right in.

As is so often the case, I run almost immediately into a frustrating bug that I can't seem to figure out the cause of. The number and complexity of the now-unfamiliar moving pieces within the game's scripts and events makes debugging seem an impossible chore. I think that's part of the reason I tend to start new projects rather than return to old ones. That and testing is exhausting, and can quickly make you hate your own game. (For the curious, something (I know not what) that I've evented is causing YERD_EventChase not to work. My chances of getting support are low because YERD is three or four generations obsolete. It works fine at my save game with 6:00 minutes, but doesn't work at all at my save game with 90:00 minutes. I have no idea what bit of event code in those 84 minutes made it not work.)

AHAHAHAHAHAHA! I figured it out. Exhilarating, solving a mystery. (The Yanfly "Stop All Movement" switch is set to 82. Which in my game is the toggle for one of the countless pickable weeds.) Well, that's one hurdle overcome.

Like a year later and still no clue what's causing the game over crash, or how to fix it. : ( Stupid undisposed windows. *grumble*

Today's Accomplishments:
* Ongoing tweaking of the battle difficulty. Mainly that means reducing enemy Attack strength a point at a time so the game's combat eventually feels less "masocore" as I think Kumada described it.
* Testing of the first level of Northstar Mine and the enemies there.
* Implemented the 'Steel' tier of weapons, armor, and shields.
* Implemented 'Steel' availability in shops, steel smelting (from Limestone and Iron Ore) and steel forging.
* Retesting Northstar Mine 1F enemies with Steel gear and some spells...MUCH easier. So the feeling of progression/power gain is there upon leveling up self/gear, but the game can be kind of a stonewall when you are underleveled/underequipped. Now to tweak things so that once you have full Steel Chain it's not TOO easy while not making it impossible with lesser armor. Hmm...

Miscellaneous

Discouragement

Well, to be perfectly honest, I'm feeling pretty discouraged about this project. I know that's a bit of a personal disclosure, and that this is a gamedev blog and not a live journal but...I'm not sure what's more essential to amateur game dev than motivation.

I didn't think this project was explosively super-perfect or beyond reproach or anything, but I did release it with the total certainty (in my mind) that I had created something that A) was very polished and B) most importantly fun to play. Actually, I thought it was not just fun to play but addictive. I usually don't release something until I think it's just about done. Maybe if I released things I thought were sort of rough, half-finished crap then people's "feedback" would be easier to take (though I kind of doubt it) but as it is I don't release things until I think they're "pretty much good and done".

So many people seem to feel otherwise, though, about this one (I still haven't read the any of the comments from the nasty review, and I don't plan to; stress triggered medical condition and all; I don't seem to notice anywhere near as many people agreeing with Kumada's review) that the amount of work I'd have to do to make the game--which I already thought was really fun--fun for more people seems depressingly insurmountable. I was looking forward to working on the rest of the game's content and to promoting the game on other sites, but now that "make other people think the game is fun somehow" is added to that list, it just seems like a Sisyphean task, rather than merely a Herculean one.

This isn't canceled or anything, I hope to keep plugging away at it. But it just seems like an obligation now, whereas before it was joyous. Whenever I think about working on this I just feel kind of sad.

Maybe we could discuss. How do you guys keep working on games when the joy goes out of it? (I think for a lot of people, myself included in the past, the answer is far too often "I don't".)

Announcement

All I Want For Christmas Is A Misao (New Download Up & Stuff)

I'll go ahead and add a "jk" to the topic title before anyone jumps down my throat about it. I'd love to make a general progress update, since I'm making a solid amount of slow-and-steady general progress, but this is not that update.



A new demo download Version 1.01, patched and bugfixed and whatnot, is up. It's available for download here. Here are the release notes, although they also appear on the downloads page and included in the game itself:

From #Demo 1 (v1.0)#

*Credits sped up.
*Added Quick-Start option.
*Pressing Escape on Trade Skills menu now returns you to the main menu.
*Harvests now display exact quantity when quantity >1.
*Evasion algorithm should be fixed.
*When Monster Repellent is on, "fleeing" on-touch encounters are only activated by pressing the action button.
*Edited minigame spriteset to use the correct font and different colors and to say "Press Enter" instead of "Press Z".
*Encryption removed. Please enjoy all resources, scripts, eventing tricks, etcetera. This should also simplify the installation process.
*Unintended Day 1 win condition removed.
*RPG Maker VX RTP Included.

To #Demo 1 (v1.01)#

Please let me know if any of these fixes/tweaks broke anything anew, especially if they broke something more important.

As you can see, the character art is slowly getting finished. The normalgame and epic game portraits of Gordon are now in the "flats" phase and will soon be fullly colored like the shortgame art is. I know personally speaking I am really happy to have some original art, especially of this quality, in the game and the way I look at it, the more original art gets added to the game between now and the final release, the better.

Merry almost Christmas, everyone!

Announcement

GET CRAFTING!

The Journeyman Demo is LIVE. Please read the (rather extensive) release notes or the readme included in the download. THE IMPORTANT PART IS TO PUT THE FOLDER CALLED GRAPHICS INTO THE FOLDER THAT IS CALLED JOURNEYMAN DEMO.

You might notice that my awesome art has arrived courtesy of the amazing AprilsChild. Treat these inks as "concept art"--full color art is coming soon.

This release contains around 30% of the final game. This means that it has 3/10 locations, one out of three game types (the smallest of the three) and 30% of the components, items, weapons, armor that the final game will have. It does, however, contain closer to 80% of the FEATURES & SYSTEMS the final game will have, and in that regard acts as a kind of "tech demo". Of course, those FEATURES & SYSTEMS will probably change a lot between now and final release.

The release is at a slightly awkward place regarding my bug-fixing crusade. There are still some known glitches in there that I really want to resolve between now and the final release...which will be a long journey, so I'll have plenty of time.

I plan on releasing between 0 and 1 additional demos of this game before the final build, which makes for 1-2 more major releases of this project TOTAL. Both of them will hopefully be even more polished than this one, which I've been fussing over a lot lately. I don't want to fall into the "storm of demos" mindset where every time I manage to add another hour of gameplay I upload another demo. While I'm sure there will be numerous (attempted) bug-fixing patches for every major release, I'm trying to keep the number of content releases small.

The short version is: from here on out I want to be laser-focused on completing the project.

Lastly, I'm sure it goes without saying, but I put a lot of work into this one. It would be great to get a lot of downloads and a lot of (non-malicious) feedback. I certainly want to improve the project, I just hope that none of the feedback I get is so negative it prevents more downloads. I really, really want people to SEE this one. I'm rather quite proud of it.

-MM(DTO) Out

Announcement

Release Imminent...is an unintentionally dirty-sounding phrase.

Get your mind out of the gutter.

Just sos you know, I plan on making the first public release of this game later tonight. It may be in the wee hours of the morning (US EST Timezone). But I believe that it will happen. When it does, there will be another blog post drawing your attention to some hints and tips, to a few known bugs--I haven't been able to hammer them out, but they shouldn't interfere too much with your enjoyment--and to some general info on the release.

So, GENTLEMEN ARE YOU READY TO ...craft....stuff i guess?

Announcement

Title/Logo Reveal

Hi, so events beyond my control caused me to jump the gun with the title/logo reveal which I'd initially planned to coincide with the initial demo release; instead it will precede it by a few days. (The awesome logo is by aprilschild...who is awesome.)

This game is actually called Journeyman. It is being tested AS WE SPEAK.

This is not the greatest game in the world. This is just a tribute.

Announcement

DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME (right now)

An extremely rough Alpha Build that was meant to be inaccessible to non-testers has been downloaded by some users due to a bug in RMN's shitty shitty shitty stupid code. Fuck WIP, I spit on his name. Unless it's kentona's fault, in which case I immediately forgive him. Anyway...

If you were accidentally able to download the alpha:

PLEASE IF YOU ARE NOT A TESTER DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME YET. THIS IS NOT A PUBLIC RELEASE.

And if you insist on playing the LEAKED PRIVATE ALPHA you really should not be judging the game based on that.
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