• Add Review
  • Subscribe
  • Nominate
  • Submit Media
  • RSS

The past and future state of SU

Hi all; I’m going to take a moment to explain the past and future development process of my project, Starless Umbra. Hopefully by the end of this you’ll have a better understanding of what my project was, where I am now, and what it will become when it is completed.

Let’s step back in time to late 2002. I started on a project called Dragon Heart on RM2k when I was 14 years old. You played an adventure-hungry teen “Andrew” who somehow teleported off his home island and had to then search for four crystals to save the world. As you can assume, but it was terrible; I received unanimously negative feedback and was upset at myself when the game was rejected several rpg making websites.


MY EYES--THE GOGGLES DO NOTHING

I kept working on the game and revised the look and feel of it. Even though the game featured the same overused storyline, feedback became fairly positive, as I tried to introduce minigames, puzzles, and other gimmicks into the dungeons to keep players engaged. I ported it to RM2k3 and even evaded the happy RTP battlers in favor of using the character sets. The game was beginning to shape up even though it had a terrible storyline and a notoriously slow introduction.


Crack kills

After that I experienced gamemaking ennui. I didn’t know what I was doing when I started using RM2k and I never planned a storyline to completion. For a few years, I considered canceling the project due to slow progress; however, In 2006 I revised much of the game and renamed the project to Starless Umbra so I could nab a domain and find my project on the internet with ease. (Dragon Heart is already a movie and the former name of the cheesy power metal band Dragonforce.) Thus, I split the game into chapters and released chapter four under the new name, Starless Umbra. It took a while for me to get used to the change but I think it was for the better. (One thing that never changed was my alias. starlessumbraman, or sum, seems weird to me. Then again, dhm really isn’t much better. As a result, I’ve had the same stupid avatar and stupid username for eight years now.)


RM2k3 version of DH--circa 2004

Revisions didn’t end there, though. For chapter six I revised the game’s introduction for the fourth time and my project became a huge mess. Thousands of variables and maps were haphazardly thrown about in RM2k with no clear structure or naming convention. I’ve lost track of dungeons and introduced features that got neglected or lost down the road.

Well, it’s now 2011. The storyline has been finalized to something I feel is unique; however, this has yet to be reflected in much of the game that is currently available. With that, I’m actually now entering the final revision cycle of the project.


WTF KELAR?

My solution to the inherent fragmentation of SU in its current state is simple: I’m re-releasing all of the chapters with updates to several areas of Starless Umbra. This revision has a plethora of goals. First, I’d like to get the whole project’s storyline to feel continuous by removing needless characters, unifying the plot devices, and solidifying mystery that really matter to the players. Characters are clearly defined in the backend, but maybe that doesn’t show through in the dialogue as well as it should.

The largest change, and arguably the most debatable, is the removal of the default battle system in favor of a custom one. The game’s default battle system is capable of a lot, but it suffers from editor-specific bugs, annoying implementation, and general unreliability. Where most games with CBS’s have not much seen the light of day, I am optimistic that I can finish this for a few reasons:

-The game is already 80% done.
-The battle mechanics are already solidified.
-I have no desire to start or move on to other projects.
-I get the greatest joy in RPG Maker from hacking together custom systems/minigames and generally pushing 2k3 to its limits.

This also gives me an opportunity to revise all of the systems I’ve gradually tossed at the player over the years—the tech system, the essence system, the rage system, and more. I’ve learned that incrementally implementing all these neat features at the player that don’t really play well with each other can be overwhelming and messy, so this will be an opportunity to create something that feels completely integrated, where all the game dynamics flow seamlessly.

Other enhancements for this phase are being planned, but I haven’t really revealed much yet as they are still in infant stages. New dialogue boxes/faces, custom monsters, custom music, and more are all also underway.

So how does this affect the game’s release? For one, I’m not supporting much of the current release any longer, which includes the whole game through chapter seven. I’m instead rolling out all of the chapters individually again, starting from the prologue, until I catch up to where I was before. Then I can start working on new content, namely the last two chapters.


It's hard to believe I was once proud of this abomination of a title screen.

People often ask why I’ve stuck with a project this long. Indeed, the common trend is to make something that is quick and solid—quality over quantity. Several games here have received a well-deserved and respectable amount of attention for creating something so wonderful and unique in a relatively short time. For whatever reason I wanted to try to create something that felt a bit more traditional, yet just as fun and lengthy as the classic SNES RPGs. I feel even eight years later I’ve retained that same optimism we all had when we first opened up RPG Maker and I hope by continuously pushing RPG Maker to its limits I can inspire others just as they have inspired me.

Posts

Pages: 1
Don't worry, even Duke Nukem Forever was eventually released.
dragonheartman
Developer, Starless Umbra / Heroes of Umbra
2966
It won't be compatible with any modern PC but damn it, it'll be done.
i read this as State of the SUnion

Great retrospective, dhm.

author=dhm
I get the greatest joy in RPG Maker from hacking together custom systems/minigames and generally pushing 2k3 to its limits.


author=dhm
this will be an opportunity to create something that feels completely integrated, where all the game dynamics flow seamlessly.


author=dhm
I feel even eight years later I’ve retained that same optimism we all had when we first opened up RPG Maker and I hope by continuously pushing RPG Maker to its limits I can inspire others just as they have inspired me.


This is why SU is cool. If anyone can pull off a unified revamp and Velsharbor-status CBS overhaul of a near-complete project, it's dhm.
(fuk da haters, 2k3 is king 4 eva)

author=WolfCoder
Don't worry, even Duke Nukem Forever was eventually released.


except it turned out to suck as a game lol, please don't compare good games to that mess
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
Admirable.
TFT
WHOA wow wow. two tails? that is a sexy idea...
445
it's a beautiful evolution in gamemaking. every time you improve and things progress and evolve. eventually your game will be fully customized graphically and technically.

nice blog post. sticking to one project you learn a lot, and craft it out like a piece of wood or soapstone. eventually it ends up to be a work of art. you're going in the right direction, my-man. reminds me of the old days.
A nice read, good luck with revisions! It seems I barely missed the days when Andoru was Andrew and had black hair. I did know about it though because a while back I looked through your battle animations (or was it charas) and found it.

Thanks for the stickers too ;)
dragonheartman
Developer, Starless Umbra / Heroes of Umbra
2966
Thanks for reading, and thanks for sticking with this too. :]
Pages: 1