Designing bosses (and almost every fight in Whisper is a boss or mini-boss) is one of my favorite things. That's not to say that I think I'm the greatest at it, but it's the sort of dynamic challenge that makes game design so appealing. Every player will experience the fight differently--different party members, gear and skills create a staggering variety of outcomes. My job is to corral those outcomes into firmly satisfying territory.

One method to accomplish this is by reviewing the tools available to the player and then crafting battles that allow certain groups of tools to shine. Of course, if the group is too narrow, players may miss it altogether and experience a much harder boss than intended. And, if the group doesn't allow for much choice, this method amounts to fancy Whack-A-Mole. It can be used well in puzzle-RPGs like the Legend of Zelda, but must be handled with caution elsewhere.

A second method is to give the boss a recognizable pattern in its attacks. This helps battles become more interactive as players can reasonably predict what's going to happen and respond to it more effectively. It's also easier to create precise levels of difficulty since the boss can't randomly use its strongest attack every round. That allows bosses to have a greater variety of strength in attacks which means players now may consider switching from defense to offense and vice versa depending on what's coming. If overdone, however, this can make a boss too repetitive--especially if the pattern is quickly discovered and enables the player to dominate the fight...but the boss has mountains of hp. Bullet sponges are always a drag.

The chapter two fights mix these methods with a third; by having multiple bosses at once, the overlapped patterns approximate enough complexity to be entertaining. Meanwhile, burst damage is strongly hinted to be ideal, but a survival strategy can work since regeneration is weakened over time. As a safeguard, the player is given an especially effective skill mid-battle to encourage them to make use of it.

For chapter three, I'm adding a few new methods. First among these are Flow battles. The concept is similar to the Olympian Mountain Bandits, but concretely finite. Rather than a never-ending stream of enemies, they will be fought in sets. After a certain number of sets, the battle ends. The goal is to allow longer battles without having to set up formations and buffs each time. Players will also have to adjust to battles that routinely last longer than buffs. This should prompt existing strategies to adapt in new ways. It will also mean that bosses don't have to account for the massive power shifts that can happen from turn one to turn two.

One particular type of Flow battle is a Maze (as seen in the above video). In this mode, players choose a direction after each set. Some mazes will have set locations with enemies and treasure rooms while others will generate these randomly. All will have a boss battle that must be cleared to exit, though partial exp/loot will be awarded if the party wipes. Several maze battles will be accessible early on. Others will open up after certain quest of narrative triggers. In addition to using them as a way to create more varied combat situations, I plan to take full advantage of their narrative potential. They'll also be dropping themed equipment sets to further expand the possibilities available to each character...but more on that later...

While I have less time than when I first started this journey, I have considerably more money. My art skills, on the other hand, may have somehow gotten worse.

Thankfully, I've met a few folks who are willing to produce good art for money. One of them is in the process of creating some new NPC faces.

Paige is getting the first make-over. Somehow, when I scoured the net some years ago, I couldn't find any RPG Maker facesets that weren't white. Since I wanted to use a variety of skin tones and facial structure to create a village populated from all over the world, this was problematic. The best solution I found was to use generated faces...but they're rather hit or miss. In Paige's case, I actually liked how the generator turned out, but then I asked this guy to take a crack at it and that turned out very well too.

Here's her current face:


And her WIP new face:


Next up, I asked him to remake Francis. She doesn't have as many speaking lines as Paige, but she was another generator face that didn't really live up to what I was hoping for. Yet again, this guy managed to translate a few sentences into an actual character.

Here's her current face:


And her new face:


There's more to come! These will be placed into the Chapter 2 Polish Patch, whenever that comes out. If there are any faces that you find particularly cringeworthy, let me know and I'll put them on the list. Also, if anyone is into drawing stuff and likes to get paid, hit me up! Or if you have zoids models/custom zoids or can draw chibi zoids, I'm looking for that too~

If you're interested in commissioning art from this guy, he can be found here: http://georgemrateau.daportfolio.com/?fbclid=IwAR1TCRULoefVfMM6aWJVhPrOHDGaDOwAjrB79fSTRuWKSMbPA0StI5CWxfs
https://twitter.com/codeg11?fbclid=IwAR3jFbZcHiWnfC0j-mkUe5eLwmhuhUeG2nZab5f4kZPi5SdiGMglg1rgWzQ
https://www.instagram.com/maxcodeg11/?fbclid=IwAR1LfUx2sWAMhlhh0oXimI2XdrsCUmWj6GDFgXb8L4mSJxKVEeHC2_3Tr3U

Whenever you spend too much a great deal of time working on something, then release it to the world to play with, there is no small chance that someone will find something they really don’t like about it. This will usually not be a pleasant experience for anyone involved, but especially not you. How you deal with this will determine whether you’re cut out for this business or not.

I want to focus on the video in this post. It’s from TheSacredLobo’s Let’s Play of Whisper version 1.2. In it, he faces enemies that have become much more difficulty for reasons that are not clear. Despite fighting just as he did to get to that point, he’s unable to take them. Obviously, this becomes very frustrating. The video is an honest reaction to his game experience and is, for the developer (me), an unmitigated disaster. The problems he’s complaining about are real. They are my fault. I created a terribly frustrating experience.

So what went wrong?

As usual, there’s no single answer to that. If you are ever in this situation, the first step is to create a list of answers to that problem. Here’s mine.

1 - The difficulty scaling method has inaccurately gauged the player’s strength.
2 - The player is not making use of most of the power they have available to them.
3 - The player’s response to difficulty (power leveling) has made the game harder (due to difficulty scaling) instead of easier.
4 - The difficulty is just too damn high.

The next step is to determine the root issue behind these problems and then determine what you can do about it, if anything.

Problems 1 and 3
The problem here is with the difficulty scaling system I introduced in version 1.1 or 1.2. It used several inputs, including player level, to determine the power of enemy zoids. I tested it in several scenarios, but I made the assumption that if players had reached a certain level then they were exhibiting certain behaviors. I did not track the actual behaviors. As a result, if a player engaged in Power Leveling, they could trick the scaling mechanism into thinking they were super strong, even if they didn’t have access to or the desire to make use of non-leveling methods of increasing strength.

This resulted in players who Power Leveled facing much stronger enemies without the skills, behaviors and such that would make those enemies a plausible fight. Instead of keeping the game interesting for power levelers, the system punished players for trying to increase their strength relative to their enemies in a way that came naturally to them.

That’s not what I was hoping for.

So I’ve changed the system to track behaviors that indicate a readiness for tougher enemies and all but removed the influence of power leveling. Now, players can go all out and still face fun challenges, or they can stick strictly to power leveling without being whacked in the face with undue difficulty.

Problem 2
Often when a player isn’t using the game’s mechanics effectively, it is because the developer did a poor job of getting the necessary knowledge across.
There are optional things that the player may or may not care about, but if there are mechanics that must be mastered just to finish the game, then they must be taught. An example of something optional is Pana’s Enlighten prayer. You can beat the game without ever using it–but having it as an option makes various different builds viable and gives you another tool for getting out of tight spots. On the other hand, Pana’s Indict prayer is nearly non-negotiable. While you can theoretically beat chapter 1 without it, you will suffer much more than necessary. Thus, it is imperative that I place greater emphasis on encouraging the player to use Indict than I do with Enlighten.
This is especially important because it would be very difficult to beat chapter 2 without using Indict. I would be setting players up for failure if I let them finish all of chapter 1 without using it, then designed the second chapter to almost require it.
This is trickier to solve, but I’ve started by setting up some in-character encouragement to break out the buffs. I now track how buffs are being used and use various characters to remind the player they exist in case their usage is dangerously low. It may or may not work…but there’s even more such things built into chapter 2 in case the player struggles there. What I want to avoid is setting up more tutorials or otherwise forcing the player to using buffs against their will.

Problem 4
This problem is simple. Sometimes, you just mess up the numbers. Maybe this enemy doesn’t need to hit quite so hard…and maybe that one doesn’t have to soak up quite as much damage.
Of course, you have to be careful not to nerf everything in response to a single source of feedback, but taking a look at what you want the enemies to feel like is pretty safe.
In this case, I had buffed the enemies around the Core Coating Stones too much at some difficulty tiers. Their strength all but assumed that the player would not only be using Indict liberally, but that they had a deep understanding of the game system and could make near-optimal decisions every time. This is not a good difficulty level for a common encounter–it’s dicey for a non-optional boss, even. As a result, I nerfed the enemies back into their specialty roles–they had expanded to being too good at too many things.

P.S. Someone who reads this blog (or the tumblr version?) saw the video a day before me and made some of these same points in a comment. Good job Lyn–you may be better at this than I am xD

—
Update: I’ve already finished testing the first chapter for terrible, no-good bugs. I’m working on the second chapter and polishing things here and there. Provided no awful, soul-crushing bugs pop up, I should be able to release the game by Thursday, August 30.

So, I'm all set up to upload Chapter 2, but I think I'm going to take a little extra time on it instead. As it stands, it is suitable for release, but it is not quite at the point where a little time would no longer net a significant improvement. The reasons for this are many and mostly common: I spent more time with family than expected (no regrets here), I'm working more hours than expected (somewhat regret) and I have some other, higher priority things that keep pulling me away...but those are all things I factored in when I set June as the date. The main reason is simply that I have been too ambitious. I knew I could get everything that I wanted done in time, but I did not expect to have to spend so much time fine-tuning it. As an apology, I'll provide a short list of what I put in and why it took longer than expected.

The Ability to Build Zoids.
This was something that I'd wanted in Chapter 1, but had to cut. For that reason, I had many things set up for it and was able to implement the system quickly and without incident...but I didn't have much to go on in terms of what zoids to add. I knew that I didn't want to compete with the zoid a la carte offered in Zoids Saga because balance is something I very much care about. Also, since there are character specific skills, some pilot/zoid combos would be objectively better than others. For example, putting Pana in a Gustav (A snail zoid with great defense) would not make for a very interesting game. It would, however, be a clear best choice that would also make things less engaging. The same could be said of plopping Juno in a Gustav and having her pull aggro all day. Then again, maybe it's just not an interesting combat zoid...but perhaps you get the point?
Anyway, that meant that I needed to choose zoids that complemented the characters AND the gameplay. I needed Christopher to have a Christopher feel no matter what zoid he was in while also making sure that he had some strengths to work around.
Thus, the thing that I planned for (implementing the system) went smoothly, but I spent more time than expected on the zoid choices, even though I knew they were going to be tough.
At any rate, here are the four that I went with to start out. I plan to release more (will be quite simple, now) once I get a handle on how well these played out.
-König Wolf (Adele, Christopher, Leeland)
-Sabre Tiger (Juno, Christopher, Ursula)
-Lightning Saix (Pana, Christopher, Leeland)
-Red Horn (Pana, Adele, Juno, Ursula)


Improved Enemy AI
I knew to expect problems when crafting any sort of artificial intelligence, but still underestimated the extent of said problems. Some were simple bugs...others came about due to how the engine I'm using handles certain things. Long story sort, the experiment was a success...but it came with a hefty production time cost. The end result is a few enemies that respond to what the player is doing and what their teammates are doing. This means that, when fighting them, paying attention to the catalyst of their actions is more important than the order. To prevent frustration, I dropped ample hints, but I'm eager to see how it is received...so I'm doubly eager to work out the remaining kinks before releasing it.


Textless Communication
This is a general one, but I mostly mean better cut-scenes and minute interactions so as to stuff more character into the game without being cheesy or campy.

The good news is that the uploading issues of before are mostly resolved, so no more 14 hour upload sessions...I'll have Chapter 2 out when it's a bit more polished~

Since patching isn't something I've talked about before (besides releasing a patch), now seems like a good time to let everyone know what to expect. Of course, I'll also explain why I'm changing what's changing and how the release thus far has impacted development.

To Be Continued...

Originally, I planned to get Whisper out, take some time to tally up my success and failures, then get right into a sequel or some other project. However, since I received substantial feedback about how loose ends remain at the end, I've decided to work on the sequel right away. With that in mind, after reviewing my options, it seemed best to convert Whisper into an episodic game. This will allow me to correct mistakes and see how my corrections fare in an otherwise stable environment. It also means that players won't lose their save files between games, which always feels a little weird. The first patch was to shore up a few major elements and the second patch (ETA: ~1 week) will be a major upgrade to the game to bring it closer to the quality I want to hit with the release of Chapter 2 .

That means that the timeframe for acting on feedback is shrinking! Just yesterday, I had someone inform me that making Syrups and Essences one at a time with Paige was annoying. I had Paige on the backburner, but after hearing that, I went through and completely updated her and the items she makes to boot. If you have any grievances, no matter how small, send them to me any way you want and I might be able to address them.

Predicting Player Behavior

This is a tough one for any developer, myself not excluded. Even after getting feedback from testing and even watching people play through the game, I was way off in number of ways. Notably...

Gardening Score

The average post-release Gardening Score is at least twice as much as I saw in testing. As a result, a mechanic that was supposed to have a moderate-but-noticeable impact on healing often results in Pana healing the willies out of everything she touches. Intended? Not fully. Wonderful? You bet! I'm completely happy with players getting into her character; the healing rampages express a facet of her that no amount of witty dialogue can make up for.

How does this impact future decisions? Well, I can be sure, now, that healing is seen as a big part of the game. That means that using it as a theme is probably safe. Since that was always plan A, it means a lack of changes rather than a scramble to re-write, but skyrocketing Gardening Scores are helping me set development priorities such as whether or not to add/polish plant rejuvenation dialogue and to what degree. Also, I had to officially change it to 'Garden Score' so that players with 1k+ plants racked up wouldn't see the numbers pushing up against those last letters.

Grinding

If you've been following me for a while, you may remember my grand talks about the great lengths I went through to make sure that grinding was not necessary in Whisper. Thus, I assumed that players would load up the game, rejoice, and forego the chore entirely.

Not...quite. The mechanic of grinding is so ingrained players still chose to pursue it. As in, it was the first thing that came to mind, not the 'I have the tools to succeed!' response that I was hoping for. That was a bit disheartening, but it led to an even bigger problem: grinding made the game very easy and, thus, not as fun as I was shooting for. Granted, I wanted players to have the option to grind and make things easier for themselves if that's how they wished to play, but I didn't want to drag them through a parade of dull fights.

How does this impact future decisions? Several ways...I'm not abandoning my quest to end the need for grinding so easily.

First, I plan to add more ways to spend Sylphs so that Sylvanr's gear isn't as inevitable. This should encourage players to check out other shops that have more interesting items, though they can still buy full goddess gear if that is their fancy. In addition, I'm auto-upgrading Liam's shop at a few points in the story so that players who didn't fancy any of the initial offerings are less likely to miss out on the rest. I'm also buffing Syrup and Essence in the hopes that nuts and flowers will become desireable enough to spend Sylphs on and adding a new, consumable item that lets players be whisked away to any shrine that they've previously visited. Finally, when a few new zoids are able to be built in Chapter 2, they'll require Sylphs as well.

Second, I've implemented difficulty scaling across most of the game and will continue to roll it out and test it as Chapter 2 approaches. The scaling is not intended as a foil to grinding; players will still be able to adjust their relative strength to enemies by leveling up and getting new gear. Rather, the scaling should ensure that enemies don't fall too far into the 'roflstomp' area so that players that just like fighting and trying out different builds don't run out of challenges. With that in mind, I've reservered the most potent scaling for optional content; bosses like Svetlana got the best bits since there is no need to defeat them to complete Chapter 1. If you want a challenge, take her on! If not, there's still plenty to do elsewhere...or you could take her on anyway.

Of note, the Arena will not be scaled despite being the most optional content there is. The difficulty there must remain static or the bragging rights are significantly impaired. I'm toying with the idea of adding a second Arena or just another round of challenges, but my first priority is making the core gameplay fun to play through, so the Arena extension may come after the initial Chapter 2 patch.

Third, since I realize that I may be fighting a losing battle, I'm looking to increase enemy diversity so that grinding, if one chooses to engage in it, will at least avoid being monotonous.

I am the Winter Sun; The hope to all who despair.

From the start, Whisper has been about delivering character. That means that every action and speaking bit must build character in some way; there's no room for missed opportunities. To that end, I've done a re-pass on all repeatable speaking bits (healing plants, Shield of LOVE) to increase variety while decreasing their maximum length (don't want to be too disruptive!). A more detailed recap is below, but for any given repeatable situation, there are around double the number of possible outcomes.

Partial Patch Notes

To give a better idea of what I'm talking about, I'm going to release a set of incomplete patch notes. Everything here is definite; it is in the current dev build, is stable and will appear in Patch 1.2. The notes are incomplete because there will be more changes made between now and then and there may be tweaks.

-Fixed a crash that happened if the player was defeated by the Saber Tiger Captain's guards after giving him the Silver Rhimos Horn and then tried to talk to Leeland or Avery. Anyone affected by this crash can transfer their save file to the new build and safely speak with Leeland or Avery, now.

-A new map, Sky Temple, has been added to the game. There are a few more in the works as well. In addition, several existing maps will see graphics updates.

-A scaling encounter system has been added to several areas of the game. In short, fights should be more fun in more areas as the player amasses power. Getting all of the cool toys will mean fun times ahead instead of rofl-stomping non-endgame enemies.

-The final boss has been tweaked with slight skill changes, an entire new skill and updated AI. It also scales based on party strength so that it is a good fight whether at level 15 with 2 hours of play time or level 40 with many, many more.

-Increased goddess statue speaking bits from 18 maximum to 30.
-Increased plant healing speaking bits from 11 maximum to 34.
-Increased Arrow of Love speaking bits from 5 to 10.
-Increased Elysium speaking bits from 1 to 10.
-Increased Sylvanr's Rage speaking bits from 1 to 10.
-Increased Bear Hug speaking bits from 1 to 5.
-Increased Call of Duty speaking bits from 1 to 3.

-Paige has been re-scripted so that players can make up to 99 of any Syrup or Essence at a time. She also has much more variety in her speaking lines and a looping menu so that less time is spent chasing her down.

-Syrup and Essence no longer consume an action to use. Players should now actually have a reason to chase Paige down.

-Added the consumable item Sylvanr's Drumsticks, available at Liam's shop in the Vanguard camp. When played, the player is transported to a shrine of their choosing, provided they have prayed there before or at a higher ranking shrine. This should make answering Sylvanr's beck and call somewhat less annoying.

-Svetlana's ladder now shows a small hint when it is lowered and a large hint when it is completely lowered. It also no longer retracts upon leaving the map.

-Svetlana now has a huge stack of supply crates to signal that she is, in fact, loaded with supplies.

-Buffed Integrity regeneration on Bloomheart Ring to match Tree Ring at 20% per turn. Noted the amount of regeneration given on both items.

-Reduced the amount of Agility given by Sylvanr's item set from 30 to 25. This change is to make room for new Agility itemization coming out and to ensure that there is some reason to use other items, however slight.

-Reduced the Agility loss on Vince's Swimming Gloves from 25% to 15%.

-Added new equipment items to Isaac and Liam's shops, mostly Agility focused.

-Juno's Prayer, Sylvanr's Fury, has been adjusted to be much more damaging at lower CH and slightly less damaging at higher CH so that it is more useful in non-charisma builds.

-Juno's Charisma regeneration has been reduced from 10% to 7%. This was done to allow her to keep more power in Sylvanr's Fury and Quake while making the use of them cost her a bit more.

-Changed Adele's Focus to an instant maneuver. It now costs 15 AD instead of generating 10.