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Another World of Beasts

I’d like to stay pretty transparent about where I’m at in the developing process, so let’s do that: I’m just scratching the surface. One thing I really like to do, though, is knock things off lists, and I knocked a thing off the list a few days ago: all of the monster graphics have been finished.

To give you an idea of the scope of Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass, there are 327 enemy graphics. I wanted to keep the experience consistently novel, so the bulk of the game contains new enemies in every area. I will be revisiting old monsters and mixing them in interesting ways in a couple of bonus areas, but novelty of experience is still going to be stressed throughout.

Another thing to note: although there are 327 separate graphics, some enemies have multiple graphics. For example, an enemy named Rorschach switches between five different forms each turn with each form having different properties; so, he’s got five unique graphics.

Now that I’ve finished drawing all the monsters, I’ll be mainly focusing on designing equipment and items, setting up enemy behavior, and drawing the battle animations. I’m already pretty deep into the equipment and items, and I can’t wait for ya’ll to see some of the fun stuff I’ve got planned!

(Also posted this on the old Tumblr)

Posts

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unity
You're magical to me.
12540
Fantastic! :D That's quite an accomplishment! ^_^
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
That's fantastic. It's interesting to hear how someone like you tackles a project like this. Given that you have already had experience with a project of similar length (A Very Long Rope), is there a set method to how you're planning this? Seeing how you tackle a project of considerable length can maybe help others to learn...

OK, I'll be honest, I'm just thinking about myself here, but... love your work, love your process... give me your soul, basically.
@Unity: You would have been the best cheerleader in high school, haha. I don't know if enough people tell you this, but thank you for being actually, unironically positive. You're a breath of fresh air to bitter, cave-dwelling lizard people like myself.

@Cash: I actually posted about that very thing in this topic, but I'll be specific with what I'm doing on Jimmy here. I don't mind talking about this kind of thing, since it's like, what's on my mind ninety percent of the time, anyway, haha:

1. Establish core gameplay concepts, plot, and character profiles. These three things are fundamentally connected (or at least SHOULD be), so I try to think of them in tandem, either by making design decisions based around characters or by writing things around design elements. The plot's just a skeleton at the moment.

2. Make sure all the core gameplay elements function. Essentially just make a working prototype here; a lot of the specifics don't need to be determined yet--just make sure that it can work and it'll be fun. This includes player skills in battle, anything you're doing on the field, progression systems, xp curves, character stats, etc.

3. Get the U.I. stuff all figured out. There's nothing worse than deciding to change the font after your dialogue is written and then having to reformat everything. This is also a good time to figure out aesthetics; for me, I didn't want to start until I could make things look good (within the context of the core concept--since I chose my setting well, I can afford to make things look more simplistic).

4. Pad out the plot. Determine all the major NPCs, the character arcs, quests, and the locations. The locations should be conceptually sound, but I don't do the mapping at this point.

5. Get the monster concepts done for each area. You should build them around what the player has at their disposal at that portion of the game and gradually teach them the rules of combat. You should also think about their basic look so that they're functioning both as an aspect of gameplay and narrative.

(At this point, I have all the gameplay and narrative elements figured out, so I like to take things on more or less one at a time. So the order of the next several steps aren't set in stone; it's just the order of what I've done (or plan to do).)

6. Draw the monster graphics. I don't like using placeholder graphics since I'm working by myself, but that's just me. In a team, placeholder graphics might be necessary. Solo, I find that it saves me time and gets rid of the risk of leaving placeholder graphics in by mistake.

7. Get all the items and equipment done. Determine where your equipment will go based on the decisions you want your player to make (e.g. Which character should I make immune to this status effect? Should I have increased agility to ensure a stun or should I have higher strength so I can hit consistently harder?)

8. Draw the battle animations and backgrounds. It might be better to do these later so that battle testing is faster, but I like to make sure that I see what the player sees. Battle backgrounds for me require a bit more coding, and I've got a friend who's tinkering with that, so I might put this step off.

9. Get the battles fully functional. They don't have to be balanced, but every gimmick should work. I do the battle stuff a bit early in development because, 1) It's an important part of the gameplay, and 2) Finishing it makes me feel like I've got an actual GAME instead of just a collection of graphics, maps, and stuff.

10. Design the levels. They should already be conceptually fine, so draw the tilesets and build the levels around those concepts. Instead of trying to draw every tileset at once, I plan on completing levels one by one. This means for each level, I'm going to assemble/draw the tileset, compose a track, draw any relevant NPCs, and event any gimmicks. This makes me feel like I'm progressing, and it's hard for me to fully conceptualize everything that'll go into a tileset before I start mapping, anyway.

11. Event the cut scenes. I also get the NPC dialogue done here. I put this off until last, which sucks since it's my favorite part, but I like to do all the dialogue at once. It's not a bad idea to write things out as a script first (I did this in Born Under the Rain so it could pass Indrah's scrutiny), but if I'm working solo, I like to do it all in the editor--just less steps. I might need to compose scene-specific music here.

12. Testplay. This includes balancing all of the fights. Test everything a lot. Get some friends to test it, too. Run into everything. Read everything several times. Try to break the game. Start to hate everything you've done, grapple with feelings of self-doubt and loathing, buy pre-made chocolate chip cookie dough and eat it all raw in one sitting, test play the game again and smile at all the clever things you've done.

I've left off some things, most notably music. I can compose everything all at once if I have to once I have the locations planned out (I did this with Born Under the Rain), but when I'm working solo, I like to just finish music intermittently so that I don't have to force inspiration (which isn't a bad thing, but it takes a bit longer). The major themes here are 1) Make sure that things are going to work before you devote time to them, 2) Make sure that each part of your game reinforces the rest, and 3) Compartmentalize your work so that you can feel yourself progress. Any way you slice it, it's a lot of goddamn work, but if it's split up it feels a bit more manageable. That's why I like knocking things off lists.

As an aside, my dad writes down everything he's going to do for the day on little yellow pads. That was my childhood: stacks and stacks of yellow pads. I hate yellow pads to this day. But, to his credit, I'm a pretty organized person now--with my work, that is. My desk is a mess and it's two in the afternoon and I'm wearing pajama pants.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
I'm impressed you can segregate all that, Housekeeping. I have to do all that just for each area of the game. Can't wait to see a demo!
Jesus, that’s a lot of graphics. 327... Wow…


I really do admire your persistence. Usually I would just wait to do / acquire the monsters that I need for a particular area / scene when the time comes so I don’t waste a lot of time on it or have a bunch of enemies that I have to cut out or not use in the final product, but you decided to do it early and just get it out of the way. You clearly must have planned everything out for this before you even started, so that’s a good thing. I like people like that. It’s comforting to know that they know what they’re doing before they even start.

Continue to keep up the good work, my man. Everything sounds like things are going pretty good.

And yes, unity would have made a good cheerleader. ^^
Yeah, I plan out just about everything. I like to make sure that everything works together, which is a lot easier to do when it's in the pliable idea stage. A good chunk of early development is just me writing things down in a spiral notebook while chain-watching stuff on netflix.
unity
You're magical to me.
12540
author=Housekeeping
@Unity: You would have been the best cheerleader in high school, haha. I don't know if enough people tell you this, but thank you for being actually, unironically positive. You're a breath of fresh air to bitter, cave-dwelling lizard people like myself.


Haha, I was too shy to be a cheerleader XD;; But I'm glad I can help cheer on projects that I like now! ^_^
Yeah, I used to do that as a kid all the time in school when I was bored and I finished all my homework, just writing everything down that comes to me in my little notebook. As I’ve gotten older, though, I just write everything in word processor now and fiddle around in paint shop in regards to images, menu setups and everything else. I plan still, sure, but a lot of time I just jump right in and see how it goes from there. But your way seems to work for you, so that’s good.
Wow. So is this a fully one-manned project? You're doing the story, music, graphics, etc. from the ground up? That...that is impressive.

Man. You gotta stop being a multi-talented machine Housekeeping. Us humans can barely keep up. How long did it take you to make all 372 enemies (plus however many unique graphics)?
Yep, it's basically a one-man project--the only exception being the scripting aspect, which is at this point all pre-made scripts other than a few small adjustments and hopefully some custom stuff by a friend of mine.

It's hard to say how long it took me to finish all the enemy graphics. On a day off, I tended to average about five monsters a day, but my day job gets hectic during finals/mid-terms, so those were dry periods. I can produce things pretty quickly during summer and winter breaks, so I'm hoping to knock out a pretty big chunk of dev stuff this summer.
Red_Nova
Sir Redd of Novus: He who made Prayer of the Faithless that one time, and that was pretty dang rad! :D
9192
author=dinkledaberry
Man. You gotta stop being a multi-talented machine Housekeeping. Us humans can barely keep up.


This.
author=Housekeeping
Yep, it's basically a one-man project--the only exception being the scripting aspect, which is at this point all pre-made scripts other than a few small adjustments and hopefully some custom stuff by a friend of mine.

It's hard to say how long it took me to finish all the enemy graphics. On a day off, I tended to average about five monsters a day, but my day job gets hectic during finals/mid-terms, so those were dry periods. I can produce things pretty quickly during summer and winter breaks, so I'm hoping to knock out a pretty big chunk of dev stuff this summer.


Your level. How I get? I'll be looking forward to any playable build you may develop in the future.

God help us if you ever learn RGSS.
CashmereCat
Self-proclaimed Puzzle Snob
11638
Oh, I forgot say thank you, Housekeeping. I'm significantly glad you've shared this and I've saved this for frequent reference, not as a set-in-stone guide, but as inspirational pipeline-based dev process to help me realize how to crank out content. It's interesting how linear the cycle is. I'm used to iterating in various areas, but doing one thing at a time will definitely ensure that a 50+ hour game doesn't get bogged down by the endless-polishing curse. Cheers!
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