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Progress Report
We're done! + Gamedev Decisions
LadyTe-chan
4 post(s)- 01/31/2017 06:53 PM
- 2161 views
Hello, everybody! I'm proud to announce that The Search for the Harp of Harmony version 1.2 is done and released! At this point, I believe that the game is "done" in the sense that I am proud of it being the way it is, and now I'd like to turn my focus elsewhere to future projects and graduating college.
Changes made in this one include: Complete map revamping, bug and text fixes, small glitch fixes, etc. It's hard to believe how much my skills have improved in such a short time, and I would like to give a huge thank you to several people who helped me along the way: SgtMettool for helping me from the start and for introducing me to RPG Maker in the first place, NeverSilent for taking the time to give me so many useful tips, tricks, and bug reports, BlackWolf1992 for all of their help, my playtesters Satsy and TerraChained for taking the time to help me make it awesome, and all of you for being so kind and supportive and giving me fantastic feedback! Thank you!
It's been a long road in a short span of time, honestly. Before I started this project (and I know I mentioned this in my other blog post, so I'll be brief about it here) I never thought that I could make games. I felt that someone from a humanities background with low technical competency like myself could never transform their ideas into playable games. However, I was surprised and really happy to discover that this wasn't true. I could make games, and not only COULD I... but I did. The fact that I did is what matters.
So, people have asked me questions about why I made some of the decisions that I did for the game. Well, here are some answers:
Why is there no combat?
What's with collecting all of those healing items and then never having to use them?
These "puzzles" could use some work; why were they so simple?
I 100% agree that the puzzles could have been better. Absolutely, totally agree. If I could go back, I would have liked to implement one of those slidey tile puzzles like the ones in the evil bases on Pokémon, or even something like the teleporter puzzles (also from Pokémon) but I just decided that I wasn't going to go that far this time. Part of creating one's first game is creating a baseline, so that in future games, you can push the boundaries and come up with new and interesting ideas to go beyond the standard that you set at the beginning. However, I would have definitely liked to create something more challenging, and that's just going to have to be something I incorporate next time.
What's with all the references?
What can I say? I love hiding little easter eggs. The Mayor's office has an Undertale reference, and the Bee and the Ghost outside the CoD are both homages to friends of mine. Dan is too, but I'm sure some of you RMN.net folks already know who he is. ;)
What are your future plans?
Thank you all so much for supporting me; I have had a wonderful time making this game, and it has taught me so much. I hope that you all get a chance to play it, and please, leave me any and all feedback! Feedback makes me want to improve! ;D
See you all next time!
~LadyTe-chan
Changes made in this one include: Complete map revamping, bug and text fixes, small glitch fixes, etc. It's hard to believe how much my skills have improved in such a short time, and I would like to give a huge thank you to several people who helped me along the way: SgtMettool for helping me from the start and for introducing me to RPG Maker in the first place, NeverSilent for taking the time to give me so many useful tips, tricks, and bug reports, BlackWolf1992 for all of their help, my playtesters Satsy and TerraChained for taking the time to help me make it awesome, and all of you for being so kind and supportive and giving me fantastic feedback! Thank you!
It's been a long road in a short span of time, honestly. Before I started this project (and I know I mentioned this in my other blog post, so I'll be brief about it here) I never thought that I could make games. I felt that someone from a humanities background with low technical competency like myself could never transform their ideas into playable games. However, I was surprised and really happy to discover that this wasn't true. I could make games, and not only COULD I... but I did. The fact that I did is what matters.
So, people have asked me questions about why I made some of the decisions that I did for the game. Well, here are some answers:
Why is there no combat?
Since this was my first game, I was very intimidated by the idea of adding combat. The game was already meant to be short, and I didn't want to overdo it by adding in a combat system. I also didn't feel that with my current skills, I would be able to implement it well. However, there was one in the works at one point! Take a look:
Both Taylor and Dan would have custom classes and movesets, based off of the pre-existing defaults in the database. Marietta, the little ghost girl in front of the Cave of Delirium, and Hillary the Bee who gives you Honey were also both going to be playable characters! I think it was for the best I scrapped those ideas, though.
Both Taylor and Dan would have custom classes and movesets, based off of the pre-existing defaults in the database. Marietta, the little ghost girl in front of the Cave of Delirium, and Hillary the Bee who gives you Honey were also both going to be playable characters! I think it was for the best I scrapped those ideas, though.
What's with collecting all of those healing items and then never having to use them?
All of those healing items were remnants from the days of when combat would have been considered for the game. However, because I didn't do combat, I had to rely on other gameplay elements like puzzles and riddles. I was initially going to have damaging terrain, but again, I felt that I was getting a little ahead of myself. After I decided that there would be no combat and no real means of damaging the player, I was considering taking the items out, but one of the main RPG experiences is gathering and hoarding items, and so I decided to play with the idea of hoarding items only to never use them, just like in many other games. It wasn't intentional , but it became part of the game (and led to some great interactions, like stealing the food from the fruit bowl in the Teahouse and the people berating you for it). I agree that this idea wasn't the most well thought out, and I'm not necessarily satisfied with the end result, but that's something that will be fixed in the next game, depending on what the next game is.
These "puzzles" could use some work; why were they so simple?
I 100% agree that the puzzles could have been better. Absolutely, totally agree. If I could go back, I would have liked to implement one of those slidey tile puzzles like the ones in the evil bases on Pokémon, or even something like the teleporter puzzles (also from Pokémon) but I just decided that I wasn't going to go that far this time. Part of creating one's first game is creating a baseline, so that in future games, you can push the boundaries and come up with new and interesting ideas to go beyond the standard that you set at the beginning. However, I would have definitely liked to create something more challenging, and that's just going to have to be something I incorporate next time.
What's with all the references?
What can I say? I love hiding little easter eggs. The Mayor's office has an Undertale reference, and the Bee and the Ghost outside the CoD are both homages to friends of mine. Dan is too, but I'm sure some of you RMN.net folks already know who he is. ;)
What are your future plans?
Current plan is to graduate this May, find a job, go to graduate school in 2018 and keep working on games. While I can't share anything concrete for now, please know that I have been brainstorming ideas, and I hope that you will enjoy my next game, whenever it comes out. <3
Thank you all so much for supporting me; I have had a wonderful time making this game, and it has taught me so much. I hope that you all get a chance to play it, and please, leave me any and all feedback! Feedback makes me want to improve! ;D
See you all next time!
~LadyTe-chan
Progress Report
Confessions of a Novice Gamedev + Progress Update!
- LadyTe-chan
- 8 post(s)
- 01/21/2017 02:48 AM
- 2768 views
<LadyTe-chan>:Thank you so much for {giving me RPG Maker for Christmas}, by the way! I'm having a lot of fun with the Character Generator in particular. :D
<SgtMettool>:Haha thats good! Have you managed to figure anything out with it yet? Try putting together a very simple game to start
<LadyTe-chan>:Well, I figured out how to fill in a map. That's literally it. But I guess we all have to start somewhere. XD
<LadyTe-chan>:Speaking of, I know this is a very general question, but... what do I do in RPG Maker now? I have a map I guess, but I don't really know what I'm supposed to do beyond this point.
<SgtMettool>: If you have a map, you can start adding "Events" to it. Events can be anything from NPCs to teleporter tiles, to processing. Go into event mode and make a new event. Like, try making an NPC that talks
<LadyTe-chan>:ok... I'll give it a shot.
That simple conversation was how my game started, 20 days ago. At this point, it's hard to believe that I have formally put this game forth and that people have actually downloaded it and enjoyed it. It's gone through a few versions already, but so far, I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out, and I'm working on fixing bugs and polishing it up a little more to release version 1.2 sometime soon.
I will say that making this game has been a truly fun experience. As a college student and English Major who has loved story-driven games for a long time, it was exciting to translate my idea into a much more tangible medium. However, more importantly, it was something that I could do myself- I didn't need to be a computer programming wizard or even know how to do HTML (because uh... I really don't know how to do HTML) to make a game that people genuinely seemed to like. I know how to write, but I always felt that the world of making games was something I could never touch because I'm not particularly good at doing anything technical beyond surface-level computing. With RPG Maker, I finally found a medium through which I could tell stories in a new and yet familiar way.
I admit, it was hard not to charge in and want to create a HUGE game worthy of all of my ideas. SgtMettool often had to remind me to rein it in because my ideas were getting ahead of my skill, or even my patience. At one point, I had wanted to put a second town, far bigger than Almick, into the game and it would have been at least 9 default map tiles large, and blah blah blah. Fortunately for my own sanity, that idea got scrapped, although in my later games, bigger (yet still functional!) towns may make an appearance.
However, for now, I'm just focusing on making this game the best it can be. In version 1.2, I intend to overhaul some of the maps in the game that are just too lifeless, too big, too square and boring, or just too impractical. I've been reading up on several threads, guides, and tutorials for mapping, and we'll see where things go! Check this out:
Progress already! Not perfect, but infinitely more interesting. (Special thanks goes to Liberty's "How Cliffs can be Cool" advice in the New Developer Screenshot thread for that one.) I'll also redo those interior maps that really need help, and those will show up at another time. Although I've been told that my maps aren't bad for a beginner, since this game is really something I'm using to figure out the software, I want to at least get to "Hey! That's pretty good, for a beginner!" It's all about making progress and fixing bugs. Some other fixes will include:
-Minor bugs and typos
-Some dialogue fixes
-Inclusion of a new script that wraps characters' text to better fit the boxes
In conclusion, I've learned so much already from doing this project, and I cannot thank everyone enough for the amazing support. I'm floored by how many pageviews this has gotten, much less about 30 downloads and 5 subs! That's beyond incredible to me. Thank you so much, rmn, for taking a chance on me and accepting a novice's first game; I have received nothing but overwhelming support and kindness from everyone who has interacted with my work. I hope that everyone will continue to enjoy it, and be on the lookout for version 1.2!
Sincerely,
LadyTe-chan
<SgtMettool>:Haha thats good! Have you managed to figure anything out with it yet? Try putting together a very simple game to start
<LadyTe-chan>:Well, I figured out how to fill in a map. That's literally it. But I guess we all have to start somewhere. XD
<LadyTe-chan>:Speaking of, I know this is a very general question, but... what do I do in RPG Maker now? I have a map I guess, but I don't really know what I'm supposed to do beyond this point.
<SgtMettool>: If you have a map, you can start adding "Events" to it. Events can be anything from NPCs to teleporter tiles, to processing. Go into event mode and make a new event. Like, try making an NPC that talks
<LadyTe-chan>:ok... I'll give it a shot.
That simple conversation was how my game started, 20 days ago. At this point, it's hard to believe that I have formally put this game forth and that people have actually downloaded it and enjoyed it. It's gone through a few versions already, but so far, I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out, and I'm working on fixing bugs and polishing it up a little more to release version 1.2 sometime soon.
I will say that making this game has been a truly fun experience. As a college student and English Major who has loved story-driven games for a long time, it was exciting to translate my idea into a much more tangible medium. However, more importantly, it was something that I could do myself- I didn't need to be a computer programming wizard or even know how to do HTML (because uh... I really don't know how to do HTML) to make a game that people genuinely seemed to like. I know how to write, but I always felt that the world of making games was something I could never touch because I'm not particularly good at doing anything technical beyond surface-level computing. With RPG Maker, I finally found a medium through which I could tell stories in a new and yet familiar way.
I admit, it was hard not to charge in and want to create a HUGE game worthy of all of my ideas. SgtMettool often had to remind me to rein it in because my ideas were getting ahead of my skill, or even my patience. At one point, I had wanted to put a second town, far bigger than Almick, into the game and it would have been at least 9 default map tiles large, and blah blah blah. Fortunately for my own sanity, that idea got scrapped, although in my later games, bigger (yet still functional!) towns may make an appearance.
However, for now, I'm just focusing on making this game the best it can be. In version 1.2, I intend to overhaul some of the maps in the game that are just too lifeless, too big, too square and boring, or just too impractical. I've been reading up on several threads, guides, and tutorials for mapping, and we'll see where things go! Check this out:
Progress already! Not perfect, but infinitely more interesting. (Special thanks goes to Liberty's "How Cliffs can be Cool" advice in the New Developer Screenshot thread for that one.) I'll also redo those interior maps that really need help, and those will show up at another time. Although I've been told that my maps aren't bad for a beginner, since this game is really something I'm using to figure out the software, I want to at least get to "Hey! That's pretty good, for a beginner!" It's all about making progress and fixing bugs. Some other fixes will include:
-Minor bugs and typos
-Some dialogue fixes
-Inclusion of a new script that wraps characters' text to better fit the boxes
In conclusion, I've learned so much already from doing this project, and I cannot thank everyone enough for the amazing support. I'm floored by how many pageviews this has gotten, much less about 30 downloads and 5 subs! That's beyond incredible to me. Thank you so much, rmn, for taking a chance on me and accepting a novice's first game; I have received nothing but overwhelming support and kindness from everyone who has interacted with my work. I hope that everyone will continue to enjoy it, and be on the lookout for version 1.2!
Sincerely,
LadyTe-chan
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