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It's been brought up in the "Project Manager" thread that having a game journal can be motivational. So I'm going to try it. If I ever go a week without an update, the first person to point it out gets S$1000 out of pocket. In addition, feel free to discuss the game here -- that would probably be motivational as well!
Yesterday was the first time I cracked open the file since the demo release. Yikes, it's been nearly a month! So what did I do?
Not a whole lot, but better than nothing. I expanded the list of generic soldier names from 200 to 240, which is probably where it will stay. Additionally, I imported a few character portraits (I'm just using their walkabouts unless Twins really wants to draw portraits for everyone) until I realized I was missing Garland's walkabout bmp. Yes, it's in the game file and I have another copy in my email somewhere. I'll import the rest of the set today, hopefully.
I also did a little prep work on the map so I can just copy the first map and not have to change too much. Pretty minor, but it'll save time down the road.
On the conceptual front, I sorted out a few important story details in my head and decided how the first couple of battles will play out.
Coming soon:
- Import the rest of the portraits
- Add an intro
- Start the first couple of battles
- Cave tileset (sort of dreading this TBH)
Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks
Phantom Tactics development journal
Thu Jun 25, 2009 5:42 pm 
Thu Jun 25, 2009 8:16 pm
The public format is actually a great idea if people voice their opinion about PT's progress. And I suppose the public forum is also better at keeping you accountable. At the same time, you might want to question whether keeping the journal public will give too many spoilers--I tend to record everything in mine.
But however you decide to post, it's also a great way to keep track of your own ideas for the game in case you should ever forget what you intended to do with that pirate's bucket o' lard or something.
I should post a couple entries from mine, just to show how helpful they can be.
Place Obligatory Signature Here
But however you decide to post, it's also a great way to keep track of your own ideas for the game in case you should ever forget what you intended to do with that pirate's bucket o' lard or something.
I should post a couple entries from mine, just to show how helpful they can be.
Place Obligatory Signature Here
Thu Jun 25, 2009 9:19 pm
I'm not planning on laying out the plot here -- that's what the game's for -- but I don't mind talking in generalities. This is for my benefit, after all, and *I* know what I'm talking about. 
Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks
Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks
Fri Jun 26, 2009 4:58 pm
Yesterday: I didn't get a lot done, but I have the excellent excuse that it was both my brother's birthday and my mother-in-law's. (Okay, so my brother didn't factor much into this one, but we were at the in-laws' all night.)
What I did do: I found Garland's sprite in the big email thread and stuck it into the portraits. I started on the textboxes, initially just to see how they looked with the walkabout portraits (pretty nice, actually -- thanks for asking!), but I kept going and have a bit of the intro dialogue down.
Quick poll: Do you prefer dialogue boxes to be fixed-size or do you like them to be shrunk down to the text? I'm partial to the shrinking, but I'm curious what people think.
Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks
What I did do: I found Garland's sprite in the big email thread and stuck it into the portraits. I started on the textboxes, initially just to see how they looked with the walkabout portraits (pretty nice, actually -- thanks for asking!), but I kept going and have a bit of the intro dialogue down.
Quick poll: Do you prefer dialogue boxes to be fixed-size or do you like them to be shrunk down to the text? I'm partial to the shrinking, but I'm curious what people think.
Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks
Fri Jun 26, 2009 6:23 pm
Mogri wrote:
Quick poll: Do you prefer dialogue boxes to be fixed-size or do you like them to be shrunk down to the text? I'm partial to the shrinking, but I'm curious what people think.
Fri Jun 26, 2009 6:46 pm
Shrunk, for sure. Unless there's a reason to cover up the screen more than it needs to be covered, don't do it.
Sat Jun 27, 2009 2:58 am
I actually prefer a universal textbox-size, if only because that keeps people from putting three paragraphs into a textbox that covers up half the page.
However, it also makes the text look like it is actually scrolling, rather than popping up wherever it feels like (seems too much like a pop-up ad jumping out at me.)
However, it also makes the text look like it is actually scrolling, rather than popping up wherever it feels like (seems too much like a pop-up ad jumping out at me.)
Sat Jun 27, 2009 2:36 pm
Consistent text box sizes which are also shrunk would be best.
I usually end up with boxes that about five-lines long, which fits in a portrait nicely.
There are times when I only have single-liners, but the portrait's presence in the text box usually warrants the size of the text box.
Smaller portraits can be used to justify shorter text boxes if it's necessary.
I'm a fan of this method because I hate when really long text boxes are chained to one-liners or vice-versa.
I usually end up with boxes that about five-lines long, which fits in a portrait nicely.
There are times when I only have single-liners, but the portrait's presence in the text box usually warrants the size of the text box.
Smaller portraits can be used to justify shorter text boxes if it's necessary.
I'm a fan of this method because I hate when really long text boxes are chained to one-liners or vice-versa.
Sat Jun 27, 2009 2:49 pm
I shrink them to size but I place them all in a consistent manner. I hate it when text boxes jump all over the screen. It distracts me.
Sat Jun 27, 2009 7:17 pm
personally i favor the shrunk versions but what twins was just talking about using the portraits with the texrt seems more reasonable. i dont like the universal ones because of some of the same reason already stated: taking up space for one liners and the such.
thats my 2 slime bucks
thats my 2 slime bucks
Sun Jun 28, 2009 6:50 am
Recently accomplished:
- All portraits imported and positioned properly.
- Started work on the cave tileset. I was agonizing over how to make the cave floor look like a cave, but a brief look into the history of RPG caves reveals that none of them ever really look that much like caves. This ends up being much easier than I'd anticipated.
- Some of the intro is written now. I'm undecided on how it will play out. I think that rather than lump all of the exposition at the beginning of the game, I'm going to intersperse flashbacks with gameplay. Pepsi Ranger, take note.
Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks
- All portraits imported and positioned properly.
- Started work on the cave tileset. I was agonizing over how to make the cave floor look like a cave, but a brief look into the history of RPG caves reveals that none of them ever really look that much like caves. This ends up being much easier than I'd anticipated.
- Some of the intro is written now. I'm undecided on how it will play out. I think that rather than lump all of the exposition at the beginning of the game, I'm going to intersperse flashbacks with gameplay. Pepsi Ranger, take note.
Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks
Mon Jun 29, 2009 12:10 am
I planned out chapter 1 in its entirety today. I had originally intended to let the player access towns in chapter 1, but there's just no good spot for it. I'd have to extend the chapter past the obvious, obvious ending. Imagine if FFT or TO had tacked on the first battle of chapter 2 into chapter 1 -- it just wouldn't feel right.
Towns are important because they're the spots where you do your army management. If you want to expand your army or change classes, you have to do it at a town. This all costs gold, of course. If you have enough cash, you can build your dream unit. Anyone you lose in battle is gone for good, but a wealthy army will always be able to find a replacement -- maybe even better than the unit he's replacing!
Class changes and recruitment are the only ways to spend your gold, so don't be afraid to spend the money on a good unit.
Again, though, you'll have to wait until chapter 2 to do any spending.
Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks
Towns are important because they're the spots where you do your army management. If you want to expand your army or change classes, you have to do it at a town. This all costs gold, of course. If you have enough cash, you can build your dream unit. Anyone you lose in battle is gone for good, but a wealthy army will always be able to find a replacement -- maybe even better than the unit he's replacing!
Class changes and recruitment are the only ways to spend your gold, so don't be afraid to spend the money on a good unit.
Again, though, you'll have to wait until chapter 2 to do any spending.
Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks
Mon Jun 29, 2009 2:57 am
Mogri wrote:
- Some of the intro is written now. I'm undecided on how it will play out. I think that rather than lump all of the exposition at the beginning of the game, I'm going to intersperse flashbacks with gameplay. Pepsi Ranger, take note.
- Some of the intro is written now. I'm undecided on how it will play out. I think that rather than lump all of the exposition at the beginning of the game, I'm going to intersperse flashbacks with gameplay. Pepsi Ranger, take note.
There's something to be said also for working exposition into the dialouge of normal scenes, as well. A lot of that tends to be "As you know, your father, the King of Example, declared war on our hated enemies the Shadowlanders, who live in the land of darkness, sixteen years ago, before you were born", but it can be done well. It's my preferred method of exposition, but it really depends on what's right for your plot.
It does require you to trust your audience that having John A go "Stand aside commoner. We'll handle this", will indicate to them that there's a nobility or upperclass, that John A is a member of it, and that he's disdainful towards commoners, and you don't need to say any of that, but I feel the results are well worth it.
Mon Jun 29, 2009 6:29 am
I agree, that's pretty much ideal. It's harder to pull off in the context of an SRPG, though. Final Fantasy Tactics does it decently when it does it; I'm going to attempt something similar in certain battles, but for the most part, it'll be battle, cutscene, battle.
The entirety of chapter 1 is an intro. It's pretty much "here is the premise on which the rest of the game will be based." I could've done most of it as one big cutscene, but I think the player is less likely to nod off this way.
Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks
The entirety of chapter 1 is an intro. It's pretty much "here is the premise on which the rest of the game will be based." I could've done most of it as one big cutscene, but I think the player is less likely to nod off this way.
Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks
Wed Jul 01, 2009 5:37 am
The more I think about it, the surer I am that I don't like the level-up system as currently implemented.
If you've played any Fire Emblem for any appreciable amount of time, you know that stat gains are completely random. Some units are more likely to grow in certain areas, but in all cases you have a chance to get a great level up or a really abysmal one. Sometimes you can get no stats at all.
I implemented a similar system in the Phantom Tactics demo. Careful observers might have noticed that units' stats weren't fixed. That's because at level 1, all units start out with one implicit level up. So they randomly get a helping of bonus stats in addition to their class's base stats.
I'm scrapping it. Every class will grow at a fixed rate. Instead of having a 40% chance to get a point of defense, the Bandit will now earn .4 defense per level.
To offset the sameishness of everyone's stats (so that not every level 4 Fencer has exactly the same stats), I'll give every unit a random amount of bonus stats at creation time. This will be mostly negligible (what's one HP more or less by the time you're level 10?), but will retain a similar aesthetic.
I have to admit to having a bad taste in my mouth all along from the random stat growth. All I can say is that I was playing a lot of Fire Emblem when I came up with the idea for this game.
What I'm doing right now: The ability help menu. Players of the demo might have been constantly referring to the manual to figure out what their units could do (even if knowing didn't make much of a difference one way or the other). The next time you see the game, you'll be able to get in-game help on a unit's special abilities.
Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks
If you've played any Fire Emblem for any appreciable amount of time, you know that stat gains are completely random. Some units are more likely to grow in certain areas, but in all cases you have a chance to get a great level up or a really abysmal one. Sometimes you can get no stats at all.
I implemented a similar system in the Phantom Tactics demo. Careful observers might have noticed that units' stats weren't fixed. That's because at level 1, all units start out with one implicit level up. So they randomly get a helping of bonus stats in addition to their class's base stats.
I'm scrapping it. Every class will grow at a fixed rate. Instead of having a 40% chance to get a point of defense, the Bandit will now earn .4 defense per level.
To offset the sameishness of everyone's stats (so that not every level 4 Fencer has exactly the same stats), I'll give every unit a random amount of bonus stats at creation time. This will be mostly negligible (what's one HP more or less by the time you're level 10?), but will retain a similar aesthetic.
I have to admit to having a bad taste in my mouth all along from the random stat growth. All I can say is that I was playing a lot of Fire Emblem when I came up with the idea for this game.
What I'm doing right now: The ability help menu. Players of the demo might have been constantly referring to the manual to figure out what their units could do (even if knowing didn't make much of a difference one way or the other). The next time you see the game, you'll be able to get in-game help on a unit's special abilities.
Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks