Magic and Monsters

Make games! Discuss those games here.

Moderators: Bob the Hamster, marionline, SDHawk

Post Reply
User avatar
marionline
Metal Slime
Posts: 673
Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 9:23 pm

Magic and Monsters

Post by marionline »

Image title image
Finally! :o
I got something like the most basic demo finished.
Plan was to release it before christmas, so people would have time to look at it...
Anyhow, if you looked at it and found a bug, spelling mistake or anything else you'd like to comment, this is the place to let me know. :)
Last edited by marionline on Thu Dec 29, 2016 11:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
marionline
Metal Slime
Posts: 673
Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 9:23 pm

Post by marionline »

Just like I saw TMC doing it in the 'Finish you damn game engine thread', I'll write about progress here once a while.
The Contest thread is so silent, and also I want to link back to theses posts here in updates of the demo.

News: I was lucky and had some people play test the beta version during the holidays for me. Yeahy! :)
I learned about spelling mistakes, passability issues, as well as troubles with the linux version.
User avatar
marionline
Metal Slime
Posts: 673
Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 9:23 pm

Post by marionline »

I uploaded a new version of the demo.

Image

bugfixes include:
- spelling improved
- water costs 25Y now
- signs added with hints
- enemies seem too strong (made heros become stronger on level up, partly reduced enemies HP by 20 (which is not much for the stronger enemies))
- poster script was not working... due to a missing tag ... now it's working and you can gain EXP by reading poster. (I still need to figure out where to hide all the posters on creatures.)
- yellow slime is not healed by fire anymore
- charm of defense can be equipped
- potions + medicine should now be useable in and outside of battles
- frog: no more 'win battle even if alive'
- Naoki preforms 'flee instead of die'
- weapon items got attacks
- medicine should now be useable outside battle
- there is a broom hidden in garden (and probably some new spelling errors as well)!
User avatar
marionline
Metal Slime
Posts: 673
Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 9:23 pm

Post by marionline »

I took a look again at the demo for the review contest. And well... it really needs some bug fixing. :o
Anyhow I decided my time would be better used if I continued working on the game rather than to go and bugfix the demo again.

So, here's a little progress report:
Image
Image

I am working on improving all the sprite/walkabout graphics. I already replaced the most important of them.

Image
The shoes already changed from dark violet to red
Also, I began adding textboxes for things. Room by room will be filled with many things the player can look at.
User avatar
marionline
Metal Slime
Posts: 673
Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 9:23 pm

Post by marionline »

Writing the texts is done, now I'm adding hidden items.
It's a bit difficult to find NPCs that are supposed to run the scripts
for finding items, because I only wrote down the textbox number, but
not where the NPC is located.

Image
Added 4 more rooms to the dormitory: bathroom, kitchen, balcony and
living room. Also in the teacher's building the 2nd ladder now takes you
to the headmisstres's office.

That meant I had the draw her sprite ! :o
Image
Does she look like an old and powerful witch/spellcaster?

Image
I added two missing walkabouts: Jiirou and Tatsuku.

Also looked up the main character's name to find a girl name, I would like the player to choose if the player wants to play as girl or boy. But I fear, that I might need to write dialogues twice.

Fixed the bug that plantoise monster gets added to the monsterpedia,
befor you saw it. Ravens will be added to monsterpedia now as well.
(Well, there are quite a lot bugs still to fix.)
User avatar
Bob the Hamster
Lord of the Slimes
Posts: 7658
Joined: Tue Oct 16, 2007 2:34 pm
Location: Hamster Republic (Ontario Enclave)
Contact:

Post by Bob the Hamster »

You could use global variables for gendered pronouns

Set them up with He/She Him/Her His/Hers when the player chooses their character, and then put them in textboxes with the ${V#} codes
User avatar
kylekrack
Liquid Metal Slime
Posts: 1240
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2014 8:58 am
Location: USA
Contact:

Post by kylekrack »

Bob the Hamster wrote:You could use global variables for gendered pronouns

Set them up with He/She Him/Her His/Hers when the player chooses their character, and then put them in textboxes with the ${V#} codes
Can global variables store strings? I thought using ${V#} would display a number value. Would it not be easier to have 6 string IDs set aside for pronouns and set those strings on character choice?

Eg.

Code: Select all

if(character == char:male) then(
    $0="He"
    $1="Him"
    $2="His"

    $3="he"
    $4="him"
    $5="his"
)
My pronouns are they/them
Ps. I love my wife
TMC
Metal King Slime
Posts: 4308
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 9:19 am

Post by TMC »

That was a typo, James meant ${S#} to embed a string.

The headmistress can only be reached by a ladder?
Does she look like an old and powerful witch/spellcaster?
Well, she does have a robe and grey hair.

I just noticed that your textbox is shaped like a scroll with a wax stamp and ribbon! Rather unusual; are they all like that? Also, there's a typo in your screenshot.
User avatar
marionline
Metal Slime
Posts: 673
Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 9:23 pm

Post by marionline »

Thanks for the idea about the gobal string variables.
They seem to be really useful for doing this! :D

Also, thanks for pointing out the spelling mistake. That's what happens if you're tired and take screen shots. ;-)

The whole school is set in a forest with large trees. People live in tree houses and there floors are linked by ladders.
The headmistress's bureau is located in the top floor of the teachers building, and so the old lady has to climb lots of ladders ...
*thinking* Well, that might not have been my best idea. (Maybe I add an elevator? Or I just make her complain about ladders in game.)
Thanks for asking! :D

Yes, the design is meant to be a scroll with a wax stamp and ribbon. I like different text box designs! :)
They are a bit difficult to do with the editor, you can not see how the text box will look like while drawing it.
I would like to include even more text box styles, for example one for way signs, or one for the crafting menu and one for the cooking menu.
I just need an idea how they should look like.
User avatar
kylekrack
Liquid Metal Slime
Posts: 1240
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2014 8:58 am
Location: USA
Contact:

Post by kylekrack »

That's a good point about seeing box edges while editing. What if the preview underneath the sprite palette displayed a full square of box edges? Is that far more complicated than just displaying the currently edited frame, as it does now?

EDIT: Alternatively, you might be better off using an external graphics editor and making box edges there, then importing them. I've finally started doing that with maptiles, and it can be massively helpful.
Last edited by kylekrack on Sat Jul 01, 2017 8:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.
My pronouns are they/them
Ps. I love my wife
User avatar
kylekrack
Liquid Metal Slime
Posts: 1240
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2014 8:58 am
Location: USA
Contact:

Post by kylekrack »

Dumbwaiter-like elevators could be a good alternative to ladders in a forest civilization setting. You could even rig it up so that when you enter one, a short animation plays, showing it lift up and out of the screen. Then it cuts to the top without a fade-out/in and a short animation shows the elevator enter the screen.

I made a little animation as an example because describing what I mean is difficult.
Image

Just a thought. Might be kinda cumbersome to script, anyway.
Last edited by kylekrack on Sun Jul 02, 2017 1:05 am, edited 3 times in total.
My pronouns are they/them
Ps. I love my wife
User avatar
marionline
Metal Slime
Posts: 673
Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 9:23 pm

Post by marionline »

@kylekrack: I like the elevator idea! :D And the animation you made looks great!
I guess something like this can be done with slices and some scripting.
There are still more important features missing, but I'll add an elevator to the nice-to-have-feature-list.

Right, an external graphic editor can also make drawing tile easier.
TMC
Metal King Slime
Posts: 4308
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 9:19 am

Post by TMC »

I guess you could draw box borders externally, but the way the edge pieces are places has a number of quirks (especially for very small boxes; smaller than textboxes), so a real preview in the sprite editor is needed. I started adding it, but got distracted...
Post Reply