Update:

Okay, Scenario Card 2 is done. I managed to do the last area with 1700 space to spare. I had to keep out a few small scenes I wanted to add, but anything I was going to cover in them can wait till the next area. The cards still not perfect, but I'm happy with it overall. I sent it to Navane for playtesting. I'm going to take a bit of a break while he's doing that. Once I get his opinions I'll be going over it again to do some micro managing.

I should be starting up Card 3 next week sometime.

Update:

I went ahead and started work on Scenario card 3. I made the Perago Marsh and a town in the dungeon editor. The marsh ended up being on the bigger side, but I like it. I added 2 cutscenes and some party interactions in the town. I also made a couple puzzles. They're pretty simple stuff so it wasn't too hard to make as far as technical stuff goes. One of the puzzles expands the entire marsh. It's pretty much flipping levers to control flood gates.

I also have planned out the next boss battle. It's going to be a pain in the ass to make. The battle will be like a memory mini game. It's going to be a 3x3 grid of plants. You try to select the one where the boss is hiding in. If you're wrong you will have to fight one of the basic enemies in the area. You have to select the boss three times before you end up killing it for good. I'm hopefull I'll be able to do it seemlessly.

On a side note I just posted my Speedy Contest entry for download.http://www.pavilionboards.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25754
The review is here.http://www.pavilionboards.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25734

Any feedback is welcome. Sadly it's only in PS3 format.

I tried to submit it here at the mag, but for some reason I couldn't log into the main site to do it. I don't know if my passwords are different or what the deal is. For the time being the links will have to do.

Is there some sort of hint that helps give away where the boss will be hiding, or is there gonna be some distinguished pattern going on? 'Cause if it's completely based on luck, I would like to point out this video. Skip to 10 minutes in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJYinnVnsFM

I've been pondering that. I don't really want it to be a random thing. I plan on testing out some pattern ideas once I get the whole grid selection events done. If I do end up having to go the random route I plan on increasing the chances you get into a fight with the boss every time you beat a smaller enemy. It will come down to how much space I'm willing to give up to make a pattern or a hint type thing work. I can think about it all I want, but I won't know for sure until I'm knee deep in code.

Update:

Well, there hasn't been too much progress the last few weeks. Work has been hectic. Between that and hitting the gym for 2+ hours everyday I've had no free time. Even when I've had a bit of time I've been to lazy or sore to want to do anyhing.

But, that doesn't mean there hasn't been ANY progress. I fininshed the boss mini game grid thing. It worked out pretty good. There is a random pattern to it so you don't need to worry about it being cheap. I still need to make the scenes surrounding it. I also just finished making Loxley the port town. I'm happy with the design of it. I haven't done anything scenario wise in it.

Navane finished his testplay of card 2 and had some excellent feedback and recomondations. RIght now I'm going back and reworking dialogue. He's also been really helpful in this department. With his help I'm redefining Norah's character. So yeah, I have to rework a lot of the scenes after she joins the party. Mostly just text stuff, but it's still a decent workload. I finished redoing the cutscene where she joins the party. Overall it is much better. It makes her a lot more compelling in my opinion. I just need to carry that over to all the other scenes.

I won't be working too much on new content until I'm done going back through everything. Hopefully work eases up a bit so I can get a little more free time.

Still to lazy to change my progress bar. It's probably around 25%. Probably more, but I'm not good at estimating. If any one wants to change it for me feel free.

Update:

Well, it's been a while. Not much to report until now though. The last few days I've done a decent amount of text changing. All of card one is complete and a few big scenes on the second. That might not sound like much, but there was a good deal of changes I had to make to the cutscenes to reflect the dialogue tweeks. That of course means the tedious task of searching through pages of crap before finding what you're looking for. I'm really happy with the changes so it's worth the headache. I'm praying I can finish the rest of my text changes within a week or so. Then I can finally focus on creating new content.

Update:

All text changes are now complete. I can focus on moving forward with the game and actually create some new content. That is all.

I know, this update is overwhelmingly huge.

Update:

Sadly there hasn't been anything new added to the game in over a month, but I did manage to balance all of the battles that I have so far. That's wasn't exactly a small task either. I have over 2 full scenario cards filled up so far.

Summer months really, really kill my modivation. It's happened the last few summers in a role now. With any luck I'll get it back once the snow flies. IF Skyrim and Uncharted don't steal all of my spare time.

Apart from that hindering my progress, I've also thought up another game I would like to eventually work on. I've got some basic ideas fleshed out and I really like them so far. We'll just have to see what happens. I may start a thread about that game if I do start work on it.

Update:

Man, it has been forever since I’ve been in these parts. Probably don’t even remember me. Got some good news though. Finally pick Veil of Corruption back up a few days ago. Like I said, I may not work on it for LONG stretches of time, but I’ll never give up on it.

Anyway, I have made some significant progress in the few days that I’ve been working on it. The biggest hurdle was figuring out what all the damn switches I’m using were to. I had to do a lot of digging in events to figure it all out. Really wish I had labeled things better in my word document. Would have saved me a major headache. I managed to get everything in order though.

I decided to start small to get back into the swing of things. Finished up all of the NPC dialogue and shops in a small town. Nothing too major. From there I moved onto a rather large boss cutscene. I made the boss battle an interactive scene with a pseudo random generator. You have 9 spots the boss can be hiding. You have to pick the right spot 3 times to “kill” the boss. If you choose the wrong one you have to fight one of the normal enemies in the area. Luckily the coding for that was already done from before. I just had to make all of the talking and character movement around the battle. That was kind of a pain to intergrade the two together after letting it sit for so long.

From there I got to move on to a new town. I had the basic outside layout done. I made building interiors and connected everything via events. I placed most of the NPC’s, but haven’t given them dialogue yet. I typed out a good amount of it on my computer and ran it through spell check though. Just need to transfer it over.

I also made two smaller cutscenes and one major one. The big one is kind of a staple scene for one of my lead characters back-story. I’m really happy with the way that turned out. I was a bit worried how it would translate into RPGM1, but I like the result.

I hit a bit of a snag yesterday. I went to work on another cutscene when I realized after it you get the 5th party member. I had yet to make the party selection menu. As soon as I started working on that I could tell I was a bit rusty. I got the custom menu working great, but when it came to tracking which party spot I was on it got a bit messy. It would have been fine, but I have it set up so you see the characters in a circle and the 4 party spots on top. When you hover over a character they appear on top in a ghost graphic. When you select them they become normal. I had some trouble getting them to display properly on top. I think I was trying to make it more complex then it had to be. There probably still is an easier way to make it, but it works flawlessly. I’m happy with the results. It’s working nice and smooth and isn't ugly to look at.

The last challenge I’ve ran into is the overall story. It’s been so long I’m not 100 percent sure where I wanted it to go from here. I mean I have vague ideas and plans written down, but nothing very specific. I use to have a plan, but… I’m gonna have to go back through it all and really do some re-planning. This time I’ll be sure to write down all the little details. From specific cutscene ideas, to detailed environment ideas, to puzzles, and battles.

That’s what I got in a few days work. Still have a crap ton to do before this ever sees the light of day. Might release another demo if anyone is interested.

Yeah, that's pretty much the same way I am on Acre-age. I just have so much stuff in front of me that I almost never have time to work on it. But I, too, won't stop until it's complete.

Good to see some progress on this, though, since it was one of the best games at last year's MagCon.

As you noted, take time to write out ideas and it makes the game a lot faster to make.

me and lantis had a bet that i could make a more efficient version of his party swap. i posted the results in the dev board. you should take a look and see if its something you can use to tighten your party swap.

i hear you on the slow game making. i work so many hours that i just cant find time to devote to making my game. i think about it constantly and what i want to add i just cant seam to sit down and actually do it. maybe ill try to do some work on it in the next few weeks.

I looked over that thread, but unfortunately I don’t have a dex drive to download it myself. From what I read and can tell I pretty much did that same thing. Only differences is that for story purposes you can’t switch the main character so you only have 3 open slots. And looking at Lantis’ video I made it so when the arrow is hovering over the character the ghost graphic of that character would be displayed in the chair for a bit more visual flair. That adds to my overall data usage a little, but switch wise and number of pages sounds about right for the differences in characters.

Update:

I’ve made a decent bit of progress since my last post. I managed to finish up all the NPC dialogue for a larger sized town. I also made a few good size cutscenes. One is where you get the 5th member of the party. But the bulk of the work I got done is with character development. In VoC when you are in a town your party member walk around separate from the main character. If you talk to them it’s generally a bit longer conversations. I’m trying to really use this as a key mechanic to build character relations. I hammered out conversations with all party members in Loxley and The Alexander, which is a ship.

Right now I’m in the middle of a section where the ship is attacked. It’s been fairly challenging with the limited room on the default ship map. There’s a lot of action going on is such a small space. Trying to perfectly place events and characters at right times to make things look good has been irritating. It’s actually turning out better then I had anticipated though. With any luck I can finish this section by the end of the week. I work everyday though. I just want to get to the next area where I can create everything from scratch. I’m pretty excited about this upcoming part so I just want to get started already.

Overall progress has been pretty good and steady. First time in a long time I can say that. My 3rd scenario card is filling up fast though. When I first picked VoC back up I was around 2 blocks now I’m at 7. I’m a little concerned about how short scenarios will be, but I know it generally takes other people a lot longer then you to play through your game. Anyway, I really appreciate the continued support and interest in this game. Gives me the motivation to keep chugging along.

Warning, this is a huge wall of text.

Progress came to an abrupt halt last Monday when I fractured my skull in 3 places in the naval cavity. Spent a few days in the hospital and had to have surgery. For how bad the injury was I couldn’t have gotten any luckier. I should make a full recovery. Anyways, I didn’t really have the motivation to work on VoC for a while. Mainly because I had trouble seeing out of my left eye with the swelling. But I picked it back up a couple days ago and hit it hard again and made some decent progress.

Update:

I decided to ease myself into it and work on the next upcoming town. It is the first town I made using the winter-based tile sets with RPGM1. Once I sat down and started working I was really surprised on the limited tiles and options you have to work with for a snow-covered map. I went in blind with no real direction I wanted for the town’s layout. It took me a couple hours, but I’m extremely happy with what I ended up with. I’d definitely consider it one of my best maps so far. The only minor complaint I have with it is that the snow tiles make it have a bright and upbeat seeming atmosphere. If that makes any sense. The overall sense of the game is supposed to be much grittier.

At that point I was already in the map-making zone so I decided to get ahead of my scenario work and make another map/dungeon area. This time I had a pretty good sense of what I was making before hand. It starts with a small beach area then a jungle section and eventually into a refugee looking camp in the middle of a jungle. The beach and jungle section still needs some work, but I’m really proud of the camp area.

I’ve been really dreading working on the text. For a while it was hard to read with my swollen eye and the drugs I’m on make me drowsy so typing was putting me to sleep. Thankfully I was a bit ahead of myself and I managed to type out a rather large cutscene in my word document. I posted up in my bed with the laptop and forced myself to get to work on coding it last night. Once I got going I found myself in a groove and really enjoying myself. Then again I was high on my pain pills. I put in probably 8 hours in one sitting, something I haven’t done in years. I managed to bust out several key cutscenes and nearly finish with the whole ship raid section of the story. Hopefully I can finish that up today and move onto a whole new section of the game. A much less limiting area since I won’t have to use default maps.

Right now I have 2 full scenario cards and another 8 blocks filled up and 10 blocks of system data. It’s almost a guarantee at this point that I’ll have to use 2 system cards. Right now the game has been very linear and story driven, with almost no side quests. Hopefully near the end of the game I’ll have excessive system data that I’ll be able to open things up and add dungeons with a lot more exploring.

Well, back to typing out dialogue.

Update:

I’m gonna keep this one short and to the point. I finished up the ship area and am now on the next section. I’ve made a great deal of progress on it already. I’m looking at maybe another 3 cutscenes on it. I also built a puzzle and mini game. I’ve hit a bit of a roadblock however. I’m having trouble introducing the next playable character. Hopefully by the end of the day I’ll figure something out.

I’m quickly running out of Scenario space for card 3. I’ll probably have to switch it right after this section of the game. I still have to go back and do a LOT of fine tweaking and add a bunch of the smaller details to card 3 so hopefully I’ll have room to do that.

Sadly, my system space is running low too. I only have 25000 left. I’ll have to use the new system card a bit earlier then planned. I personally haven’t tested using two system cards yet, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to increase the damage of magic skills that the characters already know. That way they aren’t obsolete at higher levels.

After playing a bit of Diablo 3 I got an idea I might be able to apply to my game. Obviously D3 is extremely loot based and nothing is more satisfying then getting a rare drop. Also in D3 is a combo thing that gives you EXP bonuses for killing monsters consecutively. I started wondering how I could work something like that into my game.

My idea is to create an item called something like “Loot Bonus In” or “Rare Drop In.” Then when you enter a map you get, say 9 of those items. On your 10th fight you get a rare drop. After the fight it would take over to another event with like 10 random items that you can get. Maybe netting you a weapon from the next town or 5 Hi Potions. Considering I’m using a crafting system, maybe rare crafting items or a couple Stat Orbs. If you leave a map your “combo” would reset.

This was just a random thought I’d figure I’d post. I think it’d work pretty good with the loot system I already have in place. What do you guys think? Would it be something you’re interested in having in an RPGM1 game?