Subtitle: A new year, a new studio update. We keep ourselves busy around here.


So, it's that time of the month for another new studio update. Although really, I just post studio updates whenever I want during the month. As long as it's within the month, it's fine, right?

Josh's Adventure has seen some more activity, but it has slowed down somewhat since the last update. The biggest news between now and the last update is the fact that JA now has it's own Wiki page.

Josh's Adventure RM Wiki

Surprising, yes? It was an odd choice to go ahead and do this. For one, I was so upset over the new rule of having to login to edit pages, that I swore to myself I would never use the feature again. Not to mention the fact that nobody even uses the RM Wiki anymore. But I decided to go ahead with it, because I learned I had already made an account (or one with my name was created for me), and I like to explore all possible avenues when advertising my games. The RM Wiki site for JA is created as a one-stop shop for people to get all the answers or information they might need. So, instead of browsing through the Josh's Adventure topic and the Quixotic Productions forums, you can find all information for the game in one, easy place. Makes for a really nice addition, I think.


If you've been keeping up with the JA topic or have seen the last studio update, you'd already know that I have plans to release sequels to Don't Move and FtNitH. Plans I'm beginning to question, really. Does the world really need more of this stuff? I know many people play the games and they're pretty fun to make, but I guess I'm just questioning whether I should bother with making them or not. I love listening to feedback on this kinda stuff, so please voice your opinion on it.


By now, you're probably asking what the "Calculator Announcement" stands for. Well, I was saving that for the end here. One thing I've wanted to make on rpg maker for a long time now (at least since Arcadia Mania back in Nov 2008) was a calculator. I don't know why, maybe just to prove it could be done. But for most of today, I tried to make a workable calculator. It took me a good while to figure out how I would do it, and eventually I got down a nice formula.

You have numbers one through nine to choose from, and four common math symbols; addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. You simply pick one number, what you want to do with it (add, subtract, etc), choose a second number, and check the equals sign next to the symbol to get your answer.

I had to make quite a few cuts to make this work, however. I originally wanted to make one equals sign that would do all of this, but the limit on event pages is 90, so there was no way I could squeeze all that information in one event. So what I did is divide the equals sign into several parts, one for each math symbol. This means every equals sign handles 81 equations each, just barely under the limit. The event page limit also forced me to cut another idea I had; the number 0. It was something I wanted to add when I first started making this, but with the 90 event page limit, I had to cut it so I got under the limit. It didn't add much anyway. Either 100 pages, or 81 pages.

I'm also planning on making it themed after Josh's Adventure, having a level setup and custom graphics to recreate the look and feel of JA.

So, this little side-project of mine will likely be available before the end of the month, and will be available on the Mag, with a pending release for the Pav. Hope you'll look forward to seeing it!

I approve of the calculator idea, on account if follows my favorite mantra: "Because I can."

Figure I'd keep posting in here, seeing as how the game will be nearly complete.

Yesterday I finished doing all of the subtraction equals answers. It kinda sucks that I have to have four equals signs, but if that what makes this work, I can't complain much.

Copying and pasting is my new best friend. It's making my work go so much faster. What I'm doing is basically taking the finished addition equals code, double checking to make sure everything is good, and copying and pasting for other equals signs, making changes to make it fit. When you're dealing with 86 event pages, you want to cut down on your workload as much as possible. Although....typing this out, I'm reminded that I haven't changed an important part of the new subtraction code, and I'll have to get in there and change it.

This will probably be finished on the 12th.

I'm rather interested in this...

You know, I made a piano mini-game that would have required a single event needing around 250 pages. That even needed to be location on the possition the 'party' is standing on. What I ended up doing was having three different events, and depending on what section of the puzzle the player was on, I'd move the appropriate even right on top of the party.

Perhaps you'd be able to use something like that? I may be completely missing the target here, but I thought I'd suggest it. Also, what range of numbers are we talking about here? 1-9 or like 1-100 (how many digits can you 'type' in).

Basically the range is 1-9. I would have added 0, but since that would go over the 90 page limit (taking it to 100), I cut out zero so now there's 86 event pages. So the game won't be useful for anything complicated.

Actually, you just gave me an idea. The way the game is set up now, you simply move a character around a little area that's the calculator, and check numbers to input. But what if I tried to make a custom menu? It's something I haven't tried before, and the challenge might be right up my alley. I better look into this...

Did a bit more work today.

Unfortunately it seems that a custom menu is too far out of reach. I downloaded Lantis's RPG Maker Muisc Editor, and messed around with it to see how a custom menu worked, since I haven't ever made anything like it before (about the closest thing I've done is the bridge section of Josh's Adventure, which uses a similiar structure). It works out like this: you place events around the player character, and use switches as touch events to alter switches to make events somewhere else do things. What I learned that turned off the prospect, however, is the same problem holding me back from doing other things with this program; event page limitations. The events placed around the character do most of the work, and there's simply not enough to make a custom menu work. Even if I, say, moved the character to a different spot and used a new batch of events, there's still not enough pages to make this kind of thing work. Which is kind of a bummer; I really wanted this to work. But it's not meant to be.

In any case, I finished the multiplication answers today. I also went back to the subtraction coding and fixed a big mistake I left behind. In the page condition, I forgot to change the switch that recognized that the event was solving a subtraction problem, instead of an addition problem. So I went back and fixed about 85 pages of changes. Then I went to the multiplication event and changed 85 of event page conditions to make it work properly. If it sounds like a lot of work, that's because it is. But don't feel bad for me; this is a labor of love.

Tomorrow I'm going to finish up the division answers, and after that I'm going to begin making custom graphics for the numbers and symbols. I hope that I'll have this finished by the 12th, and I'll kick off my first resolution with style. viewtopic.php?f=79&t=8465

I finished up the division answers, which mean most all of the coding stuff is finished.

I also labored on some custom graphics, which look pretty good. But I may have run into another roadblock. I can't make the custom graphics face one direction and stay that way. And I can't find any way to stop that. So I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do from here.

There isn't really anything you can do about that. You CAN make the very first thing that happens is that the events re-face the propper direction. But that still leaves a split frame of seeing another sprite. Using events in this method is usually made for custom menus where the characters don't directly interact with the events, or if the events are in such a possition where you can only approach them from only one direction. Also, Do Not Start also keeps them from changing, but that only works if you have something taking over to said event.

What if you set the event to Do Not start and then placed an event beside it that is set to check. All that even does is take over the event in question, and then just duplicated the side event on the other three sides.

I'm not sure what your layout is, so there's no way I can say for sure... but maybe that'll give you some leads.

I also considered that with the Do Not Start, but the buttons are too close together to really make that work. There's only one space between the events.

Here's my new plan: make a hybrid custom menu/walking system. I haven't tried to make this work yet, so I can't be specific, but what I'd like to do is have you choose numbers and symbols with a custom menu, and use the character outside of the custom menu to clear the board and check the equal signs. It would be a little more annoying to type in and find the answer, but I think this is the most logical solution.

Or you could only approach the numbers from one side. Which I would like to avoid. I gotta play around with this some more.

I worked on the game a bit today.

I did some preliminary testing to figure out how this should all work. Thankfully my little hybrid custom menu seems to be working pretty well. I had some trouble wrapping my head around the concept, but with a little help from Lantis's custom menu, I got it figured out. I have basically a groundwork of events, with custom graphic events placed on top. When you type in a number, it'll show up in a bar below your character. The cursor is moved with the left and right buttons, and it changes color as you move it around. With events on top of events, I was really worried my idea wouldn't work, but it did, and wonderfully to boot.

Now I have to convert my previously free-roaming idea into a custom menu system, which is difficult to figure out how to do. I wanted to have the player simply 'check' the left and right symbols to activate a number, but I'm worried that that same event page limit will make it unfeasible. So, I have the check event (where you confirm you want to use a number or symbol), above the player, so they simply move up and press X. Below the character will be the warp to leave the custom menu, and either check the equals sign or clear.

Unfortunately, thanks to this odd hybrid custom menu system, I won't be able to release this on the 12th like I originally intended. But I'm still hopeful that I'll get this finished before January ends.

Complete and total agony.

Basically, I accidently wiped my scenario data.

While trying to re-configure some new graphics, I accidently replaced my scenario with a new one.

And I have no backups. Which means that this game I've been working hard on for a week is mostly gone......
This really sucks.

On the other hand, it's not a complete bomb, since I was in the process of re-configuring the game anyway. The sad thing is, I was thinking earlier today if it would be easier just to start from scratch from some event code (not all), and I guess I only have one choice left.

....f*ck, couldn't the system data have been overwritten instead?

So I guess I'm back to starting this all over again.

Unfortunately, this new development will overshadow my other bit of news that I did today, which is me making custom graphics for every symbol in the game. Thankfully that won't be deleted by accident. I think I may release this to the Mag once I'm finished, and maybe someone can use it. I learned from my mistake from the "Josh's Adventure" title, and have all the numbers in fixed diameters. That way, you won't find some numbers to be larger than others, which is a misstep I made when first using custom graphics.

Anyhoo, I have to get back to work. I can promise you this won't be finished by the 12th, but I'm still shooting for a January release.

That hurts so bad, I think I can feel your pain through the interenet. That sucks horribly man.

I've had something similar happen to me a few years back with Arc Arath. Afterwards, I made at least 3 different backups after ANY changes. One on my computer at home, one on my usb flash drive keychain, and one at work. I also send the work to SK to back up as well. And every now and then, I make an emergency backup and store it away just in case something went wrong and I copied the mistake on all the backups. I do this every month or so.

As the church guy says from Left 4 Dead 1: "Better safe than sorry."

Indeed. Usually I play it safe, but with such a short project, I didn't see the need to do it. I've learned my lesson.

I did some work to recoup, and starting from scratch isn't easy, because it's tough to remember what I had where. I even had to make some events just to reboot my memory on how things worked from the gone scenario.

But I think there's some good potenial here. Like a wildfire, everything is destroyed, but the new plants come back stronger. Likewise, I'm finding myself with more motivation to finish this and making decisions is going more smoothly.

Although there is still one problem that is bugging me. By my calculations, this shouldn't be a problem, but I still worry over the event page limit. If I run into another roadblock with the dreaded limit, I feel I may be out of options.

Hey....typing that out just gave me an idea. I'm going to type out the equations and see if I can figure out if I'll have that problem.

My main concern is the event that you check to signal you want to use a number or symbol. So let's do the math:
1 page that has nothing (first page)
9 pages for the first nine numbers
1 page for warning to use a symbol*
4 pages for using a symbol
1 page warning to use a second number*
9 pages for second numbers

Which equals to about 25 pages altogether.

*This may be either 1 or 9. It depends how I can set this up.

So the problem solely lies on how well I can use the system to do what I want it to do. I'll need to do some testing and research to figure out how this will work. I need to know what page the maker will go to first if conditions are met for both pages, then work forward (or backward) from there.

Last post for today, I promise.

Keep your chin up, folks.

Yesterday and today I got a bit done. Yesterday was coding, today was custom graphics.

I still don't look forward to all the solutions to every equation I have to type out. Which is 81 times 4, equals 324 solutions. Not going to be fun to type those all out AGAIN.

(Sorry if this post is rather small and to the point, but the first post I made that was longer got deleted for some odd reason. I'm getting really pissed losing stuff like this!)

Been sick, so very little progress done.

What should have been a nice, quick project has turned into a nightmare that's taking forever to finish.

I'm feeling better, and made more progress into this project.

I've developed a system where, after you get your answer from the equals sign, you'll see custom graphics of the equation show up, so you get the entire format in custom graphic form. I also have been tiding up some loose ends, and am nearly finished with the game. I just need to make one more custom graphic (of a zero), and punch in all the equation answers and Ill be ready to finish this up.

Today and last night I pounded out all of the equation answers. So, the title is basically 100% finished right now! Of course, that doesn't mean I'm finished with the game. Now that I have all the answers to all the possible equations, I have to test every answer to every question.

HEY, WHO WANTS TO HELP PLAYTEST THIS SUCKER!??

So, after playtesting, I'm going to implement a nifty, new idea. I had originally planned this for Josh's Adventure, but the numerous angles you can use for this calculator make the idea perfectly suited to this game.

A password/cheat function. After typing in a specific combination of numbers, you can check the "password box", and enable cheats to play around with. This does such things like changing the display, making certain numbers come up, changing the screen color or music, and even get a sneak peek at the original calculator design.

So, after playtesting and adding in passwords, this baby will be out before the end of January. Rejoice!

EDIT: And just as an aside, it's nice someone other than me noticed that Q comes before R and P, and corrected the order of the development studios.

Don't look at me, I'm waiting for Josh's Adventure.

If all things stay steady, I'll have this finished and released within a couple of days.

Spend a ton of time working on this game today. At the end of the development cycle, you're so eager to release what's nearly finished but hesitant because it might not be complete. So I'm happy, anxious, and a little nervous all around.

This little baby has been in development for two weeks (and feels like a lot longer). The game itself uses over 150 switches. I've had to deal with a soul-crushing memory loss. I've sunk hours and hours into this. I'm hoping at least one person will play through this and mess around with it, because I've invested quite a bit into this 'little' project since I started.

So, let's talk a bit about it, eh? For anyone interested in when this little gem will be available, I'm a little hesitant to say. I've done a ton of work, and there's really not much left to do, but at the same time, I want to play with the finished project and perfect it. Eventually though, I'll have to release it, and I think I'll try and get this out on the 22nd or 23rd. It's a big step back from the original January 12th release date, but I've had some huge setbacks with this little project.

When you download the game and boot it up, what will you find? You'll be able to use a fully-working calculator system, with 1-9 number inputs and the basic + - x / math symbols. Features include a custom menu for selecting numbers and custom made graphics.

There's also a fun password/cheat system intergrated into the game. After typing in a formula and checking the password box, you can activate fun cheats. Most are silly, some are cool. All of the password answers will be included in a readme, which will be available with the game file, and also a sticky post on the Quixotic forum.

Here's some examples of what you'll find:

Zeroes! cheat:
Type in 9-4 and check the password box. All of the custom graphics will turn to zeroes.

Negative Zero cheat:
Type in 1-1 and check the password box. Now, anytime you enter in a subtraction problem that equals zero, it will be a -0 instead of a 0. I figure someone out there must prefer -0, so I included that option.

Full Division cheat:
When you type in a formula, you only get three spaces maximum of an answer. While this is fine for most answers, some division problems extend well beyond the three limit. So, type in 7/7 and check the password box. Now the limit has dramatically extended from three to ten, giving you a more complete answer.

So instead of getting 1/7= .14
you'll get 1/7= .142857143

Original Design cheat:
To see what the original concept calculator looked like, type in 3+3 and check the password box.

Jumpman cheat:
To change your PC to Jumpman from Quixotic's Donkey Kong, type in 1/4 and check the password box. Mama mia!


And many more are available. I spent most of today making sure all of these cheats were working correctly. Right now there are 26 cheats in the game, and I'm still trying to brainstorm to add even more to the total.

That's it for now! Look forward to this baby in a couple of days!