Sophie’s Screenshot Saturday #1
Posted: August 20, 2021 Filed under: Patreon Leave a comment »
It begins!
I am still very much in the planning stages of this project, but I have made a start. Mostly this has involved jotting down every random idea into a notes app; this is building up an idea of characters, world, the kind of story I want to tell. I’m not committing to any idea yet, just adding them all and seeing what comes out of it. There are also a bunch of tech notes and reminders to myself in there, things I think are important. Anyway I’m just going to copy/paste those notes below, I will probably have to find a better way to keep them organised sometime though, perhaps a workflowy list I can share with you?
Also lately I’ve been studying tech to render interiors in blender, so I can cut away walls to show the inside, but without light passing through the cut-away as if there isn’t a wall there. I was really worried about this one tbh but I managed to find the solution relatively easily!
My current notes file:
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Names?
- Composing Destiny
- Shminal Shmantasy
- Role Prayers
- A group of badasses have grown tired of your shit and they have swords so watch the fuck out asshole
- Courageous
The core HAS to be about educating yourself, not trusting authority, and FIGHTING for truth when you find it.
I picture a lead character yelling at a group of people discussing a serious topic when nobody in the group is actually going to check what the deal is, they sit around making decisions based on assumptions
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IF A CHARACTER’S MOTIVATIONS AREN’T SECRET, MAKE THEM CLEAR!
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Could be the lead character is someone who is afraid of everything ALL THE TIME but they try to be brave to live up to the legacy of a good friend they lost?
“Why do I have to do this?! I’m afraid to meet a stranger at the door, it should be someone else! … but no one else would come… it has to be me. I hate this.” *goes forward*
They don’t have the energy for the adventure, they want to be at home, but they know that if they don’t help they won’t be able to live with themselves. By (much!) later on they are destroying themselves just to do what others SHOULD be doing, perhaps they need to learn to lean on the friends they found, to ask to take a break. To recognise that they deserve to not be tearing themselves apart, that if they do the fight will be lost too soon.
How does this character react to meeting someone who is not afraid and runs into danger to prove themselves?
Possible intro: the ground shakes the village, in the village meeting later, an elder says the monster in the mountain must have awoken, that it will come and attack the village. But everyone prefers to believe it was just an earthquake, already behind them. The monster of the past was probably just a myth after all. When called upon by the elder to go see for themselves, nobody goes, except the most fearful person in the village. They eventually find out the monster in the mountain is real, that people want to assume terrors from past ages are gone, so they do, but the brave continue to fight because they must.
Facing the monster in the mountain, who mocks the trembling would-be hero, it takes several turns of “too scared to move!” Whilst the monster uses their turn to break the seals/chains holding them back, before our hero finds the nerve to move themselves and fight the monster of the mountain before it can regain its full strength. (Perhaps the finishing blow should be indirect? Like hitting a support beam causing large rocks to crush the monster? – the character shouldn’t be super powered and capable of anything just because they found their nerve for a moment, they have a long way to go before they are really strong)
*thinking to themself, after coming back to the village and everyone wants to praise them and is all ‘we can leave the scary stuff to them’ ‘we can rely on them’* “What? Brave? A hero? I’m not! I just did the things you should have done! Don’t act like all the problems are for me to deal with now! Why don’t you ever face them?!”
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DON’T LIMIT YOURSELF! COME UP WITH AN IMPOSSIBLE IDEA AND *THEN* FIGURE OUT HOW IT CAN WORK
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It’d be cool if the battle system was dice based, but passively – no waiting for dice it roll etc, just see the dice pop out like RPG damage numbers normally pop out, along with the sum damage. Expose what weapons do what damage etc – have a fully working pen&paper battle system with rule descriptions all come together, but playable without needing to think so much about the *system* or values just like a video game RPG.
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Use proper version control FROM THE START!
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Don’t use legacy animation system!
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“This world has monsters in it.
That means that part of living in this world, is fighting monsters.
We don’t concede to them, we don’t placate them,
Each and every one will kill you and the ones you care about,
So we fight. We can’t live in this world if we don’t fight.”
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A character who can speak to their god by entering their own heart, but their god turns out to be just a reflection of themselves, only as pure as their own conscience, only as kind as their love – and just as lost as them.
“Why don’t they hear my voice? My teachings? Naive child: they do hear, and they hear in their own voices. I speak to all, and all speak as I.”
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Trains are cool, cooler than airships even.
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Must have absurd extensive exposition guy (who expos it’s JUST A MOMENT AFTER IT’S OBVIOUS just like no no kuni movie king guy)
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Needs collectible mini-game to play with NPCs!!!
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Needs cute friendly creatures! (I think they say “Nar!” Like Narrrrrr to purr or NARRR to growl or naaaaaar to howl?)
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FISHING!
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Can’t trust prophecy – you need to act as if fate is working against you, because it is. Without preparation and dedication a prophecy cannot come true.
“Things didn’t happen as they were supposed to! Your prophecy was wrong!”
“Pah! “Supposed to”! “Supposed to happen” is the things you don’t allow to happen any other way. They only ACTUALLY happen when you don’t screw it up! My prophecy was perfect until you half-assed it!”
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For the world map, it could be cool if it was literally like a map, eg wainwright line work, maybe with some light watercolours to make it pop?
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Dice components: collect different dice, apply them to spells/weapons/abilities to optimise as you want, the dice will be automatically rolled when you perform the action to determine the outcome
Alternate: you have a ‘hand’ of dice, and when choosing an ability, you roll a die from your hand. When you run out you reshuffle and get a new hand, or get a new hand anytime but at a cost
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Could have multiple points around a battlefield, and be able to move to them on your turn. Option of area/spatial tactics but without a grid and worrying about speed etc. Places will depend on battlefield too, and enemies might move and need to be cornered or something?
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A stopwatch boss, if you clear part of the game WAY too fast for a casual run, you are attacked by the stopwatcher, who is invulnerable for 5 minutes and you can’t escape from the fight either. They say things like “slow down!” “Take a toilet break!” “Respond to chat already!” “Have you tried counting steps?” And maybe suggests other things to do to pass the time until the game can resume. This boss should be mandatory for speed runs somehow, that is, not so long to fight that it’s better to run other parts of the game slowly to avoid triggering it. Try to put it about halfway through a run so it comes up when speedrunners could do with a break.
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Things relating to magic could be “faeried” – spells are fairy words, seals are faerie walls, fairied chains? Is this super rubbish? Why would magic stuff be called that?
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Battle transition ideas
- couple of random slashes through the screen, segments fall away?
- Burn away as though the screen is made of paper?
- Flash freeze and shatter?
- Roll up screen like it’s a scroll?
- Page turn?
- (Could kind of zoom out to see the screen as just an illustration in the book? Could even have text on the pages relating to the story at the time?)
- Have each enemy tear through the screen in their own way? Would probably need to have all possible battle scenes and enemies for a location pre-loaded for this to work
- Could have this just for bosses?
- Maybe it wouldn’t be *tooo* much work? it’s maybe 1 extra animation per monster, and the screen pieces & camera can be part of that animation
- Gunshots shatter the screen?
- Screen tears up like paper?
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Perhaps a character who has had other people’s crap imposed on them (part of a cult? Regular shitty culture?) and their body was changed in a way that was pretty devastating for them, they have begun remaking their body as they want using cyborg parts? They stay as cheerful as they can but get FURIOUS when people are doing stuff that negatively effects others for any reason.
Picturing a spunky kid that beats up bad guys using awesome legs they build for themself?
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A royal character who doesn’t totally suck? “I stepped back to allow democracy, I thought it was right, but they did not help the people, and tried to have me killed when I objected. I will reclaim my title and save my kingdom. A monarchy can be good, but until there is not a single person suffering in my kingdom the monarchy is a failure! I am a failure! I will right my wrongs! And the wrongs of those I granted power!”
I imagine them living in hiding, on the run from assassins? Maybe they have a really stupid disguise.
Maybe they later realise the real reason their “democracy” didn’t work was that it was just claimed by rich nobles, it should have been for the people of the kingdom?
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Consider; Make it fucking metal.
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Using MSAA should hide weird edges where real-time geometry masks stuff over the pre-rendered BG? Expensive for mobile tho… make it a toggle able option? Battery save option? Maybe just a generic unity quality option.
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Don’t forget to brainstorm awesome fantasy location possibilities! Don’t leave it too late!
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And that’s all I have to show for myself right now!
My plan for the next week or so is to continue to jot down EVERY idea that interests me (trying to stop myself from stopping myself too – I’m writing down even unfeasible ideas because I want to go into this project with COURAGE! I’ll decide if they are *really* unfeasible later), and to try putting together a test scene with several camera shots – I want to confirm that I can do as much on that third page of my notebook as possible. The more of it I can do, the prettier a game I can make and the more visually varied it can be.
Thanks so much for your support!
Hey, want a Pumpking map?
Posted: August 20, 2021 Filed under: Patreon Leave a comment »I’ve been meaning to make one of these since I finished the game and finally got around to it today, it only took me a month 😛
(to be fair though, these are a real pain to make, I had to stitch it together from ~70 screenshots! D:)
Anyway this month has been pretty tough for me creatively but your support has definitely made it significantly easier to get through, so I wanted to give you a little something as thanks! 🙂
If you haven’t played Pumpking yet; I posted about it here, made it playable on my itch.io page, and put a version on the pico-8 forum (scroll down if you want to test the 60fps version!)
Oh make sure to download the map from this link below, patreon mangled the map for the post’s banner image 🙁
New Project Announcement!
Posted: August 20, 2021 Filed under: Patreon Leave a comment »I’ve been hinting at it for a while but my next project is going to be a PS1-era style RPG, with pre-rendered backgrounds, 3D (maybe turn-based) battles, a mix of characters who save the world. Think FF7-9, Legend of Dragoon, Chrono Cross – but by me and HD.
It’s the kind of project I’ve experimented with before, but always had to abandon because I needed to pay for food and stuff (human needs are SO annoying!). I’ve developed all the skills I need for a project like this but it’s absolutely going to be a challenge – it will take a lot of work and a lot of time.
Honestly, I don’t know how much time it will take yet, I don’t even have a vague idea. A year? Two years? Twenty years? Hopefully once I really get into it I’ll have a better idea, and I can adjust the design so it’s something that can be finished reasonably.
The thing is there’s no way I can make this without your support, so I want to let you know what you’re getting in for as soon as possible; there are going to be a couple of changes to the patreon:
For All patrons:
- I’m planning to post a huuuuuuge dump of screenshots, renders, notes and such every single Saturday (we can call it “Screenshot Saturday” or something :P). This will partly replace me dropping every single thing I do on twitter to make sure you’re getting cool secret stuff, but also make sure you’re kept up to date with what your pledges are enabling (something I’ve not been great at until now tbh).
- Access to my GDD (Game Design Document) once I start it. This will be a living document that describes the game I’m trying to make in as much detail as I need.
- The same old stuff as ever – whatever you can access now, you can still get. Plus as usual any jam games I make or little prototypes, systems, etc – I’ll make sure they are available to you.
For $5+/Monthly Build Patrons
You will still get work-in-progress builds, but they won’t be monthly anymore. This is for two reasons:
- Monthly builds take up a not-insignificant amount of my time and energy. They usually take a few days to prepare, some almost a week. I love sharing playable builds with you but if I keep this up, I risk spending a third of my time working on builds when I could instead be adding to the project.
- I might not even have a build ready in the next couple of months – I want to take all the time I need to prepare, ensure my tech is solid, build a workflow etc. I don’t want to rush towards having something “playable” at the expense of cool stuff that might take a bit more time.
You will absolutely still get builds and I will make them for you as often as I can (if for no other reason than I love sharing my work with you! <3), but they could be a while.
Instead however it’s going to be monthly videos. I’ll talk in-depth about how things are going, what I’m working on, design philosophy, etc. And I’ll show you gameplay footage, behind-the-scenes blender stuff, explanations of techniques I’ve figured out… Plus if you have any Qs I can address them in detail in the next video.
I know that in a way, for the time-being at least, you’re getting less for your money… but I hope it will be enough and I think it’s going to be better for my work too. BUT if you have any ideas for other things you want to see from me monthly, I’m super open to hearing them!
Thank you so much!
I just want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for all of the support up to now, I’ve been able to make things that never would have been possible without you!
I hope that you can continue to support me with the new project and with these changes to the patreon, but if not I still want you to know that I love you for all the help you’ve given until now and that I am so grateful you thought my work was worth your pledge <3
About the game itself
It’s still in its very early stages, but tomorrow will be the first ‘Screenshot Saturday’ so you can see just where I’m at with it. (spoilers: it’s mostly notes, ideas, and testing blender tech).
The main goal however is this: I want something that rivals a PS1 Final Fantasy game in terms of scale and quality, whilst using modern techniques to have awesome HD pre-rendered environments. Also I want to tell a really good story. Which might be the most difficult/ambitious part of the project but we’ll see how it goes 🙂
Monthly Build 2017/11 – Robin Platformer!
Posted: August 20, 2021 Filed under: Patreon Leave a comment »Another month with a build of a not-quite current project (sorry!) but hopefully you don’t mind because it has a cute little robin <3
Next month’s build may or may not be roguelike stuff again depending on how long it takes me to finish Dead End and if I have any energy left after doing so…
Anyway! Windows/Mac/Linux downloads below, video of me talking about this above. Thanks for your support, I hope your November is going well! 🙂
7DRL over, I didn’t finish a game!
Posted: August 20, 2021 Filed under: Patreon Leave a comment »OK yeah so I might have been a bit too ambitious, but honestly I’m still really happy with what I managed! Two weeks ago I kind of got an idea for a game and a world the game could take place in and now it is actually kind-of taking shape!
That shape being, a tabletop RPG that (if you want) you can play with the computer being your GM, so it’s both TTRPG and a roguelike. And I know what you’re thinking “Sophie that is exactly the same as the project you were working on when you started your patreon.”
And you’d kind-of be right, BUT I have a much better idea of what I’m doing now, I’ve gotten over my absurd dislike of dice (Which you might have noticed since I am now a designer of dice?????)
honestly, my older rogulike approach was mostly to just take the *aesthetics* of a TTRPG and just make my idea of a roguelike, this is much more about cool role-playing in a cool world. I’m just, way more excited about this. Plus eventually all the cool stuff about that project (like different characters/AI having their own mental picture of the dungeons ~as they appears to them~) can be part of this project too. And for now I’ve done away with stuff that can leech a bunch of momentum and development time like 3D models and stuff, now it’s all crappy drawings and little plastic stands to hold them. If I want 3D models I can add them later (and honestly, I do want to add them, I love modelling cool 3D fantasy stuff)
anyway I should probably talk about what I did and didn’t manage to get done for the jam. Stuff I did and am super happy with are a character creator (automatically fills out your character sheet!), properly implemented all the main systems (objects/characters, properties, actions, map tiles, GM, UI), you can move around the map and perform basic actions, there is some simple procedural generation, I even learned coroutines and got them in at the last minute so an action can pause and wait for you to roll your dice IRL before it continues.
So that is all really cool, and I’m super happy I managed to get it all implemented within a week… buuuuuut of course that is an absurd amount of stuff and so I couldn’t do other things as well as all that, things like enemy AI, a looting/trading system, and even weapons don’t… do anything yet. Honestly I’m still thinking about how I want them to work in terms of the action system (specifically, should each weapon have one attack action, or should some have multiple, eg a sword that you can use and choose between a slash and a thrust?). Point is, there is still a lot left to do.
Anyway, I’m not done with this yet! I’ll be taking things a little easier to recover from pushing myself so hard over the last week, but I’ll keep working on this and it will probably be this month’s WIP build, if anyone is interested in that 🙂
oh and I even started work on a Player Handbook type deal because I’m a huge fucking nerd 😛
Hope you’re well <3
