[MicMotorhead]

A few of many areas I've built over the last couple weeks. Importantly, there are many more dungeons that shown here.
If you're wondering why Cybil (the player character) has no eyes on one of the screens, it's because it captured her in the middle of an eye blinking animation.

"Birch Grove 2"


"Seatown East"


"Country Road West"


"Red Oak"


"Country Road Mine"


"Temple Ruins"


"Road to Red Oak"


"Seatown West"


"Burgwall East"


I've got quite a few dungeons by now, but still many more to go.
The game is quite substantial already, especially when you consider the amount of possibly quite tricky puzzles/riddles that appear here and there in the game world. (it's the question mark statues found in certain locations). Most are optional, but if the player chooses to attempt solving them all, that will probably account for quite a lot of game time. At least if you suck as much at puzzles as I tend to do (I'm better at making them than solving them, fortunately!)

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 09 June 2019 - 11:55 PM

[MicMotorhead]

More work done over the last couple weeks. I'm surprised I'm still going. I usually lose motivation after a week or two, but by now I've been making stuff on the game at a high frequency for something like 4 weeks straight.

Among other things:

* Added 1 new throwable weapon.
* Added 3 new melee weapons.
* Added 1 new skill.
* Added 3 new enemy types and a poison mechanic.
* New playable areas.
* Lots of adjustments and bug fixes. The early game should be considerably easier now.
* Several NPCs added here and there.

Here's some screens:


Location of the first of 7 red towers.
Clear all red towers to gain access to the tower of the main villain of the game.



24 different types of enemies completed! Several with special skills.



10 different skills Cybil can learn to use!



Most (not all) of the melee weapons Cybil can find in the game world.



Puzzles and riddles! Mostly not on the critical path of the game, so they can be skipped
if you get stuck on them. Pictured: A puzzle right on the critical path. D'oh!

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 23 June 2019 - 09:17 PM

[Galladin]

MicMotorhead, on 24 June 2019 - 12:07 AM, said:

More work done over the last couple weeks. I'm surprised I'm still going. I usually lose motivation after a week or two, but by now I've been making stuff on the game at a high frequency for something like 4 weeks straight.

Among other things:

* Added 1 new throwable weapon.
* Added 3 new melee weapons.
* Added 1 new skill.
* Added 3 new enemy types and a poison mechanic.
* New playable areas.
* Lots of adjustments and bug fixes. The early game should be considerably easier now.
* Several NPCs added here and there.

Here's some screens:


Location of the first of 7 red towers.
Clear all red towers to gain access to the tower of the main villain of the game.



24 different types of enemies completed! Several with special skills.



10 different skills Cybil can learn to use!



Most (not all) of the melee weapons Cybil can find in the game world.



Puzzles and riddles! Mostly not on the critical path of the game, so they can be skipped
if you get stuck on them. Pictured: A puzzle right on the critical path. D'oh!

Nice!!! I especially like the looks on the castle, great work! Curious to see how the interface plays out in Cybil, it looks very old school in a good way. Keep up the good work and good to hear that you've managed to maintain focus & motivation, that's something I also tend to lose every now and then, goes in cycles I guess.

[MicMotorhead]

Galladin, on 24 June 2019 - 09:26 AM, said:

Nice!!! I especially like the looks on the castle, great work! Curious to see how the interface plays out in Cybil, it looks very old school in a good way. Keep up the good work and good to hear that you've managed to maintain focus & motivation, that's something I also tend to lose every now and then, goes in cycles I guess.

Thanks, I'm trying to do something decent with limited means And it is indeed quite old school, also when it comes to the interface. The buttons 1-7 and the letters listed for each action activate the 7 main actions. The 'B' key works as a shortcut to use the lowest level of healing item. So there's 8 different buttons that do something - some of which are combat-only. And of course there's the arrow keys, but that's about it. It's a bit like how you would control various 80's computer RPGs, but without the pain-in-the-*** inventory management
The thing I can see maybe bothering people is that there's no animations, but instead just this text scroll that updates you on the results of your actions.

I'm gonna explain the combat system in this journal eventually. It's not quite the standard Wizardry/Might&Magic type thing that it looks like. It's got some important twists.

Before this long-ish stretch of actually getting work done, I hadn't touched the project in 3 whole months. So yeah, I hope I can keep working at a decent pace. Otherwise it won't be done neither this or the next year. I'd love to finish it this year, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 27 June 2019 - 09:48 AM

[Galladin]

MicMotorhead, on 27 June 2019 - 12:47 PM, said:

Thanks, I'm trying to do something decent with limited means And it is indeed quite old school, also when it comes to the interface. The buttons 1-7 and the letters listed for each action activate the 7 main actions. The 'B' key works as a shortcut to use the lowest level of healing item. So there's 8 different buttons that do something - some of which are combat-only. And of course there's the arrow keys, but that's about it. It's a bit like how you would control various 80's computer RPGs, but without the pain-in-the-*** inventory management
The thing I can see maybe bothering people is that there's no animations, but instead just this text scroll that updates you on the results of your actions.

I'm gonna explain the combat system in this journal eventually. It's not quite the standard Wizardry/Might&Magic type thing that it looks like. It's got some important twists.

Before this long-ish stretch of actually getting work done, I hadn't touched the project in 3 whole months. So yeah, I hope I can keep working at a decent pace. Otherwise it won't be done neither this or the next year. I'd love to finish it this year, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Old school is very good thing IMO, sounds perfect. Animations are nice (and very easy to do with partial charsets in today’s MZX) but by no means are they necessary, especially if it means less time to work other things. ADOM was one of my favourite games growing up so not bothered at all!

As for the combat and your creative process, good luck! I am sure it will be finished one day, sooner or later

[MicMotorhead]

Totally fell out of this over the summer, but I'm still thinking about the game fairly often. Over the last 3 months, I've been prone to writing down things I need to change, rather than actually doing real work. But I haven't abandoned it at all. I just needed a long break, I guess. Hopefully, I'll get some real work done soon.

[Galladin]

MicMotorhead, on 19 September 2019 - 12:11 PM, said:

Totally fell out of this over the summer, but I'm still thinking about the game fairly often. Over the last 3 months, I've been prone to writing down things I need to change, rather than actually doing real work. But I haven't abandoned it at all. I just needed a long break, I guess. Hopefully, I'll get some real work done soon.

Good to hear you’re still on it - I’m in a similar situation with my own projects too. I think it is actually good to sometimes take time off as well, first and foremost it should be fun as this is a hobby for us all I suppose. Looking forward to this!

[Padz]

This looks really interesting, excited to try it out when you’re ready. Don’t worry about having breaks I’ve been on one for about 5 years but still come back to MZX every now and then.

[MicMotorhead]

Padz, on 29 September 2019 - 02:55 PM, said:

This looks really interesting, excited to try it out when you’re ready. Don’t worry about having breaks I’ve been on one for about 5 years but still come back to MZX every now and then.

If only I'd stick to it, I'd have it done in no time! (Or, well, some time.)
But I lost my mojo for almost 5 months, only finally getting back into it for real over the last handful days.
I had sort of a false start a while ago, where I did a couple small things, then left it on the floor again.
But it's supposed to be fun, so it's ok. It's not like I'm getting paid!

[MicMotorhead]

Some work done this week:

* Made the first boss battle!
* 1 of 7 dungeon towers completed.
* Added 2 new enemy types.
* A lot of balancing (the game is much easier now, especially in the beginning).
* Some graphics, bug fixing and story stuff.
* Made an all new regular dungeon. (I need many more of these...)
* Some new over world areas added.
* Started having a look at how I'm gonna do the soundtrack.
* Changed how the "dodge" mechanic works in combat.

Still a long way to go...

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 15 November 2019 - 10:32 AM

[Graham]

MicMotorhead, on 15 November 2019 - 02:20 AM, said:

If only I'd stick to it, I'd have it done in no time! (Or, well, some time.)
But I lost my mojo for almost 5 months, only finally getting back into it for real over the last handful days.
I had sort of a false start a while ago, where I did a couple small things, then left it on the floor again.
But it's supposed to be fun, so it's ok. It's not like I'm getting paid!

Yeah that seems to be par for the course. That happens to me too. It probably happens to everyone to a degree. I’ll go really hard in a project for a number of months and then it’s like the creative juices just run out and need to be recharged. Kind of like writers block? Glad to see you are back to work on it! Use that creativity while it’s there. It is supposed to be for fun, you’re right!

[MicMotorhead]

Graham, on 15 November 2019 - 10:57 PM, said:

Yeah that seems to be par for the course. That happens to me too. It probably happens to everyone to a degree. I’ll go really hard in a project for a number of months and then it’s like the creative juices just run out and need to be recharged. Kind of like writers block? Glad to see you are back to work on it! Use that creativity while it’s there. It is supposed to be for fun, you’re right!

I guess it's just how it goes when a game idea takes forever to make. First I love the game. Then I hate it and think it's complete crap. Then I believe in it again. And so on.
I've tried before to come up with ideas for small games that could be made quickly. Problem is, only the ideas for big games that take forever to make excite me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I think I'm gonna be done within a year from now though. The stuff that's missing isn't really hard stuff.

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 18 November 2019 - 08:12 AM

[MicMotorhead]

I tried to get a precise overview of how far I am with the game, so here it is:

In order to access the final boss tower, you need 7 red crystals. Each red crystal is found at the top of special boss towers that you need 4 blue crystals to access. Blue crystals are found in regular dungeons and each completed dungeon nets you 1-2 blue crystals, depending on how difficult it is.

So if there's 7 red towers, there needs to be at least 7*4 blue crystals between all regular "dungeons". I'd like there to be a decent amount more, so that you don't need to complete all dungeons. So I'm rounding up from 28 to 40.

With that said, here's how current progress looks:

* 15/40 blue crystals available in regular dungeons. (Each dungeon gives 1-2 crystals and has 1-3 floors).
* 1/7 "red crystal towers" complete (each tower has about 3 floors and a boss battle).
* 0/1 final boss tower complete (will have ~5 floors and a boss battle).
* 0/~10 cut-scenes completed.
* 2/? music pieces completed.
* game manual only partially completed
* the over world of the game does not necessarily need to be much bigger. It's about 66% completed.
* Items, enemy types, systems, skills, etc.: All 100% done!

Not really that bad. The scariest bits are the music and the story.

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 25 November 2019 - 10:52 AM

[Graham]

That’s great! Just watch out for the feature creep! It can be so enticing to add a new feature, especially when you’ve been staring at the same game for a year+ and it’s all starting to look a bit stale. Keep that focus and momentum in check! Take it from someone who’s never been good at that or taken their own advice!
;-P

[Graham]

Also, sharing info about the game and getting “kudos” can trick your brain into a false sense of accomplishment and de-motivate you to work on it! Just FYI, if you’ve not experienced that!

[MicMotorhead]

Graham, on 27 November 2019 - 02:25 AM, said:

That’s great! Just watch out for the feature creep! It can be so enticing to add a new feature, especially when you’ve been staring at the same game for a year+ and it’s all starting to look a bit stale. Keep that focus and momentum in check! Take it from someone who’s never been good at that or taken their own advice!
;-P

That's good advice! I think I've been very good at sticking to the plan over the last long time. All major functinality was nailed down a long time ago and all I'm allowing myself to add by now is actual, playable content. It feels like a very efficient way to make a game: First make all the mechanics and find out how to structure the game, then start making all of the actual "maps" and other meat-and-potatoes content. I'm very much deep into that second phase by now.

I've killed previous game projects with feature creep, so I'd like to believe that I learned my lesson

[MicMotorhead]

Graham, on 27 November 2019 - 02:26 AM, said:

Also, sharing info about the game and getting “kudos” can trick your brain into a false sense of accomplishment and de-motivate you to work on it! Just FYI, if you’ve not experienced that!

I've heard about that before, so there's probably something to it. I'm definitely not going to make any demo of my game. That would surely kill it!
So far, I'm keeping specifics about the gameplay to myself and I've only shown a fraction of the game in pictures so far. I don't think I've even explained the combat system anywhere online. I should probably keep it that way.

Going forward, I'm gonna keep just showing a bit of stuff when I hit some milestones. Personally, I think it's nice to see other people's projects still moving forward, so I like that sort of "what's been happening with the game lately" updates. But you also don't wanna feel like you've seen the whole thing before it's done.

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 27 November 2019 - 07:03 AM

[MicMotorhead]

Making good progress almost daily right now, so that's encouraging!
But the most exciting thing for me is that I've downloaded the newest build of Megazeux and launched my game in it.
It just looks so crisp in full screen! In Megazeux 2.83b, it's sort of a smoothed-out fullscreen scaling I've got on, that in comparison looks
a tad blurry. Didn't even think about it before, but now I really notice the difference. I love that pixel perfect look in 2.92b. Beautiful!

I've basically been working in 2.83b since forever and not bothered to make the jump, but it's about time.
I still need to do a bit of bug testing before I start actually working on the game in 2.92b, just to make sure that nothing is broken. But I code
my game in a pretty simple manner, so I don't know what even theoretically could break - if anything.

I guess I was just feeling paranoid about it, since I haven't made the jump yet... But damn. Nice features in newer MZX versions!
Best of all: I would have 2mb of global robot memory instead of the measly 64kb that I've currently almost spent

[Graham]

MicMotorhead, on 04 December 2019 - 01:24 AM, said:

Making good progress almost daily right now, so that's encouraging!
But the most exciting thing for me is that I've downloaded the newest build of Megazeux and launched my game in it.
It just looks so crisp in full screen! In Megazeux 2.83b, it's sort of a smoothed-out fullscreen scaling I've got on, that in comparison looks
a tad blurry. Didn't even think about it before, but now I really notice the difference. I love that pixel perfect look in 2.92b. Beautiful!

I've basically been working in 2.83b since forever and not bothered to make the jump, but it's about time.
I still need to do a bit of bug testing before I start actually working on the game in 2.92b, just to make sure that nothing is broken. But I code
my game in a pretty simple manner, so I don't know what even theoretically could break - if anything.

I guess I was just feeling paranoid about it, since I haven't made the jump yet... But damn. Nice features in newer MZX versions!
Best of all: I would have 2mb of global robot memory instead of the measly 64kb that I've currently almost spent

Yeah cool! I’m glad you’ve finally made the jump! I’m not sure if you’ve kept up on all the changes or not but you can now check out different graphics modes and scalers with the F2 menu. Also controller support is plug and play now, which is awesome if you are planning to do a controller option with your game.

I’m very thankful that Lachesis has taken on the role of developer of MegaZeux in recent years. The level of polish and number of new features she has brought to it have been astounding! It’s too bad more folks don’t know about what a great GCS this is.

[MicMotorhead]

Graham, on 04 December 2019 - 04:21 PM, said:

Yeah cool! I’m glad you’ve finally made the jump! I’m not sure if you’ve kept up on all the changes or not but you can now check out different graphics modes and scalers with the F2 menu. Also controller support is plug and play now, which is awesome if you are planning to do a controller option with your game.

I’m very thankful that Lachesis has taken on the role of developer of MegaZeux in recent years. The level of polish and number of new features she has brought to it have been astounding! It’s too bad more folks don’t know about what a great GCS this is.

Only somewhat familiar with the changes and additions that have happened since 2.83, so there's gonna be a lot for me to look into and play around with. Up until recently, I'd only used newer versions of MZX to launch new games in - not to make anything.

And definitely much gratitude towards Lachesis! One shouldn't take for granted that people will put in that level of work for free. Amazing, really

[MicMotorhead]

I'm still working in v2.83 of the engine, because I bumped into a strange problem with the new engine.

I live in Denmark, have a Danish keyboard layout, but have still never had any trouble with earlier Megazeux versions or things like DOSbox with regards to this.

The big problem right now is that I can't type certain symbols in the editor:
"<"
">"
"@"
and I can only type an asterisk by using a shortcut for it elsewhere on my keyboard. The one on my numpad doesn't work.
When I try to type these symbols, I don't just get the wrong symbol, I get no response at all. So I don't know what's causing it.

I'm sure there's some way of typing these, but I haven't figured it out yet. Kind of a bummer, since they're all really important!

However... I'm on my laptop keyboard now. When I get back home later today, I'd be curious to see if the USB keyboard i normally use is any different.

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 08 December 2019 - 10:52 AM

[Galladin]

MicMotorhead, on 08 December 2019 - 12:47 PM, said:

I'm still working in v2.83 of the engine, because I bumped into a strange problem with the new engine.

I live in Denmark, have a Danish keyboard layout, but have still never had any trouble with earlier Megazeux versions or things like DOSbox with regards to this.

The big problem right now is that I can't type certain symbols in the editor:
"<"
">"
"@"
and I can only type an asterisk by using a shortcut for it elsewhere on my keyboard. The one on my numpad doesn't work.
When I try to type these symbols, I don't just get the wrong symbol, I get no response at all. So I don't know what's causing it.

I'm sure there's some way of typing these, but I haven't figured it out yet. Kind of a bummer, since they're all really important!

However... I'm on my laptop keyboard now. When I get back home later today, I'd be curious to see if the USB keyboard i normally use is any different.

Yeah, I’ve got the same problem. Using a Finnish keyboard by default on my laptop and it’s a pain in the ass - you can use F3 in the Robotic editor and then select the char you need, but still it sucks not to be able to type it.

This post has been edited by Galladin: 08 December 2019 - 04:05 PM

[MicMotorhead]

Galladin, on 08 December 2019 - 05:04 PM, said:

Yeah, I’ve got the same problem. Using a Finnish keyboard by default on my laptop and it’s a pain in the ass - you can use F3 in the Robotic editor and then select the char you need, but still it sucks not to be able to type it.

Oops, I hadn't thought of using F3. Still a pain, but it's something. In 2.83b, all keyboard buttons work just fine. I'm not sure what causes it.
Since I'm back home, I tried to use my USB keyboard, but it's the same deal. I worried that I couldn't type a "@" in board titles (cuz I'm doing that in my game), since you can't press F3 there, but all buttons work when typing board titles... so the problem only appears when typing robot code and when writing text on the board, it seems.

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 08 December 2019 - 07:26 PM

[Lachesis]

MicMotorhead, on 08 December 2019 - 03:47 AM, said:

I'm still working in v2.83 of the engine, because I bumped into a strange problem with the new engine.

I live in Denmark, have a Danish keyboard layout, but have still never had any trouble with earlier Megazeux versions or things like DOSbox with regards to this.

The big problem right now is that I can't type certain symbols in the editor:
"<"
">"
"@"
and I can only type an asterisk by using a shortcut for it elsewhere on my keyboard. The one on my numpad doesn't work.
When I try to type these symbols, I don't just get the wrong symbol, I get no response at all. So I don't know what's causing it.

I'm sure there's some way of typing these, but I haven't figured it out yet. Kind of a bummer, since they're all really important!

However... I'm on my laptop keyboard now. When I get back home later today, I'd be curious to see if the USB keyboard i normally use is any different.

Looks like a bug I introduced in 2.91h . It'll be fixed with the next release, thanks!

[MicMotorhead]

Lachesis, on 08 December 2019 - 09:05 PM, said:

Looks like a bug I introduced in 2.91h . It'll be fixed with the next release, thanks!

I typed a reply but screwed up somehow and lost it, so I'm making it short:

1) Thanks a lot! It would be awesome if all buttons worked in the next release. You can seemingly work around it, but it does make it a bit slower to type things.
Shit happens! I know it's not possible to test everything before release.
2) In case it's useful, I noticed that no special characters on my numpad work. I can make +/- symbols in another way, so it will do for now.

[MicMotorhead]

I'm poking around with OpenMPT and Reality Adlib Tracker to try and decide what I'm going to do with the soundtrack for my game. So far, I've got one track that I'm thinking of using for some of the few story-segments that will play at certain points throughout the game.

I think this one is done, but I'm not 100% decided on what I want to do. I'm still exploring options/playing around, as far as the soundtrack goes.

This track is named "Cybil & Sarah". Although I'm probably changing the name of Sarah... It's kind of a placeholder for a character that will only appear in story bits, but not in-game.
https://soundcloud.c...am/cybil-sarah8

[Graham]

MicMotorhead, on 11 December 2019 - 02:39 AM, said:

I'm poking around with OpenMPT and Reality Adlib Tracker to try and decide what I'm going to do with the soundtrack for my game. So far, I've got one track that I'm thinking of using for some of the few story-segments that will play at certain points throughout the game.

I think this one is done, but I'm not 100% decided on what I want to do. I'm still exploring options/playing around, as far as the soundtrack goes.

This track is named "Cybil & Sarah". Although I'm probably changing the name of Sarah... It's kind of a placeholder for a character that will only appear in story bits, but not in-game.
https://soundcloud.c...am/cybil-sarah8

Slow and soft. Very relaxing sounding. Sort of dreamy. The notes sort of ramble on, like two old friends might. I like it!

[MicMotorhead]

Graham, on 11 December 2019 - 09:47 PM, said:

Slow and soft. Very relaxing sounding. Sort of dreamy. The notes sort of ramble on, like two old friends might. I like it!

Neat! That's a very nice description.

[MicMotorhead]

Still making new gameplay areas and stuff like that. Time consuming, but also my favorite thing to work on!

Also replaced a bunch of sound effects. I'm using some old program called "Sfxr" to make sounds. Very adlib sounding stuff, which will be very appropriate if I end up making the music in Reality Adlib Tracker, although I might use Open MPT instead, since I'm so used to that program. Decisions, decisions.

And after my brother playtested a section of the game, I made a bunch of changes to balancing and to how the player is "nudged" towards the easier areas. Now, some more dangerous enemies here and there discourage players from going too far in the "wrong" direction before they're really going to be ready. It's still very much possible to run deep into dangerous places if you really want to, from the very beginning of the game. It's just harder to get away with it.
The game has been playtested a few times by now, so it's less obtuse than it used to be. Which doesn't mean that it isn't obtuse
There's a manual in the main menu, so I get to pretend that it isn't my fault if people won't understand the game, right? Not that I need to worry about that for the forseeable future.

[MicMotorhead]

Yet another stretch of time where I'm not doing any work on the game.
I'm still thinking I can finish it this year, but it's annoying to think of how long whatever I do next is likely to take.

At least I'm no longer sick, so that might help me getting my motivation back.
Plus I've got 1 week of vacation coming up soon, so there's my chance to get something significant done!
Aside from the soundtrack and story bits, there's nothing left that should be any problem to make.

I've been thinking about the music a bit and I think I might run into some problems with how I want it to work.
I'm gonna have to do some tests and decide what to do from there.

This post has been edited by MicMotorhead: 06 February 2020 - 10:18 AM