Compare commits
9 Commits
| Author | SHA1 | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 65a4fbe54e | |||
| 2877eeae10 | |||
| 3d68d84edb | |||
| 027cb62ebc | |||
| f4bcdf3c0e | |||
| 9e6a5dd55a | |||
| 391298f4e3 | |||
| df3ed72821 | |||
| 6cff82233e |
17
Dockerfile
Normal file
17
Dockerfile
Normal file
|
|
@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
|
|||
# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1
|
||||
|
||||
FROM golang:1.21
|
||||
WORKDIR /app
|
||||
COPY go.mod go.sum ./
|
||||
RUN go mod download
|
||||
|
||||
# TODO: this can be improved to be dynamically loaded
|
||||
# Also, Dockerfile COPY seems horrible for copying multiple folders. Why?
|
||||
COPY css ./css
|
||||
COPY images ./images
|
||||
COPY templates ./templates
|
||||
COPY posts ./posts
|
||||
|
||||
COPY *.go ./
|
||||
RUN CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux go build -o /takunomi-blog
|
||||
CMD ["/takunomi-blog", "ext"]
|
||||
|
|
@ -1,39 +0,0 @@
|
|||
<time datetime="2021-12-23">2021-12-23</time>
|
||||
|
||||
Alright. End-of-the-year-update.
|
||||
|
||||
2021 was good for the game's progress. Sort of. I've come pretty far, and more importantly, I really like what the game has become. My buddy is helping with the music, and the three tracks he has supplied so far are just so perfect for the energy I want to convey, so when you get to hear them, I hope you'll become his fans as well.
|
||||
|
||||
My motivation for the game hasn't waned, but I've been feeling pretty bad about how I hadn't really been getting any reactions for the game online. Twitter is... not a good place. So as all sane people I started a thread on 4chan, and I just got so many good and bad reactions, it felt absolutely great. You hear people who get bad reactions say stuff like "rather bad reactions, than no reactions", and for a guy who consistently get zero reactions on social media for his game, that is absolutely true. The end result was some real good feedback, and a couple of people who wanted to try and early build. One of those immediately gave it a go and wrote me back some super useful feedback. The gif below is some of UI improvements based on what he said.
|
||||
|
||||
<figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/idle.gif" alt="" width="426" border="0">
|
||||
</figure>
|
||||
|
||||
Next, I was so satisfied with how the World 2 map turned out, that I went back and made the World 1 map grid-based as well, and the result below works very nicely, I think. I've made an early stab at the World 3 map, and while I don't show it here, I believe it's consistently the right way to go for this game.
|
||||
|
||||
<figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/world1.gif" alt="" width="426" border="0">
|
||||
</figure>
|
||||
|
||||
In the final image below, you can see how it's going with the battle background for World 2 levels, and observe how a powerful combo can be setup in the game to absolutely obliterate your opponents.
|
||||
|
||||
<figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/setup.gif" alt="" width="426" border="0">
|
||||
</figure>
|
||||
|
||||
And what did I do tonight? I spent two hours coming up with the final level names for World 2. So a little preview:
|
||||
|
||||
__• The Solar Boys: Konbini Bloodsport.__
|
||||
|
||||
__• DIY Thermonuclear Karaoke__
|
||||
|
||||
__• Friendly Local Neighbourhood Arcane Charcuterie__
|
||||
|
||||
__• Drinking in a Place That Ceased to be Long Ago__
|
||||
|
||||
__• bar Dream Pop New Winter__
|
||||
|
||||
__• Origami With an IED__
|
||||
|
||||
__• Suave, Assertive, Cryptozoological.__
|
||||
|
|
@ -1,7 +0,0 @@
|
|||
<time datetime="2021-10-30">2021-10-30</time>
|
||||
|
||||
I just wanted to show you all this background I painted for the battles in the first part of the game.
|
||||
|
||||
<figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/newback.gif" alt="" width="852" border="0">
|
||||
</figure>
|
||||
|
|
@ -1,36 +0,0 @@
|
|||
<time datetime="2021-11-21">2021-11-21</time>
|
||||
|
||||
Progress has been good recently.
|
||||
|
||||
BACKGROUNDS AND COLORS
|
||||
|
||||
For a long time I’ve struggled with how to paint backgrounds. In the last post you saw another attempt. An attempt I am admittedly proud of, but I believe it doesn’t work in a number of ways, that are connected with the rest of this post.
|
||||
|
||||
It’s a question of fidelity and skill. The most important part is that I am not a very good artist (in a number of ways). Beyond that I don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to this game. I’ve designed the monsters and the girl as best I could, and I believe they work decently for their purpose. Painting 3-4 different landscapes however, was simply too daunting. I finally got started, and the result was as you saw before. It’s not ugly, but neither is it amazing. I don’t scuff at “good enough”, but unfortunately, I believe I hit a fidelity that I can’t keep up with. Furthermore, I think it all became too much: Too vibrant, too colourful, too detailed. The characters, the foreground, the background, the UI.
|
||||
|
||||
Cave Story and Kero Blaster always comes to mind for me. Pixel is a great artist, but he is also great at restrain. I want to achieve something similar to that. I then came across Arne Niklas Jansson's (androidarts) fictional console, the Famicube. Without explaining too much, it provided me with a decent, 64 color palette and some technical restraints, that I tried to apply to my own art.
|
||||
|
||||
<figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/famicube.png" alt="" border="0">
|
||||
</figure>
|
||||
|
||||
I believe the experiment is a success. There's a greater cohesion entire roster, and when I went back to the background with a meat cleaver, I achieved something that is a lot relaxing to the eye. Below is a little mockup.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/fami_mockup.png" alt="" border="0">
|
||||
</figure>
|
||||
|
||||
WORDS
|
||||
|
||||
Then there was the question of story and dialogue. I hate writing dialogue. I am not a writer, and I don't want to tell a story with this game. Yet I also realise that context is important for the player. Furthermore, I spent a long time trying to systemise and gamify the progress of the overall game. It never clicked. It wasn't fun as a meta game, and it was a lot more resource intense than trying to write some dialogue. At least, so I thought. After a lot of iteration, I've finally arrived a level of detail in the dialogue (which I try to keep sparse) that doesn't make me ache when I read it, and gives enough context for the how and the why and the where. I have an outline for an article on about "narrative as a gameplay container", that I want to write, but haven't quite figured out yet. In either case, this dialogue approach has allowed me to feel like the first world is basically done (yay!) and to move on to the second: The City.
|
||||
|
||||
THE CITY
|
||||
|
||||
This is the final thing I've been working on. Both to design and implement the levels of world 2, but also to paint the map in a, again, a level of detail and presentation that I can handle. My girlfriend took a shot at fixing the map I already had, and though we clashed on the style I wanted, her input definitely pushed in a direction that I far more appreciate now. It's grid-based (16x16 pixel tiles) and (of course) uses the Famicube palette.
|
||||
|
||||
<figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/river_area_map.png" alt="" border="0">
|
||||
</figure>
|
||||
|
||||
As I noted on Twitter, it's based on my memory of staying in Kyoto for a couple of weeks, ten years ago, right around the great earthquake. Dear lord I loved that city.
|
||||
|
|
@ -1,19 +0,0 @@
|
|||
<time datetime="2021-09-30">2021-09-30</time>
|
||||
|
||||
I'm slowly implementing the system of acquiring new abilities through side objectives, but it's a hassle, since the system spans many parts of the game, and I haven't figured out the UI yet, for having both primary and secondary objectives.
|
||||
|
||||
In the beginning of September, I started to look critically at the numbers in the game (health, damage, etc). Since the beginning, I'd just sorta winged them. I researched the original Dragon Quest, contemplated more contemporary JRPGs, and even started writing an article that eventually was only peripherally related. It was both beneficial to this game, and a huge detour. It made me create a dynamic spreadsheet to control all the values and their side effects, and inspired me to create some new limitations that seem to encourage more diverse play.
|
||||
|
||||
As for the article… it's kinda boring, very nerdy, and perhaps too filled with an internal logic. Yet, I think it argues for some important and neglected aspects of game design, specifically JRPGs, and so I think I AM gonna finish it. I just wish I could make it a lot more personal.
|
||||
|
||||
Towards the end of the month, I've started to bug people personally, to ask them if they want to try The Girl Who Kicked a Rabbit. I've definitely gotten some very useful feedback, so I'll probably just continue doing that. If you read this and are interested in trying a buggy, early build: send me a DM.
|
||||
|
||||
At some point I'll get to drawing more backgrounds, but until then, enjoy this assortment of various situations (also, I finally figured out both OBS and FFMPEG, so these gifs are just off the hook).
|
||||
|
||||
<figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/september_update/1-1.gif" alt="" width="486" border="0">
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/september_update/walk.gif" alt="" width="486" border="0">
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/september_update/weave.gif" alt="" width="486" border="0">
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/september_update/names_small.gif" alt="" width="486" border="0">
|
||||
</figure>
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
|
|||
<time datetime="2021-06-22">2021-06-22</time>
|
||||
|
||||
One of my biggest concerns for The Girl Who Kicked a Rabbit has been sound and music. I taught myself to program to start this project, and drawing I just did as best I could, but creating music is a field completely inaccessible to me. I love music, I’m just comically tonedeaf and incapable of getting rhythm (doubly unfortunate when people who teach music always rely on people just getting the basics, and if they can’t, they’re completely lost). A dear friend of mine helped out with two tracks for the game a few years ago, but he’s a very busy man, and I really needed more progress in this area. Then some months ago, another friend of mine decided he wanted to try his hand at sound effects and we had some fun evenings experimenting with what sounded good for UI stuff (confirm, move cursor, cancel etc). Eventually he wanted to help out with music as well. I had been unsure of how to feel about this. The first buddy I mentioned was also very talented, but both guys have a melancholic flair to their art, and I was unsure of whether I could steer the talents towards my vision (I shudder at myself for writing that word, but it is what it is). My first buddy had initially made a track that was, in a way, exactly what I was hoping for. It was upbeat, fast and catchy. The problem was, for inspiration, I had sent him a video of a song that gave me those feelings, and though not the same, I couldn’t help but feel he had created a fantastic song where his heart wasn’t 100 % into it. The second song he made was also great, but I really didn’t feel like it fit. It was much more his own style, and really, it was a fantastic song.
|
||||
|
||||
Seeing as I had earlier failed at directing my super helpful and talented friend, I feared something like that could happen again.
|
||||
|
||||
It seems a bit uninspired to say this (as I mentioned the same game in the previous Boss post), but I was playing FFXIV, and was running the Great Gubal Library with Jon, when it dawned on me how incredibly varied, yet still fitting, the music in that game is. I thought I had been a fool, not being better at providing some general guidance for the music, and then accepting that a different person, an artist, was doing their thing. Very well. As I was working on designing Baalianargh, it was obvious that boss music was needed. My friend is a gamer, so I assumed he had a sense of what would put you into a fighting mood when asking for boss music. Furthermore, Baalinargh has his different stages, so some music that could change over time, or three smaller tracks? Would that be enough to work with? Would it be too much to ask?
|
||||
|
||||
He provided a great track. It was his style, but it was definitely also what I had hoped. I think people will get into a good boss-bashing from that music. His work on it inspired him, and he made another track. This too was good, but I hadn’t asked for it, and wasn’t sure what to do with it. It was closer to his own style I felt, and I told him this over text. I agonised about it, because I didn’t want to turn him down when he felt inspired, so after some discussion I called him on the phone and we talked it over. I couldn’t be sure how he took that conversation, but I know we don’t always know what to say in such situations, so I told he could of course call me back if he realised he had forgotten to talk something through. About twenty minutes later he called me. I had hurt him. I can’t 100 % repeat what he said and what I had said, but he was definitely right. I had managed to phrase my thoughts in a terrible way. I apologised, and I felt awful. And then curiously, a few hours later, I realised what to use that song for. God. Damnit. It fit perfectly. I had had a very specific mood for a specific situation, and I just didn’t know how to ask for that music, and here it came, just straight into my chat feed. Since then, my buddy here has been incredible. He created a bunch of original sound effects (many of which I immediately found a use for), and has created songs for all kinds of situations. I am incredibly lucky.
|
||||
|
||||
These aren’t the only things that’ve occurred recently, but let’s keep this focused with just a semblance of structure, shall we?
|
||||
|
|
@ -1,49 +0,0 @@
|
|||
<time datetime="2021-08-17">2021-08-17</time>
|
||||
|
||||
Alright... two months... Yeah, feels like it. Vacation, couple of weeks of illness, and putting in my time here and there. Mostly improvements to gameplay, but also new music (oh god the music is so good). Updates have mostly been going on the garbage fire we call twitter, but this thread is so much nicer. One of the neater changes I came up with, was the realisation that I could get rid of my action points (I called them Oridama) and simply use one of the games ingredients. It would then recharge every round. An added side-bonus of this, was I could get rid of the Defend move (called Aegis Fold), cause ingredients all double as potential shield points anyway, but the Defend move made temporary shield points and it was just all very confusing. Simplicity. Ahhhhhh [imagine a capybara bathing].
|
||||
|
||||
By the end of my vacation, two major design issues (for me) were becoming very obvious. The first was the spell called 'Volatile Arcana'. It was just too powerful. It'd either need some delicate fine-tuning, or a major redesign. I tried both and so far the fine-tuning seems the right path. I simply liked its explosive chain reactions too much not to keep the mechanics the same.
|
||||
|
||||
Before that, though, was 'Scramble Arcana'. It randomized where new enemies would appear, and what loot they would carry. The meta-aspect of being able to change the state of the game behind the scenes was very appealing, but the level of randomness made it way too unpredictable, and in the levels I had designed for it, though the idea worked, it was too cumbersome to act upon.
|
||||
|
||||
After mulling it over for too long, I asked my girlfriend to help me. She's just really smart. We sat down for a brainstorm. I told her about the above, and the spell we came up with is tentatively called...
|
||||
|
||||
__Material Arcana__
|
||||
|
||||
I'm real proud of this one. It's a shop directly inside your inventory.
|
||||
|
||||
<figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/build_arcana/1.png" alt="" border="0">
|
||||
</figure>
|
||||
|
||||
Instead of collapsing reality around an enemy, or destabilizing their very core, it opens a little menu.
|
||||
|
||||
<figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/build_arcana/2.png" alt="" border="0">
|
||||
</figure>
|
||||
|
||||
You get a random selection of ingredients (and a button to purchase a new random selection), and you can queue up them up to build. It takes 2 rounds
|
||||
|
||||
<figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/build_arcana/3.png" alt="" border="0">
|
||||
</figure>
|
||||
|
||||
You can also pay to speed up the construction, in case you need to move fast.
|
||||
|
||||
<figure>
|
||||
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/build_arcana/4.png" alt="" border="0">
|
||||
</figure>
|
||||
|
||||
Once a move is finished, it is replaced by a random different ingredient (I cheated in the screenshot below)
|
||||
|
||||
<figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/build_arcana/5.png" alt="" border="0">
|
||||
</figure>
|
||||
|
||||
So yeah. It's a complicated new action/spell/move, but it's definitely usable. I've described it as a spell for the meticulous battle wizard. Programming it was also kinda fun, cause it's a system that spans many parts of the game's systems.
|
||||
|
||||
Now that those two design hurdles are dealt with, I need to redesign some levels, design new levels, and do a lot more writing.
|
||||
|
||||
Cheers everyone.
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
@ -1,39 +0,0 @@
|
|||
<p><time datetime="2021-12-23">2021-12-23</time></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Alright. End-of-the-year-update.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>2021 was good for the game's progress. Sort of. I've come pretty far, and more importantly, I really like what the game has become. My buddy is helping with the music, and the three tracks he has supplied so far are just so perfect for the energy I want to convey, so when you get to hear them, I hope you'll become his fans as well.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>My motivation for the game hasn't waned, but I've been feeling pretty bad about how I hadn't really been getting any reactions for the game online. Twitter is... not a good place. So as all sane people I started a thread on 4chan, and I just got so many good and bad reactions, it felt absolutely great. You hear people who get bad reactions say stuff like "rather bad reactions, than no reactions", and for a guy who consistently get zero reactions on social media for his game, that is absolutely true. The end result was some real good feedback, and a couple of people who wanted to try and early build. One of those immediately gave it a go and wrote me back some super useful feedback. The gif below is some of UI improvements based on what he said.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/idle.gif" alt="" width="426" border="0">
|
||||
</figure></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Next, I was so satisfied with how the World 2 map turned out, that I went back and made the World 1 map grid-based as well, and the result below works very nicely, I think. I've made an early stab at the World 3 map, and while I don't show it here, I believe it's consistently the right way to go for this game.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/world1.gif" alt="" width="426" border="0">
|
||||
</figure></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>In the final image below, you can see how it's going with the battle background for World 2 levels, and observe how a powerful combo can be setup in the game to absolutely obliterate your opponents.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/setup.gif" alt="" width="426" border="0">
|
||||
</figure></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>And what did I do tonight? I spent two hours coming up with the final level names for World 2. So a little preview:</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><strong>• The Solar Boys: Konbini Bloodsport.</strong></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><strong>• DIY Thermonuclear Karaoke</strong></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><strong>• Friendly Local Neighbourhood Arcane Charcuterie</strong></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><strong>• Drinking in a Place That Ceased to be Long Ago</strong></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><strong>• bar Dream Pop New Winter</strong></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><strong>• Origami With an IED</strong></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><strong>• Suave, Assertive, Cryptozoological.</strong></p>
|
||||
|
|
@ -1,7 +0,0 @@
|
|||
<p><time datetime="2021-10-30">2021-10-30</time></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>I just wanted to show you all this background I painted for the battles in the first part of the game.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/newback.gif" alt="" width="852" border="0">
|
||||
</figure></p>
|
||||
|
|
@ -1,35 +0,0 @@
|
|||
<p><time datetime="2021-11-21">2021-11-21</time></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Progress has been good recently.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>BACKGROUNDS AND COLORS</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>For a long time I’ve struggled with how to paint backgrounds. In the last post you saw another attempt. An attempt I am admittedly proud of, but I believe it doesn’t work in a number of ways, that are connected with the rest of this post.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>It’s a question of fidelity and skill. The most important part is that I am not a very good artist (in a number of ways). Beyond that I don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to this game. I’ve designed the monsters and the girl as best I could, and I believe they work decently for their purpose. Painting 3-4 different landscapes however, was simply too daunting. I finally got started, and the result was as you saw before. It’s not ugly, but neither is it amazing. I don’t scuff at “good enough”, but unfortunately, I believe I hit a fidelity that I can’t keep up with. Furthermore, I think it all became too much: Too vibrant, too colourful, too detailed. The characters, the foreground, the background, the UI.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Cave Story and Kero Blaster always comes to mind for me. Pixel is a great artist, but he is also great at restrain. I want to achieve something similar to that. I then came across Arne Niklas Jansson's (androidarts) fictional console, the Famicube. Without explaining too much, it provided me with a decent, 64 color palette and some technical restraints, that I tried to apply to my own art.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/famicube.png" alt="" border="0">
|
||||
</figure></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>I believe the experiment is a success. There's a greater cohesion entire roster, and when I went back to the background with a meat cleaver, I achieved something that is a lot relaxing to the eye. Below is a little mockup.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/fami_mockup.png" alt="" border="0">
|
||||
</figure></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>WORDS</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Then there was the question of story and dialogue. I hate writing dialogue. I am not a writer, and I don't want to tell a story with this game. Yet I also realise that context is important for the player. Furthermore, I spent a long time trying to systemise and gamify the progress of the overall game. It never clicked. It wasn't fun as a meta game, and it was a lot more resource intense than trying to write some dialogue. At least, so I thought. After a lot of iteration, I've finally arrived a level of detail in the dialogue (which I try to keep sparse) that doesn't make me ache when I read it, and gives enough context for the how and the why and the where. I have an outline for an article on about "narrative as a gameplay container", that I want to write, but haven't quite figured out yet. In either case, this dialogue approach has allowed me to feel like the first world is basically done (yay!) and to move on to the second: The City.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>THE CITY</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>This is the final thing I've been working on. Both to design and implement the levels of world 2, but also to paint the map in a, again, a level of detail and presentation that I can handle. My girlfriend took a shot at fixing the map I already had, and though we clashed on the style I wanted, her input definitely pushed in a direction that I far more appreciate now. It's grid-based (16x16 pixel tiles) and (of course) uses the Famicube palette.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/river_area_map.png" alt="" border="0">
|
||||
</figure></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>As I noted on Twitter, it's based on my memory of staying in Kyoto for a couple of weeks, ten years ago, right around the great earthquake. Dear lord I loved that city.</p>
|
||||
|
|
@ -1,18 +0,0 @@
|
|||
<p><time datetime="2021-09-30">2021-09-30</time></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>I'm slowly implementing the system of acquiring new abilities through side objectives, but it's a hassle, since the system spans many parts of the game, and I haven't figured out the UI yet, for having both primary and secondary objectives.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>In the beginning of September, I started to look critically at the numbers in the game (health, damage, etc). Since the beginning, I'd just sorta winged them. I researched the original Dragon Quest, contemplated more contemporary JRPGs, and even started writing an article that eventually was only peripherally related. It was both beneficial to this game, and a huge detour. It made me create a dynamic spreadsheet to control all the values and their side effects, and inspired me to create some new limitations that seem to encourage more diverse play.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>As for the article… it's kinda boring, very nerdy, and perhaps too filled with an internal logic. Yet, I think it argues for some important and neglected aspects of game design, specifically JRPGs, and so I think I AM gonna finish it. I just wish I could make it a lot more personal.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Towards the end of the month, I've started to bug people personally, to ask them if they want to try The Girl Who Kicked a Rabbit. I've definitely gotten some very useful feedback, so I'll probably just continue doing that. If you read this and are interested in trying a buggy, early build: send me a DM.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>At some point I'll get to drawing more backgrounds, but until then, enjoy this assortment of various situations (also, I finally figured out both OBS and FFMPEG, so these gifs are just off the hook).</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/september_update/1-1.gif" alt="" width="486" border="0">
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/september_update/walk.gif" alt="" width="486" border="0">
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/september_update/weave.gif" alt="" width="486" border="0">
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/september_update/names_small.gif" alt="" width="486" border="0">
|
||||
</figure></p>
|
||||
|
|
@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
|
|||
<p><time datetime="2021-06-22">2021-06-22</time></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>One of my biggest concerns for The Girl Who Kicked a Rabbit has been sound and music. I taught myself to program to start this project, and drawing I just did as best I could, but creating music is a field completely inaccessible to me. I love music, I’m just comically tonedeaf and incapable of getting rhythm (doubly unfortunate when people who teach music always rely on people just getting the basics, and if they can’t, they’re completely lost). A dear friend of mine helped out with two tracks for the game a few years ago, but he’s a very busy man, and I really needed more progress in this area. Then some months ago, another friend of mine decided he wanted to try his hand at sound effects and we had some fun evenings experimenting with what sounded good for UI stuff (confirm, move cursor, cancel etc). Eventually he wanted to help out with music as well. I had been unsure of how to feel about this. The first buddy I mentioned was also very talented, but both guys have a melancholic flair to their art, and I was unsure of whether I could steer the talents towards my vision (I shudder at myself for writing that word, but it is what it is). My first buddy had initially made a track that was, in a way, exactly what I was hoping for. It was upbeat, fast and catchy. The problem was, for inspiration, I had sent him a video of a song that gave me those feelings, and though not the same, I couldn’t help but feel he had created a fantastic song where his heart wasn’t 100 % into it. The second song he made was also great, but I really didn’t feel like it fit. It was much more his own style, and really, it was a fantastic song.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Seeing as I had earlier failed at directing my super helpful and talented friend, I feared something like that could happen again.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>It seems a bit uninspired to say this (as I mentioned the same game in the previous Boss post), but I was playing FFXIV, and was running the Great Gubal Library with Jon, when it dawned on me how incredibly varied, yet still fitting, the music in that game is. I thought I had been a fool, not being better at providing some general guidance for the music, and then accepting that a different person, an artist, was doing their thing. Very well. As I was working on designing Baalianargh, it was obvious that boss music was needed. My friend is a gamer, so I assumed he had a sense of what would put you into a fighting mood when asking for boss music. Furthermore, Baalinargh has his different stages, so some music that could change over time, or three smaller tracks? Would that be enough to work with? Would it be too much to ask?</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>He provided a great track. It was his style, but it was definitely also what I had hoped. I think people will get into a good boss-bashing from that music. His work on it inspired him, and he made another track. This too was good, but I hadn’t asked for it, and wasn’t sure what to do with it. It was closer to his own style I felt, and I told him this over text. I agonised about it, because I didn’t want to turn him down when he felt inspired, so after some discussion I called him on the phone and we talked it over. I couldn’t be sure how he took that conversation, but I know we don’t always know what to say in such situations, so I told he could of course call me back if he realised he had forgotten to talk something through. About twenty minutes later he called me. I had hurt him. I can’t 100 % repeat what he said and what I had said, but he was definitely right. I had managed to phrase my thoughts in a terrible way. I apologised, and I felt awful. And then curiously, a few hours later, I realised what to use that song for. God. Damnit. It fit perfectly. I had had a very specific mood for a specific situation, and I just didn’t know how to ask for that music, and here it came, just straight into my chat feed. Since then, my buddy here has been incredible. He created a bunch of original sound effects (many of which I immediately found a use for), and has created songs for all kinds of situations. I am incredibly lucky.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>These aren’t the only things that’ve occurred recently, but let’s keep this focused with just a semblance of structure, shall we?</p>
|
||||
|
|
@ -1,48 +0,0 @@
|
|||
<p><time datetime="2021-08-17">2021-08-17</time></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Alright... two months... Yeah, feels like it. Vacation, couple of weeks of illness, and putting in my time here and there. Mostly improvements to gameplay, but also new music (oh god the music is so good). Updates have mostly been going on the garbage fire we call twitter, but this thread is so much nicer. One of the neater changes I came up with, was the realisation that I could get rid of my action points (I called them Oridama) and simply use one of the games ingredients. It would then recharge every round. An added side-bonus of this, was I could get rid of the Defend move (called Aegis Fold), cause ingredients all double as potential shield points anyway, but the Defend move made temporary shield points and it was just all very confusing. Simplicity. Ahhhhhh [imagine a capybara bathing].</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>By the end of my vacation, two major design issues (for me) were becoming very obvious. The first was the spell called 'Volatile Arcana'. It was just too powerful. It'd either need some delicate fine-tuning, or a major redesign. I tried both and so far the fine-tuning seems the right path. I simply liked its explosive chain reactions too much not to keep the mechanics the same.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Before that, though, was 'Scramble Arcana'. It randomized where new enemies would appear, and what loot they would carry. The meta-aspect of being able to change the state of the game behind the scenes was very appealing, but the level of randomness made it way too unpredictable, and in the levels I had designed for it, though the idea worked, it was too cumbersome to act upon.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>After mulling it over for too long, I asked my girlfriend to help me. She's just really smart. We sat down for a brainstorm. I told her about the above, and the spell we came up with is tentatively called...</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><strong>Material Arcana</strong></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>I'm real proud of this one. It's a shop directly inside your inventory.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/build_arcana/1.png" alt="" border="0">
|
||||
</figure></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Instead of collapsing reality around an enemy, or destabilizing their very core, it opens a little menu.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/build_arcana/2.png" alt="" border="0">
|
||||
</figure></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>You get a random selection of ingredients (and a button to purchase a new random selection), and you can queue up them up to build. It takes 2 rounds</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/build_arcana/3.png" alt="" border="0">
|
||||
</figure></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>You can also pay to speed up the construction, in case you need to move fast.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><figure></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/build_arcana/4.png" alt="" border="0">
|
||||
</figure></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Once a move is finished, it is replaced by a random different ingredient (I cheated in the screenshot below)</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p><figure>
|
||||
<img src="https://takunomi.space/images/game1/build_arcana/5.png" alt="" border="0">
|
||||
</figure></p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>So yeah. It's a complicated new action/spell/move, but it's definitely usable. I've described it as a spell for the meticulous battle wizard. Programming it was also kinda fun, cause it's a system that spans many parts of the game's systems.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Now that those two design hurdles are dealt with, I need to redesign some levels, design new levels, and do a lot more writing.</p>
|
||||
|
||||
<p>Cheers everyone.</p>
|
||||
Loading…
Reference in New Issue
Block a user