I SPENT 60$ FOR ATMOSPHERE
THINKING PROCESS
After finishing up the protagonist's room, despite initially telling myself that I could make it work with just the RTP assets of RPGMaker; I suddenly felt like the room was too 'neutral' or 'blank'. It worked fine as it did, but it did not create the atmosphere and or tone that I needed, relying solely on the environmental storytelling to setup the tone.
So I spent the rest of my time finally delving into plugins; before snatching up Sang Hendrix's Realtime Post-Processing and Realtime Parallax. They're great because I wanted something quick and easy, rather than messing around with the old but powerful galv or visustella plugins. This is the result.
IMAGES/SCREENSHOTS
COOL FACTOR VS NARRATIVE DESIGN
While browsing Hendrix's catalogue of plugins, I found myself extremely tempted to snatch up all of the awesome stuff like; directional lighting, Action RPG, Smart speech bubble. But I decided against it, it wasn't central to the game or the narrative. It would definitely look cool and a great detail to have, but it wasn't going to damage the game as much as not having the right color-grading. It's very easy for RPGM devs to look at these massive library of plugins and forget that you also need the content to go along with it.
For this project, I'm aiming to be sort of the 'soft-world builder kind'. Meaning realistic scope, no adding content that doesn't benefit the narrative. As much as I'd like cool looking battle animations, It's just not what this game needs with the current team size.
WHAT'S NEW?
-> Color-graded, parallax mapped
-> A custom class called 'Aspirant' was made to immerse the player into the shoes of a young and weak child
-> Some custom weapon and armors mainly used for storytelling rather than stat-sticks
-> And yes, you can definitely make your bed and pull up the ripped curtains.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Now that I have a parallax mapping plugin and post-processing? Expect the next area (The family house) to feel more dynamic, and also.. consequential storytelling.
-> If you don't make your bed or pull up the curtains; your mother might ask you about cleaning up your room. Then you'll likely get the dialogue choices of
- Lie: "Yes I did" +Insecurity
- Truth: "I forgot."+Honesty
- (Reconcile?): "I'll do it right now." +Humility
These choices feed into a hidden personality system that influences how future dialogue and reactions are presented.
YOUR THOUGHTS?
I have to admit, I'm definitely an amateur at best when it comes to color-grading. I did my best to portray a bleak tone, and I think I did okay. At least, It's not as vibrant as that default RTP coloring. But how do you see it? Could be a bit darker? Maybe the bloom on the window is a bit too much?