Day 15 - Chapter 1 Completion (If I Could Art, I Would)

I finished up the first chapter and the corresponding tutorial for shops. Here's the basic rundown:

•  Válor introduction is complete, decided to got with a gag and skip any extra combat here. I want to ensure there is enough time to explore interesting combat, and even though I had good fights planned here, they cut into more interesting stuff. You can see from my above image that I did not have the means to make art for Válor that I deemed satisfactory. Instead, I wrote a semi-lengthy narration about Válor with an attached developer's note. If by some miracle this won, this would assuredly be updated.
• Shops are implemented for the end of chapter 1 + tutorial:
  • Smith - You can purchase armor and weapons here.
  • Guild - You can obtain special benefits, party members, and equipment here.
  • Apothecary - Not actually implemented yet as this is currently folded into the smith.
• Due to time constraints, shops will only play a minor roll in this version of the game but their inclusion gives a good idea of what I'm going for.
• You may access the shop after completion of each floor provided you buy an access card (5 Valor, which is labeled bonus currency, and spent at the guild), this will allow you to magically shop from within Válor. Otherwise, you will have to rely on drops and random encounters that give you a shopping opportunity. Planning is extremely important if you plan to succeed. It is highly recommended that you purchase the access card in this version of the game.

That's everything I did today. Been kind of lazy this week but I am confident that the game will be in a (mostly) final state around the 26th of the month. That's when I'll officially enter the game under the, "entries" page for the competition. No point in having it there early when it isn't finished yet. This will give me a little wiggle room for any last-minute adjustments if they end up being needed. Of course, you can play either version of the demo on the Hiro's Ascension page at any time up until that point.

Hope everybody is making great progress as half the contest period is almost up now!

-JS

Day 16 - SRPG Studio Developer Talks

Kind of an unusual update today since I didn't make much progress on the actual game itself. As I've moved through the project I have noted some bugs with the English release of SRPG Studio. As such, I have been speaking with the developers to get those fixed because one of them is really bugging me. Most notable for you guys is fullscreen mode. Currently, this only works if I publish the game with the smallest resolution and it kind of looks squished and zoomed in if I do that. It isn't awful but I don't like it. Alternatively, you get a game that can be fullscreened at higher resolutions, but then stuffs the game into the top left corner of the screen for no reason.

Today that was supposedly fixed, but it unfortunately wasn't. Now the game doesn't always go top left, but it never centers and there is still tons of dead space. For now that means the game is stuck being in windowed mode but I can do a few things to make stuff a bit better for folks through the magic of custom scripts in the interim. It is not a big fix but it is something. So why am I telling you guys this? Well I'm one of a handful of really active SRPG Studio users and the devs take our bug reports and feedback really seriously. This is important for folks who want to utilize the engine, and even though this cuts into my development time for the contest, is a little more important for the long-term use of the engine.

Don't worry though, I only lost a day to this and that really isn't a big deal since I had the foresight to do a lot of the prep I'd need to do in advance. Still, I did do a few things that benefited Hiro's Ascension. Here's the very brief list:

• Added a few things to the original shops.
• Lay groundwork for the Apothecary so it wouldn't need to be folded into The Smith (not finished).
• Corrected some consistency errors in how I stated certain things.

That's it for today, not a whole lot. Might do a bit more tonight but I also might just take things easy.

-JS

Day 17 - Apothecary & SRPG Studio Developer Talks Resolution

Another day where I was not all that productive. I'm really going to buckle down and get moving over the weekend through next week. Part of this has been due to IRL stuff that cropped up unexpectedly but also I just needed to slow down as to not burnout completely. I've never done a jam like this and I might have gotten a bit too enthusiastic with how much work I could reasonably do each day. Any way, you don't really want to hear excuses or anything so let's get into the more important stuff.

SRPG Studio Development Update

Yesterday I discussed how I was talking to the folks who brought the English version of SRPG Studio over and we were able to get the fullscreen bug completely squished. That means you can play Hiro's Ascension in fullscreen when the next update drops at the tail end of the competition. I don't know about you, but I find being able to play a game in fullscreen if I want to adds a world of difference  in my opinion of said game. This means that the game will now default launch fullscreen and have overall better presentation. Yay!

Of course, that wasn't the only thing fixed but as far as you guys are concerned, that's all that is really relevant. However, knowing that the devs for this engine are listening to its community is very positive. I hope more people decide to look into the engine a bit, especially since the demo is really good, because more people developing with this means better resources for everybody. Right now I am having to do a lot of magic just to get this to feel different from other developers using the same engine, most people only really use the stuff out the box and this project is maybe using 60% (character sprites, animations, some icons, and a few backgrounds/map tiles). However, even some of the stuff out of the box still requires a lot of work to actually use on my end so don't think that I have things too easy!

Apothecary

I did fully implement The Apothecary today. It is run by a grandma like character who sometimes speaks in puns. Why? Well, why not?!? Any way, she currently only sells potions but will likely carry some magical items as I move through the project. If anything, she's easily expandable. Here's her current inventory list:

• Healing Potion - Heals user for 20 HP and may be used 3x (cost 125). Currently the most efficient low-level healing item.
• Healing Potion+ - Heals user for 45 HP and may be used 3x (cost 250). Double in price but much more efficient, a mid-tier healing item.
• Antidote - Cures user of the poisoned condition and may be used 3x (cost 120). Limited usefulness as most enemies do not cause this state but I may expand the item's range in terms of what it can cure. Right now this is largely a placeholder item as i flesh out the themed areas. 
• Resurrection Potion - True resurrection of 1 dead alley and is single use (cost 1,000).  Most useful in hard mode where characters are lost on death (normally). On normal, they come back a map later so this item isn't as useful then. There is no way you will be able to afford this at the start of the game so I'm not worried about somebody thinking they have to buy this item like I am for Antidote. You have very sparse funds at the start of the game (ranging anywhere from 100-500 depending on choices and random events) so it would be most wise to purchase actual gear than potions anyway.

Things that are important to keep in mind regarding these potions:

• Using a potion takes up an entire turn in combat, so it is much better to have a dedicated healer in your party (which is the first party member you are offered).
• Each potion eats up 1 inventory slot but offer multiple uses as opposed to other healing items you may find early in the game, say for example, Forest Herb which are single use and heal for a little less. Raw materials are always worse than refined ones, the idea is that this communicates a resource chain. Any way, I generously gave the player 10 inventory slots as opposed to the default 4 since EVERYTHING eats at least one slot. Don't worry though, you have a convoy (default name, likely will rename) you can send extra stuff to but you can't pull from in in combat.

While I was added I modified the other shops a little bit. Stuff like The Smith selling armor now, instead of just weapons.

Be sure to take breaks as you continue to work on your project, and I can't wait to see how everybody's work turns out!

-JS

Days 18, 19, & 20 - Busy

This weekend I didn't do anything. I was way too busy. However, my composer got some more music done for me. This latest series of tracks is for a boss battle with phases. Should be pretty cool. As for today, I made the first of 2 maps for the graveyard level(s).  Found some minor issues and corrected them as well. Not much time left for development so I'm gonna really get on that this week since last week I didn't do much. Have had some personal things crop up so it is damaging my work efforts here.

Edit:  SRPG Stuido's latest patch removed the screenshot feature for some reason so I had to do some magic so I could show you the newest map. Here it is:

It looks a little sparse because the enemy units aren't on the map yet, but trust me, you want that empty space in there. On that note, who could that girl be up there?

-JS

Day 22 - Graveyard Boss Progress, Lava Level & Roadmap

How is everybody doing? I've been having a blast reading about your projects and working on mine! For today we are going to talk about the graveyard level, its corresponding boss, the first lava level (of two), and the future in a little more detail. Let's start with the graveyard level first since I have the least to say on that.

The Graveyard

Yesterday I shared a new screenshot of the graveyard level and it looks pretty good. A reminder below. However, I wanted to provide general notes as to what it features here:

• One moderately challenging encounter with the chance for the player to obtain a new ally!
  • Minor balance changes made to ally & Hiro's weapon.
  • If she dies, the opportunity is lost and the level is cut short.
  • If she lives the player chooses to have the unit join the party (recommended).
    • Fun note about how I name characters for HIro's Ascension, they ALL have a special meaning. Example, Hiro has several meanings in Japanese depending on the Kanji used. In this case, his name means, "prosperous" since it would be written with the 浩 character. Not all names are Japanese, however, the world of Hiro's Ascension is a melting pot and mirrors our own! I'm not going to give you the woman's name here though, you'll have to discover that for yourself and what her name means, along with the others ;)
    • Regardless of choice a secondary fight of hard difficulty begins.
• Option to explore the graveyard once all fighting has ceased.
• Currently, there is a two-step, "puzzle" hidden on the map. I would like to add more to this but due to time that's all I could manage for now. Updated this to include a tutorial because I realized that the player hasn't seen a particular event item in this game yet. The puzzle involves an easy riddle as a hint if you don't happen to stumble upon the solution on your own.
• Each grave (with the exception of one, huh that's weird...) has an epitaph or general description (in the case of the wooden crosses). Some are silly, some are for actual people I know who died, and others might have more meaning than they let on.

That's it for that level. I know I said I didn't have much to say but O.o

Graveyard Boss

Yesterday I also hinted about the boss for this floor. Remember, you are going into this fight injured, and maybe even alone! I wouldn't worry too much though because not everything in Hiro's Ascension is what it seems after all. I am really excited for people to experience this boss because he's not something you would traditionally see in a tactics oriented strategy game. While this is in no way original in that this sort of thing has been done before, I still think it will be quite unexpected. Alright, no more hints on this guy. Instead, let me talk about why his level isn't done yet.

Remember yesterday when I said he had a lot of coding because of how chatty he was? Well I am not kidding! So far each instance of conversation with this guy is anywhere between 20-100 lines of (again, this is visual coding in-engine) various dialog, logic, and much more. There is a lot going on under the hood here, even though when you play this out, you really couldn't tell. I probably don't need to tell you folks making games that, but if you've never made one before, that's a LOT of what goes into games and why they take so long. You need to make sure all this is working smoothly and that there aren't funky bugs going on either.

As it stands he is 3/10 of the way completed because I am going to work on him in little chunks at a time. Doing him all at once is really exhausting! Thankfully, each time I add something new, I can copy large chunks of code and make minor (just tedious) edits to things since a lot of this stuff follows specific patterns. Kind of nice when you have something that works like this! Doubly good is that all the new mechanics like this one I'm including are easy to duplicate once finished fully, so the final boss, which pulls from each floor you explore to form his patterns, will be fairly easy to assemble.

That's it for this one right now. I suspect that by the start of the weekend he will be either complete or 8/10 done. 

Lava Level

As part of my break from the Graveyard boss I decided to work on the fire-themed floor. The first level's map looks like this:

This is without enemies and lighting may change of course. I know it is a bit silly to have wooden bridges over lava, but they play nice with the lava tiles so they were what ultimately won out here. If I find something better as I go, I'll change that but for now this is good enough. They are nice and narrow and do a great job of splitting the map into two uneven parts. So what's going down in this level?

• Another ally opportunity!
  • This time for an archer. His name is not settled yet, I have to research a good name for him.
  • He'll be mobbed by some demons that keep popping out of the lava. You'll need to rescue him by giving him an opportunity to escape! Since he is a ranged fighter, he will be useless if mobbed or in melee range. If you manage to save him, he will offer to join your party.
  • I want to add this here, but may skip it depending on how difficult the fight is.
    • Introduces environmental effects (if you aren't protected of course).

Not a terribly complex level but it will make a good prelude to the boss. In that encounter you'll be fighting a fire-wielder who has phase based mechanics. He's shaping up to be pretty tough, especially if you go into this solo. The game is balanced to always have 1-2 people in your party so I can't guarantee you'd win by yourself (I won't be testing it that way). As it stands, everything so far is doable by yourself but you should really consider friends if you ask me!

Last thing for this, I talked about how my composer finished up the music for the boss here. Go ahead and give this a listen (follow him and like this too if while you are at it, he's super awesome):

Roadmap

Moving forward I know for sure I'll be able to complete all of the above. I want to give the player a choice after defeating the gravekeeper where they'll either get the fire level or another level (I have an ice level and woodland level planned out) but I'm not 100% confident I can get that all finished by Monday at the absolute latest. For the moment I have a placeholder which offers a, "pseudo" choice with a developer's note. This is purely for the sake of the contest. I would love to continue work on this project, even if it does not win. However, I do want the player to have some agency in how they drive the story and where they end up going, so I am including this as if the feature is complete (even if I don't manage to complete it in time) because this contest is asking for a vertical slice. Meaning, if I want it in the full game, it NEEDS to be here.

In addition to this, I'll add in new game + but it will have zero playable content. Instead, it will play a short cutscene and have a developer note. More details on this later because this is actually a very important feature in terms of my story. I don't want to share all my secrets here ;) For those of you who have read previous updates or noticed the thing in the current demo, than you may have a clue to what I'm talking about here.

Remember to take breaks and enjoy your family tomorrow!

-JS

Day 23 - Happy Thanksgiving!

I don't have much to report in terms of progress today but I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving :) Had some turkey, pie, and played a board game with my family. To be honest, it was largely boring XD However, it isn't everyday that you do these things so it was still nice.

Want a quick update though? Still have ya covered. Today I implemented a new leveling system that grants skills, made a few balance changes, playtested some new features, and completed the setup phase for the Lava Level.

Still to do:

1. Finish the Graveyard boss (remains at 3/10 of the way complete) - Incremental completion through the weekend.
2. Finish the first stage of the Lava Level - Should be finished by tomorrow.
3. Create boss battle for Lava Level - Visuals, music, and basic programming should be complete by tomorrow.
4. Finalize the design of The Hallowed Heroes Hall - This has been in progress since yesterday when I was laying out maps, not 100% in love with the current design but it would satisfy as a placeholder. Should note, this is a cutscene only (maybe some minor gameplay?) not the actual boss arena. See picture below.
5. Either:
   1. Implemented final boss + design the level - Preferred option, dependent on weekend time.
   2. Go with plan b with new game + plan (that'll make sense if I go with this) - Not as desirable.
6. Write the new game + cutscene

The worst part is the door. I don't have a good door that fits there. Don't get me wrong, I have better doors, but they are meant to be paired with other things that don't work here. There is also too much blank space on the side but if this is just a brief cutscene, then I'm not gonna worry too terribly about it unless people really are against this. I also notice now that this is off-center. I'd fix that too. Oh, actually, I may be able to use a better set of tiles here. Guess you'll see in the final version ;)

That's it folks. I'm tired now so I likely won't make any extra progress on this like I usually do the moment I post these. Again, hope you had a happy (and safe) Thanksgiving!

-JS

Day 24 - Bosses & Maps

Yesterday I talked about how I aimed to have some stuff done. Well, I got a tad bit distracted so some of it I did finish but I also made a tiny bit more work for myself. I'll start with where we left off yesterday and then circle back to some older stuff. Let's dive in and see what exactly I'm talking about here.

First up, the picture I showed yesterday is one you should forget. Here's the new version of The Hallowed Hall of Heroes:

The lighting is different in the game, but this is the final layout. So what exactly is going on here?

• Left side:
  • Graves of previous guardians who are forever immortalized here. This space is larger than shown, just getting the basic idea across.
  • I choose to put in cherry trees because they offered nice color here and really balance the image. Furthermore, it adds to the strangeness of this general area.
• Right side:
  • Lots of bookshelves that act as an archive chronicling the lives of the various guardians. Note that some shelves seem to be missing books and others are empty, implying rooms for lots more future guardians.
• Time pending, this room will be one you can explore fully with story elements to read. I will probably put a secret in here too if I do that because, well, that's what I do! For the time being, it is a cutscene where Hiro (and company, if they are here) comment about the area and such.

Obviously this looks a lot better and I'm really diggin' it. That brings me to the actual boss fight, and ending of Hiro's adventure here. I set off to make an arena to fight in but things took a totally different turn once I started doing this. I think I spent like 2 hours on this, and it all was with the thought, "what does this guy's life look like down here?" Apparently, this:

Really, I didn't need to make this space, but I felt compelled to do so. There is a lot of empty space in the center but at the same time this room feels lived in. I gave the big boss everything he'd realistically ever need to live down here. The guy is even keeping some of the books from the previous room in here, and presumably a few others. I even went as far as to plan a secret in this room (if I make this playable, right now it just exists). I do have plans for this space, in terms of gameplay, but it'll kind of depend on time. If I'm running short on time you'll either see this space in place of the currently planned space or not at all. Time allowing, this will act as a bridge to the planned space. Sound confusing? Don't worry about it. Just wanted to show you folks that I made it, even if it doesn't make the cut for the competition version of the game.

Circling back to Lava Level now. That's something I made progress on. The short level prior to the boss fight needed some overhauling. No changes to the map but the enemies were causing problems. I broke their AI in an interesting way, which I originally kept, but then had to heavily modify because the whole level stopped working if I did. As it stands, this level basically received no progress. The programming for environmental damage here is done, and there is an item to counteract it, but I haven't decided yet if I'll actually keep them in the final version. Right now, the level is very difficult without that so it is disabled. The player currently has no real issue with the monsters, but the objective of this map is to keep an NPC (who becomes an ally if you save him, and choose to accept him) alive but he is very squishy. Needs more tweaking in general.

However, the Lava Level boss is looking great! He's 60% finished, with most of the heavy stuff taken care of. Now I just gotta fight him a few times and make minor adjustments so the fight feels good. Here's a pic of his level:

This is at the very start of the fight. The room actually doesn't start this way, it has no lava in it, but once the fight starts the boss floods the room with the stuff trapping you on this small island. From there he sends his Demon Generals after you with some other nasty tricks up his sleeve! The music changes to indicate a phase change, along with dialog as well. This guy has three phases that rotate every 3 rounds. You can only damage the boss during certain times so you really have to plan this one out! So far, this is the most complex boss in the game and would actually make a fine stopping point in case of an emergency with the deadline coming up fast!

Lastly, the Graveyard boss is now sitting at 4/10 + a little in terms of completion. I really hate working on this guy even though I LOVE him so much. He is just a big pain in the butt to make. He'll get done though, since I'm putting him front-and-center as the first major boss. I had an idea today when I was working on him that would make him even more robust, but I have to table it because it would double his development time, and I just don't have that. He's on track to be completed by Monday.

So here were yesterdays goals:

Still to do:

1. Finish the Graveyard boss (remains at 3/10 of the way complete) - Incremental completion through the weekend.
2. Finish the first stage of the Lava Level - Should be finished by tomorrow.
3. Create boss battle for Lava Level - Visuals, music, and basic programming should be complete by tomorrow.
4. Finalize the design of The Hallowed Heroes Hall - This has been in progress since yesterday when I was laying out maps, not 100% in love with the current design but it would satisfy as a placeholder. Should note, this is a cutscene only (maybe some minor gameplay?) not the actual boss arena. See picture below.
5. Either:
   1. Implemented final boss + design the level - Preferred option, dependent on weekend time.
   2. Go with plan b with new game + plan (that'll make sense if I go with this) - Not as desirable.
6. Write the new game + cutscene

Item 1 is lookin' good still. Item 2 had a setback, but is otherwise on track for tomorrow or Sunday completion instead (depends on how busy I am). Item 3 is actually ahead of schedule since it is nearly finished, as opposed to just having the general groundwork done. I may even finish that tonight once I've had a bit of a break. Item 4 is done + did extra work, may still do a smidgen more if I want this place to be playable. Item 5 is TBD, but leaning towards item A for the moment. Item 6 I haven't even touched as it is literally the easiest but I need to settle on item 5 first, otherwise I'll have to redo it a few times potentially.

Edit:  I totally forgot to mention this! I added a new leveling system for each character, made balance changes, and tons of other little adjustments that make the game feel better as a whole. Additionally, went back to modify a cutscene to provide more story and build the world some more. Created a, "useless" item in this version of the game, but if you purchase it you get a fun little secret and developer note. It is a placeholder for features I want to include but don't have time to actually implement.

Man, the days are going quick! Be sure to use your time wisely so you don't miss the deadline or have to rush your product out.

-JS

Day 27 - Final Version Complete

It isn't perfect, and I had to make a few last-minute changes but the final version is now available. It took about 60 hours for me to put this together, and was a lot of hard work! Thank you all for the continued support and please enjoy the game.

You can download it here. 

Keep in mind that this is basically a giant prologue. I suggest playing the game on, "Normal" as well. The game has been meticulously balanced by hand and should be winnable via a few differing strategies. The final boss can be very tough or not that bad depending on what choices you make, and the hand you were dealt by fate, so good luck!

Please be sure to rate the game and provide feedback.

Good luck to everybody, now I need to go relax for a bit.

-JS