Charlesg154's Site

1. Introduction
2. Game's History
3. Past Status
4. Current Status
5. Conclusion
6. FAQ
7. Screenshots, Planning, Progress, etc.

1. Introduction. Heya everyone, it's probably a shocker to see me actually making a post, but here it is. Brace yourselves, it's a long one. So, I've been getting a lot of questions about OPPD since, oh I dunno, the past three years? I'm dedicating this post to answering those questions while explaining OPPD's history, past status, current status, and where we'll be going in the future. Whether or not this will cause excitement, disappointment, apathy or whatever I don't know, but I'll be giving quite a few blunt truths about the game and progress.


2. Game's History. Perhaps the most unimportant section here, but it'll lead into a few explanations and satisfy some people's curiosity, so for the sake of explaining, I'll explain. OPPD was started originally planned as a Naruto game (Yeah, ha-ha.) Before when I was just a BYOND player, I was also into role-playing. I was creating an RPG myself at the time, and meanwhile on BYOND was a closed tester in a friend of mine's Naruto game. That friend (Ashida) suggested I turn it into a BYOND game, which although he meant text based, I assumed meant icons and the works. I reluctantly agreed and got started not knowing what the hell I was doing, but he showed me a little of the ropes to get me on my way.

This game didn't progress too much but also at this time I was getting into this really awesome anime about an eccentric pirate sailing the seas. At this point there weren't too many Naruto games on BYOND, but I felt that I should perhaps try my hand at something a little more unique and not yet done. Thus, One Piece Grand Journey was born. A friend of mine, Majin Kenshin, also enjoyed the show and agreed to help me out. He joined as the programmer and I as...the leader? Yeah I wasn't too experienced back then. You may be a bit thrown by that title, here's the explanation. At one point, I was coerced into changing it due to the popular role-playing BYOND game known as "Dragonball Grand Journey" (A very awesome game by the way.) This was to avoid confusion from thinking that the two games were affiliated in anyway. Therefore of course, the name was changed to the now known "One Piece Pirate's Dream." Looking back I wish I chose something more general to the gameplay since it isn't all about pirates, but with the title being known at this point and with well done GFX works done for it as well, I left it as is.

We ended up recruiting a staff, Jacts, Kenshin, and others, but none of us really managed to stick together for too long. We either became busy; some lost hope in the game, and the team eventually fell apart. I was pretty much left on my own two feet which forced me to learn my way around development on BYOND (A blessing in disguise). This is when I picked up on doing both pixel art and programming. The original layout for the game, well it wasn't too great. At the rate it was going, it would've been a mediocre One Piece typical BYOND fighter at most. So in the end, I pretty much scrapped this copy of the game.

I continued doing more work around BYOND, helping out friends who would eventually come to help me as well. I met people like Sylux, Adam, and Nate who all at some point would help me out in multiple ways. The current base was actually an updated version from what Sylux originally made for Adam's Naruto game, which he would go on to use as well for his Shaman King and Rockman fangames. Sadly, these games never got off the ground, and Adam has as far as I know, left BYOND. Because of this, our copy of the base is the only one being used presently.
I was developing lots of new ideas for the new version of the game, with help from my friends and from pretty much the only other staff member at the time, Shmander, who was working specifically as a pixel artist. Progress was going really well, though we were still far from getting done. I also started accepting closed testers at this time from the forum, who would eventually lead into the faithful team that we have today. Shmander sadly, was forced to leave the team, though we started gaining new pixel artists who would assist in making the game (And eventually all leave).

This version of One Piece would also be heavily revised as we found our skills better to a point to realize how much of the other stuff wasn't cutting it and what we could do to improve the game. Lots of icons were redone, and lots of systems revised. Eventually I would learn the importance of planning things ahead of time, which I really didn't use to my full effect until perhaps the next year of development? Yeah, things were starting to get messy. I did start to do this a lot after this point however, but as we started programming again I realized just how much was being omitted (This will be important to realize for what will be happening to OPPD currently). This led to a lot of things becoming junky or not completely finished in the source.

So during this point you're already looking into about two years of One Piece development. We were getting somewhere, but at the same time we weren't. However, we were in fact, working at the very least. As we continued though, a lot of staff members became too busy and left or just remained inactive on development. This is when the recent progress really started to struggle, at least when it came to the programming end, and honestly we weren't getting that far besides perhaps finishing another system every couple of months. And finally this leads to where we are today.

3. Past Status. So a lot of you may be wondering, "Where the hell is the progress at, yo?" Well, a lot of systems were complete to some extent, but due to my compulsiveness I didn't want to release them as finished until everything concerning them and other systems concerning them were done too. Also, updates caused confusion among people as most were released on the forums (Scattered around there I might add) whereas barely anything was being released anywhere on the BYOND site itself. Plus with my inactivity towards updating the forum as well as how much was scattered, you probably wouldn't find much anyway. Well I went through the liberty of taking various screenshots of the game's past progress which can be viewed at the bottom of this post, just for you. You'll also find much of the old planning files if you feel like taking a gander at those as well.


4. Current Status. So I mentioned in the history section the situation of the game, how junky the source has gotten, and how I wanted to be more efficient in my planning. Well here is the part that most people may take anger to, but quite honestly, is for the best and will make things a lot better. I'm going to be revamping the source completely, in a sense building it from the ground up. I know a lot of you are thinking, among profanities perhaps, "Why waste three years of work?" The answer to that is that I won't, I'll still have the old source as a reference but I'll be reprogramming a lot of things, revising a lot of ideas, and pretty much "Making the game in text file format" before I actually start programming anything again. My old plans might have been pretty thorough, but I'll really be pulling all the stops this time. As for the matter of staff, I am currently not officially accepting any positions, but I very well may in the near future. I'm still very debatable on this. This time however, presents the possibility of adding new programmers, since a revamp better provides that opportunity unlike before. Pixel artists I am more than certain we'll be fine in, but with the current pixel-artists a lot more busy lately this may very well also have some openings.


5. Conclusion. This might not have been the most organized post but I hope that I answered as many questions as I could. The game is currently being revamped, and right now is going through the "planning phase". I will be uploading a lot of those plans for progress, enlightenment, and input from and for the community. Some of you may think that it is perhaps a bad idea to upload my precise plans, as other rivals and such could steal it. My answer to that is quite frankly, I'm not too worried. My reasoning is simply this; the plans for One Piece are pretty complicated in some sense. That is, complicated enough anyway, that I'm willing to bet that any idiot asinine enough to do that wouldn't really know how to, whereas a more competent person in programming would have enough sense in mannerism than to try. Sure that might not always be true and I might to be trusting, but my apathy still remains, and in any case, you're hearing it here first nonetheless. I would really like the audience to have a good say and eye for the progress in OPPD, despite my past flaws in development. I also find it necessary to say that I am in fact, in college now "Yey?", and because of that, I am a LOT busier than previously before (This may contribute further to the possibility of extra programmers x_x). I'll still be working on the game, but I won't have as much time to do so. But anyway, feel free to comment on anything, but please, do so with sense. I'm willing to listen to any input you guys have to say, but I rather hear it with a backing of some intelligence rather than mindless drabble. Otherwise, feel free to look at plans, old screens, and etc.


6. FAQ.

Q. Are you still working on the game?
A. Yes. But I am also very busy and it is going through a revamp so progress may be slow. I'll see what I can do here.

Q. When will the game be out?
A. I don't have the slightest clue.

Q. Can I be tester?
A. Chances are no. If it isn't official event, I'm not asking you, or there isn't under a special circumstance (I've only heard a few good excuses in this area), then no.

Q. Can I apply for a staff position?
A. I'm not officially accepting staff right now. Like anything on here though, I'm willing to listen to what you guys have to say.

Q. Can I be admin?
A. I'm doing my best to rid the game of a need for admin, so this is a flat out no.


7. Screenshots, Planning, Progress, etc.
Planning:
Current-

Past-

Screens:
Current-

Past-
http://i34.tinypic.com/23jlax1.png
http://i35.tinypic.com/4sbmmu.png
http://i36.tinypic.com/3143ul3.png
http://i34.tinypic.com/e8vn5x.png
http://i34.tinypic.com/124x7rc.png
http://i38.tinypic.com/p3khs.png
http://i33.tinypic.com/2a0mfxh.png
http://i37.tinypic.com/23kanbs.png
http://i36.tinypic.com/27y5qc4.png
http://i35.tinypic.com/2cgkghs.png
http://i37.tinypic.com/97v8qr.png
http://i36.tinypic.com/1z39ilf.png
http://i37.tinypic.com/2804o5v.png
http://i38.tinypic.com/2drxgdh.png
http://i35.tinypic.com/5z4ml1.png
http://i33.tinypic.com/29usvuq.png

Recently Gohan has been working a lot with the skin. Fixing the measurements and allowing for more adjustment for those with smaller screen resolution or just to have a better feel of the positioning. Image wise you can view the basic structure of the skin from this picture posted by Gohan on the forum.


Gohan has also done quite the amount of progress on ships, and it's good to say that it doesn't seem much longer until they are fully functionable. So look forward to that as well.

Adam has been adding quite a bit to the development as well. He's been working with programming various things as well as creating a system for alcohol and drunkenness, a hilarious though well wanted addition =p (On our part). He will be doing a lot of work with 'questing' related incidents, and plans to get quite in depth with them.

My part in the programming has mostly (As seems to be my trend) involved Combat in some way or another. The injury system is nearly finished and is at the point of programming the doctor class's involvement. I also plan to incorporate a new interactive option on dodging, blocking and a little bit of attacking. Sorry for having to go back into combat, but it will be well worth it, and avoid the typical stand-still battles which I fear.

Black Dragon has been doing excellent work graphic wise. Concerning the hub, logins, banners, avatars, and other things which he went out of his way for. You may have noticed the recent changes in layout to various things such as the hub or forum, two noticeable additions done through his work.

Bohru has been doing a lot of work with the base icon states as well as various turfs. Edgar has also made some noticeable icon additions to battling as well as the water turf. Odin has been doing great work with NPCs and objects. Redos, has been creating quite a few bits of clothing and npcs as well. All have contributed other works as well as requested, causing for the pixel-art part of the game to allow for good progress.

These past couple of weeks have allowed for good progress and we plan to continue to keep rolling out the updates. Expect for more teasers and screens for when some more systems become completed. We will be working with classes soon enough, as well as other updates you may notice on the hub. In any case thanks for being so patient and once again, we'll try to make it worth the while.