Lige's site

General Update.

Fri, 24 May 2013 10:03:49 +0000

Leaked Source
Development
Public Testing
Cleaning Hub

Leaked Source

I felt I should cover this due to a handful of messages I received about it. There is no leaked source. Nobody, aside from myself, has access to the source so there's no worry about the game being stolen and/or leaked. Despite my sarcastic story regarding the matter, it was taken seriously anyway; so it seems I'm to address this matter publicly.

Development

Development has been interesting, to say the least. I've been focusing on gameplay, so to speak. AI, skills, character progression and quests were the things that have been taking up my time. I just haven't made a development update because I thought a public test would've been better than a screenshot.

Aside from that, I've been focusing on how to make the game more user-friendly. This lead to me to do things my way, but I'm going to make my "settings" default, and just let the players adjust them to whatever tickles their fancy. I was even thinking of having an option for language, but that's up for debate.

As for what remains, the bulk of it is grunt work; things like mapping, npc dialogue for quests, etc. I've went out of my way tonight to download/install Paint.NET so I can work on the GUI that remains. Granted, I'm no expert, but it'd be best to have something as opposed to nothing.

Public Testing

I'm unsure when this will take place. I was aiming for sometime before June, so when the time comes, I'll go ahead and post about it as I put the server up. For those of you interested, I plan on having restrictions when the server is up. The only two restrictions that come to mind are:

Guest keys are not allowed.
Latest BYOND version required. This is to encourage usage of the new pager.

Since it's a public test, saving/loading will be disabled, as will the introduction/login process. You'll automatically be thrown into character creation upon logging in. If there are any suggestions for the public test, feel free to toss them out. If it's something we don't have yet, I'll definitely write it down as a suggested feature.

Cleaning Hub

I plan on cleaning up the hub and forum once we release. The hub description will be cleaned up, probably only displaying general information about Suukou Faita-. Our posts on the hub's forum, including this one, will be deleted once the game is released, as well. We'll replace them with posts regarding updates as they are released. Pretty much, it'll be a fresh start, aside from the hub icon and banner. This is hardly important, but I wanted to go over it anyway.

Development Update (4-19-13)

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 05:26:14 +0000

Index

Introduction
Content Worked On
Currently Working On
Other Information

Introduction

Suukou Faita- has been created in terms of programming as well as game design. We've kept some of the original artwork and ideas, but we're taking Suukou Faita- in a new direction. For those of you who have followed us in the past, hopefully you stick around for the upcoming release despite major changes.

The last two weeks have been dedicated to optimizing current systems, debugging, and creating general tools to make development and content additions easier. Unfortunately, more than a few days went directly into systems that we decided to not use after all was said and done.

If this is your first time reading an update about Suukou Faita-, more information can be found here and here.

Content Worked On

GUI: As mentioned in the last post, we decided to work on the GUI. We decided to talk about it all at once (HUD, hotbar, etc), so here's some information.

Heads Up Display: As you can see, we keep track of your health, energy and experience. Each bar has a state per percentage, so you won't have to guess whether you're at one percent or ten percent. Although it's not really relevant to gameplay, your name and level are displayed above the bars.
Hotbar: We use keys 1 through 0 on the keyboard as macros for the hotbar. Using the skills via key is optional, of course, since you can easily just use the mouse instead.
Targeting: We've added in a HUD for targets. This displays their name, level, health and BP. It updates when their health has been altered (via damage/heal), or if their BP changes. We'll most likely adjust it when they level just to ensure it's accurate. This HUD disappears when you untarget, are knocked out, or if the target is knocked out.
Minor Stuff: Help and Settings are quite obvious. The three top left buttons are for your skills, inventory, and character while the bottom three are for mail, map, and your quest log.

Movement system: We've finally replaced our placeholder movement system with a rather fantastic one. Aside from being a lot more responsive and flexible, increasing/decreasing player speed based on certain factors has become much easier to manage.

Damage Display: We were originally using a library for this, but it was something that we were wanting to replace. Although it took awhile, it was finally time to add it in, which is great since it made it in pre-release.

New enemies: We had some enemies already made, but we wanted to know what kind of enemies you guys wanted to see on Earth. With our Earthly Enemies poll finished, we've taken some enemies off of the more popular votes and worked on them. I say we so you guys can see that I'm taking partial credit for Branks' work without having any artistic ability. :D

Damage formula: As stated in the last post, I was working on a damage formula. Well, after having to figure out other formulas, I'm fairly certain I have a decent "base" to work with. It will most likely change as additional content is added into the game and testing goes on.

Currently Working On

Enemy AI: I think this is the only one that doesn't change ... ever. It's always on the list, but we tend to change it or I never get enough time on it. Luckily, I did get some time on it, so it shouldn't be much longer until we can go back to mindless mashing our keys against these fellows.

New Map: Well we've had a lot of placeholder maps, but it's time we move on from that and get into something a bit more for-serial. Branks has worked on the new map, which we'll end up sticking with from here on out.

Sound: The game feels too quite if you're not the one mashing your keys. Aside from that, the sounds are great. Once I manage to fix this problem, I can finally add in the remaining sound files.

Other stuff: The other stuff I'm working on, I really have little to comment with. Some won't be known about since they work in the background, or aren't too major to give it its own category. Additionally, things such as minor fixes and additions are thrown in here.

Other Information

Hub: Link!

Branks - drbrankenstein [Skype]
Lige - live:lige91 [Skype]

If you're a programmer or pixel artist and willing to handle small tasks, feel free to contact myself or Branks. Experience and common sense are required.

Development Update (4-5-13)

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 21:00:02 +0000

Index

Introduction
Currently Working On
Other Information

Introduction

Currently Working On

Clothing: As you can see above, we have quite a bit of clothing thus far. We'll most likely add more down the road, but for now what you see above is far more than enough. Adding in the option to change the color of equipment will be added in soon as well. It's definitely on my list as it helps with apparel customization.

Easier Mapping: While this is hardly relevant to players, it's something I added to Suukou Faita- anyway. Mapping can be far more time consuming than it needs to be, so it was simplified, which should lighten the load for Branks and myself when we're at the mapping stage of development.

GUI: We finally got around to working on the GUI which was on my to-do list, but wasn't really something I had as a priority. It's definitely a huge improvement over the older one, which was just horrible. Unfortunately, not much else can be said about it. It's pretty straight-forward.

Damage Formula: We didn't have a decent formula during most of our testing, but that's all starting to change. I'm aiming to make damage much more dynamic, in hopes to make combat more intense for the player. I tire of games that only rely on two statistic values, thus making this fairly important and time consuming.

Other Information

Updates

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 23:01:58 +0000

Version 0.1 - Initial Release

- 3 basic units

Infantry
Calvary
Archer

- Settings

Alert Toggle
Music Toggle
Sound Effects Toggle

- Unit stats
- 1 mission
- 1 medal
- Basic AI
- In-game Guide

Update (2/24/12) - AI & Hairstyles

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 02:05:50 +0000

Index

Introduction
AI
Hair Styles
Other Information

Introduction

Before getting started, it's worth noting that Branks and I have been busy since our last post, and today just happen to be a good day...ish, so I thought I should post an update. Anyway, as mentioned in our returning post, the AI and Combat were basic and a work in progress. After discussing ideas with Branks, we've decided that our current systems were to be tossed aside. As of now, the systems are in development.

AI

Despite mentioning that they wouldn't be reprogrammed in my previous post, I found that it would be easier to just reprogram the system. The previous system was horrible and less flexible. Overall, if I kept it, just about every AI would act the same. Because of that, I thought "why not just make each AI behave differently?", and thus I did. Currently I have 3 key behaviors, and under each are sub-behaviors. By that, I mean each mob could share certain notable traits as those in its same category, but their behavior would be noticeably different if they don't share the same sub-category. So far, there are three main-categories, but I'm debating on making one or two more and having roughly five sub-categories per main-category. With that being said, if there's something in specific you'd like to see, feel free to suggest it.

Hair Styles

This is our current list of hair styles. Including the option to be bald, we've provided a selection of fourteen hair styles. I think it should suffice for our first release, wouldn't you say? Nevertheless, what do you guys think about the hair styles?

Other Information

Hub: Link!

Website: Link!

Youtube Account: Link!

Contact Information:

Branks - branks17(at)hotmail(dot)com [MSN/Email]
Lige - lige91(at)hotmail(dot)com [MSN/Email]

Suukou Faita- Update (2/13/12)

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:21:23 +0000

Index

Introduction
This Update
Currently Working On
Intro and Character Creation
Other Information

Introduction

For those of you who do not know of Suukou Faita-, feel free to read up on our previous post here. With that said, this update was actually bigger than expected. We had no login process, let alone a decent character creation process. It was rather basic and pretty annoying. In this update, we've added in an Introduction to the game to give it a more professional look. On top of that, the character creation (as well as loading/saving) has been implemented. Sound and music are present as well. Medals were already made in the past, but I don't think I ever announced it. I've taken the time to add in the scoreboard, which holds little information (name, key, level, last played). While it works, there's really no use for it at the moment.

This Update

Introduction: We added in an introduction to the game. Upon login, you'll be greeted with the title music as well as a screen giving BYOND credit. Soon after, it fades into the Development Team screen and eventually the Title Screen itself. Once you continue to the next screen via Enter, you click on whichever option, leading you to your character slots; if you have a save file, you can load/delete it; otherwise it'll take you the character creation process.

Character Creation: Here, you are introduced to several options. You can click on the bar that represents your name, which is required as your name cannot be your key, contain spaces, exceed 12 characters or be less than 3 characters. Under that is the preview of your character. You can rotate him with the arrows. To the right are five hair styles, among them is the option to be bald. More will be added in, and we'll even add in a barber so you can change your hair style/color during gameplay. Below that are skin color, eye color and hair color. Skin color only has three options; pale, tan and dark . Eye color contains black, brown, blue and green. It's somewhat noticable. The default is blue and we don't plan on adding in anymore colors for the eyes. Hair color default is black; the list of colors upon creation are black, brown, red, blonde and grey. We'll be adding in more colors, but they will only be accessible from the barber. Last, but not least, you can select your face type. So far only three have been made, and the video makes it hard to notice a difference. We'll add in a couple of more soon enough, it's just a matter of priority right now.

Music and Sound: The game has received some more sounds. Title screen music, and sound effects during character creation have been added in. More will be added soon, especially music. The sounds can be heard in the video provided in the Intro and Character Creation section.

Currently Working On

Tutorial Quests: We're wanting to get the tutorial out of the way. It'll teach the player the basics of the game, as well as reward them with experience, items and equipment. I highly doubt the tutorial will be skippable, but we do plan on doing our part to make it as fun as possible.

Techniques: Not all of the techniques will be implemented at once, but we're going to try to do at least two active techniques per class for now. There's five classes in the game to choose from, each having their own pros and cons. Once we've named each class rather than dubbing them after their abilities, I'll be sure to bring them up in the next post.

Mapping: We're most likely going to make a temporary map, but if we decide to use the actual map then it'll be of the tutorial zone, if not the beginning town. So far no mapping has been made as it's not a big concern at the moment. We're more focused on the gameplay aspects (I've just been lacking in the creativity department).

Combat: As stated in the previous post (and comments), the combat was extremely basic and temporary. I should probably bold and underline that. I'll try it again, hold on... "the combat was extremely basic and temporary". Anyway, I've been writting down several ideas and concepts to ensure massing one attack command doesn't happen; and even if it did, the opposing player will have an arsenal of possibilities to handle the situation at his disposal. The combat has to be completely re-programmed anyway, so I might as well take our ideas and run with'em. Necessary changes can be made later on.

AI: AI doesn't have to be completely redone, just the combat parts. I'm wanting to have several behavior types. Nobody likes walking into an area just to be attacked by an angry mob, which is one of many reason I was encouraged to make several behavior types. It's too early to give out much information, but I'll be sure to add it into the next post.

NOTE: Once the above is finished, we'll have a public demo of the game hosted. Until then, it'll remain in its private alpha state. Feedback and suggestions are always welcome.

Intro and Character Creation

Rather than providing screenshots, we've decided to provide videos. The video below is contains what we've created within the last couple of days. Do keep in mind that the video quality lowered upon upload. No idea what caused it, either. Regardless, feedback is welcome.

Other Information

It's worth noting that the game's window size isn't adjustable. We've settled on using 1024x768 and don't plan on changing it any time soon.

Hub: Link!

Website: Link!

Youtube Account: Link!

Contact Information:

Branks - branks17(at)hotmail(dot)com [MSN/Email]
Lige - lige91(at)hotmail(dot)com [MSN/Email]

Spear Throw v1.1

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 18:30:15 +0000

This morning, I decided to alter some of the programming for Spear Throw, as well as add some stuff in. Here's a small list for version 1.1:

* Fixed *

- Spear would randomly "slide" downwards after hitting the target, causing the game to change your points (usually to a lower number).

- Scoreboard wouldn't update properly.

- Because of the "sliding spear" problem, medals weren't being given when conditions were met.

* Changes *

- I was adjusting the arching via pixel_y/bound_y, which the scoring system relied on. Now it uses and relies on step_y, which seems to make it run a lot smoother than before.

* Added *

- A second level, mainly to mess with the current system.

- Your score can now be seen on screen.

- Two more medals. "It's over 9000!" for the addicted players. And, "Bullseye" for those who seek perfection.

- While the game gathers your scoreboard info and updates it, it'll notify you. Not to mention you're unable to "play" until it finishes. Testing with a few other people, it seems to not be noticeable unless you have poor connection. If you're not connected to the internet, the game won't allow you to continue.

* Coming Soon *

- More levels.

- Altered system per level.

- Possibly alter the points given per level (harder levels give more points).

Any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to leave them here.