Weekly Update 14 Apr 2021: Intro Progress Report 4

Hello again, welcome to the 14th weekly update. This update will pick up where we left off from last week.

Good news is I got a lot done last week, the bad news being I didn’t reach my intended goal. My intentions were to start working on the explore map and battles. Instead I got stuck on improving the guild hall, fixing annoying problems and finalizing the flow of the game from point A to B.

As you can see in the screenshot above I changed a few things. Some you can see, most you can not. 

A lot of the game making process up to this point has been me solving hard game design problems and working within the limitations of the game engine/toolset(s). One such problem has been the management of NPC speakers. If they aren’t in the party of the player, I had to manually input their name and portraits each time I wanted them to speak. This is an unnecessary redundant process and would result in substantially more work if I decided to change things down the road.

After thinking for many days and trying many solutions I decided to make every important NPC a part of the party. This doesn’t change the game from the players perspective because I’ve hidden the NPCs. All this allows me to do is ref the NPCs data from a singular source instead of inputting that data repeatedly.

Other problems have just been me creating systems that don’t exist within the limit of the toolset I’m using. It’s more work on my end but it’s worth it to not compromise on my intended ideas for this game.

Thankfully, I managed to finalize the guild hall menu and can comfortably move on to the map area.

This is the menu for the tutorial map in the explore menu. As usual, the image is very “work in progress” and the info you see on screen can or will change.

Next week I will genuinely start on mapping and battling. Maybe I should mention this just to clarify any misunderstandings, most of the mapping mechanics and the battle system are complete. The stuff I’m doing right now is creating/inserting graphics, creating fxs, designing levels and creating events. Although more often than not, I will go back and redesign some parts of the game if I feel it can be better.

Next week I will update with more progress and I will also explain how attributes, status, and parties will be handled in this game. This will be the topic of my next video which will be released in two weeks.

That’s all I have for this week, stay well my friends.

Weekly Update 13 Apr 2021: Intro Progress Report 3

Welcome to another weekly update. For this week we’ll be continuing the discussion of the intro progression from last week.

There is one thing I neglected to mention from last week and that’s the quest system. I spent last week setting that up since it’s required before I tackle the exploring and battling.

Oh, what’s that? A new background, a new character? Who is she? Companions?? Dohohohooo, all questions that will be answered in due time.

The quest system is based on Rank and Reputation. The higher your daughter’s Reputation, the higher her Rank and the better quests she can take on. I’ll go into more detail in a future monthly blog but as I mentioned before, this will lead directly into your first exploration quest.

Throughout the next week I will be setting up and polishing the exploration maps. If I get to a point where I feel it’s presentable I may show a screenshot. The entire battle system mechanics (exploration and battles) is a beast all it’s own. You can split this game into two parts, the daughter raising (most of what I’ve shown) and the battle system. I actually designed this game to ultimately focus on the battle system. I will try to balance everything to give equal weight between combat and non-combat events but a lot of the game leans towards battling. (what can I say, I love RPGs)

Nonetheless, I’m excited. Once I have the battle system fully set up I can start going down the bucket list of unpolished sections of the game. Soon I will arrive at the faithful day I can complete an in game week. Then a season, and then a year. And finally the whole game. Yes, what a wonderful feeling that will be. BACK TO WORK I GO!

Guardian’s Guide Dev Blog 4: Party and Status

This is the 4th monthly development blog for the game Guardian’s Guide. If this is your first time reading our dev blogs you can get caught up from the first 3 blogs at this link. In previous posts I discussed the home screen, budget system and personality traits. This update we are going over the party and status screen.

As usually, I cover most of everything in the video so I’ll briefly go over details for those who prefer reading.

The party menu is where you go to change party members or check their general status. In the beginning of the game you can recruit up to 2 other party members. Once you go pass that limit any additional members will be sent to reserve. Party members are referred to as companions. Companions are made up of the monsters you fight while exploring. They become recruitable after you defeat them once. NPCs may join you party as “extra” members due to a quest or event.

The status menu displays general information of each party member pertaining to exploration and battles. This information includes equipment, skills, battle stats and attributes. Here is a break down of each stat.

Stamina: Directly affects Hp by percentage. Also increases vitality.

Command: Determines if you can recruit a companion. Also affects attack/magic and defense/mag def.

Strength: Directly affects Attack by percentage.

Intelligence: Directly affects Magic by percentage.

Willpower: Directly affects Defense by percentage.

Perception: Directly affects Magic Defense by percentage.

Hp: Battle Health

Ap S/R/M: Action point Start/Recover/Max. Ap is used for skills in battle.

Attack: Physical Damage

Defense: Physical Protection Rate

Magic Attack: Magic Damage

Magical Defense: Magical Protection Rate

Speed: Determines battle order.

Critical Chance/Rate: The chance for a critical attack and the percentage(rate) of more damage that can be done.

Contrary to RPG convention, there are no levels in this game. Everything is stats and equipment based. This is by design. The skills and equipment can be added and removed at will. There are 4 categories of equipment in this game. They are listed starting from the top: Weapon, Outfit, Accessories and Titles. Every battle related stat and some non battle related stats can be affected by equipment and skills.

That about covers the party and status for now. Unless something changes I will be covering the job system next month. These monthly updates are all leading up to the day I can showcase the introduction of the game and give you guys a real glimpse of how this game will play.

If you can’t wait that long to see how this game works you’re very welcomed to join us by becoming a member and supporting the development at allugic.com/support.

That is all I have for this update, be well friends and stay safe.

 

Weekly Update 12 Apr 2021: Intro Progress Report 2

Another week, another update. For this post I’ll give you a simple update of what I’ve been doing for the past week. I had to move work locations last week so I spent some time adjusting but I still got a bit of work done.

I spent most of the week working toward completing the intro. I’ve fully set up the job system so it’s modular from now into the end of the game. What that means is I can input custom events, dated events or let the game use the default events at any time in the game. That is, as long as I follow the format I set up. (no problemo)

Next, I made sure everything connected from start to finish. All the variables, status values and text had to be correct for each job type. This took some time, but luckily I only needed to set it up once. Once the job system worked as expected, I was finally able to move on to exploring and battle.

But before that, I created a Resident Interaction to connect the job tutor event to the exploration tutor event. Originally the R.I. was just a fixed button. It was static so I didn’t need to worry about it taking up a lot of resources. But unfortunately, I ran into a problem. I needed the portrait on the R.I. to be dynamic since the daughter’s portrait will actually change over the course of the game. I solved this problem by making the R.I.s items like the Upcoming Events. This will create more resources but it gives me the most freedom.

At this point I’ve gotten a bit deep into the game, I think at least 10 to 15 minutes of real game content. (mostly text) Since I test this game at minimum 30 times a day, I need to skip the stuff that’s completed. I can skip most of the content by moving some stuff around on the back end but I really don’t want to do that every time I need to get somewhere. So I decided to utilize the save/load system for the first time. Everything worked as expected with the exception of the things that don’t get saved. (like images, game objects, object positions and abstract concepts) By abstract concepts I mean, for example, if the game is located at home or exploring a map. I can solve this using things like bools but I still have work to do there, and it will require my attention throughout the game making process. (more stuff to worry about lol)

Lastly, as I was thinking about the explore system and stamina as a stat, I realized this might cause confusion. Ok, a little information unveil, stamina is used for increasing the max HP of a user. 150 stamina = 150% increase in HP. Stamina is also used for jobs and exploring. A job consumes 50% of the base stamina each week. That is, 50% without any added bonus.(equipment, items, etc) Exploring a map consumes stamina as well. Unfortunately, as the stamina gets consumed the player may believe he is losing HP. Not my intention! So I decided to change the name of the value that is used for jobs and exploring. It is now called Vitality.

It works the same way as before but just with a different name to not confuse the player. The max Vitality is still based on Stamina. So the more Stamina you have, the more Vitality you can have for jobs and exploring each week.

Next week I will begin the exploring and battle tutor. A lot of work to do there but I’m excited to get those areas fully functional so I can finally show it off. RAAAAAAAA let do this, game completion LET FUCKIN’ GOOOOOOOOO.

Guardian’s Guide Dev Blog 3: Budget and Personality

Greetings, this is the 3rd development blog for the game Guardian’s Guide. If you are new to this series you can check out the first blog here. On the second blog we went over the home screen. In this blog we are going over the budget and personality screen.

Most of this information is covered in the video so I will just highlight the important parts.

The budget system is a method for directly influencing the condition and mood of your daughter each week. The default budget is Budget Plan 100. Any deviation from this will multiply the cost of the budget. For example, Budget Plan 50 is half the price of Budget Plan 100. Likewise, Budget Plan 150 is 1.5x the price of Budget Plan 100.

Adding food is a method to predominantly affect her condition. If you were to add a healthy food for instance, her condition might increase. Or if you were to add sweets, her condition could decrease. But this might also result in her mood improving.

Adding hygiene products equally affects her mood and condition. To put it simply, the higher-quality the products you use, the better it will affect her. 

Adding housing products predominantly affects her mood.

Assortments work like a wild card. You can add either food, hygiene or housing products into assortment. There are also specialized items that can only be placed into assortments.

Along with affecting mood and condition, some of the items will affect other stats. For instance, a certain food item might increase your stamina for the week. Or a certain hygiene product might increase your chance of getting a bonus on a particular job.

The food, hygiene, and housing products have what is called a shelf life. After a fixed number of weeks the products become useless and you can no longer use them. Food has the shortest shelf life, they are consumed in a single week if used, but generally only last between 1 and 3 weeks if not used. Hygiene products will last between 1 weeks to 8+ weeks. (depends on the quality) Housing products have the longest shelf life but have a tendency to break if used consistently. Both Hygiene and housing have their shelf life consumption doubled when in use.

If a product becomes useless you will be able to sell it to get at least half back of what you paid, so it won’t be a complete loss. But you should be cautious of what you buy to not waste your money.

The window on the right controls the personality of your daughter. It’s a pretty simple and straightforward approach. You just set the attributes you want to develop and each week it goes up by a fixed amount. 

As your daughter grows the personality traits begin to reveal themselves with each new situation she’s in. For example, If you’re in a situation that involves saving your life or helping another, you might get a unique menu option that will only show up if you put points into “altruist” or “narcissist”. Likewise, your daughter will begin to say things on her own purely based on the personality traits you foster.

As I mentioned in the video, there is no punishment or reward for choosing one trait over another. So just pick whatever you want and have fun with it.

Once the personalities reach a certain threshold you will unlock a unique title. These titles will provide unique rewards such as illustrations, upgrades and special events.

The button to the top right showcases the job proficiency. The longer you work a job the higher the proficiency increases. I will go into more detail when I start showcasing all the jobs.

That covers all I want to discuss for this monthly blog. As for the next month, I’m uncertain what I want to discuss next. It will most likely be some of the general screens like Supply and Activities.

Regardless of what comes next, if you want access to the information before it appears in the monthly update consider becoming a member at allugic.com/support. Your support will directly help with the development of this game and future projects.

That is all I have for this update, until the next one, stay well my friends.

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