Production Blog for PepsiOtaku's Everlasting Journey2012-05-20T18:44:22ZAndrew KingCopyright 2012, Andrew KingSPHPBLOGThe Production Blog is getting a new layout! The biggest change is that it will be integrated into my online graphic design portfolio.
Actual EJ news will be available once the new blog is live.]]>http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry110118-1048102011-01-18T00:00:00Z2011-01-18T00:00:00ZIt's out!
I hope it lives up to everyone's expectations! Feel free to leave me feedback any way you can!
Next on my EJ to do list: Make a new trailer Redesign site Put up a donation box :cry:]]>http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry101216-0856302010-12-16T00:00:00Z2010-12-16T00:00:00ZDemo still slated for Dec 1st (or 1st week of the month) This demo will be considered "Part 1" and will contain everything I've done thus far.
My "To Do" list before then:
*Rewrite final plot scene, setup the ending. *Finish houses in Sriole, "day" houses in Borland *Add some extra NPCs for kicks (almost done) *Change item collect messages to one line *Make dungeons visitable after getting an airship, so treasure chests can always be picked up. *Add a few more weapons *Fixed sign formatting *Finish sidequests: -Borland Tunnels -Flogle/Ancient's Nest -Gnome Village revisit -Isis Trade Organization/Isis Tower revisit *Do a final playthrough and tweak balance of battles/items: -Add "Bersrk" "Blind" and "Mute" condition spells to enemies, include healing items -Remove some overpowering healing items/spells -Tweak fights in the last area/add another monster or two *Create final title screen *Condition animations for every character
Overall, it's about 66% complete. The ending of the demo will be similar to Magus' castle in CT. I'll probably take a break for a month or so after it's done to collect feedback, make a new trailer, probably convert this site to wordpress! I've got some cool stuff planned for the last chunk of the game.
:jazz:
UPDATE: Dec 4 - updated checklist. Coming up with tiny things as I go along, but it should be ready to playtest by tomorrow evening.
Dec 5 - Added/checked off a few more things. Dec 7 - Worked on this again last night and tonight, almost done with the Borland Tunnels sidequest. Most of the other work was bugfixes and tweaks. Dec 12 - Was hoping to have the playtest done by today, but I won't be able to start on it until tomorrow. Added a few other items in the checklist. Dec 14 - Final playthrough is almost done. I did a lot of bugfixing and battle tweaking. Nothing game-breaking thankfully.]]>http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry101122-1206012010-11-22T00:00:00Z2010-11-22T00:00:00ZQuick Update I've also been working on a couple new monster designs, and tweaking around the battle system a bit.
I announced on RPG Maker Network that I'm aiming for a November 1st "public beta/demo" release date. I'm still trying to meet it, but it might get pushed back a few weeks as I'm adding a handful of new things.]]>http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry101016-1606182010-10-16T00:00:00Z2010-10-16T00:00:00ZThe new face of Sparrow! As you can see, it's been edited to match the "Brian" rm2k charset. All of the facial expressions I've been using since the previous faceset has been made as well.
I've been working on remapping the last of the maps that need remapping. I also started on "Sriole," one of the cities on Isis. No screenshots this time for either though. :)]]>http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry100906-1715172010-09-06T00:00:00Z2010-09-06T00:00:00ZProgress Last Sunday I spent pretty much the whole day polishing up dialogue and removing unnecessary bits.
I also started on the first sidequest. The setting is good, and I have a general idea of how it's going to be set up, but I'm struggling to keep it at the same comedic pace as the rest of the game. I don't want it to stand out.
I'm definitely going to post a huge demo online within the next month or two. I've been thinking about how the story is going to lead into the second half of the game, and today I finally realized how I can tie what I have planned with what's already been established. I'm going to get started on it this weekend, but basically it's going to be a parallel narrative taking place directly after the Firam chapter, that puts you in the point of view of one of the characters that gets separated. It's going to introduce one of the main cities planned, as well as the 7th playable character, and also develop the main villain more. At the right point, it'll jump back to the main narrative. It's important for the development of the villain, as well as the character that takes a back seat for most of the game. It's gonna be a little tricky, but I promise it'll be sweet! :D
Oh... I guess the other significant thing I did was change Sparrow's faceset completely last weekend. It's awesome now. I'll post it later.
:frog:
Oh, on a completely unrelated note, I designed the title screen/logo the other day for CHRONO TRIGGER 2: TIME'S ECLIPSE. I'm skeptical about how the game will be, because it's trying to add onto Chrono Trigger, but check it out here: http://rpgmaker.net/games/1899/]]>http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry100903-1621362010-09-03T00:00:00Z2010-09-03T00:00:00ZAirship remapping (Main deck)
(Engine Room)
(Rec Room)
I pulled the jukebox from my ALEX III map, because I love it. In game, it was found as a "relic."
And to quote Nate's absurdly vague remark when I showed him these screenshots, "more things need airships."]]>http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry100801-1812152010-08-01T00:00:00Z2010-08-01T00:00:00ZGetting closer to the end of my rewrites... In EJ though, I've accomplished several things I didn't expect to get done so quickly over the past few days. I finished up the work I was doing in Hiram. A new mini area called the "Blue Marshes" has been added. I finished a number of dialogue rewrites in that area & changed the look of the Krakken boss (pictured below).
In about 2-3 evenings, I have already rewrote the dialogue in the Crystali chapter, and redone the tilesets. There's only a few changes to the outer town set, but the inner has been completely reworked to stay consistent with the other inner tilesets.
The only thing I have left to do is rewrite some of the final dialogue before the party gets an airship, and then work on these things:
-Rework airship inner & Paul's mansion inner tilesets. -Minor dialogue edits in Paul's mansion chapter. -Ruined capitol of Sriole, which will be an area you can visit prior to Paul's mansion, but the sidequest won't start until much later. -Make sure areas you can revisit via airship all make sense with continuity. I'll need to write a couple things for the gnome village, but I think the other areas are all set.
After that will be the second round of beta testing. :) My goal is to get that stuff done within the next month, but we'll see.
]]>http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry100731-1140502010-07-31T00:00:00Z2010-07-31T00:00:00ZPlans for Hiram See, look! This guard doesn't know what to do with himself!
Basically, the castle has never been truly mapped before. I made one room originally that had the King & Queen in it, mainly because I was lazy and I didn't want to map another castle. What's happening now is that because of the way the outside of the castle is shaped, it's going to be split up into 3 parts-- the main audience chamber in the center, the east wing (which includes a pub, the armory, and royal chambers), and the west wing (which will include the main dining hall, some bedrooms, and the other half of the royal chambers). I'll keep the royal chambers off limits to the player in both wings because there will be enough to explore already, and there wouldn't be much I want to put there for the player to interact with. The east wing rooms are mostly done at the moment, so I'll be working on the west wing over the next couple of days.
These are some old screenshots of the outside of the castle, and part of the town. The outside mapping hasn't really changed.
]]>http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry100424-1543392010-04-24T00:00:00Z2010-04-24T00:00:00ZMines are done. Here's a peak at one of the maps!
The last map and the boss fight turned out really really great. I'm really excited to find out what people will think!
On to Hiram!]]>http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry100418-1501142010-04-18T00:00:00Z2010-04-18T00:00:00ZMines are 3/4 of the way done. I also took some time to create some GREAT puzzles. There's also some character tension going on in this section, so look forward to some interesting story twists.
Tonight I'm going to finish up some dialogue in the third section and hopefully finish up the boss section.
After that, it's Hiram again. The only thing that needs work there is to tinker with the town's inner tileset and map the inside of Hiram Castle. I only ever made one room previously, where you talked to the king of Hiram, so it's going to get expanded a bit.
Probably the last entry for a little while! I'll be working on the above and update again when I have something cool to show! Later peeps! :toot:]]>http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry100413-1441502010-04-13T00:00:00Z2010-04-13T00:00:00ZMines chipsets!!think the Mines of Insanity chipset is pretty much done. I've already begun mapping with it, and it looks pretty nice. I honestly don't know what else to add to it at this point, but I'll figure that out as I go along. The edit starts with the sister chipset to this (made by mack & blue): http://uirpg.com/resources.php?act=view&id=1610 and I added a ton of new stuff like broken tiles, dirt/rocks/debris, different styled columns, etc. Here's a taste:
One of the original enemies of the Mines of Moglia was a zombie, so I decided to ask the question "how did those zombies get there?" In the chipset, there's broken up ground, and dug up dirt along with gravestones, so it's more logical now that the zombies could exist.
Here's two more screenshots for today, one of the entrance:
It's styled similarly to the Firam tiles.
...and one of the exit:
This one is styled like Hiram. It took a while to get the overlay right, but I'm definitely content with how it is now. Thoughts?]]>http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry100410-1421552010-04-10T00:00:00Z2010-04-10T00:00:00ZWe'll go through the MIIIINES!!! My idea to spruce it up--and I mentioned this ages ago in one of my blog entries when the site had its previous layout--is basically to have the player go into the mines initially, and then cut "several days later" or something to everyone at the exit of the mines sitting around a campfire going over how daunting of a task it was to go through the mines, each story cutting to a screen where the player has to solve a puzzle or something, and go through some battles. Then, cut back to the campfire, and someone brings up another event, cutting to a new screen in the mines.
What this does is remove the linearity of the mines. There is no obvious beginning, middle and end. It'll give the illusion to the player that it's a really fucking big place, that could very well take days to travel across.
I haven't decided yet how customized the tileset is going to be. The one I have for the mines right now is a plain refmap tileset, so I might try to spruce it up a bit if I can.
That's the plan! I'm going to try to haul through the production of this so I can finish redoing maps and get back into creating new ones. I've had this "frog city" idea planned for something ridiculous like almost 2 1/2 years now that hasn't really been turned into anything other than a test map. Oi.
Until next time! :frogsiren:]]>http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry100403-1940162010-04-03T00:00:00Z2010-04-03T00:00:00ZNew Video!
http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry100317-0013422010-03-17T00:00:00Z2010-03-17T00:00:00ZSlowly chugging away! I think I successfully achieved what I set out to so far. It's no Magus' Castle, but I think its' as close as it's going to get. There's a ton of new dialogue and some supporting characters to really make this chapter feel more meaningful.
The playtime for this area will probably be close to an hour from the moment you step in the palace to the end of the revolution. Just like in the original it covers 2 styles of dungeons, and 2 bosses during the 2nd of said dungeons with a seat gripping finale (well, hopefully haha).
Anyway, here's the screens:
Before:
After:
Front entrance to Firam Palace: ]]>http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry100315-0101412010-03-15T00:00:00Z2010-03-15T00:00:00Z!!!!!http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry091221-1807232009-12-21T00:00:00Z2009-12-21T00:00:00ZDecember!! That's pretty much it. Happy holidays! :dance:]]>http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry091203-2054362009-12-04T00:00:00Z2009-12-04T00:00:00ZOctober update. No screenshots this month, because I want to keep some of my new material a secret. :q:]]>http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry091010-1252002009-10-10T00:00:00Z2009-10-10T00:00:00ZAugust update! A couple things to mention are the new item formats, like the one at the top. The stats icons are helpful because you can see exactly what each item does before equipping it. I also made icons for the 8 different types of magic, and spells and weapons may combine the different elements. The one in that item description is Shadow, and the one in front of the Chargeblade is Lightning. Yeah... I sort of pulled the idea from the DS version of chrono trigger, wanna fight about it? :argh:
I redid most of the other icons as well. The most noticeable ones are the Armor and Helm icons for those of you who remember what they looked like previously.
Since then, I've been looking critically at some of the RTP inner maps in the first area of the game, and I've been redrawing them, and adding a little refmap flavor to them here and there, as well as trying to create a consistent height format for tables, beds and things. The maps look fairly different from the past (First 20 minutes video), and from here I can stick to a consistent style for inner maps throughout Everlasting Journey.
The original problem was that they were using RTP in the first area, some SNES rips in the 2nd area or so, and in Firam, and then Firam Castle and crystali used refmap... it was kind of a mess, so I'm trying to fix that! Refmap has a ton of great inner tiles that I want to use at some point, so I'm trying to come up with a style that can meld in well with those to make editing easier.]]>http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry090827-1834222009-08-27T00:00:00Z2009-08-27T00:00:00ZMid summer update A couple small things I've been working on over the past couple months: Changed the look of the world map water again. Colors are similar to the old one, but it's based off a more detailed world map water tile. It looks quite nice. I've designed the final 3 characters. Not sure how they're going to be worked into the story quite yet, but I know they will all be kept secret and be made available through side-quests. I have made the charsets, facesets and stats. Battlers and weapons are on my list of things to do next. The item list is periodically being updated. I've got a new item description format that should make it easier for players to decide what to equip. I'm also adding in more items and weapons to pick up.
That's really it unfortunately. Lots of dull stuff. I'm getting there though. :woop:]]>http://www.rewyong.com/ej/index.php?entry=entry090729-1937472009-07-30T00:00:00Z2009-07-30T00:00:00Z
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