Stuff Under the Header

7/23/2010

Stuff Coming Along

Edit (August 2, 2010) Updated the game, the stuff listed below are in the game and bugs fixed.


Edit (July 27, 2010) Fixed a bug where the "Dash Power" skill was not being saved.


Edit: (July 26, 2010) The max amount of Awesome Points you can accumulate is 100000, which means you can only get a double exp bonus from it. Other exp boosters stack with the Awesome Point bonus, so it is possible to get it to go a bit higher than double.

It's been almost 2 weeks since I've posted anything here so I just wanted to say that I am alive and well and that the game is still on schedule, if not ahead of schedule.

Game Changes
-The skill "Strategist" level 1 and 2 have been added to the available skills. It increases the cripple time by 2.5 seconds each level. The base time is 10 seconds, so that's a 50% boost. The skills cost 1 and 2 points to activate.
-Your Spirit and Element recovery speed is boosted a bit in the Data Center.
-A few more hidden maps have been added, mainly in the Mario levels. One of which can be found during your first run through the area. The other, unless you can seriously trick the physics of the game, you will have to come back to get to. Well that's of the Mario hidden maps that were added anyway.
-The amount of Internetz given by some of the chests has been increased. Not by too much, but if you have opened those, you missed out for your current save file.

Game Notes
The save files for the final version will be compatible with the ones out now. However a few changes will be made to it. It won't interrupt or change your data in any way. There may be another entry in the save file that will store preferences for things like starting the game in full screen as well as some other utility functions. I may also include an ini file that stores the key controls so that you can also change the controls out of game if you'd like. Technically you can now, but it's somewhere in the save data mess and isn't marked for people to read. There might be a few control presets built into the game.

Game Progress
The final area is roughly half way done. The very end (not the ending/credits) is what will take up most of my time to get perfect. Gotta save the best for last right? Going to make one last reference to my previous game. If you are one of the very few who have seen the end dungeon of it, then you know how I like to have final levels and battles. For everyone else, that statement means nothing.

As far as pick ups go, most of them are in the game world. At the moment of this posting, every Heart Piece is in the game, 9 Skill Capsules and 1 Spirit Aura (the boost in Spirit/Elemental energy) are left to place into the game world. The final dungeon has a few of these, mostly Skill Capsules, and unless I make changes, will have approximately 13. There will be 131 total of those. O_O

7/10/2010

Convention

Was invited by a friend to go to an anime convention in San Antonio tomorrow. (Depending on your time, today.) This is honestly my first one, so we'll see how it goes. If you know me, you know I'm not all that into anime. I like a few, but I never go searching for new anime and people typically need to talk me into watching them. It's not that hard really...
You: "Hey Joe, wanna watch this?"
Me: "Sure, why not."
Should be fun though. No costume, especially on such short notice. I'd rather not cosplay anyway, not my thing. If I ever go to another one of these, then maybe. I have cat ears, that's about all I've got on me right now that's even close to anything considered a costume. Maybe I'll wear those...

Game Stuff
As you know, I've started work on the final area. It's a fairly large and linear area. I'll be including warp points, much like the way Black Rock had the doors to let you exit the dungeon, come back and keep going from where you left off. The focus of it will shift throughout the area. You're going to experience both heavy combat and platforming areas as well as a nice mix.

For the platforming and traps, I've only shown a part of that aspect to a small group of people. I won't go into that and for what they've seen, that's all they're going to see. (You keep that bet going Slaix :P, though you may get to see the AI in action once, but it will only be a very short clip.)

The combat may actually be harder than the traps this time. I'll explain a tiny bit. It is a squad based group of enemies that all support each other. They react to what you and their allies are doing as well as where everyone is. Fighting them head on does not work, I've made sure it doesn't. They support each other far better than the Shrouds could ever hope to. Speaking of them, they'll still be around, but not often, the Veiled Detritus is really where they shine. That's all I'm going to say about it.

Other Game Stuff
There's still more hidden maps that have not been put into the game. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to release them with the final area completed, or give some out before that. Anyway, look for the full, well beta version of the game in late August or early September. That's just my estimation.

Continue your summer fun.

7/04/2010

The Spire is Built

Edit: (July 7, 2010) Slight change with the Easy setting. Enemies and traps had 30% less power than they did on Normal, this has been adjusted to 25%.

Here it is, the spire is complete and ready to be... experienced. I know I was telling some of you I would have it done sooner, but life and all that. Hey, if I was working at Emagination this year, there would be no updates for 2 months. Though not being there is making me very sad. :(

I went ahead and bumped up the release number. This will be the last release before the beta, so it's going to take awhile before you guys see the final area of the game. As always, you may see a few small updates between now and then. Look for it toward the end of August.

Game Changes
- No, Water Barrier was not adjusted this time.
- There is now a little progress percentage that shows up when you save.
- You can now use the [Q] key to cycle backward through your abilities. Yeah, it should have been functional when I put the [E] key to use. You still cannot map them to other keys yet, I'll get that going soon.
- There is a short explanation just before the Vegetable Garden boss fight about how cripple points work when more than one entry is displayed. (Though you all know how that works already.)
- You get an exp award after all the floor sets in the Spire. You can continually get this award by completing that set again, though after the first time, it will only award you 10% of the original award. No worries for those of you who already completed the first 2 or 3, the award is very minor for those.

Some Stuff That Will Happen Before Beta
A few more hidden maps will definitely show up as well as some game characters that will give you hints in to their locations around where they are. These characters will only show up after completing Black Rock Fortress. I'll be giving chests that contain money a different sprite so you can differentiate between the 2 types.

On the subject of money chests, there will be a few more of those scattered throughout the game. This will help get rid of 90% of your money grinding, if some of you do that. By the way, Metropolis is a great money grinding area, especially if you come back after getting a few power upgrades.

There will be a level cap. Oh noes!! The level cap is going to be 64. Your level at the end of the game will most likely be around 50, assuming you kill roughly 80% of the enemies you come across and don't grind.

Alright, have fun. :)