Stuff Under the Header

9/30/2009

Thought I forgot?

Nah, I didn't forget. Busy days are just busy... moving preparations and all that. Two more weeks and I'll be moving, pretty exciting! Almost everything is done for the move though, yay! Now onto the update.












Various Changes

- The Cheese Garden level does not show when you have all the pickups, but they're in plain sight, you don't need the game to tell you for that level. :P (It's been fixed of course.)
- Knockback and flinch time have been reduced again... this time drastically. You will definitely notice a difference in the air. With Air Dashing, you can even save yourself from those dreaded bottomless pits.
For those that finished the new demo:
- You will have noticed that "Flood" acts awkwardly when you use it. Silly mistake on my part. (Fixed, and luckily it's at the end of the demo and not used for the game yet.)
- I changed "Blast Off" a bit. It's casting time is considerably shorter, but there is a cool-down for using it now. The cooldown is shown in mmo style next to your health. (Same as status changes, both good and bad.) This also kills off a lot of easily broken sections in the game. (However, the cool-down time for this is 3 seconds, if someone was able to keep their air time up that long, they could theoretically go as high as they wanted.) :P

Something some of you will find awesome:
The arrow keys are now supported everywhere. Movement, menus, everything. They can't be reconfigured, they just work on top of the normal configurable WASD.

Stuff
Yeah, I haven't really been doing much on DT this last week... for obvious reasons. So not really much of an update this time. :( Late AND short. :P

9/20/2009

Ha, I remembered

Time for another weekly update. Well things have been progressing nicely for the game this week. Coming up in mid October, I might be skipping a week or two as I'll be moving. Yep, going to be moving to California, where in California I will not say, but I will be moving. Its pretty much official at this point.












Keys

So you may have noticed that you can get keys and they are displayed Zelda style on screen and all that. You may be wondering why even bother? They haven't played much of a part for the game. Oh they will, I'm merely marking that a "key -> locked door" system is in place. There will be a very Zelda like dungeon coming up. I've even got a Zelda style map system made. This was actually made before Distorted Travesty was really started. The system is already coded in the game, it's just laying dormant for now. I would be very easy for me to lay out a map for every area, but that would be pretty useless as so far every area is very straight forward. Any area that isn't will use this map system though, and it even lets you know what rooms have items.

Item Locator
The Happy Fun Game had an item locator. DT will have the same and it will work the same as it did in THFG. When you enter a room, you will hear a chime if there is still a collectible or chest you have not found. It will be a mid to late game item.

Status Ailments
Another thing you may have noticed is an item that will make you recover from all status ailments. "What status ailments" you say? They will start to make an appearance, some enemies and traps will be able to inflict various nastiness on you other than damage. All of them are temporary and you will be able to see how long their effects last on screen.
These include, but not limited to:
Poison: Life drain.
Element Lock: Self explanatory.
Spirit & Element Drain.
Cripple: Yes, you can be crippled too.
Blind effect: Oh if only you knew the horrors that this will cause. (Near sighted would be a better term for it, but let's stick to terms we all understand easier.) :P

Other Stuff
I hope you all saw that TellTale Games was giving away the first chapter of Monkey Island for free. O_O I caught it at the last minute, my roommate told me about it. Yay!

9/16/2009

New Demo Released Today

Guess what?
No really, guess what?
Yep, you guessed it! NEW DEMO!!

The link on the side has been updated, but if you can't find it. It's right here too.
Click me for the new Demo.
Or click me...

Just a note, remember if you played the previous demo and don't want to start over, be sure to NOT delete the "GameDetails.ini" file. If anything, just unpack this new version and move that ini over. All your progress will be here.

9/12/2009

No post this week

That's right, no post this week...
And with that said, we'll get into this week's post.














Okay, so I could technically release the demo now... but I'm not. I want to fine tune something first, I have tomorrow free so I'll probably spend a good deal of time working with this. ^_^ I could have honestly had this demo done 2 weeks ago, but I just haven't been able to focus well lately. I sit down to try and create, but I can't get my mind into it. It's not a lack of creativity or inspiration, nor a lack of will to do so, just can't seem to focus lately. Fear not, I won't quit this, just a rough time and lots of major decisions coming up. (Could be moving... far away.) Game design hasn't been able to get my mind off it. Anyway I'll close this tag now. [/emo] On to the update.

New Demo soonerish
You: "STFU Joe, you've been saying new demo for over a week now!"
Me: "I'm sorry, I just fail, look at the title of this section."
You: "NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!"
Me: *cuts*

So really really soon... even though I've been saying that for awhile. XD HEY, I have a screenshot for you!
For those of you from RRR, you'll see a post update first before anywhere else when this new demo is released... this week! O_O omg, yeah, I'll make it happen... like I said, it's done, but it isn't. XD

New Techniques & Spells
You'll be getting a new set of spells at the end of the demo. Sorry I didn't make a place for them to be used, you do get a new Physical Technique mid way through though. It's a close range attack that does very high damage. Another nice side to it is it gets imbued with the active element and also does more damage the higher your hit combo is, so it can do a lot of damage. Uses quite a bit of Spirit Energy so multi-casting it can get costly, but a good way to get rid of something quick.
The new spells give you a lot more variety as far as offensive spells go. They cost a decent amount, but with creative use, can really rough things up. Some of them give a boost to mobility which give some nice game breaking possibilities.

Random Game Stuff
I got a chance to check out Muramasa: The Demon Blade for the Wii. I loved Odin Sphere for PS2, the game was repetitive, but the story telling was spot on and dramatic. The ending chapter was nicely done as well. I won't spoil it. Another thing was the art style and way it was executed, it was awesome to look at with all it's subtle animations. Which is what really sold me on it, not the visuals itself, but the way the colors and subtle animations were used.
Muramasa does the same with using that awesome art style. If you're into 2D hack/slash games, I recommend Muramasa, gameplay is better than Odin Sphere and not nearly as repetitive, but there is just one problem with the game... now I use the Gamecube controller set up. I don't know if the others provide a way to escape this, (I'll see if there's a control set up next time too) but "Up" is the jump button! WHY?! Arg! I don't like having to control my character's movement and jump with the same stick/button/hand. It's... annoying. I mean, I've semi/sorta gotten used to it, but still... *sigh* Hold on while I go *cut* myself again. This post is full of emo, I better end it now. I still say try the game out, but that one thing...

9/06/2009

Yes, I did remember to do another post ^_^

Changes & Tweaks
Okay, we're getting ever closer to that next demo release. Busy weeks are busy though. x_x But anyway, a few more changes.

- You don't have as much knockback as before when taking damage. (I'm still tweaking this too, I may knock it down a bit more from the current change.)
- On that subject, you have a shorter flinch time. This mainly takes effect when you take damage in the air since you recover when you hit the ground anyway. For those that have the faster flinch recovery skill, you will still benefit from the skill and will definitely notice a way shorter flinch time.
- The skill "Flame Pillar" has a slightly higher spirit and element cost. (The damage output for this is quite insane.)
- The element cost of all the first elemental spells has been lowered slightly.
- The boss fight in Vegetable Garden has been made easier. He has a longer recovery time on his attacks and his Physical Power has been lowered slightly. (I think I said this once already.)
- The first boss now has a hit stun. Well all the bosses have one, I just realized the first didn't. Note: Bosses have a different kind of hit stun than normal enemies, but it's there.












Extra/Optional Level

A new one may not be in this demo, however if it is, note that I was frustrated this week so a lot of that frustration went into it. I hope you like losing over and over. That's right, I'm taking out my frustrations on you, the player. Enjoy.~ <3 (Remember, it's only optional) ^_^

Also the end boss of this demo will give you a run for your money. It is the first one to make use of every element as well as a constantly changing elemental weakness and Cripple Point. It has a Physical and Spirit Defense way off the chart compared to what you have faced, but don't fret, you can do it! Observation is the key to beating this one.