Edit: (December 1, 2011) I'm not dead, just busy. There will be a post sometime this week most likely, then I'll probably have a game review post after. It won't be a rant post like this one though. The views to the blog have gone up a bit this month as well... even though I said I'd probably be away for most of it. I did notice activity/discussion about the first game picking up a little on various forums. I'm seeing a lot of traffic from fusionfangaming.
There are certain types of villains that I really really hate. I mean HATE! Not from a, "I want to hurt this guy because he's evil" type of hate, but a "I want to hurt this guy because he's completely illogical and impractical in every way and would never have succeeded at this or come even close to this by employing these methods" type of hate. I could talk about a lot of the villain stereotypes and tropes out there, but there is one in particular that has REALLY been bugging me as of late as it has come up quite often these days.
We need a new paragraph to talk about this.
Maybe even a second one. The villain behavior I'm talking about is the one where they kill off their own henchmen when one makes either a mistake, or fails to succeed because the protagonist did something to thwart this minion's efforts. WHY DO THEY DO THIS!? Is it to show how evil they are and that they're just THAT confident with themselves and believe that they can't lose? If that was the case, then why do so many villains do this? It's completely illogical. Most of the time, the minion didn't even do anything wrong, yet the villain is just ready to kill off a highly trained, and loyal follower over a slight mishap. AND THEY WONDER WHY THEY LOSE! The protagonist is already offing their minions for them, (Or rendering them useless in some way.) and the villain is only assisting them by removing his own staff, which is necessary manpower since the protagonist has plot armor. That's powerful stuff.
This also assumes that all henchmen are mindless idiots who follow blindly. That doesn't happen in real IRL. No one keeps followers with methods like these. The minions would unionize or revolt. Seriously, if my manager at work killed a coworker (even one), I can guarantee you 100% that none of us would be working for him. We'll pretend, for this, that the manager could get away with it. You still have the other workers in this scenario, so legalities don't even have to be a part of this scenario.
This angers the logistical side of my brain so much. If there are any writers reading this, I ask you to please PLEASE stop writing these types of villains unless it actually makes sense with the villain him/her/itself, or to speak an important point about the character to the viewer. One that actually has an impact on the viewer. The only thing this serves in 99.99% of media with these types of villains is to make everyone double facepalm at the sheer stupidity that it is.
One of the only characters where this villain type made sense was Kefka from FF6. (If you haven't played Final Fantasy 6, then go get it right now from one of the many many available ports of it. Emulate (Yes I did suggest it (Hell yes triple parenthesis)) it if you have to, every gamer that even slightly likes RPGs should play it.) [/rant] The theme of FF6 was life itself, how appropriate is it that the villain represents the antithesis to that.
Other Stuff
Slaix reported no issues with the last update I sent him. I'm pretty sure that's a first, or at least the first I'm remembering at this time. This is awesome because it means I don't have to stop to fix bugs and it means, you know, things are getting better. He also got a power up (a heart piece) before I was able to get it. (I mean legit anyway.)
TWO MORE DAYS TILL SKYWARD SWORD!! Though I won't be able to play it till Monday, so busy. D:
Also the above rant came about when Jeremy and I were watching something and the above mentioned villain type was prominent in this viewing and I ranted. So he abruptly (and jokingly) said, "Go blog about it." So I did!
P.S. The villain in DT3 does not do the above.
11/18/2011
11/11/2011
More Delays
Due to me working full time (well that's normal) on top of working with a studio in Austin on an unannounced title, I won't be having much time for hobby activities. Plus on the 20th, Skyward Sword is released. :P
DT3's production is going on hiatus for a little bit longer till the middle of December when a few things die down. As before, things will still be done periodically, just very slow.
On the bright side, Chapter 5 is done. Yay! 5/21 chapters complete. Not even a third of the way there and the testers and myself have put in on average of about 3 hours of gameplay.
Now comes Claire's first big moment in DT3. Her first Gate level is definitely harder than Jerry's first exclusive Gate. This is the last (consistent) moment in DT3 without dashing, so that aspect will be used against you a lot. The first half of Gate 3 plays very close to the original Castlevania style of linear levels, while the second half of it gears slightly more toward the more recent Castlevania games. Though I'm going to steer clear of the thing I hate about them, which is having to traverse half way back across the game world to get an ability in order to move on, and repeat.
DT3's production is going on hiatus for a little bit longer till the middle of December when a few things die down. As before, things will still be done periodically, just very slow.
On the bright side, Chapter 5 is done. Yay! 5/21 chapters complete. Not even a third of the way there and the testers and myself have put in on average of about 3 hours of gameplay.
 |
| Spikes come in many forms. |
Now comes Claire's first big moment in DT3. Her first Gate level is definitely harder than Jerry's first exclusive Gate. This is the last (consistent) moment in DT3 without dashing, so that aspect will be used against you a lot. The first half of Gate 3 plays very close to the original Castlevania style of linear levels, while the second half of it gears slightly more toward the more recent Castlevania games. Though I'm going to steer clear of the thing I hate about them, which is having to traverse half way back across the game world to get an ability in order to move on, and repeat.
11/04/2011
101 Bastards
Edit: (November 6, 2011) I completely forgot it was the end of daylight savings time until I randomly looked at my calendar to visually see the days remaining till Skyward Sword. 2 weeks! Then saw the 6th said it. Good thing to because I would've gone into work an hour early because of that. (It's 4:21 in the morning.) Nothing better to do at this hour than come on here and talk random gibberish about nothing for a few minutes before working on DT3 for a bit. There's no way I'm getting back to sleep now. Already ate breakfast and was ready to head out before Zelda saved me an hour.
This post is a very simple one, it's simply to say to get Stealth Bastard. It's awesome and free. It's an action oriented stealth game and really well made. GET IT NOW!!
NO!! Stop what you're doing, do not click the x to go away, DOWNLOAD THIS GAME RIGHT NOW AND PLAY IT!!
What are you doing? Why are you still reading this and not playing the game? Oh right... You're downloading it right now while you read the rest of this. That's a clever idea, I'm glad you thought to do that. It'll finish soon... your download that is, and then you'll be ready to play something awesome. Unless you're on dial up, that would suck, cause you'd be waiting awhile.
For now, I must head off to dream land. I would've posted this earlier today, but blogger wasn't loading the post page. So here it is. :D
...wtf? Why aren't you playing it yet? And why aren't YOU downloading it yet? Yes you. You know who you are!
This post is a very simple one, it's simply to say to get Stealth Bastard. It's awesome and free. It's an action oriented stealth game and really well made. GET IT NOW!!
NO!! Stop what you're doing, do not click the x to go away, DOWNLOAD THIS GAME RIGHT NOW AND PLAY IT!!
What are you doing? Why are you still reading this and not playing the game? Oh right... You're downloading it right now while you read the rest of this. That's a clever idea, I'm glad you thought to do that. It'll finish soon... your download that is, and then you'll be ready to play something awesome. Unless you're on dial up, that would suck, cause you'd be waiting awhile.
For now, I must head off to dream land. I would've posted this earlier today, but blogger wasn't loading the post page. So here it is. :D
...wtf? Why aren't you playing it yet? And why aren't YOU downloading it yet? Yes you. You know who you are!
11/01/2011
100th Post Anniversary
Edit: (November 2, 2011) Huge derp on my end. Can't believe I didn't have this in the original post.
Happy Halloween everyone! :D
Now for the best halloween song. Hope everyone had a fun one this year. We'll need to next year, cause it will be our last. Remember, the world ends in 2012 which means... hmm, DT3 is released in 2013. This is indeed a problem.
You've read it right, this is the 100th post for the DT blog. Something special needs to be done... well... I don't have much prepared to make it all that special. I'd love to release a demo, but I wanted to release a sizable portion of the game. You've heard it already, just the first 3 gates. Well let's continue on with the blog post and see where it goes.
Split Party
We'll start with a screenshot.
I was tempted to not give any context behind this shot. I know that some of you are probably thinking multiplayer, but that is not what this is eluding to. There are times in the game where Jerry and Claire will split off and the normal swap rules will change. When swapped, the character you're controlling will stay where they are (even in the air) and will get a bubble shield that blocks nearly all enemy projectiles. These will be more puzzle driven than anything else. The first instance of this is really straight forward and just introducing its new concepts. Once the characters get more of their unique abilities like Claire's morph ball, that puzzle aspect will open up a lot more. These will obviously only be encountered on non-gate chapters, the first of which will occur in the middle of chapter 5. (Which of course means using Claire without offensive abilities. No worries, I'm not that mean with this aspect.) Expect this to appear periodically throughout the main quest.
Progress
Chapter 6 (Castlevania gate) is almost ready to be started for actual level design work now. Since there's no dashing in the game till just after the gate, it's going to follow closer to the earlier Castlevania games in every aspect. It's still going to play faster than those since Claire moves faster and isn't stuck in a jump direction till she lands.
Note to my testers: (Even though I can tell them without this.) The early bosses in this zone are not going to follow the pattern that the early Gate 2 bosses did. Aside from the last one in Gate 2, which is a new boss, the others are all taken directly from Zelda 2 and are hilariously easy. There are very minor changes done to them to boost their difficulty, though it doesn't help them much considering Jerry is faster, jumps higher with more control, and has a much larger attack range. On a side note (within the note?), that range might change a little bit.
WHY IS IT GETTING COLD!? I hate winter.
Collision Fix
Remember in DT1 that you could jump on top of the map? Then in DT2, I fixed that. I'm sure some of you have noticed in both DT1 and 2, that you could do the same for the bottom, if you time it right, you can actually air dash under the level and even save yourself with Blast Off if timed right. You can even go around obstacles if the dash gets you far enough. Granted, that took pixel perfect precision to pull off without the game detecting you were under the level boundaries, it still creates weird design problems and feels sloppy. So that is fixed in DT3. Any future updates to DT1 and 2 will have this fixed as well. It's literally a 2 line piece of code to fix this. The top of the level deal will not be changed in DT1 as it was part of the level design.
Cancelled Secret
I was going to release a secret demo that had various enclosed scenarios in DT3. Like those Zelda demos that allow you to choose a dungeon, boss, and misc. scenario. Since we're getting close to the full demo that I actually want to release and considering the areas that are available, I don't truly feel are ready for viewing. I figured I'd not spend the time to put that secret demo together and use that time towards more actual DT development. It was going to be a url scavenger hunt much like those web-based puzzles. That other demo is, hopefully, only 2 months away.
Other Random Things
I'm not using the Mega Man 2 Wily theme anywhere. :P
DT3 has some new fun enemy types, such as healers. If a healer is in the area, they can be called out to by allies of the same affiliation as the healer. (So you won't have Wily type enemies healing Mario type) There are other assist types as well, such as one that will create barriers around targets that you're attacking. An enemy will give out a visual indicator saying that they are calling out for assistance. These new enemy types, I feel, create more dynamic scenarios that require a lot more thought on the player end. Their first occurance will be in Chapter 7.
These call outs are also global, an assist bot can be called out to by any enemy of the same affiliation. Some of the more advanced healers are also fully aware of ally HP levels and will heal by priority. The HP levels themselves are not the only factor in this, as some of their allies are viewed as being 'worth more' and will give them priority assistance.
Happy Halloween everyone! :D
Now for the best halloween song. Hope everyone had a fun one this year. We'll need to next year, cause it will be our last. Remember, the world ends in 2012 which means... hmm, DT3 is released in 2013. This is indeed a problem.
You've read it right, this is the 100th post for the DT blog. Something special needs to be done... well... I don't have much prepared to make it all that special. I'd love to release a demo, but I wanted to release a sizable portion of the game. You've heard it already, just the first 3 gates. Well let's continue on with the blog post and see where it goes.
Split Party
We'll start with a screenshot.
 |
| Look out Claire. |
Progress
Chapter 6 (Castlevania gate) is almost ready to be started for actual level design work now. Since there's no dashing in the game till just after the gate, it's going to follow closer to the earlier Castlevania games in every aspect. It's still going to play faster than those since Claire moves faster and isn't stuck in a jump direction till she lands.
Note to my testers: (Even though I can tell them without this.) The early bosses in this zone are not going to follow the pattern that the early Gate 2 bosses did. Aside from the last one in Gate 2, which is a new boss, the others are all taken directly from Zelda 2 and are hilariously easy. There are very minor changes done to them to boost their difficulty, though it doesn't help them much considering Jerry is faster, jumps higher with more control, and has a much larger attack range. On a side note (within the note?), that range might change a little bit.
WHY IS IT GETTING COLD!? I hate winter.
Collision Fix
Remember in DT1 that you could jump on top of the map? Then in DT2, I fixed that. I'm sure some of you have noticed in both DT1 and 2, that you could do the same for the bottom, if you time it right, you can actually air dash under the level and even save yourself with Blast Off if timed right. You can even go around obstacles if the dash gets you far enough. Granted, that took pixel perfect precision to pull off without the game detecting you were under the level boundaries, it still creates weird design problems and feels sloppy. So that is fixed in DT3. Any future updates to DT1 and 2 will have this fixed as well. It's literally a 2 line piece of code to fix this. The top of the level deal will not be changed in DT1 as it was part of the level design.
Cancelled Secret
I was going to release a secret demo that had various enclosed scenarios in DT3. Like those Zelda demos that allow you to choose a dungeon, boss, and misc. scenario. Since we're getting close to the full demo that I actually want to release and considering the areas that are available, I don't truly feel are ready for viewing. I figured I'd not spend the time to put that secret demo together and use that time towards more actual DT development. It was going to be a url scavenger hunt much like those web-based puzzles. That other demo is, hopefully, only 2 months away.
Other Random Things
I'm not using the Mega Man 2 Wily theme anywhere. :P
DT3 has some new fun enemy types, such as healers. If a healer is in the area, they can be called out to by allies of the same affiliation as the healer. (So you won't have Wily type enemies healing Mario type) There are other assist types as well, such as one that will create barriers around targets that you're attacking. An enemy will give out a visual indicator saying that they are calling out for assistance. These new enemy types, I feel, create more dynamic scenarios that require a lot more thought on the player end. Their first occurance will be in Chapter 7.
These call outs are also global, an assist bot can be called out to by any enemy of the same affiliation. Some of the more advanced healers are also fully aware of ally HP levels and will heal by priority. The HP levels themselves are not the only factor in this, as some of their allies are viewed as being 'worth more' and will give them priority assistance.
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