I know!
6/13/2014
Overexaggeration
After spending about 30 minutes trying to make an enemy that checks all of its allies HP% counts and tries to find the lowest one (which is easy), but may need to find the second or third next value, I remember that Game Maker has data structures and this could have been solved in seconds. Fuck me.
I drew a picture displaying my frustration with myself. Done in Photoshop for overkill.
6/11/2014
DT Blog Post
Now that I've been reminded about posting a grackle video, here it is.
Map Headers
I got asked about those little window map headers that DT1 had and asked A LOT, by both the testers and all of you that played the DT3 demo if they would return.
The sentence above should tell you what happened. It wasn't till a fair ways in that I decided to put that in and you can imagine the crazy amount of maps as a backlog I suddenly had. At this point in the game, most of it was in the Gate levels as they take a large portion of the gameplay up to Chapter 16. For quite a few of the Gate and Nightmare Gate levels, I allowed the testers to add in the map quotes. They've had a big impact on the game and that seemed like a good way to let them put a bit of their voice in there.
Progress Update
Chapter 17 is done, so that leaves 3 more plot points to cover. Getting closer. The next level involves mountains, skies with stars, and snowballs. And some other things that have nothing to do with the rest of that.
E3
It had some games that looked fun. That is all. Oh right, Splatoons looked really neat. I'll be following that one for awhile. I should fangasm over the Zelda trailer, but not much was shown and I don't think they'll be showing anything else during the rest of E3. I just need a little more than Link suddenly being chased down by some thingie, then turning around and going all Matrix on it with a wonky looking bow. It looks pretty at least, but I knew that would be the case.
Map Headers
I got asked about those little window map headers that DT1 had and asked A LOT, by both the testers and all of you that played the DT3 demo if they would return.
The sentence above should tell you what happened. It wasn't till a fair ways in that I decided to put that in and you can imagine the crazy amount of maps as a backlog I suddenly had. At this point in the game, most of it was in the Gate levels as they take a large portion of the gameplay up to Chapter 16. For quite a few of the Gate and Nightmare Gate levels, I allowed the testers to add in the map quotes. They've had a big impact on the game and that seemed like a good way to let them put a bit of their voice in there.
Progress Update
Chapter 17 is done, so that leaves 3 more plot points to cover. Getting closer. The next level involves mountains, skies with stars, and snowballs. And some other things that have nothing to do with the rest of that.
It had some games that looked fun. That is all. Oh right, Splatoons looked really neat. I'll be following that one for awhile. I should fangasm over the Zelda trailer, but not much was shown and I don't think they'll be showing anything else during the rest of E3. I just need a little more than Link suddenly being chased down by some thingie, then turning around and going all Matrix on it with a wonky looking bow. It looks pretty at least, but I knew that would be the case.
5/30/2014
See, I'm Talking About Birds
This month at work I did a promotion thingy and am no longer working outside, which is both good and bad. I don't get to see my birds all day, but I don't have to die of heat like I did every day last summer. I do go outside on every lunch break though and my birds are still as happy as ever to see me.
Here's a picture of one getting a bit upset that another bird was approaching. He likes being special.
I like their poofy feathers when they get upset. This one doesn't like either males or females around when he approaches.
I'll be posting again soonish with a video of a bird, but I need to cut out some useless stuff where I didn't turn off the recording and all that.
DT3 Stuff
Chapter 17 is getting somewhat close to being done. I wish I had more time this last month to work on it, but next month should change that.
In this shot, Claire is about to run face first into a laser because the turrets above her know how to lead their targets. She'll learn after the first mistake though. Oh yeah, spoilers, some enemies in DT3 can lead their shots.
Here's a picture of one getting a bit upset that another bird was approaching. He likes being special.
I like their poofy feathers when they get upset. This one doesn't like either males or females around when he approaches.
I'll be posting again soonish with a video of a bird, but I need to cut out some useless stuff where I didn't turn off the recording and all that.
DT3 Stuff
Chapter 17 is getting somewhat close to being done. I wish I had more time this last month to work on it, but next month should change that.
In this shot, Claire is about to run face first into a laser because the turrets above her know how to lead their targets. She'll learn after the first mistake though. Oh yeah, spoilers, some enemies in DT3 can lead their shots.
5/10/2014
Will Talk About Birds Next Time
I removed the DT3 demo on April 1st for the little Breakout game. The DT3 demo will stay removed as its purpose was primarily to get feedback on a greater scale and it succeed in that. Keeping it up now, I feel, will give bad impressions of the final version, which is much different than that demo.
Also I lied, there's more than 3 Ability Sets for Jerry and Claire. They don't show up for Gates, but instead for specific events. What they are is a secret of course. Essentially, alternate ways to look at and mix certain genres into platforming happen from time to time.
Progress
Currently focusing on Chapter 17 content, which is the start of the final parts of the story. Gameplay wise, I try a different approach to enemies spawning in and how they engage the player. One enemy from DT1 made its way into this level. Our friend from The Hideout, the Aero Scanner, is back. He was the one with the laser pointer that dealt damage if you either weren't using i-frames or had something between you and it to block line of sight. The environment and its hazards also plays into some of the rules of how enemies engage the player in the level in Chapter 17.
No more info to give!! It's hard to talk about the game on any specifics at this point because giving away anything would spoil the experience.
Another Big Change
WhattayaBrian presented a suggestion to me a few months back about how to change the way arrow ammo worked. The basic idea was when the player runs out of ammo, it goes into a somewhat lengthy reload and afterward, the player has their arrows back. Each pickup would add 1 to the capacity instead of 5. His issue with arrow pickups was that they didn't feel very substantial. I actually disagreed that arrow pickups felt insubstantial, but the idea itself went onto fixing another issue. That being limited ammo. I like the idea of ammo shortage and what it does, but all the other ability sets in the game (missiles worked the same as arrows and are included in this change) allow the player to be completely self-sufficient.
As a designer, if I know the player can't run out of ammo completely, there's a lot more I can do. So I presented the idea to the testers to see what they all thought about it and what they thought could be done. My goal was mainly to make the player self-sufficient. The player now starts with 10 arrows. (Missiles will follow these rules.) Quiver pickups only add 1 to the capacity now, following the above suggestion. For ammo recovery, it follows along the other sets of auto-recovery over time. There are new rules over the recovery rates for arrows and missiles that make sure the player can run out of ammo, but that it can replenlish them reasonably, even mid-combat.
There's also this other weird thing with video games and things in limited quantity. They feel more important and precious and therefore aren't utilized as often. WhattayaBrian mentioned this about arrows. (and he wasn't the only one) NNZ recently said, "Even if I have 500 Megalixirs, I won't use them till the final boss." or close to that. This addresses that issue with arrows and missiles too. They were intended to be used alongside the primary weapons, not an after thought, or something you saved for THAT moment or a boss fight.
It hasn't been live for the testers for very long, but the feedback for it has been positive so far. Further testing will reveal how much more tweaking will be needed.
A Question
This appeared a few days ago.
“Will the final chapter be similiar to the Secured Data Segment in the sense that it is a huge dungeon with a new awesome but challenging gimmick (SDS did have the colour wheels)?”
I don't want to say much about the final chapter. That said, it's not going to mirror what DT1 did in regards to what it did in contrast to the rest of the game. In DT1's final level (Secured Data Segment, we'll not count the power trip that is Primary Memory), I aimed to make the player feel somewhat lonely, frustrated, and a bit anxious. On the gameplay side, it focused almost entirely on the color fields.
DT3's final dungeon isn't going to be about any specific gameplay gimmick or even about the level itself. Will it be challenging? Of course, it wouldn't be DT without that, but that's not the focus. I've done the “This is going to be challenging” to death, I can do better than that.
“Is the DT trilogy an alegory about the hardships of video game development?”
Not sure where this idea sprung up from but you're thinking too hard about it. I shall give a silly answer. It's an alegory about myself and my misunderstanding of the English language put in video game form.
Also I lied, there's more than 3 Ability Sets for Jerry and Claire. They don't show up for Gates, but instead for specific events. What they are is a secret of course. Essentially, alternate ways to look at and mix certain genres into platforming happen from time to time.
Progress
Currently focusing on Chapter 17 content, which is the start of the final parts of the story. Gameplay wise, I try a different approach to enemies spawning in and how they engage the player. One enemy from DT1 made its way into this level. Our friend from The Hideout, the Aero Scanner, is back. He was the one with the laser pointer that dealt damage if you either weren't using i-frames or had something between you and it to block line of sight. The environment and its hazards also plays into some of the rules of how enemies engage the player in the level in Chapter 17.
No more info to give!! It's hard to talk about the game on any specifics at this point because giving away anything would spoil the experience.
Another Big Change
WhattayaBrian presented a suggestion to me a few months back about how to change the way arrow ammo worked. The basic idea was when the player runs out of ammo, it goes into a somewhat lengthy reload and afterward, the player has their arrows back. Each pickup would add 1 to the capacity instead of 5. His issue with arrow pickups was that they didn't feel very substantial. I actually disagreed that arrow pickups felt insubstantial, but the idea itself went onto fixing another issue. That being limited ammo. I like the idea of ammo shortage and what it does, but all the other ability sets in the game (missiles worked the same as arrows and are included in this change) allow the player to be completely self-sufficient.
As a designer, if I know the player can't run out of ammo completely, there's a lot more I can do. So I presented the idea to the testers to see what they all thought about it and what they thought could be done. My goal was mainly to make the player self-sufficient. The player now starts with 10 arrows. (Missiles will follow these rules.) Quiver pickups only add 1 to the capacity now, following the above suggestion. For ammo recovery, it follows along the other sets of auto-recovery over time. There are new rules over the recovery rates for arrows and missiles that make sure the player can run out of ammo, but that it can replenlish them reasonably, even mid-combat.
There's also this other weird thing with video games and things in limited quantity. They feel more important and precious and therefore aren't utilized as often. WhattayaBrian mentioned this about arrows. (and he wasn't the only one) NNZ recently said, "Even if I have 500 Megalixirs, I won't use them till the final boss." or close to that. This addresses that issue with arrows and missiles too. They were intended to be used alongside the primary weapons, not an after thought, or something you saved for THAT moment or a boss fight.
It hasn't been live for the testers for very long, but the feedback for it has been positive so far. Further testing will reveal how much more tweaking will be needed.
A Question
This appeared a few days ago.
“Will the final chapter be similiar to the Secured Data Segment in the sense that it is a huge dungeon with a new awesome but challenging gimmick (SDS did have the colour wheels)?”
I don't want to say much about the final chapter. That said, it's not going to mirror what DT1 did in regards to what it did in contrast to the rest of the game. In DT1's final level (Secured Data Segment, we'll not count the power trip that is Primary Memory), I aimed to make the player feel somewhat lonely, frustrated, and a bit anxious. On the gameplay side, it focused almost entirely on the color fields.
DT3's final dungeon isn't going to be about any specific gameplay gimmick or even about the level itself. Will it be challenging? Of course, it wouldn't be DT without that, but that's not the focus. I've done the “This is going to be challenging” to death, I can do better than that.
“Is the DT trilogy an alegory about the hardships of video game development?”
Not sure where this idea sprung up from but you're thinking too hard about it. I shall give a silly answer. It's an alegory about myself and my misunderstanding of the English language put in video game form.
4/15/2014
Changing Methods
Slaix and I had a conversation that involved randomized and deterministic elements in games. I won't go into exactly what we were talking about, but later on when thinking about it, it did remind me of the shift I've had in designing DT3, especially compared to DT1. That being, everything being designed lately has not had any random elements to them. Every action an enemy has is completely deterministic based on it and the player's current state.
Flame Instigator
Thinking back to the Flame Instigator fight in DT1. All his actions were somewhat randomized, but depending on what was happening, certain actions had a much better chance of occuring than others. At the time, I felt that was okay. Had I made that today, there would have been more to his decision making and no random elements would be around.
Death
Looking at Death, he has 3 scythe swings that can be chosen, in a combo of 3. These are chosen at random, which will be changed before the final version is released. I'll instead, set up a table that he cycles through. (Though I will have something set up that will skip or reset the table to keep it from being a set sequence every cycle.) I'm somewhat okay with that random element, given what it is, but in an encounter like Death, I'd like everything to be consistent.
Another random element to Death are where the single spawning scythes appear. They always appear at the top of the screen, with a variance of 16 pixels along the y. For x, they'll appear anywhere randomly within a 32 pixel margin border of the map sides. This will change to always be consistent for the final version. Something like spawning it directly above him, then the next spawn above the player, then the next being the median between the two along x, always near the top of the screen.
The larger scythe summon (where he'd kneel) has always been set in a sequence. The first is on the left, then right, then the top, and it repeats that cycle.
Gate G Boss
I won't be spoiling who/what it is, however the fight has similar elements of the above 2 encounters. I'll be keeping with my current standards of it being 100% deterministic.
Flame Instigator
Thinking back to the Flame Instigator fight in DT1. All his actions were somewhat randomized, but depending on what was happening, certain actions had a much better chance of occuring than others. At the time, I felt that was okay. Had I made that today, there would have been more to his decision making and no random elements would be around.
Death
Looking at Death, he has 3 scythe swings that can be chosen, in a combo of 3. These are chosen at random, which will be changed before the final version is released. I'll instead, set up a table that he cycles through. (Though I will have something set up that will skip or reset the table to keep it from being a set sequence every cycle.) I'm somewhat okay with that random element, given what it is, but in an encounter like Death, I'd like everything to be consistent.
Another random element to Death are where the single spawning scythes appear. They always appear at the top of the screen, with a variance of 16 pixels along the y. For x, they'll appear anywhere randomly within a 32 pixel margin border of the map sides. This will change to always be consistent for the final version. Something like spawning it directly above him, then the next spawn above the player, then the next being the median between the two along x, always near the top of the screen.
The larger scythe summon (where he'd kneel) has always been set in a sequence. The first is on the left, then right, then the top, and it repeats that cycle.
Gate G Boss
I won't be spoiling who/what it is, however the fight has similar elements of the above 2 encounters. I'll be keeping with my current standards of it being 100% deterministic.
4/11/2014
Getting There
The final Gate level for DT3 has been finished! That doesn't mean DT3 is close to being complete (it is, but it isn't), getting there, but there's still quite a bit to do. Unlike DT1, which ended shortly after all the McGuffins were obtained, DT3 has quite a bit more that happens, which I've been referring to as 'End Game'. This takes place over the last 1/4 of the chapters (16-20). Though chapter 16 is a very short event that plays out in a crossover minigame. 17 and 18 have about as much content as chapter 7 (Begonia). 19 and 20 are fairly expansive sections of the game. So... it's getting there.
NZZ did a silly thing with the debug mode. This is 'technically' possible to occur under normal game rules, but would take forever to actually make happen and... well, all that spam.
I've also recently uploaded a video about some of the changes made to the game.
ZephyrBurst: Oh yeah, I'm doing it. I'm putting flashbacks in DT3.
ZephyrBurst: Well sorta.
ZephyrBurst: Towards the end of gate 6, there's a place called 'Dream Woods'.
Slaix223: Oh no.
Slaix223: Make sure to start it off with a flashback of when they entered Dream Woods.
NZZ did a silly thing with the debug mode. This is 'technically' possible to occur under normal game rules, but would take forever to actually make happen and... well, all that spam.
I've also recently uploaded a video about some of the changes made to the game.
ZephyrBurst: Oh yeah, I'm doing it. I'm putting flashbacks in DT3.
ZephyrBurst: Well sorta.
ZephyrBurst: Towards the end of gate 6, there's a place called 'Dream Woods'.
Slaix223: Oh no.
Slaix223: Make sure to start it off with a flashback of when they entered Dream Woods.
4/01/2014
Final Version
Been keeping a surprise for awhile. DT3 has been complete the last few weeks, but I just wanted to polish it up more before releasing it. Its been quite a thing to make this game and I definitely won't be tackling something so large on my own like this ever again. I enjoyed it though, even if I did go through a few down times with it and had to back away from the project now and then.
One thing to note, your demo save will not be compatible with this version, though I believe I mentioned that way back in the day. Someone is making a trailer for the game and that should be up soon, which is pretty cool of them to do so. Anyway, enjoy the game, things are a lot different this time than they were in the demo.
I said in the past that I would be releasing the project files for all 3 games, this is still true and will happen in a few months. And with that, I am done with the DT series at this point and will not be providing that much support for using the project files. I'll still be updating DT3 as far as bug fixes and all that go though, as I'm sure a few slipped through to the build released today.
You can get it here or in the usual spot on the side.
One thing to note, your demo save will not be compatible with this version, though I believe I mentioned that way back in the day. Someone is making a trailer for the game and that should be up soon, which is pretty cool of them to do so. Anyway, enjoy the game, things are a lot different this time than they were in the demo.
I said in the past that I would be releasing the project files for all 3 games, this is still true and will happen in a few months. And with that, I am done with the DT series at this point and will not be providing that much support for using the project files. I'll still be updating DT3 as far as bug fixes and all that go though, as I'm sure a few slipped through to the build released today.
You can get it here or in the usual spot on the side.
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