Pre-Build 2 Checklist

October 17, 2009

Woah, already! Yes. Build 2, time to get underway. Lets get this game as fun as we can, as quick as we can.

BUILD 2 CHECKLIST

Items colored Green are done, Items colored Red have yet to be done. Notice how much shorter this is than the first checklist – that’s because the basic engine’s all done (for battles, at least!).

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CalvaryCalvary are the concepts of special units that can be mounted and unmounted. The unit that mounts them will be able to move using the AP of the mount, but attack using its own AP.

Spells and Skills - After some deliberation, we have decided that spells and skills will use variable setting instead of custom code (except for some special spells, like summoning and mauran sword-fighting and weapon enchanting, etc), however there will be optional custom code that can be run instead (but getting it to do anything you imagine will be pretty hard considering it’s just one line and getting it to loop properly in game would involve using event creation functions, which are very annoying). These will be things like chucking a fireball at someone, striking them with lightening, doing a power chop, etc. Magical weapons will be able to add and subtract skills from the player.

New HUD and control scheme – Instead of that giant clunky bar on the left side of your screen, the new HUD will be a small window that pops up when you select a unit. No more clicking Move or Attack to do what they indicate, now just click an empty piece of land to move the selected guy there. Attacking will work the same way – this makes less work for the player. The new HUD will give the stats of the selected unit and allow the player to select spells. Update: this is almost done – we’re just fixing up some of the little leftover bugs from the implementation and then we will update this to finished.

MiniMap – By popular demand, we’re adding in a little minimap to a corner of the screen. It’ll be adjustable, so you can click and drag it to make a minimap size of your choice!

Adjustable Resolution - People with 30″ monitors want to play in crazy imax mode without it getting choppy going to fullscreen? We’ll have a custom resolution option in the settings that lets you see the screen at the size you want. Widescreen included!

Re-Done Collision - The only major glitch of the first build, we’ll be trying to re-do the collision system so people don’t get stuck on stuff/eachother.

AI improvements – One of the larger undertakings of this build, we’re making the ai better. Ai will be modular in the respect that units from any team can be set to AI, and units from your team can be easily grouped into formations and be given orders as a whole such as attacks on the side of an enemy formation, holding a position, etc.

General Battle System Revamping – There will be multiple teams available and we’ll make the AI compatible -  so now we should be able to do 3v3 and 4v4, 1v2 etc. battles. Not to mention that any of them can be set to players or AI, so you can make a cool screensaver with the AI fighting people or play your friends in hotseat!

Speed Bonuses – Like the angle bonus seen in build 1, units that moved the most towards their enemy since the last turn will do more damage. Now cavalry charges can kick some serious butt – speed bonuses from the huge 800 AP (estimate) move of the horse go into the attack from the rider as he flies past.

Ranged Weapon Revamp - Mainly for the mod community, ranged weapons files will be able to specify multiple shots at once, rapid-fire shots, effect generation (shell casings, muzzle flashes, etc).

GFX Revamp – Even though the online community was split between the game looking good and looking bad, I personally agree with the “looking bad” people. It is partly because I’m sort of a perfectionist on the look of my games (but I don’t usually end up doing much about the look, I always just know it could look better) – We’re going to standardize and fix the graphics. Right now, soldiers and items are pixelled, where the landscape is done in photoshop. We’re going to make everything pixelled so the game looks better in a stylistic approach, even though it will take way longer to pixel everything (especially those trees, oh no!)

-and that’s it for now. If we come up with something, we’ll add more. Feel free to suggest! Remember, build 2 is only going to be the COMPLETED battle system – no world map and inventory stuff yet.


Build 1 Impressions

October 10, 2009

After every build we’re going to try and do an “Impressions” post, where we gather the most important of the feedback we’ve gotten and put it to use. This is 6 days after the release of the first build, and the young, unstable forum threads and topics are sliding past the first page (anyone that wants to legally bump them would be great).

So now’s the time to think about the next build. Here’s a couple of comments that I thought were very relevant and shows us something we had to do.  Feel free to chime in and help us with our brainstorm.

1.) The HUD/GUI – This has been a concern for a couple of people, so it’s our concern now. It’s taking up too much of the screen, and it’s bothersome to click for simple tasks such as moving and attacking. Nailog had already suggested to get rid of it entirely, and I actually may do that, but instead just opening a “mini hud” over the heads of units when you hover over them for a second. This will have thier stats and special abilities, but things like moving and attacking will be done just by clicking on the proper target.

A random comment to back this up (not Nailog, discussed that already):

I can see a lot of work went into this. Presentation is very nice, unfortunately controlling your army is kinda awkward. Having to click each individual soldier and then moving over to click the “move” box is really cumbersome. Why can’t i just select where I want him to move after selecting him by left clicking on the field. And then just right click an enemy to attack him. Great base engine though.

The problem of micro-controlling your army can be fixed as well with multi-selection and temporary ai switching, however I’m not sure if that idea will make build 2 or not.

2.) The Graphics – While at one point during the development process I decided to beef the graphics, I had changed my mind and instead made them not-placeholder. Currently the graphic style is in limbo – Pixelled soldiers but with photoshopped backgrounds and low-res scaled textures? Gross. I figured because we were focusing on the engine, many people would not notice in the first build. Wrong.

Comments used to back this up:

The graphics is very low-def the game would work a lot more better with high resolution textures.

And a bunch of other less-helpful ones like “graphics could use some work” etc.

I think first off, we need to establish a set style for our game. We need to stop being lazy photoshoppers and get down and pixel those huge annoying trees. After I do all then and don’t scale them, it should look nice. However, it will run slower, but I have some optimization ideas in mind. (By the way, we had 0 complaints about the game speed as of now! Great!)

3.) Glitches – So far (and I’m proud of this, mind you), there have only been two detected bugs with the game. I’ll list them here:

Guys getting stuck in stuff/on other people  – This is a collision glitch we are aware about, and we’ll try and re-write the collision system for the next build so this doesn’t happen. It’s recorded in this humorous account from a player (DataRealms forums):

Interesting game.  I always though a movement system like this would be neat.  It does end up being a lot more work to do it this way, however.
Exhibit A:
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/2149322/screenshot100.png
Can’t get out of that spot even though there is plenty of room.  Also, there was a crossbowman in there that was stuck and forced to shoot this poor bugger point-blank in the forehead to dislodge himself.
There was only one enemy left, too.  He was a crossbowman as well.  He got stuck in a wall, just like Keith here.  Unfortunately, this made it difficult for everyone to finish the battle and go home for lunch.
All in all, interesting premise for a game.  Good luck.

Yeah, that needs being worked on, I think. It’s on the to do list (by the way, the official checklist won’t come out for a little bit more, so don’t expect this to be it – it isn’t!

Health dropping below 0 for a split second just before death – While I actually never saw this one, apparently a couple of people have. They didn’t give much information other than that, so I’ll have to find it. Shouldn’t be hard, shouldn’t take long. :)

4) Annoying Music Loop – We’re aware of this – our music producers are working on this at the moment and will fix the loop. Also, on a very related complaint, people have said that The menu music didn’t fit the game. That’s ok, considering that it was just temporary all along and it will be replaced soon. ;)

Otherwise, no complaints about the battle music.

And besides all that, there were ALOT of good comments. More than there were bad ones (actually, there were no bad comments. Everyone that had something constructive to say also had good stuff to say and they liked the game.)

That’s all for the first week (almost  a whole week, whatever) of impressions. I’ll post up the checklist next, most likely. :)

Feel free to support Bleare Kingdoms in these topics:

Game Torpedo Forums – http://www.gametorpedo.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=76

Game Torpedo Site – http://www.gametorpedo.com/projects/bleare-kingdoms

NOD – http://nationofdesign.7forum.info/general-chat-f3/bleare-kingdoms-build-1-released-t1248.htm#28123

TGC – http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=158776&b=2

YYG - http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/98648#

GMC – http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=449495

GGE – http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/game/BleareKingdoms

GameJolt - http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/strategy-sim/bleare-kingdoms/884/

GameJolt forums - http://gamejolt.com/community/forums/topics/bleare-kingdoms-strategy-rpg-build-1-released/162/

DA  – http://sunnykatt.deviantart.com/journal/27582752/

DR – http://www.datarealms.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=16751

YYGF – http://87.117.195.66/forums/4/topics/30597

DDNN – http://www.ddnnteam.com/game-wip-s-beta-incomplete-f4/bleare-kingdoms-build-1-released-my-game-t4353.htm#77799


BUILD 1 RELEASED

October 4, 2009

BUILD 1 RELEASED

That’s right, baby. After lots of sweat, blood, tears, and other things you don’t want to get on your keyboard,  today we have finally finished Build 1. Weighing in at around 13.0 megs, we’re proud of it. Even though it’s just a battle system. A highly moddable one, that is. My kudos to whoever releases the first zombie-killin’ mod on the forums.

Speaking of the forums, we did a bunch of moving around now that people will actually be going there. Please, register and make mods for everyone to enjoy. You may even get featured in the devlog, or get your mod made into official content, or something. ;)

Here she is – enjoy. (click ye link below)

DOWNLOAD BUILD 1

While you’re downloading, check out these cool screenshots!

A little old, but new enough. :P

A little old, but new enough. :P

A little old, but new enough. :P

A little old, but new enough. :P

I’m so happy! Now time to take a few days off. :P

Remember to report any bugs on the forums and to post your mods there too.

SunnyKatt


Progress report 24-8-09

August 24, 2009

Remember when I said build 1 would be ready in a couple of weeks? Apparently I had no idea what was about to happen. We got tied up big time with outside-of-game-making things, and haven’t been able to work on it much lately. We’re working on the actual demo level at the moment. When that’s done, this is all we need to do, really.

  • Sound FX
  • Music (Just porting it in, really)
  • Main Menu
  • Tutorial messages
  • Mod documentation

And we’re done! But not yet. I don’t have any clue when we will get this done. I’m still very busy, so when I find time I’ll get working on it some more. Sorry for the huge delays.

Just letting you know we’re still working on it,

SunnyKatt


Progress Report (21-7-09)

July 21, 2009

Hello everyone, we have some new features added.

First off, Here is a new screenshot so you can get a grasp of what the new hud looks like (this is for you, nailog. Does it still need moving around?)

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/5668/progress72109.png

There’s the link; it’s too big of an image to put here.

New Features we added:

  • Move fields only show were you really can move now. In other words, they conform more accurately. Look at the screenshot above: Before, the move circle would have shown a small sliver travel in-between some of the soldiers that would supposedly say that the character could move there, when in reality he wouldn’t fit. This makes it much easier to move them.
  • We now have the effect engine coded in – now we can make cool dust clouds and other effects drawn on top of the screen and load them as easily as decals.
  • We added in the memclean DLL, which allows us to reduce our game ram usage to less than half it was before.
  • Arrows can stick in people, walls, and the ground, however we need to improve the accuracy it sticks in people. Sometimes they go too far in or they are too far out and not really sticking in them at all.
  • We added in an enemy turn progress bar, which shows how far the AI is from finishing their turn.
  • Various Bugfixes, and other things I forgot about.

Yeah, it doesn’t seem like much. We were busy the last week with other things, but progress continues. Working hard to get build 1 released!

SunnyKatt


Progress Report 12-7-09

July 12, 2009

REMEMBER TO KEEP CHECKING THE CHECKLIST TO SEE WHAT STILL NEEDS TO BE DONE!

Hey guys – Build 1 should be available anytime from a week from now to a few weeks.

If you looked at the checklist and didn’t see any new amount of stuff get done, you’ll be wondering if we’ve made any progress. The answer is a huge yes! We fixed a bajillion little bugs and added a bajillion little features to make gameplay easier.

Notable ones among them:

  • Pathfinding AI is better now.  Now it can navigate in small spaces and through houses, and it rarely has the “jiggling” glitch. However, now it can appear to get stuck in a dead-end hallway or something, but fixing this one will be complicated and we will leave it for a later build.
  • When shooting your bow, you can now “partially” reload if you have extra action points but not enough to reload all the way. This is extremely helpful to players that have extra AP but can’t use it in battle. :)
  • We made the HUD button text dynamic and changeable – now during an enemy turn it says ENEMY TURN and when moving the game calculates if you won’t have enough AP left after a certain move when showing the field and it says NOT ENOUGH AP. This helps so players can plan out where they move if they want to attack.
  • We changed the font to upheaval, which not only fits the game style better, it is completely free for commercial use.
  • We added health, mana, and AP bars under the text in the hud, which allows the player to get at a quick glance around how much health they have without having to read the numbers.
  • We (today, actually) are going to add a system where you can still attack if you do not have enough AP, but it will loose power accordingly.  This will be good for those times when you accidentally move too far and cannot attack.
  • When moving, attacking, and changing direction there is a little marker that shows how much AP it will use.
  • When changing turns, a large ENEMY TURN and YOUR TURN banner shows up, making for easier turn navigation.
  • AI modes, though planned in detail for build 2, have been partially integrated to allow for sentry ai (Ai that sits still unless it sees an enemy within a certain distance to it) and flee ai (AI that runs away until it is far enough – this is used for archers when they are too close to an enemy)
  • Added a zoom feature – now you can zoom out to see the whole battlefield or zoom in to see individual soldiers. :D

I’ll add these under “small features” in the checklist.

We’re Getting closer!

SunnyKatt


Screenies + Updates! (28-6-09)

June 29, 2009

NOTE: BE SURE TO KEEP CHECKING THE CHECKLIST TO SEE WHAT IS GETTING DONE!

Hello! We’ve gotten a ton done, but haven’t posted because we’ve just been updating the checklist. To see what we’ve done lately, look at the green stuff there.

But I’ve made a new post to show you the significantly better-looking game at the current state. The graphics aren’t all done yet, and we know that the units look identical (we’ll switch em up for the fist build)

Here they are!

Just some fighting. Pretty Blood. Oxy-Clean could fix it!

Just some fighting. Pretty Blood.

Some more fighting. Notice the cool blood spurt. Mighty Mendit could Mend it!

Some more fighting. Notice the cool blood spurt.

And here are a few big ones you’ll have to open in  a new window:

Mid-combat screenshot

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/2069/bkcombat.png

Archer, showing it’s field and the yellow accuracy circle, the field (like the move field) conforms to objects and shows you where the archer can shoot. The yellow circle grows in size depending on how far away it is from the unit, showing the accuracy and possibilities of where it could land.

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/3254/bkarchers.png

Player lost. Blood!

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1069/bkgameover.png

That’s all for today. Notice the trees with the fade-out canopys. :D Work will continue!

and

R.I.P. Billy Mays. I loved his informercials, they brought joy to my soul.

SunnyKatt


***pre-Build 1 checklist***

June 1, 2009

THIS WILL BE UPDATED AS FEATURES ARE ADDED UNTIL BUILD ONE

Well, it’s the end of another month. Build One is within view! But there are a bunch of things to be done.

Things colored green are finished. Things colored red have to be done.

Read the rest of this entry »


Progress Report 18-5-2009

May 19, 2009

Hello, just letting you know what’s going on.

We have a very basic attack system done, and we’re moving on to the AI and the whole turn system.  We’ve run into a couple of glitches with the AI and we’re working our way through them. Development has been going slower, but life has been tough. Hopefully we can get more work done in the summer.

We don’t have any interesting images to show you right now.  :)

Boy that was short,

SunnyKatt


Computer issues resolved, work to resume

April 26, 2009

Well, After lots of arguing with microsoft I managed to get my Vista returned. Now I have XP – and it’s good to be back. Unfortunately I was having problems setting up the VMbox on linux mint, so I decided to just stick with XP for everything. Until those compatability issues are fixed, Game Maker, PhotoShop, and my games keep me using windows. :(

But on a lighter note, I spent alot of today re-installing and registering my programs. Hopefully next weekend I’ll find a large chunk of time to work on Bleare Kingdoms with. Progress Resumes!

SunnyKatt