Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Journey to Westshire

Once upon a time I went to college for game programming and I was forced to write a text based game in python(that's a programming language :P). For those who can run such a project can find my old .py here. Would you believe that the project was actually supposed to be rock, paper, scissors? lol I was kind of an overachiever back in the day. Anywho, my point, is that the community that I am apart of is having a "Release Something Weekend" and since Blue Grimoire is quite a ways from becoming a playable demo I was thinking that I'd reboot my old python project via rpg maker vx ace and try out a few gameplay elements in it that I plan on using in Blue Grimoire just to test things out. I'm giving myself a week break from Blue Grimoire to get this thing out there and I think my mind could do without witches for a bit after all the research and conditional branches I've been working with lately lol Look forward to the release of "Journey to Westshire", the story of three adventurers Zeke, Erik, and Raven who are taking a mysterious package through a dangerous forest full of thieves, beastmen, and magical creatures all for the almighty gold piece.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

I have decided on a name!

That's right. The mysterious game project previously dubbed Modern Witch Project now has a fitting name...*drum roll* "Blue Grimoire". I know there will be several of you out there that will probably ask where they came from so I'll go ahead and tell you. The main character, Joanna, was given a blue grimoire by a man who used to walk the path of a mage killer. He "passed" the grimoire to her via touch, so there is no physical copy, it's all in her head. She will need the knowledge of the blue grimoire if she ever hopes of being able to take down Anastasia, the powerful witch who murdered her family. The Blue Grimoire itself is a major gameplay feature that will handle upgrades, gathered information, etc. I felt it was the most fitting title out of the large amount of possibilities that came to me during my title brainstorming sessions. It's catchy, could easily have a ":" added for sequels should the possibility come up, and it's a major gameplay feature. So I'm going with it.

I also wanted to bring up that now that I have a title I'll be able to commission an artist to make a title screen for me. I have a pretty good idea of how I'd like it to look but we'll see what happens. On another note, I picked up a pretty good book the other day which has helped me take a more professional turn for the development of this project. Which translates to me now working on a concept document. Not to be confused with a game design document. The concept document is used mainly for pitching the game for funding which is something that I will be trying to do. Pretty much have most of it worked out, but nothing is set in stone just yet....that's kind of how development works, haha. Example, I thought I had everything worked out the way I wanted it and thought that the ending would be badass since you'd have multiple choices and could choose how you wanted to end things. Then I heard the latest podcast by FinalBossBlues which made the argument that such endings were horrible because it would make all the decisions the player had made up to that point meaningless, a la Mass Effect 3. So I have a bit of rethinking to do on how I'm going to handle the gameplay ending and storyline ending. That's all for today though. Hopefully I'll finish up the concept document and get started on the proof of concept which is just a mechanics demo, not a full blown demo. All these terms!!

Friday, April 5, 2013

Artwork for the unnamed project!

Not being able to give the project a name is really starting to bug me. I need to like, light scented candles and zen meditate to game OSTs then maybe something'll shake loose lol

Anywho, remember a few posts ago I spoke of how I commissioned an artist to draw up some concept art for the Modern Witch project? Well, Michael Tran came through and here is my main character and both stages of her fire elemental, Grom.



Comments, Critiques, whatever. Will post more on gameplay and what not as development continues!

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

All or nothing gamble

What I'm about to write might freak some people out and they will tell me it's MADNESS but honestly I don't have much of a choice...I'm putting in my two weeks at my job today.
"Why? How will you survive?!"
Well, sadly my father can no longer take care of himself and needs round the clock care. I can't afford it and the places that I could afford I wouldn't want to put any human being through. My only option is to take care of him myself along with my siblings. Coincidentally, this means I'll have more time to work on my project...when I'm not pimping myself out as a jack-of-all-trades with electronic repair and helpdesk or selling stuff on ebay/amazon/movie exchange. It's a hell of a gamble, my project could fail and I have nothing for all the effort and money I've put into it, but I feel it's worth it if it means I can spend time with my father. Seeing him happy to be home after the months in hospitals is worth it all in spades. Wish me luck, I guess!