#114: Inventory sorting

This week I finished all the important weapons I wanted to have in the demo. I also started working o a inventory sorting system.

Here are some pictures of the weapons I added.

Nothing to talk about really. Pictures are self explanatory.

Next thing is a little more complex though.

I played through the game a bit and my inventory was getting really cluttered. Scrolling through all the crap was getting a little bit tedious so I decided to add a sorting system. Here are some pictures.

Graphics and layout are, as always, WIP so don’t pay much attention to them.

Now for the system it self. This system allows you to filter certain items from showing in your inventory. You can use the shoulder buttons on your controler (Q/W on keyboard) to move through tabs. If you have multiple pages worth of items on you, you can press Y + UP / DOWN on you controler to move one page up or down (D+UP/DOWN on keyboard).

This thing is still WIP. I will most likely add more tabs and remove some, rearange them and change the layout completely. I also want to add this sorting system into the shop window so you can find things to sell more easily.

And one final word dor controls. You can change the controls in game by pressing F1. However, the options are fairly limited.

As you can see, you can asign game buttons only to some keyboard keys. I personaly don’t really mind because the game uses in reality only like ten keys total, but I would still recommend using a controler.

I bought a new controler just for playing and testing this game. Its one of those cheap SNES-like controllers you can buy for like five dollars and that thing works really good with the game.

You can probably use any controller you want. I tried XBOX and PS3 controllers and they both worked. There was just one small personal problem. You could only move your character using the sticks . Not really a problem, but I hate playing platformers or games using grid based movement with them.

So I just want to say this. I recommend playing the game with controller, but you can play it using the keyboard with no problem. I will make the game use as little buttons as possible so you can play it even on SNES controllers.

And thats it for this week.

#113: Finishing weapons

This week I focused on putting more weapon models into the game.

I can now safely say that most weapons I wanted to add are already in the game. I have only like 5 of them left.

I added hammer, mallet, machete and sledge hammer. Only weapons left are the shotgun, pipe rifle, rapier, crossbow and pickaxe. Models for these are finished, only thing left is to add them to the game.

Next week I will those remaining weapons.

#112: Party health, paralax map

This week I worked on two things. I added window to the menu that shows the status of your party and I tried to set up things for the future maping.

Lets talk about the window first. I played through the game and recruited new follower. We got into a small fight and he got hurt. I wanted to heal him but there was indication of his health. His health became visible only when I selected the healing item from the inventory.

So I decided to quickly add a new window that shows the health and status of all your party members. You just press SHIFT and new window will appear instead of the character image. You can still scroll through the menu when this window is active and you can close it by pressing SHIFT again.

It looks very basic right now, but it shows you the important informaton (Except for name but I will add that later). I want to improve this window even more when I start focusing on the graphics.

Next thing. I started experimenting with what people call (I think) paralax maping. RMXP and other programs focuse on tileset based maping. But with some edits, you can achieve something older RPGs like baldurs gate or icewind dale did.

In these games, the entire map is just one big image that was made in 3D and then rendered. Many other games did the same thing, like FF7. I did some research and now everything should be ready for me to do the same thing. But ofcourse, less detailed and generaly more shitty.

This is the result of my testing. I rendered this very simple scene and put it in game.

This scene is made from two layers. One is below the player, other is above him. And that is basicaly all you will ever need. You can add more layers for effects like fog and so on if you feel like it though.

Bear in mind that this is just a test. I will be working at the actual graphics much later. It will take a lot of time, but atleast it will distinguish this game from other RM games since very few of them use prerendered graphics like that. I also want to make things look cartoony and not super realistic so that should make things easier too.

And that will be it for this week.

#111: New clothing, item icons

This week I had much more free time than usual because I took some days off work.

I played through the game, added more dialogues, some branching and then I modeled one new piece of clothing and started working on the item icons just for fun.

First, lets talk about the dress

I will have to add more pieces of clothing like that. Combat will be big part of this game but not the main focus and armor should be something you will have to work hard to get. Most of the time you will be using ordinary clothing.

Clothing will mainly change the way NPCs talk to you at certain situations. For example, you won’t be allowed to see someone very powerful without wearing proper clothing.

Next thing I worked on were the item icons. All of them were done in 3d. Some look good, some look bad. Producing these icons takes around two to five minutes. That is about the same amount of time I would spend on making them by hand. Maybe a little faster.

Next week I will continue the usual stuff. Working through the game and fixing problems I find.

#110: Exterminator armor

This week I continued playing through the game and fixing bugs / adding missing content. Nothing really interesting.

I also managed to make one new piece of armor. The important thing about this is that I found a way to “project” different models on each other. This basicaly allows me to add more detail to weapons / armor without having to unwrap it, make textures and fuck around with it for god knows how long.

 

As for the armor it self, this will one of the best pieces you will be able to find in the game. I will put it in the demo too. You will have to do a lot of things to acutaly get it. Read books, ask NPCs, solve some puzzles and fight some really hard enemies. There will be no quest that will tell you where to go and what to do. Everything will depend on the player.

Next week I will continue going through the game and maybe add more items to finish this equipment set.