11/29/13 -Friday: ANOTHER ANNOYING BUG TO SQUASH...
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This is starting to get a little annoying. Every time I do a run through of the game, I find some new, hard as shit to reproduce, bug. It's actually one of the main reasons why I hate adding new content and making improvements so late in the pipeline. Something inevitably breaks along the way, and I'm left running around like a madman. As much as they annoy me in the real world (well, the bad ones), I need a project manager/producer to keep my ass in line. Say what you want about large publishers like EA and Activision, but they keep projects on track.
Anyway, the issue at hand started out small. I was noticing that I was losing Bonds of Battle points with a particular party member. Luckily, I save like a crazy person during play throughs of the game, so I was able to track down exactly when it happened. Unfortunately, it looks to be pointing to a much bigger issue. Annoyingly enough, party members seem to be re-initialized after a transition from one particular level to another. Not only are they losing BOB points, but also experience points, levels, skills, etc.
On the plus side, since I have the aforementioned save files, I can at least reproduce it. However, I still don't know what's going on, and I have a bad feeling that when I try to reproduct it during parachute testing, it won't happen. Nothing would be more annoying than finding a bug that can only be tested after playing the game for 2 hours.
So yeah, that's where I'm at at the moment.
Till tomorrow...
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I have never played Radiant Historia for the Nintendo DS, but I somehow came across some parts of the soundtrack on Youtube, and damn, it's right up my alley. I already was interested, but hearing music like this makes me want to order it off of Amazon even more! Enjoy!
11/18/13 -Monday: WELL DAMN, THAT SUCKS...
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Arg, so very, very close to the ALPHA :(
Yesterday's plan was very, very simple. Do one hell of a speed run (skipping all cutscenes and dialogue), make sure all the changes I've made recently work, then package it up for the folks that expressed an interest in testing. Seems simple, right? Yep, you know where I'm going with this.
While most of the issues I logged were improvements, there were 2 things that came up, things I have to address. One if that one of the party members didn't receive there Last Resort at the right level. I mean damn, I addressed this issue so many months ago, it's annoying as hell to have it pop up again. Hopefully, it's something small that I apparently broke recently. Most likely when I was adding new ones a few weeks ago.
The other issue has to do with this bug where auto-saving the game during the same time I'm making use of this local storage API someone from Bioware created a few years ago. I can't go into the details of what happens, cause it's a little complex (and I'm lazy), but suffice to say, it was annoying.
So tomorrow, I'll need to get backl to it. The 2nd bug is easy to fix, the 1st one, I pray to the gods I can reproduce it and then fix it... Sigh...
Till tomorrow...
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Yeah... Town music... Enjoy! :)
11/15/13 -Friday: AND... ANOTHER INTRO CUTSCENE DONE... ALSO, THE SHADOW SUN TRAILER!
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The intro cutscene I talked about in my last entry was pretty quick and easy to implement. This new one took a little more work.
First, I had to make some level design changes. Then, I had to spend some time figuring out why some VFX like fog weren't showing up. Turns out, I had to expand the "playable" area of the game. Even if the player won't actually be walking on water, I still need to mark that part of the level as such, so things show up.
Next, I had to create the actual cutscene, which was pretty easy. The hardest part was adding in a bunch of extras, along with animations and such, so the area looked "busy". Okay, it wasn't hard, it was just a bunch of monkey work that took longer than I wanted. But meh, such is game design.
Tomorrow, I need to do one more thing, then dammit, I'll cut that ALPHA!
Till tomorrow...
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Well, after a few years of development, work on The Shadow Sun is coming to a close. To learn more about it, checkout the game page at the Ossian Studios website!
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I know I've said it thousands of times, but it's amazing what Nobuo Uematsu was able to come up with back in the day, when the sound hardware was only so good. Enjoy!
11/12/13 -Monday: ANOTHER QUICK INTRO CUTSCENE...
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Amongst all the bug fixing and such for the upcoming ALPHA, which I might as well be calling a BETA at this point, I took an hour of my time to knock out a little short intro cutscene. These were pretty standard in my last games, something I guess I learned from my times with many JRPG's over the years.
I had been thinking of doing something like this for a while now, and simply decided to pull the trigger today. It couldn't have been easier (unless it was already done!). The level has already been created for years. The music is already set. The plot files are in place. All I had to do was write up some dialog, then create a 40 second or so cutscene, integrate it into the plot, and boom, I was done. I'll have to get some VO from Alexander for it, but considering other things he's done, this will be a cake walk.
Tomorrow, I will be something similiar in that I'll be working on an intro cutscene. The difference is, this one has already been made for years. However, I've never been too happy with it, so I'm going to overhaul it. This will result in some level changes, but it shouldn't be anything too difficult.
Till tomorrow...
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Now, I've never played Final Fantasy 2 before (hoping to get that done on iOS or DS or something one day), but I have a hell of a lot of FF soundtracks, so I've heard a lot of the music from it. Here's a piece that I swear ended up in a newer final fantasy, I just can't for the life of me remember where. Anyway, enjoy!
11/5/13 -Tuesday: MUCH NEEDED VACATION...
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STATE OF THE UNION
All of last week, I was on a very much need vacation in Pompano Beach, Florida. Even though I had a sort of mini vacation with friends in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier in the year, and other vacations every year (Cruise, Disney World), I haven't had a true relaxing vacation since I got married a little more than 3 years ago. When I say true relaxing, I mean, I'm not on anyone else's schedule, forced to be at X at 3pm, then Y at 5pm. I literally could just wake up and do... nothing... For 7 straight days. Add in the fact that we were in a suite right on the ocen, and you can tell why it was much needed.
So what did I do, besides nothing? Sat by the ocen and read a lot of A Dance of Dragons. It's been sitting in my apartment for hella long, so I figured it was a good time to try to put a dent in it. I hadn't read the prior books since 2008, so the only A Song of Ice & Fire I had in my life was the HBO series. While I love that show, there's nothing like the books. One benefit of the show is that I can put faces to many of the characters.
Let's see, what else... Ah, played a lot of Final Fantasy IV for the Nintendo DS. Even though Dragon Warrior was technically the first RPG I ever played, Final Fantasy IV in 1992 was when I really fell in love with the genre. Hell, it was the beginning of the golden age of RPG's for me. I can't remember how many times I played through that game, but some of my fondest memories involve it. And all of those memories continue to flood back to me with this remake. Good times.
But let's stop kidding ourselves. You know damn well that I did some brainstorming while there. Hell, I usually go to the hudson river at Quiet Cove back at home to brainstorming, so just imagine what I came up with while sitting right on the ocean :)
Speaking of the game, development wise, I didn't achieve the goals I set for myself last month, but I'm damn close. While I had wanted to get an ALPHA out to folks, things kept popping up that needed to be fixed in the game. The biggest win was fixing a HUGE game breaking bug involving custom potions and game crashes. I also implemented 2 new Last Resorts (the last one just yesterday). Those Last Resorts were not a part of the plan, but hey, when I get inspired, I get inspired.
This next month, I must get the ALPHA out. Glancing at my list of tasks/bugs/improvements, it's the best it's looked in months, if not years. Time to go on another run!
Till tomorrow...
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Some more Final Fantasy goodness! Enjoy!
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