Virgo Vs The Zodiac development will now go on Game Maker 2.You can still donate on the CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN!Demo launched! - You can download the demo!
What I’ve found is, if you use your time wisely (and yes, I know it sounds like boring and overused advice, but there is truth in it! ) then you’ll have enough time in the week to get some work done on your game, and watch that anime you want to watch.
Here’s what I use to stay organised:
Every week, I usually block out time for myself to work on my game, and a “cut-off” time where I do nothing. I use this schedule by @emmastudies to help me out. Keeping calendars are also useful, so you know which periods of time are going to be busier than others.
For game development, I usually use:
@thewakingcloak already mentioned it in their post, but Trello is really useful for organising what you need to work on, especially since you can color code tasks and there are loads of other features to help you prioritise.
That’s about it for me! Thank you for your ask, Anon. But, I’m curious:
For other developers, what do you do to stay organised/avoid burn out? Comment below :D.
Now me and the doodz are using redmine for bug reports, we use git to share the game’s files (I use the program “fork”). I wanted to use Trello again, but only me and anglerman ended up actively using it. It’s a shame cuz it’s really good =(( Other than that google docs for game design documents and lore stuff, google sheets for progression and task management.
For daily tasks I have a little board where I write stuff I need to do for the day like “Finish up 3 maps, more battles on map2, collisions” etc. :D
This would be how a excel look like:
Then I go manually filling up the finished stuff every day. Also helps with the feeling of fulfillment :D
RANDOM UPDATE: A devlog will be posted on monday and the build with capricorn and taurus for the backers will be finished on monday as well. That build will undergo Q&A (quality assurance to catch bugs), then sent to beta backers on Steam after Q&A process is finished. If you want to preserve the old Taurus build (a SHITTON of things changed from that lol) I don’t know how you can do ? But maybe looking into it on the Steam folder. Please do so before the other build is uploaded! That’s it! :D I’m excited to share the new things! Meanwhile stay safe while Virgo jumps the fence to avoid taxes with the Golden Alpaca.
Song: unknownSong: Festival
Artist: unknownArtist: Elektrobear
Album: unknown Play count: 284
Another song done for Vvtz by Elektrobear! This one is very calm and noice :D I think it’s the cutest song done by Elektrobear! Hope you guys like it! New beta build delayed a bit, will let you guys know when we’ll be updating the Steam build!
I don’t know if I showed this here before? But the color palettes also show up in the pixel art scenes! Unfortunately, for conversation portraits it would be a hassle to make and a waste of space (one portrait for each palette and there’s 30 palettes) xD
As promised long ago, here comes the long awaited BIG DEPELOPMENT UPDATE (Backers will get a special development update once we send in the new beta build this month)
I’ll just put in stuff we’ve been working on with some gifs/images :D
Now if a character has purity on, they’ll stay in their Defensive Stances. I don’t know why I didn’t ask that to Ben first, but this will make it clearer on who can hit you on their counter turn, and who to avoid beating :D Also the Hearts/Purity bar looks like this now, before it was looking ugly and not that slick, since when you would inspect everyone’s hearts/purity, the bar would overlap the characters and look goddamn ugly. Now it doesn’t overlap anymore and is simple enough to be more clear :D SIMPLE AND CLEAN
Also with this defensive stance thing, Ashigarus look way more intimidating:
Right now we’re working on a february build for the backers! This one would have Capricorn and Taurus (FULL TAURUS, with last bossfight of the realm :D). We’re planning to send monthly builds until the end of the development, but let us see how that goes. So all of the beta backers will soon meet Spica! :DDDD In that order, next month’s build would feature Capricorn, Taurus and the third realm.
Also if more than one of the same enemy type appears they might have different palettes to better identify who’s who when they swap positions and stuff like that.
Scorpio changed appearance completely. Reason is because I couldn’t write up dialogues for her in the state her first portrait was in. Actually, Scorpio had more than 30 redesigns before that portrait, I don’t even know where they are, it was just too much. I blame this on the fact Scorpio is a very mysterious zodiac sign, so she was hiding from me all this time. BUT, worry not, her dialogues are flowing extremely well now that I changed her portrait :D I hope you guys don’t hate me for changing designs midway, but that’s how life goes sometimes. (?) So for a before and after:
It’s very different other than the scissor that is the same, I know. I legitimately have no excuses for this other than I wasn’t feeling it in the older design. I’ll probably use the older design in another character, though, since I think she looks prutty cute as well, just wasn’t tru Scorpio. Tru Scorpio is less flashy, more chill, more weird, less obviously edgy. Also new scorpio has a scorpion tail necktie. Very important.
Now for random stuff we did:
We finished an additional realm that wasn’t supposed to be on the game, but we did it so quick that now it’s in. I’m glad since people will get to know a little of how the realm of this character is! :D I won’t be showing a thing of this realm, though. I think it’ll be a cool surprise once you guys see this realm in the full game, it has a very different color palette in comparison to the other realms as well!
All the endings of the game are planned and kind of written down. Need to revise some things, so I’m going through all the dialogues for all the realms to revise and add stuff in now that I have the endings done. :D
Crafting is fully implemented, now we only need to implement the interface for breaking and boosting. A backer gave feedback that it sounded a bit too basic, we done some reworking on that, and with breaking and boosting it’ll help as well to make it more interesting. :D
All the maps for the third realm are fully done! A sneak peek:
ominous
And maps for the fourth realm as well:
u n f i n i s h e d
Virgo got the reflection!! She’s not a vampire anymore.
And the battle balancing overhaul:
Stats were changed a bit in regards to Purges/Counters, with their own specific attack values rather than being only defined by the Quality. Getting +Counter Attack will add damage to counters only, which also helps specialize characters better and opens up more equipment combos
Buffs and Debuffs are much clearer now on what they’re supposed to represent: Every turn a stack will fade, so you can measure how many turns a buff will last by the number of stacks you can see on the battler’s heads! Adding a the same buff more than once on a character will raise its stacks, making it last longer and be more effective.
Enemies flash at the moment you should press the key for a perfect hit. This allows the game to be played WITHOUT the timed-hit HUD appearing, as you can just pay attention to the animations themselves.
There’s like 5 or 6 animations left for the party!!! A huge chunk of the weapons are done and working, now mostly only enemies remain!
omg,screenshot
That’s it for this month’s devlog, next month I come here with MORE THINGZ. This barely covers 30% of the work we’ve been doing, but my mind always turns blank when I come here to say what we did ;_; Anyways, let me know if you guys got any questions about the development and I’ll try to answer as swiftly as I can! SOWWY FOR BIG DELAY
I'm a big fan of the art style and just your game in general! I'm studying computer science at school and am pretty familiar with python and Java. I was wondering if there are any suggestions you have for getting started with making a simple rpg, do you suggest unity? Or are there other programs you think would be better learning environments? Also, do you happen to have a patreon? You should absolutely get one if you don't yet! Can't wait for release!
Thank you so much!! I’m glad you enjoy the game! :D
Since, from what I’m getting, you’re learning programming languages? So I would suggest starting with Game Maker Studio 2. If you want a even easier platform then you can go to RPG Maker, then you’ll learn how systems in RPGs work. An RPG is actually a very difficult genre to start in, cuz the systems are very complex overall, but if you can do something that is neat, concise and simple, you’re good to go in any engine! Achieving that is hard, though, so maybe checking RPG Maker may be a good idea, the interface is amazing to understand stuff out and to get inspirations from. If you want to hop into “TRU” programming, then, go to Game Maker, and checkthis tutorial hereby Heartbeast! It’s on Udemy for really cheap. He also teaches how to use java to create a cool database system for your RPG in Game Maker. Also, do not recommend Unity, unless you want to make a 3D game, it’s best to start slowly but steady, so that you can feel acomplishment by finishing tasks instead of only pure frustration xD (also do not recommend starting with 3D programming/3D asset making).
Also, this basic Game Maker tutorial by shaun! Shaun is a very slow talker, so if you dislike that there’s other people teaching basics on GML that is game maker’s language.
I don’t have a patreon as of now, so the only way to support my work would be to preorder the game here on the crowdfunding campaign :D I plan to maybe open a patreon after I launch the game if I have enough content to show on either a weekly or biweekly basis, of my next projects :3 As of now I’m just a pack of busy days and half sleeping, so would be rather difficult =((
Are you planning or hoping to put this game on other platforms? Coughcoughswitchcoughcough
There’s nothing confirmed yet for other ports, but the facts are:
I’m
interested in doing so, but each new platform requires new costs, so I
would need the game to sell well on Steam to consider buying the devkits
and all that! It costs a lot of money to port, unfortunately =( Capritalism strikes again………………
I hope everything will go all right enough for
me to port for other consoles as well! It would be a dream come true,
for sure, and make more people happy! :D I really want it to be accessible for everyone. I would love to port it for Switch specially, since VvtZ would probably look cute in a tiny screen, I think! *-*
My engine allows me to swiftly port directly on it for Xbox One, PS4 and Switch alike, so that’s why I’m interested, and it is a possibility for the future!
Capricorn is lore friendly even in code! It’s overly complicated, bureaucratic and agonizing, with a lot of wrong coding everywhere. We started the development in game maker porting Capricorn to it and me and anglerman (both working with the realms events) didn’t know much on the engine, basically a first experience, so everything is all over the place, wrong and terrible. Somehow it works, held by a thin line of hope and sheer effort.
Sagittarius has a huuuge train called Sagittrain, which is the fastest means of collective transportation of the whole Milky Way. Due to Space Reptiles blocking the Space Roads, a lot of denizens and Zodiacs have been using the Sagittrain to avoid galactical problems, so it’s not only used to transport goodies anymore. Since it’s very cold in Pisces, Taurus is one of its biggest exporters, selling Alpaca Fleece and Alpaca fleece sweaters as well, but unfortunately, the railroad is broken now, making it difficult for Sagittarius to bring coats to her older sister, Pisces =(
Sagittarius is also daughter of Jupiter, and the Zodiac of Wisdom and disgraceful puns. :D
I hope you enjoy playing the full game as well once it’s out. The RPG Maker build is outdated, but it’s full of soul, I hope you enjoy it as well in case you get to play that!
