Return to Dragonfaith (with Progress!)

Although this blog has been silent for the past year (since my beta release of Ascension), that does not mean that I haven't been busy. I've just been following the philosophy of working more and talking about working less. Moving on from Ascension was a perfect opportunity to return with full focus to Dragonfaith, aided by the longterm stability of my schedule during COVID lockdown (without the ever-present distraction of the outside world intruding into my life). That is now changing (for better and worse), since I have received the vaccine and am re-entering society. Which means this would be a good point to document the progress I've made in the past year.

For many years now, since I upgraded from RPG Maker VX Ace to the new version RPG Maker MV (which by now has already been replaced with RPG Maker MZ - but I'm not upgrading again), I've been locked into the process of transferring everything I'd already completed in VX Ace over to MV. Well, I'm happy to report that I am finally finished with that phase and am developing new areas of my game again. I've completed five new dungeons in the past year (I take pride in my level design, and a lot of time and effort goes into creating a dungeon from a blank page), and I spent over a month last holiday season compiling combat-related graphics, which also means that I have my full enemy roster (including bosses) pretty much picked out.

What's next? Lifting quarantine restrictions (and more trips and social visits) means I will unfortunately be more distracted and less focused, but I'm going to continue on the path I'm walking - finishing up the mapping (I'm getting towards the endgame now). I've also been drafting scenario as I go (which means writing dialogue and also choreographing cutscenes). When I'm finished with the adventure and dramatic aspects of my game, then I can turn my full focus to the action - engineering the combat and tweaking numbers until I have a functional RPG on my hands. That's the part when you'll be able to start testing it.

For the first time since I started developing this game (a sobering seven years ago), before I knew how much work went into making an RPG (especially all by one's self), I can envision a day when it's complete in a playable format, from start to finish (with the same disclaimers I gave for Ascension - it will never be perfect, but at some point you have to put the brush down). I've taken to updating a checklist to give me a [very] rough idea of how far through the development process I am, to inspire me to keep working toward that goal. And also to show that I haven't just been sitting on my hands these past seven years, since I've taken on this mammoth project (to be completed in my free time). Without spoling too many details of the game, here's a chart of my progress:

Mapping:

World Map............................................ incomplete*
Towns/Outposts....................................... 11/13 complete
Dungeons............................................. 13/17 complete

*I know where all the important stuff goes, but filling out a 256x256 tile grid is proving to be a monumental challenge.

Writing:

Scenario/Choreography................................ ~25/32 scenes drafted*
NPC Dialogue......................................... on the light side**
Menu Captions........................................ on the light side**

*This category is approximate since I may feel it necessary to add/remove (more likely add) dramatic moments to the game as I go along.

**This is largely flavor text that I can fill in once the world (and combat mechanics) are more fully realized.

Graphics:

Enemies.............................................. pretty much complete
Battle Backgrounds................................... pretty much complete
Tilesets/Characters.................................. pretty much complete
Skill Animations..................................... indeterminate*

*Animations can be a lot of work, but it depends on how much customization I opt for (which I won't know until I dive more deeply into the combat).

Combat:

Equipment (Items/Weapons/Armor)...................... partially implemented
Skills/States........................................ partially implemented
Enemies/Troops....................................... partially implemented
Math (Growth Curves/Damage Formulas)................. ???

This last category is going to take a lot of work (and may require some coding for unique effects). I've been putting it aside while working on the mapping (although I have a rough outline for much of it, and have worked on bits and pieces of it here and there), but it represents the final hurdle between me and completion. Add to that the world map, and the endgame maps/scenario (which is next on my plate), and that's mainly what I have left to do. So now I'm going to get back to work!