New dialog system up and running

The new dialogue system is up and running. It required a lot of debugging, but since then I've found adding new dialogue to be very easy. There is only one bug remaining, which technically shouldn't appear unless I create a dead end in a conversation tree (which is a bug in its own right), but if it does appear then it breaks the game with an infinite loop. I'm still working on a solution for it, but since it shouldn't occur if I do my job right in other places I don't think it's enough to scrap my new system.

There's not much more to report on right now. I need to focus on the written content for the game otherwise it'll never get finished. This is the period where the chances of the whole project collapsing is at its highest, so I'm going to limit myself to just a couple of hours each day. I'm hoping that I'll get two benefits from this approach: prevent myself from reaching burnout and work a lot more efficiently. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've set aside a day to work on a game and achieved practically nothing because I don't focus.

Edit: And in a moment of inspiration the fatal bug is fixed! Now, instead of a loop, if the conversation tree adds no options for the player to select a new option is added: [End Conversation]. That part seems obvious, and it was, but the inspiration was in how to execute it within RAGs. I'm very happy right now.

Development is back on!

I apologise for a general lack of updates since my 'brief' hiatus. I have had a complete internet outage this week, but that hardly explains the rest of this month!

Basically, I've been slacking off of development and been playing the Fallout series from the very start. It's the first time I've ever played games in that franchise and I must say that I'm absolutely loving them. I've completed Fallout 1 and 2 (twice - the replayability is amazing) and was going to start on Fallout 3 when, fortunately for you guys, my computer kept overheating. So it's back to development!

My break has definitely done me some good. Replaying the current content in the game has felt much clearer in what works and what doesn't. Most of it does work, but the dialog feels lame, especially after playing the Fallout games. I'm currently experimenting with a new way for the dialog to work in my game which, if it works, will be a lot easier to add conversation branches to and will hopefully get my writing to flow a little more freely.

That's it for now. I'll update next when I've finished experimenting with my new dialog system.

Brief break

I'm going to be away from all keyboards for a week so there won't be any updates for a short while. The writing has been coming along ok, but it will probably be another month before I start looking for beta testers. If I'm lucky I'll return to this project feeling refreshed and able to write more productively!

Screenshots

Below are three screenshots taken from Souls of Gaia. I'm providing these previews to show how the graphics are going to work in the game. One of the problems I find with RAGs games is that the images used for characters (when talking or examining) either have the script and room layout built around the background in those images (which is creatively restrictive), or the backgrounds are at odds with the room image (requiring a suspension of belief). Either way it's not an ideal situation.

What I've attempted to do with Souls of Gaia is use the overlay feature in RAGs to display items, headshots in conversations and scene overlays for encounters (read sex). All of the background images are 640x480 so there is a consistency in how everything is displayed. There was a risk of a huge file size being generated with the use of png images, but so far I have 162 images in the game and the file is only 17MB. I'm quite happy with the way it's looking, but there is still some issue with the background being at odds with the scene overlays. I think it's minimal though and won't pull the player out of the game, although the players will ultimately be the judge of that.

I should mention that it was the testing of this graphics style that led to the creation of this game. It was supposed to be a short game (couple of rooms and characters) and used to test the audience if this style works or not before I developed Slut Royale further, but my creative juices started to flow and I've just been running along with it since. So yeah, try to remember that when I finally release this game, because this is me thinking 'small'.

Examining an object

 

A cutscene

Talking to NPCs

Whoops!

Realised this morning that I had forgotten to set this blog as adult content. Doh! Fixed that now.

I had one of those horrible, sleepless nights last night. I don't even know what caused it. I hadn't had any caffeine, didn't have anything on my mind and was definitely feeling very tired. If I hadn't felt tired I wouldn't have been bothered and just would have gone to my study to work, but sadly that wasn't the case. Oh well.

I decided to redo the introduction scene today, mostly from a gameplay point of view. The story and images that I have in place I'm happy with, I just didn't like the initial player actions. I've fixed that now, and also added in a more subtle method for the player to choose between an initial perk in intelligence or willpower. Skipping the introduction brings the player straight to that point and Chapter 1 starts immediately afterwards so players can get straight on with the game if they don't care much for story.

Another good day

I'm very happy with the amount of work I've gotten done so far today and I think I should be able to work on the game for a couple more hours yet. The game is starting to feel more alive with nearly all of the item, character and room descriptions completed. I'm now focusing my writing on one of the more complicated spells in the game (in terms of its variable results and alternative texts) and then I get to write on the good stuff: the sex! There is a significant amount of sex text to write (which should come as no surprise to anyone who has ever looked at my gallery on the Hypnopics Collective), with lots of alternative scenes depending on how the player approaches their target.

I'm still debating the music issue. I'm currently leaning more towards not including it since I'm not telling a strictly linear story, so there is a risk the music will actually jar with the mood. Ambiotic sound would probably be better since the music was more for the location than the story but I haven't got anything suitable.

Anyways, back to work!

Good progress today

I managed to get a decent amount of writing accomplished today as well as sharpening up a few of the image features in the game. I discovered one bug that is proving to be a bit of a head scratcher, but fortunately it is only related to a minor programming feature that I can always do without if I can't find a reasonable solution.

The file size currently sits at 15MB with 147 images. I'm toying with the idea of adding music to the game (I found a couple of tracks that I think fits the general mood) but doing so would easily add another 10MB to the file size. I know in modern times that isn't very much, especially when compared to other RAGs games, but I kind of want to show that games don't need to be 100+MB if a little thought is put into 'art' design. I'll have to think about it for a while.