Huh.

It's kinda weird to be back, isn't it?

This game is almost, like, five months old at this point, I hope there's some people out there that enjoys playing the game as much as I enjoy making it.

After 4 months of inactivity, NEW CONTENT is finally coming to Depper Jar and returning as a whole!

(The update is NOT DONE yet, this is just an announcement!)

This new update brings EVERYTHING into the table: New battle system features, new overworld features, bug fixes, as well a FULL new game mode!

Within this update, Depper Jar is going to be divided into two game modes that you can select in the title screen, similar to Deltarune's chapter selection system and Kirby Super Star. Because Depper Jar is a experimental test game, this game modes are called "Tests", they have their own testing purposes and are different from each other.

Test 1 is practically the Depper Jar you have now with some minor tweaks. It provides a total of 3 test zones to explore with no continuity or story. It's purpose is to test out the main and experimental mechanics ideas of the game, you may consider it as the "game tutorial".

Now this is the good stuff !!

Test 2 is all what this update is about! It provides new enemies, a total of 2 new zones to explore with an actual but short continuity, characters and story! It's purpose is to test out the cutscene system and the experimental party system with a few more twists to the battle system. This is where the game really just becomes the quirky rpg inspired by M&L.

Although progress has been made since November, the update (specifically Test 2) it's on very early stages at the moment. If you are interested to know what's been going on behind the scenes of the game, feel free to keep reading this devlog.

Personal thoughts after Depper Jar 1.0.0 release

If you been following this game for the past year, you'll know that the Depper Jar we have now it's not the same as the one before it.

In 2020, I started a Undertale fangame that I wanted to be something different in the comunity. I really put thoughts on the gameplay, story and game-desing so much to the point that it didn't feel like Undertale, some people even suggested me to convert it into an original game...

(I made this gamejolt page all the way back in December 2020 and was actually for that project.)

But, feedback from others was needed for the transition of becoming an original game, so I made a simple test game named after the project's old name "Depper Jar", using outdated assets and soundtracks from that project as well Undertale elements as placeholders. This is the Depper Jar we have now.

I sometimes refered to that project as the "real Depper Jar" but there's no connections betweet the two projects outside of the framework (you could say that Depper Jar is like the game engine I made for that project, if that makes sense.)

It's 2022 now, and after the release of Depper Jar I got a lot of motivation in continuing both projects as a whole, ideas for the gameplay has been expanded too, and, well, I need feedback again.

Risks and challenges

Warning: every screenshot you'll see is from a WIP build of the game, don't take anything as finalized.

At the time the first Depper Jar update released I knew a second update was coming along the way, but the reason it wasn't announced earlier it's because there was SO MUCH interal work to do to make this game posible. Depper Jar's framework lacked a significant amount of systems every RPG would normally have, making the development harder or straight imposible.

The good news is that most of this systems are either done or at least started, here's a tiny list of what i've been working on for the past four months:

• 1) Cutscene system

  Making cutscenes before was a total pain, it was all hardcoded using switch cases. Thankfully this was the first thing I did on the list so making cutscenes is easy and events in battles posible.

• 2) Party system and battle system

  Having partners in game was planned from the start, both the project and Depper Jar are inspired by Mario & Luigi and Paper Mario, like, a lot. This is actually the main feature of this update and I believe it'll make the game more fun and attractive as well. However, this is the feature that's taking me the most to implement:
  
  I had to rework on the in-game menu (still unfinished), recode some outdated functions for the items, recode almost the whole battle system, etc.

  (WIP screenshots of the actual state of the party system)

  

  Not only code it was difficult, desing it too. I vaguely knew it'll be similar to the partner's system of Paper Mario mixed with M&L, but, like, how exactly?
  Is it gonna be like a party of a normal RPG with 4 characters?
  Are the party members following you in the overworld?
  How is it gonna work in the battle system?
  Is it gonna fit with all of the other features in the game?

  Thankfully, the party system is almost done (70%?) and I can work on the game in it's current state.

  As how the party system was planned from the start, same thing goes to some features for the battle system. If you played 1.1.0 you'll noticed the Suit attacks and SKILL bar does not have any role gameplay-wise between battles.
  I didn't want to implement every feature from the start because Depper Jar it's a testgame with the purpose of recibing feedback of the main ideas after all, my other ideas for the gameplay weren't that clear either, the battles worked just fine and my programing skill weren't the best at the time too.

  I'm currently working on those last two features, SKILL and suit attacks.

• 3) New save system

  In 2020 I made this old, bad and inefficient save system for Depper Jar, it used INIs to save data so it was very unpractical sometimes. This was the second thing I did on the list and I'm happy of this improvement.

• 4) An actual encounter system

  There's not much I can say here except this is a "MY FIRST RPG" moment.

  Unlike RPG maker or every other rpg, Depper Jar didn't store their encounters in it's data or whatever, like, there was no encounters at all. Instead I used a god damn ds list to store the index of the enemies who appears in the battle, this list updates whenever you start a fight in the overworld or a boss fight or whatever. It was really bad.

  Thankfully I learned a lot design-wise after finishing the first release of Depper Jar (1.0.0), and while I was recoding the battle system I implemented an encounter system. Now every encounter is stored in the code of the game with their enemies, bgm, background and events. So stuff like cutscenes in battles and actual boss fights are now posible.

  

Another reason for the lack of news and progress is that, unlike other similar projects that are normally made by huge dev teams, I'm just one guy.

Something as complex as a game requires a lot of effort and time to create. It becomes extremely difficult to get it together all by yourself when the project starts growing or expanding. You'll need artists, musicians, programmers, writters, etc, to divide all the roles and work the game needs.

I still don't consider Depper Jar as an actual game but is certainly a big project. I'm still confident saying I can finish this update, although it could probably take longer than expected.

If you are really interested in this game, you can follow me on twitter to check up WIP I'll upload every once in a while:

https://twitter.com/the_real_tortas

Alright.

I think that'll be enough for today's devlog...

Thank you so much for reading through all of this, I hope you have a great day!

If you still have questions, feel free to ask on the comments below.

Take care everyone.

- Tortas