I started this game in the summer of 2019 with no experience in anything that it takes to make a game. This includes book-keeping. So this is the first devlog, and serves more for interested onlookers than for me.
Let’s talk about core mechanics. There are two parts to this game: Exploration and combat.
Shadowman is made in RPG Maker VX Ace. That said, all exploration is done on gridded maps. The arrow keys move the character in any of the four cardinal directions. Diagonal isn’t a thing (--without eventing at least. I’ll talk more about that some other time.). Like any RPG, the player can interact with objects like doors and treasure chests. This is a large part of the game.
Combat is more complicated but not revolutionary in any real way. Characters are split into allies and enemies. Allies are represented by bust pictures on the bottom of the screen while enemies are represented by full sprites in the middle. Can anyone say “Dragon Quest” Everyone takes turns executing actions in order to bring the opposite team member’s HP down to 0. That might not have needed explaining, but you never know.
These modes are switched between when I force battles by using events or when a battle is randomly triggered on a map. Random encounters occur at a specified rate for each map. Every time the character moves a calculation is done to figure out if a battle is triggered. This random encounter rate varies from map to map because I say so. Sometimes, the rate is 0!
While the above is all true for vanilla RPG Maker VX Ace, I have heavily modded it with scripts, which I am mostly indebted to Yanfly for. I’ll get into that some other day though.
There’s a lot more to go over, but I think I’ll be breaking it up into pieces for closer looks at the process I’ve been through for the last 2 years. Things to look forward to:
Sandifer & Shadow fights (Reminiscent of FFX summons)
Stats, Levels, and Balancing
Teleportation System
Potion compression (Combining weak potions into stronger ones.)
Shadow Fusion (Sandifer’s Character Development & Ability-Learning System)
Pets
Graphics, Animations, and Tilesets
And other things!
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