Hey there. Tim DN's here.
I couldn't come up with another introduction. In fact, it's the third redaction of the post, which was supposed to come out this year: the first two were written at the beginning of February and began with the words "In touch with you again I, Tim DN, and this. Is. The first. Post. This year! Hooray!!".
As you can see, I had a good time back then… Until the middle of February. You know what happened next.
I don’t want to stir up this subject any more than the others have, so I’ll try to talk about it a little less – this group is about gaming and not politics after all, so let's try to talk mainly about games, even though we'd have to touch upon this issue since… it had impact on us and on the development.
In any case, here are today's post thesis:
ALL THE MATERIALS FOR THE TARDIS CONTROL ROOM ARE DONE! – is it going to work soon?
THE DIALOGUE MECHANIC WAS CHOSEN – it's getting less and less UnderTale.
TEAM NEWS – reunion with musician, newfound samples and how guys are doing.
THE WORLD FALLS – the director's thoughts about the latest events.
I hope this post will please you in some way. There won't be announcements which would surprise you, though, like the demo release or something, and I feel sorry for that. On the other hand, I feel sorry for the impossibility of publishing this post earlier… Anyway, try to create a good mood, think about something pleasant and we're starting.
✨ ALL THE MATERIALS FOR THE TARDIS CONTROL ROOM ARE DONE!
I’ve been working on this place for a long time. Yeah, I know I probably talked your ear off about it, but what can I do if this place has became the main feature of the upcoming game? Let's be honest, it was pretty hard: I had to go through the entire internet and archives in searching for certain angles and pictures, redraw a part of the room since it was out of place and then scroll for any information on TARDIS panels and their functions. I even had to turn to the official TARDIS book and the fan manual for the First Doctor's console, the names of the creators of which have a separate mention in the credits.
After all this work, the information was gathered, the functions which were inherent to the in-game menu were moved to the TARDIS console. The last important lever was drawn at the end of January and work on the sprites came to an end. Below you can see a time rotor animation – tried to catch its movement and animate it as accurately as possible.
In addition to sprites, text in the room, all interactions with objects and buttons on the console are completely ready. Now, after I return to [Read Paragraph 3], we'll begin to transfer everything in the game engine. I can't wait for this moment.
✨ THE DIALOGUE MECHANIC WAS CHOSEN.
Along with the work on the TARDIS interior, we were thinking about the dialogue system. There were two ways to implement it: as in UnderTale (a rectangular area at the bottom of the screen with three lines of text (less if there's a character dialogue sprite)), or as a system where the player enters a dialogue in a separate space with characters standing on two sides and balloons of text between them. The first system's problem lies in the restriction of the space for dialog lines. Even though I try to write small blocks of text, they still end up being larger than Toby's system can afford, so you have to go through a lot of these windows to complete an NPC conversation or a cutscene, and the player might get bored in the meantime.
The second has the problem that this action (talk to stranger) takes up an entire screen, and sometimes there are scenes in the story in which the dialogue changes over with scenes of characters acting in the world, and so flipping from dialogue to world and back again will be confusing for a player.
As a result, we came to a system similar to Disco Elysium: it has enough space for text, and at the same time you can see what's happening in the world, so it gives a synthesis between action and text. However, there's still the question of font size to be decided, but we have two versions of it, so we'll see which looks better in-game.
And, as you can see, it's getting less and less UnderTale. I think there’s almost nothing left of the original except the title and a couple of characters. It's curious to see how the game has changed over 5 years… Oh, right! Our universe will be celebrating its fifth anniversary this year! I'll try to do something interesting for the anniversary date: maybe do a tour of old sprites and concepts 😅
✨ TEAM NEWS
Last time I introduced you to Joshua – the guy who decided to help us with the soundtrack. At the moment, he's still working on the test assignment (the theme for the battle), but in the meantime, I'm adding to the list of potential composers. We've also managed to dig out some samples of the First Doctor's theme, so we can now easily write the main theme of the game (spoiler: you'll hear it at the beginning of each episode with an opening intro (which we're also working on intensely (it's difficult, pls help))).
Some of you may also remember I took a break from script writing six months ago. I did this because of my workload and a bit of tiredness – I wanted to have a rest, considering I'd been working on the script for two years and still there was no end in sight. And then the last grade and many more things began. There WAS a moment that almost forced me to go back – it was the release of DeltaRune Chapter Two, but even then I couldn't make myself open the document – I was too used to it.
Now, 2 years after I started the work (the first 27 pages were written in the same month, in March), I decided to open the doc. And oh my god, it was such a picture: the text has grown 18 times (!) in two years, and I have another 50 pages to write for the finale, if not more. And I intend to do it. Hopefully, when this post comes out, I'll have already written the finale of one location and moved on to the finish line. I assure you, I'll try to do so.
Upd: I actually did it. I officially declare that the draft text for the final room is written. Now we'll be adding beaches to the text, tidying up and editing it.
Talking about the other members: due to world tensions and the political situation, Ksan has decided to take a break until things settle down. Alice is minding her own business at the moment. And Sveta needs rest. Concrete. Just like all of us.
THE WORLD FALLS.
And now, after I've given you all the stuff I had, let's talk about what's happening in the world. I know I promised to talk less about it, but it's impossible to hide something like that in yourself when outside happens something like this. I just need to speak out, maybe my words will resonate with one of you… Although we are all now far from each other…
Everything that has been going on since the end of February scares me incredibly. Despite the fact I'm 100 miles away from war (and it IS a war, no "special operations"), I'm afraid of not knowing what will happen tomorrow. […]
There is less and less strength, the logic of what is happening, as well as any feelings, has left the place – I now experience a complete emptiness. I think I realize now how to describe the Time War, but I would never think I'll have the same fear as the Doctor or people 80 years ago had. If I told myself on New Year's Eve that in two months there would be a war in which some would be killed and others hated, that there would literally be a Third World War – I would never have believed it. But here we are…
[…] I'm trying to help others who feel bad now, but it's getting harder and harder, because I can't even keep myself together. At the end of the first draft I wrote, "Don’t lose your sense of humor", but you can do anything but hysterically laugh! […] When something like this happens, people start looking for reasons for what happened, they formulate their own conclusions, which are different from those of others, and people quarrel. Because of this, there is a split not only on the outside world, but also in the inside, in the person himself and among his friends. And that is scary.
I've been wondering recently what we can do in this situation. I can suggest only one exit: to try to keep your world safe and not to fall for people's assault. Does this world need more violence than it already has? That's why we should try to give light to everyone we know and to our family, so that a great number of rays can illuminate the dark spot that has formed at the other end of the world. That's all that we can do now, in my opinion.
And it's the end for today. I know it wasn't really informative, but just as it's hard to do anything, at the same time, I'm trying. Hope to see you at the end of April or May, although I have exams in June, so it's gonna be such a horror… Let's hope I will have a lot of time to keep this project alive. In the meantime, see you later, and please take care of yourself and your loved ones, help those who are scared and don't forget about yourself. It should be over soon. I hope so…
The monologue was taken from the actual episode in the game.
Ah, and the last thing. In the three months since the last post, a couple of memorable events have happened (not just bad things happen, right?). So I'll quickly run through them.
🎉 01/24 – Ksan's Birthday! Our developer has grown up another year, and I hope that this year he will live well, as well as the next. Good luck to him in all his activities, drawing, programming and translating, may he solve all his problems and eliminate what is keeping him from living a happy life. Don't give up, you can do many things in the future!
🎉 03/08 – The Eight March! Dear women, you're outstanding and extremely talented. You have a rich inner world and a special way of feeling and my hat is off for you (if I had one). Happiness to you all, reach the top and get the recognition and attitude you deserve (only the good things, of course!).
🎉 04/03 – Tim DN's Birthday! The creator got older for another year, but he still looks forward despite his worries. There's still some work to be done, so we'll see what he will do.
Tim DN
#DT #doctortale #au #undertaleau #undertale #doctorwho #dw #13th_doctor #tardis #tardis_interior #rpg #devvlog #gamedev #news
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