WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT, GOING??
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Okay so as some of you may know, I've been working on a little passion project for the past couple weeks.
I've actually wanted to do something like this for a while now, but I've constantly been putting it off as I felt like I wasn't ready for the hell-hole that would be called "Development".
But hey, if there's any time to announce something awesome, I'm doing it right here, right now.
So here it is...
I'm going to be directing a DustTrust fan-game. (I know, how original)
Now before everyone jumps out of their imaginary seats and start kissing the screen, I have to say that the only things I have done right now are sprite assets, general plot progression, and some concepts.
I'm an artist, not a developer.
And though I would've loved to show game-play screenshots, I'm one guy who's only experience coding games was a shitty Scratch point-and-click game from when I was in middle school. (I never even got close to finishing it)
"Okay soo uhhh... What DO you have?"
Quite a bit, actually.
Let me just go through the list of important details y'all would probably like to know about...
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General Plot
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Everybody knows about the basic plot that generally consists of:
"Papyrus gets mad and tries to kill the human by becoming a genocidal maniac, but gets killed by his brother, Sans. And now Sans has to carry on Papyrus's legacy and bring a stop to the human's never-ending reign by gaining LOVE and killing everyone he loves."
And that's relatively going to stay the same.
HOWEVER...
San's motives and personality is going to be a little different from how he's generally perceived.
His cocky attitude is going to make a return for some of the game, but he'll also experience anxiety and fear. Along with overwhelming guilt, and learning to move past his sins for the greater good.
I know that's really vague, but I don't want to say too much or else I'll be spoiling all of my plans.
Just know that Sans is going to be much more 3-dimensional and hopefully become someone that you'll feel bad for and sympathize with.
And I'll do EVERYTHING in my power to get a tear run down your cheek from what I have in store.
Okay, anyways-
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THE CORE??
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Well hey, looks like I got some neat concept art for all of you...
There is going to be an overworld section before the fight, with a unique take on the CORE.
Large lava pools, slick industrial pipes, and the alarm that's constantly blaring, warning of a certain homicidal maniac reeking havoc upon the entire facility. How beautiful.
This area is meant to serve as a little prelude before the fight, where you can explore and try to find any lore details that come your way. Not that you'll care too much about all that.
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Phase 1
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This phase is where I actually have the most progress in... as in finished assets. The sprite-sheet for this phase is pretty much done, with a heavier emphasis on animation and character-expression.
You meet Sans at the bridge before Napstaton's stage. Instead of going to the castle and killing the queen, he decides to wait for you and get it over with. He's confident, maybe a little too confident. He takes out his swords and challenges you to one final duel.
This phase won't be very hard. If I had to guess how it'll turn out, I'd say Undyne the Undying difficulty. If you've played a lot of genocide fan-games, I don't see you taking any longer than 40 minutes.
There should generally be less unpredictable attacks that rely on trial and error to get down, while also coming up with new attack gimmicks to keep things fun and fresh.
shitty concept i drew since i can't code, it wont look like this in-game
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Phase 2
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His sins begin to tremble his spine. You successfully manage to shoot the skeleton's ego from the sky, now he has to take more drastic measures.
The big thing I wanted to nail down was a major visual difference between the first and second phase, and to really emphasize the feeling of anxiety. Which I think I did pretty well.
I won't spill my ideas for this phase, at least for now. Just know that Sans made sure you won't be able to fight back this time around, or so he hopes.
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Phase 3
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Unlike the other phases, I don't have anything final asset-wise. But here's the obligatory "concept" art anyways.
None of these sprites are final... except for maybe Papyrus.
Sans slowly grows his determination throughout his life-threatening fight. He thinks he's unstoppable, believes he has successfully overcome you, and now wants to put on a show to take you down in style.
I always liked phase 3's concept and it has always been my favorite, so I didn't change too much in that aspect.
But I'm willing to up the charm by full-force, and possibly give other characters the spotlight. (Ayyyyyyyyyyyyy he said "spotlight", that's funny.)
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"Will there be any other special encounters?"
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From what I have planned, no.
While something like a Papyrus encounter or an Alphys encounter would be pretty cool, I want to keep things relatively simple for now. Extra encounters like these take time and effort, and since this is my first time directing anything in the community, I want to keep things reasonable.
No promises beyond the 4 phases.
Wait what did I just say-
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PHASE 4??!!1!!!!??!?!?!?!
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OKAY OKAY before everyone blocks me and sends me death threats on Discord, HEAR ME OUT.
This won't be Divine Terror.
It will make sense given the specific story changes I made for this project.
And it will be the most ambitious, extravagant thing this game will have to offer.
A final boss to a game that's basically you fighting the final boss.
Take everything you knew about past renditions of phase 4, and just throw it out the window.
I have it fully planned out. I'm obviously not going to reveal anything about it, probably not for a very long time.
Just know that it'll wrap up my years in the DustTrust community in a nice little bow.
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So now what?
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Now, I'm gonna be looking for coders. I'll worry about musicians and artists later, as I don't think they'll be needed for the time being.
I don't have a specific engine chosen yet, but my two choices can either be Game Maker Studio or Clickteam Fusion, depending on whoever is most experienced.
If you wanna hit me up regarding development of DustTrust: A Story's End, my Discord is open. I may be slow in responding.
And yes, you can ask questions about the game in the comments, and I'll likely answer unless they are spoilery.
So yeah, that's my announcement post. Sorry if this article looks rushed (it kinda is)
I appreciate all the support over my time in this community, it's really been a blessing. I've always wanted to try directing a small project like this for a while now, but never found the courage to do so. But I guess the time is now, see y'all maybe soon.
my fingers hurt i'm taking a nap lol
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