Month Report

Well, I have hoped for a more technical progress this month, since it's also the month that I would have liked giving the news, but nonetheless, creative, conceptual and design in both gameplay and interface related progress has been done, which I will show afterwards the big news are given.

The Big News

We have moved from RPG Maker VX Ace towards GameMaker Studio, which yes, means a total reset in all the technical progress ( Coding, configuration, etc. ), but allow me to explain the thought behind this frankly drastic change. First of all, since Careful started being its own fully independent game, I have been looking for ways to further mark the distance not only creatively, but also technically and in gameplay from the game it was at first based on ( AKA, LISA: The Painful ), and it grew significantly harder for me to do so notably using the exact same engine, along with the almost exact same allowed mechanics you could implement on said engine, and while you could argument it was still somewhat possible, I saw way more fit for that and other reasons to change to a more unlimited engine.

Progress thus far

In technical matters, we are still working on the basic movement system, along with me trying to figure out other stuff such as menu creation, interface concepts, brand new potential mechanics, etc. And for that more conceptual part, I'd like to showcase some stuff, specifically, what battles could start to look like ( design is prone to be tweaked and changed with time ).

The battle system, while fundamentally still reminiscent, implements not only a new design but brand new mechanics, such as defending other party members and analyzing enemies, which can give you crucial information on how to beat them strategically ( Or you could just go all in and beat them to death as fast as possible ).

Overworld exploration will be very similar, with a few tweaks but technically more efficient, implementing a physics system that would save a lot of dumb labor of having to event every single jump and fall singularly, there will also be some extra interface elements to the overworld which wouldn't be too invasive to the view but would prove fairly useful when deciding if to jump into a battle.

( I'm still deciding on what to add to those empty squares at the sides of Oskar's thingy )

And regarding interactions with NPCs and such, we'll finally get to make them while still chance based, now having modifiers depending the levels of certain skill ( Similar to how a traditional RPG game works ). Now, as I took some extra time to make the report, I'll showcase some more portraits to make it up.

The Statue

( There's not more to it, right? )

Bailey, The Berserk Drunkard
( Berserk reference )

Also

Radiohead Oskar

I know this is probably a huge step backwards in terms of progress, but I also think it's a huge step forward for Careful to become something potentially bigger. I'm learning how to use the engine, meanwhile, Meyland, a new team member, is also working and contributing in GameMaker. With enough patience, I'll learn how to accurately use the engine and we'll get into a better work flow, allowing us to get much more results. With no more else to say or showcase, I'll see you in next report, bye!