I finally decided to create a Facebook page and a Twitter account (even though I don’t use my personal twitter) for Besus Productions. I will have all the same major updates there as I do here, but I will likely mention smaller details more frequently through Facebook and Twitter that wouldn’t warrant an entire post here.
I have also added these to the sidebar on the right side of the page.
So with that being said, please:
In some free time I had, I decided to put together a trailer to showcase some of the features and elements in The Ethereal Plains.
Finally (after months and months of work) I have completed a playable demo for The Ethereal Plains! I have tested and tuned it to a point where I feel confident releasing a demo.
Or if you have the RPG Maker VX Ace RTP already installed, you can download:
The Ethereal Plains Demo without RTP – v1.03
I welcome any and all feedback for this, so please don’t hesitate to:
Report any bugs you encounter or offer constructive feedback.
In addition, you can find the official thread for the project on the official RPG Maker forums.
Patch Notes (May 28th, 2013), version 1.03:
Patch Notes (May 26th, 2013), version 1.02:
Big thanks to Rev (Greg Owens) for reporting a handful of bugs and issues.
I originally had planned on having a playable demo of The Ethereal Plains out by this point, however I severely underestimated just how daunting of a task battles and balance is.
I have all of the core items at this point, but as I go through and create boss battles, I realize how boring they can be. It’s then that I chose to explore new mechanics to mix things up and then I begin to see how challenging that task can be. Between coming up with new abilities and states, to implementing visual cues for the player to understand what’s going on, it’s a lot of work! But the end result is worth it, as now boss battles will feel different than a normal enemy with increased HP.
Where should I begin?
How about with a whole new cast of character sprites? Instead of using the RTP ones, I went with the awesome offerings from Kaduki, offering much more diverse animations in battle.
And as long as we’re on the subject of battles, instead of using the stock, highly-detailed backdrops, I created my own. Though I will need to create one for each setting, the end result should look both more consistent and (in my opinion) better than the standard offering.
Geomagnetic Plight (working title) is a side project I decided to start up to develop alongside The Ethereal Plains. I figured I could use something to distract me when I start to find work in The Ethereal Plains too tedious. In addition, I’ve been wanting to start up a project which takes place in a more modern setting (inspired by games like Earthbound/Mother 3).
The general premise for this game will revolve around strange things occurring after the magnetic poles shifted (known as geomagnetic reversal) and our “heroes” set out to find the truth behind the event. The story is still a work in progress, but in addition to not taking itself too seriously, it will take place in “this world”. When I say that, I mean there will be references to things in real life (video games, events, pop culture, etc). While not the primary focus, there will be a minor time travel element which plays in to the main story as well.
Again, this is simply a fun side project to my main one so it likely won’t see the light of day until work progresses further in to The Ethereal Plains. Or I may become completely distracted by it at some point; who knows? 🙂
I’ve continued making some steady progress on the game. Most recently I’ve added a new opening scene (after the world history one) with some initial opening credits as well as re-did some switches/variables to clean some things up. My only concern is the amount of cutscenes in the initial parts of the game. I may try to work some more gameplay in there so it doesn’t feel like the player is just stuck watching the game for the majority of the beginning… I’m finding it tricky though because there are items in the story I can only think to portray through cutscenes; short of letting the player roam around a small area in between story elements and dialogue. At that point though, is it even worth it?
In addition, I’ve continued adding new items, armors, and weapons to the database spreadsheet (I would like to see them all side-by-side before I make the numbers official in the actual database).
All-in-all, progress is steady, and now I am starting to work on some additional mapping while I brainstorm ideas for some more opening gameplay.
When it comes to a battle system for this game, I cannot seem to settle on one. As soon as I get one established, I find another I would rather implement. Whether it’s because of simplicity, functionality, or just as an experiment, I guess I just love playing with different battle systems.
The newest one I’ve decided to implement is Yami’s Symphony battle engine. Offering very similar features to the Tankentai battle system without all of the confusion, complexity, and compatibility issues that go along with it, it is now my favorite. While it is plug and play for basic functionality, the ability to customize every aspect of a skill and the accompanying animations for it made me fall in love with it almost immediately. Combined with the side-view format (which I personally prefer) I just had to switch to it.
In addition there is an add-on script that allows me to replace the static enemy battler graphics with sprites. So now the battle doesn’t feel as visually awkward as most side-view battle systems where the players are sprites and the enemies are very detailed static images. Since I am avoiding random battles, I already have sprites for most enemies I will be using so there should be no lack of enemy diversity.