Hello everyone and welcome to the return of our dev diary! Yes, I am aware we're a day late, but life always more hectic than you think after returning from vacation^^ Needless to say, I haven't had much time to work on Adesaw or NEON DARK, but I wanted to share some from the writing side of game dev instead of the game mechanics side. So, after the jump, let's look into NEON DARK's opening monologue!
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Hey all and welcome to another Adesaw DD! The weather in Japan is sweltering, so while I'm hiding from the sun there's been plenty of time to work on Initiation. These last few weeks have been very heavy on the programming side, and extremely light on the story-writing so we'll be talking about gameplay mechanics again today. Most of the story writing will be on hold until the foundations of the mechanics are laid -- it's hard to write something when you don't know the format of storytelling your game engine will require! So after the jump we'll be talking about the general daily game loop your character will experience as he walks the hallowed pathways of Adesaw University...
Hello everyone, and welcome to a new dev diary! This week we are going to look at the user interface for Horror at Adesaw: Initiation. Behold! Beautiful color and a plethora of new features! After the jump, let's talk a little bit more about the stylistic choices, and some hints on those new systems...
Hello all and welcome to yet another Dev Diary! This week, we'll mostly be doing a progress report, rather than a description of an upcoming feature. This week, I've been mostly working on Initiation's dialogue and tutorial system! But these systems will also be deployed to NEON DARK, so it's relevant to both games^^ Click read more to find out more...
Hello and welcome back to our second DD, which will be released every Thursday (Japan Time) from now on. Toady, we're going to be look a little bit more in depth about the general concept for our new series, NEON DARK.
Hey everybody and welcome to back^^ Thesis submission is done, and that means we'll be back to our regular weekly updates for the foreseeable future. This week I'm very excited to reveal some of the RPG components for our next game, which will be officially called, "Horror at Adesaw: Initiation"! A perfect title to signify your official entrance to Adesaw University and the dark rituals you must uncover to survive. Below the jump, let's read more about stats and classes...
Hello everyone and welcome to another dev diary! This week is another very exciting posting, as we'll be unveiling the next series being developed at Doc Fishopolis Operations: NEON DARK
The New Series When I first started programming and had an idea to make an android game, there were two genres I was interested in working with. The first was a horror-based interactive fiction story, which is the genre that introduced me to the world of text-based games. I was engrossed by the narrative in Anchorhead, and loved the simplicity and convenience of Horror in the Darkness for android. This is ultimately the direction I went in, and Horror at Adesaw: Prologue was introduced. The other genre I decided to temporarily shelve was science fiction. I have always loved the futuristic grime found in the worlds of Blade Runner, Alien, or the Fallout series. I also had a deep interest in exploring the philosophic questions at the essence of sci-fi: the impact accelerating technological advances will have on humanity, the divide between machine and humanity, or the outcomes of a world wracked by massive social upheaval. I wanted to make a game that would explore these themes, but as a beginning designer it was too big a task. Now that I've got the experience under my belt, I'm ready to take the leap and two weeks ago began developing a new game based on these ideas. It will also be text-based, but I'll be experimenting with some new flair such as images and a soundtrack. It won't be an interactive world in the same way Prologue, but there will be a lot of similarities. It's still very much in the planning stage, so I won't say much beyond that. Hello all and welcome to another lovely dev diary! This week we've got some exciting new updates regarding the future games (yes, that's plural!) being developed by Doc F. But first, let's start with Prologue.
Prologue Patch and Finalization The 1.4 patch series for prologue is coming to an end. From what I've heard, the save game problem is now a terrible nightmare from the past, still haunting my dreams but causing no actual harm. There's still a few minor bug fixes/QoL improvements to be made, but Horror at Adesaw: Prologue is reaching the end of it's active development stage. It's been an incredible process, and I've learned so much about game development over the last two months it makes my head spin. I'll be taking these lessons in stride to make future work a smoother process both for me, and you. Speaking of the future... Work Begins on the Next Book Prologue was always meant to be a test run for the overall series -- a way to understand the stages of developing an app. In many ways, Prologue is the pilot program for the rest of the series. Hello world! And welcome to dev diary numero dos.
Today's agenda: What in the world is wrong with the save/load feature, and what have I been doing to fix it? I will hopefully answer all your burning questions, and also let you know about imminent re-release of Prologue. The Problem As a new programmer, I foolishly waited until the very final stages of development to implement the save/load feature. This is a big no-no and led to a problem where the game engine didn't know how to properly access a save file, in turn causing a whole host of problems. So, when a save file was loaded, the game was basically looking for data in the wrong place. The Solution A whole lot of coding fixes. The game engine has become a bit monstrous, as I've used the programmer equivalent of massive amounts of duct tape. With that said, I've been testing it myself A LOT (essentially trying my best to 'break' the game) and I can tentatively say there have been huge improvements to stability. The code is really ugly to look at, but it does the job properly now. For the next Adesaw game, it'll all get cleaned up to a more streamlined system. But that's all under the hood shop talk! The important thing to know is this: Prologue now knows how to access the save file. Tomorrow, I'll be releasing an internal beta to players who already have the game installed. I ask that if you update your game, please try it out! And more importantly, send me an email if you run into more problems! If the beta runs smoothly, I hope to put Horror at Adesaw: Prologue back on the Google Play store by the end of the weekend. Hello all and welcome to our first dev diary! We’re going to try to make this a weekly occurrence every Thursday (Japan time), although I reserve the right to tweak that a bit.
So far, Horror at Adesaw is in an on-again-off-again relationship with downloads. It seems like we get a decent number around the weekend and then during the week things are pretty dry, which makes sense. Regardless, we’re getting downloads and at least a few of you are playing the game, which brings joy to my little heart. The only thing I wish we could get are more reviews on the app store! So please, if you’ve been enjoying the game and want to support a humble indie game developer, please rate us. Right now, not much has been done in the way of concrete game development (sorry). As a very cash-strapped grad student that needs to submit a master’s thesis next month, time has a been a rare commodity. But fear not! I’ve been thinking of Adesaw a lot, and am working through some ideas on the next chapters general plot and timeline. I’ll give more details about this in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. Also, I have some plans related to promoting and updating "Prologue", so you should see the fruits of that labor sometime in June. **RANDOM MUSING** I’ve been playing through “The Red Strings Club” over the last couple of weeks, and it’s definitely worth the price tag. The storyline has been really engaging, and I really love the dilemmas it presents about technology, choice, and the thin line that separates 'natural' humanity from 'artificial' humanity. Also, the art style is beautiful! I hope one day I can draw pixel art in the way the creators can, but it'll be a long road. If you have the cash to spare, check it out and pick it up on steam. |
About the DocDoc Fishopolis Operations is a one man Android dev team. Archives
September 2018
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