fangame Verdant Tales: Symphonic Horizon

[Dylanrockin]

On 12/24/2016 at 5:34 PM, DemICE said:

This is an amazing work,  wow!  Quality content as always

 

This pause menu isn't even finished yet, as I started programming in new bells and whistles to it, like changing the background's opacity color, to have certain icons on the screen reflect. It's going to be one of the best menu's I've ever made ;D However, it has made me write about 2000+ more lines of code for it, so that's... fun...

 

Also, I wanted to announce, well... Merry Late Christmas and whatnot XD I have nothing really to show, except that on New Year's I will be showing off a Mega Update video. No, it has nothing to do with Mega Evolved Pokemon, but the amount of content that I will be showing will be around... 30-35 minutes worth. Also, it will be the last, ever "game mechanics/content additions" update that I will show. Partly because I want the rest of the game and it's features to be a surprise. However, certain videos like me just showing off whatever, like new abilities and stuff is fine. But, new mechanics will not be shown off after this video is finished. I'm currently just waiting to finish up the new pause screen, which is way more tedious and time consuming than one might think XD

 

Also, I will be taking a small break, from game development, for about a week or so. Mostly because this pause menu has... well... killed me. It's literally killed me. So, after I post the video, it's break time! And, I will be showing off 2 new characters for my game as well, one of which was put into the game, for lols, and the other one is for story reasons.

[DemICE]

2000+ lines .. a trip

30-35 min video...   looking forward to it ^^

Merry xmas btw ;p

 

That's good and all, though try to not show off too much at youtube or you might get the Prism treatment, and lead the lawyers to this site too.

[Dylanrockin]

23 hours ago, DemICE said:

2000+ lines .. a trip

30-35 min video...   looking forward to it ^^

Merry xmas btw ;p

 

That's good and all, though try to not show off too much at youtube or you might get the Prism treatment, and lead the lawyers to this site too.

 

Yup, Merry Late Christmas, even though I didn't celebrate for many depressing reasons that I don't want to get into. And I can't promise that my game won't get the Prism treatment or that my posting on YouTube will lead lawyers to this site. I only promise on doing my part in showing people a game and the huge amount of improvements and additions that I've added to it.

 

Side note: I recently watched Shin Godzilla, and it was a great way to spend a day off from development, since I got really pissed off while programming and needed a small breather.

Edited December 27, 2016 by Dylanrockin

[Dylanrockin]

So, as of late I spent 5-6 days working on a new pause menu, with... a lot of bad practices, and it ended up eventually causing the game to lag way too much, because I didn't know it could cause that to happen. So, I had to revert to an older version of it and then thinking that I could've done this better and possibly a bit more if I knew a few extra short-cuts with Ruby. What's sad is that I'm a programming Major and for whatever reason I couldn't get that to work right o.o

It's just been really annoying, given that I worked for hours, meticulously to make sure that the menu would work flawlessly, and then it ends up getting botched in the end. Whatever.

Edited December 29, 2016 by Dylanrockin

[Twilightwing]

I mean you ended up learning from that fail

[Dylanrockin]

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!

 

So, to celebrate the new year, I decided to finally stop procrastinating and upload the new battle mechanics and whatnot. However, I cut out half of the material that I promised to show, mostly because I want some of what I talked about to be more of a surprise for people, the first time they play the game. So, the video is about 15 minutes long. However, this will be the last, ever "Game Mechanics Update" that I will do.

 

 

[DemICE]

Wild pokemon overkill call PETA

Boy, those verdant animations ARE long. Good thing that they will not be spammed in battles, and will give that extra emotional oooomph the one time they are used.

Ninja vs Lcario ...  uhh..  too many turns of undying mode xD...  

Last 5 mins.. didnt watch. I don't like spoilers. You must have been nudged by some to release that xD  

[Dylanrockin]

1 hour ago, DemICE said:

Wild pokemon overkill call PETA

Boy, those verdant animations ARE long. Good thing that they will not be spammed in battles, and will give that extra emotional oooomph the one time they are used.

Ninja vs Lcario ...  uhh..  too many turns of undying mode xD...  

Last 5 mins.. didnt watch. I don't like spoilers. You must have been nudged by some to release that xD  

 

The whole point is for the animations to be over-the-top and long. That's what makes them so great to use and personal for the Trainers themselves.

 

As for Vivian vs. Greninja, the reason why both of you weren't allowed to be K.O.'d was because of story reasons. Admittedly, the first time you'd see the message is more than enough. However, the whole point of that fight is the emotions between Vivian and Allan at that point in the game. Again, plot reasons why, but it's an artist decision to make it that way. It's not a "traditional fight" as the way you're looking at it. It's quite commonly done in animes and certain J-RPG's to do something like this, where two people are going at it, while barely standing, but still fighting. It conveys emotion and a constant will to keep fighting.

 

And by "nudged" are you referring to the Gen 7 Pokemon not being in the game? If so, then yes. The amount of times I keep being asked that would be enough to drive anyone mad.

[Dypatome]

I love how this looks; you've definitely found a way to stand out from the traditional styled games, and it works out realllly well. 

Even if you're not going to be releasing more video updates in the future, I'll gladly follow along until the game's finished. Amazing work.

[Enigma Shot U]

So in terms of your game what would be an estimated percentage of your current completion? If you don't mind me asking.

[Dylanrockin]

12 hours ago, Enigma Shot U said:

So in terms of your game what would be an estimated percentage of your current completion? If you don't mind me asking.

 

An estimated percentage would be around 60% completed. But, that is not taking into account play-testing or anything of the sort, however.

[Commander]

60% is still a very good chunk of game done. Admittedly, I think the ability to keep both Pokemon alive as well as dialogue mid battle really stands out. Just a little thing I believe but the little things really add up in the long run. Still keeping an eye on this page even if I don't say too much.

[Dylanrockin]

Also, here is a little update. Since I haven't done much in the way of showing new artwork, as of late, since my artist and I have been on vacation and taking a break and whatnot, here is a new design for an already introduced character. This is Falset Neohart's God Form. In this form his hair changes from black to a silvery-white color, and gains the Arc Stone Halo behind him. His aura also changes from a smooth, black and purple color to a vibrant and multi-colored silver. His clothes become more torn and change based on his transformation. He no longer sees the need to use Pokemon, as he himself now possesses the powers of a Pokemon. With that said, in this form, he is the only non-Pokemon that you fight in the game. Normally he can create Pokemon, by using the dark aura around him.

 

 

Contrary to what you see in this, Falset does not actually use Pokemon in his God Form. This is the only instance in the game where you fight an actual person, even though he isn't really a "person" in the fundamental sense of the word. He is a dark spirit created by the culmination of mankind's sins over countless eons. His goal is to impart his own sense of "justice" down upon humans, seeing them as nothing more than sinners who taint the world of Pokemon. He sees human nature as sinful, especially in regards to how he sees humans using Pokemon to act out their conflict, war and resolve for their own selfish desires of pride and order. How he attains this "God-like Form" is by absorbing the power of the Arc Stone into his being, granting him the power of Pokemon. He views the usage of Pokemon by humans to be disgraceful, and that the world would be much better if he served as it's God while exterminating all human beings, while watching over the Pokemon live out his ideal "heaven and paradise". He does use Pokemon, but only by creating them out of his dark energy. Seeing as though this is hypocritical, he views it necessary to act out his ambitions. By taking the form of man, and the unbelievable power of Pokemon, he can thus take upon himself mankind's sins, and the purity of untainted creatures.

 

Most of which why he views Pokemon as pure is mostly due to how humans abuse their powers for their own selfish purposes - war, conflict, and selfish desires like pride. Falset even went to the lengths of exterminating all of the people who lived in the City of the Timeless, because Time Manipulation is one of the biggest crimes a human can have. Something that should only be used by a God, like Dialga, not meager humans. Existing, and being born is just that as a sin (in the real world, as mankind as we normally know is born out of sin.). Punishment and divine justice is what he seeks, as well as making a perfect utopia for the perfect, and pure species of Pokemon, untainted and untouched by mankind's filth.

 

More on him will have to wait for when you all play the game.

 

His normal form:

 

Edited January 4, 2017 by Dylanrockin

[Dylanrockin]

So, a little update as to what's going on. There's some important news, in regards to the manga adaptation of my game that I was going to bring up, around summer, and I may end up making a separate thread for it. But, just to let everyone know - this summer I will be finishing up the first volume of the Symphonic Horizon manga, and for those of you who don't know: yes, there is an actual Manga of my game, made by a professional manga artist. It's costed me several thousand dollars to work out, and has been an expensive project, on top of my game as well, but this Summer, towards August or so, is when we will begin printing copies of the manga for your viewing pleasure. At a cost, however. Unlike my game, the manga will have to be purchased. It's just how things fly in the world of fan-doujins, as opposed to fan-games where if I was to make you pay to play my game I'd probably be crucified by a horde of angry people. However, the manga will only be in limited print, so when the time comes I will announce the arrival of it. For now, there will be a 7 page preview of the first 7 pages of the manga for viewers to read, in about a month or so.

 

Here is a 3 page example of what is to come:

 

 

Also, the finalized, and fully colored version of Falset Neohart's God Form:

 

 

As a general side note, because I sometimes get questions about a potential sequel, I do have one in mind, but it will be manga exclusive. I feel that I would want to take that route, because as much as I enjoy making a game about Pokemon, technology and my current knowledge on game development wouldn't be enough for me to create a sequel in my ideal image. That and for as much as I love programming and making games... all the errors, bug checking, and whatnot gets really old after awhile. But, the manga for the 2nd entry in the series won't be for a long time. Not until the first entry in the series is completed. But, as a final word, I also wanted to pursue a career in game development and manga authoring with my manga artist/friend/partner, later down the line and maybe someday create the 2nd game. But, that would have to based on my mood and who would like to participate in helping me design the sprites, tiles, etc.

Edited January 10, 2017 by Dylanrockin

[Dylanrockin]

I Feel Like a Bad Video Game Dad

I hope I'm not the only one who thinks of themselves like a "father" or "mother" of their own characters. Because, in a weird way... I do. Like, I enjoy doing what I can to make artwork of them in bizarre and oftentimes humorous situations that show off their personalities and their interests. Or getting them new clothes that look fashionable, or what a dad THINKS is fashionable and just forces them to use. (No one else had that dad? Just me? Okay XD" Like, in the Christmas photo and how Marissa is playing the Piano while singing. It's times like that, that I can't help but feel like a dad, because I want what's best for my characters, while at the same time making them play their roles.

 

All of these characters that I created myself, I gave them personalities and lives of their own, and yet... I've never drawn them myself OTL I'm ashamed to call myself the father of all these characters, and that I've never once decided that I would draw them ;w; I've gotta fix that at some point in the future, when I have more free time from working on the game.

The thing is with me... I'm not terrible at drawing, it's just that I lack the drive to draw. It's also very hard for me to get into, because I wouldn't know where to start and what programs to use or even HOW to use them. Sure I've used Photoshop from time to time, but that was to make gifs and whatnot. A lot of the mumbo-jumbo on Photoshop always makes me go and think to myself like "People memorize what all this does O.O" I guess artists can probably say the same thing about people who use RPG Maker at a first glance and be like "you people know how to use this shiz? I can hardly figure out any of the hotkeys!"

 

In short: I feel like what I've done for my characters is great and all, but it would be much better if I ended up doing something for them, from me, for once. With my own hands, than just giving them a world to act out in, and play the role that I gave them. It's weird that I have this kind of mentality, but in a weird way I kind of feel like that XD I'm sure on some weird level, someone has probably felt that way, and I'm not the only one

 

Edited January 10, 2017 by Dylanrockin

[Dylanrockin]

So, if anyone has been curious as to why I haven't posted a whole lot of much as of lately, is mostly because of school slowly coming back into play. Well, interterm, but still. As well as a slight lack of motivation. Dunno why, but the past couple weeks I've just been relaxing instead of working on my game, which is both a good and a bad thing. Good in that I can gain back my motivation and drive slowly. Bad, in that less work gets accomplished. But, as of today I have finished mapping the Frost Sanctuary, and I am now currently working on the puzzles involving it. The puzzles will utilize Krista's Super Sensing abilities, which is basically and upgraded version of her regular Sensing ability, as well as Hiro's Time Reversion and Matter Manipulation. At this point in the game is where the puzzles start to ramp up in difficulty and will require you to use all 6 of the characters in the game and their overworld abilities.

 

Also, the sanctuary functions on certain mirror's giving off reflections to areas that are normally obscured or hard to locate and will hint at where to go to solve the puzzle. I.E. revealing a secret passageway, etc.

 

After the Frost Sanctuary has been completed is when I will start working on the Infinity Mine/Stone Sanctuary, to give it its secondary name. Which functions on minecart riding. Fun stuff, yeah? Prepare to be surprised.

 

And just as a reminder, for those of you that care, there will be a "Draw my OC/Characters" Contest being held, 1 month from now. There will be cash prizes for the top 3, and for everyone else will just be a cameo placement somewhere in the game, so that way you guys don't feel left out with nothing ;D I wish I could give everyone money, but that's just how contests go, I'm afraid. Also, the judging will be completely unbiased, as there will be 2 other anonymous judges who you all wouldn't know of anyways and they wouldn't know you, which makes it so that way I don't get bias when reviewing another person's work and judging it.

 

The link to the thread is here: GO NAOW!

 

[Dylanrockin]

I've been kind of quiet the past couple weeks, as everyone is reluctant to find out, I'm sure  But, that's mostly because I'm pretty much done, mechanically with the game. I've included everything that I've wanted to include, so far. Overlimit, Focus Meter, Character Unique Transformations, Dual Techs, Verdant Artes, and so on. There really isn't anything else that I want to share, in regards to the mechanics of the game, since... that's all done. Now all that's left is to iron out all the bugs, which... there are a lot of, admittedly. But, thankfully I don't have almost have a degree in programming for nothing

 

At the moment, I am now finishing up all the Verdant Artes to make them as long, and flashy as possible. And to make sure people don't try and... well... turn off the animations for the Verdant Artes and Dual Techs, I made sure that whenever any variant of those unique moves are used, animations are turned on for that one attack. Mostly out of spite, but mostly because they're so cool and flashy and there was about... 48+ man-hours of animation and programming work that went into just ONE Verdant Arte, that I want people to see them. They're just that awesome, and special. You might say "Oh, well you don't have to program the animations, why are you doing it that way?" Because, Renegade Strike's slice down the screen was done by manipulating the battle scene via programming magic. I want to make this stuff look super cool, and super personal for each character. I don't want them to be like 10 frame animations that are just "Oh, look at all the 'not' effort that went into this attack, whoopie." I want them to be a spectacle - something that you all aren't used to seeing.

 

The moves that I am currently working on are:

 

• Aura Storm - Allan's Lucario's Verdant Arte
• Time Leaping Aura Storm, which is basically a one-hit KO version, that has Lucario stop time for .1 seconds to quickly move in close for a point-blank Aura Storm blast. I was going to call Instant Aura Storm, but this is more accurate to Allan's repertoire of abilities that he acquires in the game. Time Leap is required for this to work, as well as being transformed. (It's a long name, but I like super long, and stupid names like that, so sue me XD) This is actually really easy to make, since I just need to add some extra frames and a little bit of magic and its done.
• Temporal Bind - Hiro's Dialga's Verdant Arte
• Celestial Advent - Hiro's One-hit KO attack with Dialga being in it's Ascended form that allows for it and Hiro to use 100% of their power.
• Stardust Breaker - Vice's Eevee's One-hitter
• Soul Strike - Vice's Verdant Arte
• Storm Shuriken - Greninja's Verdant Arte
• Twilight Rift - Marissa's Umbreon's Verdant Arte
• Almagest - Marissa's Umbreon's One-hit KO Verdant Arte
• Verdant Elysium - Krista's Verdant Arte

I'm also now finished with the Frost Sanctuary, and I am actually quite pleased with it, to be honest. I've made use of many different puzzle mechanics, such as problem solving, navigation, and memorization, followed up with making use of certain characters' innate powers, to literally melting ice in order to progress. And since I am now finished with the Frost Sanctuary, I am now moving on to the Stone Sanctuary/Infinity Mine, which, by the way is this:

 

 

Get ready for some high-stakes Minecart riding, along with Pineco bombs that can freaking EXPLODE on impact and destroy certain cave entrances. This mine is actually very long, and is probably the longest Sanctuary in the game. It's relatively close to the Frost Sanctuary, and has a pretty cool set of bosses to fight in it, along with some really cool uses of certain Character powers thrown in it to help spice things up, and keep you on your toes.

 

Frost Sanctuary - Eclipse Horizon:

 

Edited January 15, 2017 by Dylanrockin

[DemICE]

Reminds me of the Mithril Mines of Lineage 2 .   Me likes!

 

I am not one for drawing, especially when not done with pencil + paper, so i am unfortunately avoiding the drawing contest

[Dylanrockin]

So, as you all know, Gen 7 is a great game, and we all love it. However, the one thing that has been getting my goat lately, are the emails that are sent to me and the comments that I have to read about is:

 "Is Gen 7 going to be in your game?!"
 "OMG you should include Gen 7 into your game, they are the best games!"
 "Your game isn't using Gen 7 Pokemon and abilities? Your game fucking sucks, forget this."
 "Please include Gen 7, and everything from it!"
 "Your game isn't using Gen 7 Pokemon, and therefor it is bad."

You can see where this is starting to get annoying and irritating, yeah? I get it, people like Generation 7, and I do as well. They were great games, even though I hate Lilie to no end and Hau being absolutely forgettable, in that... I keep forgetting that he exists between each encounter with him. And that the game's pacing is absolute shite.

But because of this negative response that my game has been receiving, for doing NOTHING wrong and not including Generation 7 for several reasons, such as: it wouldn't make any sense, it's too late, and simply put... I just don't have the time or want to include it. This has caused me to indirectly start hating Generation 7; just absolutely hate it, for all the wrong reasons, moreso than it deserves. This shouldn't bother me, except that Pokemon Fans believe that if a fan-game doesn't have the updated Pokemon, Abilities, etc, then it = a bad game.

I don't even know where to begin with that, other than just sounding like they don't know anything about game design and the tedium that it encompasses. Because good god would including it all be not only a waste of my time, but pointless. Also it simply doesn't make sense for anything Gen 7 to be in this region, so, there ya go.

Sorry for the rant, but I had to just get my opinion out there about this. To answer the question once and for all: No, there will NOT be Gen 7 in my game, region, or anywhere near where this game takes place. The only Gen 7 Pokemon is Dreyah's Alolan Ninetales, because at least for her backstory and where she's from, it at least makes sense uwu

[DemICE]

The internet community is cruel, you know that.  

Its good that I have developed a pretty thick skin for all the pitiful existenses that think being far away and invisible gives them the right to be rude and say things they never would face to face.

Don't pay attention to the spoiled kids (to be fair, some of the messages u got were more enthusiastic than rude or negative). Many of us appreciate a game for what it is.

[Dylanrockin]

On 1/17/2017 at 4:29 AM, DemICE said:

The internet community is cruel, you know that.  

Its good that I have developed a pretty thick skin for all the pitiful existenses that think being far away and invisible gives them the right to be rude and say things they never would face to face.

Don't pay attention to the spoiled kids (to be fair, some of the messages u got were more enthusiastic than rude or negative). Many of us appreciate a game for what it is.

 

Well, either way, it's still annoying when that's all you get from comments/messages every day. Especially when there are those who just say how incompetent of a developer I am for not including it.

 

So, I nearly lost all my data on my SSD, thanks to one of my storage drives being old and on its way out. Seriously, it caused my entire computer's boot time to go from 10 seconds to 10 minutes. The thing is though, my SSD is the only hard drive that has an operating system on it, and it is, sadly, Windows 10. So, what I don't understand is why one of my unused hard drives in my computer caused this to happen. I thought something was wrong with this particular drive, because whenever I put my computer in sleep mode, as of this week, it would disappear and wouldn't be visible until about I put it in sleep mode again and wake it back up. And it was only that one drive. It used to have Windows 7 on it, before I transferred it over to my awesome SSD, so maybe that was the reason?

Either way, I had to perform surgery on my computer and excise the "tumor" from it. I basically removed the hard drive completely from my computer, and since it didn't have any important information on it, anyways, I just put it away until I can get an external enclosure for it. But, even then, that drive is so old I don't even trust it as a storage medium :'D I might end up buying a 4 TB External Enclosure sometime down the line, but for now, I'm content with my current 1TB storage drive that I've had for awhile now.

 

It wouldn't be THAT big of a deal, since I have my game backed up on my flash drive, and another external enclosure that I just bought, so even if I did lose all my data due to what just happened, I still have regular backups every day on several different storage mediums.

[Masquerain]

I came back from the dead just to appreciate some snow maps.

 

 

Cheers for the new year y'all

[Dylanrockin]

It's been a bit since I last said anything, but rest assured I have been constantly working on my game. I've been busy lately with a musical that I'm involved in, for this interterm break, and it's been eating up a lot of my work time. However, I am nearly finished with Infinity Mine, and only need to set up the events and I am golden!

 

The only thing is... these... minecarts are some of the most annoying things I've ever had to event, in my entire life. So much so that it takes me at least 1 day to finish maybe half of a single room's worth of events.

 

 

This has to be the most annoying thing on the face of the planet.

 

 

[Dypatome]

Take as much time as you need man; after all, you can't rush progress. It'd just look sloppy if you blew through everything 

[Dylanrockin]

On 1/25/2017 at 0:19 PM, Dypatome said:

Take as much time as you need man; after all, you can't rush progress. It'd just look sloppy if you blew through everything 

 

Well, it has been awhile since I've gotten any serious eventing done, and I like to keep a steady pace, given the processes that I have to go through. Write > Map > event > script > event in-battle cutscenes (repeat). That process I feel is super slow on my own, and if I had infinite motivation and free-time, I probably would've been done with the game, by now XD

 

Also, loads of bug-fixes, which drive me nuts ;w;