Windows Verbal Void - RPG / BEAT EM' UP


Hey, it has been some time!

Welcome back to another #screenshotsaturday for June 2021!

This week I’m proud to show off one of the new cave systems in the game, Route 13. This is one of the main cave systems that will connect you to other parts of the islands… and the world below. The locals like to call it the “Caves of life”, in reference to how plants can grow in the low light of the caves, without any help. Why this happens, no one really knows. But sometimes nature is like that.

These caves will be accessible from the start, and therefore you will encounter simple low-level enemies here, Sadness-Slimes and Hate-Trolls. Just a nice easy underground highway with a few puzzles to keep it interesting.

Still needs a few more levels here, before this cave system is completed, but in time hey!
NOW!

I know I’ve been pretty quiet these last few months, once again it’s just good old UNI getting in the way. But I’ve now almost finished my degree, so I’m going to have a lot more time to work on the game and put out updates!
Well until next time!

Bye-bye!

Bradley​
 


Hey there again!

Back for another update! Well, a lot of work has gone on behind the scenes this week. Cleaning code, moving files, etc. But 2 major updates are in projects!

Firstly, there now is a new weather system, this will spawn different weather patterns based on the hour. The weather that can spawn is: Light snow, Heavy Snow and Snowstorms. These storms are brought to life, with the pallet swap shader and a bunch of environmental particle effects. Honestly, I think this was the final element missing from the game’s atmosphere and location. Adding this really does make it feel like your up near the arctic. It also has gameplay relevance, a storms thunder can affect your player mentally based on how loud it is, so getting indoors is a good idea.

Next and still in progress, is a major update to the player sprites, this has been in the works for some time. The project is now at a stage where I can do this update and match them better with the art style. I’ll show more of this next week!

But yeah, that’s it for now!

Thanks for reading.

Bradley
 


Welcome to another Sunday update!

This has been one of the most productive weeks in the history of the project! A lot to talk about this week. Once again for anyone reading, thanks for following along and supporting the project!

Firstly! The new character designs are in! This has been in the works for some time, with the original redesigns being created as far back as 2019. But the time is right now to add them. So far over half of all 120 player sprites have been converted to the new designs, the rest will be done in the following weeks.

So why new designs? Well, the old designs looked outdated, being some of the first assets I created back in mid-2018. For this reason, they needed a refresh to match the new art style. I was putting it off for a while, just because of the amount of work that would be required to do this style change. The new designs themselves, are designed to be more realistic, expressive and help portray the character's personality better. So yet one step closer to getting a early access build out!

Second! The new “notes” item. As I create these levels, I kept feeling like I was missing a way to tell smaller stories that have no connection to the main quest or side quests. Therefore I have added a new item called “notes”. These notes will be an item a player can pick up and read to get more info on the world. If I note has a connection to the main storyline. Then the player will add a new diary entry to go along with it (that way you can refer to it in a conversation battle).

I did just consider when you find a note. It just gets added to your diary, but I decided against this as it would just bog down the diary with useless information. But having it as a separate item, players can sell the notes to get money.

This reminds me, need to add that selling system lol (in time!)

Anyway, until next week!

Bradley
 


Hey once again!
This week has been a bit of a slower week for me. A lot going on in personal life and some other behind-the-scenes stuff in the game.

The focus this week was completing the shopping mechanic. In finishing this, all items and item management scripts and mechanics will be completed. Now the buying part of the shop was already done, players could walk into the shop and purchase items and leave, SIMPLE!

But there was an issue, in the price of an item was hardcoded into the items database. This was an issue, as I wanted different vendors to sell items at different prices. Leading to players having to choose if they want to try their luck somewhere else or purchase the items from the current vendor. Therefore, in order to do this, I needed to do some rewrites to the code, nothing complex at all… but wasn’t fun lol.

Next, the task was to add the SELL option. I want players to be able to sell the items they find, as both a way to manage their inventory, but also to express the difficulty of communication. So, what do I mean by this?

In the first, game any time you interacted with the shopkeeper, you would have to do this in a conversation battle. The aim was to demonstrate the difficulty those with autism have with performing any minor taste that involves a social situation. I say it was very effective at it, but it was one of the main set pieces and mechanise in that game. Here, buying an item is no longer a focus in the game. When a player wants to buy an item, they do not want it to take them 5 mins to do. Therefore the system was streamlined, so they can be in and out within 30 seconds.

But I still felt like it needed something more to it. Therefore in the selling mechanic, players will have to bargain with the store owner over the items they are selling. Depending on how effective they are in the conversation battle, they will be able to get more for their items.

But that’s a job for next week lol
See ya next time!
 


Hey all!


Straight up sorry for being late this week! A lot has been going on in my personal life in the lead-up to my final semester of university. Therefore this post will be short, but with that out of the way, onto the update!

During this week, I realized that to finish the shop mechanic, I will need to redo the conversation system. So why does it need to be redone? Well in its current form it is a bit janky and extremely time-consuming for me to code a conversation battle. Therefore I want to rework a few of its systems to make them easier to use. The good news is once this rework is completed, the majority of the gameplays would be updated. All that would remain would be 1-finishing the shop mechanic and 2-adding different attacks to meltdown battles. But honestly, that’s stuff that can wait for once I start playtesting. As I will not know how to effetely modify those elements without player feedback.

Anyway, let's see how we go this week!

Bradley

See ya next time!
 

Hey everyone!


This week will be a much smaller Dev log. This week Uni is back, so time is more precious. That said I’ll keep working on the game! Currently, the focus is on upgrading the conversation battles.

This week, I did a lot of behind-the-scenes coding, to make it more user-friendly to work on. This will make it a lot easier to implement stuff in the coming weeks. Unfortunately, that means there is not a lot to show, at least right now.

That said I did implement a new mechanic, in the form of a timer. This timer is designed to put tension on the player and portray a realistic pause/patience of the person you are talking to. It’s unrealistic and not that fun if the player has unlimited time to respond to a question. But by putting them under pressure, they must think on the spot, and therefore they will make mistakes.

I hope this will increase the fun factor of the battles and prevent players from feeling bored.
Outside of that, I fixed the “body language” mechanic, so now then you play as Thales, once again all characters turn into just black outlines.

But yeah, that’s all for this week!
Bradley
 

Hey everyone!

A new Monday, A New Post! At this point is it really even #screenshotsaturday posts anymore, I think I’m more, late than on time lol.
So, what happened this week, well the inventory system is now COMPLETED! I decided to take a break from working on the conversation battles, to focus on finishing this mechanic, after I realized there were a few loose threads that needed wrapping up.

1- Added a new type of chest, Locked chests! Need to use lockpicks to unlock these chests, to get to the goodies inside.

2- Fixed all inventory sorting systems, so all items now display in the correct order

3- Added a new system, so chests can add armor and powerups.

4- Added a new system, that saves all open chests, this way when you leave a room… they don’t reset to being unopened. No more unlimited EXP bottles lol

5- Edited main menu, to accommodate new save system!​

So yeah, a few things this week!

I hope everyone has the best of health in the current lockdowns in Brisbane! It’s not exactly fun but we need to stay strong to beat this virus!

See ya all next week!
 


Hey all!

Well looks like we are now fully into August, the year is going fast hey? Scary! Well, #screenshotsaturday time!
Well, this week I wanted to focus on adding more content to one of my design pillars for this game. That is Every character should feel like an individual, and the gameplay, graphics, and sound should reflect that.

For some time now, Thales has been the focus with his mechanics designed to represent his autism. When playing at Thales all other characters are nothing but black outlines (so you can’t tell body language). Sound and audio are amplified and even the smallest sounds can affect him mentally. And finally, you have a much harder time in conversation battles. But you can find and collect special items in the game world, that most people wouldn’t notice.

So, what would I do for our other two heroes?

Well for Aislin she is a super energetic character and a great communicator. Very active and a fun person to be around, that said she has mild peripheral vision loss, leading to her being a bit clumsy at times, and has a hard time getting around at night when it is pitch black aka “night blindness”.

Finally, Hotaru, Given the island's native language is English, being a recent immigrant from Japan. She has some difficulty connecting with the people of the islands. She feels cut off from them, unable to communicate ‘effectively’. That said she knows enough English to get around and through the adventure, she becomes more fluent. Her greatest skills are maturity, being the oldest of our group, and being the most rational. While it’s still fine, she has the weakest hearing out of the rest of the cast, leading to some distance sounds becoming lost on her.

So why do this, well we all have stories, we are all different. Our bodies are our vessels to see the world. So, with this, we learn how these characters see the world.

Outside of that, the video shows a few bug fixes and new sprites I have also done this week

Well until next week!
 

Heya again!

Welcome back to another #sceenshotsaturday update!

Well outside of game development, it’s week 4 now in uni, so the work is starting to ramp up. Given that, time is once again becoming limited. So this week I decided to finish off the atari mini-games.

This final mini-game is called ‘helicopter’. It’s a simple game, you’re a fire fighting helicopter that needs to put out fires around a city, the longer you take, the faster they spread! I say the game works pretty well, might need to add a timer down the line. But it’s a good feeling completing another aspect of the game.

But yeah, small update this week, not a whole bunch to talk about, just going to keep chipping away at the game.

Brad
 

Hey all!

This week, I once again was pushed for time, uni do be hard at times. But I did get a little work done on the game this week.

This week, I’ve developed new preview Mega Attack sprites. These sprites will be used in the menu selection for when a player chooses a new mega attack. I wanted these sprites to be dynamic and look cool, should sell the POWER of each attack.

I say they do a pretty good job!

Well until next week!

Bradley
 

Hey all!

This week I present to you a new MEGA attack.

This new attack is called “Power of Love”, a bit cheesy but that’s sort of the point. In this new attack, you can throw a box of love and passion at your enemies. It will deal double damage for hate monsters as well.

It’s in the uni, I hope I can get back to doing more work soon!
 

Hey all!

Well, once again I am back from the dead! Originally it was my ambition to not drop posting updates, but the final semester of university proved to be very difficult. The good news is I’m all done. Yep, finished university and therefore I don’t have to deal with the time sink it generated. So expect updates to get more frequent and some new video content to come out in the coming months.

Anyway! So this week, I first want to thank everyone that came to GO423. I had a blast and got some great playtesting feedback. With this new feedback, I will use it to refine the game mechanics, starting with Meltdown battles. Firstly, I have edited how the Bullet-time slow-motion system works when you finish off the final enemy. Before many felt that the game was lagging, because of the sudden jump into that slower speed. Now it gradually slows down and speeds up. leading to it is less noticeable, but has the same effect. Next, I’ve added cinematic framing to the final attack. These black lines help to reinforce the final hit to the enemy, but also play into the cartoony style of the battles.

So that’s what I’ve done this week, see you all next week!
 

This week the focus was on balancing the game’s character statistics and adding locked Trap Doors.

Currently, in the game, there were two-player statistics that were unused, these being agility and accuracy. Throughout the development of the game, no mechanics ever got tied to them or mechanics that once did have been scrapped. Therefore it’s time to convert these over to new mechanics. The first is a vision stat, this determines what each character’s vision would be. Meaning a low vision score means they can’t see the world very well. This can also be tied into the headgear, with some helmets blocking vision. The replacement for the other statistic, I’m still working out…

As for the trapped doors, the lock mechanic is quickly becoming a great tool to add some much-needed pacing. With the addition of lock trap doors, I have yet another new tool when designing a level. With it being a tool, it will only come into its own, once more levels get built.

But yeah, that’s it for this week!
 
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Hey there!

Didn’t I already do this yesterday? Wait it’s been a week! Time is really flying, it’s December!
Not long now until 2022! In the new year, I have some new plans in the mix, so stay tuned for that.

So what development got done this week? Well, the focus has been on finishing off the new character art. A while ago I re-did the majority of the character sprite designs and animation. While I converted over 50+ images, there were still a few I decided to leave for another time. It was getting pretty tedious.

Now a few months later, I thought it was time to finally get them all finished. The major this week was the character text box profile pics. I briefly redid these in 2019, but the quality doesn’t meet my current standards. These new portraits are based on the fantastic concept art by crimzzzn. I think they communicate the character’s personality way more effectively than the old art, so overall very happy with the results.

But yeah, that was the main task this week!
 

Hey there!

Haven’t posted for a few weeks, as I wanted to focus on a re-work of the AI system. I was attempting to finalize and fix up the final few bugs in the Enemy AI. But with every bug I fixed, another 5 would pop up (classic). Given this, I decided to just re-code the AI from scratch to be more modular and simple to use. Sometimes it’s just not worth fixing code if a redo would end in a better outcome.

After 2 weeks, the new AI is has a variety of advancements over the previous iteration. These include:
  • Improved movement
  • Improved Stats
  • Improved Attack Pattens
  • Improved Defense
  • Improved Code Readability

Another benefit of this new system is it will allow new enemies to be added with relative ease. Less work for me means more enemies and getting the game done sooner!

So yeah, with that the Meltdown battles are finished (outside of more enemy types)
The focus now is on fixing the Conversation Battles.

Bradley
 

Hey there!

This week, work began on the final revamp to the core mechanics! A redo of the Conversation battle and its systems.
Why does it need a Revamp? simply the issue has to do with time/content. With the current implementation of the Conversation Battles. Adding new interactions is super difficult, a lot of it has to be inputted but hand for every single response. Therefore it takes a lot of TIME to even get one battle working. Simply won’t be viable to create a battle for every single character.

This new system will focus on automation. The more systems that can become automated the better.
Another factor for the revamp is engagement. In its current incarnation… it’s a bit dull, there is no excitement or ‘fun’ factor in the moment-to-moment gameplay. So, this revamp will try to rectify this by playing into the battle concept. Some ideas are:

  • Shields - Player must deploy ‘Shields’ to block negative comments or emotions from other people.
  • Mini-Games - Simple mini-games that the player need to quickly do, to keep up with the battle
  • Board Meter - A meter that measures how bored the participants in the conversation are.

But yes, some great ideas… I can’t wait to get in there and get this system done!
 
Introducing...

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The new name for An Aspie Life: Beginnings!

Why the rename? Here are a few reasons:

Firstly, Verbal Void has not been a smooth project to develop. I originally titled the game An Aspie Life: Beginnings in its first phase back in 2018 when it was planned to be a free DLC for the original Aspie Life. Since that, it’s been 5 years and a lot has changed in terms of the project relating to its story, characters, gameplay, and overall message.​
Secondly, in recent years, questions have been raised around the usage of the term Aspie in the neurodiverse community and new discussions have been formed. I fully support the reasons behind this and therefore feel it is the correct approach to make sure the game name reflects the current consensus of the community by removing this from the title. The original game An Aspie Life will continue to use its current title as it is a time capsule of my thoughts and feelings as a young neurodiverse individual at the time. With the rename, they will still be part of the same series that I am calling Neuro Adventures.​
Finally, on a more personal note, I didn’t think the name An Aspie Life: Beginnings was all that good. I know that quite often people mistake it for the original and it was weirdly long. So I have decided Verbal Void is short and sweet, complimenting the game’s theme of communication and how difficult it can be.​

I hope you all like the new name, let me know what you think!
 
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