D
danzibr
Guest
I've been working on the above game for quite some time now. Couple years (huge hiatus in the middle, plus I don't have a lot of free time). I'm quite certain I'm going to give it up permanently, but hey, ya never know. This is only the third game I ever started (one using a guide from Heartbeast, another partially using a guide from Heartbeast, and this one I did from scratch).
It was my desire to make an RPG with a lot of party composition options. Reminiscent of the original Final Fantasy, or the more recent Artifact Adventure, or Icewind Dale, etc. So shoot, I got to it.
Which was my first mistake. I essentially started my game with no plan. I should've planned out sooooooo much more before I did any programming or art. I just started making classes, 10 in fact. I had almost no plot, very nebulous battle mechanics, didn't know how level ups were going to work, equipped weapons and armor, stats, status effects, elemental damage, inventory, etc.
Also, my art was a mess. I wish I would've used a palette. More specifically, gotten a color palette, then make a bit darker and a bit lighter versions. I did a bit of spriting per night, first made all the classes, then a bunch of tiles, then like a monster per night. But what I did was make a few of new colors pretty much every time I made a sprite. As a result, I have a *ton* of colors that are very similar, and there's little cohesion. (Actually, for a game with multiple distinct areas, like Chrono Trigger or something, one palette per zone would be appropriate.)
In line with the lack of planning, I should've planned my coding more thoroughly. I have one object called Controller, which has almost all of the Draw GUI coding, but not all of it. Some of my menus are spread out over several rooms, some aren't. I'm getting some issues with Step Events, should've split certain things into Beginning Step Event (like getting inputs and collision checking), Step Event (bulk of the code), End Step Event (actual movement). Even then, I'm still not certain about this. A lot of this is due to my lack of experience; I figured things out as I went, and some parts of my code became much more streamlined.
And hoo boy, my maps are a mess. I should've made drafts of those. My world map is so huge GM:S has a difficult time compiling it. It's hella empty. I was just like hmm let's make a couple continents, one'll be mostly desert, one kinda icy, let's slap an island in the middle of the ocean here. And the building interiors are a bit sloppy.
A lot of this is salvageable, but... a real big issue, my game lacks focus. I have a bunch of neat ideas I want to implement, but it all feels fragmented. Lots of party combinations, each class has primary and secondary focuses, have passives, have activity abilities (which I haven't coded yet), they can acquire magic (not coded), use kits (not coded). There's a lot of redundancy. And right, the focus, I don't know where I wantn to take it. Just beat some temples, unlock magic, beat the big bad guy. Also in this paragraph I can say my game lacks innovation. There's really nothing new or exciting. On the one hand, more of the same can be okay, but on the other hand, the more I think about it, it's just kinda meh.
Anyway. I'll gladly take feedback, but I really came here to say... plan plan plan, and I suggest using a palette.