Monday, October 15, 2012

Business as usual.

For those of you who are wondering, the game is still in development. Though, plans have changed quite a bit along the way.

Initially, the game was going to have adventure game elements, and a world map. However I've since decided to strip things down and go with a metroidvania setup once again. The switch from being an adventure game is mostly due to my reluctance to have so much dialog in the game, and the added burden of translation that would come with it. That, and I was starting to feel as though much of the story and quests would be better suited to a full action RPG, and a different gameplay style.

So, I've basically set aside some of content that I've already created (some tilesets, enemies, NPCs, other graphics), to be used in a future game, and shifted my focus a bit.

So, where does that put the current game? Well,  at this point it's going to be a little closer to Kurovadis, albeit with more content. Unlike Kurovadis, which at it's core isn't actually a metroidvania, my goal this time around is to make everything feel much more interconnected and non-linear. Since there are more areas, weapons, and moves, I can fill what would have otherwise just been empty space with secondary goals, giving the player a bit more incentive to explore. Though I still want to retain the feeling of playing through a coherent "stage", even if it's more fragmented. I'm not a fan of having too many flat planes with enemies scattered about at random.

That's about it, really. When will a demo be out? No idea, still feels a little far away. Though I want to be completely finished before the next two months are over. (And this time, I don't plan on taking a break afterwards. You're up next, Kurovadis 2)

Back to work...

42 comments:

  1. Kurovaids Double is going to be a thing then? Awesomeness. ^-^

    The adventureness sounded cool to me, but you probly know best what works for your own game. Hope the change works well!

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  2. A lot of people are going to love this news. Can't wait for the final results. Keep up the great work.

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  3. No break? Not even for the late December festivities?

    ...That's kind of not sane behavior, you know.

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    1. Nah, the problem was that the first break I took after Kurovadis was too long. If I had been working as hard on the game as I could have been, it'd be done already.

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    2. Relax, Kyrieru, your fans can wait while you pour yourself some victory Scotch and smoke a cigar. We'll wait patiently for your next game, then fucking buy it like it's the next Resident Evil, Gears of War, or Final Fantasy. We have faith that you'll produce a good game.

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  4. Damn man, you got the work ethics of a Japanese man in Chinatown. Keep up the good work

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  5. Were you planning on translating it all yourself? Because if it's only a few pages total, I bet some of us here could give you a hand. Though it should eventually get proofread by an actual Japanese person.

    Either way, adventure or Metroidvania, go for broke! Just don't burn out.

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    1. I was going to have a translator who has done visual novels translate it. Though, what I really need is a translator who is native Japanese, who could either proofread or do both. Which is part of why I don't want to deal with translation just yet, I need to find someone reliable.

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  6. あまり無理はなさらずに!
    健康第一です

    Please do not overdo it
    It is the health first!

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    1. ^What this guy said.

      Don't overwork yourself~

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    2. Forgive me, but this is a perfect example of why translation is a pain. I imagine the second part of that better translates to something like, "Consider your health first," or, "Make sure to take care of yourself," or even just, "Take care of yourself," rather than the probably literal but grammatically incorrect and nonsensical "It is the health first!"

      But... yes, do take care of yourself. First game was awesome and I'm looking forward to the next one.

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  7. A change of plan is better than no plan. A questions though, there were extra capsules beside Kuro when she woke. Can I assume that Kuro was actually to have clones/siblings before a change of plans?

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    1. Those are there in order to imply that there either are, or were others like Kuro. One of which will likely be the protagonist of the sequel. A lot of the world's background will be explained in the second game.

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    2. Do you think she'll look something like this?
      http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zsm-LTZ...Kuro+sketch+02.png

      Assume older sister. Older-generation, no beam tech just yet. Just my picturing ...

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  8. Good news, more metroidvanias or castleroids are always welcome.

    Oh, and have fun coding that up. :)

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  9. Ic , great news.

    See You next month , for a monthly update status.

    And two month++ later for , maybe a demo?

    Keep working Kyrieru~

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  10. Cool! Megamantroidvanias are always great. Also, since you're gonna go for Kurovadis 2, then maybe you could show us a pic of all 3 Kuro sisters together. I've been dying of curiosity of how they look.

    I'm also quite curious about the game's background. It would be great if you also explained the events of the first game.

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    1. Heh, for some reason I automatically see one as a blonde and the other having bright cyan hair...

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    2. That makes two of us. I imagine one of them will have very long hair(In contrast to Kuro's short hair) and the other will have twintails. And probably one will be bustier than Kuro and the other will be more flat-chested.

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  11. Whoa, Kurovadis 2 sounds sweet! :D

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  13. Gold status would be a sweet Christmas present. Then you could take a well deserved week off before delving back into Kuro's world on the 2nd. Won't get anything done with a New Year's Day hangover, anyway.

    But that's future tense, for now I'm just glad to hear you're prioritizing. Trying to force features that don't quite fit, or feel tedious to include would only wind up being detrimental.

    Oh, one last thing, any chance we might get another Graphical Update with the next post? Wouldn't mind glimpsing a new locale..and possibly an enemy or two.

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    1. You're hoping to much.....

      Wait patiently for another two weeks ,if that happen. Good

      If not , wait for another two week.
      By now , You should realize. Kyrieru is a monthly updater.

      So sit back , and come back another month.

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    2. I am well aware of Kyrieru's update frequency, as evidenced by my reply to another Anon in 'Stuff'.

      And my request is just that; no demanding context.

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  14. Regarding your reluctance to make dialogues in your game, have you thought of alternative ways of doing it?

    Short cutscenes perhaps? Instead of text in speech bubbles, have icons and glyphs that anyone should be able to figure out and have the npcs thoughts come out in movement and motion. Example: Jumping/stomping in anger, steam coming from head. Stuff like that?

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    1. Yeah, in fact I plan on doing that when I do a raising sim. However, for anything with a serious story or tone, I don't really think it's an option.

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  15. So this is a bit off-topic...
    But have you heard of the remake project of Metroid II, AM2R?
    http://metroid2remake.blogspot.com/

    Thought you'd be interested since it's a GameMaker game too, heh.
    Original music and what not as well.

    What made me think of it:
    I believe he couldn't figure out how to integrate gamepads either...
    There's some sort of program out there that binds controller buttons to keys, making you able to trick the game by assigning keys and then using the pad, but I forgot the name. But it's user-side, in either case.

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  16. Curious question: how do you not consider Kurovadis a MetroidVania game? It came off as a game with the same principled, slightly better controls than Castlevania, Metroid inspired level layout, just not as many upgrades as Metroid (since that would be a dick to build).

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  17. As long as there's quality H sprite animations

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  18. Quality over quantity. Take your time.

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    1. That being said, feel free to make blog posts more often. Most of us don't mind even some of the things one might consider less interesting, such as the programming aspects of things and debugging and such.

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    2. Heh, yea, I'd love to get some of that.
      ...and I wouldn't mind random ramblings at all xD Might even be a good way for him to get feedback.

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  19. I was wondering, what are your thoughts about the mentioned raising-sim? I mean, in the long term of course ^^

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  20. Dude, we should talk about a joint game. I was thinking a mix of : http://legendofkrystal.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=799

    and Xcom

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  21. Hey guys, I'm having abit of an issue playing Kurovadis. The game itself plays fine but whenever I try to get to the pause menu or a dialog box popsup for powerups the game freezes. I'm running windows7 which I'm guessing might be stuffing something up, I've searched in multiple places that mentioned Kurovadis and havn't been able to find anything.
    I'd love to play this game further than the roll powerup (Though being able to spend my skill points would be nice too) as what I have played so far I've really enjoyed and am glad I spent the $5 on this. So any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.

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    1. It's due to a problem some videocards have with a function of Game Maker that I use to do freeze-frames. I can easily mod it and remove it.

      Send me an email and I'll give you a link to a modded version.

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    2. Thanks Kyrieru, its all running fine now. I know I already said it in the email but just wanted to say it again. :)

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  22. I'm looking forward to it as long as I get raped after I die (≧◡≦)

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  23. I don't think this news will upset anyone. Kurovadis had such excellent balance and good controls that it felt like playing one of the Megaman games. You've proven beyond any doubt that you can do first-class platformers :)

    And Kurovadis 2? That's the icing on the cake! You'll definitely get my $5 or $10 or whatever you'll take for it!

    What I really liked was that you could get raped and live through it in Kurovadis. Suffering death/game over just to see it is always a bit of a turn-off in similar games. Though I think on my playthrough my character must have acquired a secret obsession with dragon rape (not that I'm complaining, that was hot, I hope there'll be dragons in part 2 again), she got knocked over at least twice by each one :D

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