Progress Update - May 2023
After months and months of silence, I'm back with an update on the game's progress. Prepare yourself, because I'm about to reveal a number of new information and changes to "Send!"
This progress report will be divided into two parts:
1. News
2. Development
1. News:
As you may have noticed from my recent posts, the game window appears to have a 16:9 aspect ratio. You may wonder how this is possible given that RPG Maker VX Ace only supports a small aspect ratio (544x416 and 640x480). I was tired of the old, small window size and felt the need to upgrade. Along with that, I realized that the size of the pictures, overlays, and effects I was putting on the maps was limiting my abilities in terms of mechanics and smooth gameplay. So I figured, "Why not switch things up and move the entire thing to another engine?" and now I'm working on "Send!" in RPG Maker MV. It was a little difficult at first for two reasons:
1. Because my sprites and maps are the same size, I wanted to keep the same 32x32 tile size due to MV originally supporting only 48x48 tiles. And also because the majority of the resources and tilesets in my collection are the same size, whereas MV has fewer resources on the web than VX Ace.
2. I had to decide whether to start from scratch in MV or convert the majority of the game to MV while redoing the most of the maps.
After a long brainstorm and procrastination, with a mix of inspiration to rewrite the entire game's prologue, I decided to start from scratch on MV. I managed to find a way to keep the same tile size in MV, wish wasn't hard enough for a beginner user of the engine.
Yes, it may be nerve-racking and disappointing that there will be no demo sooner than expected, but trust me when I say that the final product will be far better compared to what was expected.
As previously stated, I have begun reworking and rewriting the prologue, which contains the story introduction and the game's beginning. While doing so, I learned to be much more organized in my work and resolved to improve my game planning for the remainder of the game. The game's aesthetic and each chapter's concept are now finalized, and you can rest assured that it will not disappoint.
Now I'd like to talk a little bit about the demo. Unfortunately, "Send!" will not have a "proper" demo. I'm thinking about what would be best for "Send!" and its release/s. Regarding this subject, I've decided to write a proper post in the near future in which I will finally announce "Send!"'s release schedule, plans, and so on.
2. Development:
Let's get started on the actual game's development. It's far too early to say that development is advanced, but the game has finally progressed from "the early state of development" (yes…after 3 years…you heard that right). Right now, I'm concentrating my efforts on the plot and story, as well as the maps. It's far more convenient for me to actually write the story while I "write" the game's environment and world. That being said, a little programming has been done up to this point.
The introduction is nearly finished. It mostly just needs a few touches, fixes, and glances after I finish writing the first chapter and maps, at which point I can finally devote my full attention and concentration to the game's programming. Yes, I've begun work on the first chapter of the game, and as I previously stated, not programming, but writing and designing the actual chapter before moving on to programming and finalizing it with bug fixes and overall final touches.
In terms of programming, I was able to complete some of the game's basic menus. I chose to keep it simple, polished, and tidy so that the player has a pleasant experience with the game menus.
As I previously stated regarding the game's aesthetics, each individual chapter will have its own aesthetic. The first chapter's concept and aesthetics have been finalized. Here are some chapter one previews to whet your appetite. As you can see, chapter one is mostly about the forest/cottage core, moss core, and a few touches of goth. For this chapter, I was heavily inspired by various images and artists, and I hope you enjoy it!
I also worked with the game's soundtrack. Due to the lack of a helping hand, I've decided to try my hand at learning another skill. This isn't particularly important for this progress update, but I wanted to include it.~
This concludes another "Send!" progress update. There's a lot more to unpack here, but first I need to finalize some plans. I hope the changes do not disappoint you and that you enjoy them.
Thank you so much for your support! See you in the next update post!
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Thank you so much for your support!
