The city is so far away...

Happy Mountains is a game about a cast of seven characters and the events following the death of one of them. Currently working on a demo.

[happymountains-game]

In case you were wondering, I’m still working on that side project. I’m almost sure it won’t be completed in time for the jam (I’ve had the flu for two weeks now and I need to catch up to school), but I’m trying my best.

What still needs to be done:

2 whole illustrations, plus finish 2 other ones;

Title screen;

Icons (almost complete);

Edit a few documents;

Event the last 2 endings;

Make another sprite plus additional gameplay for the true ending;

Add sounds effects + music (wish I had looked for a composer /:)

I’ve tried dimming down the scope, but this is the bare necessities to finish the game. Even if I won’t be able to complete it in time, I’ll try to finish it as soon as possible: I really want to go back to working on Happy Mountains. Btw, do you think the font is hard to read?

[happymountains-game]

im laughing because i just made a post for my pixel horror jam game and ive been looking thru the tag and saw that you have something with red riding hood too! and it looks soo good. very proffesional. i wont be finishing mine either but ill upload the demo to the jam :D you should totally keep going

Holy hell this is really funny because I saw this just after commenting your post so now our games are forever linked. Even though my game is getting more and more distant from the fairytale of Red Riding Hood, it is still inspired by the concept of “wolves” and “fake wolves” (like, there’s this theory that the wolf actually wants to save Red from her family and I find it really interesting, in fact I think I will probably make more than one game about the subject). Anyhow, I think I died when you said my game looks good and very professional because I actually want to make art professionally, so for me this is a huuuge compliment!! And I really appreciate your kind message, it made my day! If you feel like talking about our games, feel free to hit me up with a PM (or dont, I won’t hold a grudge!) （＾ｖ＾）Your game looks really good as well, so good luck with it!

[happymountains-game]

I’m still working on Happy Mountains, but progress is going slow. In the meanwhile, here’s a screen from a side project I’m working on. It’s a short horror game, about 40% complete, inspired by Little Red Riding Hood. Technically, it’s supposed to be an entry for the Pixel Horror Jam, but I don’t know if I’ll get it done in time (I’m also unsure whether I can still enter). Thank you all for still following me, even though I’m very inconsistent with updates. I really appreciate it

[happymountains-game]

Here’s a sneak peek of something I’m working on! Meet Mrs. Meyer (yes, the pic has a typo), the owner of the B&B. She’s a stern, middle-aged widow who dislikes children and teens. Looking forward to showing you all the other characters! (Please click for better quality!)

[happymountains-game]

the hiatus is over

Actually, the hiatus ended weeks ago, but school had me too busy to work on anything significant :/ I’ll be leaving soon for holidays, but I’ll still have time to work on the game!

These past weeks I’ve been replanning the game since poor planning is the reason development has been so slow. It’s going well! I might be able to insert a second route in the game ^^ And there will be more gameplay! yay

On a different note, apparently my desktop shows colors desaturated, so the screens that you’ve seen until now are actually more saturated than intended. I have found a way around it though! Eventually, I’ll fix the graphics ^^

I’ve been thinking that maybe I should post more concept art and stuff like that. I’m afraid it’s not polished enough, but I don’t want fear to hold me back from being active in the community! So yeah, stay tuned for some upcoming WIPS ^^

[happymountains-game]

I have just realized that I’m going to a cold place… With my classmates… Five days… In a hotel… You guys this is literally the plot of the game if I’m not back in one week tell my cats I love them

[happymountains-game]

Small hatius

From the 23rd to the 27th I’ll be abroad and then I’ll have to get back on track with school and plan my birthday party. I’ve also been unable to work on the game since the last update. This means that new content will come by the end of April unless something comes up. It won’t probably be anything big either since I’m focusing on polishing the plot. Please, be patient and keep in mind that this project isn’t dead, just on a small break. Hopefully, this vacation will allow me to feel better and finally get done what’s been slowing down the development.

As always, thanks for your support!

[happymountains-game]

I’ve fully programmed a new puzzle inspired by Zelda’s Lost Woods’ maze. By listening carefully to the sounds you can hear, you’ll have to make it through the woods to reach ???. I have also:

Remade Susy’s sprite, which is now way more similar to her portrait;

Programmed every cutscene in the First Day (yay!)

Fixed the first puzzle, which is now fully working.

Two new puzzles are also on the way.

I’ve been polishing the game plot and, until it is done, I won’t go on programming cutscenes and such. However, I’ll still work on puzzles and graphics.

I’ll post some screens in a few days. As always, thanks for your support!

[happymountains-game]

Hey! I was really interested in how you got the phone chat to work! I wanted to do something like that in my game, but I wasn't really sure how to... Would you mind explaining it? ^-^

I’m glad you found it interesting!

The first thing I did was setting up the way the text would be displayed. To do so, I simply used the “Show text” command.

By using Yanfly’s Message System I made the names bold (\fb) and colored them by using Ace’s default codes (\C[number of the color]text\C[0]). I used spaces to align the text it where I wanted it to be, and then drew the parallax accordingly. I then drew a picture on which the text would be displayed.

At this point a made a map for the cutscenes and set up the parallax. Then, I created an event set on parallel process to show the lights effects.

For the cutscene itself, I made an event set to “autorun” with these settings:

Let me translate for you. For the first message, here’s what I did:

Show picture: 1 (the one for the message)

Reproduce SE: ‘Cursor2′, 80, 60 (it sounds like a “new message” sound)

Show text

Then, for the following text, I repeated the following block of commands and only changed the text displayed:

Erase picture: 1 (the message disappears so that another one can pop up on the screen)

Wait: 15 frame (this is necessary so that the commands don’t “clash” together)

Show picture: 1

Reproduce SE: ‘Cursor2′, 80, 60

Show text

And that’s it. It’s actually pretty simple, but it took me months to figure it out. I hope everything is clear, if you have any more questions feel free to ask.

[happymountains-game]

Good news! (yay, an update)

I just love how I get things done the most when I feel like it’s time to update this blog. I’m still not working on this project like I used before, mostly because I’m busy with school and recovery, but also because I’ve hit a point where I need to do what I dread the most: writing. It’s not that I don’t like it, but knowing what other people will look at it makes me incredibly self-conscious, so I have to work in short chunks to avoid overwelming myself.

Anyhow:

I’ve finished the “chat cutscene”! It is something that I’ve been working on since August because I couldn’t figure out how to make it work the way I wanted it to. Now I’m finally satisfied with the outcome. It doesn’t require as many picture as the messages that have to be displayed and, in case I decide to change something, it won’t be too much of an assle to do so. This cutscene was one of the biggest obstacles I had to outcome in order to finish the demo.

Now, why don’t you take a look at my clever writing skills and smart characters?

Outstanding, isn’t it? Having completed this cutscene means that half on the intro is almost complete. Hopefully my friend Next will find time to implement the second half, which doesn’t require any special graphic.

On a side note, I’ve been fixing the first day puzzle. It needs to be made harder, but apart from that it’s fully completed.

What I need to focus on right now are the sprites. I still have to do 3 for the demo and I’ll take me a while to finish them. Then I’ll have to go back to the other ones and add basic shadows. Hopefully my friend Next will have finished implementing the other cutscenes by then.

This blog is close to hitting the 50 followers mark. It makes me really happy to see so many people being interested in this small project of mine. Thank you all for you support!

[happymountains-game]

I expected to get nothing done by February, but I was wrong!

Tileset is 80% complete. It’s missing two floors, one wall, kitchen special tiles, stairs (the ones in the screenshot are outdated) and doors;

4 characters sprites out of 8 have been made;

Made faceset mockup for 3 out of 8 characters.

Made a mockup for a logo I may use in the future? (It’s the one from my latest shitposting post)

The First Day cutscenes have been proofreaded and are currently being implemented by my friend Next;

 I’ll be taking a break for a while, mostly to work on my mental health. Once the dialogues have been programmed I’ll resume development.

As always, thanks for your support!

Edit: I've tried to make the post readble from mobile, let me know if it still has any problem ^^

[happymountains-game]

So, I was organizing some files when I found an old screenshot. It is pretty outdated, but it showcases that time when I thought “Hey, you know what would be cool? Zooming in the bedrooms!” and tried to use a script to do so.

These were the results:

[happymountains-game]

This post is strangely “popular” and I just

GIANTS.PNG

[happymountains-game]

So, I was organizing some files when I found an old screenshot. It is pretty outdated, but it showcases that time when I thought “Hey, you know what would be cool? Zooming in the bedrooms!” and tried to use a script to do so.

These were the results:

[happymountains-game]

I wanted to do a more consistent blog update at the end of the month, but it seems like my life will be an endless cycle of studying, reading and taking online classes untill the end of the month.

So, here’s what I’ve done this week:

Kept working on the graphics. I’m finally satisfied with the palette and the style I’m going for, but there’s still a bunch of stuff I need to figure out, like how I want the sprites and the puzzles to look like.

I’ve been writing, writing and writing! It’s what I struggle the most with, but I think I’m finally starting to get the hang of it.There’s still much work left, since I’m revising the whole plot, tho. /:

I’ve been organizing some stuff to make mork much cleaner and simpler. It’s boring, but pays off. 

I am aware it is not much, but I have lots of personal stuff going on and I barely get any time to work on this project. Hopefully I’ll be able to showcase more stuff next month. Untill then, thanks for your support!

[happymountains-game]

Making Characters

Conceptualizing: ENDLESS FUN.

Designing: Wheeeeeeee!

Spriting: Suffering. Endless pain.

Busts: I don't know. I'm still suffering at spriting.

CGs: I can't imagine. I'm still stuck at spriting.

[happymountains-game]

Stuff I’ve done this month:

Written all thr cutscenes for the first day;

Started rewriting the plot according to our proofreader’s feedback;

Started re-making all the graphics because I’ve improved and feel like the game could look much better;

Made graphic’s mockup for first puzzle;

Almost finished programming first puzzle;

Re-began eventing the first day so the flow of the plot is much better and all the cutscenes won’t annoy the player (you can skip the first cutscene, watch one, do the puzzle, brief dialogue, talk if you want to people while you explore, finish the day when you feel like it. Before, it was talk with people if you want, do a puzzle and then watch like 3 long cutscenes. Way better, isn’t it?)

Started working on a costum menu, but I may switch to a simpler, pre-scripted one;

Implemented a way to write in the save files when and where you were when you saved (I’d also like to implement a journal to keep track of the player actions, but we’ll see wether it is actually necessary in the end);

Made one new sprite, but since I’m redoing the graphics I’ll update the sprites too. They were ugly anyway;

Made an animated door! Also, redid the bookshelfs three times.

My top priority right now is working on realising a demo showcasing the first two days of gameplay (the ones before the game begins splitting in routes).

Life’s being though and while working on this game I’m also trying to better my mental health and be happier. There’s a lot of stuff going on right now, but as you can see I have not stopped working on this project. Hopefully this month I’ll be able to begin wrapping up the first day. In the mean while, stay well folks!

[sadplantgame-devblog]

Extra Credits: Your first project shouldn’t be too ambitious, and it shouldn’t take you more than a month to complete

Me: