Hi all! My name's Ender, and I'm a game developer. This blog's a development blog on the Ryophi Species Mod for Starbound - I'm using it to document my work and spread the word!
You can find more information about the mod, as well as download it, in the steam link provided on this blog! I hope y'all enjoy snakes, because this blog has a lotta them!
It's taken me WAY longer than it should have to figure out how to implement new, self-coded weapon abilities into the game- But! I've finally found a patch file that allows me to do so!
The ability is based somewhat off of the code for "Rising Slash" in the vanilla game, but with a bunch of push forwards, and a set of three slashes instead, to better demonstrate spiralling forwards!
Now that I know HOW to implement these weapon abilities I can get past that blocker and actually implement others, if I want to! May be a while before then, though-
(PS: Sorry for the youtube link - There was some sorta issue trying to upload this video directly to tumblr? Really irritating, but youtube was the workaround to it-)
The goal I've been going for with Ryophi furniture and decorations is to really touch in on their somewhat discordant, "Interested in everything" nature, such that the furniture can reflect different species' styles and arts- From Hylotl's artsy nature, the natural furniture of the Florans, the Medieval arts from the Glitch and so on!
I'm gonna have several different sets of objects that have different mixtures of those cultures, but hopefully still can invite a little bit of chaos into the Ryophi's settlements and homes!
This'll also be my opportunity to make a lot more paintings and artworks for the game, because it felt like that was particularly lacking, lol!
I'm gonna be making a bit more progress on the mod over on my twitch chat, with a friend who's also modding (For stardew valley, a personal project of his!)
Finally! It took a few months of working on and off (I don't do this all the time, unfortunately), but I have made a good dent into the Armor Tiers for Ryophi!
This one's Tier Two, the set made out of Tungsten- Tier One was already complete before I made this blog, but the Iron set is in the mod, too!
Designing armor for a large tail, on a snake-like body is REAL hard- Requiring a fair number of straps to keep it attached, but I think it's still really fun to make!
The spriting, however, is AGONY- Agony I am willing to endure-
NOTE: I always use the ""Female"" model for designing the armors, because "Female" isn't actually... "Female" in the game- I might explain how the Gender options in the Species mod actually work... sometime-
But! The changes are now updated on Steam, so have fun with it!
You'd think the hardest thing to draw sprites for in this game is the torsos-
After all, like, it's the most content, right? The characters have a lotta torso and you gotta draw over it for the armor and such-
Not so! The torso's spritesheets are actually quite simple, as there are only 5 or so states the torso could be in- Idle, walking, swimming, jumping/falling, and crouched.
It's the fucking ARMS that are hard to sprite- Because they have 35 individual frames that are used for their animation.
and THAT can get tiresome, to stare at hands you've already drawn for a species and keep drawing the same thing but at slightly different angles-
It's all good for the smoothness of the animations, but from an artist's perspective it can feel a little monotonous-
You'd think the hardest thing to draw sprites for in this game is the torsos-
After all, like, it's the most content, right? The characters have a lotta torso and you gotta draw over it for the armor and such-
Not so! The torso's spritesheets are actually quite simple, as there are only 5 or so states the torso could be in- Idle, walking, swimming, jumping/falling, and crouched.
It's the fucking ARMS that are hard to sprite- Because they have 35 individual frames that are used for their animation.
and THAT can get tiresome, to stare at hands you've already drawn for a species and keep drawing the same thing but at slightly different angles-
It's all good for the smoothness of the animations, but from an artist's perspective it can feel a little monotonous-
You'd think the hardest thing to draw sprites for in this game is the torsos-
After all, like, it's the most content, right? The characters have a lotta torso and you gotta draw over it for the armor and such-
Not so! The torso's spritesheets are actually quite simple, as there are only 5 or so states the torso could be in- Idle, walking, swimming, jumping/falling, and crouched.
It's the fucking ARMS that are hard to sprite- Because they have 35 individual frames that are used for their animation.
and THAT can get tiresome, to stare at hands you've already drawn for a species and keep drawing the same thing but at slightly different angles-
It's all good for the smoothness of the animations, but from an artist's perspective it can feel a little monotonous-
For those who can't read the Blog Description (I hope it's working, but if it isn't)- My name's Ender! I'm a game developer, who works independently on my own passion projects when I can, and currently on the search for more stable work besides my part-time job.
And this- Is the blog that's going to document my development journey while making a species mod for Starbound!
I've already made a lot of progress on the creatures, but, it's come to my attention that I need to get the word out on these little creatures- And moreover, get some feedback and interaction from the entire community on it!
I'm hopeful that one day, this mod might be as great as some of the other species mods I've seen out there- With fully-fleshed-out concepts of the Ryophi and their place in the universe, furniture, and other little, fun details!
Also, to share a bit of information about these snake-creatures, I added a bit of info on them, below the Keep Reading line!
The Ryophi are a species of snake-like creatures with humanoid upper torsos. From a biological perspective, they are capable of breathing in thermal energy, exhaling air much colder than before, through the gaps in their scales. They are, on average, twice the length of a human, but stand approximately as tall. Humidity is a minor danger to these species, having originated from a very hot, dry planet. In the past, Ryophi used to get hydration from processing liquid methane that naturally occurred on their planet, until their introduction to the intergalactic civilization beyond the borders of their planet, where- With the introduction of water- They found a much easier way to sustain their hydration, though still retain the ability to process gas.
Historical records of the Ryophi show that, a century or so before the creation of space-age technology and their introduction into the greater galaxies, they had suffered a war amongst themselves, created by a biological divide- Some Ryophi were born with fur, and others with scales, and eventually, a leader among the furred Ryophi spurred the ebbs of war, and created a terraforming device that turned a portion of their home planet into a winter wasteland, where the furred Ryophi congregated. Despite the tensions of war, however, Ryophi came to care for one another too much to let such a divide prevent unity among their people, and the war was soon called off.
The Ryophi treasure many things that some other species may take for granted- From water, to art, to little friendships. They are known to be keen on learning everything they can, whether about culture, skills, or knowledge of the world.
