Devlog 1: Movement and Preparation

Goal

The main goal for me this week was preparation and planning, as well as movement. Preparation and planning was focused on what mechanics I will need, creating the general story and finalising the order of the regions. Creation of the some assests and acquiring some others. Movement will be explained further below.

Movement

I am using the EightWayMovement script from practical 8 - 15. I do have some plans to modify this to include additional features I would like to have, though I haven't implemented any as of yet as I have decided most of those will be optional features if I have time. One of those features would be sprinting with limited stamina. I have a cinemachine follow camera set on the player so that the camera follows wherever the player goes.

Story

I have been working on coming up with a generalised flow for the story of this game. Having an idea of the setting has been important as it has a signifcant influence on the design of the world and the mechanics. Whilst I had the idea in my concept, it was not fleshed out enough.

Focusing primarily on the characters. I created a template for character traits to help me design them. This includes basic features to use for their sprites as well as some information that I can use to help form their personality. It also includes things such as equipment.

One struggle I have had with this was the creation of characters. Whilst making 1 or 2 compelling characters isn't that difficult, being a somewhat story drivern RPG means I want to have more characters than that. Those characters will be interactive and the aim was to have unique personalities for them. This includes NPCs that can give you advice on what to do as well as a possible addition of a shopkeep or healer. 

To overcome this struggle, I decided to outsource it to people I know that have been supporting me throughout my uni journey. This has gained me 10-11 character designs that I can potentially use in addition to the ones I already have. And to continue on that, if you'd like to suggest any, you can do so here; Game Character Suggestions [Google Form]

Enemies

Using the template I created above, I have been working on creating the enemies and the idea on how they will function. Most of them are the classics of a fantasy RPG. We have slimes, bandits, wolves, and skeletons. Without revealing information (spoilers) the boss design was a lot more complex, working out its design, attack mechanics, and what happens when you defeat the boss.

Testing & Feedback

The game isn't in a state where it is ready for any form of testing as of yet and therefor there is also no feedback currently. This is something that will hopefully be changed by next week.

Next week 

Next week I am hoping to have a start on the world environment, hopefully having the first scene's environment completed as well as have the player sprite finished. Mechanics wise, I am hoping to have the interactive text done and maybe the scene transitioner.