|
| |
Return To Cry The Beloved Status
9/30/06
- Saturday: AND AWAY WE GO!!! |
 |
So, I ended
up getting the BETA out around 4:00 am today. It's too bad
that the majority of the testers are on the other side of the world. So,
their day was already pretty much over, as I was just crawling into bed to
get my sanity back:)
So, when I woke up, I
felt really good knowing that I have hit my latest milestone correctly. To
take a break from the typical stuff I do on Saturday's, I decided to
create the ending movie. If you recall, I did the ending movie for The
Coming in 2 hours (train tide) last year, and even though it was
going to be complicated, I knew I could at least get a dent in it today if
I just focused. Well, I did focus all day, and I am happy to
say that the first version of it is done. I am sure I will have to go back
and add/remove names here and there, but the main flow along with the
music is done. Another milestone! |
| As far as
the BETA goes, yes I received some threads in our bugs
forums, but they were really simple things to fix. I have to pat myself on
the back, because I was really focused today. I practically lived on the
forums, and the instant someone posted a bug, I was right there posting
back, getting as much information as possible, so that I could fix it. In
fact, out of all the bugs reported, there is only one left to fix,
although I have to admit, it is one of those weird ones that don't happen
on all machines. I am sure I can come up with something for it...
As usual, I was totally
immersed in RPGFan radio. It really is great to get some new
music to listen to, because honestly, even I have been getting tired of
listening to the same tracks over the past 2 years. I guess that is what
comes with module design. Anyway, I have to admit that I have been hearing
a lot of new tracks that I would like to use in future games. It's hard,
because as I am trying to wrap this game up, I am coming up with
scenario's just by listening to all this new music. Damn, can a guy get a
break?! :)
Tomorrow, the NY
Giants are on a bye week, so I shouldn't get wrapped up in
football too much. I am participating in a football league at the office
though, so I must remember to get my picks in 5 minutes
before kick off time. But, I have to watch ESPN first:)
Gotta be in the loop, ya know! Like I was saying, I am going to spend a
lot of time working on some pre-release stuff, and I have to assume there
will be more bugs for me to finish, so I need to allocate a block of time
for that as well.
To be honest, I have
been in a good mood lately, and I think it stems from the fact that I am
very close to getting my life back:) Final Fantasy XII/Legend Of
Zelda - Twilight Princess, here I come!
Till tomorrow...
THE
GRAND LIST OF CONSOLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES CLICHÉS (96-100)
96.
I'm the NRA (Billy Lee Black Rule)
Opposition to gun
control is probably the only thing you could get all RPG characters to
agree upon. Even deep religious faith and heartfelt pacifism can't compete
with the allure of guns.
97.
Three Females Rule
There will always be
either one or three female characters in the hero's party, no matter how
many male characters there are.
98.
Experience Not Required
When the main
character is forced to do some complex or dangerous task for the first
time, even though he has never done it before he will still always be
better than the oldest veteran.
99.
Law of Reverse Evolution (Zeboim Principle)
Any ancient
civilizations are inexplicably much more advanced than the current one. 100.
Science-Magic Equivalence (Citan Rule)
Although mages'
specialty is magic and scientists' specialty is technology, these skills
are completely interchangeable. |
9/29/06
- Friday: BETA V0.20 |
 |
So, at the
time of writing this, the BETA is more or less ready. What does more or
less ready mean? Well, I am just making one last minute change (I couldn't
help myself!) before uploading it. Once I do upload it, I will have to
write up a pretty lengthy post about what is new, what to expect, etc. It
is just something I always do when I have a release ready for download at
our forums.
You know, it's funny. If
you go back to my September
30, 2005 update, you can see that I was just really getting
started. Hell, I was just starting work on the first floor
of a new dungeon:) Man, the time really does fly. Heh, I remember back
them when I thought I would be done with the game n late December:) I
promise to be better with scheduling things for Chapter 3:) |
| Well, as you
can imagine, I am too bust trying to get this BETA out to really talk
about much, but I should be able to get into more specifics, including
release dates tomorrow. Hopefully, tomorrow will just be a day of
marketing work and whatnot, so I won't be as stressed as normal. Unless of
course the testers tear open the game faster than I expect:)
Oh, and just another
shout out for RPGFan Radio! My
god, I am addicted! Never in my LIFE would I think people
other than me would take video game music SO seriously...
Till tomorrow...
THE
GRAND LIST OF CONSOLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES CLICHÉS (91-95)
91.
Wherever You Go, There They Are
Wherever the
characters go, the villains can always find them. Chances are they're
asking the guy in the street (see above). But don't worry -- despite being
able to find the characters with ease anytime they want to, the bad guys
never get rid of them by simply blowing up the tent or hotel they're
spending the night in. (Just think of it: the screen dims, the peaceful
going-to-sleep-now music plays, then BOOM! Game Over!)
92.
Figurehead Rule
Whenever someone asks
you a question to decide what to do, it's just to be polite. He or she
will ask the question again and again until you answer
"correctly."
93.
Puddin' Tame Rule
The average passer-by
will always say the same thing no matter how many times you talk to them,
and they certainly won't clarify any of the vaguely worded warnings or
cryptic half-sentences they threw at you the previous time.
94.
Franklin Covey Was Wrong, Wrong, Wrong
Sticking to the task
at hand and going directly from place to place and goal to goal is always
a bad idea, and may even prevent you from being able to finish the game.
It's by dawdling around, completing side quests and giving money to
derelicts that you come into your real power. 95.
Selective Invulnerability Principle
RPG characters are
immune from such mundane hazards as intense heat, freezing cold, or poison
gas... except when they're suddenly not. Surprise! |
9/28/06
- Thursday: FINISHED WITH RUN THROUGH... |
 |
So, I finally
finished up my run through today. More importantly, I finished it up on my
slow ass desktop. Besides a few hiccups here and there, and a bit of lag,
things worked out fine. I am still standing by my decision to not support
machines that are as slow as mine, but it did allow me to see some of the
possible issues, some things that might happen on faster machines that I do
support. I always, I wrote these down in my notebook. At the time
I am writing this, I only 1-2 pages of stuff to fix. Real easy stuff,
mostly typos and whatnot... Hopefully (crosses fingers), I can put
together the final BETA tomorrow for people to try before I release this
damn thing to the world:) If you are interested in this final BETA, please
write me at gamecoder@optonline.net.
The more the merrier. Seriously! The quality of this game will be that
much better when I have a wide selection of different people with
different machines playing the game. |
| So,
throughout the day while I developed, I was listening to music, as usual.
This time however, it was a special 24/7 online radio station, that just
plays RPG music! I am sure everyone knows about this but me, but I was
really happy to find it! There is some game named Snatcher (the
name is SO familiar) which had a lot of its tracks played throughout the
night, and I was really impressed. This is also good, because I have to
admit, I am tired of listening to the same music day in and day out... To
check it out, go to http://www.rpgfan.com
Till tomorrow...
THE
GRAND LIST OF CONSOLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES CLICHÉS (86-90)
86.
Wait! That Was A Load-Bearing Boss!
Defeating a dungeon's
boss creature will frequently cause the dungeon to collapse, which is
nonsensical but does make for thrilling escape scenes.
87.
Supply and Demand Axiom
Killing a powerful
enemy will usually yield an item or weapon that would've been extremely
useful if you had gotten it before killing that enemy.
88.
Edison's Lament
No switch is ever in
the right position.
89.
Well, That About Wraps It Up For God
All major deities,
assuming they actually exist and weren't just made up by the Church to
delude its followers, are in reality malevolent and will have to be
destroyed. The only exception to this rule is the four nature spirits who
have preserved the land since time immemorial, but now due to the folly of
mankind have lost virtually all of their power and need you to accomplish
some ludicrous task to save them. 90.
Guy in the Street Rule
No matter how fast
you travel, rumors of world events always travel faster. When you get to
anywhere, the people on the street are already talking about where you've
been. The stories of your past experiences will spread even if no
witnesses were around to see them. |
9/27/06
- Wednesday: 1.68 CLOAKS??? |
 |
So, I was
continuing my play though of the game today, and to my astonishment, a
cloak that I had created a while back was showing up in game. I then
remembered that I had updated to 1.68 when I had to reinstall NWN after my
hard drive crashed. That said, I was very happy with it. It never
overwrote the CEP ones I am already using, so I have no complaints at
all:)
So, it is official. I
now have my favorite part in the game. It's to the point where I wanted to
play it over and over again, which is weird, because I generally get tired
of play testing over and over again. As usual, my notebook has been
filling up with various things, all of which can be taken care of in a few
hours. Well, off to sleep for me, so I can get a head start on stuff
tomorrow. As always, working from home, if anyone has been following my
work schedule:)
Till tomorrow... |
|
THE
GRAND LIST OF CONSOLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES CLICHÉS (81-85)
81.
Dungeon Design 101
There's always
goodies hidden behind the waterfall.
82.
Dungeon Design 102
When you are
confronted by two doors, the closer one will be locked and its key will be
hidden behind the farther-away one.
83.
Dungeon Design 103 (or, Wallpaper Warning)
Your progress through
a dungeon will be indicated by a sudden change in decor: different wall
color, different torches on the wall, et cetera.
84.
Dungeon Design 201 (or, The Interior Decorators Anticipated Your
Out-Of-Body Experience)
Most dungeons will
include "hidden" passages which are nearly impossible to see
from a bird's-eye view, yet would be blaringly obvious from the party's
perspective. 85.
Dungeon Design 301
All
"puzzles" in RPG dungeons can be sorted into one of the
following types:
 | finding some small item and
sticking it into a slot;
| pushing blocks (rocks,
statues) onto switches;
| pulling switches or levers to
open and close doors;
| learning the correct
order/position of a group of objects;
| entering a certain combination
of doors;
| something involving a clock or
elevator;
| something that is unsolvable
because a vital clue in the dialogue was mistranslated out of
Japanese. |
| | | | | |
|
9/26/06
- Tuesday: HALFWAY THROUGH... |
 |
So, I am
about at the halfway point of the game. I keep forgetting how much longer
it is compared to The Coming, especially with the fact that
you can do a bunch of unrelated things if you want to, and of course, I
had to test that just to make sure it worked. However, I am coming to a
set of linear areas, so it should be more straightforward.
So, it has really been
an experience testing the game on my old machine. Even though I won't be
officially supporting 6 year old machines, it still gives me an idea of
the type of lag people will experience. In fact, I have been doing a lot
to make said areas a bit cleaner, such as removing superfluous placeables,
and sound effects. |
| I have of
course been writing down various notes in my notebook, but I have been
lucky enough to be able to knock them out on the train to/from work. As
always, just little things here and there. Nothing major that could break
the game. I am really starting to feel confident of the 2nd to last build.
I would really like to get it to the testers Thursday, which
would give them time to test over the weekend. While they will be testing,
I will doing the last minute things, such as adding in custom load screens,
load hints, etc. Oh, and I have another surprise in store for everyone:)
Well, I'm going to stop
now, so I can get a head start on the page or so of issues I identified
tonight.
Till tomorrow...
THE
GRAND LIST OF CONSOLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES CLICHÉS (76-80)
76.
Magical Inequality Theorem
In the course of your
travels you may find useful-sounding spells such as Petrify, Silence, and
Instant Death. However, you will end up never using these spells in combat
because a) all ordinary enemies can be killed with a few normal attacks,
making fancy attacks unnecessary, b) all bosses and other
stronger-than-average monsters are immune to those effects so there's no
point in using them for long fights where they'd actually come in handy,
and c) the spells usually don't work anyway.
77.
Magical Inequality Corollary
When the enemy uses
Petrify, Silence, Instant Death, et cetera spells on you, they will
be effective 100% of the time.
78.
Pretty Line Syndrome (or, Crash Bandicoot: The RPG)\
Seen in most modern
RPGs. The key to completing your quest is to walk forward in a straight
line for fifty hours, stopping along the way to look at, kill, and/or have
meaningful conversations with various pretty things.
79.
Xenobiology Rule
The predatory species
of the world will include representatives of all of the following: giant
spiders, giant scorpions, giant snakes, giant beetles, wolves, squid, fish
that float in midair, gargoyles, golems, carnivorous plants, chimeras,
griffons, cockatrices, hydras, minotaurs, burrowing things with big claws,
things that can paralyse you, things that can put you to sleep, things
that can petrify you, at least twenty different creatures with poisonous
tentacles, and dragons. Always dragons. 80.
Friendly Fire Principle (or, Final Fantasy Tactics Rule)
Any attack that can
target both allies and enemies will hit half of your allies and none of
your enemies. |
9/25/06
- Monday: LET THE FINAL RUN THROUGH COMMENCE!!! |
 |
No time to
really say much at this point... I have begin testing the game on my
desktop at home, just to see how it might run on a very slow machine. When
I say slow, I mean an AMD XP 1000, and 400 or so MB of ram. Did I mention
it was made in 2000?
Long story short, this
game is apparantly not made for this type of system. More
specifically, the cut-scenes are just too much for it. Too much happens,
and it bogs down the machine at the start of them. Interestingly enough,
the cut-scenes I have had issues with haven't been reported by any
testers, I am not going to worry about it at all (that's a first!). In
other words, I am officially not supporting machines that old...
Well, I'm off to sleep
now... |
|
THE
GRAND LIST OF CONSOLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES CLICHÉS (71-75)
71.
Seventh Law of Travel
When on a voyage to
another continent, the journey will last only as long as it takes you to
talk to all the other passengers and the captain.
72.
Eighth Law of Travel
There are no
shortcuts, ever -- unless you are forced to take them, in which case they
will be much longer and more dangerous than your original route.
73.
Last Law of Travel (Big Joe Rule)
As has been
described, you must endure great trials just to get from town to town:
locating different vehicles, operating ancient transport mechanisms,
evading military blockades, the list goes on. But that's just you. Every
other character in the game seems to have no trouble getting to any place
in the world on a moment's notice.
74.
If You Meet The Buddha In A Random Encounter, Kill Him!
When you're out
wandering around the world, you must kill everything you meet.
People, animals, plants, insects, fire hydrants, small cottages, anything
and everything is just plain out to get you. It may be because of your
rampant kleptomania (see Garrett's Principle.) 75.
Law of Numbers
There will be several
items or effects which depend on the numerical value of your hit points,
level, etc., which makes no sense unless the characters can see all the
numbers in their world and find it perfectly normal that a spell only
works on a monster whose level is a multiple of 5. |
9/24/06
- Sunday: ALMOST THERE... |
 |
Will keep
this short as I am just getting around to writing it Monday morning, but
things went well yesterday. At this point, there are only 2 threads of
importance in the BETA Bugs forum. After I take care of those, I will do a
quick run through (no, really, it has to be quick), fix whatever I need
to, and send it to the testers. I'm feeling very confident in the latest
build, mostly because it has been ALPHA/BETA tested about 6-7 times over
the past year.
Till tomorrow... |
|
THE
GRAND LIST OF CONSOLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES CLICHÉS (66-70)
66.
Second Law of Travel
There will be only
one of any non-trivial type of vehicle in the entire world. Thus, only one
ocean-capable steamboat, only one airship, and so forth. Massive
facilities will have been constructed all over the world to service this
one vehicle.
67.
Third Law of Travel
The only way to
travel by land between different areas of a continent will always be
through a single narrow pass in a range of otherwise impenetrable
mountains. Usually a palace or monastery will have been constructed in the
pass, entirely filling it, so that all intracontinental traffic is
apparently required to abandon their vehicles and go on foot up stairs and
through the barracks, library and throne room to get to the other side.
This may explain why most people just stay home. (In some cases a cave or
underground tunnel may be substituted for the palace or monastery, but it
will still be just as inconvenient with the added bonuses of cave-ins and
nonsensical elevator puzzles.)
68.
Fourth Law of Travel
Three out of every
four vehicles you ride on will eventually sink, derail or crash in some
spectacular manner.
69.
Fifth Law of Travel
All vehicles can be
driven or piloted by anyone. The main character just needs to find out
where the bridge or steering wheel is, as he already knows all of the
controls. 70.
Sixth Law of Travel
Nobody gets to own a
cooler ride than you. If you ever do see a cooler vehicle than the one
you've got now, at some point before the end of the game you will either
take over this vehicle, get something even bigger and better, or else see
it destroyed in a glorious blaze. |
9/23/06
- Saturday: YEAR LONG BUG FINALLY SQUASHED!!! |
 |
So, today
started out very slow. I woke up late, took a long shower, and by the time
I was ready to get into development, I had to go out to get a haircut.
When I got back, I was sort of confused on where I wanted to go with the
day, and even did some work for 45 minutes or so before shelving it. I
finally figured out what I wanted to do, and got at it.
One of these things was
making blueprints for every possible level for all party members. I would
usually do them on an as needed basis, but I decided to just finish them
all off today. Felt good to get that behind me. I think I made it high
enough so no one can complain about their party member's levels falling
behind. Here's hoping. |
| I also
wanted to briefly talk about something that has been happening to me the
past couple of weeks. Anytime I have the toolset open for more than 7
hours or so, when I try to save it, I get a C++ exception, and basically,
anything that was not saved will be lost. I can't get too mad at Bioware,
because I am sure they never expected people to be in the toolset for more
than 8 hours at a time:) Anyway, because of this, I have learned to save
often, and also move said saved file to a tmp directory, because it
sometimes gets corrupted when I get the C++ exception. So, anyone crazy
enough to do that much development at one time, watch out!
After that, I decided to
finally put an end to a year old summoning bug. Previously, I wrote a post
saying that Jason Melancon had helped me identify the
problem. In my haste, I made the fix he suggested, and assumed it was
done. Well, I was wrong:( Well, not totally. In fact, Jason's fix
was just 1/2 of the problem, but it definitely pointed me in the right
direction. So, I decided to finally just bite the bullet, and spend some
hours to fix it. You see, it isn't like this bug was persistent because it
was that tough to squash. I just had the attitude of "I'll fix
it later". Well, there aren't many more things to fix, so it
was inevitable that I would come back to it. Remarkably, after only a few
hours of debugging, I found out the error, and as always, it involved 1
line of code:)
I also nerfed Aramus'
Whirlwind Push Ability. Sorry, guys:( Before, the player could use
it over and over again, pushing their enemies away. Some of my testers
ended up abusing this, and bringing it to my attention, so I have now put
a 18 second cool down time on it. You can still use the normal whirlwind
attack as usual, but only every 18 seconds will you be able to push
enemies away.
There were other little
things, but I honestly can't remember. Off to some other things related to
the game, but not having to do with actual development:)
Till tomorrow...
THE
GRAND LIST OF CONSOLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES CLICHÉS (61-65)
61.
Henchman Quota (Nana, Saki, and Mio Rule)
One of your
antagonists will have three lovably incompetent stooges whom you fight
over and over again. Although they're trusted with their boss's most
important plans and equipment, they will screw up repeatedly, argue
incessantly among themselves, blab secret information, and generally only
come out victorious when their job was to be a diversion or a delaying
tactic. A high point of the game will come when the True Villain reveals
himself and you're able to convince the stooges you're all on the same
side. They won't help you out any more successfully than they helped the
antagonist, but at least you won't have to fight them any more.
62.
Thousand Year Rule
The Ancient Evil
returns to savage the land every thousand years on the dot, and the last
time it showed up was just about 999.9875 years ago. Despite their best
efforts, heroes of the past were never able to do more than seal the Evil
away again for the future to deal with (which brings up the question of
just how exactly does this "sealing away" work anyway, but never
mind.) The good news is that this time, the Evil will get destroyed
permanently. The bad news is that you're the one who's going to have to do
it.
63.
Principle of Narrative Efficiency
If the main villain
(or the enemy you've been trying to kill for most of the game before he
summons the real final villain) was ever defeated in the past by another
group of adventurers, one of them will secretly be in your party and one
of them will be the hero's father.
64.
Ayn Rand's Revenge
Outside the major
cities, there is no government whatsoever. Of course, perhaps that
explains why it's so difficult and dangerous to get anywhere outside the
major cities. 65.
First Law of Travel
Anything
can become a vehicle -- castles, cities, military academies, you name it
-- so do not be alarmed when the stones of the ancient fortress you are
visiting shake underfoot and the whole thing lifts off into the sky. As a
corollary, anything is capable of flight if it would be cool, aeronautics
or even basic physics be damned. |
9/22/06
- Friday: LOOKING TOWARDS THE FUTURE... |
 |
Today was a
weird day, to say the least... Well, it started out quite normal,
actually. I integrated the dialogue Phil Carter did for me
on the train ride into work, and also did some other marketing type stuff
to get ready for the release of Cry The Beloved. At work,
they ended up buying Chinese food for us at 1:00 pm, which was pretty
cool. There was a catch, however. So, I was in a meeting from 11:00 to
12:30 or so, and when I got out, we decided to play some foosball. While
in there, the VP of HR came in, and told us that if we wanted the Chinese
food, we had to play a game of pop culture trivial pursuit. I honestly
wasn't in the mood, so I declined. A few minutes later, I went out to the
kitchen to get some water, and there were a whole bunch of people out
there. As I was walking by, she asked me to pick a number between 1 &
5. I said 1, and boom, I was put on team 1. I'm such a sucker... |
| It actually
ended up being a lot of fun, and I look forward to more things like this
at the office. And, my team came in last place as well:(
So, on the train ride
home, I did some more dialog work, and then preceded to pass out
from exhaustion. As I was getting off the train, I was shocked (not
really, because I do it all the time!) to find that I left the charger for
my laptop at work. Figures... Luckily, before I hopped back on another
train back to Manhattan (no way I am going to miss out on a weekend of
development), my Mother agreed to let me use her charger for the weekend,
since she had other things to do. When
I got home, I did some other minor things, that I have needed to do for
quite some time. Just gotta keep up polishing effort. It can't go on
forever!
So, as I go through this
process, I can't help but think about Chapter 3. Yes, I
already have the main outline for what will happen, but it is how I will
present this to the player that I have been thinking about. Going from Chapter
1 to Chapter 2, I definitely was able to accomplish a lot of the
things I wanted. Now, I have a long list of new things, to keep the game
fresh, that I want to accomplish in Chapter 3. It's way
too early to really get into that much depth about it (hell, I
haven't even released info on Chapter 2 yet!), but let's
just say I am moving in the direction of quality over quantity. I am
looking to create only a few events in the entire game, but these are the
type of epic events that could last up to 2 hours. My plans are all really
contingent on how powerful NWN2 is, to be honest. At any
rate, the overall goal is quite simple. I don't want any players to have
the feeling of, "Hmm, I feel like I have done this type of
event, just with different enemies, before...". I want to
keep them on their toes, and continue to shock them.
With regards to the many
custom systems (no really, there is a lot!), I think they may be more or
less defined for the entire series. The trick now is to make the most of
them, and come up with lots of variations to keep things fresh. In fact,
the fact that I have already defined these complicated systems already
opens up more time for the aforementioned epic events. Although, I said
the same thing when I first started Cry The Beloved, and I
added up adding tons of new systems, so I guess we'll just have to see:)
Till tomorrow...
THE
GRAND LIST OF CONSOLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES CLICHÉS (56-60)
56.
Zeigfried's Contradiction
Just because someone
is weird doesn't mean they're important.
57.
Natural Monopoly Rule
No city will have
more than two shops, unless it is crucial to the story that there be a
hundred vendors which you must visit in order (see You Always Travel In
The Right Circles.) All of these shops will sell the same goods for
the same price.
58.
But They Don't Take American Express
Every merchant in the
world -- even those living in far-off villages or hidden floating cities
cut off from the outside world for centuries, even those who speak
different languages or are of an entirely different species -- accepts the
same currency.
59.
Apathy Principle
Your group is the
only bunch of people trying to save the world. All other would-be heroes
will either join your party or else turn out to be cowards and/or con men. 60.
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Rule
a. Any male character
who is ugly, malformed, or misshapen is either evil or so moral,
spiritual, and/or wise that it's a wonder no one's proposed him for
sainthood yet.
b. Any male character who has a physical disfiguration that doesn't seem
to impede him (i.e. a prominent scar across the face or a bad eye) is
evil, unless he is the male lead, since scars are cool and no other good
guy can be as cool as the hero. An exception is made for characters who
are clearly ancient, and therefore automatically not as cool as the young
hero.
c. Any female character who is ugly, malformed, mishapen, or physically
disfigured is evil, since all good female characters are there to be
potentially seduced by the male lead -- see Know Your Audience. |
9/21/06
- Thursday: LONG A$$ DAY... |
 |
I will keep
this short, as it is 1:00 am over here, and as usual, I have to be up in 6
hours... So, today, I really knocked out a lot of stuff. I
am now down to 9 threads in our bug forums. I would say that is very
good, considering that they aren't really critical. I just keep
telling myself, "...damn, this can't go on forever:) There will
be a point very soon where there is nothing left to polish:)
I was also lucky enough
to get a revised piece of dialog from our writing guru, Phil.
As usual, it was great! I will most likely take the time to integrate it
in the game tomorrow morning on the train, and if I have time, polish up
the rest of the dialog in the game.
Till tomorrow... |
|
THE
GRAND LIST OF CONSOLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES CLICHÉS (51-55)
51.
Planet of the Apes Rule
All cities and
countries have ancestors that were wiped out by their technological
advances.
52.
Insomnia Rule
A "free stay at
the inn" is never really free. Expect to be woken up in the middle of
the night for a mandatory plot event.
53.
The Bling-Bling Thing (Lemina Rule)
No matter how much
money and treasure you acquire, the greedy member of your party will never
be satisfied and won't stop griping about the sorry state of the party's
finances.
54. I
Don't Like Gears Or Fighting
There are always
giant robots. Always. 55.
Houdini's Postulate
Anyone, whether they
are in the player's party or not, who is placed in any kind of prison,
fortress, cell, or detention block will escape immediately. Party members
will be freed either by a small child they just happened to befriend
earlier in the day or by an unexpected disaster that overcomes the enemy
base, NPCs will be freed by the released party members, and villains will
break out all by themselves because they're such badasses. Once a person
has escaped from jail, no attempt will be made by the police to recapture
them in the future. |
9/20/06
- Wednesday: *CAN'T KEEP THINKING OF WITTY TITLES* |
 |
As the title
suggests, I cannot keep thinking of titles:) Anyway, not much to say
really, still going through the process of getting everything together. I
finished up a minor quest on the train ride into work, but on the train
ride home, I immediately passed out, probably because I only had 4 hours
of sleep the previous night:)
I also continued to
clear things out of the BETA Bugs forum at our dev site. I lagged a bit
tonight, mostly because I know I will be working from home tomorrow (Gotta
love Thursday's).
Tomorrow, will try to
really bring a close to some other things as well... Till tomorrow... |
|
THE
GRAND LIST OF CONSOLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES CLICHÉS (46-50)
46.
¿Quien Es Mas Macho? (Fargo Rule)
Every powerful
character you attempt to seek aid from will first insist upon
"testing your strength" in a battle to the death.
47.
We Had To Destroy The Village In Order To, Well, You Know The Rest (Selene
Rule)
No matter what
happens, never call on the government, the church, or any other massive
controlling authority for help. They'll just send a brigade of soldiers to
burn your entire village to the ground.
48.
Zidane's Curse (or, Dirty Pair Rule)
An unlucky condition
in which every major city in the game will coincidentally wind up being
destroyed just after the hero arrives.
49.
Maginot Line Rule
It is easy to tell
which city/nation is the next conquest of the Evil Empire: its streets are
filled with citizens who brag that the Empire would never dare attack
them, and would be easily defeated if it tried. (This smug nationalism
always fails to take into account the Empire's new superweapon.) 50.
Short Attention Span Principle
All bookshelves
contain exactly one book, which only has enough text on it to fill up half
a page. |
9/19/06
- Tuesday: "...they say people in your life are like seasons, and everything
that happens is for a reason..." |
 |
If you
haven't already, read the title for this update...
I have always liked this
line from Kanye West's song, "Heard 'Em
Say". Never knew why, but I just did. Well, with the events
of today, it means so much more to me. First off, this has nothing to do
with Rose Of Eternity, and no one has died or anything.
Furthermore, I am not sure how many details I can divulge here, but let's
just say that I am going to miss some people...
So, to Mark, Bill,
JP, Zahaida, & Fatima, I am sorry about what happened, and I
really wish I could have seen you one last time...
|
| Okay, back
to the thing you all care about... So, I wasn't feeling good today, so I
opted to stay home from work. As always, I felt a little bad about it, but
I can easily make up the work tomorrow. When I wasn't laying in bed, I was
continuing my polishing efforts. I have to say, I must have tested the
same sequence in the game 10 times yesterday, and I admit, it began to get
annoying. I swear, every time I did it, I found one little thing I wanted
to change. I finally put a close to it, and forced myself to just leave it
alone.
I also got to thinking
while I was watching the final cut-scenes of the game. As can be expected,
I assume that most people think of Aramus as the main hero
of the game. I mean, it makes sense, since he is the one you control and
whatnot. However, to be honest, I never really wanted Rose Of
Eternity to be just about Aramus. I was really going
for that large ensemble feeling, much like Final Fantasy 6.
Anyone who played that
game should remember that there was no main hero. Sure, there were ones
that had more screen time than others, but there was no definitive hero,
like Cecil in Final Fantasy 6, or Cloud in
Final Fantasy 7. For me, Locke Cole was
the one I liked the most, and was therefore the hero in my eyes. For
others, it was Terra (Tine) Branford. That was the beauty of
it really.
Anyway, just the way NWN
is set up and whatnot, this wasn't as easy to do. I mean, I
couldn't even have a sequence in the game with just Clopon and
Challseus. Just doesn't work like that. Now, that isn't a
knock at NWN, because the game just wasn't designed like
that. However, it is just another one of the many things about Rose
Of Eternity that I had to edit out to fit within the NWN template.
If I ever did this game commercially (i.e. use my own engine), I really
think people would be surprised at how different it was from this module.
It is safe to say that I have had to edit out at least 70% of the things I
wanted to do... Again, no one's fault, but just something I always have in
the back of my head.
However, after
watching some of the final scenes, I think that I have achieved my goal of
at least making people care about others, maybe more so than Aramus.
It's not exactly what I wanted, but it is a step in the right
direction...
Till tomorrow...
THE
GRAND LIST OF CONSOLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES CLICHÉS (41-45)
41.
George W. Bush Geography Simplification Initiative
Every country in the
world will have exactly one town in it, except for the country you start
out in, which will have three.
42.
Fodor's Guide Rule
In the course of your
adventure you will visit one desert city, one port town, one mining town,
one casino city, one magic city (usually flying), one medieval castle
kingdom, one clockwork city, one martial arts-based community, one
thieves' slum, one lost city and one sci-fi utopia. On the way you'll also
get a chance to see the cave with rocks that glow from a natural energy
source, the village populated with nonhuman characters, the peaceful
village where everyone knows the latest news about the hero's quest (see Guy
in the Street Rule), the snow village, the magical
forest/lake/mountain, the shop in the middle of nowhere, the
fantastic-looking place with lots of FMVs just showing your entrance, the
subtropical jungle island populated by friendly natives, the annoying
cavern maze, and a place -- any place -- that was destroyed in some past
disaster.
43.
Midgar Principle
The capital of the
evil empire is always divided into two sections: a lower city slum filled
with slaves and supporters of the rebellion, and an upper city filled with
loyal fanatics and corrupt aristocrats.
44.
Not Invented Here
Trade of technology
will not exist. One place in the world will have all the techno-gadgets
while all the others will be harvesting dirt. 45.
Law of Cartographical Elegance
The world map always
cleanly fits into a rectangular shape with no land masses that cross an
edge. |
9/18/06
- Monday: *QUIETLY BREATHES A SIGH OF RELIEF* |
 |
So, if you
haven't already, go over to NWVault.
Maximus apparantly has been very busy:) Along with the new skin,
comes the news that NWN2 has been delayed a few weeks to October
31st.
So, I won't even lie...
I was a little happy inside, if not for anything else, that fact that
people would have a few more weeks to play Cry The Beloved before
wiping their hands clean of NWN. I am in no way delaying the
release at all. I could have started to slack, but instead,
I will take this delay as a sign, and keep to my original plans.
In terms of what I did
today, it was the usual polishing and whatnot. Almost there! Till
tomorrow... |
|
THE
GRAND LIST OF CONSOLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES CLICHÉS (36-40)
36.
Clockwork Universe Rule
No matter how hard
you try to stop it, that comet or meteor will always hit the earth.
37.
Fake Ending
There will be a
sequence which pretends to be the end of the game but obviously isn't --
if for no other reason than because you're still on Disk 1 of 4.
38.
You Die, And We All Move Up In Rank
During that fake
ending, the true villain of the story will kill the guy you'd thought
was the villain, just to demonstrate what a badass he (the true villain)
really is. You never get to kill the fake villain yourself.
39.
"What are we going to do tonight, Vinsfeld?"
The goal of every
game (as revealed during the Fake Ending) is to Save the World from an
evil figure who's trying to take it over or destroy it. There is no way to
escape from this formidable task. No matter whether the protagonist's goal
in life is to pay off a debt, to explore distant lands, or just to make
time with that cute girl in the blue dress, it will be necessary for him
to Save the World in order to accomplish it. Take heart, though -- once
the world gets sorted out, everything else will fall into place almost
immediately. 40.
Zelda's Axiom
Whenever somebody
tells you about "the five ancient talismans" or "the nine
legendary crystals" or whatever, you can be quite confident that
Saving the World will require you to go out and find every last one of
them. |
9/17/06
- Sunday: POLISH, POLISH, POLISH...UM, AND MORE POLISH!!! |
 |
Sigh, what a
day... Busy, busy, busy. I polished up 2 side quests today, as well as
tons of other little issues here and there. I spent a lot of time at the
forums today, just going through a lot of the bugs that have been posted
over the months. I purposely left the small ones till the end, because I
knew I could systematically knock them out one by one, which is what I
did.
I have to admit, with
Chapter 3, I am VERY happy with how the 1st part of it will
unfold. I'm obviously not going to spoil anything, but development wise,
it shouldn't be that hard at all. Famous last words:) Well, I'm off to
knock out some more issues before I crash for the night.
Till tomorrow... |
|
THE
GRAND LIST OF CONSOLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES CLICHÉS (31-35)
31.
Bed Bed Bed
A good night's sleep
will cure all wounds, diseases, and disabilities, up to and including
death in battle.
32.
You Can't Kill Me, I Quit (Seifer Rule)
The good guys never
seem to get the hang of actually arresting or killing the bad guys. Minor
villains are always permitted to go free so they can rest up and menace
you again later -- sometimes five minutes later. Knowing this rule, you
can deduce that if you do manage to kill (or force the surrender of) a bad
guy, you must be getting near the end of the game.
33.
And Now You Die, Mr. Bond! (Beatrix Rule)
Fortunately for you,
the previous rule also applies in reverse. Rather than kill you when they
have you at their mercy, the villains will settle for merely blasting you
down to 1 hit point and leaving you in a crumpled heap while they stroll
off, laughing. (This is, of course, because they're already planning ahead
how they'll manipulate you into doing their bidding later in the game --
see Way To Go, Serge.)
34.
Zap!
Most villains in RPGs
possess some form of teleportation. They generally use it to materialize
in front of the adventurers when they reach the Obligatory Legendary Relic
Room and seize the goodies just before you can. The question "if the
bad guy can teleport anywhere at any time, then why doesn't (s)he just zip
in, grab the artifact, and leave before the adventurers have even finished
the nerve-wracking puzzle on the third floor?" is never answered. 35.
Heads I Win, Tails You Lose (Grahf Rule)
It doesn't matter
that you won the fight with the boss monster; the evil task he was trying
to carry out will still get accomplished somehow. Really, you might as
well not have bothered. |
9/16/06
- Saturday: POLISH, POLISH, POLISH... |
 |
So, at the
beginning of the day, I had about 10 pages of notes/issues. By the end of
the night, I was down to roughly 1 and a half. Not bad for a days worth of
work:) Along the way, I also tested the HELL out of the
particular area I optimized the last couple days, just to make sure everything
still worked the same. At this point, I am probably ready to go through
the game again, compile notes, fix them, then send out the final BETA.
In a way, I can be
happy, because there really is no new content to add to the game. Just
polishing, and when it comes down to it, it doesn't take that long. I mean
hell, I just went through 10 pages yesterday alone! Well, going to keep
this short so I can get back to it.
Till tomorrow... |
|
THE
GRAND LIST OF CONSOLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES CLICHÉS (26-30)
26.
Local Control Rule
Although the boss
monster terrorizing the first city in the game is less powerful than the
non-boss monsters that are only casual nuisances to cities later in the
game, nobody from the first city ever thinks of hiring a few mercenaries
from the later cities to kill the monster.
27.
Nostradamus Rule
All legends are 100%
accurate. All rumors are entirely factual. All prophecies will come true,
and not just someday but almost immediately.
28.
IDKFA
The basic ammunition
for any firearms your characters have is either unlimited or very, very
easy to obtain. This will apply even if firearms are extremely rare.
29.
Indestructible Weapon Rule
No matter how many
times you use that sword to strike armored targets or fire that gun on
full auto mode it will never break, jam or need any form of maintenance
unless it is critical to the story that the weapon breaks, jams or needs
maintenance. 30.
Selective Paralysis
Your characters must
always keep both feet on the ground and will be unable to climb over low
rock ledges, railings, chairs, cats, slightly differently-colored ground,
or any other trivial objects which may happen to be in their way. Note
that this condition will not prevent your characters from jumping from
railroad car to railroad car later in the game. |
9/15/06
- Friday: LOTS OF OPTIMIZATIONS!!! |
 |
*Ahem*. So, apparently,
I am not the big prick I wanted to be:) I devoted damn near the entire day
on optimizing this one particular area. I know I said that people should
just lower their settings when they play the game, but as I continued to
look at the area, I found how I could shrink the size down a lot. In fact,
I can now run it with full settings on my laptop, with minimal lag. Now,
that doesn't mean everyone can! But, the performance is a LOT
better, if I do say so myself:) *Sigh* The things I do for you
people... Can you feel the love? :)
Not much else to talk
about really. I did some more cleaning up of the bugs in our forums, and I
should be down to a page very soon. I have also been taking lots of new
screenshots (I LOST OVER 100 WHEN MY HD CRASHED!), so expect to see
them coming up very soon, with some other tidbits of information. Till
tomorrow... |
|
THE
GRAND LIST OF CONSOLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES CLICHÉS (21-25)
21.
Aeris's Corollary
Just as the main male
character will always use a sword or a variant of a sword, the main female
character will always use a rod or a staff of some sort.
22.
MacGyver Rule
Other than for the
protagonists, your choice of weapons is not limited to the prosaic guns,
clubs, or swords. Given appropriate skills, you can cut a bloody swath
across the continent using gloves, combs, umbrellas, megaphones,
dictionaries, sketching tablets -- you name it, you can kill with it. Even
better, no matter how surreal your choice of armament, every store you
pass will just happen to stock an even better model of it for a very
reasonable price. Who else is running around the world killing people with
an umbrella?
23. O
Brother, Where Art Thou? (Melfice Rule)
If the male hero has
an older sibling, the sibling will also be male and will turn out to be
one of the major villains. If the hero has a younger sibling, the sibling
will be female and will be kidnapped and held hostage by the villains.
24.
Capitalism Is A Harsh Mistress
Once you sell
something to a shopkeeper, he instantly sells it to somebody else and you
will never see the item again no matter what. 25.
Dimensional Transcendence Principle
Buildings are much,
much larger on the inside than on the outside, and that doesn't even count
the secret maze of tunnels behind the clock in the basement. |
9/14/06
- Thursday: CONNECTING THE DOTS... |
 |
So, the first
day of work wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was mostly a
day of getting up to date on everything that is going on, and catching up
on e-mails. I was at least given a few hours before my co-workers started
bum rushing me for information:)
The train ride into work
wasn't that bad, mostly because I have a new battery, which actually last
the entire ride! Imagine that! On the ride into work, I connected some
more dots with the last events of the game that lead up to the ending
scenes. This included optimizing the area. I am using this particular
custom tile set, and it lags a bit. Although, I do have to admit that it
is the biggest area in the game:) |
| After
stripping out a lot of the superfluous content, even at the highest
settings on my laptop, it ran fine. This final area is now hooked into the
preceding area, and after you get through it, it links to the end game
content. So, as far as I am concerned, I should be able to play the game
from start to finish, including the epilogues. For me at least, this is a
big accomplishment.
On the train ride home,
I tried to do some work, but was so exhausted, that I just passed out.
It's funny, because if I can fight off the sleep for 15 minutes or so, I
am good to go. But, it is the hardest 15 minutes, especially when I get
the good, comfortable seats on the train. Oh well...
At home, I continued to
polish things, and also began sifting through our BETA Bugs Forum and
moving all fixed bugs to another sub forum. When I started, the BETA Bugs
Forum was 3 pages long. When I was done, it was down to around 1 1/2. Most
of them are minor, which is a good thing. I have to admit, I ended up
doing this until around 1:00 am in the morning. Sometimes, I just get the
urge to do a lot of work, and when I have the urge, I take advantage of
it.
So, tomorrow I will
begin the research I need to do to optimize the final area that the
testers complained about. In a past update, I said that I was going to
just tell people they cannot play with the settings on high, since I am
pushing the engine to its limits. Well, I still stick by what I
said... However, when I was play testing it, I saw
things that I could do make it run more efficiently, so I will
compromise:) I am sure I will be able to get rid of a ton of unused tiles,
as well as placeables. I will also play around with the fog of war
setting...
Till tomorrow...
THE
GRAND LIST OF CONSOLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES CLICHÉS (16-20)
16.
Hey, I Know You, Too!
You will also confront/be confronted
by at least three of these obligatory antagonists:
| The amazingly good-looking and
amazingly evil long-haired prettyboy who may or may not be the
ultimate villain.
| The villain's loyal right-hand
man, who comes in two versions: humorously incompetent or annoyingly
persistent.
| The villain's attractive
female henchman, who is the strongest and most competent soldier in
the army but always lets the party escape because she's, yes, fallen
in love with the hero.
| Your former ally who
supposedly "died" and was forgotten about, until much later
in the game when he/she shows up again on the villain's side and full
of bitterness.
| The irritatingly honorable foe
whom you never get to kill because, upon discovering the true nature
of his superiors, he either nobly sacrifices himself or joins your
party.
| The insane clown or jester who
will turn out to be surprisingly difficult to subdue.
| The mad scientist who likes
creating mutated creatures and powerful weapons 'cause it's fun (and
also handy if uninvited adventurers show up.)
| The adorably cute li'l
creature or six year old child who fights you and, inexplicably, kicks
your butt time after time. |
| | | | | | |
17.
Hey, I Know You, Three!
Furthermore, expect to encounter
most of the following obligatory non-player characters (NPCs):
| The townsperson or crewmember
who wanders aimlessly in circles and never quite gets where he is
going.
| Hilariously incompetent or
cowardly soldiers.
| The NPC who has a crush on
another NPC and can't quite work up the nerve to tell him or her, so
instead tells every other person who wanders by about it at great
length.
| A group of small children
playing hide-and-seek.
| The wise and noble
captain/king/high priest.
| The wise and noble
captain/king/high priest's splutteringly evil second-in-command.
Nobody, including the hero, will notice the second's constant, crazed
scheming until the moment when he betrays everyone to the forces of
badness.
| The NPC who is obsessed with
his completely mundane job and witters on endlessly about how great it
is. He's so thrilled by it that he wants to share it with everyone he
sees, so given a quarter of a chance he'll make you do his job for
him.
| The (adult) NPC who has
nothing better to do than play kids' games with passersby.
| The group of young women who
have formed a scarily obsessive fan club for one of your female party
members. |
| | | | | | | |
18.
Crono's Complaint
The less the main character talks, the more words are put into his
mouth, and therefore the more trouble he gets into through no fault of his
own.
19.
"Silly Squall, bringing a sword to a gunfight..."
No matter what timeframe the game is set in -- past, present, or
future -- the main hero and his antagonist will both use a sword for a
weapon. (Therefore, you can identify your antagonist pretty easily right
from the start of the game just by looking for the other guy who uses a
sword.) These swords will be far more powerful than any gun and often
capable of distance attacks.
20.
Just Nod Your Head And Smile
And no matter how big
that big-ass sword is, you won't stand out in a crowd. Nobody ever crosses
the street to avoid you or seems to be especially shocked or alarmed when
a heavily armed gang bursts into their house during dinner, rummages
through their posessions, and demands to know if they've seen a
black-caped man. People can get used to anything, apparently. |
9/13/06
- Wednesday: THE DREADED LAST DAY:( |
 |
As the title
suggests, today is my last day of vacation. I was getting the "I
don't want to go back to that sh** hole" feeling I always get
at the end of all my vacations (yes, I admit it! I am always on vacation
someway or another:) ). I don't know how to put it. I just couldn't really
enjoy the day...
As far as development, I
spent the first half of my day trying to make a particular area run a bit
smoother. Some testers had complained about it, so I was pulling little
things out here and there, to make it better. I have to admit, I was
getting pissed, because I just wish the NWN engine could handle what I
want to do, but oh well... |
| Speaking of
which, I am just going to put this out in the open right now... I think I
am going to have a minimum spec for this game. The reason is simple. Yes, Neverwinter
Nights is a 4 year old game, and most people probably play with
all the settings up. Well, I am doing so much in certain heavily scripted
areas, that you may not be able to have all settings up. Let's break this
down a bit more...
Before I start, yeah, I
am a software engineer, but I know jack about hardware, in terms of what
is good, and what isn't. So, bear with me... So, my dev machine is a Dell
Inspiron 8600, with an Intel Pentium M 1.60 GHZ processor. I also have
1.25 GB of memory. My graphics card is a ATI Radeon 9200. I can have the
game run at full settings and except for this area/sequence, everything
runs fine. However, if I turn graphics down 1 level, it runs okay. Now, on
my Compaq Presario AMD Athlon 1000 XP, with 425 MB of ram, and an ATI
Radeon 9200, I need to lower the settings even further, and it runs okay.
Now, I don't play other modules, so I don't if I normally, I could run
them with full settings.
At this point, I am
rambling, but my point is that for people with older machines, you will
have to lower your settings. Now, perhaps I am just worrying about
nothing, but I can already imagine people complaining about the lag, after
I have put in the read me/website/module description that the game
runs at a higher level. It sucks, but there is nothing I can do about it.
I can't compromise the story I want to tell by changing it. I just hope
that I am really, really being paranoid, and that the majority of people
who play it have super P4's with 2GB of ram:)
After that, I started
some more basic polishing. Nothing too special, just the last minute
things I have to do to make sure everything is complete. Well, I am off to
bed now. I bought a new laptop battery, so I am hoping I can do major
things with my laptop on the entire train ride. Here's
hoping...
Till tomorrow...
THE
GRAND LIST OF CONSOLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES CLICHÉS (11-15)
11.
Let's Start From The Very Beginning (Yuna Rule)
Whenever there is a
sequel to an RPG that features the same main character as the previous
game, that character will always start with beginner skills. Everything
that they learned in the previous game will be gone, as will all their
ultra-powerful weapons and equipment.
12.
Poor Little Rich Hero (Meis Rule)
If the hero comes
from a rich and powerful family, it will have fallen on hard times and be
broke and destitute by the time the game actually starts.
13.
The Higher The Hair, The Closer To God (Cloud Rule)
The more outrageous
his hairstyle, the more important a male character is to the story.
14.
Garrett's Principle
Let's not mince
words: you're a thief. You can walk into just about anybody's house like
the door wasn't even locked. You just barge right in and start looking for
stuff. Anything you can find that's not nailed down is yours to keep. You
will often walk into perfect strangers' houses, lift their precious
artifacts, and then chat with them like you were old neighbors as you head
back out with their family heirlooms under your arm. Unfortunately, this
never works in stores. 15.
Hey, I Know You!
You will accumulate at least three
of these obligatory party members:
| The spunky princess who is
rebelling against her royal parent and is in love with the hero.
| The demure, soft-spoken female
mage and healing magic specialist who is not only in love with the
hero, but is also the last survivor of an ancient race.
| The tough-as-nails female
warrior who is not in love with the hero (note that this is the
only female character in the game who is not in love with the hero and
will therefore be indicated as such by having a spectacular scar, a
missing eye, cyborg limbs or some other physical deformity -- see The
Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Rule.)
| The achingly beautiful gothy
swordsman who is riven by inner tragedy.
| The big, tough, angry guy who,
deep down, is a total softy.
| The hero's best friend, who is
actually much cooler than the hero.
| The grim, selfish mercenary
who over the course of the game learns what it means to really care
about other people.
| The character who is actually
a spy for the bad guys but will instantly switch to your side when you
find out about it.
| The weird bonus character who
requires a bizarre series of side quests to make them effective (with
the ultimate result that no player ever uses this character if it can
be avoided.)
| The nauseatingly cute mascot
who is useless in all battles. |
| | | | | | | | |
|
9/12/06
- Tuesday: FINALLY!!! |
 |
So, I damn
near pulled an all nighter last night (after writing the update), taking
care of the item edits from Jason. I only got through about
10% or so because the majority of the items that were updated, had to be
updated throughout the entire module. As the module size is about 35 MB,
updating an item throughout the entire module takes about 2-3 minutes or
so. I was watching TV at the same time, so it wasn't that bad. This is
obviously going to be something that I will do over the next few days.
Interestingly enough, a lot of the stuff he fixed is in The Coming, so
after releasing Cry The Beloved, I might go back and fix it
there.
Since I was up very late
last night, I didn't end up getting up until around noon today... I felt a
little sorrow in my heart, as I know my vacation is almost up. Oh well, it
is what it is. |
| So, like
yesterday, things got off to a very slow start. I blame the new episodes
of Judge Mathis, 106 & Park, mowing the lawn & the
internet:) Seriously though, sometimes, I am just not in the right
state of mind to develop. I have long learned to not push myself, cause it
only does more harm than good. I was finally ready to start around
6:00pm...
So, I had just one more
major cut-scene to create. I had long feared to do it, because of some of
the complexity involved. Well, for all of my whimpering and whining, I
ended up knocking it out in about 4-5 hours! How's that for dedication? :)
Once I finished it, I hooked it into the game itself, and everything still
worked as expected.
I have to say, a large
weight has been lifted off my shoulder. At the start of my vacation, I
knew I had to knock out over 10 high quality cut-scenes, and I succeeded
in my goal, one day early. Now, all that remains is true, hard core
polishing. And, some other stuff...
...The thing about being
an independent module maker is that if you make the most of it, you aren't
just a designer. You are also the Executive Producer, Head
Of Marketing, etc. I am lucky to have so many talented people
working with me that I don't have to put on the Lead Writer/Lead
Editor/Designer hat as much as I did with The Coming. That
said, I still have to get ready for what I hope to be a
successful launch. This includes organizing things, making sure people
meet certain deadlines, etc. There are so many non-development stuff that
has to be taken care, my head is still spinning:)
More to come soon...
Till tomorrow...
THE
GRAND LIST OF CONSOLE ROLE PLAYING GAMES CLICHÉS (6-10)
6.
Single Parent Rule
RPG characters with
two living parents are almost unheard of. As a general rule, male
characters will only have a mother, and female characters will only have a
father. The missing parent either vanished mysteriously and traumatically
several years ago or is never referred to at all. Frequently the main
character's surviving parent will also meet an awkward end just after the
story begins, thus freeing him of inconvenient filial obligations.
7.
Some Call Me... Tim?
Good guys will only
have first names, and bad guys will only have last names. Any bad guy who
only has a first name will become a good guy at some point in the game.
Good guys' last names may be mentioned in the manual but they will never
be referred to in the story.
8.
Nominal Rule
Any character who
actually has a name is important in some way and must be sought out.
However, if you are referred to as a part of a posessive noun
("Crono's Mom") then you are superfluous.
9.
The Compulsories
There's always a fire
dungeon, an ice dungeon, a sewer maze, a misty forest, a derelict ghost
ship, a mine, a glowing crystal maze, an ancient temple full of traps, a
magic floating castle, and a technological dungeon. 10.
Luddite Rule (or, George Lucas Rule)
Speaking of which,
technology is inherently evil and is the exclusive province of the Bad
Guys. They're the ones with the robots, factories, cyberpunk megalopolises
and floating battle stations, while the Good Guys live in small villages
in peaceful harmony with nature. (Although somehow your guns and/or
heavily armed airships are exempted from this.) |
9/11/06
- Monday: LOTS OF STUFF... |
 |
Man, today
was a busy as day... But before I start, just a moment of silence for
those who lost their lives in the attacks on 9/11/01...
So, as I was saying, it
was a busy day for me, even though I didn't wake up until 11:00am. Around
12:00pm, my friend who was up visiting ended up coming over with his
girlfriend for about 4 hours or so. Besides doing the normal bit of
reminiscing and whatnot, we also talked a little bit about Rose Of
Eternity. I was sad to see them go, because these are the things
that I have missed doing this past year. Just hanging out with old
friends, and having a good time. |
| I have
definitely neglected a lot of things this past year, but I know that in
the back of my head, the instant I release Cry The
Beloved, I will have my life back. Besides getting a chance to
catch up on games I wanted to play this past year, as well as new ones
(i.e. The Legend Of Zelda: The Twilight Princess!!!), I will
start hanging out with my old friends. It's funny, because my friends are always
harassing me about being a hermit and making this game and
whatnot. And I keep telling them, as soon as I am done, I will be around
them so much, they will get tired of me:)
After my friend left, I
was in correspondence with a co-worker about trying to see why I couldn't
access my web mail. I have heard stories about someone's e-mail account
being shut off when they are fired, so I was of course on top of that
situation! I knew I wasn't really fired, but it was still weird. Right
after that, I ended up helping 2 more of my co-workers with various
things, such as the location of certain Java files, build processes, etc.
All in all, I spent about an hour and half doing work related stuff. Oh
well, it happens...
After that, I finally
was focused, and finally knocked out the cut-scene I started
earlier. The camera angles were very reminiscent of | |
