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101

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: July 17, 2022, 08:50:25 pm »

Just a quicky update this week. The commission results from last week are in but both require a number of revisions, so I can't show or implement them just yet.

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.72 (16 juli 2022)
* Tweaked visuals flying tiles
* Tweaked small allignement issue on menu quest page
* Fixed situation where Murray talks on the journal page without actual text to speak
* Improved guidance and hints in demo's first room (temporarily)

v0.26.73 (17 juli 2022)
* Spend the day on titlepage mockups, and writing commission descriptions and feedback.

102

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: July 12, 2022, 06:52:20 am »

A quick week summary:
- Had some more time off from work, so there has been a bit more progress then normal. The dungeon 1 tileset is now fully completed and I'm tackling the last objects next. Need about 5 more sprites for those; two of which will take some extra time because I'll have to get help on them.
- Another enemy has been given a facelift. For dungeon 1 that leaves about 8 more enemies to do next. Including the more complex humanoid enemies which I'll also need an animator to help with.
- Commissioned a length overworld music track from a new composer earlier today. Which is very exciting to hear the results of.
- I'm also in contact with a pixel animator, who's getting a first small commission to see what he can do. Hopefully this will pan out well, so we can finally start making rapid progressing on the character animations.
- Preparing a new commission for the established object/tile artist. Still working out the request details, but I'm considering to have her start work on the next area already.
- I'll probably write up a more wordy progress report soon, to also post on other forums. I'm not actively advertising the game before the first demo is fully done, but it can't hurt to slowly get into the habit of posting more.

Also, here's another screenshot to show the progress compared to an image I shared

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.65 (4 juli 2022)
* Fixed flickering at the end of idle animations on the file select screen
* Tweaked and implemented new sprites for pots

v0.26.66 (5 juli 2022)
* Tweaked sprites and colors of chests (to make them stand out more against the tilework)
* Created and implemented the last missing dungeon 1 tiles:  pit edges
* Made progress fasing out now obselete old dungeon 1 tileset resources

v0.26.67 (6 juli 2022)
* Tweaked HUD coding slightly
* Cleaned up various (now) obeselete tilesets and other graphics

v0.26.68 (7 juli 2022)
* Added some more niche tiles to dungeon 1 tileset

v0.26.69 (8 juli 2022)
* Removed more (now) obselete tilesets (= resources are now also condensed to just a single texturepage)

v0.26.70 (9 juli 2022)
* Implemented new sprites for shallow water
* Fixed room dimensions of one of the dungeon rooms

v0.26.71 (10 juli 2022)
* Added new visuals for destroyed flying tiles snd pots
* Fixed small textbox depth oversight
* Created and implemented new sprites for pressure plates in dungeon 1
* Minor tweaks to the demo after first full dungeon playthrough
* Fixed error in dungeon1 subboss fight

103

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: July 03, 2022, 09:28:46 pm »

Here is an updated version of an earlier screenshot, to show the progress that is being made.
Both the tilework and objects (=doors/pots/switches/etc) for dungeon 1 are now nearly done. Also, the first tester is playing through dungeon 1 to check for stylistic inconsistencies and so forth. Shouldn't be too long now before I'll feel confident enough to send out private build to other testers. Feel free to send me a message if anybody wants to contribute with that.

Once the tiles/objects for dungeon 1 are done, I'll be switching to the next big batch of work. Which will likely be the enemy sprites or the character animations. Depending on how the early sketches pan out.

As for the boss music I mentioned last time: Good news! We now have our very first fully custom piece of music implemented into the game! Along with a few needed jingles. The boss track has a strong opening and a decent tempo so I'm quit happy with the results. And I'm getting a better sense of what questions and information to include when putting out requests / picking composers.


Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.61 (29 juni 2022)
* Game now tracks various more player stats
* Added visuals for pits to the floor below

v0.26.62 (30 juni 2022)
* Further simplified coding behind the credits sequence
* Added stats screen (as part of the credits) at the end of the game/demo
* Fixed surface memory leak
* Fixed screen flicker when returning to the title page from ingame

v0.26.63 (2 juli 2022)
* Created and implemented new visuals for dungeon textpoint
* Tweaked chest visuals

v0.26.64 (3 juli 2022)
* Added and implemented animation for large fires
* Tweaked some animation speeds
* Fixed some dungeon 1 tiling inconsistencies
* Cleaned up some old coding behind the various torch objects
* Fixed being able to use some items while not yet collected
* Fixed a number of small dungeon 1 tiling oversights
* Fixed itembox button indicators misaligning in specific circumstances
* Fixed positions of two d1 chests being swapped
* Tweaked placements of a few d1 objects
* Expanded starting items during the dungeon 1 demo
* Tweaked allignment for some rotated conditional doors

104

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: June 27, 2022, 10:16:28 am »

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.57 (20 juni 2022)
* Fixed issue with mp bar not refilling in certain circumstances
* Fixed small tiling depth issue in dungeon 1
* Fixed issue with door not opening after coming back to subboss 1 after defeating boss 1
* Fixed issue with sewers entrance not triggering
* Fixed issue with sewers masking not loading
* Fixed item menu navigation oversight

v0.26.58 (22 juni 2022)
* Fixed Murray talk animation directly after opening the item menu and not having a valid item available under the cursor
* Further implemented setup to add menu descriptions per collected item
* Fixed issue with interaction torches vs fire magic
* Tweaked masking of small torches
* Fixed incorrect cannonball animation speed
* Tweaked walllight animation speed

v0.26.59 (25 juni 2022)
* Tweaked and implemented new sprites for big cannonballs

v0.26.60 (26 juni 2022)
* Demo now limited to only the first dungeon
* Implemented the new boss music
* Implemented some new sound effects
* Recoded and cleaned up credits (= contributers, of content that I can't leave in the final product, have been moved or removed)
* Tweaked and implemented new sprites for tall torches
* Made adjustments so my engine actually plays nice with the new gmlive extension
* Tweaked credits speed and added speedup option

105

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: June 20, 2022, 11:07:15 am »

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.52 (13 juni 2022)
* Tweaked some more object spritework
* Implemented new sprites for conditional doors in dungeon1

v0.26.53 (14 juni 2022)
* Updated map menu sprite for collected secrets

v0.26.54 (15 juni 2022)
* Implemented new sprites for locked doors in dungeon 1

v0.26.55 (18 juni 2022)
* Edited and implemented one of the last sets of dungeon 1 tiles and objects
* Improved some small masking issues

v0.26.56 (19 juni 2022)
* Updated sprites of wall candles
* Updated tiles for smaller dungeon walls
* Finally managed to animate fire believably. Yes!
* Replaced spritework for a few more objects

106

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: June 12, 2022, 08:31:14 pm »

So there's been lots of nice progress last week.
- I had planned to not work on this project much during my days off from work. Working basically two jobs can drain a person pretty badly. But this free time was just what I needed get energized again.
- I promised screenshots over on Discord, so you can find those attached. Let's see where we are at:
So the last batch of dungeon 1 tiles are now being worked on via commission. Work is also already started on some enemies (like the smaller cannonballs in the screenshot) and objects (like the destroyed wall in the other screenshot). I'm not showing latest stuff just yet, but know that there is more progress.
- Overall I'd say about 95% of all the dungeon 1 tilework is now done. Just the hardest parts left  . Objects are about 40% done. Enemies about 5%.
- Purchased the GML Live extension. Haven't had time to play around with it just yet, but it'll probably save 1 or 2 days (!) of development per year. This game is so large already that I have to wait between 10 and 30 minutes for the engine to compile whenever I want to test any type of edit or bugfix. That should now go down to mere seconds, if the code is already running and I've got things set up correctly. Wonderfull!!
- The latest music and spritework weren't ready for this update post just yet, but I've seen the work in progress and it looks and sounds good. For the boss music I gave some Hollow Knight examples so look forward to hearing that in a future post.

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.46 (5 juni 2022)
* Fixed encountered boss 1 bug
* Added masking for new wall pillars
* Finished adding new tiles for doorways and staircases
* Tweaked character collission masking slightly

v0.26.47 (7 juni 2022)
* Fixed (and tweaked) ledge jumping collisions in south direction
* Fixed character shadow turning invisible after diving
* Updated textengine:
   > Can now handle infinite lines of text
   > Made it simpler to add and edit textinput
* Removed enemy/boss death sound overlap

v0.26.48 (8 juni 2022)
* Implemented new warp tile sprites

v0.26.49 (9 juni 2022)
* Implemented replacement sprites for small cannonball enemy
* Improved animation of new warp tiles
* Cannonball spawn sounds no longer overlap
* Expanded dungeon 1 tileset some more
* Created custom sprites for flying tiles in dungeon 1
* Fixed overlapping flying tiles sounds
* Implemented new sprites for NPC at start of dungeon 1

v0.26.50 (10 juni 2022)
* Further expanded dungeon 1 tileset
* Adjusted dungeon 1 schadow layer for new tiling
* Implemented new flying tile sprites in more locations
* Replaced some more of the last tiles in dungeon 1
* Implemented replacement sprites for breakable floors in dungeon 1 (+expanded object draw functionality)
* Made minor visual tiling edits to dungeon 1

v0.26.51 (12 juni 2022)
* Made a bunch of edits on incoming dungeon 1 tiles and sprites. As well as creating some own new sprites.

107

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: June 03, 2022, 06:25:23 am »

I'll be on a mini-vacation after today, so there won't be any progress update for 1 to 2 weekends.

To make up for that 😁 :
I'm including the audio track that came back from the music job I described earlier. The assignment was to create a track fit for the boss fights, so I don't think it was successful. The audio quality and composition themselves aren't bad though so I might give the creator another chance with more directions. What do you guys think?

On a final note. The new animator I was looking at earlier didn't pan out, so that hunt still continues. Made some more additional small animations myself last week, so there is still a fallback plan if needed.

108

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: May 30, 2022, 06:38:52 pm »

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.44 (28 mei 2022)
* Further expanded spritework for dungeon 1
* Tweaked various dungeon 1 room designs

v0.26.45 (29 mei 2022)
* Further expanded dungeon 1 tileset sprites
* Tweaked boss sprites

109

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: May 27, 2022, 08:44:00 pm »

The door can be properly opened in this version: https://www.mediafire.com/file/bk2y1hyd0tw6zpv/Zelda+0+25+13+(GM+update).zip/file

You can copy over your savefile into this game.

110

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: May 27, 2022, 06:48:58 pm »

I'll see what I can do. I've switched development to a newer version of gamemaker though, so I might break other things in the process.

111

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: May 27, 2022, 06:38:17 pm »

That's a bug. The door should open after pulling the lever. Sorry about that.

112

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: May 22, 2022, 08:11:13 pm »

Code: [Select]

v0.26.41 (18-20 mei 2022)
* Tweaked commissioned spritework
* Implemented new broken pedestals
* Fixed room layer depth issue due to inherentance
* Fixed some boss 1 sound effects from stacking
* Started implementing new visuals boss dungeon 1

v0.26.42 (21 mei 2022)
* Finished implemented new visuals boss dungeon 1
* Tweaked boss 1 AI to work better with the new visuals
* Redid parts of the setup behind enemy stone/frost/damage pallets

v0.26.43 (22 mei 2022)
* Tweaked and implemented more dungeon 1 wall decorations
* Tweaked and implemented new sprites for breakable wall
* Worked more on spritework

113

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: May 16, 2022, 06:16:08 pm »

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.40 (14-15 mei 2022)
* Put out new tiling commissions
* Put out first music trial commission
* Added diagonal walls to tileset
* Continued expanding and implementing the dungeon 1 tileset
* Implement new visuals for a few objects:
– small pushable statues
– Dungeon fairy statues (also added animation)
* Fixed broken push trigger

114

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: May 08, 2022, 08:23:42 pm »

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.35 (3 mei 2022)
* Made progress implementing parts of the new tileset in dungeon 1

v0.26.36 (4 mei 2022)
* Made progress expanding and implementing the new tileset in dungeon 1

v0.26.37 (6 mei 2022)
* Tweaked HUD
* Continued updating the dungeon 1 tiling

v0.26.38 (7 mei 2022)
* Tweaked HUD (hp now displayed with autumn leaf colors)
* Continued updating the dungeon 1 tiling

v0.26.39 (8 mei 2022)
* Continued expanding and implementing the dungeon 1 tileset
* Implement new visuals for cannonball opening bars
* Fixed visual oversight in the door display script

115

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: May 06, 2022, 07:54:59 pm »

Experimented with a few options but the simplest idea seemed to work best. How's this?

116

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: May 02, 2022, 10:42:58 am »

Here the first gameplay screenshot from the new game to share. So what can we see?
I've changed the HUD quit a bit to make this game stand more on it's own. The health and magic bars are now represented via leafs, which I felt fit more with the main character. Also the items counters have been moved and only (briefly) show up when you collect items or when it's helpful for the room you are in; like with the key counter in dungeons.

As for tiling. You will notice that just the floors and walls are different so far. The first dungeon has close to 50 rooms so it's taking a lot of work doing just that much, but it's getting there. Eventually I will be redesigning the first dungeon to be more compact, but for now I want to save time getting to a demo and leaving the actual rooms as is. You will see me gradually phasing out more and more of the original tiles as things progress.

And as a final bit of good news: I finally found a skilled spriter that I like to work with. It's a big milestone and a huge relieve on my part.

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.31 (27 apr 2022)
* Made progress building the new tileset and implementing the ceilings in the demo dungeon

v0.26.32 (29 apr 2022)
* Tweaked and implemented new commission results
* Made more progress expanding and implementing new tilesets

v0.26.33 (30 apr 2022)
* Made progress implementing parts of the new tileset in dungeon 1

v0.26.34 (1 mei 2022)
* Made progress implementing parts of the new tileset in dungeon 1

117

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: April 24, 2022, 08:43:02 pm »

I've been taking it a little easy this week, due to life. But there was still decent progress: on the tiling front, with tweaks to last week's commission results and with the formation of the next batch of work.

I've included early versions of the item menu sprites that came in from, last week's commission, in case anyone wants to chip in with feedback on the style and so forth. I was looking for bright colorful images, limitating the artist in the amount of colors she could use, also. Given that, I am fairly happy with the results. Not sure I'll be able use all of them,  but most should make it into the game in one form or another.

Also this week I finally finished a tricky new idle animation of the main character doing his morning arms stretches. It's pretty frustrating to develop a movement not in the orginal or other example materials, but oh so delightfull if you finally get it to work. Slowly I'm getting more and more comfortable animating this little guy

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.27 (18 apr 2022)
* HUD rupee counter always visible in shops

v0.26.28 (22 apr 2022)
* Made progress on the hero idle animations
* Made progress on the menu item sprites

v0.26.29 (23 apr 2022)
* Worked on new tileset commissions

v0.26.30 (24 apr 2022)
* Removed atk button indicator from HUD
* Finished new tiling commission
* Tweaked results from menu item commission
* Made own progress on expanding tomb tileset
* Started work on extra hero idle animations

118

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: April 17, 2022, 10:09:48 pm »

As for this weeks progress update: I don't have new visuals to share, but I did put out a new commission some days ago. so  things should pick up again next week. I AM working on a HUD rework, but that´s using quick and dirty placeholder sprite work, so I'm not confident enough to share that just yet.

A while back I said I would re-evaluate the project now that Micah left. Basically, combined with the overall pace of things, it is not feasible to get a demo out by the end of summer. I was working on the assumption that I would have 2 team members to help out by early Q2, but that did not happen. As a result I'm going to be aiming for a december demo, with a smaller scope. Things can still pick up rapidly with the right supporting members, but it seems prudent to plan more cautiously this time around. And by smaller scope, I mean I'll not be spending energy on kickstarter preparation anymore until the demo is out. And that I'll not be spending too much effort into promotion of this server and the game until then either. You can still expect the customary weekly progress reports. I've been posting those for so many years now that they've become like second nature by now 😆

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.24 (12 apr 2022)
* Further cleaned up coding behind Link's dynamic tunic coloring
* Made some more progress on the new HUD setup

v0.26.25 (15-16 apr 2022)
* Put out a new batch of sprite commissions
* Changed mp and hp HUD indicators. Placeholders graphics for now
* Magic usage no longer cut by 1/2 and 1/4th upgrades. Instead the magic values get increased.
*Magic 1/4th usage upgrade changed to 1/3th usage
* Removed sound overlap when cutting multiple grass patches at once
* Edited screen position of HUD counters
* HUD bomb/arrow/rupee counters now only shown after picking up when collecting more (or paying)

v0.26.26 (17 apr 2022)
* Minor changes made to new tileset
* Tweaked positioning HUD counters
* Got sick

119

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: April 11, 2022, 08:24:26 pm »

And here's the weekly update. Mostly just finished implementing the archery animation. I also spend a lot of time trying to add in an in-game .gif recorder, thinking it would save me time in the long run. But it ended up clashing too much with my other systems for it to be worth it time wise. Oh well. Best to cut my losses now and get back to actual demo progress again.

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.22 (8 apr 2022)
* Further tweaked new archery animation

v0.26.23 (9-10 apr 2022)
* Now fully implemented the new archery animation
* Added custom arrows for hero and enemies
* Updated to the latest version of Gamemaker
* Spend a fair amount of time setting up an ingame GIF recorder function. Ended up scrapping it because it required a rethink of the custom draw setup (which wasn't worth the time)

120

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: April 04, 2022, 04:27:32 pm »

Weekly progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.18 (27 maart 2022)
* Minor menu coding updates

v0.26.19 (30 maart 2022)
* Sprited some new hero/boss icons for the map menu

v0.26.20 (1 apr 2022)
* Spend the day spriting a hero archery animation

v0.26.21 (2 apr 2022)
* Further tweaked archery animation (and implemented ingame)
* Implemented earlier icons in the map menu
* Tweaked HUD sprites a little further