Demo Release Trailer

Friday, November 24, 2017

Super Boss and Mechanics Solid!

It actually turned out even better than I anticipated, comparitively to PFC, the movement and combat is incredibly fluid.

I've also been working on a trailer for the demo, getting together voice actors for it, as well as enough recordings of gameplay.

As for progress on the game, both me and my composer are ahead of schedule. The game is currently up to Act 1, though there's some stuff left to fix up and finish for Act 0, most of which I am waiting on my artists for, but not all- there is certainly some blank spots in my knowledge of how to execute certain cutscenes, and adding the flavor text has become a heavy amount of work in regards to the sister's house due to the several states and days it has to account for, in which some flavor text makes no sense after a point, so on most objects you can interact with at your leisure, there are multiple pages, and its actually rare for these conversations over an object to be brief.

There's also some additions I want to make to gameplay in act 0 (prologue) so it isn't just a glorified walk around for most of it, sections like the Night Shift of Justice with Lumi's jumping lunacy will likely help with this, and I'm definitely doing to have each characters gimmick become something to aid them in future obstacles, for example, Lumi can jump over chasms, Koko can grapple up to otherwise unreachable areas, and Lilac can hover over dangerous terrain. Due to how the player can switch their character at anytime after act 0, it's likely that functionality will play a huge role from act 1 going forward.

Act Zero's storytelling has been easily one of the most challenging Story Arcs I've had to create, like I've devoted so much time into thinking exactly what details can be omitted to keep dialogue from becoming long-winded, while being enough to make the characters charming and gel together well that it's frankly embarassing.

During this first prologue I have to establish the relationship between three sisters and their father, while also keeping the player intrigued with unnerving plot elements and gradually building up the ominous nature of the situation. Until the finale that you see in that video there. comparative to say-- the first day, here.
Mapping has definitely been one of the most fun parts of this game, along with writing the characters. Giving the game its eerie fantastical atmosphere and every zone some sense of ambience has been a very fun exercise, and the game pulls you in, and if you're one who likes flavor text, you'll be finding hours pass by as you are just inspecting different items around the house, keeping in mind they usually have new things on each different day to account for what has changed, the bedrooms are particularly notorious for this.

The progression in Act 0 is very linear in a sense, even if it does an okay job of hiding it. You're sort of lead around by the nose, which is a shame given how much depth the Island of Vahnus has to it, but it's a fine line to walk between that and the chaotic nature of making an open world, and I'd like to avoid the latter, seeing as Acts 1-3 are all much more open feeling, in that you can go back to Planets you've visited and talk to the citizens that are still there, and perhaps I can open Vahnus up a little more in the future, but for the demo, I need to focus on the core of the game, which is its story arc and characters.

The HUD will be a lot more streamlined than in PFC, and each key will have a pretty memorable function assignment. A is for Attack / Assail (Throw Bunnies, Bats or Books), S is for Skedaddle (It's being changed from special for the sake of this not only being more humorous, but more inline with what the 'S' key actually does.)

D is still for Drive, though you'll only get to use one in the demo, as they are unlocked via the coming of age of the sisters, the first one will be Lumi, who gets hers shortly into act 1.

F is for Friend, this is basically the hotkey to change your active party member. Friend will also automatically activate when one of the girls gets KO'd (hits 1 HP)

Outside of Drive, all of these mechanics are implemented, I'm going to save doing the Drive Mechanic until I need to, since spellcards of any magnitude can take a while to event, given the complexity. I'm also not sure WHAT a Drive is going to do yet, I want it to be distinctively different per character. Originally I was just thinking they'd shit projectiles everywhere, but I'm thinking it'd be better to have them be support abilities.

I'm thinking Lumi's will be more a righteous sacrifice, in that she gets Ko'd, but brings Koko and Lilac back with full Health and Energy, that tends to be a recurring thing with Main characters of Lumi's caliber within the Biztopian Cosmos, see Rolly's "Resolve to Rest" and Fatty's "One for All" abilities. While I was thinking that, there's two large issues with the idea.

Lumi is typically who you'll begin a fight with, as she's the easiest character to play, due to her straightforward play-style. It also lacks a visual and skill impact, and will also make some encounters brokenly easy, and break personal encounters or disallow using such a skill in them entirely. So a better idea I thought of is for her to spawn a bunch of healing orbs which only the player characters can interact with, so they'd just meander around the arena until eaten or the fight is over. This adds an element of skill because you have to choose when to eat them so as to capitalize on their power, but also you have to go and eat them while avoiding the projectiles and other things the enemy throws in your way to do so.

Koko I'm thinking on, Lumi and Lilac are easy because one is passive, the other is aggressive, Koko though is like a weird in-between. I'm definitely thinking she'll give basically an effect where you'll never have to worry about Energy so long as it's active, but just a magic bag effect alone won't do. One idea would be to make Skedaddle more powerful, as using the Skedaddle tech also takes a fair chunk of energy so upping them and their usage is not a bad idea. But the easier, and probably more sound idea is to half incoming damage, it may look less awesome, but functionally it would be more useful, also the skedaddles are already very good.

HOWEVER, there is one other pretty golden idea, and it would tie into Koko's studious nature, and that would be to actually lower the iframes of the boss, either for a duration or forever. Most bosses can only by hit once every 30 frames, half a second- but reducing that to 15 or 8 frames would be a great idea firstly because it's something that ties well into Koko's studious character and her role as the Apocalypse Prophet, but it's also a HUGE benefit to a fight, but without being utterly broken, it still means hitting the boss and using skill to do so, rather than being a boring passive.

As for Lilac, since she's the polar opposite of Lumi, her attack would be something aggressive or even draining, and chances are that her attack will make all your attacks leech life, or heal you for some, if not all of the damage done, for a duration, this would of course, apply to any character you use during the time, so you could get another characters health up quickly by using Lilac's Drive and then switching to your lowered party member and getting some hits in. It would alike Lumi's, require some skill to make nominal use of.

I'm slinging around name ideas for these abilities.

Lumi: Eve of the Luminescent Spring Flower (Could actually have yummy flowers be the healing powerups.)

Koko: Dawn of the Apocalypse Prophet

Lilac: Dusk of the Sanguine Ferocious Cataclysm


The characters each have a very strong dynamic, and I can tie each to an element of a several list.

Lumi is about the present and the tranquility of night, never worrying about what awaits, nor fretting of what was left behind, she alike Rolly, lives in the present, and is also the glue that keeps her others together.

Koko is the Dawn, she's got the day ahead to worry about, and if it's in need of saving, she's all for it. She symbolizes the sun while Lumi symbolizes the moon, she is the day in contrast to night. And she begins the day at dawn, and does her best to preserve it until it can no longer be preserved. She lives to fret about the future, and every decision she makes, she makes thinking 'how will this effect what is to come?'

Lilac on the other hand, is when the day is gone, and the dark has started to settle in, caring little for the sun or the moon, she relishes the in-between or lack thereof, a sun covered by clouds, the moon blanketed by dust- those are here ideal comparisons. Unlike Koko who tries to save the future, she on the other hand is just fine with it going however it is going to go, Lilac tends to prefer whats in the past, and never lets what is coming of the future bother her, as it will just mean the past gets either overshadowed, or she gets to develop a nostalgic sense for what was. While Koko frets of Apocalypse and doesn't trust destiny, Lilac embraces oblivion and knows Destiny for her doesn't end until she deems it fit.

To add in some more elements
Lumi represents simplicity, positivism and dealing with what is in the now.
Koko represents forethought, knowledge and preventative planning.
Lilac represents longevity, memory and laughing in the face of what happens next.

Lumi is easy to scare, she dwells in the present and is unnerved by present threats to her comfort or living.

Koko is irrationally scared, she doesn't fear what she should, and is always thinking of the grander picture.

Lilac fears very little, the only thing she fears is losing her two sisters, the rest of the universe is at most an amusing game to her, even her own life or existence she regards with very little esteem.
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Anyway! Enough about them, you'll get more on them later if things go as I hope, to wrap this update post erm... up! Here's a really awesome composition by Max M. Dominora, the lead composer for Fantasia.

Monday, November 13, 2017

Updates Galore!

Dev on Fantasia has been going solidly. The plan is to release a demo which shows Act 0 (Prologue) and all of Act 1, me and my colleagues, Xiie, Pjcr and Dominora are doing all in our power to get this game ready soon, the hope is before Christmas, but don't rely on that as anything concrete.

Currently I'm up to Day 5 of 7 of Act 0, at this point I'm updating graphics and preparing album art for my composer, he's been doing great lately, now 21 of the 25 tracks of music are complete, and 22 out of 25 album arts, Pjcr is working heavily as he can on Portraits, Yasondre was finished recently, and Kyoshi is coming up soon behind. Xiie meanwhile has been having fun updating the brand and aesthetic, as you'll see if you've been here before.

Here's a few screenshots to make you enticed!

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Perhaps once again, we may be challenged?

It's November 2nd, which means it's now time I begin again my dark work, as do several members of my collective, truthfully most of us have been doing work on the assets and ideas for this. but today and beyond I'll actually be opening up the games editor and getting a consistent story in place. Eventing stuff, all that good shit.

For those wondering about the battle gameplay, it will be a little lacking in the first half of the demo, but there will be much else to subsidize as gameplay, such as obstacle courses, avoidance tests, drive / combo courses, but your first actual battle will be nigh impossible to win, (you can but you'd have to be really good at the game)- but then you'll fight some bosses that aren't quite so tough.

Currently the group of people working on this are some of my most talented.

Xiie: Maps, Sprites, HUD and Logos.
Pjcr: Portraits
Max M Dominora: Music
Me: Everything Else.

Today I'm going to be organizing the games sound files, music rigmarole, correcting any mislabeled naming conventions and finalizing a story for Act 0.

Yesterday I left most of my distracting Discord chats in preparation for today, I've got a nice big breakfast in an hour from now, that my current residence is serving hot and fresh, which will be a great thing to have before I delve into deep-dev yet again.

Am I ready? Haha, I'd wanna hope so, I've been doing very little dev-wise the past two months, but, I have still done my fair share of work towards the game. Concepts and ideas are more or less all generated by me currently, and I'm behind virtually all of the initial character designing. I'm likely going to be changing the roster and removing or changing out a few of the current big characters, the main cast of Lilac, Lumi and Koko won't be changing, they've become popular and people have taken a shining to them, I also won't be swapping out characters which work has already been put into making assets for, ergo, Esperia, Fyori, Tiramisa and others of that nature will be staying. However, King Richard, Nikki Hirogashi and Mad are on the chopping block, it's likely I will keep mad, as she's very entertaining and fun to write, Nikki and Richard however, are firstly so obscure they barely exist, though at least Nikki has ties to Kyoshi, and Richard has ties to Mira, but unlike Mira, they don't feel like end game bosses, especially not Richard.

Zardari I'm also on the fence about, at least for where you encounter him, he's only just below Esperia in power level, so likely the original planned arc will be shifted around a fair bit. The Intermission with Richard, Dibella and Mira could easily be done solely to recruit Mira.

I'd like to add in Rolly and Nola, possibly Limbo, good news is Limbo is Richard's brother, so we could switch those two up.

Nola... she'd probably replace Zardari in the arc, and Zardari would be before Esperia and Fyori, it's likely the final arc, i.e. the toughest bosses prior to the finale- would be:
Zardari
Mira
Esperia
Fyori

I'm gonna contemplate a new roster, this won't really be spoilers.

Act 0:

Battle: Lilac (The Tower)
Battle: Koko (The Sun)
Battle: Lumi (Justice)
Battle: Kyoshi
Battle: Insidious Architect

Act 1:
Battle: Pep (The Fool)
Battle: Svoli (The Lovers)
Battle: Kara (The Moon)
Battle: Rolly (Strength)
Battle: Tristy (The Hermit)
Battle: Lyza (Temperance)

Act 2:
Battle: Nola (The World)
Battle: Wizard (The Hanged Man)
Battle: Limbo (The Star)
Battle: Tiramisa (The Devil)
Battle: Sacreblu (The High Priestess)

Act 3:
Battle: Mad (The Hierophant)
Battle: Zardari (The Emperor)
Battle: Mira (Death)
Battle: Esperia (The Empress)
Battle: Fyori (The Chariot)

Act Δ:
Battle: Yi Hellrider (Judgement)
Battle: Wi Hellrider (The Magician)
Battle: YHWH (Wheel of Fortune)

Whether you actually battle Kyoshi is still up in the air at this point, but if you do it'll likely be for the sake of either him trying to protect you, or gimmickry. Probably the latter, the family is a very interesting one.

So as you can see, quite a roster, and it looks like it's actually gotten bigger, now the three main girls and each boss have been assigned as a Major Arcana.

The Vahnus Prophecy will have to change a little, Times Eye will replace the amalgam of Yi and Wi.

I was uncertain about the previous roster, Especially due to the arc, but this I'm a lot more comfortable with, Nikki will still have minor involvement in the story I'd say, but she's not the final boss before Yi and Wi.

So, why is Fyori, that sissy little nymph from menagerie the final boss?

Well she's grown a lot in those 400-500 years since, in fact she's essentially the Universe's superpower now. Six Winged Angel of Wrath, you'll see!

I'm sure some of you have nagging questions, what are the stakes, what are these heroes fighting you for.

Well, the first question is simple, but it'd be better to let the demo say it for me (coming Late December probably), as for why they are fighting you, Possession.

But who could be powerful enough to possess such beings?

Oh, just you wait! You know me, I couldn't just tell you, that'd be too easy! But this is gonna be an amazing story, so amazing that I can barely contain myself. And with this new roster, it'll be much easier to make it feel less filler-esque. As it was the first pass I wrote of the story had me on the edge of my seat for the vast majority, but that was out of date, it's even better now! The struggle will be keeping it self contained, but also not wordy where it doesn't warrant it. I think I'm ready for the challenge.

The ideal thing about these new lead characters is they know as much as you do if this is your first time playing a game by me, so that will make it a lot easier, because I can simply put myself in their shoes and think "what would they ask next?".

The OST is coming along fantastically, too! Here's the newest piece by Max. M Dominora.
 Alright, breakfast time, and then, my dark work may begin!