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Perseverance Full Clearance: Going to MV

Bizarre Monkey

I SHALL BE GLORIOUS!
Thanks Rise! Again, only posting so late because I wouldn't want to bump the thread without some content to offer.

So my Spriter got done with exams only an hour ago, and now we have Pep's front walking animation.

For his running animation, it's going to be very flailing and silly, which goes to better define his character. While Nola's is very efficient and determined and Streamlined.
Maybe I'll make a Journal option that records data, one section for weapons, one for powerups, another for characters.

A character's name, with a large image, a couple lines showing statistics (Age, Height, Origin, Species, Likes/Dislikes, etc.), then a description.

If such a plugin doesn't exist already, I'll have one made.

I imagine toggling a switch per item would be how they are unlocked.

That way I could either have it when you encounter said item or entity you get the entry, or you find Pamphlets that unlock them, think alike KISS Psycho Circus.
With the recent Bestiary announcement, that's pamphlets for characters and mobs sorted on a base level. I may be able to throw stats to the Wind, and just have monsters in the database that are actually the weapons and powerups you can get, too!

In fact, I could make it so weapons upgrade through treasure hunting, too! That would save me eventing an Experience variable and all, just simply find a requisite item to upgrade your weapons.

Think like Gold Bolts in Ratchet and Clank One, except not quite so sacred.
Definitely gonna go with this idea. The only thing in the face of this right now is the strict linearity of the game, but Oddworld games are also for the most part, strictly linear, but secrets always had a defining presence, in the first it was rocks falling from ledges that may have otherwise lead to your death. In Exoddus it was discarded Soulstorm brew bottles. So I'll use something like that.

More content? Well yes! This is a little older than the last two tracks, but I in earnest forgot completely to link it.

And one of my friends voluntarily did a concept for Saxxis, which was rad of him. It's a little bulky, I imagine Saxxis as more scrawny, but when I give it to my spriter in color I'll make sure he understands that.
http://i.imgur.com/FwB0dRk.png
His top-hat would also be taller. But this is an amazing concept. Very telling of the Full Jacket Alchemist.

My portrait artists have been loving the new designs, one even did Pep's new design just because it looked fun.
http://i.imgur.com/ui2jrj9.jpg
Thanks Belle!

So what else? Well not much visual since I don't have MV yet. But my team and I have discussed quite a few things. I've also done a storyboard for the splash cinematic.

I imagine something like this playing.
Panel 1:
Overlay text: The Humans Flee, have been fleeing, for near 20 years...
Panel 2:
Overlay text: From their fears, the fears they could not face. That something in the Universe may be able to entirely eradicate them.
Character text: Percy, come up!
(Important to note, Percy, a human child, draws the first 'P', that would be adopted by the Perseverance Union... Percy is the nickname I give Perseverance as a game.)
Panel 3:
Percy throws the image aside.
Overlay text: While one left a world behind, another fought to preserve it...
Panel 4:
Character text: LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!
Panel 5:
Character Text: At last, our patience is rewarded!
(Yes, that is Member XII, but the one from Dimension XII, not Dimension IV. Dimension VI's Member XII becomes the invader of Dimension XII... via the 4th wall-- while Member XII of Dimension XII, has help from the Dimension IV's Member X to get the humans out of Earth before Maw could kill more people, and to atone for their greed. Member XII from Dimension IV would later go with his 15 and any willing to aid in his new Utopia. They are uninvolved with Corporation XVI. They are simply referred to as "The Halfbreeds.")
Panel 6:
Character Text: See for yourselves!
Panel 7:
Character Text: *Cheering*
A new planet hovers in view, it's 2052 for them.
Panels 8-13: Percy's drawing floats out the window and goes on a journey, through a wormhole, taking it back 8 years to fall upon Earth, which is now dominated by Mammals. Year 2044
Overlay Text (Panel 12): A new prime designate for dominion over Earth was chosen.
Panel 14:
Highlord Naxon's first appearance.
Panel 15:
Overlay Text: And it wouldn't be him... the drawing passes by, exploiting the Tyrant's selective ignorance...
Panel 16:
Like a sign from the heavens, it falls to one more worthy.
Panel 17:
Sped seen from behind glancing it over... being absolved with it.
Overlay Text: From a Pained Child's garbage
Panel 18:
Sped adds the letters 'erseverance' to the "P".
Is formed the Perseverance Cusp.
Panel 19:
He shows his finished icon.
"It's nothing short of treasure, now..."
Panel 20:
Sped crumples it up looking up with renewed determination.
Overlay Text: Treasures exceeding wealth, an idea... one worth fighting for, was born.
Panel 21:
Naxon is shown pleased...
Overlay Text: Some would build big and think small.
Panel 22:
Warth'og, the Dread Titan is first shown.
Overlay Text: And use strength to outplay wits.
Panel 23:
Esperia is first shown, with Sped facing her, his hands bearing angered claws, dropping the poster.
"Others would persevere, even with only wits to guide them."
Panel 24:
Esperia's face is unveiled a little, and a menacing grin is shown.
Panel 25:
Sped is disconcerted.
Overlay text: Even against what they fear.
Panel 26:
Sped rushes forward, leaving his fears behind.
Overlay Text: They won't always triumph.
Panel 27:
Speds arm shows him lunging at Esperia with all of his might.
Panel 28:
Esperia crumples his attack with one finger... she doesn't give a fuck.
Overlay Text: Heroes aren't all powerful...
Panel 29:
Sped's a little worried about his weapon development.
Overlay text: But even at their most frail.
Panel 30:
Overlay Text: Even when victory is pulled away from them...
Character Text: Game Over...

Other Side

Panel 31:
Esperia is all getting grabby with his eyes.
Overlay Text: Even when robbed of vision...
Character Text: "MINE"
Panel 32:
Sped blackouts from pain.
Panel 33:
Sped is lying unconscious on the blood-slicked precipice of damnation.
Overlay text: They have the greatest gift of all.
Panel 34:
Sped regains consciousness.
Character Text - Svoli: Shhh...
Panel 35:
Sped lies back down, with a woman his age nursing him back to health.
Character text - Sped: Who are you?
Panel 36:
He begins to detect Svoli's motions, and a blurry figure asked him... "You can still..."
Panel 37:
"See, right?"
His vision clears. He can see!
Panel 38:
Pep in pleasant shock.
Character text - Sped: Somehow!
Panel 39:
Character text - Svoli: I'm Svoli.
Panel 40:
Naxon in his throne room.
Character text - Naxon: I want all who wear this...
Panel 41:
Naxon holds up the Emblem of Perseverance
Character text - Naxon: Killed.
Panel 42:
Line up of the Rebel cast, i.e. Nola, Pep, Svoli, Sven and Sped.
Panel 43:
Line up of the Naxonite cast, i.e. Saxxis, Esperia, Warth'og and Naxon.
Panel 44:
Fade out to white
Panel 45:
TITLE DROP!
Panel 46: Title menu appears, all that good stuff. Hmhm!
I've also been drafting more of the story. I made a particularly interesting passage for the endgame.
He flips the explosives on and makes a mad dash to St. Albans to retreat to the Underground, Esperia-- who had watched the whole event, followed him without his knowing. She quickly figured out where he was going, and jumped ahead, again, his eyes missing her entirely.

She finds Nola knitting in the den they'd built. Nola looks up to her, and goes back to her knitting.
"You're waiting for him too, huh?"
Esperia lowers herself down to Nola's level, so that they'd be speaking face to face.
"You love what he was, don't you?"
Against her will, a tear again escapes.
"Yes..."
Esperia picks her up and hugs her, patting her on the back.
"I do too... I know this may seem weird from me, but in this world, you need friends where ever you can find them."
Esperia places her back down.
"It's time I do the only thing I can to redeem myself a little. Xepp's on his way here, and we're going to bring Pep back."
Nola looks up at her.
"I have an idea how... he's worth it."
The two are alerted to the barn doors above being closed and locked, Xepp then is visible on the ladder.
"You do what you feel you must."
Right, I think that should do you all for now. Just as well because it's way past my bedtime, though 3:14 is excellently relevant.
 

Rise Evil

Praised Adventurer
Xy$
0.00
So my Spriter got done with exams only an hour ago, and now we have Pep's front walking animation.
The sprite animation is so awesome. Pep has a good looking now :D

More content? Well yes! This is a little older than the last two tracks, but I in earnest forgot completely to link it.
Nice track, it's really enjoyable ^^

And one of my friends voluntarily did a concept for Saxxis, which was rad of him. It's a little bulky, I imagine Saxxis as more scrawny, but when I give it to my spriter in color I'll make sure he understands that.
http://i.imgur.com/FwB0dRk.png
His top-hat would also be taller. But this is an amazing concept. Very telling of the Full Jacket Alchemist.

My portrait artists have been loving the new designs, one even did Pep's new design just because it looked fun.
http://i.imgur.com/ui2jrj9.jpg
Thanks Belle!
Those sketchs are simply amazing *_*
 

Bizarre Monkey

I SHALL BE GLORIOUS!
Now actually having MV, and having works on mostly only this today, here's where we are, currently.

The HUD is a mock up, the rest is real. Right now I could really use feedback on the HUD before I go finalizing anything.

The Resolution is 960x720, the bottom 176 pixels of the screen is obscured by the HUD. This HUD is divided into three 320 pixels wide columns, the left being the character status, the right being boss / enemy status, the middle is information area, typically regarded as the "Closet Space".

It's possible I might make the HUD 4 pixels higher just to make it 180 pixels high, which leaves 540 pixels of room to breath. That's quite a lot if you consider the original had 480 pixels maximum, and 120 of those were taken by the HUD, leaving me only 360 pixels to work with.
 

Rise Evil

Praised Adventurer
Xy$
0.00
Now actually having MV, and having works on mostly only this today, here's where we are, currently.

The HUD is a mock up, the rest is real. Right now I could really use feedback on the HUD before I go finalizing anything.

The Resolution is 960x720, the bottom 176 pixels of the screen is obscured by the HUD. This HUD is divided into three 320 pixels wide columns, the left being the character status, the right being boss / enemy status, the middle is information area, typically regarded as the "Closet Space".

It's possible I might make the HUD 4 pixels higher just to make it 180 pixels high, which leaves 540 pixels of room to breath. That's quite a lot if you consider the original had 480 pixels maximum, and 120 of those were taken by the HUD, leaving me only 360 pixels to work with.
A 16 : 9 screen HUD can wait, unless you can center it to avoid redoing it. Despite that, the interface is still looking great ^^
 
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Bizarre Monkey

I SHALL BE GLORIOUS!
it's not even 16 : 9 and hahaha nooo im not doing one much as it may seem a squeeze i had trouble filling in blanks. Right now it's pretty cozy I think!

Wouldn't usually be able to respond so quickly but I forgot that Jake just recently finished another remastered track.

Then also this one I forgot to Upload until just now...

The Facesets for Svoli and Esperia also got some minor tweaks with expression.



That's all for today!
 

Rise Evil

Praised Adventurer
Xy$
0.00
it's not even 16 : 9 and hahaha nooo im not doing one much as it may seem a squeeze i had trouble filling in blanks. Right now it's pretty cozy I think!

Wouldn't usually be able to respond so quickly but I forgot that Jake just recently finished another remastered track.

Then also this one I forgot to Upload until just now...

The Facesets for Svoli and Esperia also got some minor tweaks with expression.



That's all for today!
Love it! <3
 

reisen

Adventurer
Xy$
0.00
I'm kind of icky on the HUD, I told you this on Skype before but I'm not sure if you read it. It has too much clutter and could really use some simplifying.
 

Bizarre Monkey

I SHALL BE GLORIOUS!
I'm kind of icky on the HUD, I told you this on Skype before but I'm not sure if you read it. It has too much clutter and could really use some simplifying.
I did see your responses and I have been thinking about how to make the hud less of a cluster-fuck, first we need to sort out what the buttons are that we'll actually be using.

I like telling the player how to play through the HUD. But I've had another brilliant idea.

My plan is to eventually make all the tilesets no-more and to use our own imagery for mapping like is already present like in the Second stage:

[doublepost=1446354224,1446200701][/doublepost]Jake recently got done with another incredible piece. This will be the main theme of the game, present in the title-screen.
Not a huge amount on the art side, mostly we've been working out systems, the story is also being only slightly revised, just enough to incorporate an intense tutorial and a storybook kind of vibe for the first four acts of the game.

Basically in the beginning intro Nola and Pep will be fighting Dread Pigs and then Saxxis together in downtown london, we will assume this is the 3rd time they've clashed. This battle and such will function as the 'get right into the action' tutorial, after we will pan to Nola and Pep eating breakfast in the concrete-walled apartment they've settled in...
Pep: "So hey, Nola. How did you end up getting roped into all this, anyway? Like I know Dad did something but I'd like to hear it from the Lion's mouth."
Nola: "Hmm, it has been a strange year... It's too bad they couldn't see me now."
Then Act 1 begins and the beginning cutscene will play.

The regular beginning gameplay will now be no simple stroll, combat will be there at the onset. It will follow basically the same narrative but without the subtle tutorials. There'll be a lot more battles in Act II which was mostly barren until the end. over all more enemy types will also exist.
 

Macro

Pantologist
Xy$
0.00
Those sprites and maps are looking quite nice!

I personally like more simplified and transparent HUDs (like Metroid or Castlevania) myself, but I think the design itself looks good, and fits the theme of the game well. In all honesty though, I don't know if having the controls (e.g. WASD) listed on the HUD the entire time is needed, but that's just me. As a tutorial though, or as a popup type of HUD? I think it's great.
 
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Bizarre Monkey

I SHALL BE GLORIOUS!
I think I will discard the writing and make the HUD a bit less of a clusterf*ck. The opaque nature of it is designed with the gameplay in mind. The game takes some inspiration from Iji as well as old FPS's like DooM95 that had an opaque HUD down the bottom like that.

If I can, I'll let the player hide the HUD with a button press. Essentially though, the bottom of the screen is not going to have any useful kind of information. So if I did it would simply be for screenshots and cinematics.

Xiie's back in the action. Esperia's redesign is in the works.
 

Rise Evil

Praised Adventurer
Xy$
0.00
I think I will discard the writing and make the HUD a bit less of a clusterf*ck. The opaque nature of it is designed with the gameplay in mind. The game takes some inspiration from Iji as well as old FPS's like DooM95 that had an opaque HUD down the bottom like that.

If I can, I'll let the player hide the HUD with a button press. Essentially though, the bottom of the screen is not going to have any useful kind of information. So if I did it would simply be for screenshots and cinematics.

Xiie's back in the action. Esperia's redesign is in the works.
Great update! Your drawing skill with the tablet increased tremendously :O
 

Bizarre Monkey

I SHALL BE GLORIOUS!
Lol didn't you see me mention Xiie? I couldn't even get my tablet working yesterday.

So to clarify, that's Reisen's work, doofus. :P

I'm not that good with a tablet.

Xiie is the lead portrait artist of the CCC
Pjcr is the lead pixel artist of the CCC
Jake is the lead composer of the CCC
I'm the lead writer / systems manager, I do very little on the art-side that actually gets used in the games these days.
 

Bizarre Monkey

I SHALL BE GLORIOUS!
My apologies :(
Lol relax. It's not your fault. I just have to clarify these things because the last thing I want to be seen as is a plagiarist.

I have enough trouble with false rumours being spread of that by the people who choose to believe I'm toxic.

looks pretty cool ..cant wait to get to check it out
I'll be able to really get into things once these assignments are done with, then I'll have all the free time I'll need until late February next year.
 

Rise Evil

Praised Adventurer
Xy$
0.00
Lol relax. It's not your fault. I just have to clarify these things because the last thing I want to be seen as is a plagiarist.

I have enough trouble with false rumours being spread of that by the people who choose to believe I'm toxic.
I kind of understand that, but one thing sure, your friend Xiie is a beast at drawing from tablet only. The only thing I can do with the tablet is to quickly put the colour on the drawing scanned into my pc and place the shades with more precision than a mouse can do XD
 

Bizarre Monkey

I SHALL BE GLORIOUS!
Big update on progress!

Jake "MoneyMenace" Gamelin remastered another composition, from Queen of Spades comes forth...
The Wake of Nightmare

Xiie colored in the rough outline of Esperia, few things to fix and outlines are just wip at the moment, just rushed so that Pjcr, whom is now back in action, would have a character spriting reference.


I've personally been writing a lot down recently, thinking on systems and the like. I've one more day of college and I'll be back in the game. Meanwhile, I also did this HD video presentation of the various characters.
 

Macro

Pantologist
Xy$
0.00
I'm having a really hard time determining what her expression is supposed to be. Something about the mouth. Other than that, some polish on the lines, and I think it's looking to be nice new replacement art. ^_^
 
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