Adding dialogue

I have added more original dialogue to the game, replacing the default text that was provided with the RPG starter kit. Some of the dialogue was provided by Sara who initially came up with the plot.

Final Updates to the RPG

In the last few weeks of the semester, I worked on adding as much content as possible to our RPG "Tigerblade Origins." With the help of Bryan and Rahee, we designed two towns, and four dungeons.
The screenshots below are of the dungeons I designed.

The Forest of No Return

Basement Dungeon (Dungeon 3)

The final dungeon (Which consisted of multiple scenes)

Bryan assisted with the final dungeon by adding the final boss fight in the last screenshot. Bryan also help with the design of The Forest of No Return

I also added two new scripts to the game.
Attaching the button script to an object, makes it so when the player hits that object with the sword or with a shot from the want, a game object referenced by the script disappears. This was added for puzzles that require the player to look for buttons to press and how to press them. (Using projectiles or the sword.)

I added another script that will destroy certain objects when the object it's attached to is hit with a stronger sword. This is so the player would have to first retrieve a stronger weapon before accessing the final dungeon.

For the previous script, the stronger sword the player has to retrieve is the Tiger Blade. I added this weapon to the inventory and made the sprite. Bryan did the scripting necessary to make it so the player can obtain the sword after opening a treasure chest.

Adding first boss room, improving hitbox, and changing title screen

I've begun working on the first boss, which is the boneshark. I've made the layout for the boss room and added the sprite.
I've also made the hitbox of the sword larger to make combat less frustrating.
And I've made the titlescreen a picture of the overworld map with our working title. "Tigerblade Origins."

Adding dungeons

This week I haven't been given too much work to do other than creating the actual layout for the game. I've been working more on making the town and overworld look and feel more complete.
Bryan made the layout for the first dungeon so I added that. (First image)
I also made a second dungeon/wilderness area with some more enemies which you can access on the first island. (Second image)

And I put everything I added on the Google Drive.

Creating the overworld

I created the scene for the overworld, in which the player will be controlling a boat to move from island to island. I have also added a script that makes the boat sprite follow the player. (For now, the boat sprite is a white block.)

Making the starting area

I had worked on created the layout of the player's hometown in Unity. Below is a screenshot of the finalized layout. All that's left is to apply our textures.

Stealth system

Bryan and I have been working on adding a stealth system to our game. We accomplished this by giving enemy NPCs four game objects that are children of the NPC. If the NPC is facing the direction of the object, it will be made active, and the other three inactive. If the player collides with one of these active objects, they will be caught and sent to another scene.
Bryan modified the NPCbehavior script by adding four variables that are the directions the NPC can face.
We encountered a glitch where sometimes the player freezes after being caught and can no longer move. We plan to fix that this week.

Starting the world map

I started making the overall map for the game we're creating. I started by modifying the default map the starter kit gives us by getting rid of the wall on the west side and replacing it with water and a dock. When the player walks over the dock, they go to another scene which is the ocean, the overall world map. In this scene, the player will be controlling the boat. (For now it's still the default sprite.)

Fast travel system

This week, I worked on adding a fast travel system. When you press "m" on the keyboard, you'll be taken to a new scene, which is the map, and you'll be able to click on locations you've visited before to travel there instantly.

To do this, I added some code to the player controls script that loads another scene when the user presses the "m" key.

For the map scene, I essentially modified the GUI text that was used on the title screen.

Roll-A-Ball

Below are two screenshots of my Roll-A-Ball project. One of the workspace, and one of my game in action.

Adding a new scene

In the following two screenshots, I show where I added a building in the town, and what the building looks like on the inside. (I've added an NPC and a few tables.)

Editing Sprites

Here are some screenshots of how I modified the sprites of the RPG starter kit.

Here I changed the player sprite, weapon sprite, and NPC sprite, and window sprites:

Here I changed an enemy sprite, the blob:

Game Combination Ideas

I really like the idea of combining my idea with Matt's ship idea. The focus of my idea wasn't the exploration, but the battle system. I really had no idea how the over-world would be, so when he brought up the idea of exploring an ocean with many different lands to discover, I thought that would be really great.
I also really like Rahee's idea of focusing on the story. That's a mechanic that can incorporated into just about any of the ideas presented.
Same goes for Frank's environment puzzles, that can be used in just about any of our games.

2D Action RPG Pitch

At the beginning of the game you choose what kind of adventurer you want to play as. You can choose from a list of pre-existing characters or create your own. Chose race (if applicable), gender, and class. And you can write a back story.

You're dropped into this world at some starting point. (Probably a tavern because that's a typical place DND adventurers meet up at anyway.) There are quests you can take on that require you to enter the wilderness.

In this game you can create your own adventure. There are a lot of towns to go to, and places to discover in the wilderness, and there are a lot of quests to complete. Some quests lead to interesting plots with many individual quests that chain together; some are simple delivery quests that you can complete for items. (These delivery quests can be completed multiple times, but only after a set amount of time has passed after a completion.)

There can also be an overarching story that the player follows.

While adventuring, you can recruit people to join your party. You can meet people in different towns that you can recruit, and they will have tasks for you to complete before they join you. If you’d like, you can create your own recruit by paying a certain amount of money at a certain vendor that’s available in most towns to “hire” a wandering adventurer.

The limit to your party is four characters. You can dismiss certain characters if you want to make room and they’ll go back to their place of origin.

The battle system

The dynamic battle system will be the focus of this project. In RPGs you typically spend the majority of your time in the field, or in dungeons battling enemies to make your party stronger while you're on your way to complete a quest. That's why we need to focus on making the battle system really fun and intuitive so that players will never be bothered when they encounter enemies.

While traversing the world, the player will see enemies wandering about. If a player gets close enough to an enemy, the enemy will notice the player and run after them. If the player and enemy collide, the game will shift from the world, to a separate battlefield that looks similar to the area the player was just in. The battlefield is a square arena, arranged by a grid, with invisible boundaries. There are obstacles in the arena that are generated randomly. (For instance, if the enemy encounter is in a field, some of the obstacles generated could be things like trees, rocks, and maybe a river. Or if the encounter is in a dungeon the obstacles could be things like walls, and spike traps on the floor that will hurt whoever walks over it.)

The battlefield is divided into a grid. At the beginning of a battle, the player will choose which of their four party members they want to send in to battle. A prompt will come up with info on each character, health, magic, class, level, weapon, etc. Once a character is chosen, they’re dropped into battle. The combat is real-time. There will be multiple different fighting styles based on the player’s class/weapon of choice. Close combat with heavy attacks using hammers or axes, close combat with quick attacks using swords or daggers, long range combat with bows or long range combat with spells. 

Some obstacles can be destroyed by weapons, and some can’t, adding a strategic dynamic to movement in the battlefield. Some obstacles are short, these don’t make your characters invincible when standing behind them, but harder to hit. (Depending on which direction the attack is coming from.)

Characters and enemies also have weaknesses. If an entity is hit by its weakness, it will suffer more damage than it normally would, and it will be dazed, unable to do anything for a certain amount of time. If an entity is hit while in a daze, it will snap back to normal and be able to act.

If the player can daze all of the enemies, they will be given some sort of bonus to their attacks.

Every fixed amount of time in battle, the player is given a “swap point” which can be used to swap out the current character for someone else in the party mid-battle. The reason I say “fixed amount of time” is because it can vary based on the difficulty of the battle. If it’s a regular mob encounter, they can be awarded a point every thirty seconds. But if it’s a boss encounter, they can be awarded a point every minute because the battle would last longer. The max amount of swap points a player can have starts at 2. But this number will go up based on either the level of the player, or the progress the player has made overall. (If there’s an over-arching story.)

I imagine this game having combat similar to that of Ys. The action will be fast paced and hack n slasheque with strategic elements.

Keeping the over-world and battlefield as separate instances would be similar to the way games like Tales of Rebirth or Eternal Sonata do the same thing The presentation of the battlefield would be similar to that of The World Ends With You.

Inspiration for Battle presentation (The World Ends With You):

Inspiration for dynamic battlefields with obstacles and the overall game feel (Ys The Oath in Felghana):

 Inspiration for fields with wandering enemies (Eternal Sonata):