-Fixed a bug with Analysis that caused it to freeze enemies and thus be able to cheese battles. (Hopefully it works!)
-Fixed a bug with Analysis that caused it to freeze enemies and thus be able to cheese battles. (Hopefully it works!)
It's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about that. Full transparency- after the ACT 1 Demo in November, I kind of crashed hard out of sheer burnout. But I've been slowly getting back to the grindstone- I want to finish this game, damnit! Learned quite a bit from last time, too. Hone
It's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about that.
Full transparency- after the ACT 1 Demo in November, I kind of crashed hard out of sheer burnout. But I've been slowly getting back to the grindstone- I want to finish this game, damnit!
Learned quite a bit from last time, too.
Honestly the dungeons that were better last time were the ones that were focused on puzzles and easy-to-understand (and more importantly, easy to program) gimmicks. The Police Department and Action Land? Not as fun. That'll influence the ones going forward (HOPEFULLY FOR THE BETTER, I THINK)
Let's put some codenames to the areas left, shall we?
-Forest
-Cave
-Graveyard
-Asylum
-Gallery
-Park
-Ocean
-Ruins
-Mountain
-Moon
Each of these is about the size of one 'segment' in the demo (which had four.) Similar amount of enemies, bosses, etc. Except the last two, which are far longer and are, obviously, extremely important. There are no more 'pre-dungeon' separate areas here- the remaining dungeons are all big ones. Granted, they're still chunked up into smaller parts for ease of theming/etc. but you can expect them to be a lot more fleshed out.
And, of course, there's the dream sequences and town areas nearby these places. Naturally, given the granular detail in this game... these take a hot minute to make, so please bear with me.
Next month there'll hopefully be more to show- but for those who've been waiting patiently for the rest of the game this long, I appreciate it so much. Please stay tuned for an update next month- in which the next dungeon will be shown off!
(oh, and there'll be a patch for the demo, soon, to fix a couple minor things. sorry about that!!)
Patch Notes: -Fixed two doors in Quadrocity so that they actually respond properly to player input. They did work before but only if you walked onto them from below. -Fixed the Lunar Pie item getting stuck in an infinite loop. -Couple of text lines going past the box. -Fixed a ty
Patch Notes:
-Fixed two doors in Quadrocity so that they actually respond properly to player input. They did work before but only if you walked onto them from below.
-Fixed the Lunar Pie item getting stuck in an infinite loop.
-Couple of text lines going past the box.
-Fixed a typo involving "wouuld".
There'll probably be a few more updates like this if more game-breaking bugs get reported. (Such is the life of a game dev, there's always some things that slip through the cracks.) No need to worry about your save files.
I know, it's been a long while, I'm so sorry for the wait. The MOONCHILD ACT 1 DEMO is finally coming out, this Sunday!! Here's a trailer to spread around if you wish (ignore the August date, that ended up being incorrect.) This demo contains 1/3rd of the full game, providing app
I know, it's been a long while, I'm so sorry for the wait. The MOONCHILD ACT 1 DEMO is finally coming
out, this Sunday!!
Here's a trailer to spread around if you wish (ignore the August date, that ended up being incorrect.)
This demo contains 1/3rd of the full game, providing approximately 6-8 hours of content if you take your time and check out all the little details. All four party members are present.
Testing this was an absolute nightmare at times, but I've finally come through the other side. It'd mean the world if you could spread this around as much as possible!
The world of MOONCHILD awaits you, November 10th!
MOONCHILD DEVLOG 3- DREAM SEQUENCES On this month's devlog, I'm covering a large part of the game- the dream sequences! The Dream Sequences occur after every major dungeon- There are 12 in total, with 4 being in the upcoming Act 1 Demo. They're quite a departure from the rest of
MOONCHILD DEVLOG 3- DREAM SEQUENCES
On this month's devlog, I'm covering a large part of the game- the dream sequences!
The Dream Sequences occur after every major dungeon- There are 12 in total, with 4 being in the upcoming Act 1 Demo.
They're quite a departure from the rest of the game in a number of ways, chief among them being the fact that there are no battles inside.
More importantly, it's where the dark and surreal atmosphere is cranked up to eleven. Most of the creepiest sights will be here, in this dream realm!
But whose dream is it? Well, you'll have to figure that out!
When all of them starts, you'll be put into a hub with a bunch of doors- only one of them will be open each time you enter. As you progress, they'll get weirder and more nightmarish!
You'll never have the full party in most of them, either. So the characters will usually have to confront these nightmares in isolation...
Admittedly, it's difficult to talk about this kind of thing: so why don't I can just show you? Take a look at this video!
https://youtu.be/VceioHro9aU
It contains the first dream sequence. Those of you who played the first demo may remember this, but it's been siginificantly beefed up from then presentation-wise. The stock ambient tracks were replaced with original compositions, as well.
This is the only one I'll reveal in full, but this is the best way to give you guys a sense of what you can expect from them in the future!
The other three in the demo are in various stages of completion, but they'll need more polish to really shine. (Not that I plan on showing much of them outside of short teasers, of course.)
Next month, I'll be touching on the dungeon design, so stay tuned!
Today, I have a major milestone to report- every single enemy and boss that will be in the demo has their graphics done! Both the enemies themselves and the animated battle backgrounds associated with them are all done!! This is a big milestone that I was busy working at, and I'm
Today, I have a major milestone to report- every single enemy and boss that will be in the demo has their graphics done! Both the enemies themselves and the animated battle backgrounds associated with them are all done!!
This is a big milestone that I was busy working at, and I'm glad to report it's finished!
In total, there are 66 different foes to face in the demo.
The biggest task ahead of me now is programming all these dastardly foes, especially the bosses.
But, to give you an idea of what kind of challenges you'll be up against, I'll use one of the early-game bosses.
This is the boss of the second dungeon, Ellie the Elephant.
At this point, you'll only have Max and Sophie in your party.
Max is the balanced one, not excelling too much in any one area, but very versatile. Sophie is more fragile, but has MUCH more powerful psychic abilities.
At this point, you're up against a big, fairly tough enemy, that almost exclusively uses physical attacks.
So, there's quite a few ways to tackle this boss.
-Use Max to apply Barrier (which increases physical defense) to Sophie while she whittles it down, keeping up her health when necessary.
-Try to put the elephant to sleep with Somna I to give yourself a chance to recover. Bosses may be less susceptible to status effects than regular enemies are, but there's still a chance for them to work, so try it anyway!
-Even when you're at lower health, you'll get boosts to things like critical hit rate and speed, allowing for more damage and being able to move before the enemy does.
But! Once you've gotten into a rhythm, the Lunite that's controlling it will show up!
Unlike the elephant, its attacks are all psychic. Thankfully Sophie will have Shield by this point to raise your psychic defense, but this will throw a wrench into things.
-Do you use Sophie's Shard I to hit one random enemy, hoping that it will hit the Lunite, or use Max's Lumen I, which is more reliable but also weaker?
-Do you spend a turn trying to put the elephant to sleep in order to get some pressure off you, or continue beating on the Lunite to get it out of the way?
-Sophie's Hide move enables you to remove her from being targeted by all attacks for one turn. You can use it to get yourself out of a jam temporarily if Sophie's hurt badly, but that means Max will tank all the hits.
This is a fairly early-game boss, yet there's already a fair amount of variables I've set up for the player to consider. And this isn't even taking into account the fact that enemies can miss their attacks, random critical hits, or a bunch of other things.
There's no real "right" way to beat the bosses- only a bunch of tools for the party to use.
Once you have all four party members, it'll only get more complicated- which is something that makes designing enemies a bit difficult, but it'll be more engaging.
Stay tuned next month for another update!
If you're here from the Mother Direct or have been following since the beginning, I have a major announcement! That's right, there'll be a demo for Moonchild coming to Steam! I can't give a release estimate, but here's some important details: (Yes, there was a demo previously, bu
If you're here from the Mother Direct or have been following since the beginning, I have a major announcement!
That's right, there'll be a demo for Moonchild coming to Steam! I can't give a release estimate, but here's some important details:
(Yes, there was a demo previously, but that barely covered any of the game. This one will be far more substantial.)
HOW MUCH WILL IT HAVE?
This demo will make up first third of the game. It will contain the first four areas, dungeons, and dream sequences, with every passive and ability up to level 24 programmed in for all four party members. I'm aiming to have as much detail as possible packed in to really get a sense of what the full game will be like, but the full version will probably have more anyway.
WHEN WILL THE DEMO COME OUT?
Short answer- I don't know. I'm not comfortable giving a release date unless the game is basically ready- so there's no time estimate.
HOW WILL THE REST OF THE GAME COME OUT?
Despite the "Act 1" name, the rest of the game will not come out episodically- It's much harder to make releases like that work for a turn-based RPG like Moonchild with a continuous storyline.
So, the rest of the game will be a paid release.
WILL YOU BE ABLE TO TRANSFER YOUR PROGRESS TO THE FULL VERSION?
If I can make sure that it works. Thing is, due to things like the codebase being altered throughout development, it's never a sure thing- if I have to make some sweeping adjustment that the demo doesn't have, saves will break and it'll be a royal pain to fix them.
In short- it's possible, but if I can't guarantee that it will work, you won't. If that happens, a sample save will be provided in the game's files to skip right to the demo's endpoint.
WHY GIVE SO MUCH AWAY FOR FREE?
Honestly, I've thought long and hard about this, but the reality is that the first demo really didn't represent what the full game is like, which is bad for a demo. Only having one party member means the game's systems and character interactions don't really get flexed, and it's harder to make challenging combat scenarios when you only have one character to work with.
Plus, there'll still be two-thirds of the game left. Which, with the stuff that's planned in there, will be worth the money!
I'll try to post major updates once a month to keep you all posted on progress. Transparency is something I value greatly in game dev, and I aim to uphold it!
In the meantime, smaller updates will continue to be posted on my Twitter page (as I've been doing for the past year or so) so stay tuned!