Dev - Update 4.5

Yay for more concept art...and trains!

This is a midway update just to let you guys know what I'm up to. I'm actually done writing everything in the engine now except for some extra enemy AI (I've written two types of enemy AI). The game is coming along smoothly and I'm working on the introduction and tutorial right this very moment. I'll be working on some graphics stuff with Jack Yeates (Musician and Co-Artist/Spriter) and all the while, I'll be improving upon the cutscene engine I wrote for the game.

The game has taken on a simplistic approach to cutscenes and I'm trying to have gameplay follow suit. Everything left now is just designing levels and cutscenes/finishing up all the tiles and art assets. I bought a giant whiteboard for level designing and I plan to utilize it to the best of my ability. The game is coming along very smoothly and it's exciting to see your first game come together. Expect some great things in the next couple of Development Updates. :D

Dev - Update 4

Yay for concept art~ By Ryan Huggins

Let's start ONCE again, with what's gotten done in the last week.

• Completed Start-Menu HUD
• Shop-Menu HUD
• Weather system (either dynamic or static)
• Choices in the Message System
• Animated levels (Animated background, foregrounds, water, grass, etc)
• Animated anything really...(ART Stuff)
• Variable Wall Scaling (where the type of terrain affects if/how you can grab onto it)
• More or less Enemy AI is incomplete (stupid) <-- saving this for last
• And the most important facet... De-generative gameplay focus (will be completed when all enemy AI is done...TONS of balancing will be required. ugh) Everything but balancing is done
• [NEW] Cutscene control engine D:

This picture is probably more representative of what's gotten done this week.

This has been an relatively productive week, with me getting more or less everything I've wanted done, plus a little bit more. Drawing on the notion of updated art that I brought up last week, I don't have anything new to show you guys. Besides a few more concepts at least. These are the several level concepts we have done.

This was an idea for an interior of CAS. By Ryan Huggins.

Another interior concept (the first one actually). By Ryan Huggins

This is the concept to outside of a factory type place. By Ryan Huggins

This is the grasslands concept piece. By Jack Yeates

This is the same piece, just at a different time. By Jack Yeates

The next work just was an idea for the characters. Castiel (left) and Lily (right). Castiel is an "angel", or he claims to be; Lily doesn't believe him at all. The wing there is metaphorical and conceptual. :P The other concept piece is the very first picture on the blog post.  

This was a quick concept piece of Lily and Castiel. By Jack Yeates

Other than all of this art and coding and such, I haven't been doing much else. I haven't been sleeping much; struggling to finish the rest of the engine before July starts. :P I'm coming close, and with help from a bunch of great people (outside of Siifour) everything is coming together nicely. I really do hope that the work pays off in the end and that the game makes a small sum of money for the charities and all the people out there with some sort of degenerative disease!

I'm aiming for a large update in the next week or two. So, expect greatness. Ryan Huggins~

Dev - Update 3

So, let's begin with what has gotten done in the last week and a half.

• Completed Start-Menu HUD
• Shop-Menu HUD
• Weather system (either dynamic or static)
• Choices in the Message System
• Animated levels (Animated background, foregrounds, water, grass, etc)
• Animated anything really...(ART Stuff)
• Variable Wall Scaling (where the type of terrain affects if/how you can grab onto it)
• More or less Enemy AI is incomplete (stupid) <-- saving this for last
• A system to control what dialogue/items are assigned to specific objects (Proving to be difficult)
• And the most important facet... De-generative gameplay focus (will be completed when all enemy AI is done...TONS of balancing will be required. ugh)
• [NEW] Cutscene control engine D:

Yep. I've been doing tons and tons of work since I last updated. :| In all seriousness, Siifour Studios has been working pretty hard for the last couple of days. To attest for this, I will be linking to several things this week. In other news, I'm done with just about everything that needs to be done, except the stuff on that list, which, besides the newly added cutscene engine, aren't very important at this time.

Over the weekend, Nekomage (my composer and co-artist) and I have been doing a lot of art. CAS's art is going to be updated really soon now that the base engine has been laid out. It's been a productive two days and here are some pictures to prove it :D

This one is by Nekomage

This one is by me

There are two more currently at my deviantArt ( http://siifour.deviantart.com/ ) and about 20 more to come. I hope to get around 3 to 4 done every day or so after exams end. There's a lot more artistic stuff going on in the background, but you'll soon see the real update with the in-game graphics--which are beautiful. Sadly, I want to keep them on the down low for a few more weeks while we get everything done and looking nice. A possible teaser video is in the works.

Oh, and also--

Lily's body has been updated. :D 

An extremely loose and "revealing" teaser of the new graphics...if you can see her. She doesn't show up well against the old backgrounds. Anyway! Besides this stuff, not much has gone on. So, expect greatness. Ryan Huggins~

Time Spent --> Creative 12+ hours (Also, the time spent marker will be returning now)