Dev - Update 6

Just a change in environment

So, I've been working with my Co-Artist (I'm pretty much the Co-Artist now actually), Jack Yeates to get the art done so I can focus on mapping and cutscenes. It didn't initially go too well (laziness and time off for vacation), but not we are hopefully back on track and looking at a private release demo by mid September (if you are on the private release list, expect a few bugs that I'm still working out). All in all though, development is going very, very smoothly. The game is looking great, running smooth at 30 FPS, with no major hiccups and the gameplay is remaining simple as I had hoped. The core of the game is its exploration and story, so the combat is very simple. Literal run and gun, with a few tricks thrown in here and there. Some of the AI patterns are pretty difficult to avoid, though, there are only about 3 or 4 variations of enemy AI spread through about 20 designed enemies. You can expect at least 1 boss and about 2 hours of gameplay if you rush through the plot, maybe more if you explore everywhere. 

I'm glad that this blog is finally getting a few views and people are actually commenting now that I've shown screenshots and progress. The game will ultimately be released on a pay-what-you-want basis, though to prevent people getting annoyed at credit card problems (like I tend to, being a teenager), it will essentially be donate if you want, or download if you don't want, to system. :P ALL PROCEEDS WILL EITHER GO TO JACK YEATES AS PAYMENT FOR HIS SERVICES OR TO A CHARITY FOR A DEGENERATIVE DISEASE THAT MOST RESEMBLES LILY'S. I'm quite honestly not interested in money with Project CAS. I hope that, despite the simplicity of the story, that the prose will raise awareness of degenerative diseases and essentially, the struggles that people, specifically (in the case of CAS) parents, with these diseases go through. Of course, the plot is exaggerated for effect, but I do believe that the premise will remain intact while the player plays. 

Trying to keep the good parts of the maps secret. :P There's MUCH more to explore than this.

Honestly, it's about time I stop pretending that the game isn't an art game. Project CAS is an art game, but less-so than many of the other art-games out there. CAS is an artistic game with a definite goal and direction. The story is focused, but there will be many, many secrets to be told for those who explore and continue to play games developed by myself and Jack, because ultimately, they will all tie together. 

I hope that you guys will enjoy and support our efforts with Project CAS and I'm really trying hard to craft something that people will like as my first game. Expect greatness. Ryan Huggins~

Dev - Update 5.9

Because I hadn't been updating anything for awhile (due to waiting on some art assets), here is another screenshot of one of the semi-animated enemies in the game.

I'm trying my best to take the worst possible screenshots actually. :P (Very serious)

Dev - Update 5

Alright, so while this won't be the largest update I've ever made, it's still pretty substantial. I've been working hard on a lot of mapping (and I just started coding enemy AI again) and now I think I have enough content to warrant releasing three screenshots of the new tiles.

I'm really proud of the new tiles honestly! These are the grasslands!

The black NPCs are placeholder! This is a dark forest.

These are just two of 16 different environments that you can explore! [Grasslands]

So far, we have done about 3 of the 16 different areas, though, the Grasslands and Dark Forest are very large, whereas a few of the other areas are a little smaller by comparison. The game itself (I'm hoping) will be very short; you can complete the main story in what I'll estimate to be about 2 hours, though exploration will probably multiply that by several times...there's a lot more than meets the eye with Project CAS.

It should also be told that these are raw screenshots, directly from the game (as it is right now), though, I plan to add some effects to the maps, like weather effects and other...artistic additions to make the maps prettier and more dynamic. The first and third screenshot are from the same section of map (ie: there are no transitions between them, just more mapping beauty. That particular section is around 4000x1000 in size...and there are tons of areas that large already mapped! I personally think that the game is coming along greatly, these maps aren't even my favorite ones!!

Anyway, I'll guestimate the amount of time spent on the game (by ONLY me) at around 60 - 70 days (complete days (so about 1560 hours)) of time spent in development spanned across about 8 months. Most of the time was spent learning to code and making art though, I'd say a good 600 hours was spent coding/learning and about 400 hours so far making art and making the maps. Imagine if you add in how much time Jack spent making music and doing tiles/concepts...it probably brings the total up into 2200 hours of development. YES, games take a long time to make! Especially if you are a NEWBIE like me. But it's satisfying to no end seeing everything coming together. Expect greatness (and a completed game in about 4 to 5 months). Ryan Huggins~

Dev - Update 4.9

Well, we are heavily into the development of CAS now; in fact, I've been spending almost the entirety of my days mapping the two islands of CAS out. Jack has been spending as much time as he can on making the tiles, so that I can continue mapping, but he goes on vacation on Monday. He will be gone for a little more than a week, during this time, I hope to finish mapping Lily's town (if I get the tiles :P) and finishing mapping the rest of the grasslands/forest locales.

This 4.9 update comes just to say that I'm still alive and working. In the 5.0 update (probably on Wednesday), I'll be releasing some screenshots and new story information. :D

EDIT - Decided to add two pieces of new concept art

This is one concept of the Mountains by Jack

This is a quick concept of night time by Jack.

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)