Go to da Twitter

For those of you who just want life-signs and small previews here and there, use my Twitter. It's basically for everything that's too small to bother posting here.
https://twitter.com/Kyrieru

In general, until I have a demo/something to download, I won't be updating the blog much. After some of the projects I'm working on are released, I'll probably go back to posting here more actively, and doing other things like talking about game design, etc, like I used to.

Until then, however, Twitter is the place to look. I'll also post a link there whenever this blog is updated.

Controller setup.

I'm currently working on doing some of the core aspects of all my games, in GM2. First up is gamepad support with adjustable buttons.

Since this is not an afterthought, but an actual attempt to do it as well as possible, I thought I'd ask you guys about some stuff before I start.

1. What are some common complaints you have about controller setup options in games? (can be visuals/aesthetics)
2. What do you see as essential features?
3. Are there any features that seem obvious to you, but are absent in everything?

So far my initial thoughts are
- There should be options inside and outside of the game.
- The screen should be traversable with keyboard, gamepad, or mouse.
- Adjust or disable rumble entirely
- Include visual representation of controller that clearly indicates if a controller is detected and what buttons are being pressed.
- Game must be able to detect controllers being plugged in at any time after the game has started.
- Don't skimp on presentation. Even an option menu should be satisfying. Might have some kind of character dedicated to options.

For now, I'll be doing a couple quick sketches deciding on layout fir the actual screen. Even though I'm doing it first, I assume it will be a tab of a larger options menu.

Where the hell am I.

Yes I'm alive, no I haven't abandoned Noaika.

I've had some difficulties working for extended periods of time over the past few months, mainly due to a pinched nerve in my leg. I've since bought a new chair, as well as a standing desk, which will hopefully help, in more ways than one. I'll also be seeing a docter later this month in order to fix another problem I've had for years. Wouldn't that be neat.

Anyhow, boring health out of the way; First thing on my to do list is get the remaining Patreon stuff done, still. There's something I've had the chance to work on more than a few times, but procrastination got the better of me. Once the Patreon stuff is done I'll close the Patreon, since it sucks up time, and financially I'm fine.

After the Patreon stuff is done, I'll be finishing one of the smaller games. In addition to needing to release a damn game, I also need to get some GM2 stuff straight before trying to implement it in Noaika. This includes switching to tile based collisions, and external file handling. Being a CCC developer is fun and all, but I don't want another game that runs like a potato on a sports car.

That's it, more or less. Maybe I'll be more active with random posts once I'm releasing content more consistently, but until then it feels like I'd be wasting people's time.

What next

What now?

Eroico
I'm currently waiting on info from Nutaku about taxes, waiting on Mangagamer for marketing stuff, and waiting on DLsite to determine if the game is different enough to be listed as a new product. First word on it is that is isn't, but then this is, so I'm not totally sure what they're going on. The unlock code was included with the DLsite game, so people would be able to upgrade by using the trial.


Patreon
Other than that, I put up the latest character poll for patreon. In the meantime I need to do one of the draw winners from forever ago, and after that's done, do the animation from the poll. After that's done I'll probably finish the animation player and close the Patreon.

Noaika
For Noaika, I need to do it's whole soundtrack, sound design, and I also want to convert it to GM Studio 2 (They've made the process much easier). As I've said before, that's going to take a while so I want to release one of the side projects before doing that, so that I'm paying everything I need to be paying as I go.

GM Studio 2
Speaking of GM 2, I have it now, and I'm currently looking at all it's new features and deciding what I want to do with em. Main benefits so far are;

- Camera zoom and angle is easy and works well.
- Tilesets have autotiling and a brush system. (Speeds up tiling a lot)
- Rooms have layers, and you can have parent rooms.
- A ton of quality of life features.
- Decent audio mixer, making overall balancing much easier.

The only downside is that some of GM 2 is going to take some getting used to. Some of it works a lot differently, and some of it is kinda bad (The sprite editor is all over the place). In general, I'm going to have to adjust my workflow a bit.

Other than that, I'm trying to decide what sorts of things I want to learn how to do in GM. Even Eroico had performance problems, so I want to learn about more optimization methods, such as better collision detection. I also want to start using external file handling more, since Noaika in particular is NOT going to be able to run on a lot of computers without it.

3d elements in backgrounds are a bit of a gimick, but one I enjoy. It would be neat to get that working.

In general I want to come up with better methods for a lot of the stuff I've been doing. Syncing sound to Eroico's animations was time consuming, so it'd be nice to make an editor for that, since I'll be using the same method for future sound design.

All that said, I'm still not sure which side project I want to work on once the patreon stuff is done, since as much as anything it will be about learning some new stuff before I try to implement it in a bigger project like Noaika.

Eroico Re V5

Eroico

Download(V6)

Download(V5)

Buy the full version

New version of the Eroico Revision. (Redone animations, revised CGs, gameplay changes)

Note: Old unlock files still work, and now Noaika pre-order files will unlock Eroico as well. I will be updating DLsite's version soon, though it's codes work with this too.

Fixed in V5:
- Window no longer automatically centers or resizes in most cases.

- Added default Gameover image. (Drawn by this guy but don't tell him I told you shhhh)

- Fixed issue where controller stops working on Alt-tab.

- Fixed issue where difficulty only changes if you press start.

- Fixed issue where witch CG shows with adult-content off.

- Minor balance changes.

Old version Download (V4)

Eroico Revision V3

Eroico Update

Download (V4)

Buy the full version

New version of the Eroico Revision. (Redone animations, revised CGs, gameplay changes)

Note: Old unlock files still work, and now Noaika pre-order files will work as well. I will be updating DLsite's version soon, though it's codes work with this too.

Changes so far;

- Fixed problem where music doesn't play in ending.

- Added Vsync option (If you had speed problems, try it now) 

- Fixed problem where H-content turns back on after reloading the game

- Vampire bugs.

- Debug number during first boss

- Tree boss gets stuck

- Controller problems (At least some of them. Try again if it didn't work before)

- Breakable block doesnt break when boosting

- Added Balance based on difficulty

- Fixed bug where balance resets when restarting

- Added controller button for knockdown

- Changed UI
- Made Invincibility time longer

- Added Demo indicator when unlock files aren't present. 

- Other minor stuff

I read all the comments, so I've seen all your reports so far. I havn't fixed some bugs because I've either been unable to reproduce them, or because I can't find a solution. (In the case of screen size issues or zoomed in CGs, for example, I can only reproduce the problems with a weirdly low resolution). Let me know if you find any more, and I appreciate the help so far!

Eroico update complete

Eroico Update

Download (V2)

Buy the full version

Well, I've finished the update to Eroico. If you encounter any problems or bugs that I've overlooked, let me know. If you have any other small requests regarding the game, this is your last chance, since I won't be updating it after any fixes I do in the next day or so. 

Note: If you've already purchased Eroico in the past, then your unlock code still works; you don't need to buy the game again. (But hey, if you pirated before it then maybe now's the time to buy it *wink*). If you need the unlock code resent, send me an email. If you bought the game through DLsite, then the unlock code for that works with this.

And again, let me know if you see anything wonky. Chances are I missed SOMETHING.

Fixes in progress:
- CGs appearing zoomed in
- H-content turns back on after death
- Enemies in third area cant knock you down.
- Leftover debug ?
- Music doesnt play in ending
- Alleged Cat seizures
- Controller sabatoges keyboard usage. (If you have problems with a controller, unplug it, for now)
- Desert Boss peaces out mid-fight.
- Vampire gets fed up with waiting to H and leaves.
- implement alternate platforming sections for platforming
- Turned Vsync on by mistake = lower fps (Will add an option for this)
- Window mode does whatever it wants without your consent.  Can't do any more with this.
- Tree boss gets stuck under doorway like a scrub

Sound sound sound

After recording and editing around 250 finalized sounds, I came to the conclusion that they don't fit in alongside pure digital sounds. Any echo at all in the recording environment is very noticeable.

That said, I began my search again for a method of making digital goopy sounds.

I managed to get a decent result with Sytrus + some pitch vibrato, chorus, and flanger effects mixed together. Here's the initial sytrus sound, followed by the result after filters. (I edit Sytrus while the filters are on.)

Before filter: https://clyp.it/b3mdkj0n

After filter: https://clyp.it/a2vzsbb4

One of the benefits of this method is that Sytrus nor the filters have their timing syched, which means that all the little worble noises that make up the sound will be slightly different each time. As a result, you can record a series of notes at different times, and pitches, and get variations easily. An hour or two will get you around 28 sounds.

This was already a decent result, however you can also change the pitch and speed of a sound, and then "compose" with it.

This is the same sound as above, but "arranged".

https://clyp.it/pab4sn4l

Basically, you can take one sound, or even multiple sounds, and compose them like you would a song. Especially by combining multiple sounds, you can come up with entirely different results.

This is actually pretty handy for all kinds of sound effects, by the way, and it's part of how I make sound effects. To give a quick example, here's FL Studio's default snare drum "composed" to  sound like a gunshot or something.

Original: https://clyp.it/lffy4j0u

Arranged: https://clyp.it/tn3galed

Lastly, the other benefit of this method is that I can actually use it with the recorded sounds to make them sound a little more digital.

Original recorded sound: https://clyp.it/0kraw0hh

Same sound with changed pitch and arranged: https://clyp.it/njmna1us

Of course, now the only problem is that sort of have too many options. Too many is better than none, of course. That said, I do get suck of staring at waveforms for hours on end, though, so I'm looking forward to finally settling on a set of sounds and being done with the revision.