wishbonegame

[wishbonegame]

Feb Update!

Continuing to work on finishing scripts for and implementing quests. Some other stuff I did:

Fixed an oversight with the quest log where failed quests weren't displaying in the correct tabs

Minor cleanup related to character location flags and whether they're considered "busy" or not while at that location

However, some major family tragedies occurred last month that we are still dealing with. Development (particularly the writing side) is going to be heavily impacted for a while.

#game dev blog #rpg maker vx ace #rpg maker game #game dev #wishbone (game) #text only update

[wishbonegame]

January update!

I spent most of this month writing scripts for events and quests for Summer Y1 with @kwillow. January was... pretty chaotic in terms of real life stuff for me and I had to really fight to carve out a satisfactory number of work hours each weekend. Still, the majority of the story and quest stuff for Summer is now written. A couple of the biggest event scripts remain in progress, but I have plenty of stuff I can implement when I sit down to do my coding work this weekend. Let's see how fast I can go...

Current Summer Y1 event progress: 3/8 fully implemented 5.5/8 scripted (roughly)

Current Summer Y1 quest* progress: 3.5/15 implemented 11.5/15 scripted (roughly) (*Note that this isn't the count of unique quests but rather time-gated triggers to release new quest steps--some quests are counted several times if they are given in small chunks rather than all at once.)

Some other stuff I completed was filling out the remaining art assets for the "Cheat" card minigame... namely backgrounds (which had more versions than you might expect since they change based on where you play and certain buildings look different in the postgame) and the "Saucy Playing Card" alternate unlockable card skin, shown above. These feature the romancable characters in goofy pin up poses. (They may or may not also provide a distraction debuff for your opponents.)

#game dev #rpg maker #rpg maker game #rpg maker vx ace #game dev blog #(I don't usually like leaving features 'incomplete' that long... I just didn't want to draw a bunch of interiors hahaha) #minigame #screenshots

[wishbonegame]

December Update!

I finished all the Summer 1st event and quest stuff from the last update, did some more work on Ask About retooling, and just finished implementing the second event of Summer year 1.

I also fixed the code to unlock window resizing with our custom game window size/aspect ratio... I couldn't get the maximize window button to work without digging deeper into Windows window control API than I was willing to do (needed to find a way to get a "close enough" fullscreen window to count as fullscreen and/or do black box padding to maintain the aspect ratio) but you can still drag the corners of the window to make it bigger. Why such a key feature is disabled by default in VX Ace is a mystery for the ages.

December's never a particularly productive month due to the holidays but I got a lot more done this year than last year. I'm finding the rhythm of building quests... it's really not so bad with the new system (big ones with lots of characters and map transitions still are rather time-consuming, though).

Still angling for Summer Y1 to be done around the end of spring. At present, we have 2/8 events for it complete. However, a few of the remaining events are quite big and there are also a number of sidequests for the month that need writing and implementing, so there's still much left to do.

Happy new year everyone!

#rpg maker game #rpg maker vx ace #game dev #rpg maker #game dev blog #wishbone (game) #wishbonegame

[wishbonegame]

If I may, I'd like to make a minor suggestion, on the off-chance you haven't received one like it already: the contrast between your text and your backgrounds is a little too low. The ratio should be somewhere closer to 3:1 or even 4.5:1 depending on whether you'd consider the text large or small, respectively (as per WCAG, though Microsoft's own XAG aligns as well). From my own testing, I was getting about a 2.6:1 on average.

If you're set on the color palette, then a border around the text might suffice -- otherwise both darkening the background and brightening the font color would do wonders for readability.

Below I've put a screenshot of my finding, and a potential, if admittedly a little drastic, improvement. Considering I had to deal with image compression on my end, however, the original colors might not be completely accurate, I highly encourage you to test it for yourself.

I wish you the best of luck in your game dev journey!

Yup, concerns about the contrast on the text colors are probably the #1 suggestion we've gotten since releasing the beta.

Due to the cobbled together nature of building complex custom systems in RPG Maker, it's not as simple a fix as replacing a couple colors--a bunch of menu and GUI graphics need to be remade entirely--but it's on the to-do list. I also intend to unlock window resizing, something inexplicably blocked by RPG Maker VX Ace by default, which should also help, but I gotta mess around with the code to get it to work properly with my existing custom game resolution code.

Both improvements should be present in the next public beta.

#ask #wishbone: game #wishbonegame #game dev #rpg maker #rpg maker game #rpg maker vx ace

[wishbonegame]

November Update!

Started work on Summer Y1! The first event of the season is done aside from a few visual bugs where Mayor North phases out of existence temporarily while giving his speech.

I also started on the quest associated with this initial event. It's fairly involved and will probably take some time, but it provides the player with their first real chance to make a meaningful choice between working with the lawful and outlaw characters. :)

I also started the new Ask About retooling but consider the Summer event more important at the moment.

I did lose a few work days because I had to disassemble my laptop to replace the keyboard. Word to the wise... never buy MSI laptops. They're pretty repair-hostile on top of having very fragile keyboards. :( The repair was successful but it did take two days and involved having to buy a plastic soldering iron + plastic welding rods--something you should absolutely not need to replace a keyboard. However, having a fully functional keyboard will serve me well in the more typing-heavy upcoming Wishbone tasks (embarking on Ask About before this repair was made would have been... ill advised).

The holidays are always a poor time to get work done, but Wishbone continues chugging along! See you in 2024!

#wishbone: game #wishbone (game) #wishbonegame #rpg maker #rpg maker vx ace #rpg maker game #game dev #update #screenshot

[wishbonegame]

Some cards I made for the card minigame. You can also peek at my placeholder card graphics which look like this:

Some character-based face cards for the Cheat/Bullshit card minigame I programmed for Wishbone. It'll be playable in the next public beta, which I hope to put out at the end of first quarter 2024.

#art #game dev #face cards #characters

[wishbonegame]

November update!

I finished the two quests I mentioned last time. They took a bit longer than I'd expected but that was mainly due to not being able to do as much personal project work as I'd hoped while on a business trip last month.

However, they are complete now! I'm working on some cleanup stuff presently but intend to start the Ask About revamp next weekend. Feeling very in the zone working on Wishbone right now and pleased with having more visible progress (as opposed to the less visible progress that comes from working on backend systems).

Another pleasing thing: as I was merging my project notes for the quest log revamp backwards into my master note and archive files, I skimmed through my "notes about the entire rest of the project" section and realized I could remove a lot of it because a lot of that stuff has been implemented. The "rest" of the project consists of fewer and fewer things as time goes on!

My current vague plan is to work on Ask About and Summer Y1 next and hopefully release another beta sometime around the end of first quarter 2024 featuring all of Spring and Summer Y1 playable--a complete vertical slice of the first 25% of the game. :)

#wishbone: game #wishbone (game) #wishbonegame #rpg maker vx ace #rpg maker game #rpg maker #game dev #game development

[wishbonegame]

October Update!

...Apparently I forgot to post one!

I finished retooling the quest log at the beginning of October and am currently working on implementing two small new quests for Spring Y1. It's going a lot faster using the new system!

October is turning out a little busy for me in terms of IRL goings-on but I expect to be ready to move on from quests to the next project by the beginning of November.

The next project will either be retooling Ask About or working on extending the complete vertical slice from Spring Y1 to both Spring and Summer Y1. Probably first one, then the other. :)

Hope everyone has a Happy Halloween! See you in November!

#rpg maker vx ace #rpg maker game #game dev blog #text only update #wishbone (game) #wishbonegame

[wishbonegame]

It's looking good as far I can tell, but the light text on a light background is extremely hard to read.

Yep, adjusting the menu colors is on my to-do list... unfortunately I have to alter and possibly remake a bunch of other menu and minigame-related graphics as well... it's not as simple as just changing a color or two in the system graphics file.

The most recent version of the game (not the released beta, the dev version I'm working on) dos override RPG Maker VX Ace's restrictions to allow the game window to be resized, too... so you can play it full screen(ish) instead of being restricted to a tiny little static window size. That helps significantly with legibility. :)

#anon #ask #not an update

[wishbonegame]

You guys got no idea how happy I am to see those little green clocks and little cowboy faces rendering properly. :)

This is the result of updating the Quest Log and Calendar to "stub out" 50+ new quests and add some new functionality. It's a lot of overhead to build these two systems, but I think it's important to make quests as easy to track as possible.

I still have a bit more to do on the Quest Log specifically before I consider this task 100% done, but all the hard stuff and nearly all of the time-consuming stuff is complete. Been making good time working on weekends lately.

#game dev #game development #rpg maker #rpg maker vx ace #rpg maker game #wishbone: game #wishbonegame #wishbone (game) #somehow I also got my yard work done this weekend which was frankly an amazing accomplishment

[wishbonegame]

Quests being automatically dispensed by the game's nightly rollover script--in the final game these will typically be found by talking to townspeople and given after story-progressing cutscene events. For now, though, they get psychically beamed into the player character's head as they sleep. This results in some tonal whiplash...

Here's the September Update! Still workin' on getting the rest of the quests stubbed out. Each small part of the quest implementation process is multiplied by 50+ because that's how many quests I'm adding, so it's a long process. But! It'll all be worth it later. I won't have to deal with the mental block of "oh man, how did the quest log work again, this thing is so complex and I hate it" (4 hours later) "actually it's not bad and pretty straightforward. Why do I always hate working with this thing so much?" each and every time I add a single quest.

Like, it's the "changing gears and remembering how your own code works" thing that would slow progress down so much every time I had to add a quest. Removing that friction should speed up development further down the line.

Been doing a lot of that lately. I know updates have been quite boring for the last year or two--lots of "I'm working on it, trust me" going on as I finish up big things on the back end. But I think the quest log is the last boring backend thing on the to do list, shockingly. All the other stuff is more fun and easier to show off. There is light at the end of the game development tunnel!

#game development #rpg maker game #rpg maker vx ace #game dev blog #wishbone: game

[wishbonegame]

July Update!

Honestly, not a ton to report--we were busy with Art Fight last month and then we went on vacation. But I have been sneaking in Wishbone work wherever I can! I'm currently working on "stubbing out" all currently planned quests. All the hardest parts and most of the easy parts of that task are currently done, I just need to find time to finish the most monotonous repetitive time-consuming part (which is currently over half done). Hoping to make some good progress on that this coming weekend now that I'm back from vacation.

Hope you guys are having a great summer!

#rpg maker game #rpg maker vx ace #game dev #game dev blog #wishbone (game) #also my keyboard is broken so gonna need to set aside a few hours to disassemble my laptop and replace it soon... #annoying...

[wishbonegame]

June Update!

Apparently I forgot to actually POST this update, but! I did finish most of my misc code cleanup mentioned last month, and also finished fixing up the quest log to reflect the new approach I decided on for character quests (multiple shorter tests that can be completed independently vs one giant hyper-complicated quest for each character that needs intricate, immaculately managed deadlines and keeps breaking if I forget to add new steps properly). My next step is to “stub out” the other planned quests, greatly simplifying the quest implementation work that will need to be done during the upcoming main story quest implementation stage.

I’m feeling good about the progress of late! Hoping to do a big chunk of Wishbone work again this on Sunday. I would say “Saturday too”, BUT! It is my 10 year anniversary with Wishbone’s main writer, @kwillow, this month and we want to take a nice day out away from our computers. :)

The list of things left to do, other than story quest implementation, grows shorter by the week! It will be really nice to ONLY focus on that and not have a zillion other code things and features on my to do list distracting me. For a long time Wishbone was just a big vague cloud of tasks scattered in an organized-disorganized manner over various to do lists and technical documents, but the list of tasks left to do is getting narrower and the list of documents I can put in my “COMPLETE, DON’T HAVE TO THINK ABOUT THIS AGAIN” pile is growing. Feels good.

#wishbone (game) #wishbonegame #rpg maker game #game dev blog #rpg maker #rpg maker vx ace

[wishbonegame]

May update!

Finished the schedules code last weekend. Woooo! The schedules code has been an ominously large task looming over my head since the earliest days of development, so it’s really nice to have it entirely done for good. (Well, aside from some likely bug-fixing, but since I’ve combed through all the code three times at this point I expect any remaining bugs will be minor.)

Next will be several weeks of misc cleanup while I tidy up a few things and orient myself around my next big coding/writing project. :)

#wishbone (game) #rpg maker game #rpg maker #rpg maker vx ace #game dev blog

[wishbonegame]

Wee little April update!

Still working on the year 2 schedule implementation! On paper I’m just over 2/3 done, but in reality it’s much more than that because I did all the hardest characters first. We’ve also been working on some script/cutscene stuff.

I had to spend some of this month recovering from the chaos that was March, and also have dedicated a significant amount of time to working on my garden. The garden-related tasks are winding down and I’ve mostly recovered from March, so hopefully there will be less life stuff distracting me from Wishbone in May.

Hope you guys are having a good spring!

#text-only update #wishbone (game) #wishbonegame #rpg maker #rpg maker vx ace #rpg maker game

[wishbonegame]

March Update!

March has been basically the worst month of my life. I’m glad it’s over!

Despite being assailed with constant unending disasters all month, we managed to make some good progress on implementing the year 2 schedules. I’m currently at 26 out of about 60 characters done, with all of the hardest ones out of the way already. I had hoped to split my time between that and something more fun and interesting, but it turns out it’s much more efficient if I get in the schedule headspace and do that for 8-10 hours at a time all weekend rather than trying to change gears and switch my attention between multiple tasks. It’s a long boring task that I knew would take ages, but once it’s done I shouldn’t have to touch the schedules code again (other than possible bug fixing, of course). Will be nice to have that checked off my list.

Hope you guys have had a better spring so far than I have!

#rpg maker #RPG Maker VX Ace #rpg maker game #game dev #game development #text-only update

[wishbonegame]

February Update

Hi everyone.

We’ve been making steady incremental progress on updating the game’s schedule system to bring it in line with the new 2-year approach to the game’s story.

In February I finished drafting up the Excel spreadsheets that track character schedules for Year 2. I am currently going through these spreadsheets and fully implementing one character at a time. It’s an easy process, but quite time-consuming, particularly for the more pivotal characters who change schedule more as the story ramps up. I don’t expect it to be done any time soon, but I will most likely be working on it in tandem with some cutscene/story stuff and taking a “do a small chunk of this giant boring task every week and you’ll get there eventually” sort of approach. We have also been working on story script stuff as well.

However, on this particular weekend, I need to focus my energy on making slow incremental progress on another much longer and more difficult task... grieving my lost cat, Bani. We had to put her to sleep on March 2nd, 2023.

She was 18 years and 3 months old when she passed and you can read a bit more about her here, if you so wish. She has been my best friend since I was a teenager and just the sweetest, gentlest, most mild and loyal kitty anyone could imagine. She will be deeply missed by those of us on the core Wishbone team.

#text update #wishbone (game) #wishbonegame #rpg maker #rpg maker game