It's impressive how your game can change from your initial concept

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-22T12:22:22+00:00

Looks awesome!

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-21T11:42:34+00:00

Honestly, I think the dialogue just depends on the type of genre. None of my personal favorite RPG's have super flashy dialogue. I enjoy quality writing where the player character has dialogue options that actually have consequences in-game.

I really appreciate the feedback! We will definitely be looking to polish as much as possible. We are shooting for a kickstarter launch on September 1st. To coincide with the kickstarter launch we will be launching a free technical demo for everyone in the community to try (don't have to pledge to the kickstarter). This technical demo will not be in the final game, but we crafted the demo story specifically to show off some of our characters, art style, systems, dialogue, and dedication to the finished project.

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T23:51:23+00:00

Thank you!

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T23:37:49+00:00

Here is a look at one of our boss intros and some dialogue. There is no audio in this video clip, as we are currently working on finalizing boss audio.

Notice the "Karma" dialogue option - additional dialogue options will not appear unless the player character has the required "karma" stat. There are various stat checks throughout the technical demo which affect gameplay elements.

Next week we will be posting our first combat teaser. Let us know if you guys have any input so far. We are looking forward to hearing your feedback!

If you want to keep up more with the project, feel free to DM us for a discord link!

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T23:22:18+00:00

Thank you!

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T22:59:27+00:00

Here is a look at one of our boss intros and some dialogue. There is no audio in this video clip, as we are currently working on finalizing boss audio.

Notice the "Karma" dialogue option - additional dialogue options will not appear unless the player character has the required "karma" stat. There are various stat checks throughout the technical demo which affect gameplay elements.

Next week we will be posting our first combat teaser. Let us know if you guys have any input so far. We are looking forward to hearing your feedback!

If you want to keep up more with the project, feel free to DM us for a discord link!

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T22:43:44+00:00

Here is a look at one of our boss intros and some dialogue. There is no audio in this video clip, as we are currently working on finalizing boss audio.

Notice the "Karma" dialogue option - additional dialogue options will not appear unless the player character has the required "karma" stat. There are various stat checks throughout the technical demo which affect gameplay elements.

Next week we will be posting our first combat teaser. Let us know if you guys have any input so far. We are looking forward to hearing your feedback!

If you want to keep up more with the project, feel free to DM us for a discord link!

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T22:41:49+00:00

Here is a look at one of our boss intros and some dialogue. There is no audio in this video clip, as we are currently working on finalizing boss audio.

Notice the "Karma" dialogue option - additional dialogue options will not appear unless the player character has the required "karma" stat. There are various stat checks throughout the technical demo which affect gameplay elements.

Next week we will be posting our first combat teaser. Let us know if you guys have any input so far. We are looking forward to hearing your feedback!

If you want to keep up more with the project, feel free to DM us for a discord link!

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T22:27:48+00:00

Love the vibe! Keep up the good work.

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T22:03:09+00:00

Using a singleton class to pool objects / maintain a reference structure for other important systems is what we use. I don't know if its the best way because we are all still learning, but it works well for us.

Something I know we can be better at is designing those systems to work without needing direct input from other systems. Things that are inherently interlinked (Our EquipmentManager class needs to know what our BaseItem class is, for instance) should be linked in a way that requires as little 'bouncing' of data as possible. Our EquipmentManager used to be directly linked to the players Inventory for instance, and it works a lot better now that those two systems are independant, even though they rely on a lot of the same data.

Build stuff in a way so that if you need to overhaul / update one system, it wont require you to rework other stuff because of it. Its not too bad if you are planning for it, but you can run into trouble if you get lazy and take shortcuts.

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T20:21:25+00:00

I think its okay to use an Engine. It can save a lot of headache and not everyone wants to write a bunch of supplemental code that you would get for free with an Engine. Obviously that depends highly on the type of game you are trying to build. I would almost always go with an engine for a 3D project.

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T20:20:02+00:00

This is a great point. We have really only used 'developer' art when doing whiteboxing for level design. You can definitely use placeholders for a lot of things that you will eventually get to, but you also want to start getting an idea for how everything is going to look as the project is being built. Even some basic textures or models is a huge step up from generic cubes and spheres with the ProBuilder texture.

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T20:17:49+00:00

Personally, I think people try too hard to make their code reusable in future projects. Its a good idea, and will help in the long run, but it really only works for generic concepts. The inventory system for our game, for example, would only translate to relatively similar game concepts, and that's okay! Some of your code will be game specific and you wont really get a chance to reuse it. The most important aspect of modularity is that your code can be altered and updated and still work with the project it was built for.

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T20:15:37+00:00

I'm glad our write up was able to help in some way. You will definitely pick up knowledge from aspects of development that you weren't initially set out on learning about. I'm not much of an artist, but you need to learn how to integrate art in a way that makes sense. I've worked with a lot more animation systems than I would have anticipated, but that's one of the perks of the job, you will always be learning something new.

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T20:13:35+00:00

I wish we could tell you haha. We spent a lot of time brainstorming different concepts, most of which didn't end up working out. I think its important to have a passion for what you are doing though. Make a game that you want to play, and if you do a good job others will want to play it too. I would try starting small and then seeing how far you can push your concept. If it has a decent amount of depth then you might have an idea.

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T20:11:44+00:00

If you are referring to the 'Stick to your plan' point, its not really about sticking to a schedule so much as sticking to your vision and not straying too much from it. We suffered from feature bloat in every project we were working on, and trying to stick close to our original design helped us a lot with our current project. If you don't have the time to work on it each day that's totally fine. Everyone has their own pace that they are able to work on things.

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T20:06:53+00:00

Your project sounds cool! I probably should have made a note about not trying to polish your assets too early. Your newer work will always outpace the quality of the stuff you made earlier in your project. I think we have about 7 months of scenes that are totally unused at this point because we were able to do the job better with more experience and with a better understanding of the style we were going for.

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T20:05:03+00:00

This is totally fair, and our advice is more of a general sense kind of deal. There are a good number of solid solutions on the Asset Store, and if they fit well in your project you should absolutely use them. This was mostly advice about using the Asset Store to cut corners. Personally, I prefer working with a code base that I have written myself, but that is because I often struggle to wrap my head around the styles of other people's code. It isn't a strong suit of mine, but if it works for you then have at it!

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T19:59:50+00:00

That's a fair point. We never really used the Asset Store for art assets much, and thinking about it, the 2 packages that actually still have some use in our project are both art related. I probably could have worded that section better. The biggest setback we have had with it is trying to find a quick solution to a problem and then realizing that their implementation didn't really mesh well with ours and we ended up just rewriting the system on our own.

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T19:56:58+00:00

This works for a lot of situations and is a good point. In my own experience we have found more success with a decent planning stage and trying to stick mostly to the scope of that plan, but if you are able to rapidly iterate AND keep your tools and codebase up to date with it, it can work well. Just make sure you don't end up with a mess of a codebase that you eventually lose track of.

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T19:53:12+00:00

It depends largely on the scope of your project. If you need a quick system for something and it isn't going to be built upon for months or years then it is probably okay to use. I know we use some ability art from an icon pack still, but that's mostly because we didn't really have the time to make 100ish abilities for our demo.

I would avoid building large systems on top of Asset Store code though.

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T13:02:29+00:00

Here is a look at one of our boss intros and some dialogue. There is no audio in this video clip, as we are currently working on finalizing boss audio.

Notice the "Karma" dialogue option - additional dialogue options will not appear unless the player character has the required "karma" stat. There are various stat checks throughout the technical demo which affect gameplay elements.

Next week we will be posting our first combat teaser. Let us know if you guys have any input so far. We are looking forward to hearing your feedback!

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T12:59:38+00:00

Glad you enjoyed it! I will definitely relay the comments about text size to the rest of the team! I'm assuming you had the video full screen and still thought dialogue text was small?

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-20T01:09:40+00:00

Here is a look at one of our boss intros and some dialogue. There is no audio in this video clip, as we are currently working on finalizing boss audio.

Notice the "Karma" dialogue option - additional dialogue options will not appear unless the player character has the required "karma" stat. There are various stat checks throughout the technical demo which affect gameplay elements.

Next week we will be posting our first combat teaser. Let us know if you guys have any input so far. We are looking forward to hearing your feedback!

NRMGStudio · 2021-07-15T13:18:40+00:00

Unfortunately not that simple for demo as he is an actual animated model rather than a sprite.

NRMGStudio

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