Being sick is going out of style

Yep, still sick.  At least I'm on the tail end of things so it should go smoothly now.

I didn't get much done on the battle screen.  I wasn't feeling very rushed and I was pretty tired.  Instead, I worked on Siphon Spirit.  I updated it to use my new screen manager code which has really helped clean things up.  Originally it was all just one big hodge-podge of code and it was a big mess.  Now, it's not quite working yet, but it's almost there.  The reason that I decided to change it all around it because we want to add a new screen to it.  An editor screen.  That's right, you'll be able to make your own levels!

It already has an editor built in, but that only is connected to the developer builds.  It's not very user-friendly. Peter has to remember a lot of button combinations and trigger and oscillation info.  And if you screw up it just crashes.  I think the only crash right now is if you forget to add the player orb.

Winter must be coming...

So I was sitting there thinking that I was all better and ready to get back to work.  The truth is that I ended up getting sicker than before and am just starting to feel better now.  I did manage to finish the practice screen, which is a major part of the game.  This is the place that the player will go to to practice drawing and pronouncing the kana characters and the words that they learn.  After each one, the game will ask whether the player thought they did well or if they thought they didn't do well.  Things that need more practice will show up more often and things that the player knows won't keep showing up.

I have a fairly detailed list of everything that I think I need to do to finish the battle screen.  At over one hundred different things on the list, I'm thinking it should be basically working by next week.  Hopefully I don't get sick again!

Companions, Part 2

Sorry about the missed week.  I've been feeling exhausted for a while now and I ended up sick yesterday as my body forced me to lie down and get some rest.

The Japanese game is coming along fairly well.  There are only two more screens left, then it's all polish and adding content.  Specifically, it's adding a LOT of polish and content.  But at least it will be fully functional.  The easier of the two remaining screens is the Practice Screen, where you practice pronouncing and drawing hiragana, katakana and words.  The other one is the Battle Screen.  Because we absolutely need a battle screen in a language learning game.  That's the other main thing that the companion is for.  They will fight against various Japanese monsters and demons using the things that you've learned in the lessons.  You can equip the companions with traditional Japanese weapons and armor and eat Japanese food for boosts.  Each companion can level up and be used in battles, even if it's not the same companion that you've been using in the lessons.

The battle screen is going to be the most difficult part of the game to make.  I hope to have the practice screen done by the end of the week.  I had planned to have it done earlier, but I needed to get a good algorithm for determining which cards should be shown in what order and all that.

On a side note, March to the Moon is almost available on IndieCity!  There was an issue with the demo trying to integrate with their SDK, so I need to get that fixed and send it up again.


Lastly, Peter assures me that he's making good progress on Siphon Spirit.  We've given up trying to put a date on when we can release since this is a side thing for the both of us.

Choose your Companion

I had done it.  I had come up with a good name for the Japanese game that I thought worked quite well.  Then I found out a simple site just doing flashcards is already using it.  Crap.

Anyways, I want to talk about companions today.  Companions are characters that will learn Japanese along with you and help you out.  They won't be teaching you Japanese.  That's my job.  There is one character that is the default companion.  All the rest will be taken from other independent games or comics.  I currently have two more companions in the game.  Miranda from Siphon Spirit and Dirk from Frayed Knights.  I'm planning on having more companions available, but I want the game working and with some final art to the companions before I go asking other people if they are willing to put their character in my game.

Companions will obviously have different art.  They will also all have their own personalities.  During lessons each companion may have different things to say.  Companions also have one more major role to play in the game, but I'll be covering that next week!