2nd Update of the Day/what should have been this month's ONLY update/Please, stay safe!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA how did I miss that I left the other update in the drafts for a month!? Uh, anyway, I'm not dead, this project is VERY MUCH NOT abandoned or on hiatus... Now, back to our regularly scheduled update! (Apologies!)

It’s time for an end of month update! I’ve gotten quite a lot of Part 1 finished up now, and I think it will be done by the middle/end of next month (unless something goes horribly wrong). Once it is done, I will be taking a little bit of a break to focus on another project very briefly. This project… I started it in VX Ace, but I’m making the choice to remake a bunch of assets and recreate it in MV (which is on sale right now for dirt cheap until the 7^th of July!). But, that’s unrelated to the current project, so I’ll be quiet about that for now. (I will be using VX Ace for the remainder of this project.)

So, what exactly have I managed to accomplish this month? A lot. A whole lot. I’m finished with all of the art for Part 1, I now only have some maps, battlers, attacks, and other such assets to make. Also please look at this animation for Damien because it made me lose my mind, bye.

I made a beach scene, not only because it was in my original draft, but because everything needs to have a beach scene. EVERYTHING. I’ve also worked on a few more battles – although these are more scripted, and you can’t win them – visual variety is important to me, so I’ll put in wayyy too much effort even if it doesn’t particularly look great because at least it makes things more interesting to look at.

Another thing I’ve finished up with is Ringo and Chikako’s backstories, and I’m moving on to how they met Cleo. Let’s just say I had to draw a lot of car stuff. If you ever have to make something set in a somewhat modern setting, you need to draw cars. Drawing cars sucks. Do you see the dilemma? Nonetheless, I’m happy with how everything turned out.

I’m also looking forward to a certain fight that I’ve yet to implement. It’s very… jokey? Is that the word? But it also establishes the relationship between two characters :’).

Oh, and now… for this little animation right here. I might as well go through my process on how I make events like these work when using character sprites bigger than 32x32 (in VX Ace, in MV it’s 48x48, aka the size I use because by the time I realised it was 32 for VX Ace it was too late :) ).

You see, I have a big issue (even using a specific script) where events sometimes don’t overlay correctly. This is due to having to set the event to be either below or above the character, right. So, why don’t I set the event to have the same priority as the player? Well, because I need the player to be able to walk through the gate when it’s open, and I can’t do that when it’s set as the same priority.

Making wide sprites in RPG Maker is a giant nightmare, because by the end of it, you end up with wayyy too many events that clog up space on your maps. Aka – like this.

Top row is to make sure the gate is above the player when standing behind it.

Middle row is for passability and to make sure that the player can only get through when the gate is open.

Bottom row is to make sure that the gate sprite is below the player.

Oh btw, editing priority through move route requires a script, too :))))).

The saddest part of it all? Only the middle row and the two tiles in the middle of the screen on all rows are needed more than once when the gate is open!!! I love this program and appreciate how easy it is (for better or for worse) to make games with… but VX Ace really does have its not-so-useful quirks.

I digress…

Some screenshots, if I may.

There’s not too much more I can add. Things are coming along smoothly and I’m glad that I have something to show for my efforts.

Reader, things are scary right now and that’s an understatement. I urge all of you to take some time away from the internet if you haven’t already (STOP DOOMSCROLLING!!!) and start/finish a project, or just do some self-care. I know this is unrelated, but it’s hard not to notice how current events are affecting people, even those of us who live in mostly unaffected countries.

Take care, everyone, please.

This is me signing off for the month, and hopefully, not accidentally skipping an update again.