Arena of Suffering News

[p][/p][p]Thanks to Beef Gravy Studios for checking out Arena of Suffering and for the review. Fun folks! :)[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p]

[p]I'm working on long-term material: better movement (so that we can add creatures into our maps instead of the stand-ins that we have now). Instead of going w/ full sprites in our movement, I'm using a single sprite and moving them with script. It's looking nice so far, and it's a heck of a lot easier than expand my art pipeline to include tons of pictures to move every single monster that we make.[/p]

[p]One of the things that I've found the hardest to change about RPG Maker's systems is the "simple" stuff: menus, raw layout, etc. It fights back when you try to reset some of the engine's defaults. I'd really like to improve our UI/UX. Because the default system is well known, I don't think that many users are going to have any problems figuring out how to play, but I'd like to make those important details more fun and functional over time (for future games and for Arena too, if at all possible).[/p][p]Which JRPG has the best UI in recent years from your experiences? In terms of looks, the most recent Atelier really impressed me. They've not usually been at the forefront for graphics (fun gameplay though). But Resleriana looks great. Gorgeous menus. I want to make awesome menus.[/p]

[p]To "relax" after Next Fest, I got back into work for future games and updates to Arena of Suffering. But I'd gotten some good advice from other devs and feel like we're already bumping hard into the ceiling of RPG Maker MZ. I mean, we made 70 plugins for our first game just to try and make the system do what we wanted. More are coming too--our update Lighting system is working, as are first implementations of Weather and Particle systems. Super cool stuff, and a lot of fun to make and to see in practice.[/p][p]But for the long-term...I think we're going to make our next game in Godot instead. I was intimidated by it as a first time developer because it looked like a lot more work than simply grabbing RPGM MZ. And it is. It's also so much more flexible. Way more top end. More control. I think this is the right call. I'm three days into making a new engine and it's going very well. I didn't want to post until I was pretty certain that this was the direction I'll take next time.[/p][p]Anyway, keep having fun everyone. Next Fest was nuts, and this week is busy while still being a lot calmer, hehe. Be well. :)[/p]

[p]I've been thinking of ideas to improve our Header Capsule (the wide art you see on the Steam Store Page). I went for that fun 90s vibe, to fit the style of game that we're honoring. But, there is a careful line between fun nostalia and just looking dated. I'm not sure that I rode the line correctly, and a few people have mentioned that this doesn't land for them. I'm going to try and make a better one if I can.[/p][p]If people have ideas or just want to mentioned their favorite headers, go ahead and show them off. My main idea is to try and have Saval raising a shield, warding off dragonfire. Nice and epic without adding so many elements that it's overwhelming. So far . . . well, still not anything worth showing off. Hopefully we'll get there and I'll have something cool to show everyone. :)[/p]