Ethereal Gates 0.7 => The next project

[nyaatrap]

Title : Ethereal Gates
Genre : NVL + RPG
Version : 0.7 (2012/03/04)
Language : Japanese (English help is included)
Rating : 13+ or 18+ (Switchable in the preference window)
Resolution : 1024x640
Spec : A video card which supports OpenGL 2.0 or DirectX 9 required
Game engine : Ren'py 6.13
License : The current v0.7 package is under creative commons by-nc-sa. The system scripts is under the MIT license.
Download : http://www.mediafire.com/?1atlbb2spzfdm2s

This project is suspended and all codes and assets are migrated into the new game: Star maiden Rio. Therefore, the download link is disabled and closing this topic to avoid contradiction to the new game

The new project here: http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 43&t=14874

[HikkiPanda]

wow, the art is beautiful !

mmm ... but I think the buttons are too bright?

are you going to update this thread with the next version?

[nyaatrap]

wow, the art is beautiful !

mmm ... but I think the buttons are too bright?

are you going to update this thread with the next version?

Thanks UI are temporal but yeah, it looks too bright. I'll change it in the future.
The development is satisfactory. Both the battle system and the explore system are almost done. The next version will come within few days.

[gas]

Ren'Py miss something like an "exploration system". After the release, why don't share the frame? It could help alotta people (me).

[nyaatrap]

Updated

Ren'Py miss something like an "exploration system". After the release, why don't share the frame? It could help alotta people (me).

Yeah, I'm thinking it too. but I'm not sure this system is good or bad bacaue I don't have much experience about both ren'py and python.

[nyaatrap]

Added the battle rules on the top of the topic.
I'm currently drawing a new player character and facial expressions of her and the others. The next version will have more visually-oriented dialogues on the adv mode.

[gas]

Downloaded and tested.
The SCRIPT IS GOOD ENOUGH! You did a very good work, and everything is easy to understand. I appreciate the style you coded enemies and the map logic.
In the future you can add an orientation system, so the player can change facing instead of "move+rotate".
You can so go forward or back, or rotate left/right, changing images accordingly. I think is just a matter of setting for each room a list of 4 possible exits, and an orientation variable. I'm not a Python programmer, but I can send you a logic script to do this. Well... that's mean you need more BG images.

Now, some quirk.
As this is a "proxy" version, is better if don't add so many SFX and tracks to download.
You added a sound when HOVERING buttons. Even if this is a nice feature, Ren'Py suffer from this and react slowly. I suggest you to REMOVE the sound for hovering buttons. I had to do this for my games too T_T...
Is better if you add the SWITCH option as a part of the moves menu. In fact, if one day you want to add an Inventory system, could be nice to have a menu with "ATTACK/ITEM/SWITCH/ESCAPE" voices, and then modal submenus for single options.

Waiting for future developments.

[EDIT]: uhm...well... as an Interface Designer, if you want I can contribute with some.

[nyaatrap]

Thank you for the feedback

Downloaded and tested.
In the future you can add an orientation system, so the player can change facing instead of "move+rotate".
You can so go forward or back, or rotate left/right, changing images accordingly. I think is just a matter of setting for each room a list of 4 possible exits, and an orientation variable. I'm not a Python programmer, but I can send you a logic script to do this. Well... that's mean you need more BG images.

Maybe I'll implement it in the future version. Preparing and managing bg images is the main trouble though ._.

Now, some quirk.
As this is a "proxy" version, is better if don't add so many SFX and tracks to download.
You added a sound when HOVERING buttons. Even if this is a nice feature, Ren'Py suffer from this and react slowly. I suggest you to REMOVE the sound for hovering buttons. I had to do this for my games too T_T...

Didn't notice about that trouble. let me think some solutions.

Is better if you add the SWITCH option as a part of the moves menu. In fact, if one day you want to add an Inventory system, could be nice to have a menu with "ATTACK/ITEM/SWITCH/ESCAPE" voices, and then modal submenus for single options.

Waiting for future developments.

That's a nice feature. I'll add other the switch menu along with the move menu. But I have no plan to make submenus for now, because I hate to do 2 clicks to do a single action.

[nyaatrap]

Current version is 0.4 which has a new character, transparent buttons, the hovering sound toggle option, some bug fixes and optimization e.t.c. But the explore system doesn't work well because I changed some variables. So I skip to post 0.4 then the next update will be 0.5 which would have more improved UI on the explorer mode. The Orientation system is a future plan on 0.6 or later.

[nyaatrap]

I should use image files for the direction anyway, got it worked.

[kenobihiro]

Wow it's really nice to play =D. What source did you use for that RPG element?

[nyaatrap]

What source.. hmm.. inside my brain? lol
Ideas are inspired by Shin Megami Tensei series

[nyaatrap]

0.6 Update
But the next update will be slow because I have to learn story writing.

[nyaatrap]

While tidying up the code, I got a very basic frame of the exploration system secondarily. I'd put this code into the public domain.

Code: Select all

#########################################
# exploration frame

init -1 python:
    class Spot():
        def __init__(self, n = -1, s = -1, w = -1, e = -1, image = None, event = None):
            self.n = n
            self.s = s
            self.w = w
            self.e = e
            self.image = image
            self.event = event
                
    current_spot = Spot()
            
    def explore(map, start):
        global current_spot
        current_spot = map[start]
        while True:
            if not current_spot.image == None:
                renpy.show(current_spot.image)
            if not current_spot.event == None:
                renpy.jump(current_spot.event)
            next_spot = renpy.call_screen("choose_direction")
            current_spot = map[next_spot]
    
screen choose_direction:
    fixed:
        if not current_spot.n == -1:
            textbutton "North" action Return (value=current_spot.n)  xcenter .5 ycenter .4
        if not current_spot.s == -1:
            textbutton "South" action Return (value=current_spot.s) xcenter .5 ycenter .6
        if not current_spot.w == -1:
            textbutton "West" action Return (value=current_spot.w) xcenter .4 ycenter .5
        if not current_spot.e == -1:
            textbutton "East" action Return (value=current_spot.e) xcenter .6 ycenter .5
            
##########################################
## sample game script

init python:
    sample =[Spot(1),  # here is spot0 whose north is spot1.
        Spot(2, 0), # here is spot1. north is spot2, south is spot0
        Spot(3, 1, 4),
        Spot(5, 2),
        Spot(e=2), # east is spot2
        Spot(-1, 3, 6, 7), # -1 is another expression of none
        Spot(e=5),
        Spot(w=6, event = "goal")] # when you reached at this spot7, jump to label "goal"
        
label start1:
    $ explore(sample, 0) # start exploring from spot0 on the map "sample"
    
label goal:
    "Congratulation!"
    return

and this is a screen shot of the sample game.

[HikkiPanda]

0.6 Update
But the next update will be slow because I have to learn story writing.

What kind of story do you plan to write for this game ?