Western Destiny [Humor/Adventure] [NaNoRenO2015]

[Rated Z]

Thanks Yossarian! I really appreciate it! Yeah, my avatar will pretty much be my character style, I think. Glad you like the hair!

UPDATE!

Okay, I drew the bank and the saloon interior backgrounds, using movie sets from the old videogame "The Movies" as my computer models. I think they turned out surprisingly well, and look consistent with the exteriors. This leaves one last background left to draw, which is the Sheriff's Office. That one might have to be created entirely from scratch.

I think I'm done with the title screen. The letters were far more difficult than I anticipated. The first version I had to toss out because it looked really bad. Finally I figured out a combination of stencils to color my hand drawn letters, and got a weathered, slightly 3D effect. It looks like it did in my imagination, and that's amazing.

The first attempt at the cowboy and horse silhouette looked terrible. The tablet is an invaluable tool, but I still draw better on paper. The version on the tablet looked like a malformed doll sitting on the back of a large dog. So I went back and drew it from scratch, scanned it in, then inked it, finally adding the cactus. I considered putting a cow in front of the horse, but decided to quit while I was ahead!

Putting all title screen images together, I'm pretty please with how it looks. It will be interesting to see it with the menu and if it needs any tweaking to balance all the images.

NEXT?

I spent all last night and all day today drawing, and am ready for a little break. The last time I said that, I ended up working on it all night long!

I'm listening to a lot of Western movie music and trying to absorb it before getting back into writing and recording. I should be able to do as much as I can tomorrow, but I'm not quite sure how much I'll be able to do in the week ahead.

THANKS!

Thanks to everyone for reading this thread. The support really means a lot, and makes the creation process even more exciting! Best of luck on all your projects!

[Rated Z]

Here's the title screen with all the images together.

[Rated Z]

UPDATE!

Psych. I didn't take a break, just like I thought I wouldn't. Stayed up and completed the Sheriff's Office, drawn from scratch. It's not as good as the others, but it will do. Looks okay enough, I think.

Then I finished the sprites for the Kid, the Deputy, and the Lady. I made some test mock ups, and they look pretty good to me so far. I hope they look okay in the actual game. No reason they shouldn't.

I would stay up all night, but I should take a fresh stab at designing the bad guy in the morning. I'm overthinking it, and it will come easier if I don't put myself under too much pressure.

NEXT?

Four more main character sprites to go, then two henchmen for the bad guy, and then I think I'm all done with the artwork. Two pieces of music to record, then three additional to write and record, for a total of eight music cues. Unless I'm mistaken, or feel like I need to add some more stuff, that might be all that's left for asset creation. I really look forward to getting started programming and putting it all together.

[Rated Z]

UPDATE!

Made a lot of progress today. I think I have acceptable designs for the bad guy and his henchmen.

Also completed writing and recording all the music. I might add more later if some unexpected idea pops up during the programming process, but I believe this is all I would need. I think I will use music cue 7 as the main theme song for the title screen.

https://soundcloud.com/denny-zartman/western-destiny-4

https://soundcloud.com/denny-zartman/western-destiny-5

https://soundcloud.com/denny-zartman/western-destiny-6

https://soundcloud.com/denny-zartman/western-destiny-7

https://soundcloud.com/denny-zartman/western-destiny-8

NEXT?

Bartender, Bank Guard, Bad Guy, and the 3 henchmen are the six sprites that I need to make, then I should have all of my assets finished and ready to go. Then, it's time to jump in and see if I can make all the elements come to life in a real game!

[Rated Z]

UPDATE!

It was a very busy week at work for me. I didn't make as much progress as I'd like, but I did finally finish all the character sprites.

NEXT?

It's programming time! I hope to be able to really dig in over this weekend and next week too. I have no clue how long it will take to put together.

[Rated Z]

UPDATE!

I had forgotten to do the Mayor sprite, so I took care of that last night. Today, I was able to put up the title menu screen and music, and program a very simple interaction with the kid. It took a bit of time to figure out, but it was quite satisfying when it all finally came together.

NEXT?

I hope to get a skeleton framework of the game tonight and over the weekend.

[Rated Z]

UPDATE!

I am almost halfway done programming the game. Everything is coming together rather nicely. I have to hunt down a few bugs and figure out ways to solve minor problems, but thankfully the error message screen in Ren'Py is very helpful. It's fun to see the game coming together.

NEXT?

I just need to finish programming the second half of the game, add a credits screen to the main menu, and then it's time to test and debug. Finally I have choose a place to upload the finished game. The end just might be in sight.

[Hazel-Bun]

Good luck! So much progress so quickly is awesome

[Rated Z]

Good luck! So much progress so quickly is awesome

Thanks very much, I really appreciate that. It's been a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.

UPDATE!

I spent all day programming, and I'd say I'm about 75% done. Just a bit more writing to do, then a lot of testing and debugging to make sure everything works from the bottom to the top. But a lot of the game is already functional all the way to the end. I'm really surprised at how far I was able to move forward today. There are still some kinks to be worked out, but a lot of the game runs pretty well already. I look forward to having someone play it for the first time!

NEXT?

As much as I would love to brew some coffee and stay up all night long finishing the game, (since I feel I'm so close to the end), I will force myself to stop for now and get rest. It's harder to keep track of things when I'm tired, and I want to end the programming side on a strong note and not get bogged down in simple mistakes that I wouldn't make if I wasn't fatigued.

I should be able to do a little work tomorrow (Monday) and I'll have more time this coming Wednesday and Friday. I should be able to get it done by then! It shouldn't be long before I begin investigating how to publish the game, and maybe how to send it to some friends for possible playtesting.

[Rated Z]

UPDATE!

DONE WITH THE FIRST BUILD!

Woo hoo!

It was a lot of work, but I implemented a scoring framework and finished the entire skeleton of the game. It was fun to get through my first complete error free playtest all the way from title to end credits, just about ten minutes ago.

There is still some polishing to be done, and I need to add a very simple mini game as the final major element, but it will test my minimal programming skills and push them to the limit!

Seriously, it's been a lot of work so far, but also a lot of fun. It's crazy to see the images come to life, and to have the game play out the way I imagined it so long ago.

NEXT?

The mini game element needs to be programmed. I will make one last minute additional bartender sprite and at least one more music cue. I might also add a sad death cue and another background screen, possibly, but those would just be to add a little more visual elements, and aren't really 100% necessary for gameplay.

More playtesting and polishing is in the immediate future, hopefully on Wednesday and Friday, though I will try to squeeze in a few hours between those times to work on it.

The end really seems to be in sight now. I look forward to sharing it with the world soon!

[Rated Z]

UPDATE!

"Western Destiny" is complete!

Since the last update I created a new bartender sprite and two more pieces of music (one for the evaluation screen and one for the end credits.) I did a lot of bug testing and polishing, and the game seems to be working just fine as far as I can tell. The little glitches seem to be ironed out for the most part.

NEXT?

I'll do another few days of playtesting to try and make sure I catch every bug that I can, then I'll be ready to post the game!

[YossarianIII]

Hey, I just wanted to drop by again and say that based on the sprites, setting, and music, this is one of my most-anticipated Nano games. So congrats on finishing!

One thing: I'm hearing a strange volume spike in one of the guitars around :30 in the main theme (song 7). That's probably a quick fix if you just temporarily lower the volume for that part of whatever guitar track is causing the noise.

As someone who grew up spending a lot of time in Gerudo Valley, Western guitar music will always have a special place in my heart.

[Rated Z]

Thanks very much for the tip on the music. I think I fixed it!

Here is v 1.1 of WESTERN DESTINY - http://www.mediafire.com/download/2ccnc ... .1-all.zip

I made the application icon and put it in the game folder, but I don't see it on the game yet. I'll have to work on that later.

I guess I will go make a page on the Completed Games section of the forum now. It's a very short game, but I sure do hope people enjoy it... and that I've caught all the bugs!