SilverLock [GOTHIC][DATING SIM][VERY EARLY]

[gas]

***THE GAME IS AT A VERY EARLY STAGE (pre-beta)***
I'm finishing the interface and fine-tuning the code. The math is almost done.

I'll post almost daily updates with screenshots.

WHAT'S ABOUT
SilverLock is a vampire hunter simulator / dating sim (while nothing of "dating" and "sim" are there).

You play as a French scout caught in a clash against a darkness entity that's rising in a prussian mark, during Napoleonic Wars. As a criminal conscript, a great sin weight on your shoulders, and you get a deal you can't refuse: help that mark and your convinction will be redeemed.

The game can be broadly resumed as: solve quests each night, by spending points you collect by increasing bounds with the support cast.
So, for example, the more you're tied to the witch, the more MAGIC point you collect each night to solve quests that require them.

Deceit is everywhere, as much as love...
Beware! One of the girl, randomly dealt each time, is a traitor. You doesn't know who's until the very end, and you can fall in love with the wrong one. At the same time, in a given chapter, you're called to put a death penalty on one of them! Yes, it's a gothic drama world.

SPECIAL FEATURES
-Arcade slot system. Choose a slot to continue a saved position or start a new game (like Zelda, Metroid or any JRPG this world). Soon to be released in the cookbook section.
-CoffeeBreak. It's a single shot bookmark you can use to freeze the game and continue later from that very point. If your batteries are going down before reaching a checkpoint, here's your solution.
-Insert name with onscreen keyboard. Random names, default one, cheat codes.
-Rich extra section, with gallery, sound mode, scene mode, encyclopaedia, achievements.
-Rich option screen, with game resume, preferences, game data, guides and what you need to play safe.

GAME CONCEPTS
-BOUND SISTEM! Is not only about collecting points. Spend your experience points in a game of strategy to get more and more bound points. At the same time, discover the mysterious stories of those 4 women.
-SILVERLOCK! Create an exclusive silver lock with a character, and her special quests appear on the map. Solve them to get deeper and deeper in her secret history and reach an ending (but what happen if you end the story with the traitor??).
-TRIAL AND BLOODSPHERES! Find the bloodspheres on the map and assign to girls to have hints on who's the traitor. You have a trial to face and you can risk to kill an innocent!
-NIGHTMARE! Nightmares are a minigame of strategy and luck. Put your actions in sequence and hope that the evil one doesn't reach you.

CHARACTERS
(name could changes, portraits to come)
MARIN
The previous vampire hunter was found dead. Marin she's her daughter. Now she help Leon the exorcist to face presences of darkness. Despite her affirmative conduit, she's in fact haunted by horrible dreams. Why sometime she act so violently?

SOELIA
A woman about to be burned for witchery. She does have really killed her son and all those babies? Was she really aware of your coming? She like to play a cat and mouse game with you.

ADALHEID
The heir of the mark throne, she's all about her duties, and all against French. She must prevail against a number of males that want her position, so she's framed inside a rigid conduit of war and discipline. Well, at least until you spot her dancing in a forest...

K.DORR
A misterious girl that seems to appear from nowhere and know everything people can't see. She's a monster? A ghost? A dream?
She seems someone that you knew already, but she's saying coming from the future?!?


(Note: I'm working on it as a solo project, line by line and PIXEL BY PIXEL with care, so don't expect to see much of the art soon, it's the last thing I will add).

Some screenshot at random will follow, with placeholders when needed.

[gas]

***Daily Update 1
(I know those are boring stuff, but I had to do them soon or later XD )

MUSIC ROOM COMPLETED!
An animated flame is shown when a track play. Removed the music room code, used instead new functions and some python to show track and artist.
Added a scrollbar to see track progression, and a volume slider.
I could add a scroll to navigate inside a track, but it's out of context, maybe in "perfect edition" XD.
!!Experienced a bug while creating a tracklist too. The player buttons became insensible. No need for that list, so goodbye.

PROFILE SCREEN COMPLETED!
It lack a sprite, but anyway all data is properly managed and shown.
!!Removed the "Seen lines" voice, as it register the number of lines in all gameplays, not only current one. The solution is too costly on time and not necessary, so goodbye.

SCENE MODE COMPLETED!
Created a routine screen, so I don't have to mind again. Added a notify when starting a replay, properly changed the quick menu. And so the replays are done.

CTC
Redrawn and pushed a little on the right.

NOTIFY AND SKIP INDICATOR
Redrawn 'cause of reason. The skip is a simple ATL transform near the text, look nice.
!!Need to change the notify text, the screenshot one is tooooo long.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA UPDATED!
Added all the "Darkness" voices.
!!Experienced a delay by using a viewport to list the topics. To change into a grid when I know the final number of voices.

+ general debug.
See ya tomorrow!

[Alcor]

I'm really enjoying the concept of a traitor in the love interest characters, randomly chosen each time. I think it gives the game a lot of replay value, and it also engages the player in actively trying to figure out who the traitor is. That's probably the most interesting part of this game to me, actually; I'm a sucker for interesting game concepts.

From another game dev who likes to solo projects: good luck with this one! I'll look forward to seeing your game concepts realized

[gas]

I'm really enjoying the concept of a traitor in the love interest characters, randomly chosen each time. I think it gives the game a lot of replay value, and it also engages the player in actively trying to figure out who the traitor is. That's probably the most interesting part of this game to me, actually; I'm a sucker for interesting game concepts.

From another game dev who likes to solo projects: good luck with this one! I'll look forward to seeing your game concepts realized

Thank you, I'll do my best.

[Zelan]

This looks extremely cool. I love gothic stuff. ^_^ And like Alcor said, I'm digging the idea of a traitor among the love interests. It would be super cool if there would be unique CGs for the 'traitor ends.'

That said, are you planning on hiring a writer or proofreader for this project? I'm guessing that English isn't your native language since your phrasing and word choice are sometimes incorrect. It would definitely increase the overall quality of your finished product.

[gas]

This looks extremely cool. I love gothic stuff. ^_^ And like Alcor said, I'm digging the idea of a traitor among the love interests. It would be super cool if there would be unique CGs for the 'traitor ends.'

That said, are you planning on hiring a writer or proofreader for this project? I'm guessing that English isn't your native language since your phrasing and word choice are sometimes incorrect. It would definitely increase the overall quality of your finished product.

Surely I need a strong proofreading!
English is not even my third language XD: And I'm also viced by years of high level prose in a latin language.
Luckily enough I have someone that could help in that field, there's a lot of stuff I want to put in and write about.

Yes, my plan was to add special endings with a proper CG. The game could end many ways, combining the evil defeating, if you have or not completed the quests of the love interest, and if she's or not the traitor.

I wasn't sure people could love that idea, it was a risky bet. Your feedbacks are very precious to me.
Thank you!

[wyverngem]

This sounds like a really fun project. I'm already interested in the main character. The GUI turned out looking really nice. I like the traditional new game system. It's really cool actually. ^^ My own personal preference is to have a save for each romance line, but I like how it's set up in your previews.

[gas]

***DAILY UPDATE 2

Working on the map and game HUD.
Yes, nothing so exceptional, but it was hard to get those gradient maps properly.
Need to carve it a little more (adding buildings), but the base is done. I want to add a moving layer of clouds, tonight.

Encyclopaedia updated!
Added Napoleonic topics. I feel more knowledgeable now.
Created the grid of topics instead of the viewport. A viewport inside a viewport create an incredible lag O_O.
Now it lack only the technical topics, and that screen is done.

Nothing more today, due to that map drawing drama and being charmed by Napoleon Bonaparte. Anyway, I also started sketching so some image soon for your delight.

[gas]

This sounds like a really fun project. I'm already interested in the main character. The GUI turned out looking really nice. I like the traditional new game system. It's really cool actually. ^^ My own personal preference is to have a save for each romance line, but I like how it's set up in your previews.

Thank you for that positive feedback. I need a lot of motivation on a daily base, so I'm really grateful.

[wyverngem]

^_^ I'm sure it'll turn out nice. The clouds sound like a nice touch. If you wanted to get fancy I guess you could add weather effects.

[gas]

^_^ I'm sure it'll turn out nice. The clouds sound like a nice touch. If you wanted to get fancy I guess you could add weather effects.

And now, obviously, there is a rain layer XD.

The speed is doubled i dunno why.

[gas]

Daily Update 3 (Attack of The Bugs)

## Added a personalized pointer
No animations. I've tried an animated one and damn how much is distracting O_O.

## Changed the ingame menu choice buttons
The only thing I like of the new GUI are those buttons.
So I just changed the shade to fit better. I also added a little animations when choices come in.
!!I'm thinking about doing a mode callback to have a better feedback for the choices. I've already coded that for another game. The choice you did appear again on the screen, blinking half second.
Anyway this risk to become a too baroque, so I'll test it.
(Tested: yes it's a little too baroque XD. I HATE that buttons doesn't have a "pressed" status for feedbacks!)

##Added sound effects to buttons
In fact there are only 3 sounds to apply. The start one, the normal choice and whatever choice means "no" or "back".
!!Need to add some more to carve better the interface (like name insert buttons and loading), but is quite easy.

## Rain over the map O_O
As Wyvergen suggested, now there's an optional rain layer over the map. That look good, but wasn't exactly what I coded XD.

Well, let's explain. I've done an anim.FilmStrip animation in pixel art that actually was a nice raindrop cycle.
I've fight with the SpriteManager to have 10 raindrops falling at random positions <u>at different times</u>.
What exactly I've come to, is that those raindrops randomly goes all around the screen for EACH frame.
The effect, while not exactly the one I've coded, is DASTARDLY good O_O.
The eye get faked into believing there are 60 raindrops all around, with the proper "chaos" factor of a storm.
So, that's the case of a mistake turning out to be the right thing.
!!I'm thinking about adding a snow layer and a kinda... "dark" layer with red rain and burning map.
But these features are late in the TODO list.

## Added stuff to map
Added a dot for quest locations, an animated pointer and a pixel art sd character. The latter is waiting for a simple cycle animation.
So now you can have a simple glimpse of how the main chara look like XD. It's a sum of Kira from DeathNote and Juste Belmont from Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance (while in my sketches look more like a bishi Klaus Kinski... Hahaha!).

## Added clouds
Up to 4 clouds can show up on the map, thank to a SnowBlossom function. Nice.

## That damned Encyclopaedia, AGAIN
Whatever I do, the Encyclopaedia is bugged by a lag I can't explain. There's ANOTHER one that work perfectly fine in-game, so I really dunno. Maybe later I'll ask someone to check a rolling demo to see why THIS one is lagging (I mean: there's more than 2 seconds of lag when I hover a voice!!), while the other, same code, it doesn't. Or maybe rewrite the whole encyclopaedia thing.

## Working on the logo
I want to do something like Final Fantasy. So now I'm working on the base drawing that will be shaded.
It look nice so far.

[gas]

Daily Update 4 (Squishing the bugs muahahah)

##Started the bound screen
It look fantastic. I've already coded some function to drag the spheres in the slots.
How does it work?
Solving quests grant you those spheres. Choose a girl, drag those spheres in the slots, then whirl! Based on the result, you get more and more bound points.
With a little strategy you can increase the bound with the character you want much quickly. Hell yeah, there's really some strategy!
This also trigger narrative events. I thought it could be a nice idea to have a playable phase instead of the plain "meet her, get lova pointss!".
In the end, that's mean you have 4 narrative events by girl triggered by this system alone.

##Finally solved that encyclopedia bug!
Well, I found the culprit. Is the tooltip of the game menu.
For some reason, it act like a kinda daemon function, checking in background 60 times a second if I hover anything.
But this way, the conditionals of the encyclopedia buttons are checked again 60 times a second, too.
And the code of that encyclopedia in the cookbook was a "little" convoluted (it check the whole encyclopedia, select a corresponding voice, show it, apply some conditional, then repeat for each single damned entry... it's like counting from 1 to 10 starting again from 1 each time...).
So, if my counts are correct, that tooltip forced up to 12500 checks... 60 times a second XD.

I don't want to strip out the tooltip, so...

I RECODED the whole encyclopedia (now is called "library"), streamlined, and I used a paging to have just 11 voices to show at once. This compromise finally solved that annoying delay, and the screen goes at proper speed.
Added a count of total voices and the number of unlocked ones. I also changed the background, so now finally seems a real book. VERY nice.

##Support screen completed!
The old one used a 2*2 grid to show data, but the effect was atrocious. Now you have 4 buttons, click one and you can see the full figure support and the stats, not stuffed. Nice.

[gas]

Random early sketches.

[gas]