Killer 2017 - Entry Twenty Seven

Today I've worked on my design doc some more; I've started laying down the list of every skill that should be created. I've also started working on the concepts of thin and thick blood in Killer 2017. I'm almost done implementing the barebone skeleton structure of the skills actually in-game right now, I only need to get the vision ring in-battle ability working and then I'll move on to awarding thin and thick blood and the followup to the first 'real' battle! I also have to give enemies a way to attack, since you could theoretically get hit in the first battle. 

• Time spent on the project so far: 57 hours
• Currently working on: Skills and combat

Killer 2017 - Entry Twenty Six

Today was all about skills and combats again; I've worked a bit on the vision ring and I've started to implement the 'Heal' and 'Run' options. This is still a lot of work for not a lot of results, but I have to make this in order for the rest of the game to progress more smoothly.

I also have started to work on enemy passive skills. For instance, the generic Heaven Smiles have 'Melee Attack' this means that they move towards your character each turn in order to explode. By itself, this doesn't do much, but some characters might be able to hit them easier or harder when they get close to attack, the Counter-Attack skill from Killer7 might come in play as well.

• Time spent on the project so far: 56 hours
• Currently working on: Skills and combat

Killer 2017 - Entry Twenty Five

Today I mostly worked on the various skills characters would have; principally what kind of active skills there would be in the game. So far, I have decided that each character would have one skill to use out of battle, each weapon would have one skill to use in battle (and each character will get three weapons instead of just Dan and Mask getting upgrades) and each ring will have one skill for both inside and outside of battles. There might also be combo skills but I'm not sure of what I'm going to do with combos yet.

There are going to be passive skills as well, but I just don't want to overwhelm myself like I did with The Proton Orders and other games I've made. Of course, this is a turn-based RPG, so a good repertoire of skills is required. 

• Time spent on the project so far: 55 hours
• Currently working on: Skills and combat

Killer 2017 - Entry Twenty Three

Today I made it so you can see the picture of your current target. I also started working on the map. Next thing will be a cutscene. I was kinda busy this week, but things should clear up this weekend, expect more screenshots and stuff later on!

• Time spent on the project so far: 51 hours
• Currently working on: Map functionality

Killer 2017 - Entry Twenty Two

After the tutorial, Killer 7 dumps you into the beginning of the first mission with pretty much all the UI unlocked. You can look at the map and at your target immediately. There's nowhere to go but north, but I still have to make these features work. Afterwards, when you move, there's actually another cutscene, so that might take a bit more time. I think I'll release another playable version when the first mission is done. It shouldn't be -that- long, shouldn't it? 

• Time spent on the project so far: 50 hours
• Currently working on: General UI tweaks and functionality

Killer 2017 - Entry Twenty One

Yesterday I had two people try the game and while it's not a massive test base, I made some changes to the tutorial area and a bit of UI tweaks. The compass is a bit clearer and I've added clock icons next to enemy attack cooldowns. I've also added a few lines of dialogue in the tutorial area to let the player know what their next move is.

That being said, I don't want to over-tutorialize the game; Killer 7 is pretty straightforward, but there are a few puzzles here and there still. Having the tutorial be smooth at teaching core gameplay concepts is a good idea, but I wouldn't want to have characters talk about what their next move should be all the time. After all there's Yoon-Hyun ;)

• Time spent on the project so far: 49 hours
• Currently working on: Tutorial tweaks

Killer 2017 - Entry Twenty

This weekend I worked on finishing the tutorial and started to work on some more UI for the 'real' game. You can play the tutorial prototype! It contains bits of the main menu and the movement/interaction/combat tutorial, with a small cutscene beforehand. Please try it out and tell me what you think!

• Time spent on the project so far: 48 hours
• Currently working on: Entrance of the first level

Killer 2017 - Entry Nineteen

Work on the battle system is going really well! You can now shoot an enemy multiple times without having to go through menus if all you want to do is repeat the last action. Now I'm going to introduce the concept or reloading, and prevent the player from shooting when they run out of ammo. After that, I still need to introduce criticals, and then the tutorial fight will be over! This should be done by monday, for sure.

• Time spent on the project so far: 43 hours
• Currently working on: The battle system

Killer 2017 - Entry Eighteen

Target selection now kinda properly works! In a sad twist of fate, I was just coding how to pick the closest target to the mouse wrong. Oh well, this kind of things happen. This morning I've also started coding what happens when you pull the trigger on your enemies. Doesn't work properly yet, but it should be done soon. 

I also have to make it so you can repeat last turn's action if you want by just shooting at the same target. It'll help battles go faster!

• Time spent on the project so far: 41 hours
• Currently working on: The battle system

Killer 2017 - Entry Fifteen

Not much to talk about today; I've mostly worked on continuing to implement the battle system, more specifically regarding how it connects to the tutorial. I didn't want to have to connect a bunch of tutorial-related code into my battle system, so I figured a way around it.

• Time spent on the project so far: 38 hours
• Currently working on: The battle system

Killer 2017 - Entry Twelve

Didn't have much time to work on K2017 today but I've made it so you can walk between rooms by using the compass. There's a proper fade in/out between rooms, and the second room is almost done. I'm still unsure if I want to user to click on a verb (LOOK/TALK/USE) and then click on something on-screen to interact, or just present a list, or just have one look-able/talk-able/use-able thing per room. I'm leaning towards the first idea, but I'll have to work it out.

• Time spent on the project so far: 30 hours
• Currently working on: Tutorial area

Killer 2017 - Entry Ten

This morning I started working on the first tutorial area of the game and wondered how I would take screenshots of the game without anything else cluttering the screen - UI, characters, etc. - then I fell into a hole and discovered Dolphin's FIFO player abilities. Basically, you can record gameplay and then play it back while keeping the camera movement capabilities and also being able to render only certain layers, which will help greatly.

I'm also still working on the structure of game rooms, specific rooms have certain event triggers when you first enter them, or when certain conditions are not met, and I have to deal with all that in a way that isn't going to hurt me down the line. Still believe that gameplay might be atteignable this week!

• Time spent on the project so far: 27 hours
• Currently working on: Tutorial area

Killer 2017 - Entry Eight

Still working on that first cutscene because I lost some work. For some reason, my intro prefab got reset and all the values I had added in disappeared. That made me a bit frustrated because I had to redo the whole thing almost from scratch. That prompted me to use versioning so that I can rollback if that error occurs again. Hope it doesn't tho!

I had started to work on the gunshot scene after the intro cutscene, but I couldn't manage it. Shame.

• Time spent on the project so far: 24 hours
• Currently working on: Core game systems, first intro cutscene