Update Time

Good mornin', afternoon, or evenin', depending upon when you're reading this.


It's that time again... Update time! Bam!

Ever since I placed that first round of testing deadline for myself, I have found myself pushing harder to get the game into a state where it is, in fact, testable without crashing. This is both good and bad. Good because it means a lot is happening to bring the game to fruition. Bad because it makes me go insane and chase people around a large, isolated, empty hotel in the midst of winter with an axe until I end up in a hedge maze and freeze. Again. Basically my schedule is like this: I wake up. I work on Aleph for 1-2 hours. I shower. I work on Aleph for 1-2 more hours. I eat. I go to work. At work, depending on how busy I am, I can put in as few as 1 or 2 hours, or as many as 5 or so hours. When I get home after 11pm from work, I put in 1-3 more hours. Then I sleep. Then I wake up and repeat the process. Every. Day. On days off, it is a bit different, putting anywhere up to 12 or so hours in.

Buuut, hopefully the game will be in good enough shape to be tested within a month or so. Some of the bugs mentioned previously have been taken care of. I found the root of the problem for why the ships are incapable of sailing on water and only sail on land. Hopefully that will be fixed by this weekend. I fixed the problem with the game crashing under certain conditions when the player went to certain locations that had particular fog overlays. The monster and resource spawn system has been fixed and works quite well. I found a source of loading lag (when transferring between 'maps' the game was lagging for 2-4 seconds), so now that is identified, I can fix it at some point. A bunch of miscellaneous errors have been corrected. Equipping equipment no longer crashes the game. Dropping weapons or armor onto the ground no longer crashes the game, nor does it drop the wrong items. Dropping items still crashes the game, though, and I hope this will be fixed by this weekend as well. Right now, searching dead bodies crashes the game, but that is not a bug, I just haven't assigned loot tables yet.

So, as far as testing goes, I can live with a few quirks and bugs, but I will not begin testing as long as the game crashes and I know there is an issue with it that can be fixed. I am sure once these issues are fixed and testing begins more crashes and such very well may be discovered, which is the nature of testing, but I still want to try to make the testing phase go as smoothly as possible.

I've been churning out additional art and revamping existing art. I think it's all starting to look pretty good, and reminds me a lot of certain games from the 90's. It is all still a work in progress, but progress is progressing. Or something. Anyways, I made a bunch of furniture, chairs, tables, cabinets, and the like, along with miscellaneous items like wells, catapults, an animated guillotine, Alephs, statues, skeletons, graves, tombs, and so forth. I realized that my primary 'artistic' inclination was to massively desaturate everything of color, sort of following the 'brown is real' trope of modern games. I decided that I liked the more vibrant colors of older games over the browns and greys of todays, so I 're-saturated' most of the graphics to liven up the landscape a bit.

I've started placing the monster spawners in the various maps and dungeons. I would say about half, maybe a little less than half, of the world currently has monsters and random plant resources (for alchemy and crafting) spawning in the appropriate areas. At first, this was a bit problematic because there are some tougher monsters out in the wilds, and I figured it would kind of suck if you just wandered into one of these areas while exploring and get totally eaten alive. So, I placed a level spawner in some locations as well; meaning that those harder monsters won't spawn until the player is level X or above, sort of like Fallout. This way the player will be better equipped to handle such creatures. I did not do this for dungeons, though, and some dungeons are a lot harder than others. I will try to drop hints throughout the game so you can get a sense of which dungeons might be most appropriate at the time (though this will depend more upon your equipment and party makeup than actual attributes and levels).

So, what exactly is an Aleph, anyways?

Since as far back as ancient Persia (or perhaps beyond), the concept of scrying stones has been around. J.R.R. Tolkien referred to them as Palantirs, the church of Latter Day Saints call them Seer Stones, Jorge Luis Borgais called his the Aleph (from which I divined the name for this game), and there are many other names and types thereof. The general purpose, regardless of what they are called and by whom, is pretty similar throughout history and fantasy. They are a medium in which the user divines some sort of truth or psychic vision; they are used to see things, past present or future, over a great or short distance. That is the cliff-notes version.

How does this relate to the game Aleph, though? In the game world I've created, there exists multiple Alephs. Only a Seer, whom is from another realm completely (I.E. you!) has the ability to utilize these ancient magical constructs. As the Seer, you assume control over the House of the Aleph, which has remained dormant for many years. Upon doing so, you receive a small Aleph, which you can use to locate items and people throughout the world (as talked about in a previous update). The larger Alephs, as you see in the picture above, have a different function. Once you master a particular principle (Bravery, Empathy, Wisdom, etc), and you interact with the associated Aleph, it will bestow a certain power upon you. These particular powers generally grant you immunity from a particular ailment or effect. The Aleph of Wisdom, for example, prevents you from becoming confused or possessed by evil spirits. The last, and the most ancient of Alephs, under the right conditions will bring about the end of the game.

Graves!

I gathered up all of the Kickstarter backer names as appropriate and placed them on their respective grave markers and such and placed them throughout the game. I wanted to make sure everyone's name got used (who supplied one) so I went ahead and did that before it slipped my mind.

So, going forward, I hope to finish, or at least be darn near close to finishing, placing all of the monster and resource spawners throughout the entire game. I will continue to work on making the art consistent and editing old art to make it up to date. Once the spawn system is in place, I am going to start adding shop keepers and standard NPCs (right now I only have the party member NPCs in the world, and the Steward of your noble house). I would also like to work on the items a bit more and make sure they are all working as intended in game. I also have to add furniture to the item database so that you can pick it up and place it where you like. I want most furniture to be interactive in this way, except for large furniture like tables, cabinets, and the like.

Do you have some good ideas?

Part of what I love about the whole Kickstarter thing is that I don't feel like I am alone in making this game - that it is, in at least some ways, a collaboration of ideas. So, I would like to reach out to you fine folk and perhaps pick some of your brains, if you would be so willing.

What I would like is some ideas for dungeon traps, puzzles, riddles, and the like. I have a bunch of my own, but it would be irresponsible for me to assume that I have covered the gamut by myself and have created interesting puzzles on my own. I remember seeing one Kickstarter's ideas for a dungeon and they were things I never thought of, and it really made my day seeing those ideas. And that is what I love - people's ideas that are so much different than my own, that I never could think of.

So, if you have a nifty puzzle, dangerous trap, or head-scratchin' riddle you would like to share with me, it might well end up in one of the dungeons of Aleph. For the sake of not spoiling anything, feel free to send any idea to me via private message or e-mail (personal e-mail: llama32@hotmail.com).

Thanks and see you next time!