The website has been suspended. Updates will be posted once development begins again.
im serious tho this is gonna be like really dreadful and angry. im pouring all of my loathing and bad energy into this, i've decided. the title "caustic" will finally be appropriate. im taking inspiration from my real life experiences this time and i don't care about humor anymore- im not making the Great Value deltarune it would've ended up as lol. this story is the complete essence of failiure. i think it'll make itself clear lmao
The web page has been updated, and the game's synopsis has been roughly updated to the current draft of the premise. More notices out the oudatedness of the images have been placed. I've begun a couple new projects lately, both of which will likely be completed before direct work on the Caustic project resumes. (Color scheme and aesthetic of the website will also be changed once that happens.)
All I can say about the current draft is that it's a lot more serious in design and concept. All the funnies and wacky stuff from the initial concept that I regretably shared online have essentially all been eradtcated. I think the final idea will be much much more interesting. (:
All of the characters' overworld sprites I have found to be much too small. Their details are quite hard to discern on-screen, and in order to make the walk speed bearable, they look as if they're always at a running pace relative to their size. Once I finally get around to writing out the story and plan for the whole game, I'm gonna completely remake all the character sprites to be much bigger. Doing so will make them easier to see on-screen and their walking animations will fit their speed.
The plot synopsis seen on the home page (as of today) will not be the final cut. It will be completely different.
Also the character "Clauda" no longer has an Attack button, and instead has a "Take Nap" button.
I've been reworking this site (as you can tell), and overall it's been good. Today I introduced The Board, a place where people can leave a post on the site about whatever. It's like a guestbook and a public forum at the same time. This'll make the website more fun for whoever visits. Check it out, post something! (please)
So... Regarding the project itself- I've been working with the idea more, and it's doing well. Much more original than any of the previous ideas I went through. Overall, the story is still not finished. All of the characters' arcs/development have been refined and the theming of the game solidified. The current ordeal is the world's structure and the plot of events that happen within it. It's a difficult process, but I've been writing and plotting things in a physical book now, which is a lot easier and faster for me than windows notepad. Recently I thought up a much better and much more solid/interesting project idea, but I'll wait until this one is finished before I get into that. Until then, I'm just doing my thing. When I actually start executing the story and converting everything into the real game, it'll be extremely fast, since I've already created, programmed and implemented all the tricky parts of the game's system. Game development is a horrendously slow and tedious process. I'll make it. (maybe)
Not really a big update, but the character Speeker's new name is "Sendrie." That's about it.
lol forget everything i wrote in the last update, i have relapsed yet again
I just wrote the whole game's detailed timeline of events. It's something I've been struggling to do any of for many many months, but I just got it all in tonight. I feel fucking amazing. Gonna go to sleep, wake up, give my face a full treatment and then work on this thing all day tomorrow. YEA
This week I imlpemented the core vessel for the story progression: a train. You travel by train to each of the game's areas, looking for special Rider Permits (i'll rename that). Basically, your big destination is a far away and dangerous stop for the train. The only way to get a ride to there is to compensate them by paying with a certain number of permits, or tokens or something. So, you go around the country trying to accrue these permits. The more permits you find, the further ahead you can travel. I created the assets for the train cars, the train engine, and the interior of the carts too. All that's left is to put in a railroad autotile (easy) and sprite a ticket man (also easy). Then the core story progression is established. Woohoo!
look at it go
Unfinished late areas have been scrapped in-engine, and events will be implemented in story chornological order.
The plot has been further solidified and made more unique. Character motives are more understandable/justified, and the overarching events are made more sensible. All that is left to do is establish the specific sequence of events (which will be easy) and create a tonal shift throughout the game at a subtle reasonable pace. It might be something minor at face value, this actually makes the game so much easier to write and complete since there is now a solid base to lay the game's events upon. Soon the events and places will come together congruently and the experience will be complete.
I feel like shit today.
I've introduced a second randomizer variable. Previously, there was just a "World Seed" number that gets randomly determined upon a save file's creation and never changed. The World Seed determines the color scheme of a few areas, weather effects, NPC appearances and dialogue, and some other things. This number went from 1-20. With this, there is a 0.25% chance of making 2 save files with the same seed number. However, it still is a mere 1/20 roll. So, I introduced something that would multiply the different possibile course of events to a practically infinite number. The Event Seed.
This new variable, the Event Seed, will be randomly changed every single time it's called upon. It will be used with the World Seed simultaneously. The Event Seed will be used for one-off events, or single pieces of dialogue that only get spoken once. So even if you somehow know the World Seed number and all the differences within them, you'll still not be able to predict what might happen with everything. Many many one-off events will use this second variable that changes every time it's called upon, meaning the number of possibilities for a playthrough's events is so large, it may as well just be infinite. So essentially, the game will truly be different every time you play it.
An in-battle dialogue system has been established, allowing for story and character development to be conveyed in battles.
Website for the project has been made. (you're on it right now!) This website is intended to be a destination for all information about the project to establish its existence beyond just the theoretical and imaginary realm.
Project begins. All base engine assets, including face sprites, character sprites, user interface graphics, tilesets, SFX and music have been replaced. Battle system refined, game resolution and assets doubled from a 320x340 window with 16x16 tiles into a 640x480 window with 32x32 tiles. Enemy sprite animation implemented. Battle background animations system implemented. God rest my soul.
