Production schedule
The above is the code I mentioned on the research page, the code itself has been modified by myself to make it fit into my game, and works exactly how I want it to. What the code does, is simulate a turn based combat system very similar to that of Pokemon’s combat, at this moment, there is no inventory system or way to heal the player, this will be changed as I implement other parts of the game and work on it in the future.
I began work on the main building, the Rosemary and Thyme, designing the inside of the tavern wasn’t the hard part, it was designing the teleportation system that allowed the player to walk in and out of the building. I initially included 2 different doors, the front and back doors like the in game tavern does, but this proved to be too problematic to code. The issue I had was that the player needed to walk in and out and stay in the same position each time they do so, which seems to be too difficult for just simple code itself, so I’ll try to experiment with variables to fix the problem.
I then started designing a simple layout, mirroring the one seen in the game. Due to the wonky and ramshackle nature of this area, the simple 4 direction controls can get quite annoying and feel quite slow at times, so I am debating whether or not to switch to 8 directional control in order to make the experience more enjoyable. The original pokemon games, that I’ve based my demake on, featured 4 direction controls
After a couple of hours of purely working on the production of the game, I ended up with many event sheets and layouts, while it looks complicated, it works as a good way of moving throughout the setting of the level without using anything too complicated and time consuming. Each layout leads into another and continues it in a linear layout, utilising the entire map for the game’s missions. The one downside of this is that it prevents me from implementing random encounters like I originally wanted to, as that is a relatively large part of Pokemon.
I finally implemented a working dialogue system after hours of trying to figure out how to make one, this was done through the use of “arrays”, which were a pain in themselves to deal with.
Above are the 4 movement animations featured in my game, these are inspired by the animations from the early pokemon games and have now been implemented in my game. These animations are the first of the graphics to be put into the game and will be followed by the details of the Rosemary and Thyme Cabaret. I made these specifically to fit the style of the original platform, with a a colour scheme consisting of 5 different colours, that are all featured on the original gameboy.
(show pokemon comparison image)
While it is an incredibly simple design, I believe it reflects the intended platform and game that it is based on. The lack of detail is designed to look as similar to pokemon as possible, as they didn’t use too much in terms of detail. Using the same colour scheme as the previous graphics limited the detail that could be put into the game’s environment itself
For the roof tiles and art, I used this as a base image. While I obviously couldn’t do it in such detail, I could roughly use this as an example
roof screenshots
As you can see in this picture, the buildings are very much from the same perspective as those from the Pokemon games, featuring the colour palette seen on the original Gameboy. I designed these buildings with the style of The Witcher in mind, as that game’s buildings are very medieval looking, with tiled roofs and multiple levels.
Other character sprites
These screenshots are of the other character sprites that are featured in my game. Those characters being Dandelion, Priscilla, Irina and the random Dwarf worker. All of these sprites were designed in the style of Pokemon sprites, just like the sprite for Geralt was.
Finn's Games Design Journal 