At this time last year, I didn’t even have an Xbox 360, all the artwork and animation I had in place was temporary and I barely had a functional game. I’m fairly proud of how far I’ve come since then, especially given how complex this game has turned out to be.
The main story script, with all primary characters’ dialog (optional or cutscene), is probably going to run a week past my self-imposed deadline of today. Even so, what I have already is very exciting; this is going to be quite the game. Judging from many recent analyst’s articles, one would probably think that’s suicide in this day and age of quick diversion games, but I wanted to make something more for the core fans of the RPG genre while still making the game accessible to non-RPG fans willing to give them another shot.
As you can see, I posted some rough artwork to be used for the user interface. These portraits are for the main menu, when showing who is in your party (and their current vital statistics). I know many of you are probably wondering where the artwork for the other six characters are, but I’m waiting a bit longer for that big reveal. I’ve shown their designs to others to get some input, and pretty hyped about every last one now. Once I clean the lines up on this particular series though, the eight characters will finally all have full support in the game engine, so it won’t be just the “Arashi and Ket show” any longer.
Furthermore, the final combat system is in place. This one is going to be interesting to see the reaction to, because it expands on the now-common three-character party system in a whole new way. I have yet to see a game do this, ever, so I can’t really wait to see what people think of this particular innovation. I just have to make sure I don’t waste my chance and implement it halfway 🙂
About Astrael
A long-time independent game developer that was lucky(?) enough to have grown up with the gaming industry. I am a programmer, a game designer, a concept and pixel artist, a music composer, and a novelist. This has been my dream for as long as I can remember, and I am determined to take advantage of every talent I hope I have to make it happen!
