Not really dev blogging but I guess this will look like it:
While taking a momentary break from stage design, to recharge for stage 3, I did not entirely waste my time. Since this game will contain multiple playable characters, I've already set in a 2nd team (in terms of temporary sprites, animations, shot type). It also reminded me that player character balancing is another thing. Or basically their shot type + dmg but that is a thing for the future. The new team is lacking spell cards so all I can do now is graze and shoot.
There will be 3 teams available eventually for this game.
Artwork and graphical UI
I've also sketched some things on paper roughly like how the menus will look like when I will be doing the UI. I usually do these sketches on a small noteblock at work or somewhere and stash them at home. Maybe I'll show some examples when I am at home.
Speaking of sketching, I have this really cheap Wacom bamboo pad which was sitting in dust. After reinstalling the driver software I started practising some drawing skills in photoshop. The goal is to sketch my own ending screens like ZUN does. I can't draw beautiful artwork but the ending screens have that charm of simplicity and dreamy look with simple colours. I wish to mimic that feeling and thus will try to get that done as well.
Portraits are done by a way more skilled person than me so those are all secure and the quality will be really really high. The only thing that annoys me is that Danmakufu Engine has horrible way of pixelating images if you for example go full screen or larger resolutions. Recently the developer allows us to set resolution like 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 and such. So I need to see what works best to avoid this pixelation. Maybe provide each portrait in multiple sizes and load the one. But that will still lead to pixelated portraits if someone on 640x480 goes full screen.
Extra stage or not
Depending on how fast I am able to actually develop perhaps an Extra stage but for now the realistic goal is 3 stages because well, being realistic :V there are 3 stages designed in terms of graphics. Trying to develop an extra now will take lots and lots of time such as designing the textures, layout, coding, potential 3D models and such. If I only didn't procrastinate professionally on this game I could've perhaps summon a 6 stage-game but too late for regrets now.
ZUN's fan creation rules and permissions
A struggle we all have, there are logically a few issues that are important to consider. Mainly that currently as placeholder I am utilizing ZUN's data. This needs to be most likely replaced. Yesterday I've analysed my content and was quite surprised to see that I was using relatively small amount. Mainly the bullets, few boss sprites, enemy sprites and SFX. The stage textures are made by me and few free-to-use/edit and publish materials which I edited. 3D models seen in the screenshots are fully made by me.
So basically the stages and large portion of the graphics are safe for distribution. This will somewhat prevent the infamous STOP HELEPOLIS issue. For some elements in the game carefully composed mails have been distributed as said before. All I can do is patiently wait and hope.
Edit:
Ah if people are concerned about payment because this will be released at Reitaisai. That is something I have been thinking about a long time and still undecided. To be honest I also don't make this decision entirely myself as I need to contact my artist partner for this. If the permissions allow it, I have two methods:
- A small fee for the effort my partner took to draw the material, sign us up for Reitaisai and such.
- A gift when someone buys something at our booth. (For example a doujin bought == get CD).
Personally myself I don't need or want money for this game. I'm treating this opportunity as a Touhou Fan Achievement and therefore for me the actual experience is more valuable than w/e price. I also told my partner that I will be covering any expenses made such as signing up, printing costs, CD burning costs etc etc etc.
That is why if I have the proper permissions, post Reitaisai I will also release it on my homepage. Otherwise the data needs to be replaced with self-made material or free-to-publish and eventually released that way. So yea, quite some challenges ahead.
