Status Report #45 (Smarter NPCs & Shrinking Scope)

     I'm going to start titling these now. It'll be easier to keep track of them this way. It may seem mundane but getting in and out of houses gave me quite a bit of trouble collision wise. Eventually I fund just the perfect spot to put the exit collider, player spawn position, and wall boxes. I should also consider making future houses bigger. I can keep the forest homes small because this town is meant to be somewhat of a dump compared to the big city.

Find out what else I've been working on this week below!

If I Started Over Now... (Unicorn Quest)

     My first Adventures in Equica title isn't even out yet and I can already see some missteps that I would have approached differently. I'm too far in to do much about them now but I will keep these ideas in mind if/when I do a sequel years from now. However, a new idea for the game's structure came to mind and I think I might shrink the game's scope quite a bit to devote more time to polish. I'll need to sleep on it and get some outside opinions (especially yours!) but catch what I have in mind below the break.

Equica's Pixie Fountains On Hold

     I worked on sprites for the pixie fountain Clover will use to fast travel around Equica. I will be placing these things in key areas spread out to destinations players may visit often. They also double as healing centers and are small enough for me to squeeze indoors if I need to.

     In Equica, pixies have a unique teleportation magic. In exchange for their magic Unicorns have constructed these magical homes for them. Standing on the square will restore your health and pressing the action button there will bring up the warp menu so you can pick another discovered fountain to warp to.

     You unlock new fountains by finding them and offering a certain amount of gems of a certain kind. Pixies eat gems and will only teleport generous ponies who have fed them before. The healing is always free but unlocking a fountain for fast travel will cost you.

     Trouble is, I can't come up with their visual composition and it just looks off. I'm considering having them more edged (hexagonal?) in the front, making them gold instead of marble when activated but grayed out when not, tilting the standing pad to match building/stump angles, and layering on some moving water and tiny wandering pixie objects. I might even get rid of the warp pad entirely because the perspective is so weird. I don't know yet. I'll come back to this later.

     For now I'll just put this aside because there's a lot of stuff to work on that I do know how to handle and I bet the look will come to mind over time in a burst of creativity. Many things like this do.

Unicorn Quest: Making An RPG Town Scene - From Gimp To Unity

    With my world map charted out it's time to start putting my plans into practice. I'm using the techniques I used to create the battle scene. I start with colored blocks indicating walls, land, and obstacles. Next I do some sprite work to have things to fill space with. After I have blueprints and pieces I line everything up and put it into Unity so I can add collision boxes where they're needed.

    See a more detailed breakdown of making the game's forest town, Timber Grove, from sketch to in-game (along with some pictures) below the break.