Unicorn Training Text Is Set In Stone

     I'm going with a Link to The Past style "cut to the chase" story with this game. Being this far downsized and different from the bigger game to come, I simply have enough text to get the story rolling and let the player's imagination combined with NPC blabber fill up the rest of the world and motivations.

     A lot of the text is urging Clover to explore the forest and complete dungeons to learn spells. Those are the things players will be driven to do anyway so the dramatics are kept short and sweet. So sweet that players interested in the characters will have something to think about as the adventure unfolds. Even if someone skips through all the dialogue the goals are obvious enough that there shouldn't be any "What am I supposed to do?" moments. Especially since nothing is blocked off in this small scale open world.

     I will consider this story a success if I get people demanding Clover's next adventure and more information about her mysterious mentor. And just what is this threat he has you preparing for? Why did he leave without you so suddenly? The player will want Unicorn quest to happen as much as I do.

Facebook Ad Test Ends

     The Facebook ad has come to a close. The wallet stated to empty out and people stopped clicking so I pulled the plug to save a little juice for another test later. Basically, $35 bucks got me 17 clicks. I'm still a small name so seeing my stuff doesn't mean much yet. I'm glad I got to show an extra thousand people who I am (in ad form) and I appreciate the 17 people who thought to give me a look. I plan to keep you all entertained with up to date game dev stuff for years to come. 

Get some details and reports below.

Unicorn Training Dungeons Mapped Out

    These dungeons play out more like obstacle courses and the puzzles really won't take longer than a few seconds to figure out. The point here is the set pieces. There are multiple colorful dungeons to explore. Bosses are big and interesting. Dungeons have enough enemies and traversal to take a decent while to get through. I accomplished those goals set for my first RPG and now I can start making all these levels.

    This bothers me and relieves me at the same time. On one hand I'd like to take the time to flesh out more intricate zelda style dungeons because those embody everything I like about level design. On the other I'm glad it's straightforward and feasible so I can finish this project on time and start another with a stronger foundation. I want to make complex dungeons with themes more interesting than "open the door and reach the boss" but not with what I have here. The core of the game is too different from something more manageable and like I said before, I wish I could start over with my idea for Unicorn Quest because halfway through making this I learned so much. With every project I shake my head at the last, thinking about how I would have done it better with everything I know 'now'. But I suppose every creator does that right?

    With the way the dungeons are setup I should be able to practice with tile mapping by making each room in 2D Toolkit's tile map editor. Once I have stages I can place walls, gaps, enemies, spawn points, and treasure over them then save the whole thing as a prefab to load at playtime. Next up is sketching all the enemies I'll be using and a finalized title screen.

Unicorn Training World Mapped Out On Paper

     Another boost to morale here. With every room of the game drawn out the exact way I want it, I can clearly see everything I have yet to create. I had to shrink the map even further into a 4x4 grid, made most rooms fit into the same walls, and connected the rooms in a way that made the forest feel varied and not like a bunch of filler space. I made it so each of the 5 caves have different gemstones in them making exploration necessary to purchase items from the store. I made it so that each room will take multiple minutes to explore as well (assuming you fight at least a few enemies).

     There's markers for enemy placement, gem dig spots, every chest, every flower, every bush, and every rock. I even got some ideas for story pacing with the placement of things in Clover's house. Using text and the environment to lead the player along is much easier than puppeteering and coding everything which I'd rather do with a Pokemon-style grid based system where things are easy to move around.

     If I continue this with the dungeons (which I'll be doing next) I can have it so I won't need to create a cutscene creation pipeline. Making cutscenes with my current setup would be a nightmare, so if I can sidestep that then the hardest parts of making this game are done. I really feel like I can finish this thing now and once I sketch all the dungeons I bet the feeling will multiply.