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The TRPG1-2 timeline is something like this: the hero is about 13-14, very young for a black cape at the Psy Academy. Roughly 3 years pass with the hero in a trance. Needing a crack squad of soldiers to perform certain tasks, Tastidian decides that the hero may prove useful, and returns him/her to conscious awareness. TRPG2 takes place over the course of several months.

In TSoG, Duvalier is 18 at the start of the game.

I have a few ideas for future projects that I've thought through and written out at various times while working on TSoG. It doesn't really work to just blunder headlong into designing a game: they're too complicated for that sort of approach, even the simple ones. You always have to plan out what you're doing ahead of time, even if it's just a rough jumble of ideas, then refine as you go. (Or I do, at least.)

Keep in mind, guys, that you play the hero of TRPG1 and 2 when he/she's a good deal younger than Duvalier--and it's never mentioned how old the TPA1 hero is. So if you compare them based on how each appears in their respective games, you're most likely not comparing each character at the same stage in the development of his or her powers. (You do not, for example, play the TRPG2 hero at the height of his/her powers, since he/she is still pretty young, and has actually spent a few crucial developmental years in a trance-like state due to the effects of the slave bracelet.)

Guess what?

[spoiler=You'll never guess...]Now we have spoilers! :D[/spoiler]

True. It will serve an additional purpose later in the game, however: keeping track of how many troops you've managed to drum up for the Resistance. ;)

I spent all day today putting in the code for battle sound effects. You won't see them in-game yet, of course, but I just thought I'd let everyone know what I've been doing. :)

it's up there with the best of Flash RPGs at the moment both storywise and battle-design wise, in my opinion.

Ah, "up there with the best of Flash RPGs." See, this is partly why I'm trying more traditional indie games marketing methods right now, and not trying to drum up interest in the Flash community. I want TSoG to be judged as an RPG, not as a Flash RPG. I know you didn't mean it this way, KZ, but when people say things like "It's good for a Flash game," it gives the impression that everyone should have diminished expectations for it just because it's made in Flash. It's as though a Flash game can't be good: the best it can ever be is good by comparison to other games made in Flash.

Well, I'm not satisfied with that. TSoG is going to be a serious game that happens to be made in Flash, not a "Flash game." I fully intend for TSoG, by the time it's finished, to tell a story worthy of study and critique, exploring themes like identity, the nature of the mind, and the existence of God. To hell with Flash--I can't even fill up one hand's worth of fingers counting the number of RPGs developed on any platform that do that, much less do it alongside non-linear gameplay, tactical combat, and involved dialog trees.

In short, there is no way--absolutely, positively no way--that I'm releasing it for free. That just invites people to devalue the game even more. And it will make it even harder for me (to say nothing of the other people out there making their own RPGs) to make a living selling games in the future. Do you know what most generic JRPG clones made in RPG Maker traditionally sell for? $19.99. Really! And they sell well. People buy those games. Check out amaranthia.com. The woman who runs that site makes a living selling her games. And you know what? Making a game in Flash is actually far more work than those games take!

Soon--once I'm confident I've worked out all the major issues in TSoG and finalized the GUI design--I'm going to create a downloadable demo and take down the browser demo. Having it available in-browser is just encouraging people to view it as though it were some cheap, flimsy game that ought to be playable for free. That, to me, is worse than the prospect of not making enough money in sales.

Thread locked.

Okay, update: I've installed a mod to the forums that makes new users answer a simple question when they first sign up. Spambots can't get around this. Since that's in place now, I've removed the post restrictions entirely. :)

A romance only works with major character development.  That seems hard to pull off in a flash game.

Why? Flash is just the development environment. I think you'll find  some pretty interesting character arcs in the finished version of TSoG. ;)

I don't know what you're talking about at this point. I sell my games on the PC, Mac, and Linux. There are a few online stores that already carry TPA2, and I expect to break into more with TSoG. Surely you don't think I'm only trying to sell the game to people that visit sinisterdesign.net?

That assumes a lot. I think a lot of people will be more willing to buy TSoG than were willing to buy TPA2. That's just my guess. We'll see how things shake out. ;)

In order for it to be like the situation with TSE2, I would have to do what Mark Pay did and give up on making commercial games.

Instead, I'm continuing to build a catalog of games. With each one, I learn more about marketing and game design, and gain more exposure. I'm not discouraged that TPA2 wasn't a break-out success. Compared to TRPG2 CD Edition, TPA2 did far better in every regard. I expect to keep improving, gaining fans, and releasing more and more polished, professional work that gains more attention and makes more sales. Eventually I'll be well-known in the indie game community and have a good back catalog of games that fans will feel encouraged to buy from. That's my long-term plan, and at the moment I feel rather optimistic about it. :)

Er, yes. I changed it to two posts, since I've restricted first posts to Newbie Land, and Introductions is the only place you're allowed to post if you're not a spam bot. It seemed silly to make someone post more than once in Introductions.

That was probably introduced (like the other bug mentioned above) when I upgraded the enemy combat AI for the special Sinister Design-exclusive version of TRPG2. It'll resolve itself if and when I remake the game in the TSoG engine. :)

What's your favorite part of game development?  How about least favorite?

What's the hardest part?

My favorite part is probably a tie between writing dialog and writing music. I guess you could say that I just like writing in general, as long as it isn't writing code. :)

Actually, even programming can be kind of fun, but only the parts where I'm figuring out how to make some new system work. That's kind of like a fun puzzle. The remaining 90% of my coding time is spent fixing bugs, though, and I hate that about as much as anyone can hate anything.

I noticed you said you have Flash 3, the only version I currently have access to is Flash 4. It said something about converting files from flash 4 to flash 3 somehow... but I don't know...

Anyways, do you think I'd actually be able to help you program if I use flash 4?

You mean Flash CS4 and Flash CS3? (I'd be surprised if anyone in the world was still using Flash 4 and Flash 3. ;) ) I'm currently coding TSoG in AS2, which every version of Flash dating back to 2003 supports. So if you know the language and want to help, I might be open to it. Send me a PM.