Developer's Log

[CraigStern]

Boom! I've hired someone to work on the game's button art. So far, he's doing a bang-up job. Here are initial drafts of the Grab and Open / Close Door button icons. :D

[CraigStern]

Bronze Golem and Spirit animations are now complete and in the game. :)

Aaaaand here's a video showing them off! :D

[CraigStern]

Not only do we have the Spirit's and Bronze Golem's attack animations done, Tyvon just finished up the Skiakineticist's "casting" animations. Frankly, I think the Skiakineticist looks slick as all hell. The new animations are attached below. :)

With that animation done, we now have complete attack animations for every one of the game's default 22 character types! So far, that adds up to 65 distinct animations, the vast majority of them in 4 directions.

We'll begin working on attack effect animations soon, then get working on attacks for for the gender variants.

[CraigStern]

I've fixed a number of rather serious bugs, finished incorporating all of the new character animations into the game, and given the Bronze Golem's attack animations matching sound effects.

You can see a livestream I did with Sean Baptiste of Fire Hose Games earlier today using this build right here. It was pretty fun. :)

Oh, and speaking of this build: the alpha build of Telepath Tactics has been updated online. Go to it, early access backers!

[CraigStern]

Wrote out dialog for the scene where Emma and Sabrina meet Harynx.

Received first drafts of button icons; tested, gave feedback.

Received remaining alternate gender sprites; tested, gave feedback.

Received several character potraits; gave feedback. (I'm no longer sure if i'll be posting these, since the unique character portraits are arguably a wee little bit spoiler-y.)

Oh, also: I'm now renaming the sprites to distinguish between male and female for the 19 base classes that have gender variations. I'm doing this by giving each an _F or _M appellation on the end of their current file names. Anyone working on their own campaign is going to need to rename their spritetype attributes accordingly after the next update!

e.g. Emma Strider is going from spritetype="Swordsman" to spritetype="Swordsman_F"

[CraigStern]

I've gotten customizable attack hit animations coded and working in the game engine! Attack hit animations are contained in sprite sheets, and can be created / modified just like anything else in the game. Assign them to attacks and determine their timing using the new VFX tag within the soundAndFX attribute. it works similarly to the SFX tag; here's an example:

soundAndFX="SFX[Swoosh Sword:0],VFX[Slash:OnTargets:18]"

The part of that code that concerns us here is "VFX[Slash:OnTargets:18]"--this tells the game to use the animation contained in the Slash.png sprite sheet in Data > Characters > Attacks > _VFX; to spawn a copy of the animation on every space where someone or something is targeted by the attack; and to spawn those hit animations exactly 18 in-game frames into the attacker's attack animation.

As of right now, "OnTargets" is the only location supported for spawning attack hit animations, though I'd expect other locations to join it sooner or later. ;)

[CraigStern]

I've now assigned physical attack hit effects to all physical attacks in multiplayer. I must say; it looks really good. I feel like it definitely adds a little something to the game.

Next, we'll be coming up with some "spell" effects for psy abilities. :D

[CraigStern]

I've uploaded a video showing the attack hit effects in action! Check it out! :D

[CraigStern]

We now have attack effects for Mind Blast and Mind Shield!

I've added a second type of VFX spawn location: OnSelf. While OnTargets will spawn the visual effect on every character targeted by a skill, OnSelf will only spawn the effect over the character using the skill. This is meant for skills which originate with the user and reach as far as one adjacent space (see e.g. Mind Blast), as well as to enhance the "casting" animations for longer-range abilities.

I've modified the code governing the placement of visual effects as well; characters further down the battlefield will obscure part of the animation if it extends down that far, and the attacker will obscure part of the visual effect him or herself for OnSelf visual effects directed upward.

Work continues on character creation, portraits, and alternate character sprites.

[CraigStern]

Phew! Lots of corresponding with the artists over the prior week; a fair bit of writing as well. I've summed up the current state of the game on the front page of the website.

I've now finally coded it so you can use Tents in campaign battles to access the common inventory, though I've found myself squashing a number of bugs to get everything working the way I want it.

Among the bug fixes:

--the game no longer brings up the actions menu over the inventory screen when you summon the common inventory menu via a triggered script
--the game no longer unpauses when you summon the common inventory menu via a triggered script
--fixed a lame, hacky shortcut I was apparently using in the game's pathfinding routine which treated tents as if they were flags (and thus, allowed characters to walk through them and stand on them regardless of their passability value)
--the game once again displays targeting tiles properly after pressing the use, talk, or open / close door buttons
--the game no longer deselects the current character after canceling a talk, use, or open/close door action
--extended the range of Rally so it no longer fails when clicking in the far corners of the map
--made it so characters rallied in exploration mode now move all the way to the destination rather than abiding by their ordinary combat step limits

[CraigStern]

Change: casualties no longer count for twice as many points as enemy kills do in multiplayer. (They still count for twice as much in single player, though.)

I've been writing more scenes.

I've also been working on rewriting some of the combat system code so you can customize the exact frame on which screen shake and damage occur during an attack. This should avoid the current situation where an attack animation has to fully complete before the game will register it, giving every attack the appearance of a sort of weird lag.

[CraigStern]

Every attack now has an impactFrame attribute that tells the game exactly when to perform screenshake and pop up the health bar animation. This has eliminated the lag between the attack striking the target and the game actually shaking the screen and reducing the target's health.

Due to a quirk of programming, impactFrame is almost always a negative value (typically between -9 and -15 for most short animations, -21 or higher for long ones). The best way to find the right value is to experiment.

Also, a kind of bonus: I've tweaked the algorithm for screenshake so it's a little more smooth / less jarring. At some point, I'll be going through and adding extra screen shake magnitude to many attacks to give them a better game feel.

[CraigStern]

We now have the first of the villain portraits complete, and are one class away from having all of the alternate gender sprites with walk animations.

I've received the first shipment of 30 button icons, and have recoded the game so that it loads the button graphics dynamically. This means that the game now supports individualized attack icons, and button graphics are now moddable! :)

[CraigStern]

We now have a second villain portrait complete; this one's for the main villain in Telepath Tactics. Who could it be? It's a mystery! ;)

[CraigStern]

Fixed some bugs with the new buttons, tweaked the screen shake formula a bit, added some screen shake to some lizardman attacks.

The alpha installers have been updated online!