Devlog #5
Birthday Break!
As stated in my previous devlogs, I took a break from deving and having to figure out code cause it was my 20th birthday yesterday. Glad I took the break because I got to go out and go to my favorite game and comic store to get some cool stuff from my family. I got a Nicholas D. Wolfwood Funko Pop (it was the only Trigun-related thing I could find), a Digimon statue set of Patamon and TK, some new manga, and some Digimon cards. I ate a lot of ice cream cake and hung out with my family. It was a good refresher from panicking over code and making micro-adjustments to everything I implemented cause I was lowkey getting stressed.
Within my break, I finished an artwork I mentioned in my second devlog where I was making a mock-up poster for my future Castlevania fangame, and I finished after some headaches. It ain't the best, but I spent weeks on it. Better to get it done than leave it as a WIP. I, unfortunately, have to keep it as a screenshot cause Itch.io's image uploads can't handle the artwork due to its size being too big. I am not going to dive too much into the future project, but I have plans to actually make this supposed game after Bloody Detective, both due to me forming a story for it early on that I feel I need to share and because I want a new Castlevania game. As ambitious as it sounds, I just wanna do it because A) I think it would be fun, B) I really want a new Castlevania game, even if I, an amateur dev, would have to make it, C) I always felt the games had the potential to share a deeper story but are always afraid to in a sense.
I don't know how to explain myself on the topic, but aside from those reasons, I am still an outsider of the franchise cause I didn't even exist when the first ever game dropped, and I basically had to catch myself up on what the games were. Hell, my stepdad had to cough up 50 bucks just to give me a physical copy of Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance on my Gameboy Advance that I got from a flea market when I was a little kid. It's the only Castlevania game I can play physically, and I know only a few of the games are on Steam, which is my go-to for playing and buying games. I would have to wait til I get proper cash just to get the collections that they do have on PC, which means emulation is in order for me. Even then, I had no way of playing more recent games like Order of Ecclesia, which absolutely blows, knowing that the Nintendo E-shop had also vaporized on Nintendo DS consoles. I am just happy I got to experience the games as much as possible if it means I get to feel so strongly about the series to the point of wanting to make a fangame of it. The legality issue comes with fanworks, but I will research the subject properly, as fan games are pretty controversial, especially if it means doing it off a big IP...
The game itself will be very ambitious from the amount of detail and possible mechanics I want to include because instead of having a Belmont or some person related to Dracula to some compacity, I would like the game centered on a mage and the spell he wants to create and the struggles he faces. Of course, the generational Belmont will be involved, and Alucard will be there to assist, but that is all I will spill about my future project aside from the possible time period being within the early 1900s due to some things I have in line with the timeline and how I want to fit my characters in it. I don't see many games with Puerto Ricans like me, so I will have a blast adding my culture and history to the game. I suppose you can say this mock-up poster I made for fun is also a teaser.
Possible Art Overhaul Coming
As I have been working on the code and cleaning up some events in Dialogic, like having to include highlighting characters, animations, and some new variables, I feel as though I am in a somewhat decent spot to start redesigning concepts of the cast of Bloody Detective and possibly more sprite animations, because right now every character except for the villain has only three sprites, neutral, smile, and think sprites. For the big bad guy of the story, who I shall not reveal, they have six sprites only for when they get caught, and I know that when I do get further into development, showing more emotions from the cast will be vital. I am not sure yet, and concepts are going slow because I have been focusing on scrubbing a lot of things up, so right now, Seilrin's redesign is a priority, and things are going awkwardly...
Seilrin is the main person you will see and come to, so I have been having a little trouble redesigning him to match what I want, but just know that I am possibly going to expound upon the first sketch cause it looks nicer, and it just makes sense- The design is subject to change, and I will do what I can to bring better cohesive sprites out compared to the ones you see currently in the past development screenshots.
As for what I mean by awkward, I don't know why, but I suppose I messed up on the anatomy, or Seilrin's hair just is way too annoying for me to draw at the time, but I have been fumbling the concepts way too much. I was tempted just to leave Seilrin bald while I drew up some new outfits for him...
As for now, nothing remarkable to state about Bloody Detective's progress as I have been legit overhauling dialogue and trying to figure out how to make some gameplay that I wanted to implement. Maybe next devlog I could share the good progress, but these past few days were about taking it easy on myself and getting college in order.
Stay Bright ! - - Neon (˙∀˙)🎮