Game Dev Diary for "Daughters and the Exotic"

erdelyii's bringing the pain. I like it. Well I wrote you what I consider to be a pretty stylish post earlier on in the day but I felt like it was a little too flippant so I withheld pushing the post button and so now Im just going to give a much more sober response than what I first typed.

I wanna come clearn. This is my confessional to you. Okay here's the thing. I can make pretty decent 3d models. It takes me a lot of time though. I would say that when I spend enough time on a character that I'm borderline professional level. Belive me or don't. It might take ma a month or two, on one character, but I can eventually get there.

This is becasue I have no formal training, I've never been good at visual mediums - but I have a brute force approach where I just keep trying stuff until I accidentally arrive at something presentable. I know the how to use the art programs but I don't know how to do the art on a fundamental level.

But recently I had a change of heart so I'm going back to the fundamentals of art. I suppose I was emboldened to do this by the fact that I've become as familiar as I have with Python scripting and I've found this new familarirty to be incredibly empowering.

So the pace of development has definitely taken a hit while I pursue this new sidequest to gain some mastery over the fundamentals of art. Programming wise, I could be finished already while simply adding in NPCs and dialogue and items and stuff.

So that's where I'm at. I just wanted you to have an understanding before I get to you actual questions (lol) So my direct answers begin below this line.

Because I'm this brand new student of art, I've decided to reiterate over my designs a bit during this delay. You present some really good observations and then you introduce the concept of a stremgtj based mage as an example. You ask me about how many stats are in my system. And whether it's single player or ont.

It is a single player game.

There are 3 Primary Stats: Zeal, Mobility, Tactics - I'm not entirely satisfied with these names but they embody the 3 basic measurements of a good soldier on the battlefield if you ask me.

HOWEVER... since the players of Exotic will not have to roll their own dice and keep track of their own measdurements, there can be a lot more sophistication under the hood.

There are 21 lesser stats that contribute to a character's Zeal, Mobility, and Tactics. You may say that this is madness. But I'm pretty sure Wizards of the Coast would have done the same thing if their first game had come bundled with a computer.

Also there are multiple types of Zeal represented by various colors. There are currently Blue Zeal, Purple Zeal, Green Zeal, and Black Zeal. The colors represent a character's temperment and motivations. Basically a Blue Zeal might thrive in a hopeless battle where a Green Zeal becomes more powerful when they feel they are at a huge advantage. Green Zeals would be better at farming week mobs. While Blue Zeals would level better against challenging opponents just to oversimplify.

Also the stats are very modular and self contained but they interact with one another intimately as they converrge into the final 3 stats. This means that a character with natural talent and zero training can be just as effective as a character with no natural talent but lots of tactical awareness just for one example.

So you COULD make a powerful warrior with intelligence as his main stat. But his Zeal/Mobility would be lower than most warrior types, but his Tactics would be higher in order to compensate.

But how does Zeal/Mobility/Tactics work? Well I have to keep some things a secret. And I haven't even started talking about the main central theme of the gaeplay yet either. There is this stuff known as 'TP'. But I absolutely cannot talk about that right now. But TP is basically the driving force of everything. Even the story revolves around it. Which is why I don't talk about it yet.

So yeah 3 Primary Character Stats and 21 Lesser ones.

Finally when you ask about average stats interfering with a character's ability to equip high level items and skills because of how D and D's system works. My response is:

Lesser stats are used to determine whether you can equip items and use skills not primary stats. And the cool thing about Lesser stats is that they are treated organically... they are naturally altered over time in accordance to how you play.

For example one of the primary themes of this game is found in the title - Exotic. There is a concept that some weapon masters create items or write tactics treatise of an exotic nature...

Um, you're cool right? Your hip and suave, right? Therefore you must know about Zoro from One Piece's 3-sword style. That is something that I would consider to be an exotic style of fighting. In order to learn to fight that way your lesser stats would have to allow for you to have the appropriate Dexterity and Open Mind attributes. Yes Open Mindedness is one of the lesser stats.

But Open Mindedness can be totally ignored if it doesn't interest you as a player. It's a stat which is available only for those who are interested in it. And once they encounter a 3-sword style attack, for example, that only they can use, then they will experience being rewarded for their exotic tastes at character creation.

If you're wondering more about the Open Mindedness stat, basically as I just showed, it is meant to unlock exotic concepts, but at the same time it occasionally give you experience point penalties slowing down the advancement of your character overall.

"

BearCares wrote:

erdelyii's bringing the pain. I like it.

Oh, you wish. Merely some thoughts Brekky.

Thanks for sharing that, on the art. Art's so personal, and hard to put out there and declare intent when so many are so talented and so many are critical, so good for you.

Yes, that makes sense enough for your purposes, which is what the thread is for, no need for a long reply from me. Looks like it helped clarify some stuff for you and determine some stuff about art, even though I don't quite see enough of your game to really get it. Proof will be in the playability, eh?

Art is especially one of the skills that young kids that are naturally good at are reinforced on while those who aren't soon learn that they are "bad at art" and don't really pursue it because they feel self-conscious and inept when there's this belief that realistic is "good", and art is a magical talent. Bullshit. Always irks me to hear someone say they "can't draw", and refuse to even put pencil to paper when part of them wants to. Not their fault. The way it's taught is all free expression and favours natural talent, yet representing figures and such, perspective, shading, colour theory are all skills that can be learned.

Possibly artistic technical skills went the way of grammar lessons, when schools decided that learning was all organic and supposed to be free and fun. I'd say to a point, but it went too far that way and has never recovered.

There are lots of resources out there aimed at improving drawing what you are seeing, as opposed to drawing what you think you are drawing in your mind. There's some great learner exercises in Betty Edwards' classic book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. Here's a link to her website.

Merely a suggestion, main thing is absolutely you can learn drawing skills, it's not all natural talent that some magically have, though of course some just "get it". Not everyone is the tiny elite, in any field. So what.

You're along a way, of course Brekky! Not saying you're in the utter beginner stage at all.

When people say "i can't draw" they forget the word well at the end of that sentence, because that is what they were thought early on.

A lot of people can't do things well, thats why we practice to achieve results.

I usually tell people, if you can't do something good that means you have more room for improvement then somebody that is capable of good results.

That little improvement that a profesional takes a couple of years to hurdle over.
You can do that every single day for a couple of years if you suck at something which is reason for optimism in my view.

I tend to show people how to draw a face using six lines when they tell me they can't draw.

And then i act surprised "i thought you said you couldn't draw, whats up with that".

Gotta snap that habitual "i can't" response and open them up to the posibility they can, just not very good at this point.

I'm bad at drawing myself btw, i just know a couple of figures but i don't prescribe to the "i can't" brainchain philisophy.

"

Boem wrote:

^

Spoiler

When people say "i can't draw" they forget the word well at the end of that sentence, because that is what they were thought early on.

A lot of people can't do things well, thats why we practice to achieve results.

I usually tell people, if you can't do something good that means you have more room for improvement then somebody that is capable of good results.

That little improvement that a profesional takes a couple of years to hurdle over.
You can do that every single day for a couple of years if you suck at something which is reason for optimism in my view.

I tend to show people how to draw a face using six lines when they tell me they can't draw.

And then i act surprised "i thought you said you couldn't draw, whats up with that".

Gotta snap that habitual "i can't" response and open them up to the posibility they can, just not very good at this point.

I'm bad at drawing myself btw, i just know a couple of figures but i don't prescribe to the "i can't" brainchain philisophy.

Peace,

-Boem-

Thanks for that Boem :)