Conviction Chronicles blog post #1 - First Floor done

Before going into anything else, this game is still extremely early in development and is very much a work in progress. There isn't going to be a demo for a long time at this rate. Right now I've been working on this for 28 days. 

I wrote this all down over time. Originally I was going to publish this yesterday, but I wanted to add some smaller stuff today.

What is this?

This is a murder mystery generator. Sort of like Rimworld meats Danganronpa. Where Rimworld is considered to be a game that is more of an engine to allow stories to be told, and like Danganronpa where everybody is trapped in a single location.

Why make this?

I wanted to make something that uses anime like models and is 3D with something that takes more effort. Also I like mysteries, the idea of randomness and controlled AI around it would make it unique and stand out.

Originally I thought about making a persona clone or something along those lines, but that requires a heavy amount of work with enemy designing and custom animations, unless I want them all humanoid for easy miximao animations.

3d Models and animations

Vroid is a really good way to make anime like models extremely quickly with them looking good. Miximao for animations. Was able to get the basic stuff I wanted easily enough.

There is a problem that Miximao is limited with the animations it has. it's good for the basic stuff, but anything more than that, I don't have a good way to make it. I'll probably be forced to figure out some sort of mocap solution for making human like animations without much time involved. 

But for more detailed reasons.

1. 2D sprites takes more time for individual animations and faucial expressions.

2. 3D models are faster to make, along with everything being shared.

3. Blend spaces allow for unique facial animations that makes it where the face doesn't have to correlate with the body's actions. (This is very important for a mystery for this to be dynamic)

RPG developer bakin for the engine

I could have used Unreal, but I choose RPG developer Bakin for a couple of reasons.

Pros:

1. Many systems are already done, meaning I don't need to deal with it to save some time.

2.The variable handling in Unreal is more annoying

3. UI takes a lot longer to make and implement in Unreal.

4. I can port to Unity later on if I want to console publish once support for it is added this year.

5. Translator++ is getting an update for this engine, but right now it's behind a paywall.

Cons

1. Less options for custom shaders, meaning the game is defaulted to how it looks in RPG developer Bakin from the getgo.

2. Unreal is much more optimized where it can handle complex 3D models easily. RPG developer Bakin is not, where it requires more VRAM with the GPU to store everything.

3. If I wanted to make a multiplayer version, which isn't worth the effort for this at the moment, then it is impossible in RPG developer Bakin.

Overall the pros outweigh the cons outside the VRAM GPU requirements. It's mostly fine since it's 16 models on screen at a time and most GPUs will be able to handle it, it does mean those with intergrated graphics won't have good FPS.

UI

I based the UI on persona and Danganronpa. Most things from Danganronpa for inspiration for the speaking and thinking with the menu UI being a tablet that is dynamic and changes based on if the player is innocent, a murder, or an investigation is going on. With the words describing each menu changing with the coloring and imagery changing to fit the player's actions. With persona is took the different kinds of shapes P5/Reload uses for it's UI. The engine supports up to 6 different unique message boxes to be showcased. The talking one has something based on persona with a generic head speaking and the thinking choice as a thinking animation. It's generic since I didn't want to clone persona too much with it  with having each protag part of the UI, and instead something faster that fits everyone. 

I might as well go to the gameplay features so far.

--Multiple protag choices--

There are 15 main characters and every single one of them will be a playable character. I'll go over a tiny bit about each. This is going to bite me in the ass heavily later, but making everyone unique with choices with them allows for more choices and more choices makes it more unique. I won't go too in depth with them now until their free ranks are done which is not going to be too fun due to some things needed for unique perspectives based on the protag choice. 

Agatha

Stereotypical rich lady who is a CEO is a famous company.

Aishia

Shy Muslim girl who wears a suit. Hopefully they won't be too controversial. My ideas for them will be interesting to see how people respond. Since due to Islam being involved, I have to be very careful with how she is portrayed. 

Alexis

Athletic Femboy. The market for them is too huge to not have one.

Cross

Super Spy assassin who is older.

Edgar

An occultist who wears makeup and an outfit representing duality of life and death. I made his body parts more weird

Emma

Gambling champion who is also a famous model. Her general design was based on sunflowers.

Jack

Undercover detective. Every mystery needs one of some kind.

Lily

A Chinese girl who is heavily based on Junko and has multiple personalities. I'm not sure the best way to handle it yet in game. I think maybe something like the Velvet room, something only she can enter to change her personality for different effects would be interesting. 

Jade

Autistic Robot girl. I wanted something more different than a human for a character, but I didn't want to make them lifeless/boring. So they are very eccentric in terms of what I want them to be like with their animations.

 Crow

Crow is a traditional goth girl who wears all black and more traditional outfits with pale skin. 

Nova

Tomboy engineer who knows a thing or two on how computers work.

Shanks

Intimidating ex-cop in a traditional detective outfit with scars of his face.

Stripey

Bunny mascot character. The original idea was for a mascot character like Danganronpa but as a contestant. I then made a different design which I scrapped for Stripey that was more animal/human hybrid like. Then I decided to go with something more Chibi but human scaled, so it looks like it's a human in a mascot outfit.

Tina

Tina is a girl who is around 18 and has amnesia. Originally I wanted to make her the sole protag as I'm basing her as a combination of all of the Danganronpa protags. But then I realized for this to be a better story generator and for marketing reasons, it needs multiple protags.

Victor

Mad Scientist. His design is off for many reasons. The main ones is that it's very unknown if he is a girl or a boy due to his body being a combination of multiple characters and ideas due to some bugs. Basically when importing, many aspects of him got screwed up and corrupted. So it got replaced with other characters that had their materials imported correctly. So he sort of looks weirdly patchworked for a mad scientist, implying he experimented on himself to alter his body. Not sure if this goes into femboy territory, since there is feminine and masculine aspects with him. Probably more Bishonen than anything.

The Rat

What isn't a mystery than a hidden character that is unplayable? They are a contestant, but are hidden and won't do much outside hiding in the basement. This is Stripey's second design that got replaced, and they share the same animations. The mastermind can direct the Rat to any room to do something random during the night. They can die and get into fights, where the player or AIs can spot them, hopefully to bring them up during the court trials.

Lots of diverse designs to make everything unique. 

--Basement--

This mostly exists for The Rat, and he's mostly going to be a mechanic for the Mastermind. The mastermind can order them into a certain room at night and they will do a random action.

Mastermind

When a game is chosen, any of the characters can become the mastermind which gives unique insight on traps laid and actions with the rat.

When more is added to this later then I'll go into it more.

Inventory system

Everybody has 3 slots at a time and their dorm room has a storage box that has another 5 slots. Crafting will be a big thing in the game for items and more, meaning keeping an item on you is important, but there are reasons to store it or not to store it in your box.

Energy

Every character has 10 energy per day, certain things like being sick or having an energy pill will impact that. Actions take up one energy/

Combat

Combat skills are determined by what items you or the other character in battle has when fighting each other. It's to the death. Depending on what weapon is used, it changes the cause of death. So stabbing someone has them get stab wounds on the corpse. Using items takes energy and having none gives a massive debuff. So it leads to energy usage being extremely important to manage. Sometimes planning a murder takes lots of energy due to all of the working parts. Sometimes having more energy in a fight will dictate who wins, since forcing the enemy to use up their energy makes it easier.

Hunger/toilet system

Every character has to eat something every 5 days, cafe food fully resets the meter while items slow it down. Eating makes the character want to go to the bathroom, and they can have an accident which lowers how they view themselves.

Viewpoint system

Every character views each other different and it varies based on actions and other random stuff that happens. So Tina might really like Victor, but hates Agatha, and this impacts how she acts when it's coded in. But right now it mostly impacts if they yell at the player if they talk to them or not.

If a character has a low viewpoint on themselves as a sanity system, they have the chance to take their own lives during certain actions.

Gifts

The player can give an item to increase a character's viewpoint of them or destroy their relationship. Eventually AIs will be able to gift items to each other and to the player.

First floor

The first floor as the dorm rooms, the cafe, the solitary, the door to the court, bathrooms, store, and furnace.

The court hasn't even been remotely worked on, and will be one of the last things touched.

Solitary

Every day a random character is interviewed and their items are looked through. If they have contraband, they lose all their items on them and they are forced to stay in solitary. 

Cafe

Cannot be entered normally, and the player and AIs can choose not to go inside to eat that day. The food can be contaminated with poison or sickness. Which if a character dies, eating stops so nobody else dies and an investigation starts. It's set up like a game show where the cameras zoom in on a character and the audience votes on if they will eat or not. Then the result is shown.

Store

The store is where random items can be bought. Weapons need to be crafted or taken.

Public bathrooms

One male and one female bathroom. They can clog intentionally or randomly when using it which can be used to make the player unable to use a bathroom.

Furnace

The furnace can burn any evidence, but it makes the person who does it covered with ash which everybody else notices. And it has to be washed off.

--Dorm rooms--

Each dorm room has a lot of stuff in it.

Bed

Where characters sleep, or if they are tied up to to starve to death. Sleeping characters will attack if they have energy, if not they cannot fight back. They can be drugged, touched, killed, or tied up.

Bath

Can be trapped with acid to kill whoever uses it, or to wash blood off of weapons. Or to take a bath.

Personal toilet

Allows someone to go to the bathroom without using the public toilet. They can clog intentionally or randomly when using it which can be used to make the player use the public bathrooms. All doors can be trapped, making it where someone will go to a public bathroom which could be trapped to kill them.

Storage box

Anybody can access it physically and gives 5 more storage slots.

Diary

Every day a new diary slot can be filled or edited for evidence or an alibi.

Airvent

Most rooms have an airvent and they can be trapped to impact who sleeps in the room or to be used as extra travel at night at the cost of energy. This is important as they give a secondary way just in case a door is blocked or someone wants to enter a different way. This makes it where it's easily to block a secondary entrance to a room fully.

Doors

This is the same with most doors in the game where they can be barricaded so they cannot open or trapped to do an action when opened. So it's possible to make a swinging blade trap against the shop door with escaping through the airvent, and whoever opens the shop gets killed.

Anything else?

A lot more to do and there is so much code done already. It's going to take a long time to finish everything, but it's going to be worth it. I have to focus on the rest of the floors which won't be as complex as the first floor by far. Then I'll start the free time events with everyone. Then the AI with their actions. The court room is last and that is going to be heavily complex to work well.

I'm buying a new GPU to help with developing this and games like Tactical Ghost which requires more GPU power.  I'll probably make the trailer myself along with the animated intro idea I have for the game. 

Many things I can pre-render in Unreal once I get that far for stuff like cutscenes and still images of crime scenes like what Danganronpa has for multiple aspects of the series. So I don't need to worry too much about them until I get that far.

I'm thinking this will be 20 dollars on release when I get there. But I might have this being 25-30 depending on other factors when I get that far.

The idea of traps is to allow for more complex gameplay than more direct murder, since that is more interesting. So there are more things to jump through to get away with killing someone ingame with a weapon than manipulating with them traps. Hopefully by giving the AI and player tools for manipulation, the mysteries will be fun compared to something written to be undynamic. That's the biggest fear, since if it's not a fun mystery created from this, then many things fall apart. So it's a balance I have to keep in mind.

I think it will end up well, but it's going to take a long time to complete everything.