Conviction Chronicles blog post #14 - Demo Update + Some Minigames

 This update adds a bunch of smaller fixes and some major stuff. Might not be done uploading the update once I post this.

New music

Some areas, like the hospital/library/etc have gotten unique music. Since before they shared the shop theme but now it's a little more unique so each area can hold it's own identity. 

New models/environment details

This impacts the hospital and the prologue the most where new models and graphics were added to spice them up. Most placeholder 3D models have fully been removed.  The hospital has actual cyrosleep pods instead of beds with monitors overlooking everything, and the Prologue has many more details with an old TV for the screen, a bunch of rusty equipment, open wires, etc. The elevator in the main game being an actual elevator with open/closing doors instead of a door. The biggest was replacing all of the toilet and airvent models with something more detailed/fitting. Some more hidden details were added to the prologue with Tina's room. I had to pay for the models, but I plan to use them in the future in future projects, so the cost isn't that bad for what I got.

Improving the prologue 

The prologue had bad pacing visually and gameplay wise, so I had to fix it with adding some graphics, some sound effects. Along with two minigames. Some of the wording was changed with some dialogue altered to make it better to read.

Minigames

At first I thought this was going to be a nightmare. Once I figured out a way to maintain a structure with seeing what movement keys were being entered, then it became easy. If you want to know a little more of the backend side, it uses a bunch of static images with dynamic positioning for movement along with layouts holding the background with more detailed movement sprites. Mainly since the static images separate from layouts adds more direct control while the detailed movement sprites don't need player input and can be done in a layout where they seem like they are moving, but are not really since it's part of an animation. I also added a unique song for the tutorials of minigames.

Minigame 1

This is like Psyche taxi from V3. Instead of being a taxi the player is a race car on the moon. I liked how the music for this came out. The gameplay is split into multiple phases with 2 steps in each phase (the prologue only uses one phase).

Phase 1 is the collecting, red and blue triangles will have to be either dodged or hit by the car. Blue being not hit gives a strike and blue being hit gives progress. Red being hit gives a strike. 3 Strikes and the minigame ends. Beating a phase removes one strike if there is any strikes.

Once enough progress is made, a question is asked with two answers. The player must choose one side of the road to enter to select an answer. 

If the player fails, their answers are selected randomly. I also want the idea of how many strikes the player has impacts the delivery, but that isn't present in the prologue. 

For the graphics I went with a PS1 inspired UI and 3D low poly models being converted into graphics.

Minigame 2

Much more detailed than Minigame 1 and it is based on Bullet Time Battle from Danganronpa with taking elements from the 3 main games.

Originally it was going to be a rhythm game, but that became annoying to code due to the constant rhythm that needed to be maintained. It also left less control for the player. So it became like guitar hero where there is 3 lanes and the player must choose a lane to be in. Two kinds of dots, yellow you don't want to miss while Red you want to miss. The player and the other character both have HP and each other's goal is to make the other hit 0 before they do.

The player does have a gun, which they must remain still to reload. That fact instead of making it reload naturally over time adds more depth and tension.

The enemy can have up to 3 items, and they can be a shield or a sword. This is mainly to emulate the feeling of destroying a defense visually like Dangnaronpa 2 did in it's 1 on 1 battles. Naturally they will lower damage to themselves with shields and raise damage done to the player with swords. Over time if left up, the shields will heal the enemy's HP and the sword will remove some of the player's HP over time. This is mainly to force the player to interact with them and to prepare bullets to shoot them down. 

The music becomes faster over time and it's only a 40 second loop, mainly since the minigame won't last too long where it won't be repeated too much. Ended up being a little more Egyptian inspired than I thought it would with the melody. Since it's like this, the state of battle can be gotten directly from the speed of the music, which falls in line with the eyes being focused on the 3 tracks and the enemy items.

The enemy sprite animation is done with having 6 "positions" and it being randomized which one is selected over time. Two different sets of animations, one a normal and the other a closeup. Positions 1-3 is normal while 4-6 is closeup. They are all based on a single animation where it shows the sprite moving from left to right and vise versa with some turns and more and popups. This makes everything highly dynamic feeling like a battle.

Like Danganronpa 3, the sprite used in the background for the enemy is unique. I'm having to pay for each sprite instead of 3D models, since it looks better/more fitting for the character's and is easier to implement. When defeating the enemy, a defeated version of the sprite is showcased. Not all of this is done yet, but for the prologue it's good. 

Anything else?

This makes the demo better and allows for more control. Some things I'll have to update over again tomorrow with making some changes in the backend. Because of these edits and more, I'll have to do the localization as the last thing just so everything is all set before dealing with that fun stuff. Knowing how to make minigames work in engine has made the idea of making the trials MUCH easier when the time comes. I'll have to add 2-3 more minigames at least, but now I can focus on other things and leave that to be done later.

What remains

1. Fix anything else that needs to be done before adding anything new. One bug is saving a game replaces the area music with the menu theme, since the saving happens with the menu being opened. This fixes itself when moving out of the map, but another solution is forcing the correct theme to play in every open area where the player can save. Basically a couple of days of bug hunting and fixing and possibly editing flashback environments to become more detailed. This also means getting all of the graphics for the second minigame all set up and implemented, which won't take long.

2. Ending logic with actual endings. It's going to take a bit, probably even the longest out of the main things left. But I don't think it will be that bad. It's more making the graphics/environments for each idea which will take a while while the dialogue/animations will be quick and easy with some variations based on the game information that lead up to the ending. This also includes secret scenes and a majority of story related content. Possibly certain animations for the credits would be done here too.

3. Evidence gathering logic for the player and other characters. A new menu in the UI for showcasing evidence gathered with sorting it and choosing what to keep as evidence once the evidence slot is full. Shouldn't take too long, but might become annoying to get right to make sure everything is stored correctly.

4. Trials themselves. Shouldn't be too bad, but it will take a bunch of testing to make sure it's gonna be good. Knowing how minigames are made in the backend for it to work correctly with keyboard and controllers makes this so much easier. With two minigames done, this means not as much work as I thought is needed. Since the evidence gathering logic and the ending logic with the secrets would be all done by this point, it would make it easier to keep the scope intact to make everything fit as much as possible.

5. Bug fixing/editing. Shouldn't be too bad.

6. Execution animations and other animations like an intro animation. This is going to take some time to figure out. I could be lazy, but this is something I have to make look good since so much weighs on this.

6.5. Localization. Can be done in the background while doing bug fixing/editing and making certain animations.

8. Steam Fest.

9. Release.

It's quite a bit left. It doesn't seem like much was done since the last blogpost, but taking a big chunk of the trials out of the way was a great thing to do. As long as everything is done in moderation in terms of how much is done per day, I can do it very easily and have time to do other things.