Returning of Winterheart

Now that the Voile Invaders is complete, it is time to return back to the Winterheart... I have already started making new graphics since the old ones were rather bad. There should be a next major update this sunday.

Voile Invaders 1.03a patch

Here is the download link for the patch...

Final release of Voile...

Okay, tomorrow I will post the last version of Voile Invader (1.3a)

that fixes hopefully all the glitches encountered in the previous version:

Changes to the versions 1.2e-f:

• Fixed the permanently shattered bookshelves,
• Bonus items are spawned in the normal levels only when enemy is killed,
• In boss levels bonus items spawn randomly.
• Added flushing for keybuffer between intermission so player can't skip those screens.
• Improved the bonus bombs/lives-system a bit.

Full version of Voile Invaders finally available!
After some intense testing it is finally here...
Hope we did not bore you by making you wait so long...

Final tests

Okay... This evening I will post the fullversion to be tested and then the game is finished.

Voile Invaders to be released next week...

Originally Voile Invaders was to be released this week, but due some major bugs found from the source (great thanks to G_gglypuff for pointing them out) - release date was postponed to get rid of them... Now there is only few final tweaks to do and then the Voile is finished. Hopefully next post will contain the download link for the full version...

Till then an unwanted comment from Marisa Kirisame:

09.09.09

So the fatefull day has come... Well, as promised, I'll post a demo of the Voile Invaders after I get from school (the game itself is nearly finished, it only lacks boss fights and then its done. I decided to post the demo so I could get some feedback about what should be fixed or done better)...

And here is the download link for Voile Invaders-demo.

Long time no update...

Okay, I haven't really have update this for a while for certain reasons.
First Touhou AlterDawn is fully in my responsibility now and finishing VoileInvaders as a school project has taken some more time than I espected...

Well, with good luck one of the games (or real demo) will make it to the legendary publishing date 09.09.09... Hehe, six days of hardworking left if I want to make it...

While waiting Comiket

Okay... This has taken much longer than I espected, but it should be ready during next month. In the other hand - there has been another idea for a new game...

May I present you: The Voile Invaders. Your mission as Koakuma is to protect the magical library Voile from the hordes of kedamas and fairies (also Marisa included)... Focus and bombing is also a natural part of the game and for the graphics - I though of doing all of them in 32bits, VGA and Zun's PC-98 palette.

Mima...

Here is two different versions of Mima... Another one is for the Winterheart and to another were made for the Touhou AlterDawn...

Coding update

Okay, I have added the secondary characters to the engine - also the first two levels have found their final form... I also managed to reduce the loading time to a bit...

Then some other news...

Remember the idea of making PC-98 style touhou game? Well, one of my friends started working on it and asked me to do some sprites (Took a few hours to "rip" the original palette Zun used). Here is an example of my artwork for that game (Kanakos lower frames is for the "invicibility"-mode)...

Game (Touhou AlterDawn) is continuety for the events of Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream and takes places during the events of Lotus Land Story... The game presents Ruukota and Asakura Rikako as playable characters, both with two different shooting types (e.g. Ruukotos Offensive-type and Rikakos Granedier-type)...

Update...

Okay, another new update (I am really good naming these blogposts). After thinking awhile, I though that I include the coupling-system in the demo (it doesn't really need that much of a work) along with few other features that were introduced in the guidelines for this game...

I'll be posting some new screenshots and concept art soon.

Current progress...

Long time no update... Well, after the external harddrive crash I started cleaning the source code again and managed to compres it a lot - I also had to redo some of the graphics that were lost but I like the new ones better.

And now for the bad news... As you could quess, due this minor problem I might not make it next month but I try my best. Till the next time.

Back on business

Okay... The problem is now fixed and I can continue this project. Also I got another idea for the next game I'll do after this is finished. Basically it is a clone of PC-98 touhou games with Rika and Ruukoto as heroines (I already have and idea for the storyline but I let that be a secret). Graphics would use EGA-palette and music will be 8bit.

Major drawback!

Yesterday the power supply of my external harddrive broke. Well, I did search for a replacement just to find out that the broken adapter model is not manufactured anymore. According to the Western Digitals there is a company though that produces similar
adapters but the cost would be the same as buying a new external.

So now all the progress is frozen till I either buy a new adapter or cheaper external harddrive with the similar adapter...

Minor update

As promised, the demo should be ready for testing before the end of this month. I also changed the Comic-Sans MS to another font that I hope to be a bit better.

Here is some scrapped boss-art though. Link to the original image.

Teaser and update

Lo- and Hi-res combination of Daiyousei and Cirno...

I originally were going to use the lo-res ones but then again

I wanted to add more details...

Then some real updates... 

Due some familybusiness - I were unable to work on this project

as much as I wanted... Now as that thing has been taken care off -

I have more time to work on this so I am especting to finish the 

demo within the next two months...

Progress...

Long time, no update... Well, now the cut-ins are done and all the sprites aswell so I wrote this post you that some new screenshots are available  next week.

Another update

I've spend most of the week trying to figure ways to make the backgrounds look more 

3D:ish. It would be easy if I just could apply some sort of fading effect to the game... 

Unfortunately CoolBasic doesn't support loading half-transperent pictures but CoolBasic 

does have a function for making pictures tranparent; This function though is rather 

heavy and easily drops the FPS down to 20 so it is no use.

Well, luckily I came up with a simple solution... Dithering. By creating darker dithered

version of the original background - I could simulate the fading effect... Heh, also fog 

and clouds can be simulated by using dithered images... Here is small youtube-video 

demonstrating the effect (it still needs some work though):

Aside that I have drawn some new cut-ins and redrawn some of the boss-sprites... 

I also added section "latest coding changes" where I will add the list of coding changes 

after it is finished.

Then some sneak-peaks... Second level "Border space" will be rather nostalgic as it will 

serve as my tribute for the original PC-98 games (lots of familiar event there) and here 

is part of the dialogue between Cirno and Marisa:

C: Stop right there... This is the farthest you get.

M: Could we play some other time? I am kind of busy...

C: Do not underestimate me witch... I am a reborn fairy now.

M: Meaning you are weaker than before?

C: Hey, was that an insult? Now you have it!

I added it here so I could get some feedback (I know I am horrible writer).

Minor update.

Okay - this is not much of an update - but I am currently making backgrounds for the game so I decided to upload small video showing some tests:

Basically adding backgrounds is the last thing to do before the demo is finished...

Progress speeding up...

Next week is theoritically the last week of school in this semester so I have more time after that to work on Winterheart... Currently all dialogues and endings are written and added to the engine.

Still need to work with the levels though.

And now for something completely different...

After long brainstorming session with my old friend - we came up for the idea of my next game... The game will be similar to the Etrian Odyssey by Atlus (current working name: Gensokyo Odyssey)... Instead of mapping the Yggdrasil labyrinth, players will be mapping Bamboo thicked, Forest of Magic and other vast areas of Gensokyo. 

Even the players classes will be altered to fit the Touhou theme... Instead of Landknechts and troubadours - player can select from Inabas, Mikos, Magicians, Youkais (Skills learned will determine wether youkai will become ghost, vampire, poltergeist or something else) and many others...

Also I have already written concepts for the guilds and shops... But currently I am working on Winterheart so Gensokyo Odyssey will wait until Winterheart is ready. 

Exams finished

Exams finished for this period so I have more time to work for this...

Currently all bosses has been selected and I have made some scetches for them.

Also the first three levels are planned so the demo should be out within few months

I will post some new screenshots next week.

Temporary hindurance

Due the exams this week (english, math, digital sound and physics) there won't be any major progress consididering this project... 

Yesterday I added spellcard definitions for the first two levels and fixed the shooting routine to support multiple shot-types... Today I am going to finish the level scetches and if I have more time - maybe start drawing more cut-ins...

Small fixes and graphical update

Okay... Again a small update. 

After going through the source, I noticed that it totally lacked a function to count bonuses received after beating a level... Also I noticed that I had forgotten to add continues to the game (so basically player had three lives and after they lost them - Game over)... 

Well, now those things are taken care of...

And now for the real update. Started making cut-ins for the beginnings of the levels... Here is one of the prototypes:

Huge update

Thanks to the help I received from the CoolBasic-forum -  I rewrote the whole engine. 

Old source loaded each frame for the game as a separate object - new code loads only one object containing all the frames for each instance (e.g. player-object contains all frames for all four different characters)...

 Result: reduced the amount of code to a half of the original - also game loads faster now. 

Backgrounds:

(I drawed this map during a math lesson... )

Curse of Hanayuki:

Centuries ago Kuroyama-village was part of our world... Kuroyama was a normal rural society worshipping local goddess, but unlike in the other villages - their goddess Yukihime directly interfeared with their lives thus causing the villagersto believe themselves to be more exalted than the others.

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This arrogancy finally lead to their imprisonment to a sealed dimension of Hanayuki.

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One wintery night a traveller in strange clother arrived to Kuroyama searching shelter from the snowstorm... But as the villagers didn't like the travellers fancy clothing they drived the traveller out of their village.

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As you can quess - this was a big mistake.

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The traveller was infact a powerfull mage who had heard about the arrogant people living in Kuroyama and wanted to teach them a lesson... But as he saw how far the corruption of the villagers hearts were - he though there were no way of helping them anymore. So to relief the world from the people of Kuroyama - he decided to seal the village of Kuroyama inside a separate realm hoping that the isolation would help them to grow as humans...

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The realm that the mage created was named as Hanayuki because the flow of time was stopped so the climate never changed causing Kuroyama-village to suffer from endless winter; also as a side-effect of the timestop - villagers of Kuroyama stopped aging making them somewhat eternal.

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After the mage had died, the curse started to wear off slowly causing the barrier between Hanayuki and other worlds to get thinner... Because of this, small dimensional gaps started to open especially in the forest of Wanderings... Usually these gaps closed quite fast as the curse prevented Kuroyama from merging into the other realms.

Travellers guide to Hanayuki:

Hanayuki can be roughly separated to two different parts - the caldera and fields of Sakura surrounding it...

Not much is know about the fields of Sakura, but the areas inside the caldera are well documented... This is due the fact that aside the Kuroyama village, rest of the caldera is mostly filled with the deep forest of Wanderings.

Forest of Wanderings:

People who accidently cross the dimensional barrier between our world and Hanayuki are mostly likely to appear here...

Inside the forest there are lots of smaller villages hidden underneath the trees, but propability for the unwanted quest to find them is miniscule as the magic field around Hanayuki tries to prevent humans from the outerworld from interacting with the people of Kuroyama.

As the people living in Kuroyama doesn't age due the curse upon them, their village soon became too small for them so they had to expand their habitat deeper to the forest...

Kuroyama-village

A typical village of Edo period... It is said to be located at the eastern edge of the forest, but as the forest really has no edges due the calderas perfect circular shape - it is hard to really tell

where the village actually is.

From the village leaves the only route to the mountains, but the route itself doesn't lead over the mountains - only to the shrine of Yukihime that is located to near the top of the caldera.

Shrine of Yukihime

Shrine once dedicated to Yukihime... As Kuroyama was sealed awayfrom the real world - Yukihime left the shrine and moved to the fields of Sakura behind the caldera.

After Yukihime had left, people slowly started to forget their goddess as everything stayed unchanged inside the closed space and no one had seen her after the inprisonment...

Nowadays there is no visitors at the shrine and its existence serves only two purpose... To remind people of the time before Hanayuki and to guard the passage to the fields of Sakura...

It is said that inside the shrine is a secret passage leading through the mountains to the meadows separating caldera from the fields of Sakura...

Fields of Sakura

Forest of cherry trees expanding to infinity... There is a rumor that if you keep walking directly forward, you will return to the other side of the caldera - though there is no confirmation for this as only a few has entered here and none of them ever returned.

Small fries finished...

Now all the smaller enemies are finished (fairies, kendamas etc...) - also improved the enemy spawning routine to support animated sprites instead of loading each enemy-frame as separate object... 

E.g. Originally there was three different object for the moving kendama: Going left/right and staying still... Now there is just one object that contains all the frames and code then displays the correct frame from the object according to the kendamas movement (I felt myself really stupid when I noticed how much easier way there was to make the enemy-frames change during movement).  

So this update would be more than just talk, here is two pictures:

Blog started...

To make it easier to follow the progress of this project - I decided to start a blog for it... I will update this as often as I finish something important... 

Currently I am making backgrounds and rest of the sprites for enemies. As mentioned before, the engine for Demo is finished (though I still have to clean up the source-code as there is lots of things that can be done with an easier way - e.g. yesterday I rewrote the moving sub-routine and managed to reduce it from 207 lines to 105 lines with comments)