[Fail.]

I missed the Release Something! Day deadline and frankly, it doesn't bother me too much. My entry wasn't really taken seriously there anyway.

Hero I will not be done in time for Christmas.

[Progress]

Things are going pretty well. I got some work done on a scene or two over Thanksgiving weekend and I actually have a few screens to post.
-I'm entering the Release Something! Day V over at
http://www.rpgmaker.net/forums/index.php?topic=2540.0
Check it out if you'd like!
A new battle transition--yay!The scene is heating up! Cool--spoilers that don't make sense yet!

Thanks for stopping by and let's hope for a Hero I Christmas (and that I make the Release Something! deadline.)
~Stedar

[Lucky fortune, lucky number 22]

I've been working a bit--added a scene or two involving Ephren's inner emotions. You have no idea how much I really want to work on this game and finish it, and I've had a lot of sudden inspiration to work, but then I end up opening RPG maker 2003 and almost puking at my maps. They're not bad--it's just... Well, I honestly don't know. It's like writer's block-- a clog of information so that I don't know what to do and seem too overwelmed. I'm tired of seeing all my maps a billion times over when I just browse through thinking of what simple task I could work on. After a few minutes of deciding what to do, I lose all inspiration and interest.

My maps do nothing for me. I want to design something really great--a game everyone will remember and not just be forgotten. More importantly, I want to win a Misao or do something never before done in an Rpg maker game.

This is not the end. I promised you guys and myself I would finish this (It will be my second complete demo) and I seriously am going to. I just need to force myself finish Cyria and then it all should come into place after that.

Thanks for stopping by and reading all my crap.
~Stedar

[21. I'm sorry.]

This is my 21st post. The number corresponding to her birth date. Things work out like that... eh?
I'm sorry. Things have been... hectic to say the least. Hero I just hasn't been touched much. I'm still working on the video--one of the hard parts, actually. I can't decide whether to use FRAPS, Camtasia studio 5, or some other program... none of them have the greatest video recording quality, Ephren's eyes are always messed up...

I'm trying. This weekend is homecoming and I've got a poster due next week that took me 6 hours last year. Things are going to work out and Hero I will be finished. Eventually.

I'm glad you've all taken the time to check back often, even though I never have updates for you.
~Stedar

[Welcome to the NEW Hero I]

Haha. Welcome back. We've undergone some changes... again! This time hopefully for the better. Although I miss the old dumb blue background color and the old header, Hero I has officially gone light and the blue is no more. A sick logo was created for me by a friend and now Hero I looks a LOT more professional. Thanks, pal!

The Hero I trailer is not yet complete; however by this weekend I think it will be.
Thanks for stopping by and checking in on Hero I!

See ya soon!
~Stedar

[Hero I trailer... Soon!]

Sorry for this measly and boring post--but with all these page views I figured I should update more regularly as to reward those who check back often. I'm taking a break from Cyria as It's such a huge task... and Instead working on Revamping the Church Corruption Side quest, (It was a little... OLD.) and the better part; making the trailer for Hero I. I've already been recording scenes and areas, etc. And I'm starting to put it together to make a cool trailer that I'll post on YouTube. In a few days I'll edit this post and put the link for you all to check out.


Thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoy,
~Stedar

[Whoa! Lots of hits! - And I'm totally distracted]

Welcome!
There's been so many hits these past 9 days it's ridiculous. But maybe it's that new (and huge) banner I have on Gamingworld forums. Heheh. Anyway, work is... work. I'm still going; but at a slower pace than usual. It's mainly because I'm focused on real life. You know the gist of it; but still. Hero I WILL BE COMPLETED SOON, DON'T YOU WORRY.

In spite of all these website views and returning viewers; here's some new screenshots you haven't seen anywhere else.
A heated scene at Cyria Square with Ephren and some black knights; beware, there's a boss battle!A nice and scenic Inn area from Cyria with a nice little reward for those who venture enough.
Both screens are a little lacking at the moment-just wait until they're finished.

As always, thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed your stay!
P.S. I'm estimating a Demo by December 25.
~Stedar

[UPDATE : Cyria Edition]

Welcome back. The site has undergone some cool changes. Firstly, I tried playing around with some other templates and colors but frankly, they were not what I wanted. The template and colors I use at the moment aren't perfect (in fact they're almost the farthest thing from it) but will have to suffice for now. Secondly, I added a HIT COUNTER so now I can finally see how many hits I have. (Why Blogger doesn't do this automatically is beyond me) And lastly, I've added a new Header- I miss the older one but hell, a screenshot is so much cooler.

Back to the game.
I haven't gotten much done lately but what I have done was fix a few things, map a bit, and do some cosmetic changes. I started work on Cyria; the Third (of four) towns in the demo and by far the largest town/area I have EVER made. When it's finished it will almost be a bit ridiculous- but players looking to jump right to the castle will only have to walk north.
It's time for screenshots. No in-game ones yet, however.

Here's a WIP; Work in progress shot from inside RPG Maker 2003. This is only the lower half of town, and trust me, it's going to look a lot better upon completion.

This is a screenshot of the event layer. As you can see I've started to add the citizens and some long waiting lines already. *Sigh* I think it needs some more work but my work ethic at the moment is terrible. I really want to finish this first demo and release it to the community- I think the second demo of E1 and then the demo for E2 will be a lot easier once I do actually try to work hard and finish it.

Thanks for stopping by and reading all my ranting,
~Stedar

[Loot Cave and Branching Characters]

Welcome back. Hero I is gaining a whole new level of depth as I type. Remember how you will be able to choose characters for the P3 and P4 slots? Well instead of just stupid, unused and silent P3 and P4 characters, they will actually take place in conversation and scenes. Check it out. I've also been at work updating the DBS, World map, and all its playable areas for the demo. My current project, Loot Cave. Loot cave features two customized switch/lever minigames, in which you switch on certain switches to activate certain bridges, make paths, etc. There are also hidden rewards, and this dungeon is, in my opinion not too lengthy-but lengthy enough to feature fire monsters, a boss battle, and the finish to the sidequest, that is, if you signed up. Without further adieu, it's time for screenshots.
In this scene you can clearly see that Loot Cave isn't just open in the beginning of the demo, but always- because you can either explore it alone as Ephren, or come back when you've gotten any of the characters you desire! In the screen you can see Ephren, Match, the beautiful Alina, and Vander.Oho. Boss battle! One of the first real boss battles I've designed in the demo. Just wait and see the ones to come. This battle has a bit of a difficulty level I'd say, unless you have a good strategy, or you bring along Match and the gang. Right off the bat the boss and the imps hit you with flame breaths, causing a ton of damage and possibly the Bleeding Condition. But if you can manage enough damage before they get a shot, they'll no longer hit you with flame breath making the fight a helk of a lot easier. Here it is, the Loot that you find when you complete the cave. If you've a mind to think with- you'll probably see that this amount is ridiculous, and yes it is. A little too true to believe. Apparently someone has already Looted Loot Cave, leaving you with only two of these purple chests to open at the end (and a crap-load of secret chests in the cave) but don't let that get you down, the Sidequest offers a ton of good rewards anyway.

Thanks for stopping by, just wait until the demo is released!
~Stedar

[UPDATE : Edith Edition]

Welcome to Hero I! Today I've been working hard and can finally release the demo's second town, Edith. This cozy port town will most likely be the second or third stop the player can/will make before heading to Cyria, the capital of the kingdom of Larcia.

Eventually the eastern part of town that contains the docks will be open. (Probably when the second demo or final version of the game is available.) The player will be able to purchase a ship that they can sail freely in, or purchase passage on a ship to another continent.

What else is new in Edith? The Item shop and Weapons & Armor shop have the same things as Augren...Except Hi-potions and a better sword for Ephren! Be careful though, it's a little on the expensive side for a beginner player.
And... something else returns with the addition of Edith: The Town Task minigame. This time, Cap'n Claw wants you to collect Old wood, ashes, a hook, and a clock gear from around town!

In today's final screenshot, you can see something I worked quite hard on, Edith's Lanterns! After dark they'll turn on and start to light up the town. I think it gives it a great nighttime feel.

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY! Don't forget to check back, because Hero I is up and running!

Thankyou for reading,

~Stedar

[HERO I - Back in Production]

Look, I know there have been a lack of updates here for quite some time, but the game is back under production after a bit of a break and things are going pretty well again. After some inspiration from Final Fantasy Tactics A2, I started working on the game and should hopefully have a short demo release or beta by the end of the summer.

Thanks to all of you who have viewed this message, and thanks again for being patient.
I will have a new update in a few days with some new screenshots, etc.


~Stedar

[Finally, another Update]

Sorry it's been so long. Almost a month, actually. For those checking back and not seeing anything new here, I'm very sorry. Things have been hectic with school and CAPT's, so I haven't had much time. However, In the time being I've been able to accomplish a few tasks. 1. Match has now had a makeover as I recieved comments that his hair was a little strange. (For the better!) 2. I've completely finished the "Tent" System for Hero I (explained below) 3. I am finishing up the Church Corruption sidequest and am fixing a few kinks with the mission rating system. (There's way more, just read below! Thanks for checking by!

1. Match's Makeover

I have had some claims that Match's hair was a little silly, or off. I sorta agreed with this and gave him a new makeover. I think he looks way better now, compared to back then. Hope you think so too.

2. Tent System

The Tent system is a system where you can purchase an expensive Tent to be placed on the World Map. The cool thing is, it can be placed anywhere you can walk and be re-used many times. It offers a free area for fishing and the inside of the tent is where you can take a rest and recover health and synergy. (Pics to be added later.)

3. CC Cave continued

CC Cave is coming to an end, but I decided I didn't want to just put any old dumb chest in it. Instead, I editted a chest to become what I call, "The All-Knowing Chest." The chest can predict which Item you do not have (Medical) and give you 1 or 2 of it. I figured it would be helpful for the player. (P.S. I'm working on the last scene but can't show you because it will spoil it.)

4. Augren Redone and Town tasks

I've editted Augren to be a bit better, and also finished implementing the first Town Task mission. Chef Toni wants you to find some ingredients for him around town. It's not difficult, and gives a good reward.

That's all for today, see you soon! (and thanks for stopping by)
~Stedar

DBS fixes and updates

Hey all! Sorry for the gloomy last post, and the long wait until this post. With the help of Neophyte and SammyGamer, I was able to pinpoint and fix my DBS problems. With that said, I also got a little more of the CC Cave done aswell as one of Ephren's sickest skills, Blue Sting. Lastly, with the help of Void, Chainer, Farah, and many other helpful individuals, I was able to put together the intro of Hero: I and record it with Fraps to be put on Youtube for public view. As a result, It's quite grainy and needs a few fixes, but it's still in progress and is just a sneak-peak for now!

Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvgzmCws_0M

Also, here's some new screenshots you may or may not have seen around.

You've seen a version of the third pick, Swallow Kick before, but I made another to show to you that I've re-tweeked it making it much smoother and faster. The final pic is Blue Sting, Ephren's second to last move in the demo.

Well... That's it for now. Thanks for stopping by and checking out Hero: I!

DBS faults...

*Sigh* Where can I begin...? Progress is fine and normal, but I've come across something that truly displeases me. In the DBS, there are about 19 pages per battle. Now, I would think this is a lot, but someone from GW said he's got around 50 and it runs perfectly. Now I'm trying to find out why the characters seemingly always get stuck after an attack. Some say it's my version of Rm2k3, some say it's my battle events, etc etc. In general, I will try to fix such a horrendous fault, and IF/WHEN I do, I will return and post happily, but for now, sadness. Oh yeah, no screenshots for today. (Unless you want to see some stuck battle characters.)

See you sometime... BLEH. (But thanks for checking by.)
~Stedar

[Darkheart, Mining, etc!] (Screenshot Frenzy)

Welcome back! I've been very busy...alright, a little busy working on Hero I. Although I'm *STILL* working on the Church Corruption sidequest, there have been many good improvements and a lot of new fun to be had.

The first thing I will reveal is the new Darkheart system. The Darkheart system is rather like the final fantasy series' Limit break. When Ephren's health falls between 1 and 15%, his attack option will change into [Darkheart]. 'Darkheart' is a skill subset in which all of the most powerful moves reside. Each attack in the subset will do well over 300 damage each, depending on Ephren's attack stat. Usually, this would be very cheap, but in demo 0.2, each Darkheart will only be able to be used once. (or just 1 of all of your darkhearts per battle.) This doesn't mean that only one character gets to use it per battle, all of them will be able to, just once each. (In 0.2) It's your choice, risk the hero's death for darkheart, or avoid such radical behavior!

Ephren has just sucessfully used Darkheart, which was about to do nearly 310 damage.

The second thing to reveal is the new Mining system. With the mining system, whenever the player sees ore rocks and has at least one pickaxe with him, he'll be able to mine the ores from the rocks and either use them to forge in an upcoming (possibly 0.2, or maybe 0.1) Forge system, or sell them to vendors for some nice cash. The minigame isn't all that easy though. See the meter in the center? The purple bars indicate the level of tension of the pickaxe. If the meter gets filled with bars, it will eventually break. When it does break, it's game over! You keep what you got, but you also lose a pickaxe. Here's how the game works. Tap the enter key to mine, you have 60 seconds to finish. When enter is tapped, the tension will slowly increase. Waiting without tapping will deplete the tension meter. (I'm still working out some kinks and messups I found.) Another long awaited screenshot. (this is also of the cave from Church Corruption.)

BEHIND THE SCENES:

This is a new segment I will be doing every once and a while. Here I will show screenshots of the game inside rm2k3 and talk about various parts of game development.

Today's part: Battle animations. Battle animations are an essential part of every game. Usually, they have to be very good, or it will just add to the player's bad feelings about the game. How do I do my animations? Well... I've been using rm2k3 for about 2-3 years now, and I'm always getting better. (even when it comes to animations.) With animations, you simply create cool effects with good SFX and you're done. When I do mine, I usually start off with the first frames as the animation fading into view. Then, I progress the frames with animations (slowly or fastly depending on the anim) until I get to the end. At the end comes the final fade out period. In the middle of the animation, I usally flash the sprite or screen, as well as a shake and a sound effect. (...More to come soon as I think!)
Thanks for reading and visiting! Come again soon for more news!

~Stedar

[Sidequests!]

As you may or may not know, Hero: I will have Quests, Sidequests and Town tasks. What's the difference? Quests are orgranized 'missions' or 'assignments' that are assigned rewards, etc. and may be harder than Sidequests or Town tasks. Sidequests are quests that don't require anything and may not always have a 'material' reward, but can unlock some cool and better stuff. Town tasks are jobs that you can choose to around any town, assigned to by NPC's. These are mostly lists, such as; Talk to chef, take out garbage, cook fish fillet. (Just a random example.)

Now announcing my MAIN project this past week and next:

[Church Corruption] - darkest and most dangerous sidequest so far.

After starting the demo in Augren, head north (but be prepared) to enter the Monastary. There's a scene or two outside, but there's also a sidequest to do which you can start on the inside. I'm not revealing yet how to do it, (it's pretty simple to start and follow) but let's say it involves a new 'accompany' character. An accompany character is a character who comes with you, in a P2, P3, or P4 slot and fights by himself, (you don't control him) but is a part of sidequests, etc. I am going to reveal that he is a Dragoon, and very similar to Vander, but of no relation nor is he him. Why a dragoon? Not sure. I wanted to show the variety of classes early on, and even though you don't control him, and he's only around for this sidequest, I wanted to use him.

(Tired of reading, I know... I know...) Screenshots:

These are just of the church and showing the start of the sidequest. That's all for now, see you soon, and thanks for checking by!

~Stedar

[Battle system changes]

Hey! It's time for another update. I know I said I wouldn't be working on the Enhanced DBS, but well, as the town of Augren comes to a close, I did. This whole time I felt that making Ewan a Wind user was a bad choice... so now he is an Earth user, and a character I am now revealing (but not showing yet!) his older brother Edward will use Wind. I also felt that Ewan's sprite and special ability needed work. I revamped his sprite, and changed his special ability. Instead of 'Drawing' a skill from an enemy that you keep permanently, Ewan will be able to use randomized 'Terrain' magic when his ability selected. This ability however makes him very cheap, because he's capable of killing all enemies on the field under 200-300 health at one shot. To fix this, Demo version 0.2 will have a side effect to his special that will make it a bit more fair. The side effect is that all your allies (save for Ewan himself) are damaged a medium amount from the attack too, around 60-100 damage. I've decided not to add the side effect into the upcoming first demo because I wanted to make it easier and more fun killing waves and swarms of monsters.
(Phew) Now, for the long awaited screenshot part: Ewan has just sucessfully used Terrain magic and on a random roll of 1-7, he got the Earth terrain damage, killing the enemy rabbits.

-Oh! On a last note, I've decided that each character have a special 'Costume' that truly represents their class. These 'Costumes' will be available anytime during the story mode, from doing all of that character's specific sidequests/quests.

Finally, I've ultimately decided for the Demo version 0.1 to have 2-3 towns, so I will be doing a lot more town/quest work. There will also be a free roaming type of thing, for the north area of Larcia. (So, Selene forest, the Monastary, the Lake house, Abandoned Temple and Small ranch will be accessible and explorable.) This does not mean every area will be complete, just... a tidbit of a place to explore and check out...

Farewell for now, thanks for reading,
~Stedar

Update! 1-15-08

Hey! It's been a bit and progress is still slow. However, once Augren is complete, there won't be much more to do anyway. While working on the Quest/Sidequest/ and Town task jobs I decided to post again and release some brand new ideas of mine.

So you don't get bored, here's a screen (I try to impress.)

To the left is the altar, where you can pay and revive K-Oed members. There are Revives, or also called Phoenix downs; but like FFIII there are a bit more rare and not too much of a necessity. The quest center will have 4 quests in the demo. I'm unsure if I should delay the release date and make all 4 completely do-able. (Yes? No? Let me know!)

The major release today is well, not what you think. I'm going to let you know ALL available in-game classes. It's undecided whether I should make changable classes (like FFIII. This game is supposed to be similar game-play wise.)

So far, I've decided to have more characters for p3 and p4 aswell. There are now 4 p3 choices and 5 p4 choices.

Classes are as follows:

P3 :(Rod using) Monk, Heavy Swordsman, Lightning Swordsman, and Magician (Rods/Staves).

P4 : Dragoon, Dark Knight, Wind Swordsman, Ranger, and Holy Swordsman.

There's also Ephren (Swordsman) and Match, (SwordMaster)... (NOTE!: I know there are unusual element sword users and that swords outnumber any other weapon class so far. This is subject to change, But so far the characters that I have are users of those weapons.)

Thanks for reading, check again soon!

Happy New Year + Update!

Hey everyone! I'd like to announce that work on the Enhanced DBS is on a short hold, while I start the mapping of all the towns that will be accessible in the demo. But for now...

One final sneak-peak of Vander's Jump in action:

And now, a beta screenshot of the first town; Augren. (It's still in progress!)

And now, to announce the features of an everyday town in Hero I. An ordinary town is what you call a 'Center of Commerce' right? Well these C-o-C's (no sexual innuendo meant) are no longer just buy, rest, and leave sorta places. Each town (upon completion) will have Sidequests, Magic Shops, Smithys, Inns, Hidden events, P3's or P4's among the Npcs, Quests, Quest Centers, etc.

I hope you've enjoyed today's update, as I have. (I'm done with the Jump Command- Now that was a pain)

Thanks for checking, see you later

~Stedar