The Daemos Chronicles: Graduation Day Reports

A collection of the first screens from the game. Just a test. Looking good so far.

A few weeks ago I put together an in-game character creator I created. I was a little limited art I had, aside from a whole set of playable sprites for the first, oh five minutes of the game, but it was pretty good. Solid work, me.

A few weeks pass, and I finish creating all the character sets for all playable characters and NPCs. You can find them here, but these are all just basic examples, not everyone looks the same. I recently got into touch with my artist for the next round of art, and we got the bust work done, so I’m able to upload that into the character choices.

Damn does it look way better. Check out some sample screens.

Now to work on all 600 versions of this, plus faces, plus the set for each class ^_^’

I finally finished creating/editing all the NPCs and playable characters for the game. A hierarchy of sorts, we have (1) the Elder of the Village at the top, (2) three Old Ones, (3) five High Monks, (4) four Teachers, four Martial Arts Trainers, (5) a Blacksmith, Herbalists, and Merchants, and (6) the playable character classes. Players can choose to be a Student Monk, an Herbalist, or join the Village Army. Depending on their choice, they immediately get a special skill and mastery.

I finished the first main map of the game a while back, but got caught up in working on all of the playable sprites and didn’t update for awhile. You can see the list of all NPCs (examples) and playable characters (also examples). Remember, there is a character creator, so I gave a taste of some of the options available to people, as well as the classes you’ll be able to choose from.

Six-hundred and forty. 640.

That’s how many combinations it came down to.

Character creation is no joke people. I couldn’t let players go hog-wild with the built-in generator, nor could I use a plug-in. No, I have certain designs for the classes in mind, and sun glasses haven’t been invented yet, so impractical clothes and accessories are a no-go. And yet, I want the player to be able to customize their own character to a degree.

The variables I broke character creation down to are gender, skin tone, eye color, hair style, and hair color. I tried to give a little something for everyone here. Skin tones range from a light peach to a dark brown. Eye colors are the usual four (brown, green, blue, hazel) plus blind. I didn’t want to go all anime and start adding red, gold, etc, so I put in blind for people who want something special. Hair styles are bald, short hair, neck-length, and long enough to have a ponytail and still drapes in the back. For hair colors, I stuck with the norm – blonde, brunette, red, and black.

All of that added up to 640 combinations, 320 for each gender, 80 for each skin tone. It took two weeks to make all the sprites and then program the thing, but it’s all worth it. Why?

Because the first part of my video PC game is now complete. Congratulations to me!

Want to help me test the character creator? Download it and email me any bugs or combinations you find that don’t work. Windows and MacOS available.

Sprite art. I hear it’s called a labor of love, and it really, really is.

I used to do sprite art as a hobby as a kid, and eventually made 2D animations and even a short PC game with them. I also made some custom character sheets during my days fiddling with RPG Maker XP. So, I knew my way around creating sprite art for my game. However, I’m not a huge fan of chibi art.

I did a little research, and I’m so thankful RPG Maker MV had such a dedicated community at one time. I found hiddenone’s MV Sprites and fell in love. After grabbing everything I could, I got to making sprites for the different classes the player can choose from.

It was then that I started to think about character creation. This game is supposed have some RPG mechanics, and there is no predetermined hero. Players have the chance to customize their own character, and although there are great character creator plug-ins and apps out there, most use the chibi art or just won’t have the outfits and accessories practical for my Universe.

How do I solve this? I make my own in-game character creator.

Trying to go for a custom feel, I wanted my battlers to look better than what’s provided, and I’m not a huge fan of the chibi style, at least not for this game. When searching how to make my own battlers, I happened upon a forum discussing the same and switching out one character for another without having to change the model and simply the skin depending on the equipment being worn. Turns out there’s a plugin for that, which could help me when it comes to the player switching between classes.

There will be multiple classes in my game, with multiple outfits for each gender and varying ranks depending on the faction. In the world of The Daemos Chronicles: Graduation Day, students of the Academy pick a faction to follow when they graduate, and each opens new possibilities for the character and the player. When I think about it and may days of sprites, I remember how long sprite sheets took. Pixel-by-pixel art is no longer a medium I work in, being a 2D Illustrator for years now. I did try making a couple of sprites, and although I’m better than I thought, I don’t practice enough to get better, and I know I draw very inconsistently, so the style won’t match throughout the game.

How to beat this? Hire an artist, of course. On that same forum I mentioned, someone posted a screenshot. I liked the art style, but no one gave credit. So to Google Image search I go, and lucky for me, the Twitter for the game posted the same screenshot. That led me to the author of the game, and their RPG Maker profile, and then their artist portfolio, and then I got into contact with the artist.

I can be very determined.

Although no contracts have been signed (I own everything under copyright anyways), nor cash has switched hands, I’m pretty confident this is the guy I want to do the art for my game. His work is similar to Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is a style I’m a large fan of and would like to replicate one day. Sprite works and comic works of course differ, and the two look completely different, but what game is complete without some cut scenes? I don’t want to get ahead of myself, though.

Let’s see how far this project goes.

After watching the beginner series on RPG Maker MV by SRDude on YouTube, I decided to start testing some of the mechanics of my game today. 2/3 were successful, but that’s okay. I think I’m going to go with a skill tree when it comes to upgrading abilities/skills. My theory could still work if I can figure out a way to do it, but for now, skill trees would make things easier, and I’m a fan of those.

I’m also a large fan of the Soulsborne series, including Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Believe me when I say I’m looking for ways to implement some of those mechanics into my game. It may not be “Prepare to Die” difficult, but it’s going to have the same feel of exploration to progress and get better at the game. I want to have a more concrete story than the Soulsborne series, but at the same time the story Graduation Day takes place way before my novel does in sense of history and timelines, so a lot is up for change.

I prefer the skill tree over fiddling with stats, but it’s gonna be designed so that people can build their character around their play style with multiple paths. Leveling up is going to have several different mechanics that help someone progress through the game that doesn’t rely on grinding on low-level enemies and praying you survive a battle with a saber tooth boar about 10 levels ahead of you. There will be main quests and side quests to give the player something to do, but just walking around the world map will be an adventure. The starting area alone is an entire village worth exploring.

I perfected some of the mechanics over the weekend. I need a story and some custom art next, and the notes for my novel are all over my walls. Surely, I can find time to do all three, plus everything else an adult life requires for health and sanity.

How long has it been? 20 years maybe? Just about, I remember finding early versions of RPG Maker when I was still in K-12, and making my own Dragon Ball Z RPG with char sheets, sprite sheets, tiles, all that stuff. I’m not sure what happened after that…teenage angst?

For the last few years I’ve been trying to find better ways to get my story(ies) to the masses. A web comic, an animation, and now a video game…I’ve been working on my novel for a decade now, and every so often I learn a better way to write it. I think I finally have it figured out, but I have yet to start the next rewrite.

It’s been a while since I abandoned Game Design as a career. Every college at the time only believed in programming and math, thinking that’s all Game Design is. With both subjects being a major handicap of mine, I had to drop out for a bit and switch majors. Fast-forward to now, and although financially well-off, it’s true when they say money won’t buy happiness.

I tried my hand at 3D after the better part of two decades of never touching 3D software. It wears me out every time I get close, although I very badly would like to make a 3D animation like RWBY, especially with the similarities between RWBY and The Daemos Chronicles (mine came first, check the copyright database). I’m not an amazing artist but I’m more comfortable with the 2D art realm.

At the moment, all I can recall is someone mentioning on Reddit trying RPG Maker as a game engine if 3D modelling and programming are my road blocks. So I looked it up and lo and behold, RPG Maker is actually still going strong. Not only that, but it’s been upgraded, has many plugins for customization, and communities of artists and indie game devs. So of course, I dove right in…