[Developing] Pokemon Symphonic Horizon

[Dylanrockin]

So, for those of you who happen to be watching this thread, my game will be available soon ;) I have been hard pressed to get a lot of the indoor maps on the first continent finished, as well as finishing up any outdoor maps there may be. For now, everything is mapped, at least, the stuff that the story follows is mapped, and yeah!

New Secret Character!!!!!

Okay, here is some exciting news! There is a new secret character that can be played as in my game, and her name is Sara Keeney! She is an OC made by one of my best friends, and she has been wanting her OC in my game in some form or another, and now, she is here, and is now playable as a Secret, unlockable character! She has no plot relevance, aside from the tournament in the main story that she is first encountered in, but after that she doesn't do anything, and is basically an extra character that can be unlocked if you do a certain side-quest with her.

Sara Keeney Concept Artwork:

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Halloween Costumes for the Main Characters!:
Now, there are many different, funny costumes that you can get for the main characters, and as you know there are currently, the Christmas clothes, and now the Halloween Clothes!

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[Vin_Prismriver]

Welcome back bud :D
I'll be watching out for the release uwu

 

[Dylanrockin]

Welcome back bud :D
I'll be watching out for the release uwu

The release may be coming around in October, possibly around Halloween, since I still need to do some eventing, and a little bit of mapping here and there. But, yeah, I am now back after like... 2-3 months of busy life stuff.

 

[Dylanrockin]

Update: This is an update for Oblivion Forest, also known as the Insect Sanctuary. Yeah, what were you expecting? Dark Types and Ghost Types, NOPE. This forest is filled with Insect Pokemon, and very powerful ones at that. It is also comprised of Grass Types, and houses the Insect Fragment for the Arc Stone. This sanctuary, like the others, utilizes the abilities of several characters, and on subsequent visits, you can use Vivian to make traversing the areas, much easier on yourself, and discover hidden areas with items. The forest also entails this games version of the Turnback Cave, but is inaccessible until after the main story finishes.

As for the plot behind this section of the game: This part of the game takes place at the same time the invasion of Namira Village occurs with the Dark Fangs, which also takes place after the events of the capturing of Vice and Vivian in the Dark Fang Base; which was also destroyed by Vivian, when she hacked into the computer system and locked the doors shut on her old rival, and now nemesis Fuyu, when the countdown sequence for the bases self-destruct occurred. To which, she used her Shadow Sneak to escape with Vice and Eevee, far away from the explosion. After this point of the story finishes, the main viewpoint switches over to Krista and Marissa, who separated from the other two, to search for their respective Sanctuary (The insect sanctuary), while also training at the same time. However, once they find the fragment, it has actually disappeared, and was taken by a new character, who I will get into in a later update.

The Insect Sanctuary

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The main premise of this Sanctuary is that at the entrances to certain destroyed walls, there are white orbs that prevent you from passing on, inside towards the Sanctum, and it is your job to find all of the green Dragon Force Lamps and turn the flow of Dragon Force off. Throughout the sanctuary, you will mostly be using Marissa to jump and navigate up waterfalls, and jump across ravines. Krista acquires her own unique ability in this Sanctuary, and it is called Pokesense, and it's basically just like the Pokeradar effect, except that it has no recharge time. Whenever you decide to come back to this Sanctuary later on in the game, you can use Vivian to use her Shadow Sneak ability to teleport to other Dragon Force Lamps, and make things a lot easier on yourself, and it allows you to find hidden items that you wouldn't normally be able to get.

Dark Fang Oceanside Base

This series of maps is one of the many Dark Fang Bases that you will have to infiltrate throughout the course of the game. This first Base is comprised of your usual headquarters shenanigans, except for those annoying floor panels that don't really do much, aside from annoy me. Yes, those spinning ones, I hate them, a lot XD This part of the story is around the time when Vice and co. part ways, to find their own respective Sanctuaries, while Marissa and Krista are also using their time to train, and take part in the soon to be Next Dimension Tournament for the Insect Fragment. Vice and Vivian enter the Earth Sanctuary, but only to be hit by a Eelektros's thunderbolt and be knocked out by it. Soon afterwards, it turns out that they were captured by Aria and Alex, and sent to the Oceanside base where Vivian once worked at as an undercover Dark Fang Spy, and worked alongside her sister's childhood rival, Fuyu, whom Vivian has come to hate greatly after what he did. Throughout the base, Vice becomes unavailable to play as, as Vivian requested Vice to stay inside of his cell to take care of Fuyu on her own. So, throughout all of your time here, you will be using Vivian (so if you decided not to use her throughout the whole game, then things will be a lot harder for you here). Vivian is actually more useful than you might think here. First of which is that, not only is she capable of using normal ninja abilities that you are all aware of, but, she can also unlock electronic doors, due to her tech savvy side.

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Enhanced Trainer Cards:

I already showed off the Enhanced Trainer Cards in these videos - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syZUXlvtSNI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r61M1Vhrlkc

But, just in case you didn't see them, basically, these trainer cards are more stylized for a more anime approach (and yes, there is traditional artwork in there with digital artwork, I plan on getting digital versions of that artwork in there soon), much like my inspiration - Tales of Symphonia, which did it in the character's status screen.

Enhanced Trainer Card Image:

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[Dylanrockin]

Just a quick thought dump - I just started handing out Closed Beta copies of my game to 6 select people, and so far, the game is nearing it's expected date of Beta 1 Release, sometime later this October. I am actually quite surprised with the reception that I have gotten from the people testing the Closed Beta of the game, as well as compliments on the trainer switching and character abilities mechanics.

So, in terms of progress that I have left for eventing of my game, I have about... 2 more weeks of eventing, and then possibly 1 week of more Closed Beta testing, and then Beta 1 Release! The current length of the Beta 1 is going to be around... 20+ hours, and will end after Oblivion Forest, which is basically at the end of the 1st Continent of Lumia (see map here -

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)

Also, here is some more footage of my game, as well as gameplay of the game on Mania Difficulty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztBNSO_cVsQ&feature=youtu.be

Screenshot from my game of Lush Prairie:

Sorry for the jumpy gif, I recorded the gif while I had other tasks going on ^ ^;

 

[Dylanrockin]

Update 3 - The Updatingning... yeah Beta 1 news

So, news for the 1st Beta of my game goes as such: The game is nearing it's 1st beta, and I am planning on releasing it in about a week or so. Possibly 2 weeks if I can get some programming quirks ironed out, such as the animating menu's and whatnot. Other than that, I hope you all look forward to the release of my game, and I hope you all enjoy the story!

Also, I just updated the main thread with screenshots of the new menu's and the NEW enhanced menu!

Update 4 Edit - Animations

Well, I got a lot of the programming quirks ironed out, and got a lot of the menu animations programmed in, as well as doing a graphical overhaul for some parts of the game, as well as menu's, and I think they look fabulous! Side note: The quality of the gifs are not representative of what they actually look like in-game, especially on the 2nd gif. Quality is decreased severely when you compress a video into gif form.

 

[Dylanrockin]

Update 5 - The Revengeance of the Update

SO. The release date for my game has been announced a week or so ago, however, I am going to be moving it back one more week, mainly because I am almost done with eventing the last of this set of Story Events, but I also need to finish eventing some of the NPC's and trainers. However, my amazing friend who does a lot of the concept artwork for my characters, has made another bit of concept art for the Ex-Champion of Lumia - Ariana Marie Valeria.


Ariana's Concept Artwork

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She was the previous champion of Lumia and was one of the 4 heroes from 8 years prior to this games events. The reasons behind her death is explained very early on in the game, so there is no need for me to describe what happened to her. But, she was also the previous owner for Vice's Eevee.

Also, in this upcoming beta for my game, there are going to be some sprite placeholders for some characters, until I can get their sprites finished. However, I am planning on getting their placeholders removed, and changed out for their canonical sprite designs, within this extra week. Also, the Summary Screen and some other menu's will be using Custom Made Graphics from my graphic/sprite/concept artist ;) However, I do not know if those custom graphics will be used in the 1st beta.

So, I apologize for anyone who has been patiently waiting, but, I hate using placeholders, and I don't want to have any major bugs or glitches to be present, so I am using this time to get these last few scenes evented, and getting more NPC and Trainer data in.

 

[mikethepokemaster]

Your fine if it push back a bit, if it to make the game more awesome than take it.

 

[leocain]

At the end of the day, it's your work, if you aren't too sure about it, you are right on delaying it.

 

[Dylanrockin]

Update: Hello, again! I have some exciting news, in relation to the game.exe. For one, the game will be played in a non-traditional manner, and it's a little different that what you might expect. Screenshots below, detailing what I mean.

Screenshot #1: The game will be downloaded as an installer, setup program, like most programs are nowadays. Not, only that, but the encryption method used on my game, makes things a little bit different, this time around. For one, the encryption is tighter than all RPG Maker XP games that are compressed with using the default compression method, and that's thanks to a very special set of programs that I used to do so. With the encryption being as super tight-locked as it is, it basically makes it so that way people, as hard as they might try, will not be able to access the files inside, making it "hack-proof." The setup has 2 bin files, MAKE SURE YOU DOWNLOAD THESE! I know that they are both nearly 2GB in size, but get them anyways, you need them in order to use the Setup file.

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Screenshot #2: You will go through the basic installer stuff, and you will be greeted with a password screen. Yes; I did use a password, and don't worry, once the game is released I will give out the password, but, just as an extra security measure, I am using a password for the installer - for the same reason that I used a special encryption method for my game, to prevent possible theft of assets and custom scripts (seriously people, don't be that guy - no one likes a thief).

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Screenshot #3: Once you use the password, you can select your destination folder on your computer, for where you'd like to save it; I just save it to the default inside of the folder that you see below, since a Desktop Icon will be made, so that way you can launch it from desktop (and it's the same icon for the Setup :D). The only things that are not encrypted is the music and SE's, but then again, I didn't make any of the music or SE's, so who cares, honestly? I mean, you can literally google those songs and download them at your leisure, so eh. After the install is done, feel free to play the game as much as you want, with your new shiny Desktop icon, and fresh install complete!

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The reason why I decided to use this method of download and installation, is that it makes it user friendly, and easy to access. Yes, the password is annoying, but, the password that I used will make you laugh your a** off XD so, it will be worth it, in the end. Also, it was used to super ensure the protection against blatant theft, because I hate it when people do that kind of stuff, and it drives me CRAZY.

Other than that, the game has been progressing very smoothly, however, Thanksgiving is coming up, and with that I am going to be VERY busy at my irl job, which means less work on my game ^ ^; However, I do have something cool to show, next week, and you guys can hold me to that ;D

 

[Aljen]

Dylan, is it ok if i ask you which kind of script and protect do you use? i want to protect my game too xD

 

[Mellan]

Can we delete the bin files after the installation?

 

[Dylanrockin]

Dylan, is it ok if i ask you which kind of script and protect do you use? i want to protect my game too xD

I used a program that a friend of mine recommended to me, and it is called, hilariously enough, Anti RGSS Decrypter, and from the comments below, you will not right off the bat, that this is the real deal. It works like a charm, and I tested it out on several RGSS Decrypter Programs.

https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/20775-tools-anti-rgss-decrypter/

I'm sure someone out there will try to figure out how to decrypt our games, and be a di** about it, but this works very well, for the time being. But, make sure to get up all in that, and have some protection ;P

The only problem with this is, is that you will have to change the name of ARD Launcher RC2 to Game, and you will have to also change the icon of it, much like I had to, because the standard Game launcher will no longer work, and you MUST have the ARD Launcher RC2 (renamed) in your game folder, first. Also, the game precahce's itself, before it starts, which makes loading the game pretty lengthyish. 1 minute about.

Can we delete the bin files after the installation?

Yes, you can delete the .bin files after installation.

 

[Aljen]

Aaaahh, I got it, thank you, i will test it later ~^^~, was looking for this

 

[Dylanrockin]

Update: For those of you who have played a Tales Game, like Tales of Symphonia, Abyss, Vesperia, Destiny 1 and 2, and even some of the newer ones, it doesn't really matter - I am sure you are familiar with "Skit Conversations," from those games? Well, if you liked the silly and downright hilarious Skits from the Tales series, then look no further, than the Skits in Pokemon Symphonic Horizon!

It's no surprise that Tales of Symphonia is my favorite game of all time, and that my game takes a lot of inspiration from not only it's Skits, but also it's plot structure and other core features. Currently, Vice is the only one with a Full Skit Sheet of 37 frames of animation, at the moment. The characters that will be initiating a skit conversation are the 7 main characters: Vice, Marissa, Eevee, Vivian, Krista, Hiro, and Allan. There are 2 other characters, but they are not really a priority at the moment. How Skits will work in my game, is that they will behave similarly to how they appear in other Tales games, except that they play after a certain conversation has ended, or if you find "Skit Points" in the overworld, where you are able to engage in conversation with the other characters - so as to explore a little bit more insight into that specific character, or characters, personality and interests. Sometimes, you may even be able to learn a special move for a Pokemon, or get items and perhaps initiate some character specific Side-Quests later on!

 

[Wolvyr]

Map looks huge, but cool game!

 

[Dylanrockin]

Character Artwork!​

So, for those of you who like character artwork, and for those of you who actually care, here is a huge update for the artwork of almost every main character in the game with their own CG Artwork Card! Also, an update in regards to me posting here on Pokecommunity.

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First off, I don't care to have my artwork as a Ken Sugimori would be look a like, mainly because I want my characters to be portrayed with as much personality as possible. I say that because the art style for these CG's is geared towards their own personality especially with the inner circle of the background on the cards themselves.

Secondly, I am planning on putting a HUD for my game that can be toggled on or off at will, and will be disabled depending on if you are interacting with a story-crucial event or not. What you see below is still a Work in Progress, and is not final by any means. I might provide updates here on Pokecommunity involving it, but, I'm not quite sure.

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HUD FEATURES:

• Character portrait in the upper right hand corner of the screen, in the little triangle area.
• Pokemon icons down the right side of the screen, instead of the top.
• Clock feature at the top of the screen
• Character name and money at the top of the screen.
• Can be toggled with the TAB button, and will notify the player at the beginning of the game.

Lastly, I am starting to care less and less about posting here on Pokecommunity, and I will most likely have my game as a Reborn only exclusive game.

 

[Astralneo]

This game looks amazing and I would love to play it but I don't see myself as a good beta tester so I will wait for the full demo. I always kind of played Pokemon at first for the plot and the curiosity but I have often found myself dissapointed. I wish you good luck with your project!

 

[BlackOutG5]

Wow this project grew so fast its amazing! The art styles caught my eye in an instant . May I beta test your game! I would love to test it and find all mapping errors for you! [email protected] or my skype: dturner30115

 

[Twilight Storm]

Is the guy Vaan Cresthart?