Pokémon Love Link - Weekly Dev Blog (Current: Week 15 - Cancelation)

[zARRR]

Mini Update:

I knew i forgot to add something to the last dev blog. So as things are the game has time move in real time, so every minute in real life is an hour in game. I found for time sensitive events this can be kinda annoying and doesnt add alot to the game, additionally sometimes character will just disappear when time passes to make it they go somewhere else (a character being in the same spot 24/7 would be weird, especially characters that matter). So i've been working to add a time system more similar to other H-games, where you have a set amount of AP, use that AP up and your moved on to the next time of day. The times of day being morning, noon, evening and night. you'd start with 3 or 4 ap but can upgrade.

here is the UI
View attachment 4086008
The UI will automatically scale the amount of segments in the bar to your current max AP.

Would like people thoughts on this, weather you think it can be improved or changed or whatever

Mmmmh dunno if this time mechanic works for Pokémon, since it’s a huge world and what actions would speed up time?
Jobs? Gym leaders? There are too many actions to be considered for this kind of time based system.
You will explore, fight trainers and do quests in a n everlasting morning purgatory for hours till you do something that advances time.

The ui is a bit too simple for this mechanic imo, very minimalistic

 

[Luximora]

Mmmmh dunno if this time mechanic world for Pokémon since it’s a huge world and what actions would speed time?
Jobs? Gym leaders? There are too many actions to be considered for this kind of time based system.
You will explore, fight trainers and do quests in a n everlasting morning purgatory for hours till you do something that advances time.

The ui is a bit too simple for this mechanic imo, very minimalistic

fair, if I do confirm going down this time based route then those definitely need to be taken into consideration. For time passing, with this system I was thinking the main ways would be working, interacting with a love intrest, side quests and stuff like that. but you definitely do bring up a good point. In my mind I was thinking the player would likely go between doing pokemon stuff and love intrest stuff.

Thinking it over, i think you've convinced me the old system is probably better for the type of game this is.

 

[zARRR]

fair, if I do confirm going down this time based route then those definitely need to be taken into consideration. For time passing, with this system I was thinking the main ways would be working, interacting with a love intrest, side quests and stuff like that. but you definitely do bring up a good point. In my mind I was thinking the player would likely go between doing pokemon stuff and love intrest stuff.

Thinking it over, i think you've convinced me the old system is probably better for the type of game this is.

Yeah, it’s just how this type of game function.
If we pick as examples Summer Memories or Pentiment (for non porn games), they have a closed map, with little or no exploration, every major action you do, will push time forward.
But when the map is massive and you have more than one activity, this system fails.

You mentioned that the player would balance pokemon stuff and LI pursuing, but here pops up another dilemma.
Since the map will be big, and players will have the freedom to choose every gym they want or explore different dungeons and roads… This means that while advancing the world players may forsake LIs or not bother to backtrack even with the metro to check them, especially if they are stationary NPCs or have linear planned journey.
Therefore a solution could be to have the main LIs follow MC in every town (Since they are rivals, competition is a thing).
Whereas the step mother could invite or call the protagonist during the journey.
But I believe you had already planned a form of solution

 

[Luximora]

Week 13 (10/5/24)

This week was a little slower, another lighter week. College has really taken a way bigger hit on my productivity than I expected, it's not even a time thing but just in terms of feeling drained energy wise. I've been realizing that I'm running out if stuff to do that's eventing and programming as well, which is good, means the rest of the work will be art and writing which I personally find a lot more relaxing, ill touch on that a little later though.

I started with moving the exit for route 2 transitioning to Cassiopeia Academy further to the side, it's Always kinda bothered me how this route only required like 2 trainer battles if you chose not to explore, alot of the more interesting parts of it are so out of the way, besides i have an new idea for the upper side for a future update so it'll all work out in the end.

Next was adding some permanent items to Lyra Towns BP shop, I decided to go with the miracle seed, mystical water and charcoal which all boost grass, water and fire moves. I made them a little more expensive than usual since it's The first towns items and im still kinda iffy on it, the problem with trying to balance items like this is that most trainers don't have items besides the important ones which really gives the player a leg up, I'm open to different ideas for these.

I went back to the battle facility in Cassiopeia I made last time and added some bp rewards, it's pretty simple, every 5 battles there you get 5 bp.

Re-challenging gyms: in the gym you can now talk to the pokemon statue to initiate a re challenge, you can also pick what level you want the challenge to be set at, how many options you have is dependent on your badge count, in 1.0 you'll be able to rechallenge Roxanne's as level 10 which is with no badges, and level 20, which is with 1.

Sprites: just some overworld sprites I worked on, I've been using placeholders this entire time so it's about time I got started on them, right now only the player done but I'll get more finished.

Texting: i found this really cool plugin on Eevee Expo that adds texting to the game, it has support for emoji's, custom pfp's, sending images, group chats and all kinda wild stuff its cool. I'm still debating on how I'll implement it but I have a few ideas. I've been playing ZZZ alot and that game has alot of texting between missions, trust events etc so I think I'll use that as the main inspiration. I've started adding it to the Lass quest.

Lass quest: I was working on this but stopped halfway feeling a little confused on how to continue it so I have a question for yall. How should the player interact with this quest/work for it? I planned on making it with her needing. Should it be through battle, purchasing an item, fetch quests, or should it just be go from point at to point b and read the dialogue for the quest to progress through it like a side storyline or something. That's originally what it was shaping up to be but I stopped wondering how fun it'd be. So yeah I need advice here, would it be fine if it was just a side story with good writing or do you want some interaction there, and if so, what kind?

Collectibles: I didn't add anything but I want to, I've always found stuff like the moron seeds and random stuff you find in games fun as long as they feel low pressure and not mandatory. It's fun for me and I'd like some thoughts on it.

That's all for now, I'm honestly getting kinda worried for future weeks since all that's going to be left after a while is writing and art, and since I don't want spoilers it's going to mean a lot of “I wrote and drew this week” which would probably suck to read.

Pictures

 

[zARRR]

It’s again that time of the week

Week 13 (10/5/24)
Next was adding some permanent items to Lyra Towns BP shop, I decided to go with the miracle seed, mystical water and charcoal which all boost grass, water and fire moves. I made them a little more expensive than usual since it's The first towns items and im still kinda iffy on it, the problem with trying to balance items like this is that most trainers don't have items besides the important ones which really gives the player a leg up, I'm open to different ideas for these.

How about as level scaling progresses, normal trainers also obtain items to challenge advanced players?
So the difficulty slowly raises, although it could be hellish to code? But I am expecting every rival and major character to have a strong build.

Week 13 (10/5/24)
Re-challenging gyms: in the gym you can now talk to the pokemon statue to initiate a re challenge, you can also pick what level you want the challenge to be set at, how many options you have is dependent on your badge count, in 1.0 you'll be able to rechallenge Roxanne's as level 10 which is with no badges, and level 20, which is with 1.

That’s a cool idea! But what kind of reward you get from rematches? Aside from achievements there are multiple options for rewards, simple consumable, MTs, power ups and simple cosmetics.
Even just a new type of clothes, a poster/trophy in your house or just your medal turning more bright like in that minigame in Pokémon diamond and pearl (or turning gold).

Texting: i found this really cool plugin on Eevee Expo that adds texting to the game, it has support for emoji's, custom pfp's, sending images, group chats and all kinda wild stuff its cool. I'm still debating on how I'll implement it but I have a few ideas. I've been playing ZZZ alot and that game has alot of texting between missions, trust events etc so I think I'll use that as the main inspiration. I've started adding it to the Lass quest.

I haven’t played ZZZ, I usually avoid gatchas but from the ones I tried this texting mechanic is introduced everywhere with fun and lukewarm results.
Lukewarm because even if you can choose multiple dialogue branches, the conversation remains basically the same.
You can use it for LIs side quests, normal side quests or just bonding/sex/wholesome events with the other character.
Examples: A rival sends a funny Pokémon meme to you and based on your reaction you raise affection or lower it, your step mother asks how are you doing and if you’ll come to visit her, a scam caller tries to steal your pokedollars or tries to sell you a powerful pseudo legendary when it’s instead a magikarp…

Lass quest: I was working on this but stopped halfway feeling a little confused on how to continue it so I have a question for yall. How should the player interact with this quest/work for it? I planned on making it with her needing. Should it be through battle, purchasing an item, fetch quests, or should it just be go from point at to point b and read the dialogue for the quest to progress through it like a side storyline or something. That's originally what it was shaping up to be but I stopped wondering how fun it'd be. So yeah I need advice here, would it be fine if it was just a side story with good writing or do you want some interaction there, and if so, what kind?

Mmmh how be about a mixture of all options? Turning the side quest into a side story, with gradually different objectives, (Talk to Lass in X town, defeat Y trainer, Bring Z item, talk again to Lass). The only spice that saves every side story notwithstanding the gameplay is the narration and writing.
If you don’t have inspiration for any exciting or different gameplay just use the magic power of writing.
As always for inspiration analyze the best side quests and stories from great RPGs and JRPGs, you’ll realize that some of them are but just recycled gameplay with narrative/gameplay tools to make them stand out from the rest.

Collectibles: I didn't add anything but I want to, I've always found stuff like the moron seeds and random stuff you find in games fun as long as they feel low pressure and not mandatory. It's fun for me and I'd like some thoughts on it.

Moron seeds? You mean Korok seeds?
I love collectibles! But I also hate them… But I mostly loved them when done right.
Capturing all the Booss Luigi’s Mansion is fun not only for the reward and the completio juice, but also for their catch phrases and weird names.
Collecting Gyroids in AC is straightforward but cozy, each one emits a distinct sound and they are colorful.
Yakuza 0 has porn cards to collect so you can watch erotic videos… Yakuza wins
What I am saying is that collectibles are fun as long as they are charming and the reward is either remotely interesting (or an upgrade).
Gold Skultulas are a pain in the neck to collect, but the upgrades are cool.
Collecting Korok seeds gets boring after a while, those golden feces are too many, repetitive and the rewards are definitely not worth the hassle.

An idea that popped in my mind, is to have as collectibles different PFP, stickers and emojis in the texting app, or even cool backgrounds (You could obtain them even from gym rematches).
Or something that has a cool flavor to it and it’s mot just the same hidden item over and over again

 

[Luximora]

It’s again that time of the week

How about as level scaling progresses, normal trainers also obtain items to challenge advanced players?
So the difficulty slowly raises, although it could be hellish to code? But I am expecting every rival and major character to have a strong build.

That’s a cool idea! But what kind of reward you get from rematches? Aside from achievements there are multiple options for rewards, simple consumable, MTs, power ups and simple cosmetics.
Even just a new type of clothes, a poster/trophy in your house or just your medal turning more bright like in that minigame in Pokémon diamond and pearl (or turning gold).

I haven’t played ZZZ, I usually avoid gatchas but from the ones I tried this texting mechanic is introduced everywhere with fun and lukewarm results.
Lukewarm because even if you can choose multiple dialogue branches, the conversation remains basically the same.
You can use it for LIs side quests, normal side quests or just bonding/sex/wholesome events with the other character.
Examples: A rival sends a funny Pokémon meme to you and based on your reaction you raise affection or lower it, your step mother asks how are you doing and if you’ll come to visit her, a scam caller tries to steal your pokedollars or tries to sell you a powerful pseudo legendary when it’s instead a magikarp…

Mmmh how be about a mixture of all options? Turning the side quest into a side story, with gradually different objectives, (Talk to Lass in X town, defeat Y trainer, Bring Z item, talk again to Lass). The only spice that saves every side story notwithstanding the gameplay is the narration and writing.
If you don’t have inspiration for any exciting or different gameplay just use the magic power of writing.
As always for inspiration analyze the best side quests and stories from great RPGs and JRPGs, you’ll realize that some of them are but just recycled gameplay with narrative/gameplay tools to make them stand out from the rest.

Moron seeds? You mean Korok seeds?
I love collectibles! But I also hate them… But I mostly loved them when done right.
Capturing all the Booss Luigi’s Mansion is fun not only for the reward and the completio juice, but also for their catch phrases and weird names.
Collecting Gyroids in AC is straightforward but cozy, each one emits a distinct sound and they are colorful.
Yakuza 0 has porn cards to collect so you can watch erotic videos… Yakuza wins
What I am saying is that collectibles are fun as long as they are charming and the reward is either remotely interesting (or an upgrade).
Gold Skultulas are a pain in the neck to collect, but the upgrades are cool.
Collecting Korok seeds gets boring after a while, those golden feces are too many, repetitive and the rewards are definitely not worth the hassle.

An idea that popped in my mind, is to have as collectibles different PFP, stickers and emojis in the texting app, or even cool backgrounds (You could obtain them even from gym rematches).
Or something that has a cool flavor to it and it’s mot just the same hidden item over and over again

It definitely would be kinda annoying to code, I think the BP prices are expensive enough where the player likely won't be able to afford on until maybe prospering halfway through the 1st gym, som it may not be a big issue, also I looked it up the boost is by 20 percent, its still a good amount but not nessisarily game breaking, won't really know until actual testing happens though.

To me gym rechalanges are just supposed to be a novelty, with pokemon crystal clear which is a rom hack that lets you chalange other gyms in any order you could also rechallange them using any set, when I got to champion level i'd go back to the earlier gyms to see what their best team was, its more of an intrinsic reward, you do have a good point though, as of now there isn't any extrinsic reward for that. I'm not sure if it needs it though, I wouldn't want players to feel like they need to go back to rechalange a gym they already beat, especially since gyms in this game are more dungeon like and are longer.

That's a fair take about texting, to me I just think texting is a really cute and fun in universe way to have characters interact with one another, but you definitely do raise good ideas for the system to go through. The scam text thing sounds funny too.

Yeah good point on the sidequest thing, I'll definitely keep that in mind.

Damn auto correct made korok seeds moron seeds. Yeah collectibles are definitely something that needs to be done right. The reason I recency korok seeds is cuase you don't really need to interact with them, you kinda just find them and when you do its like oh cool, I just happened to find it, but I never felt like I needed to find more or anything.

I'll need to check the capabilites of the texting plugin for things like that, its mostly a ui and not very customizable for developers so I'll need to see. Not a bad idea at all though

 

[Luximora]

Week 14 (10/12/2024):
I’m going to take a break from pokemon Love Link. It won’t be a long one (only 1 week) and I promise I have 0 plans or intentions of abandoning this project, it will come out however I feel like I really just need to take a small break to refresh and come back to the project better with everything going on. I’ve noticed that I’ve been getting less and less stuff done and have been facing creative blocks over and over again, I just couldnt think of anything to work on and it was really frustrating, I already kinda knew this from the past weeks but ignored it but it was so obvious this week with the little work I got done. So lets get into it.

Lass Quest: Not even done, 2/3's done and I do know how I want to finish it but still, it's pretty bad that over 7 days I didn’t finish the sidequest

1 art scene: I’ll be a little more fair to myself for this one, I kept restarting my finished pieces over and over again trying to get better at drawing on an Ipad and trying to find the right artstyle for this game. It definitely won't take me multiple days to finish just one scene. Here it is, it's very sketchy and messy which I amn’t sure about. I think it looks kinda artsy and cute, the foreground and background are obviously unfinished but overall I like it. I especially like that I only used 5 colors for the whole thing, making a limited color pallet work is always fun. There are absolutely things I dont like about the piece but I’d rather hear yall’s raw thoughts on the artstyle and not risk influencing what you see, y’know? I know that artists are usually their worst critics so i’d like to see the opinion of someone who’s play the game. How’d you feel about this scene. I tried a second style two just to see what it'd look like so theres that to, yall can lemme know your thoughts. If i'm taking a week off I can experiment with different styles while im on break so let me know if you want me to try some different style out and I'll see.

(btw the scene is supposed to be you and the mom character at a cafe)
Pictures
style 1:

style 2:

 

[zARRR]

Week 14 (10/12/2024):
I’m going to take a break from pokemon Love Link. It won’t be a long one (only 1 week) and I promise I have 0 plans or intentions of abandoning this project, it will come out however I feel like I really just need to take a small break to refresh and come back to the project better with everything going on. I’ve noticed that I’ve been getting less and less stuff done and have been facing creative blocks over and over again, I just couldnt think of anything to work on and it was really frustrating, I already kinda knew this from the past weeks but ignored it but it was so obvious this week with the little work I got done. So lets get into it.

Lass Quest: Not even done, 2/3's done and I do know how I want to finish it but still, it's pretty bad that over 7 days I didn’t finish the sidequest

1 art scene: I’ll be a little more fair to myself for this one, I kept restarting my finished pieces over and over again trying to get better at drawing on an Ipad and trying to find the right artstyle for this game. It definitely won't take me multiple days to finish just one scene. Here it is, it's very sketchy and messy which I amn’t sure about. I think it looks kinda artsy and cute, the foreground and background are obviously unfinished but overall I like it. I especially like that I only used 5 colors for the whole thing, making a limited color pallet work is always fun. There are absolutely things I dont like about the piece but I’d rather hear yall’s raw thoughts on the artstyle and not risk influencing what you see, y’know? I know that artists are usually their worst critics so i’d like to see the opinion of someone who’s play the game. How’d you feel about this scene. I tried a second style two just to see what it'd look like so theres that to, yall can lemme know your thoughts. If i'm taking a week off I can experiment with different styles while im on break so let me know if you want me to try some different style out and I'll see.

(btw the scene is supposed to be you and the mom character at a cafe)
Pictures
style 1:
View attachment 4125679
style 2:
View attachment 4125677

No worries, burnouts happen constantly and college may have player a role in the burnout

For the artstyle, I’ll say that it is interesting and different from the usual pokemon anime style, albeit I believe it may clash with other more simplistic anime art style of in game profiles.

That said I prefer Style 2; the usage of shadows and light is overall better, it has a more distinct personality and I don’t know why but it reminds me of the style of the Disney movie 101 dalmatians.
Even if a rough sketch it’s still charming enough to fascinate my imagination.

 

[Luximora]

Week 15 (10/28/24)

I was really not exited to write this article, and I want folks to understand that I really didn't want to cancel the game. This is 5 months of my work going down the drain thats just going to be unused now, (I am releasing the assets on github but thats pretty much it). After alot of consideration, I've decided to cancel Pokémon Love Link. I know this is disappointing as hell, and I genuinly, I'm sorry, I can't imagine that staying up to date with a week dev blog only for it to be abruptly canceled is fun.

There where a bunch of factors that led to this decision. Between classes, assignments, and trying to maintain a healthy sleep schedule, I've found myself with increasingly less time and energy to dedicate to development. Money was another one, you just straight up cant monetize a project like this without getting nuked, I made the game innitially not caring but I don't know, I'm not a kid anymore, I have responsabilities and stuff, money is something I have to consider, money's been getting tighter with my family to which kinda puts a but of pressure on me, so spending so much of my day developing a free pokemon fan game for fun just seemed less realistic. Also the legal risks of developing a Pokémon fan game, especially one with adult content, has been had been kinda on my mind. Even without monetization, the project could face takedown notices from The Pokemon Company, potentially erasing months of work. I've also been running into various technical limitations with RPG Maker XP that have made implementing certain features more challenging than expected. While these weren't crazy on their own, combined with everything else, they've contributed to mounting pressure that's been affecting my motivation and creativity.

I mentioned it earliar but I'm releasing all the assets on github, you can try it if you want I guess, it has no sex scenes and alot of the dialogue still doesnt have character busts, theres alot just missing and incredibly unpolished but its there, if anyone ever would want to pick it up to continue to develop there more than free to.

Thank you all for your support throughout this journey. The feedback helped drive this project forward for as long as it did, and I'm grateful for every comment and suggestion you've shared. Even without the feedback just chatting about random shit about pokemon and the anime and things we liked was fun.

-Luximora

[GitHub Link:

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]

I'm not leaving game development entirely. I'm currently prototyping a new project - a 3rd person beat-em-up/ARPG inspired by a pretty old game called Oni and boyonetta. It's a completely different genre from pokemon, so I totally understand if folks aren't interested.

Here's a barebones prototype I made in 3 days if anyone's interested, it was mainly spent on getting the core structure down so I could expand it more modularly in the future easier.

This is of course just a prototype, made in 3 days, if anyone has any other ideas of what they'd like to see instead, I'm all ears, there is also the summer memories like I was making. I was considering making an rpg like Pokémon, to spiritually continue Love Link, but then I looked into how complex pokemons code base would be to recreate and that idea was shut down fast, plus having to make new monsters to stand in as pokemon and all, it just seemed tough.
View attachment Recording 2024-10-28 121506.mp4

 

[zARRR]

Week 15 (10/28/24)

I was really not exited to write this article, and I want folks to understand that I really didn't want to cancel the game. This is 5 months of my work going down the drain thats just going to be unused now, (I am releasing the assets on github but thats pretty much it). After alot of consideration, I've decided to cancel Pokémon Love Link. I know this is disappointing as hell, and I genuinly, I'm sorry, I can't imagine that staying up to date with a week dev blog only for it to be abruptly canceled is fun.

There where a bunch of factors that led to this decision. Between classes, assignments, and trying to maintain a healthy sleep schedule, I've found myself with increasingly less time and energy to dedicate to development. Money was another one, you just straight up cant monetize a project like this without getting nuked, I made the game innitially not caring but I don't know, I'm not a kid anymore, I have responsabilities and stuff, money is something I have to consider, money's been getting tighter with my family to which kinda puts a but of pressure on me, so spending so much of my day developing a free pokemon fan game for fun just seemed less realistic. Also the legal risks of developing a Pokémon fan game, especially one with adult content, has been had been kinda on my mind. Even without monetization, the project could face takedown notices from The Pokemon Company, potentially erasing months of work. I've also been running into various technical limitations with RPG Maker XP that have made implementing certain features more challenging than expected. While these weren't crazy on their own, combined with everything else, they've contributed to mounting pressure that's been affecting my motivation and creativity.

I mentioned it earliar but I'm releasing all the assets on github, you can try it if you want I guess, it has no sex scenes and alot of the dialogue still doesnt have character busts, theres alot just missing and incredibly unpolished but its there, if anyone ever would want to pick it up to continue to develop there more than free to.

Thank you all for your support throughout this journey. The feedback helped drive this project forward for as long as it did, and I'm grateful for every comment and suggestion you've shared. Even without the feedback just chatting about random shit about pokemon and the anime and things we liked was fun.

-Luximora

[GitHub Link:

You must be registered to see the links

]

I'm not leaving game development entirely. I'm currently prototyping a new project - a 3rd person beat-em-up/ARPG inspired by a pretty old game called Oni and boyonetta. It's a completely different genre from pokemon, so I totally understand if folks aren't interested.

Here's a barebones prototype I made in 3 days if anyone's interested, it was mainly spent on getting the core structure down so I could expand it more modularly in the future easier.

This is of course just a prototype, made in 3 days, if anyone has any other ideas of what they'd like to see instead, I'm all ears, there is also the summer memories like I was making. I was considering making an rpg like Pokémon, to spiritually continue Love Link, but then I looked into how complex pokemons code base would be to recreate and that idea was shut down fast, plus having to make new monsters to stand in as pokemon and all, it just seemed tough.
View attachment 4176319

Sad, I was liking how the project was going but it’s completely understandable seeing how things are and all the problems that life brings.
Better cut up the project now than ruining your health and running at an impossible goal.

But back into development again?
You are choosing this path for a more safe option?
Making any video game is a gargantuan task, and a beat’em up as much as I love them could be even more draining than a normal fan game.
I suggest to retake the ideas you Scrapped before to create a more linear game with less ambitious goals.
A small summer memories inspired game or a linear dating sim beat’em up game could be the right road.
Or just take every idea from Pokemon Link and just develop a linear rpg maker game

 

[Luximora]

Sad, I was liking how the project was going but it’s completely understandable seeing how things are and all the problems that life brings.
Better cut up the project now than ruining your health and running at an impossible goal.

But back into development again?
You are choosing this path for a more safe option?
Making any video game is a gargantuan task, and a beat’em up as much as I love them could be even more draining than a normal fan game.
I suggest to retake the ideas you Scrapped before to create a more linear game with less ambitious goals.
A small summer memories inspired game or a linear dating sim beat’em up game could be the right road.
Or just take every idea from Pokemon Link and just develop a linear rpg maker game

Yeah I definitely hear you, its just a thing i've always done, developing games is something I just find kinda meditating, i think thats another reason why I think LoveLink slowly began becoming less apealing, that chill-ness I used to get from developing it just disappeared. I'm kinda going for a path that I think I'll enjoy the full way through, that I feel like I can do on my free time without stressing later or loosing enjoyment. Even the worst games ever released are miracles on the very merrit that they even come out, scope creep really is a son of a bitch, I heard a saying from a game dev, take your current scope and half it, then half it again, which sounds kinda crazy but he is right, the ideas we have in our head will always be greater than what we're actually able to put out into the world. Its kinda why I choose to not super commit to the beat em up, i think the idea has potential but it could easily spiral, though keeping it super linear with a couple of levels could reel it in, i've been looking at the summer memories project to feeling nostalgic as hell, the fact that I still find the idea so apealing even after having that project in my backlog for so long probably means its got something there with potential. I definitly want to go one of those two routes, im not fully sure which one though.

edit: y'know thinking through it, i think i may go the summer memories route, again no promises yet, nothings set in stone, but i think escilating from small scope to bigger scope each game i make is a good way to learn and develop my skills, just a thought for now though.

 

[zARRR]

Yeah I definitely hear you, its just a thing i've always done, developing games is something I just find kinda meditating, i think thats another reason why I think LoveLink slowly began becoming less apealing, that chill-ness I used to get from developing it just disappeared. I'm kinda going for a path that I think I'll enjoy the full way through, that I feel like I can do on my free time without stressing later or loosing enjoyment. Even the worst games ever released are miracles on the very merrit that they even come out, scope creep really is a son of a bitch, I heard a saying from a game dev, take your current scope and half it, then half it again, which sounds kinda crazy but he is right, the ideas we have in our head will always be greater than what we're actually able to put out into the world. Its kinda why I choose to not super commit to the beat em up, i think the idea has potential but it could easily spiral, though keeping it super linear with a couple of levels could reel it in, i've been looking at the summer memories project to feeling nostalgic as hell, the fact that I still find the idea so apealing even after having that project in my backlog for so long probably means its got something there with potential. I definitly want to go one of those two routes, im not fully sure which one though.

edit: y'know thinking through it, i think i may go the summer memories route, again no promises yet, nothings set in stone, but i think escilating from small scope to bigger scope each game i make is a good way to learn and develop my skills, just a thought for now though.

Then I guess it’s just like writing, drawing or any other form of creative method. A focusing experience on yourself and the media you are creating.
It is true that every game even the most horrible created by a game dev it’s still an Herculean feat.
Look at YIIK: development hell, relatives of the developer died along the production, multiple scrapped ideas, projects and ending; an infernal task that ended up with an unfulfilling mediocre offending videogame. We can even take masterpieces that were passion projects which took years to make like Cave story.
Every game no matter the quality has some blood spilled.
You can always return here after college or when you have much more experience in coding and a stable situation.
But if you’ll try to continue the SM inspired game best of luck, just know how to manage it

 

[LS47]

Sad to read this. But it's better than quitting game dev altogether. Have you considered making a much shorter, less ambitious variant of your fan game? It doesn't have to be Pkmn related, just a simpler rpg with less functionalities, just to test what you can actually do. As much as I encourage you for your future projects, building a 3D game is gonna be much harder than a 2D one, especially if it's on a new engine you don't master yet.

 

[Luximora]

Sad to read this. But it's better than quitting game dev altogether. Have you considered making a much shorter, less ambitious variant of your fan game? It doesn't have to be Pkmn related, just a simpler rpg with less functionalities, just to test what you can actually do. As much as I encourage you for your future projects, building a 3D game is gonna be much harder than a 2D one, especially if it's on a new engine you don't master yet.

Yeah I thought about it, I thought about making something similar using the Godot engine but I have 0 experience coding any turn-based rpg's, I do see where your coming from. I actually have alot of experience with the Godot game engine in both 3d and 2d but your not wrong at all that a 3d action game would be hard as hell, even with the solid foundation I coded, thered be a lot more work to be done, I decided to go with the more chill summer-memories like route, its something I've wanted to do for a while anyways and I do have an project already with alot of framework done I can pull from, albeit its a tad old and ill need to update the code to be more in line with my new coding experience. I feel like that's far lower scope, I could limit myself to only a couple of main LI's just like how summer memories has 3.

Then I guess it’s just like writing, drawing or any other form of creative method. A focusing experience on yourself and the media you are creating.
It is true that every game even the most horrible created by a game dev it’s still an Herculean feat.
Look at YIIK: development hell, relatives of the developer died along the production, multiple scrapped ideas, projects and ending; an infernal task that ended up with an unfulfilling mediocre offending videogame. We can even take masterpieces that were passion projects which took years to make like Cave story.
Every game no matter the quality has some blood spilled.
You can always return here after college or when you have much more experience in coding and a stable situation.
But if you’ll try to continue the SM inspired game best of luck, just know how to manage it

Yeah thats a good analogy, I think putting a lot of pressure on myself and juggling it along side coleldge and other shit that pops up in life's definitely hasn't helped, I think before I pursue my next project for sure I want to sort out my work life balance, make sure I'm working in a healthy way that doesn't burn me out or anything and is adaptable while still being efficient.