Maps, More Maps, and Minecraft(?)

So, my computer is half-way fixed now. It will run, but audio doesn't work. Odds are I'm either going to have to tear the entire computer down and find out what's wrong (again), or I'll have to do a clean install of Windows 7. Of the two, I don't know which I'd rather NOT do.

 

Anyways, with little found on how to black out rooms until you enter them (at least with what I'm trying to do and in the engine I'm using), I've moved on to replicating the interior maps (mainly the building you wake up in) through the use of single-room maps. This is (sadly) not as quick as I was hoping it would be, but has allowed me an opportunity to make the maps better. Instead of odd-looking places with little logical sense to their layout, a building will now have some idea of uniformity amongst itself. While the original maps for this building will be used for the forthcoming demo (release TBD), I do not know if they will be accessible in the final build. I may leave it as an Easter Egg found in the developer's room, but I don't know for sure yet.

 

The original map for the basement level.

Some rooms may be locked until certain conditions

are met inside the game.

 

Passages from books can be read inside the game,

offering information, story, or random sayings to

throw off the player.

 

 

In other news, the building of the outdoor area is continuing strong. On the flip-side of the coin, however, the first large outdoor area is proving to be larger than I even originally planned on, with the original grid size of eleven maps by eleven maps showing to be a lot smaller than I originally thought. This could, of course, easily be averted through the use of small markers for large buildings, but doing so for a game such as this would be a cheat not only to myself, but to the player. Maybe in a future RPG that I've had floating around my head and hard drives for a while, I'll consider doing that.

 

Finally, I've also found a fairly decent way to test out how a map would work and look for various angles other than the simple 2D format of the game. Through the Creative Mode of the sandbox game Minecraft, I've started building the maps in 3D using the blocks in the game. This way, not only can I see a top-down view of the maps, but I can also walk through them and decide if they work. I may make the map available after the release of the game.

 

A top-down view of the map with the ceiling removed.

 

February 20 Blog Update Postponed

Due to issues in updating my computer's hardware, today's scheduled blog post has been postponed to tomorrow, provided everything works out in fixing what went wrong tomorrow morning.

Endings, Saving, and Deadlines

So it's Friday the 13^th, and nothing seems to be going right for me today, at work or at home. Nevertheless, things must still move on, and that means another update on Project Silence. For the most part, there isn't much to report here this week. There are no new pictures here to show of what I've been up to, because I've been working on the endings of the game.

 

The endings, for the most part, will be cutscenes where the only player interaction will be having to hit the “ACTION” key in order to move onto the next line of text (and even then, that may change). One difference, however, will be the one semi-playable ending. This ending starts with a cutscene that has multiple branches. Picking the wrong answer will end the game there, either right away or further along a path of nothing but dead ends. Picking the right answer will continue to move the ending along to its completion.

 

This (indirectly) leads to the next topic we will be discussing. The game will be missing a certain feature, the ability to save on your own. This has been something I had been think about long before I made the decision to make a 2D Project Silence for release. There is a reason for it, and there will be a way to save, I just won't be whenever you want.

 

Today's games will save for you, sometimes every minute or so, and it is laughable at best. Then you have the classic survival/horror games that inspired Project Silence. These games featured areas you could save, but only if you found them. Admittedly, some of them were closely spaced together. Other times, however, required you to backtrack to one central location of the map in order to save, provided you survive the trip (look at the map for Nowhere in the original Silent Hill).

 

As such, Project Silence will have single-use “checkpoints” found after major storyline areas. Want to save the game? Then make sure you select “Yes” to save. Don't care about it? Then hope you don't regret it. Depending on how you play, it could be some time before you see the save spot. This may change depending on how QA and beta-testing goes later in the year, but for the time being I would say you can consider this written in stone.

 

Speaking of “written in stone” it's also time I bring up another behind-the-scenes aspect of the game. There are many features that I would like to have in Project Silence. Some of them, such as the multiple endings that I'm currently scripting and the voice acting, are features that I will push back the release date in order to have in this game. Other things, however, are not so set in stone. The deadlines for these, however, are set in stone. One of these deadlines is quickly coming up.

 

As the picture in the second post on this blog shows, a map for a building can show multiple rooms and hallways connecting them. For some areas, that may be all and good. Other times, however, it can reveal something before it should be revealed. I was looking for a way to stop this prior to moving on to building the many indoor areas of the game (hence the work on the endings), and have yet to find one that will work. Provided one does not appear by March 1^st, the idea will be dropped and instead each room and hallway will be a different map. This will lead to more files and possibly a much larger file-size in the long run, but for the sake of the horror element, it will be needed.

Rooms and Loops

Originally, I had planned to have photos showing the actual editor, with a video showing it off. None of the areas shown or the music played would be in the game, and just be used for show now. Sadly, work got in the way. Instead, I will talk about two of the areas that will be hidden inside of the game, the Developer's Room and the Loop.

The Developer's Room is just what it sounds like, the developer's room. It's where we take that thing called the “Fourth Wall” and rip it down while listening to Pink Floyd. Inside this room, you the player can interact with two people (the “Game Designer” voiced by myself and the “Voice Actress” voiced by my sister, the aspiring voice actress Cheyenne Arseo). As the game progresses, things are added and the player can question them more and more.

 

 

Along with information about the game, there will

be things such as this, where anime and gaming

culture will be mentioned to the highest point it

can without me being sued.

Little nods to people who actually know me.

And for the record, it's because I can.

 

 

Finding all of these require finding a specific key or checking something in the environment more than just once. However, if you decide not to check, the chance is gone until you start a new game. Finding all of them, however, can also lead to a unique ending, special only for those who find all of them.

 

The Loop is also just what it sounds like. Hidden in the game are various areas behind locked doors that do not have keys. Each of the areas behind them are infinite loops. In order to escape them, you need to find out what way to go. Sometimes you need to go back the way you came. Other times you need to continue going forward. Each one is different. Much like finding all the Developer's Rooms will get you a unique ending, so will finding all of the Loops.

 

Two different examples of Loops. Each one has

a different way to get out of it.

 

 

Next week, I will (hopefully) have the video that was supposed to be here this week.