Its been a long week and i didnt get to finish my game like I intended to.  I still made a lot of progress though.  I finished off the dialogue avatars and game them some shadows.  I also made a character sprite for the captain even though he has no powers. 

I was starting to try and make the intro and ending screens.  Health prevented me from actually getting them in this week, but I have models and animations for a number of planets and planet bombs as well as the yamato ship itself. 

I was having trouble getting them into game because they had to many frames.  Im sure I can work  around this and make the game not lag but I just couldnt get it working  in time for this week.
 
Ok, so the main part of the game is completed, minus a little art replacement.  AND the latest play-tester failed to break anything YAAAAYYYY

left to do:
intro and ending animations
a few avatar replacements
fix the menu screens

Assuming nothing catastrophic happens, it should be finished on time by text week


also, the latest video lagged when recorded, game works fine to my knowledge
 
New video test for Starblazers!!!

Till a lot of glitches to fix, number displays that don't always pop up, animations that need to be added, avatars that need to be changed

BUT

Ive been adding battle animations because that was the next thing people were complaining about.  Ive also added quite a few sound effects.

 
Well, i cant get construct 2 installed at school today so i wont post any video of the game but i have finished:
  • The console sprite going all the way around the bridge
  • simple flashing lights on the consoles
  • gave Nova and Sandor consoles for crew moral and shield
  • tweeked some more of the sound effects
  • started trying to get battle effects to work (which they don't yet)

The next things i need to work on are:
  • Model fighters
  • Animate fighter attack
  • Fix battle effects and sounds
  • Draw and finish more avatars for dialogue (Venture, Sandor, Wildstar, 2 new Novas)
  • Ending animation
  • Intro page and movie
  • Fix menu art?
 
Lots more to do but its getting hard to post static images instead of video to show the progress im making, so here is a video.

Again lots of assets and art left to add but at least its starting to feel like a game instead of a grouping of menus and squares.

Below are the closeups of some of the avatars im using for the dialogue.
I hate how nova turned out, head to big and shes not tempting enough, her avatar will be changed.  Next I want to finally get the consoles in.
 

Ive started in on the art.  started modeling out the ship with 3ds max and then adding thicker lines to the rendered images in photoshop to give it a cartoony look to match my chibi art style.

Thick lineart should connect all the components stylistically

Im starting to phase out the reference image and starting to do the animations.  Now they cheer when they get troop moral or health.  All the healthbars are active now as well.  The basics of the battle system and attacks all work. Its hard to tell they are working sometimes since i dont have the art to illustrate things happening in variables.  There is still a ton of art and animation to do.

Picture
In order to expand some of the cramped features i made a descending view screen for any dialogue.  I decided to leave the menus as individual elements because there was so little info on them, it didnt look visually pleasing to have two buttons floating around the huge screen.

I also got the programming working so that the game takes turns between the enemy and the player.

At this point i THINK all the programming is done at least in the basic form.  So unless i find something broken or come up with something to add, it should be just adding lots of content: animations, background, character images for dialogue, and sounds
.

 
I also set up three HealthBars.  One for the ship's crew, one for the ship's shield, and one for the enemy's health.  All are running already and are set up to a health/shield variable on the sprite.

Next i just need to figure out how to get a really simple AI that chooses the enemy's attacks and some code that slows things down. (right now actions occur instantly one after the other)
Ok, new screenshot.  I completely revamped how i was setting up the menus  Now its based off of set visibility instead of pulling from arrays. This feels more like the long hand way of programing out menus because each character needed its own independent menu scripts but i guess its better in the long run because im not to familiar with construct yet. 

At the moment each of the four characters i have in game pop up with a menu with their battle moves and if you select one, it will close the window.  There is also a max number of characters that select will let you use and then it shuts down  (intentionally programed this to transition to the enemy's turn which ill be adding next)
 
First i have set up an array for each of the three characters so that i can change a menu to fit their own attacks if you click on them in battle
Next i need code that will implement each of these arrays  into the text box when the characters are clicked.
COntinuing work on the Starblazers RPG

ive started by trying top get the basic battle system working.  for starters ive made three characters

Venture - green
Wildstar - red
Nova - yellow

The ship they are fighting will be the blue box when i get around to getting it working.  But for now im starting with the characters.
Finally, the code to make the menu appear.  I followed a little of a tutorial, but it wasnt quite what i needed, it was for a screen that would allow you to pause and such, it wasnt meant for in game selections. 
There is something wrong with my code, i think individually it all works but that there is something about event order i dont understand.  I need to consult poeple who are more familiar with construct.  Im pretty sure im supposed to have one of my functions looping to make this work but im not sure what.
 
Construct 2 screen cap
(with place holder art from the series)
FInally decided on a theme and program for my RPG game that i intend to make
Starblazers Space battle RPG
I have chosen to use COnstruct 2. I looked at several RPG makers but all of them seem rather limited and force you to stay in set formats.  Initial programming for just the basic game play shouldnt be to hard anyways so i feel comfortable that i can make my own initial battle sequence even without things like RPG Maker
The initial battles will be based with all the crew in the control room of the yamato.  Characters will have have varying powers based on their jobs in the series.  for now all im going to try and tackle is this fighting mechanic (as seen in the construct image above)  but as i finish more i want to expand it more to the RPG aspects where you level up your party, choose which crew members to battle with, and even a world map.  But first things first.  In the long run i think construct to will give me more of the feature editing freedom i want.

Also i havent decided yet on the art style.  if i have time i might model out the bridge in 3D and render out 2D images.  For right now as place holders i am using screencaps from the show.