14 replies to this topic

[Russ]

Huh, it's been a while since the last update, hasn't it? Rest assured, I've been hard at work on this quest. Recently, I've been trying to get all the cutscenes scripted. Which is... quite a bit of work. I've opted to script all of the cutscenes, which has several advantages over the old method. The scenes are much more fluid, much less prone to breaking, and display names along with textboxes, giving them an overall more professional look.



Of course, an image really doesn't represent a moving cutscene very well, so how about a video. First, here's what the scene looked like before, courtesy of Dan's LP of the game. And now for the new version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5gbZDUWPOQ&feature=youtu.be

I'd like to think it's quite an improvement. So, what's left to do now? Not a whole lot, actually.

• Cloudtop Sanctum + Boss.
• Sky Tower + Boss.
• A few more cutscenes related to the aforementioned areas.
• Final Boss (including something to replace the Draconian Sanctum).
• Endings.
• Bufixes, misc tweaking, and the like.

I'm hoping to have this out by the end of summer. That might be a bit unreasonable, given how busy I am this summer, but I'd like to hope. Now, before I leave you, I wanna share one last screenshot, since cutscene's aren't always the most interesting thing in the world. I'm sure you all remember how crappy the Ice Caverns boss was. Well...

[Demonlink]

WHEN ARE YOU RELEASING A DEMO OR QUEST???

Overall, I actually like the more professional look you're going for now. It looks way better than 1.0 and 2.0! (By the way, what was in that house in the first shot??? I never knew in version 2.0  )

 

Looking forward to your quest man, great overall job and take your time, no pressures! (yet)

Edited by Demonlink, 05 July 2014 - 01:42 PM.

[Joaish (RedTribeLink)]

Awesome!  I love the improvements on the cutscene, especially the changes to the dialogue and text boxes.  Also, I think it's cool that the Dracus fight looks like it's going to foreshadow the Darkness Within.

 

I enjoyed the DX version, so I can't wait to see what 3.0 will have in store.  Good luck on the quest.

[Eddy]

Damn, that looks nice! Scripted cutscenes is always a nice bonus (I can imagine how much of a pain it could be), but I'm really looking forward to playing this!

[Russ]

WHEN ARE YOU RELEASING A DEMO OR QUEST???

A demo won't be coming, since it's such a short quest (only three main dungeons and a few mini-dungeons). Quest will hopefully be out by the end of the summer.

Overall, I actually like the more professional look you're going for now. It looks way better than 1.0 and 2.0! (By the way, what was in that house in the first shot??? I never knew in version 2.0 )

So actually, nothing. I tried to imply that that was where Rose lived, and being the idiot I am, I thought putting a rock in front of the house would tell the player they're not meant to go inside. Instead, everybody thought it was some secret that they couldn't solve. So rock's gone now, and while you can walk into the house, well... it's small. As in it doesn't even get its own screen small.
 

Awesome!  I love the improvements on the cutscene, especially the changes to the dialogue and text boxes.  Also, I think it's cool that the Dracus fight looks like it's going to foreshadow the Darkness Within.

Thanks! With The Darkness Within, my original goal was actually to make every attack he had from LotH DX appear in some form. That didn't exactly happen, but now that I'm doing this, I'm gonna make sure every ability he has in TDW appears as an attack in this quest.
 

Damn, that looks nice! Scripted cutscenes is always a nice bonus (I can imagine how much of a pain it could be), but I'm really looking forward to playing this!

It is quite a pain. That one video I linked especially, actually. Not sure if this means anything to a non-scripter, but basically I had store entire screens in an array, delete them, then redraw them at the end of the cutscene. Stupid, but it works.

[Aevin]

Wow! That cutscene looks gorgeous! Your work is really paying off. A little jealous ...

 

I played the Darkness Within, but never got the first half of the story. It was enjoyable on its own, but it looks like this will be a great reason to go back and get the complete story.  Looking forward to it.

[Obderhode]

Looks incredible! I'm certainly looking forward to this quest.

[kurt91]

With this new method, how difficult is it to just change text? I noticed a typo (0:33 - "but I don't know where the other." Needs the word "is" at the end.), and I figured that having a big complicated method worked out just for cutscenes would be a bit odd with text errors in it. If it's still easy enough to change it and fix typos like that, then this is pretty awesome. If it's hard to just change text, then while it's still awesome, I definitely don't envy you for the amount of work you have to put into it.

[Russ]

With this new method, how difficult is it to just change text? I noticed a typo (0:33 - "but I don't know where the other." Needs the word "is" at the end.), and I figured that having a big complicated method worked out just for cutscenes would be a bit odd with text errors in it. If it's still easy enough to change it and fix typos like that, then this is pretty awesome. If it's hard to just change text, then while it's still awesome, I definitely don't envy you for the amount of work you have to put into it.

Very easy, actually. The text is all strings, made in the string editor, with a custom function displaying then along with the correct name. Fixing typos is easy. Thanks for pointing that out!

[Moosh]

 

Russ...Are you creating continuity errors for the sake of a cool boss fight? Last I checked Dracus got that item in TDW, not here.

[Russ]

Continuity errors? Of course not! There's logic behind it in my head. Twisted, confusing logic, but logic nonetheless.

[Shane]

Wow, I can't believe I missed this!

At first, I was a little skeptical about a third version, but I'm really looking forward to this; it certainly looks like it's well worth its making.

[Russ]

At first, I was a little skeptical about a third version, but I'm really looking forward to this; it certainly looks like it's well worth its making.

Glad to hear! I know, third version seems offputting, but given that the first was my first ever quest, and for a two week contest no less, and DX was done immediately after that... yeah, LotH DX is practically my first real quest, with the original just being a rough draft, so think of this more as a remake, rather than a re-remake.

[Soma C.]

I'm sure others have said this before, but I must have it cast in stone: the Ralph sprite from OoA is an amazing fit for a villain, he always looked like one to me, back when I first played OoA.  This new cutscene looks great, that simple lift to the sunset is the perfect touch to accent Rose's dialogue there....really nice!  I was very impressed with the original LotH, but if you feel that it has to be polished even more, all the better

Edited by Soma Cruz, 09 September 2014 - 06:52 PM.

[Russ]

Thank you! Believe it or not, I hadn't originally planned on using Ralph's sprites for Dracus (way back when, like... 4 years ago during the two week contest that spawned LotH). I was originally planning on him kind of resembling Lance from the Pokemon series. But when it became clear I could sprite, I just had to make do with what I had. So I edited the Ralph sprites and here we are. It actually ended up working very well, I think. Thanks for the kind words, and I hope you enjoy the quest when it's released (which sadly isn't going to be at the end of summer, because real life hit me like a train).