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The default RPG Maker VX resolution is 544 * 416. It’s a strange size and I have no idea why they went with this size. If you’ve played Dawn’s Light in full screen you’ll notice the black border around the outside. You do get used to it after a while but I always wished we could change it.

So why didn’t you?

Changing it part way through development would have been crazy. It’s something you need to know before you do anything on the game.

For Project Viper we knew we were going to use 640 * 480. That’s the resolution that XP games like Aveyond use. It fills the whole screen and it also gives us more room to do cool things.

Change it now then

Changing to 640 isn’t a simple task. It breaks everything. The menus, the battle system, the text box and more. All of those things are set up for the smaller resolution so when you change to 640 you need to change all of those.

You can of course just stretch out the existing menus but then you’re not taking advantage of the extra space.

That’s sad

So I remade the text system, menu system and I’m working on the battle system. I’m taking a little extra time now to make them really good because we’ll probably use the same ones for future games (with new skins and features of course).

The text system huh?

Stretching out the text box would have taken me about 10 minutes or even less if I used an existing script. Instead I decided to start from scratch so that the text could glow…

Text system, later.

Here’s a quick preview of the new menus for Project Viper.

First up is the escape menu. There’s a couple of ways to bypass this, either with the keyboard or mouse but it’s a good place to start.

You can get back to this menu at any time by clicking the home button at the top left. You could also click the ‘x’ button at the top right to close the menu. Click the image to see the full size version.

This is the active quest list. I had to blur out my placeholder text because it’s really bad and the scrollbar grabber still needs a graphic to replace the blue circle.

At the top you’ll see the path that you’ve taken to get to this menu. It’s a good way to see where you are but you can also click any of the buttons to go back to that menu. So in this screen clicking on ‘journal’ will take you back to the main journal page.

I’m looking forward to seeing how useful this is in the final game. I may end up never using it or I may use it a lot.

This is what I’m calling a popper. A popper is a smaller menu that will appear in the middle of the screen. This one is for choosing an item to use or give to somebody. Don’t worry, there won’t be that much scrolling involved. The only things that will be in this list are items that you can use or give away.

And finally, here is the new quest popper. The quest name is just a placeholder right now. Dawn’s Light had a small box pop up each time you got a quest but I wanted to do more with quests this time. You can see the quest name, the task name and the rewards.

Each quest is made up of 1 or more tasks. After you complete a full quest (all tasks) you’ll get a reward. Each dungeon will be a single quest made up of several tasks. The plan is to make it a bigger deal when you complete a quest. The rewards will help with that as well.

I’m keeping the rewards a mystery until you get them to make it more exciting. Sometimes you get some money, sometimes some bonus xp and if you’re really lucky, you’ll get a mystery item. The mystery item will always be something good, not just a potion.

Menu preview end. So what do you think?

I’m hard at work on the new menu system for Project Viper. The Dawn’s Light menus are mostly just the default rpg  maker menus. For Project Viper, I’ve started from scratch. That means I can make every menu exactly how I want it to be. It also means that if players don’t like it then I can’t blame RPG maker for it.

Here’s some of my favorite parts of the new menus:

The new design

RPG maker menus are based on Window Skins which are small graphic files like this:

When a menu is created, the window skin is automatically made to fit the size. It’s a good system but it makes for some pretty boring menus.

The menus for Project Viper don’t use any skin, instead I’ve designed them in photoshop and exported the separate parts of the menus. The text is much nicer as well.

You can use the mouse

I made the menu system knowing that the game would include mouse control so I’ve added some features to make things a little easier. You can close the menu from anywhere. If you’re somewhere deep in the menus, perhaps menu->journal->quests->quest-detail you can still close the menu with just one click.

Menus that don’t fit on one screen have scroll bars. These are good for mouse users but they double as an indicator for keyboard users so they can see where they are in a list.

The new journal menu

I really like journal menus in games. I like to see what I’ve done and what I still have left to do. I’m not alone either, lot’s of Dawn’s Light players like journals as well. The Dawn’s Light journal was a good start but it was lacking in a few areas.

Quests will now have more details so you won’t have to guess what it means. Quests now have multiple tasks to complete so something like ‘get me some coffee’ isn’t equal to ‘kill the evil boss’. You can also look at all of the quests you’ve already completed and remember how cool you are.

I’m including more stats this time. As well as the progress stats like ‘quests completed’ and ‘items found’ I’m including stats that are just for fun. Such as how many enemies you’ve fought in total or how many times you’ve reset puzzles.

Enough about menus already!

The menu system may not be a selling point on its own but it definitely adds to the experience of the game. Plus it was fun to make. I’ll have some screens and a video preview ready in a few days.

Project Viper is coming along nicely. All of the new systems (text,menus,battle,mouse) are starting to take shape. The dungeons are almost done and the story and quests are pretty much done. There is one thing we really to do … think of a name!

I always find it hard to name my projects. Dawn’s Light was named only a week or so before we start beta testing. The website was completely finished before we had the ‘John Wizard’ name. I was ready to upload it but I needed to create the new domain on the server before I could.

I never understood how people can name their projects so early in development. I always see: “We’ve just started a new game and it’s called … “.

Names always sound so weird when you first hear them. ‘John Wizard’ sounded so weird as the name of a website but now I love the name. It definitely different.

Don’t even get me start on naming characters. Harvey had about 26 different names while we were making Dawn’s Light. Most of the other characters didn’t get their names until the end.

I can force myself to do most of the tough jobs but naming is the thing on which I procrastinate the most.

We’ve finished our new game … and it’s free!

Way back in July when we were still working on Dawn’s Light I had the idea of doing themed games. We first wanted to do a Halloween game but Dawn’s Light took a bit longer than expected. The next option was of course Christmas. So we’ve been working on this whenever we needed a break from Project Viper in the last couple of months.

With the Christmas season lasting only a few weeks, we couldn’t really justify doing a full game based on Christmas. Instead we decided to make a Christmas mini game. Being a mini game meant that we could try a few new things that we couldn’t on Dawn’s Light.

We hope you enjoy the game and stay tuned for more news on … Project Viper!

So as you may have guessed from the teaser, we have a new game that’s almost ready for release. It’s not Project Viper but instead another game set in the Dawn’s Light universe. Instead of trying to explain what the game is about I’m going to quote one of our beta testers:

“I have saved one elf in the cave, found the scythe, caught 3 squirrels, matched the couples in date game, and matched the pets with owners.

I need a hammer, which I think is in the chest just outside of the town, and I can’t open it yet. I have two stone balls that can pave me the way the door.

One is set loose by solving the legs puzzle, but I can’t past the lady who was hosting the date game. The other ball is stuck by rocks, which I need a hammer for.

There’s a fire I should get rid of, but don’t have the tool.

I will continue later, but just wanted to make sure if this is going as planned.”

It should be out next week.