Welcome to Wishbone

October Update!

Work has continued on integrating the new Schedule system with the existing game systems. There was a lot more to do than expected and my completion percentage numbers were off last month–basically we have to go through almost all of the biggest systems in the game and swap out the old schedule variables for the new ones, and for some reason I failed to factor in the NPC dialog/interact system–probably the biggest system of all–in September’s completion percentage. However, at this point just about everything except the dialog/interact system has been moved over to the new Schedules code, and it feels very good to move things from my “in progress tasks” note document to my “completed tasks” note document. There’s still a lot to do but it’s already looking better than it did this time last month.

It’s been a rather hectic month IRL for a number of team members, myself included, and I lost around one fourth of my biggest work days last month due to some fun car-related trouble that I won’t get into on this blog. It’s a little hard to give firm ETAs right now, but things are plugging along, and I hope this coming month will be a little less chaotic. I look forward to the day where this back-end work is done and I can provide a more substantial update with more visual elements for you guys.

What a wild week it’s been, huh? Hoping everyone is doing alright and continuing to stay safe during these weird times. As always, thank you for sticking with us through the development process.

Posted 2 weeks ago With 13 notes

Tagged: #wishbone (game) #update #text-only update #RPG Maker #RPG Maker VX Ace

It’s that time again! It’s time for the September Update!

This month, we finished up implementing the code side of the “NPC Schedules v3" task and also finished the post-game maps. I can’t show you the most exciting bits because I don’t want to spoil it, but shown above are a few tiny, spoiler-light shots of the same areas in different game states.

Currently, the main tasks we’re working on are:

Additional minor cleanup related to Schedules v3 & the Post-game state (medium task - 80% complete)
NPC pose sprites for Schedules v3 (very big task - 60% complete)

Getting the NPC pose sprites finished (or close to finished) is going to be our major task for October. After that, I have to import them into the game and put them in the correct positions on the game maps, then do a bit of miscellaneous cleanup, then finally send a private beta out to our private beta testers.

Anyway, hope you guys are doing well! Stay safe out there, and as always, thank you for continuing to support Wishbone through its long, long development process.

Tagged: #rpg maker #rpg maker game #rpg maker vx ace #wishbone (game)

August Update!

As predicted, this is another month of lots of stuff happening behind the scenes, but not a lot I can show without spoilers and/or lengthy technical explanations involving spreadsheets and ID numbers that’ll make your eyes glaze over. Current projects include:

NPC Schedules v3 - Code side of things (94% done)
NPC Schedules v3 - Sprite side of things (50% done)
Post-game maps/functionality (90% done)
Secret fun project related to eventual public beta (??% done)

This month, I will be working on finishing up the post-game stuff, and expect the NPC Schedules v3 system to be close to complete, but not quite there. After those giant multi-month tasks are finally over, I’ll have some cleanup to do, then I’ll do a private beta to the others on the dev team, then after that I’ll spend another two months or so debugging and working on story implementation, and then… public beta.

That’s the plan, anyway. My current goal is to have the public beta out sometime this winter. Whether that goal is realistic or not remains to be seen. Ah, everything takes longer than you think it will when it comes to software… or, anything, really. :P

I look forward to the day where I can once again show you something interesting with these updates, rather than saying “I’m working really hard, just trust me on this one.”

As always, thanks for your patience with this long, long project. I do hope you enjoy the game once it’s ready!

Posted 2 months ago With 18 notes

Tagged: #rpg maker vx ace #rpg maker game #wishbone (game) #update

July Update!

Hey everyone! July has been another month that falls under the category of “hard work and good progress on giant tasks that are still incomplete and also on spoilery things I can’t reveal.”

August is likely to be more of the same… particularly because I’m going camping for a week and will be losing several weekend work days where I get the majority of Wishbone stuff done.

I wish I had more to announce–it’s making me so itchy to be so close to getting that private beta out but still not quite there–but real life job has been kicking my ass lately and the schedules revamp I’m currently in the midst of is just.. a really big and time-consuming task, no way around it. I still have the public beta in my sights, but based on how long the schedules revamp is taking it’s looking like a nice, watertight public beta is probably going to be more of a winter thing. :/

Hope you guys are all staying safe and managing to have at least a little bit of summer fun, despite everything going on right now! While you wait, you are welcome to speculate on why this dog is wearing a wig.

Posted 3 months ago With 15 notes

Tagged: #rpg maker game #RPG Maker VX Ace #wishbone (game)

getting really excited for the game!! wish you all luck (and health, especially for these trying times)!! also, is the progress log updated?

@Anonymous

Thank you Anon! I’m excited to show the game off to everyone. Just wish it was moving a little faster, haha. Even working 20+ hours a week, the current task of overhauling the NPC Schedules system is taking a really long time. It feels good to check things off the to do list every week though… even if it is a very long to do list.

The progress log is… somewhat up to date! The general plan/development stages haven’t changed, but the specific tasks I’m working on and the completion percentages have moved forward in the last few months. I went and updated it with more specific and current information about what I’m working on and what the near-future goals are. I also clarified some unclear wording in there.

Posted 4 months ago With 9 notes

Tagged: #anon #ask #not an update #Anonymous

And to wrap up this month’s update with a flourish, here’s the game’s fantastic Ennio Morricone-inspired title theme! This one was done by scriabinjots and is going to be used for a special purpose, (which is why it’s structured the way it is at the end). I wanted to wait until that special purpose was complete, but this is so cool that I can’t wait that long to share it. He did an awesome job nailing that classic spaghetti western epic feel! :D

Posted 4 months ago With 18 notes

Tagged: #rpg maker #rpg maker game #western music #ennio morricone #rpg maker vx ace #wishbone (game) #music

Make looping BGM - Part 1 (OGG Vorbis)

Also, this isn’t an update, but for anyone who wants to make a background music track with an “intro” that plays once and a main part that loops over and over again without replaying the intro, this is how you do it! It’s actually super easy (once you have your audio file of course) and takes no technical skill or music knowledge to implement in RPG Maker (again, assuming you already have an audio file from some talented composer or another!). All you gotta do is edit the metadata tags in Audacity.

Anyway, just figured I’d share this! Here I was thinking I might have to figure out how to glue two tracks together with waits and parallel processes–that would have been an absolute mess!

Posted 4 months ago With 5 notes

Tagged: #rpg maker #rpg maker resources #not an update

Another awesome track by hacj! This one is the new theme for Mayor North. (The previous theme will be reused for something else!)

Posted 4 months ago With 8 notes

Tagged: #rpg maker #rpg maker game #RPG Maker VX Ace #wishbone (game) #music

Speaking of music, here’s one of the new tracks! This one is by a composer who goes by hacj.

Posted 4 months ago With 8 notes

Tagged: #rpg maker #rpg maker game #rpg maker vx ace #wishbone (game) #totally slipped my mind to post these last month... too much has been going on #music

An update for June!

The last few months saw us finish up the plot document, finishing laying out the entire game’s NPC schedules, and finish up the last few music tracks–lots of very important stuff! This last month, I’ve been continuing to work on turning the NPC schedules from Excel spreadsheets into actual code and am currently about 65% done with what I need to complete for the next private beta. It’s taking longer than I’d hoped (isn’t that always the case!) but the amount of work we’re getting done each week is actually pretty exciting. I have my eye on that eventual public beta and am doing everything I can to get it out sometime this Fall (without burning myself out TOO much, that is).

Additionally, those three big tasks mentioned above (plot document, schedules, music) were also holding up a lot of smaller tasks and features that I had templated out months ago but couldn’t 100% complete until I had a finalized list of [plot points/switches/music tracks/etc], so I’ve been knocking some of those off my list as well. Feels good to mark something as 100% complete and completely erase it from my to do list! Feels… clean. :)

Anyway! One of the smaller features I can now finish up is the Phonograph, an expensive, high-tech piece of newfangled technology that allows you to listen to music tracks from the game. You can mess around with Phonographs when you find them in NPC houses, but if you manage to get lucky enough to acquire one of your own, you can use it to permanently set your farm’s music track to any track in the game (once you’ve heard that music track at least once, of course). Want to listen to dramatic high stakes battle music while you milk your cows? You can do it.

Anyway, hope everyone is staying safe this summer! Thank you again for sticking with us through our long development process.

Tagged: #update #wishbone (game) #rpg maker #rpg maker game #rpg maker vx ace #screenshot #I will probably alter the text formatting on that menu a little to be prettier... but I need to prioritize other things right now :P