Recent Posts
Smile Game Builder Discord is LIVE!
The SMILE GAME BUILDER Discord server is live.
Formerly known as SGB Fenix because it was like a phoenix rising from the ashes of the old one created by Soryn, it has been renewed and rebranded.
You can visit the SGB Discord section for more information on rules, channels and commands.
SMILE GAME BUILDER Tutorial #67: Features Update – Version 1.12.2
This video goes through features updated in Version 1.12.2 (released 29 January, 2020).
Starborn: The Fallen – House Building Demo – SMILE GAME BUILDER
This is a short demo of a feature in my game Starborn: The Fallen for SMILE GAME BUILDER.
Demo Video
This video showcases the different phases for building the house. The building time is sped up for the purposes of the video.
Basic Concept
The basic idea behind the house-building is to gather materials to build a house in the same style as many other building games. It’s part of a larger, more comprehensive crafting system, where you gather materials to build houses, craft potions, upgrade weapons and armor, and so on.
Book of Stats – Starborn: The Fallen
The "Book of Stats" for my SMILE GAME BUILDER game Starborn: The Fallen is complete, now with a working Karma System. Decisions MATTER!
Each of the stats updates during the game. I’ll post more about them and the Karma System later.
Game Development will continue with a basic farming/crafting system next.
SMILE GAME BUILDER Tutorial 66: Advanced Variables (Part 2)
The SMILE GAME BUILDER tutorial, #66: Advanced Variables (Part 2), is up on YouTube.
We’re starting with basics and then working up to more advanced game development techniques using variables.
Tutorial Video
Merry Xmas/Happy 25th December 2019
There is no new SMILE GAME BUILDER tutorial until after Christmas 2019. However you celebrate it – and even if you don’t – have a happy 25th December!
Lots of changes coming in 2020, including to game development, YouTube (and Daily Motion/BitChute) and other game dev areas, more assets next year.
“Starborn: The Fallen” (SMILE GAME BUILDER Game) – Video Showcase #1
The game I’m working on for SMILE GAME BUILDER – for those who don’t already know – is entitled Starborn: The Fallen.
Its current game dev home (for now) is on Gamejolt. You can follow the project there if you want to keep up-to-date with its progress and development.
Showcase Video
Here’s a game dev showcase video for the game’s intro scene.
The video is hosted on DailyMotion, but you can also view the YouTube version if you prefer.
Game Development Notes
Game development will continue with fleshing out the story first before focusing on graphics, 3D models and animations, so will use many default models for now. Over time, I’ll add more custom assets (including models) and will showcase them in future videos.
Book of Stats Showcase (for Starborn: The Fallen)
I’ve been experimenting with a new Stats Log for SMILE GAME BUILDER. Here’s a screenshot. I’ll add more stats as time goes by.
This is the base template from which to work.
This is the in-game image (fleshed out a little), although the latest image has changed slightly.
SMILE GAME BUILDER Tutorial #65: Battles (Part 1) – Basics
This week’s SMILE GAME BUILDER tutorial, 65: Battles (Part 1) – Basics, is up on YouTube. It’s just a simple setup for future battle tutorials evolving into something more complex.
Video
Continuation of the Battles Series
While I won’t be continuing this series with back-to-back tutorials, over time this tutorial will be expanded upon, starting with basics and moving onto something more advanced.
I’ll intersperse with other tutorials to break it up as inspiration strikes.
SMILE GAME BUILDER Update 1.12
SMILE GAME BUILDER has a new update! I will do a tutorial or livestream (probably the latter) on Friday. We’ll continue game development the Tutoria maps created for the Campsite tutorials, utilising the new updates, including some tips and tricks.
New Features
- You can now create events that operate under specified conditions during battles. (Battle Events)
- You can change equipment forcibly. (Event Panel: Change Equipment)
- You can leave memos in event sheets. (Event Panel: Note)
- You can change battle damage formulas. (Weapons and Skills)
- You can specify motions when characters use their skills.
- You can call common events when characters use their skills.
- You can specify skills for item effects.
- You can call common events when characters use items.
- You can change the window image in the battles.
- You can use 8 directions for 2D animation.
- You can edit colors, bold and italic for messages and dialogues.
- You can display strings as images on the screen.
Bug Fixes
- We’ve fixed an error: sometimes it doesn’t import FBX models properly, when you use the automatic optimize importing.
- We’ve fixed an error: even if you make items of "Recover from KO" and "Recover HP", you can not use it unless a member is in the state of KO.
- We’ve fixed an error: it does not remember the last skill used during the battle.
- We’ve fixed an error: if the data size of Data-pack exceeds 1GB, an exception error of "system out of memory exception" occurs when launching the "Export Public Game File".
- We’ve fixed an error: an error occurs when pasting maps between projects with different terrain materials.
- We’ve fixed an error: some event panels are not completed when composing complex events.
- We’ve fixed an error: the images of the East and the West on the compass common event were opposite.
UPDATE: Conflux – Change of Theme and Direction
However, while writing the main plot, its overall theme changed.
I ended up adding some fantasy elements to it. I can’t help it: I just love those types of games where Old World meets Modern or ancient technologies are interwoven into fantasy realms. The clincher is that this change of theme seems somehow more appropriate.
Original Concept
I turned 50 in July, so Conflux’s original concept was born from the depressive state I found myself in. I guess it was some kind of existential crisis, wherein I started reflecting on my life, questioning the choices I made to end up where I am today.
Filled with what-if’s and if-only’s, my mind transported itself back in time to those key points in my life when I was presented with tough choices.
What would have happened if I’d taken the other path? Would things have turned out differently or would they have remained the same? These are valid questions, ones we all ask ourselves at some point in our lives, but there are no valid answers because we won’t know the answers once that decision has been made. There’s usually no backtracking.
And this became the premise for Conflux, where all choices matter!
At its core, Conflux is a philosophical view about these choices and their consequences, and why each decision we make matters in the grand scheme of things. Those choices – whether our own or others’ – determine our future decisions and shape our future, putting us on the paths we take in life. We’re often presented with two or more paths, each with their own perils and rewards, and each with a different outcome and consequences.
Choices Matter
Much of the content in Conflux – the events, incidences and influences – are based on my own life experiences. I intended it as a kind of autobiography from the start but from the perspective of addressing the what-if questions.
That means that there is no right or wrong path, no real success or failure. However, since choices matter in the game, whereas some decisions you (the player) make results in more successful outcomes but less propitious consequences, others might result in unavailing outcomes but profitable consequences. It all depends on those decisions, taking one path over the other.
The game also subtly focuses on the notion that Destiny is a fixed path, predetermined, along which you travel – and stray – but you always return at some points to its path. You either return to it on your own or certain events push you back onto it, often forcefully. You’re allowed to stray again and again, of course, but somewhere, somewhen, you’ll return to this path.
The end goal, your final destination, your death, is also a fixed point in time, except we don’t know when that is. The ultimate destination at the very end of the path is more open and malleable, shaped and formed by all the decisions you made, the consequences that arose and a combined measure of successes and failures.
Continued Development
Although development is slow, and updates are sporadic, I am still working on Conflux in the background when I have the time.
Actual game development stagnated for awhile and I couldn’t determine why until its theme changed from modern to fantasy-modern.
At the moment, I’m mostly focused on creating the models, especially now that the plot and theme are established. And with that in mind, I’ll continue working on it and try to post more regular updates on it, mostly on Twitter.
