Housepets! Tails of Babylon! * Developer's Thread *

GameCobra · Post by **GameCobra** » Tue Aug 25, 2015 10:08 pm

Funny, I refer to Babylon Garden to the name of the world that Housepets is from. don't mind me =P

Post by **D-Rock** » Tue Aug 25, 2015 10:12 pm

Out of curiosity, what would they do in Heaven? I can sort of see Cerberus escorting the team to learn something, but I don't see it as a place of battle.

SuperStar · Post by **SuperStar** » Tue Aug 25, 2015 10:33 pm

On the wiki we use the term "Dimension Prime" as an unofficial name for the main world.
Heaven sounds like a place they'd go for something, but yeah, not battling. "The Feral Home" I have been planning an area like that actually. Jessica, the Raccoons, and Cory would be found there. I'm thinking you first go there when your with Fido to ask about the Feral attacks.
AND AUSTRALIA! I've actually have had thoughts about that since almost the beginning, but I never brought it up.
OH! I have an idea! What if you gain access to an area in Heaven about halfway through the game that allows you to travel Australia, River Ridge, and the Farm without needing to book a flight/ask mom and dad to drive them. You know? We could maybe also add another area for creative sakes, like a group of tropical islands that you go to while searching for Nue or something like that. You know, just to broaden our selections.

GameCobra · Post by **GameCobra** » Tue Aug 25, 2015 10:37 pm

Now that's an idea. Heaven could work like that. =P

As for Austrailia, a simple plot I can suggest is trying to find the café that everyone ordered their drinks at. It's where everyone goes for big celestial gossip, mortal drinks and paranormal chatter.

CHAOKOCartoons · Post by **CHAOKOCartoons** » Tue Aug 25, 2015 10:46 pm

GameCobra wrote:Funny, I refer to Babylon Garden to the name of the world that Housepets is from. don't mind me =P

I mean I did that as well in Thread Bound, but technically Babylon Gardens is just a place. It's pretty much a suburb, as it has all of the qualities. It is a rather large residential area within communication distance of a city, now what the city is called is still unknown to my knowledge but it technically isn't Babylon Gardens.

SuperStar wrote:River Ridge

That's the one!

D-Rock wrote:Out of curiosity, what would they do in Heaven? I can sort of see Cerberus escorting the team to learn something, but I don't see it as a place of battle.

I would imagine it'd be as you said, they are taken there to be given/give information about Nue and Olde (and possibly Barghest). They could also go to ask for assistance to stop them, which would be turned down ~~for video game convenience~~.
I can't imagine they'd get into any combat there, so maybe it could be treated as a town? Like, you can buy stuff or do side quests and such. Though here's an idea; much like the Feral Arena Sidequest idea, have a more advanced version of it in heaven with more match types and enemies. After all, it wouldn't be hard for heaven to summon any and every enemy.

SuperStar wrote:On the wiki we use the term "Dimension Prime" as an unofficial name for the main world.
Heaven sounds like a place they'd go for something, but yeah, not battling. "The Feral Home" I have been planning an area like that actually. Jessica, the Raccoons, and Cory would be found there. I'm thinking you first go there when your with Fido to ask about the Feral attacks.
AND AUSTRALIA! I've actually have had thoughts about that since almost the beginning, but I never brought it up.
OH! I have an idea! What if you gain access to an area in Heaven about halfway through the game that allows you to travel Australia, River Ridge, and the Farm without needing to book a flight/ask mom and dad to drive them. You know? We could maybe also add another area for creative sakes, like a group of tropical islands that you go to while searching for Nue or something like that. You know, just to broaden our selections.

That's what I had in mind for the Feral Home as well Super, and I like that idea for heaven

. I was thinkin we should make up an area, but I hadn't thought of any good ideas for it. Tropical Islands sounds like it could be pretty interesting and add some variety to our environments. We'll have to think of something to do in that place...

Post by **D-Rock** » Tue Aug 25, 2015 11:41 pm

Alright, I'm liking these ideas.

Maybe when they get to Heaven, they'll ask for help, only for someone to say that they can't directly interfere with another demi-god, and when asked why, they'll say that they're forbidden from doing so, which is why they resort to avatars in the games. Though with Barghest, I would think that some of the Celestials would make an exception for such a cruel being.

And a possible arena in Heaven? Sounds like the Otherworld Tournament! Think we can work that in? And I'm liking making Heaven the "warp zone."

And about Cobras' suggestion of the Celestials hanging out at that diner in Australia, honestly, I'm liking that! I imagine Kitsune and Cerberus showing up on occasion, and giving useful information about Nue or Barghest.

SuperStar · Post by **SuperStar** » Tue Aug 25, 2015 11:52 pm

Glad this is forming together so well! Though we might want to slow down a little, the others haven't said anything recently.

Amazee Dayzee · Post by **Amazee Dayzee** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 1:56 am

I also don't see them using heaven as a place to do battle because heaven is supposed to be nice. It would stink to have people having to battle in it.

Post by **D-Rock** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 2:25 am

If we do implement that, think of it as a sparring center. Just something they do for fun. People do spar for the enjoyment of it, as well as training. And I would think among warriors, it's a sign of respect when they fight.

...at least, incredibly ideally.

GameCobra · Post by **GameCobra** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 5:20 am

Why not just make the trip to heaven have monster encounters? instead of using the stairs that King was given, we have to go another, hard way.

Invisan · Post by **Invisan** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 9:22 am

I imagine them to learn something or find an Artifact in Heaven which will help them like a map with directions where they can find the upgrades for weapons or stuff.
Maybe improve there ratings like a time limited buff also through seeing there beloved ones which are there.

Edit:

CHAOKOCartoons wrote:No prob dude!
Also, finally finished the angry fan mob... mob:

This took quite a while to do, trying to find the right size was also a bit of a pickle. I just kinda drew random cats (plus out of place dog and human) and made sure I had the book tearing fan that someone had mentioned when we first came up with the idea.

How about a second picture with Less Angry Fans? So when the healthbar is at 50% or so the picture changes so we would have visibly "less" opponents to deal with. Dunno if thats possible though.

Post by **D-Rock** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 12:38 pm

Well, Cobra, what would this "alternate route" even be?

And I like the possibility of getting a special map in Heaven. Maybe it could be used to find the Shadows after the Monster is equipped.

CHAOKOCartoons · Post by **CHAOKOCartoons** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 1:08 pm

D-Rock wrote:Well, Cobra, what would this "alternate route" even be?

You have to fight the stairs. Like, actually fight them, and that equates to how tiring climbing them would be

Invisan wrote:How about a second picture with Less Angry Fans? So when the healthbar is at 50% or so the picture changes so we would have visibly "less" opponents to deal with. Dunno if thats possible though.

I believe that is possible, but it seems a bit needless effort in my opinion. I'll try it if everyone wants it, but I still don't think it matters.

GameCobra · Post by **GameCobra** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 2:06 pm

The stairs is just the VIP path. =P

The real path to heaven involves climbing Egyptian Pyramids. And alot of annoying puzzles.

On a side note: After hearing about the Heaven idea, I propose the best balance for this game is that we include three places in the game similar to Heaven that characters can travel to for rest, changing party members and travel. however, whether Heaven will be the only one with free travel depends on you guys. Cory will also be at them all. Yes, even Heaven. :3

These are my suggestions:

The first place i suggest be the Sandwich house in the main room.
Second place was going to be the Milton house, but away from Babylon Garden... maybe something Karishad digs up for the gang. or Keene pays for.
Third and final place is Heaven.

Amazee Dayzee · Post by **Amazee Dayzee** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 3:00 pm

I like the idea of the pyramids and the puzzles being the path to heaven. Just don't make them too annoying though because we don't wanna troll the players.

GameCobra · Post by **GameCobra** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 3:31 pm

Believe me, after finishing Daedalus's puzzle in The Last Dream, i can safely say...

Do not go overboard with switch memory puzzles. I'll strangle this game. @_@

Post by **D-Rock** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 3:48 pm

Honestly, not too keen on that part to get to Heaven, but I guess I could accept it IF it's a one time deal to unlock an alternate path. After solving the puzzles, you can just walk in every visit afterwards.

SuperStar · Post by **SuperStar** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 6:19 pm

I don't think we need to be change the angrymob midfight.

And as for the path to Heaven, I think anything would work more or less.

Archaic Cluster · Post by **Archaic Cluster** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 7:05 pm

Just adding my two cents to the topic - When you make any sort of puzzle that repeats itself, especially in immediate succession and not a few levels later, make the mechanics consistent. I don't know how, but the developer of a different game has somehow screwed this up.

Here's what happened: there was a room with a top-down view in which one would have to select the correct door out of four directions, as was supposed to be indicated by something in the room that wasn't how it was supposed to be. The first time, there was a chair closer to the bottom than it should have been. For the second, a suit of armor on the right was missing. For the third, the sets of armor had moved upwards.

The weird chair was at the bottom of the screen. Go down. Okay.
Instead of going to the side without the suit of armor, I had to go to the side that still had it. Go left. Kind of irritating, inconsistent.
The armors near the top indicated that you would go up, follow the abnormality ('Hey, those suits of armor aren't where they should be'). Go down. That's a broken puzzle.

It makes sense in your head, but there was no way to tell whether or not to follow to room's inconsistency or go into the door opposite of it.

That being said, I haven't gotten too deep into the thread yet - is this being developed with the RPG maker thing or is it something else entirely?

Post by **D-Rock** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 7:15 pm

Good advice, man, and welcome!

Yes, it's being developed with RPG Maker VX Ace.

Reading through the thread is a massive undertaking, but it'll help to catch up.

There is also a thread dedicated to hosting the game here. Has the current demo there, too. Leave your thoughts!

SuperStar · Post by **SuperStar** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 7:16 pm

Yeah, this is being made with the RPGMaker.
And about your explanation of a broken puzzle. That actually sounds like a good decision by the developers, you can't keep stuff easy, you have to shake it up.

CHAOKOCartoons · Post by **CHAOKOCartoons** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 7:33 pm

Archaic Cluster wrote:Just adding my two cents to the topic - When you make any sort of puzzle that repeats itself, especially in immediate succession and not a few levels later, make the mechanics consistent. I don't know how, but the developer of a different game has somehow screwed this up.

Here's what happened: there was a room with a top-down view in which one would have to select the correct door out of four directions, as was supposed to be indicated by something in the room that wasn't how it was supposed to be. The first time, there was a chair closer to the bottom than it should have been. For the second, a suit of armor on the right was missing. For the third, the sets of armor had moved upwards.

The weird chair was at the bottom of the screen. Go down. Okay.
Instead of going to the side without the suit of armor, I had to go to the side that still had it. Go left. Kind of irritating, inconsistent.
The armors near the top indicated that you would go up, follow the abnormality ('Hey, those suits of armor aren't where they should be'). Go down. That's a broken puzzle.

It makes sense in your head, but there was no way to tell whether or not to follow to room's inconsistency or go into the door opposite of it.

That being said, I haven't gotten too deep into the thread yet - is this being developed with the RPG maker thing or is it something else entirely?

Well that's just a trial-and-error puzzle. The game wasn't holding your hand at all, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. As you said, the game did give you some sort of indication that A. this is indeed a puzzle, and B. there is something off about each of the rooms. It's a hard puzzle, but not broken.
Now, if the game has never had any kind of puzzle in the game before and they just throw that at you, then that's bad. If it was made clear that puzzles are a thing in this game, then that puzzle is justified. Just because a puzzle is new, it doesn't mean it's bad. Game devs are supposed to create new and unique features to the game, otherwise you just end up doing the same puzzle over and over again, and that get's bland very quick.

Archaic Cluster · Post by **Archaic Cluster** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:07 pm

I can kind of understand what you're saying, but it was a puzzle that was supposed to have rules.

It was a puzzle game, yes, but think about this: for this puzzle, in each room, something was different from the original that led to one of the four directions. If it were actually a trial-and-error puzzle, why would there be misleading directions?

There's a difference between 'shaking it up' and 'making it unfair'. The game had quite a few other rooms after that which were just fine, three at a time, relying on audio, the riddles, then time, to point the way. There were 'move the thing out of the way' puzzles, sequence riddles, exploration puzzles, 'use this on that because we gave you a hint' puzzles, which were all fine. They were also difficult without being unfair.

My frustration stems from the fact that those first few rooms were made to look like there was a rule, which came from the first room as 'follow the thing that's not where it should be'. In the next room, it did the opposite - go to the opposite side. If you thought the rule changed to follow the suit of armor, you're still wrong. Try that in the next room and you fail - instead of following the abnormality or following the armor, you have to enter the door opposite the armor.

That's inconsistency that only serves to frustrate.

Saturn381 · Post by **Saturn381** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:08 pm

Welcome to the forums, Archaic Cluster!

Archaic Cluster · Post by **Archaic Cluster** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:13 pm

Oh, and to D-Rock and Saturn, thanks for the welcome!

CHAOKOCartoons · Post by **CHAOKOCartoons** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 8:38 pm

Ahh, I gecha now. Yeah that's pretty lame of the developers. We promise we won't make anything like that. The game will be play tested before it's released, so we'll make sure to check the puzzles more than once. Thank you for the imput!

Also, welcome. Didn't notice you were new to the forums at first.

Amazee Dayzee · Post by **Amazee Dayzee** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 10:42 pm

So then, we are all agreed: no puzzles that make people wanna strangle the game with piano wire.

Also, welcome to the forums Archaic!

Post by **D-Rock** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 10:49 pm

Dear Bahamut, that was specific!

Amazee Dayzee · Post by **Amazee Dayzee** » Wed Aug 26, 2015 10:51 pm

It was what most of us were thinking for the most part. xD

Post by **D-Rock** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 12:47 am

...aaaanyway, look what I whipped up! Cleaner logo!

CHAOKOCartoons · Post by **CHAOKOCartoons** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 1:07 am

Dang dude, that is really nice looking! Well done!

Post by **D-Rock** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 1:15 am

Thanks, man, but still can't quite get it right. Grabbed the main logo from the Banner thread, and tried to recreate the secondary title the same. Thing is, I don't know how to make it the same. What I've been resorting to is making the logo a tad bit bigger on a layer behind it, then arrange it behind the first part. But hey, at least I was finally smart enough to use a gradient to make it the same color as the main logo!

CHAOKOCartoons · Post by **CHAOKOCartoons** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 1:24 am

Well, to make it like the logo, you'd have to use photoshop. That's what Rick used to get it like that, and I've made similar text to it in photoshop before.
...
Which really makes me wonder why I haven't just done that with this logo...

Saturn381 · Post by **Saturn381** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 1:30 am

Nice job, D-Rock.

Post by **D-Rock** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 1:40 am

Thanks, Saturn.

Also, I don't have Photoshop, and not too keen on spending so much for an art program. It's why I'm so attached to what I have. Free, and lets me do significantly more than MS Paint (though from what I can tell, EVERYTHING lets you do more than Paint).

And even if I manage to get Photoshop, I'm essentially starting from square zero in terms of program efficiency. Be a bit before I get to my current level of productivity.

But a sign of greatness is knowing how to use what you have to the best of your ability, right?

CHAOKOCartoons · Post by **CHAOKOCartoons** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 1:47 am

Yes, and you've certainly used those abilities well.

Amazee Dayzee · Post by **Amazee Dayzee** » Thu Aug 27, 2015 2:40 pm

I really love how nice the logo came out! Looks really cool!

GreatKitsune · Post by **GreatKitsune** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:11 pm

CHAOKOCartoons wrote:
GameCobra wrote:Granted, I don't think we need a big overworld, but for places that are clearly long distance (Austrailia? =P), it could work.
Oh wow, I hadn't even thought about Australia being an area! Pretty foolish on my end.

By the by, I just want to make a list of all the places we've come up with for the game. Both confirmed and still on the fence (not in any particular order):

-Babylon Gardens (Town)
-The Milton Manner
-The Forest
-The Temple
-The Feral Home (Town?)
-Deeper Into The Forest
-The City (Town)
-The Mall
-The Zoo
-Theme Park World (Town?)
-The Farm???
-The Cave (from The Case of The Aztec Gold)
-Heaven???
-Australia??? (Town?)
-Nue & Olde's Realm A.K.A their room
-The Shadow Dimension

I believe that's all the areas so far, unless I am forgetting something. Personally I can't think of many more areas, feel free to call out any others if you can think of em!

The Grove, Space, and the outside of Limerick Guy's hut.

Post by **D-Rock** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:17 pm

Isn't the Grove near Pete's temple? It could be the surrounding area. Limerick guy is supposed to be somewhere near there, his hut could signal the entrance.

And about Space...

Can we please have that? That sounds epic! Maybe it could be the Celestials game room for U&U, as that is what the background looked liked when King was there.

GreatKitsune · Post by **GreatKitsune** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:24 pm

D-Rock wrote:Isn't the Grove near Pete's temple? It could be the surrounding area. Limerick guy is supposed to be somewhere near there, his hut could signal the entrance.

And about Space...

Can we please have that? That sounds epic! Maybe it could be the Celestials game room for U&U, as that is what the background looked liked when King was there.

The giant floating platform undr the cave was in space.