I checked on the poll results yesterday for what kind of post you wanted to see more of. I was pretty to see the choices were pretty well spread out. It seems you guys have had enough of sprites (I agree). You want more information on the characters and the game’s settings and details. But all in all, the most popular was the in-game systems.
For every Role Playing Game, the battle system and how it plays out is one of the most important system. In this post, I’m going to explain how the battle system in the video you all saw in my last post.
The battle system used in the Beta Demo Part One (and is a promising system for PROJECT XV VIII IX) is called the “Active-Time + Sideview Battle System“. Don’t worry if you don’t understand. I will be explaining how it works below.
The parts on the picture labeled with a number (1-8) means that I will further explain its function below. I will also be explaining the following, assuming that you have already watched the video embedded in my last post.
Note: The below screenshot DOES NOT contain “battle backgrounds”. The Beta Demo Part One will not contain “battle backgrounds” either.
1. Displayed here are the names of each party member (e.g. Sal, Lyla). Each party has a maximum of four members.
2. These bars are your party members’ “Active-Time Gauge”. The Active-Time Gauge plays a vital part in the “Active Time Battle” (shortened to “ATGauge” and “ATB”").
The ATB makes up the whole mechanics of the battle in PROJECT XV VIII IX. It is a system of strategy and speed.
The ATGauge is also something that makes this battle system whole. What the gauge does is it fills up (the speed in which it fills depends on your character’s speed) and then allows you to execute a command whether it be “Attack” or “Defend” (“Guard” in the video). If you watch the video, you will see that I was unable to attack TSB while my gauge was filling up. When it was full, I was then able to select a command.
When immobilised, your character’s ATGauge will fail to fill up.
3. Your character’s health are displayed here. It will decrease as your characters are attacked and increase when they are healed. If reached zero, your character will be “Incapacitated” (or “Defeated”) and cannot more or execute commands. However, this state can be removed via and item. Should your characters are to befall this state, you will lose the game and be taken to a “Game Over” screen. You will then be taken to the Title Screen where you can “Load” a Save Data.
4. This bar hows your characters’ “Stamina”. Each skill or spell requires Stamina to execute. If you watched the video, you would have noticed my Stamina going down as I used a spell.
Enemies have Stamina as well, but this is not shown.
5. This here is your second party member. A third and fourth are not present but they will be aligned below your second character.
6. Your playable character is shown here (the character you controlled before the battle).
7. This is enemy number 2 (battles may consist of more or less than this).
8. Below enemy 2 is its ATGauge. Your characters are not the only ones that have Active-Time Gauges. This works exactly the same as the ATGauges your characters will have.
Continued…
Well, the first YouTube video is up online. Making this account was extremely tedious. Since when was Cellphone confirmation required?
www.youtube.com/user/DivumStudios
I decided to make this video of the battle system used in the current Beta Demo (Chapter 1). It’s called the “Sideview Battler”.
Check it out!
Those of you who are wondering what I am up to, I can honestly tell you that Chapter 2 of the Beta Demo has no progress, whatsoever. However, I am working on a fixed version of the battle system. I am planning on fixing up the battle HUD. 
Oh, what the hay, I’ll just post the video here:
But, please check out the channel too! 
Edit: Ah, so people do hate durians. Like my folks -.-
Anyway, as I promised, XV VIII IX is going to come onto YouTube and I will be uploading some videos of gameplay.
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Hiya! This post will be in similar style to the posts I made way back when… 
Speaking of which, my old blog turned 1 a couple of days before I posted this. 
I hope you all had a great Christmas? This post is going to be pretty short and irrelevant to XV VIII IX.
Recently (sometime during my Christmas break), a mate of mine decided to “Tag” me. This was about 2 weeks ago (sorry Justin xD) So, in order to fulfill the “Tag” rules, I must say 5 random facts about myself.
1. I am a big fan of red plums (red ones, specifically) and durians. If you haven’t heard, tasted or seen a durian, check out it’s Wikipedia entry. I must admit, I was very happy when I found out my Coles began supplying them. ^^;
2. Despite the fact that I am working on a game, I don’t have or played many games. This is due to the fact that I get bored easily (therefore purchases are a waste of money to me) and only few games appeal to me. I have only have two games for my PS3, both I got cheap at a sale from EB Games. I haven’t played either for very long.
3. As lame as it may sound, my favourite colour is purple. Nothing else to say about this fact…
4. For Christmas I got the promotional New Super Mario Bros. DS plushie and I love it to bits. lol, haha.
5. Despite having my current phone for about three quarters of the year now, I still don’t know it very well yet. :S It amazes me to find all these new functions everyday. lol
Now that I’m done with the facts, I think I need to “Tag” 5 other people! I am tagging the following people:
-MelonMangos
- Zipo
- TA.RF
- Josh
-Emily
For those of you who don’t have a blog/site and visit my blog, just shoot me a comment with your facts or something. ^^;
Phew, this brings back memories, doesn’t it? Those of you like Josh should know.
BYE!!!
Today was a very good day for me (mostly).
I’ve finished school for the year, so I’m literally a hermit now. All the better to jump over to the storyboards, huh?
Before that though, I’d just like to announce that the first face sketch of TSB came into my mailbox today. Some minor changes were needed, but I was extremely happy with it. For those who are planning on getting onto my PhotoBucket Gallery and posting up pre-graphics, let me just tell you that I’ve changed accounts. Even if you find that one, all unreleased screenshots are still kept secret.
A very well-written and truthful review of the blog, by Emily (Ekaya*; www.ekaya.wordpress.com) was published today. I very much enjoyed reading it, and I can tell it makes me proud. For some (very weird) reason, thinking of the review just gave me this new-found joy in all this. It suddenly reminded me of why I made this game: to ease my boredom, and most importantly, to make something that will ease other people’s boredom. It reminded me of all those times I stretched out my budget and then regretted it. Every time this happened, I would think: This is non-profitable. Why should I bother? This review just, for some extremely funny reason, made me forget all that – Er-hem… That was truly a funny moment. xD; Might’ve just lost myself there.
So I revisited the Project XV VIII IX documents and began typing (typity-type). The storyboard is the key in making anything. This, however, may take months. Remember Project XV VIII IX is in early stages of development.
While I was typing away, I realised something – Christmas is coming! haha; Christmas isn’t my thing, but I decided, anyway, to add in a little Christmas level for the upcoming Beta Demo. Why not? It’s my project. I can do whatever I want, can’t I? Even if I have to delay the release.
Now, with my new-found passion, I quickly jumped over to the Beta Demo files and began thinking up of ideas – Who are involved in this level? Is there really a Santa in Alavis? Where will this Christmas house be located? Will TSB ever come across this place?
I know that in-game screenshots are extremely seldom on this blog. So here’s one that those PhotoBucket Gallery Viewers have never seen before!
Now, you may have noticed that there are some new pages to the blog. These pages include:
Beta Demo (1) - Has all the information about the upcoming Beta Demo release.
Beta Testing - Has the requirements on how to become a Beta Tester.
Character 5 – Not much information about him, but check out his profile anyway!
I also have a new poll in the Polls page – check it out! (I’m aware it looks a little funky)
That’s really all on the big update.
See you!
Phi, supporter of the BOOTY Awards.
First off, I would like to apologise to Zipo for what I said and if it had offended him.
Look mate, my comment may have insulted you but I didn’t to. All I was saying was that you tend to use the 
(:lol:) emote. I never said that you were too “smiley”. All I did was compliment on the fact that you use that emote.
Look, once again, I’m really sorry if I had insulted you or something.
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Anyway. I have now completed the Beta Demo. I’m just making sure that it all works together (a pre-beta test). But again, I can’t get all the glitches without the help of beta testers. There are also some other things that I am working on such as the game Icon.
I’m going to make a sign-up page soon, so you can sign up there. (:
The beta is scheduled to be released in 2 weeks. But this factor may change.
Oh, Josh, I’ll be sending you the demo a week before the beta release.
So we’ve all started talking about an upcoming demo of Project XV VIII IX and how I will be implementing (most) features already discussed.
In this post, I plan to further explain what the demo is, what its purpose is and the people who can play it.
The demo
The beta demo will be published under the name “Project XV VIII IX: Demo” followed by a version number as no official name has been released. This demo is designed to show people what can be expected when Project XV VIII IX is fully completed. For people to experience the many features like stamp collecting, battles against monsters, and what the world of Alavis will be like. The following features will be included in this demo.
- Quests (10). These can be started by talking to townspeople.
- Stamp Collecting (5 to collect). These are scattered around the beta maps.
- Full battle experience against random enemies that get stronger the more you progress through the demo.
- Boss battles. Stronger enemies that you may have to fight in order to complete a quest/dungeon.
- Skills (5 to learn for each character).
- Recruiting allies (3) – this makes up the main beta demo party.
- Maps (undecided). Places you can travel to. These maps may not appear in the actual game.
Though this demo has near complete features, it, however, does not have any appearing characters in Project XV VIII IX (may be subject to change). So for those of you who are thinking that you can play TSB and his comrades, I am sorry for disappointing you. It also does not contain any bits and pieces of storyline.
Glitches
This is only a demo and some things may be faulty. I want to know that, by the time the game is released, it works perfectly. I want to know that everything works in harmony together. I can’t do this alone (seeing as I am working solo – development-wise) though. This is why I am looking for some people to play the demo and report any glitches so then I can run and fix them up.
Beta Testers
An email will be sent to all the people who signed up (and reserved a place) for beta testing when beta testing commences. This email will contain three attachments (or links to the download):
- A compressed folder (which will require WinRAR or a similar program to extract) containing the demo. Compulsory download.
- Instructions for the game (.PDF format). Not required, but recommended.
- A walkthrough guide that pretty much walks you through the demo, giving you hints and details on enemies (.PDF format). Not required, but recommended.
I will only be accepting a little number of beta testers (number not decided, but I am thinking about four or five) so (if you wanted to ) apply as soon as I start accepting applicants to avoid disappointment.
Beta Demo Release Information
The beta demo is currently not released at this moment. I am still trying to find out compatibilities and things of that sort.
The demo will be released in two sets: One for the beta testers who signed up (they will have access to the demo as soon as I send it out). When all beta testers have confirmed all glitches and I fix them up, I will then consider a public demo release. This, however, may take months.
After long thought, I decided that the beta demo should be sent to a few people (before beta testing commences) so they can try it out. These people include the people who are working on reviews and posts of Project XV VIII IX. (:
As you can see, the blog has changed greatly. It is now lighter and blue (originally dark and grey). Very nice. ^^;
Theme has also changed. Sorry for copying you, Josh (who, I believe, copied Emily[?]). I’ve been trying desperately to fix up the site’s CSS for the old theme, but that was impossible. Just changed to a simple, user-friendly, Vigilance (which does not require the Custom CSS upgrade).
Anyway, we have a new beautiful header. This was one of the reasons that powered my colour change over to blue. This whole time, the blog was under the name “Divum Development”, wasn’t it? Divum, in Latin, means sky so I thought the whole header and theme along with it, should change to a more divum-friendly style. I really hope you guys like it.
Now most importantly, the project name has officially been changed from “Project 15809″ to “Project XV VIII IX” (Project 15 8 9). A much better name. ^^;
Together with my two artists (Hanzo & Lora), I truly believe that this will be a successful project.
I’m on fire with these screenshots! haha
Anyway, without further adieu, here are the next set of screenshots.
See? *NPCs do come in different sizes and shapes.
None of these guys are main characters though.
Here is another sprite + face package for you guys. ^^;
* In reference to the last sprite
Update: I have updated The Spikey Blonde page.
I come again, bearing more screenshots! This time I’m going to show you what monsters will look like plus eight more characters!
More People! (One of the people below is actually a main character)
Monsters!
As you can see, monsters come in different size and shapes. The farmer isn’t a monster by the way. xD
