Hiatus Soon Ending

Penumbra Crystallis' hiatus will soon be ending as my passion/side project, Triple Triad: Tournament of the Elements, is about to be completed and released in the next few days.

While this blog is primarily for Penumbra Crystallis (with the odd mention of Final Fantasy here and there), I feel like sharing this here as well for the exposure.

With just a few days left until this bad boy is completed (in less than a month!), I decided to do one of those fancy "release trailers" that are all the craze these days. While my trailer making abilities aren't fantastic, this is better than nothing!

Triple Triad: Tournament of the Elements will be released in the evening of September 6th unless something unforeseen happens with me offline. The agenda of things left to finish is as follows:

• Final card match against the host of the tournaments, Dionysos the God of Revelry
• Addition of a few additional side quests
• Addition of about 25-35 more cards (they are in the database, just not yet accessible to players)
• Completion of the Market Exchange map (the only map not yet in the game)
• Completion of the Recycling Depot, just need to event about 20 or recyclers
• Cleaning up of various little aspects of the game and additional polish

Honestly, the fact that I started this on August 9th and am going to finish it in less than a month is pretty wild. I thought that it was just going to be a two week project at first, but the scope of the game grew after a few days and I realized I'd need a little bit more time to work on it.

Anyway, looking forward to finishing this and releasing it into the wild in a few days! See you then!

Once this monster is out on Monday, expect updates to start coming in for Penumbra Crystallis again starting with blurbs on how the newest party member, Kassandra, will play. Her entire background and role in the game had been completely altered just prior to the game being put on hiatus, so I'll be excited to share some of those details with you guy's soon as well. Here's a hint though... she's related to someone we all know very well!

Short 2-3 Week Hiatus

 Penumbra Crystallis is going on a very brief hiatus. Don't worry, I'll be pumping out new blog posts well before the midway point of September!

Why is it going on hiatus? Not for any troubling reasons! I just want to devote time to working on a side project of mine that I started last week. This side project is Triple Triad: Tournament of the Elements. You can follow its progress on my Discord server (link to the right) or on its own separate dev blog: https://tripletriadgame.blogspot.com/

In the meantime, here are a few screenshots.

Watch for more Penumbra Crystallis updates in 2-3 weeks when I finish up work on this side project!

Design Consultant/Correspondent

 Hey folks,

I'm interested in having someone around privy to all of the secret goings-on of Penumbra Crystallis who would be willing to advise, pitch ideas, and bounce aspects of game design off of. This would be a person who would ideally be:

1. Good at coming up with environmental challenges and puzzle ideas.

2. Interested in giving feedback on intended dungeon designs, story beats, and so forth.

3. Offering ideas to improve general areas of the game, or pitch ideas for new areas, features, etc.

4. Providing miscellaneous technical advice.

These points are not necessarily everything I'm looking for, and it's totally fine if you don't fit one or two of them. I'm also interested in knowing what you might be able to bring to the table. Ideally, all you REALLY need is to have a love for RPGs and a willingness to help!

Note: I'm not looking for someone to help co-create the game my working directly on it. This would be more of a consultancy role. You'd be someone for me to bounce all of my ideas and plans off of while also offering ideas of your own to assist me in making Penumbra Crystallis even better. I am also willing to take on multiple people for this role, all of whom would be able to view and speak in the game's private #development and #testing-lounge channels on Discord.

You can reach out to me if you're interested on my Retroist RPG Makers Discord server, which is also primary location where I discuss Penumbra Crystallis and share updates with folks on the server.

Retroist RPG Makers Discord Server: https://discord.gg/BAA9NUw9

You can ping me in any public channel to get my attention or send me a direct message at UPRC#1985.

Penumbra Crystallis Demo Edition Now Available

 The demo for Penumbra Crystallis now up and available on RMN! The official Penumbra Crystallis demo. This will be the only demo release, and only playable public download, until the game is completed. Let me know what you think here or on Discord!

Download Here: https://rpgmaker.net/games/78/downloads/

Demo Release Date

 The Penumbra Crystallis demo is tentatively slated to be uploaded on June 10. It may be a few days later than that depending on how testing goes. If I can't put the demo out there then, expect it before Sunday, June 13th.

And just to keep this from being a few lines, here's my current progress on a new tileset!

Meet the Cast of Characters

Here we go! I decided to do a write-up for this game's cast of characters so that they can be out there in the open. If you'd rather discover them as you play and don't wish to read this post, that's cool too!

Note: Eight of the nine main characters are revealed below! The ninth is someone I want to keep a lid on for now. There is also a high chance that there will be a tenth optional/secret character implemented later on down the road.

And with that out of the way...

Going Commercial!

 Penumbra Crystallis was conceived with the idea that it would be a commercial game. I knew that I'd be making all character sprites, battle backgrounds, tiles, and battle animations myself. I was able to get my hands on music and sound effects that could be used in commercial projects, but there was one problem holding me back... monsters.

Until now.

Penumbra Crystallis now features monsters that are being commissioned exclusively for the project by the talented level2janitor! With his awesome monster graphics entering the game's database, Penumbra Crystallis has now transitioned to commercial project. This will probably affect the rate at which I work on the game (meaning I'll work on it more often), and since I already have a complete blueprint for the game in the form of Blackmoon Prophecy, I would like to have this game published on itch.io and/or Steam in 2023. I'll also have a demo available in the coming weeks so that people will know what they're getting into with this game. 

Wanted: Battle Animation Artist(s)

 I didn't think that I would need to do this, but I'm putting this request out there.

I've been handling all graphics (minus portraits and monsters) completely on my own so far, and while I've had no issues doing sprites and tiles (I've actually been enjoying it!), battle animations are proving to be a little trickier. Designing nice looking spell and weapon effects is definitely not my area of expertise and I'm issuing a call for anyone who would like to help to lend a hand if willing! Let me clear about what this request entails as well, just to clear up possible confusion:

What I do not want: Someone who is willing to edit rips or offer franken creations (assets made from cutting and pasting parts from various pieces together). I am also not looking for recolours. Penumbra Crystallis features entirely original graphics, no rips. I appreciate any desire to help, I really do, but these are not things that I need nor will they make it into the game.

What I do want: Someone who is able to create, from scratch, assets that are reminiscent of early SNES RPGs. Think Dragon Quest V, Final Fantasy IV, Paladins Quest, etc. Another example of the quality I'd aim for is Shining Force on the Genesis. Again, only talking about battle animations. No monsters, character sprites, etc. Just the bare animation graphics.

If this is something that you're interested in, hit me up by commenting here or contacting me on my Discord server (link is in the sidebar).

RMN Game Page Description Update

After looking at the Penumbra Crystallis game page on RMN, I came to the conclusion that the description I wrote didn't really say much more than "this is Blackmoon Prophecy but different!", so I decided to rewrite the whole thing! To save readers a trip to RMN, I'm pasting it directly below. This is also worth sharing here because it does contain information that I haven't written anywhere else as of yet.

Check out the new RMN game page description after the break.

What is Penumbra Crystallis? What will be the same and what's new.

Penumbra Crystallis is my new project in RPG Maker MV, and it is a remake and reimagining of Blackmoon Prophecy. All graphics and music are now custom/original, and sound effects are from royalty free sources. There will be no RTP or rips present anywhere in Penumbra Crystallis.

"But UPRC, why don't you do something different? Why Blackmoon Prophecy again?"

That is what someone asked me on an RPG Maker Discord server, though not verbatim and much less sarcastic than the original wording. The simple answer is that this is not Blackmoon Prophecy. This is Penumbra Crystallis. The two are going to be very different things, and this is where the reimagining part comes in. If I intended on just straight-up remaking Blackmoon Prophecy as an original game and keeping the game entirely as it was (sans Final Fantasy references and rips), then what would be the point? No, this is something more than that. Not only are all Final Fantasy elements removed, but the game will also unfold in new ways and the actual gameplay and mechanics will not be identical at all.

"What is the same?"

Vahn will be out to save national treasures from the being known as Malacore. Vahn will be accompanied by friends such as Hans, Vera, and Nobumasa, and they will adventuring across the globe on their grand quest.

"What is different?"

Almost everything else. Again, this is a retelling of the events of Blackmoon Prophecy as a fully original story. Characters and places will remain intact, but a lot of events will unfold very differently. This is evident right from the beginning when the player chooses to start a new game because they will start in the town of Valla rather than in Branch Castle. In Blackmoon Prophecy, you couldn't venture to Valla for 15-20 hours and getting there required the airship, so things are clearly different now!

"What about the gameplay?"

Since this is a project that is now influenced by Final Fantasy rather than directly based on it, expect the gameplay to still feel familiar. From random battles and save points to three tiers of elemental magic and a suspiciously large type of animal for you to ride around on, lots of things will still ooze Final Fantasy while not being Final Fantasy. I want Penumbra Crystallis to be a love letter for fans of the old Final Fantasy games, but I suspect that those who appreciate the NES/SNES Dragon Quest games will also find lots to enjoy here.

There are two changes with the gameplay that I'll briefly mention that I think are very positive changes.

1. There will be much more balance and parity between party members. Blackmoon Prophecy was an unbalanced mess, and I attribute this to the fact that I did work on a huge chunk of the game back before I found my groove in RPG Maker. I was not experienced and was prone to making countless mistakes with balance and game design. All playable characters are going to feel useful and interesting immediately, and they will come with more dynamic abilities that do more than just "hurt/heal for X HP" like in the original.

2. The equip screen. Equipment is divided up like this:
Weapon
Shield
Head
Body
Legs
Ring
Trinket
Codex
Codex

Now, the major changes here are the last, well, four things on that list. Armor is being split up between body and legs so that characters can feel more diverse and appropriately geared, and I expect the overall armor gains to more or less match what the game would be like if I just had body armor.

Rings and trinkets will be where you get the majority of your extra stat increases, resistances, and cool bonus traits. Rings will be where you mostly get your elemental resistances and such while trinkets will more or less be Final Fantasy relics in everything but name.

Each character will have two codex slots. Over the course of the adventure, players will be able to purchase common codices from shops and well as find rare ones in dungeons and other such locations. Equipping a character with a codex will likely grant them a cool bonus of some sort that you won't normally get on other pieces of gear such as increasing evasion, critical rate, hit rate, and so forth. Some codices will also grant special battle abilities to certain characters, so make sure you equip them to the right characters!

That's mostly it, so I'll finish with screenshots.