Thirdkoopa

**Since this is only on the Tumblr page, I highly suggest checking out my crosspost with this link: https://lucascomposerblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/02/hymn-of-the-hallux-announcement-post/ for better formatting. In the future I’m hoping to have that squared away**

Hello everyone! Welcome to the Hymn of the Hallux Gameplay + Some More Information post. For any asking, this is indeed the “Chrono Type Game” or the “Game that plays like Chrono Trigger” – But there’s a few twists to follow. I wanted to make a post outlining everything in this game’s official announcement, from every aspect of gameplay, to when you all can expect more info. Everything is WIP and still subject to change. Let’s get this started:

Outside of Combat Gameplay Gameplay

You know it’s an RPG that plays like Chrono Trigger – On-Map battles in the gameplay, three party members, and so forth. How does outside the battles work, though? I present an answer,

The characters are censored through the magical blob of photoshop.

How do you get past this ledge?

I can answer that easily.

Slowly but surely, the characters move past through a hookshot!

“Woah, now how did you do that?!”

When you’re on-map, the game plays like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but each party member has control over a different on-map ability. The one up there was the hookshot; used to get across ledges and to get new items. While there is a lot of inspiration from A Link to the Past, there are a few abilities that don’t come from The Legend of Zelda. Designing dungeons based around these mechanics have made this awesome – I’m able to appeal to people who want to explore everything, while also appealing to people who just want to get a dungeon over with.

Battle System & Other Gameplay Updates

The Battle System plays like Chrono Trigger, but here’s a few changes/additions:

–Dual Techs and Triple Techs are based on your TP – Based on how many turns you’ve done, you’re able to use them, so they’re separate from MP. –Six spell type system – Bar bosses, the spell system is pretty basic. You’ll be able to recognize an enemy by color (there will be a lot of recolors of similar enemies at stronger) to identify what type they are. If you’re using the same color magic that an enemy already uses, it won’t work. If you’re using the one that opposes their type, it’ll be super effective (whether it’s x2 remains to be seen). If you’re using one of the four that don’t affect it at all, nothing will happen. –Interesting Weapon Variety (to be explained more later) –Three spells for each characters. No more, no less, but all spells definitely have ability. –No revives. (I’m balancing heavily around this; the party is becoming really strong to compensate) -Able to switch characters between battles. –Non-Linear Dungeons

Everything is subject to change, but this is what I’m working on right now.

Art Preview

Here, have the first screenshot that doesn’t use RPG Maker assets:

The first demo isn’t focused on the most… aesthetically appeasing stuff. Censor blob comes back to censor party members!

I plan on doing a majority of the art for myself, for self-improvement, but I have a lot of friends who are professional at the craft whom I plan on getting feedback from. If all plans go well, I do plan on funding a few other artist friends to come join me for relatively small work on it. The main thing I’ve learned from analyzing RPG’s over the past few years: There’s a lot of places that they do budget cuts to make a game of that scope possible. I’ve bunked myself into three categories for art: “Need” “Want” “Would like to have”

Programming & Engine

I mentioned it before already in here, but for the first demo, I’ll be using RPG Maker VX Ace. After this, thanks to the assistance of Moghunter1’s Schala Battle System, I will probably be transferring over to RPG Maker MV. If I don’t transfer over to RPG Maker MV, I’ll be working on my own system (which will make the game take more time, but I have ideas in the works in-case.)

For porting, I’m pretty positive we’ll be able to get it on Mac along with PC. Anything else is too early to call, but I want to place it on as many systems as reasonably possible.

Story Preview

This is a preview set two years after the events of Solace. Here’s a short preview,

‘Some sounds were never meant to be heard’

“Craftsion, a fledgling colony in the world of Alkazure, is being overrun by creatures that are unknown to all. Abraham, the colony Leader, has only one clue: Every century a song is sung, a story is told. With time of the essence, can Abraham and his allies be able to solve these mysteries? Or will everything fall to ashes?”

I do have a few friends who are fantastic at writing helping me with polish. Since I do plan on making this an infinite universe under the name “Alkazure” (Meaning sequels, prequels, side stories, and so forth are all up in the air) I want to make sure the universe is as consistent and as strong as I can make it, and all of the writing reflects that as much as possible.

I know there’s one more preview…

Music Preview

As a Musician, there’s no way I could forget a music preview?

So remember Solace? I reflected about the project that wrapped up only seven months ago. The album was a timed 5 month finish from starting with sketches on my computer, to finalizing the album art with the last minute help of Kyle Labriola. I came out of my shell and collaborated five other musicians to create tracks that were truly able to be sprung to life with their help. My thought isn’t “How do I go bigger from here” but “What would be the next big improvement?”

While I am the sole composer, I’m planning on upping the ante in a way that won’t be predicted. While many won’t see it coming, it’s the most logical step for me to push my goals forward. If all goes well, the soundtrack might be my favorite thing to come from this game. For now, have a super early town draft:

https://soundcloud.com/thirdkoopa/velgon-town-theme-hymn-of-the-hallux

Infusion & Who Else is Working on Hymn of the Hallux

Most people don’t know about this, but I’ve been working on Shoot-Em-Up called Infusion for a while with this cool person, one of my favorite people & collaborators, another cool person and a fourth cool person. Yes, each of those links are separate. Since Hymn of the Hallux is going to take up a lot of my time, what does this mean for Infusion and the rest of the team?

Nothing.

I’m working on recruiting a few more people for Infusion, and then it will be a project that, at this moment in time, will be done when it’s done: we’re working on it every Thursday for now. There’s going to be no overlap bar a few people potentially doing small tasks and us all working to ensure the success of Hymn. Beyond that, even with contracting people and various favors whenever (thanks to possible funding; more information on that later), Hymn will be mostly me. I do want to work with people to make this possible, but since this is the very first full fledged game in the “Alkazure” series, I want to get this out as timely as possible.

Demo? What was with the twitter polls? Questions?

I’m happy to announce that I’ll be having the first Demo available soon. My goal is before the end of January, but I’ve recently caught a cold, so it may take a bit longer. This demo is more of a “Gameplay Sample Demo”

While the Twitter polls were to gauge interest, I appreciate getting feedback. Even though Chrono Trigger is a very popular game, the ‘community’ for it is rather split up. Since programming is mostly squared away and I’ll be re-using a lot of art assets, the biggest time sink that this game is going to face is balancing combat & balancing dungeon design. Feedback is crucial to the success of Hymn of the Hallux and I want you all to be a part of that

I don’t know when the next update will be, but all planned future updates will be shorter than this. All blog posts will be on My Blog – Comment to me on any of these outlets I link and I’ll respond as soon as I can; preferably the Blog. I will be posting links to these updates on my Twitter and Facebook Fanpage and I’ll be reposting these blogs on Tumblr. I have plans to use my YouTube channel as well, so for those who like YouTube, head on over to My Channel Here.

If you like Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Earthbound, Super Mario RPG, The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past, or Secret of Mana, you’ll probably like this game. If you don’t like those games, you probably won’t like this but give it a shot and some feedback – all is welcome. If you’ve never played any of those, well, you’re in for quite a ride.