Fun With Flavor Text - Legend of Adrigal Dorter Edition

This past June, I introduced the concept of providing flavor text to get players to investigate the world and the items and objects inside it. If you don't recall what I'm talking about or never read the article in question, here it is. 

Today I'd like to delve into some more flavor text fun in Legends of Adrigal. Last time I showed some examples from the beginning of the game at Casey's home and in Mabel, the first village of the game. This time we're taking a look together at flavor text examples in Dorter, a trading town in West Adrigal on the coast.

For a review from last time, as a part of some world building and to encourage interacting with the environment, Casey, our hero, can walk about to certain objects and investigate them. This will usually provide the player with Casey's thoughts on a given object. This is just one form of flavor text that can be found in Legends of Adrigal. Other forms will be featured on the site at a later date. 

Ah, the pun. Not even Casey can escape its catastrophic effects.

There you go again, Casey. Another pun, another feeling of personal shame.

Hmm! How interesting... Or maybe it's nothing.

Well, I'm sort of the one having to think about things for you to say, Casey!

Primo. Strategy Guide. Totally Unauthorized. What is this, gaming in the '90s?

Our hero takes a quick look of himself in the mirror.

Volume 12 of a 24-part collection of books.

Slipping into verse happens to me all the time. Especially when I have to rhyme!
...Dammit! I did it again!

At least Casey's honest about it.

Realistically, if the player investigated this food 30 times, Casey would have eaten it completely by taking multiple bites out each time just to say this line. 

 And as a refresher from yours truly for providing this type of flavor text:

"To recap, DO be consistent with your flavor text and what objects can be examined by the player.. DO introduce the concept early to get players investigating objects as early as possible. DON'T lack personality in your flavor text. DON'T have some rooms being full of objects to read info on while having others being completely empty."

Stay glued in to StortzumSOFT for even more news, articles, and behind-the-scenes goodness on Legends of Adrigal and more!

The Enemies of Legends of Adrigal - Part One

It's been a long time since an update has been seen on StortzumSoft's blog, but now the return of regular posts is here, thanks in part to working on Legends of Adrigal for my senior overview at Webster University. It just so happens to be my final semester after over a decade of struggling.

But that's not the point of this new post. Legends of Adrigal is an RPG, and any good RPG worth its weight in Gil, Zenny, Fol, or whatever currency you would like to choose from an RPG series has a compelling lineup of enemies to slay and earn money and items from!

That's my hope at least with Legends of Adrigal initial lineup of enemies. Today, I would like to share eight enemies from the game, discussing their designs (influences and inspirations), where they are in the game, and a lot more. Enough chatter from yours truly, let's move on from the introduction and get to the enemies themselves!

Note: Don't mind any imperfections in the enemy art: The enemies are much smaller in-game, making things like imperfect lines impossible to see unless you zoom in to crazy amounts!


GOOEY

Introducing Gooey! This little ball of slime with two eyes at its top hides its lone internal organ, its heart, deep inside its body. You don't even have to get close to it to see its heart beat! Gooey enemies are the weakest in Legends of Adrigal. Inspired by slime enemies from games like Dragon Quest (context-wise) and Breath of Fire (design-wise), a Gooey isn't too dangerous by its lonesome, but when they attack in groups, you should be careful!

HORNEET

An enemy that travels and hovers around the Mabel Road area of the kingdom of Adrigal, Horneets, like Gooeys, aren't too much of a threat alone, but when paired with other enemies, things can become rather tricky rather fast. Unlike Gooeys, however, Horneets pack quite a punch... er... sting with their dangerous stinger, inflicting pain on anyone who suffers its sting!

PURPLY POLY

Designed after both a pill bug and a roly poly, the Purply Poly's shell slightly protects it more than other enemies along Mabel Road. However, Purply Polys also can be found inside the Mines of Dorter. Their attack strength isn't that powerful, but as stated, its shell provides some slight defense against attacks to make up for it. They're more cute than dangerous, however.

CARNIVOROUS PLANT

This enemy would fit right in with the Little Shop of Horrors, but maybe its singing voice could be a little bit better... Nonetheless, the Carnivorous Plant makes its home mainly along the West Adrigal Road. It is made up of a core plant and two arms. You can't see it, but these are all connected together, albeit underground. It can use a move called Photosynthesis when its HP is below 20% to get a second wind in battle.

GRASSLAND FROG

Outside of its bushy eyebrows, there are few characteristics that distinguish the Grassland Frog from a frog you'd see in real life. I mean, its name has "frog" in it, for Pete's sake! Regardless, Grassland Frogs usually don't travel alone, rather they travel in at pairs, or with other enemies. You'll never see a Grassland Frog fighting by itself. They may be frogs, but in Adrigal they aren't stupid! The Grassland Frog is based off art for the toad status effect from the Super Nintendo Final Fantasy games.

SHISH-KA-PIG

What a macabre look this creature has! Why, it has an apple in its mouth like it's fit for a luau rather than a battle. Despite its appearance, the Shish-Ka-Pig is no nice customer when it's interrupted and attacked. Usually docile creatures, the Shish-Ka-Pig will grow violent if disturbed. Though if you defeat this creature, you'll really bring home the bacon money-wise! That'll do, pig. That'll do! ...I'm very sorry for those play-on words. Shish-Ka-Pig is based off an enemy from the PlayStation 2 RPG Radiata Stories.

DEADHEAD

No, not a groupie of a certain rock 'n roll band, the Deadhead is modeled after the ReDead enemy from The Legend of Zelda series (debuting in Ocarina of Time). Despite its name, Deadhead isn't actually a zombie. Why, that would be crazy! Instead, it's a swarm of dirt and mud that has taken a human-like form. It prowls the Mines of Dorter lately, which is quite the problem when a bunch of miners are trapped inside!

ARMORDILLO                                                                
Armordillo is the very first boss of Legends of Adrigal. The fight doesn't happen right away in the adventure, so have some patience. Casey will discover this rough and rowdy bipedal armadillo creature in the Mines of Dorter. What is it even doing in there in the first place? Did it cause the cave-in at the mines? What I can reveal, though, is that this boss is ready to rumble and ready for a fight!

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I hope you guys and gals enjoyed this first look at some of the enemies and bosses featured in Legends of Adrigal! Development is continuing at a steady pace, and I can't wait to share even more about my game. I just want to strike a balance here and not reveal TOO terribly much that the entire game is spoiled! I don't think that will be a problem, however. Stay tuned for further updates right here on StortzumSoft!

The artists and soundtracks that have inspired and influenced me musically

If you've been around this blog or know of me a little, then you know that for my games I compose my own music. While I'm by no means an Uematsu or Shimomura, I do feel that I've steadily improved from when I started doing my own music as a child, having fun poking and prodding notes into Mario Paint's music staff mode. 

My first major video game project was Super Push Adventure, which you can find and download here. The actual soundtrack is wholly composed by yours truly, but I didn't arrange it myself. Instead, I had two folks help me with taking my MIDI works and turn them into soundfont-sounding goodness. One was Natasha Gita, a composer from Australia while the other was a good friend of mine, Avery Waddell of Webster University. 

The current two WIP soundtracks for two WIP games are for Chickadee and Legends of Adrigal. Unlike the music from Super Push Adventure, the music I'm composing here is something I'm arranging myself via Reaper. For all of my music, check out my Bandcamp page. Everything should be free to listen to and download.

Regardless, let's get to the nitty-gritty and the point of this article after all that introduction! My musical sense and style didn't just come from out of nowhere. No, like most everyone with the ability to, I've been listening to and enjoying music since childhood. However, my preferences even as a child were quite different than normal-- well, if "normal" is such a thing that even exists, but that's a philosophical discussion for another day and a different blog! (Hee-hee.)

Growing up playing video games as my favorite hobby, I remember being so entranced by all the facets of the games I played. One such facet was a game's soundtrack. Before the days I soundtracks being easily obtainable through purchasing them online or through other means like downloading, I used to take a boom box, an empty cassette tape, and record music from games, specifically from their sound test menus if such a thing existed in a given game. Sure, the sound was terrible with its high pitches, feedback, and such, but it allowed me to listen to the catchy themes of games and series like Mega Man X, Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario, Final Fantasy, and more.

I'd like to take the rest of this post to reveal some of the talent and composers that have most influenced and inspired my own musical style and tastes the most, including a brief history of my experience with each talent's works, as well as some included samples from their robust catalogs. (As always with YouTube videos, don't bother to read the comments.)

Yoko Kanno

My first meeting with Yoko Kanno's work was with the 1999 anime Cowboy Bebop (an absolute treasure of a show, anime or not). Here, I was introduced to how flexible of a composer she really is, offering music in genres like jazz, rock, heavy metal, funk, opera, and much more. Immediately I felt the need to peruse her hefty repertoire of music, finding works from shows like Brain Powerd (yes, I spelled that correctly, funnily enough), Turn A Gundam, and then future projects like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Macross Frontier, Wolf's Rain, and so much more. Her works inspire me to be a better composer, step outside of my comfort zone, try out multiple genres of music, and just try to improve as much as I can with my limited skill set.

Tank! (from Cowboy Bebop)

Blue (from Cowboy Bebop)

Prism (from Brain Powerd)

Rakuen (from Wolf's Rain)

Zero Hour (from Macross Frontier)
Dance of Curse (from Escaflowne)

Nobuo Uematsu

Without question the video game composer that has influenced my works the most when it concerns material from Legends of Adrigal, Nobuo Uematsu is best known for his work on the Final Fantasy mainline series from the very first Final Fantasy up until Final Fantasy XI. By X and XI, the soundtracks were a collaboration of multiple composers rather than wholly Uematsu's contributions. Regardless, Uematsu's masterful works pushed forward what the idea of a video game soundtrack could be, even offering an entire opera (although in digitized form) in Final Fantasy VI in 1994. He's done other projects since leaving the Final Fantasy series and starting his own company, Smile Please, with soundtracks for games like Fantasy Life for the Nintendo 3DS, and even contributing the main theme to Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Brawl on Wii.

Dancing Mad (originally from Final Fantasy VI, orchestrated version from Distant Worlds II)

One-Winged Angel (from Final Fantasy VII)

Battle 2 (from Final Fantasy IV)

Behind the Door (from Final Fantasy IX)

Kids Run Through the City (from Final Fantasy VI)

Tavern (from Fantasy Life)

Koji Kondo

Mostly taking a supervisory role at Nintendo nowadays, Koji Kondo was the musical voice of many of Nintendo's top games from the NES and on, including Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and more. His ability to create simple yet catchy themes is something that is truly amazing and something he very much has a knack for. As stated, his role at Nintendo now is mostly to oversee other composers' works, but he does still do the occasional new melody or theme, such as his contributions to both Super Mario Galaxy soundtracks and his work with Super Mario Maker, where for the first time in decades he was the main composer. 

Hyrule Field Main Theme (from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past)

Athletic (from Super Mario Bros. 3)

Starship Mario 3 (from Super Mario Galaxy 2)

Athletic Theme (from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island)

Dire, Dire Docks (from Super Mario 64)

Gerudo Valley (originally from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, orchestrated version from The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddess)

Motoi Sakuraba

Composer behind the Star Ocean series and many of the games from the Tales franchise, Motoi Sakuraba's music can be described as progressive in every stretch of the word. Whether it's through masterful rock and roll or something more classical like, well, classical music! My favorite works from Sakuraba include the warm sounding synth from the original PlayStation's Star Ocean: The Second Story as well as him contributing some of the most memorable and powerful themes from the Nintendo 3DS game, Kid Icarus: Uprising, which in itself held a motley crew of well known Japanese video game music composers.

The Venerable Forest (from Star Ocean: The Second Story)

Shower of Blossoms (from Star Ocean: The Second Story)

Influence of Truth Appears (from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time)

The Imperial City - Grand Chokmah (from Tales of the Abyss)

The Reaper's Line of Sight (from Kid Icarus: Uprising)

Lightning Battle (from Kid Icarus: Uprising)

Yasunori Mitsuda 

A composer that doesn't do much in the way of work for substantially large, incredibly hyped games that much anymore, if you've played games like Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, and even stuff like the original Mario Party, Shadow Hearts, Soma Bringer, Soul Sacrifice, Graffiti Kingdom, or Bomberman 64: The Second Attack, then you've heard his stuff before. His style can be described as minimalistic at times while slightly audacious at others. Regardless of the time, it's always something special. His melodies bestow the listener with a lasting impression that resonates well. 

Time's Scar (from Chrono Cross)

Another Arni (from Chrono Cross)

My Village is Number One! (originally from Xenogears, orchestrated version from Myth - The Xenogears Orchestral Album)

Rainbow Castle (from Mario Party)

The Return of Palutena (from Kid Icarus: Uprising)

Boss Theme 1 (from Kid Icarus: Uprising)

Jon Anderson (and Yes)

Last but certainly (definitely) not least, let's get away from anime and game music for this final musical inspiration and influence. Jon Anderson was a founding member of the progressive rock band Yes, and currently continues his solo work and collaborations with multiple artists. Jon Anderson is the lone vocal artist on this list, and his voice can be described as pure angelic and magical. The only gripe I have with Mr. Anderson is that he sometimes sings at too high of an octave for me to sing along with! His work with Yes is historic and classic, while his solo work is also quite wonderful. The progressive rock styling that Anderson exudes is a grand inspiration, always making me wonder how far I can take my music in the future. Maybe I could add some vocals in the future with some better technology? ...Maybe not! Hee-hee!

Roundabout

Owner of a Lonely Heart

Close to the Edge

And You and I

Hurry Home (Song From the Pleiades)

I See You Messenger

I hope you enjoyed this look and listen to some of my favorite influences and inspirations over the years to my own musical styles. To say I'm anywhere near these geniuses with my own compositions would be folly for sure! But I can always try to improve myself and make myself the best I can possibly be by listening to these fantastic musical talents!

New song composed for Chickadee: Into the Forest of Freshwind!

For the longest time I've been focused on Legends of Adrigal and composing music for that WIP. While I'm still working away at this RPG, I have finally given Chickadee, my Breakout-style adventure game some attention. Such a way I've put work towards the game is with composing some new songs for the game. This song, Into the Forest of Freshwind, coincidentally enough, plays during the Freshwind Forest world.

Listen to the song here.

Get a sneak peek at the concept menu designs for Chickadee!

Happy Fourth of July, America! For everyone else out there, happy Monday evening! I hope your first day back to work was a sensational one. I'd like to take the opportunity tonight to share some concept art I drew up for Jo, my programmer from Belgium, to work with to get working versions of.

Let's begin with the data selection screen. Here, Chickadee rolls to each slot, of which there are three, to choose a save file to either start or continue the player's game. How many of the game's worlds are competed is listed, as is what Chickadee's current costume worn is. Finally, what isn't shown here is how many coins the player currently has.

Let's look at the world select concept I have designed now. It has Chickadee rolling to each continent, but what actually moves is the big globe underneath him. It spins and stops at one of six destinations with the middle destination being the tutorial world that the player starts at before reaching this menu.

W.hen a world is selected, this level select menu pops up, asking the player to select a level. Now, unlike the worlds, levels have to be played in order, and each image here shows a different level. If a level hasn't been reached yet, it remains empty.

Finally, we have Old Redbird's costume shop. It is here where Chickadee can try on and purchase new costumes. Old Redbird serves as the helper of Chickadee throughout his journey, and also serves as the shopkeeper here.

As players complete worlds, new costumes are available for purchase, each at a different price. Obviously the concept here only shows one price and one costume, but this will have multiple different costumes and prices in the final version of Chickadee.

So, there's but a quick look at some of the menus for Chickadee and players. I hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes glimpse at Chickadee's development! Stay tuned for even more goodness coming soon!

Chickadee is back in development! Here's a title screen concept!

Chickadee has resumed development after a relatively lengthy hiatus! Thanks to my programmer and fellow game developer Jo-Thijs Daelman, the project is back in business!

My first goals for the project now that it is back in development are to get some of the foundations done. For the time being, we have a working title screen. I gave Jo some direction on what I wanted-- Chickadee rolling onto the screen and the logo shifting from the right onto the screen--and he went above and beyond to make it. He even threw in the jumping animation for Chickadee, a very clever and adorable addition.

Coming up now is some more menu design, coming up with how the world select and level select systems will work, as well as implementing a shop that uses the coins collected by Chickadee to purchase items like costumes and extra lives! Jo is doing the proverbial heavy lifting here implementing everything, and his work is so very appreciated. Without him, I'd have nothing!

For now, however, check out this proof of concept video of the title screen. Pardon the amateur sound and production values, this was my first time recording my computer screen. Also, note that the background is only temporary.

After meeting Chibi Casey, Meet Chibi Monica!

Several weeks ago I shared the new style for the key art for Legends of Adrigal. It took on a more deformed, chibi style. To see it in action with protagonist Casey, check out this link. Now, tonight I share the next character to get the chibi art style, Monica, the tomboy cheerleader who fights for her friends.

I used a reference for this character just like with Casey. However, this reference had wholly different proportions to Casey's reference point despite being the same chibi style. Thus, I had to do some tinkering with the proportions. I hope you guys think it came out well!