Devlog #1 - The Origins

~~~DAY 1 (September 27th, 2024)~~~

First of all, I'd like to excuse myself for any grammar/spelling errors I might have during these devlogs as english isn't my first language. Hope you're ok with that.

A little bit of backstory...
I first started working in Aurum Chronicles when I was a 10 year old child. At first, this project was supposed to be a Mario Kart clone where the characters were me and my friends... Yeah, I know that's totally not similar to what this game ended up being, but hey, every story has its beginning!

At first it was only prototyping and trying to see what worked and what didn't in terms of concept and what I was able to do on Game Maker 8 (Studio didn't even exist at that point, if I remember correctly), but I always ended up discarding my work after a while. Maybe working on mechanics on my own was a bit too hard, but it didn't stop me on my goal of releasing one game.

Some years passed and I always wanted to make Aurum a real game. I ended up switch genres multiple times, going from Zelda-like action adventure games, to a Classicvania clone, I never really got the chance to finish any of those ideas, though, but it helped me discover what I actually wanted to make: an RPG inspired by those I've been in love with since I first played the original N64 Paper Mario, so I started working on one with RPG Maker, which I actually knew and used from even before I started using GM8.

Now that I was a teenager, I was actually able to afford a license for the engine, so I bought MV from a Humble Bundle pack and started working on multiple concepts and ideas for what I wanted an Aurum RPG to be like, from that time I ended up working on lots of prototypes and stories I still want to bring to life, but for now they'll stay as WIPs. Maybe some day we'll get to them.

Touching the Stars...

The idea I worked the most at the time (mid 2020) was one about a dungeon crawler inside a tower where you can recruit allies based on your reputation and fight monsters (the Ys Origin-Persona 3 brainrot is real XD). It was supposed to be an origin story for the whole Aurumverse (to call it some way). but I ended up finding dead ends multiple times, as I usually required plugins I couldn't afford or even use at all, so I kinda discarded that idea. That's how I ended up working on a game that would be a mix of the first Final Fantasy and A Link to the Past: I named it Aurum Chronicles: Golden Heritage. I wrote almost all of its plot, its characters, world, enemies, etc. In concept, it was the perfect game for me as a first-time indie dev. I even made a post in the RPG Maker Forums about it when I basically just had started working on it!

However, when it came to actually developing the game, the story repeated itself: Delays, lack of experience and overall just plain hardships that maybe I was imposing over myself.

That ended in 2021,  though, when I found about the Touch the Starts Game Jam made by the official publishers of RPG Maker and the RM Forums. I was actually hyped to work on a game that people would actually play and talk about. Specially considering it would get a little bit of exposure from the judges, as they would stream the game.

Now the question was, what game to develop? I, somehow, found an easy answer to that riddle: I used the tower dungeon-crawling concept I discarded at first and ended up making Aurum Chronicles: Heaven of Past Eras as a proof concept for what I wanted to make, but also as a proof that I was able to make a game; proof that I was a game dev.

Where are we now?

After the initial release of the game, I pondered a bit on the feedback I got from the Game Jam, what worked and what didn't, so I could analyze that info and implement it on what I considered my main project: Golden Heritage, but as I worked on HOPE, my love for that project, its characters, its world, grew exponentially day after day. I wanted to finish that story. That's how I started working on what's actually my main game developing project at this moment: A sequel to HOPE, which I'm simply calling Aurum 2 for the time being.

Aurum 2 is probably the game I've put the most effort into, it's getting all the polish I can give it and, slowly but surely, will end up being a game I can be proud about, but after working a lot on that project, I started feeling unsatisfied on the state I left the first game in the series, I wanted it to be more than it is now, I want to feel like HOPE is actually a fully finished game. That's why I'm here, ready to work on this project once again and have it get to a state where I can actually say proudly "this is my first full fledged game".

Hopefully (no pun intended) by the end of this week I'll be able to transform my first game into my ideal version of it.

What was done today?

I started by cleaning and organizing the project files. As it was done in a rush for the Game Jam, I actually have a lot of residual content on it that I don't plan to implement, so I organized a lot of the database, but I also added some variety in terms of monsters and enemy troops for the game, as I think the Jam edition feels a bit too samey after playing for a while and lacks a bit of variety. That was actually one of the most common feedback I received after the original release, so it's something that, while I still haven't implemented yet, is one of my top priorities for this version of the game.

I'm also trying to make my game have an identity of it's own, as basically all of its assets are RTP (for those who don't now, that basically means it only uses default RPG Maker assets), so I first started by adding some of the music I composed in the last few months to replace the RTP bgm I used. I'm still missing some pieces and others require some edits to improve them, but overall, I'm pretty satisfied with how some of these songs ended up coming out. For instance, this is the game's Main Theme:

There's some criticism I still need to address before releasing a build, like the writing or balancing the skills the enemies tend to use, but I believe this is a good beginning for what's to come with this project.

The moment the progress is noticeable enough to actually be comparable to the Jam Edition of the game, I'll upload it for you all to see and, maybe, play it for yourselves.