development AF Dev Blog

[Michael_ 162]

June 3rd, 2020:

 

Well, with the revival of the club from its unorthodox slumber, I figured I might as well bring back the dev blog as well. Hopefully everyone is currently doing well and staying safe! It can definitely be frightening to watch/experience what's currently going on around us, that with COVID and the protests and all. 2020 will be a year to remember for sure. But enough of that, on with the actual post.

 

Ashen Frost has had a ton of stuff in the works since our last post so I feel like it's best to just fire them off buzzword-style!

• The game has been fully ported and is playable in MKXP - we just have a couple minor issues to iron out but nothing too major
• The battle roulette, our battle tower-esque factory is fully accessible now within the Lonardo Casino, complete with random team generation and all. I've also taken the liberty of updating the battle tower sets themselves to delete the whole gen 3 aspect the current ones have going on.
• Encounters have been/still are being completely revamped - there are now more obtainable mons throughout the world. The game used to be very Ghost-Normal-Ice centered for the most part. We've done our best to try and remedy this though. That includes Gen 8 mons being available as well.
• Battles as well continue to have their balance changing - I'm definitely aiming for a tough but fair situation. Some fights that are too tough have been nerfed while others continue to be buffed.
• The game now has custom shinies that me and Josie have been working on! They're about 85% finished. We also take fan suggestions from people who may want to see a certain palette.
• Mechanics and learnsets are fully updated to Gen 8 standards. Pokemon who do not exist in Gen 8 retain their Gen 7 attributes, as expected.
• A whole slew of bug fixes and updates have been done on the game, ranging from a much faster happiness and experience share growth rate, to improved UI, to even small fixes like the EXP share being toggle-able from the menu now.

 

We're really hoping to be able to release this game soon. Currently, progress sits about later-case 12 of 14/15. If all goes well, Ashen Frost will definitely have its re-release in the next coming months. Additionally, I'd like to remind everyone that the discord is probably the best spot to get updated info quickest. It's pretty active so come by and say hello if you feel like it! But uh, that's all from me. I'll drop some screenshots down below but I think that's it! Cheers!

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Michael_ 162]

June 7th, 2020:

Now what do we have cooking today?

Well first on the menu (and on an unsurprising note), both Mordecai and Lucile have gone through the wash and come out with new designs. They're probably the characters I update most often since they're so important to the story. They both resemble their respective portraits much better now as well.

Spoiler

I've also been working on some other sprites, including this lumberjack guy! He's, uh, pretty cool.

 

Josie, on the other hand has been working away at tiles for our next area! We're officially through with case 12 and have moved onto 13 now!

 

 

It's gonna have an old-timey feel to it as you can tell. But uh, that's all from me! See you guys in the next one!

[Michael_ 162]

July 11th 2020:

 

Hey guys, I know it's been actual ages since I've written a post here so I'm sorry for that! Here's the updates! We're currently sitting at the ending portion of Case 13! It's super spoiler-y so I can't really show anything but know that it involves the Case system in full force! We're well on track for our tentative release in August, depending on how long our playtesters take. 

 

That's right, one more month until the expected re-release of the game! I can't believe we were originally only gonna take the game down for two weeks! I've been once again handling code and art updates while Josie has been handling story stuff. 

 

We're also introducing a new system, Modifiers! We're essentially taking the idea of Pokemon Rejuvenation's concept of crests and expanding upon them, making them pseudo-upgradable held items, designed by Serenity Inc. to help weaker Pokemon survive in Riverview's harsher climates. (I'm, uh, writing this on my phone so I can't really share screenshots at the moment 

but I'd throw some on if I did.)

 

Currently, we're also holding an AMA in our Discord server as well. If you're curious about any game stuff, you can ask over there! But for now, that's me! Next month is soon to be here! Cheers! 

 

 

[Michael_ 162]

July 20th 2020:

 

Time for a follow-up on my last post:

 

As you can tell by the screenshots above, the majority of these modifiers are ready and working. In fact, I even have a Google Doc detailing all the effects as well as some other Serenity stuff. Feel free to make any suggestions you might want to see over at the Discord or right here! That's about it, cheers!