OVERTALE BIRBY NEWSLETTERS (9/9/2016) - Updated
Sept 9, 2016 7:31:25 GMT
UltiMateSkateFIN, Nightmare, and 2 more like this
Post by GeoBirb on Sept 9, 2016 7:31:25 GMT
Welcome to the very first Overtale Newsletter! I am GeoBirb, reporting on all the happenings in Overtale development and much more! Without further ado, lets get started!
Game Making -
Now I know what you’re thinking…
Silence.
That’s all it has been for the past few months.
We have been pretty quiet over here, for good reason. At the very least, an occasional screenshot or music piece pops up, without much word on the demo and...the dev diary (We will get to that in a bit). Aside from releasing some new music tracks(DT Versions are the greatest), substantial progress has been made behind the scenes as well! Everyday we know that you as fans are just eager to get more information about the game and so you waited….But nobody came.
We’ve heard and we know. It pains us to leave you in the dark, but please understand that some of us have our personal lives to attend to; some of us have school to prepare for while others are moving homes. Remember that Overtale is a non-profit ‘labour of love’ ran by pure volunteers that may or may not commit time into its development every second of everyday. Despite the difficulties we face, your continued support, even the ranting and and the memes, whatever it is, keeps us going. Thank you for sticking around for the long haul! We appreciate your continued support and making Overtale the best it can be is our top priority. Your committed support lets us stay determined regardless of circumstances.
The Forums and this Newsletter are just some of the ways we think about how we can get more information across the board and become more accessible overall. On behalf of the team, I apologize for the lack of updates as of late. Pardon our dust and if this style of updates suit your taste buds, let me know and you can expect more of these.
Dev Diary 2 Delayed(AGAIN!?) -
Long ago, I was barely a fan of Undertale. I was newly introduced to this world and its lore. A dark and complex plot. It confused me, it enlightened me, it touched me. Casually surfing the web after completing the game, I found Overtale, through a pretty informative and well-crafted video documentary. They called it ‘Dev Diary One’.
“Huh.” I thought to myself, “That only meant one thing. That there had to be a second one.”
And there is.
There still is.
Remember back in (checks Gamejolt) where we said we were going to release that second Diary? Well just like you, we ourselves were excited and hopeful for the future, perhaps a lil’ too much. Clearly we overestimated our ability to get the diary pushed out in time and started making early teases on its potential release. Unfortunately, due to some technical difficulties and setbacks, we would have to push the diary release further back once more, but this time, we cannot confirm when it will be ready. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience, trust me, we are just as frustrated. To ensure the intended quality is preserved and perfected for your ever-craving eyes, it had to be done. Do BEAR with us!
Brave Soul -
Besides the wonder of exploring the worlds in game, solving puzzles as you go, an iconic gameplay feature of Undertale has been the “Bullet Board” mechanic. Taking possession of Frisk’s soul, you were responsible in avoiding all sorts of obstacles being thrown at you to stay alive and determined to get through difficult times. In Overtale, this mechanic remains largely unchanged for the most part. Here’s a developmental screen cap of the bullet board in making and some words from the developer behind it himself! Many of you know him as Magzy on Gamejolt. I grabbed a hold of him so he can share abit of himself, say hi to the world, fam!
*Hi, it’s me ,Magzy ( or Kolosse , another nickname of mine ), I’m a programmer within Overtale ..
I’m one of the first programmers in Overtale, I joined the team in November 15th. Since then I’ve been actively working on Overtale ( mainly brainstorming ideas :3 )
Right now , I’m in charge of making the combat system works, and thus the bullet box.
Glad to have you join the Newsletter! Tell us how you got started with Programming?
How did I start programming? While I can't remember exactly how but I remember observing a friend of mine making little flash games back in the day . He was likely my inspiration to start learning how to animate and so I learned some flash animation ( I quit it so fast ) and then started learning Csharp
Heresy! Animation is da b3st! Jokes aside, are there any other projects you have worked on that you'd like to share?
Most of my projects are not worth mentioning as they are just school projects and trivia like that .. But ! I’m having an idea for a fan Danganronpa project that I’m still tweaking its algorithms , it’s not official yet though ,so hold your horses
My horses are held. Were there any difficulties or challenges you faced in designing the bullet box?
I know that that would sound ridiculous but I did find one or two challenges in the making of the bullet box .. One of them was how to make the soul collide with the box .. I had tried to make the bullet box a box collider as a whole and it didn’t work .. Later, after being stubborn for two weeks wanting to solve it on my own, I gave up and called for help from a programmer teammate who told me to divide the bullet box into rectangles , each one has its box collider . That would resolve the problem but it won’t help making the box changing his scale like in Undertale so this solution is only provisional.. if I learned something from this challenge , it would be to never shy from calling for help.
Programming comes with its own problems for sure! Any tips for aspiring programmers out there?
I spent my past years searching for something I can call my hobby ; I tried Music , drawing , robotics, electronics , robotics , some martial arts…ect and I couldn’t find what I am good at . I tried them for a month and then quit . Programming is a special case to me since I hadn’t quit it . And then I realized, and that was late , that if I had continued drawing , I would be able to draw my manga now , that if I had continued playing music , I would be able to compose my music and even become one of the Overtale composers … Continuation is power, and practicing something is never a waste of time .. I had realized that in the hard way , maybe because I was eager to learn everything that I hadn’t invested my time on a specific hobby .. that also applies to programming as many of the programmers ,like myself, try to learn many languages at once . Then ,they end up by learning nothing . If only they focused on a one language , they would become very good at it .. so if you’re a beginner at programming , consider choosing what domain you’re going to work on and what languages and engines you’re going to use are the most important decisions in your life .
Oh that ? That’s a bonus :3 That’s a sneak peak of a new soul mode ( the blue heart for example is a soul mode ) animation that you’ll find exclusively in Overtale . Consider it a gift from me ^-^
Words of wisdom right there! If you are interested in learning more about programming or having casual conversations, have a chat with our ever-talented Magzy!
T3m 4 Pr3ss1dant -
A while ago, a fellow birb uploaded an early in-dev model of temmie that I was working on without my consent! Imagine my surprise when I saw it on Gamejolt!
I think it also came as a surprise for some of you too (And a potential nightmare) as it popped out of nowhere without warning and was never meant for public consumption just yet. Nonetheless, Tem has gone far! Tem has gone smooth! Tem wants to b3come AdDV3ntur and Sh4lL B3c0m3 Adv3ntUurEr!
Wants to win your heart obviously. Vote 4 tem.
In Closing -
So that wraps it up for our very first Newsletter! Remember that we’re only just getting warmed up! This has been GeoBirb or Geo and whether it be Gamejolt, Youtube, Reddit(Whats that?) or the Forums, wherever it is, I hope to talk to you all soon!
Game Making -
Now I know what you’re thinking…
Silence.
That’s all it has been for the past few months.
We have been pretty quiet over here, for good reason. At the very least, an occasional screenshot or music piece pops up, without much word on the demo and...the dev diary (We will get to that in a bit). Aside from releasing some new music tracks(DT Versions are the greatest), substantial progress has been made behind the scenes as well! Everyday we know that you as fans are just eager to get more information about the game and so you waited….But nobody came.
We’ve heard and we know. It pains us to leave you in the dark, but please understand that some of us have our personal lives to attend to; some of us have school to prepare for while others are moving homes. Remember that Overtale is a non-profit ‘labour of love’ ran by pure volunteers that may or may not commit time into its development every second of everyday. Despite the difficulties we face, your continued support, even the ranting and and the memes, whatever it is, keeps us going. Thank you for sticking around for the long haul! We appreciate your continued support and making Overtale the best it can be is our top priority. Your committed support lets us stay determined regardless of circumstances.
The Forums and this Newsletter are just some of the ways we think about how we can get more information across the board and become more accessible overall. On behalf of the team, I apologize for the lack of updates as of late. Pardon our dust and if this style of updates suit your taste buds, let me know and you can expect more of these.
Dev Diary 2 Delayed(AGAIN!?) -
Long ago, I was barely a fan of Undertale. I was newly introduced to this world and its lore. A dark and complex plot. It confused me, it enlightened me, it touched me. Casually surfing the web after completing the game, I found Overtale, through a pretty informative and well-crafted video documentary. They called it ‘Dev Diary One’.
“Huh.” I thought to myself, “That only meant one thing. That there had to be a second one.”
And there is.
There still is.
Remember back in (checks Gamejolt) where we said we were going to release that second Diary? Well just like you, we ourselves were excited and hopeful for the future, perhaps a lil’ too much. Clearly we overestimated our ability to get the diary pushed out in time and started making early teases on its potential release. Unfortunately, due to some technical difficulties and setbacks, we would have to push the diary release further back once more, but this time, we cannot confirm when it will be ready. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience, trust me, we are just as frustrated. To ensure the intended quality is preserved and perfected for your ever-craving eyes, it had to be done. Do BEAR with us!
Brave Soul -
Besides the wonder of exploring the worlds in game, solving puzzles as you go, an iconic gameplay feature of Undertale has been the “Bullet Board” mechanic. Taking possession of Frisk’s soul, you were responsible in avoiding all sorts of obstacles being thrown at you to stay alive and determined to get through difficult times. In Overtale, this mechanic remains largely unchanged for the most part. Here’s a developmental screen cap of the bullet board in making and some words from the developer behind it himself! Many of you know him as Magzy on Gamejolt. I grabbed a hold of him so he can share abit of himself, say hi to the world, fam!
*Hi, it’s me ,Magzy ( or Kolosse , another nickname of mine ), I’m a programmer within Overtale ..
I’m one of the first programmers in Overtale, I joined the team in November 15th. Since then I’ve been actively working on Overtale ( mainly brainstorming ideas :3 )
Right now , I’m in charge of making the combat system works, and thus the bullet box.
Glad to have you join the Newsletter! Tell us how you got started with Programming?
How did I start programming? While I can't remember exactly how but I remember observing a friend of mine making little flash games back in the day . He was likely my inspiration to start learning how to animate and so I learned some flash animation ( I quit it so fast ) and then started learning Csharp
Heresy! Animation is da b3st! Jokes aside, are there any other projects you have worked on that you'd like to share?
Most of my projects are not worth mentioning as they are just school projects and trivia like that .. But ! I’m having an idea for a fan Danganronpa project that I’m still tweaking its algorithms , it’s not official yet though ,so hold your horses
My horses are held. Were there any difficulties or challenges you faced in designing the bullet box?
I know that that would sound ridiculous but I did find one or two challenges in the making of the bullet box .. One of them was how to make the soul collide with the box .. I had tried to make the bullet box a box collider as a whole and it didn’t work .. Later, after being stubborn for two weeks wanting to solve it on my own, I gave up and called for help from a programmer teammate who told me to divide the bullet box into rectangles , each one has its box collider . That would resolve the problem but it won’t help making the box changing his scale like in Undertale so this solution is only provisional.. if I learned something from this challenge , it would be to never shy from calling for help.
Programming comes with its own problems for sure! Any tips for aspiring programmers out there?
I spent my past years searching for something I can call my hobby ; I tried Music , drawing , robotics, electronics , robotics , some martial arts…ect and I couldn’t find what I am good at . I tried them for a month and then quit . Programming is a special case to me since I hadn’t quit it . And then I realized, and that was late , that if I had continued drawing , I would be able to draw my manga now , that if I had continued playing music , I would be able to compose my music and even become one of the Overtale composers … Continuation is power, and practicing something is never a waste of time .. I had realized that in the hard way , maybe because I was eager to learn everything that I hadn’t invested my time on a specific hobby .. that also applies to programming as many of the programmers ,like myself, try to learn many languages at once . Then ,they end up by learning nothing . If only they focused on a one language , they would become very good at it .. so if you’re a beginner at programming , consider choosing what domain you’re going to work on and what languages and engines you’re going to use are the most important decisions in your life .
Oh that ? That’s a bonus :3 That’s a sneak peak of a new soul mode ( the blue heart for example is a soul mode ) animation that you’ll find exclusively in Overtale . Consider it a gift from me ^-^
Words of wisdom right there! If you are interested in learning more about programming or having casual conversations, have a chat with our ever-talented Magzy!
T3m 4 Pr3ss1dant -
A while ago, a fellow birb uploaded an early in-dev model of temmie that I was working on without my consent! Imagine my surprise when I saw it on Gamejolt!
Still gives me chills
I think it also came as a surprise for some of you too (And a potential nightmare) as it popped out of nowhere without warning and was never meant for public consumption just yet. Nonetheless, Tem has gone far! Tem has gone smooth! Tem wants to b3come AdDV3ntur and Sh4lL B3c0m3 Adv3ntUurEr!
Wants to win your heart obviously. Vote 4 tem.
So that wraps it up for our very first Newsletter! Remember that we’re only just getting warmed up! This has been GeoBirb or Geo and whether it be Gamejolt, Youtube, Reddit(Whats that?) or the Forums, wherever it is, I hope to talk to you all soon!