Somewhen

[solar basin]

It's Chrono Trigger with town-building mechanics.

You restore broken towns and travel back and forth through time on a special train to reap the benefits!

Battle System is like : Chrono Trigger's ATB
Town-Building is like: Dark Cloud's Georama system

Noteworthy Mechanics & Themes: Town-Building, Cooking, Fishing, "Stratogem" Skill Equip, Evolving Weaponry, Time-Travel

Games Inspired By: Dark Cloud, Dark Cloud 2/Dark Chronicle, Chrono Trigger, Rogue Galaxy

Links:
https://twitter.com/SundialShark
https://sundialshark.itch.io/somewhen

Demo Status:
TBA

Nezzy (Sundial Shark) | SOMEWHEN RPG (@SundialShark) on X

30 🇩🇴 Gamedev & pixel artist. Making ⏰time-travelling, town-builder RPG #SOMEWHEN, inspired by #DarkCloud, #DarkChronicle, and, yes, #ChronoTrigger

Twitter

It has a Steam page, but the old trailer is, well, old as sin. It won't reflect how much more work I put into the RPG. I'll let you know when a new one is up.

Quick examples of what "Georama" edit-mode looks like, as well as small tiny bit of combat.

[solar basin]

Who doesn't like blowing stuff up?

Trying to work on more destructable environments for extra item drops and whatnot.

[coarse leaf]

I love blowing stuff up!! 🤚

[reef sequoia]

Lookin' great! I know from experience, turn based combat is more technically challenging than it looks.

[brave epoch]

This is looking great! I loved Dark Cloud back in the day!

[rich sedge]

Background on this battleground is siiiiick! 🔥

[solar basin]

That makes me so happy! 💛

Here are 6 random shots of the UI.

Here's someone I worked on today.

[solar basin]

New enemy death animation. Ever play Final Fantasy X?

[solar basin]

I'm unhappy with this game's pitch so I just edited the main post to say exactly what it is.

For now, that's what it'll be until I come up with something better.

[dapper trout]

I really like the uniqueness and themeing of the UI elements. What game engine are you making this game in?

[solar basin]

hotpot hotpot hotpot hotpot hotpot hotpot hotpot hotpot hotpot hotpot hotpot

[solar basin]

Thanks! I'm still really happy with it. 💛 This would be RPG Maker MV (the one from 2015).

[reef sequoia]

hotpot hotpot hotpot!!!

[solar basin]

I worked on reinventing the dialogue system to act like Final Fantasy 2

Useful for me to explain mechanics to the player. If they already know what to do they can just proceed

[brave epoch]

Oh wow, that's great! I love systems like this that allow people to take things at their own pace.

[solar basin]

The first video is me tinkering with a gear box that lets me travel forward and back in time--and even right into a New Game+ state at any time.

The second is a practical use of the dialogue inquiry system

[green cobalt]

Looks really neat! Why is the gearshift jumping all the way left though? My intuition is that it would jump between each circle

I love your loading noise by the way

[rich sedge]

The grainy filter over the scene looks fantastic! 🤩

[coarse leaf]

I always love seeing your fontwork :]

[solar basin]

Allies will say something short and sweet upon certain conditions like totally owning an enemy.

Inspired by random voice lines that'd play when something similar would happen in Final Fantasy X

Idyll is a silent protagonsit, but will still "speak his mind" :]

[solar basin]

Above: This will be used in between scenes. Usually right after the climax of a battle and before the next scene (or after a chapter end screen)

Below: The thing that inspired it. There's something about doing this after the screen goes dark and right after a great feat that gives me so much...

satsifaction...?

It's so simple but I think it will feel good to hear a familiar noise after a really long fight near the end-game

[solar basin]

Today's update is a new scene

[serene quartz]

Beautiful!

[solar basin]

Improved some animations

[reef sequoia]

b o n k

[dapper trout]

That steam pot animation is really cool.

[fair spire]

Ooh I found out about your game on Gamejolt ages ago and followed you on Twitter, I had no idea you were a Seattle indies member! Can’t wait to see this finished :)

[solar basin]

Possible new logo

[ripe siren]

I like it! The letters take a few moments to pop and I feel like they might do better in a different color for more contrast, but the overall flow of it is really nice.

[solar basin]

Somewhen finally has a real title screen!

To make up for the lack of contrast, it will glow

An old-filmy like animated sepia filter accompanies the scene for further distinction between the actually-rendered scene and the title logo and its buttons

[rich sedge]

The sepia filter over a screen with a train is always a good fit! Steampunk vibes in that screen for real! 🚂

[solar basin]

Thanks! Steampunk's my favorite thing EVER so I'm so happy I've gotten this far

[solar basin]

Revamped party member to be a lot cooler than before lol

[rich sedge]

What's the device that the little buddy is using?

[brave epoch]

One of these, perhaps?

[dapper trout]

lol now I see the hoverboard, I thought he was shaking his hips

[rich sedge]

Was wondering if it was some kind of device where he throws the hips into it! Hoverboard makes sense though

[solar basin]

The hoverboard can be "borrowed" with a Dual Tech.

I needed more Chrono Trigger-like team attacks...

[solar basin]

Some cool VFX :)

[rich sedge]

Style points on an attack? I am so $&@#ing down 🕺

[solar basin]

"Stylish!! ❤️ " hits are actually critical hits! However, it's planned that racking up a bunch of those (scaling with Gear Level) during battle and getting a good battle grade (also scaling) should net you actual Style Points for use directly in leveling up weaponry and gaining skills later as the characters themselves do not have level ups and rely on their gear to become stronger. With these, you should see your weapons level up rather easily~

[solar basin]

I owe a quick explanation on how to customize characters since they can't level up.

Innate Skills

These are skills highly personal to each party member and aren't shared. Some are passives. Currently deciding if team-attacks should also go this skill tree or via the below system.

Daisy-Chained Skills

These are skills that can be equipped via gemstones called "Stratagems" that hold skill and passive information recorded on them. Like a clock, there are 12 slots that literally transfer data between slots, thus letting you "daisy-chain" skills/passives together to form new ones! These are not personal to each party member.

Weapon Customization & Enemy Weakness Exploitation

Each weapon has 5 slots that let you mess with the bars on the right or gain additional weapon-based passives that can only be gained through them via rare attachments. The higher the number, the more damage that weapon will do that specific class of enemy.

Out of all 3 of these, only weaponry can raise a character's total gear level.

but the rest can do SO much to tailor the experience to how you want it to get the upper hand

I kinda hope this isn't too much for the casual kind of RPG goer, but I like in depth systems sooooooooooooooo...

[solar basin]

There's case animation for when you miss AND ALSO a unique bonus when ranged moves completely miss but hit another target!

So you're not entirely punished for missing due to RNG

[solar basin]

Chrono Trigger didn't have familiar summoning, but I thought to add it anyway

They'll be townsfolk from the towns you've built (as well as cut content from party members who aren't in the party anymore)

I cut this character from the main party as he was too difficult to find team attack animations for

[reef sequoia]

Summons are fun!

[brave epoch]

I love the idea of meeting characters in towns and then pulling them in to do an attack (Even if they're not part of your party proper). That's great! It definitely makes me think there will be lots of meaningful side quests.

[rich sedge]

Summoning is one of my favorite parts of playing an RPG! Looks great

[solar basin]

GeoGears are very important collectables you can find all over Somewhen

so I made them look and feel important when obtained

I giggle every time I pick one of these up due to added controller vibration (if set to on)

[solar basin]

I've already said too much about this animation in other places, TL;DR: I really like chromatic aberration, okay??

I used my newfound powers from the previous animation to send a ripple through the portal too, but localize it to only that sprite and layer

[serene quartz]

Gorgeous!

[solar basin]

There are two kinds of Time Gates.

The one that goes back in time is animated backward.

The game is governed by a rule of 3.

The elements represent the time of day. The elemental wheel literally goes clockwise along with the color of the sky from your regular day to day

so... what about purple portals?

For reasons unknown, they seem to be one-way tickets from another era entirely. One can only assume, by watching the direction of how these ones animate clockwise, is that they come from a distant past.

They will always spawn Grudge to fight

The other time gates only go to set periods of time

[rich sedge]

Animation on the time gates is gorgeous!

[reef sequoia]

ooooh yeah nice effects

[serene quartz]

i hope your monster house music slaps as hard as the monster house music from pokemon mystery dungeon

[solar basin]

heehee, I've been listening to remixes of that for the majority of last week when thinking up this

there will be special attention to the music of most things since I love VGM quite a bit and am pretty picky

It's not an RPG without some mindless minigame to play

This is a WIP of the cover of some booster packs I was cooking up for a while

[rough furnace]

Just catching up on the latest, those time portals look awesome!

[solar basin]

[dapper trout]

@solar basin Did you submit your game to this festival? Im assuming it has time travel mechanics? I think the deadline to submit is today. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdIerednJUx08jL7PuHVDoTPzmIdxsWQejgEMGCbiISGD9qfw/viewform

[edgy widget]

Just wanted to say this looks amazing. Wish listed on Steam

Can tell you put a lot of thought into the turn based systems here

[solar basin]

It's been a while. I had a crippling memory leak and a lot of imposter syndrome. I'm back with a more full-sounding battle complete with new SFX

Note: The controller does in fact vibrate when the ball is struck

[solar basin]

I've done a lot, I guess.

[rich sedge]

Looking sharp!

[solar basin]

Still messing around. Constructing vertical slice.

[solar basin]

I'm switching engines.

[serene quartz]

Are you truly?? To which one??

You seem pretty far in development! I hope it's not too big a move!

[solar basin]

To Godot. I'm already catching up.

Overall this is the play. There are some things about RM that are less of a hard brick wall and more of trying to defy the laws of physics.

I think I've made my point that, while RM is a toy, it is powerful enough for most budding devs. But not for me. Not anymore.

It was a decision I sat on for a while, tbh

Something happened that was just the last straw, performance and memory wise.

QoL in workspace is also abysmal at the resolution I am currently at. Long story.

[serene quartz]

Best of luck! Can't wait to see what you make with a more robust engine!

[reef sequoia]

Good luck with that!

[tough depot]

This looks really lovely! What are you using for dynamic lighting?

[solar basin]

The game doesn't even resemble whatever it used to be 6 months ago.

I've made a few cool new systems that take advantage of speeding up some dull moments about town/base building.

This was not really all that possible in the previous engine (not without a fight anyway)

I'm really giving it my all.