Refactors Galore

Refactors Galore

Its been a few months since my last update on the project. So here’s an update on the progress so far.

The Refactoring

Moves

Before this refactor I had the 1 move implemented in a way. That being the persona attack skill use ability. When attempting to implement the guard move for a party member I found that the old implementation was far too limiting. So I refactored it. The new setup uses an interface for the logic shared between each move and a class implementation of every move the user can have. I managed to refactor the move I had before in to this new setup and implement a guard move without any issues which was good. Since then I’ve started implementing other moves such as the support skills.

using CarterGames.Common.Events;

namespace Gameplay.Actions
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Implement to make a new move in the game for a party member or enemy to use.
    /// </summary>
    public interface IGameMove
    {
        /* ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
        |   Properties
        ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— */
        
        /// <summary>
        /// The type of action the move is.
        /// </summary>
        GameMoveType ActionType { get; }
        
        
        /// <summary>
        /// Raises when the move is completed.
        /// </summary>
        Evt MoveCompleted { get; set; }
        
        
        /// <summary>
        /// Any ctx for the move to use.
        /// </summary>
        object ActionCtxData { get; set; }
        
        /* ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
        |   Methods
        ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— */
        
        /// <summary>
        /// Performs the move when called.
        /// </summary>
        void PerformMove();
        
        
        /// <summary>
        /// Resets the move when called.
        /// </summary>
        void ResetMove();
    }
}

Slot Navigation

While its still not fully complete, I’ve also refactored the slot navigation system to be more flexible that it was. Beforehand it was a bit of a mess with the whole wildcard solution, honestly it was a bit over-engineered. With this refactor the system is much better, but while writing this post I noticed some bugs with the wild option, so there is still some work to do there.I was also able to use this system in the persona skill select display as well. Before I as using a different setup for that which felt a bit dumb.

Minor Bits

Some extra refactors, not full systems but some improvement include:

  • Target Manager > Sorted the resetting when selecting skills, as skills like support skills can target the party instead of enemies.
  • Turn Manager > Updated the turn manager to track complete turns and the ability to loop around to the start again.

Party Buffs

In Persona you can buff or debuff combatants in Critical chance, Attack/Defense/Agiligy & reflection walls to repel single attacks. I wrote a system to support this on combatants in the last month. The system took a bit of time to implement properly but I was able to get it working eventually. I also sorted the UI for the setup which appears over the combatant when they have any buff or debuff applied. These buffs are also set to only last a number of turns and will expire on the turn when there are no uses left.

And yea, there are some UI bugs and missing art on the character stats now…. Lots of little bits to fix 🙂

Project Cleanup

Behind the scenes I’ve also been doing a lot of cleaning up. There were a lot of prefabs and old art in the project that wasn’t being used anymore. I managed to clear up all the old prefabs and improve the structure so there is a prefab for the model as is for menu’s etc. While the other is for the actual persona model for the game scene when summoning the persona.

I also renamed all the assets to match a naming convention I use a work which is mostly for the art side but with some extra conventions for prefabs and scenes. The convention below if you’re interested:

That’s about all the big news I have for now. I’ll still be working away at this project when I get the time. But I am taking at-least 1 day off a week to just chill and do nothing game dev related. With an extra day off for the rest of the year more or less I’ll be taking that fully. I’ve been slowly getting through Person 4 Golden on those days so far, been good fun. Held off on Persona 3 Portable once Persona 3 Reload was annouced officially as that’ll be much more engaging to play when it comes out next year. Its looking awesome so far, really looking forward to playing it on release day, may even take a day off to play it xD

Merge Seige

📱 Merge Seige

A merge stragergy game where you merge units and place them to win simulated fights.


Summary

Role: Programmer
Team Size: 4
Engie: Unity
Platforms: Android
Studio: 🔗 Fumb Games

Get it on Google Play

Merge Seige is a prototype game where you strategize placing troops ona grid and watch them battle.


This was a filler project while other projects were tested for their market value. I worked on this for about 3-4 weeks only and the code reflected the tiem spent on it.

The most challenging part here was the AI setup for the game. As the entire fight was AI I had to make the logic for movement and attacking for both the player and enemy units. The movement proved to be a big pain as detecting if a unit was ahead of the unit moving was really trickey to nail down. I did eventually get it working with raycasting and a slight delay to the logic for each line by a frame.

Other than that the game went rather well. There were few bugs with the combat and the scene transitions etc. As this wqas just a prototype it only had 3 levels on loop so not the most complex of game to produce.

Komi Can’t Communicate

Komi Can’t Communicate

, , ,

Recently I’ve been trying to find some Anime’s/Manga’s to get into. Mostly to expose myself to more Japanese language to help me understand it, but also for entertainment. This is one of the first ones I came across and I’m glad I found it.

⚠️ Warning, this post contains some early story spoilers.

A picture of the main character komi (right) holding up a note written in japanese.

Komi Can’t Communicate/古見さんは、コミュ症です is an ongoing manga series. It tells the story of a high school girl named Shoko Komi who has a really hard time communicating with people as she suffers from extreme social anxiety. Something which I have and still do suffer from, though admittedly not as bad as Komi does. When I picked this up I will admit that I instantly read through the entire manga as is it stands to date in about a week if not faster. As of writing there are 24 volumes, 25 isn’t out for another few weeks yet, with 26 & 27 coming later this year. I will be getting them as and when 🤩.

Now I don’t read often, mostly as I find it quite boring when the content isn’t something I’m super interested in. But this I would actually voluntarily read. Similar to Lonely Castle in the Mirror, a book I read recently that I have a post in the works for as well. I read that in a similar vain and was excited to finish it. I did also watch the anime adaptation, in Japanese with subtitles and it does a really good job of bringing the manga to life. Watching it is a good alternative if your not into the manga, but note it is very far behind the current manga’s being released. The anime currently has 2 seasons as of writing which covers volumes 1 – 9 and the start of volume 10.

An intense moment with a boy (left) being tapped on the sholder by Komi (right) with a shock moment.

The story mainly covers Komi’s goal of making 100 friends, something which starts with the help of her first friend Hitohito Tadano. Tadano notices Komi struggling to say anything and being incredibly nervous, shy & anxious about everything that she says/does. He’s the first to actually notice this and provide a compromise with writing on the blackboard at the back of the class. Komi had managed it earlier in the class. Komi is able to communicate by writing things down and explains the situation and how she feels. She is about the leave after explaining it all when Tadano starts writing a question the blackboard. They then share their first conversation on the blackboard. Its a really sweet moment between the two and starts off one hell of a friendship.

A screenshot of Komi (left) & Tadano (right) writing on a blackboard in japanese.

What follows is just an amazingly well made collection of moments through the year with Komi constantly been misunderstood as someone totally different to who she is on multiple occasions. She’s also the most popular member of the class, being very attractive and all. She’s even made as class “god”. A role the class made just for her as she couldn’t really handle being the class rep. Tadano ended up being the rep. I really love the visuals through the manga, mostly the way Komi is represented. I loved the notepad conversations & the way Komi is drawn with just the eyes, its kind of cute 😻.

A screenshot of Tadano (left) looking at Komi (right) who has just jumped in the air in joy at making her 2nd friend.

As I eluded too earlier, I really connected with this anime/manga. Komi’s struggles to talk and how she reacts in social situations is very similar to how I’d react in some cases. I’ve certainly come out of my shell over the year and am far better at talking to people than I was a few years back, but I still have some of these exact anxieties. The manga also brings up talking fast as being a communication disorder which feels right given how I naturally speak really fast. To the point where I have to repeat myself wayyyyy to much. To the point were its annoying to me.

But it also nicely conveys exactly how I feel after conversations with people. I’m immediately thinking did I say something wrong? was that appropriate? I should’ve had said that! etc. As well as the nerves people like me can suffer from, from even the most mundane things, like making a phone call, arranging to meet people or even just going somewhere totally new. It piles up and the manga nicely shows that this can keep you up at night. I know it does for me sometimes, I often loose sleep from overthinking like this about pretty much anything. Its nice to see it represented. for a change.

A screenshot with Komi & Tadano (right) in shock at what is being shown to them on the paper being help by another classmate (left).

Overall I really recommend people give this a watch/read. For me its something I’m looking forward to reading now, can’t wait for the next volume in a few weeks, its really kicking off on a long running story beat now and I’m loving it.

* All media in this post is from the Komi Can’t Communicate Anime series on Netflix. No copyright infringment is interned in their use & belongs to its respective copyright holder(s).

Lonely Castle in the Mirror

Lonely Castle in the Mirror

, , ,

I randomly came about the trailer for the anime film adaption of the book of the same name. Once I saw the trailer, I actually got the book. Mostly due to the film not being out at the time.

⚠️ Warning, this post contains story spoilers.

The trailer I watched before buying the book.

So, Lonely Castle in the Mirror tells the story of a group of school age children who are all summoned to a castle through mirrors in their rooms. The mirrors open up during the day from 9-5 allowing all of them to access the castle as a safe space. There is a mystery around the castle, it has no running water or utilities other than electricity and it will grant one wish to the person who finds the key hidden in the castle. There are some catches though. The castle will close to everyone when a wish is granted, they have a year to find it or it will close regardless and when the wish is granted, all their memories of the castle will be lost. Their memories will remain if no-one claims the wish. Also there are wolves that’ll eat anyone who breaks the rules.

What made this story stand out even more was the fact the 7 kids in the castle were all suffering from a mixture of abuse, bullying & loss. For me the bullied students hit home the most, being bullied a lot myself back in school, I went through a lot of the similar experiences.

The main character Kokoro, which means heart in Japanese, is suffering from mass bullying trauma & can barely leave the house. She hasn’t been to school in a while and it is taking its toll. Essentially she’s been bullied for having a short affair/crush on a guy at school. The popular girl group is mocking her & being real nasty to her and her emotions. It all becomes too much for Kokoro to handle and she isolates herself, not going to school despite her mother protests. One scene that was very familiar to me, as I think I had a moment just like this when I was younger, was when her bullies came to her home and started to banging on her door. Trying to get her to come out and face them. Kokoro does exactly what I’d do, lock all the door, close all the curtains and hide. I’m glad this scene is in the anime as it really hits hard how badly hurt Kokoro is mentally by their presence and how vulnerable she is from it. I won’t spoil the other teens troubles, but you do learn them throughout the story.

I do have to take a moment to mention the soundtrack. Its another really good one. I do love my music, so when a film/game makes a good soundtrack, I notice. Below is the main theme & soundtrack for the film version if you want to have a listen:

People who know me know that I don’t read often, not that I can’t read, but personally I find it really hard to get into a book. However this was an acception. I ended up reading the book in like two weeks which is un-heard. It started with just evening reads, about 30 mins each night right before going to sleep in bed. But I ended up finishing the book during the day volunterrially as I was into it so much. Having seen the film as well, I can say for the sure the book is worth a read. They miss a lot of the bonding moments between the characters to get all the story in the runtime. Which is something you really notice reading the book, its also an easy read. Even though its translated from Japanese and has a few odd translation moments.

So yea, this is totally worth a read. Its not a happy story for most of its runtime. But I thoroughly recommend it.

Early Combat Setup & Party Members

Early Combat Setup & Party Members

There’s been a lot of progress since the last update I made so I felt like it was about time to post another update. While the actual combat is still on-going all the logic up until the point of actually doing the damage to the enemy/enemies is all set at this point which is great. A summary of all the new stuff since the last update:

Party Members

The player can normally have up to 3 additional characters with them in a battle. I’ve started the structure this month with party member & party member manager classes. The party member implements the ICombatant interface that I use to define a fighter in the battle. The ICombatant stores stuff like the character data & persona held for each party member with a setup to allow the wildcard player to switch persona held. Below is the current class for that, but I imagine it’ll have extra properties in the future:

using Data.Personas;
using Gameplay.Characters;
using UnityEngine;

namespace Gameplay.Combat
{
    public interface ICombatant
    {
        string Name { get; }
        bool IsEnemy { get; }
        GameObject Obj { get; }
        PersonaData Persona { get; }
        CombatantStats Stats { get; set; }
    }
}

I’ve also been working on some more models for the characters. For the party members etc, I’ve decided to make my own instead of copying any from P5R. I’ve also decided at the same time to allow the user to choose between a male or female protagonist. I’ve started the setup of the velvet room scene to accommodate this. The UI is placeholder here for now, but it is all functional at setting the value in the save data for the player selection. I’m hoping to have animated characters in the windows when you change your selection over each of them as well as a name & description of the character.

I’ve still got to define some of the characters and I’ve only got a few made so far, so I’ll be making more over the coming months. The data for the characters is still a bit work in progress:

The last main bit I’ve sorted for the party members is the UI for the party stats. This was pretty straight forward to setup with the existing setup. I also added the smaller UI for the inactive party members as well as the animated stat visuals when hovering over skills in the persona skill select screen. The portraits for the characters are the only thing left to do here as and when I get around to making them.

Combat

While I’ve yet to do damage, its all set now to use an ability. I’ve got the data for the damage, hit + the weakness checks and even spawning particles for each effect. I had to do a fair bit of work in the backend to allow the user to select all enemies or just one based on the skill selected. The UI is also now pooled to allow for re-using of elements, though the heart UI is still a little bit off, so that’ll be worked on at some point.

When you use a skill, the UI updates to show the skill name used for a few seconds before hiding. If the skill is just one target it’ll play on the one you’ve targeted while multi hit skills are currently slightly staggered like they are in P5R. I know some skills hit all at the same time but that’ll be easy to update as and when. I’ve also sorted to removing of Hp/Sp for using a move. You’ll note there a drastic difference between the two screenshots around this paragraph. That’s a bug I’ve nto gotten around to yet, but the player’s starting health is 100 and I’d used a few skills to test before so it was on 90 before using Giant Slice which take 9hp off 100 Hp base (9%) resulting in the 81 remaining.

I also updated the enemies & battle system managers. The turn manager now correctly determines the right player party member to start the fight based on their persona’s agility level. The party manager allows the active data to be received from the turn manager instead from a static class like it was before and the enemy spawner now spawns into slots based on the number of enemies in the wave. This has been set to a max of 5 currently like in P5R.

Minor Bits

Other than that, I’ve been working on a lot of minor bits which I’ll list out below:

Control UI

As you’ll have seen in some of the screenshots already, I’ve setup a controls system for the game. This translates any control I’ve setup based on the active input device. So if I were to connect a PlayStation or Xbox controller, the UI would update to show the controls for that scheme. I’ve yet to add the controls to every screen, but it is all working and pretty each to add where needed. Even the root options screen uses it now.

Skill Weak/Technical Text

There’s now a UI element for when a skill will hit & Weakness or Technical hit any enemy.

View Persona UI

I’ve upped the colours a tad as they were a bit dull. Though I’ve still got to fix a few bugs with it, the display for level and xp being one and the other being the obvious model scale issue.

Backend

  • Player held persona’s now use a variant of persona data that is saveable. Before I was using a direct reference to a scriptable object. But that kept breaking between sessions. So there’s now a variant with implicit operators to convert between the two versions.
  • Minor bug fixes to sheet downloading & persona skill custom editors so they show cost again. Also fixed the instant kill display to only show one set of costs for the skill.
  • Imported a lot of old models from game jams and other projects to use as persona’s in the future.
  • Started work on a new persona data maker to aid with making persona’s as the sheet is a bit of a pain to handle when it comes to this. We’ll see which workflow works out best as and when.

That’s it for this update, but lots of progress which I’m pretty happy with, hopefully I can keep this up going forward with more combat stuff in June/July. See you all in the next update.

View Display & Fixes

View Display & Fixes

Another month has passed since the last update, and I’ve been mostly focusing on the UI displays and fixing a few bugs as well as some general organisation. I haven’t been able to dedicate much time to the project for the last few weeks, as I had the Save Manager to finish up for Carter Games by the end of April.

Preview

Below is a short video of the current progress made on the project as of writing:

View persona UI

The UI hasn’t changed much on the front-end, but behind the scenes a lot had gone on. I’ve spent the time to improve the UI Polygon setup that I’m using for the odd shapes in the UI. The new setup lets me drag points in the editor space and the graphic is then drawn using those points. I’ve also made it so this updates in edit mode so it’s easier to visualize. The upside being it’s easier to edit and less buggy. But I still need to do a little bit more to it. As it currently doesn’t scale with the bounds (width/height) of the graphic.

A screenshot of the unity editor with a element of the persona UI selected showing 4 points highlighted as gizmo's

With this new UI polygon setup I remade the UI for the skill strengths & weaknesses. Mainly to have the extra length for the text. I couldn’t quite match the text perfectly with Persona 5’s text as the font has a few layers to it. That and I couldn’t find a font close enough to match it, so I went with the readable option. This turned out okay and I refactored the display code to toggle the sections correctly when needed.

A screenshot of the view persona display with a skill highlighted.

The next new part was the navigation of the UI. In Persona 5 you can inspect each skill and move around the slots for each persona. This wasn’t the easiest system to code despite it being simple in theory. I ended up with a data structure that split the slots in the columns with an option for wildcard slots that could be accessed from specific slots. I reused the old selection UI from the skills select screen and refactored it to allow for 4-directional blue backgrounds. This was done so as in the game you would see this highlight in the direction you were navigating in.

With this I also implemented the inspect display which I had already laid out to show the skill in more detail. This display updates as you move around the skills and hides is no skill is currently being hovered over. Some of the more general fixes such as toggling user input listeners at the right times were also adjusted. As some of them were listening on start instead of when the screen was opened.

Another notable change is the model preview. While it is still early days, I was able to get the model to spawn in and rotate with user input. The model is stored in a new model system that replaces the old one I had from the 1st day of working on the project. The main upside of the new setup is that I can easily get & re-use models without spawning them all in on start.

The final main change is the ability to switch personas. Using the newly released Save manager 2.x I was able to make a save object for the held persona’s the player has. Currently this is the container class but down the line it will be the raw data for each persona. There is still a lot to do with this system as is, but the ability to switch between all held and select a different persona is now possible which is the key thing.

General organisation

The only other progress of note is a major clean-up of old code. While a lot of the code base is still scrappy and a bit messy, I have spent the time to remove scripts that I want to re-do or are for systems I’ve yet to actually focus on. Structurally the code is split into categories based on what it is about. So, data structures or scriptable objects are in a “Data” folder. While general systems, gameplay specific systems & UI all have their own folders. Inside these folders I have the code split by mechanic. Namespaces wise they all now use the base folder which does name more namespaces, but a more structured setup which I like, for now.

Closing thoughts

Given this has only been a small amount of progress, I’m still happy with it so far. I’m hoping in the coming months to be able to get into some of the gameplay. Implementing the enemies, moves & actual combat. So hopefully more exciting stuff to come! I’d expect the next update in about a months’ time.

Bitcoin Tycoon

📱 Bitcoin Tycoon

A Idle tycoon games themed around mining fake crypto currencies.


Summary

Role: Programmer
Team Size: 7
Engie: Unity
Platforms: Android
Studio: 🔗 Fumb Games

Get it on Google Play

Bitcoin Tycoon is a idle tycoon game where you manage your office of staff who mine crypto currencies with the aim of becoming a bitcoin millionare.


This was my first main project of the year. I worked with another programmer to produce the code side for the project with the art team working on all the visuals. I ended up programming most of the gameplay with the exception of the crypto market simulation & its UI. This included the:

  • Tutorial System
  • Dialogue System
  • Workstations (Upgrades, Props, Eco Generation etc.)
  • Economy System
  • Enviroment Unlocking
  • Idle Mechanics
  • AI Navigation

By far one of the most challenging parts of this project was the tutorial. Making a tutorial system that is truely modular is surprisingly difficult. The solution I wrote for this version was pretty good but did have a few flaws, most notably the system for saving the last place the user was at as I used an int when it should’ve been a string. As the int setup meant if I moved bits around it could break the user’s progress through the tutorial as it would return them to a different step than the one they were on.

The project had a few bugs with it during development, but turned out pretty good. Running really well compared to some of my previous projects and is by far one of the best looking & running projects to date.

Persona UI, Its A Lot Of Work

Persona UI, Its A Lot Of Work

So it’s been about a month and I felt it was about time I updated you’ll on the progress so far. I’m still working on the UI setups at the moment as they are required for the rest of the project to really function. Have been hoping between this project and another on and off all month. So I’ve only actually worked on this for about 10 or so days this month but the progress is worth showing.

Menu Management

With the amount of UI there is to do I needed to make a menu system that would let me switch between different menus with ease. Before I had a manager class that did this on context, but that was getting really messy really quickly. Instead of continuing with the messy setup I decided to refactoring it into something more useable.

The new setup is entirely static and is called in the displays logic for the active menu. The active menu then controls what buttons open what displays and runs the logic to open the new one and close the current if needed. Using an interface to keep it simple. So far this solution is proving to work quite well. Though I imagine I will, have to come back to it at some point and make further adjustments. An example of the new menu controller API in use to close one display & open another:

// API - uses type to open/close menus, with each being registered on the scene opening. 
// MenuController.OpenMenuCloseThis<TOpenMenuType, TCloseMenuType>();
// Below would switch from the skill select UI on the active persona to the detailed persona view display. 
MenuController.OpenMenuCloseThis<ViewPersonaDisplayController, SelectPersonaSkillDisplay>();

Persona Inspect

This is by far the most complex display in the entire project. But so far it’s not going too badly. I’ve managed to get then reveal mostly working and sorted a setup to show the active persona’s data. But there is still a long way to go. One of the challenges of this UI is the fact that it changes each time it’s opened or modified. With boxes randomly changing sizes etc. I have a feeling I’m going to need to work more on the UI polygon script to make it more reliable for all the use cases that are gonna crop up in the future.

P5R

My Version So Far

Some other bits include a popup description display that appears when inspecting the persona skills. I have setup a mockup for this display on the UI which works, but it needs to actually populate with data and appear still which it currently doesn’t. The other main progress is the stat level bars, these are a tad annoying as the actual “fill” is not set the actual value due to the background needing to take up more space than the fill. Currently I have the background taking the actual space while the fill uses a reduced size. But I still want to see if I can get it to update without needing such a workaround. There still a lot to-do on this display but I’m hoping to get it functionally working by the next update.

Data

In my last post I went over some of the data stuff I was working on with Google sheets, this is still an ongoing task with instant kill, healing and some passive skills still to work out and implementation for. Its tricky as a lot of these skills are very specific and working out a generic structure to store the data is proving tricky. But I am hoping to have the data done by the next update or two as it will be needed before I get fully into the gameplay and move implementation. I did fix a few issues here where data wasn’t updating object in the project, but I did some refactoring here and there to make the implementation on the dev side a bit easier. Most notable was the battle stats, so “Str, Ma, En, Ag, Lu”. The main change was to change the data from a struct to a class and to store all the data in a custom SerializableDictionary instead of individual values for ease of access. With getter/setter methods to access specific values by stat type. The code now looking like this:

/// <summary>
/// A container class to hold a persona's battle stats.
/// </summary>
[Serializable]
public class BattleStats
{
    /* ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
    |   Fields
    ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── */
    
    [SerializeField] private SerializableDictionary<PersonaBattleStat, int> stats;
    
    /* ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
    |   Constructors
    ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── */

    /// <summary>
    /// Makes a blank battle stats class.
    /// </summary>
    public BattleStats() { }


    /// <summary>
    /// Makes a new battle stats data with the dictionary entered.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="data">The data to set.</param>
    public BattleStats(SerializableDictionary<PersonaBattleStat, int> data)
    {
        stats = data;
    }
        
    /* ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
    |   Methods
    ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── */

    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the stat of the type entered.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="statType">The stat to get.</param>
    /// <returns>The stat value.</returns>
    public int GetStat(PersonaBattleStat statType)
    {
        if (stats.ContainsKey(statType))
        {
            return stats[statType];
        }
        
        return -1;
    }


    /// <summary>
    /// Sets the stat to the entered value.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="statType">The stat to edit.</param>
    /// <param name="value">The value to set to.</param>
    public void SetStat(PersonaBattleStat statType, int value)
    {
        if (!stats.ContainsKey(statType)) return;
        stats[statType] = value;
    }
}

Misc

In the last post I also covered affinities and their display. I mentioned i wasn’t going to do the two versions. Well I’ve changed my mind on that and now plan to implement the extended boxes in the future. The display just looks really off without the background behind the text. So expect an update on that soon. Otherwise progress is good and I’m pretty happy with how the project is going so far. Even played a little P5R to get some reference material and had to stop myself playing xD

That’s about it for this update, see you all in the next one.

So Much Data

So Much Data

Data Handling

After the first day I was spending time working on the data structure for all the data needed for persona’s which is a lot. The skills stuff I did on day 1 is great, but when thinking about it further I knew I’d need a way to generate a lot of skills and items without needing to do it all manually. As that would just take far too long and I would hate it all by the time I had created each skill by hand. This meant I needed to looking to ways of automating the data creation with some tool. For this I looked to see if there was any way to make a google sheet readable in Unity. Thankfully there was a nice short tutorial on downloading data to a csv format in Unity. I managed to make a system based on that, that would download a google sheet tab to a .csv file that I could then read and convert into the sciprtable objects as needed.

The code is nothing special here and is rather rigid as I made it purely to make scriptable objects and not for general game data use. Though down the line I may looking to make a system like that. But the good thing is that it works and makes handling skills & later the custom personas considerably easier.


Affinites Display UI

Other than that I did a bit more UI work and setup a display for the persona skill affinites. These being the skills they are weak or strong to etc. The display in persona 5 is fairly dynamic with two states for this, one for no text but unkown affinities and another for when there is an affinity. But, due to a lack of good screenshots to mock it up with and the hassle of mathcing it for each icon I’ve decided that for my version to just use the one version and just update the text.

The good news is the unknown state that I’m matching from persona 5 look spretty accurate and cool. See the left for how it looks currently. Note that there is a white background behind it in the final UI setup. I haven’t worked on any of the logic for hooking this up yet, but the data it will use will make it easy to just update the affinity text if it is revealed.


Organisation & Cleanup

The final progress for the day was a bit more clean up with some commenting & script organisation. I improved the polygon ui mover script to auto start/stop and to only run when active and started a better structure where mechanics are grouped together instead of all the ui in one parent folder and all of the data in another as it makes it harder to find some bits of the codebase as it grows in size.


Whats Next?

Mostly more data xD, yea I’ve yet to get the healing skills in as of writing as well as about half of the passive ones. This is due to the varying data that I’ll need to store. There is a chance that I may have to hard code some skills in with no data just due to how specific they are, but I’ll keep trying to make a good structure before going down that way. I also plan to get some early setup for the turn management for a 1 v 1 to start with and then a x v 1 as I plan to have a full party of 4 for the player to use, matching the source game. It’ll probably be a few weeks before the next update as I do have to work on another project at the same time as this and that one has a more rigid deadline to hit.


Project Start, Persona Summoning & UI Tests

Project Start, Persona Summoning & UI Tests

A personal project where I replicate the Persona 5 Royal Turn-Based Combat system as best I can for fun.

I was able to get a full day more of less to kick the project off with a bang. For the majority of the day I was focused on implementing some of the bits I wasn’t sure would work to prove the concept to myself before committing to it fully. I’m glad to say its looking good so we’re all go. To the left is a little video of the setup I made today. However I will be reworking all of this as I rough coded this together and it is a mess.

Whats setup:

  • Basic player & animations
  • Players stats + UI
  • Player persona
  • Persona skill select UI
  • Target select UI

I spent the tail end of the day doing some clean up of the code in preperation for the larger project. Today this was the persona skills. I knew each skill would be more of less the same in structure so I made a base class with the meta data and then specific inheritors for each type like attack & support etc. In doing this I made a custom inspector setup to make it easier to make new skills. A preview of this can be seen to the side.

The custom editor logic handles things such as the icon & name of each skill as well as elements such as the cost of the skill, as some skills use a percentage of the players health while others use a pre-defined amount. For the icons I’m just using some placeholder art I got from FlatIcon for now but I will likely change these down the line. Below are the icons I currently have for each ability:

I’ve already setup a system where you can access each of these icons in code in a static class by the type they represent. Following a similar setup for other data bits down the line should make working with such a large data set more steamlined, but we’ll see how that goes when we get to it.