Aretisia: Tenebris Dominus

Devlog

• Surprise, the full game is out!
  December 13, 2024 by Ema Pex#Announcement

  Kept you waiting, huh? It's finally here, the full 1.0.0 release of Tenebris Dominus . Over the last few days I did what I could to package what was here into a playable state and polish up any loose... Continue reading

  
• Demo 2 is out!
  July 13, 2023 by Ema Pex#Announcement

  It's here! A whole month after the changelog was posted the full update is finally done, so if you want to go play it then now's the time. Now that the big news is out the way, let's talk a little. In... Continue reading
• Demo 2 Changelog
  June 06, 2023 by Ema Pex#Announcement

  Demo 2 still isn't done yet but I figured I'd reveal the full list of changes coming with Demo 2 since it's pretty big, and it'll maybe explain why the gap between Demo 1 and Demo 2 has been so long:... Continue reading
• Closing in on Demo 2
  June 02, 2023 by Ema Pex#Project Update

  It took some time to shuffle things around and figure out what new mechanics worked and what didn't, but we're closing in on the final feature set that will carry forward to the full game. There's a c... Continue reading
• Update on Demo 2
  May 19, 2023 by Ema Pex#Project Update

  Progress on Demo 2 has slowed down a bit while I make some changes and attempt to fix the overall balance, so it might not come out before the end of the month anymore. I've also been caught up with s... Continue reading
• Demo 2 will be BIG.
  April 26, 2023 by Ema Pex#Project Update

  Not really sure what title works for this post, but hey ho. Demo 2 is shaping up to be a pretty massive update and rework to most of the existing systems and mechanics, the list of changes is... quite... Continue reading
• Demo 1 now available!
  April 13, 2023 by Ema Pex#Announcement

  It's finally time! Demo 1 is finally out the door after a month of bug fixes, updates, and refining - this is a big moment for me and I'm both incredibly worried I've missed something that's broken bu... Continue reading
• Progress on Demo 1
  April 04, 2023 by Ema Pex#Project Update

  Is it time for another post already? Just wanted to keep you all up to date on what's been going on. Demo 1 entered testing a few weeks ago and has been receiving updates constantly, though right now... Continue reading
• Release Cycle
  March 16, 2023 by Ema Pex#Announcement

  Woah. So soon? Yep! I mentioned in the last devlog that I wasn't going to let this reach 5 years in development. Over the last few weeks I have spent countless hours finishing all the content required... Continue reading
• Going Backwards
  February 25, 2023 by Ema Pex#Project Update

  Heyo! Been another while. The theme of this devlog is going to be "backwards". What do I mean by that? Well, sometimes you make a decision, say something, and then change your mind literally 5 minutes... Continue reading
• More Reworks
  January 15, 2023 by Ema Pex#Project Update

  Hey there! Been a while. Carrying on from the previous devlog, I've continued adjusting stats and trying to get the game to feel as good as possible. I've also redone damage calculations again , but I... Continue reading

  
• An Actual Devlog
  November 23, 2022 by Ema Pex#Project Update

  Hey there! This is the first proper devlog I'm posting that isn't an archive of random tweets. If you've read through everything so far you'll have a rough idea of where the project is at, but there's... Continue reading
• 14th of September, 2022
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Decided to completely replace luck as a stat because it didn't do anything, so it's now "spontaneity". This is effectively a speed modifier on all actions, any time an action is taken all speed is rec... Continue reading
• 12th of August, 2022
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  In this month's edition of "What The **** Have I Been Doing?", it's another one step forward and two steps back as I decided to rework ALL the stats. I didn't like how high they were and wanted them t... Continue reading
• 3rd of January, 2022
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Was reminded I'm still not done with this yet so I've been getting back to it. Discovered a fun bug where a healing skill was set to deal damage instead of restore health. Accidentally killed the whol... Continue reading
• 19th of July, 2021
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Spent some time doing a pass of the skills a couple days ago, I was thinking about the original intention of the battle system to focus on giving as many options as possible and it doesn't really do t... Continue reading
• 23rd of February, 2021
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Hey me, please explain how post-game content and secret post-game content is part of the "required gameplay to finish the game" that I was supposed to be working on. I'll try to stay focussed; I've ma... Continue reading
• 2nd of February, 2021
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Kept you waiting, huh. So after thinking for two seconds about the demo rollout plan I've realised that it simply won't work with the way I intended to do it, due to how RMMV loads databases at launch... Continue reading
• 8th of March, 2020
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Fast travel. What about it? Well, my original idea was a boat that you pay for passage between areas, and that's held up. The main difference is in execution, earlier versions were less user friendly... Continue reading
• 15th of January, 2020
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Spent some time doing boring stuff. Bug fixing from my last playtesting session, cleaning up certain elements, assigning 'categories' to enemies (effectively their money/XP drops), giving certain item... Continue reading
• 30th of November, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Sudden Death/Mercy Kill has been reworked AGAIN, this time it's called Hunter's Mark. In the original version (Sudden Death) it had a chance to kill an enemy instantly, depending on how much HP the en... Continue reading
• 16th of November, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Let's discuss more gameplay options. There are 3 types of melee weapon available: Swords: balanced. Good damage, high agility, highest hit rate, low crit chance. Can equip a shield and defend. Has an... Continue reading
• 4th of November, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  So, I basically redid the randomised item thing entirely. Previously it was an item called the Orb of Secrets which, in normal gameplay, gave you a random misc. item. In a specific NG+ area (or anywhe... Continue reading
• 3rd of November, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  I've reworked equipment again. Previously, melee characters had the following slots: Weapon Shield Misc. Misc. Book Energy characters had the following: Weapon Misc. Misc. Book The book slot is a spec... Continue reading
• 28th of October, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  The boat didn't work quite right. The boat can now boat good and should work exactly as intended. To explain, there's a 3 point fast travel system using a boat that you gain access to when you reach A... Continue reading

  
• 12th of October, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Let's talk items and item design, specifically accessory items like rings. I've always enjoyed items that have interesting special effects more than flat stat boosts, as it forces you to think a bit a... Continue reading
• 17th-28th of September, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Just realised that story wise having a road into the Antiquam Silvam leading to the Caelum Spire doesn't make sense. Note to self: remove the road from the overworld when I wake up. By the way, it's a... Continue reading
• 11th of September, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  I've had to take a step back to actually compile an official timeline of events for the whole... ya know, timeline. It's becoming really complicated and I'm definitely going to end up forgetting detai... Continue reading
• 3rd-5th of September, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  I hate that I've had to rename it YET again but something always has to go wrong and get in the way. Initially I renamed the series from Inkagafar to Tales of Aretisia a month before E3, and then at E... Continue reading
• 26th-28th of August, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  While I'm thinking of modifiers to gameplay, how about a randomiser mode as well? In which all items dropped by enemies or gained through chests will be replaced by an item that could contain (almost)... Continue reading
• 25th of August, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  I figured I'd add a little thing before every boss fight, where it shows the name of the boss and a brief description. Just a small little thing before the fight starts, but it feels like it adds a lo... Continue reading

  
• 22nd of August, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  I just realised that its now been over a year since development started. Let's talk about what's happened in that time: Game mechanics have been finalised Skill sets have been made (1 for melee, 3 for... Continue reading

  
• 18th of August, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  I went back and redid the title screen theme because I had a couple different ideas that I thought would sound better. While I'm at it, let's talk about alternate titles the song almost had. The first... Continue reading
• 8th of August, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  One thing led to another, parts of the timeline have been elaborated on, and all of a sudden there's time travel. So... that happened. This new single aspect of the timeline massively complicates it a... Continue reading
• 1st of August, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  I finally went through and organised/finished creating all the types of armour last night. There are so many different types of armour that actually exist and yet they're all similar or variations on... Continue reading
• 19th of July, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Hey. Remember when I talked about how Sudden Death works? I just realised that I did the formula wrong. At 100% health it has a 50% chance to instantly kill. Whoops. As to why it's wrong, it's simple:... Continue reading
• 13th-16th of July, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Officially 2 months behind schedule on my estimated release date, wooooo! Take this roadmap with a huge pinch of salt. I'm now about 3 months behind but I still want to get the game finished before 20... Continue reading

  
• 15th of June, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Continued from previous post... When I say a small amount of the legwork, I mean that I replaced the already existing system I had but I haven't added save points to everywhere that they should be. En... Continue reading
• 14th of June, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  While trying to fall asleep my mind somehow wandered to the save system and how its kinda not the best right now. There are certain cutscenes where the game autosaves after them, and the simplest way... Continue reading
• 22nd of April, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Seeing as it's easter (or was, missed the boat on this one) I figured I would mention a couple of little details in Tenebris Dominus: In the house where the game starts is a fireplace that can be inte... Continue reading
• 10th of April, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  A few days ago I came up with the name Aretisia and I was wanting to use it as the name of a region or the world that Inkagafar takes place on, but the more I think about it the more I want to rename... Continue reading
• 5th of March, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  I've been thinking that making Inkagafar as a game might be biting off more than I can chew - I'll try and finish it because of how far through I am, but once I'm done I might not make more games. The... Continue reading
• 4th of February, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  The plot of Tenebris Dominus is that Lazarus Capian is told to visit the King, who uses the questionable events surrounding the disappearance of Lazarus' father to force him to track down the armour p... Continue reading
• 22nd-28th of January, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Very sudden change of plan, I'm putting Inkagafar on hold for a bit so that I can focus on other things (streaming, videos, etc). I might've put Inkagafar on hold but there are still things I can talk... Continue reading
• 15th of January, 2019
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  What's really fun is renaming a character who is only ever mentioned in the lore and then completely forgetting that I renamed this character and having to rewrite lots of stuff because I looked back... Continue reading

  
• 12th-24th of November, 2018
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Character names have been changed, as I said. George is now Lazarus and King Lewis is now King Ludovicus. I also took the opportunity to mess around with some other names, so the Cape family is now th... Continue reading

  
• 11th of November, 2018
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  I reworked the Sudden Death skill because a flat 5% chance to instantly kill an enemy just wasn't fun and rarely happened in practice. The chance is now based on how much HP the enemy has left, with l... Continue reading
• 10th of November, 2018
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  A fun part of planning the rough story but then allowing it to mutate and form from the gameplay and is that plot points I want to happen are happening in ways that are different enough to surprise me... Continue reading
• 4th-8th of November, 2018
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  I'm reworking parts of the prologue because reading blocks of text for 3 minutes isn't fun. I'm also giving the player the option to skip the prologue entirely because, while it fills in some of the h... Continue reading
• 27th of October, 2018
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Figured I might as well start working on the intro/tutorial because the world map is somewhat structured now. It was impossible to start before because I didn't know how everything would connect map-w... Continue reading
• 26th of October, 2018
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  I've been putting time into designing the world map recently and oh boy is it frustrating. The world has to both make sense while having a nice spread of different climates/etc to not feel like every... Continue reading

  
• 21st of September, 2018
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  I decided to add a simplistic timer into the game that tracks how long your playthrough lasts. Due to limitations with the engine it only tracks time on the overworld properly, in battles it just adds... Continue reading
• 16th of September, 2018
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Something fun that I want to quickly talk about is the different skills - I've touched on them before, but the three Energy characters all have unique skill sets. The first skill set is entirely heali... Continue reading

  
• 14th of September, 2018
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  I did a stream on Inkagafar: The Beginning at the start of 2015 and in it I showed off George's house (the starting area). While designing George's new house I decided to stick with the old layout as... Continue reading

  
• 8th of September, 2018
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  A fun little thing I've done to try and make Inkagafar feel unique is to rename mana and have an in universe explanation as to why it exists. Mana is called Caelum Energy (or just Energy) and is an en... Continue reading
• 3rd of September, 2018
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  The first stage of development is almost done now. Still got a couple things left to do (one more skill set for a character & generic items) but very soon I'll have no choice but to move on to my most... Continue reading
• 29th of August, 2018
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  There haven't been any updates on this recently but that's because everything I've been working on recently would fall into spoiler territory. Unfortunately as it's an RPG the story is one of the main... Continue reading
• 17th-19th of August, 2018
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Spent some time redesigning the title screen so that it's super fancy and stuff. Currently has some bugs related to starting a new game after loading a save, but it should be easily fixable. Got aroun... Continue reading
• 8th of August, 2018
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Bunch of minor changes today, as well as some work on story related stuff. I also realised I should have a list of all the assets I'm using so I can credit them properly, and I've compiled a list of t... Continue reading
• 3rd of August, 2018
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Stats have been tweaked. Damage now works. Now that problem is fixed I should lay down what I have left to do before story stuff needs working on: Skill set for one character Maybe minor adjustments t... Continue reading
• 2nd of August, 2018
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  The story for RoD is practically writing itself. As already mentioned, I have a stupidly long document from a couple years ago that gives a rough outline of the plot, but as I'm working on the gamepla... Continue reading
• 31st of July, 2018
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  Further adjustments to the gameplay are currently looking good. There should be quite a bit of depth to the combat once it's done, but it shouldn't require depth for the game to be completable. This s... Continue reading
• 30th of July, 2018
  November 18, 2022 by Ema Pex#Twitter Archive

  So, 6 years ago I made a terrible RPG Maker game that nobody can find anymore because all the downloads are dead. I'm officially rebooting it but with an actual story and emphasis on gameplay this tim... Continue reading