Matthew Cummings Programming Dev Blog

 At the onset of this project, I hadn't quite decided if I wanted Synzza Star to be a 2D game or a 3D game. 2D Making the game 2D was my initial instinct. Chrono Trigger is one of the game's biggest inspirations, as described in my previous post, and it comes from an era of games which I also draw inspiration from thematically. It and other games like Final Fantasy 6 exemplified to me the kind of dark but beautiful story telling I strive for with this project.  Given this stylistic choice, I began architecting the Synzza Star battle system (described in earlier posts)  with a 2D foundation. The first task I gave myself was to implement basic enemy AI which would decide how to move around the world and, eventually, attack the player. Seen here is a demonstration of a very rudimentary boids-like algorithm  for enemy movement. Given the 2D space, it was quite simple to make - in fact, it was a bit too simple to make. I began thinking about how to iterate on this AI by i...

Let's talk about what I aim to achieve with Synzza Star's battle system. To describe it, we should first look at my inspirations. Chrono Trigger There's a lot a could say about Chrono Trigger and how much I admire from this game. Chrono Trigger has inspired Synzza Star in more ways than one, which I'm sure will be talked about in later posts to this blog; however, for the sake of brevity I'll simply discuss one for now. Chrono Trigger's battle system is, to my knowledge, quite unique when you consider the other popular games which define its JRPG genre. Rather than your party and your enemies lined up in neat columns across from each other, Chrono Trigger's enemies roam the battlefield as you select your inputs, inching closer to your party members as a threatening reminder of their intent to damage them. Interestingly, this movement of the enemies can also present opportunities for the player - enemies that happen to find themselves lined up or bunched toge...

In this dev diary, I'll be detailing my ongoing progress on the development of Synzza Star. What is Synzza Star? Synzza Star will be a tactical turn-based action RPG. While it will feature an expansive story set in a fictional universe like many RPGs, for now the focus of my work will be fleshing out the combat system. If you'd like to hear more about the creative-writing aspect of this project, tune into later updates on this blog for more details. You may have noticed earlier I described Synzza Star as a "turn-based action RPG". That may seem like a counter-intuitive or even contradictory idea. Turn-based RPGs give the spotlight to the planning and strategizing process of the game by giving the player ample time to make their decisions.  In contrast, action RPGs are usually much more dynamic, with allies and enemies alike dodging and launching attacks at the same time. Synzza Star aims to strike a balance between these styles of games. Like in an action RPG, b...