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Hello everyone, it's been a while. Without going into details, I have just endured a difficult period, where my working conditions were limited... However, I continue my road for HopDrop, the devlog that I had planned for Halloween will be late and will take shape different (too bad, I had planned a video with the face cam, but I would do otherwise). Today, failing to have enough news in sufficient quantity, I suggest that you open some old archives and see how HopDrop was formed, through the games that preceded it. The first one that we will discover is called Felix and Filix -Black Crystal Mask-.

Felix and Filix Vengelis -Black Crystal Mask-, what is it?

Felix and Filix Vengelis -Black Crystal Mask- is a RPG combining A-RPG mechanics and turn-based combat. It is very freely inspired by The Legend of Zelda -Majora's Mask-, from which it recovers a certain number of mechanics, mainly a day-night system, limited in time, the use of masks and a musical instrument to make move the story forward. The game was also set in the world of Termina, a few thousand years after Majora's Mask. At the beginning, the goal of Felix and Filix Vengelis -Black Crystal Mask- is not primarily to offer a new universe, unlike its predecessors, which we will talk about later, but to observe the operation of RPG Maker (VX at this time), see its capabilities and make a technically more sophisticated game than its predecessors ... Hence the choice to go on Majora's Mask as a model. It also goes without saying that I have a great admiration for this Zelda, both for its very murky universe for a Nintendo game, but also for its gameplay, so I wanted a game in this formula.

When I say that I was really inspired by Majora's Mask, it is not empty words (Bourg Clocher is the french name of Clock Town).

Felix and Filix Vengelis -Black Crystal Mask- follows on from another game, Felix Vengelis -Twilight King-, which we will talk about again in a more elaborate presentation of its old games. Black Crystal Mask thus narrates the continuation of the events of the game quoted earlier, where Felix Vengelis and Filix Vengelis, respectively the God of Light and his son, still demigod, will follow an inner quest after having defeated a evil Titan. Only, this titan is quickly back and attracts the protagonists in a parallel world, which will be destroyed in the coming days.

6 days, it is the time limit imposed on Felix and Filix to stop the end of the world, but luckily, they will be able to go back in time and get the help of several masks and allies.

I plan to offer Felix and Filix Vengelis -Black Crystal Mask- for download in the coming weeks, in a historic setting. Its advanced age and its general quality mean that I would recommend it in priority to an informed public, it is a game which is today archived and no modification will be made to it ... Not even the support of a language other than French.

What was his context of creation.

Felix and Filix Vengelis -Black Crystal Mask- is imagined during the development of Felix Vengelis -Twilight King- around May/June 2012. It started on August 29, 2012 and ended in July 2014. It was a joint project between my cousin and me... And our means were limited and laborious, the development took longer than it should have, Black Crystal Mask was therefore for a time outstripped by its own successor ... So it gave me time to work more deeply on the gameplay and other details. However, Felix and Filix Vengelis -Black Crystal Mask- followed the developement of very simple games, this game was too ambitious at the time, and yet I wanted to make it a great game and be able to extend it (with some "DLC") after its final release ... The game is overall average despite its great potential, but I learned a lot from it by developing it and analyzing my models for make Black Crystal Mask.

Felix and Filix Vengelis -Black Crystal Mask- was my first game with a HUD.

Black Crystal Mask during its first presentation on French-speaking RPG Maker communities also suffered from the reputation of Twilight King and my strong temperament. Felix Vengelis -Twilight King-, despite great potential, was in the middle-low in terms of quality, yet there is a gap between Twilight King and Black Crystal Mask... As for my temperament, we don't does not change, but the French-speaking RPG Maker communities are, anyway, just as questionable. The only reliable opinion I got for this game at the time, here it is (text in French): https://www.alexdor.info/?p=test&id=859. The other opinions, not even I wipe my ass with it.

To return to the desire to create a more technically advanced game was also a constraint. In fact, Black Crystal Mask was intended to have a different universe, but as my means of communication with my cousin was limited, I did not want to make a universe without him and so I left to recover that of Majora's Mask. As I didn't want to leave the game aside, I used it as a "laboratory" and experimented with lots of things. Who we liked automatically integrated the game.

What is its content.

Felix and Filix Vengelis -Black Crystal Mask- is a rather short game, when it is known and if we manage well, it is possible to finish it in ~1h30. Black Crystal Mask has 4 main zones and 1 central zone, like Majora's Mask with the 4 cardinal points and Clock Town... Maybe because Black Crystak Mask actually takes place in the world of Majora's Mask.

Each cardinal point is an opportunity to complete a quest to access the region's dungeon. Each region can be dotted with mini-dungeons and mini-bosses. The game offered 6 masks for 4 melodies.

What legacy did it leave to HopDrop?

Felix and Filix Vengelis -Black Crystal Mask- gave a wonderful legacy to his little brothers, not just to HopDrop. The most visible things are of course the technical and graphic aspects, starting with the HUD.

Something that was recurring in Black Crystal Mask was a system of retracting spikes, which when lifted hurts the player when stepping on them. This system, introduced at the dawn of Black Crystal Mask, and the way to code it have remained unchanged in HopDrop.

A global program takes care of retrieving the player's coordinates from the map, while the spikes themselves will check if they are lifted and also check if the player's coordinates match the location of the spikes.

variable heroX ← player's X position
variable heroY ← player's Y position

If heroX == spikeX    #Check if the X coordinates of the player and the retractable spike match
    If heroY == spikeY    #Check if the Y coordinates of the player and the retractable spike match
        If this sprite looks at up    #Check if the spike sprite is up
            heroHP ← heroHP - 1    #All conditions are met, the player receives a damage
            Wait 1 seconde    #Recovery time
        Endif
    Endif
Endif

It is only the base laid by Black Crystal Mask, which is functional. The code in HopDrop is of course more complete and takes more parameters, like jump.

Another element common to Felix and Filix Vengelis -Black Crystal Mask- and HopDrop being the system for playing music which will have an effect or not. At the time of Black Crystal Mask, I didn't have the skills to create a system like the Zelda 64, but I wanted to. It was only in HopDrop that this system was achieved as I originally wanted for Black Crystal Mask.

Before we move on, here is a small list of things that are common between the two games:

• Black Crystal Mask was my first game to have real dungeons, some passages in HopDrop are reminiscent of the kind of dungeon introduced by Black Crystal Mask, like the pyramid of Toutantrydoms in World 4.
• With the masks system, Black Crystal Mask was also my first game to introduce transformations with their own specialties. HopDrop also has some transformations for its protagonist.
• In HopDrop, the 4th boss Pharaoh Toutantrydoms was natively called Racknes, like the 4th boss of Black Crystal Mask.
• Even if the model of some HopDrop bosses will change (for the patern), the Black Crystal Mask and HopDrop bosses are based on the same model. For example, HopDrop's first boss, the Adjutant Kernel, has a similar patern to Racknes.
• Items that can be picked up from the floor have been introduced in Black Crystal Mask, HopDrop has also picked up this concept.
• HopDrop is also planned to be extended through a DLC system, like Black Crystal Mask in its time. The antagonist of Black Crystal Mask, named Crystala Lacryma (or more simply Crystala), is planned as an additional boss.
• A fresco in the pyramid of Toutantrydoms makes a direct reference to Black Crystal Mask. It depicts Filix facing off against the second boss, Dinomanzonaure, while Crystala attempts to annihilate Clock Town.

This fresco is visible in the room of the servants of Toutantrydoms (the fresco says "The advent of Crystala will occur, when the Aster Phobos strikes the World").

Beyond its few aspects, Felix and Filix Vengelis -Black Crystal Mask- brought something less visible to the player, but of capital importance: The development of prior preparation and planning.

In reality, Black Crystal Mask was not the first game to have had prior preparation, the first having been Felix Vengelis -Twilight King-, the games preceding the latter having been made unprofessional (and yet, very rare are those who have not been finished, being alone to work helped). Black Crystal Mask took the concept further than Twilight King. With my cousin, we prepared what we wanted in advance. For programming, through a project derived from Black Crystal Mask intended for this purpose (I tested the bosses, collectable objects and certain cutscenes, in addition to the effects of the musical instrument). Through a to do list, which we fill in according to our ideas and validate or not ... But, especially through plans and sketches, mainly for the level design but also for the bosses.

The way of making the level design plans between HopDrop and Black Crystal Mask hasn't changed much ... But maybe the plans for Black Crystal Mask were clearer than those for HopDrop, the good understanding between my cousin and me being capital, given our laborious means of communication.

On the left, a plan for Black Crystal Mask. On the right, game rendering.

On the left, the trials of Pacific Islands for HopDrop (with Banjo-Kazooie's Treasure Trove Cove as a model). On the right, game rendering.

What to remember?

Felix and Filix Vengelis -Black Crystal Mask- is an old game, it was debuted on August 29, 2012, 3 years and 19 days before HopDrop. You will also have understood it, Black Crystal Mask is not my first game. What is important to see is that nothing comes out of nowhere, and very often, we do not lay a game like HopDrop like we do our morning poo between waking up and having coffee, it takes time and is more complicated than it seems. Beyond showing that I am constantly learning and that I do not come out of nowhere, it is a message that I want to transmit to novice creators ... You should not be discouraged if your work takes time to take shape, if it is badly received. Rome was not made in a day, and it was even sacked by a Gallic tribe in -390 BC ... Several centuries before Rome became a powerful empire known worldwide. Just remember this: Patience is the mother of Virtue.

On his beautiful words, I have a lot of work to do. Take care of yourself and see you next time :) .