Dawn of Djinn August 2024

An old blog from August to test out this feature.  Version 2/Second Mix is coming soon and I wanted to get a better idea how this blog system works before making a major Update bump...

Progress is coming along and I've been working on bits and ends of it every week, if not more so. I think I'm finally done tweaking the super-boss to my liking and after I test each boss one more time, I think I'll be all done with adjusting enemy encounters for version 2... in the veteran mode.

Technically, casual mode is its own mod entirely so I do have to readjust each enemy, item, and ability that's different from veteran mode on their own. It's not stressful, but it can get quite tedious as I have to calculate and adjust each value for every change to get them to match up more closely to the original Golden Sun.

This is everything from the HP and attack enemies have, to the amount of Psynergy points move cost. As one of the ways I increase challenge in veteran mode is making all Psynergy cost more. Majority of the process looks something like this for those curious.

Thankfully, a lot of it is mindless data entry for me. But sadly it's not all quite that simple. There are times I have to consider how powerful the Psynergy and skills monsters use are and if those skills need to be changed to weaker skills to be better balanced with the monster's normal attacks.

The good news, is I'm more than halfway through all the enemies in the game and I have already readjusted Psynergy costs in casual mode accordingly. After that I'll just need to playtest them in casual mode and that portion of the mod should be all set.

Dawn of Djinn won't be completely done once that is done though, as there are mis. things, like text edits, double-checking map edits, and making videos to promote its release. But finishing the playtesting for bosses, both in veteran and casual mode, is a major milestone towards the finalization of Dawn of Djinn. And I can't make promises yet, but that portion does feel like it'll be done sooner rather than later.

I have noticed some minor graphical issues in playtests and I did have to remove one minor NPC from the map after realizing changing the sprite screws up said NPC completely. But thankfully nothing that I think is worth starting from scratch. Unlike the previous major bug caused by the editor. Dawn of Djinn may not be as polished of a mod as I'd like because of these things, but at least it'll be more polished than version 1. If you want to know more about the game breaking stuff that forced me to redo the majority of my work, go read the previous blog, I don't really feel like reiterating it here.

https://jackitku2b.wixsite.com/jackitk/post/dawn-of-djinn-july-august-update

Finally as a little bonus, here's the full footage that I used as B-roll for the Game N Chill video coming up. Technically the area isn't finalized as I still have enemies left to readjust the values of for casual mode. But this gives you a good taste of the abilities and enemies around this portion of the game...