
The last two weeks have been challenging in all the best ways. Code is and game design is never really a straight shot for me. It is a long process sometimes that regardless how good I get always ends with one or two google searches. The problem with what I had been working on was that it was not easy to google. There was only one tutorial that I could find and even that was only somewhat helpful.
The software I had been using was ORK Framework. At the surface looking into it I was excited. This was a tool to make RPG systems and mechanics easier and faster. I do think that it does do this, but the learning curve for it can be difficult. Overall after the search for how to use this tool was over. The final product works pretty good and Monochrome is going to be better in the end after this tool is learned and put to its full potential.
The first thing I worked on was a new main menu for Monochrome. This was the easiest thing to make and I love how it turned out. The process began with learning the tabs and UI of ORK Framework. After I knew where everything was, it was not much longer before I had a working prototype of the main menu in the game. The next steps with the menu will be to create a functional settings tab. Creating UI is one of my favorite things to do. I’m glad to be working more with UI rather than the battle system for now.
Monochrome is a very quirky and funny game with jokes and interactions all over the place. Now with our shiny new framework added to unity we needed a dialogue system to go along with it. ORK Framework has its own detection system for Unity however, it’s not the best. It took three days to understand how it worked without conflicting with the game’s original code. Fear not though we figured it out…and then decided to scrap using dialogue through ORK.

This decision however was for the best. The quests and dialogue will not be done through two individual plugins that are much easier to use. Within the time of writing this article I could have actually made triple the amount of intractable dialogues within the game as I could have if I used ORK. Needless to say… I am much happier with this choice.
Monochrome is an exciting game to be developing. There are a lot of areas and jokes to be explored with our friend Otto. Regardless what system gets used or code I have to make, it will be fine. The first two weeks I’ve been working on the game it has been challenging but not overbearing. After the dialogue and menu are finished this week I think the battle system is the next biggest challenge. For now, I am going to keep making quests and dialogue for a bit longer and let Devin “the other Programming Co-op” fight the beast that is the battle system.
Stay safe and stay healthy
Tyler
