The development of Locket: A short look back.

While work on Locket only began back in April of 2019, it has still seen its fair share of changes and redesigns throughout its life. There are certain key aspects that have remained, though looking back on the original version of the game shows just how much it has evolved in less than a year.

For example, the earliest version of the game features Dusty with a completely different design, as well as a much less appealing art style. As you can see below, the only map created was empty, featuring a vast amount of repeating grass tiles.

The battle system worked a lot differently in this original version too, featuring a rhythm-based method of attacking. Timing button presses with the music would allow you to dish out multiple hits within a single turn of combat.

While this system relied a lot more on skill as opposed to pure strategy, it made battles extremely slow, and so the idea was scrapped.

Fast forward to August, and the game was already beginning to look a lot more like the version seen today. Originally, all message windows in the battle screen had a checkered pattern, unlike the current version where only the character stats windows display the pattern.

And so, the battle system was redone, graphics redesigned, and the other three party members were introduced. This change made battles run a lot smoother, while also pathing the way for much more strategical battles, forcing the player to plan out how their party’s actions work together.

While I was happy with the way the battle screen looked, I still wasn’t quite happy with the designs for the main characters. Each of them, save for Liam, was given a slight redesign, in order to make the fit the way the rest of the game looked a little better. Liam was, however, made two pixels taller. Because he’s a big boy.

From there all that could really be done was to add more features! Eventually ESP attack functionality was added, allowing for much more powerful attacks at the cost of EP (Which stands for ESP Points). Some additional animations were added as well.

The evolution of the battle system only scratches the surface of Locket’s changes throughout development however! As I previously mentioned, the overworld was a lot different too.

Once the battle system was beginning to become how it looks today, I decided to switch focus on the overworld of the game to make sure it matched the new style the game used. To begin with, all I really had was a small test map with some pretty basic tiles…

Everything was starting to come together, even if I wasn’t particularly happy with the tiles! So, I decided to focus on those. While originally maps were made with tilesets, I decided that maps that took place inside a building would be drawn from scratch, which meant I can create much more unique looking buildings!

This new method certainly takes more time, though I feel it’s worth it to create much more detailed maps!

So! That’s essentially everything that lead up to the current state of the game. It’s been a fun journey to go through, and I can’t wait to see how much more work I get done in the coming year!

Before I finish this post, I’d like to give a big thank you to everyone who’s stuck with me during Locket’s development. Locket’s still a long way from being finished, but it means a lot to see so many people excited to give it a try! So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you all so much for going on this journey with me.