#fnrrf ygm schnish

[fnrrfygmschnish]

Found some cheapo sidewalk chalk today, sooo...

My front porch now has a Yogurt Snail!

[fys-ohrrpgce]

...Yagziknia.

Finally! It's been a whopping twenty-one years since I came up with the concept of the "hidden city" deep beneath the surface of a cave system in southwest Virginia, populated by the descendants of alien refugees who landed on Earth centuries ago after fleeing their home planet, unknown to the human population of the small towns above.

And after all that time... this is the first time that one of my game ideas that would have included Yagziknia actually made it that far!

My plans for both the 2003 and 2006 versions of Fnrrf Ygm Schnish, as well as Legend of the Barfoo in 2007 or early 2008, included the city of Yagziknia as a location you'd eventually visit. 2003 FYS only ever had a few maps, 2006 FYS had a decent intro sequence and a few maps (mostly incomplete) leading up to a boss battle, and LotB... never really got beyond the planning stage.

Good thing I'm notoriously bad at giving up on anything, huh? Finally got it on the fourth try! 🤣

One of the local Burijeoo population notices some strangers hanging around and wanders over to say hi.

Translation: "Hello! ...Huh? You came in from this side? That's unusual. Very unusual..."

It's been so long since she went up to the surface that she forgot about the possibility of encountering humans, who wouldn't know her native language at all.

Most Burijeoo -- and pretty much all of those living on Earth -- can use their magic to change their form, disguising themselves as another species with a similar body shape and size (such as, of course, a human.) At first glance, she assumes that your party are Burijeoo taking on a human form... forgetting what male humans look like (there are no male Burijeoo), so she didn't put two and two together right away upon seeing Eddie and Joguo.

[fys-ohrrpgce]

Today I continued working on the addition of more Octoberish foliage to the tree maptiles...

The bigger trees are now orangey-brown rather than green! There's also a few scattered leaves with a more reddish-purplish or a more yellowish color to them.

All of the larger trees are on a ledge along the borders of the map that you can't actually get up onto in-game, but you can get a pretty good look at this one if you walk all the way to the lowermost edge of the school map (...where this unlucky AHS student has wrecked her car, whoops.)

I've also made some minor little changes to the game's text last night and today -- a couple of students' names were changed a bit (so as to be further away from their real-life equivalents), and Joguo's surname is now updated to the current spelling, "Gouen-Zu."

Previously I had been spelling it "Goueng-Zu," which I think was at least partially inspired by the Guangzhou River in China -- a name I remember standing out to me on a map of the world we had hanging from the wall in my Boy Scout meeting room back around the time I first made him up (2001, probably.)

Oddly enough, when he first appeared in one of my many never-finished game projects (titled Spuduf Splorchers), Joguo didn't actually have a surname specified. He was the leader of a group called the "Goueng-Zu Splorchers" which were headquartered on "Goueng Island"... but the only implication that the name related to Joguo in particular was that I planned to rename them the "Meju-Zu Splorchers" (after another member of the group, Mejuai) after this early version of Joguo died in an attempt to fight the game's main villain alone. It wasn't until my RPG Maker 2003 project Uggy Barfoo several years later that he was ever called "Joguo Goueng-Zu."

Anyway... since Joguo's family originally came from Japan, it made more sense to make the name look a bit more like something that could be Japanese even though it's completely made up -- so, I ditched the "-eng" (which is a thing you see in a few other Asian languages, but notably not in Japanese) and switched to "-en."

[fnrrfygmschnish]

Finally got around to coloring in my drawing of Pugh the vampire from... a couple weeks ago, I think? It's been a little while and I'm not 100% sure when I drew him.

Pugh (pronounced like "pug," not like "pew") is a vampire who lives somewhere in the city of Covington, Virginia. Rather than sneaking around biting people, he semi-regularly runs a Bloodmobile donation drive... and then stashes the blood away as a safe, reliable stockpile of food for himself and a few of his vampire friends in the area. He's also trained in a couple styles of martial arts -- mostly kung fu with a little bit of ninjutsu -- and has taught several members of his flock of trained pigeons (pictured here: Larry, Conando, and Velveeta... Conando is the one with the hat) everything he knows. Including how to read and write, so they can write checks to pay bills and such for him while he's out of town.

[fnrrfygmschnish]

Over the weekend, I randomly got the idea to draw Greengrad, Joguo's strongest weapon in Fnrrf Ygm Schnish: Alleghany Hell School.

The name is a double goof! First, "Greengrad" was a nonsense word me and my younger sibling came up with as little kids. But also, it's a reference to how the English translation of Chrono Trigger randomly changed the name of Frog's (very European) legendary sword "Grandleon" to the (very Japanese) "Masamune." It's basically that but in reverse -- a Japanese sword with a European-sounding name.

The sword itself is... much more serious than its name origins. It's cursed, and you can't effectively wield it without first fighting Gurivyo, the weird tentacled bug-thing that guards (and is possibly possessing) the sword. If you try to use it without defeating Gurivyo first, you'll gradually be driven crazy and eventually end up in a state where you keep muttering the name "Gurivyo" to yourself without realizing it and constantly thinking that it's stalking you or hiding somewhere nearby and watching. This also happens to anyone who attempts to produce a replica of the sword, or even use the name "Greengrad" for an unrelated sword -- seems Gurivyo does not appreciate anyone trying to claim Greengrad as their own even if they don't actually have the real Greengrad!

[fnrrfygmschnish]

One of the Barfoo Guardians, first drawn back around 2013ish. He still doesn't have a name, like most of them.

This guy is the Guardian responsible for watching over Central America. And yes, he has weird eyebrows! I'm not sure if they're naturally like that or if he's replaced his actual eyebrows with tattooed-on designs or something. Completely coincidentally, his eyebrow swirl pattern ended up being exactly like the patterns in some of the wall decorations of a local Mexican restaurant. Of course... he's actually from Mexico, so I guess that kinda works? 😅

His power is "Eye of the Barfoo," which gives him basically perfect aim. His weapon of choice is just an ordinary semiautomatic pistol, but while the Eye of the Barfoo is active (one of his eyes glows and the cornea/pupil is replaced by a rotating Barfoo symbol) he's able to hit even targets that can move quickly enough to dodge bullets, not just aiming at where they are currently but instantly and unconsciously calculating where they will be by the time the bullet can reach them and aiming there instead -- or aiming so that his shot ricochets into their path. And if he's up against someone who's not just fast but also tough enough to shrug off normal gunfire, he can shoot beams or spheres of Barfoo Power instead!

[fnrrfygmschnish]

Here's somebody I haven't drawn in a while... it's PUGH! Pronounced like "pug," not like "pew," by the way.

He's a vampire who lives somewhere in Covington. He has a flock of pigeons which he's trained to use martial arts, read and write (partly so they can pay his bills when he's out of town), and so on. Rather than sneaking around and biting people to get blood, he runs a Bloodmobile and takes donations, usually stocking up enough that he has plenty for himself and a few of his friends in the area.

Pugh is planned to appear in Fnrrf Ygm Schnish: Alleghany Hell School later on in the game as an optional party member.

[fys-ohrrpgce]

Didn't post yesterday, but still got a little bit of work on the game done. And then a little more tonight! Lower Yagziknia's indoor areas are gradually starting to fill out more and more.

In addition to the Armory which I already showed off, now there's...

...another shop named "Jewels and Junk" (rough translation from the original Khurbyish name, of course.)

Here you can buy a variety of miscellaneous shiny accessories like necklaces, rings, and circlets.

As for the "...and Junk" half of the name, that's because at the second counter here you can sell them your old items for extra cash... which helps a lot with actually being able to afford Yagziknian equipment.

Such as the Darkclaw weapon for Bridget!

Of the Yagziknian weapons, the Darkclaw stands out among them as the most unusual. It's the only cutting weapon in the game that does normal damage against blobs and other rapidly-regenerating enemies... because it cancels their regeneration upon contact! In the case of these Yuckworms, it's guaranteed to kill them in a single hit, so they can't split into two like they usually do when cut.

There's also a restaurant, "Marujai's Cafe," where you can buy food items that are much more effective than the stuff you'll find in the school vending machines.

Because only lunatics knock on locked bathroom doors... instead, you only give the handle a try, stopping when you realize it's locked and occupied.

And of course, just like with the signs, Bridget translates... 😅

[fys-ohrrpgce]

Today I added in walkabout and portrait sprites for a Stage 4 Burijeoo wearing armor, intended to be used primarily as guards patrolling Yagziknia's streets (and possibly a few other places later on.)

The transition from Stage 3 into Stage 4 involves an increase in height and, more importantly, the growth of a tail. You can see this guard's tail in these screenshots if you look really close.

Oh, and... I finally started on mapping some indoor areas! Shown here is the Armory, where you can buy a variety of equipment.

All four of the new weapons available here are actually depicted here, hanging on the racks against the back wall. There's the Xoozum Staff for Damuru-J, the Yagziknian Mace for Eddie, the Crystal Knife for Joguo, and the Darkclaw for Bridget. All of these have some unique attributes rather than just being "plain" weapon upgrades that only increase physical attack power.

The Darkclaw is definitely the most unusual of the bunch -- it also increases Accuracy slightly, does more damage than usual on critical hits, and counteracts enemy regeneration (stopping enemies like Zos and Yukkohs from gradually restoring their own HP, bypassing some of the resistance amorphous enemies usually have to cutting attacks, and instantly killing Yuckworms rather than causing them to split and multiply like most cutting attacks would.)

The Burijeoo Robe is the first new armor that Damuru-J gets, since she can't equip the various "heavy-duty" armor items (things like a bulletproof vest, haz-mat suit, and so on.)

Lower Yagziknia also has a restaurant (Marujai's Cafe) where you can buy various food and drink items, a jeweler's shop that also has a secondary shop counter where they'll buy your old junk (the idea being that they use any salvageable scrap to make assorted bling and such), the hot springs where you can go to rest (recovering HP/EP), and finally a Snuzzoo Pit, which is a sort of communal daycare for larval Burijeoo.

Contrary to the name, the operation of a "Snuzzoo Pit" doesn't consist of actually chucking them all together into a pit and giving them food and water every now and then. Well, not anymore, anyway. That was how it was done when the name "Snuzzoo Pit" was first coined centuries (or longer) ago, back on the Burijeoo homeworld.

[fys-ohrrpgce]

Finally got around to adding walkabout and portrait sprites for a Snuzzoo -- the larval stage of the Burijeoo lifecycle, where they are slug-like and unintelligent.

Only when they reach the point where their legs grow in do they begin to develop mentally, gaining the capacity to speak and understand language on at least a basic level. At this point, they are finally considered to be "true" Burijeoo, classified as Stage 1.

Before now, I've always drawn Stage 1 Burijeoo as having two pairs of clawed legs... but I'm thinking it would make a bit more sense to have them grow in their "front legs" (which later will be their arms when they start to stand upright) first, since it's already an established thing that many Stage 2 Burijeoo have a hard time keeping their legs (which would have started as a Stage 1 Burijeoo's "back legs") in solid form and tend to keep them in a half-goo state if they don't really need solid legs at the moment.

Also made it possible to actually check the signs in front of the various shops and such that you can find throughout Lower Yagziknia.

Since Bridget already knows the language, she translates them for you, as seen here!

[fys-ohrrpgce]

Since Yagziknia is totally separate from human society, of course the food and drink items you can find in their shops aren't going to be the standard vending-machine stuff that you've been relying on for most of the game (like bags of chips and bottles of soda.)

So today, I went into the game's item data and added some Yagziknian food items!

A bottle of Yagziknian spring water is much better than the standard bottled water you've been finding throughout the game (which only restores a measly 10 EP.)

It doesn't do the job quite as well as Mountain Dew (which restores 100 EP), but it's better than anything else you'll find in a drink machine, which is an accomplishment considering that it's... water. Just plain water.

And there's also, uh... grilled bug leg. Yum! 🤢🤣

Though it may seem a little icky, the Cricket Leg is the third-best item for restoring hit points in the game -- just a bit behind the Pizza (which restores 250 HP.)

Of course, the availability of Pizza in the game is pretty limited. You can buy some from the school cafeteria during lunchtime, but after that, the only way to find more is to get lucky enough to have a randomly-encountered enemy drop one. And speaking of random enemies dropping items... the Cricket Leg can, of course, sometimes be found as a dropped item when fighting Cave Ickets.

There's also a third new food item (Mushroom Stew, which restores both HP and EP by 150), though I haven't actually gone in and added its page to the Notebook menu just yet.

[fys-ohrrpgce]

As of tonight, Lower Yagziknia finally has some more NPCs to talk to!

I had already made walkabout sprites for Stage 2 and Stage 3 Burijeoo (these two stages make up ~75% of the adult population) with three different hairstyles, and three different palettes set up for them to use... so all I really needed to do graphics-wise is add the portrait sprites for those who didn't already have one.

This one, of course, is a palette-swap of the brown-haired Burijeoo who greets you at the entrance to the city and demonstrates the magic spell they use for taking on a human form.

Oh, and there's a few benches and tables around town now! Yagziknia and the surrounding caves are using a combination of two different tilesets, and they are both packed full as of tonight... I think I've only got room to add maybe another 5 or 6 tiles at most.

Another new addition: bioluminescent mushrooms, growing in two differently-sized patches. I might go back and add a single mushroom later if I end up with any empty space in the tileset by the time I finish Upper Yagziknia's map.

I also did a little bit of work on the game yesterday -- I filled out the next entry in the "Journal" section of the Notebook menu, which is unlocked after you reach Yagziknia for the first time.

The Journal basically summarizes the story so far, updating as you get further into the game.

As the fact that you find it in the "Notebook menu" suggests, it's also literally being written in Eddie's notebook with a pencil, hence the gray text... and the fact that sometimes a part will be erased and written over after some major discovery.

[fys-ohrrpgce]

To make up for the lack of in-game screenshots in the last post, here's some I took today while testing out a certain script and then roaming around the streets of Lower Yagziknia afterward.

As you may have been able to guess from the signs, this door will go to the Armory (where you can buy various equipment items -- robes, armor, jewelry, and new weapons for everyone) when I start working on the indoor maps.

The area definitely has a very different feel to it than... anywhere else in the game so far. Partly because the scenery is just so weird compared to the "standard American high school" hallways and grassy fields outside (and even the caves and sewers underneath), and partly because it's one of the only places in the game that is completely safe. It's the only "RPG town" type area in the whole game. There are no randomly encountered enemies anywhere in Yagziknia; the only other areas where that's the case are the classrooms and a few other special rooms like the nurse's office.

I guess technically this qualifies as a magical girl transformation sequence... even though the "transformed" state is the weak and ordinary one, rather than the other way around. 😅

Burijeoo transformation magic is an actual transformation, not just an illusion. Their bodies actually, physically change to more closely resemble the species they're taking the form of. While they can still use their magic (to an extent) while in human form... they're also slower and weaker than they would be in their true forms, and they can't stretch or squish their bodies or melt into a puddle of goo to squeeze into small spaces like they can in their true forms.

This is also how half-Burijeoo are even possible. If the spell didn't physically change a Burijeoo's body to that of a human, it wouldn't be possible for a human to get them pregnant.

(There is a half-Burijeoo character in the game, by the way, so that mention of them wasn't totally out of nowhere.)

And there is, in fact, at least one Burijeoo in human form attending Alleghany High School during the time the game takes place. So... she's probably right!

[fys-ohrrpgce]

Just because I haven't posted any this week doesn't mean I haven't been working on the game!

I've gradually been filling out the map of Lower Yagziknia, and as of tonight it's just about done -- no more blank unfinished areas off to one side or the other!

In-editor minimap screenshot:

I'm thinking that all that's really left is some extra decoration tiles here and there (I started adding shop signs after taking this screenshot, and I had the idea of there being some extra little things like benches and fountains in a few places... maybe some fungi or weird subterranean plants?) After that, I can call the outside map of the city's lower half "finished enough for now" and start working on populating it with NPCs and starting on some indoor areas...

Indoors will require a new tileset, since making the Yagziknian homes and shops just look like bare-walled, bare-floored caves on the inside would feel a bit silly. Yagziknia has existed for at least centuries, possibly millennia (I haven't decided on its exact age yet -- definitely old enough that they were here well before the earliest European settlers, but not before the first human inhabitants of the region got here ~18,000ish years ago.) They've had plenty of time to spruce things up a bit! I'll at least need to make tiles for rugs, various pieces of furniture, possibly some magical alien equivalents of household appliances...

[fnrrfygmschnish]

Vuenorri yu Yagziknia!

(Translation from Khurbyish to English -- "Welcome to Yagziknia!")

[fys-ohrrpgce]

Working on the maptiles for the city of Yagziknia now!

Haven't started on the actual map itself just yet, but I made these neat little streetlamps earlier today and I really like how they turned out, so I figured I'd share them on here as a bit of a preview.

The streetlamps of Yagziknia run on a larger version of the magical blue flames burning in the torches lining the walls of the caves leading up to this point.

Yagziknia's inhabitants are members of an alien species called the Burijeoo, and most are descendants of a group of refugees that fled their homeworld centuries ago when an oppressive regime came to power. Burijeoo are natural magic-users, and it seems that many (if not most) individuals of the species have a strong innate inclination toward a particular type of elemental magic -- fire, ice, wind, earth, lightning, and so on.

The spell to create these blue flames is pretty basic, despite the fact that the flames themselves defy the laws of physics by producing very little heat and being able to "burn" for extended periods without any further maintenance. Burijeoo who lean strongly toward fire magic will most likely learn how to create them at a very young age; those with more experience may learn to create many all at once, increase their size and brightness, or set them to only burn for a certain period of time before flickering out on their own.