Going Back to Square One

I spoke in another post about scope creep.  In the last few months, this project has started to succumb to that very issue.  The more new things I wanted to add to the game, the more overwhelming the project became.  While everything was looking great, in reality it was becoming a mess and I started to realize that I had gone far, far away from what I had originally intended for this game.

So, I have gone back to square one.  The beginning.  I have started over.  Using the Unity engine, I am going to rebuild the game in the same style as before.  I will save all the stuff I want to add like additional classes, skills and perks and other things for a sequel or an updated version.  Rather than make the game a complicated mess that might not get finished, I would rather build it the way that I want and see it completed.

And, you know what?  I'm fine with that.  I think the game will still be good and will showcase what I can do.  Everything else can come later when I have more help or funding or whatever.

There will still be some updates, though.  I'll be using the 3D engine in Unity to render dungeons and locations versus the hand-drawn style I used in Visual Studio.  And I am still considering trying to make the combat engine work more like a Gold-Box game (like "Pool of Radiance") versus something like Phantasie.

Anyway, here are some comparison screenshots of the way that the game looked originally and how it is shaping up in Unity (which is also allowing me to create the game so that it can be played in full screen versus a little window).  Let's start with the Title Screen:

The original title screen.

The new title screen.  Look familiar?

Here are the main menus:

The original Main Menu screen.

The Unity version of the Main Menu screen.

When generating a character, these are what the attribute screens look like:

The original screen used to generate attributes.

The Unity version of the screen used to generate attributes.

Obviously, the screens are all similar.  This was done purposely.  And it may not be obvious here, but the screens in Unity look nicer.  Not only are the graphics and fonts better, but it's also in widescreen format, giving more space to lay things out on the screen.  Clicking on the pictures might make it more clear.

The original game ran in a window that was 1000 x 700.  The Unity version runs full screen at 1280 x 720, giving far more real estate for items on the screen.  This is all a good thing and I can't see myself going back to doing things the hard way.

So, these last few months have been a learning experience about what I wanted to do with this game.  In the end, I still have a lot of things I'd like to do, but they really need to go on the back burner for the moment.  Let me get the new version of the game caught up to the old version first.  Then, I can enhance it a lot.  It's what I should have done from the beginning.

As always, I'll be glad to hear any feedback you want to offer.