Dungeons

Two posts in a single day.  Don't know if that's ever happened before or not.  I don't expect it will become a habit.

Anyway, I mainly wanted to post a picture.  I'm sure anyone who is reading this blog is getting pretty tired of seeing the same old town in the screenshots, so I thought I'd show a dungeon (it's a work in progress and subject to change, naturally).  Just something I was messing around with and trying to get the "feel" right...

Could be a monster just around the corner...

Handling Events

Since I have had to return to the previous version of the game (see the post just before this one about that), I had to give some thought about how events were going to be handled.  My previous approach wasn't well liked by some folks, simply because they said the graphics were too realistic to suddenly include a picture of the environment with NPCs appearing in them.

Unfortunately, that isn't likely to change.  I still can't create a game with 3D models like an expensive RPG that actually has funding.  I wish I could, but that's just not a reality when you're developing an indie RPG on a budget somewhere around $1.25.

So, my solution was to have the NPCs appear in a box with a border, so it would be obvious that they are not part of the background.  Many, many, many, many RPGs over the years have handled NPC interactions the same way...so if anyone complains about this, they'll just have to learn to live with it. 

Here's a screenshot of what I'm talking about:

It is obvious that she is not part of the background.

This puts the project back into step with the idea that it is still modeled after old-school CRPGs in style, even if it is using a modern 3D engine.  Hopefully I won't hear a lot of complaints about it.

Corruption...Destruction...and Rebirth

Something terrible happened to the game.  Some kind of weird corruption destroyed a lot of the work I had done, and somehow the backups I'd kept went missing (still not sure what happened there).  When I found out about it, I was completely devastated.

But, I realized that I had another version of the game that I had been working on before my last restart.  The main reason I hadn't stayed with that version was because it didn't scale right to different screen sizes.

I pondered whether or not I could actually work with it and get the scaling to work the way that I had done with the new version.  And the answer was a resounding yes...

The game scaled to a 16:9 resolution screen.

After a few days of work, I have the previous (and I think superior) version of the game going again.  I've made a few changes along the way as well...such as removing the borders from the screen (they really aren't necessary).

I'm excited to be returning to this version, even though there were things I really loved about the new version.  At the very least, the project is still moving forward.  I really thought the corruption was going to be the death of everything.

The screen in the lowest possible resolution (1024x768) and the 4:3 aspect ratio.

This time, I'm keeping a lot of backups just to be sure...

Here's a bonus picture of the party wandering through some hills with the sun peeking in just under the trees...

There's quite a lot you can do with Unity.

I hope you all enjoy.

Fonts - A Return

After spending several weeks messing around with different fonts (and even settling on the Gold Box font for a while), I've come to the conclusion that the best font was the original one.  Some people don't like it, but they'll have to get over it.

Honestly, I've never passed on a good game because I didn't like the font (unless it was so ridiculously unreadable that it killed the experience).  In this case, the font isn't unreadable...it's just not "medieval" enough for some people.  I think it looks fine.

It's not like it's hard to read.

I'm not going to change it again.  Little things like this slow down my progress, and it got so bad when dealing with the whole font situation that I almost put the project aside to start working on something else.

I'm several years in on a project at this point, and it keeps getting knocked backwards by people complaining about the dumbest things.  So, I'll likely stop listening to those little complaints and keep going.  The best advice I got recently was to "build the game you want to play."  That's what I always did in the past with my other projects (in both Unlimited Adventures and Neverwinter Nights), and I'm going to do it here.  If people want to knock it because they don't like the font, that's up to them.  At least I'll have something finished.

Triggering Events

One of the benefits of building a game for the fourth of fifth time is that you can reuse some of the code that you had previously developed.  Luckily, I had already taken time to work out a decent event system all the way back in early 2012 when the first version of the game was in development.  Transporting that into Unity turned out to be fairly simple.

So, the game now has a method by which it can trigger events.  These events can include text messages to the player, encounters with hostile creatures, ways to do damage to the party, etc.  Here's an example picture of an encounter with an angry goblin:

He looks upset.

As you can see, the game is progressing in bits and pieces.  Now that I've gone back to the original vision I had for the game, I have a clear path to get the game back to where it should be.  Instead of needing to reinvent everything, I'm finding ways to improve what I already figured out several years ago.

Once I get a couple more systems in place, I'll probably be ready to tackle the combat system again.  I've already tried it twice, but can't get it the way that I want it.  I'm sure it's just a matter of time, really.

Fonts, Fonts, Fonts

Things have slowed down a bit; because, I have to put a lot of work into studying for my Oracle Java Professional certification.  So, I haven't had as much time the last few weeks to put into the game.  That's not to say that nothing is getting done, though.  I still poke at it and work on new things a couple of hours a week when I'm not doing other things.

Here's a work-in-progress screen with an updated font.  A couple of folks thought that the game needed a more "archaic" looking font.  I'm curious what everyone thinks about this one:

Different from the original.

It needs to be readable.  I'm hoping that it is.  Anyway, I await feedback, as always.

EDIT:
I could also attempt to pursue a font that looks exactly like the one that was used in the later Gold Box games...

Strangely hypnotic.

EDIT:
Actually, the Gold-Box style font is working out quite well.  Here's a revised version of it, looking more like an actual Gold-Box game might have looked:

Gold-Box Goodness

Border Artwork

Big thanks goes to Alchemist, who provided some nice border graphics for the game.  To give you an idea of what having nice borders does for the game, here's the original graphics:

Gray borders as far as the eye can see.

And here is what the game looks like with the added borders replacing the dull gray that originally surrounded everything:

Still some gray in there, but much improved.

So, big huge thanks to Alchemist for putting in the time to make Lands of Adventure that much better. 

View Change

Based on some feedback I've gotten, some people would like to see a UI that's a little less ancient in style and that utilizes the screen better.  So, with that in mind, here's what I'm thinking of using:

Work in progress.

If anyone has any feedback, let me know.

Fourth Time is a Charm

At this point in the project, I have rebuilt this game four times from scratch (not including the early versions I highlighted in the last post).  This will, I hope, be the last time.  It's no easy feat to scrap everything you've done and start over again...especially when you've done it multiple times.

This last time, it needed to be done.  And there were two reasons for that.

1)  REASON ONE: The Gold-Box Factor

The first reason was that the game had become something I didn't want to build.  While I appreciated the feedback I got from some folks on the Internet, their opinions swayed me away from the kind of game I wanted to build.  As I kept listening to them and doing what they suggested, I was getting pulled further and further away from my original vision.  After a while, I realized that I was an idiot to allow this, and I withdrew from the public for a while to quietly scrap everything and start over.

This game started as an homage to the SSI Gold-Box style games of the early 1990s.  Nobody is making games like that anymore.  You can find a ton of Bard's Tale and Wizardry knockoffs, but you don't find many games that try to copy the style of Pool of Radiance, and I think that's a shame.  That series of games was awesome.

So, I returned to that.  This screenshot (which is a work in progress, so keep that in mind) clearly shows a return to that form.  Anyone who has played those games will quickly see the same style and will notice that it also is closer to my original version of the game from two years ago (when this crazy ride started):

Work in progress screen.

The game now has step-based movement (free movement has been removed), allows for six characters (one thing that a lot of people have asked for) from a total of 12 classes and will hopefully have more tactical combat.


2) REASON TWO: Scaling Issues

The other reason why the project needed a reboot was that I had locked the game into one screen mode (1280x720) and had built around that.  Players would have no choice but to play in that screen mode.

After a while, I came to see how horrible an idea that was and realized that I was going to need to figure out how to scale things properly in order to allow players to play in any screen mode from 1024x768 (minimum) and up.   Now, the game should play in a variety of screen resolutions and scale properly.

For example, the above picture is in the 16:9 aspect ratio.  Here's the same screen in 4:3 at 1024x768 (the lowest possible resolution):

Same screen, different resolution.

You'll notice now that everything scales dynamically.  Folks playing in a 16:9 or 16:10 resolution will have more breathing space, but even folks playing at the lowest resolution will not feel cheated.  Fonts, buttons, etc...they all scale as required.  I test everything in multiple resolutions to insure that everything works.  It adds to the workload, but I think it's worth it.

Overall, I don't have a lot to show, since I'm rebuilding many of the things I've already shown off in the past.  But, I don't like to have nothing to show for my work, so here's a few more screenshots.

The first one shows how the game handles text and pictures when you encounter enemies or friendly folk.  As mentioned above, if you're familiar with the Gold-Box games, you won't see something here that you're not familiar with:

This is an old screenshot.  Notice how buttons aren't properly scaled yet (compared to the above screenshots).

Finally, I tend to always show how the character screens are evolving.  After attempting to use the Basic Fantasy RPG system and realizing that it wouldn't work out as I'd hoped (despite how close to the Gold-Box system it would be), I started working out the details on my own RPG system.  A lot of thought has gone into it.

This screen won't show you everything about it, but just know that I want it to be simple enough for anyone to play.  If you're looking for a game with deep character building options, you're not going to find it here.  This isn't that game.  This game will have tactical combat and exploration options, but characters will be pretty straightforward in the same way that they were in any of the Gold-Box titles this game is paying homage to.  That's just reality.

Anyway, here's a character screen:

This character screen isn't 100% working.  The scores aren't showing up right yet, and bonuses aren't calculated correctly either.

So, I hope some of you are still out there and haven't given up yet.  I don't plan on building this game for a fifth time.  This is it.  This is the final version.  I know what I want to build now, and I'm not going to let people steer me away from my goal.  If they don't like it, they are free not to play it.  It's not going to appeal to everyone, and I can live with that.  I'll just focus on making it the best game I can make, and I'll be happy if even one person likes it.

Until next time.

Something Old Before Something New

It's been a few months since my last update.  The project still continues.  In fact, I've spent most of my time redoing whole parts of it and rethinking a lot of the character creation.  I also changed how exploration will happen to more closely resemble the Gold-Box games and have been working out the details of how combat will come about.

There will be screenshots forthcoming when I feel it's ready.  I haven't reached that point yet.  But, I will say that some people will feel it's a step backwards when it happens.

I spent too much time listening to other people tell me how the game should be instead of doing it the way that I wanted to do it.  So, I ended up withdrawing for a while to pursue the project the way that I wanted, free of outside influences.  The game now more closely resembles the version that I was working on last year, which is what I wanted to do from the beginning.

And speaking of beginnings, I managed to find some screenshots of a really early version of this project from all the way back in 2010.  Wow, it has changed a lot.  A whole lot.  I thought it might be fun to share those screenshots.

The first version of the game's character creation screen looked a little something like this:

Only four classes and not a lot of options.

During those early days, I used a lot of copyrighted artwork to fill in the blanks.  I didn't yet have a clear idea of what I wanted to do or how I wanted to approach it.

The exploration screen.

The game worked okay, and I even remembered sharing it with a friend.  Of course, he wasn't an RPG player, so he couldn't make heads or tails of it.

The original combat screen.

I remember spending two or three days to get the combat screen working just how I wanted.  It was all primarily text based, as I didn't have the knowledge at that time to get full graphics working how I wanted.  The game was probably written in Visual Studio 2010, using Visual Basic.

After getting that version working, I decided to revamp it slightly.  So, later in 2010 I did a more "advanced" version and spruced up the graphics a bit.  It was still primitive compared to what I'm doing now, but there was some evolution going on.

Character Creation Screen 1 - Choosing a Thief

Character Creation Screen 2 - Choosing a Warrior

At this point, I was still using Visual Studio 2010.  I had taken a few programming classes, but still hadn't figured out how object oriented programming was supposed to work.  I'm sure if I could find the code for this thing, I would probably laugh at how amateurish it was.

Generating Attributes - 2010 style

In the end, building this game has been a real evolutionary experience for me.  I've learned a lot as I've gone along, and I continue to learn.  It's fun to see where I've come from.

In the next post, I hope to show where I'm going.

Work Continues

Things continue to progress in the game.  Sadly, I don't have any screenshots to show off; because, everything I've been doing has been code-based.  I'm nailing down the skill system, working on transferring the game from scene-to-scene so that the party can travel and explore areas and starting to put together skeletons that might become the combat engine.

Some things are still fluid.  For example, I'm still not sure what kind of combat engine that I want to pursue.  I could do one similar to the original version of the game, or I could go after something different (tactical like the Gold-Box games or blobber like the Might & Magic games).  Not really sure what's the best option.

But things are starting to come together.  Each system that ties in with another system is a step in the right direction toward getting something put together for a demo.  I get a little bit closer every day.

Home-Brew RPG

As it turns out, trying to shoehorn the Basic Fantasy RPG system into the game was a big mistake.  Sadly, it was the kind of mistake that I didn't discover until after I had already tried to do it.  So, count it toward the experience gained while creating this project.

I've rolled the project back to the point before I started to change things over (thank goodness I keep backups), and I'm pushing forward with my own home-brew RPG system, which is built specifically for the game and won't have anything in it that it doesn't need.  In the end, that was the best move.

In addition, there were some tricky parts to the OGL (Open Gaming License) that I didn't want to deal with.  Creating my own system will keep me from dealing with any of that.  For my own stable state of mind, I'm glad for that.

Mistakes have been made along the way...more than once, but the project continues.  Hopefully I'll reach the point where I can release a demo soon.