LANDS OF ADVENTURE: What is it?

The first question someone reading this blog might ask is "What the hell is Lands of Adventure, and why should I care?"  Those are really good questions.  Luckily for you, I have the answers to those questions and I'm going to share them, free of charge.  Aren't you glad you kept reading?

Lands of Adventure is an old-school style computer role-playing game that is currently in development.  I've been working on it off and on for the past couple of months between going to school for computer programming and doing a million other things.  I have no idea when it will be finished or when it will be available, but I hope that it will be in my lifetime.

Naturally, there are other questions that usually arise when I mention my project, so I will aim to answer them here:


What is 'old-school syle' and what does it mean?

When I say 'old-school style,'  it means that I am building the kind of CRPG that I loved to play in my youth.  The game draws inspiration from the CRPGs that came and went in the 80s and 90s, like The Bard's Tale, Pool of Radiance, Wizardry and Phantasie.  In these games, you built a party of adventurers and headed out to kill monsters, gather treasure and fulfill quests.  The stories were relatively simple and straightforward, the battles were unforgiving, and death came often to parties who were caught unprepared.  Most importantly, they were fun.


What kind of features will the game include?

When I started working on this game, my first step was to think about what kind of features I wanted to include and what kinds of things I wanted the game to have.  What did I miss most from the games in those eras and what did I want to bring to fans of those games?

Right from the beginning, I wanted to include a turn-based combat system.  That's probably the feature I miss the most from modern day CRPGs.  But, I wanted to create a system using battle icons so that players had a visual reference rather than a text-based combat system that games like The Bard's Tale used.  The combat system in Lands of Adventure will be more akin to SSI's Phantasie series of games, which were the predecessors to their Gold-Box series of games (like "Pool of Radiance").

Additionally, I wanted players to be able to create a party of characters rather than just a single solo character.  Party-based adventuring is where the fun lies, I believe.  So, players will be able to create four characters and pick from four different archetypes (Warrior, Scout, Priest and Sorcerer).

Finally, I knew that I wanted some kind of pseudo 3D engine for exploring dungeons and such.  Taking a cue from the games of old, I have created a working 3D exploration engine that will bring back memories of playing Wizardry or Might & Magic II.  Players will use a 3D window to navigate through dungeons and evil strongholds. 


Are you doing this whole project yourself?

No.  I am doing all the programming and story development tasks.  But, the artwork either comes from public domain sources, or from an artist going by the name of Uatu (I assume that is not his real name).  He graciously allowed me to use his work in my program, and I'm thankful for that.  You can find his homepage here:  http://dhost.info/uatu/


How much will the game cost?

It will cost me a lot of time.  But, I suppose that it will be worth it.  As for you guys, it won't cost a dime.  When it's done, or when it reaches a state where people can play with it, I'll release it as freeware.  The feedback I get and what I learn from this experience is far more important than any kind of money.

So, all I want is feedback.  Even before it's released.  If you think it looks great, let me know.  If you think it blows seven shades of monkey balls, be sure to let me know that too.  I can't fix it unless I know.


So, stay tuned for the next installment, where we'll look at character creation and you'll see some screenshots of the game...