Screen UI Update

Two posts in one day?  I must be on a roll.

This will be a quick one, though.  I recieved some feedback about the UI.  I'm told it was a bit ugly and that the font looked too modern.  So, I've changed both.  It now looks like this:

Thanks to my wife for suggesting this.  She doesn't even play games like this.

I think I like it better than the other version.  What do you think?

Another Quick Update

Work continues on the game.  I'm working on a lot of different aspects of it all at once, including porting over a lot of the code that I wrote for the original version and modifying it to add more functionality and options.

One thing I worked on was a title screen.  The game has properly changed titles so that it is now called "Lands of Adventure: Symphony of Darkness."  Call me hopeful, but I'd like to think there could be sequels if this one is completed.  Here's the title screen as it stands:

I also considered calling it "Symphony of Destruction," but the band Megadeth has a well-known song by that title.

In addition, I've been working on the GUI of the main screen.  If you read my last entry, you would have seen some screenshots of the 3D environment.  But, these screenshots didn't show the overlay that included the characters and minimap.  At that time, they weren't ready to be seen, but I think enough work has been done on them that I can show them off now.

Here's what the game will look like when the party explores (though, like everything else, it's subject to change):

It's got a Might & Magic vibe to it, I think.

Obviously, I'd love to hear some feedback.  I always like to hear what people think.

Quick Update

Things continue to progress, although a bit more slowly.  For now, here's a few screenshots showing some landscapes in progress (a hilly area and a cave) as well as another combat screen:

Exploring the hillside

Dark caves can be fun

Combat engine update

Combat Considerations

Since I am limited on my resources, I am currently pursuing a version of combat that is similar to what appeared in the original incarnation of the game.  I would love to have a bunch of 3D models available for the player to select, but at the moment, I'm stuck with images.

The original version of combat was inspired by the old SSI game, Phantasie.  To refresh your memory, it looked like this:

The way it used to be.

An early version of the new combat screen reveals that I'm doing something similar, but with a more 3D perspective.  I'm still using the same art assets, and they work better than I thought.  The direction of the combat has changed so that the monsters are no longer on top, so I hope that it still looks good.

Take a look and see what you think:

The new way.

I'm well aware that the combat icons are repeated (it was put together as a test).  The goblins in this picture also don't mesh as well as I'd like (something else I need to fix).  Also, there's no GUI in place yet either.

I may still change it.  I haven't decided.  But, this is where it stands right now.

New Class Selection

When I started the original version of the game, I wanted to keep things simple.  With that in mind, I created a version that only had four classes (Warrior, Scout, Priest and Sorcerer).  These are the choices that players were originally left with to comprise their four-character party.

Four classes for four characters.

As simple as that was, it didn't give a lot of variety.  One bit of feedback I got was that there should be more variety of classes.  I agree with that.

So the updated version of the game has more.  Three times more, for a total of twelve.

Twelve!

 

 

 

Now, a player will have different options for building their party in different combinations.  The new classes are:

Warrior
Knight
Barbarian
Scout
Ranger
Assassin
Priest
Druid
Monk
Sorcerer
Shaman
Battlemage

With these new classes, I hope to open up a whole new world of gameplay in the game as it is being rebuilt.  

LANDS OF ADVENTURE - Reborn

I learned a lot from my attempt to get a Kickstarter going for Lands of Adventure.  Mostly, I learned that people like nice graphics.  I can certainly understand that, and there's nothing wrong with that.  We want a game to look nice, and we want it to have decent gameplay.

I also learned that people want more from the game, whether that includes more professions for characters, more quests or more tactical options for combat.  So, I have taken all this into consideration.

I have begun the difficult but important task of recoding Lands of Adventure in a whole new engine.  That engine is Unity, which is mostly used for 3D games, but is well suited for the kind of game I'm trying to write.

In fact, it will probably be a lot easier on me, since the engine does all the hard lifting when it comes to the graphics and leaves me free to code the actual game.

Let's do a comparison.  Here's what the game looked like before:

Old School Graphics!

While there's nothing wrong with the way it looked before, I wasn't happy with the work I had to go through to make it look even that good, just for people to tell me that it's ugly.  So, using a modern set of tools, I have made the game look a million times better:

Shiny new graphics

At its heart, its still going to be the same game.  I'm going to enhance it a great deal, but in the end it will still be a turn-based CRPG with great story elements and with a lot of great stuff from the old CRPGs we loved.  It will just be a little more "pretty," and I can live with that.

Comments?

Kickstarter

I've been told by a couple of people that the game looks bland.  That's to be expected.  I'm no artist, after all.  And, art won't be cheap.

So, I've created a Kickstarter for this project in the hopes of funding some of the artwork, and maybe some additional features.  I don't know if it will be a success or not.  I can't know until I try, I suppose.

If anyone is interested in the project's Kickstarter page, go here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/496999626/lands-of-adventure-an-old-school-style-crpg


UPDATE:
After debating all options, I decided to just go ahead and suspend the Kickstarter option.  I had hoped to raise funding to get better artwork for the game, but instead all I got was negative feedback about how the game didn't look professional.

I know it doesn't look professional.  It's not a professional level game.  I think 99% of the people out there probably didn't know what I was trying to accomplish, so I withdrew the funding option.

That being said, if any kind artist out there wants to contribute work to the project, or if anyone wants to donate some work, let me know.