*** EDIT: I've made a new video dev blog, so I thought I would update this thread. Current alpha testing round is done, I need to get a certain amount put into the game before I do another round of testing. Thanks everybody for the awesome feedback and testing! ***



It's an action/adventure RPG with a focus on exploration. This is an early but polished alpha, you will play through and end up at a screen that says (more or less) "END OF DEMO".

FULL DISCLOSURE: The game records gameplay data and sends it to me online so I can see what's working and what isn't!

If you want to give it a try, please just reply here, email me at [email protected] or PM me and I will send you the link.

Thank you!

Hopefully this post isn't too out-of-place or unwelcome here. =)

It logs everything you do in the game, but nothing you do outside of the game. It doesn't transmit any information about your system and there's nothing that runs in the background, and no auto-updater.

You can choose to enter your email address or not, if you don't enter your email address it's essentially anonymous except that IP addresses are recorded.

It's ok, I do understand. That's why I'm so up front about it!

It's a really important part of the alpha program; volunteered feedback is immensely useful but usually you only get that from people who like the game. By collecting data from everyone I can see users who get stuck or frustrated, which is the biggest problem to tackle as a game designer. As well, the data it collects is way more detailed than any user could spend time telling me, for instance I can see if people are trying certain actions and decide to implement them.

However! I might make the whole thing optional if I get enough feedback in that direction.

Hey everyone, I made a game dev video. I'm super hard at work at this game, there has been a lot added since the previous alpha but it's not quite ready for another release. I want to make a certain milestone before doing that. Meantime you can laugh at me, either directly at my dry wit or indirectly at my attempt:

Whew, okay! Another new gameplay video:



Thanks for the feedback guys, I know this isn't the normal type of game for this forum (except, it is definitely something of an RPG) but I really do appreciate all the encouragement and replies that I get.

That... is awesome. I'm not sure what you mean by it, but I'm glad I think. =)

Aha, thank you. To tell you the truth the art direction works like this:

1- Everything (more or less) has to geometrically be a cube.

This was a decision because I wanted to make a properly 3D game but knew that I would NOT be able to do complex geometry and make it work. So by choosing this limitation I actually liberate myself and am able to make better looking art.

2- Start with color, work from there.

I do a lot of color-swatching (though I've gotten better at it as things have gone along, naturally). So what happens when I am implementing the graphics is I think first of color, and just paint things in block art. I don't have time for lots of concept art, but concept COLORING has been really effective for me.

3- Keep it a bit sketchy.

Again, I'm trying to get across clearly enough what I'm representing but not go overboard with detail. So for instance with rocks, it's important that they are obviously rocks, and that they harmonize with the rest of the game. It's not important that the texture itself impresses you or looks especially good.

As you might imagine, these were very conscious choices that should let me get the biggest "bang for the buck". The net result should be that a) things are blocky but b) we forgive it because everything is attractive (coloring/harmonization is right on) and also we know what everything is.

Maybe that is why you get that feeling. I'm not intentionally trying to create a certain style; I just made decisions with respect to production because I more or less *had* to in order to create a game of the scope/scale that I wanted to, and still have it hold together.

Beyond this there are a few subtle things going on. For instance, one of the easiest ways for 3D games to look sloppy is to have different textured-pixels-size. So for instance, a largish object could have the texture stretched more than a smallish object. In Texas the textures almost always scale with the objects, so what happens is that all pixels look roughly the same size. Better, because the viewpoint is more or less fixed you never zoom in so close that the textures start to blur. It's a nice thing that actually contributes a lot to the overall harmony of the graphics. If you look e.g., at Ocarina of time you can see that they were fairly careful to do this as well, and it pays off. Other N64 games, in particular because a lot of developers were still learning 3D back then, did not yet understand this and it shows.

Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you're liking the look of the game! I work pretty hard on the artwork side of it but try to work like an ARTIST... =)

whoa this is actually real? PsySal thanks for interesting technical/theory stuff behind your work but honestly, i thought this was a SCAM of sort because your screenshots direct to god knows. why would you need to know input code is this a backport trojan...! and that sort of thing. i apologize.

Ahaha, sorry! It's no scam, I'm just a lone developer making a zelda/ultima6 influenced game...

but yeah like for example, i freaked out when i reliazed that the youtube video wasn't a embed but a link to the actual video. but i had already clicked the link so i was like 'whaaaaaaat !!!!! heck heck!!!scam!!' and shut down the browser ahhaha. lesson, don't scare people with pretend-youtubes!!

Ohh.. okay. I didn't know I could actually embed videos here, sorry. I usually post/hang out at tigsource.com and in the forums there you can't embed videos, so the "nicest" (maybe more correct would be "closest") thing to do is post an image of a youtube video that links to it.

re: The World, I'm trying to craft an interesting world and compelling story, without getting too serious about it. The videos are sort of... brief. =) I tried to keep them snappy so they don't go into too much depth. The game's definitely not some kind of stupid redneck take on Texas.

Anyhow I'll be sure to update here when I make more videos and stuff, feedback is definitely awesome. Also there is a list for alpha testing, if you want to be an alpha tester just PM me. A word of warning, if you're super excited for the game you might actually be happier NOT alpha testing, simply because the alphas are buggy, incomplete, and change drastically from week to week. Once you've played an alpha you'll be somewhat spoiled to the game, if that makes sense. But that's why I always need more alpha testers, because I need to see how the game plays for people when it's "fresh".

Peace!

Hah, awesome. Thank you I'll embed in the future! Just PM me if you wanna alpha test, otherwise no worried!