here are some things I've been saying around town. bonzi-buddy has been trying to direct me to this thread

I really want to make a first person dungeon crawl rpg a la shin megami/arcana. How do I do this. Graphics would not be styled snes style but more stripped down not unlike this cave bears tape

But of course with variation, not only for palette cleansing but for occasional unnecessary flourishes.

tell me if this works.
 http://imageshack.us/g/819/blnk.png/
 A handful of sprites I'd been making a rpg using them
I know they are "lo-quality"

[snes style song I made]
http://soundcloud.com/numb-star/dalmatian-automaton

Fake 3D 2D dungeon crawl is one of the best game styles.


How does it work? You'd need to draw the templates for all the room/hall views. Doors or any other objects can be separate images that you put in at as objects floating over the background. You'd need to define a grid of rooms as a map and set four images per room to correspond to the four cardinal directions. If your player is navigating by keyboard, you need to use their left/right presses to update a variable that you use to determine which way they're facing/which view to display. What would you get it you started with "Facing North" as 0 and called a left turn +1, a right turn -1? Turning left: North: 0, West: 1, South: 2, East: 3. Turning right: North: 0, East: -1, South: -2, West: -3.
So if you're facing South and you got there only by turning left, the variable is 2. If you want to turn right, it subtracts 1 and the variable is 1. You're facing West as you should be. If you ever get to 4 or -4, you need to reset it to 0. You'd need to create some means of translating this variable's output instead of using it directly, because you'd have two numbers for every direction. If it's 0, you're facing North. If it's 1 or -3, West. If it's 2 or -2, South. If it's 3 or -1, East.
That's an example of a simple solution that might work, or might be a start anyway. You can see if you can build something like that in a game making program. Maybe not RPG Maker, 'cause RPG Maker is designed to help you make Dragon Quest clones and getting it to do anything else seemed needlessly convoluted to me. Figuring out how to code your own stat/battle system would take more time than using a prefab one but the flexibility you'd gain by doing so would be invaluable.
-=IT WOULD ALSO BE POSSIBLE=- to translate the sterile sparseness and simple geometry of that tape cover into a style you could use in RPGM and that would be the fastest way to throw some pictures and sounds and words together and finish a project. You'd want to look at what RPGM is designed to do and just accept that as your toolset instead of trying to break it on the first go round. You can always do another one if you don't get everything you wanted into the first one.

Fake 3D 2D dungeon crawl is one of the best game styles.


How does it work? You'd need to draw the templates for all the room/hall views. Doors or any other objects can be separate images that you put in at as objects floating over the background. You'd need to define a grid of rooms as a map and set four images per room to correspond to the four cardinal directions. If your player is navigating by keyboard, you need to use their left/right presses to update a variable that you use to determine which way they're facing/which view to display. What would you get it you started with "Facing North" as 0 and called a left turn +1, a right turn -1? Turning left: North: 0, West: 1, South: 2, East: 3. Turning right: North: 0, East: -1, South: -2, West: -3.
So if you're facing South and you got there only by turning left, the variable is 2. If you want to turn right, it subtracts 1 and the variable is 1. You're facing West as you should be. If you ever get to 4 or -4, you need to reset it to 0. You'd need to create some means of translating this variable's output instead of using it directly, because you'd have two numbers for every direction. If it's 0, you're facing North. If it's 1 or -3, West. If it's 2 or -2, South. If it's 3 or -1, East.
That's an example of a simple solution that might work, or might be a start anyway. You can see if you can build something like that in a game making program. Maybe not RPG Maker, 'cause RPG Maker is designed to help you make Dragon Quest clones and getting it to do anything else seemed needlessly convoluted to me. Figuring out how to code your own stat/battle system would take more time than using a prefab one but the flexibility you'd gain by doing so would be invaluable.
-=IT WOULD ALSO BE POSSIBLE=- to translate the sterile sparseness and simple geometry of that tape cover into a style you could use in RPGM and that would be the fastest way to throw some pictures and sounds and words together and finish a project. You'd want to look at what RPGM is designed to do and just accept that as your toolset instead of trying to break it on the first go round. You can always do another one if you don't get everything you wanted into the first one.

This is an exciting idea. I agree with what you said about rpgmaker: I have a decent understanding of that program and it would probably have to involve a new room for every step taken... or not but in any case it's not designed to do that sort of thing. I would definitely rather figure out how to code my own system but this will require research and discipline. I should probably try something simpler first if I go thatt route. This guy's version seems pretty cool edit: on closer examination this system looks kind of limited but I suppose this is how you do it without making each area an individual room

@ Ragnar: Yeah I wasn't planning on just having it be a single dungeon or anything, I was hoping to have some non-genre elements in there. It might end up being a first person adventure game, a first person point and click. Still very much in the planning stages, I'd just like to make a weird frontal, choppy game w/ my own graphics and sound

I am loaded with projects at the moment but the next time I try to make a solo game I want to check out something that can output to Flash or HTML 5. I'm curious about Construct 2, for example. The advantages to making something anyone can run in their browser are enormous--too many people who could be checking out weirdo, interesting games have Apple machines and don't know what to do with an .exe. Too many of the PC users are paranoid about running some weirdo file from GameJolt.


I'm gonna kind of say "ditto" to Ragnar, I know your idea is in such an embryonic state that it's weird to get bombarded with suggestions but you have a far greater range of ways to express ideas if you incorporate basic adventure game "mechanics--" even a verb list like LOOK, GET, etc. and an inventory. ACTUALLY, if you're not using RPG Maker, you might have an easier time forgoing the stats/battle system and handling combat through adventure game-style commands and inventory stuff. USE HAMMER on SKULL RAT. The visceral experience of interacting with your weird gameworld, looking at art, reading messages, etc. might be more interesting than playing with a Wizardry/Dragon Quest stimulus->response Combat Slot Machine. I think we're in a place now where we're dealing with an audience who's up for an interesting interactive experience and doesn't need constant carrots/sticks to prod them through it. SOMETING TO THINK ABOOT. PLASE CONSEDDER.

I'm not going to rush into any definitive mechanic for this game but for now I'm experimenting with coding & AGS, trying out text parsing and seeing how far my nonexistent coding skills can go in this environment

If I can figure out how to implement a fighting system then that will happen. this is all utter speculation as of right now. pretty sure it's totally feasible to (within AGS) have no character sprite and have left/right correspond to different backgrounds in a room/different displays of the room but I'm sure there are a lot of variables i haven't considered - - - I will surely need advice once I am entrenched in actual coding

edit: I am now playing sword of hope because of your mention Ragnar... this is great.  "TREANT GIVES YOU MARTEL'S KEY WHILE CRYING BIG TEARS" is a fav line so far