Oooh, I wanna go to the "Funhouse!"

it's always lots of fun
prizes to be won

Corfaisus, I'm going to be making I've made an alternative graphic for the caves. I see no reason why the entrance to a cave needs to be the size of a town.



The Funhouse is one of the things coming from Hero's Realm (this was originally going to be an expansion pack). FYI, it's not going to be what you expect, at least on your first visit.

A couple screen-shots of a western/port town called Secron:

hey what's wrong with the RTP ship ??

geodude, you tell me. I had to piece this together without a picture to go off of.

Corfaisus, are you referring to the cacti? They looked a lot better before I accidentally saved them in the wrong format. As for going purely with RTP graphics, it gets rather boring in a large scale game and makes every place look the same. I'm sorry that my graphics make you squirm, but this game is quest driven. If I was really worried about the graphics I wouldn't have went with RPGMaker at all. That being said, if you would like to volunteer your expertise, I'd be more than grateful for the help.

Renegade, that's a very good set of world maps.

MBT: I feel like her hair could use another, darker shade. Otherwise, she looks good.


also: hey there

Craze it looks really good. I'm a sucker for those textbox letter-by-letter sounds. Not a big fan of that default choice sound, though.

@Terrorantula it's VX.

EDIT: Oh what, seriously? Blargh

Nessiah, I'm always a fan.

Craze, thanks. The second one I just did quickly to show you players here how the world is divided. In game, you discover this as you go.

Terrorantula, this is done in 2k3. In game you aren't given a world map, but this map (the first one) will be included with the game for reference. The names I added in photoshop and some of the structures are from charsets (not that you can really see them on this map). The only graphic edited on the world map by me is the entrance to the caves. The graphics for Secron are heavily edited, and the ship I converted from VX graphics.

As for the needing to settle down on a project idea and sticking with it, I know what you mean. I've started about a dozen games now, most of which I have abandoned. Primarily for three reasons: 1. The idea was too big and I kept wanting to add more and more as I went, making it too confusing to program and too daunting of a task. 2. I've tried to stretch the 2k3 limits to other game types and even though they are good ideas in theory, I run into some problem or another that the program can't handle and I give up. 3. I didn't plan out enough before actually starting the project.

So, with this project I decided a few things early on.
1. I would keep it limited in size so that completion was feasible and it didn't get too daunting. Thus the world map is only 100x100.
2. I would use a platform to begin with, in this case "Hero's Realm" to save myself programming. However, I eventually decided to start almost fresh in that regards too. Why? Planning.
3. I planned what I wanted to do with this game from the start. The concept was to have a small but highly engaging world with dozens of fun quests that you can kinda just fall into. The battle system would not be a focal point of the game: battles would be short and require knowledge on the enemy. Programming would be simple and done from the start of the game to work effortlessly with the whole game.
4. I would not spend weeks and weeks developing graphics. I would use RTP and edited variations of RTP. This would allow me to have matching graphics (for the most part), a quick editing technique, and some variations in the game so everything doesn't look the same.
5. I would create this game in stages, not all at once. When I get new ideas for quests, items, etc, I write them out in a devlog for reference later when I get to those stages.
Stages of development:
- The above planning.
- Basic common events programmed, such as day-night system.
- World map and basic history on locations and empires.
- Town maps and basic history on those locations.
- Interior maps for towns, kept simple, but with maps would be attached as I went.
- Other major site maps (forested areas, caves, etc) : Dungeon areas would wait until I have a quest that requires them.
- Basic character stats developed along with party concepts planned (single character game, but occasionally you may have someone tagging along for a quest)
- Items planned and programmed.
- Enemies programmed.
- Any advanced programming for common events.
etc etc

I think you get the idea. The part I really can't wait for is implementing quests but I know they will be lacking if I don't have the foundation to make them great, thus they are one of the last things that will be put in. The original game will be relatively small but will allow for expansions to cities, forests, caves, other realms, etc. When I expand the original release, there will be just as much to explore in the existing world as there will be to explore in any added world. The largest stage is obviously the original game, but after that it is a piece of cake.

Wow, what a novel. ^_^

I just recorded a video:

Batistaberg, when do you expect to release? That looks pretty sweet.

Haha. Thanks, guise.

Nope, there is no blog or anything. Someone already tried to make me open a gamepage, but I wanted to release the whole stuff all at the same time. Don't know when it will be ready. The whole story itself IS already done and playable, but there are still so many bugs etc. to fix. Also the Archon minigame really pisses me off!
So release date maybe... somewhen this summer. I guarantee that it won't be later than August.

Nevertheless don't expect too much. The game has only a playtime of... maybe 2 hours (?). Definitely not more. Still there are 3 different endings. But you won't have to play it all 3 times. It is explained how you can get them.

Working on some SC2 Maps.