Tis Alpha, but rather promising!
http://bigbadwofl.blogspot.com/http://www.reddit.com/r/IndieGaming/comments/qq9pt/voxel_heroes_v011_my_voxel_roguelike_has_been/After a week of fixing and tweaking, I present to you the latest version of Voxel Heroes. Most of the bugs were picked up by /r/gamedev on Reddit for which I'm very grateful. I hope the changes I've made will make the game more enjoyable for all of you.
What's new?
-Fixed a crash when looting flowers and spikes.
-Fixed a bug that made weapon minimum damage to display as the same as the maximum damage in tooltips.
-Pressing Esc will no longer close the game but rather close the active menu (should there be one).
-Removed a piece of test code that was forcing the same level to be loaded every time. Levels will now differ between consecutive games.
-An equip / unequip / consume button has been added to the inventory screen.
-UI system changes
Child elements now inherit the position of their parent element.
Textboxes and Buttons are now dynamically translatable.
-When attacking a mob, a small dialog box will appear with an image and info of the mob.
-After a corpse has been completely looted, the loot window will close.
-Pressing R will now make the character move in the last direction until a wall or mob is reached.
-A trap will only do damage to a player once. Thereafter the trap will still be visible but the player will avoid it.
-Fixed a memory error where an illegal object was being created.
-Memory is better deallocated after dying and starting a new game. This should fix a lot of crashes.
-A lot of scaling modifications.
Thanks for the support!
Also...he has fashioned a free Voxel Editor program, with improvements like animation support intended as they can and an entreatment for players to mess about with it and have good models get included in the game outright.
http://bigbadwofl.blogspot.com/2012/02/voxel-editor.htmlLastly, the hopeful dreams:
That said, here's a list (in no particular order) of what the future holds for VH. Please note that a lot of this is just speculation and will probably be altered and augmented heavily in the coming months.
-Towns
-Every x levels will be a town which will be randomly generated based on a random theme / building style.
-Towns will contain
NPCs that will have random conversations with the player.
Merchants that can buy and sell items.
A place for the player to 'unlock' his items (See 'Item Unlocking').
Trainers for professions / abilities.
Rooms where the player can practice his professions (blacksmithing, alchemy, etc...).
-Item Unlocking
Towns will feature rooms (Name undecided) where the user can spend his gold to 'unlock' items. This means that the item can be used by future characters that are created. The price to unlock the item will be based on the quality and level of the item.
Unlocking items should be something the player decides on as doing so will cost a lot of money that could have been spent at merchants for consumables and gear.
When a new player is created, he starts out in the University (Name undecided).
-The University
Voxel Heroes will not have a conventional start menu. Instead, players will start out in the game in a special location.
The University is a Hero University that trains people in the art of hacking, slashing and dungeon crawling. They send out students into the dungeons below as a sort of final assignment.
There will be a special room in the University with shelves featuring the items that have been unlocked that the player can choose from.
Using an item might have an additional cost (on top of the initial cost to unlock it). I might make the university have funds that can be used for this and will be based off some other mechanic.
-Magic
The plan is to implement a complete magic system.
Spells will be learned from scrolls that drop off boss creatures.
Spell scrolls can be combined in towns to possibly form new spells. These spells may be stronger than the original spells but could also lead to both spells being destroyed.
-Abilities
Even though I'm not planning on featuring a class system, some NPCs (or perhaps items in dungeons) can be used to gain knowledge of new abilities.
Offensive Abilities
With this, as well as the magic system, I plan on making combat more tactical and decision based. You might use a bash ability to send the mob back a few spaces or a freeze spell to keep the mob from moving for a few moves.
Defensive Abilities
Think things like absorption shields, healing spells and barriers.
Utility Abilities
Far Sight, Trap Detection and Disarming, Extra Mob Loot, etc...
-Professions
Alchemy
Looting flowers will have a chance (based on Alchemy skill) to yield herbs that can be used to make potions.
Enchanting
Enchant items with rare materials dropped by boss mobs.
Blacksmithing
Craft powerful items from materials and runes dropped by mobs and bosses.
-Environments
Currently, the game only features the green, grassy environment. I plan to implement many more.
Swamp-like, Underwater, Cavernous, Woodlands, Netherworld, etc...
-Multiplayer
I really don't know much about how I'm going to make this work nicely, but we'll see.
-Miscellaneous
Equipping items will actually show the items on the player model.
When hovering over an item name, the tooltip will also display the item model.
The UI system will be enhanced quite a lot, allowing for scaling, dragging and scrolling.
The UI will be made much more intuitive and user friendly.
Some mobs will be able to walk diagonally or be allowed to make two moves per turn.
An autowalk function that will allow the player to easily traverse long passages.
Mobs will also be generated with stats (Strength, Armor, Abilities, etc...).
When fighting a mob, a popup window will be shown with a model of the enemy, his stats and a description.
Decorations for walls.
Local lighting (Torches and other light sources that will flicker and give the whole environment a much more immersive feel).
Free look camera (Both for first and third person).
Saving (Multiple character slots).
Difficulty levels.
A whole lot of new items and monsters.
Music and sounds.
Fullscreen / Widowed Modes.
