Author Topic: The Burning Plague  (Read 44528 times)

pat

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Re: The Burning Plague
« Reply #15 on: April 22, 2013, 12:26:21 AM »
A lot of progress is being made and the game is starting to have its "role-playing" implemented. I've now got unique customisable NPC's and plot messages being read from external and easy to mod data files so that the real writing of game content is very easy.



I'm hoping that I can keep as much of the game content as possible in the data files so that I can leave the game engine completely alone and focus on releasing modules with different settings and characters without touching a line of code. It's going to get tricky when I get into the nitty gritty of quests, ie. trying to define that a certain NPC desires an item which is located somewhere in the dungeon and the interactions which happen upon success/failure. It's not impossible but just a bit fiddly and I'm finding it achievable as long as I chip away at it gradually.
« Last Edit: April 22, 2013, 12:38:14 AM by pat »

malignatius

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Re: The Burning Plague
« Reply #16 on: April 22, 2013, 10:17:09 PM »
I'm new to these forums. Just wanted to say that I really like your approach to the genre!
I've actually been thinking of designing a game of my own, with a similar focus. Less rules, more RPG that is.
I will also try to focus more on the graphical design and the game interface.
I'm not a developer, so my plan is to create a nice tileset and develop an intriguing world/story - and once that's done, perhaps find someone that can help me out making it into a game.  ::) ...We'll see.

Anyways, I'll be following the development of your game, looks great so far.

pat

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Re: The Burning Plague
« Reply #17 on: April 23, 2013, 04:05:13 AM »
Cool, thanks for the feedback! It's pretty motivating to hear that people are into what I've been doing so far.

Working on a tileset is a good idea (and that's probably something I'll have to wade into shortly and which I have absolutely no experience in) and there's no problem with plugging away at a setting/story but I don't think there's any substitute for just giving it a crack when it comes to programming your own project.

It's a bit of a steep learning curve if you're starting out with coding, but I would suspect that the time you spend chasing up volunteer project members to code for you, you'd probably be able to give it a pretty good shake yourself! Just believe in yourself and you can acheive `~*anything*~,! Well probably not, but just try anyway is my advice.


malignatius

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Re: The Burning Plague
« Reply #18 on: April 23, 2013, 09:38:20 AM »
Thanks for the advice, but, I've been dabbling with programming before, and I really have zero talent (or patience for that matter).
I have however worked several years with design and works closely with developers on a daily basis.
If I can't find someone to to help me out, I might release the tileset as a free resource instead.
I've also been thinking of perhaps doing an ToME module instead of something from scratch.

pat

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Re: The Burning Plague
« Reply #19 on: April 23, 2013, 11:42:03 PM »
You'd definitely be able to get a ToME prototype with a custom tileset running in less than an hour I'd say, particularly if you just re-used the example code and ignored gameplay to show off the look and feel of your graphics instead.

Of course if you're keen on making tiles, I know a certain game that's going to be needing some 16x16 tiles very shortly ;)

soundlust

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Re: The Burning Plague
« Reply #20 on: April 24, 2013, 12:32:34 AM »
Yeah my first project when I wanted to start learning to pixel was to build a custom tileset for a random roguelike I enjoyed. It turned out terribly and I never did anything with it, but now that I've been doing it for a while...I think I would like to give it another go.

Didn't cross my mind to use TOME.

I really like the look you have going by the way pat, I'm interested in how you will exploit the simple system you are
making while keeping replayability high.

pat

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Re: The Burning Plague
« Reply #21 on: April 24, 2013, 01:06:36 AM »
Replayability is probably going to be the weakness of this game definitely. Because everything is structured, it means that I'll be able to densely pack in content, with descriptors provided for every meaningful encounter you come across in a very non-roguelike fashion, and of course that means your second run through the same set of encounters is going to be a lot more boring.

Part of addressing that will be to try and make different classes play different and also try and sketch out a plot which means different choices end up affecting gameplay so that you can seek out a different experience. The other way in which I'll hopefully address that is to simply put out a new module with different quests and settings once I've got the game system in place. That's the long-term goal anyway and it remains to be seen just how easy that process is.

I've been playing around with the tileset and a few other minor things, but here's a screenshot for the day - the player scouting ahead to find a party of orc warriors led by an ogre. Knowing that this would probably prove too much for a single fighter, I led them backwards to a nearby neutral dwarf mining party hoping that they would be strong enough to take out my enemies for me.

And it turns out that they nearly were - apart from the ogre.


Vanguard

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Re: The Burning Plague
« Reply #22 on: April 24, 2013, 01:07:49 AM »
Of course if you're keen on making tiles, I know a certain game that's going to be needing some 16x16 tiles very shortly ;)

You know, I've been meaning to get some practice with pixel art.

I can't promise a huge time investment or that I'll stick with the project long-term, but if you just want someone to do some sprites, I'm willing.

pat

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Re: The Burning Plague
« Reply #23 on: April 24, 2013, 01:31:27 AM »
Any help with tiles would be greatly appreciated. It's one of those areas where I've never really dabbled before and I just don't have the skills to do a good job of it.

Here's the tileset currently:



Anyone with a reasonable eye for it will notice the hack job I've done with recolouring different sprites in a fairly haphazard way. The dwarf tiles were lifted from a dwarf fortress set and coloured in pretty badly and I know they can be improved.

The collection of green men is supposed to represent different varieties of kobolds, goblins, orcs and orges. It doesn't really work as is and I need a bit more variety there and I've just tried to fudge it so far - kobolds shouldn't really be green. Likewise, the ordinary human sprites are ok but lacking a bit of variety.

The reality is though that I would be happy to include anything which you'd be willing to contribute - there's no pressure on you! As long as the style remains pretty consistent throughout, the more variety the better and I would be pretty inclined to include anything in terms of a new monster or other feature if the tile was inspiring enough!

soundlust

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Re: The Burning Plague
« Reply #24 on: April 24, 2013, 03:27:34 AM »
It's actually not that bad of a hack job!
But yeah, I think you will quickly run into problems requiring more variation much sooner than
later.

I like the sounds of releasing modules to continuously add content. How are you planning to make the classes play different? I'm running into some problems with that on my own project (also trying to keep things simple but in a different
way).

pat

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Re: The Burning Plague
« Reply #25 on: April 24, 2013, 04:20:02 AM »
The most obvious distinction is going to be the access to magic for wizards and the combat strength of the fighter classes. A bit trickier to convey is the skills of a thief and the support play of a cleric. Under the rules I'm using, thieves get a better bonus in combat when an enemy is surrounded and clerics are reasonable fighters but their value is in being able to heal and deal with undead.

The tricky bit really is that I am only allowing the player to choose one character to play and the rest comes down to writing. It's going to be a challenge to make the game as interesting for a thief player compared to a wizard, because the use of thief skills in an interesting way is going to have to flow from unusual scripted encounters because I don't think many people will jump at the chance to play a class which can open a locked chest better than anyone else.

And there's already allies included in the game to let you flesh out your party with other skillsets, so I'll have to put a lot of thought and attention into which allies are available for which classes so that becomes an interesting challenge in itself.

Ideally I am aiming for a game where picking to play a thief who chooses to hire an apprentice wizard and a cowardly bodyguard gives rise to an interesting challenge without the randomisation of procedural content.

malignatius

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Re: The Burning Plague
« Reply #26 on: April 24, 2013, 08:16:49 AM »
You'd definitely be able to get a ToME prototype with a custom tileset running in less than an hour I'd say, particularly if you just re-used the example code and ignored gameplay to show off the look and feel of your graphics instead.

Of course if you're keen on making tiles, I know a certain game that's going to be needing some 16x16 tiles very shortly ;)

He he... For my game I'm aiming for a tileset that is 128x128px (and maybe 64x64) and I'm going for vector graphics style rather than pixels. But if I would suddenly feel the urge to do some tiny pixels I'll let you now!   ;D

Vanguard

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Re: The Burning Plague
« Reply #27 on: April 29, 2013, 02:27:24 AM »
Alright, well I finally got around to doing a few sprites.



There are a few variations on the last two because there were some things I wanted to try (the wing, the spear, and the fire breath) but I'm not sure if I like how they turned out.

I don't know if these will be useful at all, but there you go.

pat

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Re: The Burning Plague
« Reply #28 on: April 29, 2013, 04:37:01 AM »
hey, they look pretty good. The kobold ones are definitely along the lines of what I was thinking they should look like instead of being green men like everything else!

On the topic of my progress with the game, I don't have much to demonstrate new by way of screen shots because I've been playing around with character creation and things like that which don't have much of a visual impact.

Also made a few modifications with respect to the combat system which differ from the Dead Simple rules - firstly, every attack you perform a Speed check which if successful gives you an additional attack on the same target. Characters of the soldier class already attack twice per round so can potentially attack three times per round on a successful check which hopefully increases the importance of dexterity for fighting classes and makes it a bit more of a complicated decision where to invest your skill points.

Secondly, I decided to include a Stealth check for those of the thief class as a kind of backstab attack, but only in circumstances where there is more than one attacker around your enemy. Already this provides for a blanket +1 bonus for all classes when you surround a defender, with thieves getting a +2 bonus, but with a successful Stealth check I was thinking that I would add the amount you pass that check by onto the attack roll with a view to making a thief a poor class for up front solo fighting (because of the lack of shields and anything more than light armour) but a handy support class in that they excel at attacking as part of a group, with ideally your opponent focusing on another of your party to avoid soaking up too much damage yourself.

And here's a screenshot just for the heck of it, with the real development shown being the customised player name and avatar:



pat

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Re: The Burning Plague
« Reply #29 on: April 29, 2013, 06:57:24 AM »
And those kobolds look pretty good in-game, I think:



Maybe I'll play around with the one I'm using as a kobold shaman to add some kind of magic effect so that it's a bit more obvious from just the sprite, but they're not bad!