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[SheridanR]

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Barony is a 3D, first-person RPG featuring cooperative multiplayer, dungeon-crawling mechanics, roguelike elements, and real-time action. Graphically, it resembles the old first-person dungeon crawling games of the '90s, specifically Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Daggerfall. Gameplay-wise, it mixes the style of the aforementioned games with things like Nethack and Spelunky.

The goal of the game is to destroy an undead lich named Baron Herx, who terrorized the world above in a previous life and is now holding out in a vast subterranean complex known as the Devil's Bastion. The game fully supports cooperative multiplayer for up to four players, meaning the game can be played by yourself or with a few friends over LAN or the internet.

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Website: http://www.baronygame.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Turning_Wheel

[benexclaimed]

I know approximately zero things about games development, but this looks/sounds terrific.

[Whiteclaws]

I know approximately zero things about games development, but this looks/sounds terrific.

*Punchs a Goblins* , LEVEL UP

Dis luks Biutiful

Altho , I don't like the 3D voxel models for what the player is holding

[ArsenioDev]

Barony is a first-person multiplayer action RPG with many rogue-like elements, including (mostly) random dungeons, easy death, and discovery mechanics. That's a broad description of the game. A simpler and perhaps more evocative description is essentially, "Ultima Underworld, with multiplayer and lots of rogue-like stuff" because frankly, the game evokes Ultima Underworld's feeling quite a bit.

The game engine that I'm using was invented by me and is being written simultaneously to the game. Though the graphics are simplistic, the pipeline for developing content is very simple and I hope to leverage that to create a fair amount of unique and interesting content for this game.

There are currently over 10k lines to the project's code base, plus a couple hundred model and image files.

OPEN FOR HELP WITH GAME'S DEVELOPMENT. If you're interested, feel free to check out my ad on gamedev.net. It will be fun!

Screenshots:





Engine features:

• Supports any resolution (in this case set to 640x400 for design purposes)
• Written completely in ANSI C.
• Cross-platform design. (tested building on Linux and Windows; should also build fine on Macs)
• Intuitive level editor; also cross-platform.
• 3D raycasting and 2D drawing modes.
• Multiple 3D views.
• Raycasting supports textures on all surfaces.
• Fast texture mapping.
• Voxel models to represent all entities.
• Voxel models can be fully moved and rotated along three axes.
• Networked multiplayer for arbitrary number of players (in this case, max is 4)
• Random dungeon generator
• Accurate collision detection (AABB)
• Very basic 3D sound engine (distance, direction).
• Software based graphics using SDL library.
• Many other insignificant things.

Screenshot of map editor:
http://i.imgur.com/JFzaGFj.png

Please comment and raise suggestions as you see fit. I want to see this game finished, and constructive criticism and encouragement go a long way to making sure that happens.

Added this to my watch list! :D i am a sucker for first person RPGs and even better it runs on MAC! :D thank you sire! 

[Connor]

theres a game out there called "delver" which is almost the exact same as this.

[SheridanR]

theres a game out there called "delver" which is almost the exact same as this.

Hmm, I had never heard of Delver until now. It looks pretty neat though! Hopefully Barony will be able to stand on its own merits. I don't think Delver has multiplayer - but this game does!

Added this to my watch list! :D i am a sucker for first person RPGs and even better it runs on MAC! :D thank you sire! 

No, thank you for the support!

[Hipshot]

Looks cool, been thinking in the same line for a while.
Make it right and it will be a hit - remember, coop is a seller, especially if it's like this.

[bexsella]

Reminds me of some of Ken Silverman's work, it would be awesome to have a build of this just as soon as it's barely playable. 

[MrDaaark]

Reminds me of Nightmare 3D, with the old point and click hero Hugo. I think the ceilings are too low. It looks like everyone is 3 inches away from hitting their heads.

[SheridanR]

Thanks for the feedback, all of you! I seriously appreciate it.

I've updated the OP, as I've located a talented artist who's enthusiastic about contributing to the project.

Reminds me of some of Ken Silverman's work, it would be awesome to have a build of this just as soon as it's barely playable. 

It's actually been "barely playable" for a couple months, but being barely playable really means that it's only barely interesting. I don't intend to release any playable demos until we have something notably fun for you to play with.

I like this. I'm getting an Ultima Underworld vibe here, which is good. I think this could be a lot of fun. I would suggest a palette change and choosing a different font (to something low res, so it matches up with the playfield better), but I'm sure your artist will take care of those things when you find one.

Thanks for the advice. The art direction in general has been very haphazard and aimless up to this point, but having found an artist I'm confident we'll see some improvement in that direction soon enough.

This touches my old school programmer heart. 

Ha ha. To be honest it was probably a teensy bit of a crazy choice in an age where C has been eclipsed with languages that actually support things like classes and objects, but I still admire C greatly for its strict and simple design philosophy and am more comfortable working with it than any other language.

It looks like everyone is 3 inches away from hitting their heads.

I actually get that a lot. The truth is that the walls are 32 map units tall, the player is 24 map units tall, and the player's eyes are 22 map units from the ground. Building regulations where I live dictate that minimum ceiling height is eight feet (2.4 meters). If you're six feet tall (1.8 meters) you're at the same ratio of character height to room height as the game is.

However, since so many people have complained about it, I'll reconsider making the rooms taller.

[SheridanR]

Also, for those interested: I was interviewed about Barony a few days ago by IndieGraph, the blog about indie game news. Click here to read it!

[Connor]

multiplayer support will be a pretty huge improvement on this kind of game i havent heard of that kind of thing in an ultima inspired game. pretty cool! it all looks pretty awesome as well.

[MrDaaark]

I actually get that a lot. The truth is that the walls are 32 map units tall, the player is 24 map units tall, and the player's eyes are 22 map units from the ground. Building regulations where I live dictate that minimum ceiling height is eight feet (2.4 meters). If you're six feet tall (1.8 meters) you're at the same ratio of character height to room height as the game is.

However, since so many people have complained about it, I'll reconsider making the rooms taller.

You get lots of complaints probably because your ratios are off. You're using real world ratios to justify it, but your characters are not using real world ratios. So the comparison is off.

Your characters are about 3 heads tall, when the ideal proportions for 'real life' is 8 heads tall. Google image search '8 heads tall' to find some good reference for that. Also, you aren't maintaining the ratio in your objects, monsters, or textures. So everything appears off, and you end up with an awkward squashed look.

I realize it's still early on, but you shouldn't mix high and low pixel densities like you are. The pixel density in the game world and the HUD should match.

[SheridanR]

You get lots of complaints probably because your ratios are off. You're using real world ratios to justify it, but your characters are not using real world ratios. So the comparison is off.

Your characters are about 3 heads tall, when the ideal proportions for 'real life' is 8 heads tall. Google image search '8 heads tall' to find some good reference for that. Also, you aren't maintaining the ratio in your objects, monsters, or textures. So everything appears off, and you end up with an awkward squashed look.

I see. I'm not an artist, so I wasn't aware of this. Thanks for explaining it! And like I said, as the art gets a face lift, redoing the world proportions and camera position is something that will certainly be done.

I realize it's still early on, but you shouldn't mix high and low pixel densities like you are. The pixel density in the game world and the HUD should match.

Good catch. I hadn't thought about the pixel density of the HUD since I first scraped it together a month or two ago. I've made a note of this.

[SheridanR]

Hey all! Just a quick update on some of the things we've been working on lately. As development has progressed we've begun overhauling the art direction and adding some of the little bits to the game that make things interesting, like the concept of slippery fingers.


I hope he has something to clean himself up with...

We've also been extending and updating the game editor to make it even more accessible and easy to use. Here you can see the 3D mode I have activated:


In the future this will allow modders to navigate and see their levels as they will appear in game, as well as edit their levels from a first person perspective.

Speaking of modding, I haven't said much about that, so I'll start now:

Barony randomly generates most levels like many rogue-likes, but the method by which it generates levels is somewhat different than many rogue-likes. Rather than following pure algorithms to create all of the rooms and hallways in the game, Barony instead draws from a wealth of prefabs contained under a /maps/ folder to create its levels. These prefabs, of which there are many, are arranged randomly by the generator in a large space to produce a level that is quite unique, but still contains enough of a designer's touch to not feel random and bland.

Now here's the special part: every single one of those prefab rooms is a map file that can be edited by any given user using the bundled game editor. In addition, any new map files that are added to the folder are automatically recognized by the game as usable prefabs. That means you have complete and intuitive control to modify, add, or remove prefabs, create new dungeon types, and more.

In general, our goal when it comes to modifying Barony is to have the game data as accessible and translucent as possible. Being tile-based, map files are extremely easy to modify; textures are stored simply as unpacked bitmaps which can be manipulated with any program; map files can be edited using the bundled editor; and things like item descriptions and level order can be changed simply by modifying text files.

Well, all that being said, it will be a little while longer before we share videos or a demo with you guys, but be sure that we are working hard on the game and it will be finished soon enough! On the next post, I'll talk about something besides the modding: the complex group AI and simple monster ecosystem we're designing for the game.

[SheridanR]

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you guys know that we are in fact not dead yet!

Shortly after I made the last post, our new artist jumped ship without even saying a word. All in all, however, he had done extremely little for the team before he left, so we decided to revert the art assets to what they had been before he joined and simply pressed on in silence.

That being said, there is a lot I have to talk about!

I know in my last post I stated that I would talk about the complex AI we were working on. However, the truth of the matter is that, while we have done a substantial amount of work in that area, there isn't much I can demonstrate on it yet, so it will have to remain untouched for now.

Instead, I came here to announce we have a new website for the game, as well as a trailer! The trailer showcases many of the game's more prominent features, including the multiplayer.

[alvarop]

Game looks nice, it follows the trend and I guess people will like that. The website could use some work though. Will keep an eye on this one.

[jules]

Looks awesome!! I can't wait to play. If there's anything I can help out with, let me know!

[SheridanR]

Greetings, fellow forumites.

I'm replying to this thread to inform you all that I am currently looking for an artist who is capable of producing both pixel art as well as voxel art. For those who are interested, please see the original post for details. Thank you!

And for the rest of you: have a screenshot!

Ostensibly this will be the last thing players see before they enter the dungeon for good. An ominous structure indeed...

[Whiteclaws]

Loving it , I'm looking forwards to the final result xD