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Another thing that's kind of a game, maybe more like a concept or a prototype. Either way, it's done, meaning it's possible (at least in theory ;)) to win it, but I guess still quite far from being complete...

It's a rpg/adventure/IF crossover thingy with procedurally generated terrain, items, npcs and (very rudimentary) 'plot'. Combat system is a bit like old crpgs ala Bard's Tale, Dragon Wars et comp, turn-based, with skills, spells, magical items and that, with 'tactical advantage' replacing the usual range/distance between armies. But, it's also important to gain contacts and allies and seek information about places and other characters. So there's also some detective work involved.

As you explore the five realms of reality, npcs do the same, warring among each other, forming parties, recruiting armies and laying sieges, burning down villages, getting drunk... Thus the world keeps evolving quite independently of player actions, although a skillful player will find ways of influencing the ongoing war between forces of evil and good, in the backdrop of the tale, thus postponing the major story events which are all rather bad (essentially The Arrival of The Inevitable Doom, In Three Stages)...

Your goal is to eliminate the three evil overlords or else the war against evil will be lost and darkness shall rule forever, etc. Basically, I ripped the skeletal structure of the 'plot' from Lord of the Rings (more or less) there's the evil superlord who is immortal, so you need to find the particular unique item containing his soul and destroy it before you may eliminate the superlord himself. The dude's got two sidekick overlords, unless you indentify and off them before picking up on the big kahoona, you'll be having *lotsa* more problems with him (just saying :D).

Since this is an experiment on several levels, I'll appreciate feedback on all aspects of the game, criticism is also most welcome as I'd like to expand these experiments and ideas in the numerous ( :-X ) projects to come...

Some screenshots:

(http://www.sinistersystems.com/projects/saga/totss.jpg)

The link to the game:

http://www.sinistersystems.com/projects/saga/tot.zip (http://www.sinistersystems.com/projects/saga/tot.zip)

Graphics, interface and gameplay are all inspired by old ZX Spectrum adventure and epic games, such as Valhalla, Lords of Midnight, Sorderon's Shadow etc. Because of the retro constraints the GUI might be a little confusing, so although I know this is against the principles of modern game design, I really really suggest you at least take a glance at the manual (it's included in the zip file, the updated version is availble online at http://www.sinistersystems.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=geeny:projects:saga (http://www.sinistersystems.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=geeny:projects:saga)), but since I know you're not gonna, here's the really important stuff:

Visual C++ redistributables:

If the tot.exe won't run (weird DLL related error messages) run the included vcredist_x86.exe, it is the Microsoft redistributable pack.

User Interface:

Everything is done by left-clicking on the menu, icons and location graphics. When the cursor hovers above an icon or a hotspot, a pop-up window appears in the top of the screen naming the object beneath. Clicking it will focus that object, usually opening up the menu with any possible interaction.

Unless the game requires you to select something (ie during the battle when orders are given to your party members), you can cancel an action by using the ‘Close’ option in the menu.

To cancel an action or selection when chosing from a list of icons (ie casting a spell, targetting an attack or a spell...) click on any empty space in the screen.

...

Well, I guess that's that.

Cheers and have fun!

...

Edit: I *always* forget to include this - system requirements. OS is windows 2000 + (no problems with vista reported so far), also I've heard it works smoothly under wine in Linux. As for hardware, I think any 32 pc should do the trick. :)

Fuck yeah! Chosing arbitrary constraints immediately gives you an advantage over other other such projects, that's how art works :beer:

This sounds like a retro Mount&Blade.
Hell yes.

This looks badass. I'll take a look.  :o

I love the graphics. I love them.

Thanks! :)

I already found a rather unpleasant bug though... :-[

When challenging a npc to a duel, never select a summoned creature from your party as the challenger, you might end up in a totally locked up situation, unable to go anywhere or do anything.

I already fixed it but since it's just a script fix, I only uploaded the new database file, here it is: http://www.sinistersystems.com/projects/saga/tot.ged (http://www.sinistersystems.com/projects/saga/tot.ged). To install it just copy it over the old one, dl should be fast as it's only like 250k...

Anyway until I reach some major milestone again, I'll only be updating this file, while leaving the zip file as it is. In general, updates shouldn't affect old save files.

A windowed double-size option would be nice.

Also, having tooltips for the various menus and buttons would be VERY nice.

True. I'm planning arbitrary scaling for the final version (or sooner hopefully).


This is a little bit more troublesome. Although it only occured to me now (strangely :P) that I could at least include tooltips for button icons in the same fashion as it's done for other hotspots, maybe in another color, but I don't know what to do about menu options. Any explanation of those would be potentially quite hefty so I'm not sure where to place it on the (already overcrowded) screen... Any ideas?

AWESOME is against the principles of modern game design.

This looks real cool anyway. Downloaded, and I'll hopefully have some time for playing it later today.

Blimey, I only take a half year's break and there's a ton of cool new smileys... How am I supposed to decide which one to use now?  :durr:

Just popping in to let you know I'm working on this game again, so I started with enabling the 2x2 scale for the window mode, I'm pretty sure the lack of this feature made the game unplayable to some people, so...

Download link (same as before): http://www.sinistersystems.com/projects/saga/tot.zip (http://www.sinistersystems.com/projects/saga/tot.zip)

Have fun!  :handforkL: :blink: :handknifeR:

8-bits of awesome.

Linux port available now, for anyone interested.  :coffee:

http://www.sinistersystems.com/projects/saga/tot.tar.gz (http://www.sinistersystems.com/projects/saga/tot.tar.gz)

Have fun!