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[Julien_v42]

Hello there!

I'm here to talk about (ie advertise ), a project I've been working on for 2 years and a half now, codenamed 'TinyRPGSim'. There is also an official blog: http://tinyrpgsim.wordpress.com



'Legal' facts:

It is inspired and driven by concepts published as part of the 'Three Hundreds Mechanics' (see http://www.squidi.net/three/, #70, #71, #72), as well as using public art from the same site (and defunct forum) aka 'The Free Pixel Project' : http://www.squidi.net/pixel/.

All programming is done by myself, I've done all the initial level design (1st town, 1st castle and its levels), then received some help in the form of more content (new castles and a new town). All graphic resources come from the original 300 entries or the Free Pixel Project.


Game pitch:

This is a kind of inverted RPG, but not quite
You have some god-like powers over a RPG-like setting of Adventurers going to find treasures (and grind for XP!) in hostile 'castles'.
This is meant to be a very passive game (some dubbed it a 'fishbowl'), but with many possibilities if the player wants to be involved.

Some of the player's powers are:

• Buying more Adventurers
• Buying more levels
• Buying more monsters
• Buying new kinds of monsters
• Upgrading monsters
• Upgrading levels
• Buying buildings (includes housing, guilds, craftsmen, etc...)
• Upgrading buildings

The original concepts also propose to give the player control over each Adventurer's goals and objectives, and gives detailed ideas about guilds and housing. I haven't implemented those yet, so I won't talk about them now.



Development state:

This project was started in April 2008 and has gone through several periods of intense activity (ie full-time work) as well as extended periods of total inactivity, and most of the time, something between, ie small amounts of work when I have the time, energy and inspiration.
These periods are mostly driven by my (un)employment state and holidays, as could be expected.

I've made public builds of the game since early in the development, I've also received some invaluable feedback and help, on the forum mentioned earlier (on squidi.net), which is now completely dead, even its history lost.
Anyway, now you can find builds and thoughts and work in progress information on the project's official blog here: http://tinyrpgsim.wordpress.com.
Latest Windows build is available under the 'build' tag: http://tinyrpgsim.wordpress.com/tag/build/.
Mac ports can be available under the 'mac' tag: http://tinyrpgsim.wordpress.com/tag/mac/.

Now, about the actual state of development... The game is playable, although very incomplete. As of build 016, many of the game mechanics are in place, but under-used, or unused (the building system for instance).
The content is lacking too: all the adventurers look the same, there are too few monster types, no magic, no loot, no guilds, no building upgrades, ...



Help needed:

The first and foremost help I need is feedback. Having people actually trying the game and asking me to fix bugs or implement features or add their content is the most efficient way of helping me.
So, go download the latest build, play with it a bit, then come back here and tell me what's right and what's wrong, or just pester me for a new build.

Then, there's the whole content issue. There should be much more in the game to make it interesting: more levels, more monsters, more towns, more buildings, etc... Contact me by replying here, or by PM, or by mail: tinyrpgsim-at-free.fr

Last point is the graphical content. I've got some sprites not yet used from people of The Free Pixel Project. But I don't have any boss sprites, the tilesets are quite limited and not very consistent (zombie town for a fantasy world?!),
so any help is welcome. If you wish to go and design the whole thing from scratch, please be my guest. I can provide specs, and I can even improve these if needed.



Thanks for reading

Note: all screenshots are taken from Build 016, running in 640x480 resolution, the interface will look better (no cut texts) with a bigger resolution, eg: 1280x1024.

[Julien_v42]

For those who want to try the game, but don't want to go read the blog to find where I've hidden download links, here is a direct link to build 016 (Windows):

http://tinyrpgsim.free.fr/pub/TinyRPGSim%20-%20Build%20016%20-%202010-12-22.zip

Enjoy! (and comment!)

[ezuk]

This is great – I love fishbowl games!  I tried the build and will probably get sucked in when a few more features go in.  I got a second adventurer and built a house, which the adventurer never used. 

A few things that I’d like to see:

• A random name generator for the heroes.   Feeling attached to the heroes is vital.
• A stat like “courage” that would help give some personality to the heroes (say, by affecting how soon they would retreat from a dungeon or how willing they’d be to fight a tougher monster).
• A mouseover tooltip that would explain the function of different buildings and options.
• More stats!  Monsters killed, bosses defeated (when you get them), dungeon screens entered, monsters of each type defeated, etc.

I look forward to seeing what features / hero classes / monsters / abilities you’re looking to put in.  It does seem strange to be able to level up both heroes and monsters.  I expected to be able to help one side or the other, but not both.

A small bug:  when in the dungeon to the bottom right, the hero did not align properly with the ladders when clmbing.

[Julien_v42]

Hey, thanks for the feedback!

I haven't had the time to improve much, but there were a bunch of bugs/weirdness I hadn't fixed in Build 016 that are now fixed in the new version.

Changelog:

2010-12-29: Build 017
- Fixed broken window resizing in game.
- Fixed Quest order bug #1: 'go back to AG' in the middle of 'kill Monster'.
- Fixed Quest order bug #2: goals added in reverse order.
- Patched crash when selecting AG with too many quests generated. Please
  note that this involves truncating Quests listing.
- Fixed bugs caused by game running slowly, including bugs caused by stand by.
  This include among others Adventurers getting lost outside levels.
- Fixed automatic layout of Adventurer windows.
- Tweaked mouse double-click sensivity, should be easier to double-click now.
- Fixed some level design issues (ladders vs exits) in Forest 'castle'.

Download link: http://tinyrpgsim.free.fr/pub/TinyRPGSim%20-%20Build%20017%20-%202010-12-29.zip

The random name generator is definitely in my list of must-have features, for the stats, I was thinking about making a 'log' by Adventurer, that would read as both a textual book 'Today, I went into the Dark Forest and killed many monsters. I found a new sword, cool!' and factual statistics 'Day 23. Killed 12 monsters, gained 1200 XP, 500 GC and found Sword +3.'

The personality is a good idea, I can easily implement courage/cowardice, as the quests have levels attached to them. It would look better with retreat and attack of opportunity implemented though.

For the leveling, you don't 'level up' heroes yourself, you help them getting better/richer by setting up appropriate Dungeon Levels with challenging enough monsters. So you're not really 'helping' the monsters, just putting them in the way of heroes so they can be killed.

[Julien_v42]

Just a quick update to mention that the Mac port is now up to date, with a 017 build.

http://tinyrpgsim.free.fr/pub/MacTRS%20-%20Build%20017%20-%202010-12-30.zip

Enjoy, Mac users!

[yokomeshi]

With regards to personality, how about having a bunch of attributes like "cowardly" and "bloodthirsty," and giving each hero two or thvee random ones?  A hero with "bloodthirsty" would seek out chances to murder stuff, for example. IMO that gives more depth than a slider or stat.

[ezuk]

Hi Julien,

 I downloaded build 017 and played it until I had two heroes at level 3.  I didn’t notice any bugs in the movement, other than noticing that heroes could walk through buildings and through enemies.  (I guess that town waypoints or collision detection is not in yet.)

In this kind of game, the more different behaviours you can put in, the better.  Do you have a list stats/behaviours that you’re considering?

By the way, playing TRS made me pick up Majesty 2, which also features heroes not under the player’s direct control.  Are you familiar with it?  The difference between it and TRS is that the monsters attack the town and do not stay in a given area.  Having a competitive mode where the monsters can wander in the town and attack heroes and destroy buildings might be one direction to consider.  Or you could keep it as a sandbox game and give the adventurers a lot of interesting behaviours.

[Julien_v42]

Thanks for giving the game a good try!

As you guessed, there should be navigation in towns, but it just isn't done yet. To be consistent with the rest of the game, I think it will be waypoint based.

I haven't yet listed stats or behaviors, but I'm working on it right now. I think you and yokomeshi are right about it mattering a lot to the appeal of the game, so I'm making the improvements on the adventurers a top priority. I'm preparing a blog post about that, expect more info soon

I've checked Majesty 2, just judging by the official website, it seems to have some in common, but not that much, because TRS is more geared toward Sim RPG than Sim RTS. From what I've read, it's closer to FFCC : My Life as a King : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_Crystal_Chronicles:_My_Life_as_a_King, but with more of a 'fishbowl' feel, and less of a video game.

[ezuk]

I've checked Majesty 2, just judging by the official website, it seems to have some in common, but not that much, because TRS is more geared toward Sim RPG than Sim RTS. From what I've read, it's closer to FFCC : My Life as a King : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_Crystal_Chronicles:_My_Life_as_a_King, but with more of a 'fishbowl' feel, and less of a video game.

It’s true that Majesty is an RTS – you construct upgradable buildings to give certain benefits like money or defense.  But there’s no resource gathering other than money and all the”units”—warriors, clerics, rangers, wizards, and rogues—come from RPG settings, as do the buildings—item and weapon shops, guilds, inns, etc.  Heroes of each type learn spells or gain feats, level up, and even buy better equipment or potions when they return to town.   In other words, they act like characters in an RPG.  Not only that, but the player can’t give direct orders to the heroes.  Instead, he can influence behaviour by offering cash rewards for certain actions like attacking or avoiding certain places or killing certain monsters.

That said, there are a lot of interesting directions for you to take TSR.  I hope that you’ll post an update on your progress with hero behaviours before long.  This is the part of the game that I’m most interested in seeing.

[Julien_v42]

OK, I'll check Majesty more in depth then.

I've just published a new blog post: http://tinyrpgsim.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/next-features-the-adventurer/.

It explains a bit what I've planned for the Adventurer, with a mock-up of a new bit of GUI: the 'New Adventurer' window. It's inspired a lot by Theme Hospital. Here it is, with the legend below:

• 1. Portrait
• 2. Special ability (could be fast, strong, lucky, …)
• 3. Name (random generated)
• 4. Class (ranger, mage, fighter, …)
• 5. Personality (coward, blood thirsty, suicidal, intelligent, indefatigable, …)
• 6. Bonuses/maluses

Of course, it'll look better in game, even with my non-themed Guichan

I have many other ideas/features to add soon, including a new UI to give details about an Adventurer, a new overall UI layout, with fast access buttons, a messaging UI to give info about important events (finished quest, death, level up, etc...), and a global map of the world. I'll post/blog more about this soon.

[Julien_v42]

I've published the second part of my GUI musings : http://tinyrpgsim.wordpress.com/2011/01/12/next-features-the-adventurer-part-2/.

It mostly contains the second mock-up I've drawn, the brand new Adventurer Info Window. There are missing elements, it's more 'work-in progress' than the other. Here it is, without legend this time (see the blog post for explanations):


Sorry for the mouse-drawn adventurer, it was a really bad idea I know

[Julien_v42]

Just a quick update here to say that I've completed the new UI for Adventurer "purchase" or "recruiting".

That meant lots of internal changes to support a completely different way of creating the guys, plus new features to add.
Well, on the features front, I haven't done much yet :
 

• I'm working on names generation, I haven't found a name generation library (ie something I can integrate in my game, vs a website that provides the feature). I think I will just put a basic list for the moment though.
• I have to add more characteristics to the different guys, now the only parameters are speed and health. This includes working on behaviors/personalities.
• I've added a new sprite sheet from Ed Zuk here, it's looking good already. I will add more before making some new screenshots soon.

I'm currently not working much on TRS, as I'm currently spending most of my free time on practicing for job interview(s), so going back to basics (algorithms, data structures, etc...), and improving my C++ mastery. This is still good for TRS as it gives me ideas of things to improve, for code quality, efficiency and actual features.

[Julien_v42]

Here is a screenshot!

• You can see the two sprite sets currently in the game.
• Names are picked from a static list in code, as placeholder feature.
• Personalities are picked from a list, no effect yet.

[Julien_v42]

I will make a new build soon, with these partial features in. I'd just like to setup the second piece of new GUI (the Adventurer info window).

In the mean time, I'd really love to get some suggestions about these features. What kind of attributes, what kind of personalities, etc... I'd like concrete stuff like :

Constitution : attribute, affects max health
Strength : attribute, affect damage dealt
Barbarian : class, constitution and strength bonus
Fearless : personality, reduce flee threshold/probability

There are other possible features in that topic, like :

Fighters Guild : increase weapon proficiency, access to special weapons, access to battlefield healing.

Thanks for any feedback, I'm going back to code!

[Julien_v42]

The second window is shaped now. I think I will make a build without (other) new features so this is out of my hands very soon (this week).

[Julien_v42]

Here's a screenshot of the new window in action:



As you can see, it's quite empty at the moment. Well, that's plenty of room for new stuff

[Julien_v42]

And here's the build:

http://tinyrpgsim.free.fr/pub/TinyRPGSim%20-%20Build%20018%20-%202011-03-06.zip

[sporling]

I'm really glad to see this project is going well! I can't wait to see more developments!

[Julien_v42]

As explained on the blog (https://tinyrpgsim.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/slowly-readying-next-build/), I've taken a new job (again ), so I've got less time (again ) to work on TRS.

But I've still got some progress to report! The behavior of the Adventurers can now be customized by personality traits, with quite a lot of possibilities. I'm having trouble finding the inspiration to create relevant traits though, so any suggestions are welcome. Currently I've done cowardice (don't take tough jobs, flee soon when hit) and its opposite (take crazy jobs, never flee).

I'll try to make the next build around the middle of May, as always my estimations aren't that reliable 

[ezuk]

It's good to see that the game is still coming along.  Here are a few suggestions for the traits to get the ball rolling:

Psychotic.  Will attack lower-level characters for their equipment or gold if they are low on health and away from town.

Alcoholic.  Will spend gold in the tavern rather than on new equipment.

Elven Blood.  Receives a boost to stats in the forest but penalty in dungeons due to having elven ancestors.

Bully.  Receives boost to stats when fighting a monster weaker than he is but a penalty against tougher monsters.

Lucky Guy.  Very high luck (better loot drops, greater chance of critical hits or dodge) but lower base stats.

And for even more inspiration, here's a list of D&D traits:

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/3.5e_Traits

And a list of traits from the Sims:

http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Traits

Hope this helps.  And congratulations on the new job!