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[oyog]

Before I get into this I'd like to make it clear that I have minimal experience with crpgs, and most of my experience is with isometric.  That said, I have no experience with software development so I have no idea what's possible and what's not, or how long it takes.  For me a developer snaps their fingers and a game is done (though sometimes snapping takes two or three years.) 

Is there any possibility of playing single player with bot allies or turn based control of each character?

Continuing miguelito's thoughts on UI and limitations in older games:

Would it be possible to simply let the player customize what's on the screen?  The player could play with a blocky UI or could play with the main character display fullscreen.  Possibly with the ability to turn on and off ally windows, battle info or the map or make those features overlays of the fullscreen display.

If the UI can be defined by the user what would keep it from having a split screen for multiplayer on a single machine using gamepads?

How would players communicate in multiplayer?
 
You mention modding so I suppose some of these things would be possible later on.

[SiENcE]

Is there any possibility of playing single player with bot allies or turn based control of each character?

Shure it is. But at first it's easier to make it multiplayer. Adding AI-Bots is a huge task.

Continuing miguelito's thoughts on UI and limitations in older games:

Would it be possible to simply let the player customize what's on the screen?  The player could play with a blocky UI or could play with the main character display fullscreen.  Possibly with the ability to turn on and off ally windows, battle info or the map or make those features overlays of the fullscreen display.

Feel free to post mockups. Thats why we discussing it :-).

I'm thinking of a indiviual system:
We create a full game called campain. If players like this game, they can start making thier own campain. Create own tilesets, monster graphics, gui, dungeon, quests etc. Each campain is zipped and can be distributed and shared to other players (maybe also ingame or via server browser).

If the UI can be defined by the user what would keep it from having a split screen for multiplayer on a single machine using gamepads?

My first prototype was an offline 2-4 multiplayer. It's already in, but for testing it's easier with online multiplayer.

How would players communicate in multiplayer?

Ingame chat...or if they wanna talk they should usw skype, mumble etc. I'm already testing chat (gray chatbar above).

You mention modding so I suppose some of these things would be possible later on.

Shure .

[oyog]

Ingame chat...or if they wanna talk they should usw skype, mumble etc. I'm already testing chat (gray chatbar above).

Oops!  I hadn't noticed the chat.

That was very informative, thanks!

[SiENcE]

We are back with the first Prototype playable in your Webbrowser (needs WebGL!).

Play our Dungeonspace prototype in your Webbrowser without plugins!

What we have now:
- WebGL prototype of Dungeonspace (Win/Linux/MacOSX are also possible)
- our own IRC channel
- Comments on every Page
- a Development Wiki
- and a Logo


Please leave us a comment.

cheers
SiENcE & Softwahn

[SiENcE]

Sunday is always a good day for coding

Today i've fixed several multiplayer bugs and a annoying monster walkmesh bug. Notice, don't test a 4player multiplayer mode with only one person. It's a bad idea.

Nevertheless i got an average of 150fps for each of the 4 Clients running simultaneously on one PC (Core2Duo 6600 + Nvidia 9600GT).

(click on the image for full resolution 1900x1200)

[SiENcE]

It was a bit quiet around us. Nevertheless we worked on the this classic multiplayer dungeoncrawler.

We are happy to announce, that a skilled graphic atist joined our team. Don't expect a demo before the end of the year.

The Wallset is currently only a mockup. The GUI needs to be improved too. So this is work in progress and by far not final :-).

Here is a new screenshots:

[SiENcE]

1st Wallset is done ... thanks to our artist marco!

[Miguelito]

Looks amazing, love the careful transition towards cold colors towards the back of the view.

The logo looks extremenly sci-fi though, maybe you should revise it at some point.

[SiENcE]

Looks amazing, love the careful transition towards cold colors towards the back of the view.

The logo looks extremenly sci-fi though, maybe you should revise it at some point.

Thanks. Yes it looks great. Marco is trying to archive the good old look and feel.

The logo ... yes meh i removed it. I'm not good in this, only a coder .

[SiENcE]

Skeleton Enemy Number 1

[eobet]

Very nice 16-bit feel!

[Miguelito]

Skeleton Enemy Number 1

Dude, how many frames of animation do these enemies have?

[SiENcE]

Skeleton Enemy Number 1

Dude, how many frames of animation do these enemies have?

Currently only 2 Frames for each of the 4 directions. This limit is not an engine limit but an time limit. We only have one artist doing all the assets. So we have to limit our timebudget.

Plan is to finish a first demo until christmas and than finish the whole game next year. If the game draws attention, we might push more ressources into graphics and sound :-) (cross fingers).

[SiENcE]

GUI Overhaul - Part 1 - Layout


skeleton in action


basic fighting works


new mummy enemy

[SiENcE]

GUI Overhaul - Part 2 - Inventory

This week i'm working on the inventory and item system. The team (stefan, marco and me) agreed to an modern drag & drop interface where stats and specs are visible via overlay.

I'm unsure if we also need an item spec comparsion chart, because this wont be a game full of items and useless stuff. I also moved the minimap from the right corner to the left to make it more visible during play.

The current item images are only placeholder ... programmer art :-) ... and the character stats are also on the wrong place.

[happymonster]

The pencil / charcoal style artwork is very nice. Keep going!

[Miguelito]

While I'm a complete casual and dead afraid of too many stats, I agree there should be a quick way of comparing numbers if you're not going for simple, linear improvements (e.g. the new stuff will always be better, with a name clearly emphasizing that fact).

Perhaps a base stat that's truly relevant (say, damage reduction for armor), and use color/lightness as a quick visual guide? Say you have a pair of boots equipped and three more pairs in your inventory. If you hover over the equppied pair, two of the pairs below get a white border and one a red border. The white ones would be higher in that stat.
Or you cna be extra fancy and display a popup on hovering that shows all items of one type sorted in table form.

PS.: Hero silhouette pose to the right is looking mighty confident.

[marcuz]

Hello, I'm the internet-impaired person responsible for the graphic and design of Dungeonspace, plus the coherency and narrative obsessed guy writing long-winded emails to the coder.

I'm also the person unable to remember the name of the game or spell it right two times in a row, even after six months of being on board.
But that's not really a problem since the name will change soon.

I just registered under duress by the aforementioned coder and wanted to say hi; plus I wanted to thank you for the input, as I see a number of very good pointers in the posts in this thread.

Seriously, I'm tinkering with the idea of a game like this since ages, and more actively in the past year, so I'm happy to work with uh... SiENcE (by the way, why did you have to go and use a nickname so hard to type?) and Stefan on this.

While I promise not to post very often, I'll keep an eye on the thread!

[SiENcE]

While I'm a complete casual and dead afraid of too many stats, I agree there should be a quick way of comparing numbers if you're not going for simple, linear improvements (e.g. the new stuff will always be better, with a name clearly emphasizing that fact).

Perhaps a base stat that's truly relevant (say, damage reduction for armor), and use color/lightness as a quick visual guide? Say you have a pair of boots equipped and three more pairs in your inventory. If you hover over the equppied pair, two of the pairs below get a white border and one a red border. The white ones would be higher in that stat.
Or you cna be extra fancy and display a popup on hovering that shows all items of one type sorted in table form.

The border is a good idea, i had this myself too but i want to use it to show if an item fits (category) into the character slot or not.

I think i will use an item-stats overlay when you hoover an item combined with an stats comparsion when hoover an item with another item.

Something like that.

But that's not really a problem since the name will change soon.

Hopefully we find a better/good name.

I just registered under duress by the aforementioned coder

[SiENcE]

Status update:

I'm currently working on the ingame editor. For now you can place & remove predefined walls, items and npcs/monsters. All monsters, items & walls are defined in a levelXX.lua file. Levels are organized in campains.