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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsA Game of Class & Race - Retro RPG
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LastLifeHorror
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« on: August 25, 2014, 11:00:12 AM »


Howdy, all!

I'm working on a 1980s-style retro RPG. It’s still relatively early in development, but I’m tentatively calling it A Game of Class & Race, and it’s heavily influenced by games like Ultima and Wizardry.

It’s rocking a 4-colour CGA palette, but I’m not much of an artist so most of the sprites used in the game are either by the amazing Oryx or come from Open Game Art (with a few modifications by me).

The set-up

On the one hand, it will be a very traditional “Old School” game. It will be a party-based, top-down RPG with first-person wireframe dungeon sections and turn-based combat.

On the other hand, it will attempt to deconstruct some of the most popular conventions of the fantasy RPG genre, and explore them from multiple perspectives.

The player will start the game knocking back mugs of ye olde ale in the tavern of some pseudo-West Country medieval fantasy hamlet. On the outskirts of town will be the royal tomb complex in all its pharaonic opulence. The player will control a party of tomb robbers tasked with plundering the necropolis whilst avoiding its devious traps and deadly guardians. That’s my set-up. It’s simple, and it still lets me have a bit of fun and deconstruct some of the tropes of the fantasy RPG genre.

But there's a twist!

Unlike the “old school” style of the art, I want the audio to be modern and (reasonably) high fidelity. My plan is to style the audio almost like a radio drama, with narration, background sound effects and music.

I love the idea of creating dissonance between what the player sees and what they are being told they see. Whilst the audio might be describing a palatial, cobwebbed tomb full of ravenous zombies, the simple art shows just wireframe dungeon. The player’s imagination fills in the gaps.

Anyway, I’m still refining things and it’s still early days. In other words: a lot could change. But I’m determined to actually finish this thing, and I want to try and publish one blog post a week detailing my progress towards that goal.

I'll also be updating on Twitter: http://twitter.com/LastLifeHorror

And on my blog: LastLifeHorror.com




« Last Edit: October 04, 2014, 03:53:38 AM by LastLifeHorror » Logged
Ludipe
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« Reply #1 on: August 25, 2014, 11:10:56 AM »

I would totally love to play this. I've thought about making something similar in the past, but it always happened when I was working in another project.

Keep up the good work! :D
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tieTYT
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« Reply #2 on: August 25, 2014, 12:24:20 PM »

Love the art.  One thing I'll note is that IMO the cleric does not look like a cleric.  But it's still great art.
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LastLifeHorror
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« Reply #3 on: August 25, 2014, 01:08:21 PM »

@Ludipe - Thanks for the support! Let me know if you start working on a similar project - there can never be too many retro RPGs! :-D

@tieTYT - Cheers! I can't claim credit for the art as most of it is by Oryx or from Open Game Art, and the art that I did make (the first screenshot is all mine) is super crude and heavily influenced by games of the time. Still, the art of the time WAS super crude, so it makes it easier for me to add assets quickly. :-)

As for the cleric - this one's a 1980s "Old School" Cleric. :-D Today, clerics are usually healers in support roles - but back in the day (before my time) they wore heavy armour and could almost stand toe-to-toe with fighters.
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happymonster
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« Reply #4 on: August 25, 2014, 11:37:01 PM »

Actually, I like the first screenshot the most Smiley
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LastLifeHorror
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« Reply #5 on: September 07, 2014, 06:01:47 AM »

@happymonster Thanks!

I should be posting another update soon with some more details. I've also changed the name from the slightly generic "Tombs & Traps" to the kinda tongue-in-cheek "A Game of Class & Race".

Another update coming soon!
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JobLeonard
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« Reply #6 on: September 07, 2014, 11:02:40 AM »

1) I love the concept, and the approach to it!

2) Although I still believe the majority of people is very sensible, the internet is mostly a place of those who shout the loudest, which are often the nutcases. So good luck with coping with that backlash you'll probably get from all (often completely opposing) sides.

As an aside, if you use a low-pixel approach, please ensure everything is actually displayed at the emulated low resolution - so no low-res sprites moving across low-res backgrounds but with high-res sub-emulated pixel precision. It's a huge pet peeve of mine that completely ruins the immersion.
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Moth
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« Reply #7 on: September 07, 2014, 11:20:11 AM »

Whoa, just 4 colors... gorgeous. Love the map, really brings me back to Ultima, The Magic Candle, etc.
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LastLifeHorror
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« Reply #8 on: September 17, 2014, 11:01:38 AM »

@CorazonAzul Thanks! Everything is drawn in 320 x 240 and then upscaled, so the game itself runs at 640 x 480. I quite like the pixelated, chunky look it gives everything, but I could also go for 320 x 240 instead.

@JobLeonard Cheers! I hope people keep an open mind, especially as it's not actually a Marxist propaganda piece.

Also, it's 100% tile-based old school movement.

@Moth That's exactly what I'm going for! The Magic Candle was absolutely gorgeous, and still holds up today. If I ever do a sequel (with a bigger budget), I'd love to go for that kind of art style.
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LastLifeHorror
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« Reply #9 on: September 17, 2014, 11:06:22 AM »

Work continues on A Game of Class & Race, the retro RPG inspired by Marxist political theory and the 1982 video game Ultima II. Today, I’ll be talking a little bit about the setting of the game. Instead of going for a generic fantasy world, I’ve decided to base things in Bristol and the South West of England in the early 1990s.

As I said last time, the reason I want to make a game combining Marxism and Ultima II is not because I’m a Marxist (I’m really not), but because I’m fascinated by the abstraction of complexity that takes place within both Marxist philosophy and old school RPGs.

That maybe (kind of) explains the influence of Karl Marx and old school RPGs in general. But why Ultima II specifically? Partly because it’s one of the most ambitious video games ever made (the player can explore an entire planet, as well as travelling back in time and visiting outer space and alien worlds), but that’s not the real reason. The real reason is because it was so unbelievably, unapologetically weird.

The early Ultima games were a batshit crazy stew of Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars, and childish references to cold war politics and 1980s culture. Players drove around medieval cities in hovercars, shooting orcs with phasers and slicing up warlocks with their light sabres while visiting McDonald’s restaurants. Unlike most RPGs, Ultima II is set not in some cookie-cutter fantasy world, but on a demented version of our very own planet Earth.

Video games today are often made by huge teams of people, sometimes with budget in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In the 1980s, games were not uncommonly the work of a single person coding in their spare time on a shoestring budget. The designer often put references to their friends and family into their games, as well as in-jokes and terrible political gags (in Ultima II, for example, the guards have nothing to say except “Pay your taxes!”). This wasn’t quite the bedroom game designer as “auteur”, but it meant that early games were intensely personal creations.

I’d like to replicate this mix of weirdness in A Game of Class & Race. I grew up in Bristol in the 1990s, so that’s what I know. It seemed like a logical place to set the game.

P.S. As well as being a thing of beautiful strangeness, Ultima II was also a rubbish game (unlike Ultima I, which was ace). I’m going to try my best NOT to replicate this aspect of the game.

P.P.S. Check out some of the classic beasties you’ll encounter below

« Last Edit: September 17, 2014, 12:32:18 PM by LastLifeHorror » Logged
JobLeonard
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« Reply #10 on: September 18, 2014, 01:39:20 AM »

@JobLeonard Cheers! I hope people keep an open mind, especially as it's not actually a Marxist propaganda piece.
You'll probably still get a few idiots who think that Tongue
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Also, it's 100% tile-based old school movement.
AW YISS
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Low_Chance
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« Reply #11 on: September 19, 2014, 05:45:06 AM »

[...] I grew up in Bristol in the 1990s, so that’s what I know. It seemed like a logical place to set the game.[...]


P.P.S. Check out some of the classic beasties you’ll encounter below


Man, you must have had quite the childhood there. The worst we have out here in Canada is raccoons and the occasional moose or black bear - Balrogs have been extinct here since the 1920's.
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LastLifeHorror
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« Reply #12 on: October 04, 2014, 03:50:44 AM »

@Low_Chance Shamefully, I may be embellishing my childhood slightly to make it appear more exciting than it actually was. We didn't have balrogs. We did have giant rats in Bristol though! I once saw one as big as a cat, just walking in the road without a care in the world. Or it could have actually been a cat. Didn't want to get too close.

That kind of goofy anatopism was pretty ubiquitous in the early RPGs. But I'm kind of moving away from that idea, and might scale back the goofiness slightly. I'll still include it, but it might not be the focus of the game now.
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LastLifeHorror
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« Reply #13 on: October 04, 2014, 03:52:07 AM »

Best to learn to walk before you can run, right? I’m still working on A Game of Class & Race, and I had vast, cyclopean plans that would see the player journey across space, travel back through time and indulge in drug-fueled fever dreams.

I thought that plumping for a retro art style would keep costs down and allow me to ramp up the sense of epic scale. However, I’m still learning to make videogames, and the first lesson is to keep things simple. Calm down, old bean, and take it slowly.

I’d really love to actually release this game, instead of just sacrificing it onto my personal trash heap of failed dreams. So, I’m going to keep things focused like a hypnotist with tunnel vision.

Instead of thousands of cities, towns and villages spanning various planets, timezones and headspaces, I’m focusing on a single town. That town will have three of the quintessential generic fantasy buildings: a shop, a tavern and an inn.

I've updated the first post to more accurately reflect what I'm up to at the moment. Anyway, I’m still refining things and it’s still early days. In other words: a lot could change. But I’m determined to actually finish this thing, and I want to try and publish one blog post a week detailing my progress towards that goal.
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