next »

[bvckshot]

I've always been a fan of old school RPGs, a la Chrono Trigger and the Final Fantasy series (before VII, although I enjoyed VII through XII as well).  And I've always wanted to make a game in that style and at about that technical level.  I've had the idea over the last few years to avoid the traditional platforms and instead distribute this game exclusively through a web browser.  Browsers and computing power have improved to the level of being able to do most (if not all) of what dedicated consoles could do through the mid-90s.

I've put together a very small demo of what I'm talking about and I would like some feedback on the level of community interest in a project such as this.  There are certainly plenty of browser-based games (RPG and otherwise) out there, but none are in the style I'm looking for, other than a few notable exceptions.

Here's a screenshot of part of what I have so far:



The sprite is ripped from some other game but all of the other graphical elements were created by me using Blender (http://www.blender.org).

Here's a view of the whole first town, and the surrounding landscape.  This isn't a screenshot, but it comes from the same source as the scenes actually used in the game.



The game only works in Firefox, and is still chock full of bugs and inconsistencies.  As I said, at this point I just wanted something for people to be able to look at and give me some level of community interest.

Feel free to go to my website and check the game out: http://www.thefightingtarpon.com

Click on the 'current version' link over to the right to open the 'game' that isn't really a game yet.  You don't have to download anything, although an optional font is provided.  There's no login information at this point, so just hit the login button and the scene will load.  Use 'w', 'a', 's', and 'd' to move around, and please, PLEASE let me know if anyone would be interested in playing a game delivered in this format and of this style.

(By the way, there may be some tearing of the display at this point since I'm not doing any kind of double buffering, but try to ignore it for now and I should be able to fix it in the future.  Also, I know a game is a big project.  I don't need advice on whether or not I'll be able to complete the game, just whether anyone would like to see it. Thanks.)

[imaginationac]

 :D I'm laughing because you've got more talent than I do.

As to the idea...while I could take the time to read your blog to get more in-depth info, nothing from what you've said is fairly interesting. And as much as I hate IE, you're severely limiting yourself by not developing for a wider audience.

If you could make this a game with the old-school style but with sensibilities and time considerations of today, I'd like to see more.

[bvckshot]

Thanks for the response.  As to avoiding IE, it's not an ideological choice.  I'm just lazy and don't feel like implementing cross-browser support right now.  But that's not to say I wouldn't ever do so.

The rather underwhelming response here has basically answered my question.  I'll probably still keep this up as a side project anyway, just to keep me busy. Thanks again.

[Ciardhubh]

It looks like an interesting idea from the "use something as a game engine that wasn't meant to be one" point of view. From a practical point of view I just have to ask: what's the advantage over Java, Flash, etc.?

If you continue, you might want to fix input focus. I have Firefox's "search while you type" option activated. If I press a,s, etc. input is directed to the search box of firefox and not the game. That makes it uncontrollable.

[Dim_Yimma_H]

I like the graphics style you've in those screenshots.

This might sound strange, but personally I like to download/play executable files rather than browser-based games. I think the reason is that they're easier to keep a copy of and play even when not connected to the Internet.

But I think most people actually prefer "browser based" when trying small games, like Flash games for example, maybe?

Anyway your art style looks good (quite unique I think) and was the reason I tried the current version. If the game would be fun to play depends much on the story, characters (and battle system, if it's a traditional RPG).

[Thorst]

I have toyed with making a pluginless web game.  I try to adapt to the medium as much as possible.  So, what I would do is set the character sprite to the mouse position and use the browser's scroll bars to scroll.  Why do things the SNES way when computers have mice?  I get that it will not feel the same, but why should it?

bvckshot, you must have some previous experience with web clients.  What are your thoughts on this technique as opposed to flash?