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[Eigen]

DO I SEEN AN EASTER EGG WIP ON THE TOP RIGHT?

...That's probably a light house.

Yes, that's part of a lighthouse but there will be easter eggs in this town, oh yes, there will be easter eggs. But you need a totally huge-ass screen to see them all.

[Rickshaw]

This looks really, really cool.

[Eigen]

I've been working on the town some more. Drew a supply store you can see in the screenshot below. I also did the sidebar but the buttons need some work. Also, a quest button needs to be added.

From the map you will be able to choose an area of the world where you want to go. The world will consist of something like 10-15 'levels' which are different in size and terrain type, so the random map generator still applies. The further away areas are larger and take longer to get there for which you need more men, ships and supplies which means you have to adventure trough the smaller areas to get some wealth before.

The travel time will be measured in seasons. When you sail out during spring, you will reach the nearest areas by summer. Or by next spring if it's far away. That forces you to think when and where to go. You can advance seasons by boozing around in the tavern but that will cost you.

It's all starting to come together and when I squint my brain it's almost starting to look like a game. Really exciting!



The new character creation window:

This looks really, really cool.

Thank you.

[Quarry]

Wonderful

[Eigen]

Wonderful

Splendorious (splendid + glorious)

I'd also like to remind you all that the game can be found on the IndieDB site and if you're a user there, make sure you click 'Track this game' button because that way you are always up to date with screenshots, videos, music and new builds. I've gotten some pretty decent feedback there and the news of the release of the last build was featured on the main page for a while.

Thanks

[happymonster]

Looks Fantastic! 

[anselm_eickhoff]

Hey Eigen, I just saw your game, fell in love with the graphics and music and downloaded the latest build.

As someone who has never played a turn based RPG and given the huge world and many possibilities for character creation I felt a bit lost.

Do you think it would be possible to maybe include some more or less rigid tutorial missions before exploring fully on your own?

Keep up the great work!

[ninja]

This game looks like some other game I played but I can't think of it's name.. Oh well, I love this style of grphics and this style of games!

[Eigen]

Looks Fantastic!  

You are too kind.

Hey Eigen, I just saw your game, fell in love with the graphics and music and downloaded the latest build.

As someone who has never played a turn based RPG and given the huge world and many possibilities for character creation I felt a bit lost.

Do you think it would be possible to maybe include some more or less rigid tutorial missions before exploring fully on your own?

Keep up the great work!

Thank you so much, I appreciate the good word, especially since you like the music! You are right about the tutorials, but I'm not sure yet in what shape or form to make those. Usually people don't much care for tutorials or tutorial game-mode. I'm guessing this should be 'on the go' with an option to disable rest of the messages that pop-up. In my case it's not that much about how to play or move units but how certain variables affect other variables and what they are in general. There will certainly be a lots of small ways that things affect each other. That's where full blown manuals came into play in the olden days that explained all those things. Of course, it was a full-time job putting together those things. It'd be sweet to have a beautiful/colorful PDF manual but sadly I don't have the resources for that ... :/

This game looks like some other game I played but I can't think of it's name.. Oh well, I love this style of grphics and this style of games!

Thank you! I think I know what you mean. By that I mean, I don't know the game you're thinking of but the DOS vibe is strong in this one and it reminds (me at least) of many games.


My two weeks of vacation is now up and thanks to all the rainy days I got a decent amount of work done. Once I finish some other things in there I'd love to make a new video. Meanwhile, back to the real work.



Indie dreamin'

[anselm_eickhoff]

You are right about the tutorials, but I'm not sure yet in what shape or form to make those. Usually people don't much care for tutorials or tutorial game-mode. I'm guessing this should be 'on the go' with an option to disable rest of the messages that pop-up.

Yeah, that sounds better than a fixed tutorial mode.

In my case it's not that much about how to play or move units but how certain variables affect other variables and what they are in general. There will certainly be a lots of small ways that things affect each other.

Exactly, my problem was not the micro-mechanics (how do I send the ship somewhere, equip items, increase character stats etc), but the macro-mechanics (how do I have to play to survive as long as possible). Also some things should be more explicit in my opinion, like "are you sure you want to start the game without equipping anything to eat?" (I did that).
Maybe you could offer a default 'build' that works and then the player can experiment with variations.

That's where full blown manuals came into play in the olden days that explained all those things. Of course, it was a full-time job putting together those things. It'd be sweet to have a beautiful/colorful PDF manual but sadly I don't have the resources for that ... :/

Hmm I think that format would work pretty well with your game, when windowed, it is small enough to have the pdf open next to it and because it's turn based, you have enough time to look everything up that you want to or to follow instructions step by step.

I am a graphic designer and if you want I can help you with the manual during my summer vacation (for free, if the scope is limited, e.g. you do the texts and screenshots, I do design & layout). PM me if you are interested.

[Ashkin]

You are right about the tutorials, but I'm not sure yet in what shape or form to make those.

Have a flashback to the character's younger days, when he 'explored' the forest outside his house with his father. The father could remind him of basic exploring skills as they go along, and as the tutorial progresses the child could grow older and the forest could grow more polluted. Could add some storything.

[Eigen]

Have a flashback to the character's younger days, when he 'explored' the forest outside his house with his father. The father could remind him of basic exploring skills as they go along, and as the tutorial progresses the child could grow older and the forest could grow more polluted. Could add some storything.

Thanks for the brainwaves. I like the idea but it doesn't quite fit. However, it did gave me another idea which is to incorporate some of the tutorial in the dialog between some characters in the intro sequence when they are sailing to the town where the game begins. The game starts with a new exploring arriving in town. It's not the player character but the very first one in the party, which makes him the captain. When he dies, you simply have to assign someone else to be the captain. Anyway, he and some men on the ship could be discussing whatever and some of them mentions how to fight bears or how stamina matters or how spending two months in the ship affects your health. Then another more intellectual character talks about how not to eat everything unless you know what it is or how to draw maps. Stuff like that. And of course, in town different people could tell you different useful things. Sorry, no health and safety seminars.

I'm also thinking about quests to have in the game. Obviously discovering the land and building an outpost before anyone else, finding riches and resources, generating a map for someone, maybe incorporate religion and 'export' of that on the behalf of the church ...

[oyog]

I'm also thinking about quests to have in the game. Obviously discovering the land and building an outpost before anyone else, finding riches and resources, generating a map for someone, maybe incorporate religion and 'export' of that on the behalf of the church ...

Depending on just how uncomfortably realistic you want to get with scenarios exploiting and/or removing natives is pretty historically accurate.

[eobet]

I'm also thinking about quests to have in the game. Obviously discovering the land and building an outpost before anyone else, finding riches and resources, generating a map for someone, maybe incorporate religion and 'export' of that on the behalf of the church ...

Depending on just how uncomfortably realistic you want to get with scenarios exploiting and/or removing natives is pretty historically accurate.

And the flip side of that, if you don't want to take the gold and land from the natives by force, you could set up a trade... and then have a small chance of accidentally spreading diseases to them which will wipe them out anyway.

Also, for every trade there should be a small chance of getting killed from a misunderstanding (just read Captain Cook's Journals and you'll see).

Oh, and hunting or fishing too much in a specific area should force them to move to seek out new hunting grounds for food, since they didn't have agriculture to live off.

[Eigen]

oyog & eobet, thanks for the replies. The explorer-native interaction will definitely have some focus in the game. You could have full blown war but it would be on an unrealistic scale because your party in this game is unrealistically small (up to 6 or 8 maybe) due to the fact that you have to control them each separately.

Yes, you could trade stuff to try solve things peacefully. As I said at one point, in addition to other goods, if you have tobacco to gift you're set. I sort of remember from somewhere that tobacco is an universal gift that all native tribes appreciate, no matter where in world. The chance of failure due to miscommunication will come from the communication system I'm planning. It will not be verbal as in "White man, we welcome you" but an icon(s) and understanding that is up to the player (or a smart character in the party). The natives and animals will share the same system, so the icon you see before a bear attacks you should tell you to go away when it comes up in communication with the tribes. That's the basic idea, I'll work out the details once I get to that part.

The last two weeks have been very quiet. Things are hectic at work and I just got a new computer which will take some time getting used to (Win 7) as well as getting everything up to speed. Also, I have 8 years of game catching up to do (my previous system couldn't play any of the newer games, I think Doom 3 was the absolute ceiling).

I changed the palette slightly because the new screen is much brighter and vivid and the old green looked very yellowish. I guess it's a bit darker now. The whole thing is a bit problematic, because there are hundreds of different screens out there with different calibrations. When a game uses as little colors as mine it's very easy to notice if they are off because the whole screen is basically just one color (the green dominates).

The 'white' which is sort of yellow on my work iMac is pretty much white on my new computer. I admit, the color quality is rather poor on that but it's frickin' 3D, that's like the future.

[oyog]

The chance of failure due to miscommunication will come from the communication system I'm planning. It will not be verbal as in "White man, we welcome you" but an icon(s) and understanding that is up to the player (or a smart character in the party). The natives and animals will share the same system, so the icon you see before a bear attacks you should tell you to go away when it comes up in communication with the tribes. That's the basic idea, I'll work out the details once I get to that part.

This sounds as cool as the cartography system.

The last two weeks have been very quiet. Things are hectic at work and I just got a new computer which will take some time getting used to (Win 7) as well as getting everything up to speed. Also, I have 8 years of game catching up to do (my previous system couldn't play any of the newer games, I think Doom 3 was the absolute ceiling).

I'm in the exact same situation since the beginning of this year. Then the Steam Summer Sale happened and now I'm drowning in games. It's like it's become an obligation. I keep playing Spelunky to deal with how overwhelmed I am at all these games (well that and this stupid Strider battle in Half Life 2:e2. )

[superflat]

Tthe art and concept are really appealing....

[TacoBell_Lord]

Been running into a lot of sandbox games today. Good shit. The colors palette reminds me of a NES title.

[Recs]

I'm following this.

[Eigen]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it. I'm going to take a break from playing games this evening and actually do some work on the game. No, really.

I need to get the supply store and all things related to that done so I can get back into the actual game. Currently I'm stuck and can't sail out of the town. The last I remember, I added some animals to wander around the map which turned out to be more difficult than expected. Doing complex path calculations for hundreds of animals all across the map was quite a CPU hogger. The animals should move around even when the player isn't around because I wanted them to leave behind tracks.

And coming up with a wandering algorithm is quite a challenge as well. At first I picked a random point nearby each animals and used the pathfinder to generate a path to it. That was slowing things down to a crawl when ending turns. So I scrapped it. Then I came up with a simpler solution which is to pick a random map tile around the last picked tile excluding those that are already on the list. Otherwise the animal might have gone around in circles. Compared to the pathfinder solution, it's way faster. Now they seem to wander around relatively well ... without any real logic, but still. It could probably use 'affectors' so that certain tiles would be more attractive to visit. That could enable 'smell' and whatnot to affect the movement.