First off, thanks so much!

Secondly, sorry about the massive wall of text. When I first brought up the idea of starting a devlog to the other team members they encouraged me to do so. Then I tried to get them to write it, because I have the tendency to write a lot more than necessary, but (in case you didn't guess by the amount of text) they declined. 

Scope has definitely been a big issue weighing on my mind when it comes to development. I totally agree that our content itself is huge in scope. Now the question is, why didn't we just trim it down substantially? We have talked about it at long lengths, and the best answer I have is that we can't bring ourselves to do it. For the true open-world feel, we need a lot of land, lore, and content. We have talked about maybe just doing one island at a time, and making multiple much smaller games. While this would surely take less time, you can't have a quest send you from one island to the next. Since we are not on a strict time limit, we decided to go big. While it may not be the best solution, we haven't thought of any better ones.

As far as actually doing things (code, sprites, logic) instead of doing lore and such, we haven't solely focused on content and lore. I think I mentioned in the OP (I meant to, but I'm forgetful ), our team is currently three guys. The other two have worked solely on lore and all that, as they have no game dev experience, and we are all awful at art. On the other hand, I am bad with ideas, and have been working on code instead. Now, granted, I am not the fastest, and I am busy with schooling and family matters, but I do have some work done. NPC conversations, quests, inventory management, and trading all work relatively well. Dialogue, quests as well as even bodyparts and items are constructed in XML and then parsed in. That is all done.

Now I am not trying to defend myself, haha. We have a very long road ahead, and I have a lot more than that to program! Our attacking also works. It is sort of a feature, I suppose, since you brought up the need to plan plenty of mechanics. I forgot to talk about it in the main post.

The game plays in real time. You move around and all of that. However, as soon as you click on an NPC everything in the environment freezes. Everything, including yourself, stops moving. Then you can talk to the NPC, attack, etc. When you attack you then get the option to pick which body part you wish to attack, and how you wish to attack it. After you make those decisions the game resumes like normal and you attack. While this all slows down gameplay, we are trying to get away from that 'hack-n-slash' feel. We don't want the user to just mash a button to attack, and simply hit another button to shield or what have you. We believe that, hopefully, this will make the combat more crucial on your character's skills than the player themselves. It is not how fast you hit the buttons, or whether you click at the right moment, it is more whether or not you pick a competent attack and rather or not your character has the abilities to complete that attack correctly. This aspect was heavily inspired by Dwarf Fortress's adventure mode.

Hopefully, between being able to talk, attack, do quests, and trade, maybe I can combine those all into a small little playable demo soon, and then add on from there. It is hard to showcase what we have done so far, because most if it is either GUI based or behind the scenes. So I am definitely considering making a small demo to showcase these features, and then adding to it as time progresses.


Now on to the leveling bit. (I'm writing a lot again aren't I? Sorry!  )

When it comes to the leveling system. You are right, players may think that we don't have one at all. We may need to tell the player how skills are not visible, but they are indeed there. I am not sure how we could go about that in a pleasant way, but I believe it can be done.

As far as that feeling of being rewarded... this has been one of my biggest problems with the whole idea from the start. Not only do players feel accomplished when they level up, but they also look to see how much experience they need and strive to get there, working for that goal. I hate to take this away from players. However, I have always thought of letting them try to do everything from the start. Say, for instance, you can spin around and slice with your sword at the same time. This move would be significantly more difficult than a basic swing, but also more rewarding. At the start of the game, the player might try the move and realize they cannot do it properly, at least most of the time. So I am assuming they would not try that move for a while. My hope, as a developer, would be that they try that move from time to time. Hopefully, one day they may be winning  a fight with no fear of losing. Maybe they want to try to add some flair to their attacks so they try that move. Suddenly, it works! They spin around and slash the enemy with such grace that they are amazed for a moment. And then they realize that their character has become more experienced and has grown as a swordsman, without having to look at a number to tell them so.

This is the trade off. One of our developers is notorious for 'grinding' and leveling up his character without having fun, and it has always drove me, personally, absolutely nuts! I don't have much time to play games anymore, and I cannot bring myself to 'grind' my skills in any game, as I see it as wasted time and will play another game instead. This ideas was my way of potentially bypassing that 'grinding.' While you can still do it if you wish, you don't have those numbers in front of you, and it would be very tricky to know how good you were without going out and testing it.

So yeah, in short, there are definitely drawbacks for the idea. It may just be me biased due to my hate of that 'grinding' feeling, and most people may prefer to have those numbers there as a gauge of their abilities. I also feel that if you cannot see a number that correlates to your skill but rather have to judge and guess how good you are it would feel more realistic and help you get inside your character's head. I may be dead wrong though! More feedback on this topic is more than welcome.


Thanks again Mixerman! That was wonderful to read, and I was overjoyed when I saw we had a reply! Sorry I replied with another wall of text. Old habits die hard. But seriously, thank you for your feedback! And don't worry about discouraging us. We are pretty a stubborn lot. 

[We have no overarching story.]

Welcome! The Ballads of Lyr Afin is super early in development, but we want to share what we have so far.

Overview
The Ballads of Lyr Afin, often just called Lyr Afin, is a 2D role playing game set in a medieval fantasy world with a birdseye point of view. While it has many elements that you would expect to find in the genre, one of our main goals is to differ from the norm and break as many stereotypes as possible. On the typical side, the game will be completely open world. You go can anywhere on the namesake archipelago of islands, Lyr Afin, at any time. You can meet a wide variety of people, talk to them, help them, or murder them. You can pick what weapons your character uses, and how they do so.

How is it different? Well, the first thing that we noticed when we started laying the game out is how important the character is in almost every RPG. You are destined to slay the dragon, save the world, kill the main bad guy, etc. So in Lyr Afin, we decided to take a different approach. You're nobody. You are not famous, little kids don't want your autograph. Now, if you are a skilled player, these things can happen. You can slay a dragon and all the kiddos will love you, but we are here to warn you: it won't be easy. There are knights in Lyr Afin who have practiced swordcraft their entire lives. They would love to kill that dragon too, and they probably stand a better chance than you do. There is nothing in the game you have to do. We have no overarching story. There is no main quest that you have to do. In the same sense, we have no side quests. We just have quests. While some quests are much more important than others, they are all optional. You are not destined to be a hero. You can do whatever you want.

At the same time, we realized that in a lot of other games in the genre, you are a total beast. You are nigh invincible, and the only enemies that typically get in your way are the bosses. We hope to make the game challenging yet playable. All three of us currently working on the project love Dark Souls, and admire how, if you aren't careful, rats can rip you to shreds in no time. The world of Lyr Afin is harsh and unforgiving, don't forget that. We aim for the game to be unique, not just in the setting, but how it feels walking through that setting.

The World
Lyr Afin is set in a group of islands named, you guessed it, Lyr Afin. That is where half the title comes from.
This small group of islands still varies in climate and topography. For example, the northeast island is a mostly snowy forests, while the southernmost island is hot and desert-y. Only some names are certain when it comes to islands. The most southeast is called Lakasa, the big central island is Kerunjasa, and the southern most island is Ikninake.

Here are pictures of the map:
(Click here for a 600x800 version)
(Click here for a 6000x8000 version)

Development
We started brainstorming back in the summer of 2013. We started actual development a while after that, and have been working ever since. The game is now being developed in Unity, after a setback where we started using XNA before we realized it was discontinued. We are actually a team of three young guys. Two in college and one in highschool. I am the only one with technical experience, and the other two guys (One is registered on here as JesterLibertas, I think, and the other doesn't have an account yet) have put so much work into the lore and cultures that it is becoming amazingly detailed. And before you state the obvious, we know this is a huge project. We know it is going to take a long time to get anywhere. Trust me. This is a labor of love. We are in no hurry. We have no goal as far as a release date goes, we are just all determined to release this game in time.

Currently, you can move around, talk to people, trade, and attack. Some things are half implemented, like jumping and levels, equipment and inventory, and a few other things. The last couple things I have worked on were the jumping and level mechanics, and a quest system. The quest system works pretty nicely.

Here is an image for the basic view we are going for:

A Touch of Lore
Lore is the part of the game most developed at this point, but it still has a way to go. The problem is, we can't tell you a whole lot of it without ruining parts of the game. For a small taste however, here is a list of our major races:

• Humans, which have more than one civilization.
• Dwarves, who live in the ground.
• Gnomes, who are cousins to the dwarves. They live above ground and study magic.
• Néyolé, often referred to as Sky Elves. They like mountains and tinkering.
• Ferridas, sometimes called Wild Elves. Closest to the typical forest-y, bow using elves.
• Floe, or Murian Elves. Bookish.
• Vosa'jiti, or Ash Elves. A rowdy bunch.
• K'Tal, mostly merchants, live in a desert.
• Ventain, mountain people, some skilled warriors in that lot.

There are many more races, from several species of goblins down to the (hopefully four) flavors of humans. Many, if not all, races will be playable. Want to assemble a multicultural party? Do it. We are thinking about spotlighting each races (maybe one a week?) to tell you more about them.

Feedback
There are some key points that we find important, but feel like we may need to discuss with others. One of our earliest ideas involved leveling. Most RPGs seem to have either overall experience, and when you get so much you level up and get new skills, or they track each skill independently, and when you use it enough it's bar fills up and you get a new skill. While these are tried and true, we have had an idea to track skills independently, but not show the user where they are. No numbers to show a level or bars to track progress. You practiced with you sword? Good. You want to know how good of a swordsman you are? Go duel a bandit, hopefully you are better than him. We have several ideas like this that we like, but could use outside opinions on. So please, if there is anything you want to comment on, please do so! That's what a DevLog is for, right?

Teaser Text
Most stories have a teller who has predetermined how the tale will end. These stories end the same way every time; the characters have the same immutable destiny in every telling. This is a new kind of story. The reigns of destiny lie in the hands of one being:
You.
Become a prince of thieves, an emperor of mortals, a student of ancient powers, a warlord with a lust for blood, a champion of selflessness, or even become a god yourself. Or die alone, obscure and forgotten. The choice is up to you. The yoke of destiny has been broken. The threads of fate have been severed. Embark into a world map of unprecedented proportions, having roughly the same land surface area as the real-world nation of Sweden, and find your own adventure. We will not lead you to greatness; you must find it yourself.

Welcome to Lyr Afin, an archipelago of massive islands in the midst of a turbulent, enchanted sea. Lyr Afin's storied history goes back well beyond even the memories of some gods. Across the ages, wars have been waged and alliances forged for control of these islands, the first home of life in the world. Add your own mark to the vast, enchanting world.
The time is perfect for you to make something of yourself: the old empires are crumbling, the ancient gods are leaving the world, people are looking for a new force in which to put their faith... The Age of Strife is ending. An Age of Possibility is just about to begin.

Good luck, and may you find all that you seek, in this world or in the next.


If you read through this massive wall of text, thank you. We'd love to hear from you, and hope to have more content for you soon. Cheers!

[1. Classic]

Hello!

Launch! Is a working title for a work in progress game. It was started as a fun, little one day project. I quickly realized it is kind of addicting, and it's easy to be competitive with friends. It's harder than it looks!

Anyway, like I said, it is definitely a work in progress. The art is all over the place, and I still want to add more features. That's where I am hoping you guys will come in. I definitely want comments on gameplay, but you have any ideas for more game modes or an art style to work for I would be more than happy to hear it. I originally gave up on it for a while because I ran out of ideas.

Here is the download link for the .apk for androids:
http://whitesleevestudios.com/Launch/LaunchGame.apk

And here is the Web Player version, requires unity web player:
http://whitesleevestudios.com/Launch/Web%20Build%20V0.1/Web%20Build%20V0.1.html

Here is a clipped screen of actual play:

Simple, right? But it's not too easy, trust me. We currently have six game modes, but I want to add more. Here's a quick rundown of what we have so far.
1. Classic - Launch balls at targets, as simple as can be. See how many balls it takes you to hit twenty targets.
2. Sniper - Same ruleset as Classic, but the targets are tiny and much harder to hit!
3. Fast - Again, same as classic, but the targets can move much faster.
4. Don't Miss! - My favorite. Just like classic, only you are simply trying to see how many targets you can hit before you miss.
5. All At Once - A simple variation of classic where the targets appear, well, all at once.
6. Insanity - Not for the weak of heart. A combination of Don't Miss, Fast, and Sniper. You're lucky to get more than a couple!

So again, this is definitely a work in progress. There are many things I need to work on. For instance, the buttons on Android devices have really tiny fonts. But any feedback on gameplay and any ideas you may have for gameplay modes, art styles to pursue, anything, would really be appreciated. Oh, and I would also love ideas for a name!

Thanks!

Haha. That was a fun little game.
Everything worked fine. I enjoyed trying to dodge trees while the UFO got ever so closer. I almost felt bad about sacrificing the snowmen! 
The only complaint I had was that I wish you hid the mouse cursor. It bugged me, as it was going all over the screen as I was zooming through (and running into) the trees.
Other than that, it was nice for an early project. Keep going man, you're doing great.

Oh, and I got attacked by a snowman, but let's not talk about that. Haha

This will be quick, because I didn't get as much time to play it as I had hoped.
Anyway, I tested it on a Samsung Galaxy S3 and it ran fine, so that's great.
As for actual gameplay,I loved it. Such a simple concept, but you are right, it is kind of addicting. It's not overly hard either, so that is a good thing (To me, anyway.)
So yeah, I like the game, here are a couple things I noticed though:

1) The paddle is always moving. It kind of bugged me that even when holding the device completely still, the larger paddle shook. I don't know if there is anyway to change that, but it bugged me. Experimenting with the sensitivity helped some, but I just wanted it to lock into a perfectly horizontal position sometimes.

2) The 'surprise' when the pipes move around was a nice touch, it really kept me on my toes. However, I wish it was timed a little. I had a ball fall off the larger paddle and toward the smaller one, and right then the timer started. By the time it landed, the pipes switched, and I was left stranded with a blue ball over top of the green and yellow pipes. That was a pain. Again, not real sure of a workaround, I just noticed it was a little annoying at times.
 
3) When you lose a pipe, the game gets easier. I didn't know if this was intentional or not, but I survived for several minutes with only two pipes.

Other than that, yeah, I enjoyed the game. I didn't really pay much attention to the graphics or anything, but that's just me. Nice game!

Oh, and from what I have heard, adding images to your post helps with getting people to playtest, so you may want to look into that! Cheers!

This looks awesome! I can't wait to see more!

I agree with Low_Chance though, the screenshots could probably be a wee bit bigger, but otherwise it looks good.

First off, thank you so much guybrush! That was a wonderful reply, and very informative!

It really depends on the context, on what came "before" the slide/prompt. If there was a long, meaningful conversation that led up to a request/question, it might be worth to write the prompt so that it sort of "recaps", or "recalls", the whole thing, rather than a short question implying a yes/no answer.

About the amount of details, it should again depend on context. To follow up on your example, if the guard just wants you to go into the dungeon, you could keep it short, but if the guard gave you details, motives, and information about why and how you should go to the dungeon, I personally would make a "prompt" that hints to all of that while expressing the question.

Okay, that's about what I was thinking. If you ask my colleagues, I have a bad habit of going into too much detail. I love to read into nice, informative dialogue. And stories, oh my goodness, I love reading through what an NPC has to say about a particular event. So there is someone else who likes some nice dialogue! Awesome! 

I am a bit of a freak, so I like 10 choices or so. Mind you, though, if it's just 10 different ways of expressing 3 basic replies, I would find that annoying. I do like my answers to mirror the character I'm playing and, if there is one, to be reflected in the character's own alignment and maybe even in the story or in the amount of information that NPC is going to give me. And yet again, it's contextual: some requests can lead up to a plain yes/no reply, other might branch into more an articulate follow-up.

This was also very helpful! I too enjoy having several responses to choose from. I agree, if they all represent just a couple basic ideas, it is pointless. But we have already factored in many things to our dialogue engine, such as how well the NPC favors the player, and we are adding new functionality all the time. So hopefully we can avoid that on this project!

Again, I like fully-dialogue-able NPCs. One good example of this would me Morrowind, where the player would be able to have a conversation with most NPC about the town, his quests, other NPCs, or general information about the world. Of course most of it would turn out to be the same identical conversation, but occasionally one NPC would reveal one or two additional details, really bringing the NPC population to "life", so to speak. One liners are a no-no-no, in my books: rather than one-liners, I'd have non-interactive NPCs with random lines spoken out, to contribute to the "background" noise of the scene.

I know what you mean about games like Morrowind. I enjoyed how much information you could get out of any given NPC, and then in Oblivion, all you could ask half of them were for rumors, and that's no fun! I think we will probably give most NPCs plenty of dialogue, and even if it is more or less the same info, try to flavor it a little different for each one. And like you said, if a certain NPC can provide a little extra bit of info on a topic, that can really make them pop!


Thanks again, guybrush! That was very helpful. And I am glad that I am not the only person who enjoys some nice dialogue in games. Haha.
Now the real trick will be for my friends and I to try to make the dialogue flow. So far it seems a bit choppy, but hopefully that will improve as we get more experienced.

I once wanted to be an electrician, like my dad. I would work on all kinds of cool circuits and systems, but I would never make anything of my own.
Then I wanted to be an architect. Designing buildings, woo. Good money, and I would be creating things, but I figured buildings would bore me after a while.
Then I tried my hand at game programming. Not only did I fall in love with code, but I realized that, while in some jobs you can create cool things, maybe even something really awesome like a plane, nothing will beat the possibility of being a game creator. I can create entire worlds. And I do just that, on a regular basis.
Add making people happy on top of that, and it's an easy decision for me.

Okay. I have played through both of them before. I probably play around with them again, but not tonight.
Anyway, so you like their number of options and the length of their dialogue? I remember sometimes feeling limited with responses, but that may just be me. I like to have options. I just don't want to give the player more options than he/she wants to read through.

One thing I have noticed before, is how NPCs repeat themselves. If you talk to an NPC, and they describe this long quest to you, but you turn them down, and then return later, they feed you the same exact dialogue.
While I understand why devs do this from a technical and time-conscious perspective, it seems to me like areas like that could really make characters come alive. I notice details like that, so that's why I am always chocked full of questions! Sorry about that! Thank you though!

Hello!

I did not have a lot of time to play, but I will tell you what I did notice.

First off, it was fun. It was a simplistic, or minimalist rather, platformer. No fancy gimmicks or anything, I was just trying to get from point A to point B and grab some coins on the way. Simple. That really made it easy to focus on platforming instead of having my attention divided between jumping, and say, a timer or something. I liked that aspect.

However, the amount of features is interesting. I did not have time to play too many levels. I noticed the springs, the teleporters, and switches. They all greatly contribute to the overall game. The trick is, there feels like there should be more. Maybe some simple enemies, anything, I don't really know. A couple little obstacles or tools could really set the game apart from the masses of platformers.

On a side note. I enjoyed being able to pick my character and tileset. Creating a character using the prebuilt images is both simple and neat. I liked it. I did not see anywhere to create levels, but I may be over-looking it. That may just come with time, too, and that's fine.

Overall, the platforming is simple yet refined enough to be enjoyable. The customization is also simple, but entertaining. I would add some more features, but I am not quite sure what.

Comments:
-If you stand on the ground, in the same tiles as a spring, and press space, you launch like you would if you had bounced. Maybe add a check to see if the player is midair or not.
-After creating a character, I got a pure white screen for a second or two.
-One block ledges, with another one block ledge two blocks above you seemed both common and frustrating. At least in the first pack they seemed common, and I hate them. Not just from this game, but all games. Just throwing that out there.

Like I said, I didn't have real long to test, but that's what I came up with.
It was fun though. Thank you!

So, my team and I have our dialogue engine down. It works like a charm.
Now that we have started writing dialogue, we have realized how hard it is to make it seem natural. Choppy sentences make it hard to bring the character to life in a realistic fashion.
I have done some searching, but I haven't found a whole lot. One website said to keep dialogue short and sweet, but add as much flavor as possible.

Before I get too carried away here is our backstory: We are creating a medieval fantasy role-playing game. We have tons of lore, a nice big map all figured out, and tons of NPCs to add.
Each NPC will get their own dialogue, even though that may involve a few copy and pasted prompts, maybe.

Anyway, I have a few questions when it comes to writing natural, flowing dialogue. Most of them are personal preference.

1. How long should one 'slide' or 'prompt' of dialogue be? If a guard is telling you to explore a dungeon, do you want him to just tell you to go, or give you the details? Any estimate of how long those prompts should be?

2. How many responses do you like to have? Do you like to have ten choices, so you can choose one that specifically fits your character? Or will three or four more general choices work just as well?

3. How much dialogue should random NPCs(Those who do not give or take part in quests but are just there for flavor), have? I know some games leave them with one-liners or a general prompt or two and that's it? I personally like to be able to hold a conversation with every NPC, but I just want some more viewpoints.

4. Any other tips? Personal experiences?

Sorry to bombard you guys with questions, but thank you!

Probably. Yeah. It's an easy change to make.

So, our dialogue engine is supposed to calculate the nearest space after a certain mark, and insert a line break. Little did I know it had its own sense of humor!



It was simply that there were no spaces after that set point, but it still came as a surprise! Haha

So, I played this game yesterday. It seemed interesting enough, so I gave it a go.
After figuring out what to do, I spent a lot longer than I meant to trying to climb several different mountains. You know, because it was the mountain's fault I suck! I got mad, and quit because I was disheartened.

Then today I decided to give it another go. I had tried using the bungee yesterday, but I never really got the hang of it. It is really difficult to get used to. But I kept at it, and generated several mountains (Again, I hate admitting that I suck). Finally I got the hang of it. It took forever, but I finally made it!

Anyway, anecdote over. I really enjoyed your game. Enough so that I had to give it another go today. The controls are easy enough, they just take a while to get used to. But yeah, I love it. I would start doing good, and thinking I was close to the peak. Then one botched jump would send my tumbling down the mountain. It was interesting. I could actually notice the difference as I played the game. When that happened to me at first, I would get mad and gen another map. But the more I played, I realized I need to just get back on my feet, dust myself off, and give it another go. Then, when I finally made it to the top, it felt so rewarding! The little animation actually made my day. It was so simple, yet it captured the pride I had for conquering that mountain. Haha.

Definitely a game I wouldn't mind to play again. And I think I may show my friends! It's always fun to give them a game that is frustratingly hard at first. Thanks!

Hello!

My name is Austin Ferguson, and I'm just starting to get delve into indie games.
I've been programming for several years now, but I'm not that great. My coding still trumps my art skills, though. You guys better hope I don't post any screenshots before someone else redoes my programmer art, or you may very well go blind!

Anyway, I am working with two friends under the name of White Sleeve Studios. We are just starting to develop our own games, but I can already tell I love the feeling! I have started many projects in the past, but now we are finally buckling down and getting stuff finished. We currently have one big game, The Ballads of Lyr Afin, in development. It is an open world, top-down 2D role-playing game set in a medieval high-fantasy setting. Sounds, cliche, we know. That is why we have decided to put graphics on the back burner, and focus mostly on lore, storytelling, and gameplay mechanics. Hopefully we can get things together and put a devlog up soon! I can't wait to show what we have so far, and receive some comments!

Other than that, we have a few smaller (much smaller), apps for android and iOS. Those just need polished up and published, so hopefully you will be seeing them soon!
Well, that's more than enough about me!