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[Loren Schmidt]

I'm curious, how do you envision character interactions working? What sort of dialogue system do you have in mind?

The 3x3 world map is pretty neat in motion. I like the smooth scrolling. There's a way in which having such a small viewable area adds to the abstract feel of the game. It also makes the characters feel more human.

[Kingel]

Sorry for the absence, although my vacation activities so far have been surprisingly relevant. Among other things, I've been to an ironworks museum, an 800-year-old stave church, and even got to see a traditional blacksmith in action, so I've gotten some inspiration and a few ideas out of it.

UI part 2

Talk to brings up a window with the NPC's current trust level, "selling" and "buying" boxes, the current conversation and the player's conversation options displayed below it.

I think a simple tree-based conversation system will suffice. I want something fairly simple to code and edit.



Trust level will be calculated from a combination of faction reputation, shire reputation, and a trust counter unique to that NPC. For instance, an NPC might not trust you much unless you do something nice for the people in his town, or for the faction he sides with. I'm not sure just how complex I want this system yet, but I'm hoping it can be simple while still giving an impression of communication between members of a community.

Clicking on the trade tab will display the NPC's trade inventory in place of conversation. The trade inventory will contain items the NPC is currently selling. Clicking on items in the trade inventory will move them to the «selling» box. The player can move items from the player inventory to the «buying» box. Total value of items is displayed underneath each box.

I'm not happy with the titles, but I have yet to think of anything better than "buying", "selling" and "trust level". I don't like using verbs since it has to be clear who's buying and selling, but it seems odd to describe "player buying" and "player selling" in an NPC window, but also weird to have "NPC selling" and "NPC buying" since it's being manipulated by the player.

I'm not happy with the trust level indicator, either. It's nice and consistent, reads well, but the style is too cartoony and doesn't fit with the rest.



Here I tried a different approach, but while the top half is consistent, the rest varies too much. I don't think it's immediately clear what it's supposed to be, either, so I'm not sure I'd gain much by changing the top half.

Attack will bring up a window which will display tactical advantages and disadvantages of the player and the NPC. The player will have the options of canceling the attack or attacking with a melee or ranged weapon. After an attack, the player will have the options of continuing or fleeing. Here I also need to work out the specifics. I want the battles to be predictable while still varied enough to be interesting, so I think counting in factors like terrain might help.

[Spincut]

This is looking very nice! I like the emphasis on alchemy rather than killing random monsters ad nauseum. I also like the art style a lot.

[Kingel]

Thanks. Glad to hear you like it so far.

UI part 3

I'm still working on the UI.



Here's the journal window so far, showing the recipe list. Not quite happy with the tabs yet, so I'm going to keep experimenting.

The other sections will be the herb and mineral lists and the jobs and favors list. Not sure if the herbs should get a section of their own yet. There will be few herbal ingredients in the recipes Alden will teach, but other NPCs might teach Winter how to find herbs they'd be interested in buying. If it still turns out to be a narrow selection, I can make it a more general organic category. I think there could also be a section for descriptions of NPCs the player has talked to. A section with Winter's journal entries could provide the player with some backstory as well.

These are all stage 2 recipes, and since they'll get fairly complex, I think it'll be nice to be able to sort them by recipe complexity, i.e. the number of total ingredients within that recipe tree. This could just be a simple number assigned to each recipe.

The item description should say something about potential uses, so that the player will know where to start when looking for buyers.

The requirement list contains ingredients needed, concentration requirement (this might need a more specific icon) and the tile inventory to place the ingredients in. The arrow button next to the tile type will move the items to the tile automatically if the tile is within reach.

The yield list will show the type and number of items you'll end up with once the recipe has been followed. This includes leftovers (in the case of the empty vials here) and conditional yield (in that case, corresponding optional ingredients will be listed in the requirements list).

[Loren Schmidt]

It looks like the menu system is quite well planned. The game is pretty complex, but it seems like it will be pretty easy to get used to the interface. I noticed that "Concentration 2" is a requirement for the current recipe. That's neat. Is that a character skill? If so, how will we gain such skills- by completing recipes?

I like the font you're using, by the way. It's quite readable, but still has a little blackletter flavor.

P.S.- did you know that there were no lowercase letters in blackletter type faces? Weird, huh? Okay, I'm done being a trivia dork now...

[Kingel]

P.S.- did you know that there were no lowercase letters in blackletter type faces? Weird, huh? Okay, I'm done being a trivia dork now...

Well, I knew that the Romans only used capital letters, but also no spaces or punctuation.

Gameplay part 5

I'll explain what I have in mind for the attributes. This might be trickier to pull off, but as far as possible, I want to try to use realistic attributes that behave in a realistic way, which means some psychology will be involved.

Concentration starts out at maximum. Anxiety (for the most part) and other effects will temporarily reduce concentration, so maintaining a high concentration level must be done by keeping negative attributes at a minimum.

Fortitude is the ability to counter fear with rational thought.

Anxiety might be the most interesting attribute. The first (and minor) cause of anxiety is insecurity (e.g. the first few times Winter follows a given recipe, the first time she reaches a location, or perhaps being outside after nightfall).

The second cause is repetition of a situation which has ended badly in the past. When Winter dies, the location should be noted along with the cause (the NPC or, if she doesn't die immediately, the NPC who inflicted her wounds). When she returns to that location, the anxiety level will increase. The same goes for encountering a similar NPC.

I'm not sure when and how much to reduce fortitude, but I'm thinking that if anxiety level is already high when she dies, fortitude will be reduced. Panic might also reduce fortitude. If Winter is (gradually) exposed to anxiety over time (without anything bad happening in the meantime), fortitude will increase and in turn reduce anxiety. On the other hand, abrupt exposure might cause panic (if the potential is high) and reduce fortitude.

Using a depressant (e.g. alcohol) is the easy way to reduce anxiety (and pain to some extent, but it'll also reduce concentration). However, prolonged use can lead to tolerance and dependence.

Sensitivity lowers the pain threshold.

Pain is a simpler attribute, since it's directly linked to physical injury. Pain will reduce concentration (and perhaps indirectly by increasing anxiety). Being exposed to extreme pain will increase sensitivity, which will in turn increase perceived pain. Narcotics (opiates) will dampen pain and prevent sensitization, but this can also lead to tolerance and dependence with prolonged use.

Resurrection will be the only way to completely recover from a serious injury. Resurrection is free of charge if you own an Amulet of Recall, but if you're not already dead, the resurrectionist will require a fee in order to kill you. Dying at the hands of a resurrectionist won't count as a violent death.

To keep track of the negative attributes without the attribute window open, icons will appear over Winter's portrait when she's anxious, in pain or otherwise distracted.

[increpare]

A thought: The greenish background looks somewhat bland to me when contrasted with the equally greenish windows/panels/&c.. 

[Kingel]

Oh, good point.



Here's something more neutral. I think I'll also add some subtle scribbles of some kind as background for the text eventually, and maybe also for the corners and top of the screen.

[Kingel]

Gameplay part 6

I decided I wanted to figure out the specifics of the combat system, but it's taking me a while. Balancing will have to come once I have the pieces in place, and it'll get easier with fewer weapons and properties (maybe 2-3 equippable weapons in the game at most). I've simplified it a bit already, but a lot remains to trim down.

As of now, the factors most important in the game are the attributes health, concentration, pain and anxiety. In addition, attack rating and defense rating will determine the type of damage effect inflicted. Instead of having each attack inflict a certain amount of damage, which is then subtracted from the target's health, the damage could translate to a certain type of effect, such as fracture or wound. Fractures might cause pain and lower defense and attack ratings, while wounds might simply decrease the health level at certain intervals.

I want loss of health to be something more than a countdown to instant death, but without crippling the player too early. I decided to try to make it an indicator of blood volume, where 0 indicates a total loss of 40%. I'm only taking some of the symptoms into account since I have few corresponding attributes in the game. The numbers are partly guesswork at this stage, especially defense and attack, which will have to be scaled to match weapons and other effects.



The effects aren't all bad. For instance, when the health level drops to 5-3 (blood loss of 15-30%), the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated (fight or flight response).



Early prototype experiment in Inform 6. I'll go back to Processing now.

[Wander]

wooo you've put som much into this one.  good show!  i feel like i could learn allot about design reading this.  right now - i'm at the pacman stage of game design, and you're on the ultima. hehe

very cool setup onscreen - i like it, although your portraits are throwing me off with all that grey in the skin. 

[Loren Schmidt]

I, for one, like the varied skin colors.

[Kingel]

wooo you've put som much into this one.  good show!  i feel like i could learn allot about design reading this.

Glad to hear it. When I first started working on this, I couldn't find any really detailed RPG devlogs, so I thought maybe this learning process could be useful for others too.



Here's my prototype so far. I'm currently just working on displaying information, but I should get to the actual combat pretty soon.

One of the things I realized I needed was some kind of indicator for the tiles that have items in them (the gray ones can't be reached from where the player is). It got tedious quickly to check every tile, even with such a small map. Maybe I'm just lazy, but giving the player little shortcuts like that should free up time for things that really matter in the game, like conversation and crafting.

[ChevyRay]

Interesting. If you wanted to clean it up more, too, you could maybe make it so a highlighted, bigger "?" (or even that small one you've got now) appears only when you're hovering over that tile. That way, you're not cluttering up your pretty playfield there, and to scan the floor, all they'll have to do is just wave their mouse over it. Could be pretty nice that way, actually.

But yeah, lack of RPG devlogs. Which isn't a bad thing, really, because RPGs are intense amounts of work and testing. You don't seem to be the type to give up easily, more of the patient dedicated type anyways, which is why I'm pretty stoked for this.

[Loren Schmidt]

It's nice to see that your prototype is coming along so well. It must be exciting to see all your careful planning coming to life.

Oh, now you're making me want to dig up my RPG and start working on it again

Hurrah for contagious work ethic.

[Kingel]

It's been a while, but here are some words and a map.

Interesting. If you wanted to clean it up more, too, you could maybe make it so a highlighted, bigger "?" (or even that small one you've got now) appears only when you're hovering over that tile. That way, you're not cluttering up your pretty playfield there, and to scan the floor, all they'll have to do is just wave their mouse over it. Could be pretty nice that way, actually.

In the end, it'll depend on the number of tiles the player will need to cover, but I'll keep that solution in mind if the screen gets too crowded.

But yeah, lack of RPG devlogs. Which isn't a bad thing, really, because RPGs are intense amounts of work and testing. You don't seem to be the type to give up easily, more of the patient dedicated type anyways, which is why I'm pretty stoked for this.

I think it's just that I'm feeling a little clueless. On the other hand, the development of a cookie-cutter RPG might not have been that helpful in this case. Besides, a big part of it is learning about myself and how I work best, and I don't think there are any shortcuts to that.

As far as recent development goes, I was fairly busy with school before Christmas, but I think I needed a break from this to focus more on the whole and where I want this project to go. It made it easier to simplify a few things and get some new ideas.

Gameplay part 7

First of all, I think my idea for the combat system was much too complex for this game. I think I was approaching the problem from the wrong angle by starting off with something moderately complex and simplifying it as I went. For the sake of practice, I started putting together a tiny and very simple turn-based strategy game, which showed me that it was better to start out with the bare necessities and go from there since I tend to fuss over details.

Weapons will serve only to repel regular wild animals, and a single hit should suffice. However, as the nature of altered creatures makes them nearly unstoppable, the same weapons will be useless against altered creatures.

Tiles will have an evasion factor, which will determine the likelihood of being struck and killed if an altered creature is in melee range. In other words, if you stick to the roads, it should be much easier to escape.

Encounters with altered creatures will be very rare, and these creatures should appear first in the ranged tiles (corners). I'm not sure how practical that is yet, but I want to give the player fair warning before the creature can move into melee range. An exception could be made for areas with limited visibility, like forest tiles.

It's obvious that Winter is not a knight in armor, and I'd like her to respond to peril in a more emotional way. I hope that I can make the player feel worried like she will without making exploration frustrating. There will be alternative locations and methods of procuring required items, but that will mean increased travel time or expense. The richest areas will also be the most dangerous, so choosing the shortest route might not be good in the long run, since a rising anxiety level will reduce the concentration level and make complex recipes difficult to follow. I like the idea of having easy solutions to problems, but with negative consequences later on, like self-medication.

Secondly, I've been thinking about the conversation system and how to make the writing process most enjoyable. I'd like to include a narrative voice since it's what I'm most used to. I have two interactive fiction projects I'd like to finish some day, and I've learned a lot from working on those.

I also want to give the NPCs opinions of their own to make them seem more human, so I've started thinking about things like political issues, common fallacies and so on. In the end, it should be necessary to talk to a lot of different NPCs to get the full picture, but conversations with NPCs shouldn't be required. The player will have to talk to the NPCs over time to increase their trust level and get them to share more personal information.

The world part 3

I realized I've never posted a detailed map of Andrica, so I thought I'd post what I have so far, even though it's still in the draft stage. A few names are derived from Old English, but most of them are derived from Old Norse and place names in former Viking settlements. I hope it's consistent enough for this purpose.

[Kingel]

Now that I'm all done with exams, I've assembled a celebratory update. I haven't had much time for things other than school lately, but I've made a little progress despite that.

I took a chemistry exam this semester, so I feel better equipped to handle the recipe list. I've managed to simplify it so that I could remove some of the recipes altogether, which should allow for more optional recipes.

I've updated the graphics a little as well. Not much of a change, but I think it makes a lot of difference. The arrows over the portraits show the chance to evade attacks. I made the icons over Winter's portrait larger and darkened inactive icons under the portraits. I also didn't think referring to the player in the second person worked, so I changed that as well. The font should also read a bit better now.



I'm happy with the ui in the mockup above, but I want to make the conversation and trading windows seem less cramped, so I'm going to try to come up with something new there. One thing I want to try is to use larger icons for merchant inventories, for instance, so that items are more easily identifiable.



Other than that, I've decided not to have any equippable weapons. Winter will have one default weapon, which is the sling. I think anything more than that would make it seem as if fighting is a bigger part of the game than it is.

Another thing I need to figure out is what the altered creatures should look like. I want something subtly different from regular animals, yet creepy. Below are some early sketches of altered wolves. I'll have to experiment some more before I settle on something.

[moi]

I find the idea of a rpg with this type of symbolic representation very interesting.

[jay]

This is truly inspirational stuff. I LOVE what you're doing with this, going at the RPG from such a different angle to the norm. Not much else to say but keep at it, I'm excited to see where this takes you and aarghiwannademoalready!

[Loren Schmidt]

Would the small icons still be used for other purposes?

[Ben Kuhn]

This looks wonderful. Love the style, love the attention to detail, love the non-focus on combat. I wish I could offer to help code, but the most I'd be able to contribute is a couple hours here or there. Anyway, best of luck, I'm eager to see what comes of this! (And congratulations on finishing exams!)