Hi, it's me, Sorunome.
Some of you may have noticed my comment back at the topic about my projects, that my current big project with basic libs is a RPG, I'm calling The Quest. All names and the story are made by my brother. Thats it I think!
EDIT: I restarted this project with axe! (The discussion of that starts on page 3).
Screenshots:
After making the moving-engine:

After finishing the Map of the starting village:

After finishing the text engine and the ability to go into houses:

After finishing the scrolling-map feature:

I demand screenshots! And more information about the genre, gameplay mechanics, estimated development time frame, etc.

Moar screenshots and info!!

Oh, sorry, I forgot to say that it is NOT text-based, so it is quite a lot of work making all sprites and so on..... I am currently making a village where everything starts, after that village is finished I'll make screenies!

Awesome! Can't wait. This will totally be epic.

Hey, what do you guys think is better: grey scale but therefore it is rather slow or no grey scale but therefore it is faster?

As long as it isn't painfully slow, I think grayscale is the way to go.

About a sec between each step

Well, one step is a bit slow for some people, but having played ROL3 on a non-15MHz calc, I can say for myself I can stand up to 3 seconds per step however, most people in this world are sadly impatient, and even more unfortunately need to be catered to. Which brings you to a choice: Graphics, or speed? Or a mix of both? All are entirely possible, but keep in mind that in many cases better graphics means less speed, and stop-reverse-that-willy-wonka-style it the other way as well. Some things to consider:

- Language? If in Axe or Assembly, I say go for the greyscale, since it'll be fast enough already, as long as you render it in efficient ways (i.e. for non-scrolling backgrounds, don't draw the back tile-set more than once, just store a picture to memory or the like). If in BASIC, greyscale is entirely possible (Reuben Quest anyone?) but it'll require a huge Abrahamic offering of speed, and will also require for multiple external BASIC libs, though you can take care of that with DCS7 libs.

- Amount of work you want to do? The more work you put in, the better the game. However, some languages have pros and cons that may inhibit or catalyze the development rate of your game; BASIC and Axe/Assembly are very different in these respects. In the latter it would require more time into development and possibly a lot of learning -- the former would have big cons to the player, but for you it wouldn't be nearly as bad

- Fun Factor? While there are exceptions, many slow games are automagically considered "boring" games by the masses of gaming infidels. To appease the angry gamer gods, make sure you consider their wants for speed in their fun factor. If they don't find it fun, then there's no point for them to play it or for you to make it. It's always good to ask questions to see what people want to make a game fun, that way you can have many more potential players/fanboys of your game.

- Length? If you want your game to be insanely long, or insanely short, or even in the middle, graphics could totally throw you off for a wild loop there. Good graphics generally mean more space taken up, which means less space for actual game content. So, the simpler the graphics, usually the longer the game

So, it's always good to think about things like this when developing an idea for your game (mostly for the specific aspects, though). When you think out consequences of your choices in development, you can get a better understanding of exactly how long it'll take to finish it, how long it is, and what it'll generally look and play like. With that being said, good luck on this, and I hope you not only finish it completely, but make it really awesome (I'm sure you will ) !

I'd say make it a mix of greyscale and not. Personally I love eye candy over fast game play. If the graphics are amazing, I would drool over it even if it took a long time to move.

Ashbad: That was very helpful, thanks!
Orac343: I think I'll make a mix and try to speed it more up.

How's this project going, Sorunome? It sounds like it would be fun. Personally, I'd rather have a fast game with monochrome, but I think it's mostly up to you how you want to design your game.

Well, the game is OK. I havent finished the map of the starting village yet, but thats ok, because I had to do a lot of sprites again coz of grey s@ale, but it looks awsome and is already faster!

*Bump*
As promised I'm posting now a (rather long) screenie of the village were you start. As you see rather at the end I go through water, later on it will be just possible with a special suit. And at the end I enter the only house made yet, it's not even finished, you can't even exit it yet. :O Please feel free to comment and tell any suggestions e.g. better sprites.

Hey, not a bad start The grass is fine for 3 level grayscale, since the other elements of the map are a bit more pokemon-styled -- so, you should be commended for keeping it relatively constant in style.

Slight criticisms, just to possibly improve on:

- The tree is a bit too skinny, and needs to be a bit more proportional to both the player, the houses, and the top of the tree (looks a bit diseased with that small of a leaf count)

- Mountains don't seem to flow with surrounding tiles that well, I suggest you make it a bit less constantly waving in the same pattern, maybe stagger the waves a bit

- the doors on the houses seems to be a bit off center some, and the roof would be awesome with very slight corner texturing to light effects




Things I like:

- That water is well done, I've never seen a style like that but it flows REALLY nice.

- The path is nice and simple

- The grass (re-iterating)

- The fence adds a nice pokemonish feel to the overall map, I like

- The houses are also pokemonish, while still original


Overall, great work and I would pat yourself on the back for that work, it overall is very well done and deserves great recognition.

Edit by Tanner: Changed size tags from 9 to 14 so that it is easier to read.

Hehe, thanks! Mabey you want to make better sprites I could add then? You don't have to understand greyscale for that, just draw with e.g. paint 8x8 sprites and i can use them and i'll give credits!

Here are a few I made for you:



The large tree is ripped and formatted shamelessly from another game, TaNF, but it's my game so I think I'm allowed to go against my own copyleft

And, for the mountains, I made different forms so that they can be placed along with surrounding grass and still look great.

Thanks a lot! I guess the first row are the mountains, second tree and the two last ones the houses. The doors look quite irregular to me. Was that by accident?

yeah, that was an accident <_< for some reason, that happened and I didn't notice until just now.

I think the right-most door is correct. ok, which mountain tiles should be what?