Hi all!
I've started a new CPC project. I guess making a CRPG it is my personal white whale, and it is the type of project that may be too long and take a lot of energy, and yet may never be finished.
So I was hesitant to open a thread here, but I guess someone else would do it, so here we go!
[attach=1]
I don't have a detailed plan, but there are a few things I know:
- It will be a classic CRPG in the spirit of Ultima series, although I will borrow from many of the CRPGs I played when I was a kid. I guess 8-bit JRPG "copied" Ultima for a reason.
- I plan to implement (unofficially) D&D rules, probably their Open Game License stuff; one OSR I like a lot is the "White Box" ruleset. It won't be strict, though.
- The technical bits are still unclear; I'd love supporting 64K of RAM and disc -of course it has to be a multi-load game, and support saving progress-, and probably fully M4 compatible so I can play it in my 464; but I may look at Dandanator as well. So perhaps the only thing is that I don't want to go 128K, but I may change my mind.
- I'm more interested in having an engine I like, so I may release a "prelude" kind of game to test the tech. Then, if I want more, I will refine and release another game.
- It is a game to scratch my own itch, so I don't know if anybody else will play or like it; but hey!
And, for now, it doesn't have a title. Some of you may know an experiment a run a few years ago called "Tales of Dunegon", but it didn't get far, so I may or may not recycle the name (it is growing on my, I must admit).
I'm posting things on my twitter (https://twitter.com/reidrac) and my blog (https://www.usebox.net/jjm/blog/), and hopefully here if there's interest.
Also, it moves already!
https://twitter.com/reidrac/status/1419379220799700995
Very early, but It is starting to feel like something, which is a good thing.
Super exciting stuff!
That looks absolutely wonderful!
Looking forward to watching development of this one.
Very interesting! I love that kind of game.
Love that style, keep it up ;D
Wait! No explosions? Re-spawning enemies? Pixel-perfect passages? Platforms? Explosions? IS THAT EVEN A REIDRAC GAME?
Looking sweet. Can't wait to see what you come up with!
Thank you all for your encouragement :)
I'm still trying to find a good screen layout that allows me to cram everything in mode 0. I think I can use icons to save space in the "common actions", but it all depends.
[attach=1,msg205242]
I'm actually surprised how easy was to draw these :D
Basic actions: fight, cast spell, look/search, talk, use item, camp, disc menu (save, load, those things).
Basic actions linked to Fx keys if possible ? Especially load/save.
Looks good. 9x9 map display is presumably for rendering speed?
Maybe the brick borders could be adjusted a little but I presume everything in good time.
I like the icons, if they are hotkeyed as well (F1..F7 perhaps). Next you'll replace GOLD with a coin, and FOOD with a slice of cheese, and have little car charts for the stats :p
Quote from: Sykobee (Briggsy) on 13:08, 28 July 21
Looks good. 9x9 map display is presumably for rendering speed?
Maybe the brick borders could be adjusted a little but I presume everything in good time.
I like the icons, if they are hotkeyed as well (F1..F7 perhaps). Next you'll replace GOLD with a coin, and FOOD with a slice of cheese, and have little car charts for the stats :p
It is very early, but looks like that won't stop experienced game developers here :laugh:
9x9 is both for speed and because of usable space. If I go 11x11 there isn't room left to show the information I want to show.
I'm not 100% convinced the icons work, because during combat it will be a different context (are you talking to those monsters?). So I may need to change the menu depending on the situation, not impossible. Besides, there is no mouse, so it is really a menu.
It may be better to show a menu based on context. May be 8-bit console style is not a bad approach.
Anyway, as I say it is very early, so I can't say what's going to happen in two weeks time.
I'm actually undecided. 11x11 uses a lot of space for the map, as seen here:
[attach=1]
The party info still fits, but it leaves only 15 columns of text, which isn't a lot. Plus I would need to use pop-up menus or similar to list actions. And the map it is a bit big and my current code starts to not be as fast as it should (this I could improve).
May be I don't need that text box and it is space for actions, and show text on a pop-up box when needed. Most notably when talking to people, but also the output of actions. I like the idea of a scrolling text wall.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback, but as you can see... I don't know what I'm doing (yet).
The bigger game area, the nicer it looks 8)
Do you have a name for the game in mind, or is it still too early?
Quote from: XeNoMoRPH on 07:28, 29 July 21
Do you have a name for the game in mind, or is it still too early?
Not yet, but I'll try to come up with something ASAP.
It should be, hopefully, the name of a series using more or less the same engine, and then the episode.
Last night I tried something and I think I like it, even if that means the icons are gone.
[attach=1]
It is using 9x11 tiles for the map. The party information is compact, still have space for actions as text, and a text wall on the bottom.
Only 3 lines of text, but it may be enough. Besides, being on the bottom, I can get creative with raster effects. We'll see!
But... the actions?
Lots of options still IMO Gryzor.
They could pop up (hit ESC and they appear, for example), or be underneath with a screen split / raster thing (although that uses a bit more memory).
I'd personally be happy to lose the bottom line of bricks for another line of text. Also could possibly lose the map name line to get another (it could be embedded in the top row of bricks perhaps but might look messy, or it could be part of the text box scrolling commentary "You enter the Woods of Doom").
Quote from: Sykobee (Briggsy) on 12:01, 29 July 21
Lots of options still IMO Gryzor.
They could pop up (hit ESC and they appear, for example), or be underneath with a screen split / raster thing (although that uses a bit more memory).
I'd personally be happy to lose the bottom line of bricks for another line of text. Also could possibly lose the map name line to get another (it could be embedded in the top row of bricks perhaps but might look messy, or it could be part of the text box scrolling commentary "You enter the Woods of Doom").
I'd like to see that game!
Meanwhile, I'll keep iterating. There's space for options and text. And I like the bricks. No worries.
EDIT: actually, you're pretty much describing the SMS version of Ultima IV...
Heh, it's your game and you have the game dev credentials and it's your design for sure, so they're nothing more than mere musings on my part.
I wasn't aware of the SMS Ultima IV, but that has a neat pop up text menu over the stats I see - https://www.mobygames.com/game/sega-master-system/ultima-iv-quest-of-the-avatar/screenshots
Quote from: Sykobee (Briggsy) on 14:50, 29 July 21
Heh, it's your game and you have the game dev credentials and it's your design for sure, so they're nothing more than mere musings on my part.
I wasn't aware of the SMS Ultima IV, but that has a neat pop up text menu over the stats I see - https://www.mobygames.com/game/sega-master-system/ultima-iv-quest-of-the-avatar/screenshots
Ideas are always appreciated. I may or may not use them, and that's fine! :)
Yep, I'm a big fan of the SMS version precisely because it is the most faithful adaptation yet it is playable without keyboard.
I think I'm going to go that route: big rooster for the party (up to 6 PCs!), 4 lines of text on the bottom, menu replacing the rooster when actions are triggered.
I may be I'm posting too many screenshots, but this is where I am at the moment:
[attach=1,msg205331]
I still like my bricks, but there will be changes as at least I need to squeeze the time somewhere (the map name was a placeholder and it is gone now).
I think it will work fine!
Ultima has an 11x11 viewport and always keeps the character centered in the middle.
What is meant by time? Why not like Ultima and use a small area above the viewport. Maybe not show a time directly, but if you want to have day and night cycle, let a moon and a sun wander through alternately.
Quote from: Fessor on 00:21, 30 July 21
Ultima has an 11x11 viewport and always keeps the character centered in the middle.
What is meant by time? Why not like Ultima and use a small area above the viewport. Maybe not show a time directly, but if you want to have day and night cycle, let a moon and a sun wander through alternately.
Yes, my game does the same but when the character is on the limit of the map, is obviously not centred.
In Ultima you have a clock that you can check, in you inventory. You definitely need to know the time (besides if is day or night) because otherwise you can't tell for how long you want to camp. I don't need to show you the state of the moons (no moongates, for example); so showing the time is enough.
Looks like the perfect game to become or have a MMORPG version. Need any help on the server-side?
Quote from: zhulien on 03:13, 03 August 21
Looks like the perfect game to become or have a MMORPG version. Need any help on the server-side?
Thanks! I love your enthusiasm but this game will be single player and CPC only.
Wow, it was harder than I expected!
https://twitter.com/reidrac/status/1423365508603289604
I mean, considering what is shown in the video... it wasn't easy to get everything in :)
The good thing is that the data structures to drive that are real, so I can represent the PC in the game; or most of it. Anyway, I should move faster, and don't spend too much time on things because *a pixel*.
Important milestone: loading content from disc! :D
https://twitter.com/reidrac/status/1426668623985266695
With a little help from my friends here: https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/programming/using-disc-via-firmware/
I still need to do some bits (including saving to disc), but it is looking promising!
Slow progress is progress!
I'm still working on internal structures, 5-bit text support, and things like that.
Also reviewing the UI to make it readable on a green screen:
https://twitter.com/reidrac/status/1429455867527761926
Nothing fancy but works also in monochrome, and probably better for people having issues to "see" colours.
I have the essentials for inventory management. Implementing menus isn't really the most fun, but hey!
https://twitter.com/reidrac/status/1430284611079311365
Now that I can equip and manage inventory, it is probably time to tackle the first part of the combat.
EDIT: I've read reports that it is possible that twitter may start requiring login to read tweets. When (if) that happens, I will stop sharing videos here via twitter; probably will use a different place for that, or may be it would be the end of WIP videos. In any case, I don't like that and nobody should need a twitter account to watch these short clips; despite being convenient to me.
Haven't heard about it and nothing is impossible of course, but I find it a bit improbable... it will break all those tons of embeds everywhere for many people...
Oh, also: great job, it's amazing how much info you can stuff into this low resolution :)
I finally rewrote the wall of text and is fast and smooth now!
https://twitter.com/reidrac/status/1431709445944401936
I put back some code to add colour that I had removed to make the old version less painful :picard:
[attach=1,msg206454]
Equipped a dagger, but then tried to equip a shield and is not allowed by class (Isolde is a wizard).
This is looking good! ;D
EDIT: oops! that screenshot is a bit large; will be more careful!
Looking great already, and as it's my favourite genre, and rather under-represented in modern gamedev, I sincerely hope you can get it over the finishing line. But I can imagine it might be a long and arduous quest :)
Quote from: arkive on 11:47, 04 September 21
Looking great already, and as it's my favourite genre, and rather under-represented in modern gamedev, I sincerely hope you can get it over the finishing line. But I can imagine it might be a long and arduous quest :)
Yep, and by the looks of it, with many many side quests as well! :D
Quick update after a month+ being very quiet.
I made some optimisations and I've started cleaning the code a bit after moving forward very quickly, and now that I've been researching cartridge, I'm having second thoughts on supporting disc using the firmware on/off: it is hacky and messy.
Yes, it works, but it also makes some things super awkward. So I'm considering moving to cartridge now: targetting both Dandanator and CPC+ cartridge, so it will be easy to play digital or in real hardware using some add-ons supporting CPR files.
The question is how to save progress; but then, I guess I could support different strategies (like I abstracted the bank change code). With Dandanator seems easy enough, and I could explicitly support some of the existing add-ons (like the M4 and probably USIfAC II -even is not too common for now-).
Anyway, just thinking now before it is too expensive to change my mind!
Quote from: reidrac on 14:05, 26 October 21
targetting both Dandanator and CPC+ cartridge, so it will be easy to play digital or in real hardware using some add-ons supporting CPR files.
The question is how to save progress;
Anyway, just thinking now before it is too expensive to change my mind!
Excited to hear about a plus cart version! Can you include a password system for saving or is there too much save data to encode into a password?
Quote from: dthrone on 14:19, 26 October 21
Excited to hear about a plus cart version! Can you include a password system for saving or is there too much save data to encode into a password?
Likely to be too much data, if I want to do it properly!
I haven't discarded
saving to disc. If is save only, that would remove most of the awkwardness. Saves should be less frequent, or that's what I think at least!
I have no preference on the format as I could play any of them on real hardware. That's said, from my point of view the choice is clear: DES/Dandanator, as you could do saves to the cartridge.
I understand the dilemma, as PLUS carts are "real" Amstrad stuff and more users could play the game. On the other hand, more games being released in DES format would motivate more people to get the hardware. Or you can use the original Dandanator, which does not need any extra hardware to be used (but it is more expensive).
Truth is that any format which is not 64kb CDT/DSK will leave people behind.
Whatever the choice you make, thanks a lot Reidrac for sharing you thoughts and for your nice games!!!
Disclaimer: I've not looked too deeply, but maybe a QR code?
https://github.com/leiradel/qrc1
Although, depending on how much data you need to save (and how much can be derived) there may be other ways of building a suitable passcode generation tool.
But how could you pass the qr to the CPC then?
@reidrac (https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1504) If you are targeting most of the community, supporting also tape savegame would be useful for people with just the plus2cpc from @abalore (https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=2595) and an old 464 or people with the 464+.
I guess that you might have thought about that, but just in case.
Anyway this game looks very promising, I always loved its kind. Thanks for the effort.
Quote from: ago on 16:09, 26 October 21Or you can use the original Dandanator, which does not need any extra hardware to be used (but it is more expensive).
I bough one dandanator here: https://www.va-de-retro.com/foros/viewtopic.php?t=9113#p162367 (https://www.va-de-retro.com/foros/viewtopic.php?t=9113#p162367)
Is quite cheap, 17€ plus post. If someone want to get in contact with the dealer and has problems loging or signing in va de retro, send me a PM.
Quote from: reidrac on 14:05, 26 October 21
Quick update after a month+ being very quiet.
I made some optimisations and I've started cleaning the code a bit after moving forward very quickly, and now that I've been researching cartridge, I'm having second thoughts on supporting disc using the firmware on/off: it is hacky and messy.
Yes, it works, but it also makes some things super awkward. So I'm considering moving to cartridge now: targetting both Dandanator and CPC+ cartridge, so it will be easy to play digital or in real hardware using some add-ons supporting CPR files.
The question is how to save progress; but then, I guess I could support different strategies (like I abstracted the bank change code). With Dandanator seems easy enough, and I could explicitly support some of the existing add-ons (like the M4 and probably USIfAC II -even is not too common for now-).
Anyway, just thinking now before it is too expensive to change my mind!
USIfAC ii overrides firmware commands from what I gather, so if you use those to load/save it should work just fine on there as a "direct load" - but also supports a DSK buffer too
Though, my big big desire that it runs on an unexpanded 464 (since it's all I have!)
TL;DR: 64K is OK, but vanilla 464 is not enough :(
I could go 128K and disc to simplify things, but I want to support 64K machines (including the GX4000); considering that cassette isn't really good for this type of game, expecting an add-on is reasonable (a physical release on Dandanator wouldn't need anything extra, but I'll try it to be playable on an M4/USIfAC II).
Using the firmware to access disc/tape (and let M4 or USIfAC II do their thing) is a option, but quite tricky because I need all the memory available so I disable/enable the firmware (see https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/programming/using-disc-via-firmware/ ). Although I'm not sure how difficult it will be now that I'm moving to use cartridge (my main code runs from lower ROM). I can always move that lower ROM to RAM and allow re-enabling the firmware, but there are some issues with that. Anyway, here be dragons!
I'm starting to think that it would be easier to explicitly support load/save using specific add-ons. E.g. code for Dandanator is OK, and if you're running from CPR I can detect M4 and USIfAC II (the more popular ones?), and use specific code to interact with them.
Anyway, for more info I wrote about this on my blog: https://www.usebox.net/jjm/blog/cartridges-for-the-amstrad-cpc/ :)
Quick update!
I finally completed the port of the codebase to cartridge.
It includes a sprit screen for the message wall (now on 0x0000), and moving most of the data to ROM. It was harder than expected, because turns out I had written more code that I remembered :D. I will provably give it another review to see if I can make the code more space efficient (because the ROM is great for data, but not that good to have code; but we'll see about that).
Anyway, the game is pretty much where it was, but running from ROM.
I (re)discovered Times of Lore (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_of_Lore (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_of_Lore)) which does exist on Amstrad CPC and other platforms. It did inspire some versions of Ultima.
Maybe it can be useful to you ?
Never played this, looks nice enough.
https://youtu.be/L_B6aNF3tOw
Yeah, ToL is a nice game, bit jerky on the scrolling, nice presentation. Played it a lot on my 6128 when I was younger. I've seen it described as a starter RPG, not a lot in it for more experienced players.
I didn't know it, thanks for the pointer.
Those graphics looks very nice, probably better than anything I can draw myself!
Quote from: reidrac on 19:58, 18 March 22I didn't know it, thanks for the pointer.
Those graphics looks very nice, probably better than anything I can draw myself!
Maybe ask for help about graphics, so you can focus on programming ?