For those of you who have been hoping for a Voxel Heroes update, this news won't be too welcome. I've stopped development on my voxel roguelike for a few reasons. The largest of which being the fact that my plans for the game were simply too grandiose for a game in which you would lose a lot of progress when dying.
But, it gets better. Most of my plans for Voxel Heroes (and a lot of the core game mechanics) will be passed over to the new project I've been working on these last few months (extremely off and on - again, blame Diablo 3).
Tentatively, the game is being called Rivenrealm and unlike VH, it won't be turn-based. I will however be using the old item system I wrote for the roguelike (extending on it of course). RR will ultimately feature a fully fledged item generation system with myriads of different combinations available to the player. The key here is to create a game for hardcore players. More content, more skills, more passives and more stats!
To facilitate content creation, I modified the editors I used for my previous Ludum Dare game. Here you can see the map editor that I've enhanced to show bleed (the edges of maps next to the currently loaded one). You can also use the wasd keys to load other maps. On the left you can see the tile types and there is a button at the top 'Mode' that will switch you to a mode in which you can add Items, NPCs and Triggers to the map.
Tentatively, the game is being called Rivenrealm and unlike VH, it won't be turn-based. I will however be using the old item system I wrote for the roguelike (extending on it of course). RR will ultimately feature a fully fledged item generation system with myriads of different combinations available to the player. The key here is to create a game for hardcore players. More content, more skills, more passives and more stats!
To facilitate content creation, I modified the editors I used for my previous Ludum Dare game. Here you can see the map editor that I've enhanced to show bleed (the edges of maps next to the currently loaded one). You can also use the wasd keys to load other maps. On the left you can see the tile types and there is a button at the top 'Mode' that will switch you to a mode in which you can add Items, NPCs and Triggers to the map.
I've left my sprite editor as is except for one enhancement. Pressing Q will now show you a strip of the 10 items with the same base name. Rivenrealm will feature infinite scaling, each playthrough having 10 tiers per item and the sprite files are named accordingly. E.g. shield_1-10. Items will be shaded differently in each playthrough and have a different prefix (in addition to prefixes added by stats). You can check out some of the items I've created so far on the wiki I set up.
And lastly, here are two in-game screenshots. Please note that this is not at all indicative of the final product as I'd still like to add dynamic lighting which will give a lot of depth to the world.
All in all, I hope you've enjoyed the post and that you're looking forward to the project.
So...essentially the tentative Rivenrealm is moreso the general ARPG side of things ala Diablo and whatnot albeit with plenty of the usual "depth" aspects of Roguelikes leveraged without actually being intentioned as a real-time Roguelike ala Triangle Wizard or Treachery? Where does this leave the nifty little Voxel Editor program you also had going?
ReplyDeleteAh, I'm glad you brought that up. As you can see in the screenshots, not all elements in the game are flat. Ultimately, I want to use the voxel editor to create models for things like walls, trees, pillars, fountains, etc...
DeleteAlso, on the topic of genres. I've always loved RPGs (be it in the form of an action RPG, roguelike or MMO). My vision is to create a very immersive experience (as can be found in MMOs) where the player can do very much with regards to progressing.
I guess I can summarise it like this: Imagine a game like WoW, enhance the resource gathering and crafting system, kick the stats system into overdrive and add world building. That's where I'd like Rivenrealm to be.
As a side note, the reason I'm going in this direction is to set my game apart from the 400 voxel games that are popping up. Also *cough* I can't build 3D models to save my life.
Right, that shakes things out a bit clearer then. Combat then will have no twitch or "physics at work" based component to it then like WoW and somewhat unlike DDO? An "offline" MMO of sorts at a higher level is something a long time coming indeed. So then we can expect to see the standalone voxel editor/creation tool to further improve with future releases alongside Rivenrealm proper? ETA on updating the Future Plans section and general time frame sought after going forward?
DeleteLooks good! I like it!
ReplyDeleteOh, hey, I've been updating my blog quite frequently. Check it out!
ReplyDelete