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Donation Perks

Acrin1 1 Comment

Life is a bit tough just now on a number of levels so I’ve been re-evaluating things and that includes my development projects. I know some of you have issues of your own so I know I’m not the only one. Hang in there.

I’ve been thinking about “perks” for people who donate funds to the support of ARX and SOTC and wanted to get your ideas. I’m putting together release 0.5 of ARX now and this will have a special credits section for those who have donated to support the project – I’m looking for a good name for this section so let me know me if you’ve any ideas. So if you’d like to see your name in the next release of ARX please donate now.

Anyone who has already donated will receive any “perks” I introduce to either game.

What other “perks” would you like to see and what level of donation would be appropriate to warrant them?

  • Design of new weapons or spells for inclusion 
  • Design of new types of encounters for inclusion
  • Direct input into the design and discussion of new features in future ARX scenarios or SOTC development 
  • A hard copy, full colour map
  • Hard copy manual
  • “Roll of honour” on a newly designed website and in the game manuals

I’m also trying to raise the profile of ARX and SOTC so if you can spread the word online that would be great or if you have any good suggestions for sites or media I should be considering let me know.

For SOTC I’m thinking about going for the full works and setting up an Indiegogo crowd funding site  http://www.indiegogo.com but I’ll wait until I have a SOTC demo first for people to get a taster of what gameplay will be like. Has anyone used this or donated using this site? Any issues? Here’s the ADOM redevelopment which seems fairly sensible in terms of perks:

http://www.indiegogo.com/resurrect-adom-development

As always I’d welcome your thoughts and ideas and really appreciate any support you can provide.

Keep supporting ARX and SOTC development.

Thanks

Alternate Reality X – Demo 0.43 Released!

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Demo 0.43 of Alternate Reality X is now available from the www.crpgdev.com download page. The main changes since demo 0.42 include:

  • Added full source code for ARX to the game download
  • City and Dungeon guilds now merged
  • All Guild functions added including joining, remove curses, learn spells, practice spells, deposit / withdraw from guild locker, resign
  • Added “Drop” command
  • Added “Cast spell” command
  • Added the “Healing”, “Conjure Food”, “Conjure Key” and “Location” spells
  • Added “Offer” command to “Transact” menu
  • Fixed visual map zone issues where walls and floors had incorrect textures and colours
  • Tweaked City and Dungeon gate counter speed and increased starting values slightly for stats
  • Fixed move backwards bug which allowed characters to pass through walls

Thanks for your continued support and feedback.

Alternate Reality X – Release Roadmap

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With the imminent release of Alternate Reality X 0.43 I can now confidently publish my roadmap for the future releases leading to the official 1.0 release. My goal for the 1.0 release is to have all the original City and Dungeon content completed, fully playable with all the quests completed plus a few more extras which will be unique to ARX.

Release 0.5 – July 31st 2012

  • Add initial credits screens (will be added to in each future release)
  • Add back in “Alternative Graphics” option
  • Add Damon & Pythias provisions and bartering
  • Add City Smithy bartering
  • Add Dungeon Retreat for resting
  • Add duration based spells – Strength, Dexterity, Charisma, Fireblade

Release 0.6 – August 31st 2012

  • Add City Shops
  • Add City Healers
  • Add City Banks
  • Add “Buy a round” at City Taverns
  • Add remaining combat features
  • Add combat spells – Cold Blast
  • Add “Examine Items or Spells” option
  • Add additional encounter tables for the Dungeon
  • Add Dungeon Level 4
  • Add Dungeon door types

Release 0.7 – September 30th 2012

  • Add Rathskeller Bar & Grille
  • Add all encounter weapons
  • Add all encounter treasure items
  • Add unique treasure items
  • Add Encounter animation scheme
  • Add City Rain and Storm effects
  • Add the ARX manual draft
  • Add effects of hunger, thirst and alcohol

Release 0.8 – October 31st 2012

  • Add Dungeon Smithy
  • Add Bank Vaults
  • Add Weapon Enchantress
  • Add Dungeon Chapel
  • Add music on screen lyrics and timings
  • Add Smithy animation
  • Add Oracle

Release 0.9 – November 30th 2012

  • Add Dungeon quests & locations
  • Add Dungeon ending sequence
  • Add curses, diseases and poison

Release 1.0 – December 31st 2012

  • Add the AR introduction sequence
  • Finalise the ARX manual and supporting documents
  • Add an ARX icon

2013 – A new Alternate Reality X chapter begins…

Stone of the Citadel: Map Designer

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Slightly smaller 3D view window and use of a background for the sky

Whilst I’ve not mentioned it much recently Stone of the Citadel is still progressing. Here are a couple of new screenshots showing the use of background images for outside locations, a slighly smaller 3D view window and the beginnings of the map / scenario designer. You can switch between “play” and “designer” modes with a single key press at the moment, wipe the map data and start building your own SOTC map. As the map format is almost the same as that used by Alternate Reality X there is no reason why I can’t add a similar map and scenario builder to ARX in time.

A blank canvas, ready for creating a new adventure!

Alternate Reality X – Casting spells

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I’ve added spell casting to ARX so you can now cast spells within the game. Currently there are no effects for sucessfully cast spells but I’ll add some of these today. I’m keen to get another release out so there may only be a handful of spells that are fully functional. I might limit these to the non-combat spells as the whole combat routine needs an overhaul at some point.

Alternate Reality X – Guilds progress

Acrin1 1 Comment

Work on the guilds is progressing well with the addition of guild lockers for depositing your gold, silver, keys etc. I did consider making it possible to add any item from your inventory as my object handler can deal with it but I decided to stick to the original and keep this option for a future release.

I’ve also started working on guild spells. I’ve got as far as displaying a list of spells and prices at each guild for learning new spells. This took a bit longer than expected as I reused my Smithy object menu code and had forgotten how some of this worked. Once purchasing is working properly then I’ll add the guild spell practice option and then spell casting whilst exploring and in combat. I’ll probably not be able to code up all the spell effects in one go but I’ll see how it goes. For now I just decided to make use of the spells in the Dungeon for those guilds in the City which never made it into the Dungeon. So you’ll be able to learn spells from the Star Wizards Guild and Physicians Guild but they’ll be ones from the Dungeon selection (35 different spells in total).

Alternate Reality X – Donations & Support

Acrin1 3 Comments

Apart from my belief that the Alternate Reality games are some of the greatest (if not the greatest) computer games ever made, I also rely heavily on the support and feedback I get from the AR community to keep me going on this remake project. I know I’ve been working on this project for a very long time and these timescales aren’t what anyone wants but I think people sometimes forget how much work goes into a game and I am just one guy. You have to remember as well that this is Alternate Reality not just any old game so I picked a pretty challenging game to remake!

I’m not a professional programmer, have a full time job and a family to look after so I need to feel that I’m using my time wisely. I have had a few doubts along the way about how many people are really interested and whether I’m wasting my effort and should do something else with my limited time. Then I get an email of support or someone posts a link and spreads the word elsewhere and it gives me a real boost.

I am now accepting donations through Paypal from both the link on the right hand side of this blog for both my Alternate Reality X and Stone of the Citadel projects. You can also make a donation from the link over at www.crpgdev.com. This is a great way to show support for the projects and will also help to cover the web site costs and my time. I think my time on Alternate Reality alone must be running into several hundred hours over the years.

I really value any support you can give to the projects whether it’s a donation through Paypal, an offer of assistance or just your feedback or suggestions – but please let me know you’re out there and have an interest in the project one way or another.

Over the last few days I’ve probably spent about 15 hours just working on the City and Dungeon guilds. It takes a long time to work out how the original games worked, research all the fine detail, decide how to recreate that experience and then turn it into a real part of the game that you can download and play. I feel it’s really coming together now but I still need your support to see this through.

Let me know you’re still behind the project whether it’s through a donation, personal email to acrin1 @ googlemail.com , by signing up as a follower for this blog, posting on the AR mailing list or posting on the forums. And to those of you who’ve supported this project from the early days or earlier incarnations my sincere thanks. Hopefully you will soon feel your patience has been well rewarded!