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CRPG Dev – Still here for 2015!

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You may have wondered whether I had been dispatched by a Nightstalker or become hopelessly lost wandering the streets of Xebec’s Demise but I’ve simply been very busy with work and home commitments as well as the build up to Christmas and New Year. I hope you had a good Christmas / holiday if you haven’t been working.

I’ve also been looking into some of my other interests, reading up on them and I’ll post about them over the next few weeks as they are relevant to computers and gaming to some degree. I’ve also just found that after work and family things all I’ve wanted to do some nights is sit down and catch up on some TV or movies that I’ve been wanting to see for a while. My working environment is also less than ideal at the moment which isn’t conducive to game coding and development or even blog posting. I’m surrounded by clutter. It will be easier once the Christmas decorations are packed away in the next few days.

Unity 4.6 is now out of Beta so I’ll be using this for some projects and have found it works very well. The on-screen GUI development will speed up game development a lot for me I think as you can see what is on the screen as you’re working without having to go through a slow modify / run, repeat process for every little change. My plan is to focus on gameplay mechanics and coding within Alternate Reality X and put the cosmetics to one side for now until the gameplay is a little better established.

Some of my other computing interests have sparked an interest in dusting down my older SFML Alternate Reality X as I’d still like to bring that to some clear conclusion (Windows only though for this one). I’m toying with a few ideas as to how to complete this without it taking too much additional development time. I could for example strip it down to a single resolution such as 800×600 and 8bit graphics and sound as the new versions from Furious and Ted have a natural home in the Unity 3D version of ARX. I’ll give this one some further thought.

The website and blog are likely to be merged together into a single site using Blogger as the basis. I’m looking at ways to make updates easier to maintain and You may notice some oddities whilst I experiment with various options on the blog and website(s).

Thanks for following CRPG Dev through 2014 and taking the time to comment and offer suggestions for the games. If you have supported my development through Paypal, Patreon or by contributing code or content then I am especially grateful. I would have liked to have done much more development this year but it hasn’t happened and I’m not going to beat myself up over it.

I hope you’ve had a good 2014 and would like to wish you, your friends and family all the best for the New Year in 2015. Hope you have a good one.

Supporting Future Development and a New Game

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If you have supported CRPG Dev through Paypal or Patreon over the last few months then I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you and say how much I appreciate it. I’m also very grateful for the messages of support I receive via email or facebook. It’s a hugh boost to my motivation to know that you are interested in what I’m working on and prepared to get behind me to help my future development. Particularly when development is hitting a blockage or a particularly troublesome bug is standing in the way. Unfortunately the number of hours that go into my game development don’t always appear to justify / tally with the output, especially if it’s something behind the scenes which is essential but doesn’t necessarily translate to much gameplay on the screen. I think that’s just a normal part of game development. If you are considering supporting then thank you. The Paypal link is on the www.crpgdev.com homepage and you can sign up for Patreon over at www.patreon.com/crpgdev. Every donation really helps, however small. Also please keep the feedback and suggestions coming – I read them all and take them on board.

I’ve had a lot going on over the last few months which has meant I’ve had less free time than usual and been away from home more than I like but pleased to say things are settling down again. As I’ve mentioned recently the next focus of development in Alternate Reality X will be on adding some meat to the bones of Release 0.2 so that it feels more like the Alternate Reality we all know and love. This will come in the form of encounters, items and shops.

In addition to ARX I’ve been itching to start an all new CRPG which would be developed alongside it. As I’ve mentioned before I don’t see any side projects as taking time away from ARX development as they are more likely to take up time that I wouldn’t have spent on ARX anyway.It’s healthy to not be focused 100% on just the one project and get burnt out or start to dread working on it. This game isn’t what I envisaged Stone of the Citadel to be as it’s distinctly different in atmosphere and approach to that design. I would be using Unity 3D to develop the game though.

Game play will be significantly different to Alternate Reality featuring a party of adventurers and a high level wilderness map to explore. Across the wilderness there will be a number of towns, dungeons and other locations to explore. It will be heavily text and menu based with turn based combat. One area I’m considering for this game is procedurally generated content (PGC). This could be used for the towns, characters or items. As many of you may have read previously I’m a big fan of the original Elite space exploration and trading game. I spent many years with my Commodore 64 exploring the galaxies of Elite which used various seed values to consistently generate its 8 galaxies each with their 255 planets. My use of PGC will be very much dependent on the quality of my results though. Another example is the clothing you can buy in the AR:The City – there are effectively hundreds of different items that can be generated based on colour, fabric, quality etc.

My initial objective just now is to build a small but fun game in a relatively short space of time and leave the design open enough that it can be expanded as I see fit. Expect something to try out soon on this front.

Alternate Reality X – Beyond Release 0.2

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Now that Release 0.2 of Alternate Reality X is available I have been thinking about what I want to tackle for the next release.

To recap, with Release 0.2 I added:

  • Three Encounter types – Thief, Master Thief and Nobleman
  • Encounter code and interface for attacking and defending, switching weapons and conversations
  • New 3D models to represent solid walls, doors and windows which I created and textured in Blender 3D
  • Initial shop interiors for the Smithy, Tavern and Bank using assets from the Unity Asset Store
  • New music versions of “Armor” and “Waves” by Furious
  • Two new “encounter themes” by Furious
  • Atmospheric, environmental sound effects such as birds chirping (provided by Furious)
  • Rolling textured terrain to replace the flat City floor including trees and grass which sway in the wind
  • Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X versions released at the same time

My main focus for the next release will be on adding some shop functions, expanding the encounters and updating the items / inventory. I think with what I have planned for this release a lot more of the “Alternate Reality” identity and atmosphere will start to appear in the game. I’ve said it many times before but for me a lot of the heart of AR is really about the encounters and the items you find. One difference with this version of ARX is that it will be easier (not easy though!) to find out information about the specific strengths and weaknesses of items and encounters. This may come in later releases though. I’d also like to add the other information screens possibly as part of the Inventory or as part of the player display.

I’ve now switched over to the Unity 4.6 Beta release for development of ARX 0.3. The main reason for this is that it features a brand new, highly anticipated GUI system for building the user interfaces in your games. Previously GUIs in Unity games were typically created through code which had some disadvantages, the most noticeable for me the time it took between making a change and running the game to see the changes in action. The new system allows you to build your user interfaces on screen using a similar workflow to the other elements of Unity. It looks very powerful so far and I think it will speed up development a lot – ideal for what I’m wanting to focus on just now in ARX.

The physical construction of the City will continue but is likely to be less of a focus in this next release. The approach I will be taking though is to gradually replace the old, flat walls with 3D models to give the buildings real depth – walls, doorways, furniture, roofs etc. Where possible I will model these around the original Alternate Reality shop artwork and dimensions. I really need to add some doors and windows to my buildings though!

Things have been a bit quiet on the feedback front so not sure what your thoughts are on the direction and the current status of the project. It will take a bit of time to get up to speed to the point where there is enough content to make it really feel like a new Alternate Reality and a real game but I feel very positive about the direction the project is heading in and think there should be plenty of gameplay in another release or two. What is there currently is really only the start and it’s hard to fully describe what I’m visualizing in my head but I think it could be something special and worthy of the Alternate Reality series. I would certainly like to be putting out a lot more releases out – for myself as well as any players of ARX – but I can only use the time I have available sandwiched between work and family time. Either way it’s going to continue to expand and improve and I’m been itching to get back to developing ARX when time has been tight so that’s a very good sign.

For those who would prefer a more traditional 8bit style AR closer to what I’d done previously, I haven’t ruled this out completely but would treat it as a separate piece of work rather than trying to capture it all in one project. I think this was one of the mistakes I made previously. However if you want to see this you will need to let me know. Please do let me know what your thoughts are on any aspects of the projects I do as CRPG Dev and as always I really appreciate any support you can offer through Paypal, Patreon, Facebook or Twitter. I will be updating the www.crpgdev.com website soon as well as it’s a bit out of date and would benefit from a facelift. Thanks for reading.

Alternate Reality X – Release 0.2 for Unity 3D

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Just a brief note to let you know that I’ve a new release of Alternate Reality X available for download. There are versions for both Windows and Mac OS X created using Unity 3D.

Windows: https://www.crpgdev.com/downloads/ARX_0.2_Unity3D.zip

Mac OS X: https://www.crpgdev.com/downloads/ARX_0.2_Unity3D_OSX.zip

Release 0.2 features initial Encounters, the addition of sound and music as well as various changes to the environment such as the use of terrain and the beginnings of shop interiors. It also illustrates the use of free models to make the environment more interesting and my first models made with Blender 3D. Thanks to Furious for the music and sound effects.

There isn’t much interaction in this release but it hopefully gives you a good taster of things to come. Thanks for your support.

Alternate Reality X – The Future Direction

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Release 0.2 – With temporary character shadow!

I spent this weekend planning and experimenting with various ideas for Alternate Reality X. I’d been away for a week and was keen to get stuck back into development of ARX but felt a bit unclear about what direction to take the project in given the opportunities now available to me since the move to Unity 3D. Here are a few of the things I worked on and thought about. Overall I’m pleased to say that after a couple of days experimentation and lots of note taking and thought I now feel a lot clearer about the approach I’m going to take and what I will be focusing on over the next few weeks of development – and keep it achievable.

I had considered at one point removing all references to Alternate Reality from the game so as to totally free me of any development restrictions or copyright issues but I don’t think this is necessary. I will keep the names and properties of places, items and encounters giving the game its identity in the Alternate Reality world but not restricting the project in terms of visuals or interface or gameplay enhancements I want to add.

I’ve updated the wall and ground textures over the weekend as well as the lighting effects which I think has made the game look a lot better. I tried out some building models but they felt out of place and were not a good fit for the original map. The map will for the most part now retain the same physical structure and grid based nature as the original but I will be adding other features to make this feel much more like a real place. Proper doorways and windows, roofs on some buildings, features on walls to distinguish different types of shop or locations as well as a variety of wall and floor textures to make the scenarios more varied and signify different areas such as the prosperous areas where merchants and nobles can be found as well as the “bad part of town” as the song says.

Exploring a street

The Palace and Arena will have the same footprint on the map but will be visible from across the map and have multiple levels like the Dungeon (but visible). The Arena will resemble a high walled temple with pillars whilst the Palace will be a more traditional castle building with upper levels as well as a lower level within the Dungeon (where the Palace Dungeon is located). Lots of visual ideas and options here.

The Dungeon maps have been converted ready for adding into the game but I want to flesh out the City more before adding these. I also need to decide if obtaining access to the other scenarios is dependent on quests and encounters…

I have experimented with creating Unity terrains for the Wilderness but also to provide a more interesting landscape for the interior of the City. Expect this to be added in a future release. The Unity terrain options are potentially very powerful but take time to produce something good. I’ve lots of great props and textures to “dress” the scenarios in and I think this is going to transform the game. Props will be interactive so barrels and crates will be searchable (with the risk of the City Watch catching you) and shop signs / palace banners will swing in the wind.

“Shops” will be menu based for the time being in a similar way to the original game though the presentation of the menus and their content will not be identical. This is partly to allow new features (e.g. Selling items at the City Smithies, Attempt to raid a City Bank etc) but also to make the menus more consistent and easer to use. Encounters for now will be entirely menu based but I have a number of ideas for how to expand the encounters and add much more variety and interest to their nature. Expect to see some new types of encounter as well which may have made their way into the City from the Wilderness, Arena or Palace.

I worked a lot on encounters over the last few days including turning the player into a real game object with its stats and properties such as thirst, hunger and fatigue. Encounters are created from the same object class as the player. My idea here is to be able to treat the player (and any companions) and creatures you encounter as identical in nature so that I can reuse encounter code across individual and group encounters very easily. I also want encounters to have a much wider range of behaviour. Watch out for slavers!

You can expect new Windows and Mac OS X releases in the next couple of weeks. For this release I will be focusing on the encounters, combat and treasure. I’ll also be building up the player character more and adding the additional information screens such as wealth and weapons & armor.

If you like what I’m doing then you can support the game’s future development through Paypal or Patreon. This support really makes a difference in allowing me to continue development and devote more time to the game. You can also spread the word through Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=JX2RALG8ELAGS
Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/crpgdev
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/crpgdev
Google+: https://www.google.com/+crpgdev1

Alternate Reality X – Release 0.1 for Mac OS X

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Choosing your display options in the Mac OS X 0.1 release of ARX 

You can now download the Mac OS X 0.1 release of Alternate Reality X over on the Patreon site. Alternatively if you’ve supported CRPG Dev through Paypal then you should have received a download link via email. 
It’s identical to the Windows release. I’ve tested it myself and it seems to work really well. In future I’ll release the Mac OS X version at the same time as the Windows version. Unity 3D makes the Mac build really easy.

Thanks for your support for CRPG Dev and Alternate Reality X.

ARX – Release 0.1 on Mac OS X

Alternate Reality X – Release 0.1 for Unity 3D!

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You can now download release 0.1 of Alternate Reality X over on the Patreon site. Alternatively if you’ve supported CRPG Dev through Paypal then you should receive a download link shortly via email. I plan to release 0.1 publicly on the CRPG Dev website a few days later. If you’ve supported CRPG Dev through Paypal or Patreon then I’d like to take this opportunity to say a big thanks – it really makes a difference to me personally and helps me to continue to devote further time to development.

In this first release since development switched over to Unity 3D you can walk around the basic City, take a look at some text inventory items and see how smoothly Unity 3D handles multiple screen and display options. There are a few issues that I know about and encounters and treasure didn’t make it into this release unfortunately but I didn’t want to keep people waiting any longer. Whilst this release is relatively light on features it hopefully provides a good indication of the new direction of the project and the potential that Unity 3D can bring to Alternate Reality X. I’m excited by a lot of the plans I have for future releases. There are a lot of features and new ideas I’m keen to get into the game as quickly as possible. Unity 3D has performed really well for me so far and I’m genuinely surprised at how quickly ideas can come together and be implemented in game. Watch this space as I think things are going to get really interesting in terms of Alternate reality X development and gameplay.

Thanks for your amazing support for CRPG Dev and Alternate Reality X, your emails, comments on Facebook and Twitter and your enthusiasm and interest in the project.

CRPG Dev on Twitter, Facebook and Patreon

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Don’t forget that you can now follow CRPG Dev and the latest developments on Alternate Reality X, my other projects and gaming / computing interests over on Twitter, Facebook and Patreon. My Twitter page is: 

www.twitter.com/crpgdev

I’ve just got a new address for the CRPG Dev Facebook page too. You can now access it over at:
www.facebook.com/crpgdev
If that’s not enough and you want to hear more about CRPG Dev and progress on my projects you can support me over on Patreon at:
www.patreon.com/crpgdev
Please note you can still sign up as a Patron on Patreon and support CRPG Dev without pledging any money on a monthly basis. If you do decide to pledge something on Patreon then that’s really great and incredibly appreciated. If not then I would still really value your comments and feedback.