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.

Alternate Reality X – Modifying the City

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There are a number of challenges in the changes I’m working on for Alternate Reality X. Nothing too serious but I want to make it look right so I’m taking a bit of time to experiment with Unity and read up on the commonly used techniques that I think will be the best fit for bringing the game into full 3D. 
Overlooking the City now with 3D walls
The paper thin walls of the original maps have been replaced with walls that have some depth as can be seen in the picture below. The notches in the corners are due to the AR map walls having two sides and I’ve a number of methods for fixing this. 
Doors will likely be replaced with ones that you can open and close or that swing open as you approach them (unless they are barred obviously). I’ve experimented with these and the coding seems to work fine. I want to refine my door and wall models though so that they look more professional and are properly scaled. This will allow all the key object parts such as standard walls, doors and archways to fit together seamlessly making up the majority of the map and the basis for the expanded map I’d like to develop.
Not really sure how I am going to handle secret doors because of the two sided nature of many of these in the original game. The nature of secret doors may change slightly as a result of this.
As mentioned previously I would like to add a lot of variety to different parts of the City in terms of buildings and architecture with different wall heights and textures. The City walls will tower above the City keeping it well contained from the threats from the Wilderness outside. I’m also planning to add the three City gates as well as more striking versions of the Arena and Palace.
I’ve tried adding burning torches, tavern signs which swing in the wind and flags to hang from the Palace walls with the King’s Coat of Arms on them. Again it’s worth taking a bit of time to get these looking right and not just throwing them in at this stage because Unity makes it easy to implement them. I want to get the basics right first.
I’m also keen to get started on an example shop and some of the new interface elements.
If you’d like to help support CRPG Dev in the creation of this new chapter of ARX and other games then please consider a Paypal donation or support on Patreon. CRPG Dev is also on Twitter now at @crpgdev. I’d love to hear you thoughts or ideas.

Alternate Reality X – A New Dawn

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Here are a handful of new screenshots showing The City of Xebec’s Demise rendered in full 3D using the Unity game development system. I’m surprised how cool it is to move around with total 360 degree freedom. I think that using Unity has really opened up a whole new world of possibilities for the game. Hope you enjoy these shots and will support this new direction for the game.

CRPG Dev Updates – May 2014

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I feel I’m long overdue on a blog update for CRPG Dev, Alternate Reality X and Stone of the Citadel as there have been a few important changes and decisions.

The biggest change is that I have now switched to Unity 3D for developing both Alternate Reality X and Stone of the Citadel. For those unfamiliar with Unity it is a game development system which allows you to create 3D (and more recently 2D) games across multiple platforms such as Windows, Mac OS X and mobile devices. It’s very popular, powerful but relatively easy to use, has a big online community offering help and advice and has a handy asset store where you can access for free or buy models and code for use in your games. The version I’m using is free, though there is a commercial version and add ons for higher end users or teams.

I feel I’ve gone as far as I can with my current C++ and SFML based code. There are a lot of bugs to fix and some serious architectural problems behind the scenes relating to how objects are represented. A lot of my code will be relatively straightforward to move over to Unity though. SFML’s use of OpenGL has been a constant difficulty for some players as they have struggled to get compliant OpenGL drivers on their systems – Windows & Mac OS X. Unity builds in my experience just seem to work. On reflection the work to port my current ARX to Mac OS X last month was a lot more painful and time consuming that I believe it should have been. Unity allows you to build for Mac with a few extra mouse clicks in the “Build Settings” 🙂

Configuration screen for the new Alternate Reality X

I’ve started work on the introductory sequence for Alternate Reality using the free version of Unity and you can check out my work so far using the link below and the Unity Web Player:

www.crpgdev.com/unity/ARXWeb.html

I’ve converted the old custom map format to a well known, common format and Patrick has kindly provided me with some Unity code / framework that converts the map data into a usable Unity scene. There are some omissions in the scene just now but these should be fairly straightforward to sort out. Lots of work to do with the map(s) from here but this is a really big help in getting started. Thanks again to Patrick for this.

My work in progress for the intro using the Web Player

I’ve also posted several pieces of my design for my Stone of the Citadel party based CRPG. These are available on the Patreon site but I’m going to start putting more of them onto this blog as well. So far I’ve published a number of the character background descriptions. In the real game these will be partially random and you’ll be able to generate a new background (or write your own) if you don’t like the initial ones your characters receive. In addition I’ve published some of the lore and locations of interest to set the scene. SOTC will use a different map model to ARX but it will be able to use all the nice features of Unity to make an attractive game world. It will begin with a small map initially to give people a taster of game play.

Lots of people have suggested I should do a Kickstarter for my games but I don’t think it would be the right sort of platform for me given my personal circumstances. I feel Patreon provides a very good alternative where you can build up an active, interactive community around multiple projects and interests (games in my case) and provide support and feedback in a more manageable way to suit people’s budget. You don’t have to pledge any money to support CRPG Dev on Patreon if you don’t want to or aren’t able to so it would still be great to hear from you there. The CRPG Dev Patreon site is here:

Hopefully you’ll check out the page and might consider becoming a Patron. You can also provide support through one off Paypal payments if you prefer (linked from https://crpgdev.com/). It really is greatly appreciated and makes a big difference. If you’ve already supported CRPG Dev in the past then a big thank you.

I’ve also signed up for Twitter so I’ll probably be making use of that shortly as an alternative way to post updates and other news. The ARX forums have been updated recently and look a lot nicer to use but I haven’t had a chance to dig into these yet and customise them.

I’d welcome your thoughts about the direction above and changes I’ve mentioned so feel free to email me or post via Patreon or Facebook. As always thanks for your support and interest in what I’m doing.

Alternate Reality X – Release 0.72 Update & Quests

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If only I had a suitable key?

Work continues on Alternate Reality X – now moving towards release 0.72. So far this release contains several bug fixes, new Dragon and Skeleton artwork and a number of improvements to encounters to really make encounters and combat in the game feel a lot more authentic to the original Alternate Reality. I still have a lengthy list of additional changes which I plan to add to the encounters for this release.

A mysterious tomb

There is a significant change in 0.72 relating to encounters. JPST made a great point on the ARX forums here about not been able to make use of “Charm” and “Trick” against evil lifeforms, therefore compromising your alignment as you were only able to use these on good lifeforms. In turn this meant you couldn’t obtain the Intelligence and Charisma bonuses that are possibly (after many, many successful Charm / Trick actions). This is one of those issues due to me creating a “hybrid” AR encounter system with features from both the City and the Dungeon encounter systems. I really wanted to have “Charm” and “Trick” in ARX. In release 0.72 you can now gain access to the “Transact” menu to attempt a Trick or Charm against Neutral and Evil characters. This makes sense as I want to be able to add more “Offer” options for some encounters as an alternative to combat as in the the original Dungeon.

Run the Devourer!

I’m also modifying a lot of code under the hood to make the source code a lot more readable and maintainable and as I complete this work it makes adding new features much simpler and quicker. The use of OpenGL for ARX has reared it’s head as a frustration though as I recently switched to Windows 8.1 and now my graphics card doesn’t support OpenGL properly (a Radeon HD 4350 I think). Plays Dragon Age Origins and Fallout 3 just fine and I’m fine with Windows 8.1 itself so not changing back. I have the same issue with the Mac port of ARX – it also suffers due to OpenGL driver issues. It makes ARX testing slow though…

Danger in the City at night

I’ve also been working on adding some more of the Dungeon quests as you can see from the screenshots here. Whilst I quite like to jump around during ARX development and work on different things to keep things fresh and interesting, I’m now reaching the point where I’ll be homing in on specific features and areas to fill in the remaining blanks, whether it’s adding the remaining features to the City, adding all the special locations to level 1 of the Dungeon map or finishing off work on treasure types. I’ll then be able to draw a clear line as to which sections of the game are 100% complete.

I really want release 0.72 to add a lot so it will be a bit longer before it’s released. Thanks for your support.

CRPG Dev – Now on Patreon

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I’ve now set up a Patreon page for CRPG Dev. My page is at:

http://www.patreon.com/crpgdev

My game releases will continue to be free to download and play just in case anyone thought otherwise.

Unlike Kickstarter or Indiegogo, Patreon is an ongoing form of crowdfunding where you can pledge an amount of money to help support projects or content creation that you are interested in on a monthly or per item of content basis. You specify how much you want to pay to suit your budget, what you think  the content is worth or the value you place on the effort that went into creating it. Patreon campaigns tend to focus on multiple items – videos, games, songs – rather than just one big project such as a single game.

As a Patron you can choose which level of pledge suits you and this in turn gives you access to different levels of reward. This could for example be early access to content, your name in a game, extra updates or additional content. There are lots of different rewards that content creators are offering to their Patrons.

Patreon also provides an advertisement free, online community where Patrons can read about new CRPG Dev developments, discuss topics of interest and gain advance access to game releases directly from within the site. There is also the opportunity to contribute more directly to the development of the games through Skype or Google Hang Out type events or through invitations to submit characters, items or quests for inclusion in the games.

The CRPG Dev Patreon page has been set up for a single monthly amount rather than an amount per game release / per piece of content model. I thought this was the most straightforward and sensible model for CRPG Dev. If you later decide you no longer want to be a Patron then you can easily remove your pledge.

Personally I’ve been really inpressed with Patreon and I think it offers a great alternative to Kickstarter or Indiegogo. I’m supporting a couple of people on it and I like the way it works with sneak peaks at upcoming content, chat on the forums and extras

Anyway please take a look at the page and let me know what you think, what you would like to see via Patreon or any other thoughts you might have. Thanks.

Stone of the Citadel – Planned for Release 0.1

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Stone of the Citadel – Back in 2012!

I originally started working on Stone of the Citadel back in 2012, originally using the Simple and Fast Multimedia Library (SFML) which I had used (and still use) for Alternate Reality X. I wanted to create a party based CRPG which brought together what I considered the best features and experience from the classic CRPGs of the 1980s and 1990s. For me that’s the Ultima series, Might and Magic, The Bard’s Tale, the SSI games including Eye of the Beholder and of course Alternate Reality. In addition there are many other games which I’ve played or been intrigued about over the years where I thought good ideas didn’t achieve their potential.

Even today as a player and aspiring game developer I still love a lot of features about these games and the style of gameplay that they contain – controlling a party rather than a single character, grid based maps, turn based combat, atmospheric use of text and in a number of cases memorable music and sound effects. They have a unique feel and interest for me which isn’t really catered for or captured in most modern games.

I can’t really hope to compete graphically with the big games of today and if I’m honest I don’t really wish to – we’re well catered for in the first person, single player Elder Scrolls type category. That’s not to say that presentation and graphics aren’t important to me. I will be putting a lot of effort into the appearance of the game to make the 3D view as attractive as possible and have all the relevant information easily accessible.

So what can you expect from Stone of the Citadel?

Firstly it will be made using Unity 3D. The reasons for this are many but the main ones include its powerful features, excellent cross platform support (including iOS and Android) and a rich community with lots of tutorials, videos and helpful information. It’s fairly easy to use and has a big asset store of code, 3D models and other add-ons which you can add to your project. It’s also been used by for many games including high profile kickstarters like Wasteland 2 and Shroud of the Avatar so we can see how capable it is. I’ve spent enough time using it now to be comfortable that it can do everything I would want for my projects (and lots more than I won’t use) and it will allow me to easily create the type of 3D and 2D views that I need for my games. It will do away with the problems I’ve had with OpenGL and video drivers as it seems to work fine on every machine and device I’ve tried.

The game itself will allow you to create a party of 1 to 8 adventurers to explo. A back story will be generated for each character you create or you can create your own to provide extra customisation for your characters. Whilst there will be a notional class or profession, most characters would be able to attempt most actions, wield most weapons etc but would require focussed effort and training in order to be effective in that area.

Map wise I will be using a grid based system similar to that used in games such as Eye of the Beholder and Might & Magic 3 and to some degree Ultima IV. This is different to the format used in say Alternate Reality where each position on the map has 4 outward facing walls, sometimes resulting in paper thin looking walls. This map format also allows me more flexibility in regards to the automap and making use of an Ultima style tile view should there be a requirement for that in some stages or areas. I think it will be the best fit for the type of levels I’m looking to make with SOTC and within Unity 3D. This doesn’t however mean that the 3D view will just be walls made from square blocks 🙂  Whilst the map structure and layout are unlikely to change during the game, expect the map to be always active with events, encounters and items. Some of these will be heavily randomised so that it always feels like there is a lot going on in each area rather than a map area that can be “cleaned out” and then feels barren and empty.

Example of the EOB map style (from www.gamewinners.com)

The game will begin in a City with further areas outside the City becoming accessible as you progress through the game and develop your characters. Some characters and monsters in the game will move around the environments independently of your actions so you will sometimes encounter the same characters or opponents at different points of the game, creating the feeling of a real living and breathing world. Characters will respond to your party as individual characters (based on their unique characteristics) rather than using a single, stock response. Characters will have a lot of detail for you to develop (if you want to).

I’m now working on the first demo and framework code within Unity 3D. My first task is to complete my initial building blocks (some simple textured walls and doors) and build up a sample City map for exploration. More details and screenshots coming soon.

Alternate Reality X – Release 0.71, Mac OS X version and Next Steps

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Alternate Reality X 0.71 running on Mac OS X!

Alternate Reality X 0.71 is now available for download from www.crpgdev.com. I spent a lot of time (about 50 hours sandwiched in around work and family commitments) on this one modifying and tidying up a lot of the display code in the background so that ARX runs much more consistently across different window and screen sizes. I’ve also modified the encounter art scaling code so that encounters in both the original Atari 8 bit style and using Ted’s new art scale properly based on the 3D window size. Another area which annoyed me was the positioning of screen elements when visiting shops and modules. These should now appear neatly centred on the screen or window rather than spread out to the four edges of the screen as previously which I didn’t think worked very well. Hopefully these changes were positive! This release also includes a couple of new encounter images from Ted – a Slime and a Noblewoman (who wasn’t in the original AR).

Mac OS X version running full screen
I’ve got a lot of other visual changes that I have planned for future releases such as a smaller auto map, updated map – hopefully showing the full City and Dungeon 64 x 64 cell levels, encounter animation (at least for the original 8bit art) and lots of new wall textures. I may add a little resolution / display options utility as well so that people don’t have to edit arx.ini by hand. I also need to clean up some of the interface generally in terms of text input and on screen prompts (or lack of)  which confuse people. Expect desktop icons for both the Windows and Mac OS X versions very soon 🙂 
The other major development for me is my first ever game release for Mac OS X. I now have a version of ARX 0.71 available for download on Mac OS X. I can’t really say how satisfying it’s been to be able to make this available for people. Thanks to everyone who has provided feedback and support for this release. Currently it’s only available from this link but I’ll add a proper page / description shortly:
I had to tweak the security settings for the App but this only takes a few seconds and OS X will tell you how when you try and run the game.
Really pleased with SFML running on Mac OS X. The latest 2.1 version seems to be work really well and comes with xCode templates to get you started. Once I got past some of the differences with using xCode and became more familiar with using a Mac in general then SFML seemed to do its job very well. Laurent Gomila has done such a great piece of work with SFML since it started a few years back. If you have any interest in game programming then you should definitely consider SFML 2.1. 

The SFML 2.1 template and test project

In terms of game play updates for Alternate Reality X, I will be focusing on improving encounters and items in the game for the 0.72 release. This will include adding multiple body parts to combat, surprise and waylay, knock downs, fleeing, blocking, stun – you know what I have in mind. I could really use one of those Wands of Cold to cool down those hot headed Flame Demons. Alternate Reality for me is very much about the encounters you have so I really want this element to be very strong and close to the original games. Don’t be surprised if the more friendly characters begin having a lot more to say that they used to – of course it may not always be useful or truthful!
I also want to include some of those juicy treasure items that made the City and Dungeon so enjoyable – eyes, scrolls, trumps and lots of weapons and armour. Some of these essential additions will probably require some fairly major changes to my older code which may require changes to the save game format. I’ll see what I can do though.
I’ve had a few queries about Stone of the Citadel recently and whilst there isn’t currently a downloadable demo work on it has continued in the background (mainly focused on design and content). This will be a Unity 3D project. The initial release will focus on creating your party of adventurers and I think will show how SOTC will capture the best of the classic CRPGs whilst adding some spice of its own. Expect a playable multi-platform demo in the near future.
If you enjoy what I’ve been doing with Alternate Reality X or other CRPG Dev projects then please consider making a small donation via Paypal to cover my time and web site costs. Please also keep your feedback, emails, questions and words of support coming – they are a great encouragement and help shape my future releases and games. Thanks as always for your support.