Tag: arx

Alternate Reality X – Release 0.72 Update & Quests

Acrin1 2 Comments
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.

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

Acrin1 Leave a comment
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.

Alternate Reality X – Release 0.70 – Now Available

Acrin1 1 Comment

Alternate Reality 0.70 is here and available for download from www.crpgdev.com. It includes some new Dungeon features and several pieces of great new encounter art from Ted. There are also some additional pieces of art from the unreleased Amiga version of the Dungeon.


A great looking Knight courtesy of Ted

A Mac OS X version will be available in the next few days which I’m excited about. It’s looking pretty good so far and is a big step for Alternate Reality X. I’m really enjoying working on ARX just now so I would expect to have another fairly rapid release not long after this one, hopefully fixing some of the issues which annoy me such as problems with the different screen resolutions not looking good, fonts and text covering up Ted’s artwork! If you would like to support development of ARX then please consider making a small donation via Paypal using the link. Thanks.



Homunculli attack!






Alternate Reality X – Release 0.70 – Coming Soon

Acrin1 7 Comments
 
The Ferry Man puts in an appearance in release 0.70
 

If you follow the Alternate Reality X Facebook page at:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alternate-Reality-X/277276259054861

then you will have seen that I’ve been pretty busy recently working on a Mac OS X port of ARX and putting together release 0.70 for a February 2014 release. It’s long overdue but it seems like people are still behind the project which is great. I’m using the Facebook page more as it seems to reach lots of people and it’s quick and easy for me to post on it. I will still be using the blog here for much longer posts though so keep watching.

In addition I’ve been looking into the options for Android and iOS ports. Android I’ve already had some minor success with but iOS will require the paying the annual $99 Apple Developer Programme sign up fee. This is required even to test on your own device. Anyway well worth doing and would allow me to make submissions to Apple for including ARX on the App Store! I think they are pretty tough in their requirements from what I’ve read but something exciting to aim for.

Alternate Reality X – Back on track

Acrin1 4 Comments

It’s taken me a long time to start getting back into Alternate Reality X but I finally have my most recent version up and running again on a different computer, with the latest version of the Code::Blocks development environment and the latest packaged release of the SFML multimedia library. I’ve used both of these for some time for ARX development and it’s good to get these new versions installed and working properly with my most recent ARX code before I get stuck into the next stage of development.

I still have some of the new artwork to incorporate into the current version as well as lots of things I see in the program and on the screen which I really want to tidy up. Next step is to draw up a list of these issues that I want to fix for the next release and then start fixing them. I’d also like to get some new content into the next release as well as just bug fixes so let me know if there is something you really would like to see me work on next.

Alternate Reality X – Next Steps

Acrin1 3 Comments

Firstly I feel I should explain my long silence on these pages, the forums and the ARX facebook page. Since August 2013 I’ve been extremely busy at work and at home with some big work related projects and deadlines, changes within my family, some travelling away from home and then to top it all off various family illnesses (myself included). Nothing serious but something had to give and that was my game development interests. All of these have meant that I have had little or no time to spend on Alternate Reality X. Anyway I am back now and keen to get back to work on ARX. Thanks for your patience and continued support during this time. Sorry for not keeping you up to date. Whilst all the above has been going on I’ve been thinking about ARX and my next steps for when life became less frantic.

I’ve been struck recently by how buggy the current version is and how my code is now desperately in need of a major overhaul. It’s frustrating for players to put a lot of their valuable time into playing the game, only to come up against some serious bugs that I’m not aware of or have not had time to fix yet. I’m not beating myself up for this as I’ve effectively learnt everything I know about game programming through the course of developing ARX so it’s not surprising that a lot of what is there has not been implemented in the best possible way and is not very flexible. I’d like that to change and I have a few ideas how to go about it.
I’ve also a strong desire to make it much more accessible in terms of multiple platforms (Mac OS X, Android etc). I’ve just bought an Ouya and I’ve had a great time trying that out and would love to make a version of ARX available on it. For those of you not familiar with the Ouya it’s an Android based “micro-console” based around a Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset similar to a Nexus 7 tablet. It’s available with a controller for $99 in the US and £99 in the UK and all the games are free to try. It’s targeted very much at the small or independent developer and appears to be right up my street for the sort of the games and development I’m interested in. I was playing The Dungeon on it (under C64 emulation) on my living room TV yesterday which was pretty cool. As the Ouya is Android based, any games I develop for it would be easily ported to other Android devices. Windows will remain the primary platform for any development.
I’m not looking to change the basic presentation of the game much in terms of the current 3D engine and the 2D display for encounters and menus but I would like to bring it more up to date and make it easier for new players and players on other platforms to enjoy. There is Android and iOS support for SFML in progress and the new release of Unity 3D now provides functionality for making 2D game production easier (which ARX primarily is). Unity of course allows you to build different versions of your game across multiple platforms very easily. SilverAR has been working on his Unity AR so I wouldn’t want to tread on his toes but his project is very different to mine, being a modern, full 3D Alternate Reality.
Probably a bit premature just now but I’ve started looking at firms who can produce printed boxes – I would love to have real fold out boxes similar to the original ones that Alternate Reality shipped in and full printed manuals (on the green / yellow paper of course!). Everything would be rewritten to expand on the original City and Dungeon documents.
 
I’ve also got several pieces of great artwork from Ted which I want to get out to players as soon as possible as they will really enhance the game in my opinion.

Let me know your thoughts.

Alternate Reality X – The end is in sight!

Acrin1 1 Comment

Taking a break from enhancing the combat in Alternate Reality X I thought I would add some of the final elements of the game such as the Dungeon’s final level and the end game. It’s nice to get a change of focus and pace from time to time and helps to prevent me getting burnt out by working on the same thing for too long. Now that I have the final pieces of the game completed I will fill in the remaining gaps so that all the quests are complete and the game can be played through to completion. There isn’t much more to add to make that possible other than putting in a few special locations – most of which are simple coding wise as they are not very interactive.

Exploring a strange corridor in Alternate Reality X
 

I thought about posting some additional screenshots from this section but didn’t want to risk spoiling the ending of the game by posting the final screens and text for those who may not have seen them before. Hopefully these other screens will keep you going in the meantime.

Where will the elevator take you?

We just might have a completed Alternate Reality X by the end of 2013 which would make me very happy. Thanks for your continued support.

Donations & Update

Acrin1 2 Comments

As you are probably aware if you’re following my project updates I accept donations for my work on the Alternate Reality X project and set this up a while back after a few supporters of the project asked me how they could donate to support the future development of the project.

If you’ve not yet made a donation towards Alternate Reality X, value the work I’ve put into the project and would like to see it continue to develop further then please consider making a donation via PayPal. The links are available from the Facebook page, the website and this blog. Any amount, however small is always appreciated and I obviously realise that everyone’s means and situation is different. If you’ve already made a donation then I’m sincerely grateful and really appreciate the support you’ve provided for the project – thank you. It means a lot to me and helps me value and justify (to myself) my work on ARX and the time I put into it. It’s good to see that other people value the time that’s been invested.

I’ve mentioned before that it can sometimes be hard to justify the time that I’m spending working on Alternate Reality X to my family. As always there is never enough time to get everything done so I have to prioritise my time accordingly. Fit game development in with a full time job, household chores and admin and a young family and time is a valuable commodity. At least if I can occasionally say that all the hours I’m putting into the project has resulted in a little bit of money here and there then people are a bit more accommodating.

Reading some of the comments or requests on the forums I think it’s easy for people to underestimate just how much time it takes to add a new feature or fix an annoying bug within ARX. Often the seemingly trivial features are the ones that take the most work.

I think I’m doing well this year with 7 releases of Alternate Reality X during 2013 so far, averaging about one per month. This is already the same number as I created in 2012 so it’s looking fairly positive to date for 2013 🙂

My development machine decided to give up the ghost yesterday so my next step is to sort that out before I get going on release 0.65. After that the next area I’m planning to work on is to expand the whole encounter and combat part of ARX so that it includes surprises, waylay, blocks, dropping weapons etc. Basically working to complete the combat system so that it has all the features of the City and the Dungeon. I’ve also got a bit more work to do on potions (which also relate to combat). I also want to start adding the remaining Dungeon establishments now that the City ones are all in place.

Thanks for your support.