Hello everybody,
This is a game that I have been working on sporatically for about a year or so now in java using Libgdx. I’ve recently been putting in a great deal of work on it since I’m on summer break, but I leave for college again in less than a week now. Once classes begin, I’ll have very little time to work on this game, which is why I’ve decided to put develeopment on a temporary hold and release this demo. I’ve done my best to polish up what I’ve done so far to make a fairly presentable version, but there are still a host of glitches and incomplete features. It is also a very early demo of the game and it is nowhere close to being finished. I still have about a million and one ideas for what will be to come of this game once I have the time to implement them. Virtually anything is still subject to change at this point, and many things I absolutely do plan to change.
This is my game, Real Turn.
Here’s a link to the apk file: http://speedy.sh/3t6fz/RealTurn-android.apk
Here’s a link to an executable jar for desktop: http://www.speedyshare.com/7AHBk/realTurn.jar
(Please note: this is intended to be an android game and the desktop version I’ve really only been using for development purposes. It is not optimized properly for keyboard use at all. There are numerous hotkey configurations that could potentially break the game if used improperly and resizing the screen could cause problems. For proper results, only use the mouse when playing on desktop. Thanks!)
So what is this game? The game borrows elements from many different videogame genres, but I guess you would say at heart it is an RPG with roguelike elements, and a combat system that is a mix between real-time strategy and turn-based strategy. That probably sounds like a jumbled mess… I’ll do my best to explain it in more detail. Unfortunately this demo doesn’t have any sort of tutorial yet either, so read on if you want to understand it more clearly.
This demo starts you out on the overworld that you and your party may travel around using the joystick on the bottom. Enemies will walk around, much like in Earthbound. If they see you, they’ll chase after you. Once they touch you, a battle is triggered.
Battles are handled on a grid-based system, but battles are not exactly turn based. After each action is done, that unit has a brief cooldown before they can do another attack. This is indicated by the yellow bard underneath them. Once the bar is filled, they can act again. Keep this is mind as you are strategizing your attacks.
In battle, you can control each member of your party (known as “heroes”) individually. By touching one and dragging your finger across the screen, you can draw a path that he/she will walk along. By dragging the hero’s movement into an enemy, they will automatically attack the enemy when they are in range.
By tapping on a hero, you will bring up a series of tabs at the bottom of the screen. These will display the hero’s stats, items, and spells. At this point in time items have not yet been implemented in the game, so that tab serves no purpose. The other tabs are all functional.
Tapping the stats tab will display all of the details of that particular hero. Each hero has their own set of stats, each with their own pros and cons. Stats will increase each time a hero goes up a level.
Tapping the spells tab opens a list of that hero’s abilities. These are also unique to each hero. By selecting a spell, the map will show you its range/which tiles you can use it on. Tap on an available tile and hero will use the spell there.
Spells use up mana, be careful not to deplete it. In this demo there is no way to restore it.
As I said earlier, this game borrows a lot of ideas from roguelike games. The game features field-of-view on the overworld and most importantly, permadeath. If you die, you’re done. I also hope to add randomly generated maps to mix up the experience every time. That’s still up for debate though.
The “continue” feature is still very much a work in progress right now. There are numerous bugs with it right now so don’t be shocked if your progress gets erased. Luckily, progress itsn’t all too important at this point anyways. Eventually I will add a much cleaner system with multiple save files and other features. Right now there is only one file, and starting a new game overwrites any existing file.
The only menu buttons that actually function right now are “new game”, “continue”, and “exit game”. The rest have not yet been implemented.
That’s it for the game’s core features, but like a said there is still soooo much to come for this game. There will be new spells, heroes, items, enemies, weapons, maps, artwork, bosses, etc… most importantly though, there will be an actual purpose to the game. Right now, you just wander a round a huge map and battle random enemies. The final game will actually have a proper progression, purpose, and an end. You will face more powerful enemies later on, encounter new biomes/terrain, maybe towns, etc…
Well that’s about all that I have to say about this game. I’d love you hear your opinion if you have anything you’d like to say. Questions, comments, and improvements are all welcome!