Reality Check Plz!

General Discussions
#1

If I’ve been quiet for a while it’s because I’ve been fiddling with a turn-based RPG which lets you build and play your own adventures, but I’ve got to that ‘can’t see the wood for the trees’ stage (again!).

The prototype is here. You can just play with ‘guest’ and ‘pass’ or you can register (any formatted email will do eg: a@b.c - no emails are actually sent ATM :wink: )
If you do register you get your own space to build an adventure which I think is fun, but may get a bit advanced for some users when it comes to scripting…?
It seems pretty stable, but it’s an early WIP so expect some glitches!

There’s various questions I’m asking myself, but perhaps if you guys could give me a reality check some of them will answer themselves!
Thanks in advance,
Simon

#2

Login just hangs… took 1 minute to load.

Anyway, like screens on the screenshot page, nice software rasterizer too.

#3

It loads quite fast for me, like 5-10 seconds. I think it could use a bit sleeker controls, like you can click on the square and the guy will walk there, rather than having to choose every move. Otherwise it’s pretty cool, did you write the software rasterizer yourself?

#4

I really like the idea here, to be able to create and share dungeons easily sounds like something potentially quite addictive.

My overall impression was slightly negative. The graphics was hard to read, the perspective a bit strange (is it over the shoulder or top down? Pick one!). The interface was clunky with too many buttons (tab to turn left? ok then!), and it sometimes forced me to use a mouse when I’d rather just play it keyboard style. For example moving onto a message box, I have to use the mouse to close it.

But the basics seem good, and the renderer is nice (if a bit grainy, but that’s probably just the textures), so my complaints are mostly just polishing stuff. =)

If I could make a suggestion: Make it possible to share levels by just sending someone an URL. If you can play levels without even having to sign up, you might get a nice viral effect.

#5

[quote=“Momoko_Fan,post:3,topic:35236”]
Nope! Good old jPCT!

I agree the graphics are weak - I’m wondering about going pixely (a bit like Habbo Hotel).
You can tilt the camera (page up/page down) - I was trying to get a compromise between top-down for movement and over the shoulder for ranged weapons.
The mouse/keyboard thing is a bit awkward but you kinda have to use the mouse for ranged weapons… :-\

The sharing a URL idea’s a really good one - not quite sure how I’d implement it yet but that has to go in!

#6

just use php, with a $GET, and thne just pass that right tothe applet with a parameter

#7

:o

Yeah, can you say ‘phishing’ ?

#8

It’s a servlet so the URL’s no problem! I meant more how to present the option to the player…
It occurs to me that sharing dungeons for editing might be fun too (as would multiplayer!) Hmmm…

Anyone know any good sources of free pixelart tiles?

#9

ummm… explain?

#10

<applet …>

Allows for the clientside alternative to SQL injection.

Malicious URLs to your site FTW.

#11

I like it. It has some retro feel to it and reminds me of those RPGs that i’ve played on C64 and Amiga decades ago. However, i had two problems with the controls: I see no reason why i have to switch to get/use and THEN click on a chest or a barrel. Why can’t i click it in normal move mode? Or even better: Just move into it and it will open. The second problem was, that it took me some time to figure out that i can move diagonally (i was using the keyboard to move…maybe it’s clearer when using the mouse). Yeah, you have these icons that indicate it, but obviously, i was too blind to see…
I addition, i dislike that i’m dying from moving into the abyss. IMHO, it should just block the player, not kill him. I mean he stops before water but happily runs into an abyss…that makes no sense to me.

And why does the light intensity increases when selecting any but the first group member?

#12

Another question: Will it be possible to bundle several levels into a complete game of it’s own or am i limited to single dungeons?

#13

Well, yeah, it would be prudent to validate the input in-client…

#14

ahhh, fair point riven… but as the person above me said, I think there would be ways to check for malicious input??

#15

Yeah you could easily check it with a simple regex match. I think people hear about passing stuff to the URL and immediately freak out about SQL injections, but they’re easily preventable if you take the 30 seconds to fix them.

#16

With that in mind, I’m turning my Criticism dial up to eleven. You’ve been warned. :wink:

The game seems to me to be pulling in three different directions, namely:

  1. It’s trying to impress with all of its different features. (It’s in 3D! You can change the camera angle! Look how many different keys you can use! And how many things you can click on! You’ve got different characters! And they can each carry loads of different items!) Don’t get me wrong, because I am genuinely impressed! I appreciate how much programming skill is on display. But I wonder how many of those features will really end up contributing to the gameplay.

  2. It’s yet another elves-and-goblins RPG. Judged solely on the dungeon-crawling experience (ignoring the dungeon-editing aspect) then it’s going to take a lot of work to make me want to play this instead of one of a thousand similar games. I’ve fireballed a lot of skeletons in my time, and the gameplay in the demo dungeons just isn’t that exciting at the moment.

  3. It’s all about user-generated dungeons. Which is an interesting idea with a lot of promise. But how’s it going to work in practice? If I build a dungeon, I want to show people how creative I am – but aren’t everyone’s dungeons all likely to end up all being pretty similar in reality? Alternatively, is there some kind of meta-game going on so that by building a really impressive dungeon that lots of people play, I earn gold to buy weapons for my characters?

I’d say prioritize one of the three things above, and completely forget the other two. Be ruthless!

But then that’s just my take on things. I rarely take my own advice, so there’s no reason why you should. ;D

Simon

#17

hmm, dishmoth brought up and interesting point. They will probably look all the same.

What you COULD do(not sure if practical) is that you could allow the user to import his/her own 3d models, so that they can have anything in their dungeon.

#18

Executive decision: *** SHELVED ***

Reasons:

  • Insufficient graphical quality (nothing special and no artists available/affordable)
  • Insufficient gameplay (we’ve all fireballed loads of skeletons before)
  • Insufficient creative potential (steep learning curve, all dungeons will look similar)

On the upside I think there’s a lot of potential for this sort of ‘create and share’ app.

“The path to success is to keep trying, to understand why when things fail and to not get carried away when they work!”

Ho-hum. It was a lot of fun fiddling with it, but: Next!

#19

Noooo!!!

#20

Noooo!!!

Don’t abandon! Reinvent!

There’s too much good stuff here to walk away from. A little time spent on another project (for example) will bring things into perspective.

Simon