Any ideas?

[code_glitch]

I've just finished my complete structure for a game, map loader, map switcher, audio system, control system and etc...

however, I am stuck on a more important matter: I've got an RPG game engine of sorts ready for a storyline/plot and quests and battles of some sort. But I need help with ideas for the plot itself and what the battles/encouters should be people, monsters, robots, aliens or whatever. Magic/physcial/weapons and that kind of thing.

so because i couldnt make my mind up ie. a good story line and etc, i thought i'd revive the PGD forums a bit (read the article on homepage about it begin quiet) by leaving the PGD community to decide. And if it turns out good I will post it here for all to play and even, if its worth the moderators time, enter it into the anual PGD competition thing.

any ideas/creativity would be greatly appreciated.

thanks
code_glitch

[paul_nicholls]

Hi code_glitch :)

Sounds neat, well done :)

Do you have any screenshots to share, or haven't you actually done any coding yet?

I wasn't sure if you had just documented those things, or coded something :)

cheers,
Paul

[code_glitch]

oh, sure thing let me take a few snaps. i can also upload the source code if you would like, but for those out there who seek really powerful and super-efficient code thats really neat, then this isnt for you. if you would like me to post the source, code then pleased say so, but for now i will only post some screenshots.

the code itself is written from scratch with nothing more than BASSFPC and sdl in freepascal 2.2.4 (for some reason or other 2.4.0 refuses to work)

*erm, 128kb??* going to have to find a solution to that one... 136kb per screenshot? damn...

is public dropbox accepted for sharing screenshots? if so here are the links:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4853895/screenshots/screenshot%201.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4853895/screenshots/screenshot%202.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4853895/screenshots/screenshot%203.png

EDIT:
i forgot to mention that these maps are all liked together, but im not that creative... if there are any newbies out there who want to do an rpg that requires an easy way to show a 2d tile based map, they can PM me for any help and the source code with comments since the source code at the moment is a bit of a mess.

cheers,
code_glitch

[Brainer]

These tiles remind me of old GBA Pokemon series. :)

Nice work, man!

[paul_nicholls]

Looking good, keep up the great work :)

cheers,
Paul

[code_glitch]

thanks, and i can tell that you know your games, because thats exactly what they are, straight from the gba tilesets...

and thanks for all the support. anyone have any ideas on what kind of storyline i should have? or what the combat should be?

[WILL]

I can tell you now, depending on the depth of your game, you're going to have content issues. But that's not unusual for those hobby developers making RPG games. There is a LOT of content required to make this genre of game. You'll also need to be able to or know someone that will be able to write well and make a good story for your game. You could however try to stick to the retro style of gameplay and create something similar to the early Dragon Quest games (1 thru 4) or the first 3 Final Fantasy games as seen on the old NES console. Again, another way to make less content required to make a game feel more rich in depth is to have a collection system like in the Pokemon games where you level up monsters and try to collect different ones. I'd recommend that you try to minimize the amount of 'bulky' content (graphics, music, etc) unless you can find or pay for dedicated designers so that you can focus on your story, map/level design and other game material. (monsters, characters, dialog, gameplay combat/menus, etc and so on)

That aside, you are off to a good start with the engine I see and that'll help a bit, but content will be a constant issue so try to work around it as best you can with decisions that'll put gameplay above your visuals and reduce the amount of needed extra graphics and vast lists of characters, monsters, spells and the huge amount of dialog you'd traditionally require to make such a game the old fashion way.

[code_glitch]

yea, i know the amount of content i need, but the main thing is that i was only wondering what the PGD community would like to see in a 2d rpg so that i could use those ideas to put into the game and make it free for all those on these servers as i can make the content no problem, its just that i have no idea in what general direction the project should go, once i have that, i can make it move along quite nicely. i think.

cheers,
code_glitch

[code_glitch]

GREAT NEWS: for those who hate editing maps by hand, i finally made a decent map scripting system...

take a look:


10
10
BLANK_LINE
001;002;003;004;005;006;007;008;009;010;
020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;
020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;
020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;
020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;
020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;
020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;
020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;
020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;
020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;
020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;
020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;020;

[VERSION]
XK-02MK3C


[AUDIO]
resources\audio\home_room1.mp3


//- Link format:
//- Line 1:
//- Total number of links
//- Data format:
//- x;y; co-ordinates of link point
//- Destination co-ordinates
//- Destination map file

[LINK]
1
5;11;
5;0;
resources\maps\Ch1-Home\lounge.ff1


//- Object format
//- Total objects
//- data:
//- Object Name
//- Tile X; Tile Y;
//- Image #
//- Visible
//- Collision

[OBJECT]
1
HOME.DOOR
5;11;
22
1
0


// line 1 - Entries
// data 1 - Name
// data 2 - X;Y;

[OBJECTX55]
1
HOUSE.COMMON
22;22;


sorry about the long post, just want to show this to the world, especially if there are any learners out there who want a guideline that works...

EDIT: I dont know why, but at the end of each block there is supposed to be a [ * ] without spaces, but the forum put a weird blob...

[arthurprs]

try to use the code tags

[code_glitch]

ah, yes. forgot. will edit. thanks for reminding me.