My First Blog - RPG Demo
by Hogie · 09/16/2010 (9:42 am) · 4 comments
Hey everyone,
Well, I have been reading through some of the community's blogs lately, and I've decided to finally post my own. I've been working on a small-scaled RPG demo for a few months now, and I now have enough done to actually post about it. I had wanted to get more done before writing this blog, but I guess the point is to show the progression of the project anyway... so here goes nothing.
My goal is to create a very simplistic RPG demo. I am aiming for an old-school vibe as far as the gameplay mechanics go (kill enemies, get gold, level up) The game will consist of one town and one dungeon. There will be at least one NPC, a couple enemies, and one playable character. I won't go into too much detail about the story at this point, as it isn't all that interesting anyway. I have yet to write a proper game document for this project, but I've decided to go ahead and finish the demo first (yeah i know... working without a plan is never a good idea, but I'm having to much fun creating this to stop and plan).
I first conceived the idea for this game a few years ago. I was assigned a class project to create a Torque game with a small group, but we only had five weeks to do it. Given the time restriction, I thought it would be fun to attempt to recreate the gameplay of an older RPG (think Dragon Quest or the early Final Fantasy games). I figured it would basically be a text adventure with a bit of GUI coding, a few enemies, and I couple NPCs. I got excited about it and began planning and learning all I could about Torque. In my mind I figured it would be quite easy for a group to pull this off... I was wrong. Or at least, I was probably wrong. The group hated the idea and we opted for something less ambitious... a FPS with umm... no enemies! As quickly as my dreams for this game had arisen, they were smashed to pieces. But it wasn't all in vain.
Flash forward a few years. I had attempted to create this game several times and had fallen horribly short with each attempt. I just couldn't get past the initial scripting for a basic battle system. Indeed, it wasn't as easy as I had once thought. However this time was different. This time I was more excited, driven, and ready to overcome the obstacles of learning. I began, once again, to work on the game idea that had been lingering in the back of my mind for years.
Indeed this time was different. Thanks to the community, the scripts I had struggled with before seemed much less intimidating. Within a couple weeks, the basics of the gameplay were in place (although my scripts are quite sloppy and inefficient). Since then, I've been working on the game's art, which has quite a long way to go. Most recently, after struggling with creating the model for the main character, I decided to throw in a placeholder for now (the Robot-ish looking enemy seen in the pics also serves as a playable character for now).
All in all, I've had a lot of fun working on this project so far. Though I have a long journey ahead, it is something I am very excited about. Thanks to all the community members for taking the time to answer my questions, and thanks to the community as a whole for posting(all the answers can be found somewhere in these vast forums, it just takes searching). I'm happy to be a part of such a dedicated community. Thanks guys,
Hogie
(Edit- seems I have a typo in my script which shows in the pics. "Agile Robot Zombie" should just be "Agile Robot". The others enemies shown are "8-bit Zombie" and "Business Class 8-bit Zombie".
(oh, and sorry if this blog turned out to be quite long, I hope I didn't bore you too much. I'm pressing the button now... Mission First Blog is complete)
Well, I have been reading through some of the community's blogs lately, and I've decided to finally post my own. I've been working on a small-scaled RPG demo for a few months now, and I now have enough done to actually post about it. I had wanted to get more done before writing this blog, but I guess the point is to show the progression of the project anyway... so here goes nothing.
My goal is to create a very simplistic RPG demo. I am aiming for an old-school vibe as far as the gameplay mechanics go (kill enemies, get gold, level up) The game will consist of one town and one dungeon. There will be at least one NPC, a couple enemies, and one playable character. I won't go into too much detail about the story at this point, as it isn't all that interesting anyway. I have yet to write a proper game document for this project, but I've decided to go ahead and finish the demo first (yeah i know... working without a plan is never a good idea, but I'm having to much fun creating this to stop and plan).
I first conceived the idea for this game a few years ago. I was assigned a class project to create a Torque game with a small group, but we only had five weeks to do it. Given the time restriction, I thought it would be fun to attempt to recreate the gameplay of an older RPG (think Dragon Quest or the early Final Fantasy games). I figured it would basically be a text adventure with a bit of GUI coding, a few enemies, and I couple NPCs. I got excited about it and began planning and learning all I could about Torque. In my mind I figured it would be quite easy for a group to pull this off... I was wrong. Or at least, I was probably wrong. The group hated the idea and we opted for something less ambitious... a FPS with umm... no enemies! As quickly as my dreams for this game had arisen, they were smashed to pieces. But it wasn't all in vain.
Flash forward a few years. I had attempted to create this game several times and had fallen horribly short with each attempt. I just couldn't get past the initial scripting for a basic battle system. Indeed, it wasn't as easy as I had once thought. However this time was different. This time I was more excited, driven, and ready to overcome the obstacles of learning. I began, once again, to work on the game idea that had been lingering in the back of my mind for years.
Indeed this time was different. Thanks to the community, the scripts I had struggled with before seemed much less intimidating. Within a couple weeks, the basics of the gameplay were in place (although my scripts are quite sloppy and inefficient). Since then, I've been working on the game's art, which has quite a long way to go. Most recently, after struggling with creating the model for the main character, I decided to throw in a placeholder for now (the Robot-ish looking enemy seen in the pics also serves as a playable character for now).
All in all, I've had a lot of fun working on this project so far. Though I have a long journey ahead, it is something I am very excited about. Thanks to all the community members for taking the time to answer my questions, and thanks to the community as a whole for posting(all the answers can be found somewhere in these vast forums, it just takes searching). I'm happy to be a part of such a dedicated community. Thanks guys,
Hogie
(Edit- seems I have a typo in my script which shows in the pics. "Agile Robot Zombie" should just be "Agile Robot". The others enemies shown are "8-bit Zombie" and "Business Class 8-bit Zombie".
(oh, and sorry if this blog turned out to be quite long, I hope I didn't bore you too much. I'm pressing the button now... Mission First Blog is complete)
Torque Owner D Fasel
Game 3D