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Messages - chrismdp

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Other Games / Re: Ealdorlight - on Kickstarter - now with playable demo!
« on: July 07, 2017, 04:03:49 am »
Quote from: Xgamer4 on July 06, 2017, 12:36:09 pm
I think you spent too much time focusing on "this is what I'd like the game to do", as opposed to "this is what can be done". The entire campaign focused on "you'll be able to do this", and "procedural generation that", and "here's the core gameloops!". I like following along on development more than most people outside this forum, but that wasn't really development... it's more something like a wish-list/high-level design doc, and nothing else. It didn't capture attention, and it lost some of its appeal once people started pointing out the problems in this thread.

Yes, I get that now. I need more "game" rather than just fluffy ideas. It's a bit of a catch-22 because I need money (dedicated time and team) to make the game what I want it to be.

So whilst I build out the core of Sol Trader further, I'll also be taking Ealdorlight closer to a prototype. It's going to have to be part-time work, but I'll do what I can  :D

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Other Games / Re: Ealdorlight - on Kickstarter - now with playable demo!
« on: July 06, 2017, 09:13:10 am »
So the campaign is done. Didn't hit the goal, but a number of positives and lessons to draw out of the experience.

I'm running a very short survey to decide what's next for Ealdorlight. Please would you mind filling it out? I'm especially interested if you didn't actually back the project!

Fill in survey and help decide what's next for Ealdorlight and me

I'm going to pause work on Ealdorlight to figure out what I should do. Without budget for a proper team, I'm not going to be able to do the game justice in its current form. I may choose to cut design, scope and the art requirements right down to a simpler game.

In the meantime, my game development time will be focused on Sol Trader. The core history generation and AI engine will always be shared between the two games, and I was always planning on improving this further during the development of Ealdorlight. Working on Sol Trader's core engine makes it a better game, serves my existing Kickstarter backers, and solidifies the platform on which I can build Ealdorlight in future.

Thanks Bay12 forums! for all the support, shoutouts, discussion, etc. It's meant the world to me!

Thanks
Chris

3
Other Games / Re: Ealdorlight - on Kickstarter - now with playable demo!
« on: June 28, 2017, 04:10:06 pm »
Quote from: frightlever on June 28, 2017, 03:44:23 pm
So if you attack a faster character they'll attack you back twice? And a really fast enemy will attack you three times for every one of your attacks? Hopefully I misunderstood.

A character that's twice as fast as you will attack you back twice, yes. But that's really very fast and a huge advantage. If a character is only 10% faster and they make the exact same attacks as you (different moves take different amounts of time) then they will get a free attack every 10 times you both attack. At the moment, you can tell how close a character is to a new turn by checking the circle underneath them (this UI may change).

It's being able to both react and move faster. Your weapon weight will make you slower, but your strength will offset this effect. Your reflexes will make you slightly faster (but not very much).

Hope that explains things a little more.

Quote from: forsaken1111 on June 28, 2017, 04:05:45 pm
Isn't that exactly how roguelike combat works? I know in Crawl if I am super slow I might be hit 3-4 times by a faster enemy before I can respond

Yes, but as speed increases give a big advantage in the Ealdorlight system, they will be toned down from this level.

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Other Games / Re: Ealdorlight - on Kickstarter - now with playable demo!
« on: June 28, 2017, 03:33:01 pm »
*waves*  :)

Quote from: frightlever on June 28, 2017, 03:25:52 pm
It's basically Roguelike combat where time advances every time the player moves (or clicks). So as far as I could tell there's no combat rounds or initiative, like you'd see in a realtime-with-pause style system (eg Baldurs Gate or UFO Afterlight - UFO:A was actually a decent game, unlike the two previous games), and no action points per character, like you'd have in turn-based system (eg Jagged Alliance). Options to strike, feint and counter, but not defend, or not that I could find.

That's correct. There are no rounds or action points - faster characters will get to take more turns. Defending or blocking against attacks is instinctive and therefore implicit within the system, although not all the animations are in yet. There are also improvements to make in how it communicates to the player what's going on, and I'm planning to replace the characters and animations for the full game.

5
Other Games / Re: Ealdorlight - on Kickstarter - now with playable demo!
« on: June 28, 2017, 05:40:39 am »
So in case you've not seen there is now a night mode for the demo, complete with interactive scenery...

I'm also running a Thunderclap for tomorrow afternoon, so if you'd like to see the campaign funded, and don't mind donating a tweet or Facebook post to the campaign, sign up here.

Thanks!




6
Other Games / Re: Ealdorlight - on Kickstarter - now with playable demo!
« on: June 25, 2017, 04:22:20 pm »
Yes there's stacks to do to improve it. I never planned to release a demo and had to work very hard to get it anything near ready to show so there are lots of rough edges.

Thanks for the feedback! Will add some more help text for Pain, Blood Loss and Fear.

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Other Games / Re: Ealdorlight - on Kickstarter - now with playable demo!
« on: June 25, 2017, 03:58:03 pm »
If you press ESC and click help, then there's some text which might give you some insight into the system... any follow up details you need let me know!

8
Other Games / Re: Ealdorlight - on Kickstarter NOW
« on: June 23, 2017, 01:52:41 pm »
So we now have a playable combat demo! There's a download link, along with plenty more information about how the combat works on this update:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chrismdp/ealdorlight/posts/1920007

Let me know what you think!

9
Other Games / Re: Ealdorlight - on Kickstarter NOW
« on: June 19, 2017, 03:22:46 am »
A quick update to say that I did a livestream preview of some of the combat last Friday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQTBf-xZ2Aw

There are more previews coming this week!

10
Other Games / Re: Ealdorlight - on Kickstarter NOW
« on: June 07, 2017, 04:19:27 am »
Quote from: Cruxador on June 06, 2017, 03:41:56 pm
Learning stuff about your own background, on the other hand, seems liable to hobble playability of the early game, and players ability to invest in a character compared to building the character up yourself.

I'm going for both. You are learning about your real parents and ancestry, rather than your own personal background. When you start a game you get to generate a character and make your life choices all the way through to early adulthood just like in Sol Trader, with the exception that they'll get to choose things like hair colour and their appearance. This should allow players to invest in their character, whilst preserving the progression mechanics.

I'm now painfully aware this isn't really mentioned in the Kickstarter, so I'll fix that :)

11
Other Games / Re: Ealdorlight - on Kickstarter NOW
« on: June 06, 2017, 03:52:32 pm »


Quote from: Retropunch on June 06, 2017, 03:43:37 pm
I'm a bit dubious about 'procedural for the sake of procedural' games, but there does seem to be some method behind this. Items seem to get stronger the longer they've persisted, so having a 'history' could make for some really cool moments (picking up a sword, realising it was used in the massacre of x in the year n and that because of that it adds bleeding damage because of that or something). As long as it ties in and isn't just a way of filling out NPCs and locations then I'm all for it.

That's exactly what I'm going for.

Quote
I also understand the 'common' starting role - it's difficult to tell a story if you don't have a similar thread to start from.

One of the hardest things to wrestle with in the design of this game is to figure out how to make a compelling story work within a procedural world. Sol Trader has a go at it with the quest structure, but I want to go much deeper in this game with layered quests that make sense. The hard bit will be making the beginning, middle and end fit well together as a story, using set-piece quest lines to help the player advance.

Quote
My only issue with this is that it looks a bit...generic medieval RPG.

There's some interesting world building ideas that I've not fully fleshed out to do with identity that the items stuff above hints at. The aim is an RPG world that people can relate to and feel comfortable with, which then twists reality slightly based on your knowledge of the past.

Hope that gives a bit more insight into where I'm going!

Chris

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Other Games / Re: Ealdorlight - on Kickstarter 6th June at 4pm UTC+1!
« on: June 06, 2017, 10:23:47 am »
...and we're off! Excited to see where this ends up!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chrismdp/ealdorlight

13
Other Games / Re: Ealdorlight - on Kickstarter 6th June at 4pm UTC+1!
« on: June 05, 2017, 12:55:21 pm »
Thanks! Did you noticed the new boxed copy reward?

Looking forward to getting the campaign underway tomorrow!

14
Other Games / Re: Ealdorlight - on Kickstarter 6th June at 4pm UTC+1!
« on: June 02, 2017, 04:04:32 pm »
Hmm - I probably need to be much more specific about this on the campaign.

I'm planning on this being an extra two outfits the character can choose as their starting clothes which match the sword: no gameplay effects, only cosmetic.

Does that make more sense/sound better?

15
Other Games / Re: Ealdorlight - on Kickstarter 6th June at 4pm UTC+1!
« on: June 02, 2017, 10:59:20 am »
The Kickstarter is now just around the corner, so I've updated the first post to show a couple of the latest screenshots.

Here's a super-secret preview link just for you, because, well, why not! :D

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chrismdp/460088710?token=b18de00d

Any and all feedback on the campaign welcome, either here on in-page on the campaign.

Thanks! :)
Chris

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