April Update – D&D World Building

Hello, I’m still around.

I’ve taken this past week off from work so I’ve been able to just relax at home. It’s given me the chance to refresh things: change my bed, get new clothes, shave, etc. Though probably the main thing I’ve been doing over the past while is trying to create a D&D campaign setting.

I’ll just say right now that it’s a “homage” (er, blatant rip-off) of the fantasy I’ve grown up with & enjoyed. With standard D&D lore as the baseline, I’m taking elements primarily from Heroes of Might & Magic, Warhammer Fantasy, Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls, & more; with names, items, etc taken from Magic: The Gathering, Heretic & Hexen, Lords of Magic, Diablo, & other media. It’s essentially a kitchen sink full of high fantasy, which allows the players to be whatever they want to be (this is the one campaign where I’m taking this approach by the way, I plan on being more original/restrictive in future campaigns).

Is this copyright infringement? Probably, but I’m only doing this with my friends & it’s just for fun.

I am of course adding my own flavour to the setting, things like:

• No explicit “good & evil”, only perspectives, beliefs, & cultural values. That means creatures like goblins & orcs aren’t just pillaging & destroying “cause they’re evil”, it’s part of how they survive in the world. It also makes entities like angels & demons more interesting since these are meant to be the living essence of such moral forces.

• Deities are ambiguous & every faction has their own idea of what the gods are; no universal pantheon. Clerics & the like are functionally the same but their powers come more from faith in the domain & ideals themselves; they’re the ultimate examples of the “power of belief”.

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I started this thinking that I’d create the world in a simplistic manner; I won’t worry about things makings sense or there being consistent logic, this is fantasy for fantasy sake. Though as I’ve dug into this & added more & more, I realize just how much work I need to do.

RM Hack’n Slash – Developing Concept Part 3.1

Hello, I’d forgotten that I’d written some of this back in Te Anau (whoops). This post has a lot of “my line of thinking” design notes.

Since it’s been about a month since my last RPG Maker post, I think a reminder is necessary. I realized that my framework was already flawed in regards to game development & I was supposed to start thinking about a prototype for combat.

So, how then do I go about combat in this game?

RM Hack’n Slash – Developing Concept Part 3.0

Hello, I’ve had another reminder this week that I really don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to game projects. Rather than upload an informative post about task analysis like I planned to, I’ll tell you how I had an “oh shit” moment.

RM Hack’n Slash – Developing Concept Part 2

Hello, I was going to do this part about task analysis but I realized there’s a couple things I missed about the requirements in the last part I need to cover. I’ll save task analysis for the next part.

RM Hack’n Slash – Developing Concept, Part 1

Hello, I’ve done some more work on my first original RPG Maker project. I’ve setup a couple of project pages where I’ve put the below information for future reference (future steps will of course be recorded there as well). To remind you of what this is, here it is in a nutshell:

The game is a short hack’n slash RPG about a group of mercenaries sent to reclaim a haunted town. Gameplay will be typical of most turn-based JRPG & RPG Maker games. As they explore the town, they will have to survive random encounters with spirits & the odd special encounter.

Following the development framework I assembled, the most immediate process will go like this:

• Develop Concept
  1. User stories & requirements
  2. Tasks & analysis
  3. Design theme
  4. Dialogue Diagrams
• Physical Prototype

It is easy to put something together in RPG Maker & skip the physical prototype entirely, but I think it’s worth going through the process & getting some practise. I’ll explain each of these steps, & any new future ones, as I go.

Brainstorming the Next Project(s)

Hello, I’ve been thrown off a bit this week because WINZ has finally contacted me about my job hunt results & I need to prepare to see them next week (by the way, yes I’m still unemployed). I am making progress with the stretch goals for the Stealth Unity tutorial but that’s not what this post is about. I want to wait until I’ve tried them all before I do a post about my results.

So, with all of the tutorials technically done, now what?

Charting Game Concepts (WIP)

I’ve been using diagramming software to make a start on flowcharting both of my projects & creating wireframes for Lost Isles. With Lost Isles, the flowchart so far only maps most of the pre-game stuff (menu navigation, etc) but will also include the in-game play cycle. For The Spirit Child I’ve focused more on the story side of things (only the first portion so far). I’ve made pages for each of these, which are found at their corresponding project pages.

Unity: Lost Isles – Conceptualizing

I should have done this before doing the Tilemap but, I’ve started to do some planning on the specifics of the game; outside of the vague notion of a simplistic RPG where you’re an adventurer wandering around a randomized landmass.

RPG Maker: The Spirit Child – Conceptualizing

I’ve had this idea for the past few weeks, amongst others, of a short game where you play as an unusual girl who wakes up in a forest populated with spirits.