Milestone 1!

I can hardly believe it. After many, many long months, that long list I made, with all the features I needed to have a 'core' RPG game framework now has a column of beautiful bold ticks next to each entry. It looks something like this :

- Spells & animation (AFX) - check
- Database integration - check
- Save/Load - check
- Mission Portals - check
- Inventory and equipping items/weapons etc - check
- Character/Creature stats, skills and derived attributes - check
- Basic AI - check
- Simple factions - check
- Dialogue - check
- Melee and ranged combat - check
- Interaction with world items - check
- Time system - check
- Multi-stage branching Quest system - check
- Journal - check
- Savable game flags and scripts - check
- Merchants - check
- Looting corpses - check
- Containers with persistent inventories - check
- Map - check.


You know, that doesn't actually look like such a long list, in type :/ Ah well. Anyway, so what does this mean? Is my coding done? Not by a long shot, no. All of those features are in place in a *rough* form. They are ugly, clunky, and not at all the 'final' version. However, I'm trying to follow the iterative design school of thought recommended in the TGE docs. Rather than do a lot of polishing on one element which may change, I've got all the gameplay elements in place in rough, and can now begin iterating my design, testing different concepts, tweaking gameplay, etc. And....more importantly...work on ART!!! Well, not more importantly, per say, but more visually appealing, certainly. I've had enough of beige to last a lifetime. ;) . I've been tightly controlling my urge to work on art, even though it gets harder every time Todd Pickens releases a content pack. In compensation though I've bought all of them, and they're wicked cool.


In fact, thanks to packs from him and Tim Aste I have the basics for a few environments :

- Swamp
- Volcanic
- Snow
- Western desert
- Farmlands
- Badlands
- Forest/Highlands
- Underwater
- Desert
- Dark Spooky Forest

I also have the Medieval weapons pack and the ragdoll pack, I'm hoping to incorporate those into some fun combat.


All in all, a good base I think. RPGs are a butt load of work, but it can be done, even by one person, I believe. See Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software, my personal role model, who has been independently making a living writing RPGs for the last 10 years. That is the life I want to live, the end goal I aim for.

Anyway, I'm getting tired of typing, so heres some pictures of my latest work, the containers/looting corpses/merchants.

Containers :


Date-Time ticking merrily away :


Merchants :



I particularly like the merchants/stores. All a merchant does is offer you an interface to a containers inventory. What does that mean, and why did I do it like that? Well, it means that whatever he sells you actually exists in the world, unlike most RPGs where its just hanging in a void somewhere. If you see it in his item list, you can find a lockbox somewhere that has that particular item (its probably locked and trapped though ;)). So you can steal it >:D, and he wont have it to sell to you anymore. I like it that way, since its logical, if you are playing a rogue, who is the best to rob? The answer should be merchants, but it isn't in most RPGs. Since each container is a instance of an inventory in my database, changes to any containers inventory persist between game sessions, you can even store your own gear in them.


The map is just using the RPG Map resource (which is very cool, check it out ;)). I plan to eventually pull the RTS kits mini-map in. One of the features for Milestone 2, along with swapping character meshes for a clothing/armor system, dynamic day/night cycles, and weather.