Frayed Knights - Failing to Give RPGs the Seriousness They Deserve
by Jay Barnson · 06/29/2007 (6:41 pm) · 6 comments
Chloe: EWW! Pus! I hate these things.
Arianna: Waitaminute! That's PUS covering these monsters?
Chloe: Worse. I think these are pus-golems, creatures magically built out of pus.
Arianna: Someone deliberately manufactured these things?
Dirk: How would someone do that?
Benjamin: Why would someone do that?
Chloe: You think these are bad? Pray we never run into a snot-golem!
----====----
Frayed Knights - the comedic first-person perspective RPG - continues development.
Last month, I talked about how I was throwing together the "evolutionary prototype." The first phase of prototyping was completed earlier this month. This consisted of largely non-functional interfaces, a test dungeon, and some mocked-up combat and conversations that exercised much of the top-level functionality.
This month, I had to actually get down & dirty with lower-level game systems, though I'm still trying to keep as much of the game in TorqueScript as possible.
The core of the character system is in place, as well as "static dialogs" and melee combat is working. It may not sound like much, but there was a lot of "black triangle" work going on under the surface.
But with combat now working, the game is actually resembling... a game! It's playable! Monsters are falling over and dying like they are supposed to!
So here are the weekly updates I've done, in case you want to hear more of the insomnia-curing tales of adventures through game design foibles, Torque frustrations, and brain-addled reflections from too many late nights:
Frayed Knights: Stupid Is As Stupid Fights - Wherein I mock up a combat system using DrewFX's skeletons and the medieval weapons pack, and describe the turn-based combat system in painstaking... er, I mean, pain-inflicting, detail.
Frayed Knights: The First Five Minutes Walkthrough - Lazy as I am, I cut & paste the "First Five Minutes" section of the design document and call it a blog post! This describes the first five minutes of playing the game --- potentially. But it includes some commentary on my design decisions, which wasn't half as interesting as the comments received by the community over some of my more controversial design decisions.
Frayed Knights: Catching the Fly - I talk about all the black-triangle work that needs to be done to get something as straightforward as the static dialogs working correctly. Correctly meaning data-driven so that I can add content in the future with less desire to jump off a bridge.
Frayed Knights: Characteristics and Task Resolution - Wherin I left my blog alone for ONE AFTERNOON and some other people decided to voice THEIR opinion on the character system.
Frayed Knights: Beating Up Is Hard To Do... - Ever wanted to understand how a programmer thinks? This article will cure you of that. All the joy that goes into making a simple melee attack work!
Also... bonus section:
STUPID TORQUE TRICKS - There are a number of "Gotchas" in Torque. Little frustrations, weirdness, and undocumented bits that require a scavenger hunt through code to figure out. I started this thread as a mental notepad to myself to help me so that I only need to solve these problems ONCE. Since it's public, I've invited others to contribute their own notes to this list... which has really helped me out as well! Feel free to add to the list! Think of it as a hint / tip guide for Torque.
Anyway --- there you go! As always, have fun!
Jay Barnson
Rampant Games
Arianna: Waitaminute! That's PUS covering these monsters?
Chloe: Worse. I think these are pus-golems, creatures magically built out of pus.
Arianna: Someone deliberately manufactured these things?
Dirk: How would someone do that?
Benjamin: Why would someone do that?
Chloe: You think these are bad? Pray we never run into a snot-golem!
----====----
Frayed Knights - the comedic first-person perspective RPG - continues development.Last month, I talked about how I was throwing together the "evolutionary prototype." The first phase of prototyping was completed earlier this month. This consisted of largely non-functional interfaces, a test dungeon, and some mocked-up combat and conversations that exercised much of the top-level functionality.
This month, I had to actually get down & dirty with lower-level game systems, though I'm still trying to keep as much of the game in TorqueScript as possible.
The core of the character system is in place, as well as "static dialogs" and melee combat is working. It may not sound like much, but there was a lot of "black triangle" work going on under the surface.
But with combat now working, the game is actually resembling... a game! It's playable! Monsters are falling over and dying like they are supposed to!
So here are the weekly updates I've done, in case you want to hear more of the insomnia-curing tales of adventures through game design foibles, Torque frustrations, and brain-addled reflections from too many late nights:
Frayed Knights: Stupid Is As Stupid Fights - Wherein I mock up a combat system using DrewFX's skeletons and the medieval weapons pack, and describe the turn-based combat system in painstaking... er, I mean, pain-inflicting, detail.
Frayed Knights: The First Five Minutes Walkthrough - Lazy as I am, I cut & paste the "First Five Minutes" section of the design document and call it a blog post! This describes the first five minutes of playing the game --- potentially. But it includes some commentary on my design decisions, which wasn't half as interesting as the comments received by the community over some of my more controversial design decisions.
Frayed Knights: Catching the Fly - I talk about all the black-triangle work that needs to be done to get something as straightforward as the static dialogs working correctly. Correctly meaning data-driven so that I can add content in the future with less desire to jump off a bridge.
Frayed Knights: Characteristics and Task Resolution - Wherin I left my blog alone for ONE AFTERNOON and some other people decided to voice THEIR opinion on the character system.
Frayed Knights: Beating Up Is Hard To Do... - Ever wanted to understand how a programmer thinks? This article will cure you of that. All the joy that goes into making a simple melee attack work!
Also... bonus section:
STUPID TORQUE TRICKS - There are a number of "Gotchas" in Torque. Little frustrations, weirdness, and undocumented bits that require a scavenger hunt through code to figure out. I started this thread as a mental notepad to myself to help me so that I only need to solve these problems ONCE. Since it's public, I've invited others to contribute their own notes to this list... which has really helped me out as well! Feel free to add to the list! Think of it as a hint / tip guide for Torque.
Anyway --- there you go! As always, have fun!
Jay Barnson
Rampant Games
About the author
#2
But yes, the gameplay is definitely taking a nod from some retro classics as the Wizardry and Bard's Tale series. Part of it is how much I loved those old games, and I think there's still some life in those mechanics. And part of it is because I know I can get it done cheaply, because I am a lousy cheapskate... Wait, did I say that out loud?
Anyway, what it really comes down to is that I think there's some fun stuff that can be done with this. I mean, look at "Cute Knight," which also married the very old-school "fake 3d" dungeon crawl with some clever, interesting concepts for character development and adventuring. Granted, the game isn't everyone's cup of tea (it's also very "girl-friendly"... besides bashing monsters in the dungeon, you can marry a prince, and become an expert chef!), but it's been an extremely successful indie game.
In my case, I was looking back at games like Wiz 7, and thinking, "You know... one thing that bugged me about those games was that the characters weren't so much characters as just... stats. Resources. What if those character portraits had real personalities, and engaged in pretty regular banter through an interesting tongue-in-cheek story?" Well, something like that was what I thought of. I'm not sure, because I was really sleep-deprived at the time. But that was kind of the core idea from which Frayed Knights was spawned.
06/29/2007 (9:15 pm)
I *ASPIRE* to play Wizardry 8 (I haven't found an inexpensive copy of the game yet). The last one I played was 7.But yes, the gameplay is definitely taking a nod from some retro classics as the Wizardry and Bard's Tale series. Part of it is how much I loved those old games, and I think there's still some life in those mechanics. And part of it is because I know I can get it done cheaply, because I am a lousy cheapskate... Wait, did I say that out loud?
Anyway, what it really comes down to is that I think there's some fun stuff that can be done with this. I mean, look at "Cute Knight," which also married the very old-school "fake 3d" dungeon crawl with some clever, interesting concepts for character development and adventuring. Granted, the game isn't everyone's cup of tea (it's also very "girl-friendly"... besides bashing monsters in the dungeon, you can marry a prince, and become an expert chef!), but it's been an extremely successful indie game.
In my case, I was looking back at games like Wiz 7, and thinking, "You know... one thing that bugged me about those games was that the characters weren't so much characters as just... stats. Resources. What if those character portraits had real personalities, and engaged in pretty regular banter through an interesting tongue-in-cheek story?" Well, something like that was what I thought of. I'm not sure, because I was really sleep-deprived at the time. But that was kind of the core idea from which Frayed Knights was spawned.
#3
06/29/2007 (10:52 pm)
Great stuff, Jay...I've been following along at your blog, and it sounds like it's coming along really well. More people should stop by there! 
#4
You can try the demo here which would give you a good idea of version 8 here: www.3dgamers.com/games/wizardry8/downloads/
06/30/2007 (12:02 pm)
Damn thing keeps eating my text, so here the even shorter version:You can try the demo here which would give you a good idea of version 8 here: www.3dgamers.com/games/wizardry8/downloads/
#5
Thanks! I've really enjoyed your feedback and comments. I imagine Vespers3D was a little bit of an inspiration in the back of my mind, too.
Leroy ---
Thanks! I'm gonna have to give that demo a try, so at least I can be annoyed I don't have the full thing (New / Used copies on Amazon are running $56 - $90 a copy!)
06/30/2007 (6:23 pm)
Rubes ---Thanks! I've really enjoyed your feedback and comments. I imagine Vespers3D was a little bit of an inspiration in the back of my mind, too.
Leroy ---
Thanks! I'm gonna have to give that demo a try, so at least I can be annoyed I don't have the full thing (New / Used copies on Amazon are running $56 - $90 a copy!)
#6
06/30/2007 (8:24 pm)
Yeah, I noticed that when I was trying to see if I could find you a decent price (froggle/amazon etc). I got mine for around $10/$20 a year or 2 ago. It's weird how sometimes older games can cost more then some recent ones!
Torque Owner Leroy Frederick
EDIT: Oh, Jay have you every played any of the Wizardry series, this game is kinda reminding me of that (no bad thing), an inspiration for you perhaps?
EDIT 2: Don't bother answering that Jay :D, haven't played older versions, but I loved/love Wizardry 8 (gameplay, characters, random banter etc).