Blog for Quinton Delpeche at GarageGames.com

Soul Wars (Prototype)

Quinton Delpeche — 2008-09-18T13:52:20+00:00

Well we have now finished the prototype of Soul Wars and it was an extremely good learning experience. The prototype took a while to complete and at one stage I was worried that we would never finish it, but we have and we have proven that the main game concept works and that the game will be very playable.

The prototype was initially done on TGEA 1.7.1 using ArcaneFX 1.1.2 Beta and it served our purposes but we will now start releasing the final game on TGEA 1.7.1 using the final release of ArcaneFX 1.1.2. The prototype also never included any of the Economic or Guild features that we wanted to add as they were not finally documented and architected by the time our deadline for the prototype loomed.

What I have realised that it is almost impossible to complete a project of this scale without 100% commitment from the rest of your team. I have decided to temporarily shelve this project and re-visit it at a later stage with hopefully more team members and definitely a better understanding of what is required to complete projects of this magnitude.

Completing the prototype was extremely important to me and became a bit of a personal challenge at one stage, I now move on to my other projects knowing full well what I can achieve and how to achieve it and one day Soul Wars will return ... and when it does it will be well worth it.

Thanks to all of you who offered advice and were supportive of me during the months leading up to this ... as usual the community and Garage Games are the greatest and I look forward to sharing my next projects with all of you.

Soul Wars (Update 8)...

Quinton Delpeche — 2008-08-03T16:30:53+00:00

It has been a while since I provided the last update on Soul Wars and a lot has happened on the project since then. We have released our Nebula Toolset (a highly customised version of the standard mission editor) and an internal 0.2 release of the game. I thought it might be prudent to share some of the in-game screenshots of the upcoming 0.3 release with all of you.

A Female Elven Warrior begins her quest:

Another view of the Female Elven Warrior:

A Male Human Mage begins his quest:

Another view of the Male Human Mage:

A Male Elven Archer begins his quest:

Another view of the Male Elven Archer:

A Male Human Mercenary begins his quest:

Another view of the Male Human Mercenary:

Talking to the townsfolk can be quite rewarding:

Sometimes they will provide you with information or clues:

Sometimes the townsfolk can be just plain weird:

The hero wanders through the town meeting various people:

Our hero encounters some trouble in the nearby ruins:

Another hero encounters a previous one who has met an untimely death:

The hero decides to avenge the fallen:

Soul Wars - Nebula Toolset...

Quinton Delpeche — 2008-07-18T10:51:08+00:00

It has taken a little longer then I initially anticipated but in the end it was well worth the wait and definitely worth the effort. The Nebula Toolset for Soul Wars is here. Basically it is the standard world editor that comes with the Torque Game Engine Advanced with the added extras that we needed for Soul Wars. It also runs as a seperate utility to the game as we are not shipping any tools and editors with the game client.

The Nebula Toolset is based on TGEA 1.7.1 and has had a lot of modifications made to not only the core game engine source code but also the editor script files as well.

Some of the added features include the following:
-> NPC & Monster Creator
-> Encounter Generator
-> Dialog Creator
-> Cutscene Creator & Viewer
-> Map Upload Facility

A lot of these features are still in beta testing, but the toolset itself is ready for the team to start creating the basic maps that we need in order to start testing the complexities of the Haze Game Mechanics.

Here are some screenshots of the toolset, there will be more screenshots once we have finalised the testing of the other features.

The toolset is a critical utility for the game, as it allows us to create maps and bring the world to life without having to actually log in to the game as an authenticated user. There may even be plans in the near future to release the toolset to a wider audience and have a content creation contest from the general public.

Soul Wars (Update 7)...

Quinton Delpeche — 2008-07-03T18:01:58+00:00

It has been a while since my last update for Soul Wars, but this isn't due to any lack of work or progress. A lot of the progress has been made in the back-end of the system with a fair amount of testing and discussions taking place. There has also been some progress made on the Game Client itself.

We have also implemented PHP Overlord for the management of the development of the game. The implementation of PHP Overlord has also now enabled us to set some concrete deadlines and delivery dates for the game.

The primary storyline has now also been completed and the team is busy with the scripts and story boards for it. We have also created a host of sub-plots and secondary quests for the game, these are also currently being scripted and story boarded.

Finally Ravens Bluff has had an update and although it is far from finished I thought it would be nice for you to see the progress so far. :)

The next few weeks will see a flurry of activity as we move closer to the first Public Beta release of the game client.

Soul Wars Website Updated...

Quinton Delpeche — 2008-06-13T08:35:17+00:00

The new Soul Wars Website is now up and running and has a nice new look and feel to it. The next steps on the website are to start adding more information about the game including nice graphics and other theming elements.

We will also be adding information on how to get onto the Beta Testing list and pre-sign up information for actually getting accounts in the game. These pre-accounts will be rewarded with special in-game bonuses. :)

So please pay the website a visit and stay tuned for another game update due within the next week.

The website can be viewed at http://www.soulwars.org

Soul Wars (Update 6)...

Quinton Delpeche — 2008-05-27T21:47:42+00:00

We have been testing some of the scenery and maps in order to check FPS and visual appearance of the game. There is quite a lot of work still to do on the maps but overall the tests are looking pretty good and I am quite happy with the results.

EDIT: Currently the basic client is in place and needs the additions of Combat and Character Creation as well as the Play GUI before it will take on a life of its own. We also are working on our own maps but I needed to see what we could put in our own maps before we started going overboard with foliage and stuff.

None of the maps here will be in the final release of the game ... these were merely a TEST. The maps are straight out of the Twigs and Sticks content pack and the models are straight out of the Villager pack.

So here are a few of the screen shots of these tests and I'll let you all be the judge of it. :)

We are busy working on some creatures for the game so that we can start testing the combat system. The guys have also been hard at work testing the 0.1 release of the game client.

Soul Wars (Update 5)...

Quinton Delpeche — 2008-05-23T07:47:53+00:00

We have just released version 0.1 for internal testing to our test groups and the feedback has been extremely positive so far. It was decided earlier on to release the game in 10 iterations (hence the 0.1 version connotation) and add new features to each iteration building on the previous iteration. Each iteration will have its own set of testing done and all bugs will be applied to that iteration before moving on to the next.

The first iteration is the basic game client and includes basic camera control and movement, object selection, character selection and one basic map plus a default map that is used when creating new maps.

So far the testing has gone well and there have been very few bugs, so there will only be one enhancement to iteration 1 which will result in version 0.1a. A lot more feature requests were made and these have been included in the enhancement.

I am extremely happy that the client is stable on the various machines we have tested on and everybody is quite happy with the first internal release of the Game Client.

The next iteration will enhance iteration one by adding basic NPC dialogues, some 3D models, enhanced version of the map, and basic creatures. This is due for release within the next week or two.

Overall the progress being made is solid and now that the testers and the rest of the members in the project can start seeing tangeable results the momentum is starting to pick up.

Soul Wars (Update 4)...

Quinton Delpeche — 2008-05-11T21:44:52+00:00

It has been quite a while since my last update, actually like more then 2 weeks, but hey who is counting. During this time I have re-implemented the game using TGE and TGEA before finally implementing the game on TGEA 1.7. So here we are, running the game on TGEA 1.7 and although this means that the Linux and Mac support won't be forthcoming just yet, we are still going to release the game for those Operating Systems ... never fear.

We have also since been listed on the Garage Games website (http://www.garagegames.com/) as a listed project for TGEA which can be seen here in case you are interested.

We have also made some good progress on the game mechanics and game scripts needed as well as creating some demo maps to showcase the game and to allow us to do some testing on these maps.

So as promised in the last blog post, here are the in-game screenshots, we haven't finalised the Game UI just yet so these shots don't show it ... but we will definitely include them soon enough.

I have also been working on theming the Editors so that they fit into the overall colour scheme of the game. Although this isn't strictly neccessary, I felt it prudent to make the Editors feel more like part of the game and not an additional tool. Anyway ... here are some screenshots of the Editors in action.

Well thats about it for now. I am currently finalising the Demo maps and Creating and Exporting as many of the Objects and Creatures that we need. We are also busy working on implementing the Quests and Dialogues required for them.

In the next update I should have some screen shots of the other Maps and even some Creatures from the Bestiary. All in all we have made some good progress and things are moving along quite nicely.

Soul Wars Website...

Quinton Delpeche — 2008-04-24T07:29:17+00:00

The Soul Wars website is now up and running at http://www.soulwars.org/. We still have a bit of refining and work to do on it, but it is a start and allows us to start getting some interest into the game. I am going to continue using these blogs to indicate our progress but obviously Soul Wars specific forum threads will be hosted on this site.

Please feel free to visit the site and provide me with any feedback on this post or on the site itself. We are working on the site and it will undoubtedly change over time, but as mentioned it is a start and will get better.

Soul Wars (Update 3)...

Quinton Delpeche — 2008-04-23T07:35:04+00:00

It is quite refreshing to be at this stage in the development of Soul Wars. Every session of development seems to create some tangible results, I am however under no illusions that all the sessions will be the same. The Game Testing and Game Mechanics Implementation will probably be rather frustrating and will not have as many visible results as others, but Rick and I are ready and realise what has to be done.

Anyway, last night was another good night of development and I have some screen shots to share with you again. The screen shots show the Main Menu with the beginnings of the Character Creator as well as the About and Options dialogs and the final screen shot shows the game running on both Windows and Linux.

Unfortunately I haven't managed to test the game under Mac yet, but our focus is to ensure that we provide all users a Game Client. Rick and I also finalised the Data Blocks and Data Folder structure yesterday and we are starting to implement the Weapons and Equipment objects into the main Game Tree. I have also been working on the Camera and Player controls and some Test Areas.

The next update will show some more in-game footage as well as the Character Creation feature of the game. We also hope to have the first version of the Soul Wars website up and running by then.

Please visit my personal site Novo Geek for more information.