Open Source Devil Whiskey?

[Growler]

subside, subsist, subserve, etc. They all work in this warped world of ours.

Alliteration, anyone?

[chaney]

For you my friend, we will go with illiteration.

[Growler]

berry, berry punny.

[dmoonfire]

A possible approach is to find out how much it would take to make it open source and do a fund-raiser for it (like via Kickstarter or the like). I know I'd kick in money toward that.

The same thing has happened for the Humble Indie Bundles games two years running. They got a hunk of money (though in that case it was greater than a million dollars in a month for five games but I think DW is a tad old for that) and made a lot of them open-source.

Sadly, my efforts in writing a Bard's Tale-like game have all failed, which is why I have to find more that run on my precious Linux box.

[Growler]

Dmoonfire,
Good suggestion.. I'm thinking of something along those lines for my (eventual) retro-style RPG. 8)

Can you tell us more about the game(s) you've worked on..tried to write?
-and what obstacles you encountered?

Thanks!

[dmoonfire]

Dmoonfire,
Good suggestion.. I'm thinking of something along those lines for my (eventual) retro-style RPG. 8)

Can you tell us more about the game(s) you've worked on..tried to write?
-and what obstacles you encountered?
Thanks!

I found that that only two RPG genres I really like are: Zelda and Bard's Tale.

There was an demake contest over on TIG and I tried to make Oblivion as a Bard Tale-type. It was called Lethe's Yarn. Sadly, too many ideas, not enough focus, and my real job got in the way, so it ended up being a brown smear of coding. I also ended moving away from a library and style I was comfortable (2D OpenGL) into 3D (Irrlicht.NET) which was compounded by my incredible lack of 3D modeling skills. In hindsight, I probably should have stuck with 2D graphics pre-rendered (I like the cartoony/sketched styles more anyways) and just gone with the 2D library I was comfortable with (BooGame and C#).

My next attempt, after this novel is finished, is going to stick with the 2D graphics, simply because I know how to code it. Knowing me, I'll also probably make it a bit more generic library (kind of like RPG Maker) so if I do a demake, it would be just to exercise and make it full featured, not to make it a proper game to hang my hat on.

I consider myself reasonable at writing stories, so I figured once I got the engine done (naturally have oodles of notes), the story would be the fun part. Graphics and sound are my worst fields.

Beyond that, my only attempts at a game were a word game called WordPlay (Gtk# on Linux) and CuteGod (C#, OpenGL). The CuteGod one (http://mfgames.com/cutegod) got past the second milestone, but I still have to clean it up for the third.

[Growler]

Interesting & instructive to hear about the issues you encountered--and then learned from..Thanks for sharing--that helps others of us who want to make a game.

Can imagine that going 3D would be a significant & difficult shift.. thinking of using 2D myself, then maybe 3D later on if things go well.

And yeah--making the game/system flexible (like RPG Maker) seems wise.. like building a computer from interchangeable parts. I'm gonna try to make mine as open & flexible as possible--so while it may not appear generic on the surface, it will be easy to modify in most respects.

Will check out your CuteGod game.
Is WordPlay available anywhere?

[dmoonfire]

Interesting & instructive to hear about the issues you encountered--and then learned from..Thanks for sharing--that helps others of us who want to make a game.

Might as well tell people all the mistakes I made. I found that life is easier even as a "don't do this" signpost. I've fumbled around a lot, back from a strategy game called Dragon's Life (ANSI graphics) to CuteGod. I've gotten further along but never quite... finished a game. The last two (Wordplay and CuteGod) are really the only two games where I got it to a "game" (e.g., has an end and a challenge). Well, Bomb Run is also but that ended up sucking worst than both of those.

Can imagine that going 3D would be a significant & difficult shift.. thinking of using 2D myself, then maybe 3D later on if things go well.

Given my preference for 2D and line drawings, I should have never tried 3D.

And yeah--making the game/system flexible (like RPG Maker) seems wise.. like building a computer from interchangeable parts. I'm gonna try to make mine as open & flexible as possible--so while it may not appear generic on the surface, it will be easy to modify in most respects.

The hard part is designing something that doesn't limit you. Games created with the old Bard's Tale Construction Set were pretty obvious they were made with BTCS. I figured I'll make my library just focus on the graphics and sounds, and let the mechanics be handled by the game itself.

Will check out your CuteGod game.
Is WordPlay available anywhere?

WordPlay is, but frankly it is almost embarrassing. It got to what I call the second point (it's a game!) but never remotely close to the polished game. I also encountered a lot of trouble with Gtk# and sprites. It wasn't very performant and suffered greatly with larger maps.

https://github.com/dmoonfire/wordplay

The above is a Git link to the code. It compiles underneath MonoDevelop and Visual Studio 2008, but only runs under Linux. Mainly because rsvg# isn't ported properly over.

I "inherited" a OpenGL library from Rob Loach called BooGame. I like the idea and I've been messing with cleaning it up, but got distracted with everything else. Given a choice, I'm going to redo Cutegod for the next big project after my current, then use that as the setting stone for my Oblivion BT-inspired demake (because I hate failing).

[Growler]

All good, Dmoonfire!
There's a lot of real talent around here..

Failure = nada option

Hey, this is a stupid question, but I've heard multiple things regarding what is 2D vs 3D, so would Devil Whiskey be considered 2 or 3 D?

On one hand it employs 2D graphics for player pics & monsters, but then a 1st-person (seemingly 3D) perspective out walking around & in dungeons..

Or would the dungeon graphics be considered 2D textures turned into a pseudo-3D?

[dmoonfire]

Failure = nada option

Failure just means one more way it didn't work. I don't really give up, I just either change gears (new project) or try again (5th version of the same thing).

Hey, this is a stupid question, but I've heard multiple things regarding what is 2D vs 3D, so would Devil Whiskey be considered 2 or 3 D?

Well, it depends on the POV rendering. My impression from the discussions before the game came out (I ordered my copy on opening day) is that they use 3D rendering for the viewport, then overlay 2D graphics on top of that. If that is the case, it would be a 3D game. That would be true even if they just put in boxes and texture them with the images. When you walk around buildings in DW, it kind of looks like 3D rendering, which is why I think it is a 3D game.

Bard's Tale is pseudo 3D since it really is just 2D images that are arranged so they appear to be 3D. Looking at the resources, you can see they have slices of images of every wall, at 1, 2, 3 steps distance etc. That is why it would be pseudo 3D.

The fastest way is to look at the assets of the game. If you have image files that have the walls rendered at different distances, you have a pseudo 3D game. If you have model files (obj, 3ds, or a ton of other formats), its a 3D game.

[Growler]

Thanks for your description/explanations..makes sense.. pre-figured 2D image/slices compiled to appear 3D vs true 3D rendering.

And in some sense, it seems to relate to how we perceive the visuals, where even pseudo-3D can be sufficiently (perceptually) immersive to tweak our brain into perceiving 3D.. so, for the player, maybe it doesn't or shouldn't matter how the 3D effect is achieved, eh?

Bard's Tale, for ex, was certainly enjoyable and created a sense of being 'inside' a dungeon.

[dmoonfire]

And in some sense, it seems to relate to how we perceive the visuals, where even pseudo-3D can be sufficiently (perceptually) immersive to tweak our brain into perceiving 3D.. so, for the player, maybe it doesn't or shouldn't matter how the 3D effect is achieved, eh?

Just depends on how you want to pack your assets (and if your technology can do it). If you have a kick arse 3D models and textures, a BT-style game will usually look better than 2D slices. That was originally why I tried 3D for my demake, but I missed the whole "have a kick arse 3D models" part of it.

[Growler]

Ah, ye olde 'chain be only as strong as its weakest slinky' conundrum.

Asset-packing.. reminds me of this chicklet I usta know.. in the Biblical vey, if ye ketch me drift. 8)

Well, in some finer future, may ye find the kick-arse 3D models needed for superior graphicals!