WIP: Yore Quest

[kevglass]

This is a little turn based RPG/Adventure I'm working on for Android eventually. It also runs as an Applet. At the moment there's just a bit of combat and some small scripted pieces. I've been trying to write this game for about 4 months now and this is the 5th iteration. Not sure if it's any better or worse but this is the first time it's felt slightly playable.

For this interation there's a little level designer and some XML based scripting. I'm hoping I can build the scripting into something that I can tell a nice fantasy story with. As you can tell I'm not entirely sure where I'm going but so far it's been good fun getting here.

The game is playable online as an Applet

It's also available for Android handsets (only support for 320x480 res).

I'm aware of a couple of bugs and expect a bunch of typos. However, I'd really appreciate knowing it works on various browser and/or handsets. Also ideas on how to extend and improve it. Currently the turns feel a little broken up and it's easy to get your characters in situation where they're getting pounding with no support.

Of course, any feedback is appreciated,

Cheers,

Kev

[DzzD]

walked everywhere and killed everybody but unable to find any stairs ?


works great here : IE8/Vista/Intel Core Duo T7500/Java 1.6-15



EDIT :

I noticed a little bug (cf enclosed image) that I can also see on my own Applet sometime that I supposed come from JRE itself (like an antialias probleme on Java 6)

[kevglass]

Thanks for the bug.

Sorry about the lack of stairs, I forgot to put back in a test door (the links above should now be up to date). The second quest "should" be fine.

Kev

Games published by our own members! Go get 'em!

[DzzD]

Sorry about the lack of stairs

I am reassured, was becoming crazy !

[CommanderKeith]

Looks like a really nice game, the graphics work really well together and it's very polished.

It will be cool to have a larger number of enemies at once in the one room. Bosses, trap triggers would also be great.

[TheMatrix154]

I just played for 2 minutes but it works like a charm here: MacBook Pro / OS X 10.6.1 / FireFiox 3.5 / Java 1.6.0_15 / Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2,6 GHz

- Nice art btw. Did you make the characters and tileset by yourself?
- No Sound / No Music at all?

[kevglass]

@CommandKeith - thanks for the suggestion, will do!

Re: Art, the characters and matching faces are free resource online. I've done some mods to create different variants and the like but nothing much. The tiles, doors, walls, gui are home grown other than border for the dialog which is a just some stock theme thing.

Sound - you should get roars/grunts when you discover new monsters, but other than that there isn't any. Everything I've tried so far feels intrusive - ditto with music.

Kev

[endolf]

Works fine on my Hero

[steveyO]

And fine on HTC Magic too..   

[OverKill]

Office system:
Win XP Pro, SP2, Intel dual core, Firefox 3.0.15, Java sdk 1.6.0_11
-> works great and looks beautiful

Games published by our own members! Go get 'em!

[teletubo]

hey Kev, I tried it on my Hero when coming to work this morning .

However I was not able to play it, because when I opened the game, I got a black screen , and I thought it was taking too long and I pressed "back" (or home, not sure). After that I tried to open it again , using the opened instance holding the home key, and then trying to launch it again, but nothing but a black screen . I guess it has to do with saved instances . Check out   this thread , I guess it will solve the problem .

Anyway I uninstalled , then installed again . This time I waited and the title screen appeared, hooray ! But unfortunately I was almost getting to work, and didn't have time to play it really much . One thing I noticed it's that the scrolling was a little sloppy .

Well just to double check, I exited the game with home , and tried to open it again : same black screen .
I suggest you try it on your Hero and see what happens .

Anyway I'll try the game itself when I get home (btw, I have already ran the applet version, no issues at all)

cheers

[kevglass]

Yeah, I've actually fixed the restart issue already on the local version. I'll upload a new APK once I've got some new content as well.

Kev

[DoubleBarrel]

Hi there, I'm new here and this is the first time you see me post something  here  - so cutting introductions short-  I hope I can in someway or another give my little contribution to the community  .

I played Yore Quest on an XP pro, Pentium4 - 2.00GHz, Java 1.6.0_16-b01, Firefox v3.5.3 and it works perfectly fine. I personally like the game very much, though as pointed out, turns feel a little broken up indeed. A solution to this might be to split game into two modes:

-once you're not fighting you move only one character that moves around freely and not in turns. -When a room containing a monster is encountered, the other characters spawn out and the game swithces to fighting mode; that is, the three characters are controlled in turns until the monster is killed.

Another suggestion would be to add items like keys which can be used to open doors or other items which help on the way to solve some other quests.

Apart from that, the game and its artwork feel very good. The monster growl is also well suited and the original game idea is fantastic. Really hope to see more of this game soon   

[kevglass]

New version (24):

The game is playable online as an Applet

It's also available for Android handsets (only support for 320x480 res).

In this version:

- Fix antialiasing bug (hopefully)
- Tidy up android code
- Bug fix for android restart issue
- Chests now contain random events
- Triggers can now be placed on arbitrary locations (find the treasure on the first quest)
- Quest fixes, typos and missing links
- Fixed scrolling to monsters while they're moving
- Experience can now be earnt
- Scripting is a little more rich to support triggers on tiles
- Bunch of minor tweaks and fixes.

Control changes:

- The party can now walk through each other to speed up adventuring
- You can now attack someone by simply clicking/tapping there. If possible the party member will walk to them then smack them one.
- Doors are now opened before going through. Choosing a path through a door will move the character to the door and open it. This gives you a chance to evaluate the room before stepping in.
- Tapping on the selected skill or party member face gives their details.

As always, feedback appreciated. The two quests are completeable and are the beginning of a more epic story.

Next on the list is:

- A set of skills/spells to be earnt and used as the characters progress up the levels
- Stats for each type of character effecting their ability in combat
- More scripting elements to support more complete quests (including keys etc - thanks DoubleBarrel)
- More quests, maybe seperate out into campaigns or "stories".
- More monsters types

Trying to think of more features that fit into the dungeon style as it is. Anyone got any ideas?

Kev

[DoubleBarrel]

  woke up this morning smiling at the new version of Yore Quest

Just tried it again and everything seems fine except for one instance while playing the trial, when the archer - even if still alive- disappeared from the screen so i couldn't click on "him" for control. I restarted the game once more and played for around another 15min but didn't happen again anytime.

Maybe another feature could be dark rooms - and the player lights up the tiles he explores.

Really  game

[mh114]

Haven't yet tried the new version, but the earlier one worked nicely on my Hero (not that surprising). Didn't have time to play much but will try this new one later with better time. Looks great anyway!

[nlmueng]

the mage keeps disappearing, three times in a row in the same spot, can't control him after he disappears.  It appears whoever is directly above the door in the starting room disappears.  My knight just disappeared in that spot too. 

[kevglass]

Fixed it locally. New version tonight.

Kev

[Karmington]

1) If I click an already selected character again, usually by mistake, it always moves. Extremely annoying.

2) No feedback  on whether attack is possible or not from a given position, character starts running around if f.ex. trying to attack diagonally.

3) all the characters are too equal at this stage, which  annoying - they all have same fist, just different hit points. Should make them more different,
    maybe give them each a weapon of choice to allow for some tactics. Now I end up with mage holding point since warrior is nearly dead,
    and really my only tactic is to beat the game by placing characters around the doorway so the baddies run to us.

Still and all it's a good start, the framework is solid, menus work, aesthetics are good. Keep it up!

( XP, Firefox, failed with Opera but that is no surprise )

[kevglass]

If I click an already selected character again, usually by mistake, it always moves. Extremely annoying.

Can you expand on that, if I have a character selected and click them again here nothing happens. I suspect I misunderstood the problem.

Kev

[kevglass]

Ah got it, cheers for the bug report.

Kev

[kevglass]

New version (26):

The game is playable online as an Applet

It's also available for Android handsets (only support for 320x480 res).

In this version:

- Rewrote the GL view for Android - should be faster now (could do with this being tested)
- Fixed the null actor bug, the click on currently selected bug.
- Added script commands for Add/Remove actor
- Added script commands for Add/Remove feature
- Added script commands for Add/Remote map feature
- Added script commands for sound effects and quick messages
- Added locked doors and keys
- Added pressure plates
- Prevent dead party members taking actions
- Included indication for attacking squares in path
- Added keyboard shortcuts (Applet only)
- Extended feature support to allow bigger than single tile features
- Quest 1 enhanced
- Few visual updates to smooth off rough edges

Control changes:

- Space now ends turn
- 1,2,3 now select party members
- [,] now cycle through skills

Next on the list is:

- Some sort of light/dark effect
- Magic effects
- Applet/Android storage of progress
- Compile for iPhone
- Add some control to allow moving the view around a bit (only the range of the selected character?) Has to work on android aswell as on applet.
- A set of skills/spells to be earnt and used as the characters progress up the levels
- Stats for each type of character effecting their ability in combat
- More quests, maybe seperate out into campaigns or "stories".
- More monsters types

As always, feedback appreciated. The two quests are completeable and are the beginning of a more epic story.

Kev

[DzzD]

works nice, no more antialiase problem

Trying to think of more features that fit into the dungeon style as it is. Anyone got any ideas?

maybe : ghosts and secret traps+doors

- Add some control to allow moving the view around a bit (only the range of the selected character?) Has to work on android aswell as on applet.

this one is requiered as when actors are far away it it sometime not really fun

just for fancy but it may be also cool to have little animation when fighting or being figthed as sword kick monster kick, this is sometime looking a little too "coolness", and maybe multiplayer

[kevglass]

Ending up using this as a dev log, hope thats ok..

Did a bit of art work tonight. Yore is going to have over arching story line that allows the player to be lead through the tree of quests. As such it needs an game world map:



Not terribly happy with it, but it probably works for now.

Kev

[kevglass]

I'm without internet at home so progress has been slowed slightly. I've moved toward import quests from the classic board game "HeroQuest" and using these as a basis for the story. With this in mind there's an extra tool I'm writing at the moment that lets me view the imported quest maps and fill in the missing details.



The net effect is that they will be more quests but shorter ones, more story. I'm adding skills as I go so there should be strategy in the next release.

However, the first set of quests will all be in Fairmill so there isn't a need to travel around the map yet.

As I'm typing this I'm wondering if it's for anyone except as a motivation tool for me. Apologies if this is just noise.

Kev

[Alric]

Will it have monsters that suspiciously don't move but definitely aren't standing behind a hidden pit trap? 

[kevglass]

Oh my yes! Well not really, I'll be having monsters able to side step pit traps (and spear, rock fall etc).

Kev

[dishmoth]

Very nice, no bugs here (IE, Vista).

It could maybe do with a bit more feedback when a character's turn ends (e.g., greying-out their face, automatically selecting another character, highlighting the "End Turn" button when there are no more characters to move).  Also, when a character dies they shouldn't stay selected (a living character should automatically be selected instead).

The text messages at the bottom of the screen could disappear when they stop being relevant.  I don't want to know how much damage I did to an Orc from two rooms back.

You could add a bit of tension by making more things happen between player turns.  E.g., wandering monsters show up unexpectedly; hidden monsters jump out from their hiding places; fire wall traps change position; sounds of doors opening or monsters moving around in other rooms.  Or maybe if the quest has a time limit, you see the remaining number of turns count down.

Apart from that, hurry up and add some spells!

As I'm typing this I'm wondering if it's for anyone except as a motivation tool for me. Apologies if this is just noise.

No problem as long as you make it clear when you've uploaded a new version for people to play, not just a minor update.

Cheers,
Simon

[markfarrell]

This looks like a very promising RPG. 
I like the artwork very much along with the game play style.

[h3ckboy]

I am just curious, is your networking blog post referring to this game? cause it says yore, but it says it is an rts?