Flames of Anaria: 2D RPG

[Vesayth]

Hello all!

For my Senior Project at Millsaps College, I created this 2D RPG in Java. It would be great if I could get some reviews on it. It's not finished (only 1 dungeon completed, I want to have 5) and I want to get some strong feedback on what I can do to optimize it. I currently only get about 40 FPS and that's on high end pc. I know it has tons of room for improvement, but I have no idea what to change at this point. I've fiddled with JOGL, but that dropped my FPS to about 10-20 on average, so I went back to Java2D.

One major thing of note is that I've made this entire project without using any IDE's or existing Game Engines. I'm beginning to think that I should implement an existing engine so that the game renders better, but if I can avoid doing that it would be fantastic!

Any and all criticism is greatly appreciated, don't go light on me! I know some features of the game are less than intuitive. This is my first real game project.

The game can be downloaded here: http://files.filefront.com/FlamesOfAnariazip/;13753706;/fileinfo.html

Instructions on how to play the game are included in the download.

Note: I have been informed that there is a crash in the game dealing with save/load. I have found that it is being caused by having active quests and will be fixed in the next download =]. If you have no active quests you should be able to load fine.

Screenshot as per request:

[zoto]

The link is timing out for me. I bet you will get more people willing to try it if its a web start or applet.

[Vesayth]

Yeah, my roommate has been on limewire hardcore tonight, it's rather annoying.

I'll upload the file to filefront so it won't be so painful for a download.

As far as java web start, I haven't figured out exactly how to package it like that just yet.  It is however in executable jar form.

Also, I've tried to convert it to an applet but have had no real success. I can make basic applets but as far as my game goes I can't get my extra threads working correctly through them. I don't think the game would run too well in an applet anyhow (at least, not how it is currently coded).

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Epo]

Well I played it and I think the gameplay is very good. I really like listening to the secret of mana music.

When moving around as the character the scrolling of the screen does not seem smooth to me.

Going into the forest is not a smooth transaction.
I usually have to right click on the program on the taskbar to make the character go to the forest.


And for rabbits they are pretty rich to be carrying around 15 gold coins.

[Vesayth]

I updated the post with a filefront download link. My personal server shouldn't get in the way of it now ^^.

[CommanderKeith]

I'd love to see a screenshot, could you post one up?

Cheers,
Keith

[SwampChicken]

The ZIP also contains source code.

[Aaron Goulet]

I love what you've done so far. Did you write the engine from scratch? If so, I like how you implemented the dialog system and the movement controls; very reminiscent of the good old top-down action RPG days.

Keep up the good work.

[Darrin]

Hi,

Very nice.   I played until level 2.  Then went to level 15 and put on gm armor.

--would be nice to have instructions in game.  took me awhile to figure out f d space and enter.   I was stuck in a dialog for a while.
--Was I supposed to turn in the rabbit meat?  I had some but mom didn't take it.  I was not sure how many I was supposed to get. or was this just a lead in to finding the sister.
--some of the grass corners are square.
--movement was a little weird in the since that if you hit an arrow key once you moved pretty far even with a tap, like the movement minimum was to much, giving a feel of not being responsive.
--the beach area seemed like I should be able to move left and right but the paths were blocked.

I guess my only suggestion would be to tighten the maps and give more flow to the story.  In other words, the player should always be questing for something and always know what they are questing for.  The town is pretty big, but what does the size actually add to the game play?
 
rpgs are pretty hard in all respects, design, art, code.  There are some amazing ones done in rpg maker.   Check out.

http://www.quintessence-tbv.com/

master of the wind is supposed to be great too.

My favorite of all time is zelda for the snes with secret of many being up there as well.    There is a really good flow/progress to those games.   

Great stuff. I think your engine is really nice.    Seems like an ide like netbeans or eclipse might make things a little easy on you.

[bainit]

Hello.
In my opinion the User's Guid should be in pdf file.

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Vesayth]

The ZIP also contains source code.

Yes, my game has been made open source under the GPL so others can benefit. If you use my code please keep the source headers in place to give me credit ^^.

[Vesayth]

Hi,

Very nice.   I played until level 2.  Then went to level 15 and put on gm armor.

--would be nice to have instructions in game.  took me awhile to figure out f d space and enter.   I was stuck in a dialog for a while.
--Was I supposed to turn in the rabbit meat?  I had some but mom didn't take it.  I was not sure how many I was supposed to get. or was this just a lead in to finding the sister.
--some of the grass corners are square.
--movement was a little weird in the since that if you hit an arrow key once you moved pretty far even with a tap, like the movement minimum was to much, giving a feel of not being responsive.
--the beach area seemed like I should be able to move left and right but the paths were blocked.

I guess my only suggestion would be to tighten the maps and give more flow to the story.  In other words, the player should always be questing for something and always know what they are questing for.  The town is pretty big, but what does the size actually add to the game play?
 
rpgs are pretty hard in all respects, design, art, code.  There are some amazing ones done in rpg maker.   Check out.

http://www.quintessence-tbv.com/

master of the wind is supposed to be great too.

My favorite of all time is zelda for the snes with secret of many being up there as well.    There is a really good flow/progress to those games.   

Great stuff. I think your engine is really nice.    Seems like an ide like netbeans or eclipse might make things a little easy on you.

Thank you for your input! All of these things I definitely want to touch up on, but they're not my main focus right now. I'm trying to see if I can work on the rendering a bit, and maybe get the game running more smoothly. But I will answer your statements =].

Hehe, this is why it's a work in progress. The rabbit meat thing is supposed to be taken from you, I just haven't updated that quest line yet to do that. I've been mainly concerned with functionality. The map is made through a tile loader, which is why some of it turns out square. I can make everything rounded, but that will add a ton of new code (and a ton of new image editing!). It will be done eventually, but this is more tedious busy work than it is anything else.

The movement is done like that by design. The game is on a node-based map. If you tap the arrow key, you move on to the next tile or square. In this sense, every object in the game is on a grid. I do want to modify it to be pixel based movement eventually, but that will also require me to revamp the AI system.

The beach area is designed to move to new areas, but this is not enabled yet. There will be more maps in that area later (a pirate ship dungeon!).

The town is big for a reason, but just as with the beach area, it is not finished yet and there will be more to it later on. Same goes for the random NPCs walking around town.

[zoto]

I went into a stone building and the game closed without warning, losing my progress. The combat was way too easy, especially after I got the heal spell.
I like the UI and think the plot has a lot of potential.