New RPG project - building a demo

[Vairn]

This seems like a pretty sweet idea.
I think cross-platform would be better then just an Amiga one, imho. (waits for the flames)

well, you can still have portability for the amiga one if it was done in, c/c++ using GCC.
but that would probably make it harder to get working on a stock a500.

Pro's:
- Portability
- AGA/ECS/CGX etc etc.
- More Colors on higher spec'd amiga's.
- More interested parties. hehe, since it wont just be limited to amiga fans.

Con's:
- Slower then a Native Amiga app
- Limits its ability to run on all amiga's, cause it wont be written in 68k.

[Marcuz]

well portability could be a great asset as if the game could run on portable devices in addition to old machenes and, inherently, Windows with or without an emulator, it could even be commercially sound to sustain an effort larger than demo stuff.

the focus here though is to have at first a little demo of one level where to make run a little dungeon with graphic: i would need the graphic to be replaced easily so that i would make the corrections and definitely decide for a mood and style between different ones.

if no coder is interested, i will make a animated GIF or maybe a little video, simulating the movement and the interface, but that kind of mockup, aside the purpose to see if someone is interested in working on it, is kind of pointless.

[gimbal]

the topic has been brought up before and I think it is safe to say it is impossible to create a portable code base that can even run on the A500, you need to do everything in optimized assembly for that platform to get realistic performance out of it.

And I'll continue on the portability issue, that makes the needed work a lot more complex. The more complex you make the project, the more likely it is that it will never see the light of day. People have limited amounts of time that they can put into the project, you need to keep it simple and straightforward. I would say that the option should be reduced to this:

- either do it for the Amiga using 68k assembly
- or do it for Windows/Linux/Mac using available cross platform APIs and tools.

That at least would make the project realistic in my opinion.

[Marcuz]

I'm confortable for it to be Windows based, and portable to easier machines: the graphics alone aren't difficult to be translated to other machines, the main concern are memory and speed about them.

[Vairn]

I can code a small demo of a maze walker, using SDL, I currently have code which works on Amiga (68k, and PPC ie 0S4.0) and windows with SDL.

But I would only use SDL for graphics, especially on the 68k amiga....

If you are interested let me know.

[Marcuz]

let me finish the exemple image and i'll be back to you later (tomorrow?)

[Vairn]

yeah, that is fine, gives me more time to do some code design anyway .

[Marcuz]

i wanted to do more than this, namely to do a richer interface and to finish the icons (that are already planned on paper); i wanted to do also, already a complete proper wallset, albeit an easy one.

but i run in one problem that encompass all of the above: the graphic, and therefore its sizes, is dependant on the exact pixel by pixel sizes of the single parts of the world area (how the world moves in front of the party).

This is not completely solved on paper and the world window is to be agreed with the coder.

that defines how much area i should have left for the interface and the buttons i may to leave out and defer to the text area for their actions.

all of the above i knew from the start, and it's not a problem now.

the purpose of this exercise has only ever been to see roughly what sizes i would need to draw coherent images for monsters and faces, and the ones above, more or less they are.

I've redrawn the mummy which is now a bit taller and more understandable, but it's just for this test purpose.

the world area has even been divided in squares and while it don't shows on these screenshots, it works: it's a start for to understand how the world [/]feels[/i] to the point of view of the party.

all the rest is colour testing for the mood setting.

what i more or less found in this test, is that i would be very happy to use a resolution a bit larger than this, like about 300 pixel tall and about 450 wide that is non standard, and since this project would be nice to be easily ported on other device without scaling, it's so far a concern.

anyway, all of this is to be decided later.

the first thing is to decide sizes for a little one level demo, of wich i would need a bit of technical input

[Vairn]

I am thinking 640x480 would be nice to start with, (easily scaled is why), that would let you get the resolution of 450x300 into the screen. (80x90 for a boarder or something though) The only problem is that that resolution itself is now either 4:3, or 16:9. more a 3:2 ration, which the closest res to that is like the iPhone with 480x320. followed by the psp with its 480x272.

If you want it to run on an amiga well 320x240 would be prefered, it all depends on how much info you want to show, I do get a VERY ishar feel from the pictures.

Size of the maze is easlily to be dynamic, so it doesn't really need to be decided upon atm.

I will attempt to make everything as dynamic as posible, so it can easily be changed etc.

[Marcuz]

that 480 x 320 (even the psp one is bigger than the actual one i have used) sounds cool.

as for windows, i thought that something autoscaling in windows the same way the latest Winuae beta does would be perfect: it looks and feels pixel perfect even on a LCD and with no blurriness.

either way, just tell me if we can go for that 480x320 or straight to 640x480and i'll start working up the sizes of the parts.


As for the feeling, yeah i would like to do something that reminds of Ishar in regards of the "largeness", of the graphics of ample breath; that it would be coherent and theme driven like the visual of Perihelion and that it would have drawing and animations between Heimdall and Eye of Beholder.

I would set for less than that though


[edit] thread renamed

[Vairn]

I say 640x480 would be the best res, in my humble opinion. Just cause it is a standard one hehe. This is mainly cause I think the other 2 PSP/Iphone, wont work that well on anything but those 2 peices of hardware .

I was thinking the same thing about the upsizing for Higher Resolutions, ie some 2xsai or other type of filtering done to the gfx.

Just to note, I am off for a holiday over seas' tomorrow, so my internet access will be less. but I am taking my laptop with me, so I can do some work on it, when I have some free time.

This gives you plenty of time to work on the screen layout, and my self plenty of time to work on the code base to get all the backend done.

[Marcuz]

suits me well

ok the two first things to solve:

- sizes of the various things (up to me)
- sizes and shapes of the wallsets (up to me but i would like some input: i don't know if the various game engines available: EoB, Ishar etc, do separate the various parts in different ways and if some is better than others; do some of you guys have ideas to share? anyway i'll try tro work it out and post some possibility)

[Shoonay]

Wow Marco, now *THOSE* pictures look awesome!
I still would like to see the zombie in a more peaceful situation such as dancing the Waltz...

[Marcuz]

mmm you know... that idea has its appeal...

[TCD]

It's a mummy! (I like 'em ) Please, no waltz dancing mummies...

[Marcuz]

I've spent a couple of days trying different arrangements of the various things on screen , to figure the exact space i would had liked the action panel and faces to be, and after that i've pretty much finished the main interface (for now i'll skip wholly the inventory, options and map panels), complete of pressed/unpressed buttons and compass.
crappy JPG attached.


i'm about all right with it, but i've also understood that the "coolness" of the action panel is almost* indipendent by its resolution, while it's in fact dependent by the percentage of screen it occupies and by the stuff surrounding it, cramming or liberating it.

* = a decent resolution would allow me to draw pixellated/not too painted stuff on screen, cartoony in a way, but yet understandable. that was already adressed with the sizes/resolutions i had mentioned before. for instance the previous action panel's sizes were confortable already, this is even bigger.

for instance i feel the panel to be now less cool than Ishar's but also more creepy.

i can't make a mind about it now: i know that the work so far is ok, but i'm not really happy about the whole feeling: that it's completely depending on the overall mood the actual game would have: i think this interface would be, for instance, perfect for a dungeon crawl... mah!

anyway.

the problem i have now to solve is the subdivision of the graphic that builds a wallset.

i know i had read years ago an internet paper about it, but i cannot find it, and since starting from monday i will work on this only part time, i would like to read something before to go to trials and errors

any insights on this? do you know where i can read some hints? also: can you share maybe an EoB disassembled wallset from the EoB project of yesteryear? thanks!

[TCD]

The 'surrounding' is really cool marco I like the simple, but 'plastic' look of it I hope you and Vairn can make it work

[kriz]

very cool work!

[Marcuz]

thank you guys

also, first post edited...

the "design a monster, i would draw it and leave it free for everybody to use" still runs, and it's separated from the rpg demo making, which still runs.
both are in this thread until, if needed for readability i will split the discussions

[Vairn]

that layout looks pretty sweet, don't have that much to say myself atm, gives me a nice guideline for the screen layout etc, still working on the base code for stuff atm.

you mentioned a deadline, how long i it exactly?

cheers, Vairn.