What is FLARE?

FLARE (Free Libre Action Roleplaying Engine) is a simple isometric-perspective action rpg engine in the basic style of Diablo.  It is light on infrastructure to make the code easy to modify for various projects.

Is FLARE a game or an engine?

FLARE is an engine.  But instead of using placeholder art and leaving the game part to the player's imagination, I am putting production art and concepts right into the development builds.  Once the core engine is complete I will be building more art assets to turn FLARE into its first game.

What language is FLARE written in?

FLARE is written in C++.  Configuration files are a plain, easy to understand text format.

What platforms are supported for FLARE?

I publish binaries for Windows and OSX.  It is straightforward to build FLARE in Linux and I plan to support official Linux builds in the future.

Will FLARE support network or multiplayer play?

FLARE might eventually support multiplayer, but it will come much later.  Multiplayer integration will probably start with the ability to save games onto a central server and view your current equipment/stats/progress.  True co-op or pvp is a distant future.

Will FLARE support 3D games?

Maybe FLARE version 2.

Will FLARE feature realtime lighting and shadows?

Hopefully.  I don't have an easy way to do that in SDL 1.2.  Maybe some SDL helper library or SDL 1.3 will have special blitters that help me here.

What kind of games can I make using FLARE?

Out of the box it will support a specific RPG ruleset (called the PMOD system).  New games will be made within this system by defining maps, creatures, quests, dialog, etc. in plain text files.

What is the PMOD system?

PMOD (Physical, Magical, Offense, Defense) is the name of the RPG rules system used in FLARE.  Some quick facts about PMOD:

• PMOD stands for the four core attributes for each hero.
• Physical is melee weapon proficiency and health points
• Magical is magic weapon proficiency and mana points
• Offense is ranged weapon proficiency and attack accuracy
• Defense is armor/shield proficiency and attack avoidance
• The skill tree is tied to the core attributes and does not have separate spendable points.
• Attributes rank 1 (starting/novice) to 5 (grandmaster)
• Characters max at level 9, making each level gained more meaningful
• The simple system allows building archetype classes and new hybrids

Is there a level editor for FLARE?

I am using Tiled as my official map editor to create layer data (walls, floors, collision).  I export the data from Tiled and add the rest through text editor (events, monsters, portals).  Eventually I will write a Tiled plugin to read/write FLARE's native map format.

Why only four equipment slots?

The main reason is to make generating new art assets easier.  I want to encourage new free/libre projects based on FLARE, that don't require artists working for years on end.  Also, FLARE games don't have to be long grindfests to be fun.

Links:

• FLARE blog and user docs
• FLARE source code and downloads