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FLARE - Feedback
FLARE [ARCHIVED]
FLARE - Feedback
Clint Bellanger
Thursday, June 17, 2010 - 12:14
Have you tried FLARE? Let me know what you think!
Really needs a COOP mode once it reaches a more mature state :p
--
http://freegamedev.net
Have you considered pets, henchmen, or other allies?
>> Really needs a COOP mode once it reaches a more mature state :p
That would be fantastic. Multiplayer is something I'm not addressing in 1.0, though if the project becomes popular it will be a serious consideration.
>> Have you considered pets, henchmen, or other allies?
I did consider pets. Before I had the antlion attack/death animations working, I made his attack chance 0% and he followed me around like a loyal dog.
Pets/henchment/allies that attack enemies is not currently on my to do list (only cause I rarely use them in games where they're offered). It's something I can always add later.
I read about the adoption of unicode, and just wanted to add that, in the (no hurry, more important features first) future, i18n would be great.
GNU Gettext should do the job, then.
I wouldn't worry too much about the details of unicode (i.e. RTL, making the UI so flexible etc) until way into the project. Just being able to display the characters will make most people happy, and then perhaps somebody a bit more enthusiastic about their languange needs can help out.
http://forum.freegamedev.net/
I haven't tried OSARE yet, since there's no Linux build and I have no idea how to make one. But then again I just remembered I have a windows machine right next to me I could (should) use. As far as I can tell you're doing a great project, first building a solid base from which larger games can grow. Will provide more feedback once I get to test it.
clrg: Makes sense. I'll definitely be adding unicode support at some point in the project. Possibly after I get most abilities/combat done but before quests and dialog? As in, I should make unicode work before doing the really text-heavy parts of the engine. It's each to change the way the simple tooltips and labels work, but the conversation engine might be more work.
Lamoot: Thanks! I'm eager to hear what you think once you try it out.
Ok, tested the game and here are my thoughts. Some of these you might already know of and have plans for, but I'm listing all my observations nonetheless and leave it to you to filter them :)
UI: click on icons to enter inventory, character screen, powers, log rather than only using shortcut keys to access them.
Inventory: Right now you can only drag'n'drop an item into a slot. Would be useful to be able to one-click on an item to "bind" it to mouse and one-click again to release it when the mouse is over the desired slot.
I really like how numbers appear over the health/mana bar if you hover your mouse over it. On the other hand, the health bar changes its colour too fast when health goes down. At one point it's green and at the next it's already red. A more gradual transition would be better e.g. green-yellow-orange-red (or any other fitting combination of colours)
When you die there doesn't seem to be any restart, you have to close the application to start again.
Monster pathfinding doesn't work well in some situations, monsters can't find their way around obstacles even if the player is right at the other side of the obstacle.
Monsters can be killed through closed doors. This might cause exploits in some situations.
No idea how to consume food or put items into quick slots.
I like the pseudo elevated tiles.
A mini-map you can check would be useful.
When exiting one map and entering a new one, the exit could be depicted more interesting, for example open doors and similar.
A fun element would be to bash and destroy map obstacles, barrels, boxes etc.
Map tiles could use some colour variation. Right now they are mostly grey (and I mean really grey grey). Grey, black and similar monochrome colours feel really dead. Even with slight hints of other colours (e.g. a slight blue-ish tint) would improve the situation. If you analyze some of the rembrandt paintings, you will see that very rarely is black a solid black, but rather a very very dark tone of some other colour. To contrast the grey stone elements, flags and such could have stronger colours.
But all in all you're doing a great job, the game is playable, runs without any major problems and focuses on the important core mechanics. Can't wait to see more progress, (such as archery and magic systems ;)
Lamoot, very observant! I agree with pretty much everything you've said. Some things I have on my to-do list already, but others may not be obvious.
- I definitely agree that this tileset is too drab. Consider that "programmer art" that will be replaced. I'd really like to work with a great concept artist on that.
- I've thought of the gradual health bar color, but I've kept it this way so far so that the player gets a visual indication of when he's in trouble. In thick combat, seeing that red health bar might mean he has only a moment to get away or drink a potion. There may be better ways to indicate this (e.g. sound, blinking, etc)
- Stuff like potions, spells, etc. aren't usable yet. But, soon!
I'm glad you feel the core mechanic/gameplay works. That's the most important part for me.
Thanks for the feedback!
ha! If only all programmer art looked like that.
I love it!
Keep up the great work, make a path finding algorithm (which should be no problem if you use tilesets), maybe allow the player to jump? (tis' a bit tricky but its not that bad), and create tools where the player can upload their own content.
I've made some rpg engines in the past in an attempt to create my "dream game" but I always failed at the content creation past. (3d models take a damm long time to make/rig/uv)
This project makes me want to try start making games again...
*I'm bookmarking this.
Hit me up if you have jobs for programming.
You can use Diablo 2 tilesets for crypts. (I doubt blizzard cares.)
I agree, that's some fine programmer art :)
Using Blizzards tilesets would be absolutely the wrong thing to do, but I wont get ito it further because I don't think pfunked will entertain the notion
> Using Blizzards tilesets would be absolutely the wrong thing to do, but I wont get ito it further because I don't think pfunked will entertain the notion
Indeed, one major purpose of OpenGameArt is so that game developers don't have to be tempted to break copyright law by plagiarizing closed-source games.
You can have users choose their own tilesets and package them separtely via dlls or whatever.
That way, the game can appeal to hobbiests like me XD. (idk bout' you but there is a dearth of content in OGA)
It seems like most times when users want a feature or content that is not practical that people always suggest having optional settings, but this takes a lot of pointless work on things which would remain illegal, endanger the project if Blizzard got pissed, and would suck up developer time. OGA is a work in progress as are all our skillsets, but OSARE is looking really great for it's age and will only get better.
OSARE already allows users to use any tileset without recompiling. I just don't yet have tutorials on how this works. But yes, one of the features of the engine is that it's easy to replace or add to any of the art/sounds.
yes.
@Justin (if users choose tiles, then it's not illegal for OSARE.)
True, but that wasn't what I thought was being suggested. It's cool that OSARE has those modular features but it seemed the request was for a button that toggled on illegal artwork. Someone would still have to go in and make all that code point to the right files themselves and that couldn't be in any official release. And I think it's the wrong direction in general to go. I personally am studying illustration and entertainment design and learning blender so I can contribute to the free culture movement and not just rip off blizzard.
This is just a quick observation
I loved Diablo 1 from Blizzard, and OSARE makes me feel like I'm playing diablo again. This is by no means insulting in any way, in fact it's just plain awesome, maybe in a future it will have some more gameplay fun, not just a "slash and kill game" but apply other elements to it. (like, and as horrible as it sound, farming, brewing your own potions, etc). Have some kind of "hero points" everytime you kill mini bosses and use them to acquire skills, equips etc.
Now, in the ambient how about adding some fog, it's not an element that will change the game but it will give it a nice "dark" touch to it.
Portals - You know I have disliked some games due to their lack of showing where the portal is to go to the next map. How about putting a glowing circle or something fancy around portals so the user don't feel frustrated figuring out where is the portal to the next map.
In the ambient, I know artists consume hours and hours of work so I'm not really going to ask much, but in the wall and columns it should be considered mud, vines, some tiles broken in half or pieces of stone in the floor. Also if its a temple, is it a broken down temple? I mean you could break "the roof" and put some source light glow into it or rain :)
good luck! I'm trying to learn how to create games via Python (cocos2d), most of the time I spent my time in web development but I grew tired of it (coming from a PHP environment to python is kinda overwhelming at first, but not to be a hypocrite I still cherish what I've learned in PHP :) ) Too bad it's written in C++, not really motivated to jump languages since it consumes times to get used to the syntax and take advantage of the language
ThePrinny: thanks for the feedback! I agree, if I can capture half the magic that was Diablo 1 then I'll be very happy.
So far implementing fog/shadows is tricky in SDL 1.2. I'll probably have to use an SDL addon that supports blitting surfaces at various darknesses. It's something I definitely would love to do.
It will definitely evolve past hack & slash! Right now there's so much core engine work left to do that I'm staying busy though.
I completely agree with your example about a temple tileset. I really want to dive in and make those kinds of things, but I'm going to wait until most of the engine is done before switching into full tileset mode.
I tried the demo, and I liked what I saw. It reminds me of a number of old games which I enjoyed a lot back in the day. I'll be watching its progress.
Just one question, though: is the four eq slots thing fixed in place, or something that might be edited later/by a user/developer? One thing I really like in such games is aquiring a vast array of "sw33t loot," and of course more slots would mean more swag on display, even if it also meant more asset making (of course, I also enjoy making equipment assets, so I might not be the best one to think through such obstacles).
Redshrike, I'd like to add support for flexible inventory menus, where the user can define how many equipment slots and inventory slots are used. (same with the Powers menu, I'd like to make that all user-defined). I'm not there yet. That level of customization will probably come later. I'll get this one, simple core game style working first.
How about porting it to HTML5 and Javascript like freeciv?
That would solve the compatibility issue and everyone could play it, even ipad owners.
Boing, it's possible. I don't know if HTML5's canvas can keep up with the framerate needed for an action RPG though. I'm definitely watching how HTML5 games come along to see if it's possible.
I know it's probably too far into development to ask for this, but a OSARE with this 2D engine would be awesome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q6ISVaM5Ww
http://groups.google.com/group/ethanon/
BTW: Quake2 has been ported to HTML5 and webgl by google, and it runs not bad at all ;)
--
http://freegamedev.net
Unfortunately, the ethanon engine isn't ported to Linux just yet... the code that it runs on top of doesn't support OpenGL at the moment, so it's tied to Windows. Too bad, too, because it looks amazing.
Wow, that engine definitely rocks! Great idea with the normal and depth maps and shaders, it looks too cool to be true :) Unfortunately, it uses XNA..... Somebody needs to port it :)
Edit: in the FAQ of the website it says "There are plans for native network functions bindings and objects, but the priority right now is the cross-platform version.". Looking forward for it.
Edit2: Sorry for hijacking your thread pfunked, I stop it now!
hello,(sorry for my poor english, i'm french...)
I realy like this promising engine !! I'll follow the evolution of it!!
some comments :
-Do you think you could implement a mouse based move, like Diablo, instead of the WASD?
-I think that you should move the item dropping place a bit, because we always pick items without realizing it.
-How do you make these 3d isometric tilesets/ animations? do you have a link for a tutorial or software to do it?If it is not verry complicated i'd like to try, i'm allready familiar with 3d (lightwave)
Anonymous:
- Yes I plan to add click-to-move as a gameplay option.
- I can experiment with changing where loot drops, but I think accidentally picking up loot is unavoidable. Maybe there's some other method I'm not thinking of?
- I use Blender to create all my tilesets and creature art. There is a camera setting (Orthographic, angle 60,0,45) that will render tiles at perfect video game isometric view. Then I tweak the camera height and scale until the tile fits the size I want (e.g. 64x32 base tiles). I don't have videos or tutorials yet but one day I will make some.
Thank you for the explanations on the isometric thing, I`m successfully trying it ^^!! Maybe I'll post some things on Open Game Art (not sure yet).
-for the loot drops an other idee would be to delay the drop in time, like a second or 1/2 second to avoid the confusion between the fight click and the pick-up click.Or marking a combination of click/key (like ctrl+click).
-another thing that would be great (but i'm sure you allready planned it ) is to be able to compare equiped items vs the one we have in stock.
As a fellow software developer, I was looking through your svn code base and must say I am really impressed, keep up the good work! I've written a rudimentary isometric engine for HTML 5 so I understand a lot of the difficulties involved and the time invested in building something like this. The community should be grateful for all your hard work and I look forward to your future releases!
Thanks Anon!
Hi, great work. This project is very exciting!
Personally, I like the dungeon art. I do agree it could use a little variation as the above poster mentioned, but the dark grayscale coloring gives it a distinct atmosphere.
A couple quick points:
Suggestion: After an attack (or spell) animation ends, check to see if the mouse button is still held down for successive attacks
Observation: Currently, walking speed varies based on direction. Up/down is much slower than diagonal, for example.
Soren, thanks for the feedback!
- Continuous attacking by holding a button should be enabled in the latest code. It will be available when v0.10 comes out.
- I think the speed difference you're feeling is probably because of the Isometric perspective. I do round speeds to the nearest int but I doubt it's noticeable. See this blog post for details.
Usually small things right now should be added to tie things over while you work on the heavier stuff. Things like minimap, maybe options to change gamma and volume of things would fit. Usually establishing a foundation I think and expanding that would be better then just putting them into the game. Just something to tie them over and show where you are going with the game.
Brandon Morris,
Steam Group: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/OpenGameArt
If you guys need any help on projects email me atBrandonmorris12@gmail.com. Pay is not mandatory and Im open.
Found a mistake in the way the texts are written (for the bad quality items), it says: Dercreases crit by -1. That means it increases by 1. I don't think that's what's meant with the text. It should have been decreased by 1, or increased by -1.
Found a mistake in the way the texts are written (for the bad quality items), it says: Dercreases crit by -1. That means it increases by 1. I don't think that's what's meant with the text. It should have been decreased by 1, or increased by -1.
Anon, thanks for the note. I fixed the online listings e.g. http://clintbellanger.net/rpg/item.php?id=103
They should be fine in-game.
Hey,
Just wanted to say I love the progress you're making with the game. I especially like the setting based on Wu XIng. I don't know why, but it has this certain appeal and feels non-cliche, even if the different climates are the standard desert, tundra, mountains/mine etc. It all sound as if you can pull it off to make it feel fresh. And I really like the black tortoise mythical beast idea.
what I would suggest is make more differentiation in the armory. http://clintbellanger.net/rpg/armory.php . What I see in the armory is what I see in many of the other games as well. When you pick a new version or better version of armor, it should have something unique which can be told apart at a glance. Something more added. The player should be able to look at the armory and know at a glance what it is without looking at the stats of the armor. I am sure this would be perhaps somewhere down in the roadmap, it would be cool......
One thing I noticed when I was playing it, is that I wish it had an outline on the enemy when the mouse is hovered over the enemy, to show who to shoot at or even when picking up gold. Its not a "HUGE" problem, but sometimes when I click for gold to pick it up I miss it and use a spell a couple times. Its just a thought.
Brandon Morris,
Steam Group: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/OpenGameArt
If you guys need any help on projects email me atBrandonmorris12@gmail.com. Pay is not mandatory and Im open.
This is a great game! I am having trouble running it for Linux (and even more trouble compiling it in Windows), but as far as v0.09 is concerned, it's excellent! I look forward to v0.10.
Excellent job, I'm really liking the quality of this.
Quick question though, how do you move powers into the hotbar?
Anon,
If you're playing version 0.09 the powers aren't coded yet.
Version 0.10 (coming out very soon) will have powers implemented. Open the Powers menu and drag them to the action bar.
aah okay. Very good.
I'm very much looking forward to it!
I just compiled the v 0.10 on ubuntu lucid lynx and it works perfectly (I installed the libsdl packages corresponding to the notes in the readme). How do you remap keys ? I looked in the setting.h and few other files but didn't find where it was hardcoded. I use french layout for keyboard and WASD do not match. However with the arrows it's okay, but f1, f2 ... can't be used with this configuration.
On the game :
- First very nice job. With few randomness (dungeons, caves, ...) I could play this game for hours. I loved Diablo I & II and you are really close to catch half the magic of diablo I :). Only by changing monsters color and scale, you could have 5-10 different levels (If I remember well, there was only carvers, skeletons and zombies in the first 4 levels of diablo I)
- The game is a little bit too fast, it's quite tricky to hit & run. But for the moment that's okay. There is a need for path finding, but it's not a big issue. The only problem I see for the moment is that it's possible to lure the boss at the opposite of a square obtacle, heal safely and then attack again.
- Bosses have no visual special effect : you see you're fighting a boss because he's really quick and hit hard. Perhaps scale them up a little bit and add an aura or glowing effect if it's possible ?
- Highlight the currently selected monster.
- hide secret rooms on the mini map ?
I like the build system (no classes but 4 attributes). Loots and difficulty seems correctly balanced. I was very happy to drop a blue sword and then wanted to farm blue items :)
Keep up the good work !
Thanks for the feedback Tartos!
Great work, I can tell you've poured your time into this. I'll stop by more later.
Peace.
KoreanGuy: thanks! All great suggestions.
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