Whoops! I seem to have lost those files. I'll try to fix that tutorial, but it won't be in the near future, since I'm swamped with work from my day job right now.
I think that CRPGs in the strict sense are like Fallout, but also like the Infinity Engine games (Baldur's Gate series, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale series), and also The Temple of Elemental Evil. For Infinity Engine style games, maybe you could check out GemRB:
Congratulations Danimal! I haven't played Flare in a while, but now your mod makes me want to play it again! I'll definately test it. Thanks for all your hard work!
Some may disagree, but I think that, ultimately, it boils down to world building. There's a lot of things that make the Diablo series fun, and many of those things have been mentioned: killing monsters, getting loot, a cool story, nice levels, etc. One could also add randomized levels to the list, this alone added to its huge replay value. Yet I think that all of these separate elements have to be glued together so that they form a cohesive whole, something along the lines of the old saying "the whole is more than the sum of its parts". What I mean is that, when you're playing Diablo, you're not only killing monsters, getting loot, and following a story. You're also getting a glimpse of Sanctuary, which, as you know, is the world of Diablo. What is Sanctuary like? It's a grim, sinister world, inspired mostly by Christian mythology. For example, notice that the player classes (Barbarian, Sorceress, Paladin, etc.) are all humans. And notice that the enemies are always almost either undead or demons, there are no orcs, or goblins, or ogres, etc. This was a deliberate decision that the Diablo team took, in order to differentiate Sanctuary from other fantasy worlds. Not that there is anything wrong with including elves, dwarves, orcs, etc., on the contrary, it can be awesome. Just look at Lord of the Rings, or Dungeons & Dragons. But my point is that the Diablo team wanted to create a different world. You can already get a "feel" for the grim and sinister aspect of Sanctuary even before you start adventuring: remember the character creation screen. It's a night scene, and in Diablo 2, the characters are gathered around a fireplace. The font used for the letters of the menus are gothic, and the selection symbol is an inverted pentagram, which evokes the diabolical and demonic traits of the mythology of Sanctuary. Imagine if the scene was in daylight, the font was Comic Sans, and the symbol was a smiley face instead of an inverted pentagram: that would have gone completely against the atmosphere and mood that characterizes the world of Sanctuary.
I believe that you should aim for something similar: create a world, and everything else should flow from that. Is your world going to be inspired mostly by Christian mythology, like the Diablo series? Or is it going to be inspired more by Celtic mythology, like Lord of the Rings? Is it a grim, bloody and sinister world, or is it a high fantasy setting with many different races and cultures? Or maybe it's something altogether different, a swashbuckling world of pirates and corsairs, or a "sword and planet" setting were fantasy elements exist side by side with elements of science fiction, such as inter-planetary travel? Perhaps it's a Lovecraftian world, where ancient and unspeakable horrors lurk in forgotten cities and in the ruins of ancient empires, or maybe it's a world where steam-punk meets fantasy, like in Arcanum.
I think that if you can decide on some general features of your world, it will make other things easier.
Lol, I was the one that said that, Danimal. It really is a lot of work to make your own game, even if the engine is already made, like Flare. Big companies, and even small companies, have a team of people, and everyone is focused on a specific task: some do code, some do art, some do marketing, etc. When you make your own game, you have to do all of these different tasks by yourself. The time you spend on art is time that you're not spending on marketing, the time you spend on marketing is time you're not spending on code, etc. So yeah, it's normal that things get slow.
Thanks Danimal. Yes, I'm making some water tiles with some aquatic plants.
I'm also looking into modding the demo that comes with GemRB: https://gemrb.org/
Here I made a new area using my swamp tileset, though I've kept the cliff walls from the original .bmp that comes with GemRB.
I think it's cool that the free software community has these two engines for RPGs, one for ARPG (FLARE) and one for classic CRPG (GemRB). Right now I'm switching back and forth from one to the other.
Don't get discouraged by the lack of replies, I think this site is more oriented towards uploading / downloading files than having lengthy conversations. I checked the link that you provided, and while there are no replies, your .png file was downloaded 25 times since yesterday.. That's actually really, really good.
Hello, you would have to contact Justin (his nick is Dorkster), he usually checks the forum but you might want to send him a PM.
Never heard of MiniScript until now but it looks interesting. There were some discussions about implementing either Python or Lua in Flare. You might want to check the github repo.
Whoops! I seem to have lost those files. I'll try to fix that tutorial, but it won't be in the near future, since I'm swamped with work from my day job right now.
I made a room / interior tileset some while ago:
https://opengameart.org/content/room-tileset
I think that CRPGs in the strict sense are like Fallout, but also like the Infinity Engine games (Baldur's Gate series, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale series), and also The Temple of Elemental Evil. For Infinity Engine style games, maybe you could check out GemRB:
https://gemrb.org/
Congratulations Danimal! I haven't played Flare in a while, but now your mod makes me want to play it again! I'll definately test it. Thanks for all your hard work!
Some may disagree, but I think that, ultimately, it boils down to world building. There's a lot of things that make the Diablo series fun, and many of those things have been mentioned: killing monsters, getting loot, a cool story, nice levels, etc. One could also add randomized levels to the list, this alone added to its huge replay value. Yet I think that all of these separate elements have to be glued together so that they form a cohesive whole, something along the lines of the old saying "the whole is more than the sum of its parts". What I mean is that, when you're playing Diablo, you're not only killing monsters, getting loot, and following a story. You're also getting a glimpse of Sanctuary, which, as you know, is the world of Diablo. What is Sanctuary like? It's a grim, sinister world, inspired mostly by Christian mythology. For example, notice that the player classes (Barbarian, Sorceress, Paladin, etc.) are all humans. And notice that the enemies are always almost either undead or demons, there are no orcs, or goblins, or ogres, etc. This was a deliberate decision that the Diablo team took, in order to differentiate Sanctuary from other fantasy worlds. Not that there is anything wrong with including elves, dwarves, orcs, etc., on the contrary, it can be awesome. Just look at Lord of the Rings, or Dungeons & Dragons. But my point is that the Diablo team wanted to create a different world. You can already get a "feel" for the grim and sinister aspect of Sanctuary even before you start adventuring: remember the character creation screen. It's a night scene, and in Diablo 2, the characters are gathered around a fireplace. The font used for the letters of the menus are gothic, and the selection symbol is an inverted pentagram, which evokes the diabolical and demonic traits of the mythology of Sanctuary. Imagine if the scene was in daylight, the font was Comic Sans, and the symbol was a smiley face instead of an inverted pentagram: that would have gone completely against the atmosphere and mood that characterizes the world of Sanctuary.
I believe that you should aim for something similar: create a world, and everything else should flow from that. Is your world going to be inspired mostly by Christian mythology, like the Diablo series? Or is it going to be inspired more by Celtic mythology, like Lord of the Rings? Is it a grim, bloody and sinister world, or is it a high fantasy setting with many different races and cultures? Or maybe it's something altogether different, a swashbuckling world of pirates and corsairs, or a "sword and planet" setting were fantasy elements exist side by side with elements of science fiction, such as inter-planetary travel? Perhaps it's a Lovecraftian world, where ancient and unspeakable horrors lurk in forgotten cities and in the ruins of ancient empires, or maybe it's a world where steam-punk meets fantasy, like in Arcanum.
I think that if you can decide on some general features of your world, it will make other things easier.
Lol, I was the one that said that, Danimal. It really is a lot of work to make your own game, even if the engine is already made, like Flare. Big companies, and even small companies, have a team of people, and everyone is focused on a specific task: some do code, some do art, some do marketing, etc. When you make your own game, you have to do all of these different tasks by yourself. The time you spend on art is time that you're not spending on marketing, the time you spend on marketing is time you're not spending on code, etc. So yeah, it's normal that things get slow.
Thanks Danimal. Yes, I'm making some water tiles with some aquatic plants.
I'm also looking into modding the demo that comes with GemRB: https://gemrb.org/
Here I made a new area using my swamp tileset, though I've kept the cliff walls from the original .bmp that comes with GemRB.
I think it's cool that the free software community has these two engines for RPGs, one for ARPG (FLARE) and one for classic CRPG (GemRB). Right now I'm switching back and forth from one to the other.
They look cool.
Don't get discouraged by the lack of replies, I think this site is more oriented towards uploading / downloading files than having lengthy conversations. I checked the link that you provided, and while there are no replies, your .png file was downloaded 25 times since yesterday.. That's actually really, really good.
What program did you use to make these? Inkscape?
Hello, you would have to contact Justin (his nick is Dorkster), he usually checks the forum but you might want to send him a PM.
Never heard of MiniScript until now but it looks interesting. There were some discussions about implementing either Python or Lua in Flare. You might want to check the github repo.
Nice models! Don't get discouraged if there aren't a lot of replies.
There's a spelling mistake on the Boar Knight (it says Knigth).
Once again, great work!
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