I’ve started writing a new game. I switched from my second version of ‘Pachinko Fever’ to this ‘pseudo’ RPG style game. We’ll see how it goes. I have the game-play in mind… but its not finalized. I’m making sure that it’ll be interesting and addictive. There is a way to level up and fashion (learn) new ‘features’ in the game easily enough. I’ll go over the game-play more as it solidifies a bit. The core concept is you don’t fight, but you create other creatures to fight for you.
I’m using tiled to create tile maps… and I’m basing the landsacpe on my old house in Wisconsin and the land around it. I had to pick somewhere so I figure’d I’d pick where I know. Its been fun so far to model the environment, both the real and the fantastical. This will take time to develop. LibGDX is the running engine, and gimp for graphics. (More on that later)
The first ‘zone’ is free. Unlocking the game via in-app purchase opens the other ones. First place is home and Osti… what we called the land my home sat on. Troy Village and Troy is on the second zone. The river, Arena, Mazomanie follows next. My goal is to get Osti up first. If I can do that by summer I’ll be a happy camper. Its a Lovecraftian theme but you may not notice that when it plays out. Least I’m hoping that it will be subtle. I’m listening strongly to Extra Credits on this one.
The code for this game isn’t too hard. The real work is going to be in the story and graphics. I’m creating the basic framework now for the game while doodling bits and pieces. Its pixel-art style graphics. That’s important because what I found is that doing pixel-art is easier for me then trying a cartoonish-style, or heaven-help me, realistic. And its simple enough using gimp to handle these graphics. I’m sure my design is going to be problematic to some, but I’m using this as a learning process too. I’m reading more and more about art design in games and looking for common pitfalls.