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Indie Dead Monarchy: Open-World | Turn-Based | Mercenary Management | RPG - Fully Released May 19th 2023

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
Hey guys so I was wondering, do any of you know any other game websites with forums? I'd like to slowly start reaching out by poking my head in other forums. For now that is about all I can manage :)
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia

Thanks Jaesun, I've already posted there but haven't gotten as much traction yet :P

Of course you haven't. It's not even a website about RPGs!

:troll:
And yet their newscasters are often even quicker on the scoop than our own prestigious magazine's :negative:

It was a little disappointing but oh well. I still have a long way to go until I'd be remotely satisfied with my own game. The support here helps though :)
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
I think the first step is to consider who the audience for your game is, and where they are most likely to be.

Agreed, I didn't start out thinking I'd be appealing to the masses nor did I really want to. I wanted to create a game that I would play myself because I'm just a junkie when it comes to turn-based RPGs. At the end of my game, my game would probably sell to a niche audience which is enough to sustain development for a solo developer. Not saying I'm opposed to higher sales but I'm not expecting it. I'll be using the codex as more or less my base and testing grounds.

Still hoping to push out a combat demo, as you know things always get delayed in development but it is still on track. Will keep you guys updated :)
 

SmartCheetah

Arcane
Joined
May 7, 2013
Messages
1,076
Can't think of better place where people would actually give you constructive(or at least kind of) criticism instead of whining that everything looks overcomplicated.
You might try different reddits, but they tend to be full of the cancerous kind.
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
Can't think of better place where people would actually give you constructive(or at least kind of) criticism instead of whining that everything looks overcomplicated.
You might try different reddits, but they tend to be full of the cancerous kind.

Reddits is a good idea, I think I'll take the risk thanks for that! I'll probably also reach out to some youtubers when the demo is out. However, I'll drop it here first to get some initial testing and feedback. Thanks for the replies guys :)
 

SmartCheetah

Arcane
Joined
May 7, 2013
Messages
1,076
Thinking of youtoubers, try ChristopherOdd and ColonelRPG. The second one likes indie games, so yeah.
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
Thinking of youtoubers, try ChristopherOdd and ColonelRPG. The second one likes indie games, so yeah.

Thanks for that, yeah I've heard of them both. I might even try reaching out to Beaglerush later on, since I'm probably the only Australian developer in the entirety of Australia developing a game with tactical turn-based combat. That is..both good and bad.
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
I've been tinkering around with dismemberment and decapitations to bring a more visceral feel to the combat. Dismemberment and decapitations will also have an effect on morale but are quite hard to pull off. Once again this is still early testing and everything is subject to change but I'd like to say that dismemberment and decapitations will be in, in some form or another. Also the "gore caps" as I like to call them are not finished, which is why you can see inside the head/neck or waist. I'll scrounge up some textures later and fill in those gaps later on. Also don't pay any attention to the environment, I'm in the middle of migrating my game to a newer version of Unity. I've also zoomed the camera in further than it it is normally, just to show everything off.

Decapitation 1.0.jpg
Decapitation 1.1.jpg
Dismemberment 2.0.jpg
Dismemberment 2.1.jpg
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
Been toiling away on the interface in between tweaking the combat gameplay. I've made room for biographies, as usual some stuff is placeholder and mainly just to block out the interface. Some of the border decorations have been taken out and will be put back in later. Overall I quite like how this interface has come out, but at first glance it main look a little overwhelming.

Interface Update 2.0.jpg
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
Also, another set has come through and I've ready to show it off. The great helms have quite a lot of variation, there will be plain great helms, decorated helms (with rings) and fully decorated (with helmet piece and rings). I haven't settled with the naming convention, but just wanted to point out the modular nature of some of the armor pieces. I've settled with 3 slots for armor, Head, Body and Legs. The reason why I've gone with this is because the armor zones tie directly into gameplay as they are each a stat and that stat represents the durability of each piece.

More details will come as I come closer to the demo, the other reason why was there was too much clipping with some existing sets and I would of had to rework a lot of the base meshes to avoid clipping. It got to the point where armors looked too similar and lacked striking/prominent features as too much emphasis was placed on not having armors clip. That said, I think there is still enough base variation with 3 slots also the individual pieces like shoulders and wrists will be bundled together with chests, so within base sets there would be progression within it as well. IE chest, chest with gauntlets, chest with gauntlets and shoulders.

Armor Set 5.0.jpg
 

555

Educated
Joined
Aug 19, 2017
Messages
101
Location
Ankara
You should post this on Taleworlds' forum too imo. Those guys love Medieval games from what I remember
 

SmartCheetah

Arcane
Joined
May 7, 2013
Messages
1,076
3 pieces per armor are IMO the best option you could settle on.
Also, you probably heard that BB is going to make at least one more "big" update to their game. Maybe their boards will be thriving for a while once again, so it will be a good idea to "dump" your post with some updates you shown us :) That could potentially get you more interested people.
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
3 pieces per armor are IMO the best option you could settle on.
Also, you probably heard that BB is going to make at least one more "big" update to their game. Maybe their boards will be thriving for a while once again, so it will be a good idea to "dump" your post with some updates you shown us :) That could potentially get you more interested people.

I do see that, I think the name is fitting too "A New Challenger Appears" . Also that is a great idea, thanks! :D
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
Do most of you guys play on 1920x1080? Does anyone play on anything less than that? I'm scaling my interfaces now but I figured by 2017 that should be at least the norm especially with 4K slowly creeping up.
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
Just a small update on the interface again. Added some additional headers, change some statistic names and the main thing is I've done the tooltip for the items. Once again some of the stuff, including descriptions, icons (plate icon - lamellar name) and item effects are placeholder. Quite happy with the progress on this interface, to me it is something that can definitely make or break a game.

Interface Update 3.0.jpg
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
The equipment interface is near completion. Today I rigged up the model cameras and also did some icons for loot. I'm still deciding on the final style for the loot/equipment icons but I've decided to go with colored icon backgrounds with colors that match the appropriate loot quality. IE purple backgrounds = legendary or epic equipment depending on the naming convention. The backgrounds themselves are a bit more on the artistic side as opposed to just a flat color.

The icons themselves too, I'm deciding on whether I should have slightly abstracted icons, ie a chest plate represents the entire body piece, or more accurate icons that include all the components of the chest piece. Both have their own issues to deal with, but I think with the amount of equipment in this game, I may have to lean to the second opinion or find a balance in between. IE the same chest plate mesh right now, would be appearing on more than 1 chest armor, so it may get confusing if the same icon is used. For now I'm just using the basic models to give you guys an idea and also to make testing for myself easier. Moving away from the placeholder icons to custom made ones.

I'm quite happy with the model viewer, I've also thought small touches like that really draw me into the games. Aside from that, a couple more improvements to the skill tree side. Also a note on classes, classes are in but they are loosely assigned. IE a guy who is more proficient with a 2-handed sword could still be a 1 handed duelist but the perks assigned to him would not be utilized as well.

Also I wanted to mention, the icons will match up with the armor, right now I just wanted to quickly do up some icons from another armor set that I have not yet fully rigged. It should however, give you an idea of the direction that I'd like to go in :)

Interface Update 4.0.jpg
 

Bantichai

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 22, 2017
Messages
332
Location
Australia
Inin I appreciate your dedication, 61 alerts all from you! Progress is coming along well, it has in fact escalated a little so I haven't been lurking around as much. I still think I can at least push out a demo before the year is out, here's hoping. The combat demo is more than just a series of levels, I've decided that I actually want to integrate it somehow into the main base game. Essentially there are two modes "Challenge Mode" and "Monarchy Mode". Challenge mode is focused on combat but is framed around a tournament, so there is a direction of some sort to follow. The purpose of the tournaments themselves have a darker meaning but that will be elaborated in "Monarchy Mode", which is essentially free roam or your more open ended mode. The tournaments themselves are included in "Monarchy Mode" as well and is something you can to earn money and other things such as Nobility.

Just think of challenge mode as a separate mode taken out from the base game. The name itself will probably change too and demo wise it will be easier for me test and receive feedback on. As you know I'm just one guy so I can only focus on sections at a time, so for the mean time I'll be knuckling down on combat. Once I feel the combat has been polished and is relatively solid, I'll start work on all the other systems that will be built around combat.

In my personal opinion and in my own game, combat itself establishes the context. You can really only "appreciate" the survival aspects of a game if there is conflict/combat and the more satisfying it is, the more satisfying the survival aspects become. Economy then comes into play as it is needed to support the survival elements which themselves hinge of conflict/combat. Dialogue and the general lore of the world itself, then become more engrossing as you fight against the odds to explore more of the world itself. All the systems then start to work together and then "the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts". I suppose that's the inherent design philosophy I have.

Anyway, expect more updates in the coming weeks :)
 

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