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Lands of Adventure: A Gold-Box Inspired CRPG

Kaucukovnik

Cipher
Joined
Mar 26, 2009
Messages
488
Too many styles clash in the last two images. 3D rendered viewport, detailed carved borders, pixellated retro font and "web 2.0 style" buttons (these are just placeholders, I guess).
The previous, curvy font was better in this regard. Readability is another thing, of course.
 

ProphetSword

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
1,755
Location
Monkey Island
I don't think it looks that bad when you see it in action. Some things are going to change.

The 3D rendered viewport is currently using some terrain to fill in the space, but I have other plans for that which will end up being a bit more old-school in nature. The curved borders are awesome as they are, but the web 2.0 buttons will probably change at some point.

For example, this image doesn't use the viewport, but instead uses an image and shows what an event looks like when triggered. Maybe it will help you understand the feel of the game a bit better:


EventScreen.jpg
 

Eyeball

Arcane
Joined
Sep 3, 2010
Messages
2,541
I'm actually growing really fond of the Gold-Box style font. I've messed around with it quite a bit, and I've managed to get a screen that is highly reminiscent of the old games. So, I think I might pursue this a little further. It takes a bit more work, but the results are kind of cool. This is what the screen looks like now:



GoldBoxRevised.png
No, stop this bullshit. Making stuff look more pixelated because it's "retro" is a disease that needs to be lanced.

Go with the font type I brofisted above instead, that looks great. This looks like ass.
 

dragonbait

Augur
Joined
Jul 4, 2009
Messages
290
Location
Below the ruins of Yulash
No, stop this bullshit. Making stuff look more pixelated because it's "retro" is a disease that needs to be lanced.

Go with the font type I brofisted above instead, that looks great. This looks like ass.

The Goldbox font, looks like ass???? I disagree completely. I also disagree about pixillation being a bad thing as long as its done in good style.

However, you've got to take into the factor of whether you want your game to be a gold box game replica, or a game with a style of its own. If you want your game to be considered an old school style game AND unique then finding a font of your own is probably best. The goldbox game font is not ass, but is is highly recognizable. (at least by crpg players of a certain age).
 

ProphetSword

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
1,755
Location
Monkey Island
I've gone back to the original font, and that's the final word on that. I've spent several weeks now buried in fonts trying to find something that looked even half as good, and I couldn't find anything that satisfied me. If someone doesn't play the game because they don't think the font is medieval enough for their tastes, that's their loss. I'm not going to lose more time with it and will push forward instead. Meanwhile, here's a screenshot of the character portraits available in the game:

OriginalFont.jpg
 

ProphetSword

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
1,755
Location
Monkey Island
Well, there's bad news...and there's good news. The bad news is that a strange corruption completely destroyed the game. And somehow, my backups went missing (still not sure what happened there). I was completely devastated and was just about to kill the project when I realized that I still had the previous version floating around. The main reason why I started over was to create a version of the game that scaled correctly to the different aspect ratios and screen sizes. So, I started to wonder if I could do that with the previous version...and the answer was yes...

For example, here we see it in the 16:9 aspect ratio:

BackToOld.jpg



And here we see it in the lowest possible screen size (1024x768) and the 4:3 aspect ratio:

1024resolution.jpg



So, I know not everyone liked this version, but it's now the version I'm working with again. And at least I don't have to start from scratch again...
 

Magellan

Augur
Joined
Sep 3, 2013
Messages
415
Location
Michigan
PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015
Sorry to hear that you lost the current version ProphetSword. But the original version looks really good, and I'm excited to play it when you're done!
 

ProphetSword

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
1,755
Location
Monkey Island
The last time I was using this version of the game, there was some hesitation about how I was using the event artwork. I'm not sure why some people didn't like it, but I figured the best way to address the issues was to put the NPCs in a separate box with a border (the same border Alchemist provided for the other version of the game). This way, it will hopefully be less jarring as it is obvious that the NPCs are a separate part of the interface. Several old school CRPGs do it this way too...so really, this is a convention that shouldn't be all that foreign to folks here.

Here's a screenshot of what I'm talking about:
EventPictures.jpg
 

Alchemist

Arcane
Joined
Jun 3, 2013
Messages
1,439
Hey ProphetSword - I was really sorry to hear you lost so much work - that always sucks! What backup system are you using? I recently started using Crashplan and it's pretty solid and non-obtrusive.

I like this previous version you're reviving too though. Personally, I enjoy seeing the PC portraits in the main UI. And putting the border elements around the event artwork works well. At some point I could make some proper corner elements for those borders.
 

ProphetSword

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
1,755
Location
Monkey Island
Your work is amazing, Alchemist, so if you ever throw anything else at me, I'll definitely find a place for it.

I'll look into Crashplan. My only method of backup was just to put it on an external drive. Not the most elegant solution, but it worked until I screwed it up; because, it's definitely my fault for not doing a better job with the backups.

Thanks for the feedback.
 

ProphetSword

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
1,755
Location
Monkey Island
It's subject to change. I just don't have a better background to work with at the moment. Appreciate the feedback, though. I think I'm doing well on a budget of about $0.50. I'd call it a shoestring budget, but I can't even afford the shoestrings.
 

Alchemist

Arcane
Joined
Jun 3, 2013
Messages
1,439
2)You buttons are way to shiny and modern. Take a look at some of the old/new rpg's for inspiration and see how the designed their buttons and most importantly how they integrated them with the rest of the UI.
3)I agree with Jaesun, the reddish background is no good. Find some good textures and play with them in Photoshop, try blending modes, lower the saturation etc. Also, the margins of the textures shouldn't be in a straight line (like the character portrait border is,), carve them a little, use a layer mask or something.
4)Add a subtle shadow to the floating windows in your game (like the character portrait). Also, for a better effect you could slightly darken the background while the character portrait is on the screen.
This is all stuff I can take care of - just need a little time. I'll be helping him out on this.
 

ProphetSword

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
1,755
Location
Monkey Island
The UI has evolved over time. Go back to the beginning and look at the original version. I imagine it will continue to evolve.

The character portraits started as renders but have been hand modified.
 

set

Cipher
Joined
Oct 21, 2013
Messages
940
The UI is the last thing you should make, right? Because chances are, you're still building functionality up until the very end. Once you hit "alpha" then you can actually consider a permanent UI, otherwise, just put the buttons wherever the fuck. You're gonna move that shit later as you develop, duh.

Your work is amazing, Alchemist, so if you ever throw anything else at me, I'll definitely find a place for it.

I'll look into Crashplan. My only method of backup was just to put it on an external drive. Not the most elegant solution, but it worked until I screwed it up; because, it's definitely my fault for not doing a better job with the backups.

Thanks for the feedback.

The best way to back up your shit is to start a private GIT/SVN. You really should do this for any project that becomes even remotely serious, because you never know when you will need to revert back to an old code version anyway.

The first code project I was ever on, my partner did a lot of the server side coding. Our provider had a thunderstorm wipe out our server and we lost our entire year long project because we weren't using any repository. Since I never touched the server side code, I had no backup for him (and he didn't have a back-up either). Don't ever let that happen to you.
 

ProphetSword

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
1,755
Location
Monkey Island
Let me respond to a couple of these points that I didn't get to earlier. I will preface my answers by saying that I'm trying to build a good game. So, gameplay is far more important than how it looks.

1)First and foremost find a good font. A good font will be your inspiration for the next steps in designing your UI. I can suggest a font from the top of my head that is more appropriate for you game than what you have now: Opera-Lyrics-Smooth. But I sugest you take good hard look at medieval/steampunk/gothic free fonts and make your pick.

Fonts can wait. I wasted enough of my time on that recently. It's something that can be changed at any time.


2)You buttons are way to shiny and modern. Take a look at some of the old/new rpg's for inspiration and see how the designed their buttons and most importantly how they integrated them with the rest of the UI.

This goes back to having no budget. If you'd like to donate some button graphics, let me know.


3)I agree with Jaesun, the reddish background is no good. Find some good textures and play with them in Photoshop, try blending modes, lower the saturation etc. Also, the margins of the textures shouldn't be in a straight line (like the character portrait border is,), carve them a little, use a layer mask or something.

See previous answer.


4)Add a subtle shadow to the floating windows in your game (like the character portrait). Also, for a better effect you could slightly darken the background while the character portrait is on the screen.

All this is fancy stuff that can wait until later. Functionality is far more important. Also, see previous answer, and feel free to donate something to the project if you want in return for credit.
 

felipepepe

Codex's Heretic
Patron
Joined
Feb 2, 2007
Messages
17,274
Location
Terra da Garoa
I wouldn't mind helping in making some assets, but I think it's too early in development to even care about that.
 

ProphetSword

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
1,755
Location
Monkey Island
For the two or three of you that still care about this project, I've revamped the layout of a couple of things. I have gone to the traditional layout with the characters at the bottom. And yes, I know the background behind the characters is plain and boring. At the moment, I'm just trying to get things functional without worrying too much about graphical niceties. As long as it looks okay, it's good enough. If anyone wants to donate artwork, they can contact me about it.

Here's a picture of the new layout:
LOA-NewUI.jpg


Since I have room on the UI now to include extra characters, I might consider bumping the number of characters up to about six. It would probably only take me about a day to do that. I just have to squeeze it into my busy schedule. The project already lost five months of work while I studied for a database certification, so I'm trying to maximize the amount of things I get done at the moment.
 

Dorateen

Arcane
Joined
Aug 30, 2012
Messages
4,332
Location
The Crystal Mist Mountains
Six character portraits along the bottom puts you in solid company; Xeen, Realms of Arkania, etc. I'm interested to hear more about the project as it develops, so keep the updates coming!
 

slowdive

Bree Arts
Developer
Joined
Nov 1, 2012
Messages
236
Great to hear that this project is still moving along! I agree, forget about tweaking graphics and fonts for now (or forever, story and game play is more important than graphics to me... I have a good imagination, don't need fancy graphics) and just get a working alpha build ready for us to test out :)
 

zwanzig_zwoelf

Guest
Don't mean to offend, but the game kinda looks like that Realms of Arkania remake.
Probably because those lazy assholes used similar textures.
 

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