Crux Diaries RPG - turn-based isometric indie CRPG set in an alternate history dystopian country on the brink of civil war

[Tyranicon]

dippy Pretty good progress. What do your next steps look like?

 

[Darth Canoli]

Looks a little bit too cloney but gl

I don't care much about the "samey" look if the content is good and original.
It's tough for a solo dev to do everything.

Besides, it looks just fine.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

Looks really good. I like the train.

Not sure about the circles for the grid.

 

[Habichtswalder]

Looks very interesting. One can clearly see where your inspiration comes from (graphics-wise) but I like it. Good luck.

Infinitron Time for a Developer-tag for Dippy

 

[SixDead]

I realised that it’s very outdated

Personaly, I don't belive in the term "outdated". If it was fun then, it can be fun now. Oldstyle rpgs have an audience, niche, but audience, there are still people who don't mind to have "the same feeling" of playing an old games. Unless you want your game to be suppa-popular and mainstream.

 

[The_Sloth_Sleeps]

I realised that it’s very outdated

Personaly, I don't belive in the term "outdated". If it was fun then, it can be fun now. Oldstyle rpgs have an audience, niche, but audience, there are still people who don't mind to have "the same feeling" of playing an old games. Unless you want your game to be suppa-popular and mainstream.

To me this looks more visually appealing than any AAAA games.

 

[dippy]

Looks a little bit too cloney but gl

Cloney as in Fallout 1/2?

 

[dippy]

Ok, can you share some good examples? I looked at ATOM RPG and Encased RPG with incremental improvements over Fallout but not seeing any fundamental differences.

After watching it again, it's not as bad as I thought. I thought it was exactly like the Fallout-style ring inventory.
My main critique would be that it looks like a mobile UI because of how big everything is. You can fit way more information on the screen with smaller icons. Not sure if it's like that because you develop on a laptop or something, though.

I do develop on laptop but with an external screen but most of the time the game only takes about 1/4 of the screen within the Unity Editor . I absolutely hate tiny icons and fonts. Maybe my eyesight's been letting me down but it's an absolute struggle in a lot of games for me.
Anyway, I've changed the UI a bit in the latest update.

 

[dippy]

Anything but card battles please!

What about a complex quest design instead?
With some quests influencing the results or solutions of others.
Something like Prelude to Darkness quest design or Dark Sun shattered Lands.

There's too few good Fallout-like games to spoil them with card battle mechanisms...

The more I played some games, the less I liked the idea. Oh well. I was simply trying to add something different but I will likely just focus on trimmed down Fallout mechanics because at least it's harder to get distracted by various dead end experiments.

 

[dippy]

Instead of minigames and system bloat focus on improving core gameplay

developing or deepening the plot
core system design
writing standard (editing passes etc)
quest design
adding statics
polishing whatever

Thx. I think we're more or less aligned. Obviously, easier said than done. I'm sure nobody starts a game aiming at coming up with a shitty generic story and walls of awful dialogue text.

What do you mean by "adding statics"?

 

[dippy]

I'm not sure if this is still being actively developed, his last post was on Feb '22. In any case, I'd like to add to the encouragement in this thread. I find the design intriguing.

It is still alive. Last few years have been a bit of a roller coaster but I'm back at it and doing my best to free up as much of my time as I can.

 

[dippy]

I'm not sure if this is still being actively developed, his last post was on Feb '22. In any case, I'd like to add to the encouragement in this thread. I find the design intriguing.

He probably realized how much work you actually need to do and quit, can't blame him

The only thing I realized was how much control my daytime job's had over my life.
I can't imagine myself quitting unless I'm physically paralysed or something of that sort.

 

[dippy]

I have a game largely also inspired by Fallout, though more so by Duck Nukem.

Allow me to sum up Redaxium's dev history prior to public demos.

1) Created all my huge terrains first.
2) Textured them so they had decent variety, even if ugly.
3) Focused on polishing the first terrain thereafter for a long time.
4) Avoided the mistake of both discussing and showing my work.
5) Redacted.

Respect for doing that. I'd like my game to be played by people and, sorry to say, to get more than a dozen reviews.
I am talking to people here and elsewhere because I don't trust my own judgement on every aspect of the game.
The game needs a balance between old and modern. Between what I want and what others want.
I've got no issues showing my work and being criticised. It helps me to shape ideas and test various assumptions. I can filter out "it's shit, stop it" or "you'll never complete it, stop fantasising" as noise.

 

[dippy]

I know one thing. People who appreciate the OG Fallouts tend to never let them go.
Dippy will be back.

Indeed! True visions of the Chosen One

 

[dippy]

I realised that it’s very outdated

Personaly, I don't belive in the term "outdated". If it was fun then, it can be fun now. Oldstyle rpgs have an audience, niche, but audience, there are still people who don't mind to have "the same feeling" of playing an old games. Unless you want your game to be suppa-popular and mainstream.

To me this looks more visually appealing than any AAAA games.

Well, the reality is, it's hard for a game to get any attention if it doesn't meet a minimum visual standard. At the very least, it needs to make an effort not to look outright ugly.
Otherwise, I'm not focusing on the visuals for sure.

 

[luj1]

Instead of minigames and system bloat focus on improving core gameplay

developing or deepening the plot
core system design
writing standard (editing passes etc)
quest design
adding statics
polishing whatever

Thx. I think we're more or less aligned. Obviously, easier said than done. I'm sure nobody starts a game aiming at coming up with a shitty generic story and walls of awful dialogue text.

What do you mean by "adding statics"?

Manually positioned interactable non-moving objects

 

[Tavernking]

Looks good, I know you're using 3D models but is the game running in 2D or 3D?

 

[dippy]

Looks good, I know you're using 3D models but is the game running in 2D or 3D?

It's actually running in 3D with an orthographic camera. I may actually change to a proper perspective with a very narrow FOV so that it's almost ortho but with some perpsective.
At this stage I don't want to reinvent the wheel by combing pre-rendererd albedo, depth, normals etc. Hence, 3D that kind of looks 2D.

 

[dippy]

Manually positioned interactable non-moving objects

Thx, got it. ATM I'm mainly relying on the available assets/models + adjusting or creating myself (but just a bare minimum so I don't get distracted too much).

BTW I noticed that you classify yourself as VATNIK. Is that for real or just a joke or a bit of both?

 

[dippy]

dippy Pretty good progress. What do your next steps look like?

Posting all over the place to hear the feedback, get some wishlists and decide my next priorities based on what people hate the most

 

[luj1]

BTW I noticed that you classify yourself as VATNIK. Is that for real or just a joke or a bit of both?

I literally dont know what vatnik means. Someone among forum staff asigned that to me in an act of butthurt retaliation, I guess Infinitron or DarkUnderlord. Probably because I said something bad about Ukraine and hurt their feelings

 

[ropetight]

BTW I noticed that you classify yourself as VATNIK. Is that for real or just a joke or a bit of both?

I literally dont know what vatnik means. Someone among forum staff asigned that to me in an act of butthurt retaliation, I guess Infinitron or DarkUnderlord. Probably because I said something bad about Ukraine and hurt their feelings

Vatnik is a cheap Russian army coat made out of cotton (cotton-wool) or "vata".
In the internet wars, it became pejorative term for propponents of Russian state propaganda.

 

[luj1]

I think it looks kinda cool... reminds me of Red Alert games

 

[Hydro]

BTW I noticed that you classify yourself as VATNIK. Is that for real or just a joke or a bit of both?

I literally dont know what vatnik means. Someone among forum staff asigned that to me in an act of butthurt retaliation, I guess Infinitron or DarkUnderlord. Probably because I said something bad about Ukraine and hurt their feelings

Vatnik is a cheap Russian army coat made out of cotton (cotton-wool) or "vata".
In the internet wars, it became pejorative term for anybody who opposes the western state sponsored propaganda.

ftfy

 

[Hydro]

I don't trust my own judgement on every aspect of the game

You absolutely should trust your own judgement which stems from the vision you have for your project. If you want an advice pick a couple of well versed people sharing your vision and ask them specific questions. Listening to what people on forums say may be confusing imo

My 5 c: it’s an interesting project, albeit having a very niche appeal. While looking distinctive and very oldschool-y I myself am not very hyped, because I very much like a solid and moody visual representation that allows me to be immersed in the setting. In your case I think going for photo realism may be that quirk to distinguish yourself from the many bland looking Fallout-inspired games.

Obviously the meat of the game is its gameplay, which I don’t have much knowledge of (maybe missed it somewhere). Making a number of short posts describing the core concepts with animated gifs would help getting an insight.