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Easy tool for Dungeon Crawler Jam?

Wysardry

Augur
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Feb 26, 2004
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283
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
As mentioned in this thread, dungeoncrawlers.org is starting a 7 day Dungeon Crawler Jam in April.

Does anyone know of an easy tool to create a grid based RPG viewed in first person with 90 degree turning in under a week?

March 31st is currently 2 months and 6 days away, so I probably wouldn't have enough time to learn how to use something as complicated as Unreal Engine or Unity (and both would be overkill for this project anyway).
 

Grauken

Gourd vibes only
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How about the CosmicForge tool in combination with either Wizardry 6 or 7, you can edit basically everything, especially W7 (new maps, items, monsters, NPCs, almost everything, only some stuff like most spells are hardcoded)

https://mad-god.webs.com/cosmicforge.htm
 

Wysardry

Augur
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283
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
The Bard's Tale Construction Set might work, although I haven't tried it either. It's a shame they didn't create a remaster of that to go with the updated games.

Although CosmicForge looks like an interesting tool, I'm not sure of the legality of creating a mod for a commercial game (even an older one) and giving it away on itch.io
 

Grauken

Gourd vibes only
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The Bard's Tale Construction Set might work, although I haven't tried it either. It's a shame they didn't create a remaster of that to go with the updated games.

Although CosmicForge looks like an interesting tool, I'm not sure of the legality of creating a mod for a commercial game (even an older one) and giving it away on itch.io

yeah, I hadn't thought about that, likely not legal as it still has all the assets
 

Ysaye

Arbiter
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May 27, 2018
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Australia
As mentioned in this thread, dungeoncrawlers.org is starting a 7 day Dungeon Crawler Jam in April.

Does anyone know of an easy tool to create a grid based RPG viewed in first person with 90 degree turning in under a week?

March 31st is currently 2 months and 6 days away, so I probably wouldn't have enough time to learn how to use something as complicated as Unreal Engine or Unity (and both would be overkill for this project anyway).

Off the top of my head, really really basic ways:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/483950/SMILE_GAME_BUILDER/
If you want really basic, Smile Game Builder (commercial game making software) can be put into step based first person perspective to create a grid based rpg; standard blocks can have "2d skins" added to them to make it personaliszed. But then you have the issue of having a very inflexible system (four characters only, standard "dragon quest" like system, difficult to change fonts etc. etc.) for combat and other components to work with. Also it is expensive.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/498310/RPG_in_a_Box/
Another option would be the RPG in a Box system; again you can put the system into step FP mode and there is a lot more flexibility with the open scripting, much more customization and the like...the problem is that it very much a voxel art system so if you don't like that then you may have some issues, also it is not complete (I know I had problems getting any battle system up and running properly) and it is written for one character. Also I found previously that you get a lot of clipping for some reason in the FP mode. Cheaper option than Smile Gamebuilder and IMO you can get a cool, nice looking game pretty quickly and easily if you know your way around voxels/graphics generally.

Godot 3 - 2D->3D Dungeon-Game-Template by Jumpingeyes Games (itch.io)
This is a FP Dungeon template for Godot (Godot a free game engine, although this template costs money) in the vein of a single character M&M style- easy enough to take and run with and create maps but suffers from the problems of the above mentioned programs - if you want to do anything different/interesting you are going to have to go away from the template and actually learn Godot...

On that last point, there are some decent basic youtube tutorials on how to get first person mazes up and running in Godot very quickly, albeit will need some tinkering to limit it to 90 degree and grid based movement. The issue if you don't have time would be setting up the combat system, classes all that kind of stuff....

Another point is that if you know what you are doing and don't care too much about the graphical transition from one location to another, getting an easy 2.5D system (Gamemaker or even Godot in 2d mode) with sprite graphics (The guy that I think is running the Jam has a thing on his website to create all the sprites you need from a single one) is probably your best bet if you want to focus on customization of the systems etc.

Hope that provides some ideas.

So IMO it depends on what you are willing to compromise on.
 

Wysardry

Augur
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283
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Thanks. I bought Smile Game Builder a while back when it was on sale, intending to use it for prototyping. I didn't realise it had a first person view option. I shall have to finally try it out.

I have been learning more about RPG in a Box, but I'm not sure it has all the features I would need yet. I asked on their Discord forums and apparently combat options are still limited.

The dungeon template for Godot looks a little too basic for use in a competition. I have bookmarked it though, as it might be useful for learning purposes later.

At this point I have very little idea what I am doing and have only two months to learn before the jam starts. Ideally I would like to create something in low poly 3D, using an editor that can create prefabs for easy prototyping and experimentation. I would prefer to avoid C-based languages if possible as I prefer BASIC and Pascal style syntax. I've never tried visual scripting, but that might be an option considering the time restriction.

Not having to compile after every change would be a huge bonus as would running smoothly on a laptop.

I have been considering Castle Game Engine, but the editor is not yet as fully featured as other options and it's much more general purpose.
 

Wysardry

Augur
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Joined
Feb 26, 2004
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283
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I decided to go with Unreal Engine 4 and the Dungeon Crawler Toolkit due to my lack of experience and how much of the heavy lifting they will both do for me.

Is anyone else entering the jam in two days time?
 

CryptRat

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Sep 10, 2014
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3,548
I think I'll make something, seeing if something can be done using only my editor and without any coding.

I can't say it really follows the rules though', what's certain is I'd be 100% honest about what I'm doing, I think I'll just ask what people think on itch just now, the thing is I feel like someone else using it would be inside the rules while myself using it totally is not, it's completely the extension of my current project.

Maybe I should rather make a project with The Bard's Tale Construction Set.
 

Wysardry

Augur
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Joined
Feb 26, 2004
Messages
283
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I'm fairly sure that where the rules mention not continuing an existing project they mean that you can't submit a game project that you've already been working on prior to the jam start.

Using existing tools, assets, libraries and frameworks is allowed.
 

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