Heroes of the Seven Islands - Hand-drawn tribute to classic RPG and comics

[rap2h]

Heroes of the Seven Islands will be published on Steam early 2025.





It is a (poorly) hand-drawn tribute to classic role-playing video games, such as might and magic 3-8, and franco-belgian comic albums.


https://discord.gg/x5RgFnp3CC

Feel free to ask me anything, I would be glad to answer!

I created this thread because it has been suggested here: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/codexian-game-development-thread.69297/page-230#post-8937596

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

Wow ! I'm honestly torn between and . Godspeed anyway !

 

[Tyranicon]

What do you think the average playtime will be for the finished game? Have you decided on a price? What engine are you using?

Good luck!

 

[Grauken]

Feel free to ask me anything, I would be glad to answer!

No questions but I love your style, looks great

 

[luj1]

Not my kind of style, but at least it's hand drawn and not some AI horseshit so respect

 

[rap2h]

What do you think the average playtime will be for the finished game? Have you decided on a price? What engine are you using?

Good luck!

Tyranicon Thank you for your support and your questions!

I hope the playtime will be around 5-10 hours.

I do not have decided on a price yet, do you have a suggestion for this kind of game? I currently hesitate between a small price (maybe 5 euros) or making it free. Making it free would make sense since it's a hobby (yet serious) project, still, it would require some investment (current estimation is 12 to 16 hours a week in my spare time for 1 year, drawing and coding), and maybe engagement from players may be better with a small price. idk.

The engine is a custom engine, web-based using good old html, js and css things, embedded in an executable.

 

[Grauken]

What do you think the average playtime will be for the finished game? Have you decided on a price? What engine are you using?

Good luck!

Tyranicon Thank you for your support and our questions!

I hope the playtime will be around 5-10 hours.

I do not have decided on a price yet, do you have a suggestion for this kind of game? I currently hesitate between a small price (maybe 5 euros, max 10 anyway) or making it free. Making it free would make sense since it's a hobby project, still, it would require some investment (current estimation is 12 to 16 hours a week in my spare time for 1 year, drawing and coding), and maybe engagement from players may be better with a small price.

The engine is a custom engine, web-based using good old html, js and css things, embedded in an executable.

I would go with 5€, for 5 to 10 hours it's worth it, and if you give it out for free, some people won't try it.

 

[Tyranicon]

I hope the playtime will be around 5-10 hours.

I do not have decided on a price yet, do you have a suggestion for this kind of game? I currently hesitate between a small price (maybe 5 euros) or making it free. Making it free would make sense since it's a hobby (yet serious) project, still, it would require some investment (current estimation is 12 to 16 hours a week in my spare time for 1 year, drawing and coding), and maybe engagement from players may be better with a small price. idk.

The engine is a custom engine, web-based using good old html, js and css things, embedded in an executable.

Pricing depends on what your goals are. If you want the most amount of people to play it, release it for free on Steam and Itchio and you will get a lot of downloads and feedback. Could be good if you want to build up a fanbase.

If you actually want to make money, then I would actually improve the game to the point where you would sell it for ~10 euros. 5 euros is a reasonable price for what you're doing, but unfortunately a lot of people just assume anything at that price point is shovelware.

 

[just]

no cat no buy

 

[rap2h]

Some icons for the frames, inspired by the wonderful frames borders of Ivan Bilibin paintings



I used some of them for the "Create your party" screen (in light mode and dark mode), work in progress. By the way, this screen feels a bit empty, not sure what to do to make it better

 

[rap2h]

Suspicious vampire

 

[rap2h]

Some backgrounds, just photographed from hand-drawn images, colorized with Photoshop (work in progress)

 

[AdolfSatan]

So… What about the mechanics? How does the chargen work? What’s the enemy AI like? What about quest structure?

 

[rap2h]

So… What about the mechanics? How does the chargen work? What’s the enemy AI like? What about quest structure?

Thank you for your question. Game mechanics are inspired by might and magic 3-8: lore, stats, simple quests, large world, trainers, stat-based combat, and so-on

Fights are turn-based, yet fast-paced especially when party stats are higher to avoid waiting seconds for easy fights. Here clunky is a video, in French, with bugs. Heroes can attack with their weapon, use a special ability based on their class (once per combat), cast spells, or sing a song. Enemies currently just attack a valid hero



About the game itself, there are 7 islands with villages, dungeons, lands, and so on. The story is simple and deliberately naive: Furax the indestructible has returned from the dead to destroy the world. Only the Oracle knows how to destroy him, but to meet the Oracle, you need to obtain the 7 keys from the 7 kings and queens of 7 islands. 4 heroes are sent to find them. Or something like that.

By the way, the game is still in early steps, I would be glad to have pre-pre-alpha testers! Nothing to offer but the game for free and name in credits. Here are a few random screenshots to show a few mechanics:



Let me know if you have any questions or criticisms, I would be glad to elaborate!

 

[Dr Skeleton]

The characters remind me of Dungeon. Which is good.

 

[AdolfSatan]

tkt chuis en fr en fait, wouldn’t mind testing when it’s a bit more developed.
Genuine question: if you’re aware they’re a waste of time and are implementing mechanics to make easy fights go faster, why even have them at all?

 

[rap2h]

Dr Skeleton It's an excellent comic and it's obviously one of my inspirations in terms of illustrations. However, I'm trying to emancipate myself from this style so that I don't just look like a copy, but it's difficult, given that I'm making antropomorphic characters in a cartoon style and that I love this comic

 

[rap2h]

tkt chuis en fr en fait, wouldn’t mind testing when it’s a bit more developed.
Genuine question: if you’re aware they’re a waste of time and are implementing mechanics to make easy fights go faster, why even have them at all?

I like this question! Fighting easy enemies may not be a waste of time but rather something satisfying, but it should not be annoying. In might and magic, I like to go back to easy zone, just to throw meteors on everything, even if there is no challenge, but killing dozen of easy enemies can be relaxing, especially when they were hard foes in early game. Not sure I'm clear, anyway I will keep your question in mind: if some combats feel like a chore, I have to avoid them.

 

[Dr Skeleton]

Dr Skeleton It's an excellent comic and it's obviously one of my inspirations in terms of illustrations. However, I'm trying to emancipate myself from this style so that I don't just look like a copy, but it's difficult, given that I'm making antropomorphic characters in a cartoon style and that I love this comic

Eh, it's not like it's a 1:1 copy, and they also used different styles over the years, so I think it's all good.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

Furax the indestructible

C'est signé.

 

[rap2h]

The "create party" interface is ready, I just started creating the steam page

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

no cat no buy

But lots of RATS!!!
RAWR!!!!



5 is perfectly fine. Itch.io free stuff is usually demos for some.

 

[d1nolore]

Graphics are interesting, question is really the gameplay. Interesting you chose html. I’ll help you test if you want.

 

[Gandalf]

Looks cool to be honest, I am feeling inspired. Good luck with the game.

 

[rap2h]

I need your help for dungeon design! How can I make dungeon exploration more immersive and consistent with the rest of the game? I want to come up with something that maintains the (real) impression that each drawing is unique and doesn't break with the overall style (static screens like in a comic strip).

(1) The first iteration I did felt a bit inconsistent because it's a map with repetitive sprites, and it does not follow the first-person (or blob) view impression. So when you enter a dungeon, players have to "play a different game" with a (awful) map.

(2) Then I tried a mockup with a dungeon-master-like hand-drawn view, but it's also inconsistent (since it uses perspective), and it will cost a lot of time to draw all corridor views. I almost abandoned this idea.

(3) Now I decided to abandon these two ideas and go for something that I feel more consistent. Just build a static screen, and dungeons are now a few connected big halls (for instance: entrance, left wing, 2nd floor), with doors that leads to rooms (that are kind of cul-de-sac with monsters, loot and so on). Thus it will keep the "all screen is a unique screen" feeling and you do actions as usual by pointing and clicking)

For information, no matter the option, rooms look like this:

What do you think? Should I continue with the third option? I am not sure anymore, I would love to have feedback! Let's say it's the first big doubt in this game development