Game News Minions of Mirth Updates

[Sol Invictus]

Tags: Minions of Mirth; Prairie Games

After recovering from a malicious hacker that destroyed their forums, Prairie Games, the developers of the a the new concept RPG Minions of Mirth has re-launched its forums with several <a href=http://www.prairiegames.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2>new screenshots</a> and tidbits of information on the game's upcoming features. Here's what <a href=http://www.rpgdot.com>RPGDot</a> found interesting.
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<blockquote>We want to keep the actual GUI controls as clean as possible. This is so you can see the world "thru" the gui, as you play. In the example shot, I have a bunch of the GUI up and for display. You would probably never have this much of it open at a time. There are hotkeys and on screen buttons for toggling displays, etc.
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There are many, many fantasy icons, images, etc that the GUI uses. There are also fantasy elements to it that can't be seen in the GUI shot. There's a coffin in the loot window, your spellbook is represented, etc. There are things like the inn interface (where you can drop off, pick up, or even create new characters while in the game!) that could use a little sprucing up.
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I should put up a screenshot that shows a minimal GUI display as well, it's really not as complicated or scary as it may look! Shocked
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You can play 1-6 characters in single player and multiplayer... You only have to control one avatar's location.. that is, the avatar represents your party's location. There's plenty of RPG gameplay to have fun with, we decided that worrying about navigating all your party members was more chore than anything. In this respect, it's like Might & Magic, Wizardry, Demise, etc.
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In multiplayer, you can form alliances with other players of up to 36 characters. Think multiplayer Might & Magic/Wizardry... it's actually quite easy to control. There is a special Alliance window (shown above) where you can easily select other characters for healing spells, etc. You can setup hotkeys so your fighters attack, your archers shoot their bows, and your wizard throws a fireball, all with one key!
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We want a game that scales for casual to hardcore RPG players, and everyone inbetween! The emphasis is always on fun. </blockquote>
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Thanks <b>wesleyclark</b>.

 

[Sol Invictus]

I like this, this looks great:

OMG, TEH GRAFIX ARE TOO L33T THIS GAME WILL TOTALLY SUX0RZ CUS THEY SHUD BE SPENDING MORE TIEM ON TEH GAEMPLAY INSTEADS OF TEH GRAFIX OMGWTFUX0R ITS GONNA SUXXXXXXX

CHECK OUT MAH HAWT PICX. WANNA CYBER???????

 

[JRitter]

We haven't forgotten the gameplay quite yet:

There's also looting, inns (where you can drop off, pick up, and even create new characters without leaving the persistent world), quest dialogs, etc not shown in this shot

-Josh Ritter
Prairie Games

 

[Vault Dweller]

That looks cool. So, when's the demo coming out?

 

[Shagnak]

Hey, this looks pretty good.
From what I can gather you control a party of people, in first person mode, much like the M&M's, Wizardrys, etc?
Denegrators of this mode of gameplay refer to it as "a blob with multiple arms and legs" (I stole that off someone in this forum, can't remember who).
But I'm rather old fashioned and are one of the few people I know who want more of this type of gameplay.

Is this an online game? Or is the multi-player they're talking about for when you LAN with your buddies?
Edit: they mention things like "massively single player" and persistent world, hence my confusion.

 

[JRitter]

The game has a Massively Single Player mode, a LAN mode (where you and your friends are always in the same zone), and a dedicated server for hosting your own online persistent world.

The Massively Single Player game has all the features of the muliplayer, other than forming alliances, trading, and dueling with other players.

These modes aren't on a wish list, they are actually working as of the alpha version. That said, priority #1 is shipping a rock solid single player experience. The LAN and the dedicated world features may be delayed until shortly after we launch. We do have to get the OSX build together as well!

-Josh Ritter
Prairie Games

 

[Shagnak]

Cheers mate, thanks for the reply.
Looking and sounding good! :thumbs up:

 

[undead dolphin hacker]

Ah yes, I'd seen this game awhile back... still excited about it, when do you predict release? Need any beta testers?

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Good to see it's back on track. I'm with UDH on the beta testers thing.

@Exitium: What's so special about those graphics? Looks nice and all, but it's nothing to have a cow over.

No offense, JRitter. Glad to hear you're more focused on a rock solid single player experience. I was a bit worried about that at first, as games that offer both SP and MP tend to skimp on the SP.

 

[Shagnak]

Good to see it's back on track. I'm with UDH on the beta testers thing.

Yeah, me too! Fuck my research, gimme something more meaningful to do :D

 

[Balor]

*grubles about people linking .png screens...*
It does look nice, though. Seem complicated enough for my liking . I'd sign up for beta-testing too - I even have experience in being an official beta-tester.

 

[Shagnak]

*grubles about people linking .png screens...*

What is wrong with PNG shots?
(Honest question there)
Can your browser not deal with them?

[Edited for bad English. The beer/bourbon/gin might be getting to me]

 

[Balor]

They take WAY more traffic then JPGs. And JPGs don't look any worse to any, but the most discerning eye.
And I pay for traffic - .1$ a meg. *sighs* Notice my country of origin, too.
I also have mega-slow dialup that's free... But I run out of it for this month, and I can only use it during nighttime.

 

[Fez]

And the downside is?

 

[Shagnak]

Oh, I see.
Yes, for shots with a large amount of varying colours they aint so great at compression. For less colours, much like GIF, they are good. And you can use adaptive pallete and all that.
Case in point that "mom_gui.png" is 687k, and coverted to jpeg (with default settings in The Gimp) is 110k. They look exactly the same to my eye, as well.
If they were diagrams or simple logos of a smaller palette then the benefit would be in the other direction.

Sorry, didn't notice, recently got broadband and now everything loads in a second! :D

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

I like png. Makes me think of Pong.


Mmmm........ Pong. <3

 

[Fez]

Someone needs to make a format named ".krakout".

 

[JRitter]

Thanks guys!

We just hit alpha and a few things need to be sorted out. We have an internal date for beta which we'll publish once it makes sense.

In the meantime, intererested beta testers should email lara@prairiegames.com so we can add them to the list.

Woohoo!,
-Josh

PS: All the screenshots, except for the GUI shot are jpg. The GUI shot has been shrunk from 1152x864 to 800x600, compressing to jpg lost too much detail.

 

[DarkSign]

Great looking game. Ill definitely want to play it from what Ive seen so far.
Keep up the good work.

Oh... as you will be having a dedicated server mode for the game...perhaps after you finish with the single player code, you could make an editor for all of us that would like to design and make our own rules for our persistent servers? NWN-style?