Sword of the Samurai spiritual Successor

[Mitleser]

After playing Microproses Sword of the Samurai from 1990 I found the game formula quite brilliant and am experimenting with creating a Remake/ modern Adaption with better minigames. At the moment I am still not sure if I should use 2d or 3d for the Minigames. For example the fencing minigame should be more like in Pirates! and its gameplay be inspired by this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pxbCEyD3VY. Since i am not artistically inclined I would probably need either custom art or 3d models and corresponding animations for characters and background. Does anyone have a rough idea how much it would cost to implement a fencing game like above with nice 2d or 3d art on a competent mid-quality level?

 

[spectre]

Why settle for second best, competent mid-quality when tackling an obvious classic? Contact the guys from Hellish Quart if they'd be willing to sell you the engine.

On a more serious note, Sword of the Samurai, from what I've seen in the LPs, sadly I missed it back in the day, is basically a precursor to Mount and Blade.
Mount and Blade is already highly moddable (you only need python to start rolling, iirc), and if you look closely, there's plenty of assets and code snippets up for grabs from various mods,
so you should be able to quickly get a working and good looking mockup/prorotype and decide where you want to take it from there. There was stuff like Fire and Sword which is a glorified mod for the game that
was sold separately, so you should be able to come to an arrangement that satisfies you - keep it freeware, get existing modders on board, or throw some shekels at them and try for a standalone product.

 

[Zanzoken]

Did you ever get anywhere with this? I have been thinking for awhile now about how Sword of the Samurai is a perfect candidate for a remake. Such a cool and innovative game, but nowadays also showing its 30+ year age. A spiritual successor with updated presentation and improved mini-games would be amazing.

Since it's an old game, I would do it in 2D and try to match the aesthetics of Tale of Ronin (upcoming / vaporware game from Dead Mage) which fits perfect with the theme.



As for the mini-games...

- The shmup mini-game is still pretty good, just needs to be sped up so it's more twitchy and demanding.

- The dueling mini-game needs a complete overhaul. Could be fast-paced like Nidhogg, or slower and more methodical like that First Cut video linked above.

- The army battles mini-game also needs an overhaul. Nothing too crazy here, just a few unit types (infantry, archer, cavalry, etc) with RTS battle mechanics and AI.

Then tie it all together with the excellent simulation mechanics from the original.

It would basically be like developing 4 games in 1 but the advantage is, none of the mini-games have the complexity of a full release in their genre, and the simulation is just code. The game wouldn't require a ton of assets and I imagine could be done by a small team or even a solo dev with the requisite skills and determination.