Topic: Gateway to Horx (working title) - Oldschool RPG (update 14 February 2011)

[Tamanegi]

Looking through my old (ooooold) games collection, I found one game that I had played for months, yet never finished because I was too stupid and impatient: Tygus Horx. It was a (bad) Bard's Tale clone that came on a magazine disk for the C64, had almost no graphics, no sound, was in black/white except for some sprites and featured monotone landscape.

But it was an RPG with the same concept as Diablo: Kill monsters, get loot and experience, get better, and beat the final dungeon. And that made it addicting to me even if I always died after a few battles because I couldn't find the healer.

So, after I got my first experiences and finished "Don't Look!", I evaluated AGS' usefulness for a game like that and decided to give it a try.


Walking through the streets.


The character status screen.

These screenshots are actually only mockups, the GUIs are all there but were filled by hand. So far you can only walk around.

The Story:
The Kingdom of Elladur has been overrun by the forces of Chadossa. Your small warband was amongst the last to resist in the city of Sundane, and you were captured and thrown in jail to be executed. You need to find a way to escape from jail and look for other cells of resistance. But ever since the Chadossian magistrate was appointed, strange things have been happening in this town...

I'm trying to make this more than just XP-farming. I'm actually planning to include puzzles, dialogue and a storyline.


UPDATE: Current state (14 February 2011)

Done:
- status screen
- walking
- Diablo-inventory
- wielding equipment
- character creation
- pick-up-screen
- simple attacking and defending in combat
- dying in combat
- loot generation and acquisition
- multiple textures per dungeon level
- visible objects in the dungeon view
- unlocking doors and walking through unlocked ones
- interaction with dungeon features

Currently working on: graphics to complete the demo
After that: MAYBE finally spells...

Latest demo:
http://www.mediafire.com/?yzexynee54sa0gu (25 January 2011)

[Tamanegi]

[Cuiki]

This looks very promising, good luck with it!

I'm trying to make this more than just XP-farming. I'm actually planning to include puzzles, dialogue and a storyline.

Hell yeah 8)

[Arj0n]

Looking promising. Good luck finishing it Tamanegi

[Tamanegi]

That's so typical: I take great efforts to re-invent the wheel (in this case, the Diablo-inventory), and then I find out that it's already done (as a module).

It was the same when I invented the divided frying pan. No kidding, I thought how practical it would be to be able to make fried potatoes and fried eggs in just one pan without them mixing together, being proud of me for that idea, and then found it in a catalogue.

Ahem.

Anyway, it works. Next on my list are, in approximately that order:
- equipping items
- multiple different wall tiles per area
- character creation screen
- combat system
- spells

After that:
- content!

[Domithan]

OOOOOOOOH :O
Looks really good. I'll keep an eye out for this.

[Squinky]

Heh, I miss games like this. You've gotta finish this, if not for yourself, then for me....some random internet dude.

[Chicky]

Nice, this looks very promising. Cute art style.

[Tamanegi]

@Squinky: Of course, this is for all the random internet dudes out there who still enjoy this kind of games :-)

New screenshot of the fully functional (except for "examine" and "use") inventory/equipment screen:



It has been an awful lot of variable/coordinate juggling, and I'm really glad it's done (and actually works)

Next up: Character creation, will be the usual "race-class" mix. I'm thinking about choosing the character's gender, but that would mean twice the number of portraits... although it would be nice for some puzzle/plot ideas.

[Tamanegi]

The character creation part is now finished (this screenshot is NOT mockup any more!):



- five playable races
- six classes to choose from at game start (italics intended!)
- male or female characters

In order to celebrate this, you get a playable demo!

http://www.mediafire.com/?yzexynee54sa0gu

There is still only one character portrait for all races/professions/sexes because making portraits is very low-priority at the moment.

[Cuiki]

Sweet! Nice writing so far. And I can be a female elf ranger, yay my favourite

As for the second part, wow, I got completely lost in those corridors in no time. Then again, I've got no sense of direction at all. Do all old-school RPGs work like that? I haven't played any really old ones. But it would be lovely to at least have a map or something like that.

Is this font final? The style is nice, but could be a bit more legible.

Anyway, keep it up!

[Tamanegi]

Most old-school RPGs don't feature a map due to memory restrictions. I _could_ include an automap function, but drawing maps is part of the experience of playing such a game  

You really got lost? It's just three separate buildings surrounded by a wall...  

If you want to try a classic RPG, play "Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny" (original German title: "Das Schwarze Auge: Die Schicksalsklinge"), which is one of the best old-school RPGs ever, story-wise and in presentation. It even has automapping

The font is final unless I decide I want to change it. I was wondering if it is a little illegible, too, so it might get changed sometime.

[Cuiki]

You really got lost? It's just three separate buildings surrounded by a wall...  

Yeah lol, I've told you I've got no sense of direction I bet others wont get lost so easily, so don't worry.

But yeah..drawing a map...I can do that

[Khris]

Cool stuff so far, I've never really played one of the old RPGs, will try the trilogy now.

One small graphic suggestion: I'd change the zero to be much thinner, it's really distracting, especially the leading ones in the stats overview.

[Snake]

Firstly, I'm very happy to see more done on this one. Looks great!

Also, I agree with Kris with thinning the zeros. They are VERY distracting. Have you considered taking them out (the preceding zeros, I mean)? It makes reading the stats a bit hard, at least for me.

[Tamanegi]

Okay, you convinced me, the leading zeroes in the character list are gone, and so will be those in the status screen.

Next I have to think of a way to dynamically place "objects" (people, barrels, special ground tiles...) on the screen. Because the "3D" view is done via a GUI (like virtually everything), this might be tricky because I can't place the object inside the z-axis of the view. So I need to change the appropriate wall tiles into the object.

I'm really excited, because the time when I can actually start with the game itself is coming closer    I want to start creating quests and dungeons!

[CaptainD]

Hmm... I feel that I may be wasting quite a few hours of my life on this game when you've finished... for some reason I've always had a weakness for this style of RPG! 

[Daniel Thomas]

What Dave said!
Lands of lore 1 and Eye of the beholder1-2 is, if not, among my favorite 'none-point & and click adventure' oldschool games.

[Arj0n]

Lands of lore 1

Sweet memories....

[qptain Nemo]

As a Westwood studios fanatic can't really pass by without saying that this EoB-reminscent screens gave me a nice pleasant nostalgic feeling as well.

[Squinky]

The newest image makes me think of that old D+D game Hillsfar.

[Tamanegi]

@Squinky: I think I remember some really bad reviews for that game... I hope that's not a bad omen 

Busy with stuff at the moment, so only a minor advancement: Gold is now stackable, takes up room in the inventory and actually has a weight. A little bit of realism in a world without credit cards or paper money 

Busy time will continue until after Saturday.

[ddq]

I have to say, this looks like an RPG in AGS done right. I look forward to the finished product!

[Tamanegi]

Good news, I could spare some time and continue the game. Combats can now start and be fought using "Attack". Enemies die, party members don't so far  

Things that need revision:
- item stashes on the map
- combat graphics (so I can show it without being ashamed)

Next up: Defense action, basic combat magic engine

Fun fact: The main script has now reached exactly 2011 lines!

[Construed]

I like your scripting style if you ever want to trade work.
Game looks good so far

[Tamanegi]

My script is a mess  It hit 2337 lines today, and I'm sure a lot of that is unnecessarily redundand. I doubt anybody but me could make any sense of the crucial parts. But honestly, there's not too much to it. It's just number-pushing and 40% if-clauses.
Showing it to anybody I'd rather not   

I'm done with implementing display of objects. Next is interaction with objects and doors, and after that it's just doing some graphics and little tidbits until I can present the complete first dungeon level (which is a tutorial) as a playable demo.

I'm sorry there are no new screenshots, but they would not be very different from the previous ones - you have to play it to see what has actually been done.

[Construed]

I see, Downloading it now

[Pinback]

This looks so damn cool! I'm quite jealous you figured out the code for this type of game, highly impressive.

[Tamanegi]

Thank you, but even though I was really proud of myself directly after I did it, there's not very much to it. The 3D view is probably the most interesting part of the engine, so I will explain a little bit how I did it:

It's just a GUI with 28 buttons which all cover the entire GUI. Each button corresponds to one wall segment, so all I have to do is have the game check whether each segment is to be displayed, then assign the right graphic to the button and set it to visible. First, I had only solid wall spaces which made it quite easy. Later, I changed to walls without "filling" so I had to actually check for every single wall and take the looking direction of the player into consideration. Which was quite a bit of math and bit-wise comparison. Once that was done, adding routines that check for tiles with other textures, doors or objects was just exercise.

I chose to make it a GUI because I read that many objects would slow down the game. In retrospect I should have done it as objects anyway because speed is not much of an issue with this game and it's only low-res anyway, but changing it now so that it works with objects would be a real pain because of all the functions that would have to be moved into the room script and the little changes I would have to make.

I didn't get anything done since my last post, but next thing done will be interaction.

I'm not sure how using items on objects in the dungeon should work: Would you rather click on "use" with the item and have the game check if there is anything in front of the player, or click on the object with the item? The first option is easier, but the second one feels more like you actually did something.

[moshboy]

Loving the oldschool rpg look. Reminds me a little of Eye of the Beholder because my brother used to play it all the time on the Amiga. Good stuff. Keep it up.

[Tamanegi]

I've not found the time to do very much in the last few days, but I wanted to let you know that it's not abandoned.

Interaction with dungeon features is now implemented. In theory, there is everything I need for the playable demo now except a few graphics and the tutorial tooltips.

Not sure if I will already include spells in the demo though. Nothing's done for that so far.

EDIT: Demo is postponed, I discovered a huge collection of bugs that slipped my attention until now...  :'(
EDIT 2: Should be fixed, it was all in one single line I had added...

[Kramurx]

Hello everyone!

I would like to say that i would prefer the title "Legends of Tygus Horx" or maybe "Chronicles of Tygus Horx".
Also would it be good to have the ability of forming oter partys than usual, i mean you have in such games fighters, clerics and magic users and maybe a thief, the thief only if you have to because a thief is not as mighty as other classes. Maybe some new classes may help such as an dark priest who deals wounds and curse enemys and brings disease und illness instead of Healing Spells, or a Warpriest who gives buffs to the Warrior-like characters.Maybe a Warlord would fit in, gives your Fighters, Paladins and Rangers boni on their attacks.So you must decide if you want a good party with healers and fighters, a neutral party with fighters, thiefs and a warpriest or a bad party, because a good cleric would never join a party with a bad cleric in it.Also the Spells
should be more different, a fire-based spell should do more damage to plant-monsters(like in pokemon-games), there should be spells that always hit but do less damage, and also spells that do great damage but have only little chance of succeed, and maybe a spell like Bloodstar from Diablo 1, that inflicts damage to monsters with magic resistance but costs not only magicpoints but hitpoints from the user too would bring more tactic in it!
Also i have to say that for the thief i would like to find more magic items or artifacts that increase their chance
of hiding from enemys or bring them more damage by backstabb-attacks would be cool, maybe a Shadow-priest class that improves the thiefes skills in battle with magic would be great.Also a thief that opens a door or a Treasure Chest should earn experience points !
Next what i have to say is that the guy who programmed the original "Tygus Horx" on the c64 should post here a walkthrough, because i am stuck! If anyone reads this who knew this guy, please send him a email!

[Tamanegi]

Hi,
Thank you for so many ideas, but you might notice that the game has been on hiatus for over a year now. The reason is that I had HUGE problems with the magic system as a whole and battle system balance.

IF I ever finish it, any mention of "Tygus Horx" will be gone, since I don't want to use a copyrighted name.

You can write me a PM with your problem in Tygus Horx and I will see if I can help you. I didn't play through it entirely, but I got a few levels deep into Urlandar's dungeon.

[Darth Mandarb]

Kramurx - as pointed out by the game's author this thread was dead over a year.  Please review the forum rules before further posting.
Tamanegi - should you ever get back to this let me know and we can have it unlocked.