RPGs status update

It's time to give you an update on my two main RPG projects I'm currently working on: Loren The Amazon Princess and Planet Stronghold: Warzone.

Loren The Amazon Princess

As you can see below, I made a mockup for the game main menu, and I like it (not that the main menu is so important in a RPG, but I want to have it look good). As I'm writing, the game soundtrack is being recorded, which will feature Cristina Vee again singing the theme song. I'm eager to listen to it :)

Below, you see the first icons made for the skilltrees. I also got some weapons/items, but not enough yet to show a full equipped character. As for the skills, I realized yesterday that I actually need a separate icon for every skill present in the 16 base skiltrees: since every skilltree has 5, it means that I still have 60 icons to commission!! It's necessary of course, but it all adds to the final game costs. This game better sell well!

The writing is at good point, and everything should be finished at end of this month or early December, however there is still left to add all the battles and quests and everything else that makes a RPG (enemies, balancing, and so on). So, I'd say that while I hope to have a public alpha at end of the month to get feedback about the battle system, the fullgame won't be available for sure this year. I'm aiming at Q1 2012 release (probably February/March).

Planet Stronghold: Warzone

For this game things are "apparently" going slower. I say apparently because even if the game writing is still at early stages (I don't even have planned the full story yet!), I have already made the changes to the combat system (in practice a full redesign of the Psionic Powers vs the first game). I also have planned all the romances, which will be even more important than the previous game, since there will be 4 for each gender (vs the 3 of the previous title).

So in practice, since the gameplay/game system is already tested, once the story starts to be written this game will progress much faster than Loren (also because the RPG system is simpler).

Speaking of romance, take a look at this:

It's a fun "collage image" I made picking some details from each of the 4 romance scenes for Lisa Nelson. As you can see, lots of *hot* stuff going on! :)

I don't have all the 4 romance images for Joshua, but once I have them will make a similar thing for him too.

I have another important announcement about Planet Stronghold, even if it will have to wait until next week, but is a very interesting deal! So stay tuned (will announce it on twitter, facebook and in the blog).

Loren Amazon Princess new skilltrees and battle system

As you can see from the photo above, I hired a very skilled coder to help me working on the future RPGs ;)

Jokes apart, I really hired a coder, but for Loren Amazon Princess (since Planet Stronghold Warzone will re-use the same battle system with some interesting new features like area of effect psionics).

I know I already published some skilltrees, but when the new coder arrived we decided to revamp the plannet battle system with a new, greatly improved one. Check the WORK IN PROGRESS image below:

The main "battle flow" will work in a similar way as Final Fantasy X battles, where each action adds to "wait time". So no more Action Points, though the basics are the same. On the right of the screen there's a list with the moving order, and when is your turn, you'll decide what action to do. Clicking on your currently active character, or an ally, will open a menu with the "friendly actions" that you can do (like Heal another party member, or use a potion, and so on). On the other hand, clicking on an enemy will open the menu with "hostile actions", like attack the enemy or use one of the various special skills / spells that you have at your disposal to crush your opponents!

Each action will add a wait time. So for example drinking a potion will be such a quick action, that you will be able to move again the same character immediately, though "behind the scenes" some "seconds" of battle passed. If you perform a more complex action, for example use the "Pinning Shot" skill of the "Hunter" subclass, your character will need much more time before he/she can act again. The list on the right will update in real-time when you hover the mouse on the skill, so you'll have lot of time to plan your strategy. It's already working quite well, in the test battles I often paused wondering if was better to use a quick, but less powerful move to finish one enemy, or instead choose a more slow move but that would hit all the enemies in front row.

Yes, because differently from Planet Stronghold, there's also tactical disposition on the battlefield! There's a front-row, and a back row. If a character is using ranged weapons, can hit anyone in front/back row. But if the character is using melee weapon, he can hit only enemies in the front row. Also obviously Warriors will have more HP, while Thief and especially Mages much less, so putting them in the front row won't be a great idea! This means that you'll have to choose your party formation, and right now we're thinking to have glorious 8 vs 8 battles that will offer a great fun, and will let you use most of your party members (there are 12 in total that you can recruit).

skilltree.pdf Download this file

I'm also particularly happy about the various skills and how the interaction between the 3 main classes (Warrior, Thief and Mage) will work. But this is a complex topic and will require a completely new blog post (and new flowchart to explain it), so for now I'm going to stop here. The skilltrees are basically 99% definitive this time, there might be some that will change slightly during testing to balance better the gameplay, but in general what you see in the PDF is going to be the final version of all the skilltrees.