The sons of Belam

[Shady Ultima]

That's right. I'm back! Well, sorta...


HOLY DEMO BATMAN!!! IT'S HERE!!!!!
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WWRLY7FQ

Here's my screen shots I promised





The story is :

Lord Wil, the King of Belam is a great ruler who wishes to return the Kingdom of men to its former glory. He does not want to use force if possible, and is making headway. The town of Atlini has rejoined, after being destroyed 100 years ago, and being rebuilt 20 years ago.

His brother, Richard is jealous of his older brother's power, and always hated his brother's peaceful solutions. He plans to take the crown from his brother, and intends to call himself King, a title no ruler of Belam has used in four generations.

Lord Wil's son Charles, the elder of two, is a brave and noble warrior, and in many ways, a young version of his father. His brother Peter, however is cowardly and jealous of Charles' birthright.


Richard convinces Peter to join him, and each plans to murder their brother seperately, with Richard taking the throne, with Peter as his heir. Wil and Charles are both killed and Belam falls into a downward spiral.

Richard's deceitful rise to power has alienated the Belamese from their long time allies, the elves and the dwarves. The elves, are now in hiding, being persecuted by Richard. Their Queen has denounced the peace treaty, and any Belamese humans are to be arrested on site.  The dwarves have closed their homes off to the Belamese, and have stopped supporting the nation with precious metals.

The Belamese army has already conquered a few small outlying elven cities, and a war is brewing in the south...




--Features--

Now, here's the part I've been really happy with
ABS system - not the BEST ever, but it is functional.
CMS system
Health bar, potions and coins on screen
Health bar increases
Poison ailment
Day/Night system (24 minute reset, clocks show time, etc)
Magic Armor (when found it restores your hp slowly)
Important characters follow you occasionally.

--Features to be implemented--
I plan on having several mini - games and sidequests.

- A group of ghosts ask you to find their skulls. It seems a clan of Headhunters stole them, and the dead can not rest incomplete. There will be 10 heads, which will give you 50 extra HP
- Fishing mini game
- Racing mini game
- Betting mini game
- 30 fairies to be found/won. For every 10 you acquire, a character will give you 50 bonus HP.
- Bank system (maybe with interest?)
- 2 potion upgrades
- Boomerang and/or bow and arrows
- Bombs?
- 2 secret areas that require a pass of some sort to enter.
- Grappling hook item?
- Winnable horse.

I'm also going to re-do the menu to make it a bit more interesting, and more graphically pleasing.
-I'm trying to get a world map going, where when you press 0 the map pops up, and you can see the whole world. Think Legend of Zelda - LTTP (and a few others) I'm just having trouble getting the graphics to look good enough for my standards on it... If anybody  would be interested, I'd greatly appreciate the help

And there will be more as I go along.

I should have a demo out very soon...

Let me know what you think of my ideas/plans

[DedlellyDeth]

Story is a little basic; not much details of development, as is gameplay, but, uh, keep working.

[Muraiko]

Looks good so far. I definatly like the features and minigames you say you'll put in the game. Looking forward to this!

[Shady Ultima]

I'll be honest, it's not the BEST ABS, but it is functional. I should probably have a small demo of right up until the first dungeon done by the end of the week (I've only been working on it for a few weeks, I'm making huge progress)

[Shady Ultima]

SCREENSHOTS ARE UP!!!!!!

[DedlellyDeth]

I can't wait to see the ABS, but by the looks of it it is rather basic, and plot development is still foggy. I don't like when people make bad ABSes, not saying it applies to you because I haven't tried it yet, their "innovation" excusing the lack of gameplay that would be present in the DBS.

You also need to get your font fixed. I think you can do that by installing your RM fonts into your Fonts directory.

[Shady Ultima]

I admit it's poor. I just wanted to make the game be more like Zelda, because I hate the regular RPGS. It works, it's not great though.

Like if an enemy is behind you, if you're attacking away from it, it still hurts him. Same if he's on your side. I'm trying to figure out the coding to get it so that you have to face the enemy to deal it damage...

As for the story... I'm not going to give it all away right away! The part I gave is essentially just setting up the story of the game.

You play as Sael, who at the beginning is just returning from a trip to Cinry, the only human city which has avoided Richard's rule. He is about 21 years old, but he's uncertain because he has no memory of his past (cliche, I know...). In the past two years he has been working as a merchant guard for the local town merchant, who often makes trips into dangerous territory.

That's how to game actually opens. I don't really want to give away any actual game plot points, because A) I'm still working on them, and B) I want to keep the surprise twists a surprise.


And I'll try moving the font into the font directory, thanks for that tip!

[Muraiko]

I think any game that has an ABS or CBS is already noteworthy.

And to make it so you have to face the enemy, you could just put in the conditonal branch in the page when they are attacked:

If this event is facing left
 Check if Hero is facing right


And put in the command for the enemy getting hit. You'll also have to do the same for all other four directions though. Just use a bunch of labels to make it go simpler.

[DedlellyDeth]

Oh, OK, I see; a surprise. I'll look forward to this and wish you well to your game!

[Shady Ultima]

I think any game that has an ABS or CBS is already noteworthy.

And to make it so you have to face the enemy, you could just put in the conditonal branch in the page when they are attacked:

If this event is facing left
 Check if Hero is facing right


And put in the command for the enemy getting hit. You'll also have to do the same for all other four directions though. Just use a bunch of labels to make it go simpler.

Ah crap... I tried doing that and it made things worse.

If I show you the programming, do you think you could figure out my mistake?

[Muraiko]

Sure, let's see it. Just post the screen shot of the event's script.

[Shady Ultima]

Yea, you're talkin about strafing. I've thought about it, but the way I've got the commands set up (x = attack, shift = use potion) I'd have to make it a number key, and I'd prefer not to have to use number keys for battle options, they're just too far out of the way.

And I figured out what I was doing wrong, so I fixed it, took me a few hours, but I finally managed to get the battle system a bit better. It's still not the best, but I'm an average programmer at best, so I'm proud of what I've accomplished.

And demo from the beginning until the end of the first dungeon will be out very, very soon. This weekend perhaps?

[DedlellyDeth]

I have an idea. Why don't you do it Zelda style and make it so your view locks by holding down the attack key?

[Shady Ultima]

I was thinking that. Like a charge style move.

I'll see what I can do. Right now, the battle system, while basic, works, and works rather well. If I can alter it and make it better, I will, but for now, I like how it is.

[Fisherson]

Ypur screen shots are good. I like the look of the game, keep up the awesome work.