About
Hero of Allacrost is a single player 2D role-playing game inspired by classic console RPGs. In Hero of Allacrost, the player will explore rich environments, solve challenging dungeon puzzles, and fight strategic battles in an active-time based system. The game is free open-source software and is currently available across several platforms including Windows, OS X, Linux, and FreeBSD. In addition to the game, we also develop and release a custom map editor for the game.
The three major design goals we are striving to meet with this title are listed below.
- Prioritize efforts on developing engaging gameplay and a compelling narrative
- Eliminate tedious and micromanagement mechanics that are commonly found in RPGs.
- Make battles interesting, challenging, and requiring of a high level of strategy from the player
The About page on our website describes several of the game's core features and how they enable us to meet these goals.
Activity
Our latest release was in June 2015. This was a development release, which is essentially a snapshot of our work in progress. Below is a link to download it as well as a walkthrough video of this release with commentary.
- Release Files: http://www.allacrost.org/download
- Release Video:
youtu.be/2EX9K1kCF0M
The next milestone we're working toward is another development release that continues where our previous release left off, which will finish out the current "chapter" of the game. The major requirements for this release include map design, scripting, and creation of some additional artwork (map tilesets and around a dozen sprites). The anticipated date of this next release is sometime in September 2015. This is what our team will be working on for the next couple of months.
By the end of this year, we will be making an official release. This will be a fully designed, balanced, and polished product. It will be an iterative improvement of the September 2015 development release with some amount of additional content and improved event scripting, dialogue, and several noticeable improvements in the UI and other areas of the code. This is the team's current long-term goal. More information about our upcoming releases can be found on the Roadmap page on our wiki. This includes a list of all the major tasks that must be done along with their current status.
Compensation
Allacrost is created and distributed for free. Because of this we cannot offer financial compensation to those who work on the project. Our team members are quite content with putting forth their efforts into what we believe will someday be a great game to share. We learn a lot from each other on the Allacrost team and you will absolutely learn new techniques and skills from those whom you work aside with. Having this experience will also make you a much more attractive candidate if you are seeking to enter into the gaming industry. Some of our team members have been solicited by recruiters for well-known game development companies. Your full name will appear in the game credits.
Talent Needed
This project took a long hiatus and as a result has a very small team at the moment. We would really like to rebuild a team of dedicated, passionate individuals who share the vision of what Allacrost is to become and want to be a part of making it happen. Becoming a member of this team means more than simply getting told what to create. We strongly encourage people to participate in design discussions and offer their own ideas to improve the game and the project itself. Although the core design of Allacrost is pretty well-defined at this point, there's still a lot of unanswered design questions and features we have not yet implemented. There's still plenty of room for you to influence this title should you be interested in doing so. While we are seeking core team members, we're also happy to welcome contributors who prefer to help out here and there with adding a new feature or creating new art or music, but aren't as invested in this project.
You can read more about what it's like on the Allacrost team and our philosophies by reading about our team policies on our wiki. Listed below are the specific needs that we are seeking to fill and what people who fill those roles can expect to be working on for the next couple of months.
Game Designer
A game designer is one who assembles and combines the code, art, and music produced to create the game's experience. One of the primary responsibilities of game designers is to create maps using our editor and write the scripting code to make those maps come alive. For our next release, our designer's main focus will be on the expansion and scripting of an existing large map. There will also be work involving the design of battle skills, enemies, and perhaps some balancing involved.
Links:
(1) - Various pages of information for our game designers
(2) - Qualifications and skills needed, as well as directions on how to get started
(3) - A list of content on our roadmap that our designers need to complete
Pixel Artist
Pixel artists create the majority of the game's graphical assets. This includes map tilesets, sprites, and various other in-game artwork. Pixel artists have a large amount of freedom and those in the past have gifted us with some quite brilliant pieces. Below are some examples of our current pixel artwork so you can get an idea of our style. If you feel this above your skill level, please don't be intimidated. Even programmers create some of the art occasionally, and they are certainly not this skilled. The most immediate needs for pixel art include: a castle interior tileset, various demon sprites, and a few more sprites that represent townspeople.
Links:
(1) - Information on rights to an artist's work and how to get started
(2) - Lists the types of artwork found in Allacrost. The Maps, Sprites, and Icons sections cover pixel art
(3) - Explanation of our artistic styles, influences, and design
Traditional Artist
In addition to pixel art, Allacrost integrates usage of some more traditional artwork styles as well. These commonly come in the form of portraits and landscapes. See below for examples of this type of artwork. The most immediate needs for our traditional art include: face portraits for some major NPC characters, a body portrait of a generic soldier, and a landscape representing a desert castle-town.
Links:
(1) - Information on rights to an artist's work and how to get started
(2) - Lists the types of artwork found in Allacrost. The Backdrops and Portraits sections cover traditional art
(3) - Explanation of our artistic styles, influences, and design
C++ Developer
Our engine is complete and the core aspects of the game are all functional. But we still have several features to add and technical challenges to overcome on the development front. At the present moment, we're looking to improve several existing features that include: save points and the save/load game system, battle transitions, and various improvements to the battle UI. While our developers mostly focus on C++, there will be some Lua development invovled as well.
Links:
(1) - Qualifications to become a programmer and steps on how to get started
(2) - Our primary documentation home, covering the engine, game logic, and more.
(3) - Instructions on how to use our mercurial repository to retrieve your own copy of the code
Composer
Allacrost already has a number of tracks unique to the game and a thematic arrangement. But we are still missing a couple crucial pieces of music to complete our next release. These include: a "danger" theme to be played when a city is under attack, and a "legend" theme played when the main legend of the game is first heard. Below are links to some of our current compositions.
Links:
(1) - Musical influences, style, and technical information
(2) - Selections from our soundtrack available on our website
Writer
The most important responsibility of a writer is constructing the dialogues seen in the game. They also assist with the narrative (a novel) that the game's story is based off of. Writer's also have the unique ability to strongly influence the events and actions that occur through the game by using their written dialogues and imaginging scenes for us to produce to fit. The most immediate need we have for a writer at the moment is to improve the existing dialogue in the last release (which is essentially a placeholder at the moment) and to help with the design and dialogues that will take place in the next release.
Links:
(1) - Two full chapters of the standalone narrative that the game is based on.
Joining
Follow this link for information on how to join our team and what you can expect from working on this project. If you have questions or wish to give feedback, feel free to either post a reply in this thread or contact me directly if you wish to inquire in private.