FreeGameDev

Im restarting my RPG project with a new engine and I would like to start a poll to know what kind of RPG do you want to play, or more exactly, what view do prefer:

Definitely isometric.

I had high hopes for Scourge2 but it seems to have stalled.


youtu.be/sZXLT82aoqo

Yes, I was also an Scourge follower since the first versions.

What are the features the RPG that you want to work on, rogerdv?

Do you want to be the sole or lead developer (code)?
Do you want to set the style of visuals, audio, writing?
Do you want it to be action- or text-heavy?
Do you want to use a specific programming language?

Mindless blab by me:
I'd love to play a 1.0 release of http://flarerpg.org
I'd like to see http://dnt.dnteam.org develop further, ideally lowering the number of planned features.
It'd be amazing to see a fork of RedEclipse that adds functionality which for example the game engine of Deux Ex 3 has in small development steps.
It'd be great to have a foss DotA/LoL/HoN game (mode) which could be based on http://www.glest.org or 0 A.D. for example.
What's up with http://lipsofsuna.org by the way?

qubodup {l Wrote}:It'd be amazing to see a fork of RedEclipse that adds functionality which for example the game engine of Deux Ex 3 has in small development steps.

What functionality? Please elaborate....

qubodup {l Wrote}:What are the features the RPG that you want to work on, rogerdv?

Do you want to be the sole or lead developer (code)?
Do you want to set the style of visuals, audio, writing?
Do you want it to be action- or text-heavy?
Do you want to use a specific programming language?

Mindless blab by me:
I'd love to play a 1.0 release of http://flarerpg.org
I'd like to see http://dnt.dnteam.org develop further, ideally lowering the number of planned features.
It'd be amazing to see a fork of RedEclipse that adds functionality which for example the game engine of Deux Ex 3 has in small development steps.
It'd be great to have a foss DotA/LoL/HoN game (mode) which could be based on http://www.glest.org or 0 A.D. for example.
What's up with http://lipsofsuna.org by the way?

Right now Im the only one developer, besides the engine creator (Im using Lime, which was announced here almost a year ago). A couple of friends are helping me with 3d models, but I would like to have more developers when the engine matures enough to be usable (what Im doing now is mostly prototyping, helping Kiril with the scene editor and writing plot, desing documents, etc) and also I will surely need an organic modeller/animator.The game is mostly inspired by classics, so I want to have action with real time combat, but also complex dialogs, influenced by character attributes. Currently Im using C++, but I would like to switch to some more scripted approach using Lua, like Lips of Suna does.
Im also a big fan of DNT, reggrettably it no longer compiles under Ubuntu and I have been too lazy to ask in the forums for a solution.
Here is a quick screenshot of the current tests Im doing.

andrewj {l Wrote}:What functionality? Please elaborate....

It's just an daydream. All DX:HR game mechanics plus a way to edit all of them in-engine/game.

rogerdv: Thanks for the answers. By the ways, what do you think of http://sumwars.org ?

Another promissing project. They just need better graphics, but well, I need a new roof and wont be having anytime soon. I have their code and study it sometimes.

Well, this is an unexpected result. I was hoping that forum members where mostly the kind of old classic lovers that prefers isometric style. Seems that Ill have to change my design to an FPS RPG. By the way, Im looking for an organic modeller to join the team, somebody interested?

I'm a bit confused. do you, as the game designer, think that the camera mode is the most important aspect of an RPG? if so, that is quite worrying.

It is an important aspect, not the most, but very important.

All perspectives have their pros and cons, but I chose 3rd person because I liked it pretty much in Star Wars KOTOR. I'm not sure if I've ever played a 1st person RPG.

When I was young I really enjoyed Realms of Arkania on the Amiga
http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/details.php?id=2360


youtu.be/IWr2a9Yakns

I spent countless hours playing it. It had first person view when in cities or caves, isometric view for fights, and an over head view for traveling between towns.

So you don't have to limit yourself to just one viewing mode in your game.

rogerdv {l Wrote}:It is an important aspect, not the most, but very important.

it doesn't matter *now*. you can change it whenever. it is quite trivial. going from 2D to 3D in the future is less trivial...

I dont plan to use 2D. Isometric view is 3D, not like old games. My idea was to make something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzYmQyHl2bc

but seems that the 1st person mode is more popular than I expected among RPG players here.

This is another good example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2nfnqRl ... re=related

rogerdv {l Wrote}:but seems that the 1st person mode is more popular than I expected among RPG players here.

And why don't you do what you like, rather than doing what a statistically irrelevant majority (7 vs. 6...) seems to like?

Because I develop the game for all of us, not just for me. And indeed the sample is irrelevant

definitely isometric, cheers

I'd argue that switching from one to the other isn't necessarily trivial, depending on what other choices are made.

If you have a top-down view, this allows other UI options, such as point-n-click to control where to go to - a lot of top-down-only RPGs (like the Baldur's Gate style, or NWN) use this method. This isn't necessarily a trivial change either - you need to implement good path-finding; OTOH, collision detection is simpler (you simply detect if the character can move to a destination, rather than worrying about colliding and "sliding").

Top down view also makes it easier to manage multi-party groups if you wanted that. Also you wouldn't have to bother with various 3D issues, such as the sky, or far into the distance. So changing to a first person view wouldn't necessarily be a case of simply changing the camera. Plus you could probably get away with lower quality models with a top-down view, where things tends to be less close up than a first person view.

A first person view could be made top down perhaps more easily, but you need to add the model for the player - for RPGs, this it one of the harder things, as you (ideally) want the model to represent clothes, armour, weapons etc that the player is using, which is especially hard if you're trying to find free content to model things (for enemies, at least you can do it by simply using off-the-shelf models that have their own built-in weapons, and don't worry if they can't change weapons/armour).

For the OP, I would say these are the sorts of issues you should be thinking about when deciding which to go for - which of the above do you want in the game, and which would be easier (or more interesting) for you in development?

A poll probably isn't that useful, other than to confirm that there exist plenty people who like either.

I know I'm old fashioned, but I like the 45 degree isometric view of Ultima Online. It just grew on me after a while. I like the fact that you can make things more detailed and less confusing without worrying about the engine and all those camera angles. To this day, from what I under stand Ultima Online still has the best house customization system. that must be for a reason, as it came out before the everything 3d era.

I also like the fact 2d runs nice on laptops, so you can take your rpg everywhere with you and not worry about high end video cards or drivers, or the expense of buying a fancy new computer every few years.

The other thing I really like about 2d, is it makes the art so much easier, one angle to get right, and that is it for static things, just one perspective, that's it. It cuts down on the resources needed tremendously for development, so you can focus on the important stuff, like game mechanics. Granted, I'm not so old fashioned as to prefer text based MUD's, because text based muds have some of the worst user interfaces ever.

I'm a big fan of full 3D mmorpgs, as they really suck you in when it comes to immersive gameplay. Although I'm not saying others aren't successful at it, far from it...

I'm to late to have any real say, but I've always wanted to see a RPG which has all these views (although it would take some time to get them all balanced