SPECIAL NOTICE
Malicious code was found on the site, which has been removed, but would have been able to access files and the database, revealing email addresses, posts, and encoded passwords (which would need to be decoded). However, there is no direct evidence that any such activity occurred. REGARDLESS, BE SURE TO CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS. And as is good practice, remember to never use the same password on more than one site. While performing housekeeping, we also decided to upgrade the forums.
This is a site for discussing roleplaying games. Have fun doing so, but there is one major rule: do not discuss political issues that aren't directly and uniquely related to the subject of the thread and about gaming. While this site is dedicated to free speech, the following will not be tolerated: devolving a thread into unrelated political discussion, sockpuppeting (using multiple and/or bogus accounts), disrupting topics without contributing to them, and posting images that could get someone fired in the workplace (an external link is OK, but clearly mark it as Not Safe For Work, or NSFW). If you receive a warning, please take it seriously and either move on to another topic or steer the discussion back to its original RPG-related theme.

Roadwarden - an RPG / Visual Novel / Text Adventure fantasy hybrid

Started by Aureus, May 09, 2019, 10:06:15 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Aureus

I'm glad I took some time to return to the very beginning of Roadwarden. So many changes throughout the entire prologue section, but I still like the first paragraph.







Aureus

Oh damn, thank you for sharing the link with me. Too bad I didn't update the demo in a year, but I'm glad that the folks are still finding it fine enough. So far, 2021 has been really good for the game.

Zelen

Very cool undertaking. I love the art style and atmosphere the game seems to have.
What are you creating this in? It almost looks like Renpy to me, but I am not sure.

Aureus

It's Ren'Py indeed! The gameplay screenshots kind of hide it, but the menu screen is full mask-off. : ) As there are no real-time action sequences in the game, using a text-focused engine serves me well. I now understand how to use it way better than I did two years ago, but I'm still not a programmer.

Zelen

Very nice. I've actually been thinking about using Renpy myself for some projects. My problem is the exact opposite: I'm pretty technically savvy and I've used Renpy before, but I always end up wanting features I'd get in something like Unity. But the drawback of the latter is it's a lot more work to get off the ground successfully with the core features Renpy supports.

One of these days...


Aureus

A fistful of icons - 6 of the newer items and a reminder how does the inventory look like in the game. : ) Quite happy with the current style!






Aureus

Gale Rocks is a home to a stubborn, patient community. The settlers, unable to live off the rocky land and its fruitless forest, turned their eyes toward the sea, and to this day trade salt and fish for vegetables, iron, and clothes. Over the course of the centuries and through many sacrifices, they left the safe caverns, raised the walls, and expanded their village, bit by bit.

In sunny days, most of them form crews of boatmen and hunt for sea fish in the shallow waters, while a smaller group cuts down trees, prepares lumber, and oversees the production of barrels. When the weather gets capricious, they split the firewood and burn it under the large pans, boiling the brine until it turns into salt.

In the meantime, the wounded, elders, and children take care of the chores, cook, and prepare the latest catch to be either smoked, or salted and stored in the barrels. The hands of the villagers are scared by the years spent with knives, and by the salt getting even into the tiniest of wounds.

It's a harsh, but slow life. Predictable, yet peaceful.



Zelen

Looks really cool! Just set up a similar sample scene myself in Renpy to experiment with scenes with multiple layers / animations.

Critiques:

* The birds flapping in place seems a bit odd. Having them circling along the horizon would probably feel a lot more natural.

* Depth of the scene would probably be enhanced if you added something in the foreground like a tree, bush, sign, etc.

Aureus

Thank you, I'll think about these! I kind of hope that for most people, this scenery will look like a massive forest, where thousands of trees blend into a shapeless pulp. If so, adding a large tree in one spot would ruin this effect.

I see your point about the birds, though I'm not sure if I'm good enough to change the birds the way you described, especially when it comes to drawing the animations. I think I'll give it a shot once the game will be closed to being finished. : )

Zelen

Made a quick mock up, pretty close to what I was envisioning. Didn't add tree-sway but that wouldn't be too hard.



Doing the bird movement shouldn't require significant new art assets, just apply a minor movement to the animated image. Something like this (values are pretty exaggerated, but you can play with it).


    show bird_flapping:
        # Use a spline motion to move us around the screen.
        linear 10.0 align (0.5, 1.0) knot (0.0, .33) knot (1.0, .66)