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.

Author Topic: Roadwarden - an RPG / Visual Novel / Text Adventure fantasy hybrid  (Read 56261 times)

Aureus

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 104
    • http://moralanxietystudio.com/
Roadwarden - an RPG / Visual Novel / Text Adventure fantasy hybrid
« Reply #15 on: June 08, 2019, 07:54:02 AM »
Whenever you encounter new NPCs in Roadwarden, you can select one of the 5 attitudes to impact the first impression you're going to make. Attitudes affect the tone of the conversation, what the NPCs think about you and what dialogue choices will be available to you in the future.

A group of bandits surrounds you. Some of them hold swords, others have loaded crossbows. Do you try to ease the tension by being friendly? Do you try to intimidate them? Do you act vulnerably, hoping they spare you?

Do you like what attitudes can you currently choose from? Do you think there should be any more?


Aureus

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 104
    • http://moralanxietystudio.com/
Roadwarden - an RPG / Visual Novel / Text Adventure fantasy hybrid
« Reply #16 on: June 22, 2019, 07:49:04 AM »
My "break" is over! I'm back into the full-dev mode and it feels great. <3

I'm working on the dialogues for the first tavern. There's a lot of things to talk about and to do here, and guess what. You don't even Have to come here, and if you're aggressive toward the innkeeper, you'll just get thrown out. Choose your Attitudes wisely!

Screenshot 1 Screenshot 2 Screenshot 3 Screenshot 4

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3539[/ATTACH]

Aureus

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 104
    • http://moralanxietystudio.com/
Roadwarden - an RPG / Visual Novel / Text Adventure fantasy hybrid
« Reply #17 on: June 29, 2019, 09:46:29 AM »
Hi, I'm Aureus and I love dialogues.

But seriously, how much can you do in a single tavern?

And yes, you still are going to be able to beat the game without ever going to this area.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3565[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3566[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3567[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3568[/ATTACH]

Aureus

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 104
    • http://moralanxietystudio.com/
Roadwarden - an RPG / Visual Novel / Text Adventure fantasy hybrid
« Reply #18 on: July 13, 2019, 08:00:38 AM »
What a fruitful week this was.

The dialogues for the tavern that I've been working on for weeks are now finished. Adding all the conversations for the guards increased the volume by a third, but the more I wrote, the more I was sure it was a good idea. The throw-away NPC now has a lot of personality, and I've added a lot of new things which will impact the game even in the later stages.

After finishing with this place, I took some time to draw. Two completely different areas:
1. A ruined village. The Imperial forests are dangerous and unfriendly, forcing the hamlets and villages to grow as slowly, as they can. If humankind affects the nature too much, too fast - the monsters arrive to take back what belongs to them.

2. At the edge of the swamp, a large tree stands for as long as anyone remembers. It has no leaves, yet slowly grows. To stay alive, however, it has to be fed by the locals, who put their offerings on an ancient altar.

Drawing still consumes a lot of time, but what now takes me a day or two, just half a year ago would be literally impossible for me. Or would require two weeks and dozens of redraws. Feels good to grow.

Aureus

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 104
    • http://moralanxietystudio.com/
Roadwarden - an RPG / Visual Novel / Text Adventure fantasy hybrid
« Reply #19 on: July 20, 2019, 09:01:23 AM »
I've made a huge progress as far as the graphics go. I now have enough material to spend a couple of weeks writing dialogues, encounters and modifying the game's features. I need to make some large changes, and all of them are going to be great.

Here are some examples of the latest advancements:

1. The druids' cave, locked behind a metal door. What can be found inside? Is it just a shelter, a prison, a treasure chamber? After all the first things you see when you get nearby, are the garden patches with herbs and veggies.

And you can see how much your feedback can impact the picture.



2. The shop screen is looking much better now, though it still needs some work. Next stop - adding a separate icon to display the money in player's possession, replacing parts of the item descriptions.



3. A camp in a destroyed building, a part of the ruined village presented here last week. Iron and steel are rare and valuable resources, no wonder that someone would try to scavenge for them in an old, abandoned settlement.



I don't have enough time to take care of all the ideas I want to pursue right now, but there's a good chance that a new version of the demo is going to be available in August, Though maybe not, maybe I should focus on developing all of the core areas that the player can visit and quests they can be a part of.

I would love to know what you think!

(Bonus devlog!)

Aureus

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 104
    • http://moralanxietystudio.com/
Roadwarden - an RPG / Visual Novel / Text Adventure fantasy hybrid
« Reply #20 on: August 03, 2019, 03:22:17 AM »
It's difficult to decide what to showcase today, I hope it's fine if I drop a whole bunch of pics:

Here are some of the latest advancements:
1. The Roadwarden's world is growing! New areas are now also visible on the traveling map.


2. I'm currently writing a detailed scene for the ruined village that I've shared here before. The overall "exploration" system of this area is all set and done, and works completely fine. My later edits will surely change various areas and add some new content, but I'm happy about where this is going.




3. The shop screen is now much easier to comprehend and simply prettier. Thanks to the "Trade" button in the quick menu, you can also open the shop without having to choose a specific dialog option during a conversation.



4. The new section of the journal will now include NPC descriptions and, even more importantly, names. It's a solution born from necessity - I can't expect that everyone is going to remember all the character names and detailed information about them.


5. The dialogue I'm currently working on... Is referencing Scottish accents too cliche for fantasy writing in 2019? : P


And, of course, new rewrites, bug fixes, new content, quests...

Aureus

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 104
    • http://moralanxietystudio.com/
Roadwarden - an RPG / Visual Novel / Text Adventure fantasy hybrid
« Reply #21 on: August 17, 2019, 08:07:27 AM »
After over 3 weeks of writing new dialogues, events, items, interactions and one large side quest for Roadwarden, all of this content is finally a part of the actual game.

Here are some of the latest advancements:
1. An example of how combat looks in the game. As well as the "escorting" quests. No grinding for XP, no following a character for 5-10 minutes. A couple of simple clicks, decision making and if you can, you prepare yourself before the encounter happens. Nice and sweat, with an open field for role-playing.


2. Time is going to matter, just as intended. If you postpone the quest for too long, you can still complete it - but it won't be a happy end for the quest giver. Also, you can express how your character is perceiving this situation.


3. My English improves with practice, and I have in plans taking a huge step back and editing the entire tutorial section. Yikes.


4. IDK, I just really like this NPC. : P So far, I like all of my NPCs. You will be able to recognize which ones I don't like by measuring how little to do and dialogues they have attached to them.


5. New inventory section! It still requires some improvements, but it's not too bad!


I'm really getting better at adding the content to the game files - in the beginning, I was spending days fixing broken code and trying to figure out how it should be actually organized. Now? A couple of mistakes, some oversights, a couple of hours and bam, everything works just fine.

Aureus

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 104
    • http://moralanxietystudio.com/
Roadwarden - an RPG / Visual Novel / Text Adventure fantasy hybrid
« Reply #22 on: August 24, 2019, 06:33:01 AM »
Would you like to make an offering?





Aureus

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 104
    • http://moralanxietystudio.com/
Roadwarden - an RPG / Visual Novel / Text Adventure fantasy hybrid
« Reply #23 on: August 31, 2019, 08:22:18 AM »
Hi there!

I'm currently editing some of the older scenes in the game, including the tutorial-prologue scenes, preparing to share the current version of the game with some testers. There's so much new content that needs some additional feedback, and I keep finding (and fixing) annoying bugs... I'm both excited and terrified. : P





Aureus

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 104
    • http://moralanxietystudio.com/
Roadwarden - an RPG / Visual Novel / Text Adventure fantasy hybrid
« Reply #24 on: September 07, 2019, 09:00:04 AM »
It's time to share something larger than a picture. The music presented in Roadwarden's demo was waiting for replacement. Now we have quite a massive list of original tracks that still need a couple of adjustments, yet are already very close to the game's heart.

It's difficult to select and highlight a single track, but here's the one that I love the most: The Edge of Night. It immediately takes me to a wild, dangerous forest. I want to keep the sounds a bit anxious, emotionally vague, without directly telling the players what they are supposed to feel.

I really like it when fantasy video games don't sink into the usual epic orchestras.  

So, do you love it, do you hate it? Let me know, I'm so excited to upload it today!

Aureus

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 104
    • http://moralanxietystudio.com/
Roadwarden - an RPG / Visual Novel / Text Adventure fantasy hybrid
« Reply #25 on: September 28, 2019, 08:16:12 AM »
I'm back! My health is fine now, and I finally had a good week in the realm of Roadwarden. I've drawn a new area, the abandoned watchtower, and I'm really proud of it. Originally, it was meant to be a destroyed tower, but once I've drawn it, I haven't have the heart to turn it into ruins. xD



I've also set up a new area, the road blocked by a fallen tree. The player can investigate this place for clues, trying to figure out what happened in this place. The later part of the quest is not written down yet, mostly because the NPCs related to it are not yet in the game, but it's a fun little side-activity, that requires a bit of deduction.



The game's world keeps growing... And it makes me super happy. ^^


Aureus

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 104
    • http://moralanxietystudio.com/
Roadwarden - an RPG / Visual Novel / Text Adventure fantasy hybrid
« Reply #26 on: October 12, 2019, 08:06:53 AM »
October is moving forward really well. The major part of the watchtower scenes is already in to the game.



There's so much content already, and it seems to be almost bug-free so far (...though it involved fixing hundreds of mistakes), and the music works so well! There's a good chance I'll update the demo sometime next week, just to give you a chance to see how much has everything changed since the release of the old version. : )

During the last couple of days I've drawn a couple of new areas that are going to be used as minor stops and the "loading screens" - small bits of narration that precede arriving to a new area.







And also, I've added two new tracks to the game's Soundcloud. They're worth checking out. ^^

Aureus

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 104
    • http://moralanxietystudio.com/
Roadwarden - an RPG / Visual Novel / Text Adventure fantasy hybrid
« Reply #27 on: October 19, 2019, 08:01:50 AM »
I'm too sick to write dialogues, but I still have enough patience to draw, and drawing is fun. Here are some new areas that I've been working on - some of them are meant to be memorable and interacted with...



while others are going to be used more like loading / transition screens. Creating one of those takes me much less time than it used to, but still, it's so great that podcasts exist.





Also, I've decided to return to some of my older pictures and update them to the new style that I've adapted through the months of learning. My military camp, one of the oldest pictures I've ever made (in February), has changed so many times, and it's all thanks to the feedback and criticism that kind people share with me on-line.



The new version of the Roadwarden's demo is going to be available in November. The introduced changes are going to be huge, so I personally recommend to not play the older demo - though it's still available on Itch.io.

Aureus

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 104
    • http://moralanxietystudio.com/
Roadwarden - an RPG / Visual Novel / Text Adventure fantasy hybrid
« Reply #28 on: October 26, 2019, 08:11:58 AM »
Today's illustration has a little story behind it.



The oldest design document for Roadwarden was written in the first months of 2018. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to make a game with a place like this one - an isolated dwelling, in which the magic crafter stays away from other people, obsessed with her trade, surrounded by her creations.

Originally, I planned to place the game's prototype among these walls.

I prepared my software, but I barely even started. I "realized" I *won't* be able to make pixel art, maybe even ever. I had to postpone the project anyway, so I accepted that I failed and moved on.

When I started working on the game in January 2019, I knew that I still wanted this place to be a part of my fantasy realm. I was slowly learning the basics, and focused on some other areas - those that the player sees in the first stages of the actual game. Most of these areas are going to be available in the new demo.

But I finally decided to give it another shot. And now, here it is. The residence of magic crafter. The exterior went from "impossible," to "finished in two days." The interior took another day. I'm not gonna lie - I'm moved.

For now, enough of drawing. Recently, I'm focused on programming and writing. And it's going pretty well. ^^


Aureus

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 104
    • http://moralanxietystudio.com/
Roadwarden - an RPG / Visual Novel / Text Adventure fantasy hybrid
« Reply #29 on: November 02, 2019, 09:08:21 AM »
I have just this little thing to share, a hidden in-game detail.



Not every character starts the game with this item, and I'm sure some players won't notice its hidden interaction. If you wear it, various NPCs react to your presence in new ways.




So, are you going to wear it all the time, proud of your beliefs? Are you going to keep it hidden, hoping to avoid quarrels? Is it just a tool for you, something that you hide or show depending on who's around you?



How do you play your role?