Afar++ (concept)

[Xilef]

All my old UI work was print-screens of other people's good looking stuff, I've since learnt that everything in the world looks like shit and that's the true quest; to make something that is different to everyone else and better!

Your IRC popup window seems like a good inspiration for having UI elements outside the actual game window, old Mac OS classic games used to do this and Pathways into Darkness is one that comes to mind right now (And fantastically they have an OSX port so Mac users can try it out and see for yourself about this UI system).


Have you done much testing with having other windows around the game screen?

 

[Ellie]

Unlike the last, which was live, this one's just a mockup I'm afraid. I think this will be the full extent of the HUD. I tried removing the borders, but it didn't sit right for me, I'm not sure.

Border's hacked and slashed and needs remaking.

 

[baghead_jackson]

The last one is definitely the best. nice and clean and frames the action well.

 

[Ellie]

Drifted a bit, as I was editing Naramura's art for something else. Ended up with a nice title screen, so I'll use it for a bit before I decide whether using Naramura's stuff is OK for this project.

(Before:

)

This was the girl originally. I depinkified her and got rid of the pants by splicing another battler on it.

 

[Ellie]

I now have a bunch of enemies roaming the world which when on a variable change all get up and walk towards a house and enter it (representing the enemies retreating to a safe house following them losing control of a map). Can easily be extended from there, and made different for certain enemies, so say enemy farmers could disappear first, then as more and more of the map is lost control of, footsoldiers, then scouts, disappear, and then villagers appear from their own safe spots.

The actual controlling variable isn't currently controlled by the server, but that's easy to do. So, essentially, the core mechanic of the game is now done and I can start making content. (And because of that I'm going to move this to Games in Development rather than concept dev).

I'm going with the last screenshot I posted for the HUD.

 

[Xilef]

I just want to say I think you're going about this totally in the right way, by removing real-time multiplayer you can really focus on the story and world, project development would also be simplified and by using RPG Maker you get the interactivity that Afar.ws really craved

 

[Desecration]

Really nice to see that you never stopped working on Afar after all this time, I remember when you first started working on Vengeance so it'll be nice to sort of see it realised. Looking forward to seeing this take shape especially after seeing how much work you put into the original Afar.

 

[Ellie]

Thanks.

Conceptually, going back to the multiple window idea, I've been wondering if it is possible to use the win32 api to, in Vista and above at least, remove the window borders, sit them all side by side, and have it all look like one client, while actually being separate programs. So a web window on the left, game in the middle, and its client on the right, with borders added graphically within those windows and the Windows borders hidden from view so they are seamless.

This, and indeed the extra windows in the first place, would be optional of course.

 

[Xilef]

I don't recommend it, if you're going to do that then make a custom game.exe and do it properly, otherwise make them proper multiple windows

 

[Ellie]

Progress on mapping so far. This is the trade route map.

 

[Xilef]

Probably a bit late to say this, but I don't think large continuous maps is the best idea for this, the players are solo in their world with other player affecting it, doing that across a large space can be difficult to up-keep and I can imagine scenarios where players walk for ages without seeing anything at all.

The afar.ws system of single screen maps with purpose-built structures and NPCs was a good way of going about it, I think single-screen maps would work better in this real-time version too, it would reduce the burden of having to fill the world with stuff, reduce the perceived walking distance for players and is easier to mentally map.

Link's Awakening maps come to mind, you could have the transition from dungeon to town be instant so the player doesn't feel they need to hunt around for the entrance (Something that large maps tend to do for the player).

If you're sticking to large maps, consider restricting the player's movement path so they are essentially walking along corridors that split, Pokemon style, that way they can make clear progress to destinations rather than traverse large areas.

I think you should look at the online systems of pokemon X/Y, the players never meet each other in player character form, but they shown a list of surrounding players that they can battle, trade, send messages, view profiles.

 

[Ellie]

I agree completely, and had moved towards small mapping in my games, I'm not sure why I lapsed here. The map I have will split up nicely anyway as it's not very fluid at the moment, it's too zoned up.

 

[95enthusiast]

Are you still working on this though?

 

[Ellie]

I'm still working on it, I just don't get much time at the moment. It's the summer holidays so work is pretty rammed.