http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/extitle.png[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/exintro.png[/img]
Excalistia is that game I've been working on for a long time. By a long time I mean around 7 years. Of course, it had many different forms and wasn't the same game the whole time, but it's always been my main project that never gets released. After trying almost every maker out there, and even some programming languages, I figured I'd go back to RPG Maker because I really wasn't doing any progress. So the current incarnation is being made with RPG Maker XP and there's some real progress being made this time. Excalistia is a 2D adventure/RPG of sorts, with focus on exploration and puzzles/minigames.
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/exstory.png[/img]
In a post apocalyptic world being consumed by barren wastelands, the few remaining nations fight over scarce land and resources. They also fight the hordes of mutants, robots, and other abominations roaming the wastelands. One such nation is the Federal Republic of Vanalia, which is struggling to boost its crippled post-war economy. When a technology is invented to the suppress the need of sleep in humans, Vanalia is one of the first nations to enforce the use of that technology to maximize the productivity of its citizens.
With sleep banned, an underground black market thrives in Vanalia to provide sleeping pills that circumvent the technology. A dealer of said 'drugs' gets his hand on a sample of a newly invented and allegedly untested sleeping pill. However, when his daughter inadvertently consumes the pill, she falls into a state of deep sleep. Having tried everything in his power to wake her up without any success, the drug dealer decides to trace the origin of the new pill in hopes of finding a way to reverse its effects.
Elsewhere in Vanalia, in the basement of the city hall, a young man is being interrogated by his cruel jailers. He was found wandering aimlessly in the Forbidden Zone: an ancient metropolis now reduced to a jungle of polluted ruins, in his hands a bag of mysterious sleeping pills with unusual permanent effects. Directly above the young man's cell, the General of the Vanalian army is leading a coup d'etat against the elected president, and a terrorist group of Hotmog-worshipping cultists is planting explosives all around the building.
Vanalia as we know it is about to change, and what happens in Vanalia ripples throughout the entire world.
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/exgame.png[/img]
Excalistia is an RPG, but without 'filler' battles. There are still some boss battles every now and then, but it's all scripted. The reason for this is that I wanted to make each battle unique, and also because I want to think of different approaches to gameplay. Dungeons are centered around solving puzzles and winning minigames, while towns have quests that involve certain tasks. Exploration and talking to people is very important, and your game experience is greatly influenced by what you know (what you've seen and who you talked to).
The game is generally open ended, in the sense that you can beat the game in a really short time, but by doing optional quests and unlocking certain scenes the story builds up and gets deeper. You also get different endings depending on what you did, kinda like Chrono Trigger. Boss battles use a turn based tactical battle system, and each battle is unique in a way. You raise stats by doing all sorts of things, such as increasing strength by pushing a boulder to solve a puzzle. Trading is a large part of the game and you can own a shop and deal with a simple market simulation.
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/exbattle.png[/img]
While there aren't many battles in Excalistia, a turn-based tactical system is still used for certain optional boss battles. The battle system borrows elements from games like XCOM, Breath of Fire V, and Growlanser to name a few, but also introduces its own new concepts. It's hard to put the battle system in words; I think it's easier to understand when you play the game or see the battle system in action. Nevertheless, here's a more detailed explanation for people interested:
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/exfeat.png[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/exprogress.png[/img]
I REALLY want to release a demo this year, but progress on the game is slow because I want it to be good (and because I'm lazy). I'm not good with deadlines, and this game might take forever, but it will be released before Duke Nukem Forever... I promise!
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/exscreens.png[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/exmusic.png[/img]
Main Theme by Shannon Mason
Echoing Darkness by Aaron Eason
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/excredits.png[/img]
These people rock:
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/exmore.png[/img]
Check The Official Site and the more frequently updated (yeah right) Development Blog.
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/exintro.png[/img]
Excalistia is that game I've been working on for a long time. By a long time I mean around 7 years. Of course, it had many different forms and wasn't the same game the whole time, but it's always been my main project that never gets released. After trying almost every maker out there, and even some programming languages, I figured I'd go back to RPG Maker because I really wasn't doing any progress. So the current incarnation is being made with RPG Maker XP and there's some real progress being made this time. Excalistia is a 2D adventure/RPG of sorts, with focus on exploration and puzzles/minigames.
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/exstory.png[/img]
In a post apocalyptic world being consumed by barren wastelands, the few remaining nations fight over scarce land and resources. They also fight the hordes of mutants, robots, and other abominations roaming the wastelands. One such nation is the Federal Republic of Vanalia, which is struggling to boost its crippled post-war economy. When a technology is invented to the suppress the need of sleep in humans, Vanalia is one of the first nations to enforce the use of that technology to maximize the productivity of its citizens.
With sleep banned, an underground black market thrives in Vanalia to provide sleeping pills that circumvent the technology. A dealer of said 'drugs' gets his hand on a sample of a newly invented and allegedly untested sleeping pill. However, when his daughter inadvertently consumes the pill, she falls into a state of deep sleep. Having tried everything in his power to wake her up without any success, the drug dealer decides to trace the origin of the new pill in hopes of finding a way to reverse its effects.
Elsewhere in Vanalia, in the basement of the city hall, a young man is being interrogated by his cruel jailers. He was found wandering aimlessly in the Forbidden Zone: an ancient metropolis now reduced to a jungle of polluted ruins, in his hands a bag of mysterious sleeping pills with unusual permanent effects. Directly above the young man's cell, the General of the Vanalian army is leading a coup d'etat against the elected president, and a terrorist group of Hotmog-worshipping cultists is planting explosives all around the building.
Vanalia as we know it is about to change, and what happens in Vanalia ripples throughout the entire world.
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/exgame.png[/img]
Excalistia is an RPG, but without 'filler' battles. There are still some boss battles every now and then, but it's all scripted. The reason for this is that I wanted to make each battle unique, and also because I want to think of different approaches to gameplay. Dungeons are centered around solving puzzles and winning minigames, while towns have quests that involve certain tasks. Exploration and talking to people is very important, and your game experience is greatly influenced by what you know (what you've seen and who you talked to).
The game is generally open ended, in the sense that you can beat the game in a really short time, but by doing optional quests and unlocking certain scenes the story builds up and gets deeper. You also get different endings depending on what you did, kinda like Chrono Trigger. Boss battles use a turn based tactical battle system, and each battle is unique in a way. You raise stats by doing all sorts of things, such as increasing strength by pushing a boulder to solve a puzzle. Trading is a large part of the game and you can own a shop and deal with a simple market simulation.
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/exbattle.png[/img]
While there aren't many battles in Excalistia, a turn-based tactical system is still used for certain optional boss battles. The battle system borrows elements from games like XCOM, Breath of Fire V, and Growlanser to name a few, but also introduces its own new concepts. It's hard to put the battle system in words; I think it's easier to understand when you play the game or see the battle system in action. Nevertheless, here's a more detailed explanation for people interested:
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/screens/battlescr.PNG[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/screens/item2.png[/img]
Battles are turn based, you get a party turn followed by enemy turn. You can freely cycle through characters and the character selected at one time is the active character. Characters can move around using arrow keys (instead of specifying where to go), and you can bring up the actions menu by pressign the action key. Moving and using actions (such as attack, magic, etc.) consumes time points and when you consume enough (enough depends on character speed) you can no longer use the character until the next party turn. In the screenshots, time points are represented by the yellow bar in the character info box, when selecting an action you see a preview indicating how much points the action consumes in the form of a blue extension of the time points bar (first screenshot), and if it requires too much time points the preview bar would be red (second screenshot). The neat thing about time points is that if you end the party turn without consuming all available time, you can still use them in enemy turn to get away from enemies (by using arrow keys to move around) or to trigger certain counter-skills.
Moving on, another thing you might notice in the screenshots are the shield and heart icons. Excalistia doesn't have HP or MP, at least not directly. The heart represents 'base defense', a relatively small value that gets you killed if it reaches 0. Base defense is generally so small that a hit or two from enemies will kill a character, and that's why characters us shields. The shield icon represents the equipped shield's "threshold" value. Unlike base defense, threshold can take on larger values and protects the character until it breaks. The shield threshold isn't simply damaged like HP, it uses a formula to make it degenerate through usage and battle stress; it provides the highest protection when first used but with repeated hits and heightened battle tension the threshold decreases and enemy attacks become more effective, to the point of enemies getting through the shield and to base defense without even breaking the shield. There are skills to repair shields and you can replace a broken shield, but both options leave you vulnerable for at least a turn, which might be just enough to get you killed.
Other aspects of the battle system include the effect of a weapon's weight and accuracy on available time points and on getting through enemy shields. Magic consumes several turns while inflicting powerful status effects on enemies. Skills simply consume time points and provides a variety of specialized attacks (such as a weaker attack that is more precise) that could be chained for interesting effects. A certain type of skills known as passive skills are always active in battle and effect characters and the battle field in different ways. There are also counter skills that can be used in enemy turns provided you have enough time points from party turn. However, I think the most defining feature of Excalistia's battles will be that each battle is unique. Since there are no random or filler battles, it's easy to focus on making battles different, kinda like bosses that have specific ways of beating them in some games.
As complex as all of this might sound, I think it's pretty intuitive in action. You'll just have to wait and see!
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/screens/item2.png[/img]
Battles are turn based, you get a party turn followed by enemy turn. You can freely cycle through characters and the character selected at one time is the active character. Characters can move around using arrow keys (instead of specifying where to go), and you can bring up the actions menu by pressign the action key. Moving and using actions (such as attack, magic, etc.) consumes time points and when you consume enough (enough depends on character speed) you can no longer use the character until the next party turn. In the screenshots, time points are represented by the yellow bar in the character info box, when selecting an action you see a preview indicating how much points the action consumes in the form of a blue extension of the time points bar (first screenshot), and if it requires too much time points the preview bar would be red (second screenshot). The neat thing about time points is that if you end the party turn without consuming all available time, you can still use them in enemy turn to get away from enemies (by using arrow keys to move around) or to trigger certain counter-skills.
Moving on, another thing you might notice in the screenshots are the shield and heart icons. Excalistia doesn't have HP or MP, at least not directly. The heart represents 'base defense', a relatively small value that gets you killed if it reaches 0. Base defense is generally so small that a hit or two from enemies will kill a character, and that's why characters us shields. The shield icon represents the equipped shield's "threshold" value. Unlike base defense, threshold can take on larger values and protects the character until it breaks. The shield threshold isn't simply damaged like HP, it uses a formula to make it degenerate through usage and battle stress; it provides the highest protection when first used but with repeated hits and heightened battle tension the threshold decreases and enemy attacks become more effective, to the point of enemies getting through the shield and to base defense without even breaking the shield. There are skills to repair shields and you can replace a broken shield, but both options leave you vulnerable for at least a turn, which might be just enough to get you killed.
Other aspects of the battle system include the effect of a weapon's weight and accuracy on available time points and on getting through enemy shields. Magic consumes several turns while inflicting powerful status effects on enemies. Skills simply consume time points and provides a variety of specialized attacks (such as a weaker attack that is more precise) that could be chained for interesting effects. A certain type of skills known as passive skills are always active in battle and effect characters and the battle field in different ways. There are also counter skills that can be used in enemy turns provided you have enough time points from party turn. However, I think the most defining feature of Excalistia's battles will be that each battle is unique. Since there are no random or filler battles, it's easy to focus on making battles different, kinda like bosses that have specific ways of beating them in some games.
As complex as all of this might sound, I think it's pretty intuitive in action. You'll just have to wait and see!
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/exfeat.png[/img]
- Original graphics and music
- A fun turn based tactical battle system
- Focus on exploration and puzzle-solving
- A keyword system that allows you to inquire about certain keywords in message boxes to learn more
- Many puzzles, minigames, and optional quests and cutscenes
- Stats and skills that are usable outside battle
- Your actions and choices tend to have real consequences and lead to multiple paths
- A companion creature follows you around and can help you solve puzzles (or you could eat it when hungry...)
- Many unique scripts made specifically for the game (is that a feature?)
- Monkeys, cows, zombies, vampires, hotmogs, mutants, robots, slimes, communists, dinosaurs, Borglidde, and more!
- An improved custom backshave system inspired by Potato Chaos
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/exprogress.png[/img]
I REALLY want to release a demo this year, but progress on the game is slow because I want it to be good (and because I'm lazy). I'm not good with deadlines, and this game might take forever, but it will be released before Duke Nukem Forever... I promise!
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/exscreens.png[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/screens/exin.PNG[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/s ... cess_1.PNG[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/screens/kw2.PNG[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/screens/pres3.PNG[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/screens/noir1.PNG[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/s ... intro2.png[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/s ... office.png[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/s ... tomato.png[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/screens/arwat.png[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/screens/rain.png[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/s ... cess_1.PNG[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/screens/kw2.PNG[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/screens/pres3.PNG[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/screens/noir1.PNG[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/s ... intro2.png[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/s ... office.png[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/s ... tomato.png[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/screens/arwat.png[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/screens/rain.png[/img]
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/exmusic.png[/img]
Main Theme by Shannon Mason
Echoing Darkness by Aaron Eason
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/excredits.png[/img]
These people rock:
- Willow
(Music) - Pongball
(Music) - Ocean's Dream
(Graphics) - TFT
(Graphics) - ramirez
(Misc. Help) - Drule
(Website) - Medieve
(Concept Art)
http://www.excalistia.com/RPG/extopic/exmore.png[/img]
Check The Official Site and the more frequently updated (yeah right) Development Blog.
