Monday evening, I understood what my game wanted to be about. Tuesday, I realized that the game was horribly, horribly flawed. Coming in, all I really knew I wanted to do was the graph paper-like room generation, and I hoped the rest of the game would occur to me as I was doing that. And it did – it just turned out to be a different game than the one I was writing. ...
For those people who don’t care about the 7DRL game design challenge, don’t worry – things will be back to normal this weekend. I’ve just finished day 3 of the seven days, and I’ve almost finished the basic mechanics. Today I added the inventory system and integrated it into the targeting window. You can only wield one item at a time; I’m not going to bother with armor and that stuff. If you want to use something, you will be holding it. ...
My 7DRL entry is moving along, but it’s not moving quickly. I’d said even before I started this that, given a full time job, how the game was at the end of Sunday – today – is how it would have to be. I ALMOST got inventory in today; it is partially in, but I need to display it, and I will get to that, but it will likely be the last feature I implement. I need to start adding in the content. ...
I started working on my entry to the annual 7DRL (7 Day Rogue-like) game design challenge today. I’ve been working on algorithms for the game for the past week; today I took the algorithms for map generation and room connectivity and put them into real code. It turned out pretty much exactly as I imagined – I am going for a game that looks like it’s being played with toys on a map drawn with marker on graph paper. When I got it first working, I realized I needed a way to show where you had already been, so I draw visited rooms in a muted shade to give the player SOME idea when they’ve cleared the map. ...
My character getting the kill shot on the Archdemon. Not a spoiler – no matter what you do, it’s gonna be you vs the Archdemon at some point, and you will kill it. Well, not 100% sure if it’s going to be you that does it all the time. That’s the take-away lesson about Dragon Age: Origins. No matter what twists and turns your story has, you’re going to end in the same place. Was it worth the trip? It definitely was. Would I do it a second time? I don’t know. ...
I have about 27 hours into Bioware’s Dragon Age: Origins, and have explored about a third of the world. Having enlisted the aid of Arl Eoman, the Circle of Magi and the Dalish Elves to my cause, I am now exploring the depths of Ozrammar, hoping the dwarfs will honor their ancient treaty. My party is in the vicinity of levels 13-15; it’s really nice that characters you don’t include in your party still level up along with the main character, always a level behind. My main character, Tipa the City Elf Rogue, has both of her subclasses now – bard and duellist. I haven’t trained any of the bard powers, but I am well down the track for duellist, a really excellent choice for how I play. ...
I’d promised myself I wasn’t going to play Dragon Age: Origins until I’d finished Torchlight all the way through. Not that this was a huge burden, but I do hate leaving good games unplayed just because another game found its way into my computer. I knew I was getting to the end of my quest to thwart the power of Alric, Ordrak and the power of Dark Ember when I hit the Black Castle far, far below the shaken inhabitants of Torchlight. You want epic loot? EVERYTHING is epic in the Black Castle. Epic Common Sword. Epic Worn Shoulderpads. Epic Broken Dagger. Epic Clump of Kitty Litter :) All the valueless, vendor-trash loot was epic! The final battle against the awakened Ordrak was satisfyingly, er, epic. ...
The weekend wasn’t ALL EVE Online, though it could have been. That game is just SO addictive, though, that I have to consciously NOT log in, find something else to do. Thankfully, I had Torchlight backing me up. My Torchlight Vanquisher is about 4/5 of the way through the main storyline, and I’m already thinking about her retirement. In Torchlight, once you’ve finished the main storyline, you can continue on with custom maps or user mods, or retire the character. Retired characters can pass along one special item to their heir, and this item will become simultaneously more powerful and lower level. You can keep doing this until you eventually make the most powerful item in the game that can be wielded by a very low level character. My plan now is to retire the Vanquisher Marksman and start a Vanquisher Rogue – a two-bladed dervish of spinning steel, and then use that character to run user mods. ...
Oh, let’s call a spade a bloody shovel, shall we? Attack from a safe distance with a rifle? CHECK. Kitty pet that does all the hard work (including running to town to sell loot!!??) CHECK. Yeah. My Torchlight character is a hunter, no two ways about it. But in old Mythos fashion, she could have gone down other paths than Marksman – she could have chosen to become a Rogue, a master of thrown weapons and two-bladed fighting, or an Arbiter, expert with traps and gadgets. ...
Tactical, party-based RPGs in a browser? For free? Yeah, it exists. For all that it is a tie-in to Bioware’s forthcoming RPG Dragon Age: Origins, EA 2D’s Dragon Age Journeys is not only an introduction to the lore and characters of that game, but an excellent RPG in its own right. In first chapter of three dealing with side stories in the DA:O milieu, “The Deep Roads”, you come to the Dwarven city of Ozrammar to defend it against the Darkspawn that prowl the subterranean passages to and from the ancient city. The world above faces destruction by the magic-crazed forces of evil. By sealing off Ozrammar from the world, the dwarves felt their city would be a safe haven in a world gone mad. It’s about to become an abattoir instead. ...