http://flarerpg.org/ FLARE News (Free Libre Action Roleplaying Engine) http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130613 Building and Running Flare Games Lately we've added some powerful, flexible options for running Flare games. But it could m http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130528 Teaser Wandercall -- when the fates curse someone to leave their home and go on an adventure. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130430 Heroine Dusk My April One Game A Month game is complete! It's called Heroine Dusk. The sun hasn't risen in days and creatur http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130417 Flare Minions I recently approved code (contributed by Ryan Dansie) that adds basic Minions support in Flare. This will all http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130412 Upcoming Tasks Everything is coming together for the Flare engine. It's an exciting time, and there's so much to do! If you http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130405 Change in the flare-game repo We made a big change to the flare-game repo today, hopefully to help distributors/packagers i http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130331 Flare v0.18 Released Release Summary 10 Equipment Slots, up from 4 (and easily configurable) Starting "Class" choic http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130330 v0.18 Release Candidate I'm putting this link up temporarily for testing. You are welcome to try it. If you get any issues http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130321 String files update for bug fixes Today I approved an update of the translation files related to various bug fixes -- our e http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130319 Iron Buckler Besides splitting armor into more slots, we've also added additional armor tiers into Flare v0.18. This new Ir http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130317 Animal Figurine Artifacts I finally finished up this set of four animal figurines. In Flare these are powerful artifacts th http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130315 Flare v0.18 ready for Translators The string freeze is now in effect for Flare v0.18. This just means that we won't change http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130313 Flare v0.18 String Freeze and Release Target The deadline to get string changes into Flare (and flare-game data) is by the http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130308 Stealth The Ranger tree got a new power this week: Stealth. We created it by abusing the "transform into a creature" code. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130306 March Forward! Flare v0.18 is my March One Game A Month goal. We've made tremendous progress in the engine since the http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130301 Book of Lost Lore My February #onegameamonth project is called Book of Lost Lore. It's a chapter of int http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130219 Flare article at LinuxExpres I found this great article about Flare by Pavel Petřík at LinuxExpres (Czech). It's a surpr http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130218 Polymorphable wins a prize for the Liberated Pixel Cup! Congrats to the Polymorphable crew for taking home the Secondary Pr http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130207 Using item flavor to tell stories In text adventure games of yore, game designers couldn't rely on images to communicate ea http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130131 Bicycle - One Game A Month project for January It's the end of January and I've finished up my first One Game A M http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130124 Two very different shooters WARNING: SPOILERS Part of telling a good story is knowing what stories have already been http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130116 Designing Content Often I'm brainstorming about the high level content of Flare -- especially the basic story that will tie http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130114 Flare alpha vs. beta Flare's engine is close to the feature-completeness line. The features we worked on for v0.18 affected http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130103 One Game A Month 2013 I am participating in One Game A Month (along with a ton of other devs) during 2013. Flare will still http://flarerpg.org/blog/20130102 The Witness quote Since Braid I have viewed programming as mostly pragmatic: I know what I want to do, and I know what ki http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121222 I'll be traveling over the next week for holidays. Not sure if I'll be touching Flare much during that time. I may actually us http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121218 Fun, and Soon Flare gets a mention in Bart's dev-corner post over at Free Gamer: "You don't know it, but your FOSS game pro http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121217 Character Classes and Titles Flare doesn't use a strict class system. On character creation there are five choices for star http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121216 Flare ponderings I earnestly think Flare is going to be something special one day. I appreciate everyone who is sticking ar http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121214 Magic Items We're working on adding a core set of Magic Items to Flare's fantasycore data set. The goal is to create unique http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121210 Games (n.) Over the last couple weeks I played through Dear Esther and Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. Both enthral http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121207 Making Loot Less Random Almost every subsystem in Flare has been written twice: first a version that simply works, and rewr http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121202 From the Inbox Sometimes people send me great emails about suggestions for Flare. Some are good, some not so much. I wanted http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121126 Rings part 2 (Art Preview) Here are four more rings for the collection (click here to view part 1). I think I'll add in som http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121124 The Practicality of CC-BY-SA for Game Art I've been going back and forth on some thoughts about Creative Commons licenses f http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121120 Rings (Art Preview) Working on some 3D rings to use as inventory icons. I have plans for about 8 rings, but I may add more http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121113 New Icons and Items I just pushed an update to flare-game that adds new icons and resets the entire items file. Fair http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121108 Armor Icons Now that armor is divided into more slots, we need to introduce new icons to represent all those pieces. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121106 Item Ideas Have item ideas for Flare (the game)? Share them in the comments. Rather than give the same mundane stats http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121030 Work in Progress: Items With the additional inventory slots we added recently, we'll have to change the scale of most of th http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121027 Powers, Hazards, Effects We have evolved an interesting system for handling martial and magical powers in Flare. I want to http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121026 Future Flare project: realism vs. style First, have a look at these potion renders. It's fun to mess around with higher qua http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121024 Tarot Cards I was thinking it might be interesting to add Tarot Cards to some kinds of Action RPGs -- maybe as collectables http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121022 Isometric Tile tutorial series I have one popular tutorial on how to render Isometric Tiles using Blender. But it really is http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121016 OpenGameArt seeking Drupal/PHP code volunteers Much of the success of Flare is thanks to the community at OpenGameArt. Bart http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121010 Early Estimates vs. Where We Are Now Time for a brain dump. Get ready for some rambling! Dig through the archives an http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121005 Mage and Chain With multiple equipment slots implemented it's hard not to make new armor styles. I added two essentials: fu http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121003 Equipment Slots continued Here's a screenshot of the new Inventory screen. (compare to the old layout) I sep http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121002 Equipment Slots Several cumulative code changes are going to allow us to add new equipment slots to Flare. The curre http://flarerpg.org/blog/20121001 Bugfix release v0.17.1 If you upgraded to v0.17 from v0.16 and had trouble continuing your save games, this minor release s http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120930 v0.17.1 patch coming We're working on an update that will fix the issues with using old save games and settings in the new http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120928 Flare v0.17 Released! Flare is charging through the remaining Alpha engine work, taking us to this latest and greatest v0.1 http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120927 Dungeon Tileset comparison Lately we've been overhauling the classic Dungeon Tileset (which I started making 3 years ago!). http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120926 Desura Thanks to some solid help (from feillyne and protektor), Flare is now available through Desura! (Release announcemen http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120922 Dungeon Doors Continuing the theme of updating the really old Dungeon Tile Set. For the longest time I couldn't http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120919 v0.17 Dates There will be a String Freeze at the end of the day this Friday, September 21st. This means that no new or chan http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120917 Separate Engine and Game Repos It's time to separate Flare into two repos: Engine and Game. But exactly how to do that is u http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120913 Ethics in Game Design: Respecting the Player's Time [Cross-post from a thread on OpenGameArt] My opinion is going to be http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120910 Dungeon Stairs I've been planning several key additions to Flare's core tile sets -- we want game designers to have the pro http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120904 Bastion This weekend I was tempted to run out and purchase Guild Wars 2, but decided to stay in and give some love to my St http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120830 The art of removing features Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n'y a plus rien à ajouter, mais quan http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120824 Making Omelets There's an English idiom: "you have to crack a few eggs to make an omelet". It means that to make something, http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120821 Tile Set improvements The current 3 tile sets will get some love and polish before we start making final maps. If you have http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120815 Playing On my lunch break. I'm sitting down just to play Flare for the first time in a while. And hey: it's pretty fun. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120814 Map on_load events I've added a new event type "on_load" that is automatically executed (if campaign requirements are met) http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120813 Teleport Circle WIP Going with a simple stone design. I'll add runes on top of it (glowing and non-glowing versions). In ga http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120812 Busy Life It happens to all hobbyist game devs -- life gets in the way. But I'm bouncing back soon. I've finally finished m http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120811 Community Spotlight: Polymorphable [Polymorphable is the first released total-conversion mod/game for Flare. Here's a plug http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120810 Community Spotlight: Stefan Beller Stefan's a major contributor to the Tiled map editor and helped us early on with the Fla http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120809 Community Spotlight: Justin Jacobs Justin has been an incredibly valuable contributor for Flare -- he's been a major driving http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120802 Game Schedule When will we be able to see a new Flare The Game? We're very close to having all engine features in pl http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120731 Configurable Menus The Flare crew has been working hard on making all the menus configurable. Now it's much easier to chang http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120729 RMS discusses Steam on GNU/Linux What does Richard M. Stallman think of Steam coming to GNU/Linux? Read his post over at gn http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120723 Interface Modding I'm back from vacation! I didn't have reliable internet access last week, so if I've missed an important http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120713 Community Spotlight: Justin Nichol Before Double Fine opened the Kickstarter floodgates on the game dev world, Justin Nichol http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120711 Community Spotlight: Igor Paliychuk Igor has done a lot of work with the Configuration menu in Flare. Beyond that, he's a http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120710 Community Spotlight: Brandon Morris If any particular song in Flare is bringing you back to the good old days of dark/gothi http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120709 Community Spotlight: Thane Brimhall I'm starting a new occasional blog entry called Contributor Spotlight. Flare is support http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120707 Flare v0.16 Released! Flare version 0.16 is ready for playing and modding! Originally slated as "Advanced Enemies", this up http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120706 Animated Tiles To show off the new animated tiles feature, the lit braziers are now in motion. Last Call For T http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120705 Render lighting This week I've taken the time to re-render some of the oldest assets with updated lighting. This includes 3 http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120630 Stop! Collaborate and Listen String freeze! I got one new map added in time, a small Ancient Temple. It's an area to help b http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120626 Monster Spawners I'm adding monster spawners to Flare. You've seen these in classic action/RPG games: they constantly summo http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120625 Flare v0.16 RC 1 It's still early in the release process -- we have a good amount of game data, art, bug fixes, and transla http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120624 Code-Feature Freeze The code features for v0.16 are complete. We have the next two weeks to focus on bugs and game data/art http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120622 v0.16 Progress Version 0.16 nears! A suite of very nice engine polish is just around the corner. Some things to look forwar http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120619 Weapon Design Flare's current alpha art (called "fantasycore") is limited. If you've been following the blog you know that http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120617 RSS Feed Fixed the RSS feed. Had an unescaped ampersand in a blog post. That's what I get for using a roll-my-own ultra min http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120602 Liberated Pixel Cup! Yesterday kicked off the Liberated Pixel Cup! I'm excited to see some of my favorite organizations (Fr http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120529 Developer Discussion on v0.16 Flare devs/contributors, time to discuss the upcoming release of v0.16. Let's put together a http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120523 On Diablo 3 The last two weeks have been a blur for me. Conference, funeral, lots going on at the office, and Diablo 3's re http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120507 Conference I'll be away on a work conference the rest of the week. If this space goes quiet for a while, that's why. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120503 Jabberwocky 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120430 Isometric Tiles Tutorial Update By popular demand, I've updated my Isometric Tiles Tutorial for Blender version 2.6. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120428 Accuracy? Is an "Accuracy" stat appropriate for action games? Even RPGs which are heavy action? Classic D&D had http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120423 Cubicle mini tile set Who says Flare has to be Medieval Fantasy? Here's a mini Cubicle tile set. Perfect for Cubicle Chair http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120421 Cathedral Structures Have another peek at some rough Cathedral art. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120419 Tile Set Definitions guide If you're trying to understand how Flare's tile sets work, check out this article on Tile Set De http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120416 Cathedral tile set mockup A few months ago I had this grand, weird idea for a Cathedral tile set. It's a relief to finally http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120415 Flare art featured in HTML5 tutorial Check out this tutorial series by David Ang called Isometric Game Development in HTML http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120411 Flare now available in Ubuntu Software Center [12.04] Exciting news by way of Ubuntu Vibes - Flare is now available in the http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120410 Wyvern Elemental Skins The new elemental wyvern skins are complete! I've added the art sources to Flare's github as well. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120408 A Wyvern for each Element Old palette-based games could do easy (sometimes ugly) color swapping at runtime. But carefully p http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120407 Learning HTML5/canvas/js Here's a palate-cleanser sized game. I put this together in 24 hours to learn about new web game t http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120405 Starting Small I spend a lot of time in r/gamedev. At least once a day, some young person eager to get into game developmen http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120403 Focus: Game or Engine? I'm pondering the focus for the near-future of Flare. Please add your opinion to the discussion. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120401 Wyvern posted to OpenGameArt Check out the Wyvern at OpenGameArt. Wyvern data I've also added Wyvern data http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120329 Wyvern with diffuse texture Flare artist Justin Nichol has delivered the final Wyvern diffuse texture. See it in action! http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120328 Base Hero Updates (WIP) Testing the updated Hero mesh and rig with an attack animation. The mesh has some better topology t http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120320 New Commissions Flare received a generous donation this week, so we'll be kicking off new commissions! The Wyvern te http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120313 EnemyBehavior I created a "behavior" branch in git for hacking away at the Enemy class logic. A creature "Has-A" behavior s http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120312 0.16 Plans Our ideal release date for v0.16 (March 31) is coming soon. Time is getting away from me due to lots of other li http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120303 Wyvern data added Some WIP Wyvern data has been added to Flare's "fantasycore" mod. It's not finished, but it's useful to t http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120227 Wyvern Animations Experimenting with Wyvern animations. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120224 Vacation Last weekend I went on a short trip to New Orleans. Along the way I got some really great game design ideas. There http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120214 Wyvern Armature The wings can get a bit funny but they're decent enough for most practical poses. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120213 Wyvern WIP Having fun with the low poly wyvern. With every new model I create, I learn just a little more about effective p http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120209 Paypal Donate button added By request of a community member, I've added a Paypal Donate button to the sidebar. I also creat http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120208 Portraits by Justin Nichol Congrats to Justin Nichol, who has finished the Creative Commons Fantasy Portrait Marathon! Soon http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120130 Wyvern, perhaps To break past this EnemyBehavior code, I think the best course of action is to make a new creature that req http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120125 EnemyBehavior I've been thinking about the EnemyBehavior interface and it's tricky. I'm trying to plan for several future e http://flarerpg.org/blog/20120109 Code Diagram I drew up a quick diagram of how Flare's code is structured. This mainly shows parent/child/sibling relationsh http://flarerpg.org/blog/20111231 Two Years of Flare If you check the archives you'll see that Flare v0.01 was released on Jan 1, 2010. That means I started http://flarerpg.org/blog/20111225 Flare v0.15.1 for Linux I've tagged v0.15.1 especially for Linux users. It fixes a couple issues (build flags, random enemy http://flarerpg.org/blog/20111223 Flare v0.15 "Translations and Mods" Screenshots Download Windows OSX Linux Release http://flarerpg.org/blog/20111219 I'll be without consistent Internet access until Wednesday night, Dec 21. I'll catch up on Pull Requests etc. then. Thanks for http://flarerpg.org/blog/20111216 Font Rendering BugFix We were seeing drastic lag when trying to render Cyrillic text (maybe any multi-byte utf8?) in real-t http://flarerpg.org/blog/20111213 v0.15 String Freeze - Time for Translations If you are interested in translating Flare, now's the time! There will be no st http://flarerpg.org/blog/20111212 Flare v0.15 RC 1 Playing on Windows? Try out the Release Candidate for Flare version v0.15. Translations Tomorrow http://flarerpg.org/blog/20111208 Creature Updates Every time we add a lot of new content, everything we've done as far as balance goes out the window. As ti http://flarerpg.org/blog/20111205 Grassland Tiles Complete Phew, finally! I've posted the set on OpenGameArt.org. If you want to play with the set in Tiled c http://flarerpg.org/blog/20111201 v0.15 Timeline The primary code for Flare v0.15 is done. Already translations and mods are incredibly useful. Mods let me t http://flarerpg.org/blog/20111128 Grasslands The grasslands are coming along. If you're playing from the latest github master, you can enable the "frontier" http://flarerpg.org/blog/20111127 v0.15 coming soon We've been busy on v0.15. I know there hasn't been a new blog post in a while, but simply take a peek at http://flarerpg.org/blog/20111104 Translations First, I want to thank everyone sending in translations. You guys are awesome, and it makes testing our newest http://flarerpg.org/blog/20111027 In Development for v0.15 Translations Thane is working on translation support. After some deliberation, we decided to us http://flarerpg.org/blog/20111024 Flare in Debian Flare is now a package in Debian (unstable). Wow! Special thanks to Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo and Jan-H http://flarerpg.org/blog/20111022 Relearning Blender I'm messing around with the latest Blender (2.6) after sticking with 2.49 for as long as I could. It wil http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110927 Cost of Game Development A nice read: Game budgets, a powers-of-10 overview http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110917 GNU gettext Rather than roll my own translation solution, I think it makes the most sense to simply use GNU gettext. This w http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110912 Grassland Preview Let's take a look at the almost-complete Grassland tile set (click to enlarge). I'll add m http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110906 The Game Plan Flare is only going to be relevant if I release several games: improve the engine each time until it's proven http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110828 Sprite Scale I've been experimenting with larger scale sprites. Here is the base human male at the current scale (each tile http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110825 Cabin I need a very small camp/village for the grassland area. So here's a quick & dirty cabin. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110818 Flare mentioned in OpenGameArt talk Here's Bart Kelsey's talk at Libre Graphics Meeting 2011 about OpenGameArt. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110815 Grasslands Tileset List The grasslands is one of those tile sets where 256 tiles aren't anywhere near enough to fit all the http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110809 Slow Times! Flare has taken the back burner while real life stuff has been out of control. It happens. This week I p http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110801 Experimenting with Grasslands I made some grass and water tiles before, but I don't care for the way they turned out. Using http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110727 SDL_ttf dependency added I don't take adding dependencies lightly. In my mind, every new dependency is another barrier to b http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110721 Follow-up Thought to Bug Tale #1 One reason this bug was hard to see was the delayed trigger -- something happens in one pa http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110720 Bug Tale #1 Today I merged many significant patches added by various contributors. It was time to get back into the swing o http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110718 Catching up on GitHub I took a few days away from GitHub and Flare to write part of a book chapter, give a talk, and handle http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110713 Flare v0.14.1 Bugfix Release I've tagged v0.14.1 over at the Flare GitHub site. It patches a significant memory leak in the http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110709 Free Gamer and HD Video qubodup over at Free Gamer posted a update about Flare v0.14. He also recorded this 720p HD video o http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110707 Flare v0.14 "Main Menus" Released This release is all about wrapping the core gameplay in main menus, pushing Flare closer http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110706 Map Progression I've been thinking about story progression in terms of maps and tile sets. There are specific tile s http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110705 Windows Ready Here is a Windows release candidate for v0.14. We have a few more minor data changes but the code is ready fo http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110628 Isometric Hero and Heroine I've uploaded all the hero/heroine sprite art to OpenGameArt under CC-BY-SA 3.0. Flare v0.1 http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110625 Female Sprites added Very exciting -- one of the huge art components needed for v0.14 is ready. All the female sprites have http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110621 Note To Self (Art Scale) Herein I justify the current scale of Flare's art. I'm writing this because I get tempted to scale http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110620 Test Build for Windows Here is a Flare test build for Windows. Many of the new v0.14 features are ready (mostly the main me http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110612 Flare Progress Flare is coming along nicely. Several of you are helping with much-needed cleanup and refactoring of the cod http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110607 New Character Screen ASCII sketch time! ####### Choose a Portrait ######## Base Type http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110606 Officially Moving To GitHub Flare is taking a distinct change in direction with a move to GitHub. The Google Code page will http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110603 Git? Linus talks about Git [--Update--] I've made a copy of Flare on GitHub. I'll try this out for a while, s http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110531 Current Questions Q. Is Flare ready for me to make games? A. No. The funny part about software development: the first 90% http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110530 Game Slots Here's a preview of the game slots menu which appears when you want to load a game or start a new game. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110527 Crazy Code Weekend I'm planning on writing a lot of code this weekend. Fair warning: the latest svn version might not be pl http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110524 Tiled and Maps I'm looking at Tiled's automapping feature as a way to speed up basic map building. I can set up all the rul http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110520 Violence Action RPGs, traditionally, base the core gameplay around violent combat. Flare is no different. So far I'v http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110515 Contributions Lately I've gotten several very large contributions to Flare (code and art) that I've had to reject. I don't http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110509 Flare Vision Loristan asked: "Clint, what is your vision for Flare, what are you trying to ultimately achieve?" I haven't th http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110507 Joystick Support Artur "Zear" Rojek sends in a patch to add joystick input support for Flare. Excellent! To make that pa http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110506 Title Menu I've added a basic title menu. Along with this I created a semi-generic button class (buttons that are all the s http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110505 Flare Wiki I set up a Wiki for Flare. I have it open to anyone right now. I'm collecting story ideas for the first Flare ga http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110504 No Rest for the Wicked v0.14 is ambitious. Let's take a look. Title Menu The first attempt at a title menu will b http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110502 Flare v0.13 released - "Quests" Flare now supports quests! This release marks a major leap forward for the story-telling ca http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110429 Testing for v0.13 I plan to release v0.13 soon. Over the last couple days I improved the Log menu to display help/reminder http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110425 Windows test for r359 Here is an out-of-band test release for Flare (for Windows folks). This release is for players interest http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110422 Quest Chain The first quest chain is added to Flare in r353. It walks players through Averguard Keep. Heroes must defeat th http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110417 CampaignManager v0.13 has a new class called CampaignManager that I'm using to store the progress of the current story. Es http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110416 NPC Me Open Game Art has a new weekly challenge coordinator. User kurtisevan has taken over for me, after I started and ra http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110412 Contributions On Hold I've been overwhelmed lately by the amount of interest in Flare. For now I'm asking that code/art co http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110410 Flare Timeline This is the approximate timeline from where we are now to Flare's first full game. April 2011: Flare v0 http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110406 Monologue The latest check-in has example dialog support. Well, really at this point it's Monologue (the hero doesn't talk http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110404 CampaignManager.cpp I started the very basic framework for the Campaign (story) Manager class for Flare. Right now all it http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110330 Stackable Items Bonbadil has sent in a patch that adds stackable item support. Old save files should be safe. The patch t http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110329 Art used in 7-Day Roguelike I'm proud to see one of my tilesets used in a 7-Day Roguelike Challenge game! The developers, http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110328 Portraits I'm starting to test portrait integration into NPC talkers. Here's an in-game mockup. Campaign Dialog http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110327 Flare on Ubuntu If you're interested in trying Flare on Ubuntu, this article from Ubuntu Vibes is a great place to start: H http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110323 Config Settings Files This was way overdue, but now there are finally some main config files. Now the following items are http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110322 Stat Renaming This is what happens when I get too much extra time -- I start changing things randomly! I have rename http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110321 Playtesting levels 1-4 Tonight I playtested each "pure" build from levels 1-4. It's a vulnerable area, especially in a non http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110320 Balance - Part 2 I'm testing several balance changes. Starting HP and MP is now 12 Each level of Physical now http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110319 Balance Balance, the RPG task that never ends! But has to start somewhere. If you've played Flare enough times, you http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110318 Various Fixes Fixed frames-per-second throttling, should now correctly run at a max ~30fps. As a result of the above, http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110317 NPCs with Dialog morris989 sent in a Flare patch to add talking NPCs. It's a simple implementation, but it adds the needed h http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110315 Flare v0.12 "Vendors" Released It's only been a couple weeks but v0.12 is ready! Here's a quick list of changes since v0.1 http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110314 v0.12 Release Candidate I've packaged (win, osx, src) what might be version 0.12. Will do an official release tomorrow. I http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110313 Vendor Ready For Testing I've finished the basic Vendor system. There is now a vendor standing near the spawn/starting poi http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110312 Flare Promotion I've gotten this question more than any other in the past two weeks: "Why aren't you promoting Flare more? http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110311 Item Powers on the Action Bar Items with Powers can now be used through the action bar. Details from r260: Potion http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110310 Pausing Having a menu open no longer pauses gameplay. This option is set in Settings.h. Vendors I'm starting to http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110309 Flare Art Here's a list of art I'd like to see in Flare soon. Grassland Tileset A good grassland tileset will, of http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110308 Another v0.11 video: this time showing off more powers. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110307 Why yet another Diablo-like? Flare is mentioned in this post about 4 problems with FOSS games. The author says "I’m actu http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110304 Flare r247 binary for Windows I've released an out-of-band, UNSTABLE AND EXPERIMENTAL binary of the latest code -- mainly t http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110303 Mouse Movement Pavel Kirpichyov "Cheshire" has submitted a patch that enables mouse movement to Flare. For those of you who http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110302 v0.11 Video by Sunburn. Warning: a couple spoilers of the new Cave level. Over 1500 downloads in 2 days No real pu http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110228 Flare v0.11 "Enemy Powers" Flare v0.11 is up! It's been a long, busy four months and I'm finally back on track. The focus http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110226 v0.11 Release Candidate Google Code revision 232 represents the release candidate for v0.11. As far as I know, the code fe http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110224 Monster Levels and Power Definitions Two new Wiki pages have been added. Monster Levels is a guideline of what base http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110215 Random Updates Fireball (a ranged magic spell cast by some enemies) has new art. I figured out that fire has to be signifi http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110214 Weekend Update I was able to update several items this weekend (revision 219). Created a nice spear animation C http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110207 Enemy HP Lowered I lowered enemy HP across the board. It shouldn't be a chore to dispatch one enemy of equal level -- this http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110206 Cave Test Map and Speed Improvement I'm working on a new cave map. It's not populated yet but it's looking great. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110131 Level Cap raised to 17 I've gone ahead and raise the level cap to 17. This allows one hero to unlock the entire proficienc http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110129 Enemy Power Cooldowns Added cooldowns per power slot (currently melee physical, melee magical, ranged physical, ranged ma http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110125 Dispelling the Cave Magic If you're wondering how I made those Cave Tiles so that they seamlessly fit together, here's a ro http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110123 High Poly Modeling I want to take the time to do nice, polished, high-poly models. But instead I'm putting that time into http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110118 Creature Options I've given monsters lots of great powers, but it seems silly for identical creatures to throw out very dif http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110112 Indie Games I got to play several great indie games in 2010. Even some very small experiences have left a strong impact on http://flarerpg.org/blog/20110102 Refactoring Powers II I've been working on some tedious refactoring. I've got most of the powers moved to config file. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101226 Happy Holidays I'm getting some down time. Hope you are too! http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101217 Big Picture: CC, EFF, FSF Making and playing games are great hobbies. On terms of global importance, though, these things http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101215 Project renamed to FLARE This project is being renamed to FLARE (Free/Libre Action Roleplaying Engine). Stay tuned for mor http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101214 Portraits of Giants I previously mentioned that Justin Nichol is doing a Kickstarter project to make Creative Commons Fanta http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101210 Refactoring Powers Once a system is far enough along, any refactoring is daunting. Especially when it involves temporarily http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101206 Character Creation Screen Time to lay down my ideas about a character creation screen. Because of OSARE's classless http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101204 PayPal removed I removed PayPal as a donation option. I do not agree with their closure of the Wikileaks donation account. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101201 Creative Commons Fantasy Portrait Marathon OpenGameArt contributor Justin Nichol is taking pledges towards creating 30 high http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101129 Art To Do OSARE has a few months of alpha code tasks before it's time to really focus on more art. However, that new art s http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101122 v0.11 Plans This changes almost daily but it helps me to write things down. The more I write down, the less I have to jugg http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101121 Enemy Powers Playing with enemy powers is far more fun than I expected. If you check out the latest update you'll fi http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101118 Making Powers Configurable v0.10 added hero powers in a pretty crude way. I added power variables as needed until the enti http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101116 Cave Tilesetdef The "Tilesetdef" file for the Cave tileset is complete and checked in. For those wondering, this is http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101114 Cave Tileset The first version of the Cave Tileset is complete. Check it out over at Open Game Art! I still need to creat http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101111 File Format Changes I made two small changes in some of the file formats. I wanted to make these changes now before too ma http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101107 Isometric Tiles Tutorial Added a tutorial on how to create good-looking isometric 2D tiles using Blender. This should help http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101103 Caves WIP http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101102 Art Week I have next week off from work. Staying at home. Letting the brain rest. So I'm also putting a moratorium on ne http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101029 And next up... Version 0.11 will likely center around monsters. Now that the hero has Powers, it's only fair if we get ske http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101025 OSARE version 0.10 "Powers" released New in this version: Magic, melee, and ranged powers Action bar support fo http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101017 v0.10 Progress I have most things I want done for v0.10. The only thing I'd want to add in this release is placing potions http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101015 Hello How are you? I am busy. I'm considering replacing the "Charge" power. It would just be a pain to implement. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101007 Too busy! So I squandered my lunch break on this. [--update--] Added a starfield background (view at 480p) and bullets. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20101003 Power Sound Effects I'm adding sound effects to powers. These are the ones that need effects; crossing them out as I add the http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100927 First Game World The first osare-powered game (you're seeing the beginnings of it in the "Game World" section on this site) http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100923 XP Bar Thanks to some ideas and prompting from Kyle873, I added an XP bar to the HUD. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100922 Screenshots and Videos I set up new screenshots and videos pages. I can't believe I let the project go this far without a sc http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100918 Powers Update Most hero powers are now implemented, if in a crude way. I need to add line-of-sight checks for several powe http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100917 Selling Items Traditionally in these kinds of games, selling unwanted items means a trek back to the vendor every time your http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100916 Speed Player/Enemy speed is stored as int coordinates. Diagonal speed vs. cardinal speed is calculated using the Pythagore http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100915 Powers Progress Shoot Swing Lore Return Bleed Block Shock Heal Multishot Warcry Quake http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100914 Buffs and Debuffs These buffs/debuffs are planned for my game: DamageOverTime: lose 1 hp per second for the durati http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100913 Missile Accuracy Missile spells have a radius and speed. Radius is how close a creature has to be to the projectile for an http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100912 AOE Spells I added a couple AOE spells, as those are fairly easy to implement: Quake and Burn. Note Quake doesn't have its http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100911 Projectiles The latest check-in (revision 128) contains simple support for projectiles: arrows and shock spell. Note that http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100910 Armory Page The new Armory page lists all the weapons and armor currently in the game! Vista Workaround Using Vista http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100909 Action Bar and Powers Time to nail down the logistics of the Action Bar and Powers. Action Bar already has a place i http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100908 Why? I want to write a long overdue post about why I'm making OSARE. So many thoughts churning through my head that I need http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100906 What's Next for OSARE? I pushed a lot of new code out this last week. It feels pretty good to sit back and just play the g http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100905 OSARE v0.09 Released A fast release this time! Less than a week since v0.08, I've been having lots of fun coding updates. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100904 Averguard Complex Added the last wing of the Averguard Keep: the Complex. The monster composition is significantly harder http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100903 Experience and Leveling Up I'm on a code spree; v0.09 might come soon. The major addition I wanted to do for v0.09 i http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100902 Gold Coins The latest check-in has gold coins dropping from creatures/containers. Warning: if you get over 2 billion gold yo http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100901 OSARE v0.08 "Loot" Released The newest OSARE release is focused on loot. Over 500 items are in the game, dropped from enem http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100830 Bug Testing for v0.08 The latest OSARE Google Code check-in is my candidate for v0.08. Included is nearly 600 game items, http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100829 Item Database All of the coding is done for the v0.08 loot update. Woot! What remains is adding all the starting ga http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100826 Loot Stats Finally got all the starting loot animations done. As far as I know, this means I'm completely done with art asse http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100818 Loot Animation Making a list of the loot animations I need. Just to keep track. Essentially every item type has a unique http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100808 Loot Lots of real life events have been overshadowing my OSARE time. Thanks to all of you who still have interest in the p http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100708 Unicode Unicode is slightly intimidating, but I think I've found the most useful way to tackle it in my game. GNU Unifon http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100630 Minotaur 360 http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100627 Minotaur WIP: http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100624 OSARE updates might be slow for a couple weeks while I'm apartment hunting. I am still choosing a loot system and I may have http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100621 Analyzing Loot Choosing a loot system is probably the trickiest part; implementation is a close second. Loot affects most http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100611 OSARE v0.07 Released: Inventory The newest version of OSARE is ready, this time with the focus on Inventory. In game, open t http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100608 0.07 Coming Soon 0.07's main focus is "Inventory". I will probably package 0.07 this weekend. The current checked-in code r http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100606 Artifacts I got artifacts working in-game. Currently they can be created to boost a few main stats: hp, hp regen, mp, mp reg http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100602 Working on 0.07 I'm working on some fun interface stuff for version 0.07. Mouseover tooltips system (done) Word http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100528 OSARE v0.06 released! OSARE version 0.06 is now ready for download. New in this release: Tweaked some sound effects d http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100527 Antlion and Goblin Finally finished animating the old Antlion and Goblin models that have been sitting on my hard drive for a http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100525 Skeletons! I just finished adding support for multiple enemy types. The maps now have both zombies and skeletons. There a http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100524 Containers and Switches I added support for map containers and switches. Currently these are all "pressure plate" type activ http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100519 Footsteps I added footstep sound effects to OSARE (look at the Google Code link for the bleeding edge stuff). The game's ani http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100516 OSARE v.0.05 OSARE version 0.05 is now up. Added map transitions Added a starter dungeon with three wings named http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100515 Editing OSARE Maps with Tiled I'm using Tiled to do most of my OSARE map editing. Here's how my current process works: http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100509 Tiled Today I tried using Tiled to edit maps for OSARE. It took a bit of work to set up, but I think it's worth it. My ma http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100506 Town Tiles Testing some medieval building tiles: [--Update--] Done! Medieval Building Tiles http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100430 Dungeon Entrances I've been working on some larger graphics for dungeon entrances and other set pieces. http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100429 Free Gamer Blog plug qubodup has plugged OSARE over at the Free Gamer blog. Sweet! Map Loading Collecting my thoughts http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100428 Looking Towards 0.05 I've been pretty busy with life and work, so I haven't really touched anything yet for 0.05. The firs http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100420 Commissions Update Several artists have contacted me in the last couple weeks to see if help is needed on OSARE. I'm already http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100414 OSARE v0.04 Release OSARE v0.04 is ready for download. New to this version is font support and basic menus. I spent a lot o http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100406 Blarumyrran (from #opengameart on freenode) has taken on a commission to put some polish on my equipment icons. Thanks, Blarumy http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100405 Font and Menus I've been doing lots of work on OSARE and 0.04 is just around the corner. Most of my work has been outside http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100228 Version 0.03 Release Version 0.03 is up! The core gameplay is starting to emerge. Combat to the death. You can k http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100215 Version 0.02 Release Version 0.02 is up! Things are finally starting to get interesting. Re-rendered all assets usi http://flarerpg.org/blog/20100101 Version 0.01 Release Download demo (win) demo (mac) demo (src)