March 7, 2011
Flare is mentioned in this post about 4 problems with FOSS games. The author says "I’m actually pretty psyched about FLARE, but if I was a Windows user I’d probably be thinking 'why not just reinstall Diablo?'"
Great question -- once that I don't have a good answer for. It's a fool's quest to try to beat or match Blizzard, even the Blizzard of 15 years ago!
I'm doing this because I'm having fun. Writing low-level game code is how my brain spends its spare cycles. And of the genres of game I'm interested in, 2D isometric action RPGs are probably the most interesting/ambitious.
Staying close to the formula is helping keep my engine on track, for what that's worth. If I'm lucky, someday, people will use Flare to tell their own interesting stories. I don't even have a storyline in my current plan. I intend to create enough assets and code to make basic storytelling and world-creating possible. The genre is still ripe for potential, even if Diablo was a perfect game.
I'm always excited when someone at Free Gamer Blog talks about Flare. Thanks for the plug, qudobup!