Free/Libre Action Roleplaying Engine
The code features for v0.16 are complete. We have the next two weeks to focus on bugs and game data/art. String Freeze is still scheduled for June 30th.
I placed a wyvern on the island in Frontier Plains. Notice he’ll fly right over the water. We’ll try making at least one new map where Wyverns have a huge advantage thanks to flying.
Version 0.16 nears! A suite of very nice engine polish is just around the corner. Some things to look forward to, if you aren’t already playing from source:
I’m tentatively proposing June 30th as the String Freeze Date, with July 7th as v0.16 binary release. We have only a few more tasks to get through, but if those get sticky we may move those dates back one week.
Flare’s current alpha art (called “fantasycore”) is limited. If you’ve been following the blog you know that we’re working on higher scaled art. In the current art each tile represents about 1.5m x 1.5m; the new art will use 1m square.
With everything being about 150% larger, we need to put a lot more details into models. So most of the old art can’t simply be rendered upscale. That’s okay though — we’ve learned so much in the last couple years that we can create much more polished work.
Here is a preview of some new Iron Weapons. It’s mostly me playing around with a theme set of weapons (those serrated edges, the two-tone metal). Some thoughts about the designs:
We’re also experimenting with better light setups and more frames of animation. Here you can see the iron longsword in the hands of the new male hero model. I like the back light and hope we can make it look correct in game.
It’s rendered at 2x scale (128×64 base tile size). It holds up, and is actually a decent size on a 1080p display. I’ll be pushing for all of the new art to look nice at this scale, and most likely we’ll allow the entire game to be played at this resolution.
Is there a point to having so many similar melee weapons? They might not matter much in the current implementation, but we’re working on ideas to make a variety of melee weapons interesting. For instance, we could give all swords a bonus to parry; all hammers a bonus to stun; all axes a bonus to bleed.
I plan on experimenting with weapon attack speeds; though it may be done with a handful of fixed speeds (slow, medium, fast instead of a continuum of speeds). That brings a nice dimension to weapons. Big slow weapons would be useful for efficiency, as you’re putting out similar DPS for less MP spent. Small fast weapons would be useful for triggering procs more often.
And it’s more interesting to see a variety of drops and visual looks on the hero. Right now in fantasycore we went with the bare minimum equipment to get the engine going, but we can have fun expanding the set of weapons later. With the introduction of many different sets of weapons we can add a more interesting weapon progression. Instead of linear upgrades based on size (dagger, shortsword, longsword), we can have a full suite of weapons every few levels (with updated materials or themes). Currently you need 4 Physical to use a longsword; in the future you might need 14 Strength, 9 Dexterity to use an Obsidian Katana.
Fixed the RSS feed. Had an unescaped ampersand in a blog post. That’s what I get for using a roll-my-own ultra minimalist blog software.
How minimalist? Let me show you.
Yesterday kicked off the Liberated Pixel Cup! I’m excited to see some of my favorite organizations (Free Software Foundation, Creative Commons, Mozilla, OpenGameArt) team up for this game jam.
The style guide and base assets provide great starting examples for map tiles and characters. So immediately I started thinking of the extra art (besides UI stuff) needed to create a game.
So I made some coins (see them at OpenGameArt)! Here’s a preview of how the gold coin looks over a screenshot of LPC tiles.
Flare devs/contributors, time to discuss the upcoming release of v0.16. Let’s put together a TODO list, figure out what can wait until v0.17, and assign remaining tasks.
Wandercall is the name of the 2nd game based on the Flare engine. All the lessons learned will be poured into that game to improve it in every way. Have a peek at this 2X scale art test to see how a Flare-based game could look.
Wandercall won’t just be an art reboot of Flare. We will be spending a lot of time in pre-production with a vertical slice of art and gameplay. The goal is to work out animations, combat mechanics, etc. to make a much smoother and more professional experience. We’ll test adding acceleration to movement and transition animations. We’ll experiment with an active combat system that isn’t just button mashing. We’ll work out combat numbers to make progression feel engaging. We’ll figure out the technical aspects to create more visual armor slots (probably head, chest, hands, feet, plus held items).
We’ll iterate on that vertical slice until we are sure that we can achieve a great game that will shine for years. Once the specs are nailed down we’ll create a deluge of art. We hope that the new quality art will attract highly-skilled artists to flesh out a world’s worth of content.
Soon we’ll be discussing how to turn Flare’s current content (the “fantasycore” art assets) into a full game. Let’s get v0.16 out the door first.
The last two weeks have been a blur for me. Conference, funeral, lots going on at the office, and Diablo 3’s release. I’m itching to get back to Flare development soon, but taking a break to enjoy some D3 is nice.
Here are my thoughts on Diablo 3.
Blizzard still has a way of polishing games that is second to none. What I mean is that the game feels professional and finished. There are tiny interface and feedback tricks that action RPGs (and many other games) will be copying for years.
I’m a bit surprised at how actiony the game feels. Maybe I’m not remembering D2 well, but everything here feels over the top. The game certainly makes you feel like a badass that can mow down hordes of enemies (even rewarding instant bonuses for Massacres of groups of enemies). It’s a long way from the lonely wicked survival feeling that Diablo 1 had.
The sounds in D3 are excellent. Even regular weapon swipes can’t be just a swooshing sound; it has this sort of “metal-on-metal” slicing sound that doesn’t make sense but feels awesome.
Most of the models are incredibly low poly. It’s really surprising. It seems more of the rendering (time) budget is spent on mist/lights/particles instead, and poly count isn’t the main bottleneck. Kind of interesting really. I think D3’s art style is fine (I enjoy the painterly feel of some areas) but they certainly could have pushed more polys if they wanted. It makes the game feel a bit dated. That didn’t stop Diablo 2 at the time though.
I’m mixed on the art direction. Some of the higher end weapons/armor look a bit gaudy. But I thoroughly enjoy all of the environments I’ve seen so far. Even the “mundane” dungeon areas that others might find boring. I found myself taking note of all the tiny features of each tile set. I really liked three areas of Act II: the oasis, the sandy dungeons, and the … sewers? Each had interesting layers of features that showed some great attention to detail. I’m blown away that some really nice art was only used in very small segments.
I find the number of stats overwhelming. Will anyone actually care about the range for picking up gold and health? Does the game really need both % lifesteal and N lifesteal?
I really dig the action bar. Essentially I was slotting four cooldown abilities of various lengths, a main attack that built up my power, and a secondary attack that spent power. I think that’s the way to go for designing powers: 2-3 main powers that juggle your resource levels and 3-5 cooldown abilities for varying occasions.
I like the cooldown on potions. I find the health globes intriguing. Those features definitely help to normalize the balance of difficulty (can’t just chain chug potions).
The main story is very pedestrian. There’s far too much dialog stating the obvious. It causes theses Prime Evils to really feel one dimensional. E.g. the Demon Lord of Lies did a poor job of manipulating anyone in the game, much less me as a player. The companion/vendor stories are much more interesting so far.
The game’s fun. I can’t stop thinking about it. Something about solid action RPG gameplay gets me, even when I know I’m obviously in a Skinner box.
It’s disappointing that there is no offline single player. I always played Diablo 1 and 2 single player. So far I have no interest in the Auction House nor in coop play. Hell, I’m constantly tempted to dismiss my companion so I can maybe feel that lonely dread that came from Diablo 1. I think a real money auction house is weird.
It makes me feel that Flare has a niche though, providing a solid DRM-free single player experience for Action RPG fans. Blizzard is definitely set the polish bar pretty high though, and it’s intimidating to think that people will be comparing their Flare experience to the juggernaut that is D3.
I’ll be away on a work conference the rest of the week. If this space goes quiet for a while, that’s why.
In the meantime, check out the latest master branch for interesting new features.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!" He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought— So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought. And as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! One, two! One, two! and through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. "And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" He chortled in his joy. 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. - Lewis Carrol
By popular demand, I’ve updated my Isometric Tiles Tutorial for Blender version 2.6.
