The Contest is Over

It finally happened, the contest ended. The end result was very fair, I did not win nor was I expecting too. I had far to much on my plate with far too much to learn, and my community efforts were lax and ineffective. The winner did a great job during the contest and ran his project very professionally. You can go check out the winning entry and congratulate him here.  

I was holding off on doing a lot of things until the contest ended, but wound up doing most of it anyway because it was taking so long and I was loosing months worth of work. I seriously needed a name change to separate the project as it is from the project as it was during beta. Beta was rushed due to the contest schedule, and it was terrible. It had a few redeemable features and was based on a good idea, but the implementation was simply terrible. Quite frankly, I am glad I did a terrible release because I have learned a lot about game development through it, and through a lot of trial and error I have found things that work and don't work.

Now that I have messed up royally, I have been laboring many hours to bring those few redeeming elements into a new system with a much improved gameplay. By the first of next year I hope to be releasing an alpha ready for testing. Artwork is still suffering a bit right now, but I have taken many steps including buying new software and going through art lessons. I can already tell a difference and things are steadily improving. 

Finally, Aeges Road is now code named the Aeges Road Project, and will be formerly named when the beta comes out. I like the new name much better and the storyline has lost those convenient little unknowns that leave far too much unanswered. 

PS. Anyone got any ideas on community building? This is my weakest point in the process, and ideas would be greatly appreciated. (I am technically an internet hermit :)

Aeges Road, Dialog, Inventory, Shopping, and Change

This really isn't new news. I have severely altered Aeges Road until it is but a remnant of its former self (as seen on beta testing). Everything from simple movement to combat has been either modified or completely changed. Aeges Road also has some new additions that really have me excited. 

Dialog is something I was working on last week, and all I have left to do is make the interface look nice. I was going to do a comic dialog to avoid having to draw portraits for each character, but now I am content on just drawing the portraits and taking the dialog interface in a new direction. 

I was also only planing on doing simple JRPG dialogs, until I read an article that reminded me how much fun I had with the dialogs in Star Trail and Ultima 7. I have basically hybridized the two interfaces and took the elements I felt would be a good fit for the game. I scripted two main NPC's using the new dialog system and the results are solid, simple, and impressive. I am not placing screenshots because it is a hideous sight right now. 

Once I was done with dialog, there was another item of business to take care of, shopping. I am excited to announce that shopping is now fully functional. It has a nice barter system that makes buying and selling both interactive and stat based.  I am still tweaking the stat basis a little right now, but the possibility of making a profit at the store front is a real possibility right now. 

In the process of doing the store front, I faced my biggest gripe with Aeges Road, stripped the inventory screen out completely, and replaced it with a grid based inventory system. The inventory system itself is fully functional, it just needs some layout improvements. My biggest mistake in the previous design was in trying to put everything into one interface, this interface is strictly for inventory. 

Now that the TODO list is minus two big items, (and all in two weeks time) I have added a few TODO's to replace some current TODO's that just never fully developed into the creature that they needed to be. A class based system has been replaced with a skill based system that awards titles for your choices. I plan on making some quick creation buttons for three basic class types, but leaving the character fully editable afterwards for further tweaking. 

Finally, Aeges Road might not be Aeges Road any more. I have another title in mind, as well as a different angle on the basic story that brings some elements of the existing story into a much clearer context. I have not finalized this decision, but I feel that it is the right move. I will be much closer to a release before I officially announce one way or the other.