Another year gone, another year the CRPG is not done… Bah! However, it’s NEARLY done. π
Beta testing has been ongoing for over a month, and it’s been going well. A lot of bugs and changes introduced to make the game better, and I know it will get done next year for certain. I’m hopeful I can get it done well before May, which would mark the 15 year anniversary of when I started this project.
Wow, 15 years…. where does the time go?
Back in May 2005, I was graduating college and preparing to move to western Washington to pursue a career in software development. I had dug my TI out of the basement a year or so earlier because working on code had re-awakened so many old ideas and plans. I quickly discovered that the old hardware was difficult to work on, and moved over to emulation for development. (Classic99 even then was an impressive piece of work that functioned extremely well!) I completed a few projects in assembly, and got started on some others, when I decided to take the plunge and work on a full-on CRPG.
It took a year or so to even get to a state where I could say there WAS a game being made. I did a lot of prototyping in the first few years. The first big challenge was replicating the line-of-sight algorithm from Ultima, and a scrolling map. At this point, I created my original website, “Crafting a Vintage CRPG“, which was a predecessor to this blog.
And from there on, it’s been on again, off again year after year… I’m pleased to finally be able to say though it will be done. I am honestly looking forward to sharing this work with everyone, and I hope that people find the game fun and that it helps bring some attention to a very seldom considered vintage computer. π
So what did we accomplish in 2019? Let’s see…
- I completed the content for the other three world disks. (Mostly. I’m still wrapping up the final dungeon and adding some new content)
- I completed the combat engine and did some very heavy testing of it
- I added large-size creatures to the game
- I started using GitHub to maintain my code base, which has done a lot for efficiency
- Created the game map in Campaign Cartographer
- Wrote up the manual and reference card, using stock art purchased from DriveThruRPG
- I started the beta test with a small selected group of testers
- Based on testing feedback, I re-added an old favorite features, offhand weapons for rogues
The bulk of the year was spent on content, but I consider that a good thing. If your content isn’t interesting, it isn’t going to keep gamers interested. π
So what’s next? Finish the beta testing, finish the game, get it out there! To quote the 10th Doctor, Allons-y!
Nice work mate!! Glad to hear you keeping up with it.
Thanks! Nice to hear from you too.