**New Release** REALMS OF QUEST 3 (available for order!)

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Ghislain
Realms of Quest
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Post by Ghislain »

I drew one monster today (a kobold) in 20x40 multicolor. This is the list of monsters that will be in the game:

Code: Select all

TEXTMONSTER:
	.byte "KOBOLD",0
	.byte "GIANT RAT",0
	.byte "THIEF",0
	.byte "GREEN SLIME",0
	.byte "MERMAN",0
	.byte "ORC",0
	.byte "GNOLL",0
	.byte "GHOUL",0
	.byte "MEDUSA",0
	.byte "OGRE",0
	.byte "MUMMY",0
	.byte "MANTICORE",0
	.byte "MINOTAUR",0
	.byte "TROLL",0
	.byte "XORN",0
	.byte "SPECTRE",0
	.byte "SQUID",0
	.byte "VAMPIRE",0
	.byte "GIANT",0
	.byte "BEHOLDER",0
	.byte "ROPER",0
	.byte "NESS",0
	.byte "DEMON",0
	.byte "DRAGON",0
	.byte "NIKAEDOR",0
"A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him." -- Ezra Pound
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ral-clan
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Post by ral-clan »

Yeah! The "beholder"! Great!
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Ghislain
Realms of Quest
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Post by Ghislain »

This is how the picture of the kobold looks like:

Image Image

EDIT: I've since drawn other pictures (Hobbit, Giant Rat) since I uploaded this picture. I've now located software to let me draw in multicolor mode and I should be able to produce these images pretty quickly.
Last edited by Ghislain on Sat Jan 09, 2010 7:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
"A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him." -- Ezra Pound
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Ghislain
Realms of Quest
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Post by Ghislain »

The big delay in lack of progress is that work has been sending me on out-of-town junkets so the only thing that I did since the last update was a drawing the image of a dwarf.

So far, I've drawn pictures of a kobold, hobbit, giant rat and a dwarf. Only 36 more pictures to go before I resume programming!
"A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him." -- Ezra Pound
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GreyGhost
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Post by GreyGhost »

This is looking great so far, i cant wait to see how it turns out. I always thought Vic really missed out on the RPG genre.
Rob
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Post by vic user »

I agree with GreyGhost.

I can't wait to see this on the big screen!
Royas
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Post by Royas »

GreyGhost wrote:This is looking great so far, i cant wait to see how it turns out. I always thought Vic really missed out on the RPG genre.
my searching has revealed this also...

and, that Kobold looks awesome.

I cant wait to see how your Beholder turns out
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Pedro Lambrini
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Post by Pedro Lambrini »

Looking forward to seeing more monsters. :)
"...That of the Eastern tribe being like a multitude of colours as if a rainbow had settled upon its brow..." Daniels 1:3
dragos
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Post by dragos »

Looking good, can't wait!
0110 0110 0110 The number of the beast...
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orion70
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Post by orion70 »

This is my fovourite game genre: you can imagine I'm one of the most impatient guys here... :wink:
GreyGhost wrote:This is looking great so far, i cant wait to see how it turns out. I always thought Vic really missed out on the RPG genre.
Except for the great game depicted in my avatar. :D
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Ghislain
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Post by Ghislain »

Here's a picture of a MERMAN:

Image Image

There's a certain charm to multi-color VIC-20 graphics. Plus, I get to create images in 16 colors (using the lesser-known auxiliary nibble at 36878).

Here's how the "source code" for a detailed image looks like:

Code: Select all

GREENSLIME_GR:
	.byte 0,3,15,14,62,250,250,250,192,192,179,255,255,253,245,245,0,192,240,252,
255,127,95,95,15,63,255,255,247,213,85,85,192,240,192,0,192,240,252,124,
250,58,62,15
	.byte 15,3,15,62,253,255,191,175,175,175,175,191,127,255,255,255,253,245,253,
255,213,245,255,255,255,127,255,255,124,252,252,240,240,252,252,252,62,62,14,
15,3,0,0,0
	.byte 191,191,191,175,235,234,250,250,255,255,215,215,255,255,191,191,253,245,
245,253,255,255,255,255,252,112,112,252,255,255,255,252,3,15,15,15,62,254,
255,255,250
	.byte 250,234,170,171,175,170,170,191,189,189,255,255,255,255,171,95,87,87,95,255,
255,255,253,252,240,192,240,252,252,252,127,63,3,3,3,15,15,3,0,234,235,175,
175,255
	.byte 252,240,0,170,250,254,63,15,15,3,0,253,191,175,171,234,255,255,63,127,255,
252,128,176,240,192,0
	.byte 13*16+15	; aux color LIGHT GREEN + 15
	.byte 13	; char color GREEN + 8
I will make 40 images (32 for monsters and 8 for "in-context" situations such as being at the adventurer's inn, encampment, talking to a barkeep, etc) in total. They will occupy memory locations A000-BFFF (the start of this will be to boot the cartridge and then jump back to $2000 where the main program resides).

Each image will be 20x40 (200 bytes) multicolor, though I may make some of them "hi-res" single color. The last 2 bytes represent color information such as the auxiliary color (I add +15 to it because it is at memory location 36878--same as the volume) and character color. The background color (black) and border color (yellow) are fixed so I can't set these for individual images.

So with color information, each image is 202 bytes. I thought about using 226 bytes for each image--as in giving each 4x8 character it's own character color but I couldn't locate a program to let me do this. And besides, I don't think I really need to go that deep into detail.

So far, I've had a lot of fun programming this game and reading everyone's responses but just thinking about the scope of it and I imagine it could take me 12-18 months to finish it. I'm trying not to think about extras (such as animated introduction screens, etc) to polish it off--this stuff will be saved for the end. I'm only doing the graphics now because I want to be able to "see" the game as I'm programming it. There will be music as well, but this can be done later.
Last edited by Ghislain on Sat Jan 09, 2010 8:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
"A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him." -- Ezra Pound
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Ghislain
Realms of Quest
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Post by Ghislain »

GreyGhost wrote:This is looking great so far, i cant wait to see how it turns out. I always thought Vic really missed out on the RPG genre.
This is mostly the reason why I like to program RPGs for the VIC-20--there is a dearth of these for the "friendly computer". Sure, I could make a grand RPG for the Commodore 64 but for that computer, they're a dime a dozen.
"A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him." -- Ezra Pound
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Ghislain
Realms of Quest
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Post by Ghislain »

This is the "final" monster list for the game:

Code: Select all

TEXTMONSTER:
	.byte "KOBOLD",0
	.byte "HOBBIT",0
	.byte "GIANT RAT",0
	.byte "DWARF",0
	.byte "SKELETON",0
	.byte "GREEN SLIME",0
	.byte "MERMAN",0
	.byte "ORC",0
	.byte "ELF",0
	.byte "GNOLL",0
	.byte "GHOUL",0
	.byte "MEDUSA",0
	.byte "OGRE",0
	.byte "MUMMY",0
	.byte "MANTICORE",0
	.byte "BASILISK",0
	.byte "MINOTAUR",0
	.byte "WRAITH",0
	.byte "TROLL",0
	.byte "XORN",0
	.byte "SPECTRE",0
	.byte "CHIMERA",0
	.byte "SQUID",0
	.byte "GELATINOUS CUBE",0
	.byte "VAMPIRE",0
	.byte "GIANT",0
	.byte "BEHOLDER",0
	.byte "ROPER",0
	.byte "NESS",0
	.byte "DEMON",0
	.byte "DRAGON",0
	.byte "NIKAEDOR",0
I've just finished a drawing for the GHOUL. Some pictures are turning out good while others aren't so good which makes me question whether or not I should implement 'larger' graphic images of the monsters. But then when I look back at games from the early 1980s, they also had these imperfections. So if you see a picture that I drew that doesn't look that great, just think of it as a form of impressionistic 8-bit art ;)

This is a picture of a GNOLL that I did the other day, and I'm not really that happy with it:

Image Image

The upside of this experience is that I've become more comfortable in working with multicolor character graphics. In terms of landscape graphics, I'll be using multicolor graphics as well where they will provide the most appealing visual effect.

What I think I'll do in terms of a combat system is this: you can fight any combination of monsters. But whatever monster is 'active' (such as if it's turn to attack or whether it is being attacked by a player character) is the one that will appear on the screen at that moment.

I'm a bit concerned that I may be providing too much space for on-screen text (please refer to the screenshot of the kobold) but the major 'pro' of this is that it will be easier to display long-winded text without having to clear to a seperate screen and be able to show long lists such as player character stats and party inventories. Having a 9x9 space to show the on-screen map, monsters and 'in-context' cut splash screens is small but it is able to get out of the way for displaying large amounts of text. Considering the size of the VIC-20 screen (22x23) I think this approach is best.
Last edited by Ghislain on Sat Jan 09, 2010 8:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
"A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him." -- Ezra Pound
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ral-clan
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Post by ral-clan »

The only nitpick I have about Realms of Quest II (your previous game) is that the sound the character makes when walking gets on one's nerves after a while. It's a loud, long "CRUUUUUNCH" sound that doesn't really conjure up images of footsteps at all (unless you step on a landmine!). Could you perhaps tone it down for RoQ-III?

Other than that - RoQ-II is probably one of the most awesome and epic games made for the VIC, ever (well that is until your sequel comes out)!
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Pedro Lambrini
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Post by Pedro Lambrini »

I actually quite like the Gnoll! I am fully prepared to accept your 8 bit impressionistic art. :)
"...That of the Eastern tribe being like a multitude of colours as if a rainbow had settled upon its brow..." Daniels 1:3
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