[RuneLancer]

Hey, new here. Figured I'd introduce myself by introducing my own project.

First, the attention-getting screenshots. :)




Still in developement, Endless Saga is a 3D sprite-based RPG rendered in a style similare to modern classics such as Xenogears. Featuring an in-depth storyline spread across 3 chapters, a large host of playable and fully-developped characters, and staying true to the roots of oldschool RPG gaming, it's sure to please a lot of RPG fans.

The game is developped in C++ using OpenGL as a graphics library and DirectX to handle other forms of media (music/sound/input.) I usually work on it between 1 and 4 am, before heading off to bed. Nightly code runs work best for me. ;)

As for myself, I'm less than a month away from being 21, and have been programming since age 12. I'm a canadian software engineer, and contrary to most stereotypes, don't actually say "eh". In a nutshell, that's aboot it, eh?

The website/boards have quite a bit of graphic resources posted on them, including many developement screenshots and sprites. I'm slowly hunting around for artists (textures/CG/portraits/etc) and composers, though it's no pressing matter as scenario data won't be ready to be developped for a few months (at the very least). I'm also looking for beta-testers, but hardly putting much effort into that as, frankly, few people are serious enough and associate "betatesting" with "sneak peek and free test run before everyone else." ;)

So. That's about it. Hi everyone!
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Endless Saga
An OpenGL RPG in the making. Now with new hosting!

[Verious]

Looks interesting, will the character walk towards the camera in the finished game as well? Or is this just for testing the engine?

Are you using a mouse or a keyboard for the input controls?

[RuneLancer]

The view is third person, so character movement will be in any direction. The only reason why the character moves towards the screen is because that was made moments after sprites were implemented, and before other frames could be displayed. Since a sprite walking sideways while facing the camera would look weird, I just had him walk towards the player. ;)

The mouse controls the view (leftclick controls x/y camera rotations, rightclick controls zooming when held down.) Movement and other actions are currently handled by the keyboard, but will also be remappable to a controller in the game's configuration.

After starting work on a bigger, more serious test map, here are the results of some slight tweaks and modifications.



Yeah, it's a night scene, hence why it looks dark.
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Endless Saga
An OpenGL RPG in the making. Now with new hosting!

[RuneLancer]

The game engine gets better and better with each passing day. ;)



Yeah, that IS a different sprite. That's actually the game's main character; I figured I'd make the switch to get a more "in-game" feel (though since it's an RPG, "main character" when it comes to sprites is a somewhat sketchy concept.)

Lighting and fog have been fixed in the new screenshot, giving an even better "night" feel to the scene. Changes have been made to the camera system and the movement system (basic edge detection and having the sprite face other directions) too, though these are only apparent in-game. Mind, that's just a day's worth of code, most of which was spent hunting for caffeine, so it's nothing too impressive over last screenshot...
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Endless Saga
An OpenGL RPG in the making. Now with new hosting!

[LeoDraco]

I'm not sure I care for the big black space surrounding the map in the last two screenshots. Granted, you are going for a night scene, and your completed maps will probably have a lot more to them. However, you might consider adding some sort of (partial) skybox; at the very least, properly done, it can add stars to a night scene, or a clouds to a day scene.
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"...LeoDraco is a pompus git..." -- Mandrake

[RuneLancer]

As you may've gathered, the game engine isn't complete yet. ;)

I don't intend to leave empty regions visible to the player. A skybox is one of the things I have in mind, as are background images (for scenes with fixed cameras.)

As it currently is, the map cuts off too abruptly to give a good effect. ;) Little things like that count. The proof: you've noticed it and it had enough of a visual impact for you to post about it. :P

An older iteration of the engine (with many hardcoded things) can be seen in the screenshots sections of the game's site. It features a skybox, although that, too, was a mockup. The real engine doesn't support it yet but it would take very little time to implement. ;)


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Endless Saga
An OpenGL RPG in the making. Now with new hosting!

[janus]

I would suggest padding the edges of the map with additional tiles, and fading those out into the skybox/background to eliminate the 'cutting off' effect.

[RuneLancer]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I intend to do. When possible, I'm going to try to have maps that don't HAVE edges like this one does (for instance, this wouldn't occure inside enclosed dungeons) But when necessary, I'll have a marker of sorts indicating the "active" map ends there (so the player doesn't get confused over why they can't walk over what appears to be solid ground) and continue the rest of the image.

Another idea I've been toying with (and particularly enjoying; tiling implies there's only one actual "base" ground tile otherwise additional data must be stored; look at where the ground meets the water at the edge of the map and imagine tiling that in the distance to see what I mean) is to have the map cut off, but not like in that image. More like in an FFT style, adding volume to it so that the ground doesn't look flat. I'll try to rig up a screenshot of what I mean when I get home from work.

Thanks for the input. :)
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Endless Saga
An OpenGL RPG in the making. Now with new hosting!

[Hajo]

[RuneLancer]

I've added a lot of stuff, including collision detection and proper height detection. Also, maps have borders now, making them cut off more smoothly.


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Endless Saga
An OpenGL RPG in the making. Now with new hosting!

[RuneLancer]

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Endless Saga
An OpenGL RPG in the making. Now with new hosting!

[RuneLancer]

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Endless Saga
An OpenGL RPG in the making. Now with new hosting!

[ElvenProgrammer]

Looks promising and very nice, is there a demo to test the engine?

[Terry]

For whatever it's worth, I'm very impressed with the style in the last screenshot. This game has the potential to be be absolutely incredible.

So enough engine shots! What's the story about?
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http://www.distractionware.com

[Ren]

Looks very cool! I'll keep my eye on this one.
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Previous nicks: MidnightDreamer, The_Anarchist, Shroomasta.

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