[Grytpype]

Hey all,

After failing to find time to make a nicely polished demo, I've decided to boot out a WIP for Rising Sentinel. It's not long, but it at least gives a hint at what the final game will be like.

You can grab it here (don't worry, it's only 440K):

http://users.tpg.com.au/sjames81/rswip1.zip

Please note though, it's VERY rough and unpolished, as a result of it being literally bundled up ASAP & chucked out the door. Much of the graphics and animation is very half-baked at the moment and is in ongoing improvement (the battle animations and map water animations are particularly nasty - rest assured, they won't stay like that).

Checkout the readme file, and the config file if neccessary, before cranking it up. To go ahead though, just start RA.EXE in Windows (no Linux version for the WIP sorry, but there shall definitely be for the full game).

I have a slight suspicion about running in XP though, so let me know if it screws up. My XP installation is fuX0red at the moment so I can't check it personally. However, a friend informs me it works dandy (though he still calls me a '98SE-bitch', which I am).

I know I promised a demo six months ago, but crappy real-life just can't let me be to work on this damn thing for more than five minutes at a time.

Opinions, C&C, and abuse are all welcome.

Ta.

[Grytpype]

Ack. I stuffed up - I accidentally stuck the old readme in. Here's the proper one:

http://users.tpg.com.au/sjames81/readme.txt

There's a little bit more info in this one, but probably not really worth stressing over.

[Sirocco]

XP ran fine for me (didn't have any speakers however). Looks like a good start; you show some good design choices, and you've avoided several classic mistakes, so I think this will turn out to be a decent project if you decide to stick with it.

I'd post something more informative, but I'm a little pressed for time.

.

[Bjorn]

I tried it but sadly it won't start because I don't have my sound setup in Wine. Would be nice if it'd run without sound instead of quitting when install_sound doesn't work.

[Grytpype]

Bjorn - Did you change the music & soundFX settings in config.txt? The game should bypass all sound init funtions if they're both set to OFF. If you already have done that, then I don't know... Mind you, I've never tried to run it in Wine.

Cheers Sirocco, and yes - I'm definitely seeing this this one to the bitter end. It's just the usual matter of scrimping & scraping the time together to work on it.

[Bjorn]

Ok, thanks, changing config.txt worked. Sorry if you documented that, I'm not much of a documentation reader, heh. The main menu effect is looking nice, it's a pity the controls aren't working. Don't worry, I'll try it later on the system you meant to release it for.

[Grytpype]

Eh??? You're not getting the keys working?

That's got me baffled... Did any of the keys work? Could you use only the directionals but not Z,X, & S - or were all of them kaput?

[Bjorn]

Nothing worked, but I'm sure it's an Allegro-on-Wine problem.

[Joakim]

Although I am not very fond of pixel*tile movement, I think this looks like a good start. Really nice graphics and music (ripped, maybe? :P Wouldn't know...)

I run XP and everything works fine - most of the time.
Sometimes when I press Z, the game locks up and I need to force close it. And it's a very tiny playing window, but I suppose that's temporary :)

This could become one of the nicer rpgs, but as long as there's no action, it's not really for me!

[omega_alpha]

It looks like a good start to me as well. Looking forward to playing it when its finished.

[Chingwa]

Hey that's a pretty nice start! I love the title page effect and the story intro at the beginning was pretty nice, though I don't see what the sepia tone picture has to do with what is being said in the intro. It's a nice effect though.


Heres some random thoughts (all my opinion but I'm picky):

1) I'm not a fan of the stationary map and having to walk off the edge to go to the next area of the map. Especially since it's tilextile movement. I think this game would be much better served with a true scrolling engine.

2)Theres a bug when you get to the castle over the bridge, once you're in you can't get back out, and alot of the map is blacked out it seems.

3)When the 3 characters are talking on thebridge right before Riyan joins the party, Riyan is invisible during the entire discussion.

4)It would also be nice to actually see everyone in the party when walking around, but that could just be my own personal preference.

5)The "z" exit key doesn't work for me because it's too close to the action key... could be accidentally pressed very easily...

Looks interesting though, I'd love to play a real demo or the finished game. Good luck with the rest of your project.

Windows XP... both windowed and full screen mode worked flawless for me.

[Grytpype]

Cheers for your comments Joakim, omega_alpha, & Chingwa. You made some good points - I'll elaborate on a few of them.

I agree the map screen-switching is pretty old, but I programmed the original tile engine about 5 years ago (wanted to keep it simple for my first try). When it came to the point where I wanted to change it, I'd already done so much it was either a total chuck-out or keep situation. So I opted to keep it, and planned to give it enough polish that it was OK to play (maybe a bit naive in hindsight).

Conversely, I could just change the base engine, but I feel that would add another year to the game's completion date at my current workrate... :(

The sepia tone background pic is another placeholder. I've got a fair bit of sprucing up still to do graphics-wise, I've got some fantastic images for the intro & title screens, but still can't get them out of my head & onto the monitor. But yeah, that's one of the GFX that will get changed to something more appropriate.

The music is ripped, from the RPGToolkit demo midis. I'll have my own tunes in the final game, but that's what'll be left till last.

The 'z' key problem, invisible character, and 'prison' map are all good indications of how much of a rush job I did in getting this out. I could've sorted them out in a few minutes, but neh... I'm lazy. ;P

Thnx again everyone! Now all I gotta do is stop thinking about the stories for the next two games, and get this one done!

[Nodtveidt]

You're leaving the music for last? :(
_________________
If you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear demonic voices. The scary part is that if you play it forwards it installs Windows. - wallace

[Grytpype]

'Fraid so, but it probably won't be anything spectacular - my previous attempts at composition have been less than impressive.

I wouldn't mind contracting it out, but I doubt if Novembre would be willing to do a complete OST for $50 and a crate of homebrew. ;P

[bay]

very cool. i know alot of you guys like working with small resolution games, so i had to squint to play this.

should really have a one to four pixel translation so you can blow up the resolution, but thats no complaint for here.

great job.

EDIT: after reading your readme i realize that it should be fullscreen if it says FULLSCREEN in the config.txt, however it doesn't go fullscreen for me. just an itty bitty window.

EDIT #2: win2k pro, radeon 9800

.02$