Archive for the ‘RiftMaker’ Category
Forest Song
Saturday, August 8th, 2009
It’s not a really great song or anything, but it’s sufficiently moody and dour for my purposes - behold, evidence that I’m still working on RiftMaker, slowly! A new song, intended for mysterious dungeons like forests and mountains. Hope you enjoy it, or, at least, find it sufficiently moody and dour.
Forest Tileset
Saturday, June 13th, 2009
Check out my latest forest tileset for RiftMaker (thus far):
A Theme for RiftMaker
Monday, June 8th, 2009
I’ve been struggling over the RiftMaker storyline, but I think I’ve finally hit on what the story of RiftMaker is about, that is, what it’s theme is. Read no further if you want to be surprised by the storyline (provided this one even makes it into the game).
My idea is that RiftMaker should be about will-to-power versus submission. The concept of the RiftMaker as a sword that allows you to cleave realities and visit alternate timelines embodies will-to-power. Without it, the humanity of the world are merely helpless pawns of a great cosmic drama played out by the gods. But with the RiftMaker, a chosen few can escape.
The two intertwining stories (Rile and Tobias) will represent two different ways of approaching the question. Perhaps Rile starts out cocky and a little too charming, only to have his hidden vulnerability and insecurity emerge when he decides that following the “good” Gods and submitting his will to theirs is the only way to know any kind of peace. Perhaps Tobias starts out sweet-natured and gentle, but his underlying self-absorption and concealed arrogance emerge when he decides that the Gods’ story must be defied, and the RiftMaker used. I’m still working out how this will all play out, and what the various alternate realities will look like and do to our heroes, but things feel like they’re coming together. I think.
Castle Graphics
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
Just to prove I’ve gotten at least some work on RiftMaker done, I’m posting my current draft of my castle tileset master. I’m not terribly good at the graphic arts, so it takes me a lot of effort and study of existing RPG sprites to get even this far.
RiftMaker Castle Exterior Tileset Master
New RiftMaker Music
Sunday, April 19th, 2009
Just to prove that I’m making some progress in the RiftMaker department, I thought I’d post mp3s of some new songs - hope you enjoy!
A New Riftmaker Demo
Saturday, November 1st, 2008
A new demo is available! Click here to try it out.
Here’s what’s new:
- Town tileset
- More script elements to tell a story
- Three new NPC sprites - Argov the Alchemist, generic townsman, merchant
- Shop mechanics
- Gold
- Experience and leveling
- Bug fixes
- Use ESCAPE to leave menus
I suggest heading over to the Lycaeum to read up on how combat works before going to the ticket office - there you can travel back to the Arisian Desert (the last demo) and try out the retuned Sand Dragon fight. You should probably be level 3 before attempting.
Some big items still remaining to implement:
- Save/Load
- Vehicle travel
- Item use in combat
- Magic use in the game menu
- Inn mechanics
- Debuffs (poison, stun, etc)
Quick RiftMaker fixes
Thursday, September 18th, 2008
In an effort to make the game more streamlined and intuitive, I’ve implemented some quick changes to the latest RiftMaker demo:
1) Bash (the stun move) has been replaced with Finish - an instant critical strike for Rile that works only when the enemy is below 25% health. IMO, it’s much less awkward than Bash, although it’s really only useful on bosses, who have enough health to warrant beating them down quickly at the end of combat.
2) The top dragon’s vicious countermove has been replaced with an “Enrage Attack” that beats the mess out of a character after the dragon’s health gets low enough. The attack is survivable, but it should motivate players to use Finish as much as possible to shorten the dragon’s “enrage” time. The bottom dragon still heals. The numbers have been jiggered around some more.
3) Enemy HP is now visible as a percentage by the enemy’s name.
4) Enemy moves are now “announced” via a monster’s floating text (like damage). I’m not sure yet if this is a good idea or simply goofy looking. I’ll let y’all be the judges.
Click here to play the demo (clear your browser cache if you’ve played a previous demo).
Some Fixes to the RiftMaker Demo
Saturday, September 13th, 2008
I’ve been taking some suggestions for the latest RiftMaker demo, and will be continuing to fix and update as time goes by. The following is new since the last posting:
1) The icons for the hotkey moves are now much larger and brighter, hopefully making it easier to link button to effect in your mind.
2) Bash has been nerfed somewhat to an 8-second stun with an 8-second cooldown, meaning you can only keep one enemy stunned with it at a time.
3) Previously, if you tried to push a hotkey while a character was executing a move you would get an “Ally Busy” error message and a beep. Now the move is “queued” and executed when the character finishes the current move, making for a (hopefully) smoother combat experience with a lot less button mashing. A character can only have one move queued at a time, however.
4) The sand dragons have been rejiggered. Honestly, if you play the demo, there’s no telling what their stats are, as I’m changing them so frequently.
5) An enemy, when performing a “counter” move, will turn red. A counter move can not be interrupted, but it lets you know that the enemy is about to unleash something particularly nasty in response to an attack from one of your characters.
Click here to play the demo. (Make sure to clear your browser cache if you have played it before in the same browser, as Flash won’t know to redownload the new XML files)
Can You Beat the Sand Dragons?
Sunday, September 7th, 2008
A new Riftmaker demo is up, showing off the following exciting, new features:
1) A new desert tileset, put together using a handy new level editor
2) The ability to move from one dungeon map to another
3) The ability to set hotkeys using the menu interface (press the hotkey to assign while selecting the desired move)
4) New sand dragon graphics
5) Two new abilities for Rile - Kick and Bash
6) Enemies now turn blue and sparkle when casting a spell
7) A new monster behavior trigger - retaliation!
The sand dragons will attack you if you go under the arch in the top screen. I suggest having Tyche and Tobias in your party and making sure all your hotkeys are set before engaging in combat. Can you beat them?
Our Forces are Under Attack!
Sunday, August 3rd, 2008
RiftMaker 0.9 is now updated (I should have moved to 0.10 but I forgot to update the numbers… oops) to include the following nifty new developments:
1) Enemies that can fight back! As well as heal themselves when at low HP (Sand Orc only)!
2) Goofy sound effects!
3) Stat and damage formulas that might possibly make sense later on!
4) The ability to flee fights by holding down Backspace!
5) The new overworld theme
6) A hammer weapon, just to justify the new “blunt attack” graphic
7) Lots of combat bug fixes