[In Progress] Pennington's Jewel

[MarcusMaximus]

My newest project will be called Pennington's Jewel. I've only just started it(all I have done so far is a few of the sprites and an ever firmer idea of the architecture) but basically the idea is that I've noticed of all the games here there aren't really any story lines. So, I decided to make an RPG style game(it's going to be kind of like Legend of Zelda style... although with some major differences) that will have a full story line. Anyway, this is more of a heads up than anything else, since I don't have enough to show anything yet but I'll start posting things (videos, screenshots, the game itself, etc) as they become available.

Update: I've done a little bit of work in setting the game engine up and decided to make a VERY small demo of the game available. Note that right now there is no story line, no bad guys, no weapons. It's pretty much just showing that my system for dealing with maps read in from text files works correctly and to show what the art looks like right now, as well as showing the(admittedly basic) collision detection, so basically you can walk around a very small area complete with a building(which you can't enter), a road, and some trees. Download at: http://www.csc.calpoly.edu/~mwazny/P...tons_Jewel.zip

[soccerfreak24]

Sounds awesome, Good luck!

[DiNoGames]

Good luck with it... I'd say the currently available game lack of story, because including a story is a heck of extra work. You need characters, dialogs, cutscenes and such stuff... and of course a game engine that supports all this. Not to mention all the artwork and ideas.

I dare to say, that making games for the Zune is too fresh/young to have such games ready yet. There are no bigger teams working on games so most of the games are made by individuals. And for such it is very hard to put a whole story driven game together. Hats up if you manage to get such a game working alone I know how much work it is....

[Tiptup300]

Not to mention that most developers aren't interested in using the Zune.

[tenritsu]

Seems like a monumental task, as I'm sure others have told you, but good luck with it!

[RunningRiot]

Originally Posted by DiNoGames

Good luck with it... I'd say the currently available game lack of story, because including a story is a heck of extra work. You need characters, dialogs, cutscenes and such stuff... and of course a game engine that supports all this. Not to mention all the artwork and ideas.

I dare to say, that making games for the Zune is too fresh/young to have such games ready yet. There are no bigger teams working on games so most of the games are made by individuals. And for such it is very hard to put a whole story driven game together. Hats up if you manage to get such a game working alone I know how much work it is....

I agree, it will be quite an accomplishment if he manages to get a story and characters together with a dialog system. I myself am spending so much time creating resources (sprites, concepts, even a simple overview of why the heck you're doing what you're doing in Mythic) that I've hardly touched the code. Besides that, I should really get roaring on the engine, but I need to pick up some books to catch up on key concepts and syntax.

I'm looking forward to any progress you make though and hope you have the time to keep up with it!

[ShotgunSnipist]

Yeah dude that sounds great!
The more games the better!

[DiNoGames]

Originally Posted by ShotgunSnipist

The more games the better!

I'd would prefer less games with high quality than thousands of games I install and never play

The people outside this board have to see that quality games are made for the Zune...

[zunebro]

that is so true. are there any other forums with people developing stuff for zune?

Originally Posted by DiNoGames

I'd would prefer less games with high quality than thousands of games I install and never play

The people outside this board have to see that quality games are made for the Zune...

[MarcusMaximus]

Originally Posted by DiNoGames

I'd would prefer less games with high quality than thousands of games I install and never play

The people outside this board have to see that quality games are made for the Zune...

My thoughts exactly, and a storyline based game is a heck of a good way to get some notice. I've done one similar to what I have in mind before. Also, I'm probably going to keep the storyline pretty short and just make it episodic, to make it easier to come out with stuff faster. That said, I realize this is going to take a LONG time(and I might possibly try to recruit some people on here to make art for it) and require lots of work.

[zunebro]

Originally Posted by MarcusMaximus

My thoughts exactly, and a storyline based game is a heck of a good way to get some notice. I've done one similar to what I have in mind before. Also, I'm probably going to keep the storyline pretty short and just make it episodic, to make it easier to come out with stuff faster. That said, I realize this is going to take a LONG time(and I might possibly try to recruit some people on here to make art for it) and require lots of work.

That's a good idea I always look forward to the next Sam & Max on Gametap. And it would be great if the next one picked up on your experience and you couldn't play the next series if you missed something important. I don't really know if there's a way that data is transferable between projects.

[Spike!]

Originally Posted by Tiptup300

Not to mention that most developers aren't interested in using the Zune.

I'd have to agree. While games like Tetris and side-scrollers are great little time-wasters, it's basically the equilivent of Cell Phone games, which, are very handy when your bored. And then you have a few more advanced games such as Valgards Fate, which are fairly in-depth and you can play it, save it, and pick it up later. But it's not like making games for the PC or a Console, so it dosen't attract alot of intrest other than time waster games.

[MarcusMaximus]

Alright, so I've done some work on this rather hefty project and have a demo on the first post available for download. Really, you can't do very much, just walk around a small map that is loaded in from a text file. Just press in the direction you want to go and the character goes that way(yes, this game only works on the zune 4, 8 and 80 and will likely stay that way since it works best for how I'm planning combat and such) Enjoy(and if you want too, feel free to work on graphics for it, especially for the main character since I'm not too good with photoshop)!

[zunediamond]

I like the movement a lot. It's very nice, but the way the screen moves is a bit uneasing.

[DiNoGames]

You also might want to change the collision detection. Right now it seems to me as if you handle the player as a point and check collisions like pointincircle and pointinrectangle (did not look at the code though).
You may want to change the player to a polygon instead because now he can walk on a tree with half of his body.

[MarcusMaximus]

Originally Posted by DiNoGames

You also might want to change the collision detection. Right now it seems to me as if you handle the player as a point and check collisions like pointincircle and pointinrectangle (did not look at the code though).
You may want to change the player to a polygon instead because now he can walk on a tree with half of his body.

Ya, that's kind the idea right now, I think treating him as a polygon would be a little difficult to control cause if you hit a building there theoretically wouldn't be a way to move back since it would require turning through the wall.. So basically I'm pretty ok with him going partially into walls, it won't make any difference in the end game play

[mrgoodnight]

does the demo work with the z30, cause i can't move...touch pad only???

[birdman]

Originally Posted by mrgoodnight

does the demo work with the z30, cause i can't move...touch pad only???

He said it is only working for the 4/8/80 and it will likely stay that way