Who would play an old-school themed RPG with a deep, open world a la Fallout, Elder Scrolls?

[Doulifée]

2 or 3 style too.

[PROTO·DOME]

That JRPG sample looks more like RPGMaker, hah.

That's because it's a screenshot from RPGMakerXP. Also, dunno if it means anything now, but the 1st one has a lot of easily digestible, organised, retro charm to it.

[zircon]

Interesting, I've gotten a pretty wide response from people here and on IRC. A lot of people think style 1 is really ugly and only 3-5 are any good. On the other hand, some think 1 or 3 are the only good options. This is going to be tough.

[eilios]

Interesting, I've gotten a pretty wide response from people here and on IRC. A lot of people think style 1 is really ugly and only 3-5 are any good. On the other hand, some think 1 or 3 are the only good options. This is going to be tough.

not really

both groups love 3

[Binjovi]

I was actually thinking of very simple symbols. Likely white on black, with tiles that are taller than they are wide giving it that Ascii feel, but using intuitive pictures (and maybe some text) so as not to totally turn off those of us—like me—who have a hard time with games like Nethack and Dwarf Fortress due to their visuals.

As for the styles posted, 1's pretty classic without looking too gross, but 3-5 look the classiest to me.

[Flexstyle]

I'd vote for style three, personally. Pixelized 8-bit has been done to DEATH, and if you're not gonna do the JRPG style (the sample you chose looks pretty even by today's standards, I'd love to see something that beautiful get pulled off) then that's my other favorite. Don't make it just a total rip-off of everything else that's been done before, graphics-wise.

[Algamest]

I'm gonna have to go with JRPG i'm afraid, always been a sucker for the smooth graphics

[Dissidia]

JRPG (4) was the most appealing to me.

[Garian]

I totally didn't see the action in this thread because I was playing other games. I think for what you're intending, 2 and 3 actually look like they would serve the purpose the best, although 2 appears a little disorienting with the unseen unlit areas being completely dark. The HUD (or whatever you want to call it, where the player's stats are) in both of those games are kinda in horrific positions, though.

Taking into consideration that you're looking for an "open world" experience, the nethack style kinda feels claustrophobic to me, but that may be because I am so used to seeing the typical dungeon in it. The HUD from this style is clean and easy to read though, so it's hard to neglect taking influence from 1.

The stylistic jRPG route is fairly graphically appealing, but if you want a large world then that's a LOT of assets that are going to be needed. Even then it may not "feel" right. From what I remember of Secret of Mana and SD3, the dungeons had massive inflation to cope with the monsters being on screen, if you are using a roguelike battle system then that may be an issue-- in those games it felt like the inflation was used as a buffer for underleveled players to "catch up" to where the boss was as well as to increase game time.

My opinion would be to probably run the cartoony graphical style using the interface of NetHack. The graphics would be inviting enough for people who are unfamiliar/uncomfortable with ascii roguelikes without putting off all but the hardcore purists, and the interface would be clean and readable-- all the important information about the character on hand without being in an obnoxious place.

[Jamphibious]

The obstructed vision in the 2nd one kinda reminds me of Nox.

I dunno, I personally really like the 1st one with its simplistic design, and the 2nd one isn't too bad either. I can see why the 3rd one is more widely appealing, though. It's still pretty simplistic, and it looks clean.

[PROTO·DOME]

You're gunna have a pretty hard time with this I have to say. People don't know what they want until they have it, and even then... I know some guys who still can't get into Minecraft because of the graphics (and yes, even with custom skins).

I make a lot of graphics for my own games and I have to say the more complex you start to make it, the less likely you are to finish. My advice would be to find a unique style that's easy and go with that. Hopefully charm of said style will be enough to win over the hearts of the majority.

But you knew all that.

[zircon]

Believe me, I'm not going to pick a really challenging visual style... JRPG is probably out for that reason

The HUD will be WAY better than Nethack though. Closer to TES/Fallout/Diablo etc with submenus/dialogs and stuff.

Edit: Also, while I certainly am going to work on making the game as appealing as possible, I don't have any aspirations of this being ultra-popular. It's a niche thing. You need to appreciate RPGs.

[zircon]

Updates:

* Items on the ground which can be picked up, including money

* "Talk", "Look" and "Get" buttons, hotkeys

* Inventory/equipment screen

* Equipping, dropping or trashing items

* Resolution-independent rendering (game will dynamically resize the gameplay area whether you're at 1024x768 or 1650x10580) including windows

* Standardized 'choice' overlays allowing you to specify which items/objects in a stack you want to look at

* Tilesize-independent game map (currently 32x32 tiles but could be adapted to any other size)

* Map objects like doors

* Opening and closing doors on move

* Modularity overhaul allowing me to change location of visual elements easily

* XML serialization - items, mobs, objects and maps are stored in editable XML files that can be read from or written to. No need to hardcode!

Overall, coming along quite well! Next immediate priorities:

* More door interaction (locking a door, picking a lock, kicking a door down)

* Saving/loading your character

* Using items (potions, etc.)

[twilightsquid]

So, is this floating around in the ether, or has this died? Because if so, that kinda sucks, sounded interesting.

[ectogemia]

Make me a large-scale Castle of the Winds and I will pay handsomely for it.

First of all, holy shit. I just nostalgia'd like you would not believe. So many good old shareware games...

Second, to speak to the OP, absolutely, I would love a deep game at the expense of graphics. I'd say "who wouldn't?" but unfortunately the answer is just about every gamer, so I think.

What's going on with this project anyway, zircon? I'm definitely interested.

[zircon]

Ah! I missed the August bump. Well, suffice it to say that I wish I had more time to work on this. I've been busy with things like my next album, Soul Calibur 5, Impact Soundworks projects and buying a house. Unfortunately, that doesn't leave a lot of time for this one. Last I worked on it was late June where I got some good stuff done. I'd like to pick up development again next month where most of my current projects will be done. Definitely not giving up after I've put so much work into it.

[Crossing]

The first one owns, I think it would fit well.

[ectogemia]

Hah, well, for what it's worth months after the discussion on graphics took place, I'd prefer to see the NES tileset. From a marketing standpoint, you're probably most likely to tag the most buyers with this. The old-school cRPG tileset grabbed me, but not that many people played the Avernums and Ultimas of yore compared to, say, SMB3. The JRPG one is gorgeous, but yeah, it doesn't seem to follow the KISS principle at all. The cartoony one... no. And there is a fourth tileset that isn't coming to mind. I'm sure it looked nice. Unless it was ASCII, if I'm remembering right. In that case, nooooo.

[zircon]

As it turns out we're going with a 16bit pixel aesthetic, 32x32 tiles upscaled from 16 (except characters.) Think Secret of Mana or Chrono Trigger where the characters are more than one tile and a tree can be represented by more than one tile at a time (slight iso perspective as opposed to pure birds-eye.) Looks pretty appealing I think. As soon as I get back to this I'll post some screenies (preferably once we have a character or two.)

I've been trying to bring another programmer on to help me out but part of the problem is explaining your vision for something to another person. It's difficult to explain what needs to be done when you're the only one who really knows your own code!

For what it's worth though, here are some of the things I implemented since the last update:

* Basic AI (movement, attacking, using spells, protecting allies - basic attitudes and decision-making) and pathfinding around obstacles

* Using items

* Enhanced UI code, interface w/ drag and drop in inventory

* Hotbar for items, skills/spells

* Leveling up skills/spells

* Using skills/spells, custom targeting shapes, multiple effects per spell, targeting rotation

* Targeting overlay (think Disgaea)

* Death, dying

* Interactable map objects (open, close, lock, unlock, attack)

* Passive skills like lockpicking

[Mirby]

Hey, zirc, if ya need a beta tester when the time comes, I'm always available! ^.^

Sounds pretty awesome. 'Specially now that you've just added DEATH.

[ectogemia]

Hey, zirc, if ya need a beta tester when the time comes, I'm always available! ^.^

Sounds pretty awesome. 'Specially now that you've just added DEATH.

Seconded on the beta testing.

Seconded on the DEATH.

[Ethan Rex]

Hey, zirc, if ya need a beta tester when the time comes, I'm always available! ^.^

Sounds pretty awesome. 'Specially now that you've just added DEATH.

Thirded

I really like the idea of this. Anything with the words "Fallout" while describing them always brings my attention. And the graphics choice of Chrono Trigger-esque? I nostagia'd.

Good luck with this project, I cant wait to see it.

[Koriantor]

Not only do you make sick music, but are designing a game that sounds super awesome? Awesome!

I would offer my skills but I'm not quite experienced enough with programming to be confident in offering them.

EDIT: My original wording made it seem like I wasn't excited for it. It could be taken as demotivating so I changed it from might sound awesome to sounds awesome.

[Flexstyle]

I've been trying to bring another programmer on to help me out but part of the problem is explaining your vision for something to another person. It's difficult to explain what needs to be done when you're the only one who really knows your own code!

I might know a guy, if you're still looking for help.

[avaris]

This sounds wicked cool! What is the programming language and development platform being used?