Alternate Reality X: Dungeon Door Madness

Firstly thanks for the messages of support for the project following my previous blog post. It's good to know that people are still interested in ARX. I think the post possibly sounded more negative than I intended but I felt an update on progress (or lack of over recent weeks) was required.

One of the causes of my frustration...

Anyway I have made some progress in recent weeks. I'm now using the latest version of SFML 2.0 which is the multimedia library used for ARX. SFML 2.0 is supposed to fix some of the display bugs that some people were experiencing but only time will tell. I also switched over to Visual Studio 2010 Express for development. Unfortunately Visual Studio 2010 seems significantly slower that 2008 which came as  a big surprise and annoyance to me. The web is littered with tales of frustration. It seems to have settled down a bit now though generating new executables still seems slow.

A few weeks back I thought I would add "barred doors" to the Dungeon. If you're familiar with the Dungeon you might remember that you come across some doors which require some effort on your part in order to pass (screenshot above). Now I thought this would probably take me a couple of hours to implement. How wrong I was. I should know better that the things that look really simple will always take me much longer than expected. I've just finished coding up these doors this morning and I'm pleased to say it now seems to be working properly for both forward and backward movement through the doors. ARX will also remember the most recent couple of dozen doors you "opened" for a while. Don't be surprised if you start to find some of these doors added to future versions of the City map.

Dalimar has also kindly tweaked the City map and zone data so that all the enclosed areas on the map show up correctly (e.g. they have roofs and can have other behaviour added such as no rain). He's also modified the 2 Deathtraps so they are no longer traps which result in the loss of your character. Now I need to add something interesting into those 2 areas... If you have any ideas you'd like me to consider then drop me an email - encounters, special treasures or maybe a special passage or teleport to some previously unexplored area of Alternate Reality...

Alternate Reality X: Hitting the Wall

I've been struggling a bit over the last few weeks to get enthusiastic about my next update for Alternate Reality X and found myself thinking about other game designs for my own original games. I pulled out some old design documents for my space exploration and trading game for example - some of the oldest designs dating back to when I was a teenager (which was a long time ago).

The Palace Entrance - Still some way from going through those doors

After following a link from the Rampant Coyote and reading Chris Kaitila's blog about his 12 Games in 12 Months challenge (create 12 games in a year) one bit in particular caught my eye. The bit that interested me most is where he writes about "hitting the wall" where a project is no longer fun, is very complicated or the finish line is much further away than you originally thought.

I think this is the point I'm currently at with ARX. I've been there before of course where I've felt really burnt out and the thought of working on the project seems like work without any fun or achivement. It's only a temporary state but when a project which I'm supposed to be doing for fun feels like work and the prospect of firing up my programming environment fills me with dread then it's time to take a break. I've totally failed to keep on schedule with my ARX development roadmap but it was useful in that I can easily pin point where the time went (adding other features to ARX not on the original roadmap). I've even considered starting an AR project from scratch so I can fix all the issues I know about which I feel are bad design decisions I made in earlier times.

So don't panic if you don't see any updates for a little while and don't be surprised if you see an update on some new project. These other projects allow me to keep my outlook for ARX fresh and come back with renewed enthusiasm and energy. I really want to see the project through to completion but there is still a lot of work to do and I don't want to get burnt out along the way so that I get to the point where I want to abandon the project altogether.

All the best,
Acrin1

Visual C++ 2010 Express and SFML 2

Based on some issues that players of Alternate Reality X reported, I was keen to try out one of the more recent versions of SFML 2.  Hopefully this would resolve problems relating to the use of RenderTextures on machines using integrated Intel graphics. Using a very helpful tutorial by SFMLcoder over at http://sfmlcoder.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/building-sfml-2-nmake/ I was able to build my own SFML 2 binaries and libraries successfully for the first time.

I also used this as an opportunity to switch from Visual Studio C++ 2008 Express to the 2010 edition. It looks like there are a few changes between 2008 and 2010 but no major issues just now.

One thing to remember if that players will need to install the Visual Studio 2010 runtime for the next ARX or SOTC release.

Alternate Reality X - Release 0.57

 
Release 0.57 is now available for download from www.crpgdev.com/downloads.html

New features and bug fixes include:

• Added Encumbrance / object weights, messages and some side effects
• Added "Use timepiece" option to display hour and minutes
• Added menu option to select new music where available (Tavern, Smithy, Troll King, Goblin King, Guild, Death)
• New versions of Tavern, Smithy, Troll King, Goblin King, Guild and Death music from "Furious"
• Added on screen song lyrics for Death and some other music
• New song from Furious - The Nightstalker added to Taverns
• Bug fix: No longer start a new Dungeon character in a "Creepy Room" location
• Bug fix: Now correctly registers death whilst exploring
• Bug fix: Stopped loading shop interior images every frame!
• Bug fix: "Get" command didn't display armour names when picking up from ground
• Bug fix: Tavern opening and closing time checks prevented access sometimes
• Bug fix: Corrected Tavern opening and closing times message
• BUg fix: Paying a tavern membership fee bypassed opening time checks
• Bug fix: Object buffer tidy routine would sometimes remove carried objects
• Bug fix: Use / Drop routine would sometimes not display carried objects
• Bug fix: Apparel wasn't being saved in save game
• Bug fix: Large encounter images for fixed encounters appeared out of proportion to doors

Help to Enhance Alternate Reality X

Hi there,

I'm trying to raise some additional funding through Paypal donations so that I can invest in better graphics software, off the shelf resources and/or some commissioned art. If you feel you could help out with any donations (however small) towards the project they would be greatly appreciated. Donations received will go directly back into the project to enhance it and allow Alternate Reality X to reach its maximum potential.

 

 

The project is now very lucky to have a professional musician working on the project and he's doing some great work including content for the Arena, Palace and Wilderness scenarios. The new sound effects and music are really going to add significantly to make ARX come alive and have an even better atmosphere than the original I feel.

How will extra funding help? If the project can obtain some more substantial funding (don't worry I'm not thinking Project Eternity here!) then it will give the project a lot more options about how we can develop it. The most common request I receive is to develop the remaining scenarios and whilst I have plenty of ideas of how the gameplay, mechanics, new features and story may develop, these scenarios will all require new visuals and graphic content if they are to be effective and enjoyable.

For basic graphics work I've been using Paint Shop Pro and its ok but it would be good to upgrade as it's several major versions / many years behind and a bit buggy. Some 3D modelling software would allow us to produce 3D models and renders for new animated encounter graphics, animated shop interiors rather than the current static ones and some rendered 3D objects for the other scenarios to make the environment that bit more interesting. Maya was one I looked at briefly but I would look again before spending any money / funds. Another option would be software that can export to a 3D object format as well so that I could display the model geometry using OpenGL (Milkshake I think is one) for real 3D encounters which could maybe even be visible in the distance rather than just appearing at point blank range.

I have attempted to attract a serious artist to the project but no one seems interested and I've asked in several quarters where I thought I'd get good responses. I also contacted someone who had done art for a similar project which I liked but he has no interest in contributing to ARX. I am also considering commissioning an artist to do graphics but I would expect this to cost a fair bit which the project / I can't fund at the moment.

I've also come across some excellent graphic resources such as textures and images which would be ideal for ARX but you need to pay for them - using these would save considerable time in developing my own and provide much better quality results than I can manage or that free resources can provide.

Some more funding will allow us to be able to consider these options seriously though and to produce the quality of imagery and potential of  what ARX could be and that we all hoped for with previous Alternate Reality related projects.

Thanks for your continued support for ARX.

All the best,
Acrin1

Alternate Reality: Biting the Bullet

As I've mentioned briefly Bruce has created some wonderful new music and dozens of great sound effects for inclusion in Alternate Reality X. Not only has he reworked some of the old favorites from the City and the Dungeon but he has produced some entirely new tracks especially for this project. A lot of the new content is specially for the future scenarios such as the Arena, Palace and Wilderness. I can't wait to add lots of them into future releases.

On screen lyrics for 0.57

With all this new music I decided I had to bite the bullet and start getting my version of AMP (Advanced Music Processor) into development. I think I'm tempted to drop the "Advanced" from my version as I suspect it's simpler than the version Philip Price and Gary Gilbertson produced but it works :) It took me a couple of days of solid work but I now have a fairly solid system for displaying on screen lyrics in time to the music tracks and I'm pleased with the results.

I now have working on screen lyrics for the Death theme, Dwarf Dance and soon Thoreandan. You'll be able to see it first hand in the next release in the next few days. I've also added the option on the main menu to select the Atari 8 Bit music and sound effects or Bruce's new versions.

Alternate Reality X - 0.56 Released

Hi,

 

I'm a bit late posting this but I uploaded release 0.56 of Alternate Reality X last week. The main changes include:

• Added new Death music as a sample of Bruce's work on new music and sound effects
• Added Pause option whilst exploring and during encounters
• Added buying clothing at D & P
• Wear, drop, get and swap clothing
• Added "Cheap Robe" to starting inventory
• Buy a compass from the City shops
• Added "Apparel" display & "Birthday suit" check
• Added "Known Diseases" display
• Added "curses" display
• Bug fix: inventory overflow led to game crashing after extended play
• Bug fix: Mini map no longer appears on Death screen

Thanks,

Acrin1

Alternate Reality X - 0.55 Released

Hi,

I've just released the latest version of my AR remake. It's available from www.crpgdev.com.

It's been a while coming but hopefully it contains some interesting developments to start taking the game to a new level. I think the new display mode works really well.

In release 0.55 you can find:

• Banks added - Open and close up to 9 bank accounts, deposit and withdraw, sell gems and jewels, apply for jobs, view account balances and view bank failure rates
• New smooth version of the AR font
• New full screen / window 3D view with information overlays and large encounter graphics (just borrowed placeholders for now)
• New 3D fogging for darker dungeons (new graphic style only)
• Lots of new graphics textures including Palace and Arena entrances
• Added ARX.ini configuration file for setting video resolution, full screen mode and graphic style
• Added F12 key to display information for debugging / bug report purposes

Please keep supporting the project and if you feel able please make a small donation to help support the project and keep its development rolling along. Lots of interesting things lined up but it takes time to implement them.

Make sure to send me your feedback about this release as to how the new features work out and any issues you get with these changes.

Thanks for your continued support,

Acrin1

Alternate Reality X on Facebook!

ARX now has a facebook page so please stop by and take a look. New images of ARX's full screen mode as well as some of the Monolith Philip Price screenshots which I thought it would be nice to put up so people can see them more easily.

I've got a few interesting developments coming up that I'l be mentioning there so keep an eye on the page...

It's at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alternate-Reality-X/277276259054861

Alternate Reality X: New font & textures

I've now added a smooth font alternative for ARX which I'm fairly pleased with. You can see it in the screenshots below which also illustrate some of the new Alternate textures which I've added and the addition of  "ceilings" in the Dungeon. Hope you like them. Keep on supporting ARX.

Alternate Reality X: The Arena & The Palace

I've been thinking a lot about opening up ARX to the other scenarios and making a start on them now (as well as working through the roadmap releases) so that there would be content for the Arena and the Palace available as ARX becomes more complete. The other scenarios would be added later. A few questions though:

 

With new scenarios and new features a new style of AR will likely develop...

• What about features such as full screen 3D view with overlaid stats and menu options?
• 3D view with real depth to doorways and roofs on buildings etc
• 360 degree movement
• New mouse driven interface?
• How do you see the artwork working? 1 set of modern artwork (easiest for me using free resources off the internet) or 2 sets - modern and 8bit style

What do you want to see ARX develop into? Are you more interested in the new, next generation version or retaining the old graphics, interface and format?

 

Thanks as always for your input.

 

Thanks,

Acrin1

Alternate Reality X - 0.5 - Released!

Slightly later than planned ARX release 0.5 is now available from the downloads section of www.crpgdev.com

It includes the following changes:

• Added "The Retreat" for resting and recovering lost hit points
• Added "bartering" for the "Damon & Pythias Shop"
• Added "bartering" for the City Smithy
• Added "Alternate graphics" option back in
• Added an initial "Acknowledgements" page
• F1-F4 hotkeys to go directly to the various information screens

Hope you enjoy it and keep on supporting the project.

Alternate Reality X - The Retreat

I've now added the Retreat to the version 0.5 release so you can now rest there to recover hit points and reduce your fatigue. The number of coppers you offer determines the "quality" of your spot in the Retreat so remember to give generously if you want to stay on good terms with the woman who runs it!

I've also added back in the alternate graphics option. Release 0.5 will be a bit later than planned but should be out this week.

A short break...

I've been a bit poorly and then away from home for a few days but now I'm back you can expect some more updates on my CRPG exploits.

Donation Perks

Life is a bit tough just now on a number of levels so I've been re-evaluating things and that includes my development projects. I know some of you have issues of your own so I know I'm not the only one. Hang in there.

I've been thinking about "perks" for people who donate funds to the support of ARX and SOTC and wanted to get your ideas. I'm putting together release 0.5 of ARX now and this will have a special credits section for those who have donated to support the project - I'm looking for a good name for this section so let me know me if you've any ideas. So if you'd like to see your name in the next release of ARX please donate now.

Anyone who has already donated will receive any "perks" I introduce to either game.

What other "perks" would you like to see and what level of donation would be appropriate to warrant them?

• Design of new weapons or spells for inclusion 
• Design of new types of encounters for inclusion
• Direct input into the design and discussion of new features in future ARX scenarios or SOTC development 
• A hard copy, full colour map
• Hard copy manual
• "Roll of honour" on a newly designed website and in the game manuals

I'm also trying to raise the profile of ARX and SOTC so if you can spread the word online that would be great or if you have any good suggestions for sites or media I should be considering let me know.

For SOTC I'm thinking about going for the full works and setting up an Indiegogo crowd funding site  http://www.indiegogo.com but I'll wait until I have a SOTC demo first for people to get a taster of what gameplay will be like. Has anyone used this or donated using this site? Any issues? Here's the ADOM redevelopment which seems fairly sensible in terms of perks:

http://www.indiegogo.com/resurrect-adom-development

As always I'd welcome your thoughts and ideas and really appreciate any support you can provide.

Keep supporting ARX and SOTC development.

Thanks

Alternate Reality X - Demo 0.43 Released!

Demo 0.43 of Alternate Reality X is now available from the www.crpgdev.com download page. The main changes since demo 0.42 include:

• Added full source code for ARX to the game download
• City and Dungeon guilds now merged
• All Guild functions added including joining, remove curses, learn spells, practice spells, deposit / withdraw from guild locker, resign
• Added "Drop" command
• Added "Cast spell" command
• Added the "Healing", "Conjure Food", "Conjure Key" and "Location" spells
• Added "Offer" command to "Transact" menu
• Fixed visual map zone issues where walls and floors had incorrect textures and colours
• Tweaked City and Dungeon gate counter speed and increased starting values slightly for stats
• Fixed move backwards bug which allowed characters to pass through walls

Thanks for your continued support and feedback.

Alternate Reality X - Release Roadmap

With the imminent release of Alternate Reality X 0.43 I can now confidently publish my roadmap for the future releases leading to the official 1.0 release. My goal for the 1.0 release is to have all the original City and Dungeon content completed, fully playable with all the quests completed plus a few more extras which will be unique to ARX.


Release 0.5 - July 31st 2012

• Add initial credits screens (will be added to in each future release)
• Add back in "Alternative Graphics" option
• Add Damon & Pythias provisions and bartering
• Add City Smithy bartering
• Add Dungeon Retreat for resting
• Add duration based spells - Strength, Dexterity, Charisma, Fireblade

Release 0.6 - August 31st 2012

• Add City Shops
• Add City Healers
• Add City Banks
• Add "Buy a round" at City Taverns
• Add remaining combat features
• Add combat spells - Cold Blast
• Add "Examine Items or Spells" option
• Add additional encounter tables for the Dungeon
• Add Dungeon Level 4
• Add Dungeon door types

Release 0.7 - September 30th 2012

• Add Rathskeller Bar & Grille
• Add all encounter weapons
• Add all encounter treasure items
• Add unique treasure items
• Add Encounter animation scheme
• Add City Rain and Storm effects
• Add the ARX manual draft
• Add effects of hunger, thirst and alcohol

Release 0.8 - October 31st 2012

• Add Dungeon Smithy
• Add Bank Vaults
• Add Weapon Enchantress
• Add Dungeon Chapel
• Add music on screen lyrics and timings
• Add Smithy animation
• Add Oracle

Release 0.9 - November 30th 2012

• Add Dungeon quests & locations
• Add Dungeon ending sequence
• Add curses, diseases and poison

Release 1.0 - December 31st 2012

• Add the AR introduction sequence
• Finalise the ARX manual and supporting documents
• Add an ARX icon

2013 - A new Alternate Reality X chapter begins...

Alternate Reality X - Release 0.43 almost ready

Release 0.43 should be available any day now. I've now completed all the guild functions with the recent addition of practicing spells and removing curses. The backwards movement bug is fixed. The only thing I plan to add before the next release is the "Offer" option so that you can improve your alignment by giving food and coins to Paupers.

Stone of the Citadel: Map Designer

Slightly smaller 3D view window and use of a background for the sky

Whilst I've not mentioned it much recently Stone of the Citadel is still progressing. Here are a couple of new screenshots showing the use of background images for outside locations, a slighly smaller 3D view window and the beginnings of the map / scenario designer. You can switch between "play" and "designer" modes with a single key press at the moment, wipe the map data and start building your own SOTC map. As the map format is almost the same as that used by Alternate Reality X there is no reason why I can't add a similar map and scenario builder to ARX in time.

A blank canvas, ready for creating a new adventure!

Alternate Reality X - Casting spells

I've added spell casting to ARX so you can now cast spells within the game. Currently there are no effects for sucessfully cast spells but I'll add some of these today. I'm keen to get another release out so there may only be a handful of spells that are fully functional. I might limit these to the non-combat spells as the whole combat routine needs an overhaul at some point.

Alternate Reality X - Guilds progress

Work on the guilds is progressing well with the addition of guild lockers for depositing your gold, silver, keys etc. I did consider making it possible to add any item from your inventory as my object handler can deal with it but I decided to stick to the original and keep this option for a future release.

I've also started working on guild spells. I've got as far as displaying a list of spells and prices at each guild for learning new spells. This took a bit longer than expected as I reused my Smithy object menu code and had forgotten how some of this worked. Once purchasing is working properly then I'll add the guild spell practice option and then spell casting whilst exploring and in combat. I'll probably not be able to code up all the spell effects in one go but I'll see how it goes. For now I just decided to make use of the spells in the Dungeon for those guilds in the City which never made it into the Dungeon. So you'll be able to learn spells from the Star Wizards Guild and Physicians Guild but they'll be ones from the Dungeon selection (35 different spells in total).

Alternate Reality X - Donations & Support

Apart from my belief that the Alternate Reality games are some of the greatest (if not the greatest) computer games ever made, I also rely heavily on the support and feedback I get from the AR community to keep me going on this remake project. I know I've been working on this project for a very long time and these timescales aren't what anyone wants but I think people sometimes forget how much work goes into a game and I am just one guy. You have to remember as well that this is Alternate Reality not just any old game so I picked a pretty challenging game to remake!

I'm not a professional programmer, have a full time job and a family to look after so I need to feel that I'm using my time wisely. I have had a few doubts along the way about how many people are really interested and whether I'm wasting my effort and should do something else with my limited time. Then I get an email of support or someone posts a link and spreads the word elsewhere and it gives me a real boost.

I am now accepting donations through Paypal from both the link on the right hand side of this blog for both my Alternate Reality X and Stone of the Citadel projects. You can also make a donation from the link over at www.crpgdev.com. This is a great way to show support for the projects and will also help to cover the web site costs and my time. I think my time on Alternate Reality alone must be running into several hundred hours over the years.

I really value any support you can give to the projects whether it's a donation through Paypal, an offer of assistance or just your feedback or suggestions - but please let me know you're out there and have an interest in the project one way or another.

Over the last few days I've probably spent about 15 hours just working on the City and Dungeon guilds. It takes a long time to work out how the original games worked, research all the fine detail, decide how to recreate that experience and then turn it into a real part of the game that you can download and play. I feel it's really coming together now but I still need your support to see this through.

Let me know you're still behind the project whether it's through a donation, personal email to acrin1 @ googlemail.com , by signing up as a follower for this blog, posting on the AR mailing list or posting on the forums. And to those of you who've supported this project from the early days or earlier incarnations my sincere thanks. Hopefully you will soon feel your patience has been well rewarded!

Alternate Reality X - Guild Wars!

I've started work on adding full functionality and merging guilds for both the City and the Dungeon scenarios. This obviously posed a few interesting issues that I had to decide on how to approach. Should I use the 8bit Dungeon guild model or the 16bit City one? Should I treat the guilds located in the City as entirely separate to those in the City or just as branches? I've been thinking about this one for some time and I'm sure not everyone will be a 100% happy with my choices but so far I think it's working out well and I'm about 30 - 40% into building the guilds.

Here's how it's working to date:

• Guilds are based on the 8bit Dungeon guild model. General opinion seems to be that the 16bit City guild model has some annoyances around learning and retaining spells. I always thought the Dungeon model worked really well.
• You can have full membership in one guild and associate membership with a number of other guilds.
• I made a few guesses as to which of the unique City guilds would be enemies to each other. The other 12 guilds in the Dungeon have clear enemies so no problem there.
• 8 guilds feature in both the City and the Dungeon. 2 guilds (Mercenaries and Paladins) are unique to the Dungeon and 4 guilds unique to just the City (Blue Wizards, Red Wizards, Physicians and Assassins). This gives ARX a total of 14 unique guilds. I've chosen not to add the 2 "hidden on disk" guilds from the 8bit Atari City for now.
• Where a guild is available in both scenarios I'll treat them as "branches" so when you join one you'll already be flagged as a member when you visit the other. Guild bonuses will be gained when you first join a branch in either scenario. Due to the "power of the guilds" the contents of your guild locker (E.g. gold, silver, gems, crystals etc) will be available from either branch.
• I'll start by implementing all the spells for the 12 Dungeon based guilds. I'll then either choose some of these spells for the remaining 4 unique City guilds or add some additional spells from the 16bit City version.
• Removal of curses will be free at guilds - but only when you've joined a guild
• Guild membership acceptance is only based on your experience level and moral alignment as in the Dungeon guild model.
• I standardised the guild names between the City and the Dungeon as there were quite a few inconsistencies.
• I've kept the guild images and music unique for the City and the Dungeon as you'll see from the screenshots here.

Alternate Reality X - Fixing zones

Now that release 0.42 of ARX is out I've started on the next set of fixes and additions. A few people had commented that some of the Dungeon map zones were displaying the wrong textures and colours so I thought I would look at fixing these. For example the areas around the Dungeon Chapel had a bright white floor and the Blink Mine area kept displayed the City mountains as a background -Interesting but not really true to the original game!

After a bit of digging I reacquintainted myself with the zones system. Basically the Dungeon designers set up a system where you could define a "zone" by specifying a pair of X and Y co-ordinates on the Dungeon map. These are used to control the colours, textures used (eg. rock walls, ice crystals in the crystal caverns), types of encounters (e.g. lots of guards around the bank vaults) and anti-magic zones.  It's an efficient system (as you only specify 4 numbers to define the area) and I might use something similar for some sections of Stone of the Citadel.This is one of the things I like about AR over other games of the time - the variety of different area styles as opposed to other games which had one set of wall graphics for the entire game.

The original Dangerous Area



The ARX Dangerous Area

Anyway I focused on the southwest area of the Dungeon map and went through every area and zone there to match them up and add any new styles and colours required. I haven't matched all the colours and areas exactly, partly because the colours in the version of Atari800Win I'm using didn't look quite right to me but also because I could spend a lot of time making every area look exactly the same and most players won't remember the exact scheme. This area of the map is now nicely tidied up and all the zones look sensible. I'll move onto other areas shortly.

Alternate Reality X - Release 0.42 now available

Release 0.42 is now available from the downloads page at www.crpgdev.com.

Let me know what you think, especially if the changes I've made to the gate stats counter speed are positive.

Alternate Reality X - Version 0.42 released soon

I'll be releasing version 0.42 shortly. This will only be a minor release but it does add a few features that people have been asking for repeatedly. 

The main changes are:

• Save and load characters in the City or Dungeon
• Updated automap that only shows explored areas
• Updated Exit / Quit behaviour and help screen
• Sell gems and jewels at the Dungeon D & P
• Some adjustments to the City Smithy such as better weapon choice for new characters and correct intervals for restocking weapons and armour
• A few more bug fixes

Please consider the save and load options as experimental in this version so I would suggest not putting lots of effort into building up a character at this stage.

Hopefully have this uploaded in the next few days.

Alternate Reality X - Updated automap and options

I'd always intended to have the automap display only those places on the map that you'd explored so I've spent some time this weekend updating the automap. As you explore each location on the map they become visible on the map making it easy to see which parts of the map you've still to explore and will avoid the problem of the player missing any potential specials objects or locations.

The updated automap showing the starting area of the Dungeon

I've also added some additional code to each of the shop locations to mark out all the cells of the map relating to that shop are appropriately coloured in (e.g. The Retreat and Grille above). It will take a while to mark out the same for all the shops, guilds etc in the City as well. I need to add this new automap information into the save game format so that save games include the areas of the automap explored so far.

I've also made some changes to fix the problem people reported about accidently quiting from the game by pressing the ESC key twice. When you now press ESC you get an options / help screen.

Further options will be added in future

If you select the Quit option you'll also be asked to confirm it with a Yes / No prompt now so hopefully no more accidental lost characters. You can currently only load your save games from the main menu.

SFML 2.0 - Release Candidate

The Simple Fast Media Library (SFML) version 2.0 is now at the Release Candidate stage and is available as a download from the SFML website. I've been waiting for this for some time. Hopefully the final 2.0 release won't be far away. It provides you with all the necessary library functions you need to code your games and there are a variety of bindings for different languages. There is a very active forum and lots of active SFML users now so help isn't far away if you need it.

I'll switch over Alternate Reality X and Stone of the Citadel soon to take advantage of this new release.

Alternate Reality X - Further tweaks

I've just about completed the saving and loading of characters within ARX. The only things to add to the save game format for current features are the tavern / inn jobs available and tavern food / drink available. Both of these change on a daily basis and should really be captured as part of the save game.

In addition I've made a few minor tweaks as suggested by folks over at the AtariAge forums. You should now always get the option of buying a cheaper weapon in the City (providing you have enough coppers). I've also changed the frequency of when the City Smithies restock - I'd set it to be on the hour but it was daily in the original game so I've fixed that.

Alternate Reality X - Saving and Loading characters

I've now added basic support to ARX for saving and loading characters. You can save a character whilst exploring the City streets or the Dungeon corridors. Saved games can be reloaded from the main menu. You can't save during an encounter or whilst inside a special location such as a guild. There are 10 save game "slots" to use and these can be used for multiple saves of the same character into different slots. New saves can overwrite old ones. These are just straight save games so there are no penalties when you die other than lost progress. I now need to add in some additional save game information to make this feature complete for the current version features.

Alternate Reality X - Save game coding underway

I've made a start on coding the save game feature and so far it's working as expected. Might be a few weeks before I am able to release a version for people to try it out though.

Alternate Reality X - Display timing issues

I recently posted on the 8 bit Atari Age forums and some of the regulars there who've responded to my AR X posts over the last couple of years reminded me of an often mentioned issue which I've still to fix. This is the high speed which the City and Dungeon gate counters spin around. I'm not currently timing the speed with which different computers should display things on the screen which means some people find this very frustrating as it's way too fast.

Along with the save game facility I'll aim to fix this problem in the next release. I know what SFML commands I need to look at to help with this and once I've worked it out this will hopefully help me to be able to tackle others features such as encounter animation and on screen timed song lyrics.

Exams

I've been on a course this week and will be sitting a couple of exams so there won't be any updates this week. Should be all finished by the weekend though.

Alternate Reality X - Save games

Lots of people have asked me to include a save game option in the next release of ARX. I'm really surprised as I expected players would be looking for other features first before they would want to save characters. Anyway I think I've come up with a fairly good way of providing a save game option in the next release which will allow players to save their characters AND load them into future versions of ARX. I can't guarantee this but I'm going to give it a good try.

The next release will allow you to save and load into one of 10 save game "slots" similar to the original Dungeon game.

Alternate Reality X - Currency Exchange at the D & P

My 10 year old son started enjoying the wonders of Alternate Reality last night for the first time. He's seen me playing the original games and working on Alternate Reality X plenty of times but yesterday he downloaded version 0.41 of ARX from the website and started playing through what's there. He quickly got sucked into the game but was a bit frustrated once he realised there are some features missing. In the meantime he's keen to try the originals.

One of his complaints was that he could not trade the gems and jewels he found from encounters for silver so I thought I would put that into the game next. I've added the "Currency Exchange" menu to the Damon & Pythias shop so you can now trade in gems and jewels as well as convert silver and copper to gold to lessen your load ( for a fee of course ). I'm away at a conference for a few days but will add the similar functions to the City banks on my return.

Stone of the Citadel - Fixing for a first release

I've still got a few display problems to fix due to changes in the way the latest SFML 2 build handles displays and OpenGL. Now that I've worked my way through all the changes in the much larger code base for Alternate Reality X this should be fairly easy.

Alternate Reality X - Release 0.41

I've finally uploaded release 0.41 of Alternate Reality X to www.crpgdev.com - it's only about 4 months late! Finally tackled some of the work on the City taverns and I'll try and totally finish these for release 0.5. Tavern features still missing are buying rounds and friendship levels which determine whether you get help when you're down and out or get refused entry to certain taverns. I'm also keen to add a save game facility as many people are asking for this.

Anyway here's what's included in this 0.41 release:

• City Courier healer bug fixed
• Use food packets and water flasks
• Buy food and drink from City taverns
• Basic recording of hunger, thirst and alcohol levels added
• City Tavern jobs and memberships now available
• Updated city map with correct signs and Arena walls (many thanks to Dalimar who did this work)
• Added Trolls and Goblins palaces
• Added Dungeon Chapel placeholder and music
• Added fountains to Dungeon
• Mini map and full screen map no longer slow down frame rate due to SFML 2.0 library
• "Use" command now works during encounters
• Mercenaries / Paladin guilds in Dungeon no longer crashes
• No longer crashes when using the secret doors in the outer City walls to move from one map side to another
• Mini map now displays during encounters
• Lots of code reorganisaion behind the scenes

Feedback as always appreciated.

Alternate Reality X - Working towards 0.41

I now feel I'm back into the swing of coding for my long sterm Alternate Reality remake project. I've now completed moving it over to use the latest version of the SFML 2.0 media library and I'm pleased with the results such as the automap display now displaying instantly.

I'm now working towards releasing a new version of ARX. This so far contains bug fixes, a few new placeholders for shops / modules such as the  Dungeon Chapel and pretty much the full Troll / Goblin ring quest. I've also added in the Dungeon fountains and have made a start on adding more features to the City Taverns. It also features an updated City map provided by Dalimar with all the shop door signs now in place and the Arena walls using the pillar texture. You can also move / wrap from one side of the City map to the other using those secret doors - instead of appearing "outside" the map as in previous versions.

Hopefully have this mini release which I've marked as version 0.41 out in another week or so.

Project Resurrection - ARX and SOTC

After a long break I'm starting to get back into both my Alternate Reality X project and Stone of the Citadel. I'm moving them over to a newer version of the SFML media library which make both games possible. With AR in particular I'm taking the opportunity to try and greatly simplify and restructure the code - it desperately needs it! I probably waste lots of time going backwards and forwards through my maze of twisty, legacy code.

I'm going to update the webpages at www.crpgdev.com to include both projects rather than just Alternate Reality and I'm keen to get a new AR version out soon and a little demo of Stone of the Citadel too so people can start to get a bit of an idea of what direction I'm taking with this and see it actually does exist! I'm keen to hear from people what they would like to see in this type of party based CRPG so drop me a line.

The long delays are due to the usual reasons - work, family life and basically just needing a rest to avoid permanent burn out. To be honest I did think about stopping work on Alternate Reality X but I really want to complete what I set out to do there and it is achievable. However I'm pleased to say I'm keen to get back to it now after the break and I can now go back feeling refreshed and enthusiastic.

One thing I have thought a lot about recently based on many emails I've received about the projects on this blog is adding a paypal donations button for anyone who is interested in the projects and wants to put something towards my time. I've always been a bit reluctant to do this but from the supportive comments I've had asking about this I've come around to the idea so don't be surprised if you see a donate button pop up. The projects will continue to be available for free download for anyone of course.