The crpgdev.com blog

Alternate Reality X - Working towards 0.41

2012-02-25T18:17:00.000Z

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

2012-02-17T21:05:00.000Z

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 I'm moving them over to a newer version of the SFML media library which make both games possible.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.

Stone of the Citadel: Minimap

2011-09-29T00:02:00.002+01:00

I've added a mini map to the display to help navigate around the map. This is based on my Alternate Reality X code just now but I'm going to modify it to show only explored sections of the map: either individual cells or whole chambers and corridors a chunk at a time.

I've also altered the current textures and spent some time yesterday collecting decent free textures that I can use at least in the short term to start adding some variety to the map. I want to start sketching out a real map soon such as a town or the starting Citadel of the title as well as adding some more interesting map features and functionality to my game engine. My intention is to try and make the 3D view more realistic by adding more complex shapes such as recessed doorways, pillars and pits rather than just relying on the flat 6 quads for each map cell (floor, ceiling, front wall, back wall, left wall and right wall). We'll see how that idea develops.

Stone of the Citadel: First screenshot

2011-09-27T12:13:00.001+01:00

As I mentioned previously I've already done some initial coding for Stone of the Citadel. I've played around with a few different displays based on other games and for the initial stages of building up some actual game content I've settled on a simple screen layout which you can see below.

Whilst not particularly exciting at this stage it gives me something solid to start working with and building on. Over the coming months expect the display to change dramatically though - everything from the 3D view, its dimensions, textures, layout, fonts and logo are all likely to change. I've spent some time getting my bitmap font routine working smoothly as there will be a lot of text and information within the game so it needs to be readable. I can easily use other fonts now this is in place.

Functionality wise all you can do just now is move around a simple test map with walls and doors. Performance of the 3D view slowed down a bit once I added all the menus and party roster but I know why this has happened and how to fix it.

I'm planning to switch over to SFML 2.0 from SFML 1.6 as I believe this will give me some options for improving performance. It's also the future for SFML so I might as well start to become familiar with it.

Stone of the Citadel: My new CRPG project

2011-09-25T15:33:00.001+01:00

I've been talking for some time about creating my own Computer Role Playing Game (CRPG) based on my favourite computer games of the 80s and 90s and I've now finally started that project. My intention is to capture the spirit of those classic games such as the Ultima series, Bards Tale, Eye of the Beholder, Might & Magic and Alternate Reality. As well as trying to bring together the best features of these older games, I also have many ideas of my own which I plan to add and hopefully create something new and enjoyable to CRPG players today. The games that really interest me today are not the big commercial titles but the smaller games from independents where people have made the games they want to play. I'm also interested in the roguelike games where there are a great deal of features and innovations despite their simple appearance. I'm currently calling the new game "Stone of the Citadel" though this might change.

So what can you expect from the game? I'm expecting this game to develop and evolve over an extended period of time but my initial plan and goals are as follows:

Party based - Control a party of up to 8 characters
Single, shared inventory
Multiple races, professions and skills but without many of the common restrictions
3D View but limited to the 4 cardinal directions
Varied environment - Wilderness, towns, dungeons and many unique places to explore
Build up a community of players who contribute their ideas directly into future developments and share their stories of experiences within the game
Regular releases as the game and features develop
Runs on Microsoft Windows initially (using C++ and SFML) with ports to Linux and Mac in the future

Coding is already going very well but I'll save details of that for a future post.

Alternate Reality X - Release 0.4

2011-08-17T00:16:00.000+01:00

I've finally released a new version of my Alternate Reality remake project. It's available for download over at: www.crpgdev.com as always. It's good to finally get something out even if it's not as full featured as I'd hoped. The problem I have now is that there are lots of different parts that I'm capable of working on but deciding which of these will have the most significant impact on the project.

I really need to try and wrap up my work on encounters in the next release and also add in some more establishments such as City Shops and Taverns.

Alternate Reality X - More encounters...

2011-06-25T15:40:00.000+01:00

After wasting a few hours modifying the monster data file format I eventually reverted to almost the same format I started with - I really need to learn to leave things where they are if they are not presenting any major problems. The main reason for the changes was to save me hand editing the Dungeon monster data I had. I eventually just learned how to use the Visual Studio 2008 editor better to put the monster data into my monster data file structure.

All 74 dungeon monsters are now in the game although I will need to do some work to stop the player bumping into the Basilisk and other one off creatures whilst exploring the Well Lit Area!

One thing that confused me is that the monster data I have doesn't seem to quite tally with that in the C64 version. I would like to use the correct data. I also need to create all the weapons which Dungeon encounters can carry and bring the City monster data up to the level and data file format. City monsters work in a different way in the do not have fixed stats but have their stats vary to some degree when you encounter them.I would really like to put some encounter tables in place before the 0.4 release if possible.

Alternate Reality X - Encounter updates

2011-06-04T09:16:00.000+01:00

I've made quite a lot of changes to encounters over the last week. Possibly the most noticeable is that I've changed the encounter menus to reproduce the Alternate Reality: The Dungeon style. That means a single column with a secondary menu for "Transact".

You no longer get attacked by all encounters automatically dependent on their alignment (good, evil, neutral) and you can hail them. I've also added in some of the special behaviours and options for encounters like thieves and noblemen.

I'm now working on changing the encounter data format and importing all the Dungeon encounters into the game. Once that is done I plan to add in more of the special behaviours (pauper, healers etc) and add the relvant weapons for each Dungeon encounter.

Alternate Reality X - Treasure!

2011-05-26T22:46:00.000+01:00

I've finally added in some basic treasure finding but just now only for generic volume items like food packets, water flasks, keys, crystals, gold etc. I spent ages trying to get the right messages appear to check my object buffer within the game and update the status line correctly that there were objects to pick up in the current location.

Anyway it seems to work fairly well and I'm ready to add some more treasure types - probably weapons that are dropped by humanoid characters when they die. I also have the GET object dialogue working properly.

Alternate Reality X - Bug Fixes

2011-04-27T22:04:00.000+01:00

It's been a couple of months since I did any work on Alternate Reality X - a combination of work, home life and other interests but after that break I'm keen to progress to the next release. I spent a few hours over the last couple of days fixing some bugs which were reported on the forums. The following problems are now sorted out:

Worked out why every encounter in the Citywas automatically followed by a second encounter
The game no longer crashes when you try to leave the City and enter the Wilderness
Fixed the currency handling and change given when paying for goods with varying gold, silver and copper - no more credit at the Damon & Pythias!

Planning to start adding some functionality to the City taverns and shops.

Alternate Reality X - Dungeon level 3 progressing

2011-01-20T00:16:00.000Z

I'm still working on adding level 3 of the Dungeon to Alternate Reality X. It's going fairly well so you can move from level 2 to 3 and back again but not yet get to level 4. Just adding wall textures for level 3 and zone information.

Alternate Reality X - Adding Dungeon levels 3 & 4

2011-01-17T01:13:00.000Z

After the 0.3 release I thought I would add the two remaining Dungeon levels to the game. That would mean I've then covered all the maps in the original Alternate Reality City and Dungeon scenarios. I converted the original game files to my text format and have now connected up map level 3 to the game.

I hand to go back the Atari 8bit Dungeon in order to familiarise myself with how the maps fit together. I also tidied up some terrible old code where I was inconsistent with how I handled map references. This initially broke teleports, shops and map zones amongst other things but it's finally fixed and will save me lots of time when I add more content. This has been annoying me for ages so it's about time i sorted it.

Hopefully I'll add level 4 and the various wall textures for these two levels in the next few days.

Alternate Realilty X - Demo 0.3 released!

2011-01-06T01:47:00.001Z

Finally demo 0.3 of Alternate Reality X is available for download from

http://www.crpgdev.com/

You can try the latest version of ARX from the downloads page. In addition there are plenty of new screenshots on the home page and on the screenshots page. Hopefully people will find it of interest and think the progress is decent. I managed to add in buying items from the Damon & Pythias shop (below) after all so that was a positive.

Buying weapons and armour from the D & P

This release has been a long time coming but it's significant because tempted as I was to move onto easier, more interesting sections of the project I've recently put a lot of time into fixing the problems that already existed such as the incomplete City gate sequence, lack of mixed case character names and more importantly the purchasing of weapons and armour and creation of inventory objects. The result is a release that doesn't have a lot more to offer play wise but in terms of my progress and learning has put me in a strong position to make release 0.4 a good one - that's my plan anyway.

Weapons & Armour purchases in place

2011-01-01T11:59:00.001Z

You can now buy all your weapons and armour from the Smithies in the City. It took me a while to iron out a bizarre bug when equipping armour bought from the Smithy but everything now seems to be working smoothly. It was also a useful refresher on the way I've set up the objects in game and weapons and armour.

Weapons and Armour in use

I'll try and implement the Damon &Pythias equipment purchases whilst this is still fresh in my mind. Then I can add some more interesting object types and treasure in the Dungeon.

New Year , New Challanges

2011-01-01T11:28:00.003Z

As we come to the start of another year I've been thinking about the last 12 months and what I want to achieve during 2011. Lots of things are uncertain at work just now so I'll need to see how they develop over the next few months and I've other things I want to work on such as my guitar playing but I'll not go into the details of that here.

In terms of my CRPG projects I had hoped to make more progress with Alternate Reality X but I have made a lot of progress behind the scenes in terms of things I've learnt and how to write better code and I expect to build on this further during 2011 though I've still got a long way to go. I also finished Ultima IV - The Quest of the Avatar for the C64 (under emulation). It only took me 20 years!

Obviously I haven't been playing it continuously during that time :) Anyway I wanted to set out some clear but achievable goals for my crpg.dev projects so here they are:

GOAL 1
Complete Alternate Reality X (ARX) to include all City and Dungeon content by the end of 2011. I'll also be aiming to have a lot more regular builds for download. Demo 3 should be available later today and I would hope to have demo 4 out by say end of February 2011. I'm keen to get some alternative graphics but so far no one has actually delivered a single image. I'll widen my net here to hopefully get someone on board.

GOAL 2
Create a fully playable demo of my own original, classic style CRPG by the end of 2011. Possibly under a donation type scheme. I've been surprised how many people have offered to donate to the ARX project to try and speed up my progress. Thanks to everyone who offered. I can't accept any monetary donations for ARX as it's not my game/copyright.

GOAL 3
Play more CRPGs including the old classics and newer games. I have Fallout 3, Baldurs Gate, Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights, various Ultima's and Might and Magic's to complete amongst many others. I will probably post a bit about my game playing on this blog so let me know what you think.

Happy New Year!

Alternate Reality X - Teleport trouble!

2010-12-31T15:13:00.000Z

For some time now there has been a bug in the teleport code which I needed to fix. Basically when you tried to use a teleport square which moved you from one Dungeon level to another you ended up being moved into a void outside the current map. This should have been easy to fix but instead took me hours. Every time I thought I had found the problem I came across another missing piece of game logic. Anyway I think I finally fixed it but it might raise it's head again when dungeon level 3 is introduced.

On a more positive note I managed to resolve the issues with text input for the player name in a few minutes so now you can name your AR alter ego using both upper and lowercase letters. I needed to use SFMLs TextEntered event type.

I also successfully added some extra options to the auto map to display specials such as encounters, treasure and effect areas. This will be really useful for testing and adding to the game. For anyone who is wondering the mini and full screen map options in the next demo WILL NOT have this feature enabled.

I've also added a little FPS toggle button so you can see how well the game is performing on your PC. Without the mini map enabled I get about 60 frames per second. With the mini map on about 30 frames - I'll modify the mini map for demo 4 so it doesn't take up so much processing time.

Automap - Further progress

2010-10-12T00:09:00.000+01:00

Further work on the automap is going well. I've tweaked the images slightly so doors look more like the ones on old Dungeons & Dragons maps. Personally I think they look much better. I've also fixed a problem about the map display wrapping when viewing the edge of the map and added some additional checks for wall types in the Dungeon such as barred doors.

I've also added a large map display. Initially this could display a maximum map size of 64 x 64 like the City map or first level of the Dungeon but it was quite hard to read so I've changed this display to show the 32 x 32 segment that you are currently located in for larger maps. I also added a key for locations in the City.

Need to fix a wrap around display bug for smaller maps and also make the map display only those areas explored so far. Let me know what you think.

Automap working

2010-10-05T00:24:00.000+01:00

After my setback at the weekend with the power supply failing on the PC I managed to swap it today and have also managed to get the automap working correctly. Currently the automap shows you everything regardless of where you've been. As you can see from the screenshot it shows you where special places such as shops, taverns and smithies are on the map. I think this is a really useful feature - hopefully it won't spoil the game for anyone.

Originally I made the mini map cells much smaller (8 pixels) but it made it difficult to see some items such as multiple doors in single cells so I've opted for bigger 16 pixel cells.

I'll work on making the map show only those areas explored tomorrow if I've time as well as starting work on the full map level view.

PC disaster

2010-10-03T06:59:00.000+01:00

disaster struck on Friday evening - I came back to my pc after a few pminutes and found that it was dead. Hopefully just temporary - it appears that it might be a power supply failure so I'm hoping I might be able pick up a suitable old one on Monday.

Of course I just happen to have my sons school project on there and my recent version of ARX with no recent backup. Hope to get this sorted on Monday or at least swap the hard drive into a another pc suo I can copy off these files.

Alternate Reality - Automapping

2010-09-04T20:19:00.002+01:00

I've talked about adding an automap to ARX before and decided I will try and add one into the next release. This will mean a delay in the next release but hopefully the feature will be seen as a positive addition. The original Dungeon game didn't have an automap but it did feature an item known as the Map stone which when used revealed your x and y location.

I think a game like ARX will really benefit from an automap and it could also be useful as a means of teleporting about the map or editing map layouts in the future. Maps vary in size from 64x64 cells to 8x8 so the automap needs to accomodate these. There are likely to be two views for the automap:

Full screen view which will display the whole (or most of) the current map
Mini map view located alongside the 3D view

The northeast corner of Dungeon level 1

Alternate Reality X - Release 2.1

2010-08-29T09:35:00.000+01:00

After taking almost a year between the first and second demo releases for Alternate Reality X (ARX), I've vowed to release updated versions more frequently. However I have been really busy with work and been away on holiday so I've made very little progress since the demo release at the beginning of August 2010.

I have started working on the City character creation and now have it at the point that it's mostly complete. I still need to fix a few things such as the colour of the counters and music / sound effect timing. I'm not attempting to match every element of the original character creation sequence but hopefully people will understand that. I'm rather spend the time on key parts of the game such as combat and shop functionality.

My graphic card issues are now resolved so I have ARX running at about 60 frames a second - much better than the previous 6 frames!

Over at the ARX forums there a number of bug reports which I will try to resolve in the next few days. Possibly the worse is the teleport bug which places you outside the level 2 map. I think this will be due to me using level 1 teleport coordinates when adding the level 2 dungeon map. Thanks to dalimar for pointing these out.

I'm hoping to finish off the city character creation sequence and fix these bugs for a small 2.1 update release sometime this week.

Alternate Reality - Graphic card woes

2010-08-15T12:03:00.000+01:00

I was fortunate enough to be able to upgrade the old laptop I was using to a decent spec PC. Everything initially looked very positive. Windows 7 installed smoothly, detected all the right drivers and the PC seemed to perform very well. I installed Visual Studio 2008 Express which I am using to develop my Alternate Reality remake and everything compiled fine.

However when I ran Alternate Reality X (as I've now started calling it) but it was very slow. SFML (the media library I'm using for the project) uses OpenGL to produce all its graphic output and I'm also using OpenGL to produce the 3D view in the game. The onboard Intel graphics in the PC obviously doesn't have proper Windows 7 drivers which support OpenGL (despite the OpenGL logo being displayed within the graphic card driver tab within Windows).

The number 3 on the status bar below indicates the number of frames the game is currently running at with the alternate graphics option. It's not quite so bad with the original graphics which are smaller dimenstions. On my previous laptop (also using Intel graphics but with proper OpenGL supported Windows 7 drivers) the game ran around 30 frames a second. Sadly there seem to be no better drivers available.

I ordered a new graphics card with an NVidia chipset but didn't realise that the PC didn't have a PCI Express x16 slot! I'll get this sorted eventually. In the meantime I'll focus on parts of the game which aren't really affected by the slow speed.

The Bards Tale

2010-04-27T11:24:00.001+01:00

I’ve been giving a lot of thought over the last few weeks to the games that I’ve played over the years and the features I want to include in my game. One game that ’ve played quite a lot over the years was the Bards Tale, first on the Commodore 64 and later the Commodore Amiga.

Bards Tale 2 - The Guild where you create your party (Amiga version)

Your party of adventurers had to explore the city of Skara Brae as well as the dungeons beneath to destroy an evil wizard and free the city from his grasp. The game featured a 3D view of the city streets and animated pictures of the numerous monsters you encountered. Gameplay was combat heavy (even for a CRPG!) with large scale battles sometimes featuring multiple groups containing dozens of monsters against your party of six. Although fairly simplistic in many ways there are a number of features in the Bards Tale that I liked and can imagine incorporating into my own game.

Bards Tale 2 - Exploring the streets of Tangramayne (Amiga version)

Combat was turn based and almost entirely textual in nature. The party and its enemies initially faced each other from a distance before advancing into range for combat. Only the first four characters in your party could attack hand to hand with the others having to rely on magic or missile weapons to attack from a distance. Magic played a big part in the game with a number of different types of magic user, some of which could only be accessed when a certain level of proficiency had been reached. One unique class within the Bards Tale was the Bard of the title who could play a number of tunes which produced magic – providing you made sure he had plenty to drink at the tavern.

Bards Tale 2 - Combat (Amiga version)

It was possible for you to encounter wandering monsters who offered to join and fight for the party. I also like the layout and interface for the game which I think is very clear and easy to understand. I’d imagine my CRPG will have a similar type of layout where you can always see how your party members are holding up – nothing worse than not being able to see if a character will last another round.

My new CRPG project

2010-04-01T11:02:00.000+01:00

I think the first Computer Role Playing Game (CRPG) I ever played was Ultima IV: The Quest of the Avatar on my Commodore 64. I was only about 12 years old at the time and Ultima IV wasn’t readily available in the UK at the time. Fortunately my Uncle worked with someone who had a lot of American imports of new games and I obtained a loan of Ultima IV from him. Whilst the graphics were simplistic (even back then!) I soon found myself drawn into the game and the story. I’ve since found the CRPG genre to be my favorite type of game. As well as the Ultima series other favorites included the Bards Tale and Alternate Reality: The Dungeon. Later when I upgraded to an Amiga I played Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder and Ultima VI. Finally I got access to a PC. These old games used a variety of different styles of play and features to create their fantasy worlds despite the limited platforms that they ran on. However, despite their dated graphics and limitations I often find myself drawn back to these games and their conventions. I think there is a certain charm and entertainment value about these early CRPGs that many newer games have failed to capture or build on.

Ever since I received my first home computer I wanted to design and create my own Computer Role Playing Game (CRPG) such as those that were popular for the 8bit and 16bit computers of my youth. I designed many games over the years (mainly on paper) but never managed to take one of those designs and implement it as a playable game. Twenty years later and there are a wealth of programming languages and gaming resources available for free on the Internet. In addition my programming skills are much better than they used to be (though still not great). I’m now keen to design and develop my own “Classic” CRPG, incorporating my favorite design features and ideas from my years of playing CRPGs. Hopefully along the way I’ll add a few good ideas of my own and maybe even create a game that some people might be interested in playing! I’ll record my design ideas and progress as the game develops. In addition I’m planning to play a lot of the old games through for inspiration and plan to record my experiences about these from time to time. I’ve never actually finished very many CRPGs that I’ve played and there are a number I’d like to finish. I think I probably spent most of my time designing rather than playing.

I will be developing the game initially under Windows using Microsoft Visual Studio Express, C++ and the Simple, Fast, Multimedia Library (SFML). This library has proved powerful but relatively easy to use in the past. Eventually I would expect to be able to offer Linux and Mac versions as SFML is supported for both platforms. However I still have only a vague idea of what the design and content of the game is likely to be at this early stage.

Shops & Signs

2008-11-17T19:49:00.011Z

I've finally managed to make a bit more progress over the weekend, adding signs to the City doors and also adding some code to display City establishment images (E.g. Guilds, Inns etc) with some relevant menu text. A lot of time was spent capturing all the images for door signs and establishments from the Atati 8bit version. After a few attempts to add code to work out if a door should have a sign on it I decided to take the lazy route and simply use a different wall type. My map format uses an Integer for each wall which means I'm not limited to just a handful of different wall types to make up the City and Dungeon walls. Potentially this means that I could add more interesting details to later versions of the remake such as tapestries or mirrors or windows for City locations. The downside is that I have to manually edit the map entries for shop doors (OK I could write a program to do this but I haven't yet). The map format is in a human readable format so it's easy to find a map cell and edit the wall types. The other reason for this easy to understand map format is that I like the idea of creating a map editor at some point. Many areas of the City are difficult to get to so I'm keen to try and open up the map a little bit. It's also possible someone else might be keen to write a map editor.

To date my Alternate Reality remake is looking like the Atari 8bit version though the view window is bigger and due to the higher resolution walls and signs are clearer from far away. City establishments contain additional menu items from the 16bit versions of the game. So for example visiting an Inn in the remake will give you the option to apply for a job (see above) - a feature which was never implemented in the 8bit version (it would have been added in a future scenario had they been created). I'm also modelling the menu system along similar lines to The Dungeon and the 16bit City as I find these cleaner and easier to read than the original Atari ones. One major change I'm considering for shops is making items selectable from a list rather than skipping through one item at a time in places such as the Smithy. I'm keen to start building up some simple shop functionality so that the remake starts to feel more like a game. Dungeon content has kind of taken a back seat just now.

City Backgrounds added

2008-11-12T23:55:00.007Z

Thanks to information I've received today I've now been able to add the four City backgrounds into the project. There are different mountain range backgrounds within the City depending on whether you're facing north, south, east or west.

I'm now having a go at adding the door signs for the various City establishments (E.g. guilds, shops etc). I thought I'd come up with a quick way of dealing with this but I've still got some work to do as the signs are not appearing from the outside of the shop only the inside! I'd forgotten how the City map structure works. My map structure can easily accomodate additional textures to deal with different wall types but would require me to edit lots of doors manually which I don't want to do if I can avoid it.

Return to Alternate Reality

2008-11-06T23:59:00.008Z

Well it's been a long time since I posted anything on this blog even though there has been a fair bit of progress on the Alternate Reality front in the last year. Whilst I've not done a lot in the last few months I did some good work during the summer and what I've produced to date is far better than what I had created in SDL. The screenshot here is from the City using the original Atari 8bit graphics. I have been very happy using SFML instead of SDL for my media library and so far it has delivered everything it promised. As before I'm concentrating on coding and using the original graphics and sound for the time being so as not to get hung up on editing new graphics all the time. SFML is platform independent with SFML libraries for both Linux and Mac (and lots of bindings) so I'm keen to find a couple of willing people to maintain these versions. Porting should be very easy as there is nothing Windows specific in the project to my knowledge.

So far I've implemented the following features:

Improved 3D view window which is larger than the original game
Smooth scrolling in the 3D view - finally!
Different zones within a map to define different graphics in some areas e.g. Crystal Caverns
Dungeon Teleports
Dungeon location specific messages
Weapons and Wealth status screens
On screen Compass
Movement around the City or Dungeon 1st level

OK so lots still to do but I'm pleased the smooth scrolling is now working as I expected that I would find this difficult. I need to say thanks to Jim Norris for providing me with the information on the map zones and the full Dungeon teleport data otherwise I wouldn't have been able to complete these parts.

Next thing I would like to do is move all the game data into external data files. Most data is already in this format but some is included in the source files. I'd also like to add a simple option page so that players can choose between The City and The Dungeon. Once these are done I can get down to some interesting bits so that what I've done actually starts to feel like a game!

Alternate Reality and SFML 1.2

2008-01-18T22:22:00.005Z

Following the release of the SFML 1.2 library I began playing around with my Alternate Reality CRPG remake again. I wanted to use OpenGL to draw the 3D view but be able to use the built in 2D functions of SFML for all the other elements on the screen such as text. I was able to do this successfully and it seems to work pretty well. Previously I had used SDL with OpenGL but I've now transferred all the main code over to SFML. Still lots of code to move over before I've transferred all the functionality of my SDL version. This includes the combat, encounters and character creation sequence. I feel I've done the most tricky bits though!

Added Tile Properties

2007-11-24T18:52:00.001Z

It took me a while to sort out the new file format for the terrain objects but I've now got a simple machine/human readable format which I can reuse for the monster and item files. Now that I've done this I've thinking of splitting game objects into 3 different areas - terrain, monsters and items. The map/item format is very simplistic just now so will probably need to be expanded at some point.

As always I'm wasting time changing little image files instead of sticking with a handful of basic tiles and adding features to the editor and game. Anway I finally added some properties for the different types of terrain in the game. Decided to leave out animation and visibility for tiles just now. For now I've kept it very simple with tiles having a small number of properties:

Tile no - the image number from the tile sheet
Name - a text description for look commands
Passable - can the tile normally be walked through
Map link - does the tile offer an entrance or exit to another map level (E.g. staircase)

I'd like to really start making Demons Eye feel more like a game. I might add a player status and inventory pages and some simple console style messages. It would also be nice to be able to have a bit of simple treasure hunting and combat!

Demons - Slow Progress

2007-11-10T23:19:00.000Z

Progress is slow mainly because I keep going back and fiddling with little things rather than adding new features to the engine. There's still no actual functionality or properties to tiles so this is really something I need to make a start on - it's not difficult.

Anyway there are a few cosmetic changes. I've added an Ultima style border dividing the screen into three main area - overhead view, messages and the character status/inventory browser type area.

The 16x16 font has been replaced with an 8x8 one - currently Joshua Steele's Ultima 4 Upgrade one. I wanted to be able to put quite a lot of textual information on the screen for combat, conversations and intentory details but this was difficult with the larger font and a smaller font also leaves more space for item graphics, status bars or icons which I think will make the display a lot more interesting. This font is good for now but I'll keep my eye open for something a bit more unique.

I've reverted to the David Gervais tileset and RLTiles tileset. Both are good tilesets with plenty of intersting to tiles though there are a number of typical tiles I'll need to create/find elsewhere to complete some content.

Really need to add some simple tile properties. Are tiles passable? Can they be seen through? Do they link to another map? And so on...

Bitmap Fonts

2007-10-19T10:51:00.000+01:00

Added some bitmap font functions. SFML already has good font support for many popular types of font built into it but I was wanting to use a simple fixed-width bitmap font. The font in the picture is from Alternate Reality: The Dungeon. A simple map loader has been added (loading in an Ultima 5 map in the picture) but I still need to add a save function.

Inspiration from other games

2007-10-17T08:49:00.000+01:00

I've been playing some of the old games that I like and thinking about what are the positive and negative features of each game and which I want to incorporate or avoid in Demons Eye. I've just been playing Ultima V and this has given me a few ideas. One of things that put me off playing Ultima V more when I was younger was that some of the exploring seemed quite tedious. For example exploring a castle meant a lot of searching for secret doors (all of which seem to be locked) and also moving potted plants around to get to said secret doors. These are fine if there are interesting things behind them but if not then they just annoy me and take a lot of fun out of the game. This specific issue seems to be worse in Ultima V.

Ultima V manages to make fairly varied maps out of a limited set of tiles (256 terrain tiles + 256 monsters/items). I spent a lot of time over the last few days messing around with lots of tiles adding them to the tilesheet and probably not using them. I also need to think about how I want to handle lighting and line of sight in Demons Eye. Personally I often find that limiting the view this way detracts from the game. Maybe it would work best in Dungeons where there is more tension about unknown creatures coming out of the darkness.

On the combat front I think I've decided on a single player rather than a party. Party combat is too tedious I think unless it has an automatic option where most of the party fight under computer control. It also means that you can focus on really developing your single character rather than having to share out experience and items between a party. I know a number of Ultima players like to play with a small party (or single character) as it makes play a lot simpler. There will still be the option to summon various helpers through magic or possibly get help from passing good characters.
In summary:

Good design using a small number of tiles rather than hundreds of different tiles.
Sparing use of secret and locked doors.
A decent number of searchable objects (e.g. chests, baskets) should contain some objects!
Night and day cycles and Line of Sight shouldn't limit the view too much.
Single player rather than party.

The Map Editor - 8 hours

2007-10-13T15:58:00.000+01:00

I'm finding it hard to keep track of how much time I'm actually spending on Demons Eye but I think my actual coding must be at about the 8 hour stage. The editor now has a working view and tile section for selecting tiles. Basically the cursor keys can be used to move around on the current map and the page up/page down buttons let you scroll through the tiles available. The left and right mouse buttons can be used to select tiles and place them down onto the map canvas.

Some of these pieces of coding came together very quickly which was a pleasant surprise. The mouse coding in particular was very easy to do. The map structure is currently very simple with 2 layers - one for the landscape, walls, doors etc and another for monsters, characters and items. Ideally I should change the items into a linked list at some point to save on space and processing time. I'm also considering a third, middle level to cover decorative items - tables, rugs, blending tiles. This will allow me to reuse certain tiles over different base tiles without having to make multiple versions.

I'm considering expanding the current tileset with some new landscpae tiles and will have a go at creating some of my own over the coming weeks. I think there are plenty of good monster, character and item tiles in David Gervais' set so I should be fine there. A lot of features still to add to the editor before I'll be able to really start using it but I'm making some progress.

New Tiles

2007-10-07T08:37:00.000+01:00

As I now have a working map viewing program I decided to change the temporary Ultima tiles and map for the David Gervais tileset. For those not familiar with this tileset they are a very large colletion of tiles designed for Angband originally (I think). OK so this screenshot couldn't be more boring if I tried but it does demonstrate a larger view area and also illustrates the use of transparent tiles which just took me a few minutes to work out using SFML.

Behind the scenes I've also started adding additional tiles to the game. Basically I have one large image which holds all the 32x32 pixel tiles for the map, items and monsters and SFML can be told to use just a small portion of the image to make up each tile. Now that I'm up and running with coding the SFML side of things seems very easy to use.

Next thing is to setup different properties for tiles such as whether they are passable, water etc. I also need a more interesting map!

Demon's Eye

2007-10-04T23:39:00.001+01:00

As you may have seen in the previous screenshots my CRPG game is now provisionally known as Demon's Eye. This is based on an adventure game I started writing about five years back. Not a very original title but it's better than calling the project CRPG! Send me your suggestions if you've got a better title in mind.

A Simple Map - 4hrs

2007-10-04T22:41:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since my last post so what have I been up to? After a slow start I've finally started to make a bit of progress. I'd decided to start my coding by putting together a very simple editor which would allow me to start creating maps and building up features as I went along such as item handling and encounters. I really like the idea of a combined editor/play environment so that I can build and test quickly.

So I built up a simple tile sheet which would be displayed at the side of the screen and would be used to select tiles with your left and right mouse buttons. The rest of the screen would be taken up with a large viewport onto the current map. You would be able to scroll around quickly and use the mouse buttons to place tiles onto the map. This seemed like a sensible place to start and not too difficult or time consuming to code. That was the theory anyway.

I failed to account for my inexperience of using SFML and the time it would take me to get into the swing of starting a new project. It took me a number of hours to sort out various bugs in my display code and work out how to do various simple display tasks properly in SFML. As I started making myself more comfortable with SFML and getting back into coding, the focus shifted away from the editor to just getting a simple map format setup and a tiled map view displayed on the screen. This was frustrating as the code is short and straightforward but you have to remember that I'm not much of a programmer. Anyway eventually I got my simple view onto the screen using the Ultima IV tileset and a map of the town of Moonglow (also from Ultima IV).

This simple example lets you move around the map using the cursor keys and sets up map boundaries. In the example I used an 11x11 map window like Ultima IV but I'll be making this much larger so you'll see a much larger portion of the map at one time. It was satisfying to finally see something vaguely game-like on the screen even if there is currently nothing to do. I'm currently thinking through the possibilities for the rest of the display. This will most likely feature character and inventory information on the right hand side in a column with a rectangular message window running along the bottom of the screen . At a resolution of 800x600 that should still leave plenty of space for the tiled map.

Simple Tile Test

2007-09-18T23:15:00.000+01:00

Here's a screenshot of my first play around with displaying some tiles using SFML. Took me a few minutes to update the SFML libraries and includes (as SFML 1.1 is now out) and soon had some tiles drawn on the screen. It's a start!

The Map Editor

2007-09-18T00:18:00.000+01:00

First thing I'm planning to work on is putting together a simple map editor. This will allow me to outline some of the main data structures in the game - maps, tiles, items and monsters. It will also give me some hands on experience of working with SFML. I'm intentionally going to keep the game and editor designs and layouts very similar to minimise creating different sets of code for very similar functions. I quite like the idea of building the editor and game engine as a single program so that I can switch between designing and playing with a couple of key presses, hopefully speeding up game development. Editor features will likely include:

Variable map sizes (max. 256x256) - plenty big enough in my opinion
On-screen tile display for tile selection
Map links - link overworld to towns etc
Load, Save, Play options
Small tile versions available for overview mode
Properties for tiles?

I'm in two minds as to whether tile/object properties should be editable through the editor - this might be too much work for me. I'll have a think about it anyway. Game data will be stored in simple text files for the time being - probably comma separated.

CPRG Outline

2007-09-17T23:42:00.001+01:00

Before I start attempting to code this I thought it was worth listing the type of features and stylistic elements that I'd like my Ultima-style game to have. I'm sure some of these features will change over time but here's a rough outline to begin with:

Single player character rather than party (this may change)
Individual maps for overworld, towns and dungeons (as opposed to the Ultima 6, all one scale/one map model)
Detailed, non-generic maps that aren't too big
Combat on current map rather than separate "combat" maps
Simple to use interface (both keyboard and mouse ideally)
Player character and encounter inventories
Quest journal to keep track of current tasks and quests etc
Graphical inventory
Tile graphics (using David Gervais excellent tiles)

There are loads of other features that I'm wanting to include but these should give you a rough idea of what sort of design I'm aiming for.

Ultima-style CRPG

2007-09-16T16:16:00.000+01:00

For many years I've been a big fan of the Ultima games and have always wanted to create a game of my own in a similar style. A couple of recent events have finally made me decide to actually start coding one of my own. The first was the release of the Simple and Fast Multimedia Library (SFML) which I think will be ideal for the sort of games I'm trying to create. The second was reading this article on Retro Remakes. The article is about writing an Ultima style game in a fixed 40 hour timescale. The game is called Inaria and further details can be found here.

I've always had a preference for the earlier Ultimas such as IV, V and VI. For some reason I've never really got into VII which is generally considered to be the best. With my own game I'll be looking to incorporate what I think are the best features from the various ultimas along with ideas from more recent commercial RPGS and home brew roguelikes. I've always liked the style of these games which are usually characterised by simple 2D tiled graphics, a large world map and numerous towns and dungeons to explore. Other similar games include Wasteland, Phantasie and Questron.

Simple and Fast Multimedia Library 1.0

2007-08-18T10:10:00.000+01:00

I've been having a look at the Simple and Fast Multimedia Library (SFML) and it seems quite interesting. You can find out more about it at:

http://sfml.sourceforge.net/

To quote from the website:

SFML is a portable and easy to use multimedia API written in C++. You can see it
as a modern, object-oriented alternative to SDL.SFML is composed of several
packages to perfectly suit your needs. You can use SFML as a minimal windowing
system to interface with OpenGL, or as a fully-featured multimedia library for
building games or interactive programs.

I'll keep my eye on this one as it looks very promising and has some nice built in features. I've been looking for something that offers a balance between the low level of SDL and the higher level of say Allegro and SFML looks about the right balance for me.

Rogue's Gallery

2007-08-01T13:10:00.001+01:00

Spent some time at the weekend collecting more Encounter images and preparing them for use in the current release. My method for capturing these is pretty tedious but doesn't take too long as there aren't too many different encounter graphics and some are reused for different types of encounter. I basically save screenshots from within the Atari800Win emulator, cut out the encounter image, double it's size to fit a 64x128 pixel OpenGL texture and then remove any unwanted background. In future I'll need to capture the additional animation frames that many encounters have but for now encounters aren't animated.

I also had a play with some of the Eye of the Beholder graphics I've used previously but I think I've decided not to use these as they are limited in number leaving many AR encounters without updated graphics. Here are a couple of examples anyway.

Currently I'm creating black and white masks for each encounter image but I'm hoping that I might be able to do away with this possibly by using OpenGL's display lists. The AR font is drawn using this method and seems to work fine and doesn't require any manually created masks. Browsing round the web I found a program called GraphicsGale Free Edition which is a sprite editor that might be useful for hand editing of the original AR encounter graphics.

I'll need to set aside a lot of time if I end up hand editing all these original images...

Gate Sequence Fixed

2007-07-21T16:11:00.001+01:00

Finally managed to get the counters appearing in the right place on the gate sequence. Basically there are a number of different counters spinning round at different speeds. Pressing a key freezes the numbers and these become your character stats within the game. It also determines how much silver you start the game with.

It didn't take very long to fix once I managed to understand the code - that's the problem with using my old code from a few years back. I also tweaked the random numbers for the stats as they seemed a bit low and added in the "You are now joined." message. Added in the original sound effects for this sequence. I will come back to this part of the game in the future but now feel that I can move onto something else.

Development Tools

2007-07-19T18:54:00.000+01:00

I've recently made the switch from the freeware Dev C++ environment to Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. Dev C++ has served me well during the time that I've been playing around with this AR project but I decided to give Visual Studio a try and it seems to have worked well so far. I was really only using a bit of the functionality of Dev C++ but one feature that it didn't seem to have was an option for "folding" bits of code that you're not working on. Visual Studio also seems to be creating dramatically smaller executables. However these larger exe sizes in Dev C++ might have just been down to the compilation defaults which I didn't play with much. Visual Studio also seems to have caught a number of errors which went unnoticed by Dev C++. Again possibly down to different configurations. I'm still barely using any of the facilities within Visual Studio. An experienced programmer could probably show me lots of things I should be using to make life easier. Still not sat down and tried to familiarise myself with the debugger. I still think Dev C++ is very good and would recommend it to anyone looking for a free, easy to use option for programming. Dev C++ also has stacks of pre-packaged libraries called devpacks that can be downloaded for things like SDL, OpenGL etc. You can download these from here.

I'm not a programmer by trade though I've done bits of programming since I got my first computer back in the 1980s (a Commodore 64 which I wanted because it had 64k of memory which seemed to more than the alternatives at the time). I've also done bits of programming through study and work but nothing substantial. I did hold the job title "Programmer" for a few months but moved into a different area that I preferred. Most of the AR project code is probably not very well written. I'm planning to release the source code and VS2005 project files with the next release so if anybody wants to suggest any improvements or ways of making things easier or simpler feel free! I'm planning to spend some time tidying up the code before then. The display code in particular could probably be tidied up a lot and needs some fixes to stop ghostly arches appearing through supposedly solid walls. I know what the problem is here so can hopefully fix it without too many problems.

I've done some more work on the character creation gate sequence but I think it will take me a while to get it to the stage where I can say it's completed. As you can see in the screenshot the counters are roughly in the right place but don't look right yet.

The next thing I would like to look at is setting up "zones" on the Dungeon map. The zones will identify rectangular areas on the map where different graphic wall sets should be used. I believe this is how the original game worked. If you're unfamiliar with the original different areas had different graphics to identify them - Egyptian hieroglyphs in the Hall of the Adept, ice walls in the Crystal Caverns and so on. I'd also like to setup different light levels for different zones as this should be relatively easy to do as I'm using OpenGL. These light levels could then be adjusted if you're carrying a torch or wearing a Helm of Light or one of the countless other light sources in the game. Currently the demo lacks atmosphere as all the corridors and rooms have the same wall textures. I also plan to use the various zones to determine which monster encounter table should be used. A few years back Ken Jordan (one of the original programmers of The Dungeon) posted some information, maps and data files for the Dungeon and he said these contained the zone information. I've not decoded these but if anybody has I'd be grateful if you'd let me know - I like to use the original game data where possible.

Next steps

2007-07-17T19:00:00.001+01:00

It's been a while since I've released any updated versions of the demo so I've been thinking about what features I'd like to add next. I drew up a list but as it has a few dozen items on it I won't repeat it here just now - too depressing!

One of the features of the original game that I hark on about all the time is the wide variety of objects you could find. There are large numbers of weapons, magical trump cards, scrolls, wands etc - certainly more than any other CRPG of the time that I can think of. Since version 0.4 I've added in support for dealing with the numerous objects in the Dungeon. So far I've added in some basic support for weapons. This means that you can now pick up any weapons dropped during encounters, equip them, swap them from primary to secondary and also use torches as weapons (they do both blunt and fire type damage). Different weapons have different effects during encounters E.g. don't fight a Flame Demon with a Flamesword as it makes them stronger!

There are a lot of "specials" in the original game where you stumble across a special, one of a kind item. I'd like to add some of the weapons shortly. It will take me a fair bit more work to add in all the objects and their different effects. Some of the objects are quite complex providing special bonuses or unforeseen side effects. I've yet to decode the macro language used in the original game in order to understand how these objects work. I'm using the real object data from the original game and hope to be able to add all the objects in one go.

I still can't help playing around with various graphics. The really difficult ones are the encounter graphics and shop interiors. My sensible side says use the original graphics for now and concentrate on replicating the game functionality but I'm also keen to try and update the look of the game a bit. The problem with graphics is that they are very time consuming to produce, especially if like me you don't have any artistic skill. Ideally I was hoping a skilled artist might be interested in updating them but no luck so far. Eventually I'll have a go myself. There seems to be no shortage of tutorials on the web! I'd also like someone to smooth out the AR font as I've doubled its original size making it look a bit blocky. If you're interested in helping out let me know.

The other thing I've been working on is the portal room with spinning counters. I had this working nicely under my original SDL demo back in the mists of time but still don't have the counters appearing in the right place since I've moved to SDL with OpenGL for graphics and increased the window size from 320x240 to 640x480. I know I should really sort something out with different window sizes and scalers but I'm leaving this for the time being. Currently the counters scroll out of sight - just need to spend a bit of time getting the coordinates right. Trial and error.

Welcome

2007-07-13T12:53:00.000+01:00

Welcome to my Game Development Blog. Alternate Reality (AR) was a series of computer role playing games (CRPG) games back in the mid 1980s. The Alternate Reality games were originally intended as a series of seven scenarios - The City, The Dungeon, The Arena, The Palace, The Wilderness, Revelation and Destiny. Only the first 2 games in the series were ever completed, though plans for the Arena scenario were outlined.

Alternate Reality: The City was designed and programmed for the Atari 8bit by Philip Price with music by Gary Gilbertson and graphics by Craig Skinner. This original installment was intended to include the content of both The City and The Dungeon but was split into 2 games at the request of the original publisher. Numerous 8bit and 16bit versions exist, some better than others. The original Atari 8bit version is widely thought to be the best version.

Alternate Reality: The Dungeon was designed and programmed by Ken Jordan and Dan Pinal who worked for Datasoft with design notes left by Philip Price. 70% complete 16bit versions of the Dungeon for the PC and Amiga were in progress but were eventually cancelled. Versions exist for the Atari 8bit, Commodore 64 and Apple II. All copyrights for Alternate Reality have now returned to Philip Price.

Though not as well known as say the Ultima series of CRPGs, AR still has a small but dedicated following of fans who are keen to see the series revised. There is an AR mailing list which is still active and sometimes has the original series' developers posting to the list. There have been various attempts from fans and the original developers to redevelop the series for modern systems but unfortunately none of these have come to fruition.

Originally I started playing the Commodore 64 version of The Dungeon whilst I was still at school and it's remained one of my favourite games ever since. I've been interested in producing my own modernised version of the game for a number of years and a few years ago produced a simple C++ and SDL demo version which allowed you to explore a level of the Dungeon map and fight a few monsters. I eventually gave up after struggling to make progress with the 3D engine.

Over the last year or so I've started from scratch this time still using SDL for sound, music and input but also using the OpenGL library for graphics. This has allowed me to progress further and produce a more flexible display than my previous efforts, though the 3D view is still very basic.

My intention here is to record my progress on the development of the remake as well as give those who are interested in it the opportunity to comment and assist with the development of this project.