Stone of the Citadel: My new CRPG project

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

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...

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

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.