Uncover, an adventure / role playing game

[GantZ]

First playable version released !

check out this post for more informations :

http://www.ogre3d.org/forums/viewtopic. ... 80#p422734

original post :

Hello to all the ogre community !

After month of work, I'm finally able to showcase the game I currently working on. This is an adventure / role playing game with the following pitch.

You play as a mercenary who got hired by the dean of a magic circle (place where wizard apprentices are taught) to find a spy infiltrated among apprentices.

the main features of the game are :

• choice consequences. depending of your actions, npc behavior will change, additional dialogs / actions will be available.
• create your party the way you like. by beating npc, you get the right to hire them in your team. there is very little restriction to who you can get in your team. again, this could change the way the story unveil.
• fast paced turn based fight. You can choose your actions without waiting. basically the more you wait, the more powerful your actions get. otherwise, as usual, the available actions are attack / cast spell / use special ability / use object
• no game over. winning or losing a fight will only affect the experiences points / items your get. You can play the game from start to end without being forced to play the same part again. The game stop when you have reach one of the possible ending, that's not mean you will get the ending that you would like to have

here the mandatory screenshots (warning, programmer art ) :

corridor.jpg

dialog_icon.jpg

dialog.jpg

I hope to release a beta version of the game soon. And to finish it before the end of the year. Until that point, i will keep updating this thread. if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

library used :

Mogre
Hikariwrapper
MogreNewt
OgreMax
Csharpscript
Bass.net
Mois
SQLite

[GantZ]

here 2 short clip showcasing the battle mode. I play with the keyboard, so that's why the the mouse cursor don't move

[koirat]

ATB ?
Brings back memories.

BTW. It was patented in Japan and USA years ago

Keep up your project.
Let me witness your progress.

[Zonder]

Couldn't you just sell from europe only and not officaly release in those teritories but have an internet download available

[koirat]

I was thinking about such a possibility, this would make software patents almost useless. But still I do not know about the marketing, maybe you can't advertise such a software. Also publishers redistributing games via internet might be registered in one of those countries.
And it might be hard to publish game via your own web site .

[GantZ]

Let me witness your progress

i must admit that my planning is probably too optimistic. Well, like most programmer

about the atb, i'm not sure if i will keep this system as it is, i will probably just freeze the time when a character is selected and resume the game after a choice as been made, since it's quite hard to manage the action when opponents keep attacking you (even in ff, in normal mode, your opponents can attack you only once before you issue a command).

about the patent, as long as you stay freeware, and don't distribute it over eu or jp, you should be safe. there's quite a lot of amateur rpg using this system (and square probably don't care about them), but no commercial one. by the way, doesn't this patent expire soon ? just checked it out, and it have been filled 18 years ago, isn't it 20 year or so for the validity of a patent ?

[Zonder]

Yeah possible I didn't check the filed date. The only reason for the patent is to protect the inventors reasearch so they can make a profit from it.

[GantZ]

After months of work, i can finally release the first playable version of the game !

it contain a tutorial where all the basics interaction are available, you can speak to npc, fight them,
hire them in your team, pick up objects, etc...

Download available here : http://www.uncovergame.com/download/ , zip and installer version provided, windows only (XP / vista / 7)

i have also put together an updated video of the battle mode :

[youtube]-wOYYHCHcco[/youtube]

Feel free to give feed back, constructive criticism about the game.


known bugs / issues

• while the spells you got by default at start work correctly, every spell haven't be tested thoughly, and are subject to bug / crash.
• IA need more tweaking
• some character / camera orientation problems
• some GUI refresh issues

[tod]

Very nice! I'll be sure to try it ASAP. The art could use some fine tuning though
How long did it take you to do this?

[GantZ]

well, I start working seriously on it 2 years ago, (from an earlier prototype). should have take me around 10 full month to complete it.

the art could use some fine tuning though

hehe, it's probably the time to find an artist for it, so my programmer art could be overhauled/replaced

[koirat]

I'm making similar rpg game but it's turn based.
My 5 cents would be - don't use mouse for orders/units selection (or better don't use mouse at all) just keyboard buttons gives better feel.

2 years its some magic number since I'm also doing it for two years and it was different project before

About the artist, you can search for some free art on the net to your project. I'm going to find an artist when my game (programming part) is finished.

[chaosavy]

Just a quick note since you guys are discussing art (I'll have to check the demo out later) 3DRT has some really need models for this type of thing (Disclaimer: I'm not afficilated with them in anyway, nor have I done any business with them [considering it though]) - for example the ninja pack http://www.3drt.com/3dm/characters/ninj ... -shots.htm for $94

Makes me wish I wasn't making a space sim

[tod]

2 years? I'm too old to spend 2 years on something like this!
I guess this is just a trick to eliminate the competition My game will be finished in 1 year and that's final!!!

[GantZ]

My 5 cents would be - don't use mouse for orders/units selection (or better don't use mouse at all) just keyboard buttons gives better feel.

In fact, i have added mouse selection so that player who aren't used to control a game with keyboard only aren't lost in battle mode, but i should probably think about an easy mode / hard mode, where control would be keyboard only. thanks for the input !


model are mainly from the net, but it's always hard to integrate free ressources and keep the game visually coherent, still i'm ok with the look of the game atm, if i could find someone to improve it, i will take the chance, but I could also save it for another game

@tod

yeah, 2 year probably a long time, but i have learn a lot (and redo a lot ! ) as I go . I probably won't spend as much time if i were to create a new game (and I don't think i could manage it a second time )

[koirat]

Same here. Also 2 years comes with learning Ogre, keep that in mind.
Also I'm aiming to go commercial.
If I fail I do not know if I will ever got the guts to go back to programming game not in the company.

Also the ninja character - seriously, nothing yaw dropping, and for me $100 is not an option for such a quality.

[chaosavy]

Pretty neat. Presentation is nice, tutorial is good. I need to put in a config screen in my project like you have, its a nice touch.

Would be cool to rotate the view in the battle mode.
Would be cool to right/left click on party member to select, then right/left click on enemy to select an attack, otherwise its a bit too tedious of clicks. I like using mouse instead of keyboard at least in the initial stages where the player doesn't know the keyboard shortcuts yet

There needs to be a loading bar on the loading screen, I had a .net error and didn't know it for a while, if there was a loading bar I could have figured it out sooner (I eventually gave up and alt tabbed revealing the error message).

In the config screen there's an apply, but what about a cancel? default? etc



Looking good so far, good luck hope you continue on

[koirat]

There needs to be a loading bar on the loading screen, I had a .net error and didn't know it for a while, if there was a loading bar I could have figured it out sooner (I eventually gave up and alt tabbed revealing the error message).

I'm always doing my first run in windowed mode, that way it is easier for me when exceptions shows.

[chaosavy]

Here's some more thoughts:


I don't like the melee aspect at all, basically the character runs up to the opponent swings, then runs back. This feels like a huge waste since if I'm meleeing I've probably ran out of mana so I'm just going to do it again. Maybe some sort of a jump or teleport, or other sort of a magical telekentic base attack (I like how the one guy's staff flies at you, maybe something like that but with fists?).

Will you have special effects based on magical attack type? EG: fire burns you, wind pushes enemy over, etc?

Its a bit hard to understand whether the game is turn based or real time or as I suspect some sort of a hybrid where you get a chance to act per a time frame.

Before I said it would be neat to have a menu appear on the enemy with the applicable spells. Also a lot of games use a "quick bar" (eg: world of warcraft, even dragon age) where your abilitie show up on the screen for easy access.


I finished the tutorial, but don't know if there is any more to the game, there didn't seem to be, although your screen shots show other locations.

[GantZ]

Would be cool to rotate the view in the battle mode. Would be cool to right/left click on party member to select, then right/left click on enemy to select an attack, otherwise its a bit too tedious of clicks. I like using mouse instead of keyboard at least in the initial stages where the player doesn't know the keyboard shortcuts yet

For the moment, i haven't play too much with camera, since it's quite tedious to work on this aspect of the game I will probably make some experiments on it, since the game could be quite fast at some moment, it could add confusion for the player, i need to test it out. Adding different selection system could be an option, especially for mouse selection. actually the system is more suited for keyboard, will look into this later.

I don't like the melee aspect at all, basically the character runs up to the opponent swings, then runs back. This feels like a huge waste since if I'm meleeing I've probably ran out of mana so I'm just going to do it again. Maybe some sort of a jump or teleport, or other sort of a magical telekentic base attack (I like how the one guy's staff flies at you, maybe something like that but with fists?).

yeah, the melee attacks are probably a little too slow / long in comparison to other actions. I still have to find a way to speed thing up on this part without having too unrealistic, weird animations (theirs already weird enough )

Will you have special effects based on magical attack type? EG: fire burns you, wind pushes enemy over, etc?

For now, each character have a strong & weak element, that's have an impact on it efficiencies with spell of theses elements. I probably need to highlight this aspect of the game more. I have no plan to implement durable effect for regular spells for now, it's on my "maybe" list .

Also a lot of games use a "quick bar" (eg: world of warcraft, even dragon age) where your abilitie show up on the screen for easy access.

Could be a shortcut bar, where player would select a limited set of abilities beforehand. I'm not a fan of showing too much abilities / bar , since it could easily add clutter on the screen, but a little quick bar would be a nice addition.

I finished the tutorial, but don't know if there is any more to the game, there didn't seem to be, although your screen shots show other locations.

some of the screenshots are from the upcoming main quest, this is not available for now. Still, there is a little "hidden quest" in the tutorial

About the .net error you got, could you send me the log file (located in C:\Users\<yourusername>\AppData\Roaming\Uncover\Logs) ? I would be interested in knowing what kind of error you run into.

Thanks for the feedback !