New RM2K3 project. Untitled.

[ANominalWill]

Alright, so... introductions. I'm Jason, and while I've been aware of Charas for some time now, I am new to the community and am here today to present to you all a project I've been working on.

Up until recent weeks, I've been taking a very modest approach to this project, with some elements dating back to four years ago. In recent weeks, I've made some progress in piecing these elements together, and I have completed my starting town, and my first sprite set. Every element of this game has been made solo and from scratch, so it has taken a long time to finish what I have so far. Keep in mind, this has been an on and off project, with bits and pieces being completed when I feel like it, so the full game is probably somewhere between 2-5% complete. Hopefully, presenting my progress so far will give me the drive I need to really work on it.

So the concept so far involves an island (Soli), on which a few small villages are settled. Surrounding these villages are thick woods, known by villagers as Baron's woods. Dwelling in these woods is the infamous Baron, a large beast of legendary status, but which few have actually seen, and those who have rarely live to tell their tale.

One village, on the eastern end of the island, is where our story's hero lives. In this village (Teardel), a group of game hunters and gatherers of precious plants, known as trudgers, sustain their village by facing the dangers of Baron's woods.

Aside from the beasts of the woods, another danger lurks in the form of purveyors. Purveyors (fully known as the "purveyors of discord") are demonic spirits, taking on many forms, and feeding on the life energy of plants and animals. A chance encounter with one such purveyor will escalate into our hero's main adventure.

[Moosetroop11]

Welcome! I like the idea of doing the game from scratch, graphics and all Are you also doing the music?

[ANominalWill]

Yep, I'm using MidiMaker for the music. I have two pieces of music I've completed so far, and a third I'm working on. The songs usually come to me while I'm at work, and I just hum random tunes to keep my mind occupied.

[Momeka]

Looks really good. Keep it up!

[ANominalWill]

I've completed the first area of the game, including the starter town and first "dungeon". Now I'm working on "Baron's Woods".





Of course, the chipset needs work. The tree trunks for the walling portion of the trees are crude, and I'm going to change the layout a bit to look more natural and add more plants and fauna.

[ANominalWill]

And here's some screenshots for the first dungeon.









The boss fight represents placeholder names, a placeholder background, and a placeholder battle sprite.

[Donut]

Looks nice, what are the features of the first dungeon?

[ANominalWill]

The first dungeon, which acts as a sort of training exercise, features a series of dangers and puzzles which are all pretty simple for the average gamer. There are three treasure chests, some fodder enemies, and a boss.

Some features, including the torches, are animated.

[zuhane]

This is all custom? I'm very impressed!

[ANominalWill]

Indeed, everything you see is 100% custom from the ground up. There will be no RTP or sprite rips, including music and sound effects.

I'm also trying to avoid using 3rd party plugins. It's a long and tedious process, but I'm hoping it'll be worth it in the end.

[zuhane]

I think the default/RTP sets do generally put people off RPG Maker games, and they're generally a harder sell in my experience, so having custom graphics
is bound to attract some attention!

[Momeka]

Those spider enemies looks really cool!

[ANominalWill]

A screenshot of a test area for my latest tileset. Still in very early progress, but my next area will be a snow/ice land.

[ANominalWill]

And the real work begins.

[Donut]

Looking good!