Current Project

So here it is, my current project. I've decided that I will do nothing else on any of my other unfinished stuff, no distractions, no tinkering, just keep focus on this. (I have a feeling that I simply won't be able to do this deep down, due to the way I am. A whole lifetime of not finishing many of my game projects seem to be telling me this)

However this will be an attempt to break a habit of a lifetime, a sort of quest. Sounding better already, most definitely a Quest!

In my mind I know what I want to achieve, so no 'Design Document' for this, and besides I'm working alone so no need really.
I also know that everything needs to be randomized, so no need for Level designers. All the levels for the game will be auto-magically created on the fly, wonderful.

Another thing is that RPG games tend to have loads of stuff:

1. Quests
2. Complex character creation
3. Inventory System
4. Whizzy combat system with stats and things
5. Spells, Magic and Dragons (Don't steal this as a title)

Well, I know another killer for indie game devs that like to do everything thing them selves are 'features' and 'scope creep' (nothing ever gets finished because there's always so much to do)

This project will avoid that by having absolutely no features what so ever. This game will be the most cut down, devoid of features, nothing much to code Dungeon crawler, Hack and Slash Action RPG know to man.

..well it will be to start with at least.

The aim is to create a fully working game, not demo, that has all the spit and polish, Menus screen with cool D&D type writing, credits screen, 100 randomly generated levels (albeit mostly looking the same to start with)

Just explore the dungeon levels, to see how far you can actually get. Simple

Working title 'Hack and Slash', will try to post with updates as often as I can.

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Random Dungeon Game

This is another one of my old games, Dungeon of Darkness, or more to the point another one of my old unfinished games. Written in C++ using Irrlicht and the game framework I created way back when.

The random dungeon was created using blocks dynamically created at runtime in a 10 x 10 grid. From what I can remember using the tile set from Neverwinter Nights, but with slightly higher res textures.



Ever since being hooked by the classics like Elder Scrolls Arena, Daggerfall, Ultima Underworld and others, dungeons have featured heavily in a lot of my game projects over the years.

Dungeon of Darkness R.I.P

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IrrWizard Video

IrrWizard produces a game project skeleton based on the Irrlicht rendering engine. It creates all the necessary source code, project files and dll's at the click of a few buttons. It can create a simple project such as 'Hello World', to a fully functional FPS game. It is designed to produce highly robust and exdendable code that will give the hobbyist game programmer a solid base to work from, saving time by auto generating much of the dull and boring stuff. Key Features

Automatic C++ code generation
Creates working Visual Stuio or Dev C++ project file
Clean and well documented
Creates a solid game framework

Game Features

State patterned framework
Finite State Machine
Enemies with animated states
A* Pathfinding
Shooting code
Health/Ammo pickups
Quake style weapon manager
XML config manager
Audiere or FMOD sound
Splash, Menu and scrolling credits screen

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Elder Scrolls Arena Remake

This is another one of my projects that has since been permanently confined to my extremely large collection of dead or unfinished projects. Irrwizard, Return to Arena, was probably one of my best attempts at creating an Elder Scrolls Arena remake. (Irrwizard was the name of the game framework I created based on the Irrlicht rendering engine)

It had:

Combat system
Random Dungeons
Random Towns
NPC's
Day Night Cycle
Inventory (Which wasn't that good)
Some Items
No Quests



The Random town generator wasn't particularly sophisticated, I think you can see in the screenshot that it was basically rows and row of similar looking buildings.




The good thing is that it was randomly created, and another good thing was the random generator also created the nodes for the A* Pathfinding. I can remember having NPC's wandering around the Town in a seemingly intelligent manor.

In hindsight, I should of kept going with this as It was pretty well advanced. The problem was that the next shiny thing came along, and I was completely seduced. At the time I Knew I would need to take a couple steps back to move forward, (but didn’t count on various real life situations meant my spare time dramatically decreased, and work slowing ground to a halt)




The next best thing btw was Unity3D, so I have that to blame I guess.

When I do my own top 10 of indie game dev's do's and don't, 'being seduced by the next best thing' would definitely be up there.

If your interested, please see my current Elder Scrolls Arena Remake Project:
http://www.paulrowlandapps.com/2014/01/daggerwind-screenshots.html

Relevant post

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Kingdom4Sale

Kingdom4sale was a project I started a few years back using Realm Crafter. An MMORPG Game Engine
that was actually pretty good from what I can remember. Created a half decent game, with some surprising performance (Client/Server)

Inspired by the Landover series of books by Terry Brooks (A Magical Kingdom for sale, Sold)

I did create a website, with domains 'kingdom4sale.com' and 'kingdonforsale.com' (Long since expired)

The only screenshots I could find were of the websites header image. Will have to have a root around to find some more.

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Random Dungeon

Random dungeon generators go way back to the early days of computer games. Text-based dungeon explorers like Rogue & Nethack randomly created their dungeon levels using ASCII characters, but even they have since been given graphics front-ends.

This is my take on things. A randomly generated dungeon created dynamically at runtime using 3D prefab blocks. Home rolled in Unity3D using C# and the excellent Dinky Dungeon tile set.
This will be used as the main part of my current Hack and Slash dungeon crawler, dungeon explorer for iPhone and Android devices.

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Daggerwind NPC's

Daggerwind Scrolls, my attempt at an Elder scrolls Daggerfall or Morrowind. Actually inspired by the first in the series, Arena.
Here getting the dialog and Quest system working. Although this is an old screenshot from the main Daggerwind site, the game is far from dead. The plan is to concentrate more on the core aspects of the game, removing all of the static elements, and moving forward randomizing everything. (Two steps back, one step forward)

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IrrWizard Game Framework

IrrWizard Game Framework built on top of the Irrlicht rendering engine.

Have been looking through my old drive backups, and come across a project I did a good few years ago.
Written in C++, it used a lot of tight game programming patterns, Singleton, Game States, FSM, A* pathfinding, and later on scripting.


Included a screenshot of a Quake type FPS First Person Shooter.

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