KotL - Summoner 4/7/11

So, I got some pretty positive comments about my KotL Summoner 'attract mode' demo, both here and in a few other places I posted it. So, I thought maybe as I prod at this project, I'll go ahead and update on it here and there. Now, the software I'm using is called RPG Maker XP. It's not the latest version of the software - that would be RPG Maker VX. And I've talked to a few of their reps in the last month and they assured me there is a new version coming out this year. I've got about a week of my free trial left, and I will probably purchase it considering the amount of time I'm dropping into it already - it's like $30. Anyway, it's usually referred to as RMXP in several of the maker communities.

So there's a bit of background on the software I'm using. It's basically a framework for making games. It comes with some default art, tilesets and sound/music called the RTP. It also comes with a functional gaming system programmed in Ruby. You could take this framework, and with no programming knowledge or (like me here) if you have no artistic inclinations, still make an RPG game similar to the 16 bit classics of years gone by.

A lot of it is very menu/data base driven. You define characters, spells, items in a data base, assigning stats, images, things like that. I've included a couple of screenshots of the data base and also a short, blurry video of me working in it to try and get some events set up and working properly.

A lot of people who work on these games do so in teams - like a coder, a map maker, a sprite editor, etc. They also tend to try and track rough progress and here's what mine would probably look like at this point:

Story: 50%
Graphics/sound: 70%
Maps: 5%
Code: 90%

Mapping is probably the slowest overall part of the process, so while at a glance a person might look at that and think: wow, you're like over half done. In truth, I'd say my overall is more like 5-10% done is all. I'll probably keep tossing in small status updates, mention what I'm working on next, that sort of thing. I'll try to do better with the video next time too, uploading it to Youtube instead of subjecting it to Blogger's scaling process.