Christmas Time Update

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Kickass Kwanza everyone! I hope the holiday season finds you all in good spirits and all of your holiday obligations are taken care of so you can enjoy the time and season. I personally hate shopping and malls and such so I took care of all of my Christmas shopping online this year, and I think internet retailers like Amazon.com will soon eclipse and replace box store retailers. Just a hunch.

Also, shameless plug for my friend Aakash Rao, the composer of the wonderful music in Aleph: if you are looking for a Christmas present to get yourself or someone else who enjoys such music, you can't do any better than Mr. Rao's album 'Respite', which can be found on iTunes here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/aakaash-rao/id376495815
I seriously can not recommend his music enough, and I am not just saying that because he was gracious enough to compose the music for Aleph. I am saying that a person with ears.



So, what have I been working on these past few weeks? Well, lot's o' stuff, of course!

I've been writing a tremendous amount of material for the in-game books that give background lore and hints as to where to find secret/special weapons, gear, items, tomes, and so forth. I realized part-way through that I get so involved in writing the lore out that there actually are very few hints at all towards in-game items. I will go back and rectify this during editing mode. But, as of right now, I have somewhere around 70 college essay pages worth of material written up and ready to go, and a friend of mine in the real world wrote up another 5-10 pages, inspired by the ingenius H.P. Lovecraft. Though, all of this only amounts to about 25% of the total in-game books I was planning to have, so I might need to adjust my final goal. I am attempting to write shorter in-game books and stories, but it is difficult because I enjoy getting lost in writing about certain details and actions, but I realize that not everyone who will play this game will want to bother reading so much material. As always, I am sure I will find some happy balance.

In addition to prolific writing, I have worked heavily on the dungeons, the final frontier in terms of game maps. I currently have 9 out of 11 dungeons all set and ready to be filled with monsters and loot and traps and puzzles and all that good stuff that I setup beforehand. If you look at the pictures you will notice some of them have fog of war. Most dungeons and caves will use fog of war if it makes sense. Buying a torch or a lantern and oil will increase your default view radius substantially; or casting  a rather low-level spell can pretty much keep the whole screen revealed for a period of time, so there are options to overcome the view constrictions.

I have also edited and updated the monsters that appear in battle. One thing that bothered me were the shadows because they looked strange on the background, so I erased those and made newer, though more simplistic ones that look nicer. I will probably do the same thing for all of the character and monsters sprites that appear on the game maps as well. I also added a small plethora of new monsters to the monster roster because, well, variety is the spice of life (or death, as this case might be).

I have acquired some new art resources to make some new kickass character sprites and such, but they will need to wait until sometime after Christmas; I have an inkling that Santa might be bringing me some new software to utilize these resources.

So, I feel I will have the final two dungeons laid out before Christmas, thus completing pretty much the entire game world map, inside and out, save for the player housing area which is a special case. The coding is 95% complete, that last 5% being any errors or bugs that might crop up and the final polish on certain lesser systems. The music is for the most part complete; Mr. Rao has been remastering some of the older tracks so they are more consistent sound-wise to his later tracks. All the monsters are ready to rumble, 95% of the items are ready to go (the 5% being whatever I need to change in the future); I still need to make art for a few pieces of furniture like tables, chairs, stools, and so forth but that isn't a big deal. So, I am going to go ahead and toss out a pseudo-specific date here for people: I would like to begin the first round of Beta testing either by the end of February or beginning of March 2012. I think I will have enough content in place to warrent the beginning phases of testing, though not all content will be present. I'll expand on those details at a later time.

I have a feeling that the few days directly following Christmas will not be terribly productive for me. I have it under good authority that I might be getting Skyrim from Santa as well. How these secrets of Santa's become so commonplace and known is beyond me. Perhaps the North Pole should take lessons from the government regarding keeping information hidden from people.

Anyways! I hope you all have a great holiday!

Character Classes

Greetings one and all,



In the last update about monsters, beasts, and the unsavory elements of the world, I mentioned that this update would focus a bit on some of the classes in Aleph, and thus it shall. But before I get to the classes, I wanted to show the end product that resulted from the feedback given the other week in regards to the building interior design choices.

First, I want to thank everyone for taking the time to comment and give suggestions, either publicly or privately. The end result was about ¾ option 2 and ¼ option 1. What that means is when you enter a building, the front wall disappears, as does the roof. The outside area is darkened and any objects, npcs, etc that were nearby are no longer visible. I kept the surrounding area in tact so that you can get a quick sense of your location when entering/exiting buildings, while still maintaining higher visibility. Here is an example:

Moving on to classes!
Classes for the most part are 50% title, 50% mechanics. Each class has a couple of skills unique to the class and various starting bonuses to certain attributes. A rogue, for example, starts with higher Agility and Dexterity than ‘average’, and has two unique skills, Feather Touch which instantly puts one enemy asleep (it has a cooldown though so it can’t be spammed), and Sticky Fingers which attempts to steal gold and items from all enemies simultaneously. In addition, each class has its limitations on certain types of armor and weapons. However, depending on how you play, you may choose to increase any attribute and give a number of skills or spells to any character class. You can make your Wizard more physical and teach her how to rock some beasties with a wooden cudgel, or wizen up your drunken brawler and give him access to higher Circle spells. I wanted to keep as much flexibility and customization as I could while having each class do different things and fill certain niches. Right now, there is one playable character for each class with the exception of Knight, which there are two but both have different starting skills and attributes. There are mercenary versions of most classes as well.


The Apothecary:

“With the precise and proper mixture of herbs, ground for an exact amount of time and boiled at just the right temperature, any malady becomes treatable. Even lost limbs.”
          -Praetyr the Soft, Master Apothecary

The Apothecary specializes in the non-magical healing arts. Drawing from a large variety of herbs and ingredients, the Apothecary can create effective poultices that heal party members, bolster their attributes, even bring them back from the dead. Any item that the Apothecary uses in combat will have double the effectiveness compared to any other party member using it. If the Apothecary knows how to cure what ails you, he also knows how to ail what cures your enemy. The more sinister side of alchemy allows the Apothecary to debilitate enemies with a variety of ailments and diseases. Limited to cloth and leather armor, the Apothecary is not a front-line fighter and should be supported by those that are better at taking damage.

The Apothecary’s starting skills:
Clumpweed Drought: Instant use. Removes a number of status ailments from one party member.
Dragon’s Breath: Inflicts diseases upon a small group of enemies, hindering their ability to fight.



The Cleric:

“The devout light the candle to cleanse the darkness of the faithless, read the book to dispel ignorance, and wield the mace to ward the realm from those that seek to do it harm.”
          -Father Eiryk Thostyr, The Morning Light

The Cleric, equipped with mail and mace or warhammer, is a versatile fighter, capable of dealing damage (particularly to the undead) and mending the wounds of allies. Clerics train from an early age to learn how to read and fight, both skills which serve them well making them able to wield heavier weapons and armor than a Wizard while still being able to cast useful spells. Devoted to their faith and stalwart in their convictions, Clerics are renowned for their high status amongst the retinues of Lords and Ladies as council, confidante, and guard simultaneously.

The Cleric’s Starting skills:
Flash Heal: Instant use. Heals a party member for a small amount of damage.
Turn: Grants higher damage against Undead creatures.


The Knight:

“The enemy host trembled in terror as Sir Dannon Calor approached. They had heard the stories of how he slain five and twenty Men-At-Arms before taking the head of Lord Callister the Darkbringer. I have seen Sir Dannon in battle, and trembling is an appropriate response.”
          -Varyn Calor, Master Historian of House Calor

Knights are born and raised for battle. Equipped with the heaviest and often most expensive armor and weapons, a Knight is a truly fearsome person to reckon with in combat. From the time they are squires to the time they wield their first lance with the title ‘Sir’ or ‘Dame’, the Knight trains and hones his or her skill with the blade. The code of chivalry is what separates a true Knight from the baseborn sellswords and fighters, giving them a higher social status and wealth, which they tend to use for the good of the realm. Knights make great front-line warriors, capable of dealing and receiving all manners of physical damage in large quantity.

The Knight’s starting skills:

Horn of Battle: Increases all attributes of all party members temporarily.
Crushing Blow: Deals heavy damage to one enemy and stuns them briefly.


The Wizard:

“The Wizard has a responsibility to himself, to his Lord, and to his realm to first and foremost cause no harm with magic for selfless gain. A Wizard must exercise the utmost caution when using any magic spell, 1st Circle or 9th Circle, it makes no difference.”
          -Martyn Wordsworth, 2nd Wizard of the House of the Scroll

Many people dabble with magic, perhaps gaining competence with the 1st and 2nd Circles of spells, but very few become masters of it. A lifetime of dedication and study is required to attain absolute control over magic, or else the possibility of self destruction or planetary annihilation is possible. A Wizard spends most of his time strengthening his mind, which leaves little time to strengthen the body; therefore a Wizard is incapable of wearing heavy armor or wielding large weapons. But the Wizard more than makes up for this lack of physicality with his large plethora of spells. A great Wizard has a large number of offensive, defensive, and supportive spells, and sometimes even mastery over life and death itself.

The Wizard’s starting skills:

Flash Fire: Instant use. Consumes one enemy in a fiery inferno, dealing damage.
Concentrate: Increases the Wizard’s spell power temporarily.




So that is a brief look at a few of the classes. I am still in the process of tweaking some of them. So the skills and attributes are not yet finalized.

Thank you and enjoy your week!

Creature Feature

Greetings, greetings one and all,

So, I survived the winter (in October) apocalypse fairly unscathed. It took awhile for the power to return, and the cleanup of dead trees and branches took longer. Living on a farm surrounded by woods has its occasional drawbacks. But, that is over and done with now and we’re moving on!

A quick update: I finished all of the character sprite sheets (yay!) last week. That means that pretty much all of the main art is finished, though I will progressively improve upon what I have and replace older, unoriginal placeholder art as I go. Currently, I am creating interiors for buildings and caves. I made some nice new shadows to replace the old blocky ones, which you can see in some of the screenshots in today’s update. I was planning on replacing all of the current icon art for weapons, armor, and items, but after spending 45 minutes and producing only 1 sword, I might nix that; at least for now. I might revisit that later on if there is time, but it is not so important that I will spend weeks right now doing it.


I remember in older updates, creature features, such as they were, were generally a hit, and to be honest I always enjoyed making them. I feel that in many games these days, monsters are mere obstacles to overcome and destroy for loot and experience. I much prefer to have backgrounds for my monsters – why they exist, why they do what they do, where they fit into the overall ecology of the world. I always loved reading blurbs about the monsters in games back in the 80’s and 90’s (Ultima did this quite well, which is a great inspiration to me) – and the Monster’s Manual was my favorite of all the D&D manuals, player, DM, or otherwise.

So, today’s update is a revised creature feature. I’ve been having a lot of fun with the new software I downloaded to help make graphics, which I used to make a few pictures to go along with the showcased monsters. The pictures won’t be in the game, they are just something I did for fun when I needed to focus on something other than Aleph for a little while.

And now I give you today’s monsters:



Trolls:

“Sure, they may be stupid, but don’t ever say that to a troll’s face unless you bring a ladder with you to reach it.”
– Sir Anders, Captain of the Guard

Trolls are not as prolific in the world of Aleph as the Gruud, those green and yellow-skinned savages. However, what they lack in numbers they make up for in brute physicality and brutality. The common troll tends to stick with a small number of like trolls, often led by a chieftain selected amongst the group after a savage election involving clubs, axes, swords, and lots of blood and entrails. Trolls are purely physical creatures, not intelligent enough to grasp magic or understand the ways of the healing arts. But, what they know, they know very well: to swing heavy objects at smaller, squishier objects. Though quite troublesome in their small groups, seasoned adventurers should not find them to be too much trouble. They have other ilk, though, to be more wary of including Lava Trolls and Deep Trolls, which less are known about.

*Note: Right now the death poses look kind of silly, since the game just takes the north-facing animation and tips it on its side. We are working on making the game instead use a specific pose set with death poses to make everything look nicer.

Wargwolves:

“There is no mistaking the howling of a Wargwolf. A regular wolf gives a steady if not disconcerting howl. But a Wargwolf’s piercing, maddening scream of fury silences all other wolves for miles around, and often precedes the moments before death. Pray you never hear that terrible sound.”
– Feinor of the Hunter’s Guild

Wargwolves stand taller than even the largest of men and are capable of running at terrifying speeds. These predatory hunters generally stake claim to a swath of land, usually mountainsides and forests, and devour all prey that enters their area. Most animals know the scent of a Wargwolf and will stay far away. Wargwolves possess extremely keen senses and will hunt a man from miles away based on scent carried on the wind. Their humanoid visages give rise to many rumors surrounding their existence: some say they are demons, some say they are the terrible offspring of man and animal. Whatever the case may be, there is one thing for certain: very few people have lived through an encounter with a pack of Wargwolves.

Daemons:

“Never has there been a creature more foul, more malicious, more dangerous than the Daemon. That is, until I glimpsed the terror that is the Pit Fiend.”
– Lord Aarron, 1st Wizard of the House of the Scroll

Daemons possess potent and powerful magic, the likes that few if any humans could ever understand. Their abilities are enhanced by an uncanny intelligence and physicality, making them some of the most devastating creatures encountered. Daemons exist within a hierarchy. The Brutes exist at the lowest end of the daemonic structure; though physically larger than most other daemons, they lack the complex minds and ability to grasp difficult magic, making them only useful as laborers. Lesser daemons reign over the Brutes and are easily identifiable by their lack of horns and wings, which are torn off by stronger, more powerful daemons when a challenge is lost. The lesser daemons are ruled over by the winged and horned daemons, but even they, too, must answer to a higher power. The terrible and dreaded Pit Fiend rules its own sect of daemons. Very little is known about these terrible and insanity-inducing monstrosities other than that they possess such arcane and ancient power that they are unrivaled by any other daemonic entity. Even the great and powerful ancient dragons give pause at the thought of crossing a Pit Fiend.

Flayers:

“No eyes… No eyes yet they see… They grasp and hold my memories… They squeeze my will, leech my thoughts… I can’t tell if what I think comes from me, or from them…”
– Garrond the Mad

Flayers are one of the more underestimated creatures that lurk in the depths of the world. Their large, though frail frame looks easy to cut down with a sword, and their lack of eyes betrays a sight that no man could ever understand. But underestimating a Flayer is often a fatal mistake. Their grasp of magic rivals that of the daemons, though with a peculiar inflection on addling their foe’s mind. Flayers manipulate their opponent’s thoughts, causing torment and often undesired results, such as stabbing their fellow adventurer in the back. It is said that once one’s mind is gripped by a Flayer, it is impossible to ever fully regain control, even if the Flayer is slain. They use their insidious and vile mental grip to use humans as tools, as a means to whatever end fits them best.

Behemoths:

“At first the ground shook and my feet became unsteady. I looked back and saw the mountains moving with a violent shudder. It took but a brief moment for the full realization to come to me: that was no mountain moving. It was a Behemoth in search of dinner.”
– Warros, luckiest Hedge Wizard alive

Perhaps only the great dragons can rival or surpass the sheer size of a fully-grown Behemoth. Though, it is doubtful that even the great dragons can cause as much panic as when a Behemoth charges head-long in your direction. The girth of these great beasts is said to shake the ground for miles around. They have a sharp sense of smell and use it to great advantage when searching for food. Their appearance is not unlike a four-legged shark beast, giving rise to the rumor that these great monsters come from the murky depths of the ocean – though nobody is sure why they have come to live on land. Behemoth hide is a great and valuable commodity, though hunted only at one’s own peril.

Next update I will focus on the character classes, something I have only touched upon briefly in previous updates. All-in-all, everything is progressing smoothly. See you next time!

Kickstarter Project Launched!

The Kickstarter page for Aleph, the first of hopefully many games, has launched! It has already brought in about $500 much-needed dollars, but there is still $1,300 to go. So, if you are feeling generous, supportive, or downright excited about RPGs, then please feel free to check out out the project page here:

Aleph - Kickstarter Project Page

Any donation made grants a corresponding reward; in essence, it is more like a pre-order than a donation, as most donation reward levels include the game and other great goodies! Check it out!