Blood and Iron

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You probably know already, but OpenGameArt has a new set of 2 bit portraits available at http://opengameart.org/content/new-faceset-2-bit

Also, nice project

Edit: If you need more graphics you might also consider asking the folks at Pixelation, they seem to love C64 graphics & palette there.

I do indeed know, because it was painted based on my request. Not really happy with the results, though.

Thanks for the pointer, bookmarked.

Looks p. groovy. Good luck man!

:/

I may as well. You'll never finish it.

So what rules for combat/armor/dodging/weapons are you going to use? Any lore? Show us the numbers and intended mechanics so we can discuss something here.

Since it's still to early to discuss the mechanics, you can check out his inspirations.

I prefer to spend the time on actually writing the game!
Talk - Action = Zero, you know.

We can discuss mechanics once there is a full-featured, playable game i.e. beta phase. Stuff like armor/dodging/weapon mechanics are easy to change from a programming point of view.

Version 0.0.3 released. Implemented more boring UI stuff, started implementing equipment. Builds on Linux now.

At a basic stage obviously, but cool.

From a UI note I'd make the Hire / View / etc text more noticeable rather than having it in the bottom corner of the screen. Also where you have the hire / upkeep costs when hiring new characters actually say that the first number is hiring fee and second is upkeep cost.

Also I hope that you will add a confirmation request before disbanding people. I just know I would be the one to do it by accident.

I shouldn't have set the release build to use fullscreen mode. The scaling algorithm of the ATI driver was written for a bloomed generation, it applies some kind of smoothing routine which makes art like this look noticeably worse. Everything ends up looking blurry. Will go back to windowed mode for the next release.

Heh. Another SourceForge user. All the new faggots use either Gitorious or Bitbucket.

Awesome, gcc and I look forward to following (and stealing) your builds, copx.

What do you mean by "stealing"?

Why, changing the graphics, removing the copyright notices, and selling it for profit.

By which I'm joking.

Actually, I'm going to follow each iteration to see just how you use the SDL, GLUT, and C to make a decent game -- so far your source-code looks great. It makes ignoring my studies of Java in favor of C most worth-while.

Thanks!

Can I be in your gamez?
I cant for the love of God make it as pixelated as the originals...
I tried to resize to 60 pix and than upward to 122 but it doesnt look the same as the others. What are the dimensions anyway?

Version 0.0.4 released!

As usual: http://biron.sourceforge.net/
(Windows, Linux, and source package available)

New screenshots in the first post illustrate the newly added features.

All the basic recruitment and equipment management stuff works now. "Not implemented yet" only appears when you choose "New mission". This is the next, big step i.e. implementing the battle screen, mission acquisition, and travel.

Unfortunately, the battle screen cannot be smoothly implemented in an iterative fashion (i.e. like I implemented character / equipment management). This and the fact that I need to focus on real life issues means that the next release will take awhile. Weeks at least, more likely months.

People interested in the source code should really download this new release because it features major UI code clean ups.

This is also my last post here until this chanscum faggotry (we are all numbers! L0L!!!!1) ends. I do not like talking to numbers. If you have questions or comments please use the official project forums:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/biron/support

I monitor those.

Months?!

I would be all right now but everyone knows vaporware when one sees it.

Btw, why 122*154?

I have implemented the world structure (standard issue location graph, used by almost all Nippon TRPGs and RoA for example) and (purely abstract) travel i.e. not worth another release yet. I will start implementing the battle system today.

I also realized that I really hate doing graphics, it's much less fun than programming and thus I will try to recruit a graphic artist earlier than originally planned. I will try to get a "playable" alpha ready as fast as possible, which will hopefully be exciting enough to make someone capable willing to commit to the project. Don't know when I will reach that point yet, but I won't wait until the feature-complete beta as originally planned.

</Blood and Iron News>

Implemented path finding, line of sight, distance calculation, map accessibility checker, and some other utility functions .. that's low level code logic I need for the battle screen.

I have already drawn the necessary tiles for the first mission type which will be "escort transport". This is a procedurally generated mission type where you are hired to provide security for transports traveling on the dangerous roads of the Empire. For now the only threat are highwaymen, but more threats will be added in future. I plan to implement both procedural and static "missions" (now called "contracts" to stress the for hire / business aspect).

Emergent gameplay as suggested by denizi is great, but that's a post 1.0 thing.

The first static "contract" will be the Rottburg pit fighting tournament. If one of your men manages to win it that would be your first "Achievement". To win you will need a developed warrior-type character and of course you risk losing him in the process (remember death is permanent and pit fighting is a deadly competition). The reward for taking this risk, except for the meta-gamey "Achievement", are fame points. Which contracts are available to you depends on your "fame" rating among other things. For example, a wealthy nobleman certainly won't hire some unknown warband for an important task.

FFS, when recently I was thinking about a cool game I would like to play I thought about exactly the same concept as this. Even my first idea for a contract was "Escort transport"

Now you need to finish this damn game, and it better be awesome or else...

Thanks for the updates!

Will be their be a main quest of sorts or will the game simply consist of progressively more difficult contracts? Will the player be competing against rival groups or will he only be trying to beat the game?

Hell no! See first post, I have played way too many RPGs where you save the world or have to do something else of universe changing importance. I am totally sick of it. There will be nothing resembling a "main quest" in this game, and the player's actions will be refreshingly irrelevant to the grant scheme of things.

Not even that. I will try to avoid the standard RPG grind: fight enemies to get stronger so that you can fight stronger enemies to get stronger so that you can fight stronger enemies so that.. etc.
I mean, the progression from an unknown, weak warband to a strong, famous one is supposed to happen provided that the player is successful but this hopefully won't be a one way road. The player won't have perfect information about what he is signing up for, you know.. Defeat happens and coupled with permadeath and the Mordheim rule "all equipment of a killed character is lost".. I hope to create a more real life like "up and down" (as opposed to the standard RPG "always up") experience. A real world company can be amazingly successful for decades .. then go bankrupt because of a series of unfortunate events / mismanagement etc.. I am aiming for something like this as opposed to the player simply becoming stronger and stronger with every completed contract. There should be Pyrrhic victories for example i.e. contract fulfilled but you lost more than you gained in the process. And despite permadeath I want to avoid sudden "game over" moments. I.e. a player who manages his warband in a limited risk kind of way will keep some reserve funds so even if his entire warband gets wiped out the game isn't really over (remember you are the owner, not one of the guys on the battlefield). He has just "fallen down the latter". He can still claw his way back up. I want such situations in the game because I like them. It's more emotionally satisfying than success -> more success -> yet more success -> victory/game over.

No. The Empire isn't a lawless place, your business is legal, and your enemies will be the enemies of the Empire, not other legal businesses. I.e. it is most unlikely that you will clash with other mercenary companies given that you are all subjects of the same power. We are not talking about Landsknecht style mercenaries here i.e. entire armies who fight wars (against other mercenary armies), but smaller "private security firm" style groups.

The - again real life inspired - idea is that the security apparatus of the Empire is simply insufficient, and that's where you come in. This was a pretty common problem in the past, the government failing to provide adequate security in many cases, I mean.

I aiming for a sandboxy feel here, so "beating" the game isn't really the point. You can try to unlock all achievements of course, or simply try to beat your own high score.