Just another update. Believe me, I am still working on this game!
I started working on Realms V in February of this year. I'd say that 60% of the game is done based on the amount of disk space that the current build occupies. Of course, there will be extensive debugging and tweaking of the game content. And not to mention writing the game manual, which is a job in itself -- albeit a very fun part of the game design process.
I'm still bogged down on the city/populace portion of the game. I'd say it takes me about 8 hours of total time to design a city, but I can only find that much free time realistically in a 2 week period. Considering that I've designed 8 cities so far and I have to do 12 more, it will take me another 6 months to finish the city/populace portion of the game at this current pace.
As much as I'm grateful for being gainfully employed in a permanent full time IT job again (the cratering of oil prices in the heart of Canada's oil country kind of put me into a "these were my lost years" situation for quite a while), I had a lot more free time on my hands to work on this game. I'm now starting to see the benefits of long term unemployment.
I find that writing dialogue requires a lot of mental effort on my part and not to mention that I have to make sure that it formats correctly to the screen and so there is testing for that as well. Doing the graphics and programming seems to be less cumbersome because I can do these things even with noise and interruptions. I suppose writing for the manual is a more pleasurable experience for me because I can really delve into the intricacies and the technical aspects of the game -- which is what my passion really lies. I'm admittedly far from being Richard Garriott as far as storytelling goes. I mean, this is the introduction text that I've come up for the game:
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“The Lands of Greater Rivaria, united at last after a long and brutal Civil War are facing a new existential threat. The so-called “Resistance”, composed of the most seditious and foul enemies, headed by a nameless leader is seeking to undermine and overthrow our sovereign, the Most High Honorable Lord Bane and throw us into darkness and chaos.
By reuniting the various pieces, shards and fragments of the legendary Tablet of Uthar, a holy artifact forged by the Gods of Creation that brought law, order and prosperity in Times of Old, we can unite the people into a common and noble cause. We will finally defeat the most nefarious of enemies who seek to subvert and destroy our way of life.
Up to ten worthy adventurers are called upon to report to the royal castle. This is a threat so great that we are even calling upon not only those of various origins, but even those of differing creeds to assemble together, whether they follow the ways of law, balance or even chaos. So long as they swear loyalty to Lord Bane and Greater Rivaria in order to defeat this most imminent peril.
If this grave danger is not overcome, the stability of Greater Rivaria and all that we have worked and fought so hard for is at stake. This is a most desperate hour.”
--Viscount Beaumont, emissary and most trusted advisor to Lord Bane, the Most High.
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Not very good at the moment, but I'm getting a very good friend of mine who is an amateur fantasy writer to revise and improve the above text. However, it does mention that the game supports a party size of 10 players. In retrospect, that is quite ambitious for an 8-bit CRPG, especially considering that I had to stretch the 22*23 screen size that the VIC-20 normally uses to 23*26 characters.
I was anxious about finishing my game by the end of this year but I've come to accept that these types of mega projects take time to do. It will be finished when it is finished.
Oh, and ... Today I took a break from working on the city maps and decided to make a modification to the "Legacy" Realms of Quest font which was all capital letters and added lower case letters. The funny thing about working on a font that I had originally worked on 29 years earlier (with a friend on Ultimate Quest for the C64) is that I had to come up with a consistent aesthetic. I hope it looks ok.