Swords and Sorcery – Underworld

[Clockwork Knight]

bard stale

Heh

 

[Melcar]

Bard Turd.

 

[Gragt]

Bullturd.

 

[Terror Teats]

Bard Turd.

By Brian Fargo.

 

[Charles-cgr]

I do appreciate the feedback & criticism. As well as the publicity! (RPGCodex is in the credits BTW)

I've been working on the interface & town walls.

 

[Jaesun]

I do appreciate the feedback & criticism. As well as the publicity! (RPGCodex is in the credits BTW)

I've been working on the interface & town walls.

Good to hear. Stop by and keep us updated.

 

[Charles-cgr]

I've been hesitating to bump this thread because of the new one about Jay's impressions...

Well this is for Jaesun, at least, who asked me to keep you updated. This is what UW looks like now:

And since much of the game takes place underground:

I also added a multi-slot save anywhere feature & worked on monster image consistency.

Bring on the flame

 

[covr]

Some of the textures are better (e.g. walls), but some are worse (like that thing in right low corner - it's now much too dark). Overall it's not a big improvment, sorry.

 

[commie]

I wouldn't pay money for this. Looks awful.

What are you talking about? You NEVER pay money for games!

 

[commie]

I've been hesitating to bump this thread because of the new one about Jay's impressions...

Well this is for Jaesun, at least, who asked me to keep you updated. This is what UW looks like now:

And since much of the game takes place underground:

I also added a multi-slot save anywhere feature & worked on monster image consistency.

Bring on the flame

Actually, the walls kind of look cell shady, maybe that's the way forward for the game? Need to have ground textures at least to give more depth to the thing. It looks weird with textures on walls and one color ceiling/floor. Getting there at least....

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Here we go, the Codex and its graphics....

Oh well, why not.

First of all Charles, load up some old 'blob' CRPG's such as Dragon Wars, Legend of Faerghail, etc. Now, go walking about a bit, looking at the horizon, ground in each step, etc. Once you have done that, see how little rocks, tufts of grass, colours etc are there? Perhaps some fake smudgy mountains off in the distance? A big rock here and there? Trees that morph a little into the ground?

Nothing Picasso mind you, just something to blend everything together. Likewise, the blocks of the walls can perhaps be a little cracked, add a little darker and lighter hues, etc.

Easiest way is to go and check out the games I suggested, and any other games of this ilk. Come back and let me know if you can see what I mean.

Me personally? I am loving the demo so far, and can say that you really have the gameplay down pat. Excellent stuff. But since I am virtually unconcerned with graphics, don't take what I say to be the pinnacle to strive for. Check out some of the games I have suggested and see the little things, and how they have done them, for some inspiration.

Edit: Another reason that makes the spartan look stand out more is the huge viewscreen. Many games get away with this by having a smaller viewscreen, such as Grimoire (if it ever is actually finished...).

 

[ecliptic]

The town looks much nicer, the underground probably still needs some work. It's a bit too non-contrasty for my tastes, perhaps toss in a ground and ceiling texture.

 

[Turjan]

What do I see in the underground picture? Is it top down or the same angle as outside? I would guess the latter because of those things that look like torches. Will those torches give light?

 

[Mortmal]

The interface looks nicer, and the walls have more volume, maybe you could add some roofs now and more variety in the town textures, a bit like bard's tale,altough many games diddnt have them. I need to check the demo again to see if you really corrected monster consistency.

 

[Charles-cgr]

I know there are many things I could add - shrubs, stones, different walls... This is still meant to be a MM remake, and the general gameplay is much more MM than Bard's Tale (monster lists, immediate effect of each move...)

For this reason and others town wall variety and rooves just don't fit for me.

Floor / ceiling texture however I am adding. It definitely lacked underground so thanks for the tip! (that change isn't uploaded yet as I am writing this).

The torches don't give light but they do flicker

For monster consistency I had a hard time, for the same reason I didn't miss the floor / ceiling texture. I'm so used to seeing them I just don't see the inconsistencies. So I really can't be sure what I did fully addressed the problem.

The drake is an example of what I did - I cut it out of it's environment which, to me, created much more of an inconsistency than the drake itself. There are a few like the mummy which keep their environment (the mummy gets a full screen introduction - and a few others like the mercenary/temptress/mistress that have an environment that fit well imo.) There were never many throughought the game in the first place so this wasn't a very big change.