RPG Project - 01 - Introduction

Today's Saturday, so here's a new post on programming/game stuff. This will basically outline a project I'm working on, my current progress on it, and what I consider to be the next steps.

This summer I discovered Love2d, a nifty little 2d game engine. It had a couple of advantages that I liked, like being cross-platform and easy to test(Just drag your project folder onto the program, and it'll run your game). It also uses Lua, a language that I hadn't really touched before then. Overall, I've found it quite enjoyable. Here's what I've done with it:


All summer, I've worked on one project: an old school RPG. Unfortunately, progress is really slow, and it's still very far from completion. That said, I DO have something to show for my work. It just isn't pretty.
First though, let's start off with my main goals for the project:

• Build a nice retro RPG, leaning toward the Final Fantasy side of things rather than, say, Fallout.
• As few screen transitions as possible. In other words, eliminate the world map in favor of a fast travel system of sorts, to go with heavy levels of exploration. A journey across a continent should feel like a proper trek.
• Allow for the use of some skills outside of battle. This has always annoyed me a bit. In some games you can summon a gargantuan meteor from the heavens, but can't get past a tree. This might not be feasible, but I'll still give it some effort.
• Allow for lots of character customization. Who doesn't like to fine tune a character to be just how they like it? I certainly do.

Those are my main overarching goals. Here's what I've accomplished in a month or two:

• External map loading
• Grid based movement
• Random battles(but no combat yet)
• Inventory and items
• Text boxes, with full dialog trees in the works
• A map editor

I think that's decent progress for a month or two. I'll end this with a screenshot of the main screen, as well as art of the only existing enemy.

Click to enlarge

The first enemy you might encounter, a dapper slime:

Click to enlarge

Since it appears to be some sort of RPG tradition, I just HAD to make the default enemy slimes. I think I'll keep the body exactly the same and just slap on different hats. I think it'll turn out rather silly.