[Blog Post] Upcoming WP8 / W8 RPG - Demon's Bane

[WaveLightGames]

HI, I'm Interested for testing, can you add me up as well? Since I don't really have any experience of the game, I'll send my feedback after testing. I'm thinking of looking into having the characters more variaties and also multiple character combos? what you think? completely not sure here since again, haven't experience the game. It'll be sweet if you add me up. Thanks!

Please send me a PM with your Microsoft ID. I'll need that to give you beta access when I do the next release. Thanks,

 

[WaveLightGames]

First round of animation stripping seems to have had a good effect .... reduced RAM usage by about 30MB. Memory usage for the bigger scenes and gameplay scenes are around 195 to 205 MB RAM. Not bad for a 1GB device but still too much for a 512MB device. I'll continue working through and see what else I can do.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Some more good news ... apparently, reducing the polygon count of my 3d characters will reduce RAM usage at runtime. I had done this step in my last game, Gun Frenzy, but I hadn't gotten to that stage with this game yet. So I should be able to get a good performance boost once I do that step as well.

 

[Miska Hietala]

Does the characters have some kind of skill tree?
Sent from my NeverAndroidAgain**1020** via Tapatalk

 

[WaveLightGames]

Yes ... they each have 6 special abilities that they can perform such as spells for the wizard classes, special attacks for the fighters and so on. Those abilities require a certain number of action points to perform. Each character starts a level with his maximum number of action points and replenishes a random number of points each turn (min / max value per turn). The six special skills will require progressively more action points so that a level 1 character might only be able to perform 1 or 2 skills and will have to rise up in level (and thus increase their max number of action points) to be able to pull off the more powerful abilities.

That being said, this system won't use a tree per say ... there won't be any choice between which skills to choose. With 18 character classes, I think there's sufficient replayability without needing to make branches for upgrades of each character.

 

[dKp1977]

Yes ... they each have 6 special abilities that they can perform such as spells for the wizard classes, special attacks for the fighters and so on. Those abilities require a certain number of action points to perform. Each character starts a level with his maximum number of action points and replenishes a random number of points each turn (min / max value per turn). The six special skills will require progressively more action points so that a level 1 character might only be able to perform 1 or 2 skills and will have to rise up in level (and thus increase their max number of action points) to be able to pull off the more powerful abilities.

That being said, this system won't use a tree per say ... there won't be any choice between which skills to choose. With 18 character classes, I think there's sufficient replayability without needing to make branches for upgrades of each character.

Makes sense, but having a skill tree is a must for any good RPG, as players can specialize their characters. I'd definitely vote for it.

 

[WaveLightGames]

It's a good point. I may be able to add a variety of abilities but I think it will just add too much complexity given that I'm aiming for a very large number of character classes and trying to have the focus be about building a cohesive party as opposed to building interesting individuals. One of the elements that will be there is a magical item / inventory system. It's in there at the moment but not working fully yet. Each character will have 9 equipment slots that they can use to customize / tailor their stats.

One of the things I have to be very careful about is falling into the trap of making things too complicated or trying to add too many features. It's something that a lot of RPG makers (actually all game makers) fall into. I want to focus on (1) enjoyable gameplay / balanced game mechanics (2) interesting story and (3) good graphics / sound / atmosphere on even low-end mobile devices. I want to achieve those 3 things and still release the game some time this year. That being said, I haven't gotten to the Level Up / Experience component yet so I'm not going to rule it out but I'm definitely leaning towards doing something simple first.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Did some more testing and have a version that is stable on my 920 .... so should be stable on any 1GB or 2GB device. Working on more optimizations that will hopefully both reduce download size and make it stable on 512MB devices.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Quick update ... just plowing through the optimization work. Reducing polygons on all the 3D characters to reduce their performance hit and memory usage. Just had my computer crash on me so lost about 2 hours of work this morning. Utterly demotivating ... I hate redoing work.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Almost done optimizing the existing characters and animations. Should have an updated release today that will run smoothly on 1GB devices and will hopefully run well on 512MB devices. No new levels but will have a couple of new characters (centaur and working Halberdier) as well.

 

[Miska Hietala]

Is there item farming included? I like an RPG when there is a lot of LOOT btw, how can I get to beta?
Sent from my NeverAndroidAgain**1020** via Tapatalk

 

[WaveLightGames]

Building and testing the updated version now for my 920. Will release later today. Once released, I'm eager to hear from anyone with a 512MB device to know if it runs on that or not.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Is there item farming included? I like an RPG when there is a lot of LOOT �� btw, how can I get to beta?
Sent from my NeverAndroidAgain**1020** via Tapatalk

Not too sure what you mean by farming .... if you mean killing stuff and getting equipment and gold, then yes. There's an inventory system, 9 equipment slots per character, 16 backpack slots per character (to carry stuff that's not being equipped) and a shop system to buy / sell equipment. Most of that was working in an earlier build but I did some stuff to break the functionality so I need to go back and fix it.

I'll add you to the beta ... or I should say "alpha" at the moment because it really is still very early. PM me your Microsoft ID if you haven't already.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Ran my first tests on the optimized build (next release) on my 920 and it looks good. The debugger states I never go over 160MB RAM usage so there shouldn't be any memory crashes even on 512MB RAM devices. I'll do the master build and submit. Playtesters will get an email link. I'll expand the list of testers to include everyone that has PM'd me since the last release.

 

[dKp1977]

Ran my first tests on the optimized build (next release) on my 920 and it looks good. The debugger states I never go over 160MB RAM usage so there shouldn't be any memory crashes even on 512MB RAM devices. I'll do the master build and submit. Playtesters will get an email link. I'll expand the list of testers to include everyone that has PM'd me since the last release.

Your pace is unbelievable. You're a machine. I'm really grateful for all the effort you put into developing for WP and Windows. Thank you very much.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Thanks ... nice of you to say. Now would you believe me if I said I do this part time and have a full time day job and 2 kids? :amaze:

Though admittedly my day job allows me to work from home and I work on the game during lulls in the regular job (IT / Finance Manager) and during the time I would otherwise have spent commuting.

In other news, I received a free Lumia 925 today from Microsoft. They were running a promotion to attract Unity developers and I qualified some time ago but there was a delay in getting my device. But it arrived today so future videos won't be taken on my broken 920. Nice device for anyone thinking of picking it up.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Updated version has been submitted and is in the signing stage. Hopefully I won't have that weird error I got last time and I should have updated links to all testers going out within an hour or so.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Emails sent out with updated link.

Please test and let me know of crashes in particular. I didn't add too much content other than completing the animations for the Centaur and Halberdier. If testers could also play through all 4 levels and let me know their thoughts on the gameplay / enjoyment factor, that would be great.

Also, if you have good ideas for special abilities for the various character classes, that would be great.

What would you guys like to see in the next update?

1 - Cleaned up menus / GUI suitable for mobile?
2 - Fixed inventory / magic item system?
3 - More levels added?
4 - Add more character classes and character abilities?

Let me know where you would like me to focus this week. I'm good with anything to be honest.

 

[dKp1977]

1 & 2 please

 

[Miska Hietala]

1&2
Sent from my NeverAndroidAgain**1020** via Tapatalk