Howdy! This’ll just be a quick lil’ update on the RPG.

After recoding what little battle logic I had so far for the third time, I finally got something working! Now, the hardest part seems to have been overcome, and what remains now is just a whole lot of coding different attacks and actions, and some attack logic for the enemies too, of course. Perhaps a working battle system by the end of the week isn’t such an impossible idea after all? Of course not, there’s always a solution!

Work it harder, make it better, do it faster, makes us stronger. That’s how the Daft Punk song goes. I think I’m gonna loop it for motivational purposes tomorrow.

For now though, I’m gonna play either some Dead Space 2, or either Final Fantasy VI or VII. We’ll see what I come to choose. Perhaps I’ll even decide to play Amnesia! I really should play through it, I should’ve played through it long ago, really.

Anyhow, that’ll have to do for today. Look out for more updates tomorrow, perhaps even a little something on Breakthru: Extended! *Excitement ensues*

Marcus out.

Hello all!

Just stopping by to inform you all that the 3D Art Mix-page under the Artwork-section has been updated with some new (old) stuff, go check it out!

Also, today I’ve been working on a prototype for a school project. It’s going to be a retro-styled, 2D top-down RPG, heavily influenced by Dungeons & Dragons and Final Fantasy (hence the mish-mash name; Dungeon Fantasy). There’s not much to it just yet, mainly just a test of the character customization system. Things are happening fast though and I’ve still got plentiful of inspiration for it, even after a full day’s worth of coding! I’ve got a good feeling about the project, hopefully you’ll all find it appealing as well. It should be interesting for anyone that likes D&D or Final Fantasy. Or both!

That’ll be it for today. To make things a bit more interesting though, here’s a screenshot of what I’ve got so far. It doesn’t look like much, but there’s a lot of code behind the scenes!

From within the character customization screen. Note that the ability values are from simulated diceroll tests. (Also, noble Sir Bob seems to be without genitalia! Mysterious!)

Keep on gaming!

Marcus out.

I just got back from playing some Pac-Man Championship Edition: DX and some Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1.
PCEDX is a great example of an old game receiving a complete overhaul in design, while still retaining most of the core elements and goals (and adding new ones.) I’ll admit that I am a very, very shitty Pac-Man player, but Championship Edition DX is so thoroughly redesigned that you don’t need to be good at the original Pac-Man to be pretty decent at scoring a good amount of points. I highly recommend it to anyone who’s looking to pick up a Live Arcade game that can be easily picked up and played occasionally, while still being interesting enough to keep you occupied for hours as well.

Sonic 4: Episode 1 on the other hand, goes back to the series’ roots and looks to recreate the feeling of the original Mega Drive/Genesis titles while still being a completely new game, and it succeeds at it in most aspects. This is not going to be an in-depth review of it, but there are a few things worthy of mention, those things being awkward movement physics (that are much too different from the physics of the first three/four Sonic games on MD/G) and an awful abuse of phaser-ish synth instruments in the music. Other than the aforementioned flaws, it actually is a good Sonic game. Levels are very well designed and the game is fun to play.

One major point that is bugging me about the time attack mode though (uh-oh, rant incoming), is that there are no checkpoints. To me, as a player, it is a horrible punishment to have to go back from the very start of the level, should I make just one simple mistake in my effort to beat the level as fast as possible. From a designer point of view, I think it is a bit of a poor decision. Having checkpoints and adding five or ten seconds as punishment when you die would be a lot friendlier. Or, why not even just leave the checkpoints in there? If you restart from a checkpoint, you’ll be starting at a full stop anyway, so by the time you’ve accelerated back to full speed, you’ll have lost a few seconds time.
A few seconds is all that’s needed to be bumped down several spaces on the global leaderboards, so that’s a punishment in itself if you’re aiming for being nothing but the best. But, if that’s your aim, you’re already wasting your time, since there are apparently people who’ve cleared the levels in as little as 0’00”00!

Yes, I do realise that those records are hacked. It’s pretty obvious.

Enough ranting though. Now, I’m going to get back to working on my essay on ‘implementation of Dungeons & Dragons-systems in officially licensed D&D video games.’
Which basically means that I’ll get back to playing Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon and get started with playing Baldur’s Gate. Sometimes, homework is kind of awesome.

That’s all for now, take care and play games!
/ Marcus

Congratulations! You are now reading the first ever post in the Perpetual Diversion-site blog. I’ll warn you all beforehand that there won’t be much in ways of visual content or even textual clues regarding any on-going projects in this post. There will be more interesting posts soon though, so don’t worry! :)

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy my little island on the web. At the time that this post is written, there may not be so much on site just yet. A few simple games and some fancy texture renders. I’ll be gradually filling my web-space with more and more awesome stuff as I get to working/finishing it, so not to worry, my fellow interwebsters.

As most pages say that contain a comment field, I very much appreciate any feedback or, in cases of creative work; constructive criticism regarding the content. Anything that comes to mind! So long as it’s slightly related to the post/page and at least somewhat appropriate.

Well, that settles it for this first post, I guess. It’s not much, but it’s a start, wouldn’t you say?

Peace, love and video games,
Marcus