Sixty-Three Fires of Lung

[Tricky]

Sixty-Three Fires of Lung



After having a bit of practise with BallPlay Cupid and Cynthia Johnson, I've finally begun to get "serious" with the LÖVE engine...

My true passion in gaming has always been jRPG!



I've written some full RPGs with an engine I set up in BlitzMax with Lua as scripting language. But as I feel BlitzMax is dying, LÖVE came into the picture for me, since my previous RPGs also use Lua as scripting language, so I'd have a shorter learning curve. Sixty-Three Fires of Lung is the first full RPG I set up in the LÖVE engine.

Unfortunately there is no playable content yet, as the game is still in a too early stage of development for that, but progress is going fast now. Where my other RPG games have a pretty serious story with a very strong background lore, this game is rather meant as a parody to gaming clichés, like princesses always getting kidnapped and fools asking toll for bridges, and, well, you know the drill... The four playable characters have also deliberately been set up in a way they would NEVER fit together in one group.
Despite the story being a parody I do take this project seriously, and I do aim for a story line that despite all the parodies around does have a serious red line, and a well-thought through gameplay, also featuring a too easy game mode for beginners, an impossible to finish mode for the no-life gamers and a casual mode for the rest of us



The game will feature a turn based combat system. Don't think turn based combat is outdated or too easy. I've used the basics of this combat engine before and boy can you be in for trouble if you use the wrong tactics. I've never lost my love for turn-based combat so it was really a straight choice for me to go for that. Experience points can be gathered during combat so characters levelling up in the middle of a fight might happen on regular occasions.

Cast
Ryanna
Ryanna is the main protagonist of this story. She rose from her grave, but has no memory of anything that happened before she was entombed. She's very straightforward, always speaks her mind, lacks all social skills, is extremely rude and has basically a negative response to everything.


Prince Nino of the Kingdom of Beaufort
Prince Nino is an extremely overinflated prince who is a paladin but has no idea what the responsibilities of a paladin are. He's a first class womanizer who appears to see "the ultimate trophy" in Ryanna. and he's completely clueless why he doesn't manage to win her over. It's certainly not her negative attitude, but it's gonna take Nino awhile to discover that.


Shirley
Shirley is a pretty little girl with a pretty big sword. She's only three years old, but she fights like a full fledged warrior. She always refers to herself by name and in third person and has a very cheerful personality (much to Ryanna's annoyance). Not only her skills with a ridiculously big sword belies her age, she's also very bright and sometimes she can show herself to be very mature.

<< Picture of Lirmen is not yet decided >>
Lirmen
Lirmen is a wizard who is a failure in every single way because his no offensive spells have already caused more devastation than the most powerful attacking spells of archmages. His biggest flaw however is, his inability to recognise his own lack of talent.


Like I said, all I can do for the time being is tell you guys I'm working on this project and show you these screenshots as the game is not in a playable state yet. The most actual information about the current state of development can be followed on My Game Jolt Page for the game.

[NobodysSon]

Your maps have an interesting look that differs from the usual tile map style I associate with jrpgs. I'm curious if they are hand made, generated, or if you use a third party editor?

[Tricky]

The maps have been designed in the Kthura Map Editor. I created the Kthura system myself in the BlitzMax language, and I've created an exporter that makes it easily read by a Lua based system, such as LÖVE.
This is a screenshot of the Kthura editor in action while designing part of the map you see in the shots above.


Kthura has been set up to grant myself a few benefits a regular tilemap system does not give, and I'm glad you saw that effect as my forest locations often show that most. I've often considered releasing the Kthura Map Editor (although I have a github repository for it here), but setting up a project in it can be pretty hard when you don't know how it's programmed and I never fully got myself to make it "public-friendly", since the tool was most of all set up to cover my own needs and it does what I need it for... Yeah, I know I'm lazy, but I wanna focus more on my games than my tools...

[NobodysSon]

Yeah, I know I'm lazy, but I wanna focus more on my games than my tools...

Nah, I understand that sentiment completely as it is one that I share!

[Tricky]

Update:
I am currently working on the part of the game where 0 HP actually counts as "fallen", and thus making "game over" or "victory" possible.
Once that's done I've the basics of the combat engine in order, although there's still a lot to do after that in the combat part, but at least I can then also get onto other parts of the game, also hopefully enabling me to post a few more screenshots. The combat routine has always been the most complex part of RPG games and always had the most of work to be done, in all games I made so far in this genre. Also the routine most vulnerable to what I call "cockroaches".... Bugs that refuse to get fixed no matter what you try. I hate them... Hehehe... don't we all?

Of course, Ryanna will be able to transform into battle, and although I've experience with transforming characters in RPG games (I made RPG games featuring that before, you know), this will still be a challenge to do right. Don't worry, I got a plan.
Of course Ryanna will have all kinds of insults ready for me when I fail on that one, and I don't want her to have that pleasure

[Tricky]

Update:

At the present time I'm working on the "world map" code.
Yeah, I placed it between quotes as "world map" is a strong word as it's just a location selector based on the code I used in TFT REVAMPED. The code has also not yet been tested, so I'm prepared for a little bug circus...

It's not much, but I HAD to take a break for awhile, as I often tend to (especially in the primal stages of the development where most of the complex work takes place in) overwork myself and to exhaust myself. Count to that I also have Cynthia Johnson to complete and a 500 pages novel to spellcheck, yeah... I'm a busy man, and I guess when any fellow (Game Jolt) staff members read this DevLog they're gonna ask me how I could still find time to fulfil my duties as a (Game Jolt) moderator. Well, I really wonder that myself...



When the world map is done I can start on the first real dungeon, and then routines managing the encounters come into play, the tool system, using items in combat, the ability system, and this is also where Ryanna will obtain her first transformation. Damn, it's always surprising how much work I have to do to put in a part in the game that an experienced RPG player may only take 30 minutes to complete. The second dungeon is also gonna give me extra work as that is where Prince Nino will join Ryanna on her quest. New playable characters always give a crapload of extra work. But the nice part about RPG is, once it's done, it's done, and you can use it for the rest of the game, so basically my work should become less and less with each passing dungeon or town, allowing me to focus on the story line and game content more and more, also allowing me to show you more and more screenshots and sneak peaks. I hope once I have the first dungeon done I can post a preview video on YouTube so you have a bit of an idea of what I'm doing.

[Tricky]

Weekly update:

I wish I could tell you about enormous progress, but unfortunately illness struck me forcing me to waste some valuable days. C'est la vie, I suppose.
Still I could make a little progress....



At least I can show you this screenshot from the first true dungeon of the game. The crystals on the floor was something I already had in mind for Star Story and The Fairy Tale REVAMPED, but I never got around implementing them in either of those games, so this game will have to do. The amber crystals recover 1% VIT points, and the blue crystals recover 1% AP points. In the easy difficulty setting the amber crystals will be green and then they recover 1% VIT + 1% HP. In the hard mode they are non-existent. (If it's a hard game you want, a hard game you'll get, eh?)

When my health doesn't let me down I hope I can set up the encounter system tomorrow, so the game can be shaped into a true RPG game at last. Once that's done things can speed up a little. Well that is until Ryanna gets her first transformation that is.

[Tricky]

Weekly update


I am currently working on the fishing subgame. Fishing can provide benefits in the game as the fish Ryanna catches can be used as items. However she can also pull out a monster, so be well-prepared before you go out fishing.
This fishing game is gonna take a few more days to fully set right.

My biggest setback in my health. I was going better... I thought, but headaches struck me again.... I really hate this, and I hope I can find out soon what's wrong with me... I've always suffered a lot from headaches, but this isn't normal anymore.

[Tricky]

In this video I'll show you the very little gameplay the game currently has.
The builder I used, just collects all needed files and has been designed for easy cross-project scripting and easily wrapping LÖVE and all required files together for one big distro.
The game itself has little content now, as it's still in a very early stage of development, but I did want to show you a bit of what the game will become once finished. Some bugs may still show, and you may also expect some cosmetic changes to happen to make the game look better or perform better or well, you get the picture.

The voice you hear is me. I hope nobody here is fooled by my avatar, as I am really a man.
And the name Jeroen as I introduce myself at the start of the video is my real name, and I always have a big laugh when I hear non-Dutch speakers try to pronounce it, so don't take that personally
I know Dutch can be an awful language to pronounce when you haven't learned it from birth.
And if I have a little Dutch accent in my English forgive me, and yeah, I also know I speak US English so "true English" guys, don't take offense from that

[Tricky]

Weekly Update:

Yo there boys and girls;

The basic concept of fishing works, and I might post a screenshot of Ryanna fishing soon. There are still a few polishings to do, but overall it works…

At this moment I am working to implement item and ability usage by the Ryanna and her friends in combat. Having this implemented means I may make really large leaps in progressing in the scenario line soon, but first it has to work, and that is currently not fully the case…