The Field of Kings JOURNAL

[Hguols]

Ok, so maybe there are a few people here that are aware that I was making a 3rd SoM game.  Yes no? 
Anyway, that has sort of fizzled out at least for the time being.

I should have said something sooner, but I have new personal programs that I use regularly, and those new programs require the latest of graphics drivers.  For some odd reason, the latest graphics driver for the Intel G41 Express Chipset (cutting edge of graphics display I know) is not compatible with Sword of Moonlight.  Not only can I not see map pieces to place them in the map editor, but I can't see where to place objects in the piece setup.... 

....so for the time being, that project is on a hold until further notice.

However, as some of you may have seen in a recent post, (yes no?) I have taken a particular interest in handheld gaming creation.  Since converting the SoM program and/or games seems to be rather difficult, that's not a path I'm interested in taking, considering my coding skills are quite limited.  (though I will jump on the nearest chance if creating Diadem of Maunstraut or Trismegistus becomes a handheld reality)

The playing field has changed for me as of tonight.
I've stumbled upon a freeware program that has the ability to create point and click type games for the PSP. 
http://www.adventuremaker.com

After viewing a few demos, (and the program is extremely easy to use) I think I could pull off a King's Field Additional type game of sorts.  The good news is, is that I could basically take screenshots of what I've already created in this potential 3rd SoM game.  It would be tedious, but it wouldn't be too difficult for me.  Luckily the map preview works, and the map pieces have their own squares.

Since SoM objects, I could use whatever I pasted over the image.  This is point and click by the way.  I think the ability to use animated GIFs is an option as well, but I'd have to research the actual adventure maker program before I commit to too much.  I don't know if I would be able to create menus, stats or even random encounters.

As recycled as it may sound, I was actually planning on grabbing all the King's Field monster images Martin has over on his site, and using them.  Since the Additional series has motionless creatures, I'm not too bothered doing the same.  I think working out a character swipes and monster swipes would be sufficient animations I could get by with.

Worse case scenario, I believe I could get away with a puzzle type game that would look similar to the Additional games.

Currently though, I'm working on the 2nd Ankou Awaits album, so I probably won't devote much time to the game until the music for that album is done.  (unless I get a wild hair up my ass which might very well happen)  I'm 3 songs in, working on the 4th, so.... a few more weeks I could be done with it though.

My mind has been flooding with ideas since I found this program.  Its probably just a matter of following through and seeing what I can do.  I might do a little test tonight to see what I can come up with...

[Hguols]

Interesting.  The game creation isn't what I thought it was, but I'm actually quite intrigued as to what I can do with this.

I've compiled a setup file, a little test if you will.... for those of you who'd like to see what this is about.
For the record you DO NOT (I repeat DO NOT) have to have custom firmware to run this.  It runs with official firmware.

Just unzip the file, click setup to install the game to the PSP and follow the instructions.
I hope it was ok that I used the SOM site for this Todd.  Its only 276KBs in size...

http://www.swordofmoonlight.com/justatest.zip

Actually, the game is played in the PSP's browser....  which, I got to admit is a little strange, but the interface works well.  I do wish things moved at a little quicker pace though.  There's a little 2 second hour glass between each picture.

It doesn't look like sounds/music will be an option.  I'm both disappointed and relieved.  This makes things even simpler.
I'm pleased to see that images can be added as hotspots.  Looks like this is where enemies will come in.

There's variables that I can add and it looks like it works like the SOM counter system but much more primitive.  From just a glance, I have a limitless amount of "counters" (called variables) to work with - just name and assign a number.  0=off, 1=on.

I'm probably not going to be able to set up random enemy encounters this way, but I could at least offer some variety on where I place them. 

Attacking an enemy should be easy enough....  factoring them in for attacking me, that's another story.  Since on and off seem to be the only variables, its either unlimited life, or one hit kill....

I realize there's going to be a certain amount of compromise.  Text appears to be limited to one line so wordy NPC dialogues are out of the question.

Actually, I'm having a little difficulty seeing how I would even save the game....  if THAT isn't even possible, that would probably make a pretty major change to the game....

[Hguols]

Well, saving is strangely out of the question.  There is a way to create "checkpoints" of sorts, though its more like a level select....which would look better just to code with images and hotspots.

I made a rather lo-fi "fight".  Sorry its not exactly intense.  Click on the demon, he disappears....  I think in lieu of making a slicing animation, I'll just create a special sword cursor in vain of the ones already available.

http://www.swordofmoonlight.com/testfighting.zip

This way, there's a fight and no respawn....

However, I think the only way I'll be able to make a character death is if I create a timing frame.  That would be the one hit death deal.....  sort of a "kill the monster in two seconds or he'll kill you".  That means no hotspot monster, and the monster is part of the image/background.  I guess I could make an animated GIF of a sword swing....

I'm thinking progressing to a new area would be triggered by defeating a boss monster.

I'll have to study more on this later....

[Hguols]

Ok, animated GIFs look really good and are pretty small when they're only 480x272

Weird SoM problem though that I've never experienced before.  I output the map, right....  its saved, newest version and all that.  I create a runtime.  I copy over all the extra map pieces.  I run GAME.EXE and it loads something WAY earlier in the map development.  Like I start in a different place of the map and there are no trees, no custom pieces and still uncompleted areas.  (where as the actual output has all completed areas and custom map pieces)

The whole reason I wanted to create a runtime so I could actually view the game in 480x272.  (since I can't figure out a way for the project preview / test map to view at that resolution - though I would be glad to be wrong on that)

Any ideas?  It would save me a lot of work.

The alternative is resizing every single picture piece to 480x272 which could add HOURS to the project's creation time.  (and its really unnecessary to boot)

[dmpdesign]

Sweet cant wait to look into everything youve posted here when i get home tonight.

Very intriguing stuff Tom, sorry to hear about the postponement of your 3rd SOM installment though :(

[Hguols]

Well, it appears that the 3rd SoM installment is beginning to manifest itself on the PSP.  ( ^ - ^)
I know its not a SoM game, but the game materializing itself this way is better than not at all.

I've compiled a playable demo of a game I plan on following through with and I'll share that here for anyone with a PSP.

http://www.swordofmoonlight.com/tfok_demo2.zip

EDIT:  I've made a few changes, hence the "2" after the demo in the file name.  Made the battle look a little better.

The name of the project should appear quite the pun.  There is a working title screen, intro, death-endgame and about 20 images total, 5 of which are animated gifs.  You can wander around a small section of the courtyard.  There's one fight, which I've refined the fighting quite a bit since the last go around.  (and the hero is wielding the moonlight sword, I created a special cursor of it)  The combat is based on anatomy targeting.  Hitting an enemy anywhere won't do, you have to hit a certain area.  One hit kill.  However, you have a limited time to find the hit zone and hit it, or the enemy will hit you.  One hit kill, game over.  Outro and back to the title screen.

Since I'll be doing without save features, it shouldn't be a big deal to die.  I plan on having the area select up and running as soon as other areas can be added so if someone gets bored with one area, they'll be able to traverse another.  I plan on having a wide assortment of enemies being used so the eye candy should be suitable.

Enemies don't respawn until the game is loaded again.  I'm not certain, but I believe dying and then selecting new game again, the enemies will still be gone as the variable is still active.  Since the demo has one fight, and one chance to die, this is something I'll find out later.

If anyone has any questions/concerns/suggestions, I'm all ears.  This will be the last demo, as I'm not a demo guy.  The next posting including a file link will be a full version game...  ( ^ - ^)

[Hguols]

I just totaled up the areas based on my Sword of Moonlight map and the areas will be:

The Courtyard
The Lower Courtyard
The Forest
The Caves
The Blood Palace
The Garden Labyrinth
The King's Court
The Valley
The Dungeon Temple

Some areas are very big, like The Dungeon Temple and Blood Palace. Others, small, like the Lower Courtyard and The Forest.

I'm going to take back one thing I said and post a more playable demo.  I'm more familiar with the interface and I want to share what I've got here.  I got the courtyard complete, including 12 enemy encounters between 8 different types of enemies. The fighting system works pretty well.

Enemies you kill DO NOT respawn if you die. Take some comfort in that if a couple of them get by you while you're searching for their weak spot. You won't have to re-fight anything.

This here is a playable demo, and a more suitable example of what the game is like. Once again, any questions/comments/complains/suggestions are welcome.

http://www.swordofmoonlight.com/tfok_demoplay.zip

Seriously, for real.  This is probably the last demo.

[Hguols]

Here's various screens from the playable demo.  ....for those of you who don't have a PSP or don't want to download anything.

[Verdite]

Dunno when i can try this, left my psp far away. Looks awesome.

[Guyra]

I really want to try this out once it's done. However, since this now consists of 2D images, why not take the graphics up a notch by editing in PS or similar? Just an idea.

Here's an example I did, took about 30 minutes: