NEStalgia: A team effort

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ID:69015
 
May 15 2009, 2:26 pm
Keywords: nestalgia
All of my projects start out as solo endeavors, but one way or another they eventually turn into a team effort. Thanks to an excellent group of private testers and some new additions to the design team, NEStalgia is coming along extremely well.

tenkuu (SpSpiff) has been helping out on my projects for a long time; at one point he pretty much took over the original Proelium, spending months refining the gameplay and optimizing the code base. More recently, tenkuu took on the challenge of integrating his Proelium map editor into Proelium II and cleaning up/adding several more features that players were pining for. Apart from his coding and design help, he's a relentless 'bug hunter', and is invaluable to the testing process.

...So it was awesome when tenkuu not only volunteered to help with NEStalgia, but agreed to take on coding many of the remaining "systems" that I haven't got around to yet. I've been able to spend the last couple weeks focusing on game content while tenkuu has been tackling stuff like this:


A classic NES-style naming system and an item bank/gold vault just to name a few. The funny thing is that although he is working off of my existing code base, tenkuu is a much better coder than I am. Luckily he's kind enough to explain/comment pretty much everything he does so that I don't go back and get confused later on.

Jared (who many of you know as Jaredoggy or Balzack) is always there to help with mapping as well. He's also the source of many of the awesome in-game events that used to make DWO a blast; and I'm sure that the Balzackians will rise again upon NEStalgia's release.

Last but not least, the excellent group of people who having been testing NEStalgia have been writing up detailed bug reports and thoughtful suggestions for improvement. Most of these players are "DWO Oldbies", and they know a thing or two about old school RPGs. Scar has been kind enough to run the private testing server so far, which has been a huge help.

If you were to compare the original private testing compile of NEStalgia to what we have on our hands less than a month later, you'd barely recognize it. Thanks to the Silk Games team, NEStalgia will be taking BYOND by storm in the near future.
May 15 2009, 3:08 pm
Are the party-systems in the game based on CPU players, or real players? I was just browsing the screenshots earlier.
May 15 2009, 3:23 pm
Rugg wrote:
Are the party-systems in the game based on CPU players, or real players? I was just browsing the screenshots earlier.

Real players; similar setup to how DWO 1.90 works, although much more intuitive.
May 15 2009, 3:25 pm (Edited on May 15 2009, 3:33 pm)
That's awesome. And your player icon; is it based on just the class you have or the items you have equipped?
May 15 2009, 4:11 pm
Rugg wrote:
That's awesome. And your player icon; is it based on just the class you have or the items you have equipped?

A player's character sprite will be based upon their class, but will be highly customizable.
May 15 2009, 5:40 pm
Wow you guys are moving along rapidly. Makes me feel like I'm dragging my feet... lol

Question tho. For the interface are you using separate panels or will the pop-ups be tied to the main window?
May 15 2009, 7:33 pm
The Naked Ninja wrote:
Question tho. For the interface are you using separate panels or will the pop-ups be tied to the main window?

I may be misinterpreting your question, but here goes: all of the HUDs in the game are built using screen objects with client.screen. BYOND 4.0 interface stuff has nothing to do with the in-game HUD, and will only be utilized for secondary functions such as communication and help files.
May 15 2009, 8:20 pm
Go team Venture!..I mean, Silk Games Staff!
May 16 2009, 7:01 pm
Silk, what you should include is like different kinda sets you can have kinda like in diablo. Like get all the 5 peices makes a glowing set or w.e, and do the equips show?
Jun 7 2009, 6:27 pm
Looks like an addictive game guys. I can't wait to try :).
Jun 19 2009, 5:45 am
So much for Archeron's Awakening now that hes working on a game thats not much different then the one he already has (DWO)

I hate when people get everyone hyped up over a game with screenshots and closed testing, then just abandon the game and start making several other projects. Instead of finishing the real-time RPG, he wants to make another turn-based one. Hell, I wouldn't be suprised if he made a NEStalgia 2 and Proelium 3 before AA's release.
Jun 24 2009, 11:43 am
Chokaa wrote:
Instead of finishing the real-time RPG, he wants to make another turn-based one. Hell, I wouldn't be suprised if he made a NEStalgia 2 and Proelium 3 before AA's release.

I'll tell you what -- give me your phone number, and the next time that I have free time on my hands I'll call you and ask you what I should do. After all, how dare I not consider the desires of some random online dude who I don't even know?
Jun 25 2009, 9:46 am
People need to quit acting like Silk owes us something with timely release dates and such. Homebrew is an unpaid business. We play his games because we're his FANS, not because he owes us good games in exchange for money. From how far along this seems, a public release might not be far off, and even if it is, it's still just homebrew, so there's nothing to complain about. Live your lives and come back someday, and it'll be there waiting for you to play it.
Jun 25 2009, 10:26 am
Caer_Death wrote:
People need to quit acting like Silk owes us something with timely release dates and such. Homebrew is an unpaid business. We play his games because we're his FANS, not because he owes us good games in exchange for money. From how far along this seems, a public release might not be far off, and even if it is, it's still just homebrew, so there's nothing to complain about. Live your lives and come back someday, and it'll be there waiting for you to play it.

Yes, homebrew is definitely an unpaid business, especially for him. Not that I think Silk owes us his game, because I could care less. I just figured I'd point out that flaw in your argument.
Jun 25 2009, 1:53 pm
Wow, it never ceases to amaze me when people dig up somewhat dead topics involving Silk and start tired arguments again.

I have the AA source too. I'm going to change it into a Naruto(or whatever is vogue these days) game and release it as AA2.
Jun 27 2009, 1:59 am
Silk, has it ever occured to you that maybe people want a different game experience? Everyone knows Proelium 2 didn't do as well as you guys at Silk Games thought it would. Maybe you wore out this type of game and should move onto something you haven't made yet?

Dragon Warrior Online most of the time has 0 players logged in. How many people do you expect will play this? It looks like the same game, just with different graphics.

In the future, if you're not going to finish a game, I kindly ask you to keep your screenshots and do not have closed testing, getting players excited and ready for a game that never comes out.
Jun 27 2009, 7:57 am
Chokaa wrote:
Silk, has it ever occured to you that maybe people want a different game experience?

It never occurred to me to bother myself with what other people want. 90% of the people on BYOND want to hit pbags all day, perhaps I should make a crappy DBZ game?

I've already gone over all of this. I agree with tenkuu; it never ceases to amaze me when people try to start in on this stuff for the 100th time.
Jun 27 2009, 8:15 am
tenkuu wrote:
Wow, it never ceases to amaze me when people dig up somewhat dead topics involving Silk and start tired arguments again.

I have the AA source too. I'm going to change it into a Naruto(or whatever is vogue these days) game and release it as AA2.

That would result in the best Naruto game BYOND has ever seen. :P
Jun 27 2009, 11:25 am
Maybe you haven't noticed this, but a games purpose is to entertain.

If your game doesen't entertain people, then its useless and a waste of time.

"It never occurred to me to bother myself with what other people want."

Do you know how many businesses would fail if all the owners had that type of attitude?

I played Proelium and if I recall correctly, Balzack said "We made over $100 dollars in Proelium subscriptions last month."

I find it ironic how you don't care about what the players want, yet you show a keen interest in the players money. I don't think you've ever turned down a subscription.
Jun 27 2009, 11:54 am
Chokaa wrote:
Maybe you haven't noticed this, but a games purpose is to entertain.

If your game doesen't entertain people, then its useless and a waste of time.

"It never occurred to me to bother myself with what other people want."

Do you know how many businesses would fail if all the owners had that type of attitude?

I played Proelium and if I recall correctly, Balzack said "We made over $100 dollars in Proelium subscriptions last month."

I find it ironic how you don't care about what the players want, yet you show a keen interest in the players money. I don't think you've ever turned down a subscription.

Creating games on a platform like BYOND is primarily for one's own entertainment, secondarily for some type of profit (and even then only occasionally). SilkWizard is not some big business that exists solely to make money, and you are not some poor victimized customer who was led down a bad road.

There are people who are very excited about NEStalgia and can't wait to play it; I'm not one of them, but that doesn't mean Silk shouldn't be making this game, especially since he's not doing this for the sake of others, he's doing it because he enjoys it.

As cliche as this sounds: stop being a selfish crybaby.
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