Arcade RPG (2D)

Hey there!

Inspired by some 2d jump&run discussions, I just started a new project:

ARCADE RPG

What is it?
It's gonna be something like a sidescrolling action rpg with jump&run styled controls. You can choose between 3 playable characters (warrior, mage, priestress). There will be multiplayer support too and you can team up with up to 2 other players. You are hacking and slaying through your enemies, collect items, fight bosses etc. Each character has a set of unique abilities.

I'm also planning to add a little story around it, but I haven't thought about it yet. All I know is, that the game will take place in a sleepy kingdom called Zaragon. You will have to rescue a princess that has been kidnapped by some kind of absolutely evil super-villain.

State of art:
- Level 1 is nearly finished.

Planned features:
- keyboard controlled movement (jump&run-) system
- special combat system (you have to press a key for each attack)
- at least 3 different characters (warrior, mage, priest and maybe more to come)
- coop-multiplayer support (each player can take control of one character)
- 7-9 completely unique stages with very different settings
- if you finish the game, you'll probably be able to set free some gimmicks (for example new difficulty modes, special weapons etc.) and you can play again (without reloading the map). Maybe I could add some codes too, to directly warp to certain levels
- maybe, if it's not too laggy, i could include a small pvp-deathmatch mode

I've attached some screenshots and a demo version of the map that features the first level and one playable character. Please give it a try and tell me what you think about it.


MAP UPDATE [2008-02-05]
Again, thanks a lot for the constructive feedback, it helped me a lot.
I've tried to cover most of the points mentioned with this update. Though there is still much work to do.
Please keep checking back.

Changelog for Demo ver. 2 - It does not use targetted abilities any longer. The hero can be controlled without the mouse now and a key has to be pressed for each attack - added some objects that block the path so you have to jump over them - fixed a bug that let you jump outside the map - added some more enemies - some terrain improvements - other small changes

Any feedback, suggestions, critics and comments are very welcome and appreciated!

Thanks!

Sounds pretty cool actually. If I can get some time tomorrow I'll try it out.

Might be good to disable the minimap since you can see where enemies are and stuff.

I kind of expected something closer to a platform game, so I'm a little disappointed. Other than the camera angle, there's nothing much different in this map from any other autoattack RPG.

Then again, if you don't like the idea of pressing a lot of buttons and intended to go for a more relaxing rpg, then this system is good. Personally I'd prefer to be in control and not sitting back watching autoattacking in a sidescroller, but that's just my personal opinion.

Anyway, some more decent feedback:
- When in defend, you still move forward as quickly as normal when you jump, so you can spam jumping while in defend mode to move fast and still have damage reduction.
- Jumping does absolutely nothing other than look cool.
- Fights are a tad bit long, you might want to scale damage up, but then again the map might be intended for multiplayer in which case I can't comment on fight length.
- Sometimes there's too huge an object in front of you which blocks your character. Just a tad bit annoying, but nothing major.

I really like the scenery though. I think it's cool how the level 1 boss walks out from the background.

I'm gonna try this when I get home. So, I take it the characters auto-attack? It'd be really cool if there was way to make it so that each press of say, the 'A' key makes a single melée strike. I don't know if that's possible though.

Real criticism on the way when I play it-!

Ahhh, I remember when I started a campaign like this back in 2004, shame I never finshed it, I had such good ides.
I'll try to check this when I have time.

Thanks very much for the feedback so far.

I agree with all points mentioned and I'm gonna work on it!

This is good.I liked this demo.
Just It need a storyline that make sense to all.
Also the terraining seems to be more important on this kind of game.I see you put some effort in it but i would like to see more surprising landscape.For instance a waterfall on the background would have been cool.
And make each level a different world,with different terrain would be more cool and more old-school-like.

Some balance issue.
-Some spell seems to be worthless like rage 30 mana + 30% attackspped for 10 seconds.While the first spell (don't remember its name) cost 25 mana and can kill a creep in 3-5 seconds.
-As said before a better use of jump ability.(like put some rock that block the way and you can only path over it by jumping.)
And for the next version i suggest to make more playable character warrior,mage and preistress are just too simple and not enought.It will greatly increase the replayability with a relativly minor amount of work since creating a hero don't take too much time.

I hope you won't give up with this one.

Good game concept but unfortunately without the keyboard key for attack it brings down the game horribly. The problem I has was playing with the keyboard,mouse, and the movement keys all at the same time. I see that you set up the spells with qwer which is great but it doesn't help if I have to control my character with the mouse, use spells and use the movement keys at the same time.

Basically because it is other complicated, the key movement becomes pointless. To win I just used the mouse and the qwer keys. Which brings up another problem, the game is just too darn simple, all your spells you just spam, there's no logic in using except that you must use them. Also I noticed that your hero can upgrade, any plans to make abilities purchasable like in an aos?

I love the concept but it needs refinement!

I've just uploaded a new version of the map. Still it might not be perfect but I've tried to take care of all points mentioned.
Probably, the most relevant change is the new combat system.

I like the changes so far, but whats the point in jumping over logs and rocks? Anyway, there are a few bugs with the jump, sometimes when you walk one way and jump then turn u sorta do a backwards hop some how.

Increase the range a bit on the attack or decrease the attacking range of opponents. Some small opponents are annoying cause you have to move closer to them to hit them.

Why not convert this to a platform? IMO stats and exp etc. is fine but where the side-scroller can stand out is how it handles combat. The main point of a side-scroller in combat is to be able to control your character to avoid damage, and get close enough to hit the enemy. Platformers usually have the addition of environmental damage along with combat to make damage avoidance all the more challenging.

It's still pretty inspirational work though and makes me feel like re-looking at one of my old projects T_T. Despite my previous suggestion, it's not easy to do a polished platformer using worldediter.

Wow! The new version is great! Here are my suggestions/comments:

-At the start of the map there are shores/waves at the bottom of the screen. Dunno if it's intentional or not, but it's certainly not vert foresty!
-Attacking makes a sound even if it doesn't hit which can be confusing when the player is hidden behind something.
-Although it's great to keep it simple, some reason other than getting past logs would make jumping better. If you had platforms/different height parts it would be much better. I know that the WC3 pathing maps are linear, so I guess your only option is to make the raised parts either on the same plane or 1 tile behind it.
-The shop is very balanced and gives the player a choice of which item to buy.
-Enemies are a bit too simple. I know you've only just started but how about making some of the monsters do something a bit different?
-Some way to customise the hero would be nice.
-Being able to enter that cave would be very cool, it could be like a pipe in SMB!

Aside from all that I think this is really good. Is there any way we could get involved other than playtesting? I'd really like to be a part of this.

[edit] +Rep for the new attack system!

Thanks for your good feedback!

True.

@Ant:

Right now, I'm using Waldbaer's jump system (slightly modified).

I think adding real (flying) platforms above ground would be a cool thing too,
but it will need a completely rewriten jump/platform system. But in general I also think it would make a cool addition.

A short time ago, I played a map called 'Bouncing Bug' (I'm sorry I can't find a working download link for it, you may try google). It had a very good 2d feeling and platforms.

I really like the aspect of avoiding damage that you've mentioned.
This would add more gameplay depth. I think it could be done by just giving creeps slower attacks that are not homed so you can evade projectiles. I'll try to implent this.

@DALE!NBLACK:

- The shores were added for some camera-testing reasons I think, gonna remove them.
- Yeah, the platform thing again. I think I'll add it.. somehow.
- Items on shop are still very beta and quick and dirty, but nice to hear that they are quite balanced already.
- I agree that enemies should be more individual and characteristic (any suggestions? ;))
- Customizeable hero - good point. The idea came to my mind to use weaponless hero models and add different weapons with individual stats. So you can equip your hero with various stuff that may change your damage, speed, armor, damage type etc.

- Last but not least, if you want to get more involved into this than only playtesting, there are a lot of things you could do! Any help would be cool. You could design cool enemies, maybe work on the platform system or maybe design a stage if you are good at terrain.. Just let me know what you could/want do and let's see what's up with it..

I'd love to help design a level or two and to elaborate on the hero editing. I have the perfect model for that actually, and I've got loadsa attachments that could be used for it.
I could show you what I meant by my platforming idea too if you're interested.