This is a very small release update but it represents a good bit of education on my part.  I’m doing as much research on the Godot Engine as I can.  This includes learning what I can on code structure for an RPG, or really any game.  I know how to program, but I have very little experience as a software engineer, and even less as a game developer, so getting a base of knowledge about how to structure a project as big as an RPG is going to be crucial if there is any chance for this project to take off.

The only change in this release is that you can walk over the white block and the scene changes to the “battle arena.”  You can’t actually do anything once you get there, but the scene change does happen and the character can’t move while the scene is changing.  Also, there is a decent little fade-in and fade-out during the transition.

Again, this is a very small update, but that’s kind of the idea I’m going for with very small, hopefully very frequent updates.  If you have any thoughts, questions, or comments be sure to leave them below.

Today I finished most of the features I said would be in v0.00.002 so I went ahead and released it.  I found a slightly better process to obfuscate all the code and pack it into a release, so hopefully that will make future releases a little easier.  Check out the game page to see the newest release and the notes.  I’m going to spend a day or so thinking about what I want to put into the next release then I’ll post about it.  And then I guess I’ll start actually working on it.

Today I released v0.00.001 of Chronicles of Tright: Isles of Arden.  It’s a stretch to call this anything like a game at this point.  It’s really just boilerplate code and a starting point for future development.  It was also a chance for me to test out some procedures for packing the code base up into a release and publishing it.  But it is a starting point and I’m weirdly excited to put out something so terrible.  You can move the character around with WASD.  Collision detection works and I’m using my own custom collision detection and response system.  The collision box around the one house on the map is intentionally oversized and the art assets are intentionally bad as they are just placeholders.  That’s really about it.

My idea here is to make numerous incremental releases on a quick schedule.  I’ve tried this before and had some success with it so I’m going this route again.  Once I get to the server side coding it may be more difficult to make such rapid changes but that’s a world I’m going to need so much work on that I’ll just cross that bridge when I get to it.  I obviously have many, many, MANY things to do before this is even close to a playable game, but I’m going to try and keep the additions for each release small and attainable.  So, for v0.00.002 I need to implement:

• Mouse controls that allow you to zoom, rotate, and change the pitch of the camera
• Keyboard controls for strafing
• Fix the collision box on the current house and add one more object to the world

That’s a small list that I can hopefully get done in a few days.  I’ll then do another release and evaluate what features to add from there.

v00002 is now live. Check out the Code Magnus page in the top navigation to play and see the changelog.

Today I’m releasing the very first version of Chronicles of Tright: Codex Magnus. It’s a silly little thing that only technically qualifies as a game, but it’s a starting place. Check out the Codex Magnus page in the top navigation to give it a whirl.

Because I’m developing this game incrementally and starting with such an incredibly simple base updates will come frequently, especially at the beginning. I’m guessing I’ll release multiple updates per week at least for the first few weeks. After that it may slow down, but making small improvements to what I have now should be fast and easy.

Lyridia v00004 (2018.06.23) is now live.  Here are some new features in this version:

• Improved enemy movement and control.  The boars now won’t walk through trees and move around somewhat more naturally.
• Better animations.  Admittedly, they’re still bad but when you move it now looks at least a little like the guy is running and there is an idle animation and an attack animation that triggers if you press ‘1’.

That’s a pretty short list but getting animations to work from Blender to THREE.js has been just this side of a nightmare, so hopefully the next steps will be easier.

Chronicles of Tright: Lyridia v00003 is now live.  Here are the things that are new in this version:

• Collisions
  • Collisions are buggy at the moment and completely un-optimized.  Be careful because I’ve had my browser crash several times during testing, especially around the random blue tombstone.  This is something that will need some more attention going forward, but does mostly work for now.
• Enemies that follow the terrain
  • The 10 boars still don’t really look very realistic in any way, but at least they don’t sink into the ground or float in the air.  The boars also move somewhat smoothly from location to location between update messages from the server.  Position updates are still only emitted once per second, but each boar tweens between the position of the previous position and the position of the most recent update.
• Improved, but still terrible animations
  • You can press space to make the player jump (if you aren’t moving) or press ‘1’ to see a really awful punching motion.  This is an area that obviously needs much work.
• Better terrain
  • Penrith Forest is basically a bowl valley.  Right now you can walk right up the steep slopes around it, but eventually that will change.
• Very, very basic NPC interaction
  • If you move relatively close to the guy next to the house and put your mouse cursor over him, he will be highlighted.  If you click while he’s highlighted you get a goofy message.
• More stuff in the world
  • I added quite a few trees and some other scene filler

It really feels like I should have more to list here because I seem to be implementing new things all the time, but I guess that just really shows the enormity of what this project really is.  I’ll take a little time tonight to start preparing a list of things to implement next, but if you have any suggestions feel free to leave a comment.

Today I’ve release v00002 of Chronicles of Tright: Lyridia.  You can play by going to the Lyridia page in the top menu, or by clicking here.  Things added in this version:

• Simple multiplayer support
  • You can’t really interact with the world, but if multiple people are playing you should be able to see multiple characters walking around
• Basic animations
  • Animations are actually a bit of a mess right now due to a bug in THREE.js.  Hopefully they will get better after a new release in a few weeks.
• A starting point for adding enemies
  • Right now there are 10 boars roaming around a specified region of Penrith Forest.  You can’t interact with them and they don’t even move on top of the terrain, but it’s a start.

On a side note, I have added support for a development version of the Node server that runs the game.  That means my development activities won’t break the game that’s running live, which is always a positive.

Check out the new version, and leave a comment with what you want to see added next.

You can now run Chronicles of Tright: Lyridia – v00001.  That link will eventually be incorrectly titled because it just points to the latest available version of the game and that should change very soon.  That’s really neither here nor there because you can now go PLAY THE GAME*!!!  I’ve put an asterisk beside the word “game” because there aren’t any real “game” features at this time.  All you can really do is use the ‘wasd’ keys to walk around.  But it’s a start.  So, if you’re into walking around very small 3D scenes feel free to check it out.

The list of things the game doesn’t do is much, much longer than the list of things it does do.  Of course, I guess that’s technically true of any game.  Like, World of Warcraft doesn’t make you toast, or clean your house.  I digress.  What it does do is draw a scene you can walk around in.  You stay grounded on the terrain and you are magic because you can walk through buildings and trees.  It makes some shadows and hides things that are too far away from you in fog.  That’s really about it.  I’ll be finalizing the list of features to include v00002 over the next few days then hopefully have another release shortly after that.