Castle Paradox

[Newbie_Power]

I am not against team projects either... As long as the people involved have a really good design document of the game and they are all veterans that know what they are doing. PurpleSquerkle is likely neither of these things.

[Rinku]

I didn't know much what I was doing when I started working on Wingedmene though. So I don't think experience is essential for a team, though a serious approach probably is (Komera and I both wanted to make it a great game, even though neither of us had ever made a great game before). We didn't have much of a design document either -- she had about 10 pages of written notes that she typed up for me, but it wasn't that detailed, and it was mainly an outline of the story's plot points rather than what you'd normally think of as a design document.
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Tower Defense Game

[Newbie_Power]

Touche.

[J.A.R.S.]

speaking of which... I never got around to go very far in this game... the intro chapter is very average, but I keep hearing that its a classic? I should give it a more thorough try...
And for this one, I agree with Rinku. Experience isn't a tag of your success, it is just an indicator that says you are more likely to succeed because you have erred in the past enough times to learn from it. But eventually, it takes one first success, so a "newcomer" (aka newbie) could potentially come with a good community game project (team related at least) without the doc nor the experience which is precisely why I'm eager to see his ideas... And since I'm personally too bad graphically to make real ohr games worth playing, I'm sorta tryna see what game project I could join to use my coding skills (into re-learning plotscripting hopefully quickly) or music talents in. Although I must admit that Onlyoneinall's project deserves my attention musically, this would be more of an outsider contribution, and I'm really willing to board a team hence why I've got a certain hope in PurpleSquerkle. This, of course, heavily relies on his capacity to draw or to interest a graphical artist to his project.

[Rinku]

I'm not sure what constitutes a classic; Wingedmene was pretty popular though (for instance, it was #1 in more Ohrrpgce Top30 lists than it wasn't #1 in). The later sections of the game are better than the earlier sections of the game, because, well, we have been making the game since 1999 and the earlier chapters were the areas we made first. But personally I'd recommend waiting for the entire game to be finished before playing it. But even as it is right now, it has about 15 hours of gameplay, which is more than most finished Ohrrpgce games have.

I didn't mean that experience isn't important, just that it isn't necessary, and that other things can substitute for it. Experience is still great though. What takes you hours to code or to sprite when you have little experience might take you only a few minutes to code or sprite when you have more experience, and it'd be higher quality as well. One of my friends once spent an entire day on a single maptile, and it wasn't even a very good maptile either, whereas someone like Royal could produce those beautiful maptile sets in a few hours.
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Tower Defense Game

[J.A.R.S.]

a lot of dedication can sometimes rival good experience though, i think the point is there... and I guess I'll give wingedmene a... 6th try? Ya I had this feeling the begginning was somewhat very old. If you get a chance, you (and Komera of course) should perhaps make a few fixes to the begginning to give a better first look eye-candy attraction to the game's true value, which could end up being a good addition to the deluxe edition of its final form

[Rinku]

I think we do plan to do that, but after we finish the rest of the game.

One thing to mention about Wingedmene is that it's geared toward the style of gameplay of NES RPGs, not SNES RPGs, which is what most Ohrrpgce games are geared around. In other words, it's intended to feel and play more like Final Fantasy 1 and Dragon Warrior 2 than it is like Final Fantasy IV and Dragon Warrior VI. The main difference between NES and SNES RPGs is the difficulty level (greater for the NES) and how much time is spent in battle vs. exploring towns (more time in battle in NES games).
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Tower Defense Game

[J.A.R.S.]

Dragon Warrior two wasn't tough to beat at all?!
Not battlewise at least. It was confusing from time to time though,

[Rinku]

I found Dragon Warrior II to be the most challenging actually -- it's the only Dragon Warrior game I couldn't complete (aside from 8, which I haven't played).
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Tower Defense Game

[J.A.R.S.]

Seriously?
I don't remember facing any massive threat as soon as I had this greenhat prince join me

[The Wobbler]

[J.A.R.S.]

I prefer games that are hard on other ways than level curves (when you have random encounters). It is just time consuming, not hard, just like PHC said. Riddles can be hard... bosses with a puzzle-related pace can be hard, but lotsa hp/attack bosses arent hard, they're delays.

[Newbie_Power]

The Magus Sisters made even more difficult to fight.

That kind of battle obviously has the "ridiculously high HP" syndrome. There's an actual strategy to this kind of battle, but it involves having perfect characters and the best items, and you are going to end up repeating that strategy throughout an hour-long battle.

However, the thing that really kills the strategy FFX has is the auto-pheonix down. Not only do they have it in the first place, but they made some of the optional bosses in the game impossible without it. This is why Darkmoor Dungeon is still a king of hard games.

[J.A.R.S.]

ya, darkmoor recycles ff skills very well. I like how it turned out to be while being in the ff theme regarding skills. Quite inventive, not hp driven most of the times, the bosses are more interesting than most ff versions indeed.
I watched thay video, fuck, I remember the origin of these stupid monsters hahaha

[Newbie_Power]

The thing is, however, is that Darkmoor Dungeon has to sacrafice some things in order to get those battles. For instance, you can't choose a set of equipment that can aid a strategy (most games usually botch this by handing out stuff that is way too powerful).