Paxia, City of Legend

Valigarmander · Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 2:46 pm Post subject:

Actually, I did sort of base the Brute off of the Colossus enemy. But not much. Just the sort of hunched-over look as you suggested. More pics in my next post.

Valigarmander · Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 4:36 pm Post subject:

More pictures. I updated some of the enemy graphics to make them more easy to read...

I added more of the black outline to better define the Azure Drake. I think it looks much better.

The Brute is hardly any different, with just a little outline along the arms.

Not much of an improvement with the Blazer Beetle, and I plan on just replacing the graphic entirely.

Okay, now for the new stuff...

A blue elf Conjuror. Casts spells like Mute, Focus, and Magic Missile.

You've seen the Pyromancer, now here's the Hydromancer. Just a little guy, though, the real Hydromancer will come later.

The demon that attacks you at the World Tree, Belphegor is undefeatable at the start of the game. If you hack into Revelations, you'll see a very similar enemy that was never used. I plan on maybe updating the face graphics on Belphegor...

Not an enemy, but an attack. This is the graphic for the Fire Jar item, and will also be used for spells such as Fire2 and Breath of Fire. Woo!

That's all for now. More to come.

Valigarmander · Posted: Sun Aug 13, 2006 4:18 pm Post subject:

More enemy graphics. Oookay...

I really need some variety here. Do not worry, townspeople. My next post will contain walkabout graphics and other suck crap. For now...

A Faceshredder. This enemy is weak, but it has double-strike. It is found in the Dungeon, an area beneath one of Paxia's taverns where you get to fight monsters.

A Serapis. Also fought in the Dungeon, this creature is the first I've shown you that has flying.

You saw the hydromancer youth in my last post, now here's the full-fledged Hydromancer.

A drakish Geomancer, only a trainee, however.

A master Geomancer. Add two stone tablets and it'd look like Moses. Raspberry!

An Aeromancer (a lot of "mancers" here) youth. Next post I'll have the real thing, maybe a guy riding a cloud or something.

That's all for now. Tommorrow I'll be going on a family vacation and won't be back for five days, so until then, Valigarmander out. Smokin'

Jack · **the fool** Joined: 30 Jul 2004 Posts: 773

The Brute looks more like Sandman from Batman in my mind.

These are looking pretty nice here Val. A few ideas:

A neat feature to add to the master 'mancers I think, would be to add a little more of their element into their battle picture. Kind of like the 'riding a cloud' idea you had with the aeromancer.

Have the Geomancer wrapped up in a kind of stone tornado, the Pyromancer standing in a pit of fire, the Hydromancer riding a wave etc, etc.

Also, you're saving in JPEG format. Horrible for saving sharpness, try saving in PNG instead.
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Onlyoneinall · **Bug finder** Joined: 16 Jul 2005 Posts: 746

Or gif, provided you don't use paint which usually messes up colors.

This might seem discouraging Val, but don't get too much into the deep end. Usually this results in the game never becoming finished, at least from what I found. What usually works out for me is to give it general above average effort, and then once things are almost finished or you absolutely know it'll be finished, go back and touch things up for a higher quality. Updates and improvements tend to be more fun and a lot easier to do than trying to maintain an extremely high quality level, which will burn you out fast (Friend comes to mind, since he pretty much contradicts what I am saying).

I don't know if that's helping, but I want to be more helpful this time around. And try not to release a demo until you have a good amount of content, because releasing a game when it's a really short demo seems to cause loss of interest in the game maker.

Hopefully this helps you, and it's nice to see you have another game coming along, hopefully this one doesn't get scrapped. Razz

EDIT: Oh, and one final thing. Playtesting. Get a handful of people to playtest your game after you've made a decent amount of progress. Good playtesters can really help improve your game quality.
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http://www.castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=750 Bloodlust Demo 1.00

Valigarmander · Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 12:00 am Post subject:

Thanks, and this game will NOT be scrapped. I forbid it.

Jack · **the fool** Joined: 30 Jul 2004 Posts: 773

Valigarmander · Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2006 7:07 pm Post subject:

Update time!

An Aeromancer. Woo!

Electra's walkabout. One problem I noticed a little too late is I made her head 2 pixels wider than anyone elses. I'll get that eventually...

Orlando's walkabout.

Jasper's walkabout. I don't really like this one.

Landolor's walkabout.

Marius's walkabout.

Marius's battle pix. The ONLY hero battle graphics I have done.

The Paxia overworld battle background. I'll maxe the foreground isometric or something to make it look less crappy.

That's all for now.

TwinHamster · Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2006 2:52 pm Post subject:

A simple paintbrush 45 degree scew will do that isometric trick.

Valigarmander · Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:18 pm Post subject:

If there's anything I've learned today, it's to keep backups.

This morning when I opened up Paxia for editing, I was shocked to find all of my attack graphics and maptiles gone. Not only that, but the maps themselves could not be opened (Custom.exe would crash if I tried) and everything was in a mess. WTF!?

As much as it sucks saying it, my game is beyond repair. Damn, it was really starting to look good! Sad...

But not to fear, as stated before, I am NOT giving up on this game. I'll just start over. It shouldn't be that hard ( No, no, no...

), and besides, I wasn't really satisfied with what I had going. It was your average RPG. Who would look at it and say, "Wow, that game looks really groundbreaking. I think I'll download it." It was so regular. Agh.

What I've decided is to recreate Paxia, bigger and better than ever. Maybe make it a sidescroller, or a point-and-click like a certain recent game by Friend. Really put those plotscripts to use. I don't know right now, and I'm still kind of pissed that MY ENTIRE GAME JUST DISAPPEARED AND I didn't have no backups. But I need some suggestions. So until the next post, bah.

Lyhn Sohler · Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:27 pm Post subject:

Damn, that sucks. You say the graphics and maps got all screwed up? That's happened to me twice! Crying

Onlyoneinall · **Bug finder** Joined: 16 Jul 2005 Posts: 746

This is exactly why I keep backups regularly and in several places - a zip file, my usb stick, gmail, and sometimes a cd.
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http://www.castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=750 Bloodlust Demo 1.00

Valigarmander · Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 4:57 pm Post subject:

Okay, I've made a decision. I'm gonna make a point-and-click RPG. It'll take a lot of work, I assume, but I'm up for it. It will be CP's first ever adventure point-and-click RPG to myknowledge. So, first off...

I need some help. Oookay...

For the small overworld area (only about five scenes or so) I need some help. I suck at pixel art, or any art for that matter. So, I'm requesting some assistance here... If anyone has any programs or something I could use to make things easier, or even if you think you can do the art yourself. Here's what I need...

A crude blueprint for what I want. The green is grass, yellow is road, cyan is sky, and brown is signpost. The red building is going to be a weaponsmith, and the blue one is a general store.

The red building is an inn, the blue is a temple, and the light green is a magic shop.

Red, tavern. Blue, library.

Rolling hills with a long, winding trail ending in the great labyrinth.

The labyrinth entrance. Bah.

All should be 140 by 80 pixels. I know that nobody's raring to make me pixel artwork Raspberry!

but any and all help will be taken in with open arms. Make this little boy happy. Val out.

Jack · **the fool** Joined: 30 Jul 2004 Posts: 773

This kind of interests me. I haven't done any large scale pixel art in forever, though, and it may take me some time to get used to it again.

I dunno, I'll take this job into consideration.
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Valigarmander · Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 9:48 pm Post subject:

Wow, I actually got a response. Well, just to let anyone out there who's considering doing the art for me, I'll let you know you just need to do the things I've laid out. I have the dungeon graphics down, since they're easy (except for the special areas, but oh well). If you do the art, you'll forever have a special place in my heart and in the game credits. I'd pay you, but I'm broke. Maybe I'll have some graphics with my next update... Bye all.