{"author_name":"svenardo","cat":"LD #26","comments":[],"epoch":1367043600,"likes":0,"metadata":{"p_key":"45533","p_author":"svenardo","p_authorkey":"19180","p_urlkey":"81193","p_title":"A minimalist RPG","p_cat":"LD #26","p_event":"LD26","p_time":"1367043600","p_likes":"0","p_comments":"0","p_status":"UPD5","us_key":"19180","us_name":"svenardo","us_username":"svenardo","event_start":"1366934400","event_key":"16","event_name":"LD26"},"text":"<p>Minimalism is a hard theme. The easy route (for me) would be to do an arcade game with minimalist graphics, but I want to keep challenging myself.  I&#8217;ve decided to do an RPG. I&#8217;ve never done that before, but I really enjoy the genre. I&#8217;m thinking that designing a simple, minimalist RPG will be a fun, but hard challenge. Should the combat be minimalist, or the story, or just the graphics? Maybe all three. Maybe there should be no combat? <\/p>\n <p>Basic story:<br \/>\n In the game, you will start alone, in a lush <del datetime=\"2013-04-29T05:07:24+00:00\">forest<\/del> landscape. Y<del datetime=\"2013-04-29T05:07:24+00:00\">ou have heard rumors of a cave filled with treasures in the mountains, and being a poor lad, you want to seek out that treasure. What dangers await you on the journey? Probably lots, but you don&#8217;t care. You got the hunger. <\/del> You are in Farmworld. Explore and dig, and find the golden potato to win. Beware though, cause the spuds can kill.<\/p>\n <p>Plan:<br \/>\n &#8211; create a repo (done)<br \/>\n &#8211; create a world map (done)<br \/>\n &#8211; design basic world sprite tiles (done)<br \/>\n &#8211; create a player (done)<br \/>\n &#8211; give player characteristics (done)<br \/>\n &#8211; design a basic player sprite (done)<br \/>\n &#8211; put player in the world (done)<br \/>\n &#8211; design enemies (done)<br \/>\n &#8211; put enemies in the world (done)<br \/>\n &#8211; design combat scenes (done)<br \/>\n &#8211; ???<br \/>\n &#8211; submit game<\/p>\n <p>Ruminations:<br \/>\n Turns out the ??? was rethink the entire story in order to finish the game before the deadline was over. Turned out rather silly in the end, but I&#8217;m quite pleased with the result. Some bugs remain, like spawning so far left you end up under the menu, and some features went AWOL, like magic, but that&#8217;s how it goes. <\/p>\n <p>The time limit imposed on this contest is really tough, especially given that are required to create your own graphics and sound within the same period. Being mainly a coder, having to create graphics from scratch while coding a game that&#8217;s supposed to be finished in a weekend, is a huge challenge. <\/p>\n <p>On &#8220;Farmworld&#8221; I had originally planned a more RPGish setting, with more monsters, more combat, more fun. With only 12 hours to go I realized that in order to make something with some form of gameplay and an ending, I had to come up with something clever. Now, I&#8217;m not going to claim what I did end up with was clever, but at least it was a way to wrap it up. <\/p>\n <p>I&#8217;d like to fork this game now post-LD and make it a real adventure. I like RPGs and I think I have the basics for a game that can be fun and interesting to play.<\/p>","time":"April 27th, 2013 1:20 am","title":"A minimalist RPG"}