Bachelor Story on rpgmaker.net

If you haven’t done so yet, I strongly recommend trying out the demo of my upcoming point and click adventure game Bachelor Story. The demo is now available on rpgmaker.net, or you can download it from this blog.

Some feedback and comments on the game is appreciated. This is a work still unfinished, and all feedback is valuable to improve the final product.

No more trees for Diablo 3

According to recent speculations, the well tried and well experienced skill tree is pretty much out of Blizzard Activision’s famous (or infamous) dungeon crawler. This comes from a twitter message posted by the game’s lead designer Jay Wilson himself, who states that the skill system revision is in full force. Trees begone! I think it might be a winner.

An action role playing game without a skill tree? That’s almost like eggs without bacon!

The wonderful thing about a traditional skill tree, is that it’s so simple to understand and get into. The intuitive way of presenting the possible character progression is eye candy to most players who don’t want to dig themselves into some complex manual.

Diablo pretty much set the standard for most role playing games with it’s skill tree system. It was further developed in World of Warcraft, which all must agree on has been quite a success, and adapted by most action RPG developers and many traditional RPG developers. Even the hardcore role playing game developer Bioware used this very traditional system in their latest RPG Dragon Age: Origins.

However, Dragon Age: Origins does draw a lot of inspiration from games like Diablo and World of Warcraft, although most harcore Bioware RPG fans probably will refuse to acknowledge this fact. There is a lot of World of Warcraft in Dragon Age: Origins gameplay.

Anyway, where is Blizzard going with this? Are they trying out a more way of dealing with skills, like the system in The Elder Scrolls games? Or have they invented some new incredible skill sytem that is even more intuitive and easy to understand? Final Fantasy XII had its chessboard stystem. Is that a possible source of inspiration?

At any rate, it ought to be something interesting, since the developers obviously had allready worked out a traditional skill tree system in Diablo 3. Maybe they actually found some kind of meat that actually goes better with eggs than bacon does!

Maniac Mansion remade DOTT-style

One of my favourite point and click adventures of all time has to be the completely brilliant The Day of the Tentacle from Lucas Arts. I cannot count the number of times I have played through this fantastic game.

As most people know, Day of the Tentacle was a sequal to the very first SCUMM adventure worked on by none other than the famous Ron Gilbert, first and foremost known for the Monkey Island games. Tim Schafer was also involved in both projects, and I am talking of course about none other than Maniac Mansion.

Some illuminated heads over at the AGS community has made it their task to remake Maniac Mansion in the style of the fabilous Day of the Tentacle. Maniac Mansion has been remade before, but not in the hilarious graphical style of its sequal.

From what has been released of the material, it looks like a crispy, yet classic looking version of the beloved masterpiece. The developers are wished the best of luck.

This ought to be good new for any nostalgic fan of the old school adventures. The developers are German, but they promise to create an English version once the production is finished. I, for one, can’t wait to play Maniac Mansion DOTT-style.

My RPG Maker VX Tutorials

Quite a few people seem to make good use of my RPG Maker VX video tutorials. For me, it’s a pleasure to rise interest of this and other idie game development software. Making sure that people learn how to use the software will eventually result in new and interesting indie games. And that is a goal I am willing to contribute to.

I’ve been doing RPG Maker quite a bit throughout my years as a game fanatic. The maker has made quite a bit of progress since i first tried out the RPG Maker 95 version years ago. Still, it has the same brilliant design as it had back then, only more powerful and accessible.

For those of you who would care to know how to make new playable characters, and let them join the player’s party, check out my newest tutorial here.

I’m still doing my modern day cartoony role playing game Origin using the good old RPG Maker 2003, although the development is at a hold at the moment. Older, smarter and more matured eyes will pick it up soon and turn it into a masterpiece. For now, enjoy my video tutorials.

I’m looking forward to brilliant role playing games made by new users of the software. Indie games development is a thing of the future.