ChristianDevs Forum

I made one. If by "made" you mean constructed via a freeware engine with open source graphics. You can download it from here:

antagonist.theproject.us

My thoughts on game design and such are all on the site, but I'll repeat some of them here since this forum is all about game development. As you can see from the screenshots (if not from the exquisitely crafted site) this is a traditional SNES-level RPG that I'm not taking terribly seriously. But it does have one thing going for it: being a completely finished product.

I don't exactly consider myself a developer in any real sense, as my skills really lie in writing. I haven't coded anything other than html since a C++ class in highschool and my art skills are sorely lacking. That means I have nothing in a fledgling field like Christian game design, though I wish you all well.

But having a bit of free time this summer, I decided to put together a basic vision of the kind of "Christian game" that would interest me. It's finished, fun if you like RPGs, and above all communicates the spirit of what I intended (more or less). Someone else suggested that this forum might be interested, so here it is.

All thoughts/criticisms/witticisms welcome.

> Someone else suggested that this forum might be interested

That was me. Glad you posted here. The retro style is coming back. We just finished up a speedgame contest on the site and there were several old style games on there.

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My quote: Have I mentioned I love C# and the iPad?
Another quote: Have I mentioned I love the iPad?

Salutations! I'm with Cyberlight Comics. We are working on CRPG as well. We're using RPG Maker because we have very little programming talent. Currently, the plotting is just about done, scripting is 50% done and prelim artwork is done. We actually started in 2006 when we lost a couple of people....but now we are starting back up again now that we have a full time writer *and* a programmer

You can see some of the artwork for "A Journey's End" in our gallery at http://cyberlightcomics.com/gallery . Of course, you are more than welcome to check out our comics at http://cyberlightcomics.com while you are there I'm an artist on Wildlight .

I'll check our your project when I get some time. Perhaps we can learn a few things from your effort. If it goes well, and fits in with our site, I might ask you if we can mirror the file, and advertise it to our 1,000 or so subscribers. Of course, you are are welcome to visit our forums and share news of your work. You might meet some friends there and other things you might be interested in.

JCServant
Project Director
Cyberlight Comics

This is awesome, guys! keep up the great work!

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::Tweetle-dee::
"Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good." -- Ecc. 9:18

Ah, I had no idea Cyberlight was working on an RPG. It seems I had never looked through your site carefully enough to find it.

I wish you luck in finishing whatever you have in mind. I considered RPG Maker as well, but decided to go with a freeware engine. It would be ironic to steal software to make this game, after all.

There's nothing official on the site about it. We don't allow 'official' site announcements unless a projects pretty much done already (Too many of our projects get delayed for one reason or another). However, there are some pics in the gallery and a small amount of info about it to be found in our boards.

Yeah, to create the game, we will have to purchase a license to RPG Maker, which is about $60. If it saves time or makes the process easier, it should be worth it.

It depends on what version of RPG maker your're using. The english versions of RPG Maker 2003 and below aren't for sale in the US anymore due to the fact that so many people hacked the program. You can purchase the english versions of RPG Maker XP and VX, though. Those programs are fairly new, and much better to work with, IMO. You just have to get used to Ruby scripting.

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::Tweetle-dee::
"Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good." -- Ecc. 9:18

Yes....according to the reviews, VX allows you to do more with less Ruby knowledge. However, it has a few more limitations compared to XP. We haven't decided which one to go with, yet.

WOW you've done a REALLY GOOD JOB! Very well designed. I'm only up to the first village at the moment but here are my thoughts if you're interested:

-Treasure Chest was the very first thing I saw, my very first goal was to get it, this was great motivation to lead me to the pack of guys bulling that christian.
-I felt rewarded for opening the chest
-You had a spring nearby, very well placed. If I was patent enough to walk back to it or the priest later on I had no chance of dying.
-You got me into the story straight away, boy did I feel motivated to help that guy getting bullied.
-The next area impressed me, you rewarded me for exploring, not just with any old item but with items that really helped me in battle.
-The game was paced well, so far you haven't drawn on the 'large open areas of walking around battle fighting', it didn't take long before I had another boss battle, story element or something interesting pop up. Game's often make a mistake by boring me before I get anywhere decent, so far your game does it well.

Thanks for this game so far I'm impressed and can see just how much hard work you've done in making this.

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Development Videos
Rebel Planet Website

Your in-depth review is much appreciated. Since I couldn't do much about the graphics or combat system, I tried at least to design it well. While I'm not perfectly satisfied with everything, I'm glad to hear that you found it involving and well-balanced. Later on I've thrown in some more challenging areas, of course, but hopefully by that point players are involved enough in the game that they still find it fun.

For whatever it's worth, I want to affirm everything you're doing over at Rebel Planet. I look forward to some of your upcoming projects.

Just finished the game, does it really end with blake and team walking off into a black screen which just stays there?

Yes you have designed the game very well! The diversity in areas, the pacing of the game from gameplay to story, the progression of the story and character builders. Every new area in the game was unique, I didn't feel bored very often, new areas seemed well designed, something new to do or see despite limitations. You worked very well within those limitations.

If you get a chance I have some questions, I'd really appreciate your answers but please don't feel like you have to.

Would you help me understand the meaning behind the story more? Who is Blake? Who are the Characters that support him? Are the Super Apostles representative of the Pharisees? The ending had a good message, I just couldn't tie it into the gospel very easily. It didn't make sense that Blake who would do good is supporting/working with a supposed 'demon'? Unless it's identity was otherwise?

Why did you decide to use magic in the game? What are your thoughts on using magic in Christian games? (I ask out of curiosity). Was all the art work that you used tilesets that came with the engine? Was any artwork original?

Thank you!

David

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Development Videos
Rebel Planet Website

I would be more than happy to discuss story elements. Yes, that is the ending; you finished it much faster than I expected. Normally I would have liked it to return you to the title screen after staying on black for a while (definitely no "The End") but that wasn't very possible in the system I was using.

For anyone who hasn't played the game yet, I think you'd enjoy it more if you skipped this post until then.



As far as magic, I put it in mainly because that's how the combat engine operates. I could have labeled it something else, but the change would just be superficial. But that aside, I think that in a fantasy world, magic without any occult overtones isn't much of a concern. It is just another fictional tool that represents the power that we as humans really do have over our resources and each other.

The artwork was almost entirely what was available open source. Let me see what exceptions come to mind immediately:
- Various recolors to raise the number of monsters.
- The corpses on the battleground are a mod of another sprite.
- The cross graves were created from scratch. A pain, but hopefully worth it.
- Attack animations for some of the unique weapons (like the Pointy Stick).

I think that covers everything. Feel free to ask any further questions.

You know, I've already had a couple of 'concerns' regarding magic in our game. I really think some people are superstitious. Certainly, there was an issue with 'witchcraft' and what not back in the day. And while there are still some issues with that in some circles, the witchcraft / demonology practiced by some circles is nothing like the whole fantasy story magic. And, in most RPG / CRPGs, as you said, it's a mechanic... a means to an end. It can certainly represent some things, however.



On the mage topic, however, I've played RPGs/CRPGs for years, and have never felt the least bit tempted to fry my cat inside of a pentagram!

uncreativepseudonym:just thought I would mention that there are spoiler tags that can be used when there is information that not every one may want to see.

haven't gotten to looking at the project yet but I intend to later on.So far most of the comments seem very positive so I am looking forward to it.

Implemented. Normally I'd feel odd about using spoiler tags on a project like this, but they do serve their purpose well.

Funny...I feel the same way... But, I went ahead and applied it to mine as well

With the hero game I am writing [url]http:/www.superherorpg.net[/url] I have mages - but the mechanic is very simple and it is hard to have the super hero genre without it.

But yes I am cautious to make sure it's the mechanic only - not any of the religeon behind it.

IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THIS GAME ALREADY DOWNLOAD IT NOW IT'S AWESOME!!!!!

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, I have plenty more

So the people in the plot are really broken human beings? The Super Apostles represent those in the church who claim to be of God and Christians yet 'hurt' others, and lack the fruit of the spirit in their lives? And you communicated this hurting through the killing of innocents in the name of God in the game? And you also communicated such blindness that we all have through their inability to truly listen to Blake, wife and others, seek out their true intentions, and in the end they were just quick to judge and kill them?

What did that deep dark black orb thing represent in the forest that Blake used to feed people?

Actually the game had very good graphics and very good sound. You may be surprised by what true good quality means. It's not the difference between 8-bit graphics and 32, it's not the difference between 3D and 2D, or shaders and lighting etc. Graphics is about a presentation, you can use outdated graphics and product a very good graphical game if the visuals of the game are consistent, they improve, they follow artistic rules, the colors compliment each other, the colors suit the environment.

You used a precedent of graphics that work! The music itself is quite good, it suits each environment.

The story was REALLY GOOD! I'm fussy when it comes to video games, really fussy, but I also know some of what it means to make a good game. And you did that right here. Usually games bore me easily, but you had me playing to the end and that says alot about your game.

Where did you get your game design skills? How many years have you spent gaining experience? How did you learn to design an RPG? Did you spend 3 weeks full time developing this prototype? How did you manage to design such a good layout in such little time? Have you had experience before in design?

I hope you don't mind my personal questions. Do you have myspace or facebook? Anywhere I can find out more about you?

Your game is AMAZING, and you did it in 3 weeks.

Regarding using magic in games, I personally didn't find any conviction against it while playing your game, I have felt conviction in others. My biggest concern is that there are people who have been affected by the occult and are quite sensitive to it. In my opinion it's not the mechanic of magic that makes it bad but the word magic. If you replaced the word with something that didn't relate to the occult you'd be fine even if it had the same mechanic or some supernatural origin from God. Fighting against magic too in my opinion isn't a bad thing, ie the bad guys using magic, but that's just my experience and thoughts.

Have you got any youtube videos up or trailers? I'd love to promote this prototype.

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Development Videos
Rebel Planet Website

That's pretty much all correct.

As far as the black orb, that requires a slightly longer answer:


I'm glad to hear you felt that way about the graphics and sound; I agree with your philosophy about what makes quality almost completely. Obviously modern gamers are going to want a fully rendered 3D environment, but hopefully everyone recognizes that older styles can still be slickly packaged.


If you mean professional experience, no. My education is in theology and literature, whereas my career has mostly been in information technology.

I've been playing games since I was a child, and I always try to critically analyze what makes things work, be it a book or a game. The desire to create has been with me for a long time, from text adventure games programmed in QBasic to a more recent effort like this. I've spent plenty of time outlining better games, but never actualized most of them simply due to the difficulty. But for this I decided to finish something to the best of my ability, just to have something complete and give a full game a shot. That's probably all there is to my background in game design.

I was working full time during those three weeks, but other than that the majority of my time was spent on the game. Obviously the idea was older than those three weeks, as I like to let my story concepts simmer until I feel they're exactly what I want.

Basically, I looked over what graphics I had and the capabilities of the program. I tried to have no more than one dungeon per theme (forest, lava, etc) and tried to have a different design concept for each area. For example, the forest is all about the invisible maze, or the initial mountain is about easing players into the game. Once I figured out roughly how many areas I could manage, I put them together in the way that seemed most logical and then started producing maps and writing events.


Yes, but how about I send it to you via PM?


I do realize this is a concern for many, and if I were to be creating a game for anything other than free download I would keep it in mind.


That’s a generous offer, but I’m afraid I don’t have anything like that. I’ve struggled with how to create a decent trailer for a game like this – my imagination exceeds my ability.

Thank you so much! I appreciate all your answers Could I post links to your game site on other websites, create threads on forums about it etc?

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Development Videos
Rebel Planet Website