Alpha Code of the Savage RPG [DEMO!]

Geoff Jones

Member
Hello! I'm pleased to announce a new public demo for Code of The Savage - I'd really appreciate your feedback
DOWNLOAD FROM ITCH.IO

Demo:
Itch.io (single exe)



The release notes can be seen on the KS update page


Genre:
Classic style open-world RPG with inspirations from classic Ultima games.

Game:
A rather dark and brutal open world RPG with lots of moral choices and consequences. You are free to roam from town to town brutally murdering anyone in the game, including children. Or you can follow the main story. The word itself is completely open with no loading between locations or buildings (except caves).


Screenshot:




Some NPC character portraits:
 
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PhenomenalDev

Guest
This is a weirdly awesome game with a certain niche to it that makes it interesting to me, if you ever get round to releasing it tell me, for now I'm following the thread.
 

Morendral

Member
The character portraits are very good, and remind me of playing baldurs gate and other bioware games. They are so good infact, that they seem out of place with the rest of the artwork. The tiles and sprites for in game are ok and certainly better than what i can do, but i think if you put the effort into the rest of the game that you did on the portraits, there is no reason not to have a very successful game on steam or wherever.
 
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Raining_Indoors

Guest
Wow, as others have said, the character portraits look awesome. Haven't played the game yet, but it looks like a fun WRPG type game.

One thing I want to point out is that I think you're overusing black outlines in the environment. I'm assuming you want these items(like the trees, mushroom, fencing, etc) to stand out because they're interactive. But they stand out too much and clash against the nice looking landscape features(grass, trails, water). I think it'd look better to give them a softer outline, because they'd blend in with the surrounding environment more.
 
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WhisperingSpider

Guest
Looks interesting! Another suggestion I'd make is 'smart' targeting, where instead of having the Use, Attack, etc. action icon start on top of the player, if an adjacent object can be targeted with the action have it start on top of that. If multiple adjacent objects can be used it could pick one at random, or for Attacking it could prioritize the last enemy you attacked. That way you can quickly double-tab the button for actions. Best of luck on the project, watching the video definitely gave me a feeling of nostalgia.
 

Geoff Jones

Member
Looks interesting! Another suggestion I'd make is 'smart' targeting, where instead of having the Use, Attack, etc. action icon start on top of the player, if an adjacent object can be targeted with the action have it start on top of that. If multiple adjacent objects can be used it could pick one at random, or for Attacking it could prioritize the last enemy you attacked. That way you can quickly double-tab the button for actions. Best of luck on the project, watching the video definitely gave me a feeling of nostalgia.
Thanks, I have already implemented a "last target" and your other ideas sound good too!
 
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PhenomenalDev

Guest
Thanks a lot! The demo is currently broken, I need to get a new version up soon. But is the steam greenlight page really the place to put a demo of the game?
When I look over games when going through my greenlight feed a demo often is a +1 in my book and can clear off comments such as the guy who said that the movement looks laggy and makes him feel ill.
 

Geoff Jones

Member
This is an NPC character portrait for the game featuring Richard Garriott (Lord British), the creator of the Ultima series. This is the man that inspired me to create games back when I was a kid. I asked him if he would like to have his face in the game, and to my surprise, he said yes!

Richard-Garriottx3.png
 

Geoff Jones

Member
Hey, can you tell me how you draw the portraits? They look great!
Thank you!
I have been painting them using photos of real people. I get their permission to browse their FB profile for a suitable pic, and I use that as a base for the 48x48 pixel painting. I use 1 1x1 pixel soft brush in photoshop
 

Geoff Jones

Member
I've updated the post with a video showing the new branching dialogue system. Still needs some polish, but I'm quite happy wth it.
 
Have you considered the paper doll method of making NPCs? I see the amount of effort you put in and you could be getting more mileage for your effort. Start with the bare face, then have a layer for beards, another for hair, and a final for attire.
 

Geoff Jones

Member
Hi @sitebender Yes I did consider that, and may still use that idea for things like generic guards etc. But ultimately I decided to go with a unique portrait for each npc. I know its a lot of work, and will add at least a couple of months to the development, but in the end I think it will be worth it. Generic paperdoll portraits lack character.
 

Morendral

Member
Hi @sitebender Yes I did consider that, and may still use that idea for things like generic guards etc. But ultimately I decided to go with a unique portrait for each npc. I know its a lot of work, and will add at least a couple of months to the development, but in the end I think it will be worth it. Generic paperdoll portraits lack character.
I'm glad to hear this. You are a seriously gifted artist
 
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Matt Hawkins

Guest
Hey Geoff congratulations on getting green lit :) Your game looks and sounds great. Really professionally done. I like these apples :)
 

Geoff Jones

Member
Portraits look terrible. Drawing them traditionally and then upscaling was a very bad idea.
Thanks for the feedback gn.fur. Can you elaborate more? The entire games art has been upscaled 3x. Ive blown them up a lot bigger on the forum than they will appear in the game, but they are consistent with the rest of the graphics.
This is how they appear in the game: Is it the quality of the art or the fact that they have been upscaled?
gffdsgdfgsdfg.JPG
 
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gn.fur

Guest
Well, I've said it a bit wrong. Portraits themselves aren't bad. Though, some faces are ugly as hell, but it's not that of an issue. Problem is, rest of your game's graphics is regular pixelart, but portraits look like upscaled photos and feel out of place.
(Actually, I've just looked again at your screenshots, and, well, all the art is very inconsistent. Maybe half of sprites on screenshots are just placeholders, but you didn't really mentioned it anywhere. Imo, portraits are too blurry to be upscaled. I'd suggest to look at HOMM3 art.)
 

RangerX

Member
Looks more like a downscaled portrait really. What photo can ever be low res enough to actually look like those faces when upscaled? It makes no sense.
But I get what he means. I personally think they fit still. Many games of this style had this in late 80s and early 90s and this makes me feel right at home as a concept. There is ONE thing that isn't consistant though, your "black outlines" style of graphics is not respected into those portraits therefore it can be seen as inconsistent.
 

wadaltmon

Member
Looks more like a downscaled portrait really. What photo can ever be low res enough to actually look like those faces when upscaled? It makes no sense.
But I get what he means. I personally think they fit still. Many games of this style had this in late 80s and early 90s and this makes me feel right at home as a concept. There is ONE thing that isn't consistant though, your "black outlines" style of graphics is not respected into those portraits therefore it can be seen as inconsistent.
Agreed. Geoff your portraits look fantastic. Black outlines around characters I think are good as a concept and I personally like how they look, but maybe make them less harsh if more people begin to mention them (perhaps a slight transparency or blending).

Game is looking really great though. Definitely going to buy if you put it up via Steam Direct. Seems it's coming along swimmingly.
 

jackrucel

Member
the art is wonderful, I would love to try a demonstration, through the video, the combat seems very fluid, and the possibilities are several, I can imagine the hero exploring the world. :)

I have a question, do not need to answer in detail if you do not want to, I just asked this same question to another developer, but it's a genuine question, I think the more experience I can absorb the better.

how is the development process being so far?
Did you have difficulties at some point, if so what was it and how did you overcome it?

I hope the best for your project. :D
 
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