Pale Meridian [Action RPG] (Gifs)

RujiK

Member
Wow, I haven't been in this thread for awhile...

First, I have a very large ego. So when some one publicly asks to buy my old game that makes me happy. I feel no disrespect but I can understand why some of you would. So thanks to @Cpaz @Roa and @RichHopefulComposer for sticking up for me ;)

Also I have been talking to @Master Maker via PM so I haven't been silent for the past few weeks.

...

When I first saw the offer for $300 dollars I thought, "Ha ha! Yeah right!" but then I went and ran the old project for the first time in a long time: Ouch. Blame nostalgia or self-bias, but Pale Meridian is much worse than I remember it. There are so many weird decisions I made that probably made sense 3 years ago, but drive me up the wall now. If I did return to Pale Meridian it would be DRASTICALLY different. I'd keep the story, but probably 95% of the existing project would be changed. Here are a few of the changes I would have to make:

PROBLEMS WITH PALE MERIDIAN

  1. WORLD SIZE There is no way a single dev can make a 16x16 km map have meaningful content in a story based game. Most AAA studios can't even do it.
  2. SEAMLESS BUILDING INTERIORS Although it is really cool to walk into a building and have it load seamlessly, it means your exteriors need to be drawn in scale. This means you have sprawling roof textures that go on forever. This is very boring to look at when your outside and have a top down perspective. It would probably work better in a 3d game.
  3. ANIMATIONS Because I wanted the player to be able to change into about 40 outfits, the animations really suffered. Everything the player does looks really stiff.
  4. UNORIGINAL LOOKING Although it definitely has some original ideas, if you judged the game by a screenshot, it just looks like your typical SNES inspired JRPG. It doesn't stand out unless you really read about it.
  5. I'VE GROWN TOO MUCH (The biggest reason) When I look at the code, I think "????" when I look at the art, I think "Yuck..." I would pretty much rebuild and redraw this game from the ground up if I returned to it.

Do I hate everything about it now? No, there are still some great things about this project:

  1. Code is still super optimized. I can have around 100 active enemies running at over 150 fps. No enemies runs at almost 300 fps.
  2. The inventory screen (functionally) still looks really good to me.
  3. The dialogue engine is pretty robust, but it still needs a code cleanup.
  4. I still love the story I had planned for this game. If anything, it's grown on me over time.

I can't really show how much I've changed as a programmer, but I can show how much my art has changed. Compare some old vs new:


A street scene:


An interior shot:


I would basically need to redraw the entire game, and rework almost all of the code.

Is it 100% Dead?! Yes and no. A lot of the ideas (And code) are already seeping their way into my Sock-Sock game, so it still lives in a way, but if the project is truly continued it would look much different. It would basically be a different game with the same story.

I do regret abandoning the project, but I like my newer game better.

So where does that leave the old project? I guess there are three options:
  1. Leave it to rot on my HD.
  2. Sell/give it to some one
  3. Give it away for free, to anyone who wants it.
I like the idea of giving/selling it to a single person, because then maybe, just maybe, my "lineage" will be continued and someday some form of the game will be finished. I think it would be super cool if some one took over the game and gave it their own flair. I'd love to see some one else's updates to this devlog.

And that's also the downside of giving it away to everyone. When anyone can download it, the project is kind of devalued. Sort of like a stock asset, when everyone has access to it, it seems cheap to use it in your final game.

I'd rather have a single person take the project over and finish it in some form, but I think that's a super long shot. It's hard enough to finish your own game, much less a game someone else started.

So I guess that's it. Give it away to one person, or everyone? I'd appreciate your feedback.
 

YanBG

Member
(is RujiK a woman?! I thought they were a dude this whole time
Same, i wouldn't call him "they" though

@RujiK Whoever buys your code&graphics is not you, so i feel it wouldn't get as good to be sorry for wasted revenue. However, to be safe you could make a clause and take a small % or only if sales go over a threshold(so the buyer first covers his expenses). Giving it only to limited people is a good idea, you'll decide for each case(takes more time though)
And keep the rights to the engine, so that others can't release anything short of a game. Imagine turning into a franchise :)
 
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Joe Ellis

Member
I'd give it away to everyone personally, cus that person who buys it off you (whoever it is) might not do anything with it in the end. But if it's free for anyone to download and build their game from, it's more likely that several games will end up being made from it. Maybe not built off everything that you made, but if you hadn't given the project for download, the game(s) might never have ended up being made. Cus of the cool stuff that was in your project, inspired them(in terms of coding) and gave them a good base to start from.
That's what I would do, cus if I'm not gonna carry on making it, I'd rather people be able to use what's in it and potentially gain a load from it, regardless of making money, cus if you're not gonna make any money from it, why deprive other people from doing so? (That last part doesn't make any sense haha)
 
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D

Deleted member 16767

Guest
I don't think people will use your art, as people have different styles. The code will be used however. I went open source with Shadowforge and I think that helped some people with layering assets and not only backgrounds. Satisfying, yeah, but easily forgetable. I say, do what you want, if you're asking the community I assume that you want to release it free. But I don't know.

People will probably use your code for their own projects, and not add to your project.
 
M

Master Maker

Guest
As I am the planned buyer, I do want to alleviate some concerns. If I am unable to continue work on this indefinately, with Rujik's permission, I would pass on the game to someone else, giving her a cut of the profits. As for the art, I do plan on keeping it, unless the kickstarter goes extremely well and the general consensus is pro art change. As for the transitions, I'm planning on keeping them, but doing a few things to make the inside vs outside size more manageable. I haven't finalized what that is, be it somehow scaling the entire world in some way, or scaling the player, or something similar to that, or something different. As for the whole 'rake for cash' thing, yes, the purpose of the game would be to bring in a profit, as is the point with most games. And yes, there would be a kickstarter, with the original article posting as a good basis for that, due to the overwhelming volume of positive feedback on it. However, I would add more of the story to the kickstarter, as that was one of the main complaints. Additionally, the sole reason I plan on buying this game is to finish it and release it, not to steal the code.
As for my validity of continuing this project, I do have a project I am an on-off part of I am proud of. Below is a picture of the game. I contributed, programmatically, to every part of the game.
https://forum.yoyogames.com/index.p...-a-metroidvania-hack-slash.34117/#post-211244
(PS: the forum update appears to have broken the images, I apologize for that, as soon as the forum bug is removed, I will update and post them)
If you have any further questions for me, contact me at [email protected]
 

Morendral

Member
I would appreciate a free project to learn something from your code and way of doing things, as i know many others are. Obviously it's up to you though, and that's fine. It really doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.
 
M

Master Maker

Guest
Sure, I believe I could send you a few pieces of Purity of Blood's code. Would you prefer:
Enemy AI
Graphics
Special Features (e.g. technical achievements)
Player Movement (smooth 360 degree collisions, etc)
Save File System (I had to work around a few things, basically created my own file format, similar enough to json to be joined by it, but with support for multiple other features)
 
M

Master Maker

Guest
However, before I do this, I will need to ascertain it is fine with the project lead, so it may take a few days. I'll keep you guys posted, though! Looking forward to finishing this game, and, hopefully, me and rujik will work together initially on this, so that I can get an idea of where she wanted to go with it and keep it mostly aligned with her vision, tweaking it where I deem necessary.
Any changes you guys would appreciate seeing, or features you'd desire to see in the future?
Sorry for the rude introduction, I should've used more tact, but, hopefully, it can be forgiven.
 
M

Master Maker

Guest
So, which part of the Purity of Blood's code would you most prefer to look at? I can only post one file, so I want everyone to weigh in so that everyone is happy about the piece I decided to share.
 
M

Master Maker

Guest
First days task, porting the game from GMS1 to GMS2. So far, the code is complicated, as I had expected. I have also, unfortunately, encountered a few bugs when porting from GMS1 to GMS2. The chief amongst these is this one:

Which occurs when the player moves. However, never fear, for I will soon squash this bug!
 
M

Master Maker

Guest
Thanks to help from RujiK, this glitch is now fixed! Working on sprucing up some of the special effects, adding more shader effects, amongst other things.
 
M

Master Maker

Guest
I apologize for the late post. I have, unexpectedly, been forced to relocate with much more limited internet access. Thus, I will not be able to update this as often. However, rest assured, the game is getting developed. I recently added pets and more to the editor, including the ability to select and place blocks of items instead of having to select tiles one by one.
 
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