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The Unknown Guru
06-23-2009, 10:33 AM
I guess you guys will be interested in this. So, I've decided to make an RPG. Unlike some almost as awesome people who use RPG Maker, my colleague and I are going to be badasses and program the whole thing from scratch in C++. It will probably take a good year to finish, but we will do it. Here's the backstory:

I've been taking programming classes for the past 2 years, and about 3 months ago a friend told me he was going to work on an old-school console style RPG engine. I instantly said I was in. I went home, wrote up a basic story and some character outlines, and showed them to him at school. He liked them and we immediately started working on it, and thus *100 Million Angels* was born. (It was named after the song that inspired it.)

I'm not going to give away the story just yet, but it involves epic armies of angels destroying Hell and the events that lead up to and follow it. If you really want to know, i guess you could PM me, but I don't want to spoil it totally.

Game-wise, we don't have too much done so far, but we have a running DirectX engine that loads a screen from a text file, draws it to the screen, and draws the player. You can move around, and the game dynamically loads each area. I'm very proud of myself, because I've been the main debugger even though my friend is a better programmer :)

Anyway, I'm going to be keeping this thread up to date with major developments and stuff. Feel free to post comments or suggestions, or just talk about how awesome I am. Thanks for caring :D

Alright, starting the Prog Log.

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6-23: Here's a picture of what it currently looks like. Basically, we're creating a test area that we probably won't actually use in the game. And yes, you can move from the left screen to the right :D I don't know why, but some colors were randomly replaced with black in the print screen. The game itself looks fine. And yes, the trees look like crap. I'm doing better ones in photoshop once I feel like it.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/6613/wonkygame.th.jpg (http://img35.imageshack.us/i/wonkygame.jpg/) http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/3727/angelsss2.th.png (http://img15.imageshack.us/i/angelsss2.png/)

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6-28: Well, I've been working on text boxes for a few days now. They suck. I'm making progress, but unless you want to see giant lumps of code, I can't really show you anything. I want to update this thread at least once a week though, so I guess I can reveal a bit of the story :D

In a world separated into 3 different planes of existence, Heaven is recruiting an immense army of angels in an effort to defeat Lucifer once and for all. A low-class angel whose defining traits are apathy and laziness decides to join and give a purpose to his meaningless life. He and the squad he is put in (standard party-forming plot device #63, of course) follow the army to hell. Lucifer is vanquished, but the party is injured and left for dead. They set off on their own journey on Earth, trying to find their way home.

Don't worry, it's way more interesting than that. I just don't get to tell you the good parts. The game will certainly be character-focused, with numerous scenes dedicated to developing the relationships between the characters throughout the story (think disc 2 of FFIX). I think I've put together a decent plot (although you guys can't really judge, because i'm certainly not going to spoil the twists), and I'm doing a lot of character design work as well. I guess I'll describe a character for you next time I have nothing to show you during an update :)
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7-3: BOO YA. Text boxes are fully operational. Right now I pretty much just have it draw no matter what, but it would be hilariously easy to set up a simple if statement for it. Combat menus are a whole different story, and I'm going to do those as I do the rest of combat. That will be very ugly and take a while, so I think I'll do NPCs next. Enjoy the new pic :D

http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/87/angelsss3.th.png

The blurriness in the text is just a product of the apparently bizarre interaction PrntScrn has with DirectX engines. It's perfectly clear in the game. :Oo:

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8-4: Man oh man, I'm sorry. I haven't forgotten about this, I've just been unspeakably busy. I've been watching a ton of anime, going to a bunch of parties, playing a bunch of games, just about everything that prevents me from working. However: I wrote just about all of the first cinema scene, and I'm starting to work on the characters a lot more. I'll post it if you guys want me to, but it's pretty damn long, and will thus have to be in a separate post. Sorry for failing so hard >.>

Depression Moon
06-23-2009, 02:10 PM
I didn't know games could be created in C++ or are you guys just using it for the coding? Seems interesting to me I would like to hear more about it as it's being developed.

blackmage_nuke
06-23-2009, 02:37 PM
Pics please!

And yes you can make any type of computer program in c++

Yar
06-23-2009, 06:44 PM
I hope you have more commitment than I do. Whenever I start big projects like this I always resolve to finish it, but after a while I get bored or confused and then start dicking around, and then I give up. :p

The Unknown Guru
06-23-2009, 10:27 PM
I hope you have more commitment than I do. Whenever I start big projects like this I always resolve to finish it, but after a while I get bored or confused and then start dicking around, and then I give up. :p

Haha, yeah. This usually happens to me, too. However, we're getting a grade for this, so giving up isn't really an option :)

And yeah, C++ really does kick ass. you can pretty much do anything if you do it right. Although I must confess that we got the basic DirectX engine from our teacher, we programmed everything else from scratch. It can and will be done :D

I guess I can get some pics up. Should I put them on the first post in a log-style format with date and stuff, or should I just post them in the thread?

Unbreakable Will
06-23-2009, 10:32 PM
Now that is badass, two thumbs up man :up: :up:
I was going to learn C++ but I never found a class (i wasnt in college yet) I plan on taking a class or two in computer programming, is C++ relatively easy to learn?

blackmage_nuke
06-24-2009, 01:08 AM
Post the pics in the first post. Neat and organised.

And c++ is easy to learn if you already understand programing concepts (but this applies to every other language), however if your just thrown into it then it might be abit of a tough nut to crack, but still shouldnt be too difficult if you study the content well enough.

Depression Moon
06-24-2009, 02:52 AM
Now that is badass, two thumbs up man :up: :up:
I was going to learn C++ but I never found a class (i wasnt in college yet) I plan on taking a class or two in computer programming, is C++ relatively easy to learn?

Not even remotely been studying it for over a year and still rerally doesn't make much sense to me. I usually go by guesses from what i read.

The Unknown Guru
06-24-2009, 03:39 AM
Alright, got some screenshots up and started a log that i'm going to use to keep you guys all updated :) Most of my progress won't really be visible to the user because currently I'm just trying to make everything work on a very large scale before I start doing fancy things like combat, animation, and NPCs. If I do something major, I could let you guys know, though.

Jiro
06-24-2009, 04:23 AM
It'll be interesting to see how it turns out. Do make sure we're updated.

Good luck!

Laddy
06-24-2009, 08:09 AM
Avoid character archetypes and last-minute villians shifts like the plague. Oh, and if you're having a silent protaginist, do give him/her a sense of overall identity. ANd make the story touching. I love crying like a queen. =')

The Unknown Guru
06-29-2009, 03:42 AM
I just got an update in. Programming the text boxes is WAY harder than I anticipated, so I decided to just fill you in on some basic story. It sounds so lame without the awesome twists, but I hope you like it anyway ;)

Lyg
06-29-2009, 11:07 AM
Cool I wanna play already. Wait, the devil is dead!? Aw man but the devil is always funny and awesomely frightening!

Jiro
06-29-2009, 11:27 AM
It sounds intriguing even now. Hurry up so we can play :D

oddler
06-29-2009, 12:10 PM
I do love an RPG of almost any type. This sounds awesome and I wish you luck but...


Unlike some lame people who use RPG Maker...

:mad2:

FantasysWind
06-29-2009, 04:41 PM
Now that is just awesome idea. Any one play Shining Force for sega. I want a remake of that.

nik0tine
06-29-2009, 05:20 PM
If you need a composer I can help with that once you have a respectable portion of the game engine completed and/or a good deal of concept art.

sdm42393
06-29-2009, 06:18 PM
To be fair, the newer builds of RPG Maker allow you to completely scrap they code they give you so you can make everything custom using RGSS.

Although, doing it with C++ does make it seem more rewarding.

The Unknown Guru
07-04-2009, 08:14 AM
I do love an RPG of almost any type. This sounds awesome and I wish you luck but...


Unlike some lame people who use RPG Maker...

:mad2:

[obvious sarcasm]
Haha, sorry. I was just trying to emphasize how bad-ass I am at your expense. Nothing personal :p
[/obvious sarcasm]

You're cool. Even using RPG maker, creating a game takes a huge amount of effort. I respect you a great deal :)

Sorry, nik. It's technically a school project, so my partner and I have to do it all ourselves. The offer is greatly appreciated though :cool:

Anyway, I got text boxes working. Check it out, comment, whatever. Hope you like it :bigbiggri

oddler
07-04-2009, 12:26 PM
I was totally being facetious, too. I really mean it from one maker to another: best of luck! :choc2:

qwertysaur
07-04-2009, 12:52 PM
Yay text boxes!

Psychotic
07-04-2009, 02:44 PM
I was going to wish you the best of luck but then you criticised RPG Maker and then I deliberately avoided your post where you said you were only joking just so I could stay mad at you. :colbert:

PS: Nice work on getting text boxes done. :)

The Unknown Guru
07-04-2009, 03:25 PM
I was going to wish you the best of luck but then you criticised RPG Maker and then I deliberately avoided your post where you said you were only joking just so I could stay mad at you. :colbert:

PS: Nice work on getting text boxes done. :)

:exdee:

Epic post.

Turkish Delight
07-07-2009, 01:16 PM
While it's admirable that you've managed to rig up the bare bones of a game from scratch, I hope you're going to do something with C++ that you can't already do with a fraction of the effort with one of the RPG Makers.

NeoTifa
07-09-2009, 11:20 PM
HEY!!!! MEEEE TOO!!!! And Magixion. <3 Click the link in my sig <3

Magixion
07-10-2009, 04:04 PM
Aye, we are making an RPG as well. It is good to see other people out there with the same ambitions! :)

I am actually writing an engine using C# though and utilizing Microsoft's XNA tool set. Who knows, maybe we can get it put on XBLA later on? :O

I would like to follow your progress as you continue to move forward, though, so do post your work!

NeoTifa
07-10-2009, 07:25 PM
<3 I still think we should just make it an applet and do it all in Java <3

Magixion
07-10-2009, 08:07 PM
Hah, do you know how inefficient that is compared to how we are going to be doing it??

The Unknown Guru
07-11-2009, 05:38 AM
Yeah, I've seen some amazing things done with C#. I don't know that language at all, but it seems pretty versatile. I wish you guys luck as well, and i hope to see your finished product someday :D

NeoTifa
07-11-2009, 05:10 PM
Hey thanks, same. I'm just a Java fangirl sorry

The Unknown Guru
08-05-2009, 01:03 AM
Gah. Sorry, I've been busy lately. I updated again, though, to show that I am still working on it. I'll slap the script for the first scene in here if anyone wants me to, as I would feel horrible leaving everyone empty-handed after so long. ;)

The Space Pope
08-05-2009, 02:06 AM
my colleague and I are going to be badasses and program the whole thing from scratch in C++:beer:

That's really the best way to do it, so many possibilities and as I'm sure you know, such a pain in the ass. Then again I'm about as fluent in C languages as I am in Swahili.

Hope to see it come to completion, as most people let their projects die and this sounds like it could be quite interesting. The Space Pope is pleased.