Selatria Updates / Sphere RPG Open-Source Engine

Hello, readers(?)

Going to split this post up into two sections. Progress on Selatria, and a pitch to anyone who might be interested in learning a new open-source game engine.

Selatria:

 Updated logo by Derrick Frainee  

I messaged most of the team, and they seem like they are able to make the deadline with no problems. I'm just worried about one more artist that hasn't responded. But we're really going to try for a June 6-8th release to time it with the E3 announcements.

Of course, Selatria won't be at E3 (I wish), but I feel like it's a goal to release something at the same time just for the sake of the team. Just Chapter 1, there's still five more chapters to go, but now that the groundwork for the program/design for the team attack system and reserved points system that I designer are mostly complete (may need some tweaks), the main hard parts are down and make us ready to proceed.

The inspiration for the project seems to come and go though. There are some dead moments (I admit) where I want to do anything but work on the game, but then there are other times when so many people from the team submit things and I really like seeing the whole thing come together. I'd have to say that's my biggest inspiration, when I see others submit their stuff, it makes me feel like I need to compete with their quality and fine-tune the things I've implemented thus far.

Here's a preview of what's being worked on. Apologies if some pictures have been posted before. I don't exactly have all too great of a memory.


**Screenshots are in development and are subject to change.**


Whim Independent Studios Logo: Derrick Frainee
Character Dialogue Portrait Art: Johan Flynn
Dialogue: Jonathan Dishaw, Myself
Sprites: Juliet Taylor, William Merriam, Myself

    

I'm aware the EXP bars in the last picture are a bit bugged at the moment... But yeah, hoping for a June 4th release, still. Hope you'll give it a try!

Sphere -- Open Source RPG Engine:

http://www.spheredev.org/wiki/Main_Page

Anyone have experience with JavaScript? I have limited experience with it myself aside from a Software Engineering course I took. This is an open-source RPG game engine developed using that language. It allows for cross-platform development, which is one thing that plagues my Selatria project, the fact that it is Windows-only.

I would like to eventually re-implement Selatria and its battle system on Sphere for it to reach a wider audience. Of course, I would need a much bigger programming team in order to get that done. I would also like to be able to teach new people programming (in JavaScript I guess) in the future to solidify my own personal understanding of the language.

Might anyone be interested in learning it with me over this Summer?

You can download the Engine and IDE here.

You can learn more about Sphere here.

Selatria -- Concept Art/Tentative Chapter 1 Release Date

I promise to get back more into the spirit of posting regular updates. I haven't had a chance to.



Shame for non-frequent updates... I know.

I have a whirlwind of things going on. I'm working on helping present a game to the IEEE Game Showcase in Orange County next Saturday. I never worked on the game, but since I let them know about the showcase, they invited me to the team and I helped put together the movie using fraps to get some of the gameplay footage while the designers compiled it into a YouTube movie for the presentation.

The game is called Lacuna Reaver, and an alpha implementation of the project will be shown there. Check it out and show support. We'd definitely appreciate it.

I'm also working on a Kinect programming project, but I'm not sure if I can talk about that publicly or not. So I won't.

Selatria:


The Selatria team and I are working on finalizing a lot of stuff for Chapter 1. The game has come a long way, and during the transition period, I didn't want to post a lot of un-finalized concepts in the transition period. We're nearing completion of the Chapter 1, which will be released FREE to anyone who would like to give that part of the game a try. The goal to have this available is the week of E3 2012, so Monday June 4, 2012 is what I'm shooting for. It's originally 7 months later than I intended (I wanted it done in December), but some criticism I got involving some early footage of the game I released warranted some postponement.

Just keep in mind, the whole game in its entirety, (Chapter 1-6) will cost something... as it won't be free-to-play. But it won't be more than $5 or so for a digital download copy of the game. I don't see anyone paying more than that for an indie game, anyhow. Here are some screenshots and artwork from the game. The artists really went the extra mile to come up with these in their spare time, and I'm really grateful to have such talent on the team.

Props to Johan Flynn for the character designs and coloring, and Erik Boismier for the monster concepts and shadowing.

I think that's about it for now. See you guys next post. (I'll try to post more frequently. And game-related. Promise!)

Selatria: Monster Art Implementation

Current progress, take a look!

Monster Concept Art: Erik Boismier
Coloring: Johan Flynn

Still here.

I'm still here. Somewhat!

I haven't been writing lately just because I've been swamped and had my hands in way too many projects to get the time to write nowadays.

Been spending a lot of my free time out of class in Eorzea with the linkshell trying to complete the new raid content for the 1.22 patch while I can.

Selatria's going pretty well, developing the Team Attack system among other things. I'm very happy about the project.

Going to be buying Xenoblade Chronicles soon. I just need to get off my lazy ass and go get it sometime.

Oh, and check this out.