Artemis RPG - an old project revived (with screens + demo)

[Artemis]

My wife and I have been working on this project on and off for the past 2 years. I even made some old posts about it back then, which you can still find on this board. Anyway, we're working on it again - and I would love to get some feedback from the FB community.

Artemis (working title) is a Freebasic action RPG with a lot of influence from the 16-bit console era. Right now it's still closed-source, but there is a playable demo if people would like to check it out. We're looking for feedback about the game engine before we go too much further into development.

I put together a mini-site with download links:
http://artemisgame.wordpress.com

Here are some screen shots (press F12 to take screen shots of your own):

[subxero]

This game is beautiful. I love the art style and the gameplay. You should seriously keep working on this.

My only complaints with the entire thing are that the in-game GUI elements aren't very pretty (but who cares?) and that my walking speed varies sometimes because my frame rate isn't that great. I'm running an Athlon 64 3000+ with 1 GB RAM and a GeForce 6600GT, so it shouldn't suffer from any serious framerate problems, but it does (I'm running in in 640x480, by the way.)

[Artemis]

Thanks! I forgot to mention that the GUI graphics are just preliminary. I made them myself, and I'm a programmer - not an artist. The rest of the graphics were made by my wife, who knows her way around Photoshop. :) She'll make proper versions of the interface graphics eventually.

As far as framerate - I still need to optimize, but it sounds like your experience is slower than I would expect at 640x480. Hm. I'll get it to run faster one of these days.

[subxero]

You might want to consider time-based animation instead of animation based on frame rate. Unless you're already doing that. If you are, I have no idea what's causing my varying speed, then...

[vdecampo]

I also think this is great work. Don't let this project fall by the wayside!

My criticisms....

1. I kept wanting the character to follow my mouse pointer instead of with the arrows. Maybe you could add an option to move the char with the mouse and use one key to move and another to fight.

2. The main chartacter needs more animation frames.

Thats all I have.

Good Job!
-Vince

[Sslaxx]

Any chance of a Linux binary?

[Artemis]

You might want to consider time-based animation instead of animation based on frame rate. Unless you're already doing that. If you are, I have no idea what's causing my varying speed, then...

Yeah, it's already time-based. I could probably do it better, though. I think I will move this back to the top of my "to do" list.

1. I kept wanting the character to follow my mouse pointer instead of with the arrows. Maybe you could add an option to move the char with the mouse and use one key to move and another to fight

What you're describing was actually my original idea for movement. I decided against it when I realized that you wouldn't be able to attack and move in two different directions at the same time. What I mean is, in this version you can flee from an enemy while shooting at them. Or you can walk completely around an enemy while shooting at them (circle strafe). I know it takes some time to get used to, though. Hopefully some other people will post their thoughts regarding controls.

2. The main chartacter needs more animation frames

There's only one artist for the game, so we're limiting certain things. In this demo, the character has 80 animation frames so far. If we had done more, then there would be fewer tiles or something... it's just a matter of too much to do and not enough time for everything. But still, thanks for playing and for the comments!

Any chance of a Linux binary?

Unfortunately, this isn't very likely. I'm a slave to Windows, and the game has a little launcher/settings app that I made in Visual Basic.

[notthecheatr]

Will it be open source or the like? If the game is good enough (it looks brilliant from the screenshots) perhaps someone who knows the linux platform better than you could port it. If you're worried about people stealing your code/graphics, you could choose a license or write your own to suit your needs.

[Nexinarus]

I love the art! Very nostalgic, beautiful.

[Eclipzer]

I'd like to try this out, but what's wit the .NET framework requirement(s)?

[subxero]

The launcher looks like it was written in VB.NET. I actually really like .NET; is that sad? :P

[Artemis]

I'd like to try this out, but what's wit the .NET framework requirement(s)?

I made the installer and little launcher/settings app with the latest Visual Studio, and it forces me to choose a version of the .NET framework. I chose the lowest one I could (2.0), because I figured many people would already have it. Windows Vista comes with 3.0, I think. Visual Studio wanted me to pick 3.5 by default!

I really wish Visual Studio didn't force me to pick one. I'm not using any of the .NET features. I'm tempted to install old Visual Basic 6.0 so I can remake the launcher in that, for broader compatibility. Yay for new features, Microsoft!

[anonymous1337]

This is actually a really interesting looking game. I played for a bit and I like how comfortable attacking and interacting with the world feels. I think that you're on the right track, here, and I hope that development continues. I don't understand why it only went 14fps here, though, but then again I was in 1280x1024 when I tested the game.


Good work, and keep it up!,
(Should FBGD review this, just note that the game is a WIP and if it gets a low score, that's probably why. I really like the overall feel of this game.)
anonymous1337

[Artemis]

This is actually a really interesting looking game. I played for a bit and I like how comfortable attacking and interacting with the world feels. I think that you're on the right track, here, and I hope that development continues. I don't understand why it only went 14fps here, though, but then again I was in 1280x1024 when I tested the game.

Thanks for the comments! As far as the low framerate goes, I think I should give an explanation. Originally, my intention was for the game to be 640x480 only. I added the other modes as an afterthought, so they are just scaled up versions of the 640x480. That means it draws the game in 640x480, and then does the extra effort to scale it up. I know it's not the most efficient way, but I was too deep into development to make those modes from scratch.

I think I'm going to edit the launcher for the next release, to make things more clear. Instead of referring to the resolutions as two "low res" and two "high res" modes, I will call them "standard modes" and "experimental modes". That way people will be more likely to pick the lower modes, where they'll get a better framerate and a more enjoyable experience. (I'm hesitant to remove the high res modes altogether, because I spent a lot of time on getting the interpolation right.)

Of course, later versions will get a better framerate overall as I continue to optimize. I just made some improvements to the timing code this morning, so the next release should at least have a steadier framerate.

(Should FBGD review this, just note that the game is a WIP and if it gets a low score, that's probably why. I really like the overall feel of this game.)

I would actually prefer it if the game doesn't wind up in the FBGD until it's finished. On the "about" page of the FBGD, it says: "We do not host games in development (demos)". I think this is a good policy. It just doesn't seem fair to put a WIP alongside finished projects, and then ask users to rate/review it on the same scale.

[anonymous1337]

Sounds good @frame rate and resolution.

No problem about FBGD listing the game. Lachie gathers all the games anywho, and he knows his own policies better than I do.