#lejendary

Lejendary is coming out great.

This is a quick update as I don't have much to say.

Lejendary is coming out great.  It's fun, exciting, and fresh.  As always, I can't wait to show you.

Unfortunately, it won't be playable anytime soon.  Like I said in the last update, there is a TON of work to do; the size of Lejendary has expanded quite a bit.  I'm working hard on getting it finished.

The work progresses on Lejendary, but I've only just begun to realize how much work there is to do.

So, the current version of Lejendary that I've been working on is exactly what I need it to be.  It's fun, it's fresh, and I'm more than capable of finishing it.

The only problem that I've only just realized is that there is a TON of work to do on it.  That's kind of a problem since that's going to require that I get help from a larger number of people.  I had originally planned to make a game that would require me, an artist, and a sound design.  It was sort of a micro game blown up, if you know what I mean.

It's still possible that it can be finished with only three people, but it would require a lot of time and dedication.  In particular, the amount of art that Lejendary is going to require has about tripled.  Considering that I can't really afford any help right now, I'm kind of stressing out over how this game is going to get done.

I've got to get this demo out and that Kickstarter running as soon as possible, I guess...

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I hate talking about Lejendary without having given a better idea of what it's all about.  Unfortunately, it can't really be helped at the moment so I hope that you'll bear with me.  As soon as I can, I'd like to post a screenie and write a quick post about what exactly the game has shaped out to be.

I'm sure that you'll be as excited as I am to see it finished.  There aren't really too many games like it out there at the moment.

I continue to work on the latest iteration of Lejendary.

So, the newest version of Lejendary is going well I think.  I don't want to jinx another version of the game, so that's pretty much all I'll say for now.

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With the knowledge that I've been pretty happy with the latest version so far, I've had to completely redo the game code.  I don't just mean the background code of the game; I've had to completely redo just about everything in it.  That would be a really terrible thing if it wasn't for the fact that I was using Game Maker.  Without a doubt, if I wasn't using GM, I simply wouldn't be able to try out the different versions of Lejendary that I've worked on.  It would simply take too long to redo all of the work without it.

While Game Maker has been invaluable to the making of Lejendary, it simply can't fix all of my problems, however.  In other words, remember that amazing level editor that I've talked about several times?  Well, as it turns out, it's not that adaptable...

Fortunately, GM comes with a native level editor and I've been able to use that to suit the needs of the newest version.  It's not exactly perfect or anything like that, but it will get the job done.  Thank God for game engines!

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I again feel like I've got what I'd like Lejendary to be.

I don't want to over-hype or over-talk ANOTHER idea that I have for Lejendary, so all I'm going to say for this week is that I've begun creating some sample art for another new direction.  I've been afraid of seeming kind of shiftless when it comes to making Lejendary, so I'd rather not give out any details just yet.

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What I can say, however, is that the inspiration for this version has come from an old DOS game.  

I actually love taking a look at old time games that were once popular; not only are a lot of them still fun to play, but many of them are really bizarre.  And, having created a bunch of weird games myself, I really dig the really twisted ideas in them!

Take for example, Rampart.  Here's a game that mashes up a battling and construction game, neither of which is done extremely well.  But, somehow combining the two makes for a wonderful blend of strategy and tactics.  It's just a sort of oddball idea that ended up working but I think it would be easy to imagine why it wouldn't work.

About the only thing significantly wrong with it is that it's not a game with a lot of depth.  I know it's not really supposed to, however, and I think a lot of games from back in the day have a similar problem.  It just works as a bite sized, interesting experience with a strange theme.  Nothing more, nothing less.

Even if you don't think it's a fun game, you have to appreciate it for what it is.

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Surprisingly, I'm still at a loss about the exact direction of Lejendary.

I've spent the past week or so trying out several different ideas, but I still haven't found one that I'm entirely happy with.  Although I've come up with several really cool ideas, I've sort of got my heart set on making a specific type of game.

Speaking of which, the scope of Lejendary has changed (well, at least, I'd like it to change); generally speaking, I've been trying to merge together a whole bunch of genres and themes.  Basically, I'm trying to make a game that is turn based, multiplayer, and fantasy based that has some light city building elements in it.  Almost like a Civilization-light sort of game.  

Well, that's the sort of general game I'd like to make, and it's honestly not going too well.  Unfortunately, none of my ideas seem to have every element that I'd like it to have.

But, I continue to be positive and try out different ideas.  And, if push comes to shove, I can always explore one of the ideas that I've tossed out already.

I still can't decide where to go with Lejendary.

I've spent the past couple of days looking over various different sorts of games and I'm still not one hundred percent sure where I'd like to go with Lejendary.  It's been frustrating, kind of boring, and really demoralizing.

As I mentioned before, I've been specifically looking at various RTS games and trying to come up with one that I think would be fun to redo/revise.  Obviously, Heroes of Might and Magic has been in the back of my mind since it's been a huge influence on the game so far.  There are already plenty of Heroes games, however, so I'm not really sure what I could be adding to them.

Another big one that I've been looking at has been Global Conquest, which is a turn based, real timish game that not many people seem to have played.  I actually spent several hours trying to come up with how I could modernize it and make it more accessible.  Wouldn't you know it though, I wasn't able to really come up with the kind of simplicity that I'd like so I had to move on from that idea.

So, in the end, I haven't really done much work this past week.  As I said, it's been frustrating as heck and it's been really making me think of just dropping out of game making for a bit.

The new version of Lejendary is feeling great and should be playable soon.  But, I don't want to continue in the direction I'm going in :(

If you can believe it, I'm probably going to make another large shift in Lejendary.  I'm thinking of moving into more of an RTS direction!

The funny thing is that I really like Lejendary as it currently is.  It's fun, easy to understand, and enjoyable.  The problem is that I wanted the game to have a sort of epic feel to it.  Sort of simple-epicness if that makes any sense.

I've come to the realization that in order to bring Lejendary into the area that I'd like it to be, I'd have to do a fairly large redesign of the game.  I'd basically have to add an overly complex level select screen, and, the fact is, that I'd rather just move in a new direction.

It's a huge disappointment to me and it's frustrating as hell, but there's just something wrong about the current version of Lejendary.  I STILL think that the puzzly/roguelike/RPG game that I was making works, but I just don't want to be the guy to make it (or, rather, I don't want to make it now).

Unfortunately, I'm not 100% sure on what the next step is going to be.  I've been looking at all sorts of games for inspiration and nothing is quite clicking yet.  I should probably stop writing this blog for a bit until I define exactly what I'm making...

The new version of Lejendary is feeling great and it should be playable soon.

I'm continuing to work on the latest version of Lejendary and it's looking great!  I should be able to pump out screenshots on a regular update very soon actually.

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I remember that I once read something along the lines of "Great games require great level editors," and I finally understand what that means.  After only working on the latest iteration for about a week, I'm just about to wrap up most of what I need for the overworld map screen.  And, I was only able to make so much progress because I built a solid level editor to work with.  I can't express how happy I am that I bothered to put so much work into it in the past.  Without it, I wouldn't have been able to make all of the small changes that I've made to get Lejendary into the state that it currently is in.

As a side bonus, the level editor is pretty robust, so I should be able to use it in future games :)

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So, I should be posting an actual screenshot with some solid sample art soon.  It should give a pretty clear picture of what Lejendary is going to be about.