ASCIIQUEST v1.0- Ascii Game Maker - BETA RELEASE

[momoguru]

Hey guys, im just about done with a project called ASCIIQUEST. I was inspired to delve into the ASCII world by Jocke the Beast (thanx bro) after playing DW late one night. So i got to thinking how cool it would be to make a decent ASCII RPG that had good gameplay and decent functionality, yet simple enough to jump into quickly.

well, Im just about done with the Game Engine and the editor is 90% complete. The ASCIIQUEST editor came about after trying to manually build a standalone ascii rpg game called Dragon Quest. Which after a bit became to hard to manage. so I scrapped the code and started on an engine and editor. as the editor progressed... i started building the demo with it. the demo has now become a project in itself and is once again Dragon Quest... its about 60% complete as of now.

The engine and editor let you control every aspect of your ascii game. You can paint color ascii on the screen with the swipe of a mouse for menus and game screens. Fully functional scripting engine allowing you to code dynamic and complex events. Set up shops, temples, markets and more using 15 different event modes. Unlimited game objects (weapons, armor and magic) Unlimited enemies, Levels and maps. Everything is controlled by external files that are easy to use and understand.

The map display engine feature a 21 x 16 grid of ascii. control pass blocking, event scripts, ascii graphics, enemy numbers / frequency.

zelda / darkwoods style combat engine. ranged spellcasting, animated ascii characters during combat. Stats and experience system. Character leveling. weapons, armor and magic.

100 plot triggers, eval scripting variables and set up complex conditions for in game events and plot sequences.

ive posted a few screenshots, but im really looking for feedback or suggestions on how to make it easier / intuitive to use.



http://www.qb45.think-new.com/files/ASCIIQUEST_beta.zip

Updated with dl link for beta version.

[j2krei08]

So, does it use the mouse? some screenshots show it...

[ShadowWolf]

dude to you relize you have enough of a engine to produce a gfx's based rpg if you just change up your display code.


in anycase it cools really cool right now

[shiftLynx]

This looks amazing. It's been a long time since I've looked forward to a QB game being released.

[momoguru]

only the editor uses the mouse. the engine is keyboard only.

yes i realize i can update the engine with graphics. the problem is i do all my own pixel art, and graphics takes me lots of time. so ill wait for a bit before considering a graphical remake.

[Ryan]

Hey, this looks great. I played DragonQuest in a download and enjoyed it. Only thing frustrating was leveling up and none of my stats going up at times. ^_^ Two quick suggestions:

1) A nice readme so I know what's goin on. = P

2) A way to just stand still and let the enemies move so you don't have to approach them and risk taking a cheap shot.

[Jocke The Beast]

I wouldn't even consider to use graphic. The quality of a game isn't based on the games "good look", it's all about the gameplay and DragonQuest is good at that point. It's better to get even deeper into gameplay and perhaps add new cool features then start making graphic that would take alot of time. But hey, that's just a text-mode-nerds opinion 8)

Have u considered using FreeBasic ?

Good luck, this is a project I'll really be looking forwards to.

[Pyrokid]

I wouldn't even consider to use graphic. The quality of a game isn't based on the games "good look", it's all about the gameplay...

I would dissagree. what you said is like "Dont judge a book by its cover". that saying is somtimes correct case and point the ps2 game Katamari Damacy (kick ass game buy if you can) it has quite bad graphics but it kicks ass. but also even though the game has good story and good plot graphics can determind the quality of game play. Games with more indepth graphics are more fun to play. A good example is "Burnout 3: Takedown" if it was all gameplay and no graphics... that game would suck (the game still rocks). So i think You should go for rewriting it in graphics mode!

[momoguru]

perhaps as a future project, but because of the game's simplicity, its important to focus on gameplay and challenge to make it worth while to begin with. Yeah it would be cool at some point to convert it all to sprites... but for the moment, im just working on 100% completion of a solid editor and engine.


on that note, im just about done with the editor. Dragon quest has progressed quite a bit, your suggestions ryan have been addressed. Ill post some stuff tonight and possibly get a page up for ASCIIQUEST on my site.

[Ryan]

Sweet news. 8) I'll be adding your page to my links section in about 10 minutes. :wink:

I do love a good, fully featured text game. I've actually had some fun playing a game I developed a while back, Numbervold, and am looking at redoing the code/completing a few extra features I wanted to add in with FreeBASIC. Feel free to check it out and/or grab some ideas:

http://www.geocities.com/szrrya/files.html