Stone of the Citadel: First screenshot

As I mentioned previously I’ve already done some initial coding for Stone of the Citadel. I’ve played around with a few different displays based on other games and for the initial stages of building up some actual game content I’ve settled on a simple screen layout which you can see below.

Whilst not particularly exciting at this stage it gives me something solid to start working with and building on. Over the coming months expect the display to change dramatically though – everything from the 3D view, its dimensions, textures, layout, fonts and logo are all likely to change. I’ve spent some time getting my bitmap font routine working smoothly as there will be a lot of text and information within the game so it needs to be readable. I can easily use other fonts now this is in place.

Functionality wise all you can do just now is move around a simple test map with walls and doors. Performance of the 3D view slowed down a bit once I added all the menus and party roster but I know why this has happened and how to fix it.

I’m planning to switch over to SFML 2.0 from SFML 1.6 as I believe this will give me some options for improving performance. It’s also the future for SFML so I might as well start to become familiar with it.

Stone of the Citadel: My new CRPG project

I’ve been talking for some time about creating my own Computer Role Playing Game (CRPG) based on my favourite computer games of the 80s and 90s and I’ve now finally started that project. My intention  is to capture the spirit of those classic games such as the Ultima series, Bards Tale, Eye of the Beholder, Might & Magic and Alternate Reality. As well as trying to bring together the best features of these older games, I also have many ideas of my own which I plan to add and hopefully create something new and enjoyable to CRPG players today. The games that really interest me today are not the big commercial titles but the smaller games from independents where people have made the games they want to play. I’m also interested in the roguelike games where there are a great deal of features and innovations despite their simple appearance. I’m currently calling the new game “Stone of the Citadel” though this might change.

So what can you expect from the game? I’m expecting this game to develop and evolve over an extended period of time but my initial plan and goals are as follows:

  • Party based – Control a party of up to 8 characters
  • Single, shared inventory
  • Multiple races, professions and skills but without many of the common restrictions
  • 3D View but limited to the 4 cardinal directions
  • Varied environment – Wilderness, towns, dungeons and many unique places to explore
  • Build up a community of players who contribute their ideas directly into future developments and share their stories of experiences within the game
  • Regular releases as the game and features develop
  • Runs on Microsoft Windows initially (using C++ and SFML) with ports to Linux and Mac in the future

Coding is already going very well but I’ll save details of that for a future post.