November Update

More work continues to get done. The pace of development can be erratic, so there's still no guarantees as to when something will actually get released.

New Developments - Dialogue has been shifted from a very ugly and unintuitive mess into a more aesthetically-pleasing and versatile pop-up. More dialogue has actually been written into the game. A similar step has been taken for displaying the spoils of battle and character level-ups. The basic interface is up and working for town shops, with the blacksmith in the first town functional. Characters now actually display a different sprite when they are incapacitated in battle. Some changes have also been made to better show monster activity and which character is active. Some basic items can also be used in battle now. Finally, a number of improvements behind the scenes have made the code more efficient, easier to maintain, and more useful for the future. In some spare time, some thinking has also gone into how the overworld map will work outside of the demo context, and how dual-wielding will be handled.

The biggest challenge that remains before the demo's release is some remaining artwork, including a number of battle backgrounds, a handful of monsters, and some character portraits. The status system has not been implemented yet, but a possible structure for this has been planned out; ultimately, if it doesn't work, it could be cut from the demo without a huge impact. World map encounters haven't been made yet, but shouldn't take much work. Ability and item display/use outside of battle also needs to be done, but some planning has already been done for these features as well. Implementing quests is another large step, which hasn't been looked into thoroughly yet. Finally, content needs to be generated for some of the remaining dungeons and towns. After that, it'll just be playtesting and making some finishing touches. By the end of the year? Possible, but unlikely. Spring? Very reasonable.

That's all for now. As always, questions, concerns, and ideas are very welcome.

Demo

More progress has been made. Although there's still a lot of work to be done, releasing a demo of the game seems ever more likely. Dungeons and the status/equipment tabs have been shifted to almost entirely shared interfaces, which means that less repetitive work will need to be done to create the game, and that the chance of bugs persisting is reduced. Two more dungeon maps have been sketched out. More work has been done on the artwork and planning for monsters. Some more character sprites have been drawn. In addition, some additional ideas for quests and areas have been considered.

The next set of updates will likely focus on more fully implementing towns, getting random encounters on the world map, adding new items (mostly accessories and consumables), and generating content for specific towns/dungeons. Quests are still on the horizon.

Due to other responsibilities and the possibility of burning out, progress will likely be slower in the next month or two. But rest assured that, at the very least, a demo will eventually be released. An absolute deadline for the demo's release is June 2008. Contact programmerxiii@gmail.com or talesoftherealm@gmail.com if you want to get a copy of the game demo when it's completed.

As for the demo itself, the following decisions have been made:
- The XP cap is 40,000 - meaning that the maximum level is 15.
- There will be three playable characters.
- There will be two complete dungeons, and the first two floors of a dungeon intended for later in the game.
- The world map will have artificial boundaries enforced, which won't be in the final game. This will restrict demo content to (with a few exceptions) the full-game's content within this area. One terrain type that would exist in this area will be removed for the demo.
- There will be seven quests accessible in the demo, six of which can be completed.
- One demo-only hidden event will be present.

That's all for now; as always, feedback and questions about the game are welcome.