[heavy - hi bandwith] Two Kingdoms Heroes bits ...

[luxregina]

Hey !

I thought I would show some images of "in-progress" devloppement of 2 Kingdoms.

So far, I have completed the first 3 zones, that include countryside, town and swamps, as well as the first dungeon ( the crypt ).

I'm in the process of refining some tiles graphics, creating few additional ones, and starting to design enemies and quests attached to those regions...

Some of the tiles you will see in the following screens will be a tad different in the final version but i'd rather focus now on what's to be done, than redoing what could be ameliorated.

Here is a preview of the swamp zone : this zone will also include some atmospheric effects ( fog, rain ) that aren't visible yet on the screenshots ... but I though it would still give you an idea of how the game was shaping up :



at the bottom, I've included extra screens of the town, and some interface screens : all interfaces have been designed so far, but only half of them are coded

I also thought it would be amusing to post a screen of my crappy crappy maps editor, that looks like a piece of garbage, but that I couldn't do without - it is an edit on an old open source file downloaded from Klas's tutorials.



As you can see, although the game is isometric, I still edit the maps in top down view, which I find more convenient to design floorplans ...

Hope this is of some interest ...

and last but not least, you can see here a (very old) video of the engine in action, as well as some low quality preview of some of the musics. A game studio is pushing for a port of 2KH on Nintendo DS, although 1 publisher, that was interested, ultimately turned down the project ... cross your fingers for me!

http://www.luxgames.net/FK/video.html

[Son of Bryce]

Wow, this is the same game? Looks incredible man! Inspiration!

Is there going to be a new demo anytime soon?

[renderhjs]

the sprite defenitly improved alot quality wise- at least as far as I can tell from the state of a year ago.
They now have more variation in color and defentily fit better together in terms of mood and flow.

Why wasn´t the tile editor developed from the beginning in iso view as well,- optimal would be if the rendering engine of the game would be the same in the editor as well. A recent topic I was involved could be perhaps of some use

a DS release of course would be awesome,- make sure that all the tiles are in a independent file format (not swf only)- but I know you alraedy do

some crits if you dont mind (lucky for you not anything visual related):
- the movement feels stiff because of the fixed character - cam position and the sometimes chunky scrolling. I assmume this is because the character can´t walk within a tile but rather onlyin tile units. It would feel smoother if you give the character some little more freedom so that he can walk within a tile as well.

anyway finally a thread that I really enjoy

[luxregina]

Somehow, i'm just faster in editing thing in top down ( while testing it on the second screen ) so that's the reason I stick with the top-down editor. 2KH former coder had a very nice editor that did both ( top down and isometric ) but it wasn't compatible with the engine, and he was busy with school, I didn't wanted to bother him ... specially since I don't really know where the game is going ( flash ? ds ? ...) yet.

The movement is stiff because of the video compression - somehow the framerate got f***ed. The character moves smoothly inside tiles ( meaning, not "jumping" from one unit to another ) so when you play the real engine, the scrolling feels way nicer !

[luxregina]

one last thing : the manga sprite you can see in screenshots is a placeholder : it's not mine - I think it's a character from Final fantasy or something in the like

[alillm]

looks fantastic lux. Probably the best looking thing I’ve seen here for ages, especially considering the scope of the game. I really hope things work out for you with the DS port etc . Excellent work.

Ali

[random10122]

lux,

looks great - i have a lot of respect for you being able to keep up the development despite all the let downs you have had with coders and the time spent doing this..

like bryce says, any idea of when a demo can be expected? I would be right in saying this used to be an MMO but its not anymore yea?

[ImprisonedPride]

Wow... simply stunning work. It just seems to be more and more mouth watering. Two questions... how long have you been on this project, and do FK members get a complimentary copy of the game (need something to play on my ds at work besides castlevania over and over...) for being so supportive?

[ImprisonedPride]

one last thing : the manga sprite you can see in screenshots is a placeholder : it's not mine - I think it's a character from Final fantasy or something in the like

Damn... I thought it was a bard, but he looked really familiar (IP is an avid FF fan).

[Evaman]

Wow, this game looks exciting to play. Very well done job.

[Xploder]

Really awesome work as always Lux.

A game studio is pushing for a port of 2KH on Nintendo DS, although 1 publisher, that was interested, ultimately turned down the project ... cross your fingers for me!

Its sad to hear that you've been turned down before. Cracking into the DS Game business is really complex and only recognized publishers are allowed. However there's another route called homebrew game development. My brother is into that and designed the PassMe which allows you to run DS homebrew games. I've looked into DS homebrew game development and it seems simple enough. Though, my brother would know more experienced DS homebrew developers as he's received their beta demos before. It will probalby be better on your part to keep all the rights and get a developer on contract. The only problem would be to market the game. If you want more info on that PM me.
Otherwise, I wish you all the best on getting that game out there and into all the FKmember's hands at the least, as we support oneanother. Or so one may hope

[luxregina]

Here another "preview", this time, of the starting area, that already have been covered by a bunch of screenshots already, so nothing too new, i'm afraid




random10122 >> yes, 2KH used to be planned as a MMO ...well, not nessecerly a MMO actually - I had in mind a game that would mix the regular single player experience, but would also include Player VS player battlefields and arenas, as well as social interactions in town ... this is out of the picture for the DS version, obviously, but if the game doesn't make it to the DS, and stay in Flash, I would still really like to see those mutliplayer elements as part of the game.

Son of Bryce > only a DS demo is planned at the moment but it's not going to happen before a while

IP > what ? you wouldn't buy the DS game to support a fellow FKter ??? ...anyhow, if this was to happen, i'm not even sure if i'd get my own free copy ! ...and in any case, bring in the money !

Exploder > I do actually already have a developer that strongly believe in the project, and has been pushing it to publishers ... so with or without homebrew, i'd be to the same point : development isn't the problem here, it's to find someone that actually want to publish the game ( sell it, if you prefer ) and give us development money!

[Schfifty Five]

That looks awesome Lux, I can't wait to play a demo!
I'm sure you've said this before, but what program(s) do you use for the graphics? Photoshop?

[BlinkOk]

superb mate. the worlds look massive!

[Al Capwn]

Amazing work!

What code was the map editor written in? And is this even done it flash? It is so huge!

If selling it for DS doesn't work out, you should invest some money in sponsoring games / Buy MochiAds that link to this game, then set it up on a login database and put ads in the same page as it. You could start an online MMORPG and instead of selling the games, you could provide additional features to users for a small fee (allow them to explore new areas, items, characters, etc.). Kind of like the deal that Runescape has going on. Plus, google ads would help to ease the financial burden.

Also, to ease the burden of advertising it, you could simply allow gaming sites to host it for a substantial monthly fee or implement a profit sharing scheme--50% of their ad revenue from the game page each month. That would both publicize and make you extra $$.

I had in mind a game that would mix the regular single player experience, but would also include Player VS player battlefields and arenas, as well as social interactions in town ... this is out of the picture for the DS version, obviously, but if the game doesn't make it to the DS, and stay in Flash, I would still really like to see those mutliplayer elements as part of the game.

Actually, doesn't the DS have online capabilities now? I saw something about that on TV with a pokemon game they're making.

You could always have AdventureQuest and Runescape pay you to not put this on the internet too

[mr_malee]

that is one of the greatest things I've seen in flash. Hopefully that DS thing will go ahead. Would love to get a game on a console, or anything other than a PC/Mac.

great work, have a dough nut

[EvilKris]

Yeah beautiful work lux. You could probably bring a demo along to one of those trade/game fairs around Europe and easily score some financial backup for it.

[luxregina]

thanks guys for the nice comments ! - developing this thing isn't always the funnest thing to do, and it is very motivating to see people excited about the project !

To answer IP, a little late : I've been working on this roughly a full year now ... but I actually took a lot of time of to write the game design document ( a 60 pages PDF document that pretty much sum-up the game ) and do tune ups, videos, etc to present to publishers ...
Of course, this if you do not count the dev time on the original 2Kingdoms (2003) that also took one, one year and half ...and even before, the different tries on different engines ...
Having an exciting full time job is great, but it sucks when you are trying to set yourself up as an independant, amateur, video game maker

for those that never got to try the "oldschool" stuff :

back in 2003 : http://www.twokingdoms.com/game/game.htm was actually a FK game award, 4 years ago
in 2002 : http://www.luxgames.net/FK/2KH/original2K.html
and even earlier : http://www.luxgames.net/FK/2KH/waradv.html

but make no mistake, 2KH is a new product - I was getting my feet wet before, but 2KH is the game I wanted to make ( lots of quests, huge and varied world, etc ...) the previous attempts were to see what could be made, at what pace, and what to expect as a player-base.

[luxregina]

and yes, the world is set up to be huge : what i'm showing here represents roughly 10% of the game surface ...

[Al Capwn]

I say turn it into an online multiplayer MMORPG. If this is 10% of the game, then this will be bigger than anything I've seen below World of Warcraft.