Well, I mentioned in a post that I was changing the graphics for Far Reaches and making everything a lot smaller. The end result is probably not what anyone was expecting and some may feel that it's a step backward graphically, especially as far as the characters are concerned. My reasons for these changes are simple.

First, the smaller graphics (24x24 pixel floor tiles) are a lot less memory and thus the final game will be a much smaller download (50 some megs as opposed to 250 megs). Another reason is that it will be much easier for me to actually finish the game. The larger graphics take a lot longer to make and my game requires many diverse tile sets, much more than PoG. PoG had maybe six different types of locations (cave, swamp, forest, village, etc.). My game needs over 20 different tile sets by comparison. I thought about just simplifying the story so that I don't need so many, but then I'd rather have more diverse areas to explore.

The characters have also been simplified dramatically and are more like the tiny characters in Avernum or Exile. The reason for this is that the animated ones, while fun to make, take a long time to do each one. The final game would call for more characters than I can reasonably make within a reasonable time. The new graphics are a combination of hand painted and 3d rendered tiles and there are still some fully rendered backgrounds in some areas.

Anyway, there's 2 new shots on my website: (url="http://"http://www.farreaches.homestead.com")www.farreaches.homestead.com(/url). Let me know what you think of the changes. Nothing is in stone, yet. Thanks.

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Outlandish
visit (url="http://"http://www.farreaches.homestead.com")www.farreaches.homestead.com(/url)

its freakin smalL! but thats coolza as long as the gameplay rocks you know? i was thinking fallout size but the size you chose seems a bit more rpg epic styled so should be cool. one thing your going to have to deal with is peoples 1st impressions n stuff, i think if you have a kick in the balls demo it will do good. but damn its samll, is it going to be real time fighting still? i think im almost expecting turn based cuz of spider web softwares titles but it should be cool to see how it works.

id make sure you have character portraits ingame so people can get a fell for the character etc since there small. canbt wait to see how the gameplay turns out this time. should be fun.

(This message has been edited by DJ (edited 06-25-2003).)

Those are some very small graphics indeed, though they do have a nice retro feel to them. The screenshots look nice, but I'd like to see them in action before I make any judgement on how well they work. I hope the game doesn't revolve too much around shooting things at a distance, because clicking on something that small to target it could prove quite difficult if it's moving at any speed.

One complaint: Coldstone's black text is extremely hard to read on the dark blue background that you've designed your interface around.

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'You can either be on the stage, just a performer, just going through the lines...or you can be outside it, and know how the script works, where the scenery hangs, and where the trapdoors are. Isn't that better?'
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Please correct me if I'm wrong, and expect me to return the favor.

Outlandish sez:
The characters have also been simplified dramatically and are more like the tiny characters in Avernum or Exile. The reason for this is that the animated ones, while fun to make, take a long time to do each one.

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• eLL' softWare: Plotting and scheming since 1996
  

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(This message has been edited by ellrx (edited 06-25-2003).)

hahahh' ah the ell'o tingy

anywho, maybe the game would work if you made it like grand theft auto 2 in combat where you have tons of ammo aka scifi ammo clips and you could fire by pray and spray. as glen said shotting at a distance would be tweaked specially when a enemy is movin fast an you have to click on him.

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I've been experimenting with the first three levels, fighting the pirates and such. It's really not as difficult to shoot them as one might think, even though they're small. It is actually still pretty fun to play. Still, I seriously miss the better characters. I'm thinking of re-rendering the animated characters, just making them a lot smaller, instead of using the sucky 2 frame animated, hand-painted icons that I have now. Maybe I'll just have the front direction instead of all four directions. That'll save a ton of time and memory. I'll let everyone know as soon as I have a workable demo that I'm happy with. I also got rid of the need for ammo because the gun kept running out before you even killed 2 monsters. That kind of stank. I think it works better now. The blaster is long range and low damage, where as the blast-sword does higher damage, but you have to get up close. That's the current theory, anyways.

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Outlandish
visit (url="http://"http://www.farreaches.homestead.com")www.farreaches.homestead.com(/url)

I can see your need to make your graphics smaller, as the other took up too much of the screen, but now I think they're too small. You've got a really good looking game. I hope whatever size you choose works for you. But I can't really see it. (I'm an older, middle-aged person.) (Who has some money to buy games.) (Because I play them.)

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-- Debra
Danillitphil Productions
(url="http://"http://www.danillitphil.com/graphics/index.html")www.danillitphil.com(/url)

I like it better this way. This is simpler, more like a gameboy. The other way looked okay, but it was pretty awkward.

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--Dishwatei2

maybe a fallout size would be cool. gameplays the main motivation but it would kinda suck to dump all those graphics away.

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