Arbiter: Perdition city

So I was reminded to update this with something and even though I've been completely occupied for these past two weeks, knowing me, I would probably still neglect to update even the slightest. so to make up for it (also I'm completely free for the next couple of days), I've decided to share with you a couple of screenshots and also give a link at the bottom for those morbidly curious explorers of the unknown (aka old solar tear demo)

So I guess you want some screens, right? Well, I feel that some of these really needs somekind of context to be explained.

Arbiter is designed around hub-based gameplay, or rather, most of the city is experienced through a number of bigger blocks which you are free to explore (not very different from towns in a regular jrpg, except they're more like npc-hubs with the occasional store... or nothing but stores as in some cases). These sectors also contain sub-areas (aside from regular interiors) and access to dungeons. Navigating between these hubs are kind of like regular world map.

so going with the theme of expansive, explorable hubs, rather than say, the narrow, linear and made-no-sense gutter that was Solar Tear, most maps are pretty big. Not big as in barren, but big enough to say, have actual gameplay elements (in dungeons anyhow):


(from two different dungeons, they haven't been populated by enemies yet)

The plot (which, I might add, is well under way!) is not too surprisingly, very linear and not incredibly long but I'd like to make up for that by letting the player explore and experience the city in all it's 16-bit glory. Aka, a bunch of sidequests that span over the sectors.

So, exactly how far am I into this thing? Well, the plot is less of a swiss cheese than usual (there are a couple of details that I'm working on but right now it holds together pretty well actually), there's a couple of half-done dungeons, about 8 blocks in varying degrees of completion (these are in general 80x80 each), half of the cast has most of their animations in-combat done, menu graphics (icons and stuff like that) are done as are most database stuff but balancing and combat is still very much in the sheets and statistics (hence I have no actual combat screenshots. also, they look like regular dbs shots so it's pretty boring). Oh and there's the original score which, uh, will hopefully be composed by a friend of mine.

It's a pretty wild progress. That takes breaks constantly.

Will it reach completion within this millenium? Yes. Before Line's End? Hopefully. This year? Something, I promise you that.

This was a bad idea, I'm too tired to make any sense, I'll just post some screenshots instead of rambling on

I also would like to make the following announcement

hey space noir why did you never show up

....AND HERE IS A REALLY SHITTY GAME (seriously, don't play this. I included it because someone wanted it but this is actually horrible) Three words: slow walk speed. Yeah.

http://rpgmaker.net/users/Mr.Nemo/locker/Solar_Tear_REBORN.rar

yea i never update with anything relevant, i know

i intend to change that pretty soon, as i think i might have some time the next few months to work on this, especially since the story actually has developed somewhat and ive already written a couple of scenes

i was going to post a more descriptive wall of text for the background and basic setup to the game but im not satisfied with the wording so ill fix that some day pretty soon

also, i probably should post some character bios or something really rpgish like that

or better yet mak gam!!!!

so i have my computer back

which means i watch youtube videos or get drunk all day long instead of, i dunno work on this or study or get a job

So to justify this blog, I'd like to clarify something about this project, if only to make myself feel a little less bad about working with it. It's a little history.

I found out about rpg maker back in 2002 or 2003 and was originally a member on rpg2knet (run by squirrel with members like... uh, dajhail and... lord gabon? Idk, my memory is kind of vague) and I got started on some horrible project i called "bloodline chronicles"; there isn't much i remember apart from the fact that the main character's name was infact, Rebecca. Now, I do not have a particular fascination or kink for this name (or character?), but at the time, I thought having a female lead would be kind of cool. then again, it might just've been me trying to make ff6 all over, who knows.

A year later or so, I had gotten my hands on a blurred line (I remember having trouble with rm2k games in general since everyone praised it, idunn ymiraldor, the way, legion saga and power trip and I had them on my computer yet couldn't play them) so naturally, I realised that more futuristic styled games needed to be made on rm. also, resources for such a game that did not only consist of rips (which i've never been a fan of) were not available to me. But I decided to make my own little homage which I named solar tear. I also joined gaming world around this time (gamingw or saltworld or what have you)

It was pretty terrible. It had Rebecca in violet hair, running through, as you might've guessed, through slums and dodging corporate soldiers. this version was not released, but was rather put aside (if I remember correctly) for another horrible project (damnation i think it was called. Awful.). I might've worked on that for like six months, and took a break from RM.

When i came back for more, I got fancy new graphics for Solar tear (somewhat similar those of the last iteration, minus the clusterfuck), basically the same thing as the first version (being chased by soldiers) but included an intro of Rebecca jumping a skyscraper within the first minutes. Riveting. It was actually reviewed by brandon abley (maladroithim) back in 2005 I think. Then I took another break.

Since the date submitted for Solar Tear says 2007, I'm guessing that's when I got back. I think I started remaking the first/second version story with basically the same graphics, only less awful (but still plenty awful), along with uploading some hideous artwork. I never released this version (call it 2½) but instead, started really hoarding resources and graphics.

And then, somehow, I put in a lot of time and effort for the third attempt, which ended up with a pretty brief demo that definately was a mixed bag. And by that I mean, it was a clusterfucked mess with cryptic dialoge, poor design choices and the balancing since fucking noah's ark tipped over.

I really tried to work on the game after that, but the motivation just died. Probably because of how old the project was and how hopeless it felt. And it kind of still does. To remedy this, I started exploring other alternatives (like picking up game maker again, working more with flash) and I really, really tried to start again with RMVX (first some random, easy project and then also somekind of continuation of my older stuff with a completely new take). I had a pen-and-paper dungeon-crawler planned for a few years back that I called Arbiter. I was first going to make it in VX, but old habits die hard and I ended up just using the name for a project that I didn't even like working on. Probably because I never felt comfortable with the program.

So I spent time spriting. Most of it is gone, some was showcased here and there in various places but nothing serious. This was basically one loong break from gamemaking. I was so decided never to go back. Yet I did again.

Now, since I didn't really want to go back to work on the EXACT same thing (also I couldn't fucking stand the 2008 version either), I decided to steal some names and concepts from the vaporware VX-projects and jam some old shit in there. Apart from Rebecca being the main character, Arbiter has pretty much nothing in common with Solar Tear, or so I'd like to think. I was very torn when I was going to make a game page; do I submit a new or do I use the old one? I don't remember my reasoning (I actually might've been drunk, come to think of it) but I decided it to nuke Solar Tear's page and put in arbiter. It was only after this i realised that the review will probably not reflect the finished product.

So now, since I actually don't care which, I'm stuck with my decision. And stuck with this game. Which brings me to what i was initially trying to say

TL;DR
Solar Tear =/= Arbiter. It's pretty much the same main character with a very similar universe, but apart from that it isn't really the same game. And because I said so, I have not been working on the same game for eight years. Even though they all look the same, play the same, have the same main character, same plot, etc. They all have the same title, except Arbiter. Which means, it actually is something "new".

I actually came up with some slightly interesting topics I have planned for this game while writing this, maybe I can post them instead of showing progress that isn't actually there. hooray for me.

meanwhile, back in communist sweden;