Necropolis

Update: Demo has been taken down. Thanks for the feedback, those who provided it.

Be my guest and try the Necropolis Arena out. I preloaded some save files that skip the prologue. This is by no means tuned. I dramatically reduced the amount of experience required to level so you may level faster than you have the gold to buy anything. This is put together as both a sample and as an opportunity to provide feedback on the battle system mechanics.

There are some inconsistencies, you'll notice. I have updated very few things in the item database when it comes to scrolls, tomes, and guides because they aren't final. Most of the new finishers were added recently so they lack a proper description and will appear either blank or inaccurate in the in-combat finisher menu. The battle tutorials require updating (for example, you need 11 Fury, not 6 Fury to progress the spell tutorial), but they should be functional. Some of the spells and finishers reference a blank common event since I haven't added them yet. Most of the battle animations are temporary or absent since they aren't a priority. If you even manage to level high enough, the Siphon spell was replaced with a Dispel, but the menu graphics don't reflect that (not that it matters, since that common event is empty anyway).

Basically everything that's incomplete is because I add new abilities as I anticipate their availability in a given dungeon.

Anyway, I appreciate any feedback. Just reply to this blog entry. If the game doesn't work, also let me know. I deleted a lot of things haphazardly since I'm not ready to reveal any actual game content yet, so it might bug it out or something. I will tear down the file in about a week so it's kind of a limited opportunity if you're interested.

Some of you may have noticed I started working on this again. I stopped in late November-ish when I began playing World of Warcraft again, which I finally got tired of about a month ago. So, I think I expressed once in a forum thread that I was pretty unsatisfied with how Necropolis was shaping up, but I'm not in the mood to go back and redo anything right now so I'm just pressing forward and making sure new content is better.

At this point I'm just making the graphics for chapter three, having finished two sets of tiles. I still need to make character sets and the monsters, and also the animations for the new tier of abilities. After that it's putting together the monster AI routines which is pretty easy, mapping out the areas, and then actually scripting all the scenes and whatever (which is my least favorite part).

Anyway, I have no media to really go with this blog entry so I'll just tack on some battle music and the sprite for Vicks Velmont, some vampire hunter who keeps harassing you with his Devil Slayer lash.

Well, I finally took a break from Fallout New Vegas to complete the prologue sequence for Necropolis. It's delightfully corny and has a good retro feel to it, I think. First time I've used any video capture software before, so it took a few tries just to get it to record audio properly. Also, watermarks are annoying. Anyway, presenting the prologue via YouTube:

Hurray for weekends, because they allow me more time to make progress. Anyway, I finally got off my ass and completed the Finisher menu. It didn't take long but I put it off since it wasn't a necessary feature--just a nice reference to use when in combat. I've got a few more cutscenes, a map, and a handful of graphics to finish before the first dungeon is completed. I went ahead and updated the main page to include a battle system tab. Next page I'll add might be a skill tree one, or maybe a monster encyclopedia. Additionally, I added two more screenshots for good measure. I should probably make videos or something for the next blog entry.