Sleeping Gallant

A gamepage submitted for the Boulevard of Broken 2k3 Dreams Event this was a project I started probably around 2009. This will never be completed or finished but think of this gamepage as a shrine for a lost memory. I don't have a download for what was left of this game.

My vague memory of this game was that it was a Steampunk Western set in the northern fictional areas rather than the usual american wasteland (or italy). Though truthfully it was inspired by Narshe from FF6 and Castle in the Sky. I wanted to go for a no magic bullshit Steampunk setting. It starred a character named Mosin who was a journalist (and a sharpshooter) inspired by The Musketeer painting.

Truthfully it was my first time doing my own pixel art for an entire game. It boosted my confidence in no longer relying on rips or edits to create art for an existing game but I definitely relied on some crutches and couldn't decide when moving away from certain colors/ideas. It would take me a month to sprite up a whole screen and I would agonize over so many choices. The boat train probably took me a month mainly due to being undecided on how to execute the scene or how to even construct it (tiles, pictures or both?). It was going to take place across many continents and have different biomes, the rate I was making stuff was just not feasible (as with most RPGs). Lesson is, you should probably use existing graphics when starting out, and make the project small. When it comes to custom art you should figure out how to automate it and not be "making the game while you're learning"

At the very least I wish I shat out an RPG demo with somewhat repetitive battles and cool art style/setting rather than a magnum opus "every aspect of the game is good" I also recall trying to make each and every battle new and interesting and having like 5 or so mechanics rm2k3 was just not built for. I could have just learned from making an FF6 clone with custom art being the selling point.