There exists in the annals of the yesteryears a game that was considered a classic of the cloistered community of the RPGMaker 2000 engine. It was released in 2001 during a time when there were a few actual completed games... it went on to spawn an entire trilogy of games and an attempted remake by the creator of the first one in RM2K3. Permission has been given in the past for people to attempt to remake the Legion Saga games... and those have not succeeded. It was said once to me "Remaking Legion Saga is a huge endeavor, good luck." That did not deter me as I approached original creator for permission to bring this classic RM game into the more modern engines.

With permission granted I originally started this as something of a side project for me as an learning experience. I had been developing another game that took its roots from the old Suikoden games of the Playstation era. It quickly became evident that I had a lot to learn about game development. I made the decision to use it as a platform to better my abilities in this area. I set aside my original project as I began to work on the Legion Saga remake.

And boy howdy... let me tell you. I learn several times that I was inadequate for the task I set for myself. I realized so much about why you are supposed to start small. I learned about project bloat. I learned why you don't commission assets before you have a more completed game. I have rebuilt the game from the ground up due to engine or art changes almost half a dozen times to finally reach the current vision of the game. It took almost 4 years (I posted the first Legion Saga MV thread on RMW on August 28th, 2016) for me to learn all of this and get where I am now.

I was greatly improved by the friends I made in the community and gained a lot of help along the way towards the real starting line. I might have failed if it had not been for them. I have put more than enough time into the remaking of Legion Saga 1, but those investments are what bind me to the project now. They continued to push me forward when my soul wasn't even in it.

Ultimately, if it wasn't for Deckiller then I still might have failed to reach this point. The mapping that he did on LSDX in my mind was nothing short of brilliant. It impressed Matt (Kamau) so much that he approached me about going commercial with the game. We made a gentleman's agreement as I continued to press forward. Then my mom was diagnosed with cancer that pretty much brought my side of development to a screeching halt. It did not deter Decky who continued to deliver map after map. That kept me involved and connected as I offered direction on my vision and what we needed on the mapping side.

Decky and I had become real friends too. We talked more about just LSDX. We played some SWTOR together. We talked about life things. He asked about my mom quite often. I had drifted from the community... frankly I was probably subconsciously hiding because I was avoiding LSDX while taking care of my mom, but Decky kept me from just disappearing.

At some point Decky and I had been working together on this project for so long that we looked back at the early stuff and started a massive redo of things again. It was around this point that we also realized we had naturally slipped into being co-developers; not just developer and mapper as we started on. I am frankly surprised that Decky's mapping could evolve further because I already thought it was some of the best mapping that I had seen. Hell... I even learned things from his maps and I hate mapping!

Then Decky did something that kicked me in the pants as a friend sometimes has to do. It was akin to sitting me down and saying, "Look if you aren't going to finish this. I am." He remapped the Royal Crypts that was going to be the first in-game dungeon, and evented much of it. Mostly sans any history/fluff elements... and sent me a video of it. I can't describe my thought process, but it lit a fire under me. If I am being honest it was probably just my competitive streak!! That kicked us into high gear, and within four weeks I had put together more things in the project then I had done in 2 years.

Now there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is starting to get brighter! We still have a lot of work to do before the end, but we have tangible things that can be played now. It's exhilarating even when I spend an entire weekend on a failed system and have to start over from scratch after 20+ hours of work.

Now without further ado, let's get to the game making!