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[WIP] Chess Dungeon

Posted: 11 Mar 2012, 15:33
by Crush
Inspired by http://forums.themanaworld.org/posting.php?f=8&p=122790 I decided to reactivate my old, old idea of a chess-themed dungeon and recreated the tiles from memory:
chess-mockup.png
chess-mockup.png (13.89 KiB) Viewed 7201 times
DO NOT expect me to become a regular pixel art contributor for TMW again. I will never again have as much time and energy to do pixel art as I used to. I could, however, find some time to complete this tileset (because this one isn't really as difficult and time-consuming as it looks) and create a map with it. But I will only do it under these conditions:

1. TMW content management supports me.
2. I won't be forced to partake in IRC discussions, wiki pages, trello, managing git repositories or anything else which eats my time and energy.
3. Someone else volunteers to create chess-themed monsters for this (Pawn, Knight, Bishop, Rook, Queen, King; black and white).
4. Someone else volunteers to do the scripting and integrate it into the existing content.

Do you think that we can collaborate under this conditions, or am I asking for too much pandering?

Re: Chess Dungeon

Posted: 11 Mar 2012, 16:28
by o11c
As I see it, only 3. should be an issue.

Re: Chess Dungeon

Posted: 11 Mar 2012, 16:42
by Alige
3. Is not so so hard if you think a bit. You don't need to make the walking animations, they simply move slowly. As for their attacks, they can be easely done with particle effects.

Re: Chess Dungeon

Posted: 11 Mar 2012, 16:52
by o11c
Did you miss the memo that the particle effect engine is already overloaded? Although I guess, if they're the only thing on the map ...

Re: Chess Dungeon

Posted: 11 Mar 2012, 16:53
by Crush
An early mapping test. It's an absolute nightmare for mappers, but it's not like the tileset will be used on more than 3 or 4 maps, even though the next generations of newbie mappers will - as usual - try to shoehorn it into every new map:
chess-mockup_2.png
chess-mockup_2.png (75.43 KiB) Viewed 7183 times
Ali-G wrote:3. Is not so so hard if you think a bit. You don't need to make the walking animations, they simply move slowly. As for their attacks, they can be easely done with particle effects.
What I pictured were standard tournament chess pieces which are static while not in combat. Maybe make them hop a bit when moving. But when in combat they bash the enemy with their heads.

Re: Chess Dungeon

Posted: 11 Mar 2012, 17:15
by Alige
This will add some other possibilities to the mappers.

Re: Chess Dungeon

Posted: 11 Mar 2012, 17:22
by Crush
Pawn: low damage, low speed, low hp
Knight: med damage, high speed, med hp
Bishop: High damage, high speed, low hp
Rook: high damage, med speed, high hp
Queen: very high damage, high speed, high hp
King: low damage, low speed, extremely high hp

The king should have the best drops and exp reward, so that it's the main reason why players go into the chess dungeon. While the king itself isn't very dangerous, it takes a long time to kill. While the players fight it, they have to watch out that none of the other pieces - especially not the dreaded queen - come around.

But that's gameplay stuff.
This will add some other possibilities to the mappers.
I already have these tiles, Ali-G.

Re: Chess Dungeon

Posted: 11 Mar 2012, 17:35
by Jenalya
Crush wrote: 4. Someone else volunteers to do the scripting and integrate it into the existing content.
Do you already have some rough storyline in mind? Since the mapping example you showed looks rather surreal, I suppose it should have to do with some magical place? Maybe some wizard offering a twisted game?

I can see how I could use it for my idea of the wizard tower (located in snow land, former member of the Sages of Kaizei who left the sages because of a conflict and is causing trouble). The concept I have in mind is to have several stages with different kinds of challenges, which the player(s) have to beat to progress to the next stage, with the evil sage as bossfight on the top.
But that idea is a long term plan, which will need a lot more new graphics, maps and other projects that relate to that storyline completed first.

So it'd be probably better to have a smaller project using this tileset/map, and eventually reuse the tileset in the wizard tower again, if it doesn't conflict with the storyline of the first project.

Re: Chess Dungeon

Posted: 11 Mar 2012, 17:46
by Alige
Crush wrote:I already have these tiles, Ali-G.
Well it didn't seem to me.

Re: Chess Dungeon

Posted: 11 Mar 2012, 19:05
by Chicka-Maria
This looks great crush, please do keep up the nice work. :mrgreen:

Re: Chess Dungeon

Posted: 11 Mar 2012, 19:10
by o11c
Jenalya wrote:... former member of the Sages of Kaizei who left the sages because of a conflict and is causing trouble ...
If this keeps going, there will be more people who have left the Sages than who remain members. Maybe just make the Sages be slightly evil?

Re: Chess Dungeon

Posted: 11 Mar 2012, 19:22
by Jenalya
o11c wrote:If this keeps going, there will be more people who have left the Sages than who remain members. Maybe just make the Sages be slightly evil?
I'm not sure what you mean, there's only one evil sage planned, who's responsible for several troubles going on in the snow area.

Re: Chess Dungeon

Posted: 11 Mar 2012, 19:39
by Crush
Everything is more crazy with graphomania. I'll redo the hourglass. It came out too small. I want it to be much larger than the player sprites.

Re: Chess Dungeon

Posted: 11 Mar 2012, 20:32
by mistergrey
This is an awesome idea! I imagine quite a few would find this neat too, so maybe finding artists to make the monsters won't be too difficult. I might even give it a try, but chances are someone will come up with something better before I'm done :P.

In terms of gameplay, having the monster "pieces" go aggro on anyone who touches their king would be rather fitting, but maybe too challenging depending how strong the monsters end up.

Re: Chess Dungeon

Posted: 11 Mar 2012, 22:17
by Chicka-Maria
mistergrey wrote:In terms of gameplay, having the monster "pieces" go aggro on anyone who touches their king would be rather fitting, but maybe too challenging depending how strong the monsters end up.
that would be cool but imagine queen pieces going after you and knights and bishops and pawns... i think it might be to much for someone to handle.

Also crush what levels were you thinking about for the map? would be nice to have some high level monsters for exp so it doesnt have to be the gy all the time. (like the king and queen..maybe bishop to)