update and game theory
Fantasy Realm: A Land Torn Asunder Patch Notes — January 15, 2025
Aggregated from Steam, cross-tracked with Battle.net coverage on GamePatchNote.
hey all! been prepping some things for an overhaul of the overland and underground. i think im going to do a minor release soon before i start tearing the land apart.
update will include in-combat weapon graphics and skill/spell animations. each weapon looks different up to magmaglass as of now.
-recent work-
ive been doing a deep dive into the history of the games that influenced me over the past couple weeks. sakurai's On Creating Games series(the director for smash bros) has been a fun one to review. i watched through the whole animations section again, and ive been enjoying using that inspiration for the spell design. working with rpgm's default animation graphics set limits what one can do, but its not a restrictive scope. im going to approach working with spell animations more artistically than the other aspects of the game; no schedule or timeframe, no templates, no big grid of shit i have to do. just doing one animation at a time when i get a good idea im still thinking about a couple hours later.
so we'll start to see more refined tier 1 spell animations, and unique anims for t2, maybe t3 and t4.
the weapon graphics are fun. just got them in. i was just testing whether it was feasible and next thing i know it's done. visual differences when shit like when you gear up from copper to steel for a boss should be a lot more fun now.
im starting to think about the ultimate abilities in the game more closely. the weapon and spell ults need to be way more accessible. im thinking lv 15-20 you should have an idea as a player of how to go get different ults. no work done yet, but its on my mind.
once the overworld redesign begins the game will be torn apart for a while(this car aint going anywhere). so we'll do one, maybe two small updates before i commit to that. most of the work ive been doing has been in notebooks regarding: new wildlife, new/existing underground factions, wand/stave crafting, leather crafting. it was done in the lost update a few years ago, but its almost done again. a couple missing pieces there.
-game theory, part 1-
lots of research recently. dug into sakurai, tim cain(arcanum), and history of elder scrolls 1 and 2. its just messing around on the phone until its 6 hours later and ive accidentally learned a bunch of stuff.
sakurai's On Designing Games series finally came to a close. its an incredible series, motivated by creating a backup of the dude's experiences and knowledge. its got fun graphics and sound effects. if you check out one video after having read this, make it that one.
tim cain is another really insightful, experienced dude that has been offloading his opinions and experience for free to youtube. he doesnt hold back in his videos, no graphics or cuts. just a torrent of passion and information. having been programming casually for nearly 30 years(the fuck?) i can juuust get some relevant overlap. its cool to see this dude explain like, The Definitive solutions to specific things ive only spent 40hrs thinking about. its very encouraging, cause its like looking at a pro choose-your-own-adventure book player's path and realizing you made super similar choices, even if youre only a fifth of the way through the book.
there should be a game called super simian.
a map from early in the development of The Elder Scrolls Chapter III: Morrowind
-theory, part 2-
ahh, morrowind. elder scrolls has become a crazy interesting subject this month for whatever reason. back in high school my friends and i would like, do all day lan parties but we would each just start a new morrowind guy and play solo. epic shit passing around those prima guides, chasing down legends and rumors.
the goal the for game dev was initially to work for blizzard or bethesda. this game was just going to be part of my resume when i applied to beth(i interviewed w blizzard for like half a year in the mid 2010s and it kind of made me want to not work there, story for a different post)(theyre fine).
i had no clue at the time, but one of the early games that i loved but did not own was bethesda's Terminator: Future Shock. i didnt get enough time w it to be satisfied, but i think thats the best way to play games as a kid. your kid mind extrapolates the parts you havent seen or tested the boundaries of and you end up having experienced this epic non-existent game.
i actually didnt have access to turn based rpgs as a kid until i started making them. you had to have a Super Nintendo or a Playstation, but i had a Genesis and an N64. i loved seeing my friends progress when we hung out. i think thats part of what is so fun about fantasy realm. when youre in one of the more finished segments like a temple, its like youre playing through one of those kid-style mis-imaginings, where segments of ps1 games, zelda games, and mmos get all mixed into one weird fun dream.
but back to elder scrolls: nobody ever really knew about daggerfall and arena. i didnt play much oblivion outside of the arena and leyawyyn. skyrim became more of an rpg maker for me. morrowind was the anchor.
i booted it back up recently and it was immediately clutch. total art. to me, theres two schools of software development. one, big rows of cattle-farm style cubicles, where you incrementally contribute to a capital endeavour. two, garage based companies from the nineties, where to not attempt to push boundaries as far as possible is dishonour. category one does not appeal to me at all, and category two is categorically dead. an interesting place to be, but im cat 2 all the way at this point.
games can be art when its being designed as art. but to try to achieve artistry in game design through doing well at graphics and audio and market research is as useless as trying it in film. the script and the gameplay are the foundation, from which the graphics and audio become Characters. non-player characters seem to have become non-player entities of late. research players all you want, creating an impersonal entity and then applying characterization will never yield a Nintendo's Toad.
perfect example, actually: Animal Crossing 64 v Animal Crossing Switch. any illusion of Character is completely nullified on the switch, because if youre redecorating, youll get visitors. they all say and do exactly the same sequence of things. now i dont care about the char, now i dont care about the town, now i dont feel like shaking trees, game over. same, to a lesser extent, w their usual dialogues. AC64 had these asshole characters that gave the player's inner sim-relationship meters peaks and valleys. gives you a chance to really start to like the ones you connect with.
-theory, part 3-
i dont think ill end up applying to bethesda though. its kind of a crazy realization. starfield's gameplay was shockingly not vibing for me. reading about earlier bethesda, morrowind apparently almost killed its designers. the company i wanted to eventually work for ended up never existing. it would have had to continue to pursue the strange, entrancing artistry that made morrowind work; that came from the freedom of flying in the face of impending bankruptcy.
there's like, a fanaticism required to create a world like that. but at the same time, when you see clips of ken rolston(game director) from the time, you get hints that theres still that background gdd being adhered to. im not quite sure how to phrase what ive been ruminating over re elder scrolls.. i dont think bethesda is capable of creating a product like Morrowind Prima Strategy Guide today. theyve got Tim Cain's Fallout, but could they make the Arcanum manual?
i think thats all i find interesting in this world really. whatever it is that drives someone to create the Arcanum manual.
a decent video on this subject is 'The Elder Scrolls: A Promise Unfulfilled.' its got an extreme-sounding title but its measured and informative.
-wrapping up-
fantasy realm is rough, but it's planned and done, and we'll get there. one person shouldn't be trying to do this on their own. im not sure it could be done outside rpgm without funding. once the overworld/cave redesign is done, ill be able to get into those fanatical, tangential art binges that give the non-player entities their character, and we'll really start to see if the game is an interesting project or a potential classic.
hope everyone had a nice holiday season! bye for now.
(currently playing: Nox, Final Fantasy IX, ARMA Reforger, Zelda: Link's Awakening)