Hi guys,

I've already made a few posts about my personal project, but only now have I gained courage to announce and ask for help with it.

Shadows of Reulosil (working title) is a somewhat ambitious project a friend and I have been working on very, very slowly and unmotivatedly for a while now.

It's a 2D, Japanese-style (technically speaking at least) role playing game concept (very similar to Final Fantasy in its current conceptual form) set in a galaxy that is being conquered by an unstoppable evil empire (how original). The plot is currently very flaky, very cliché (mostly through my fault) and very unfinished, but the main character is a teenage guy wanted dead by the empire for a crime he doesn't remember committing, who, through a series of fortunate events, forms a party, learns the half-dead-on-his-home-planet art of magic (including at the moment a slightly odd magic system idea with 4 types of mana), gets the girl and saves the universe.

Currently, being not the most motivated person in the world, I've started very basic preliminary work in C on the engine, which currently targets both OpenGL over SDL and (oddly enough) 68k Amigas. This is possibly the biggest challenge with the project so far - it's currently targeting two quite different platforms, and thus any graphical/sound code for SDL/OpenGL will need to be shadowed with Amiga code. I can probably at worst tackle the Amiga side on my own, given some outside assistance. Most of the code however will be (will have to be >.<) shared between the two with minimal differences.

So, I'm currently looking for:

• Coders experienced with the C programming language. Experienced C++ coders will also do, but the game will be written in C if possible. Experience with SDL and/or OpenGL would be awesome; experience with AmigaOS (version 3) graphical APIs would be mind-blowing.
• Plot-writers. The current plot is in severe need of adaptation and completion, to say the least.
• Sound effects gods.
• Sprite artists. My friend and I can do some static work but an animator is definitely required.
• I can track music to a basic standard, but an extra music tracker would be handy. Amiga music will be in .MOD format, PC music will likely be in .XM format.

I have no plans to release the game (or at least this version of it) commercially, and am willing to license the code (but probably not the media/story) under a free software license.

Feel free to ask any questions, etc.

Yours, Matt

I didn't know people still wrote software the the Commodore Amiga. I had only limited exposure to one of those things when I was younger.

Good luck with your project, and be sure to keep us updated with your progress reports/splot stories/screenshots/videos, etc.

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I ain't pushing no moon buttons.

Yeah, is there any particular reason that you're targeting that specific platform? Why make the project harder than it has to be?

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In brightest day, in blackest night. No evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power... Green Lantern's light!
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He might simply like his Amiga and want more software for it. Some people prefer them to PCs.

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I ain't pushing no moon buttons.

Exactly that.

In fact, this was originally an Amiga-only project, as I was trying to learn about the AmigaOS API and I had the RPG concept ready to try and make something based on. It was only later as I moved to cross-compiling on my PC that I decided to add the SDL/OGL side. So far maintaining two different targets has been a fun challenge, though if anything serious comes of this then I might drop the Amiga support.

Here's a quite old combined screenshot of both the SDL and Amiga targets (a fair bit has advanced since then, but not as much as I would have hoped):



(Since that screenshot was taken the pain (basically going to be like FF7's limit break) and time bars have been added, and there's a message bar at the bottom, the beginnings of a turn system (was originally going to be ATB-esque, hence the time bar, but is now going to be more of a modified turn-based system), and the SDL font is actually the correct size).

For the most part, the only thing that is different between the two at the moment is the low-level sound and graphics code. Most of the battle system, for example, is implemented with the same code file on both for the time being, though there will likely be deviations later due to the PC version likely having resources to burn.

However, right now, all that's implemented in the project is that battle system GUI, some of the character structures whose variables are displayed on it, and the very beginnings of the turn-based system.

(Will get a newer screenshot soon)

Why can't you just use pure sdl on the amiga?

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My Development Blog | My Website | My Current 3d Engine

I'm trying to target classic Amigas (68k, OS 3). If I recall correctly SDL can't output in full colour on them, and even if it can it'll likely be far slower than accessing the APIs directly. I haven't tried though to be honest.

A more recent screenshot:



Current line of development is the turn-based action system (player selects actions for every party member, AI selects actions for every enemy, actions due for the turn are taken off the action list and performed in speed order), though I've already slowed to a crawl on it and have strong doubts I'd be able to finish it anyway given an infinite amount of motivation.

In the screenshot, Daryn is the current character to be assigned an action to (noticeable from the message bar and the green boxes to either side of his row), he currently has some white and blue mana (though the bars are being driven for now by a bit of test code that rapidly cycles their values), and Corra is knocked out (and eventually will be automatically replaced by the battle system by another non-KO'd character in the party).

I've added some code to separate the party initial value matrix from the actual compiled code body - it's now read in from a text file at run-time. This, I'm guessing, means that I can now license the code body under a free software license, while keeping the party information under a more restrictive written-permission-only license and any of my graphics/sound contributions under Creative Commons licenses. Is this correct?

The battle system is slowly (as slow as my attention span, lol) beginning to take shape, in that you can assign an action (currently only attacks) to each character and they will then perform them, currently in party order (to be changed to character speed order eventually).

Also taking shape is the weapon system. So far, the game tracks seven basic types of weapon, with each character (including enemies for now) being assigned two. I'm unsure how I'll set up weapon upgrades and various different levels and subtypes of weapon, but there will probably just be one instance of each weapon - when the player buys a new weapon, the old one is replaced - in a Final Fantasy 8-esque system.

Also on the cards, if I can implement it, is a FF7 materia-esque method of adding a limited amount of upgrade modules to compatible weapons, to boost certain abilities. The lead character, Daryn, will eventually gain an aurablade - a sword that can accept magic-boosting crystals - to compensate for his lack of magical staff and general weakness.