Roadmap
Contents |
Overview
The next release is Hero of Allacrost 0.1.0. This release covers all content found in the prologue module of the story and is the beginning of the game. The major development effort for this release will be creating new artwork and maps. In it's current state, the C++ code supports almost everything that we require for this release, so most of the programming work will be focused in scripting map and battle events. We will need additional media as well, such as sound effects, battle animations, and a handful of NPC portraits.
Outline
The game begins with a non-interactive scene of a party of knights travelling through the desert, accompanied with narration dialogue. The player takes control after the knights enter a cave with the goal of finding a blocked water supply. The player will navigate through the cave, encountering enemies, NPCs, and some brief scripted events before arriving at the end of the cave. After a short sequence, the player must face the first boss battle (Goliath Scorpion). Following the battle, the knights are seen returning to their home city, to find it ablaze and under attack my a force of demons. The player resumes control of the party and seeks out the king in his castle, battling demons along the way. The main character, Claudius, gets separated from his companions and enters the throne room alone, jumping to the rescue of the king by facing another boss 1-on-1 (Armoured Beast). Upon it's defeat, the demonic forces retreat to the shadows and disappear, and the screen fades.
The next scene involves the player taking control of Claudius and visiting the destruction and survivors of his home city. He reunites with the squadron of knights and they proceed to a formal meeting with the king, who commends them on helping to save the city. After dismissing the knights, the king asks Claudius alone to stay. The king reveals to Claudius the legend of the hero, and asks him to travel the world and seek out this hero. Claudius agrees and returns to the town. The player may now complete an optional sidequest that takes Claudius to the desert just outside the city in search of something. Before departing, the king gives a speech to his bewildered people to inspire hope in them. Claudius goes to the port in the back of the city to take a Sand Skimmer (vehicle) to travel to the ends of the desert. His family comes and wishes him farewell as he departs.
Table Key
The sections below are filled with tables of an identical format. Each row contains a general task that needs to be completed for the upcoming release. Tasks are marked as mandatory, optional, and rejected. Mandatory tasks are required to be completed for the next release. Optional tasks are work that we would like to complete, but may omit if we don't have the time or resources to complete them. Rejected tasks are items that were at some point discussed for the release, but were ultimately decided to be thrown out or postponed for a future release. Please sort each section in the table so that mandatory tasks are at the top, followed by optional tasks, and finally rejected tasks. Tasks are also assigned a status of: Completed, Assigned, and Unassigned. Tasks that are assigned have the name(s) of the persons working on the task listed in the column.
| General Area | ||
|---|---|---|
| Specific Area | ||
| Priority | Status | Task |
| Mandatory | Finished | Example of a mandatory task that has been finished |
| Optional | Roots | Example of an optional task that is in progress by someone (in this case, Roots) |
| Rejected | Unassigned | Example of a rejected task that is unassigned. |
| Note: The assigned/unassigned task status information may be outdated. It is best to ask around on the forums or IRC to see if the status information is correct. |
| Note: A task is listed as Finished when it is complete enough to be used in the game. Further improvement or changes to the task may still be required. |
Design Points
This section briefly lists proposals that have been suggested to the design of the release. In the later development phases of the release, these points will be reviewed and discussed among the team to decide on the direction that we wish to take. Points brought up could be anything from suggesting maps should use certain graphical effects, changes to major dialogues, balancing suggestions, and so on.
- Make initial party size be comprised of 3 characters instead of 4.
- Claudius should be the only controllable character. All other characters are controlled automatically via the game AI.
- All initial skills available to be used target only actors and not attack points (to make the early game less complicated for new players)
- Skills which consume 0SP restore a small amount of SP after being used.
- Make the cave map impossible to lose (AI-controlled characters heal party automatically)
- Eliminate enemy re-spawning from the cave and city maps
- Allow temporary invulnerability after winning a battle (to avoid immediate encounters with more enemies)
- Portray Claudius with the normal knight sprite and portrait images. He will use his unique images after the end of the attack on the city.
Features
| Modes | ||
|---|---|---|
| Battle Mode | ||
| Unassigned | Improve battle victory screen to allow player to see new skills learned | |
| Unassigned | Find a better font (bolder, more prominent) to use for battle damage/healing numbers and text | |
| Map Mode | ||
| Unassigned | Implement support for directional sound sources on maps | |
| Unassigned | Add acceleration/deceleration to sprite movement | |
| Boot Mode | ||
| Menu Mode | ||
| Unassigned | Inventory and equipment menus need to be completed and have better interfaces | |
| Shop Mode | ||
| Unassigned | Improve the user interface of the shop to make it more intuitive to use | |
| Save Mode | ||
| Unassigned | Overhaul the interface to improve information displayed | |
| Common | ||
| Global | ||
| GUI | ||
| Other | ||
| Roots | Add a testing interface to simplify the ability to load custom character data, maps, etc. and test them in-game. | |
| Engine | ||
| Video Engine | ||
| Unassigned | Add support for libpng1.5 | |
| Unassigned | Implement source lights as described in the engine documentation | |
| Unassigned | Redesign, implement, and test the (currently sloppy) particle effect code | |
| Audio Engine | ||
| Input Engine | ||
| System Engine | ||
| Script Engine | ||
| Editor | ||
| Map Tile Editing | ||
| Map Object Editing | ||
| Note: |
Media
| Note: Refer to the Artwork Categories page for an explanation about each type of artwork found in this table. |
| Artwork | ||
|---|---|---|
| Scene Backdrops | ||
| Unassigned | Goliath Scorpion Appearance: show giant scorpion appearing and startled knights noticing it | |
| Unassigned | Return to Harrvah: show knights either looking from a hill into city under attack, or a shot from within the city walls showcasing the chaos | |
| Unassigned | Throne Room Battle: show king and royal guard fighting off attackers, possibly with a shot of the armored beast (boss) sneaking behind the king and about to attack | |
| Unassigned | King's Speech: show the king speaking from the castle balcony to the crowd of citizens below | |
| Battle Backdrops | ||
| Unassigned | Harrvah City: city under attack, background buildings show damage and rubble on ground | |
| Unassigned | Animations for Harrvah City: show knights/demons fighting in the background, fires raging, etc. | |
| Unassigned | Harrvah Castle: battles taking place in castle (preferably showing the interior) | |
| Tilesets | ||
| Unassigned | Desert Town: various structures such as houses, a marketplace, an outer wall and entry gate, and a large fountain set in the desert | |
| Unassigned | Desert Town Damaged: a variation of Desert Town that shows buildings damaged, rubble, and fires | |
| Unassigned | Desert House Interior: interior furnishings and floorings for homes found in the Desert Town | |
| Unassigned | Sandstone Castle: a "new" looking castle with smooth sandstone walls and two large twin spires | |
| Unassigned | Sandstone Castle Interior: castle interior featuring a barracks, throne room, and various other rooms suitable for a castle | |
| Unassigned | Desert Environment: improvements to the desert tileset and additional features and landmarks such as skeletons or partially buried crates | |
| Character Sprites | ||
| Finished | Claudius: Main character. Require both walking and running animations. | |
| Finished | Laila: Sister to Claudius. Major character, but not playable in this release. | |
| Finished | Marcus: Claudius and Laila's father. | |
| Finished | Vanica: Claudius and Laila's father. | |
| Finished | Knight Captain: A senior, middle-aged officer. Different armor colors than standard knights. | |
| Unassigned | Knight Sergeant: High ranking officer. Different armor colors than standard knights. | |
| Unassigned | Harrvah King: Elderly, but still able to fight and defend his country along the knights. | |
| Unassigned | Knights: Prefer to have a small number of variations (helmet on/off, different color armor/hair/skin, etc) | |
| Unassigned | Royal Guard: A special type of knight with heavier-looking armor and capes | |
| Unassigned | Townsfolk: Various ages, genders, clothing, skin, hair. | |
| Unassigned | Shop keepers: Only one required. Optional variations would be great. | |
| Enemy Sprites | ||
| Unassigned | Enemy demons: Various. Gargoyles, beasts, anything 'demonic'. | |
| Unassigned | Various combat/attack animations for enemy demons above | |
| Unassigned | Goliath Scorpion: First boss. Massive in size. | |
| Unassigned | Armored Beast: Second boss. About the size of a lion. | |
| Battle Sprites | ||
| Sylon | Goliath Scorpion. First boss. A massive scorpion with dark and thick carapace. | |
| Unassigned | Armored Beast. Second boss. A lion-like demon wearing light metal armor. | |
| Unassigned | Enemy demons: Various. Gargoyles, beasts, anything 'demonic'. | |
| Creature Sprites | ||
| Namakoro | Mak Hound: Horse-sized, dog-like domestic animal. Movement animations required. | |
| Unassigned | Domestic animals: Small house and farm animals. Movement animations optional, but preferred. | |
| Face Portraits | ||
| Unassigned | Harrvah King: Nearing the end of middle aged, but not yet an "elder" | |
| Unassigned | Knight Captain: Mid/late 40s. Battle hardened. | |
| Unassigned | Knight Sergeant: Late 30s. Tough soldier. | |
| Unassigned | Harrvah Knight: Make as generic looking as possible (hide/obscure details of face) | |
| Finished | Laila: Sister to Claudius. Early/mid 20s. Beautiful. | |
| Finished | Marcus: Claudius and Laila's father. 50s. Carpenter. | |
| Finished | Vanica: Claudius and Laila's mother. 50s. House wife/gardener. | |
| Body Portraits | ||
| Unassigned | Harrvah Knight: Used for initial party members. Make as generic as possible | |
| Battle Portraits | ||
| Unassigned | Harrvah Knight: Used for initial party members. | |
| Location Portraits | ||
| Unassigned | Harrvah City: cityscape of Harrvah | |
| Unassigned | Harrvah Castle: showcase the details of the city castle, either exterior or interior view | |
| Icons | ||
| Miscellaneous Artwork | ||
| Music | ||
| For Maps | ||
| Unassigned | Harrvah: lively desert metropolis | |
| Unassigned | Under Attack: played during chaotic scene where Harrvah is under attack | |
| For Battles | ||
| For Scenes | ||
| Unassigned | Legend theme: plays when Claudius is learning about the legend of the hero | |
| Unassigned | Tragedy: after the attack, bringing out themes of destruction, defeat, sadness, loss | |
| Other Music | ||
| Sounds | ||
| Environmental | ||
| Battle | ||
| Unassigned | Male vocals: various sounds of grunting, yelling, taking damage, passing out | |
| Unassigned | Enemy death sound(s) | |
| Unassigned | Various attack and damage sounds for enemies | |
| Equipment | ||
| Unassigned | Equip/unequip cloth | |
| Unassigned | Enemy/unequip light metal | |
| Menus | ||
| Other Sounds | ||
| Unassigned | Level Up Notification | |
| Unassigned | New Skill Learned Notification | |
| Unassigned | Counting out experience as it is gradually awarded to characters | |
| Note: |
Content
| Maps | ||
|---|---|---|
| Unassigned | Opening Scene: first map of the game showing the knights marching to the cave in the darkness | |
| Unassigned | Water Access Cave: first dungeon, a medium-size cave. Includes a wide open area at the end where an underground river has been blocked by fallen rocks. | |
| Unassigned | Returning Scene: similar to opening scene, showing knights marching back to the city. May simply wish to simply re-use the opening scene map with a different initialization and event set. | |
| Unassigned | Harrvah City Attacked: capital city of Harrvah under attack by demons in the twilight hours. Should include fire, debris, destruction, chaos, and death. | |
| Unassigned | Harrvah Castle Attacked: the castle of Harrvah under attack, similar to Harrvah city. | |
| Unassigned | Harrvah City Aftermath: damaged Harrvah city after the attack | |
| Unassigned | Harrvah Castle Aftermath: damaged Harrvah castle after the attack | |
| Unassigned | Harrvah Sand Dock: a "port" for vehicles enabled to travel across the sand found to the rear of the city and castle | |
| Unassigned | Harrvah City Outskirts: the desert outskirts outside of Harrvah city, used for a potential side quest. | |
| Game Data | ||
| Characters | ||
| Finished | Claudius: playable protagonist character. Requires all images and portraits for battle and character menus. | |
| Unassigned | Mark: playable character. Requires all images and portraits for battle and character menus. | |
| Unassigned | Dester: playable character. Requires all images and portraits for battle and character menus. | |
| Unassigned | Lukar: playable character. Requires all images and portraits for battle and character menus. | |
| Non-playable Characters (NPCs) | ||
| Finished | Knight Captain: Dialogue portrait optional. | |
| Unassigned | Knight Sergeant: Dialogue portrait optional. | |
| Unassigned | Mak Hound: Domestic animal. Movement animations required | |
| Unassigned | Harrvah King | |
| Finished | Laila | |
| Finished | Marcus | |
| Finished | Vanica | |
| Finished | Knights: Prefer having a small number of variations (helmet on/off, different color armor/hair/skin, etc) | |
| Unassigned | Royal Guard: No variations required | |
| Unassigned | Townsfolk: Various ages, genders, clothing, skin, hair. | |
| Unassigned | Shop keepers: Variations optional | |
| Unassigned | Domestic animals: Small house and farm animals | |
| Enemies | ||
| Finished | Slime: Weakest enemy with very basic attacks and stats NPCs. | |
| Finished | Spider: Weak, basic attacks and stats. | |
| Finished | Bat: Weak, but very agile. | |
| Finished | Scorpion: Medium strength. | |
| Unassigned | Demons: various sizes, shapes, and stats of demons who attack the city. | |
| Finished | Goliath Scorpion: Boss. Hard armor and hard hitting, but slow. | |
| Finished | Armored Beast: Boss. Agile and medium attack strength. Below average physical defense. | |
| Items | ||
| Finished | Minor Health Potion: Weakest health potion | |
| Equipment | ||
| Scripts | ||
| Battles | ||
| Skills | ||
| Quests | ||
| Text | ||
| Dialogue | ||
| Menus | ||
| Note: |
Previous Roadmaps
Roadmaps for past releases can be found below.
