libGDX engine

Tales of Vastor - Progress #1

Content

1. Vision
2. Story
3. Game play mechanics
4. What's done?
5. What's next?

Vision

Tales of Vastor is a hand-drawn 2D fantasy party-based RPG with challenging fights and a linear story line.

Tales of Vastor offers challenging party-based fights as known in Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and other titles as well as a thrilling linear story which is guided by a narrator. The art style is heavily influenced by games like Odin sphere and other Vanillaware titles.

Story

It all began, as you spent time with the princess on the hills. She worried about the princes behavior lately and asked you for a favor. Suddenly, you heard a noise. Of course you grabbed your sword and took a look around. You got hit on your head and were not able to keep your eyes open. The princesses cries were the only thing you noticed until finally waking up.

Cold walls of a prison cell were the only think you recognized. As well as a mysterious men standing in the shadows.

Will you be able to find out what happened to the princess?

Game play mechanics

The focus is definitely on the fighting system and the story. Therefore, the mechanics will be split into two different parts.

Fights

The fights are round based with two groups. One group is your own, containing your character and maybe other companions. The other group features the enemies. Depending on your progress and level, different enemy groups may appear.

During fights, you will be able to attack, choose special attacks, rest, choose an item or even try to flee, if the enemy is far too strong.

Story

In order to find out what happened to the princess, you need to navigate through the world called Ethen and talk to different people. A narrator will guide you through the different events.

Navigating through the world is provided on a world map. The map contains different points which may result in dialogues, fights or maybe other unexpected events.

What's done?

Fights

Fighting is one of the most important aspects of the game. Therefore, the following things are implemented until now:

• two fight groups
  • multiple character per group
• basic fight actions
  • Attack
    • selection of an enemy to attack
  • Power attack
    • the equipped power attacks will be loaded and available
    • power attacks use power to perform
  • Rest
    • no action is performed; instead a little bit of the power is restored

World map

The navigation through Ethen contains the following:

• map in the background
  • based on the current world
• navigating the player
  • mouse input
  • keyboard input
• points based on the progress
  • when starting a new game, not every point is visible on the map. Depending on the story progress, those points may be displayed.

Dialogues

The dialogues are almost finished by now. The basic dialogue functionality is the follwing:

• showing the narrators text
• displaying of the current characters
• class selections
  • may be shown for the player and your companion

Here is an example with one of the characters.

What's next?

Let's end the progress article with the next planned issues:

• Inventory system
  • The basic inventory is already implemented. Missing features are the actual inventory items and the consumables handling.
• Switching the world
  • On the world map, you may enter other worlds. Those need to be drawn and included in the game.

Alpha version coming soon

In order to provide the best experience to everyone, I will upload an alpha version by the end of August. The goal is to get as much feedback as possible.

By the end of October, a beta version and a basic demo version are planned. The final version is planned for December. This will be possible with your help, so please be sure to give feedback and stay up to date.

To finally close the very first Tales of Vastor update, I want to thank you for taking your time and reading the entry. Be sure to watch the game to get the updates as soon as possible and be prepared for the alpha.

If you have feedback, I really appreciate reading it. You can contact me via mail or direct message.

Thank you!