Hey all! I'm not dead. (: I AM, however, really happy to hear about V3's progress, and can't wait to play Sully 3. (: That screenshot has whet my whistle, and whet it damn good, too! (:

Anyway, I've made STARTLINGLY little progress on Forgotten Kings these days. There DOES exist a playable demo of it (and the more resourceful among you may be able to find it!), but I'll be the first to admit that it sucks, and should never be played. (:

Still, Forgotten Kings occupies my thoughts every day, and my plans for it are... becoming almost frightening. (: Let's just say that I already have 50% or so of the plot for its SEQUEL conceived, and am planning on making a few "adjustments" to FK's plot to allow for it. (: I won't reveal much information about it just yet, but the tentative title for FK2 is "Remembrants", and the new main characters will be a hot-headed young man named Darn Karn, an immortal woman named Lana Lengo with extreme mental problems who wants nothing more than to DIE, and a young woman named Lana Devine who will do anything whatsoever for money and is working as a double-agent for the main villain. Other planned characters include an insane loner in Shakespearean garb who conducts "unluck" magic, a man made of cloth who wears human skin to protect himself from the elements (and thus looks like a VERY ugly naked man), a mysterious and rebellious young kid named Mac Flat, and a beautiful female novelist who keeps a revolver in her left stocking and finds joy in the pain of others.

If anything, the plot to Remembrants is actually MORE ludicrous and MORE ambitious than the plot to Forgotten Kings... and considering how little progress I've made on game one, it's really dangerous of me to be focusing so much on game two. (: But I can't help it! These ideas just pop into my head, and I can't let them go!! (:

At any rate, my biggest hurdle to overcome in the production of FK is my lack of artistic talent. In order to progress any further (and I'm currently working on the battle system), I need to either have art to work with, or make "placeholder" art and use THAT... and frankly, I HATE doing that. (: If ANY of you have any sort of artistic talent -- tile or CHR art is great, but being able to draw monsters and such would be even better! -- PLEASE email me at wyrdwad@hotmail.com and let me know. I WILL get Forgotten Kings done, I can promise you that... but my progress would be a lot smoother and a lot faster if I had some DECENT ART to work with for a change. (:

Anyway, I also have a rather ambitious idea that probably will never get done, but I figure, what the heck, nothing ventured, nothing gained. (: I recently attended the Tokyo Game Show 2002, and discovered that they hold an annual amateur game competition there. I'm not sure what sorts of benefits are reaped by the winner, but if I manage to get my first FK demo done by then, and if I'm still in Japan, I may attempt to translate it into Japanese and enter it into the contest. (: Wouldn't that be AWESOME if I won? (:

But yeah... my current progress in FK is as follows: the movement system is 100% complete. Five-character party support (in a Lunar-esque five-person line), 8-directional pixel-based movement, automatic redirection upon collision with walls and such, and full support for events, both Enter-based and collision-based (though this needs a little bit of work). The battle system has also been started, and the battle counter and Free Special meters are now fully functional, as are my cool-looking "sliding menus"... though very little else works just yet. (: As far as "soft" coding goes, I have one map completed, in its entirety. The first official demo release will likely be restricted to this map and perhaps one other, smaller map... but that's OK, this one map is pretty dang huge. (:

And there you have it!! Sorry to talk your ears off (erm, or perhaps "talk your EYES off"), but I'm bored right now, and I'm also at work, so actually working on the game would look pretty bad, whereas discreetly typing a message in English looks good (especially for an assistant English teacher!). (:

Anyway, yeah... artists, email me!! The more, the better!! (:

-Tom

P.S. I lost my password for this message board account. The only reason I'm able to post this particular message is because it happens to be saved on this computer. But I'm only here from 8:15-4:15 every weekday (Japanese time), and that's only every other week... so yeah... if someone who runs this board could email me at wyrdwad@hotmail.com and tell me my password, I'd be eternally grateful. (: I had previously had my password sent to wyrdwad@shinra.org, but I forgot to save it, and that email address no longer exists. (: Thanks in advance!!

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http://forgottenkings.tripod.com/ http://wyrdwad.diaryland.com/