I've noticed relatively few V2 releases lately. I was wondering what projects are in the works, and who's behind them, and who's serious about finishing their game. Maybe proof of liveliness among Vergers will inspire us all to work harder :)

That is all.

--Invicticide

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I'm working on something and it's currently in the artwork phase (I'd like to get the art done before I start work on the engine, so things flow a last faster). If you want proof that I'm working on it, you're going to have to wait. I was planning on putting up a webpage about my projects sooner or later, but as always, I am a laggard when it comes down to setting up webpages.

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Is being worked on and will be finished.
We've got a great team put together of mainly non-VERGERs, who've got some real nice talent.

http://www.chocobo.org/~malock/haven/
The site is abit out of date because Chocobo is messed up or something, they won't even return Devon's e-mails. We will be moving to a new site soon and it'll be updated.

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"You better believe they're good reasons! All digitally remastered reasons are good reasons! And all of my reasons are digitally remastered reasons! I am, After all, the Hand of God." - Locke, TWGtHaiALF:CYGWIDL?

Nice site, and nice-looking game! I notice you seem to have your development very solidly planned out. Any tips on this? Myself and auroraborealisis are kinda wandering in the dark to make our game, not sure exactly where to start, so we're making lots of content randomly and not linking it yet.

That is all.

--Invicticide

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I've played a lot of games over the years. Most of the Dragon Quests, all the Final Fantasies, half of SaGa and Lunar, three Breath of Fires, both Suikodens, Xenogears, Chrono Trigger and Cross (was expecting _much_ more from this one), a little Langrisser and Phantasy Star, then back to DQ6 and BoF2 at the moment (catching up on a few I missed), and that's just on Consoles, so I've pretty much seen and played every style of RPG around, (Including Star Ocean, which I detest on the basis of its frightfully inept battle system.) and it is that experience that has helped me most of all. The first thing I would recomend is that you draw on your own gaming experience. What did you enjoy? What elements did you think a game could do without? Pick a setting for your game that inspires you, and keep an idea in your head as to where you are going. You don't have to plan much in advance as long as you know where you are heading. My own method is to create the world first, then think about what conflicting elements could develop into a plot, and then create characters to fulfill the needs of that plot. I think this results in a better game than the characters/theme first concept, which can lead to a very shallow plot. (The Final Fantasies suffer from this) It also discourages the characters from becoming too central, something I find to be a fault in most RPGs. I'm not against characters, I just don't like RPGs that set a focus no wider than the hero. There should be a world full of people out there, (unless the setting dictates otherwise) who are quite capible of doing something on their own and not just waiting for a hero to come fix their broken bridges and find their lost children.

On the gameplay front, keep it fun. Don't fall into the trap of "well, this is how it is in every other game...". If it's not fun, change it. Or don't do it. Think about what sort of battle system(s) you would like to have. Turn based is just as good, if not better, than realtime, so choose whichever is the most fun/fits best into your game concept. Another thing to try to avoid is repettitiveness. Plenty of RPGs rely on the story and quest to keep the game fresh, but there comes a point when you've seen all the game has to offer, and one more boss or puzzle isn't anything new. Square's "solution" was to make the battles so easy that you could button mash passed them, but a better idea, IMO, is to make the battles fun, or better yet, challenging. Try to avoid unlimited random battles as well. If the player is in one area for a really long time, they are obviously stuck, and the last thing they need is more random battles. My design concept mirrors my plot concept. Design by extention. Start with your battle system, (in concept, not in code) that will show you how your character, enemy, magic (if any) and item systems need to interact. Save the menu for almost last, as much of its layout will depend on the other systems. Don't set anything in stone. If a cool new spell effect requires your character system to track a few more variables so that something neat happens in battle, be ready for that. Above all, write down every idea that you have. I have over 400KB worth of raw text in the form of notes, lists, charts and descriptions for Haven's Saga alone,
and it really helps me to be able to look stuff up when I forget it. It is also very handy when you get to detailing.

I wouldn't worry about it if nothing is coming to you at the moment. Just keep at it. Haven's Saga is the end result of eight odd years of experementation and gaming, so it had _better_ look solidly designed by now. ;)

-Devon

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--- Square's making money. We're making art.

"I've played a lot of games over the years. Most of the Dragon Quests, all the Final Fantasies, half of SaGa and Lunar, three Breath of Fires, both Suikodens, Xenogears, Chrono Trigger and Cross (was expecting _much_ more from this one), a little Langrisser and Phantasy Star, then back to DQ6 and BoF2 at the moment (catching up on a few I missed), and that's just on Consoles, so I've pretty much seen and played every style of RPG around, (Including Star Ocean, which I detest on the basis of its frightfully inept battle system.) and it is that experience that has helped me most of all"
You forgot 7th Saga, you fool!!!!

"The first thing I would recomend is that you draw on your own gaming experience. What did you enjoy?"
More important, what you freakin' hate about RPGs! Get rid of 'em!

"Pick a setting for your game that inspires you, and keep an idea in your head as to where you are going. You don't have to plan much in advance as long as you know where you are heading."
Yeah, this is a fine way of writing. Back when I was writing in the NuRPG I did just this. I got the basic of my plot in my head but never planned it out. I had three character who I really got into and I thought it would better if I just had a little planned out and wrote the chapters out as I went. The characters, I think, came out abit more real because it wasn't something pre-planned or what not, it was coming from me at that moment. Of course if you can't get into your own character this'll suck. But to do a whole game on this idea I'd say is a no, no. Just wanted to comment that I used to write that way (sorta).

"My own method is to create the world first, then think about what conflicting elements could develop into a plot, and then create characters to fulfill the needs of that plot. I think this results in a better game than the characters/theme first concept, which can lead to a very shallow plot. (The Final Fantasies suffer from this) It also discourages the characters from becoming too central, something I find to be a fault in most RPGs. I'm not against characters, I just don't like RPGs that set a focus no wider than the hero."
I agree. I think the world first would be best to go with you since you aren't really sure. I mean, can come up with any world idea. A future world with robots or something(Yeah, yeah, done a million times). There's a base. What could happen in this world? Humans use robots as slaves, robots fight back, robots over throw humans and retake Earth. Who are the real good guys? I like games like that. Most every game you know your the good guy. Plain and simple. Nothing wrong with it but if done well it's always nice to have a game were you might not be a good guy... maybe your just abit better then the other side.

Or you could do a blade runner type thing with robots being outlawed and stuff. *Shrug* Up to you but wanted to bring out the point that making up your world first can set up ideas in your head for what might happen in a world like that.

"On the gameplay front, keep it fun. Don't fall into the trap of "well, this is how it is in every other game...". If it's not fun, change it. Or don't do it. Think about what sort of battle system(s) you would like to have. Turn based is just as good, if not better, than realtime, so choose whichever is the most fun/fits best into your game concept."
Don't be cheap though! Yeah, I know FFT has a good plot and good characters and all but OMG those battle maps are WEAK! It's like fightin' in a box. Realy no move compared to Tactics Ogre.
My point? If you are going to do something different, do it right. Just doing something different will be cool at first because, well, different things are often fun but just make sure that's it's more then just different. Too many games out there who went for something different and thought that's all they needed to do, they never tried to make the different thing any good really.

"I have over 400KB worth of raw text in the form of notes, lists, charts and descriptions for Haven's Saga alone,
and it really helps me to be able to look stuff up when I forget it. It is also very handy when you get to detailing."
Amen, brother.

"I wouldn't worry about it if nothing is coming to you at the moment. Just keep at it. Haven's Saga is the end result of eight odd years of experementation and gaming, so it had _better_ look solidly designed by now. ;)"
He isn't kidding too. :)

One last thing (Although you probably know this if you read the HS site); Characters are the second most important thing (#1: The game being fun).
Great characters can carry a weak plot (FF6).
A great plot will be ruined by weak characters.

Once again I'm sorta free at the moment and I love writing. Might have something I can show you or you can send me something you'd like written and I'll write something out for you.
de_ducky@yahoo.com

Enough outta me, I talk too much!!

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"You better believe they're good reasons! All digitally remastered reasons are good reasons! And all of my reasons are digitally remastered reasons! I am, After all, the Hand of God." - Locke, TWGtHaiALF:CYGWIDL?

Not that anyone will actually use the wind system that I'm making except me. Well no I might not even use it since I'm moving to 2.7 for Prophet's Way after I release it.

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-The Developer
Insert witty signature here

It's actually very close to it's first release. Info at this website: www.centaurgaming.com

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I'm working on a serious game! It's called Nekoden and Tarkuss doesn't know it y--...oops!

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Some people really make me sick... People like...the grand Llama... People like...me.