There you go! I finally settled on a name for this project. I’ve been calling it “Ragelaw” for some time now, but people poked at me that the word Rage is trademarked due to id software’s Rage (another post apocalyptic game).
I wouldn’t really listen to these silly people, cause I think that Ragelaw as one word is different, and also trademarking words like that is just stupid.. but I was never 100% set on the name, and reading the whole messy thing with DoomRL and another game that had Rage in it’s title, I figure why take a risk…
So..let’s talk about ASHWORLD !
This game is, as mentioned before, heavily inspired by the Mad Max setting. The world is a post-apocalyptic one, with a group of humans trying to build up some sort of civilization, and another group of humans, called the Ragers, trying to just have some fun and kill and destroy everything for their own fun.
Then there is a third group called the Skellies, and these are a type of undead and mostly live during the nights.
Which brings us to Ash, the hero, aka : you! Of course you pick sides with the good guys, but it mostly involves you shooting things, shooting ragers, blowing up stuff, driving over skellies, fixing things, collecting things, and clearing the region of the “Rage” that exists in it (as you can see, I’ve really put time into the story!).
This is my first venture into trying to create an open-world game, and I must say.. I’m still not a fan, but I learned a lot and appreciate the games more. Having played Just Cause 3 for some inspiration, and watching various Mad Max gameplay video’s, I still don’t like getting lost in a game and not making much visible progress. So I tried to fix that in Ashworld.
The game comes with a bunch of missions that you complete if you follow the story line, and then there are the alternate missions that aren’t linked to the story but will help decrease the amount of Rage in the world (shown in a Rage meter at the top of your screen).
This whole mission code has been the cause for most of the head-aches! I’ve moved huge chunks of code around, and changing it almost daily just to make sure all the types of missions work. Missions can be coming from NPC’s, or when completing another mission, or when just entering a building, etc. Missions range from “find this”, “destroy that” to “defend area” or just simple missions like “bring light to buildings”. All this stuff had to be flexible and working even if you happen to stray of the path that I carved out for you! Difficult stuff, but I’m 80% confident it’s working as it should…!
Another problem has been the scope of the game, and trying to create a world that feels full and interesting. I quickly decided to limit the game area to a specific size. This obviously makes it easier to have enough interesting things and area’s in the game world, while balancing it with the whole “deserted planet” feel.
Normally an open-world game is build with multiple of these area’s, but I’m just one guy and not making a million-dollar AAA production. I had to limit the scope while still creating an interesting open-world game.
My last play-through on fast forward (skipping all dialog, knowing exactly where to go, not getting distracted by side missions, etc) took about 30 minutes, and I still have to add about half the missions I want in the game.. so I think it’s a decent sized game!
I also have some ideas on making the game replayable,there is some random-generation going on where most buildings are placed at random locations in the world. The inside of buildings are random, and other various elements will change on every play session. There will be some layers to the gameplay, like a high-score to beat, and a “fastest time to deplete the Rage-meter” type score-board. These things make the game feel like an arcade-game besides being open-world.
Oh and finally, let’s talk about that awesome banner up there! It’s cool right? RIGHT!? just keep looking at it while you wait for the game to finally see a release somewhere in early 2017 (hoping as early as possible, but there is still a lot to do) on PC and Mobile.
