Inspiration
There's a lot of work involved in making a game from scratch, and that workload has been supersized since we decided to make a very complex game. Involving artistic matters, we have a large base sprite compared to most other 2D games, thusly requiring more details. Also, due to our desire to make character sprites highly customizable, there are many intricacies to make several types of equipment layer properly or fit in various combinations. Involving programming matters, life would be much simpler were this a single player game, but networking has proven to be an enormous task!
Still, we're happy to have a public game client up and running. We look forward to continuously improving it with new features and content as time passes. I've had a soft spot for isometric games from a young age, so working on this project is a dream come true!
Perhaps my first source of inspiration would be the game of chess due to its similarities with isometric games. The board, like a game map, is flat and grid-based with equal sized tiles. The pieces, like game sprites, stand tall as 3D figures in a 2D world. Something about a square map where you move your pieces aligned to tiles was simply interesting to me. Each unit having its own shape and characteristics made them fun to move around, as well. I grew up playing several isometric video games, including Super Mario RPG, Kirby's Dream Course, Final Fantasy Tactics, Tactics Arena Online, and Endless Online. Of course, the pixel art stylings of NES and SNES games have stuck with me, resulting in my aim to make Re:Spite's visuals look similar to a high end SNES game.
Connecting to the internet in the late '90s and playing MMOs in the early 2000s, I've been captivated by the idea of hanging out and chatting with people all over the world from the convenience of your own home. There's a certain charm and irreplaceable comfort in being able to easily find people who have similar interests and interact with them. Our dev team is connected in this way - separated by vast distances, yet united in our goal to create a fun game where players can express themselves and face new challenges, whether alone or among other human players.
Unfortunately, we have to work jobs in real life to pay the bills, so we can only work on Re:Spite as our free time allows. Still, we're excited to gradually unleash the potential our indie MMO holds!
v4 Progress
In more specific news, we're working away on adding new core features to the game. We hope to release an update in the near future including:
- Custom profile messages
- Custom emote system
- Implementation of music
- More NPC shops
- New equipment
I've been working on revising some of our existing equipment and sprites to clean up some messy pixels, improve visuals, and hopefully make it a little easier to create new equipment going forward. As of today, I'm completely done with these revisions, so now I can focus on creating entirely new content!
I need to work on some parts of the interface to accommodate our new features, which is a bit of a drag. I'd prefer to work on new map assets and equipment, but we gotta do what we gotta do. At times, pixel art can be a bit too confining, so I divert myself to working on NPC portraits in between. It's nice to be able to draw more freely without having to be pixel perfect, though I have to ensure I still devote enough time to the pixeled side of things.
Pixel art is best enjoyed when creating a simple front view. Creating a back view to match the front view is where things begin to dull a little. Making adjustments to that same equipment for nearly 100 frames on our sprite sheet is where things get tedious. Modifying that same piece of equipment to fit the female sprite and having to readjust those 100 frames is where pixel art becomes a true test of patience. When Abi has to adjust interface elements to the correct position on the screen, it's a similar test of patience. )--:
We'll push through it so we can get back to work on the fun parts, though!
~Danno
