Very simply, this project is a result of my hunt for a game similar to Final Fantasy’s: My Life as King. This WiiWare title captured my love for RPG’s & Sports Management Sims --> mashed them together into one beautiful (tho flawed) game.
The idea of carefully managing parties of adventurers and sending them into dungeons isn’t a new one. This has been done many, many times before. However, My Life as King differed on one key point: You neither watched nor controlled battle.
After sending your adventurers out into the wild, you went about your tasks in town. Upon their return (if they made it back), you could comb the combat reports to see how your parties fared. Did they delve deep and find glorious treasure? Were their skills put to the test? Did they defeat a boss? Level up? Tragically lose a comrade?
This gameplay rung true with me and I was immediately enchanted. After many hours, I soon learned that the game was limited in strange, inexplicable ways – and I dropped it when I realized it was less about hero/loot/skill/class/party management, and more about where I placed my buildings/structures in the 3d village.
Years passed but I kept on the hunt for games like My Life as King. Some have been similar, but no game I’ve come across has “got it right.” My appetite was awakened to this type of game and I scoured the internet trying to find similar titles. For years, I have abandoned and re-started this quest of mine – all to come up empty each time.
In 2012, I came to a realization – if the game didn’t exist, I would make it. Heh. Yeah. I’m kind of a lunatic that way.
Sim Hero was born.
After I decided to just make the game, I needed a platform. While I wrote BASIC/VBASIC/PASCAL code as a kid and teen, I've never done it professionally. I'm also the worst artist alive. Add to that my full-time job, young family and other endeavors --> where would I find the time to learn how to code in a modern language and then actually code the darn thing?
Enter RPGMaker.
What sealed the deal for me was the prebuilt structures the engine comes with. With most of the other engines I evaluated, I'd have to build my own data structures for things like loot, classes & skills. RPGMaker already figured all that out for me and I was off to the races.
In late 2013 we successfully ran a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for development work (many of the scripts I use aren't free or needed to be coded from the ground up at a level beyond my skill) and some artwork. We're proud to say we were done a week ahead of schedule and the game is available for free, NOW, from this very website.
The early demos featured a more "out of the box" RPGMaker experience, but only due to my lack of familiarity with the tool. Once I got comfortable, we went through a "redesign" to make it more like the Sim it was always meant to be.
The current incarnation of Sim Hero is -bar none- the most feature-rich RPG Management Sim that exists in the world today. I look at the original inspiration (Final Fantasy CC:MLAAK) and worry that I will never play it again due to lack of depth (and 3d graphics never make a game for me). I recall my time with an even shallower title (Dungeon Village) and compare the scope to Sim Hero -- there is no comparison. I don't mention these game to look down upon them, quite the opposite. They broke from the norm for an old school RPG and I am proud to share a spot with them in this micro-genre.
So, we hope you enjoy your adventures in the Sim Hero world. Just remember: death is permanent but glory lasts forever! (or, at least, until your next new game)
