World Map, Items, Dialogue Screen, Script Actions

[galneon]

Just bought KotC after coming across mention of it in an Exult discussion and trying the demo for three minutes. That was long enough to think "Holy shit, it's the sequel to Warriors of the Eternal Sun I once had a dream about when I was 12," so I purchased it right away.

I've hardly read the entire forum (or even most of this thread--I haven't even begun the first game yet), but from the re-branding of what was to be KotC2 and the mention of small modules here, am I to believe that this is more of a platform to deploy episodes (and eventually perhaps a community campaign editor?) than a cohesive, overarching game?

[BlueSalamander]

Hello galneon, welcome to the forums and thank you for your interesting comment and question.

"Holy shit, it's the sequel to Warriors of the Eternal Sun I once had a dream about when I was 12,"

I'm glad you had that thought. It is true that Warriors of the Eternal Sun has influenced KotC 1 heavily. Another rather similar game is the GBA version of Eye of the Beholder, which I'm planning to play through when I get a bit of time.

the re-branding of what was to be KotC2 and the mention of small modules here, am I to believe that this is more of a platform to deploy episodes (and eventually perhaps a community campaign editor?) than a cohesive, overarching game?

It will be called KotC 2. It is true that I'm focusing on creating a platform for the deployment of modules. In fact, that platform already exists now, it's just that it's missing the combat engine. I'm working hard on combat-engine development. Thinking to do a proper update once the game supports melee attacks, charge attack and ranged attacks by the player.

I would like to do a cohesive campaign but it will probably be split up into a number of modules, such as one module that goes from level 1 to level 6, one that goes from 6 to 12 and one that goes from 12 to 18. The game supports loading into a new module a saved game from the previous module in the chain.

Look at Age of Decadence, for example. It's a hugely ambitious game, an entire fantasy world with several cities, tonnes of quests and dialogues, but look how long it is taking to develop. Maybe, it could have been made as a chain of modules. Ideally, once the platform is completed, I want to be able to say things like 'my next game will be taking x months to develop' and not 'x years'. I also have huge hopes for what could be achieved as a community.

[galneon]

Didn't realize the GBA version of Eye of the Beholder was a totally different game. Looks interesting--thanks for turning me onto it.

I thought KotC2 had been re-branded because of the Fantasy World Engine page not making mention of it. I see now that that's because you're devoted primarily (or solely) to engine development at this point, which is a good thing for people like me who don't mind the same engine being used for many games. It sounds like sort of a Spiderweb approach: work on the engine now, which may well be the more difficult or tedious part, then focus on writing and designing campaigns (or parts of a larger campaign) utilizing it for the next n years. You're likely to avoid vaporware accusations that way (looks like AoD is finally getting past that). I guess the main pitfall is back-loaded payoff from people who may be used to waiting till a chapter-based game is "finished" so it can be played all at once, or until a game expected to see expansions is released as a "Game of the Year" edition. If you secure Steam or GOG distribution, that shouldn't matter too much as the exposure will more than make up for it.

It's funny, finding this game also reminded me I have a WotES replay I have to finish first. Looking forward to playing KotC1 soon after, which by my definition means hopefully sometime this year.