Development Update 1
Figured I would go ahead and 'blog' a little in the thread. I'm sure more people would read my comments here than anywhere else, plus this way I don't have to worry about checking/updating yet another site.
Development is going very slowly at the moment. I guesstimate that I've only spend 3 hours coding the project as of yet. I have a 6-month-old that I have a hard time putting down (for one reason or another, LOL), but I'm still very positive that I'll be able to get the game going soon. I squeeze out what time I can during the day to think of the mechanics and what makes a game fun, while I creep off to the office when I can to get a few lines typed.
The concepts behind the game get stronger every day, however.
The idea sounds like a combination of Eberron and Magic: The Gathering. ...
I think it's funny Makari said this, because while the idea came from a different source, I've been pulling inspiration from D&D and MtG. I'm not aiming to make the game as wide open as either of those two are, however I'm looking at what I enjoy most from those games, what makes that fun for me, and turn it into something to chew on during the day. (I figure since I only have about a month and a half left to code, I should stick with what I know - it'll be more fun to make a game that has a lot of coherent elements that I enjoy rather than me trying to create something with broader appeal within this time frame)
The original concept for the game came about 5 years ago when I worked part-time at an electronics store. I'd get bored and grab a pad of paper and a pen, pretending to do work when I really was jotting down ideas for web sites and games. I started to jot down notes about 'Elementalist' (then called four mages) out of a mix of my facination for elemental damage in RPGs (table-top and crpgs) and a recent experience in Ultima Online on a private server. I started jotting down ideas that basically fit into the UO engine, even though I knew practically nothing about the scripting engine for the game. Of course, the idea got shelved along with a baker's dozen more. I think I choose Elementalist over my other ideas as a response to a comment I read at an rpg site (the exact comment was "good luck getting your players to play anything other than a wizard..").
I'm hoping to have enough developed to provide you a link to the game by the first week of November. The database design is going well, and I expect to start populating the tables with meaningful test data next week. From there, the basics of the interface should fall into place (or at least, that's the hope). Since I'm defiantly doing a spiral approach to development (who doesn't?), I decided to use EAV Modeling for many aspects of my game. Overkill in some places, I agree, but this will give me the flexibility I need to hit the floor running once the database is done.
Until next time,
