My Entry: Moonstone-RPG

[Chris]

Team: 1

Code base: I start with a complete framewok (login, register, security, sending messages, shoutboxes, installer, admin panel, moderator panel, logs, draw colour bars, display notices & errors, timers handling, votesite reward) also might (depending on what game type I decide) use some universal features not related to any specific game (primitive kill monster routine, clans, inventory, item shop). In short, everything except gameplay and layout (I will probably add some parts of code from other projects too).

Game type: no clue yet

[Chris]

OK, I will be making a traditional fantasy RPG.

http://www.wildwestmmorpg.com (join "FantasyRPG" world, later it will get its own domain)
(The first strike in this competition belongs to me )


Day 1-2:
Gathered random pieces of code I have and made something playable. Very basic stuff. You get turns (energy) once in a while. There is a list of monsters, you attack one and get gold and experience. When hurt go and heal, when badly hurt need to visit a temple for revival. Once per day all players are revived for free. You can also attack players which do not affect your HP (always start with full HP and always end with the HP you had before), it also uses different set of turns (courage). Also tried to made a layout (turned out badly, since I could not decide on the colour set, looks really strange now ). Then made the whole installation stuff and bug fixes (why is it that there are always, always new bugs when you put your game online no matter how long you tested it on your local comp?).

Questions:
Layout - yeah, big problem, no idea how it should look like. I only know that the background will be dark (probably black). Any ideas?
PvP - it is confusing (most games make a HP loss), how to explain it to players?

[Chris]

Day 3:
Redone combat and statistics. Added dungeon (you need to find stairs to explore lower parts of the dungeon). Minor improvements of other parts.

[Chris]

Day 4-5:
OK, 1/3 of the competition time budget is out, time to start working for real. Finally I decided what the game will be about (I hate this part, coding is easy, but to make up oneself mind is a real torture, at least for me ). Made items (almost finished), also layout improved (still ugly but I saw worse, should be enough for now).

The game will focus on resistances (9 types) and item management. After a while player will face special monsters (like a dragon) that will be extremelly dangerous to fight against without a proper resistance (like fire resistance). The further the player goes the more difficult it become (since there is a limited number of item slots and resistance granting items while the need for resistances will increase all the time). There will be also special optional locations (lairs) populated by certain monsters (Ice Palace will have plenty cold based monsters and the reward will be an artifact, Crown of Ice, which grants... yes, cold resistance )

[Chris]

Day 6:
Decided on a game name! Do not laugh, this was a very hard thing to do Also configured domain, the server, etc (yep, most people think these are free, unfortunatelly these things use a lot of time as well). Fixed one small thing in the code.

Day 7:
Removed arena (I hate removing things, but it is simplier this way). Added a lot of functionality and made some rebalancing. At level 5 you can find a dragon, at level 10 cold casting wizard! Make sure to have equipped proper resistance granting items

http://moonstone-rpg.com

[Chris]

Day 8:
Content creation. New items and rebalancing of the old ones. New item properities. Also the treasure chest is working now.

I wonder if I should make more dungeons/locations or to stick with one dungeon only for now...

[Chris]

Day 9-11:
Monsters, items, monsters,  items and then... yes monsters, items.

My favourite is Garlic Amulet which makes a vampire to lose life instead of replenish it during drain blood attack

I wonder how to set item prices. I was thinking about "price = average fight reward of an equal oponent * 30" (items have level requirements). But it seems too low for later stages (you get 96 attacks per day, the round is 60-90 days, max level reachable during that time should be around 50). Any ideas?

[trollface666]

I wish I could help, but I am no coder.

I just wanted to say that I am following your game and it seems to be coming along very well. I like your game alot so far. I can't wait to jump into it

[Chris]

I wish I could help, but I am no coder.

I just wanted to say that I am following your game and it seems to be coming along very well. I like your game alot so far. I can't wait to jump into it

Oh, I will translate the question to human language then
Assuming the game lasts 60 days, it is the day 5 and you just reached 10 level as a warrior. You want to buy a new shiny sword. How long would you find "fair" to kill monsters and do quests to be able to afford it? Half a day, 1 day, 3 days? (by this I do not mean that you need to spent a whole day online, it just means you would need to spend all the adventure points which are given for that day to accumulate enough gold)


Day 12:
A bit of everything, shop upgrade, new items, rest option, layout and many small improvements.

[trollface666]

Oh boy, I don't even know how to answer that.

That would depend on the pace of me getting to 10 was in the first place. What the level cap for your game is. How fun it was getting to level 10.

I mean, I would be doing you a giant disservice by giving you any answer personally. And I don't want to do that unless I have an opinion worth shit.

Sorry

[Chris]

Day 13-14:
Layout! Finally (still ugly, but it looks like... well, it looks, that's good enough ). But it took me almost 2 whole days, insane, I hate layouts and gfx and css... Added also clans (implementation time 30 seconds , I love my clan and message module, every game can use it without any changes, I just have to change the naming file (clan/faction/guild, etc) and one variable determining how many members per clan allowed, really convenient).

Tomorrow the game will be on the proper domain and... start of the first test round

[Chris]

Official test round started!
http://moonstone-rpg.com

- the round will last till 10 December (probably)
- there will be heavy changes in the middle, but it is stable enough to play it and compete with other players

I'm looking especially for feedback about layout, colours, etc.

[davidjwest]

I'll join this tonight, hope I can help out.

[Murzim]

If you do not mind a couple of observations:

Layout:
-Blue links tire the eye. Perhaps selecting a bright grey color instead and a dark grey on roll over could be better. yellow could be an option.

Typos:
-Maximum depth is 0, explore the dungeon furthr to discover lower locations.

Possible Bug:
-I have noticed that during level up sometimes it does not level up you instantly. I had -70 xp required for level up and i got the level at next adventure. Same happens when you reset your character.

[Chris]

I will stop my dev journal now, there will be nothing exciting anymore, just an everyday update and small fixes until the deadline

Thanks for bugs report, these are dealt with on daily basis. The list of fixes is on the main in-game shoutbox.


Layout
Yes, this gives me a headache
- the game logo (Moonstone RPG) must be blue
- the background should be black
Everything else can be changed.

bright grey links - wouldn't these be not visible on the dark gray (the current one) background?

yellow links - I use already yellow for magic items, it might be confusing with links then (maybe change magic to orange?). Also the decorational bar is yellow, which should be changed then, right?

how about light blue links? or green links?

Any ideas?

[Murzim]

I will stop my dev journal now, there will be nothing exciting anymore, just an everyday update and small fixes until the deadline

Thanks for bugs report, these are dealt with on daily basis. The list of fixes is on the main in-game shoutbox.


Layout
Yes, this gives me a headache
- the game logo (Moonstone RPG) must be blue
- the background should be black
Everything else can be changed.

bright grey links - wouldn't these be not visible on the dark gray (the current one) background?

yellow links - I use already yellow for magic items, it might be confusing with links then (maybe change magic to orange?). Also the decorational bar is yellow, which should be changed then, right?

how about light blue links? or green links?

Any ideas?

green is considered the best for black but I personally do not prefer it.

So here is a personal approach:

Perhaps try a #808080 with no text decoration and a #c0c0c0 with text-decoration on rollover
Keep them in the center of the block but align them left and consider adding mini icons there in the future.
Finally, a GAME MENU title in #c0c0c0 color with #808080 border or vis versa, could add a bit to the menu.

[jannesiera]

Light grey is perfectly visible on black background. Just like white you know ...

[Chris]

Do you have any links to sites/games with black/grey & black/green layouts? I have a hard time deciding

I'm especially concerned with the buttons (while grey links would be OK, the buttons might be misleaded with other block grey decoration elements). Or maybe make them as outlined grey something? But then these would be hard to distinguish with edit/textarea. Argh! I hate making layouts a lot.

[Murzim]

Do you have any links to sites/games with black/grey & black/green layouts? I have a hard time deciding

I'm especially concerned with the buttons (while grey links would be OK, the buttons might be misleaded with other block grey decoration elements). Or maybe make them as outlined grey something? But then these would be hard to distinguish with edit/textarea. Argh! I hate making layouts a lot.

The slight changes you made, already made it better to the eye. I still believe though that using images for the section titles in the colors of your logo, would add something more.

For the links colors, check this site: http://sk.omgspider.com/?action=logs
Its a pure text one where I use a somewhat green font. Perhaps this can be the color you are after.

Anoter idea would be to use this blue color you are using as the background for menu and use white. I guess this is not such a good idea though as it will be probably too bright for the eyes of poor gamers but you can always test and see how it looks.

I would also propose not to use text ads but images ones. As they are now, they are dull and make the game apear heavy to the eye. But these also involves marketing strategy so just take this as serious you wish.

I believe the rest of the colors are fine.

Finally:


-And old, very, very old, almost ancient man looked at you above his desk filled with papers. 'Sorry my dear hero, but I'm not implemented yet. You shall bug the developer to finish my code. But when would he do it? I don't know. He always is doing monsters and items... It is not fair! How could monsters be more important than a royal councilor, heh? I beg you! Go to the forum and ask for me!-

good one

[jannesiera]

Lol   .

[Chris]

using images for the section titles in the colors of your logo

What are "section titles"? And by the logo colours you mean blue?

For the links colors, check this site: http://sk.omgspider.com/?action=logs
Its a pure text one where I use a somewhat green font. Perhaps this can be the color you are after.

It's called yellow, not green... but you make me feel better, there is someone even worse at colours than me
Any other colour ideas/examples?

Anoter idea would be to use this blue color you are using as the background for menu and use white. I guess this is not such a good idea though as it will be probably too bright for the eyes of poor gamers but you can always test and see how it looks.

I want a black background, do not know why, I just want it Maybe because the last game had white one, so I wanted something opposite?

-And old, very, very old, almost ancient man looked at you above his desk filled with papers. 'Sorry my dear hero, but I'm not implemented yet. You shall bug the developer to finish my code. But when would he do it? I don't know. He always is doing monsters and items... It is not fair! How could monsters be more important than a royal councilor, heh? I beg you! Go to the forum and ask for me!-

good one

Yes... when I code late at night it make me put strange words into NPCs mouths.

As for NPC quotes, I was thinking if I shouldn't make a different colour/style of their quotes.
At the moment it is like that:

The old warrior looked at you 'You are really brave to enter my shop without gold'. Then he drawn his sword and rushed to kill you.

Maybe put NPC quote in a table with different colours and such?

[jannesiera]

As for NPC quotes, I was thinking if I shouldn't make a different colour/style of their quotes.
At the moment it is like that:

The old warrior looked at you 'You are really brave to enter my shop without gold'. Then he drawn his sword and rushed to kill you.

Maybe put NPC quote in a table with different colours and such?

I wouldn't user other colour I think... But I haven't taken the time to go and see in-game.
And wouldnt that sentence be: The old warrior looked at you 'You are really brave to enter my shop without gold'. Then he drawed his sword and rushed to you to kill you.

[Scion]

nope he drew his sword....

[jannesiera]

Oh, heck, that's right .

[Chris]

Ignore spelling, it is way to early for this (also I haven't decided yet if it will be American English or English RP, so I do not know if this is considered an error or not ).


A few new versions released in the meantime. Bug fixes, balance changes, new features and content. The game is staring to work quite well.