My day job

This will come as a shock to a lot of you: I have a day job. And not just any job, I make games for kids! If you don't believe me, see the Graphogame demo for yourself: http://info.graphogame.com/

I'm the lead developer for games called Ekapeli and Graphogame. It's really fun and I enjoy the diversity. At the moment we have a team of four programmers including me, and a whole bunch of researchers going about in loops trying to figure out how to teach kids how to read. Some of you may know my darling wife Anne used to be one of those researchers, but that's another story.

I make most of the graphics for the games, though the other programmers help me as much as they can. Usually we use Inkscape, mostly because I wanted to learn it a few years back, and I think it gives a nice childish look.

Most days I end up working on games for over 10 hours, with first my day job and then work on Driftmoon. Sometimes I get them mixed up, at work we've begun implementing roleplaying stuff into Ekapeli, and at home I constantly have to fight the urge to use very simple language and easy missions.

So what do you think? Do I have a risk of getting a little schizophrenic with the totally different games I'm working on?

PS. We switched to a faster server. Anybody notice the difference?

Your opinions for combat: part 3

Here's the latest plan for combat:

• Clicking on an enemy will start combat. The characters will take turns to deal blows to each other. This is very similar to modern western RPG's, such as Knights of the Old Republic and Dragon Age.
• In combat you can choose to use special melee skills. You can learn these as the game progresses, probably from certain people (zelda style) or from leveling up.
• Total damage dealt is taken from the equipped weapon, so you still have an incentive to use bigger weapons. Using melee skills you can choose how to distribute the damage from the weapon, giving you a strategic benefit.
• Skills may be scripted using the Driftmoon scripting language. The system could easily be used for magic as well as combat.

• Berserk attack, deal plenty of damage to the enemy, but take some as well.
• Stun, enemy loses next turn.
• Swirling attack, damage to everyone around.
• Fire attack, time based damage.
• Concentrate strength to next attack.
• Armor piercing attack.
• Weaken enemy's shields for next attack.
• Reflect next attack.
• Block next attack.

For balancing, I'm thinking of a system where it would automatically make the less frequently used skills less expensive. Any thoughts on that?

Your opinions for combat: part 2

Thanks for the replies everyone, I'm really glad to hear all of your thoughts! Before seeing any replies I was assuming that everyone would be asking for more action oriented combat, and I'm pleasantly surprised by the responses. I prototyped the Notrium combat style, and the melee really is the part where it fails. It should be slow enough for me to understand what's happening, but if I make it slow enough, the rest of the game starts feeling too slow. And I couldn't get over the fact that the keyboard movement controls are not suited to indoors, especially if any corridors are not perfectly angled.

I really did think a lot about having a good old turn based Fallout 1/2 combat system, but it's probably not the kind of gameplay I'm looking for. I'm hoping for a more fluid gameplay where the combats are something that don't stop you unless you want it to. I remember disliking easier opponents in Fallout precisely because it would take that halfa minute to move your character and get that single shot.

I'm inclined to move from the current system to strategic level fighting. I liked your thoughts ZeXLR8er, so I started off from there. My current thinking is something like this:

• During the game you could learn many combat skills. These would be different kinds of attacks, stat boosts, stuns, maybe defence skills, you name it.
• In combat you could choose to use any of these skills with your current weapon. Your weapon stats would be used as the base for damage, boosted by the skill.
• Using the skills would have some sort of a cost. ZeXLR8er proposed the attack points system whereby using a skill would cost you some attack points which would slowly replenish.
• The problem with this is now, why wouldn't I always use the most powerful skill at my disposal? It could be balanced out by making it cost more, but it would still be the best skill and you'd always use it if you had the points. The best solution would be to make the skills equal in power, but each would bring new strategies to combat. And this is what I'm thinking now, what kinds of skills could there be, what skills would allow different strategies to be used?

Your opinions for combat

I've had the flue for nearly a week now, so I've had an opportunity to think about the combat in Driftmoon. It's pretty hard to think about swinging a sword when your body tells you to crawl under a blanket, so I've gotten nowhere. I think I need your help with this.

Should the combat be:

1. Similar to Notrium, only with much improved melee.
2. Like it is in the preview. A lot like Diablo.
3. More strategic, you command your characters to attack and they do the fighting. You don't deal out individual punches.
4. Turn based. Action points. Like old Fallout games or XCom.
5. JRPG: Separate combat screen with turn based rock/paper/scissor combat.

Which combat system do you prefer?

The year is starting!

I finally got my internet connection back! It's been very peaceful without it, I wholeheartedly recommend changing your ISP every once in a while - gives you a chance to catch your breath.

• A site I sometimes visit called Indieflux did a short preview of Driftmoon.

• I wanted to mention a game developer friend, Mika Halttunen.  http://www.mhgames.org/ His latest work is a Bejeweled clone named Jewels, which seems to be doing pretty well on the Android platform. And he's done a lot of PC games as well, my favourite being I have No Tomatoes. If you visit Mika's site, try to coax him into coming to work again.
• As for work on Driftmoon, I've been retooling the first portions of the demo to fit the new story. It's pretty tedious work, since I want to put in as little text as possible, but still keep it interesting and meaningful, while communicating the story I want to tell. I've already finished the part where you are a smith in the past for five minutes. Plus I put in fadeouts and fadeins! Modders can now fade the screen out by scripts, and to any specified color. It could perhaps be used for showing a red screen if you get very badly hit, or pretending you're walking in a mist.