Denial

Looks wonderful!

Heather

Love the addition of the (new) Vic-man.

SkydivinGirl wrote:Looks wonderful!

Heather

Thank you! I'm grateful to darkatx and all the other contributors (R'Zo, Mike, Ruby Golem and more) who also have made the realization of this project, possible.

ral-clan wrote:Love the addition of the (new) Vic-man.

It would be almost immoral to not include the Vic-Man in the technical section of the manual. This is first and foremost, a VIC-20 game.

I've had a few people ask me if a C64 version is coming out. While I've considered switching to the C64 in the past, I've decided that Realms of Quest is an RPG series for the VIC-20. I was also somewhat apprehensive of competing with already-existing RPG games for the C64 like Ultima V. Although, I think that while Ultima V does certain things better than Realms V, I think there are things that Realms V does better than it. It's all about what you want to emphasize in an RPG game.

Here's more artwork supplied by darkatx for the manual. I also started to actually do some proper playtesting for the game where I prepared a document with a list of things to verify to make sure that everything works properly in the game. I want at least to make sure that the game can be solved. I'm going to use an OpenPandora which is a Linux-based handheld gaming device that is running the VICE emulator.

Nice device! Why not play-testing it thoroughly on the real machine though? I mean, it could show hidden glitches which the emulator just couldn't, well, emulate . Maybe it's a bit an exercise of perfectionism, but the best game ever for the Vic HAS to be perfectly polished, hasn't it?

orion70 wrote:Nice device! Why not play-testing it thoroughly on the real machine though? I mean, it could show hidden glitches which the emulator just couldn't, well, emulate . Maybe it's a bit an exercise of perfectionism, but the best game ever for the Vic HAS to be perfectly polished, hasn't it?

I live in a small condo apartment with small children of my own and space is a premium where I live. Trust me--it's much more practical to be using this device to playtest my game.

And I can also let you all know that Realms III and IV have been developed and tested primarily on a PC running an emulator. I think the last game that I programmed entirely on a VIC-20 was Theater of War I back in 2010.

My publisher says that he will test and playthrough the entire game on an actual VIC-20 he is getting set up. So there is that.

Today, I did more playtesting. I didn't find any bugs, but i had to make a minor text correction. Here's a photo of my encounter with a woodland pixie NPC that I created last year.

Oh, and this thread is now two years old. That's basically how long I've been working on it. Not including many months of thinking and procrastination about how I would accomplish doing such a project!

Your dedication is outstanding and I'm sure I can speak for most Vic-20 owners when I say it'll be well worth the wait...

They do say that all good things take time, after all!

Cheers,

Mike.

Not sure if this has been discussed, but will the game have an option to give me a party of pregens that already have some starting gear equipped? Kind of like the good old A-Team of classic Bard's Tale.

JavaJack wrote:Not sure if this has been discussed, but will the game have an option to give me a party of pregens that already have some starting gear equipped? Kind of like the good old A-Team of classic Bard's Tale.

That's a good question? Hmmm, Ghislain is there any room in the game for that?

:::looks around at his surroundings:::

How on earth did I even get here? Where did all my coffee go? Why am I only seeing pictures in black and white now?

I need rest...

darkatx wrote:

JavaJack wrote:Not sure if this has been discussed, but will the game have an option to give me a party of pregens that already have some starting gear equipped? Kind of like the good old A-Team of classic Bard's Tale.

That's a good question? Hmmm, Ghislain is there any room in the game for that?

There is a Quickstart option on the main game title screen that gives you a premade set of starter characters. They all have some basic equipment. Here's an image of Realms of Quest V's A-Team.

rubygolem wrote:There is a Quickstart option on the main game title screen that gives you a premade set of starter characters. They all have some basic equipment.

Perfect! Thanks

mingle wrote:Your dedication is outstanding and I'm sure I can speak for most Vic-20 owners when I say it'll be well worth the wait...

They do say that all good things take time, after all!

Cheers,

Mike.

Thank you! Hopefully it will all be done soon. I gave my publisher a tentative date of May 31 for the project being fully completed. Now, this includes all of the testing and refinements being done as well as a few odds-and-ends.

Right now I'm in the middle of testing to make sure that the game can be solved. I started this playthrough on Feb. 1 and I can presume that with all of the maps of the game world at my disposal, along with auto encounters being turned off, it takes somebody like me 20-30 hours to solve it. For others who don't have such resources, I imagine that this is an 80 to 120 hour RPG game.

JavaJack wrote:Not sure if this has been discussed, but will the game have an option to give me a party of pregens that already have some starting gear equipped? Kind of like the good old A-Team of classic Bard's Tale.

See what rubygolem said. I made sure to include a Quick Start option this time around to help casual players and the gaming press to be able to jump right into playing the game right away. I didn't see much in the way of reviews for Realms III and IV because most game reviewers are the penultimate casual players and to create a party from scratch and equip them requires several hours of time commitment. The quick start party I designed was created from scratch by myself, as well.

120 hours ... This game will possibly be our companion for a lifetime!