Isometric RPG? Not that I am against it, but is Ren'Py the best starting point for it?

It wouldn't be the whole game, only during the missions. And it wouldn't be an isometric world with animated characters walking around and so on. Something like the first game sector exploration, but instead of using the ship it will be done at "closer range" and in isometric view.

Still a lot of development work, as Ren'Py does not support such maps out of the box. (OK, maybe I am wrong, I did put a few hours into learning the basics but not more.) On the other hand, it makes it easy to write dialogues, and has save/load and other stuff in the framework. Well I can see why you stick to Ren'Py, I just wanted to read how you did arrive at your choice. (Though generally I thought that having a framework for Isometric stuff and adding a dialugue system is more difficult than the other way round - but then I judge by the result not the tool. Based on what I have seen so far, most likely I will judge it will be worth my money and time.)

It's mainly because Ren'Py uses python which is light-years ahead of any other language (IMHO of course). I wrote a blog post about it some time ago: http://www.winterwolves.net/blog/2012/01/professional-developers-look-at-renpy/

Building an entire RPG on Ren'Py may not be the best choice to begin with, so what's a few more mini-games?

It's actually not a lot of development work. This system only took a day to establish and more time will only improve it. It's the alternative to the original PS1 system of using a spaceship to zoom around the desert side, looking for battles. It just has a different point of view (isometric instead of top-down). So really, it's not anything to be worried about.

As I posted in that blog, the only thing that is not really possible to do well in Ren'Py is things with a lot of movement on screen like a shoot'tem up (though with the Sprites class is possible in theory). But for any 2d game, no problems. Loren's code was already probably the most complex game ever made in Ren'Py (brag-mode on)

Planet Stronghold will always have a heart and home. Hell, it was splashed all over the /chans way back then.



Heh, I missed that shuttle zipping across the desert, and the big ass map.



This Isometric colony looks interesting. I would love to expend a few brain cells to make things work.



Cheers

Just played the new build of the iso map and is really promising. There's still quite some work to do, but I think I can already say that you won't be disappointed!

http://24.media.tumblr.com/0fa1a9e7ec34cb822d68d51e8684ed3f/tumblr_mnu15kfA9V1qhts2bo1_1280.png" style="max-width:100%">

here's a work-in-progress image of the isometric system. Of course lots of stuff is temporary, there will be other buttons, etc etc. Cheers to Aleema for her job on this one, I really like it

Looks great!



What do you think will be the size of the map in the final state? 5 by 5 may make sense for some tutorial mission, but I would like to have it more sprawling.

Well not sure yet, but the game won't feature big maps, since doing scrolling would be a bit problematic (can always connect two maps using doors/portals though). But as I said this is a sort of minigame, is not like the whole game outside the colony works that way. At least that's the current idea, as always things can change as time goes on

Oh, I am not really thinking of scrolling maps and epic dungeoncrawling. As WW games are story-heavy, having to slog through continents might not be fun for the gamers. But judging from the screenshot something in the size of 10*10 or maybe 12*12 should be possible, and give a bit more sense of exploration. Maybe put the element picture/clickable arrows in the corner instead of the center. Well, that's what I see in the screenshot, what is really possible and fun needs to be playtested.

Yes in that case no problems

Hello just checking to make sure I didn't miss anything. There isn't a set date yet, correct? and when do you plan to put the game on pre-order? I'm super excited for this (much like everyone else XD) and I don't want to miss anything!

No, since all of us were busy with real-life stuff However now things are going well, we're adding lots of stuff (like the isometric map exploration during missions) so is hard to give any estimate.

I hope it to be out before end of the year though, hopefully this Fall

YAY!! I'm so happy thank you so much! I hope everyone is doing well!! And stay awesome, flies into sunset.

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new video showing the new features in action! As always everything is WIP, some art, some texts, layout, etc but you get an idea of the gameplay now

Looks great! I'm looking forward to PS2 more than Loren 2 (not that both won't be great). One question though, how do you engage enemies in the isometric map? Walk into the square they occupy?

Yes exactly. So right now if there's an enemy hidden behind a door, you can't avoid the combat. But maybe will change the behavior based on some non-combat skills like Survival and similar.

If the second game is anything like the first I don't think I'll be doing much fight dodging. Grinding was too important in PS1 to skirt combat.