Tilesets and such

Coolness. Been a while since I've posted here, thought I'd put a few interesting screens up. This is a view of the new look of the swamp dungeon, the second major dungeon in Shades of Resonance. I've recently utilized BulletXt's tileset swapper SwapXT. It's very nifty, should allow me to do quite a bit more than I have, as you can see.

Also, just for the heck of it, here's a little piece of the world map for Prominence of Aeons:



Woot! Check out the Iravelon site if you want to compare Prominence's map to Shades.' Maybe you'll come up with some theories of your own.

Progress

Well, if you're following this blog and haven't checked the actual website for Iravelon in some time, you really should. The project has evolved beyond its simple beginnings, and is also no longer my only game project.

Updates include:

• New[er] world map - - - It's interesting how much progress you can see by simply looking at how the world map has evolved. Idavoll has become a much more complex world representing a much larger and realistic environment.

Let's look at the map progress over time, starting with the RPG XP version:


Then, changing to RPG VX...

Then to a much more realistic version...


Aside from the larger world, we also have other new elements to consider.

• Two new additions to the eventual Iravelon series - Variance of Fates and Essence of Eternity.
• The introduction of REMIX, a side project I am working on.

• EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK: I have also begun another side project called D.R.T.B. What does it stand for? You'll just have to wait and see. :D

Most of this you would already know if you visited my site, so make sure you check iravelon.com often!

Difference

Earlier today, I may have posted the fact that I've switched to RPG Maker VX. Or that I now have a website thanks to a few awesome internet nerd friends of mine (iravelon.com, btw).

That may have been change enough.

But the difference has just been elevated. The story has been reworked based on another small idea. It's the same basic story, and yet... it has evolved in ways I'm only beginning to fathom.

No evidence will rear its head quite yet, but... in short, it has changed the depth of the story... and the meaning of Iravelon itself.

Lack of Updates = Yes

Obviously I've not updated in some time, which is mainly due to the lack of real progress and such. However, since I actually do have followers and such, and I need to have something going, I'll do another update into the character side of things.

The character thing is something I've been grappling with for some time. I'm not sure if I want to make the default character list only four or have eight characters instead. I believe I'm probably going to go with eight, so here are the other four (tentative) members of the main group starting in Shades of Resonance.


Myleena
I don't know much about her character yet. I know she's a very skilled fighter, and I think she's a bit aloof.


Mira
She's part elf, one of the descendants of the elves that used to live in the forests of the west.


Cid
Named for the reoccurring Final Fantasy character name, he's an overall amiable character, liked by everyone.


Vardar
A bit of an unconventional cleric, he's powerful physically and skillful with magic.


So those are the remaining characters for Shades of Resonance. If I can't get around to posting some actual progress, the next update will likely be about the characters of Prominence of Aeons, as they are a different set.

Shades of Resonance - Characters

I thought I'd do a bit of a character overview. While it's not a big update, it's at least something fairly important.


Ian
A strong willed young man who isn't exactly the most powerful person in the group. He's a respected leader once things actually start going the adventure sort of way, and he's quick to adjust to change. He's a skilled spearman, but also a kind and caring individual.


Lou
Ian's best friend since they were young. He's an axe wielding tough-guy, but he can sometimes be a bit dense. Always a good guy to have around, whether in a fight or in need of a friend.


Zuzu
Another of Ian's old friends (since everybody knows everybody else in Idavoll, anyways). She's a bit of a clown, kinda goofy. She's a fierce fighter, though. Even Lou knows not to cross her when she's angry.


Andrea
An accomplished mage following in her family tradition. She's kind and caring, and intelligent too. She's well known and well liked around town as she gets along with everyone, but she also likes to keep to herself sometimes.


Wrath
A mysterious sorcerer. Not much is known about who Wrath is or where he came from, or even what he's after. It's fairly easy to see that he's not exactly the benevolent type.

Additionally, the map of Idavoll, where the Shades of Resonance takes place -

It's not the biggest world... it's actually rather small; however, this world has seen its share of harsh times, and will see more in the future.

EDIT: By the way, I suppose I should note that the characters are default models from RPG Maker XP. I'm not the best character artist, nor could I translate any decent art I've done into the computer for use with RPG Maker.

Shades of Resonance

A bit more background...

So far I’ve gotten partway through the first game, Shades of Resonance. They’re all classical type RPG’s made in RPG Maker XP.

I’ll try to give a brief preview of the first one, though I know the entire progression already.

Shades of Resonance

The story begins at the end of another story. A group of young warriors face and defeat a great evil being, only to be tossed into the past and forget all that they have done. Events begin to unfold as before, until a mysterious stranger tells them of a grave threat to their world – shadows of beings who resemble the warriors! Through the renewal of times forgotten and the alteration of future events, the world, and eventually much more, will be altered forever.

Now that the cliche ridden synopsis is done…

The main selling point of these games is the story and the way it is told. RPG Maker XP is somewhat limited as far as the visual side of things, though I plan on pushing those limits quite a bit. The story is one that spans worlds beyond the conventional, and sends the player through not only space and time, but through an entire course of the evolution of a world. I’m using alot of satire on popular gaming and culture (reminiscent of and based on Earthbound’s use of satirical humor). For starters, one of the dungeons in Shades of Resonance bears a striking resemblance to an old Zelda dungeon. Oh yeah, and Shades of Resonance is unique in the series for how you save. Let’s just say… “*Hop* Save your game?”

Characters

Ian – The main character, who starts out as the conventional RPG hero and grows to become much more by the end of the series. He is a spear-user, contrary to the usual sword-wielding main hero.

Wrath – The main antagonist of Shades of Resonance. His power is unmatched throughout this universe. This is probably because he’s not from this universe, but from another universe called Iravelon.

Locations

Shades of Resonance, which is the first one I’m going into until I get closer to its completion, occurs on a small planet called Idavoll. Let’s just say that the second game branches out a bit further than just one planet. Also, the third and fourth happen at different ages entirely.

A few screenshots:

A confrontation to start things off:

The discovery of an ancient passageway near the beginning of the game:

A bit of a nod to old school Zelda:

Status:

The project is fairly early in its life, but the good thing is that the entire storyline (minus some specifics) is laid out in my mind and roughly on paper.
I’m about a third of the way through making Shades of Resonance, and will hopefully get much more done in the coming weeks. After more of it is completed, I’ll post more about the rest of the games.

BTW:
If anyone has any nifty RPG XP spaceship sprites, I'm looking for some that I can use.

Iravelon

Well, I've finally started a development blog.

Okay, overview.

Iravelon is a game series that I'm working on. I'm using RPG Maker XP to make it. I'm currently in the middle of making part 1, titled "Shades of Resonance."

A bit of project background -
The project really started at first as an attempt to make a game version of a story that a friend and I have been working on. As I started getting into it, I realized that the software didn't really suit the story idea, and began to mess around with a few other ideas. Eventually, a basic story came into being.

At that point, the game had the same name as the story - Oblivion.



A while passed, and a few issues presented themselves. The most obvious was that was a title already used in a game, and it led to some confusion. I hadn't planned on selling the game, so that wasn't the issue. It was simply the fact that a few people said "Oblivion, isn't that already a game?" Additionally, the name didn't really go with the story. So I endeavored to figure out a new name - not because it was that important at the time, but because it would make the game a bit more personal if I could come up with an original title.

That led to the next title - Resonant Shadows.



I liked that title well enough. Though I wasn't exactly satisfied with my Photoshop work for that one.

As development progressed, I found some add-on materials for RPG Maker. I had been toying around with the idea of making the game into a multi-part series before, and the new material made me sure of it. After doing some thinking, the project suddenly expanded radically. I came up with a ton of new ideas that reshaped the storyline, and the project grew from one game to four. Because of the way the games worked, the name had to be changed. Plus... I just wasn't really satisfied with Resonant Shadows anyways.

So the series came to be called Iravelon. Iravelon is the fusion of a few words, such as "Ira," which is latin for "wrath" (the name of the main villian).



I came up with the individual game titles as well -

Shades of Resonance,



Echoes of Influence,



Prominence of Aeons,



and Age of Shadows.



So that's the general overview of the project at this point. I'll go into a bit more detail about what kind of work I'm doing in later posts.