Frayed Knights - Revisiting Pokmor Xang

Dhruin

SasqWatch
Joined
August 30, 2006
Messages
11,842
Location
Sydney, Australia
Jay Barnson has kicked up a new Frayed Knights update which, among some other stuff, discusses the differences between the pilot oh-so-long-ago and what you'd see now. Here's a cool snip:
But lets assume you were to ask me, “Hey, if I were to play the old pilot and then play the new and play through that segment in Frayed Knights 1, what differences would I expect to see?” Then I might offer the following as laundry-list as the main answers (though having forgotten how the pilot actually played, I’d have forgotten a lot of changes):

  1. Movement is faster, movement and looking around is a LOT easier, and can be customized by the user.
  2. Combat has changed substantially, though it retains the same basic feel (abstract positioning, ranks of enemy monsters, turn-based). But aside from that – well, there’s just a lot more to it, requiring more tactical play.
  3. More intelligent AI (especially with spellcasting), and enemies tend to be much more unique in terms of abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Pus golems, in particular, will have a gross new special ability…
  4. More special effects and better feedback on actions
  5. The ability to level up (with a new ability you can choose at every level).
  6. More hidden secrets.
  7. An optional special area inaccessible until later in the game.
  8. The town of Ardin is VASTLY expanded, though you still won’t be able to wander around much the first night.
  9. You can actually buy and sell from the merchant.
  10. A very different inventory management system.
  11. Different areas of the dungeon have titles / announcements as you enter and leave them.
  12. You should be able to see (and avoid) some encounters before combat begins. And yes, some of the monsters are on regular patrols.
  13. A little more history and stuff to poke at in the dungeon (and a LOT more in the town).
  14. The journal will actually update as your quest changes and you discover new things (and you can add your own notes, if you feel so inclined)
  15. Some loot will be randomized. So it won’t be exactly the same every time.
  16. Some general bug-fixes and miscellaneous improvements to the dungeon and game.
  17. And the best part – the story continues from there.
More information.
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
11,842
Location
Sydney, Australia
OUCH - You caught me in-between edits on that one! That first sentence was a doozy. (Probably the rest of it was, too --- one day I will learn to proofread before I hit publish...)
 
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
624
Hey, even if the game is no fun, I can know that I *still* provided you with almost limitless entertainment :)

But I hope the game is fun, too.
 
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
624
you forgot to add
- It's now more epic, darker, grittier, and more mature!
It's obvious you don't have a proper marketing department :)
 
Joined
Sep 23, 2008
Messages
5,645
Location
Tardis
Guilty as charged.

I'm not really sure what any of those are really supposed to mean when it comes to RPGs. I mean, really, what's this mean to a marketer?

"Epic?" According to the dictionary, it could mean long, majestic, or great. Yeah, sure. Whatever.

"Grittier?" I'd think "Grittier" would mean "More realistic," but hell, no, no marketing person wants anything like THAT in a game, unless you are talking about graphics. Then it's fine.

"Darker?" According to marketingspeak, this means, "Good guys die."

"More Mature?" According to marketingspeak, this means, "More sex 'n blood!"

I'm writing this for people who just want to play a fun, frivolous, old-school-ish RPG.
 
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
624
You are one of my heroes. Jay the defender of the truly funny and classic RPGS :) Keep up the good work!

Whatever happend to humor in rpgs anyways. Quest for Glory was a riot……I've tried to think of others, but I'm drawing a blank. QFG is the only rpg that I can recall right now that had a sense of humor to it's tale. Never realized how little there are that actually try to tickle your funny bone while you play.

Edit: Just found another one, Grotesque: Tactics. I like how it made fun of itself and didn't take everythins so dang seriously. Exact opposite of a JRPG, imo.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Feb 3, 2007
Messages
5,347
Location
Taiwan
Whatever happend to humor in rpgs anyways.

I was asking myself exactly this question the other day. ;)

If it ever comes out in your territories, then you should imho try out the "Book of unwritten tales", it's an adventure game (haven't played it yet) that just makes fun of fantasy worlds and RPGs ! ;)
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
21,908
Location
Old Europe
This list is a great lesson in what to expect as an indie developer. RC made a decent, functional pilot, thinking he was getting close to a beta build, only to discover that he had just reached the starting line.

All these other features will make for an excellent game, but at the end of the day all these details aren't icing, they're mandatory if you want people to play your game. Discovering twelve or fifteen times that the bulk of your work is still ahead is what games development is all about.

Congratulations on being much closer to finishing!
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,470
Location
USA
Thanks Alrik for the head's up on the game. Not sure if it will ever come out in Enlgish. Couldn't find any news about it. The reviewers and few places I found people talking about in English seemed to agree that it is one great game.

Bard's Tale...now that one I have mixed feelings about. Loved the humor in it. Hated the gameplay. The three goblins (or goblin-like creatures) singing about "the chosen one" was great.
 
Joined
Feb 3, 2007
Messages
5,347
Location
Taiwan
You forgot to mention more quests and other content. (unless I'm wrong and you haven't added more quests to the town since the pilot.)

PS. Thank you for making this game since it pretty much combines my most favorite series of games ever. (Might and Magic and Quest for Glory)
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
1,596
The pilot was always intended to be just a piece of the RPG. I'd never made an RPG before, the idea was kinda retro and a little weird, I had a lot of little ideas I wanted to try out, so I figured I'd put together a miniature RPG as a test to a real audience of hardcore fans and see what happened. If it had been dismissed and rejected entirely, I wouldn't have gone on with the full project.

Anyway, the list above is only of the changes to that tiny piece of the game that was in the pilot. It represents, by my best guess, less than 1/15th of the total game at this point. I haven't done careful timings yet at this point to tell you for sure.
 
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
624
Back
Top Bottom