Update, if anyone is interested...

As some of you may know I started a project a while back on a old-school, 2D CRPG in the vein of Bard's Tale/Wizardry/Might and Magic.

The project has changed a lot. I now have made it party-based, had a lot of interface changes etc. I got some messages from board members on here and from a few other sites about the progress.

The site is being totally re-vamped ATM, but here is a screen to give people an idea of what I am working toward. The site should be up in a couple of weeks at www.b3software.net. Comments welcomed.

http://i539.photobucket.com/albums/ff360/chiparnett/Untitled111.png

I recommend investing in graphical assets (at least time, as in, time needed to find some nice free pictures). Yes, yes, graphics aren't important and all that, and I agree, but there's a limit many players won't pass no matter the gameplay, and I fear your (current!) graphics are way beyond this limit for most people.

Still, good luck with your project in any case! I'll be paying attention..

It's a piety that graphics are so important this is killing indies games. But I agree that graphics could be a limit for many players but I have some doubt that those players can be interested by a 2D CRPG in the vein of Bard's Tale/Wizardry/Might and Magic.

Personally, if that load screen is an example of the game's concept artwork, I like it very much. I'm assuming actual game visuals would be modeled a bit differently. I do agree that graphics keep me away from some indie games like Spiderweb's in particular, but that isn't so much because of the simple style as because of the readability of their maps, and the difficulties the graphics add to the actual gameplay for me. Depths of Peril had pretty basic graphics, but I enjoyed the game because the graphics were clear, readable and functional despite being colorful and cartoony.

Anyway, best of luck with your project and keep us updated--we love to cover indies here.

Any party based game would be most welcome on my computer. For me I don't mind how it looks as long as it has balanced gameplay and lots of features for my guys to aspire to. I will buy it even if you sold it like that. However, I wouldn't recomend that. I'm not usualy the norm even in niche products like these. But Keep up the good work.

I played some Avernum Spiderweb and don't remember to have any problem of clarity, I suspect this is more subjective than objective. Or perhaps it's for different Spiderweb games. But I agree that clarity is an important thing and sometimes modern (or older) games suffer of this problem.

Hey if you like colorful and cartoony you must try Realmz!

Definitely keep us updated and we will be able to organise some feature articles for you as the time for release draws near.

Thanks Corwin, and everyone else for that matter.

This has really become an obsession for me. I miss the old days of party based CRPGS. Nothing new really fits the mold of what I used to love, what got me into PC RPGS.

I am first and foremost making the a game that I have been wanting to play, and the deeper I get into making it, the more fun I am having!

Lots of changes will be forthcoming, I am sure. But it really is starting to move faster than I expected, so I will get some gameplay stuff up real soon.

Graphics look absolutely fine to me, so long as the gameplay & story are there I can't see them presenting any kind of obstacle to enjoyment