For anyone (maybe two of you lol) who have been following my progress, I have an update!
My cute little minimalist DRPG "Help! We've All Become Slimes!" should be all balanced and ready for release by mid August!
I didn't want to have to delay since it's just a silly little project but life be life.
I present to you a small clip of my niece running around and doing her thing.
For the 2 people who have been following my work, Help! We've All Become Slimes! was going to release on June 29th on Itch.
Unfortunately I've had to move halfway across the country, so I'm going to have to delay release by at least another month. I'm not setting a date just yet.
I was really hoping to let people get a good feel for my engine and game design, but I guess that'll have to wait a bit longer. It's annoying moreso because the game is done, but I just need to fully balance the last 4 levels.
Thank you! ❤️
Hey!
If you've followed any of my posts thus far, you'll know I'm working on a pretty massive openworld-ish classic DRPG inspired by games like The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Wizardry, and a ton of other gems. But as you'd expect, Darkspan Adventures: Marule won't be anywhere near ready for release until at least very late this year.
While getting the engine into shape many moons ago, I did put together a far more contained classic dungeon romp for testing purposes. Then last week I opened it back up again and realised it's actually quite fun to mosey around in. The vibe is cute, silly, and super minimal. The dungeons are all pretty unique. There's tons of loot, enemies, party customisation, quests, and a suspicious amount of lore. Plus lots more!
Since the game is already laid out in full, all I need to do is crack on with balancing, and then I'll drop Help, We’ve All Become Slimes! on itch for free on the 29th of June.
It's a small adventure, about 3-4 hours if you dig into everything and try to find every little secret. Just keep in mind, it's just a cute little game. The music isn't exactly professional grade, and I was still very much wrapping my noggin around pixel art design at the time.
Plus! You can play it in your browser. Easy self-contained peasy.
While Help, We’ve All Become Slimes! doesn't have a page yet, you can follow my updates and progress on Darkspan Adventures: Marule here: Darkspan Adventures: Marule by Darkspan
First, I just wanted to say a huge thanks for the kind words and feedback on my last post. I was beyond nervous to share my work, but you are all amazing.
Since the game isn't in a state to actually show of yet due to how HUGE it is, I threw together a quick area to show of a few basic things. Mostly just wandering around, interacting with a few NPCs, receiving a quest from one, visiting a town, and the day/night cycle (set to a very small step range for example's sake). The video is cropped to hide my debug tools.
I am also creating all the music for the game, and take a ton of inspiration from the Mother series. Though, I am well aware I'm not the best composer.
The engine should be where I want it to be in another month or so. Then I can start development proper.
My main issue left to tackle is "NPC lives". Which is what I am calling my simple NPC system where they can travel at will (with limits), and get into trouble along the way. Even dying if they run into a tree hard enough... I wish that was a joke, but never look a gift horse in the mouth when a bug is too good to kill. It's quite a fun system to see at play, and adds some interesting encounters and oppertunities for player's who look around enough. All without breaking questlines.
All textures and the exploration track are placeholders. The overall UI is also just in place so I can test with ease.
Thank you all for being amazing. If you have any questions, I'm here to answer.
https://darkspan.itch.io/marule
I will eventually be putting the game up on Steam. But obviously I can't put a realistic timeframe on what's effectively a working skeleton.
I'm not sure where to start honestly.
I'm a huge fan of classic crawlers. Dungeon Hack, M&M, Proving grounds. And I've always wanted to have a crack at creating my own. So that's exactly what I've been doing since February.
My goal has always been a bit ambitious and takes inspiration from two of my all-time favourite games. M&M VIII and The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. So, I noodled that over for quite some time in 2024, planned a lot (so many notebooks), then got to fiddling with a very basic, but feature-rich and mechanically complex engine. It's nothing mind blowing, but it does exactly what I want. That is; Create a game that's classic feeling in all the right ways, but contains all the features you'd expect from a modern RPG.
Anyway, that's enough rambling. The Dark Span: Marule will feature:
- Pure grid-based movement, and turn based combat. Don't worry, traversing the land isn't slow at all. And you'' be heard pressed to get about without tripping over something cool.
- A dense (but huge), hand-crafted open world.
- 88 fully explorable locations, not including many unmarked (more intimate) locations.
- Tons of classes.
- Over 300 unique items and weapons (may change).
- Deep party customisation.
- Lots and lots... and lots of lore.
- NPC's that live their own (minimal) lives, travelling the world, visiting their family, all sorts.
- Too many unique quests to mention.
- Day/night cycle (including night-only monsters/enemies) and dynamic weather.
- A visual style that's cosy and retro, but invites and rewards exploration.
If I was to summarise and put a tidy label on the game, Id say I wanted to create the sprawling, charming, and dense RPG I wish had existed on my 2600, but never did until the likes of Morrowind came along. I wanted a world you could step into, see a thing in the distance, think "that looks cool" and have nothing stopping you from heading that way. Main quest be damned!
I'm about 30% of the way there, but progress is smooth since I planned and noodled over everything in advance.
One tiny thing worth mentioning. I'm no master artist, so the game has settled into a basic, but surprisingly comfy aesthetic that works across all kinds of areas and biomes.
If all goes well, you can expect to see The Dark Span: Marule some time this winter.
Got any questions? Ask away.