Shards - The Shattered World (RPG)

Shards is a 2D HD RPG that is about reaction as well as action. Using a real time with pause battle system, instead of just getting hit by incoming attacks, players can evade or use them to their advantage. They can also interact with the environment and use nearby traps as weapons. These and other elements enable players to be creative in combat.

All of this happens in a somewhat Zelda-like world, with traps and such that players use their abilities to make their way past.

High resolution expressive characters help tell a humorous tale of adventure and love. The graphics above are in-game sprites.

Shards is still very early in development, but I've already got basic exploration working and the beginnings of the battle system.

This is my dream game. I've been working on the design of the idea for years - it's the game that I was planning to make before I started loot pursuit as a warm up project to learn how to make games in the first place. I'm glad I waited, because now the design is way better than it was before!

I don't want to reveal too much about it yet, but I wanted to start showing stuff. With loot pursuit I basically didn't show anything as I worked on it, and as such it has languished in obscurity. With shards, I'll be showing much more as it's developed.

Looks great!

Looking good at this point...

Cool. I'll be waiting for the updates!

It looks fantastic like the rest of your work!

That game sounds/looks like it'll be great, can't wait to hear more about it!

Thanks!

I should mention the pace of development on this game isn't going to be very fast - not only is it an RPG which requires a lot of work as it is, I have some health problems which make it so I can't work on it very much.

I'm going to try to post at least monthly updates, but there will probably more info and maybe a video of some part of it in the next couple weeks (if I can get it to a point worth recording).

Sounds interesting! Good luck with the project.

Sounds very nice!

Keep up the work and don't worry 'bout the time it will take you to get further into development - we can wait ;)

Arima

The game looks great!

I was wondering if you removed enemy encounters? The generic run into monsters and enter battle sequence that you normally see in traditional rpg's? You also mentioned "real time", so does that mean the battle system won't be similar to loot pursuit?

Other than that good luck on the project and keep us posted. RPG's are always time consuming which is the reason why my group quit on ours. Maybe we'll work on a new one in the future.

WOW! i wish i was that good at 2d art

Thanks! retrodude - The battle system is quite different from loot pursuit's. The action happens in real time, but the player can pause at any time to input commands. The game also auto pauses after a character has finished their command, and the player can hold down a key to advance time in slow motion for precise timing of actions. There's an auto attack feature for quickly tearing through weak enemies - or they could sometimes be avoided altogether.

Enemy encounters happen on the same screen as exploration, so there's no transition whatsoever. This will make battles have more variety and be more interesting by making the environment relevant. For example, it could result in danger for the player, with an incoming trap that the player has to deal with at the same time as fighting an enemy, but the player could be creative and turn it around by knocking the enemy into the trap instead while getting the player characters out of the way. Enemies can also hit each other, so you could hide behind an enemy when you've got a homing attack coming towards you and the enemy will get hit instead. It has lots of ways like that to fight indirectly.

Because of the system set up like this, with all characters basically taking their turns at once, it incorporates a lot of my favorite aspects about battle engines from games I've played - you can interrupt enemies from casting spells like grandia, everything is moving at once sort of like suikoden, distance to enemies and position matters like final fantasy tactics, etc, all while incorporating some new aspects that makes it unique. Or at least, I haven't heard of any other RPG that does what I'm trying to, but I certainly haven't played them all.

Looking forward to a demo. :)

Update:

Progress continues. There are new abilities, a new enemy, the characters can leave/enter areas, I've implemented the start of the tutorial system, worked on the ui, fixed bugs, etc, and I've begun the level editor.

Some info about how the game is going to be released:

As it takes longer for me to work on something than most people, and honestly, the game is a lot to tackle as one project, I'm going to release the game in stages instead.

Stage 1: prototype/proof of concept

Stage 2: first section of the game

Stage 3: first story arc as its own game

Stage 4: second arc

Stage 5: third arc

Having a prototype will help me to make sure people like it and it's at its best. It has 3 separate individual arcs anyway, and each will be long enough for a complete game (small for an rpg, nowhere near a hundred hours or anything, but enough), so it seems appropriate to make it a 3 part trilogy rather than one big game, as each part will stand alone just fine (I know, I know, I have a problem with being overly ambitious. I don't care ^^).

The battle system is quite playable as it is, but there isn't enough yet to give a proper impression of what playing the game will be like. It's still months away from being ready (it's probably half done), but I'll update again before then when I have something to show.

That's understandable but not good to hear.

Personally from what I understand, I'd rather see a complete game in 1 package than seperate games which have huge gaps of time inbetween them — the game may be forgotten and anticipation is hard to bear for very long (fans will start pressuring the creator), not to mention that most developers will lose significant amounts of motivation and passion to continue working on the game once it's been released and the main source of continuing is the feeling of obligation (from my experience and from what I've seen in the industry and from friends). Even Notch got tired of working on Minecraft when it was hugely successful and what if your game isn't well received by many? I can't see that working as motivation. Although this may of course not be an issue for you! Just sharing my thought.

Why not just shorten the scope instead, and release a complete game?