Legends of the Flaming Falcons

[Pherione]

The story:

After the failed Elvaron invasion by Earth, stability had only just returned to the worlds,

when ancient beings from between the worlds stir and slip through the seams into existence.

A crossroads in time comes over the Tournament of heroes in Daba city of which its victors shall decide over our fates...

The 3 lead characters
Jonas Drakon


Class: Dragoon Leader (balanced with buff shouts)
Age: around 200 years
Birthplace: Dragovia
Species: Draconian
In short:
Jonas Drakon, member of the once influential Drakon family, is one of the last
survivors of his race after his world was hidden inside a crystal to protect it
from a void invasion. He scours the worlds for the lost crystal to restore his
long lost home, Draconia. The Draconic Sceptre points to this crystal and let
that happen to be an artefact in the hands of the royal Daban bloodline. He’s
kind-hearted and noble with a practical attitude.

Shadowheart


Class: Dark lord (powerful dark magic and armour)
Age: ???
Birthplace: The beginning of the worlds
Species: Immortal
In short:
Highlord Shadowheart is the supreme ruler of the Hell Empire and the last of
the ancient immortals in known existence. He is enigmatic and his motives are
unknown. (Feel a plot-twist coming up ;-) ) He’s got a condescending attitude,
loves treating ordinary people as his underlings.

Blomme


Class: Blomme (tank, but more balanced than Shadowheart)
Age: 42
Birthplace: Blommian Castle
Species: Blommian
In short:
Despite his age, Blomme has witnessed the fall of the Blommian kingdom through
fire. Together with the survivors, he struggles to rebuild what was once lost.
When nature starts behaving oddly, he journeys to Daba Kingdom to find the
cause. He has a kind, optimistic nature, though sometimes oblivious of what has
been going on in the worlds.


In the upcoming demo:

Travel through:

-The Blommian village, castle ruins and miracle
forest and the beaches
-The Dark Lord’s Fortress and the Ashlands and firepits
-The entire Daba Province and Whitehill Province of the kingdom of Daba (with
Daba city, -port, -forest and -volcano, the grand library, glass cavern,
whitehill farms, the river cavern and the Earth Bunker)

Two minigames:

-VR combat Radia Battles, a collectible cardgame
-Cannonball Catch

3 interweaving and branching story lines for different experiences


Tech stuff

-a ctb battle system with overdrives and so on

-skill tree-based character growth
-Use of bestiary and journal
-Use of an overworld map
-event based puzzles and minigames
-sortable inventory
-advanced message system
-climate and weather system and day/night cycle
-crowd system, passer-bys,...
-difficulty selection, from ‘very easy’ to ‘Immortal’

-optional full-screen mode

Screenshots
(note: only screenshots in this post are from the newest version, other screens- such as quoted in other posts- might be outdated)
Top left to bottom right: Character selection, Story introduction of the chapter, Locations in the journal, Overworld, Introduction scene, overdrive, Nightmare Card for the card game

Content Hidden

Any constructive criticism is welcome. For more information PM me.

Current Status: Beta-Testing of the presentation project

We are now looking for beta testers! Apply today!

[rgangsta]

The story is good from what I see but you should a bit more to it. Like how and when the invasion took place and its purpose.
Also, The mapping could use some work. Maybe add some fogs and shading. That;s what I'm trying to do to my project. :D

[MetalRenard]

Interesting looking game since you seem to be putting a lot of work into it. Your ideas are good, like the fact that the story is about survivors from a great civilisation, you don't find that often.

rgansta is right about mapping, although it's not bad, you could do some more work with it.


This map seems to lack detail, it's a wide open space in a town/city which is quite rare, places that have that are either under populated or very wealthy, and even then it's rare. Try adding different types of floor tiles, monuments, buildings and the like.


This one is meant to be a "natural" place yet the edges are completely square. Try and keep natural places rather random (yet not random since plants of one type often grow in groups, so on and so forth).

Good luck and keep it up!

[Pherione]

Thank you for the comments everyone, a lot of good advice.

-Made custom shading layers for my maps (the standard ones are sooo dull). Also made lightmaps for my lamps and such for extra atmosphere indoors.
Edited a bunch of my maps to give them a more natural feel. Thanks for that.


-About the city square: Daba City is the capital of a kingdom. It got heavily damaged during sieges by Earth and they practically had to rebuild it for them since they ended up losing the invasion. I did add a place for tournament spectators to sit in the screen so it does look busier.


@rgangsta: Don't really have to add to it since I got it *looks at huge pile of notes*

The unification of Earth was only possible because the riftgate produced an income of riches for the Federation. They had to expand in order for people to actually believe in them. (in the end it was all about hard cash for everyone) They invaded through the gate in Northern Daba Forest and swept away the resistance of the Daba kingdom easily (modern future vs medieval swords and magic).
They expanded quickly but they wished to get hold of Metropolis technology, a city more advanced than Earth. Their major fleet was torn apart at a battle at Metropolis's walls and hence were forced to surrender their gained territories to the original owners and refund for caused damage.
To prevent Earth's demise, they were offered an alliance by the Elvaron nations involving trade, especially of technology.
The most important remains of the war are the Earthling's monetary union and bureaucracy which have been implemented in most of Elvaron (and later Hell).

->sorry for making it so long, my wiki is where I try to make sense of my story and notes. (see bottom of the first post for a link)

You can also find a full synopsis for the game there to get a general idea of the main story of the game, don't read it if you don't want spoilers though.


I'll place the demo up for beta-testing before releasing a final presentation version.
Will edit the first post in some moments with updated screens.

[Pherione]

More screenshots for the hungry.


Images of (respectively): (1)The dragon world, (2)Daba forest and (3)its south edge, (4) The Dark Lord's Fortress.





Hope someone likes them
Be sure to check out my lightmaps in (1), (2), which display morning light, late evening with upcoming fog.
More information, pm me, check my wiki or post here.
Constructive comments welcome as always.

[Pherione]

Bump and more screenies







1) there's one of those scrolling story splash screens at the start of the game now, to introduce the player to the game's story. In addition, as you progress through the game you get several chapters and story pieces in your journal
2) this is a screen from the starting scene of the game, very mysterious and not going to be cleared out in the demo, but since this is a pretty long story it's one of the pivotal moments in the story ;-)
3) One of the optional bosses in the nightmare crevasse in Hell, what follows is a battle in the dark and you can only see your enemy if you attack him
4) a screenshot to show the card art, you use cards to empower your monster in the Radia Battles minigame. There are a total of 10 cards to collect in the demo.
5) a battle screenshot, just showing the fact that the dynamic weather and time continues and changes while in battle. I also changed all the enemy graphics in case you noticed.


Once again, constructive comments please ^^

[xnadvance]

Liking the chapter introduction.
and hey, nice monster card screen. :)

[MetalRenard]

and hey, nice monster card screen. :)

I saw that and got over excited T_T
I thought it had something to do with the battle system but it's just a bestiary.

Maps look a bit better than before though still a tad empty. :)

[Pherione]

@MetalRenard: It's not a bestiary, the bestiary is another part of the extras menu and is where the normal monsters are shown.
The cards are for one of the minigames: Radia Battles, you can collect them and use them to power up your Radia Battles monster which you pick when you first start playing the minigame. There aren't only monster cards, but also equipment, character, area and skill cards. They all have their own unique effects when you apply them to your monster and certain card combinations work better than others.
So your first idea was right, they have to do with the minigame battle system.

[MetalRenard]

Why only a mini game? I used to love playing Yugioh and Kingdom Hearts (GBA) because of how ingenious the card battle systems were. I actually started making my own battle system based on those but gave up because of how long it took. If you can make that your standard battle system, hell, I'd PAY to have your game. ^^