Folks, I don't think I have to tell you, but this is REALLY exciting. Cryptic designs has put out a demo of a game made in RPGds. The demo is just a beta, but it shows that the system really has a lot of promise.
Before I get started, I want to say this. A lot of this might sound negative, but this is only a beta version. Things aren't going to work exactly right, or it wouldn't be a beta! I am just telling you all that I can about what it does and how it works as of now.
First of all, there is a requirement that a lot of users might not meet: you have to have DirectX version 8.1 or higher. The prior versions do not support the 3d features that RPGds requires. You can find out what DirectX version you have by clicking on the Start Button, and choosing "Run." Type in dxdiag.exe and click ok. On the first tab, in the middle of the dialogue, you'll see a list of specifications. At the bottom of this list, it tells your DirectX version. If it is not 8.1 or higher, you must go to the DirectX Download page on Microsoft's website, www.microsoft.com/directx, and download the current version, which is 9.0. If you have dialup, I'd download the redistributable version so you can download it all at once and then install. Of course, it is ~30Mb, so you might just want to do what I did. Ask a friend with a cable modem to d/l if for you and burn it on a cd!
Ok, on with the review...
I did experience a few bad side-effects on the system, but minor stuff. All it did
was mess up the screen or freeze the computer, both of which were fixed by simply restarting.
We do have to keep in mind that this is only a beta. I am sure that little bugs like
that will be worked out eventually. Now that I think about it, the fact that I am running Windows Me
might have added to the problems...
*mutters something about a Microsoft
brain fart*
The graphics are really awesome. The screen is set up in 640x480. The sprite animation is a little off, but that is just because he is still playing with the timing variables. He gives an options dialogue before the demo starts to change these values manually. The sprites themselves are quite good, having much better detail and shading than anything in RM2k. The boots on the hero aren't quite right...but who cares? Just look at these sprites! (there are screenshots at the bottom of the page)
The water is not animated, but I did read something on the website about it being supported. Not only that, but it was said that the game maker has full control over where the animated tiles are in the tileset.
As far as the menu...I don't think he added one in this demo. If he did, I never figured out how to get it working. But Cryptic Designs promises a fully customizable menu system, in that there is no default menu.
The bgm.........AWESOME!!!!!! Sadly enough, I couldn't open it outside of the game. It's in some odd format with the extension .ogg. Not even IrfanView would open it. If IrfanView doesn't open it, you might as well not even think about opening it in any other normal program, unless you just don't have the plugin for IrfanView.
(Edit- Edbgon tells me there is a plugin for Winamp to play .ogg files, and reminds me that images are Irfanview's strong point rather than sound.)
Overall, I think it is just a really great system. If you can't get it to run on your computer though, don't get discouraged. Among a few of my geek friends (well, um I guess that's just Code, SG, and they tried it on SG's brother's computer too I think...) , mine is the only computer that would run it properly. The Lead Programmer at Cryptic Designs is still working out bugs, so be patient.
Well, enough of my rambling. Here are the pics! You know the drill, click for a larger view! But please note: the thumbnails and the full sized pics are slightly compressed. This means they'll download faster, but the quality will be lessened.
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