I've been a little lax with posts lately, but I'm going to do a big update now just to fill people in on what's going on. For those following me for Ender Story and Enki Adventures, I'll hopefully be able to answer a few questions about where those projects are at.
Ender Story: Chapter 2
Probably my most eagerly anticipated project, I still get messages about it asking when the next chapter in the series is coming out. Truthfully, I'm not sure. I expected it to be released before Christmas, but there hasn't been a lot done with it in the past two months or so. There's genuinely so little left to do that a couple of weeks of solid work at it could have it finished and released. It's mainly just sorting out the arena side quest and then the balancing left at this stage because all of the enemies are implemented. After that, testing. It's out of my hands at the minute because all I have left to do on my end is a few status icons and deciding how to best handle the arena.
I really hope the game will be finished and released before the end of the first quarter of this year. I've wanted to show it off so badly for ages now because there's so much to see and do in it already. Me and Kyatohon have worked very hard on it and it's leagues better than Chapter 1 and very packed with god RPG content. A long main quest, loads of side quests (both marked in your journal and unmarked), plenty of extra dungeons, a bunch of new characters and even treasure hunts placed throughout the game.
Ender Story: Chapter 1 - Steam Version
Our Greenlight campiagn has been relatively slow lately, as expected. We reckon the bulk of our votes will come from the time when Chapter 2 is released. If you haven't heard about this one yet, go vote here and see what features we're including: Ender Story: Chapter 1 Greenlight
It's going to be completely FREE to download, this isn't a premium version of the game. It'll feature a new quest, new enemy formations and fully integrated mouse controls, just to name a few things.
Enki Adventures
Enki Adventures progress slowed for a while, but it's back making good progress again. Houses can now be entered and we're goign to be adding more function to them very soon: starting house, shops, tavern, etc.
Enemies are also looking good in the game too, very excited to see how the more complex boss monsters turn out once implemented.
We're fairly close to the stage where we'll start releasing public demos. There are a few things we want to make sure that we implement first: UI-based inventory, house functionality, very basic menus, add the music (easily done) and add treasure chests with random loot. The demo will largely be feature based and won't have dungeons or any story to go by, but it'll give a feel for how the game will handle.
Enki: Pilgrimage
This is a new RPG project I've done a lot of artwork for. I tend to do two big projects at once and currently that's Ender Story and Enki Adventures, so Enki: Pilgrimage will fill the Ender Story slot once Chapter 2 is finished before we begin work on Chapter 3. This game is inspired by the likes of Dragon Quest, Baldur's Gate and EarthBound. It'll be a top down RPG with battles in the first person perspective so that I get to experiment a bit with more detailed enemy sprites and backgrounds (see below for some examples).
The game won't feature any levelling system and progression will be money and item-based. Earn money to buy better equipment as you go forwards, find treasure and complete quests to be rewarded with more money and items. Maximum health and stamina upgrades will be bought via potions and drinking them gives permanent stat boosts. I've done a large amount of the artwork already: about 75% of the overworld sprites (almost every NPC is unique), 60% of the battle sprites, 60% of the menu work, 90% of the items and 40% of the overworld. This is all before programming too, so I'll have plenty of time to refine and add extras on top of my intended projections.
Here are some pieces of art for the project that I've put into the art portal already.
- Enemy battle sprites - Beasts
- Enemy battle sprites - Elementals
- Enemy battle sprites - Fruitbugs
- Enemy battle sprites - Ground
- Enemy battle sprites - Slimes
- Enemy battle sprites - Undead
- Enemy battle sprites - Winged
- Party change menu
- Party weapon collection
The project has a lot of work done for it, but it'll be done in my free time when I don't have much to do for the other two main projects. Luckily, almost all of the artwork I need done for them is finished so I've had a fair amount of time to work on this and plan this. Stay tuned for more on this one in the future, including some overworl screenshots and overworld sprites to go along with it.