Hey, My first post here, I plan on entering the competition and making a sprite based game programmed in QBASIC. Still wondering how I will do all back drops (pixel scrolling or map based..) ----------------------------- Name: Endless Wizard Ranch Genre: Fantasy, RPG Graphics style: 2D (Sprite Based), Thinking Isometric at the moment Graphical Development: Pixel Art and MS Paint Developing In: QBASIC Platform: Windows OS Main Idea/Planing: The main character (Boy, Average, Age 13) who gets lost while hiking in the woods near his house. While trying to find his way back home he finds this extraordinary tree with a large hole in it. He sticks his head in and is sucked into the below. When he awakens he is greeted by an Accountant named BOB who is way to busy to help him and runs off to a corner of this paved celler or something he has fallen in. After some talking around he finds out he is in none other than: Endless Wizard Ranch- A large sanctuary roughly 3,000ft below the surface of the earth where 4 wizard's with extremely odd gifts have made home too. Inside this pit they explore their talent's in attempt to unlock secrets of life. Elements in Game (The 4 Wizards): Crystal Crazed Cody: Has been digging his small corner down very deep extracting all kinds of precious jewels, but all those he trashes all he wants is the crystals he give buckets of diamonds to Eric every day to blow up. Explosion Eric: Is at a real loss of hearing, he has been developing all sorts of new devices in his small corner. He is very secretive and won't share much. CEO Sophie: Is always chatting long distance on the phone with multiple consumers. She barley has any time to talk. When ever she gets off the phone its back to yelling at her countless accountants who work for her 24/7. Breeder Brook: Always seems to be talking to someone distant, and does not always acknowledge her actual surroundings. She is a little off her rocker, she has been breeding all types of ponies to make over 500 different types (with 98% of them still in a test-tube phase, and few others in a gooey slime stage... Objective: You must guide the main character to try and find a way out of this pit using the resources he has down there. Getting back home is how you win the game. ----------------------------- I'm going to start production 11/01/07. I hope to have a prototype ready to see by the end of the year. Regards, Austin [Edited by - InkCoder on November 2, 2007 6:44:13 PM]

Interesting story, very creative.

Glad to here you like the idea!
I did some concept work in my free time.

Main Character who I named Jefro:


This is a concept made in MS Paint :P. He will not look like this in game, it is a pixel sprite game. For those of you who don't know what a pixle sprite game is.. Think back to early GameBoy Zelda games.

Link in GB Zelda:


I also made a concept of my User Interface:


BUTTON DESCRIPTION:
GET: When next to an item the screen will show next to the item "(GET)" hinting you to press the GET button to pick it up.

ENTER: When next to an opening the screen will show next to the door "(ENTER)" hinting you to press the ENTER button to walk inside.

FIGHT: When close to an enemy the screen will show "(FIGHT)" hinting you to press the FIGHT button to fight the enemy.

USE: When close to something you can use, the screen will show "(USE)" hinting you to press USE button to use whatever it is. Also press it whenever and it will bring up a prompt to pick first item, then second and see if you can use them together to form something or do something.

SEARCH: When next to pots or barrels the screen will show next to them "SEARCH" hinting you to press SEARCH button to see what goodies you can find, if any.

OTHER: In special times when none of the above are being used.

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CHAR.: To see information about Jefro, and to see your player stats and lvl.

INV: To see inventory, and equipped items. Also use this menu to Equip/Take off items.

INFO AREA: To see Information about the current area you are in, if any.

EXIT: Exit the game (close).


Once again, won't start programming until 11/01/07!
Until then I will just make more concepts and planning.
-Austin

I'm currently learning C++, which is very hard if you don't have someone teaching you. I learned QBASIC completely on my own (taking me tons of tutorials and hundreds of forum posts). C++ is such a massive and powerful language, I just started teaching myself about 2 weeks ago. In that time I have understood IDE's and Compilers, and also messing around with basic input/output commands.

On the note of my game, I have started the development in QBASIC. Currently trying to get a simple prototype of movement with basic sprites then make a functioning menu.

All the Best,
Austin