Peonso
Godly Member
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2008
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Hello OTLand, let me introduce myself, I'm Peonso, a low profile member of OpenTibia communities since 2005. I started messing around with a map editor, and ended up learning the basics of programming through those years. By touching the SimOne map editor I got motivated by dream of coming up with my own game world, to have players running through dungeons I designed myself. This dream came to reality with Guilcera, many iterations went online through the years of 2005 and 2006, once again in 2012, and one last time in 2017. Others might know me by hosting last Celestia with Kungenn in 2015. I also maintained OTHire distribution for some years. After hitting a wall on the development of Guilcera, I started the OpenTibia Sprite Pack (OTSP) project.
While managing OTSP I meet tons of new people, many being spriters, and while talking with Erick Etchebeur the inevitable idea of a custom game came up, and that was the seed that became Dungeon to Abyss. A custom game using OpenTibia resources, disassociating from Tibia and all it's mechanics. Graphics from OTSP + Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup and more sprites from Etchebeur, Michael H and xmiller. Some old revisions of TFS 1.3, otclient, ZnoteAAC 1.5. Heavy usage of ObjectBuilder, ItemEditor, RME. Tons of scripts, code, maps, ideas and resources from OtLand and other related communities. Incluiding using OTBM2JSON to convert any sort of map and even rotate+mirroring. Check this exemple with Jungle Cave by Neon, after running my tool it not only became available for DtA sprite pack but on a diferent orientation.
Messing up with OpenTibia files still a hobby I love a lot, and I'm always thinking about removing the dust and spider webs from those files to bring them back to life again, that is what this thread is about. Trying to do it in a more rationalized way, inspired by theory from channels like Extra Credits and Core-A Gaming, I made a manifesto aiming to guide the server development, so I can more easily identify problems and goals, and also keep track of where I want to go with the server itself. What I want is to figure out the best execution possible with my limitations.
## Dungeon to Abyss Manifesto ##
# General gameplay #
## Dungeon to Abyss Manifesto ##
# General gameplay #
Dungeon to Abyss is a 2d multiplayer online RPG, with fantasy medieval settings, tile based gameplay on 45° perspective.
Here you incarnate a brave adventurer to face dangerous monsters and quests, exploring a rich 2d open game world. After witnessing the obliteration of your home world, you start your journey in a new town, surrounded by vast lands, rich in secrets and mysteries.
Come up with your own gameplay style by choosing your ability combos, attributes progression and itemization.
Wide range of fun to use character abilities. Fun position based combat.
Craft your own equipment.
Easy to use chat system that enables good communication.
# Philosophy #
It must be enjoyable, and the content reachable to people that nowadays have busy lives and can't compromise a huge amount of time to the game. Some people that played games 10, 15 years ago, and now have jobs, families, among other responsibilities, are interested in to play but are discouraged by the gap nolifers achieve, Dungeon to Abyss casuals should be at the same peace as nolifers, at least the gap should be small regarding character power.
We want players to stick, keep hooked playing, but won't trick players through Skinner Box traps. We want meaningful content, be it narrative, lore, quests, mysteries, and a huge rich world to interact. Avoid making traps to add replayability.
Simplicity, there weren't tons of systems, menus and points to be tracked. The scaleable complexity comes from customizing your character regarding itemization, abilities and attribute progression.
Fast paced early game experience. While it can't be too complex, low level play should be rewardful and fun.
Inspired by games like Ultima, Tibia, Diablo, Path of Exile, World of Warcraft.
# Implementation
While it's aiming to be a fully and complete experience, I'm going for a minimum viable product to be ready and online to be played. That said measures to speed up development processes have been taken, placeholder sprites everywhere, client ui revamp pushed to last thing to be done. Playable areas for the first levels are the only ones being developed. Development is funelled to make it happening, instead of falling into the Development Hell trap many insist to ignore.
If a monetization method is ever to be implemented it will be to allow players to put their own ideas into the game, either by developing an item, a spell, a zone, a npc, a quest, a building, etc. Everything gameplay-wise is free and there isn't any sort of pay2win.
## Manifesto End ##
Post is already long, I will end with a gif showing some abilities. Next time I will approach where I'm at development or how game mechanics will work.
Thread itself is a way to motivate myself to put work on the project, I will update it as I make progress or have some thoughts to share. Feel free to follow it and share your own thoughs or ideas.
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