Frayed Knights - What's the Big Idea?
Okay. This week has been a little slow on the development front for Frayed Knights because it's been a little psycho on the development front of Some Mainstream Game That I Can't Talk About Yet at the job that actually pays the bills around here. Crunch mode got extended a week, which means much weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth, and 12+ hour days without even taking a break for lunch (or even to think). Evenings have consisted of playing snatches of games (particularly Eschalon: Book 1, Aveyond 2, and the very dangerous Galactic Civilizations II), and trying to fit in some development here and there.

A lot of time was spent hunting down stock content that could be modified to fit some of the miscellaneous content needs of the game. The sad answer is, very little will. But I'm happily spending my dwindling supply of cash on those stock model / interior / texture packs that show promise of being usable with some modification for Frayed Knights. But weighing price, formats, and really annoying EULA restrictions that protect the content so much I feel frustrated trying to use 'em, not to mention style differences, it can be pretty hard to locate appropriate stuff. So far, I'm happiest with 3drt.com for their low poly counts, high quality, similar style to what I'm needing, very non-restrictive EULA, attractive price, number of formats (though still no native Blender format, dang it!), and variety of textures and animations. Unfortunately, they don't have LOD on the models I purchased, which would ordinarily be a pain. But for Frayed Knights' purposes, I can work with it.

Fortunately, we've got some talented guys handling content-created on the Frayed Knights team who are handling the (still extensive) custom content requirements. Here are some early WIP examples of the Pus Golem.

When is Frayed Knights going to be released?
So I thought I'd take this chance to answer some questions about how Frayed Knights is going to be released to you, the discerning, good-looking, intelligent, and too-clever-to-be-flattered RPG enthusiast.

There is going to be a limited beta "demo release" in April for Windows. That's part of the contest that we're participating in, and it's going to be a way for me to get feedback on the direction of the game. The demo is going to consist of the Temple of Pokmor Xang, the western wilderness, and the village of Ardin. This is going to be as complete and polished as we can make it. A full-on commercial-grade RPG, code-complete (except for some bugs we need your help to discover), content-complete, but a smaller scope: dealing with a single chapter in the Frayed Knights saga.

This is pretty much what the final demo version will be, but in beta (with beta bugs) and subject to change based on feedback. Instead of upselling you on the full version, it'll instead direct you to some online feedback forms that will try and get you to tell us everything you can about how Frayed Knights changed your life, made you more attractive to the opposite sex, and increased your earning potential by 50%. Oh, and how we can make it better.

Why the Beta Demo?
While I am an RPG fan, I have never actually made a full-fledged RPG before (Hackenslash SO does not count!), so this will give me the chance to make my mistakes before I've committed them all to a big commercial release. So this is a tried-and-true practice of making you guys my guinea pigs. And if the demo doesn't suck, you guys get to try it out 6+ months before the full release of the game. And get to brag to all the non-cognizati about how much influence you had over the development of this masterpiece. Well, assuming you want to admit to playing it.

Based upon that feedback (besides the "Release the Mac / Linux Version, You Cretin!" comments), we're going to make some modifications to the game. Take it back to the dungeon workshop, hammer out the kinks, and fix what you felt was broken. The rest of the content (which I currently estimate to be about 5x larger than the demo) should still be early enough that significant changes to the game system shouldn't be a humongous impact.

The Full Version
Now, I cannot promise your characters and saved game from the beta demo will carry over to the final release. In fact, I can almost promise the opposite. Sorry 'bout that, but that's beta for you. While I foolishly hope that the first chapter of the game will be so perfect it won't need to be revisited at all, I honestly do expect it to change a bit. Abilities will need to be tweaked and rebalanced, monsters and treasures may need to be changed, some more story development may need to be done, etc.

The full version of the game will lead out with a PC / Windows version. I plan to follow it up with a Mac version. I mean, after all, I chose the game engine specifically because of Mac compatibility, so you'd better believe I plan to take advantage of it. But I haven't done any Mac development in 15 years, so it's gonna be a learning experience for me. A Linux version is still up in the air, dependent upon the reception of the game, as is future expansions and sequels. We've been getting TONS of ideas for future development of the Frayed Knights universe, and I'm trying not to get too excited about follow-ups while I'm still in the middle of development for the original game. Which, as far as I know, might flop.

But hey, that's why I'm taking this approach. Hopefully you guys will help make sure I'm not going in the "flop" direction, right? How does this plan sound to you? Whadayathink?

Discussion on the Frayed Knights Forum! Be There, or Be Somewhere Else!

Labels: Biz, Frayed Knights, Roleplaying Games

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