SM2 1.02

Sigmore Mines 2 - Version 1.02

* Fix : Corrupt save game when book was in inventory while saving.



New version is now posted to all three portals (GetJar, Mobilerated, Phload), how soon it will available for download depends on portals' processing time.

New platform for my games.

I somehow managed to caught a flu.. as a consequence of this I'm laying all day in bed (with headache and stuffy nose all the time..). On the bright side of this, now I have time to think about my next hobby project. Yeah, I'm still starving to make a nice rpg game (not necessarly direct Sigmore Mines continuation), but this time I want to target different platforms and decided to check my luck with PC and PocketPC and the same time. I already have a simple 2D engine for PocketPC (but running on OpenGL so 3D is also possible) and I want to make a simpe minigame to test it. However I havent decided yet, how simple is simple enough...

RPG Rules

I was thinking a bit about rules system for rpg game. If your system is poorly designed, it in no time become uncontrollable and you end up with unbalanced game. When to think of it, all those stats numbers are probably interesting only for economists, but not for gameplay. The truth is that player will not see the difference between attacking monster which is for example 10% stronger than player, from monster,which is 15% stronger..

To see the difference, the difference must be big enough, and if small differences are not useful, the rpg system should not allow them at all. To make such system I have grouped tasks into difficulty levels. I've created a few groups, just easy, normal, hard and difficult.

I run a simple test program to see the outcome of such system, here are the outputs:

Attacking easy enemy

• Hit
• Hit
• Miss
• Hit
• Hit
• Hit
• Hit
• Hit
• Hit
• Miss

Attacking normal enemy

• Hit
• Hit
• Miss
• Hit
• Miss
• Miss
• Hit
• Miss
• Miss
• Hit

Attacking hard enemy

• Hit
• Miss
• Miss
• Miss
• Miss
• Hit
• Miss
• Miss
• Miss
• Hit

Attacking difficult enemy

• Miss
• Miss
• Miss
• Miss
• Hit
• Miss
• Miss
• Miss
• Miss
• Miss

Of course output is randomized, so different runs give different results. What I like about the approach I used is that you can just by looking see clearly the difference in the task difficulty. Now all what game needs to do is to tell which monster belong to which group, taking into account such thing like experience with using weapons(hitting a monster with a bow for an archer is easier task than for a warrior) and other factors.

Forum

Maybe you already noticed, or maybe not, but I want you to note that there is a forum link on my ktgames website. You can post questions there about my games and of course read the answers ;). PS My friend is developing his own J2Me game in similar climate, so I have decided to share the forum with him. Check it out. Forum Link.

New website's layout :)

I have changed my website's layout. This time it is designed by me from the beginning to the end. I hope it looks cleaner and is easier for the user to navigate. In addition, my old forum is back :) (search for a link on my website : www.ktgames.net). Also Sigmore Mines 2 has its own domain : www.sigmoremines2.ktgames.net :).

PS Did you know? I'm learning intensively German language right now. Maybe future versions of SM will have English/Deutsch/Polish translations :).

Sigmore Mines 2 v1.01

Today I have posted a new version of Sigmore Mines 2. I don't know how fast each portal will update its content, but I think it is a matter of hours.

What is new in 1.01?
- I fixed a spelling error.
- Not recognizing that final quest was finished is fixed.
- Introducing normal and hard difficulty setting.

Hard difficulty is the difficulty of SM2 v 1.0
Normal difficulty means:
- more chances of getting gold from killing a monster
- more chances of hitting a monster (+10%)
- few monsters have less mana, attack rating, defense rating

Previous save game is compatible with this version, when old save game is loaded it is treated as a game on hard difficulty setting.

Future plans

Hi all. I have on my hard-drive SM2 1.01 version with minor fixes. Actually with fix for misspelled "Strenght" and sometimes when you kill final boss, the game didn't recognize his death.. Yeah there are persons who have finished the game ;), but due to the number of feedback regarding of difficulty of the game, I have decided to add a difficulty setting in the options menu. Current difficulty level will be a hard one, and normal will be a bit easier.