Necropolis

So, I figure I should probably make some kind of overview blog entry–much of which I can copy/paste into the About section later. Anyway, I’m Jude and my game development experience is in pixel pushing, primarily in a 16-bit SNES style, though I’ve recently branched out into (badly) making music also. I’m designing Necropolis, which is a roleplaying game with an NES aesthetic, and is my first attempt at developing something with the intent of creating a commercial product. A basic rundown of planned features looks something like this:

• RPG romp through an undead infested castle
• Turn-based combat devised around a system of combo attacks and finishers
• Specialize your abilities in one of three combat styles, or hybridize for versitility
• Retro NES video and audio

Story:

The game follows an old goat named Marcus on his adventures through the sinister Necropolis, a towering citadel inhabited by all manner of zombies and vampires. There’s only one little hiccup to this plan: Marcus himself is a member of the undead! The circumstances that led him to this state aren’t understood, but Marcus is determined to destroy the forces of evil, the Count which commands them, and to unravel the mystery of his own rotting flesh.

Gameplay:

If you’re familiar console-style roleplaying games then you probably already have a good idea what this will play like. Explore dungeons, increase your character’s power over time, find and equip powerful weaponry, and defeat your enemies in turn-based combat.

Necropolis was actually conceived around its battle system–everything else sort of sprung up around this central idea. It’s an interpretation of old-school, turn-based combat in games like Dragon Quest, but with my own twist. Instead of having a standard “Attack” command, the hero has a dozen of them. The catch is that these abilities are intended to be combo’d together in specific orders to trigger even more powerful “finisher” attacks. The details are difficult to describe in a short paragraph but will be blogged about at some point in the future, probably with video.

Anyway, as you become more powerful from defeating foes, you can specialize the hero’s abilities at each level up. Marcus has three development paths that are labeled Basic, Finesse, and Power. Basic tends to offer sustainability, Finesse is about capitalizing on the situation at hand, while Power focuses on raw damage dealing. Each “mastery,” as I call them, has an assortment of attacks, spells, and passive traits associated with it–granting you something new to play with every level up.

Aesthetic:

Anyway, the era of video games I grew up with is the best era (this is an objective fact, obviously), so everything from the graphics to the audio will emulate the NES style–with 8-bit graphics like this:

Low-fi sound effects like this:

And retro music like this:

I think the style has a sort of timeless charm about it and it’s been fun trying to recreate that appeal.

So, next weekend I’ll probably blog about… I don’t know yet, but it will be something.