Ok (deep breath)...
How and why all this started
I'm building this project because I always wanted to create my own games since I was 11 years old and played Rebelstar on ZX Spectrum. I loved that game so much (still do), but SO very much that I lost count of how many times I found myself imagining the features I could add or change to that game, BUT, if only I could code. This was in 1989. In December 2003 I got this chance to work on a desperate company who was looking for a coder for VB6 programming. They were so desperate that hired me even knowing that I had absolutely no coding skills, well, I knew what variables were as I made a text based game on ZX Spectrums basic language, but, that was it. I had only 2 weeks to show them what I could do so that they could appreciate both my learning and creative capabilities, so, I made them a small agenda program which gladly impressed them a lot (specially the graphic part, well I guess Im ok with graphics).
Ive been working as coder since then. At the moment I develop software to another company in C# language and I've put aside VB6 language (gladly). I have some serious skills now (at least they serious for me having in count what I knew 3 years ago) so I begun one my lifetime projects involving video games: the development of program to create games. Well I guess thats it
Goal of the Project (Codename E.R.P.G.I. EFiles RPG Invoker)
As I stated before, the purpose of this project is to let users create games, 2D RPG games, either simple or very complex (it all depends on you). However, since this application is somewhat flexible, with good imagination you can create other types of games like adventure games. I also want to give people without any coding skills a chance to bring their projects to life. Its so damn frustrating to have fully documented and potential awesome projects in your drawer dying (so you think), just because you lack on coding skills
I want to change this!
Finally the project itself
I shall start with the visuals and game play concept right away.
Graphics and Map Design
[the following is already implanted]
- This project produces tile based games of 32*32 pixels.
- Sized maps ranging from 10x10 up to 500x500.
- Sprites sizes supported are from 32x32 to 256x256 in 32bit color depth.
- It supports PNG with Alpha transparency and BMP formats.
- Managed DirectX is being used to display the graphics.
- Logically, you can create your own graphics and use them on ERPGI.
- Five graphical layers are available for you to play with.
So, now that you know what are ERPGIs graphic capabilities let me explain to you how do you manage all this in the program, well, why not a using a image to explain most of it?
As you can see in the image, all graphics are displayed on the right in separated folders and categories, the program scans for the user-specified path to the graphics folder and loads its contents as following:
- Primary folders inside graphics folder are to be considered Themes
- Any folder then found inside a primary one is to be considered Categories (represented as folders in the picture, got lazy to change this?).
You then select the desired theme and category to display all tiles available in it. Then, you simply select the sprite you want and mark it on the map. A tree tile is selected in the picture, all selected tiles are showed in the bottom-right with its original size to make map building esier.
Four graphical layers were used to create the forest map. Lets take a look at the bellow picture:
First layer is registered with green grass 256x256 sprites, second layer haves dark spots also in 256x256 sprites, third layer haves the trees in several sprite sizes, yet the player (the little wizard looking fellow) and finaly the forth layer which displays the fog/clouds sprites. The fifth layer was not used because there was no need to . Anyway this shows to you how can you organized your graphics and what kind of effects you can do when using layers effectively.
Its 11:38 pm and I have to get my arse quite earlier from the bed tomorrow... I'm going to bed. There is so much to tell you yet... How you create your creatures, their skills, their attributes, the leveling up system, AI behavior, the great anatomy system you can fit in creatures, events, dialog construction, items creation, the customized interface for the game... Oh well... If this interests you please post out...
but I really apreciated those links 
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