Tale of Heroes is a punishing roguelike action-RPG about a village in trouble and the heroes who keep trying to save it. I started making it in 2014. Now I'm making it again.
Picking it back up
I started Tale of Heroes as an exercise during my teenage years. I wanted to learn programming and had some game ideas I wanted to explore. I ended up writing a game engine in C++. It was a very hard first introduction to programming, but a lot of fun!
After some time I had a particle engine, enemy AI you could hook events into, content scripted entirely in XML, a loot system, a traversable map, quests, dialogue and a way to save and load the game. I made a small prototype you could download and play, then it went on ice. I don't even remember why.
“I have a few important features I want to get finished before I start doing some actual game design instead of engine optimization.”
Eleven years later I'm finally getting to the game design part. This time I'm building it in Godot. I've been wanting to try it out properly for some time, and it already does everything I spent 2015 writing by hand, so the time can go into the game itself.
The idea is mostly the same as it was back then. What has changed is everything in between: eleven years of playing games and of building software for a living. Both have a say in how I'm making this one!
The idea
You make a hero: a name and a character. Then you set out to save a village from a great evil. Slay monsters, take on quests, find better gear, and learn to time your blocks and dodges. Special gear helps you strengthen your play style with different combat patterns and stat increases.
You will probably die, a lot. When you do, you make a new hero and try to save the village all over again, but your old hero is still out there as a ghost. Beat it and you win back some of your lost treasures, or maybe pay the grave robbers a steep price for the chance of seeing a beloved piece of gear one more time.
In 2014 I also wanted players to be able to make their own content with the same tools I used to build the game, from balance tweaks to whole new maps. Although that's a distant goal, I still think it's an important part of the experience.
From the 2015 build
Screenshots from the C++ prototype, August 2015. Click one to see it larger.
Where it's at
Early. I'm laying the foundations in Godot and there's nothing to play yet. I'll post here when there is.