Game/scenario/whatever designing alternatives for those who miss Blades?

[*Milu*]

I just noticed that my newest laptop with Mac OS High Sierra can't run any of the Blades of Exile or BoA editor versions that I could find. I wonder if I should move on to more modern alternatives.

 

Are there any former BoE/BoA scenario designers here who have later designed games (or something like that) with other programs?

Edited June 18, 2018 by *Milu*

[Rhinestone Jedi]

I can't think of anything quite just like Blades but there's always rpgmaker. I'm not going to try but it makes me wonder what's the closest approximation of a Spiderweb type game you could get on gamemaker or rpgmaker.

[*Milu*]

Rpgmaker is what I've also considered for some time. And now I noticed it's discounted on Steam, so I bought it. On the first try it seems a lot like Blades of Exile, with dialog box choices. I like it so far.

Edited June 22, 2018 by *Milu*

[Mea Tulpa]

If you're willing to do into the code (a pretty solid and well-organized javascript base) RPGMaker is pretty fully customizable.  So you could get a pretty good approximation of an Exile style game for sure, if you put in the work.

[GiantFriendlyTalkingSpiderman]

Though I don't know the limitations. But if you can work without a UI, most if not all of the scenario data(maps, dialogue) for Jeffs recent games is stored externally in text files. By modifying these text files you can radically change the game.

[Mea Tulpa]

The maps are not stored in text files.

[GiantFriendlyTalkingSpiderman]

They aren't? Oh I guess not. My memory has made a fool of me.

[Duck in a Top Hat]

Making BoA scenarios is probably what put me on the path to doing gamedev. So I can suggest a few great tools, but none of them are designed explicitly for the sort of tactics-based RPG gameplay Spiderweb games have. I always gravitated more towards story and writing myself, so that's what these will be best for unless you're willing to learn programming and plunge into that side of things yourself (which would be an excellent investment to make).

 

Twine - canonically one of the most accessible, fully featured tools for making narrative games for web browsers, of which Siren For Hire is a great example. Here's a really basic RPG someone made with Twine for a game jam, just so you can see it's possible.

Ink - Like Twine but designed for games with much more complicated logic (like 80 Days and Sorcery which are worth playing if you haven't!) and compatible with bigger game engines like Unity.

 

And there are many more options I've never tried (RPGMaker being one of them). Sorting Hat is an excellent website that breaks down those options in the form of a little questionnaire:

http://www.sortingh.at/

 

Hope there's something useful in there. Lastly, the TIGSource forum is a great place to share your progress/creations in a dev log!

[Mea Tulpa]

Hmm.  Just a quick caveat... Sorting Hat appears to be 4 or 5 years out of date regarding some of the tools it suggests -- in terms of new generations of products, prices, available platforms for use and production, and other capabilities.

[Duck in a Top Hat]

Right. If you use sorting hat, go with the newer version of whatever framework you decide looks interesting. And one more thing I'd throw in the mix of suggestions is the PICO-8 which is delightful for making and playing super low-res games: https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php

 

Here's one I made that harks back to BoA in terms of the gameplay: https://nqn.itch.io/apprentice-quest

 

And a newer open-source alternative to Unity is now out there called Godot, which I've heard some game design professors prefer over Unity for their beginner students.