Development Log: January Engine - Week 0

I enjoy a good turn-based, top-down, NES-style RPG, so I've decided to create my own RPG engine that takes that classic experience style and mixes things up a bit.  Or a lot.

This menu business is the first to go.

First, I will be taking a look at the battle system, as that is the heart of gameplay in an RPG.  I've decided to dispense with the menu-driven battle system, but keep the turn-based nature of old RPGs.

So I've come up with a simpler solution: make the battle system feel more like a CCG.  Instead of normal attacks, magic, or items, the player has a deck of cards, and randomly draws five cards each turn, and picks from them.

This card battle system also dispenses with MP, a notion that always seemed silly to me.

While this limits the player's options, it makes the interface simpler.  All the player has to do is select their card of choice, and all five are displayed up front, so there is no digging through menus.

Once the basic battle system is in place, I will move on to other aspects of RPGs, taking things one at a time, until a full engine is in place that can be used to make a small sample RPG that uses each function of the engine.

So next week you'll see how far I've come to creating the battle system, and you'll get to play what I have.  There won't be much in one week, of course, but the basic (placeholder) interface will probably be done, if not the functionality.