PARPG - a nuclear winter RPG moving towards a 2nd techdemo

We're now looking for a talented writer, preferably a native speaker. Interest in post-apocalyptic fiction is the most important and only real requirement besides that. If you always wanted to get involved in the development of a game that aims to feature a sophisticated story and you like to work with other dedicated people who enjoy non-cliche RPGs, here is your chance :-)

We are also looking for people with experience writing for dialog trees and those familiar with Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and other areas near the Baltic Sea.
 
Heya and welcome to yet another weekly PARPG update! This time we’ll cover a bunch of interesting topics: progress in the fields of writing, mechanics and programming, efforts to find a lead writer for the project as well as some general remarks about the future of the technical framework that we’re currently evaluating.

If you would like to know more, check out the full news update at the PARPG development blog.
 
Heya and welcome to your weekly dose of post-apocalyptic development news. Looks like we are picking up quite some speed lately - at least the number of topics to cover in each news update is growing and growing. I'll keep things short this time and you simply click through the various links if you find a topic of interest.

We got covered at the freegamer blog some days ago and agreed upon a first license for the assets we'll create. PARPG got it's own top level domain now and zenbitz was on a game design spree last week again.

Icelus came up with a proposal for a story format and suddenly a lot of writers popped up and filled up the writing board of the forums.

Last but not least we're currently discussing how the game can be challenging while avoiding universal frustration. Feel free to jump into the permadeath thread at the forums right away.

Interested in all the details? Check out the full news update at the PARPG blog (now featuring subdomain candy!).
 
I've got to say, post apocalyptic permadeath just gives me (good) shivers.

What's better than PA? Scary PA where your character feels in danger when he's in the wastes/jungle...

I played Ironman FO with a friend once, and I haven't really had anything in any other RPG that really matches dogmeat taking on a deathclaw and saving your life - but dying - and it's permanent.

And the whole thing wouldn't even have registered had I had save/load at my disposal. Nor would deathclaws be as terrifying.

I'm basically totally in favour of an inverted story tree and permadeath.

Hell, if this goes permadeath I might well be interested in helping out, I've done some Python before. :)
 
freepower said:
Hell, if this goes permadeath I might well be interested in helping out, I've done some Python before. :)
Click to expand...
My personal estimation is that we'll at least offer an iron man mode with permadeath. That doesn't mean it will be the only mode available but it should be there (at least that's how it looks like at the moment).

In case you're interested in the current code, you can check it out from the Subversion repository. See:
http://wiki.parpg.net/Download
 
I really really wanted to make this game permadeath non-optional.

However, I don't think it's at all feasible with the deadliness of the combat system I am planning to put in place. (Not to mention the outrage against the idea).

I think the other design considerations (non-linearity, etc.) sort of trump this. But as barracuda says, we will put in a checkbox for you psychopaths.
 
i am glad that you can play it in sissy mode.

Non-optional Permadeath would drive me insane.
Or force me restart the game 10000 times.
 
With a slight delay: here's the official weekly news update :-)

Yes! It's Monday again, that means it's time for yet another news update :-) As always: lots of progress over the course of the last week so I'll keep things short and you simply click through the various links if you find a topic of interest.

This time we're looking out for graphics artists and musicians who would like to get their hands dirty by contributing to the project. To give them something to do, the proper infrastructure needs to be in place as well, so our graphics artist Lamoot created a first Blender rendering setup as starting point. Furthermore we decided to set up an asset repository to find out if it offers any advantage for contributors who would like to avoid wrestling with SVN and other VCS solutions that are more geared towards tech-savvy users.

There are some new starting points for interested programmers and some reinforcements have already arrived as well. We're currently working on a playground for the writers to test the story format while trying to retain an overview by maintaining a per milestone ToDo list.

Zenbitz got his hands dirty again as well and elaborates on use and study-based learning and the next (prolly rather short) news update will already arrive at Friday as I'm traveling to The Hague at Saturday.

Interested in all the details? Check out the full news update at the PARPG development blog :-)
 
Heya and welcome to yet another PARPG news update. This one has been in the pipeline for several weeks and I would like to apologize for the massive delay. The original plan was to bring it to you around the 1st of April but a lot of unforeseen events occured.

This time there are a couple of good things to report but we've also encountered setbacks. Our lead programmer icelus decided to step down from his position; therefore the plans for the rather sophisticated story engine / AI system are on ice for the time being. Fortunately a new programmer decided to get involved in the project and is now actively working on PARPG.

One of our graphics artists came up with some first concept art and the programmers continued to explore FIFE and took a couple of testing screenshots while doing so. Zenbitz wrote down his ideas about encumbrance, inventory and clothing and I've made a personal promise :-)

You can read about all details at the PARPG development blog: http://blog.parpg.net/2009/04/dont-look-back-into-the-sun

Here's a little teaser:
 
Heya and welcome to yet another PARPG news update! As promised: now delivered weekly again.

An important advantage of blog updates on a weekly basis is that the number of topics to cover can be usually kept rather low. This time we’ll take a look into the latest map tests and present Zenbitz’s thoughts how combat could work in PARPG. Last but not least we’ll show you how a piece of concept art evolves from a mere black and white sketch to a colorized version of it and finally into an actual (work in progress) 3d model.

You can check out all the details at the PARPG development blog!

And here's a little teaser for you to get you excited. The other visuals can be found at the blog :-)

Justing_ca.jpg
 
Heya and welcome to yet another PARPG news update! This week we got a number of interesting topics to cover: an updated roadmap for the programming department, some first guides for the graphics artists, new work in progress 3d models as well as progress in the writing department.

You can check out the whole update at the PARPG development blog.

And as special feature for this week's update: a mistery teaser :-) Want to find out what PARPG has to do with crates? Check out the full update at the blog!

Crate1.png
 
I saw the pics on the 3D models, and liked the design really much but the textures was a but too shiny, should be a bit dirtier!
 
Heya and welcome to yet another weekly PARPG news update! There is a whole bunch of visual material to cover in this update as the graphics department has been quite hardworking. Furthermore the combat system proposal has been overhauled and large parts of the Python code have been refactored. We've played around with possible ingame inventory concepts and our trac system seems to run stable again after spammers invaded it a couple of days ago :-(

While a couple of new graphics artists joined the project lately, there is still a lot of room for additional contributors. We're currently especially searching for talented artists who would like to help us with creating ground tiles for the game.

Check out the full news update at the PARPG development blog.

And if you want to know what all of this has to do with an upswing, here's a little pointer for you:
350px-Windmill.png
 
Heya and welcome to yet another PARPG news update. Three full weeks have passed since the last one and I'm truly sorry for the lack of updates lately. I've been really busy with university and although I know a lot more about the reconstruction of the failed state Liberia with the help of the UN now, I rather would have liked to post an update or two in the meantime instead of investing so much time into a presentation I had to give at Friday. Anyways, now that I'm done with it, I got some free time on my hands this week so here's your promised dose of PARPG news. This time it's more a newsflash than anything else. While I've been busy with real life, the others - especially the graphics department - has been hardworking and there's simply too much to report to do so in detail. Feel free to browse the forums to read about all the details.

Read the full news update (with lots of pretty images :-)) at the PARPG development blog.

And to address the ongoing rumours: no, I haven't been strucked down with one of these improvised weapons - that our new concept artist zeli created - and have been in coma for the last three weeks. I was simply busy :-)

 
Heya and welcome to yet another PARPG news update; this time actually delivered on schedule! There are a couple of things to report: the programmers implemented a first version of an ingame settings menu and added visual highlighting of objects as well as floating text descriptions for them. The graphics artists overhauled our ingame GUI plans and compiled an image gallery that features all previously created pieces of concept art.

To coordinate our efforts in the following weeks, we furthermore decided to arrange a first official developer meeting at our IRC channel. Of course community participation is appreciated as well :-)

Read the full news update at the PARPG development blog.

On a related note: FIFE developer Cheesesucker recently rewrote major parts of the map editor tool that comes with the engine. I've personally tested it over the last couple of days and I'm truly impressed by the improved workflow and new easiness of map creation. To applaud his efforts, we've fired up the editor, loaded our PARPG test map into it and took a screenshot :-) Enjoy:

 
Heya and welcome to yet another weekly PARPG news update! Let's get started right away :-)

This week we're proud to report that the first audio track found its way into the game. New programmer on the team meggie implemented random NPC movement as well as switching between different maps. Maximinus was hardworking again as well, annotated the existing code in place via Epydoc, proposed a list of features for an first official release of the game and created a first simple build interieur map.

3d artist Zimble slightly updated the tile creation tutorial for users who would like to use an alternative sampling method and we're still looking for 2d & 3d artists who would like to contribute as the vast majority of our artists is currently rather occupied with real life commitments. Last but not least we finally agreed upon a date for the for the first official PARPG developer meeting: Monday, 22nd of June, 5-7PM GMT.

Read the full news update at the PARPG development blog.

And here's your visual teaser: I wonder what might be inside this building? You can actually find out by either taking a peek at the news update or simply grab the latest version from our SVN repository and try yourself :-)

 
Heya and welcome to yet another weekly PARPG news update! This time the nature of the update is a bit different to what you're used to get here. The main reason is that we recently had our first official developer meeting at the IRC channel of the project. So this news update contains far more plans for our next steps while the older updates often purely focused on reporting the progress of the last week(s). Such a change comes with certains advantages and potential drawbacks.

One main advantage is that we can give the community an idea where the project is hopefully moving to; on the other side there is the risk of promising but not being able to deliver later. So take the plans outlined today with a grain of salt :-) But enough of the disclaimer stuff, let's get to actual news reporting!

Due the meeting there's are a truckload of things to report. The audio department is currently working on a more Falloutesque remix of the current ingame audio track while the programmers are making their plans for a first public release of PARPG, hopefully at the end of August. Furthermore there is the need to refine the workflow of the department to the forunate recent influx of a couple of new contributors as far as programming is concerned.

Zimble wrote a tutorial how to build your own (tiled) walls of Jericho, we're trying to discover structural problems in the graphics department that hinder their efforts and the separate game mechanics testbed has been scrapped in favour of an ingame testing solution. A first promising looking story draft is in the making and we can finally offer auto-generated code documentation.

Read the full news update at the PARPG development blog.

And what does a really cool RPG need? You're right on the spot: walls, of course! There you go:

Zimble_walls.png
 
Heya and welcome to yet another weekly PARPG news update! In case you wondered why the news update is coming so late this time: I took one week off last Monday as I felt a little burned out lately. But now I'm back with recharged batteries to bring you the latest news on the project!

The programming department has been busy discussing the future structure of the code and we're currently thinking about ways to utilize the Trac ticket system to cope with the influx of fresh blood lately. Furthermore we're planning to have a first programming department IRC meeting at Monday, 13th of July, 3-5PM GMT.

The graphics artists have been hardworking again and we're glad that we can show you three different nice pieces of art this time: a 3d weapon render, a death splash screen and a drawing of frozen snowy rooftops :-) Furthermore all 3d renders can be found in our extended gallery now: PARPG concept art & 3d render gallery

We're currently searching for a climatologist (amateur or professional) to find holes in our storyline proposals (how did nuclear winter happen, what kind of climate is somewhat realistic?). The writers started to moved the most important story and NPC-related pieces to the wiki so they can be reviewed there and there's also a first writing department meeting in the pipeline, scheduled for Friday, 10th of July, 4PM GMT.

We have hopefully finally fixed the Trac ticket creation issues for anonymous users and there's news to report concerning our Sourceforge registration. Yes these are actually two neverending stories :-/

Read the full news update at the PARPG development blog.

And now enjoy the snowy rooftops of PARPG!

 
Heya and welcome to yet another weekly PARPG news update! This time addressing all the doubters!

The programming departments' IRC meeting has been postponed but the writing and gameplay department meeting fortunately took place last Friday. We've discussed if you should be allowed to kill children in PARPG and if drugs should play a role in the game. Our artists have been incredibly busy over the course of the last week so can find a couple of new 3d renders as well as concept art drawings in our gallery now!

Proposals concerning the state of the game world as well as the what kind of characters stats should be featured in PARPG have been made. We'll have to decide between two different storyline proposals and mvBarracuda found out that pursuing a degree in modern history is not that useless!

Read the full news update at the PARPG development blog.

And we're glad that Seothen, a new concept artist on the team, took his time to portray the reaction of the common community member when he hears about PARPG for the first time and smiles in excitement and confidence in the project (this is for you, you know who you are):

 
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