Some time ago I casually mentioned in one of my articles that I was currently working on a game called “Age of Awakening”. I came up with the idea because I played a few German role-playing games some time ago (Gothic 1/2/3, Risen 1/2/3) and just felt like developing a game myself. In fact, I've actually developed my own games many times, but with the exception of one project (Darkside), all the other projects were never finished. But now I have decided to develop a role-playing game, a game that the story will be very closely based on today's events, but will take place in a fictional "Middle Ages" world.

The Engine – The RPG-MAKER XP

In this context, I began to be interested in game development when I was around 12-13 years old. Of course, I had no programming knowledge at that time (even today), but I simply googled this topic and came across an engine called RPG-MAKER. With this engine you could apparently create 2D role-playing games in the Supernintendo style without having to have any programming knowledge. For this reason, I downloaded RPG-MAKER 2000 and gained my first experience with this engine. In the following years of my life, I started various projects in this regard and learned how to use this engine. At some point, however, I lost interest in creating games (due to the effort involved) and only rarely dealt with the topic or started creating various projects. However, due to the role-playing games I played a few months ago, my interest came back completely and that's how everything took its course. I opened my old Maker (a lot of versions came out in the meantime 2000/2003/XP/VX/VX Ace/MV), thought about what I could create and then just started tinkering with it again. I chose the RPG-MAKER XP because I always liked this maker because of its graphic style. I also always really liked the tileset editor with which you could build various worlds. The new makers (VX/MV) always only had 2 layers (i.e. 2 design levels) and therefore required parallax mapping (at least for more complex and diverse worlds/projects). Parallax mapping means the creation of maps/worlds using Photoshop, which I never really liked. Of course, the RPG-MAKER XP also had many limitations, for example that it does not have an integrated faceset function, which means that you have to manually insert the faces next to the text passages of the characters using a picture function, which ultimately causes some complications. For these and other reasons, I decided on RPG-MAKER XP and so I started creating the project that will be completed this time, namely Age of Awakening.

The history

I'm still working on the story at the moment (it will be further developed as the process progresses), but the basic idea is this: At the beginning of the game you see a young woman leading her boyfriend to an occult ritual in the middle of the night in order to get him to do so to draw attention to the fact that there are apparently occultists who want to realize a New World Order and are pursuing the plan to enslave all of humanity. As the game progresses, you go to different cities and want to inform people about the impending danger and do research. Of course, most people think this is just a fairy tale, a bad story, a conspiracy theory and as a result make it very difficult for their own character to progress. As the game progresses, you get more and more on the trail of the New World Order, understand how far this plan has already progressed, get to know the leading parties - who in turn support this plan, get to various rebels, who of course are suppressed + demonized as crazy and, above all, gets to know the completely peaceful opposite side, the champions of the light. Progress in the game is only possible once you have gained a certain level of trust in the various cities (by solving quests). Only when you have achieved trust of over 75% in a city will you be allowed through to higher/ruling authorities/leaders. Over time you will then be able to decide whether you want to join the advocates of light or even the advocates of darkness. Ultimately, the story will be very much based on today's world events, which I will always express very strongly through the individual dialogues with people. As I said, I will expand further parts of the story as the game develops. Otherwise, I'm currently working on a lot of features that should maintain/ensure the fun of the game.

Individual features – The combat system

The RPG-MAKER XP offers a lot of great basic functions, but on the other hand I'm missing a lot of things. For example, the basic combat system is a disaster and, in my opinion, extremely boring. For this reason, I am currently creating an event-based combat system that will take place on the individual maps. You can draw a sword and fight other creatures (or later fight with staffs without killing - for those who join the Light), which then gives you experience points and levels up. You then get points that you can distribute across individual attributes (strength, intelligence/dexterity, etc.). These values ​​are then crucial for equipping better weapons. That's exactly how I'm going to implement magic so that you can use fireballs and co. can fire. Otherwise, you should also swim, jump, climb, etc. can learn from appropriate masters, which then takes you to new places (why your own hero doesn't master these skills will of course be explained later in the game). Otherwise, you will also have to put on different armor, which you will then see on your own hero (the same applies to the weapons). Alchemy will also be an integral part of the game. This way you can harvest medicinal herbs (which also grow back) and then process them into potions. It will also be possible to grow your own herbs.

The game will be released in 1-2 years

Since I can't focus my full attention on creating the game - because I'm also writing articles and working on a book on the side (which will be finished soon - "100 fascinating articles about the meaning of life and your own cause") + If the game is to be developed very well, it will definitely take 1-2 years until it is finally finished. In the meantime, I'll keep telling you about the game's development process and writing individual articles about it. Otherwise, if you have any ideas, suggestions for improvement or even questions about the project, please let me know in the comments. I welcome any suggestions or criticism. With this in mind, stay healthy, happy and live a life in harmony.