Dragon Quest: Timeless Lands (formerly DQ: No Man's Land)

[marthsk 11]

From now on, I will be posting videos on archive.org, as it keeps the exact same video quality/framerate when you upload videos there. Recommending Google Chrome along with VLC's video web plugin.

 

See for yourself: https://archive.org/embed/dqtl_testvid

Edited September 18, 2014 by Marth.sk

[Erdrick The Hero 874]

Oh god. Too smooth for NES. Kind of jarring, actually.

[marthsk 11]

Preliminary preview:

 

Pre-requisite: Latest version of the BYOND suite - http://www.byond.com/download/build/506/506.1247_byond.exe

Connection URL: http://www.dqtl-server.ml

 

After installing BYOND, simply create a userID from the BYOND site, and use it to log into BYOND. You could try using the Guest login, but your mileage may vary using that in future releases. Then click on the connection URL. It will automatically connect your DreamSeeker client to the game.

 

Keep in mind that this is a very, very early demo. It is still missing a lot of core features. I am just putting that out there to get your feedback on the general feel gameplay-wise, for a BYOND game.

 

I don't care if stuff gets broken within this session. Matter of fact, I would very much like it, so I can fix all of it.

 

Most importantly, I hope you guys will enjoy this very early preview.

 

 

 

--- Controls ---

WASD: Move

E key: command/confirm

Q key: cancel

 

PS: The ads at the start are from BYOND, not me. There are none within the game.

Edited October 12, 2014 by Marth.sk

[foxfirenelli 28]

Wow, I tried this out and it's stunning!  The maps are fun to explore, the dialog is interesting, and the music sounds great.  It has a genuine Dragon Quest feel.  If this quality indicates the future of the game, I'm sold. 

 

Nothing seemed broken from my time playing.  I'm pretty sure anything that didn't work wasn't supposed to at this time.

 

One question and I apologize if it's already been asked.  Will other players be visible at all times or only when they are in your party?

[marthsk 11]

First of, thanks for the kind comments. We certainly hope to bring a high-quality final product, so we're glad to see we're on the right path.

 

Other players will be visible at all times, as people will do their quest alongside other players (on the online version). And from what I observed, they moved as smoothly as you do. There is only one glitch with the party movement system that I can't get around, due to timing shenanigans with the BYOND client: if your leader bumps into something and immediately moves after, the second character will be synched off and the line will "try to catch up" until you stop moving. It's an annoying aesthetic bug, but it bears no impact on functionality as far as I'm aware at the moment.

 

This will have a lesser impact on the solo standalone (offline) version.

Edited October 12, 2014 by Marth.sk

[marthsk 11]

As shown on the online build, the dungeon/cave music has been changed to a superb (in my opinion) NES-like rendition of the DQ9-styled DQ3 dungeon theme. Shout-out to my partner in crime, Valeor, for this great piece of 8-bit goodness.

 

Edited October 14, 2014 by Marth.sk

[marthsk 11]

Hey everyone!

 

I'm glad to announce that Foxfirenelli is now officially part of the development team for Dragon Quest: Timeless Lands. He will take care of artwork design and will also contribute to story-line development.

 

We have the game's main story planned out now, and we are in the process of implementing the key locations. Functionality-wise, items are to be implemented, along with the search function and treasure chest functionality. Spells will follow afterwards.

 

 

Please note that while the updates are not as frequent, it doesn't mean we're working less on this project.

 

If you have any questions on the project, you can ask either Valeor, or Foxfirenelli, or myself.

Edited October 25, 2014 by Marth.sk

[Erdrick The Hero 874]

Neat!

 

... But what about Dragon Quest FM/DD/whatever he changed the name to?

[marthsk 11]

I don't know, I'm not involved in that project. I don't think that will change a thing, really. That's his personal project, so Fox would be the best person to ask.

[Å’cL!pSe 3]

game looks good, love the sprite work for the Main Character

[foxfirenelli 28]

Neat!

 

... But what about Dragon Quest FM/DD/whatever he changed the name to?

I tried to send you a PM, but it wouldn't go through.  I hate to post too much about it here, so I'll just say my project is fine.  The work I've done so far for Timeless Lands has been fun and also helpful to myself as well.  I'm happy to be a part of their team. 

Edited October 28, 2014 by foxfirenelli

[Erdrick The Hero 874]

Sorry 'bout that! Just cleared up my inbox a bit. If you have anything else you'd like to say, go ahead and send me a PM now.

[crimsonknigh 0]

I'm curious as to how you were able to set the game to 60 FPS with smooth Dragon Warrior-like walking speed. Whenever I try something similar, my game's menu freaks out and partying looks awful (all party members are stacked on top of each other.) I really want to move away from the default movement for Byond.

[marthsk 11]

I implemented code from a lib (or maybe a snippet I caught on the forums, not sure anymore) that facilitates gliding, played with the values, and blended that with a lib that lets you map keys to do whatever you want (this is how I got WASD to work, along with Q/E). And in the mappings, I trigger movement via changing locs rather than Move().

 

It's a bit more complex than that, but that's the best way I could simplify it.

 

Can't remember the libs name, I simply copied them into my code so I could tweak some of the core procs to fit with what I wanted to do. But you could find those easily on the BYOND resources section.

Edited October 31, 2014 by Marth.sk

[marthsk 11]

Interesting find... in brand new Youtube (somewhat) 60fps-ness! (make sure you select 480p60 for quality)

Edited November 1, 2014 by Marth.sk

[marthsk 11]

Hi guys!

 

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. As I said before, the pace of updates will be slower than it was at first, mostly because we're sharing time between our personal and professional lives. In my case, I have accepted a new job (which is quite a blessing for me), and will be training to learn what I need to for the next few months. Not saying there won't be updates, but I'm definitely saying we'll take our time.  I know Valeor has been busy as well, mostly saving the day time and time again at his job (which is typical for him ).

 

Here's a quick status update:

 

- Storyline: It's ALL planned out. All of it. All the quests, plot twists, bad guys, you name it, it's all planned. And even a bit beyond that. (Hint: possible future expansion)

- Map: Main map is mainly done. Dungeons are WIP as we go along.

- In-game systems: That's my part, and where we need to catch up. So yeah, the hatemail about slacking should go my way!

- Artwork (gfx & audio): Still a WIP at this point.

 

I won't give out percentage numbers because most of the time, hobbyist devs pull numbers out of their butts. I know, I used to do that. I'd rather tell you how it is with concise words than with numbers I don't wanna recrunch every step of the way.

 

So that's it for the moment. We all appreciate the good words you guys send about our work. 

 

Remember, the online test server will remain up, and will periodically be updated as we go along. So you'll see our buggy progress as we do.