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Fleisch · Post by **Fleisch** » June 17th, 2007, 2:26 pm

I can't tell from the screenshots -- how do you deal with the typical isometric view problem of walls blocking your viewpoint? Do you have fading walls? Do you like to hide things in those corners that we can't see from the overhead map unless we walk over there?

YouTube · Post by **BasiliskWrangler** » June 17th, 2007, 2:46 pm

Your character can't quite get fully obstructed by walls; you can always see at least the top of your character's head, so you really can't "misplace" him.

Some smaller enemies can get hidden if they are against a wall, but pressing TAB gives a "tactical display" which highlights the location of all enemies/NPCs. This is handy when you can hear an enemy but not immediately see them because they are hidden by a wall. If your mouse touches an enemy/NPC they become highlighted through walls as well.

Also, when your mouse passes over a usable object (chest/door/switch), it is highlighted and will shine through a wall. That said, there are a few instances where we might have hid a chest into a corner that would require a mouse-over to discover its location, but we never put a quest item or important object in a place like that. That would be bad game design.

Riverstone · Post by **Riverstone** » June 21st, 2007, 5:50 am

Greetings. This may be a bit of a lame question but I am enthusiastic about it so will ask anyway. I am very impressed by the font you have chosen, being a keen 'screen font' collector, so I must ask: did you search for and trial many font to find this one (and are you at liberty to reveal it's source) or was it created specially? I refer mainly to the font used in the main chatlog/actionlog, but through out the interface you really have the fonts down pat.

In addition to this I must say the graphic designers really know how to work the pixel, and from what I have seen via screenshots this really is a masterfully designed game as far a visuals go, despite it's 'small' or 'simple' nature.

So excited it hurts!

YouTube · Post by **BasiliskWrangler** » June 21st, 2007, 6:25 am

Unfortunately, the font has changed a bit from the screenshots you see on the website.

That font used there was a variant of Maiandra, but we found there were some problems with it in the way the system drew special punctuation. It was very difficult to see the difference between commas and periods, as well as colons and semicolons. There were some spacing issues as well, resulting in certain double-lettered words ("better", "immense") having their two repeating letters mashed too closely.

We've switched to a very clean but generic Helvetica/Ariel style font, which you can see on the new screenshot posted on GameBanshee (link on the News page, screenshot showing the Spell Journal.) While it's not as lovely, it has visually better spacing and punctuation.

Fleisch · Post by **Fleisch** » June 21st, 2007, 7:51 pm

Unfortunately, the font has changed a bit from the screenshots you see on the website.

That font used there was a variant of Maiandra, but we found there were some problems with it

That's too bad. I love Maiandra; it's one of the first things I remember commenting on (that and the Kells font), although perhaps I did it in a pm. But it's true that it doesn't have the world's most complete character set. . . .

If not Maiandra, could I interest you in a sans serif with a little more personality, one where you can tell the difference between I (capital eye) and l (lower case ell), maybe Gill Sans? Oh wait, that has the same problem, but it's friendlier and less generic. OK, how about P22JohnstonUnderground (the London Metro font). Or, in the spirit of Maiandra, there's Fontin (regular, not sans). Beautiful -- and free! Check it out along with other font offferings at: http://www.josbuivenga.demon.nl/index.html

YouTube · Post by **BasiliskWrangler** » June 21st, 2007, 8:25 pm

Thank you Fleisch for the link. I will check out your suggestions and do some comparisons. Yes, I remember that you had told us that you appreciated our choice of Maiandra.

[EDIT] Fleisch, Fontin looks great! Let me see if I can get a decent screenshot...

YouTube · Post by **BasiliskWrangler** » June 21st, 2007, 9:11 pm

Fontin example:

It's fairly clean, easy to read...what do you think?

Fleisch · Post by **Fleisch** » June 21st, 2007, 9:41 pm

Fleisch, Fontin looks great! Let me see if I can get a decent screenshot...

Hey, I like it! Let's see what the others think!

I had a couple other links for you to check out, but I'll bet Buivenga's stuff is the most professional, plus it's OT, so it'll work on both Mac and PC.

In case you're interested:

Very idiosyncratic: Philos, by Lutz Baar http://www.menschengeist.de/aidfonts.htm
(might not do well at small point sizes; make a $10 donation to charity if you use it.)

Legendum, free under GNU license, but maybe a bit modern for your purposes. Still, more interesting than Arial/Helvetica.
http://home.kabelfoon.nl/~slam/fonts/fonts.html

Gallifrey · Post by **Gallifrey** » June 21st, 2007, 9:45 pm

BasiliskWrangler wrote:Fontin example:

It's fairly clean, easy to read...what do you think?

Wow, very nice! I like that a lot.

YouTube · Post by **BasiliskWrangler** » June 21st, 2007, 9:51 pm

So do I. I think it really rocks in the Character Creator.

Fleisch, I tried Philos. It really has a kind of "Star Trek" look to it. If we ever do a sci-fi RPG we have our font, but I have to say Fontin is really looking great.

Riverstone · Post by **Riverstone** » June 22nd, 2007, 4:43 am

The serifs put me off for a little while, but all in all the Fontin style is growing on me. Hard to tell when not viewing the live application, but I think it's looking nice.

Gallifrey · Post by **Gallifrey** » June 22nd, 2007, 6:22 am

I think the little serifs are a nice nod to the old RPGs without being over-blown. You look at the classics and they were filled with serif-heavy "medieval" fonts that were a real pain to read.

Riverstone · Post by **Riverstone** » June 22nd, 2007, 7:29 am

I think the little serifs are a nice nod to the old RPGs without being over-blown. You look at the classics and they were filled with serif-heavy "medieval" fonts that were a real pain to read.

Hehe, yes you are right. I stumbled upon this beauty a few weeks ago. I'm so gonna have to use it somehow in some kind of magical retro fantasy inspired design:

http://www.dafont.com/venice-classic.font

Rune_74 · Post by **Rune_74** » June 22nd, 2007, 9:51 am

Thats so cool, a font expert...heheh I never even knew half of those existed funny what you learn as you follow development, btw I think the font looks excellent.

Also, a scifi game by you guys would rock something like 2048 AD(I think that was the title, but modernized)

I think alot of money could be made by an indie superhero rpg (done right not all flowers and sunshine) imagine the crowd you would attract that would then look at your other games...would the engine you have now be able t o convert over to a scifi/superhero setting and if so would you look into making another team/idea group to make it happen??

(Damn am I aggressive)

Gallifrey · Post by **Gallifrey** » June 22nd, 2007, 10:15 am

[quote="Rune_74"]

Also, a scifi game by you guys would rock something like 2048 AD(I think that was the title, but modernized)

/quote]

Nonono no.. Cyberpunk. Full-on turn-based with a solid story and lots of tactical options. Open-ended approaches, a rich complex urban sprawl, dangerous and full of treachery.
Not an action shooter but a proper RPG, which is something we'll never see outside of indie developers.

The Drunken Lizard Pub

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