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I was going to release a new version of Driftmoon, but I'm afraid my dev computer just saw it's last moments. While we wait, here's a new part in the series of me replaying some of my older games.
We're on to part 4, Bikez II. This game is from the year 2001, and it uses the same engine as my previous game The Forge. I think I did the whole game in about 5 months. From the screenshots you would say that it's a GTA 3 clone, but of course Bikez came out a bit before that. It reminds me mostly of Carmageddon, but I hadn't heard of it when I made Bikez II. Bikez II is also my most downloaded game. Recently it's been picked up in China. I guess the success is due to the fact that it runs on pretty much any old computer, and it looks like a decent action game in screenshots. My first reaction to starting the game is to turn off the music, it feels pretty out of place. The controls are non-intuitive, you have to press 1,2,3 and 4 to activate your weapons. But driving the motorcycle feels pretty good and fast, especially if your target is farther away. The game is entirely mission based. You get a mission by finding a fella who looks like you, apparently it's your gang outfit, and by pressing enter while stopped near him. Usually you end up killing him, because if you drive near a citizen he'll be chopped to pieces. For some reason the entire police force of the city is after you, so if you stop at any time, you're likely to get hit by a homing missile.
I disliked the missions that involved killing other motorcycles - they're nearly impossible to hit. The best missions were the ones where you had to drive to a location quickly. Maybe it should actually be a messenger game or a racing game. At least to me the combat mechanics were the worst part.
You can upgrade your weapons, but I ended up wasting all of my money fixing the motorcycle after each mission. The homing bullets system reminds me of Judge Dredd comics from my youth. 
I think with a little graphics update, and focusing on the racing part of the game it could actually be pretty good for a few minutes play.
If you're feeling adventurous, head on to the Bikez II download page and tell me what you thought of it. It's only 3 MB, and pretty quick to start, so it should be easy to check out.Have a look at our new Driftmoon ad that our friends got us!
I've been working on some of the new ideas I have for the start of the game, and some of them involve a bit of scripting. Usually it's a good idea to separate your script to different modules, name them, and have one main script call them. To that end, I added two new script activation options: Start and Never. "Start" activates the script immediately at the beginning of the level. I'm using it for torches. "Never" means the script can only be activated by other scripts, useful for making modular scripts that shouldn't be activated by the timer or the player.
But lazy as I am, I ended up working on one longer script. It didn't all fit into the screen, so I made all of the script actions and conditions take less space vertically. Soon I realized I wanted to know where the script target was changing, so I would know when further actions weren't affecting the target I had. So I added color coding. After that I wanted to add an action to the beginning of the list. But adding actions always throws them to the end of the list, and you had to manually click them up the list one by one. I mentioned I'm lazy, so I didn't want to click it over 20 times! That's why I added dragging. Just grab the name of the action, and drag it to where you want it.
And don't do like I do, but do as I say: comment your scripts! 
I just got news that the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture awarded me the 50 000€ (about 66 000$) Sammon Tekijät Award for Creativity and Innovation! I'm deeply honored to receive it!
The Sammot Tekijät Award is a one time award given to ten creative young individuals. I was awarded for my career in game development. My latest project is of course Driftmoon (which is, incidentally, available for preorder). The Jury was very prestigious, consisting of a couple of ministers and many other important people, half of whom I suspect were cleverly infiltrated Driftmoon and Notrium fans.
I owe thanks to a lot of people, especially my friends and family. And a special thanks goes to the people who play my games! Over the years I've received feedback from thousands of players, and I've treasured each and every comment. I'm still eager to hear more.
What does this mean for Driftmoon? It means that a lot of people see Driftmoon having the potential to be a great game, and I'm determined to make it live up to those expectations!
As mentioned in the comments of the previous post, I'm planning a slight change in the start of the game. It's nothing big, just a bit of clarification on who the baddies are, and why you end up fighting them. My current idea for the start involves a group of lizard-like warriors known as the Rakan. Obviously I wanted to start by drawing one, so here he is!
Quite a few people have now played the preview version of Driftmoon, and I've received about as much letters and feedback as Santa Claus gets this time of the year. Thanks for every one of them, it's been great discussing game design with all of you, since most of you seem to know much more than I do.
These past few weeks I've been thinking about one thing in particular. That is the sense of urgency in roleplaying games. I mean of course the feeling that you get when you see a timer running out, a bomb is about to explode, and you have to find a way to disarm it.
In Ultima VII there was a quest, where someone poisoned you when they met you. The game just told that you were poisoned, now you have to find a cure or you'll die. At first I frantically searched every clue I could find, skipping much of the side quests and exploration, both of which I normally loved to do. But then I realized that I wasn't losing health points, there was no timer anywhere, maybe I was just poisoned within the plot, not in any real sense that would affect the game. So I took my time to do the poison quest, and nothing happened, nobody told me I was dying, I got on with the plot and went far away. All of the sudden, I start losing health, and I drop dead within minutes.
That was a good lesson to me as a game developer. Not only did I hate the sense of urgency at the start of the quest, I also felt that I got cheated - that the urgency wasn't real. And then the worst bit, I dropped dead without a warning a hundred miles away from where I could find the antidote - the bomb was ticking after all, but there was no visible clock on the screen.
I don't want to spoil the Driftmoon plot for anyone, so I'll just say that one of the motivations for the player to beat the enemy is that he'll die otherwise. I don't know if that bit fits the game, since it gives you pressure to be quick to solve the main quest, but it cheats you, nothing ever actually happens to you and you won't die no matter how slow you take it. If you've had the chance to test the game, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. I've got a couple of ideas on how I could improve the plotline there, but I'd love to hear how people have felt about it.
PS. Our second child was born yesterday. He came a month too early, but he's in fine health now.
Reputation is something I've been pondering on and off for the last few months. Good deeds giving you a positive reputation, killing innocents giving you a bad reputation. At first I disliked the idea, thinking it was another useless number that modern RPG's could do without. But then I changed my mind.
First we have to think about player choice. Whether it's allowed or not.
- There are games where you don't choose what your character says or does. What makes these games great is that they have the ability to tell a story about the main character. The game can show what your character says and does without the player interfering. In my mind I've always put most Japanese RPG's to this category.
- Then there are games where you get to choose what your character does. In a sense the character is an extension of the player. What matters in this kind of a game is the choices you make. Some say the choices have to be big, do I kill the king or do I spare him. Or the choices can be a grey area, do I spare the king's life, knowing it will kill the princess. I think Driftmoon falls into this category. It's always been very important to me in any roleplaying game that you can choose what to do. I always play a good guy, but being a good guy means nothing if the choice to be bad is not there.
We want to thank all of our preorderers, and all those who have given us feedback - we value it greatly! I've just released the second version of our alpha build. Preorderers can access it on the secret download page. This release is mostly fixes and small features.
Changes in this version include the following (plus a few small things not mentioned here):
- New mountain wall / water edge physics. This fixes the bug where the spiders might walk over the mountains.
- Allow zooming in/out with the mouse wheel.
- Fix crash that happened if you had killed the leader spider but not the other, then saved and loaded.
- Followers will now follow in a formation.
- Changed text rendering method to work on a wider variety of platforms. Thanks Luminon!
- Tested to run on Linux through Wine. Thanks lindquist and unsfa!
- Scroll bars can be adjusted even if the mouse gets out of the bar area.
- Dialogue text is better lined on wide displays.
- Autosave on entering a map, and every 10 minutes.
- Quicksaving. F12 to save, F8 to load.
- Dragging objects should be about as powerful as pushing them by walking.
- Fixed skill saving, the Whirlwind skill was not saved. Thanks Iivo!
- Quick keys for weapon skills: F1-F7
- Combined quick slots with main inventory. Quickslot items in saved games will be moved (if you continue from a save made with the older version).
- The inventory now has a separate tab for messages. It can be used for any items, but all books and letters go there by default.
- Nicer looking tutorial markers and area border markers.
- Changed ranged combat to fire automatically, allowing you to control the movement.
- You can now kill any ants by precisely stepping on them. But why would anybody want to do that?
- Enhanced the minimap code to run smoother.
- People will not like when you steal their items. Some items will have marked owners, and they will watch out for thieves!
- Fixed infinite XP bug with Professor Dore.
- Fixed error log sending.
- It’s 20% off!
- There is no public demo yet, so the game is only available for preorderers. AND remember, we've come up with a completely new, brilliant adventure since the preview!
- You will receive regular builds of the ongoing progress of Driftmoon, plus the final version. This will also provide you with a better chance to voice out your own ideas on the direction of the game and the modding tools!
- With the alpha builds, you get full use of the up-to-date editor, to start making those beautiful mods you’ve been dreaming of!
Preorder Driftmoon for just €11.99!
This will get you the current version downloadable right away, and access to regular updates until the game is finished. You can pay with credit card or Paypal. You will receive an e-mail containing your personal license key that can be used to download all further Driftmoon versions.Did I mention this awesome game we're making? I guess I must have talked about it a few times. I updated the Driftmoon page with new screenshots, so have a look! To those who have missed those rare occasions, here's a recap:
Driftmoon is an adventure-oriented RPG, with focus on storytelling, exploring and quests. Driftmoon takes up roleplaying from the days when dialogue and plot mattered, and grinding wasn’t the main point. In Driftmoon there are always plenty of things to find and people to meet, and instead of killing all of your enemies, you can sometimes talk your way through.
Features:
- Filled with personality, wit and goodwill!
- Explore the dungeons, wilderness and villages of Driftmoon, you never know what you might discover!
- Driftmoon isn’t an action RPG – you don’t kill creature after creature and collect a ton of loot. You don’t need to have catlike reflexes to be able to control the character. In Driftmoon you talk with the people you meet. You may make new friends, you may find quests to solve, or you may encounter a hostile cultist of Ixal.
- Driftmoon comes with the full editor tools used to create the game. We have our own easy scripting language, a great level editor, animation tools, the complete set!
- You can drag things around!
- Memorable and melodic music by the talented Gareth Meek.
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