Jettatura - a first-person oldschool DRPG

[megidolaon]

https://www.jettatura.com





For a long while I've been working on an old-school, turn/round-based, first-person dungeon crawler DRPG named Jettatura in my free time. I intend to finally release it this year (hopefully October/November or maybe even earlier), as it's finally now "start to finish" playable, so I've made a Steam store page for it this week. I'm using the next few months until then to focus on squishing any remaining bugs and such I find and/or already know of.

ABOUT JETTATURA
Grab a trusty No. 2 pencil, a scroll of graph paper, and a sword! As an adventurer, it seems like an immeasurable epoch has passed since any quest of considerable hardship has intertwined your fate, but recently a crisis has befallen the land which beckons your steel! Descend into the labyrinthine depths below the redoubt of Ylondur to retrieve the Scepter of Basmu, slay the treacherous necromancer Arlemal and his band of monstrous henchmen who pilfered it from the Royal Museum, and return as exalted champions to claim your spoils of coin, titles of nobility and acreage, and glory!

Form a party comprised of one to six adventurers to pursue your dauntless quest. But tread not without due caution, for within the dusty crypts, winding mazes, crumbling dungeons, and wicked fiend-temples of the sunless underfoot, there await deadly traps and illusions to confound and enmesh any interlopers -- at least, those who have not already been slain by the many ravenous beasts and cruel goblin-kin who skulk in the shadows!

Available for Linux and Windows.

FEATURES

• Round-based combat
• 7 playable races, 11 playable professions, and 3 schools of magic
• Traditional mechanics - such as Vancian magic and Armor Class going downward from 10
• Six sprawling dungeon floors - interconnected and winding, full of confounding illusions, dangerous traps, and deadly creatures
• Over 200 types of items
• Over 100 types of enemies
• Lush, colorful, hand-drawn monster and environment art by Juan Miguel López Barea
• Absolutely no hand-holding - draw your own damn maps!
• Respects your time - prioritizes gameplay and dungeon exploration; no excessively-meandering "storytelling" here!

 

[Butter]

Looks like Wizardry. I approve.

 

[smaug]

• Absolutely no hand-holding - draw your own damn maps!

No auto or in-game map, no buy.

 

[V_K]

draw your own damn maps!

Respects your time

Am I the only one seeing a contradiction here?

 

[Abu Antar]

Looks decent. I will at least put it on my wish list.

 

[Fowyr]

Looks interesting, but somewhat reminescent of recent Japanese Wizardry clones. As you talk about DRPG, I presume it was intended. Mechanically, these Wizardry 1 clones were lackluster. So, with your game it depends on the mechanics and, more importantly, the maps themselves.
If maps are great (see, for example, Chaos Strikes Back) - your game will be great, simple like that.
EDIT: Checked video again, found that I missed "you lost vitality". Heh, Wizardry 1 clone confirmed, with this attack shutter and tremble that was present in Japanese Wizardries.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I like the enemy sprites, they're unusual, but still look pleasing to the eye. I'm curious as to what you expect the difficulty to be, asking from a more novice background in turn-based blobbers.

 

[megidolaon]

I like the enemy sprites, they're unusual, but still look pleasing to the eye. I'm curious as to what you expect the difficulty to be, asking from a more novice background in turn-based blobbers.

At the very least, it should be likely that you would lose a party maybe 2 or 3 times throughout an entire playthrough, even if you're being careful. And of course it'll be a lot more punishing if you're being hasty. But, any changes made to the dungeon by previous exploration parties remain intact - locked doors that are unlocked will stay unlocked, NPCs vanquished or obstacles removed will stay removed, etc.

On the automap issue some have raised: I think including the automap would negate the mechanics of certain dungeon elements that exist to misdirect the player. The effect of confusion caused by things like illusory walls, spinners, and subtle-teleportation fields would be negated by trivially pressing a key. But, there are some spells which exist to aid in navigation -- which verbally hint rather than visually "show-all" -- the use of which has a tradeoff I think is fair (using up precious non-regenerating MP that's shared by combat spells from the same tier) and which doesn't completely nullify the dungeon trickery.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

Is this an AD&D ruleset Wizardry clone? If so, it's already surpassed every JRPG ever made.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Is there a list of races and classes, schools of magic, etc?

 

[V_K]

I think including the automap would negate the mechanics of certain dungeon elements that exist to misdirect the player.

Yes, and those elements can go fuck themselves are the ultimate timewasters.
Also, Note of the Outskirts did it quite beautifully: it has an automap but with every step it checks your characters' "Tracking" skill; losing this check gives a "Lost" status which stops updating the automap and showing the party's position on it.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I think including the automap would negate the mechanics of certain dungeon elements that exist to misdirect the player.

Yes, and those elements can go fuck themselves are the ultimate timewasters.
Also, Note of the Outskirts did it quite beautifully: it has an automap but with every step it checks your characters' "Tracking" skill; losing this check gives a "Lost" status which stops updating the automap and showing the party's position on it.

Some people really enjoy mapping and that's part of the appeal of those types of games to them. Just like some people like shit like Legend of Grimrock for some reason. Why should every game try and appeal to every person?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I think including the automap would negate the mechanics of certain dungeon elements that exist to misdirect the player.

Yes, and those elements can go fuck themselves are the ultimate timewasters.
Also, Note of the Outskirts did it quite beautifully: it has an automap but with every step it checks your characters' "Tracking" skill; losing this check gives a "Lost" status which stops updating the automap and showing the party's position on it.

Some people really enjoy mapping and that's part of the appeal of those types of games to them. Just like some people like shit like Legend of Grimrock for some reason. Why should every game try and appeal to every person?

because we can probably guess OP wants to sell more than 5 copies

 

[megidolaon]

Is there a list of races and classes, schools of magic, etc?

Sure, a quick summary before I go to sleep:

Schools of magic:
Arcane - mainly destruction-oriented magic wielded by mage, bishop, samurai, and wizard
Divine - mainly healing/recovery/undead-smite magic wielded by priest, bishop, knights, and wizard
Nature - mainly utility/lesser-healing/lesser-destruction magic wielded by druid, highlander, and wizard
Arcane and Divine schools go up to 8 tiers; Nature has up to 7 tiers.

Professions
Plain : Fighter, Priest, Mage, Thief, Druid
Hybrid : Bishop, Knight, Highlander, Samurai
Elite : Ninja, Wizard

Races : Human, Dwarf, High Elf, Wood Elf, Gnome, Halfling, Rat-Man
Different races have different innate resistances to elements and/or status ailments, and those slightly improve each level-up. Between now and final release, I'll consider adding one or two more if I can think of anything fitting; maybe Orcs or whatever, I dunno. Code-wise, new races are trivial to implement.

 

[Saint Scylla]

Highly interesting.

Are you active on Twitter so I can ping you there?

 

[mediocrepoet]

I think including the automap would negate the mechanics of certain dungeon elements that exist to misdirect the player.

Yes, and those elements can go fuck themselves are the ultimate timewasters.
Also, Note of the Outskirts did it quite beautifully: it has an automap but with every step it checks your characters' "Tracking" skill; losing this check gives a "Lost" status which stops updating the automap and showing the party's position on it.

Some people really enjoy mapping and that's part of the appeal of those types of games to them. Just like some people like shit like Legend of Grimrock for some reason. Why should every game try and appeal to every person?

because we can probably guess OP wants to sell more than 5 copies

Then he should probably make something like Skyrim or Fallout 76 so you and your peers can enjoy yourselves.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Is there a list of races and classes, schools of magic, etc?

Sure, a quick summary before I go to sleep:

Schools of magic:
Arcane - mainly destruction-oriented magic wielded by mage, bishop, samurai, and wizard
Divine - mainly healing/recovery/undead-smite magic wielded by priest, bishop, knights, and wizard
Nature - mainly utility/lesser-healing/lesser-destruction magic wielded by druid, highlander, and wizard
Arcane and Divine schools go up to 8 tiers; Nature has up to 7 tiers.

Professions
Plain : Fighter, Priest, Mage, Thief, Druid
Hybrid : Bishop, Knight, Highlander, Samurai
Elite : Ninja, Wizard

Races : Human, Dwarf, High Elf, Wood Elf, Gnome, Halfling, Rat-Man
Different races have different innate resistances to elements and/or status ailments, and those slightly improve each level-up. Between now and final release, I'll consider adding one or two more if I can think of anything fitting; maybe Orcs or whatever, I dunno. Code-wise, new races are trivial to implement.

Awesome, looking forward to seeing more detail when you're closer to release. I love this stuff.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I think including the automap would negate the mechanics of certain dungeon elements that exist to misdirect the player.

Yes, and those elements can go fuck themselves are the ultimate timewasters.
Also, Note of the Outskirts did it quite beautifully: it has an automap but with every step it checks your characters' "Tracking" skill; losing this check gives a "Lost" status which stops updating the automap and showing the party's position on it.

Some people really enjoy mapping and that's part of the appeal of those types of games to them. Just like some people like shit like Legend of Grimrock for some reason. Why should every game try and appeal to every person?

because we can probably guess OP wants to sell more than 5 copies

Then he should probably make something like Skyrim or Fallout 76 so you and your peers can enjoy yourselves.

"no stop making compromises go make skyrim"
this is why rpgs are dead lol

 

[Darkozric]

Put an optional automap you lazy fuck.

 

[V_K]

Some people really enjoy mapping and that's part of the appeal of those types of games to them. Just like some people like shit like Legend of Grimrock for some reason.

Well, "shit like Legend of Grimrock" had an optional manual mapping mode for people who enjoy that. So why not both.
It's kinda like the discussion about save limitations - some people claim to enjoy them but then demand that they were forced upon them (and everyone else by extensions). Something doesn't compute there.

Anyways, I don't have a problem with this game not being for me.
I was just noting the irony of saying that the game "respects your time" but demanding manual mapping, since it's bound to (unnecessarily) stretch the playtime.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Then he should probably make something like Skyrim or Fallout 76 so you and your peers can enjoy yourselves.

"no stop making compromises go make skyrim"
this is why rpgs are dead lol

RPGs are dead because you like crap and argue about how it's good, meanwhile, you can't have a good faith discussion about anything that might actually be incline. lol

 

[SpoonFULL]

Is there going to be character portraits?

Also which engine is used to develop this game?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Then he should probably make something like Skyrim or Fallout 76 so you and your peers can enjoy yourselves.

"no stop making compromises go make skyrim"
this is why rpgs are dead lol

RPGs are dead because you like crap and argue about how it's good, meanwhile, you can't have a good faith discussion about anything that might actually be incline. lol

'k
I'll go back to enjoying games, you go back to eating shit or whatever you do because nobody actually makes games you enjoy due to not wanting to work for free

 

[SpoonFULL]

On the automap issue some have raised: I think including the automap would negate the mechanics of certain dungeon elements that exist to misdirect the player. The effect of confusion caused by things like illusory walls, spinners, and subtle-teleportation fields would be negated by trivially pressing a key. But, there are some spells which exist to aid in navigation -- which verbally hint rather than visually "show-all" -- the use of which has a tradeoff I think is fair (using up precious non-regenerating MP that's shared by combat spells from the same tier) and which doesn't completely nullify the dungeon trickery.

This is understandable. But an "optional" auto-map (like that in Dark Heart of Uukrul with fog for unexplored/hidden areas) would still be useful and equivalent to mapping on the screen (rather then on paper) and make the game more accessible.

 

[Narushima]

illusory walls, spinners, and subtle-teleportation fields

Ah, the old replacements for actually good maps!