Even though Grimoire will never be released it is something worth mentioning though.
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Open Call for Reviews
- Thread starter felipepepe
- Start date
Is my trick to make an always-current book: it ends with "Grimoire - Comming Soon".
This has been annoying me for months, so I'll share my issue here and see if anyone can give me some help.
Most of the book covers 4:3 games, so I made the layout based on that. I think it looks good, the screenshots are big enough to read any text and see details, plus it had a nice, solid look:
However, 16:9 resolution screenshots poses a challenge. If I keep the same size, images look too damn small:
If I try to increase them, it looks weird as hell:
Or I lose a lot of space:
None of these look good... any suggestions from layout & design experts? Zed , Alchemist , Seari , Grotesque , Sensuki , ushas ?
Most of the book covers 4:3 games, so I made the layout based on that. I think it looks good, the screenshots are big enough to read any text and see details, plus it had a nice, solid look:
Sensuki
Arcane
If the book is meant to be read in 2-page view like that, then you could extend sections with 16:9 images a bit, to account for the larger sized images.
What you mean, advance into the white space in the middle? I can't do that, the book will be (eventually) printed.
Sensuki
Arcane
No man lol. When you read a book, you have two pages open (left and right). To account for the pictures with 16:9 - use more pages to account for the large images.
That may not work though if you're trying to keep everything to 2 pages maximum.
That may not work though if you're trying to keep everything to 2 pages maximum.
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2002
- Messages
- 17,068
The only solution for keeping the exact same layout would be to crop the screenshots.
You could avoid using text-heavy interface screenshots as inlines and perhaps they wouldn't be "too small", at least not for print. Because I assume your print copy is much bigger than the pictures you posted now.
You could avoid using text-heavy interface screenshots as inlines and perhaps they wouldn't be "too small", at least not for print. Because I assume your print copy is much bigger than the pictures you posted now.
That's the case, reviews will either be 1 or 2 pages long. Giving 3 pages to games just because of their resolution would suck.
Yeah, I have a printed proof copy of the 100-page preview.
Alchemist
Arcane
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2013
- Messages
- 1,439
I'm not exactly a book layout expert, but I have done it a fair amount - learning as I go. I have used the tactic of flowing text around an image quite a lot (as in the E.Y.E page and left Banner Saga page) - and I think it is pretty commonly done as a solution to this issue. You might play around with putting the image on the right column (and overlapping the left instead) - to see if that looks less odd to you.
The Dark Souls page definitely made the images too small in my opinion. The E.Y.E pages looks like it belongs in the same book as the Ultima page - but the Dark Souls page looks oddly text-heavy in comparison. A balance of textual and pictorial content is important to the visual flow of a book.
I would definitely not crop the 16:9 shots as I think fidelity to the actual game screens (including UI layouts) would be an important aspect of the book.
The Dark Souls page definitely made the images too small in my opinion. The E.Y.E pages looks like it belongs in the same book as the Ultima page - but the Dark Souls page looks oddly text-heavy in comparison. A balance of textual and pictorial content is important to the visual flow of a book.
I would definitely not crop the 16:9 shots as I think fidelity to the actual game screens (including UI layouts) would be an important aspect of the book.
dukeofwhales
Cipher
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2013
- Messages
- 423
How many games are there which cannot run in 4:3 resolution at all? Couldn't screenshots be taken in a forced 4:3 resolution for (almost?) all games?
felipepepe, do you still need reviews for Lords of Midnight and FRUA?
My apologies for being so slow, but here's an updated review of Dungeon Master:
My apologies for being so slow, but here's an updated review of Dungeon Master:
Dungeon Master is one of the games that have had the biggest impact on me. I'll never forget when I faced my first Zombie. It was behind bars, I had a dagger, and to my joy throwing the dagger at the Zombie through the bars actually worked! Immediately I knew this game was something special.
Dungeon Master was a revolutionary RPG featuring a pseudo 3D world presented in the first person perspective. You control a party of four, a "blob" which moves from square to square in real time. Controlling four characters in real time may sound like a daunting task, but the game is fairly slow and all actions take a certain time, with quick stabs being faster than heavy blows, so there is no frenetic clicking involved. The combat is the weakest aspect of the game, since it's too easy to side step enemies, attack them, and side step again - the infamous Two Step Dance - but that is a general problem with all real-time first person party- and tile-based RPGs (aka "blobbers").
Apart from the combat, however, Dungeon Master brought an incline to RPGs in general in most respects. The audiovisuals were unrivaled for a long time. You could actually use sound to keep track of your enemies, and while only one type of dungeon graphics was used throughout the whole game, it looked very good.
Dungeon Master was followed by Chaos strikes Back, which was labeled as an expansion, but was actually a separate game. You could import characters from DM, though. Chaos Strikes Back was like Dungeon Master on steroids with even more deadly enemies, fiendish puzzles and possibly the most intricate 3D dungeon ever created, with all 13 levels interconnected via numerous stair and pits. In my opinion it was the ultimate game in the real time blobber sub-genre of CRPGs. One of my best gaming moments ever was on a level containing both illusory walls and dragons. Unlike me, the dragons could see through the walls, and even breath through them. But I could hear each dragon stomping about, which meant I could locate it by sound and then doing the "Two Step Dance" though the illusory walls!
These games were not only groundbreaking, but they also did most things better than later real-time blobbers. A simple, but extremely effective thing like the need for light sources, and torches and light spells gradually dimming helped create a unique atmosphere, and was missing from later games. Later games would have prettier and more varied graphics, and have more of a story and better NPC interaction, but none could rival the level design and puzzles of DM and CSB. The combat was also better, since you could use doors and traps against enemies, thus actually using the real-time aspect to do something you would not be able to do in a turn-based game. Later real-time blobbers seem to have been real-time only for the sake of being real-time.
Another thing that set DM and CSB apart from later games is the interaction with the environment, from using doors and traps, to chopping and fireballing doors, to something as basic as throwing things through bars. For example, in Black Crypt the spell graphics is just a pretty effect, while in DM and CSB a Fireball actually has a physical presence in the dungeon and can interact with wooden doors and teleporters.
Ultima Underworld was the natural evolution of DM and CSB, while the real-time blobbers that followed were evolutionary dead ends; even though some of them were fun to play, for me they were all anti-climaxes after DM and CSB.
Dungeon Master was a revolutionary RPG featuring a pseudo 3D world presented in the first person perspective. You control a party of four, a "blob" which moves from square to square in real time. Controlling four characters in real time may sound like a daunting task, but the game is fairly slow and all actions take a certain time, with quick stabs being faster than heavy blows, so there is no frenetic clicking involved. The combat is the weakest aspect of the game, since it's too easy to side step enemies, attack them, and side step again - the infamous Two Step Dance - but that is a general problem with all real-time first person party- and tile-based RPGs (aka "blobbers").
Apart from the combat, however, Dungeon Master brought an incline to RPGs in general in most respects. The audiovisuals were unrivaled for a long time. You could actually use sound to keep track of your enemies, and while only one type of dungeon graphics was used throughout the whole game, it looked very good.
Dungeon Master was followed by Chaos strikes Back, which was labeled as an expansion, but was actually a separate game. You could import characters from DM, though. Chaos Strikes Back was like Dungeon Master on steroids with even more deadly enemies, fiendish puzzles and possibly the most intricate 3D dungeon ever created, with all 13 levels interconnected via numerous stair and pits. In my opinion it was the ultimate game in the real time blobber sub-genre of CRPGs. One of my best gaming moments ever was on a level containing both illusory walls and dragons. Unlike me, the dragons could see through the walls, and even breath through them. But I could hear each dragon stomping about, which meant I could locate it by sound and then doing the "Two Step Dance" though the illusory walls!
These games were not only groundbreaking, but they also did most things better than later real-time blobbers. A simple, but extremely effective thing like the need for light sources, and torches and light spells gradually dimming helped create a unique atmosphere, and was missing from later games. Later games would have prettier and more varied graphics, and have more of a story and better NPC interaction, but none could rival the level design and puzzles of DM and CSB. The combat was also better, since you could use doors and traps against enemies, thus actually using the real-time aspect to do something you would not be able to do in a turn-based game. Later real-time blobbers seem to have been real-time only for the sake of being real-time.
Another thing that set DM and CSB apart from later games is the interaction with the environment, from using doors and traps, to chopping and fireballing doors, to something as basic as throwing things through bars. For example, in Black Crypt the spell graphics is just a pretty effect, while in DM and CSB a Fireball actually has a physical presence in the dungeon and can interact with wooden doors and teleporters.
Ultima Underworld was the natural evolution of DM and CSB, while the real-time blobbers that followed were evolutionary dead ends; even though some of them were fun to play, for me they were all anti-climaxes after DM and CSB.
Hey man, sorry I didn't reply earlier, the Codex didn't show me the alerts for this page.
First, yes, I still need reviews for Lords of Mightnight and FRUA.
Second, it's a great review, I really like the bits about your experiences with the game. However, it's a bit short and light on describing the game for new players. Could you add 2-3 paragraphs with more details about the game? Stuff like the Hall of Champions, how resurrection works, the story, the monsters, etc?
OK, how's this?
Dungeon Master is one of the games that have had the biggest impact on me. I'll never forget when I faced my first Zombie. It was behind bars, I had a dagger, and to my joy throwing the dagger at the Zombie through the bars actually worked! Immediately I knew this game was something special.
Dungeon Master was a revolutionary RPG featuring a pseudo 3D world presented in the first person perspective. You control a party of four, a "blob" which moves from square to square in real time. Controlling four characters in real time may sound like a daunting task, but the game is fairly slow and all actions take a certain time, with quick stabs being faster than heavy blows, so there is no frenetic clicking involved. The combat is the weakest aspect of the game, since it's too easy to side step enemies, attack them, and side step again - the infamous Two Step Dance - but that is a general problem with all real time, first person, party and tile based RPGs (aka real time "blobbers" or Dungeon Master clones).
Apart from the combat, however, Dungeon Master was superior to CRPGs in general in most respects. The audiovisuals were unrivaled for a long time. You could actually use sound to keep track of your enemies, and while only one type of dungeon graphics was used throughout the whole game, it looked very good.
Dungeon Master was also one of the first CRPGs to discard the traditional XP system, and instead used a system where skills increased by usage, something later adopted by the Elder Scrolls games. The game did have the traditional character classes of Fighter, Priest, Wizard and Ninja, and characters could advance in all classes. Using melee weapons increased Fighter levels, missiles weapons and generally throwing things increased Ninja levels, casting spells increased Wizard levels, while making potions increased Priest levels.
You didn't create your own characters, but instead selected one to four characters from The Hall of Champions. And what a colourful and diverse lot those champions were! Who can forget characters like Hisssssa, Gothmog, Wuuf the Bika or Halk the Barbarian? Two of the champions were even named after my parents!
The game had a wide assortment of enemies, from Skeletons and Zombies, to shrieking slow moving trees, to giant Rats, Scorpions and Purple Worms, and the most annoying creature of them all - the Gigglers, who would run up to the party, steal an item, giggle and run away.
Death lurked everywhere, but thankfully there were ways to bring back you characters, by carrying their bones to Altars scattered around the dungeon.
There wasn't really much of story in the game, but the background story was well told by a professional writer in the manual. The Grey Lord one day found a Power Gem, but unleashing its power resulted in his essence turning into two halves - a good wizard and Lord Chaos. Lord Chaos of course has dreams of world domination and all the other things evil lords dream of. The player basically takes the role of Theron, Lord Grey's apprentice, who selects and controls the four champions. The task is to find The Firestaff in Lord Grey's dungeon and then use it on Lord Chaos to make the Grey Lord whole again.
Dungeon Master was followed by Chaos Strikes Back, which was labeled as an expansion, but was actually a separate game. You could import characters from Dungeon Master, or select new characters from a new Hall of Champions, with new and even more exotic characters. There were even two hidden "super" champions, but you could only chose one of them.
Chaos Strikes Back was like Dungeon Master on steroids with even more deadly enemies, fiendish puzzles and possibly the most intricate 3D dungeon ever created, with all 13 levels interconnected via numerous stairs and pits. Just surviving the first seconds of the game, facing two Purple Worms in darkness was a challenge, especially if you panicked and ran over a pressure plate summoning more Purple Worms!
In my opinion it was the ultimate game in the real time blobber sub-genre of CRPGs. One of my best gaming moments ever was on a level containing both illusory walls and dragons. Unlike me, the dragons could see through the walls, and even breathe through them. But I could hear each dragon stomping about, which meant I could locate it by sound and then doing the "Two Step Dance" though the illusory walls!
These games were not only groundbreaking, but they also did most things better than later real time blobbers. A simple, but extremely effective thing like the need for light sources, and torches and light spells gradually dimming helped create a unique atmosphere. This dynamic lighting was missing from later games. Later games would have prettier and more varied graphics, and have more of a story and better NPC interaction, but none could rival the level design and puzzles of DM and CSB. The combat was also better, since you could use doors and traps against enemies, thus actually using the real time aspect to do something you would not be able to do in a turn based game. Later real time blobbers seem to have been real time only for the sake of being real time.
Another thing that set Dungeon Master and Chaos Strike Back apart from later games is the interaction with the environment, from using doors and traps, to chopping and fireballing doors, to something as basic as throwing things through bars. For example, in Black Crypt the spell graphics is just a pretty graphical effect, while in DM and CSB a Fireball actually has a physical presence in the dungeon and can interact with wooden doors and teleporters.
Ultima Underworld was in many ways the natural evolution of DM and CSB, while the real time blobbers that followed were evolutionary dead ends; even though some of them were fun to play, for me they were all anti-climaxes after DM and CSB.
Dungeon Master was a revolutionary RPG featuring a pseudo 3D world presented in the first person perspective. You control a party of four, a "blob" which moves from square to square in real time. Controlling four characters in real time may sound like a daunting task, but the game is fairly slow and all actions take a certain time, with quick stabs being faster than heavy blows, so there is no frenetic clicking involved. The combat is the weakest aspect of the game, since it's too easy to side step enemies, attack them, and side step again - the infamous Two Step Dance - but that is a general problem with all real time, first person, party and tile based RPGs (aka real time "blobbers" or Dungeon Master clones).
Apart from the combat, however, Dungeon Master was superior to CRPGs in general in most respects. The audiovisuals were unrivaled for a long time. You could actually use sound to keep track of your enemies, and while only one type of dungeon graphics was used throughout the whole game, it looked very good.
Dungeon Master was also one of the first CRPGs to discard the traditional XP system, and instead used a system where skills increased by usage, something later adopted by the Elder Scrolls games. The game did have the traditional character classes of Fighter, Priest, Wizard and Ninja, and characters could advance in all classes. Using melee weapons increased Fighter levels, missiles weapons and generally throwing things increased Ninja levels, casting spells increased Wizard levels, while making potions increased Priest levels.
You didn't create your own characters, but instead selected one to four characters from The Hall of Champions. And what a colourful and diverse lot those champions were! Who can forget characters like Hisssssa, Gothmog, Wuuf the Bika or Halk the Barbarian? Two of the champions were even named after my parents!
The game had a wide assortment of enemies, from Skeletons and Zombies, to shrieking slow moving trees, to giant Rats, Scorpions and Purple Worms, and the most annoying creature of them all - the Gigglers, who would run up to the party, steal an item, giggle and run away.
Death lurked everywhere, but thankfully there were ways to bring back you characters, by carrying their bones to Altars scattered around the dungeon.
There wasn't really much of story in the game, but the background story was well told by a professional writer in the manual. The Grey Lord one day found a Power Gem, but unleashing its power resulted in his essence turning into two halves - a good wizard and Lord Chaos. Lord Chaos of course has dreams of world domination and all the other things evil lords dream of. The player basically takes the role of Theron, Lord Grey's apprentice, who selects and controls the four champions. The task is to find The Firestaff in Lord Grey's dungeon and then use it on Lord Chaos to make the Grey Lord whole again.
Dungeon Master was followed by Chaos Strikes Back, which was labeled as an expansion, but was actually a separate game. You could import characters from Dungeon Master, or select new characters from a new Hall of Champions, with new and even more exotic characters. There were even two hidden "super" champions, but you could only chose one of them.
Chaos Strikes Back was like Dungeon Master on steroids with even more deadly enemies, fiendish puzzles and possibly the most intricate 3D dungeon ever created, with all 13 levels interconnected via numerous stairs and pits. Just surviving the first seconds of the game, facing two Purple Worms in darkness was a challenge, especially if you panicked and ran over a pressure plate summoning more Purple Worms!
In my opinion it was the ultimate game in the real time blobber sub-genre of CRPGs. One of my best gaming moments ever was on a level containing both illusory walls and dragons. Unlike me, the dragons could see through the walls, and even breathe through them. But I could hear each dragon stomping about, which meant I could locate it by sound and then doing the "Two Step Dance" though the illusory walls!
These games were not only groundbreaking, but they also did most things better than later real time blobbers. A simple, but extremely effective thing like the need for light sources, and torches and light spells gradually dimming helped create a unique atmosphere. This dynamic lighting was missing from later games. Later games would have prettier and more varied graphics, and have more of a story and better NPC interaction, but none could rival the level design and puzzles of DM and CSB. The combat was also better, since you could use doors and traps against enemies, thus actually using the real time aspect to do something you would not be able to do in a turn based game. Later real time blobbers seem to have been real time only for the sake of being real time.
Another thing that set Dungeon Master and Chaos Strike Back apart from later games is the interaction with the environment, from using doors and traps, to chopping and fireballing doors, to something as basic as throwing things through bars. For example, in Black Crypt the spell graphics is just a pretty graphical effect, while in DM and CSB a Fireball actually has a physical presence in the dungeon and can interact with wooden doors and teleporters.
Ultima Underworld was in many ways the natural evolution of DM and CSB, while the real time blobbers that followed were evolutionary dead ends; even though some of them were fun to play, for me they were all anti-climaxes after DM and CSB.
MRY
Wormwood Studios
Looking at the list of game makes me realize how deficient my cRPG experience is. I think it's possible that the number of cRPGs I've actually completed is a single digit.
Great! Now, how's this?
I'm very happy with the text, but still not 100% satisfied with the screenshots & descriptions...
Bro... You know I love you (and Primordia), but you have a hell of a lot to learn about rock and roll.
Looks very good; your editing is mostly for the better.
Some typos for the screenshots, though. BTW, how the hell did you manage to find screenshots with the very four characters that I mentioned?!?
Oh, and now I realize I completely forgot to mention the novel spell system, but at least it's mentioned under one of the screenshots.
Some typos for the screenshots, though. BTW, how the hell did you manage to find screenshots with the very four characters that I mentioned?!?
Oh, and now I realize I completely forgot to mention the novel spell system, but at least it's mentioned under one of the screenshots.
Last edited:
MRY
Wormwood Studios
True. But my main weakness is an inability to finish games -- for whatever reason, I finish every book I open, but only about 1% of games that I start. With cRPGs the main problems tend to be that either (1) there is some core mechanic that I loathe (typically, but not always, inventory management and loot hauling), (2) while maintaining a single save file, I manage to save myself into an insoluble problem (glitch or fight that I can't possibly win or escape), (3) I suffer some setback that exasperates me enough to stop playing, and then I don't pick it up again, or (4) I hit some stupid combat slog (like in Arcanum) and can't be bothered to power through it. I've probably played at least a few hours of a third of the games on your list.
Mostly?
What do you want to change bro? It's no big deal. 
Uh, there's no "find", I took like 90% of the screenshots in the book so far. Only Lord Chaos here is from MobyGames - and I even asked for permission.
Yeah, I use the screenshots for that mostly, to complement the review. Some just games have too many things to mention.
Ah, that's cool then. I'm honestly also not very good at finishing games, especially RPGs with mechanics that annoy me... and that includes Planet Escape: Tornament. :3
nomask7
Arcane
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2008
- Messages
- 7,620
felipepepe - could you periodically update the OP to give us information about progress?
I'd like to know when it's coming out.
I'd like to know when it's coming out.
There's not much to update... most of the days are like "got a new review, gonna do its layout - yei, one less to go!". I usually post new reviews on twitter at @felipepepe, and big updates on the book's blog: https://crpgbook.wordpress.com/
Me too.
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