Hello again.

To be frank, I must admit that I've fallen behind. Far from educated in the happenings of the past two years, but nonetheless intrigued with the concept of finishing my project, I've returned to the Inferno idea- hopefully with better results this time around. For those of you who remember the old project, I'd like to follow the original ideas rather closely; however I shall seek also to familiarize myself with the developments in both the Axe language and the community since spring '11. I'll need some help with that, but I am excited to work on this once more, and I will do my best to finish something more substantial. And without further ado, a shameless reposting of the old story and screenshot:
The Original Backstory
    Your name is Valani. Born the seventh son of a rich noble family, you were left with almost no inheritance. The king at that time was greedy and cruel. In your fifteenth summer, there was a peasant uprising, aided by renegade knights, that toppled the kingdom. The poor folk were glad to see the old ruler go, but that was not the case with your family and other nobles, for they went into hiding and planned a countercoup that would restore the old order of things. You were left behind, preferring to stay and see what would happen. For the next year, you secretly spied on things as the new regime took over. Surprisingly, during this time, your sympathies changed . You began to see things as the poor folk did, and realized the corruption of the old system. At the end of the year, you boldly walked to the palace and disowned your family and noble heritage, pledging total allegiance to the new king. You quickly became steadfast friends, especially after you told the king of the planned attack by the old nobles.

    When the invasion came, you and your new friends were ready. But the nobles' methods were brutal, and the kingdom began to falter. Soon, you realized the need for a more organized defense, and joined the army. You were then twenty-one. Due to your strength, skill, and brilliant tactician's mind, you quickly rose through the ranks of the army, and soon were second only to the king himself. You welded the ragtag army into a cohesive fighting force, and began to win decisive battles. After two years, your army stood at the gates of the last stronghold of the noble families. A siege of three months ended the war. You married the king's beautiful daughter, and settled down to live a happy life. You soon had one child, a son named Evelian.

    But the king fell ill seven years later, and soon died. A struggle began to claim the throne. The king's two twin sons fought viciously over the title, and the country was at war once more. Fearing for the lives of your wife and son, you fled the country and settled in a small town, becoming a farmer. . .


    Ten years later: There have been reports of brigands in your area, but none were confirmed. One normal day, you head to town to buy a new plow. When you return, you call out. Nobody replies. Fearing the worst, you rush into your house. There, lying in a pool of blood, your wife is slumped on the floor. With a heart-rending cry, you rush to her side. She smiles weakly up at you, and then whispers feebly:
    "Evelian has been taken. Promise me you will find him. Promise me, Valani."
    "I will seek him until I find him or death claims me first."
    She looks at you once more, her eyes full of love, then says "Thank you." She goes limp in your arms, dead. Engulfed in grief, you eat nothing for three days. Then, remembering Evelian and your vow, you enter the house. Opening a clothes drawer, you throw out the clothes, and remove a sword. Shining brilliantly, its blade is as sharp as ever. You swing it experimentally, then, satisfied, leave the house. With a look of grim determination on your face, you leave along the road. Pausing for a moment, you look once more at your wife's fresh grave, then turn to go.

Screenshots!



Now on to the fun part. I've messed with the map a bit, and gained some experience tweaking my other project, Window Maze. But I still have the sprites, and I still have the idea. The first thing I'd like to do is get a feel for how interested y'all are in the reboot of this project. Best of wishes, and cheers! *pops champagne*

       --Callaway

This looks like it will be cool. Seeing as it it in axe I wont be able to help much other then testing but still look awesome

I remember this project! Nice to see you again, I was wondering what happened to you. G'luck, mate, I'll watch the thread for continuing progress

Thanks! I just finished setting up the latest version of Axe, and optimized the tilemapper a bit. Hopefully I can get to work on coding a levels system tomorrow into Saturday.

*News Update*

I have just completed a total overhaul of the scrolling tilemapper that has increased the speed greatly. I'll post the program later tonight. Comments are appreciated.

I've done my fair share of over hauling my game engines, and everytime added a nice improvement of speed or looks.

Most of the speed came from the realization that the old engine redrew the whole map, not just the bit on the screen. Terrible, I know. . . :p
But now it's fixed. And I removed the light grey background for the paths.

*News Update*

I have increased the size of each map to 32x32 tiles, and continues to tweak the scrolling engine, now using it to load the map and draw it as well as scroll. It now scrolls vertically as well as horizontally, 4px at a time.

The level layout will be as follows:
• 4 maps or "rooms" per level
• 10 levels in total, getting progressively more difficult
• An 11th "final" level, in which the main confrontation of the storyline takes place
• Shops and chests along the way
• At random times, you will be stopped and sent into combat as decided by level number, position, and whether or not you're moving. The battle screen will be a 10x6 space surrounded by walls with a randomly generated pool of lava as well. The layout will allow you to move around enemies and strike in whatever direction you're facing with the equipped weapon.
• One "buff" or item and one weapon can be equipped at a time.

have any screenshots for us, sprinkle? this game appears to be running along well, so far, and i cant wait to test it out.

*Redrawing the entire map; is that why the original veiw showed the refresh lines when you scrolled the map?

I'll post one this afternoon or tomorrow morning. As for the lines, I believe that's why, which should be fixed.
The plan for today is to create the inventory screen and graphics as well, then begin the combat interface.

You seem to be making great progress on this, which makes me think you've been honing your programming skills in your absence. Is that grayscale tearing in the first post's screenshot an emulator artifact or something that happens on hardware as well?

Ironically enough, I haven't programmed hardly anything until two weeks ago. But all's well that ends well, I suppose. . .
Anyway, I finished the inventory graphics and am working on item sprites.

As for the grayscale glitch, I still can't work that out. That's something I'd love to have help fixing if possible. And by the way, does jsTIfied happen to have a (video) screenshot feature?

*News Update*
Alright! So here's a "screenshot" of the updates (it's the best I can do; my father had his laptop at a meeting tonight).

Changes:
•32x32 maps
•Vertical and horizontal scrolling
•The inventory screen, accessed with WINDOW
•Five weapon sprites- Obsidian Blade, Pyrrius Halberd, Lithos Axe, Burning Spear, and Magma Flail
•The ability to equip weapons from the inventory

IVP Screenshot

And as of yesterday night, level saving and loading are fully implemented! It's time to start work on the battle engine and level system!

There's also health potions, lava boots, bags of gold, a redesigned intro, and more!

This sounds great! Any chance of a screenshot?

Tomorrow morning, yes.

The program files are attached here.