Website JRPG

This was going to be the cover, or home page for RPGTube.app, a new domain and concept I was building, and am still in the process of rolling out.  It has a specific 640x480 resolution so that it would fit in the website regardless which resolution you were at, and I was building the game world and such with this resolution in mind.  However, with the new website, it now looks a bit awkward, and so in the next upcoming release, it will be using a much better resolution as to fit better with this new website's over design.

So, what is this exactly then?  It is a website that is entirely navigable through the lens of a traditional Japanese style RPG game world.  The game was overall going to have a more cozy vibe, but I did add some survival mechanics where the player needs to make sure they drink a lot of water.  There is both a hydration and energy bar, and there is an option to view the current vitals as well.  There are several items the player can either use or purchase in the game world to replenish these stats.  There is also an option to play with these mechanics disabled as well.

The main attraction here would be the library, where the player can read various books, which are more or less like articles on a website such as this, but in a game world.  The books are on various subjects, including the game engine itself, along with some reviews of some TV shows I was watching at the time.  The library also has a Linux computer that doesn't really do much, unless you look around the game world to unlock it's secrets.  I do plan on adding a look-up system of sorts to the Linux PC here, which will list all of the books in the library, and the visitor can select one, in which it will tell them which bookshelf the book is on.  There is also a sink here which a visitor can use to replenish their hydration stat if survival mode is enabled.

Another notable building in the main town is my house, a very empty house when I come to think of it now, but most visitors won't even see inside it, as the front door is locked.  There is also a Linux PC located in my house, because of course there is!

One cool feature of the Linux PC that hasn't really been used much, so nobody can see it in action, is the working floppy disk support, yeah, a floppy disk, if you even can remember what those even are.  Within the game's code there are variants of this item, one is a blank one, but there are several others.  Each will work with the Linux PC differently, as the Linux PC object will soon be one of the most interactable objects in the game world, with visitors being able to find a hidden floppy disk somewhere, and then able to bring it over to this Linux PC to see what it might contain.  I think this could be a really fun thing to add to it.

The other major stable is the titular Moongate from the Ultima series of video games by Richard Garriet, otherwise known in the gaming community as Lord British.  Since this isn't a for-profit thing, and never being sold, and more like a very novel website idea than a video game, and since a lot of Ultima fan websites have included direct images of the Moongate sprite right from the game, I don't think having the Moongate here as an nod to a brilliant early CRPG series is going to be a problem.  The graphic for the Moongate on this website is also entirely drawn by me onto the Bookshelf texture, well, a copied version of the Bookshelf texture.  I really loved the more 3D cube like style that the Moongate took during the Ultima VII era of games.  They were actually a 2D rectangle that rose from the ground in previous Ultima games, as quite prominently shown on both the box art, and in-game, such as the stellar opening scene to Ultima VI.  I only bring this up, as it really baffled me why they changed how the Moongates appeared in Ultima Online, it actually took me out of the Ultima experience a bit, because of the Moongates are rectangular, then they aren't Ultima Moongates.  It kept that same shape for all of the games, for it to become different after the release of Ultima Online, was incredibly disrespectful to the source material.  Wouldn't it have been really cool if in Ultima Online, the Moongates functioned more like how they functioned in Ultima IV, where they still used each of the two moons to determine where the Moongates were in the game world?  The left moon was where the game will appear, and the right moon is where you will be teleported to.  That was such a brilliant, discoverable, and fun game mechanic.  I don't even think any modern portal navigation systems do anything such thing, they are just very basic point A to point B portal systems, no fast travel system like in the Ultima series has really existed much since it.  Or I'm totally playing the wrong games.  And if in Ultima Online, what if during the moment that the Moongate was scheduled to appear and disappear, that the iconic melody of Stones would start playing, just as the Moongate rose from the ground.  That would have added so much atmosphere and vibes to Ultima Online.  I don't think many MMORPGs really have much of this sort of atmosphere, and that's really... sad.  Another really neat aspect of having such scheduled for Moongates in an Ultima Online, as it creates a sense of community.  As everybody begins to know when the next Moongate outside Britain will rise from the ground, as a result, any players needing to take that Moongate for a side-quest will all have to meet for just a brief moment as they wander through the Moongate together.  Some people might think this sort of fast travel would be annoying, well, the Ultima series did have other methods which could have been combined into Ultima Online as well to compliment the Moongate system.  As players get more powerful at magic, they can unlock the titular Mark and Recall spells, which will be a moment for many players.  As when someone first starts, either they need a friend with these spells already, or they will need to rely heavily on the Moongate system until they level their character enough in-game, which then essentially unlocks this new fast travel system for them.  I think it's a nice sort of progression system an MMORPG needs.

Anyways, with all that out of the way, let me continue with what else is features on this Website JRPG.  There is a section dedicated to the game engine itself, RPG Paper Maker, which explains various parts of the game engine to people that might be interested in using it.

There is also a mini-JRPG area, but the one that is there right now is very incomplete, only in an early test phase.