You are hereView topic - The current state of SVO
View topic - The current state of SVO
Hey guys!
It has come to my attention that some people wonder "what is up with the SVO development" and why it's taking so damn long to release something that (remotely) plays like an actual video game. So here I am, about to try explaining what the current state of Saturn Valley Online is.
Let me start by saying the current downloadable version of the game is still a lightly modified version of the default Netgore game client (which you can get yourself at netgore.com) with an Earthbound skin placed on top of it, hence the big red letters on the downloads page stating that is an "alpha test".
This alpha version is available for you to take a peek into the EB/SVO worlds and give you a chance to claim your character and maybe explore some bits of both worlds already. This also means most of the Earthbound game mechanics are NOT included yet in the live version. So you cannot properly battle an enemy, talk to an NPC, level up, progress in the storyline, ...
However, over the course of seven or so months Darkfrost and I (Skye) have been working on adding more stuff to do. With the help of Dangoss we added a whole bunch more Earthbound areas (up to Fourside at the moment) while Darkfrost coded bits of the mechanics whenever he felt like programming SVO things. Worship has been working on sprites which we'll be adding in the upcoming version while Sleepytimejesse (you might know him from the I Miss You fanmade album) is working on new area music for the SVO world. Dekuben is also working on adding storylines, characters and area concepts for the SVO world.
Adding existing content such as the Earthbound stuff is relatively easy, you just mostly copy paste graphics, replicate enemies and their stats, add NPCs where they are located as in the SNES game and so on. But programming game mechanics is on a whole other level. A huge and complex thing such as a battle system is no easy feat! It requires a lot of planning and tinkering to get it just right. There is no such thing as "copy paste" from the original game for this. All the various things, each and every single attack from every single enemy in Earthbound has, has to be programmed, and that's A LOT of battle moves! And that's just the battle system, there's a whole bunch of other things (chat system, leveling up, quests, storyline mechanism, ...) that are as complex and there's no guide or tutorial on how to write those. We have to figure it out ourselves while looking at how the SNES game behaves.
Have a look at the game credits here, please count how many programmers and designers worked on the game for as much as five years, as a full time job. Now look at our crew, there is just one programmer who, even though he has learned a lot of programming skills, is still at university studying. He does not get paid for doing this and has a real-life job to earn some money. As working on SVO is more like a hobby rather than a job, this also means sometimes we just don't feel like working on the game for a few days, or we just don't have the time to do so.
For all you people who wonder why after 4 years we have yet to release a playable version of SVO, please consider the above. We also switched engines in 2010 (vbGORE to NetGORE) which meant throwing out all of the custom mechanics we had for that engine and having to rewrite them for the new one.
I hope you can understand that with the few people we have working on SVO, during our spare time it takes a lot of time to get things working as we want them to. But trust me, we want to release a playable version as much as you would like to play one, the upcoming release is a big one with a lot of new mechanics, that's why it's taking so long. Would you rather have a buggy, crappy version of a battle system that crashes your game every few minutes or a somewhat polished working version that might be a first basic version but at least resembles Earthbound?
Once this major version is finished, we can do updates more regularly, like adding better item support, PSI, parties, troops and more content. Please don't forget we do not owe you anything. We are in no way obliged to work on SVO. We do this because we love Earthbound and we'd love to have a game you guys can play, discover and have fun in together.
The current state of SVO
Moderator: Saturn Valley Crew
8 posts
• Page 1 of 1
The current state of SVO
by Skye » Thu Jul 12, 2012 12:23 pm
Hey guys!
It has come to my attention that some people wonder "what is up with the SVO development" and why it's taking so damn long to release something that (remotely) plays like an actual video game. So here I am, about to try explaining what the current state of Saturn Valley Online is.
Let me start by saying the current downloadable version of the game is still a lightly modified version of the default Netgore game client (which you can get yourself at netgore.com) with an Earthbound skin placed on top of it, hence the big red letters on the downloads page stating that is an "alpha test".
This alpha version is available for you to take a peek into the EB/SVO worlds and give you a chance to claim your character and maybe explore some bits of both worlds already. This also means most of the Earthbound game mechanics are NOT included yet in the live version. So you cannot properly battle an enemy, talk to an NPC, level up, progress in the storyline, ...
However, over the course of seven or so months Darkfrost and I (Skye) have been working on adding more stuff to do. With the help of Dangoss we added a whole bunch more Earthbound areas (up to Fourside at the moment) while Darkfrost coded bits of the mechanics whenever he felt like programming SVO things. Worship has been working on sprites which we'll be adding in the upcoming version while Sleepytimejesse (you might know him from the I Miss You fanmade album) is working on new area music for the SVO world. Dekuben is also working on adding storylines, characters and area concepts for the SVO world.
Adding existing content such as the Earthbound stuff is relatively easy, you just mostly copy paste graphics, replicate enemies and their stats, add NPCs where they are located as in the SNES game and so on. But programming game mechanics is on a whole other level. A huge and complex thing such as a battle system is no easy feat! It requires a lot of planning and tinkering to get it just right. There is no such thing as "copy paste" from the original game for this. All the various things, each and every single attack from every single enemy in Earthbound has, has to be programmed, and that's A LOT of battle moves! And that's just the battle system, there's a whole bunch of other things (chat system, leveling up, quests, storyline mechanism, ...) that are as complex and there's no guide or tutorial on how to write those. We have to figure it out ourselves while looking at how the SNES game behaves.
Have a look at the game credits here, please count how many programmers and designers worked on the game for as much as five years, as a full time job. Now look at our crew, there is just one programmer who, even though he has learned a lot of programming skills, is still at university studying. He does not get paid for doing this and has a real-life job to earn some money. As working on SVO is more like a hobby rather than a job, this also means sometimes we just don't feel like working on the game for a few days, or we just don't have the time to do so.
For all you people who wonder why after 4 years we have yet to release a playable version of SVO, please consider the above. We also switched engines in 2010 (vbGORE to NetGORE) which meant throwing out all of the custom mechanics we had for that engine and having to rewrite them for the new one.
I hope you can understand that with the few people we have working on SVO, during our spare time it takes a lot of time to get things working as we want them to. But trust me, we want to release a playable version as much as you would like to play one, the upcoming release is a big one with a lot of new mechanics, that's why it's taking so long. Would you rather have a buggy, crappy version of a battle system that crashes your game every few minutes or a somewhat polished working version that might be a first basic version but at least resembles Earthbound?
Once this major version is finished, we can do updates more regularly, like adding better item support, PSI, parties, troops and more content. Please don't forget we do not owe you anything. We are in no way obliged to work on SVO. We do this because we love Earthbound and we'd love to have a game you guys can play, discover and have fun in together.
Last edited by Skye on Thu Jul 12, 2012 12:30 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Edit
Reason: Edit
-
Skye - Saturn Valley Crew
.PNG "Saturn Valley Crew")
- Posts: 2680
- Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2007 5:54 pm
- Location: Belgium
Re: The current state of SVO
by Hlok » Thu Jul 12, 2012 5:10 pm
I hope you are not receiving many unappreciative comments from your fanbase. Personally, my interest is in this MMORPG as an alpha more than the game itself. I understand your desire to avoid releasing buggy code that crashes the game, but I imagine there are others like myself who would love to play the buggy code. This would increase everyone's appreciation of the next version with the less buggy code.
I check into the site every few days to see how things are coming along. If any of your other fans are like myself, they are impressed with the idea and effort you have placed into this game and would like to experience what you currently have 'complete' (or functioning). If there are any within your current fanbase that are demanding a finished product, they will not hang around during alpha. They will come back in a few years when it is thriving and be annoyed at themselves for missing the boat.
You have a solid product you are releasing to anyone interested. There is no need to apologize.
I check into the site every few days to see how things are coming along. If any of your other fans are like myself, they are impressed with the idea and effort you have placed into this game and would like to experience what you currently have 'complete' (or functioning). If there are any within your current fanbase that are demanding a finished product, they will not hang around during alpha. They will come back in a few years when it is thriving and be annoyed at themselves for missing the boat.
You have a solid product you are releasing to anyone interested. There is no need to apologize.
- Hlok
- Spiteful Crow
.PNG "Spiteful Crow")
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2012 2:09 am
Re: The current state of SVO
by Masupups » Thu Jul 12, 2012 8:07 pm
The thing that people don't seem to see is that it'll get done when it gets done. Pestering the small team of people working on SVO will not get it out faster. Now donating may, but to what extent is never really spoken of. It'll more than likely help as incentive or funding (whichever seems needed more 
).
I recently asked DF on youtube how the progress was on the battle system, which may have spurred this. But rest assured, I rush no one, great work takes great time, especially with something this difficult.
).I recently asked DF on youtube how the progress was on the battle system, which may have spurred this. But rest assured, I rush no one, great work takes great time, especially with something this difficult.
-
Masupups - Spiteful Crow
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2012 10:09 pm
Re: The current state of SVO
by jacob41c » Thu Jul 19, 2012 5:33 am
Last edited by jacob41c on Mon Mar 25, 2013 5:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
- jacob41c
- Spiteful Crow
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2012 5:32 am
Re: The current state of SVO
by Chugoli » Sun Nov 18, 2012 3:18 am
This project has a ton of potential just work on it when you can and just to let you know no one has ever made something as awsome or creative as this you guys are doing a good job with this game and if you need help spreading the word about this game or advertisment(its pretty much the same thing) i will be more than happy to help you out. I have a good freind on youtube that makes videos everyday on youtube he usually gets 100-500 views a day im pretty sure he can do something to aid you guys and i wouldnt mind making videos myself about SVO when ever i can because evrytime i check this place out its always dead and i get sad because i know this project has so much potential i just hate to sit back and see this project go to flames please reply to me im offering all the help i can to support you guys and advertise for you guys...well i hope you guys see this message 
- Chugoli
- Spiteful Crow
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2012 2:44 am
Re: The current state of SVO
by Skye » Sun Nov 18, 2012 2:43 pm
Hey, thanks for the offer but right now there's no much use in advertising just yet. It's better to wait until the game has some actual gameplay components like the battle system. Else people will check it out, see they can't do much and then leave again.
-
Skye - Saturn Valley Crew
- Posts: 2680
- Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2007 5:54 pm
- Location: Belgium
Re: The current state of SVO
by Chugoli » Mon Nov 19, 2012 1:46 am
No problem i get on this website almost everyday so yea if you ever need my help with anything ill just be here waiting 
- Chugoli
- Spiteful Crow
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2012 2:44 am
Re: The current state of SVO
by thaqtipkilla » Tue Dec 18, 2012 7:38 am
Honestly, I'm not pestering anybody. I've been waiting my entire life for a game like this, and I haven't said d'oh! over how long it's taken you to get this running. Why is it so hard to make a super nintendo game work on my computer, especially the best game ever. Get your head out of your butt and left me find some new missions for ness. Seriously.
- thaqtipkilla
- Spiteful Crow
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Fri Dec 24, 2010 6:02 pm
8 posts
• Page 1 of 1
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest