Xanadu Scenario III and IV Projects

[SkyeWelse]

Hi everyone,

I've been getting heavily into the Xanadu series as of late having never played the originals before a couple of weeks ago. It took a minute to learn many of the game mechanics, but I soon found the original Xanadu games to be a lot of fun and EXTREMELY addicting. : ) So much in fact that it was the inspiration for the development of a new project website that would have an extensive section of the Xanadu series on the whole, including Faxanadu (which was my first foray into the series) and eventually, Xanadu Next.

Upon looking for material for the site I stumbled upon a project website for a fanmade Scenario III for the original Xanadu style game. (Scenario II was an official limited release that added content to the original Xanadu disk content with new maps, bosses and music.)

Anyhow, I figured I share it since I don't think too many people know of its existence yet:

Xanadu Scenario III Project

You can download the prototype of the game there as well as several mp3s of the music for the game in .lzh format. For convenience, I've extracted the original files and re-uploaded them in a simple zip file with the music included in the "sound" directory of the "release" folder.

Xanadu III Project Files + Soundtrack

The music is quite nice and I love the new illustrations for the various trainers and shops, for the ones that are finished
anyhow. The game is incomplete though and much of it crashes and is in a debug mode of sorts as you play it. From what I can tell, the player cannot be killed, Dragon Slayers drop from slime-type enemies, and the map seems a bit disorganized in that you can easily run into something you think is a shop from the field only to have it be a Tower full of end-game baddies that a beginner level player would have no chance of defeating normally.

Still though, it seems like a great effort was put into the project and certainly shows. It's a shame that it seems that the project is dead now since it was last updated in 2004.

-=Screenshots=-



I've started thinking about the possibilities of making a new Xanadu game in the classic style, using nicer graphics, new artwork and illustrations and pre-rendered 3D character, monster, items and equipment models that could easily be made into sprites that could change appearance based on the equipment they are wearing at the time.

The rest, such as backgrounds could be made with custom tilesets and such. Adoru said that he'd definitely be up for doing the music for the game and Unsavory Fieg said time permitting, he might be interested in the programming side of things but it might be awhile considering how many projects he's taking on at the moment.

Same goes for me in terms of time available to work on it, but I think a project like this could totally work if enough content is created for it and it could either be a remake of the original Xanadu for the modern age or it could stand alone as its own game in the Xanadu series as Scenario IV. I'd definitely be interested in starting to develop content for it if there seems to be enough interest in such a project.

I need to build a character model that I can rig by the end of this week anyway, so I may try my hand at making the hero, "Fieg" as a starting point and see where it all goes from there!

-Thomas

[SkyeWelse]

Thanks Wyrd! I'll look into it sometime.

-Thomas

[Ascended Mermaid]

I could see if I could *learn* Verge while I wait to upgrade my software (and own it legitimately) -- if this Verge really takes off, I'll consider this project further. By the way, congratulations on your recent acquisitions!

What we really need, however, is someone skilled with level design, and is experienced with Xanadu. The engine would be cake (at least on Fusion 2) -- it's the actual levels and dungeons that I worry about. I do better with my own visions than under a specific set of rules, so we'll need someone a little more creative.

[SkyeWelse]

I agree. Level design would be very important, and after looking at some of the maps from Scenario II, a lot of them actually look fairly organized and clean, and in some cases such as the image below, make nice large scale images such as a pyramid. That's one thing I can say that doesn't seem to be in the Scenario III project is organization. It's a confusing mess and theres a TON of warp points that take you to another spot on the map. Sure they exist in the original Xanadu, but not to this extreme.



Xanadu Scenario II Info Site with nice scans from the Xanadu Data Book vol. 2 (I almost had vol.1, but lost the auction for it! Blast! : ) )

I guess for now, those who are interested can just start building some assets to be possibly used in the game and we can go from there! : )

By the way, congratulations on your recent acquisitions!

Thanks! This means that I now have a spare cart of Crystalis and Faxanadu that I could either sell or give away. So if you don't already own a Faxanadu cart, you can have it.

-Thomas

[AllenSmithee]

I'll help anyway I can... I dunno how much that is though...

[Ascended Mermaid]

It looks very uniform! It makes me wonder where Scenario IV should take place. I really liked how Scenario II did its warping. So we should organize... sounds good. I admit that's one thing I never did in the history of game level design -- I kindof just built wherever the hell I wanted. I did get a bit of an idea for my Faxanadu hack, however.

Actually, I already have my own Faxanadu cart. Thank you. Crystalis on the other hand... well I've kindof been waiting for it on WiiWare, I have Wii Points stockpiled just in case it happens before I move.

Anyway, smoke time. XD

[SkyeWelse]

Mar 9, 2009 22:11:30 GMT -5 AllenSmithee said:

I'll help anyway I can... I dunno how much that is though...

Thanks Smithee. Let's see how far we get going on the project after we get it started up and we'll probably get a better idea of what we might need. This is all still speculative at the moment and it kind of all rests on whether we can afford the time in the end. But I do think that not only would it be fun, but it shouldn't be something that is so involved that it would take forever and ever to develop, which is why it would be a good fit for a game development project. Also, it doesn't hurt to have an additional game dev project to show in one's portfolio, not to mention it shoud end up being a solid work for Xanadu fans and would-be Xanadu fans.

Mar 9, 2009 23:47:08 GMT -5 Ascended Mermaid said:

It looks very uniform! It makes me wonder where Scenario IV should take place. I really liked how Scenario II did its warping. So we should organize... sounds good. I admit that's one thing I never did in the history of game level design -- I kindof just built wherever the hell I wanted. I did get a bit of an idea for my Faxanadu hack, however.

Actually, I already have my own Faxanadu cart. Thank you. Crystalis on the other hand... well I've kindof been waiting for it on WiiWare, I have Wii Points stockpiled just in case it happens before I move.

I've been waiting forever for them to release Crystalis as well, but I've got my doubts as to whether or not they will or can release it. It all depends on how well they can get it to emulate on the VC. Most fanmade and opensource emus that try to run Crystalis don't do the game much justice I'm afraid, so it may be that it is a beast in itself to emulate. But yeah, I'll be buying that as soon as it gets released for sure, if and when it does.

Regarding the setting, you know, I wonder if any of the actual Xanadu scenarios have ever had Xanadu itself as a level name. That would be great to have as a secret or final level for the game. Though it'd still be nice to have places like Shangra-La that have been used before.

Also, I've been playing around with the idea of having both a character that can be chosen at the start to either be male or female. The models could be different. That'd be a nice addition that hasn't been done before.

-Thomas

[SkyeWelse]

Sounds excellent to me and the map you've show really shows a lot of organized detail, which is exactly what a Xanadu project like this needs. Actually, I think it would be awesome if everyone who is involved with the project at least took a crack at designing a level, that way we all have a design in there somewhere. : ) "See that level... that's MY level." lol : ) I've done a bit of level design myself over the years and especially when I was much younger and I used to design my own Mega Man levels.

Oh and for some reason your tripod image refused to show because of hotlinking. I tracked it down though and re-uploaded it for ya:



What was the name/premise of your game by the way?

-Thomas

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

This map sucks shit, shitstacker!

[SkyeWelse]

Nice site Wyrd! The game also sounds very deep and fun and I've always liked games that pan-screen by screen. It always seems to have a nice charm when it is a grid-based overworld map. : ) There's tons of material that you've created for the game too. You should defintiely continue it to completion, at least the first game in the series for sure! Good luck with the project, I can see you've put a lot of time into it.

-Thomas

[Ascended Mermaid]

The second time's the charm, Wyrd. I should know. I'm investing practically my life into Project XX -- which is actually the unique, non-cliche sequel to a somewhat refreshing, nostalgic and cliche story I'd written 5+ years ago. I have no idea whether or not I plan on a part 3, I toy with the idea but it just doesn't erm... mesh. XD I do, however, plan on turning the first story into a game after I take care of part 2 / Project XX.

[SkyeWelse]

Well, I finished up the Fieg model and I thought I'd show some pics. I've made it so that we can take a shot of him from pretty much any angle we need (with better lighting of course) in order to get the front, side, and back poses to make pre-rendered sprites. The clothes that Fieg is wearing is actually not part of his actual body geometry, but rather equipment that can be taken off of him and replaced with something else. Yes, Fieg is quite naked under all of that gear he is wearing, complete with nice round buttocks. *laughs* Anyhow, what this means is that for the project we can simply craft armour, weapons and shields that he can wear when getting the poses we need. It also allows it to be a much easier process for coming up with combinations of gear, in cases of situation when a player may want to equip the Dragon Slayer, Armour #4 and no shield. They we would very easily be able to set the correct parameters and grab the images/poses we need.



Armour: Cloth (One you start out with, modeled after the Saturn version of Xanadu from FC)
Shield: Small Shield (Second armour set, since Fieg usually starts only with gloves)
Weapon: Long Sword

And here's a youtube turntable of him, although the quality kinda sucks, even on HQ mode.



Of course the logo, and sub-title text for the project is all still very speculative at the moment. I just created a mock up logo based on an idea that Unsavory Fieg recommended as a location/setting for the project. Having it all take place underneath the World Tree of Faxanadu would be kinda cool I think. : )

-Thomas

[SkyeWelse]

Thanks Wyrd. : ) There is plenty more to come in time and there may be changes to this model as well depending on how well it fits within the game. I've got some other models I've built in the past, like a skeleton that may work for skeleton warrior and a dragonfly that can easily be converted to a giant bee monster. The rest will have to modeled from scratch. : )

Also, I don't really have any huge requirements for the project in terms of what absolutely needs to be in there or how things should look, so I'm still very much open to changes that might be made in terms of how things ought to look to make it fit within Xanadu's classic style.

The only real requirement I guess I would have is the inclusion of a classical Greek style Gorgon with a round Gorgoneion style face as a boss monster. I really like the way it is depicted in early Greek art and I'm writing a fairly extensive college research paper on how the Perseus vs. Medusa myth has changed throughout history. I also think that it would be nice to include something like that as it is likely to be the first time that this type of Gorgon style has ever been used in a video game. (Although I guess it is a bit similar to how some versions of Ganon look) Just about every version of Medusa / Gorgon in any video game has always been the more recent depictions of the myth where Medusa has a human head and upper body with snake hair and a serpentine tail. It would be nice to change it up a bit and return to the classic style for such a classic style gaming experience. : )

We do want to offer some new game mechanics however and perhaps include a female main character that can be selected instead of Fieg who uses her own weapon sets based around bow and arrows and other projectile weapons. Though, at present I have no idea who the name of the blond female protagonist that is both featured on the MSX Xanadu cover art and the anime of Xanadu.

Any idea who the name/role of that character is? I've been playing the MSX version of Xanadu and I've not seen her anywhere within the game so far.

Edit: Ah, just found the Xanadu Manga Thread. Neat stuff. So her name is "Ryel". Interesting name. : ) It'd be great to have her as a playable character. There's also another female protagonist it seems who is a warrior class with dark long hair and a viking helmet called "Karla". That could also be an option.

-Thomas

[SkyeWelse]

Just as an update, I've been working on a "classic" style hair-cut for Fieg, based on the manga/anime and msx cover art design:


*Note* Arms are in a T-Pose coming out of the cloak because I'm currently in the process of rigging it with a animation skeleton. : 0

Compare with Fieg from the Manga:



I'll model the hair and outfit for Ryel eventually as well.

-Thomas

[SkyeWelse]

Thanks MP83. : )

3-D SD Snatcher would be amazing!

I'm using Autodesk Maya to build the basic geometry of the characters and for texturing/coloring them. For the hair, since it is much more complex, I've been taking a basic mesh of a "helmet sized" piece of geometry and exporting it as a wavefront obj file, (This type of file can be read in just about any 3-D modeling software program) and take it into a sculpting program such as ZBrush. I craft the hair mostly in there and then export it again as a obj file back into Maya.

Maya isn't a free program though and even the student license is kind of expensive considering that it only lasts for 14 months at a time, but there is free open source 3-D modeling/animation program called Blender that works for just about every OS imaginable. It's a great program and very powerful, but the interface is a bit more complicated than Maya and I've unfortunately not had the time to learn it as well as I should.

If you can learn Blender, that'd be the way to go since it's free. : )

-Thomas

[SkyeWelse]

Sounds like that would be a very big project considering all of the dialog and character interactions/scenes that are in Snatcher. (Speaking of which, I need to finish it one of these days... Playing the Sega CD version off and on) But if that is something you definitely want to do, then don't give it up. There are tons of tutorials on how to use programs like Blender and Maya, so just pick one up and start playing around with how things work and you'll eventually get the hang of it. : ) It also doesn't hurt to find other people that can help the project out with the same enthusiasm for getting it to a completed stage.

I would surely not be able to make a Xanadu game by myself as I have little to no programing skills or time to start learning programming intensely, so I'm fortunate that there are other Xanadu enthusiasts with programming experience, like Unsavory Fieg, that are interested in seeing this project through. I also have no experience with composing my own music, so when Adoru mentioned that he would be interested in doing the music for it, that's again another extremely helpful and important piece of the project. Same with Wyrdwad and his experience with level design on some of his past projects. You just need to organize it and build a team of people you can trust and get along with.

I'm sure there's got to be enough Snatcher fans that would work with you on a project like that, and I'd be willing to bet you could find most of them over at MSX.org. : )

-Thomas