World Map Sketches for Might & Magic X
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I am still looking for a mapmaker, and I hope I will find one soon! Here's some info on our Game Design for those who are curious:
M&MX Game Design Overview
Background on the Might and Magic Series
Might and Magic is one of the longest running Role Playing Game series ever. The series was originally created, singlehandedly, by Jon Van Caneghem, who founded the company New World Computing in 1986 with the release of Might and Magic Book One: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum. The series abruptly ended in 2003 with the game Heroes of Might and Magic IV: Winds of War when 3DO (NWC's parent company) filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Might and Magic was later sold to Ubisoft Entertainment, circa 2006, where they are continuing to develop the franchise alongside Nival Interactive.
Even with the poor receptions of the last two incarnations of the Might and Magic RPG, there is still a large, rabid fan base that continues to play and celebrate the 10+ year old games in the RPG series. As of 2011, Ubisoft continues to release Might and Magic related titles, including King's Bounty: Legions and Might & Magic Heroes VI.
The Might & Magic X Design Team
There is absolutely no indication of Ubisoft developing a Might and Magic X, and five years have already passed, therefore the Might & Magic X (M&MX) Design Team has decided to take the endeavor into our own hands as a completely nonprofit game development project. Upon its completion, M&MX will be released for free, downloadable distribution, solely online, and will be designed primarily to run on the Windows platform in English.
The developers of M&MX have no affiliation whatsoever with New World Computing, 3DO, and Ubisoft Entertainment, and are an independent group of game developers with the sole purpose of gaining experience in the field of game design, while creating a brand new game that will act as a fan made continuation of the famous Might and Magic series.
Core Gameplay Aspects
Party Based Role Playing
Unique, Customizable Party
Character Races, Classes, and Promotions
Learnable and Masterable Skills and Statistics
Paper Dolls
Equippable Weapons, Armor, Items, and Artifacts
Characters, Hirelings, Teachers, NPCs
Text and Sound-Based Conversations and Dialogues
Enterable Merchant Shops for Trading
A Vast, Explorable World
In-Depth World Exploration
Enterable Buildings and Dungeons
Sea Travel and Land Travel
Advanced Melee and Ranged Combat System
Turn-Based and Real Time Combat
Different Types of Damage
A Powerful Combat and Non-Combat Spellcasting System
Friendly and Hostile Monsters
An Alchemical Potion Mixing System
Weather Forecasting System
Cinematic Video Cutscenes
Audio Sound Effects and Voiced Characters
Puzzle Solving
Main Quests and Subquests
Our Current Progress
We have completed thousands of graphic assets, including most of the game items, and animated character portraits, which will be used as the Player Characters. There are still many graphical assets to be completed, but this would not be a wise area to work on until we have a new engine that will be able to support all of our graphic assets.
Over 20 pages of storyline and quests have been written out, and we have a pre-Beta version of our land map, which will become the explorable world that Might and Magic X takes place on.
The soundtrack for M&MX is well underway, and we have several talented composers who are taking care of everything for us.
Game Engine
The M&MX Design Team is currently planning a total conversion of our assets to a brand new engine, because our old engine, Horizon, is extremely outdated (late 1990s) and difficult to use, for example, to edit landmass you must go through a very tedious process of hex editing.
We are currently looking into converting to the XNA engine, which has a reputation for being very easy-to-use. The game will be coded in C#, and the engine framework to support M&MX will need to be constructed first, before were able to import our assets.
Game Mechanics
In terms of game mechanics, we are basing M&MX on an updated version of the games Might and Magic 6, through Might and Magic 8. The fundamental basics for the game mechanics can be found on the following websites:
http://www.angelfire.com/nt/bones/
http://sites.google.com/site/sergroj/mm/mechanics
We will undoubtedly be doing some revisions and improvements on these game mechanics, but in order to accomplish this, we need the help of some experienced programmers and level designers who can help us create the initial framework for Might and Magic X.
(Original post can be found here)
