A little discussion/suggestion about Graal Reborn

General Talk
1

Since my return this past week, the state of Graal Reborn has been on my mind quite often, so I’ve decided to try to start a discussion about this very problem.
I’ve been thinking about ways as to which we could help draw in more members, and all these ideas keep coming to the same conclusion. If you are old enough to remember the legal problems that Graal went through in it’s early days (For people unaware of it, simply google Graal Zelda Online, it’s well-documented.) Simply, changes like the name of the game were made to avoid legal issues.
I’m sure this has probably been discussed at some point in the past in the Graal Reborn community, but I’m sure with the skilled programmers that made Graal Reborn a reality, this could also be accomplished.
What if some drastic changes were made to Graal Reborn that would make it possible to seperate ourselves from Graal completely? I understand this is easier said than done, but IF done, would allow Graal Reborn to work it’s way into a more public space and allow more aggressive advertising to draw in players.
This would involve a complete revamp in the engine, graphics, anything graal related, but keep the basic framework and workflow we are all already used to, and as long as we don’t follow the path that legit graal went through, it could probably be worthwhile income-wise.
As hard as the Graal Reborn developers have worked over the years, I’d just hate to see this project go under. There’s too much talent tied to this community. If we could take the basic layout and turn it into something completely seperate of Graal, it would allow us to pass through the barriers and problems that currently plague Reborn.
Simply put (for a complex issue), with the way Graal Reborn is going, becoming a completely separate entity would not only do away with the underdog status, but allow it to become a competing game to legit Graal.

I just wanted to start a discussion about this and get some feedback on if this could possibly happen. Again, I know this would be a huge challenge, but wouldn’t it be cool to see Reborn evolve into it’s own entity and go beyond it’s current restraints? If this could be possible, I’d be more than willing to help with this endeavor.

2

That is what everyone currently wants to do. It’s a matter of someone actually producing a capable engine before anything else can happen. Unfortunately, depending on how this is approached, it can take a very long time to complete. Especially when the developers are not focused on it at all times.

3

I understand, It’s good to see I’m not the only one thinking about this though. Wish I was a decent programmer to help work on something like this, I’m still scratching the surface in that regard though… maybe someday.

I could however ask around and try to find some people that may be interested in doing something like this from other communities.

If this could become a possibility I just know it could surpass Graal, as outdated as it is.

4

im glad you see it this way too. the unofficial plan that i haven’t told anyone about is that this forum will rebrand itself to support whichever client gets made first. i think codr is in the lead, but that doesnt mean anything since he takes 5 years to write 500 lines of code. still, we might wanna start talking about names for his client. im still in favor of “cup” and would also consider “cup reborn”.

5

UnixSad, just to piss someone off haha.

Seriously though, for a 2d game/editor name, some suggestion of mine would be “Enigma Factory”, “Playerworlds”, “Worldscape”, There’s a number of possibilities for a name tied to a game/engine that works like graal. It’s gotta be catchy though, probably going to be dealing with alot of younger millenials similar to what you find on graal’s busy servers right now…

Graphics-wise it should be less zelda like. I’m currently working on some new body and head types (definitely taller too). I love the customization that graal comes with but the short pudgy style everyone sticks with has burned me out. Maybe have a set of body types ranging from short to giant that players could choose.

When concepting a new engine, I could throw out plenty of ideas that would go beyond graal.

6

call it Captain Boom Sauce’s Fiasco Freak Englne

7

TINAGRIP (This is not a Graal Rip-off)

8

how about Zelda Online?

9

Should be called Chassis (pronounced Chassy). By definition it fits, retains some ambiguity about how one actually says it (is it Grawl or is it Grail?), has a European flavor in the name (French as opposed to German). I also I like cup.

10

This is so accurate most of the time and I loled.

Cup also made me lol as before. That has some inside joke potential with some of my friends as well. However, for something that I’m putting this much effort into, I would want it to be at least a little more professional. I was thinking of decoupling even further from Graal and going with the name Eon. Why? Because that’s how long it’s already taken to get this far.

11

This would be considered going down the same road lol. It’s bad enough having Portha plotting, but Nintendo? They’ve provided too much pleasure to piss them off :[

If the name is going to be centered around drinking dishes, I propose Mug, at the very least. (Multi-User Game?)

12

Eon makes me think of an actual server name (Aeon maybe?)

The people that’ll be raging when they see a graal competitor with just as competing servers, Unholy Kingdom, Eon, J-Pulse, Ol’ East…
This all sounds more like a parody of graal lol

13

How far along would you say you are with that engine, Codr?

14

If you wanted me to give an overall percentage of total completion, it would be pathetic, like 20% at best. Toward something that could start to be used, maybe more like 60%. But developing for an engine that’s still being developed is probably not what anyone is going to want to spend time on. There could be script engine changes that force script updates, or functionality behavior changes that require logic updates, and who knows what else.

15

I see.

If enough progress is made, I’ll gladly aid in creating graphics for the engine’s release if needed. I’ve rarely found anything similar to what Graal has to offer, I just hope something new finally comes along and gets to see some light. Developing a game on an engine made in the late 90’s early 00’s isn’t something you’ll find alot of people interested in, which is one reason reborn is probably in the state it’s in right now.

16

This is also clever because a chassis is the framework of a vehicle, as an engine is for a game. It just doesn’t fit right to me, though.

17

Chicken is working on a tileset, and I know there are various other graphical creations in the works or done recently. You’d have to look around, though. Graphics really aren’t important to me at this point because someone will need to create a server anyway. I don’t think I intend to myself.

Why? What have you seen that people are looking for, specifically?

18

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great engine as-is. It’s just that if you are a game developer with all of the options we have today, Graal probably wouldn’t be a place someone would look to first glance.
The look and feel of it is dated, but then again I’ve played Graal for going on 13 years now.

A completely new engine that serves the purpose of running similar to Graal (Playerworlds, level editor, scripting language), gives a chance to add alot more possibilities. (I know that puts more strain on the person actually programming it.) Like in a past discussion someone mentioned adding things to the editor, such as Layers or different tile sizes. This could have the potential if done right to be more appealing to someone looking to develop an online multiplayer game.

Legit graal is populated with a whole new generation of players that are sure to find their first attempts at game development in-game. It could be like that here, and in fact Reborn makes for a better place in my opinion, for it to be done. With a new engine, would also mean revamping the website, and anything else that comes with it all that has any ties to Graal.

I wasn’t trying to put graal down or anything with my last post, I was just saying looking at it in its entirety, if a new engine is released it would be a good idea to separate from Graal as much as possible, with a new name, new art style, allowing the team to own everything about it and not have to worry about any legal issues should a single dollar be made from it. If it got that far, it’d be good for business to do like graal in a way, and find a way to make the experience more appealing to the younger players.

One example I can point to on this is my younger brother, 13 years old. He’s starting to show an interest in game development and I tried to start him off the way I did, learning bit by bit using the level editor to build simple stages. He complained about it (not so much because it was 2d or the way you use the editor) but mainly because of the graphics looked “stupid, a rip-off of zelda”.

With a new engine, should also come a new art direction with the vanilla graphics. This is all of course just my opinion, I was just wanting to start some thoughts about if the engine gets near completion, keeping in mind some brainstorming to help draw in players, especially those familiar with Graal (Which again I’ve noticed is largely still a younger playerbase)

19

I wasn’t trying to tell anyone how to run things, it’s just that if you’re putting all of the effort into developing a new engine, it’d be a shame to see it fail simply because it’s either restrained because of legal issues since it’s still using anything related to Graal, or because it wasn’t different enough to stand out from Graal. The programming part alone probably wouldn’t have many issues with this of course.

20

i think our main problem is we spend too much time trying to develop everything from scratch, especially since its usually a one-man team. we probably could come up with something presentable and useful using say, cocos2d game engine and javascript/lua/python as a script engine.