Hazordhu Classic
Hazordhu was something that I started years and years ago as a little demonstration to my grandfather of what BYOND could do. At that point it was nothing more than a short RPG where you started in a town over-run with slimes or something, and had to save your family from a castle. It wasn't soon after that I decided to make the game multi-player, and shortly after I decided to take it in the direction of building and crafting. So I found GECK. A combo system by Spuzzum. And so Hazordhu was born. I decided that I was unable to program Hazordhu, and went through several programmers over the course of 6 months, and eventually the game became so bug ridden it was unplayable. So I started over...
When I decided to start fresh, I decided to stick with one programmer, no matter how inactive either of us began. Kaiochao was that programmer. Together, he and I took the concept of Hazordhu and turned it into something we like to think is pretty awesome. In comparison to Classic, Hazordhu II has made leaps and bounds. And it doesn't even use GECK!
Eventually, Kaiochao left for school, and I had to find another programmer. After a few weeks, someone popped into the game, and it was soon after that myself and the other developer Kai talked about bringing Nadrew on to the team. His help was short lived, lasting just over six months, but his help has made a lasting impression on the game.
Soon after Nadrew left, I took over all of the development of the game. Between personal life and my lack of 'DM skillz' I eventually had to put Haz aside. But now I'm back, and Kaiochao's back working on the project again, when he can.
At the beginning of the project, Kaiochao hadn't been part of any full fledged games, and neither had I. But we toughed it out and improved along the years. Now that Kaiochao's helping me again, he's going through all of his old codes and doing them over to be easier to work with, and less likely to bug up. My pixel art skills have also improved from the beginning of the project. What started out as glorified stick men with one direction have now become cute little people with stubby arms and legs.
Most recently in Hazordhu our focus has been professional appearance and first impression. We've done away with our old title screen, and introduced a new moving camera to show off some of the landscape to the players when they log in.
We've also gotten rid of the top-menu and added in a main menu where you have your graphics and game options, and then a help & information section.
So far it's been working great.
Another recent development is a new attitude towards in-game events. I've devised several long-term events each with different outcomes, and eventually lasting effects in-game.
This Halloween we're also going to be hosting an event, which rumor has it may come with a BYOND Membership donated by one of our players.
So if you've never played it before, come give it a try. If you have and didn't like it, then pop in now and see what's changed!
