The Action RPG Framework is a library that provides functions specific to action RPGs. It handles things like:
- Combat and dealing damage
- Health, mana, money, and experience
- Graphical effects and sound effects
- Enemy AI
- Managing passive, temporary, or periodic effects
- On-screen displays (health meter, inventory, etc.)
- Special abilities with mana costs and cooldowns
- Picking up items and equipping them
- Targeting enemies
- Projectiles
- Sound effects and music
- Saving and loading
- Character creation and selection
- Quests
- Enabling/Disabling PvP
- Forming parties and inviting players
- On-screen display of party members
- Medals
- Banking
The library provides the underlying features you need to create an action RPG. It also comes with a sample game that shows how to implement some basic features.
It's hard to determine where to draw the line between the library and a game that uses the library. For example, the framework only defines the player's health and mana stats. There are no stats like strength or agility - there's no way for the framework to know what stats you'll need. All additional stats must be defined in the project that uses the framework.