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Ahoy. For the last several years I've been working on an RPG video game called Regressia. I originally started programming because I wanted to make my own FF6 fan game. Over time I lost interest in that as I got more into programming. Eventually I moved on from FF6 and made my own original material, but I never forgot about the CoN. : )

Regressia is an RPG made to look and play like one of the first generation RPGs from the NES or SEGA Master System. The art, music, story, and all other elements are completely new content, but made under same restrictions found on a first generation console. The result is an RPG just like the old ones, but one that you have never played! The game was made for an audience like what I found at the CoN, people who liked to play old games but had already played them all. So this game is for you.

It was important for me to have all original content. What I learned from making FF6 fan games was that I was being a vampire, of sorts. People had these nostalgic memories of a great game that were keeping my game alive. My game wasn't as good as the original, though, so as players spent more time in it their nostalgia disappeared. By using all original content in Regressia, players can form new memories, hopefully on par with older games.

Regressia also plays like a first generation RPG. I wanted to found a series with this game, so I went back and made a game in the same spirit as games like the first Dragon Warrior [Quest], Final Fantasy, Fantasy Star, or Might and Magic. This is where the game draws it's title, by taking the RPG and regressing back to a primitive state. That being said, Regressia is not like other RPGs when it comes to its audience. I wanted you, players who remember playing FF6 and such games, to have a fun time playing. That meant including enemies which would require a greater depth of strategy to defeat, and adding other elements which would boost the difficulty and maturity of the game. Only time will tell me if I succeeded, but those who have played it (and were not turned off by it's 8bit nature) have given me positive feedback.

And so I introduce Regressia, the new 8bit single player RPG made for the classic game player.

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But how do you play it, you ask?

My game is made for a platform called BYOND. Like Java, BYOND programs run in a virtual machine. Unlike Java, your computer did not come installed with this virtual machine, so you would have to install it yourself. Also unlike Java It is a rather simple process, the software is harmless, the program only runs when you tell it to (instead of always running in the background), and is easily uninstalled. Here is the link to download the installer.

After you have the program installed, all you have to do is visit my site and download my game. Here is a direct link to my game in a .zip file. To run the game, simply open the file named "regressia.dmb". Please note that the game will not work if BYOND is not installed. Once everything is up and running the game should be simple to play. There is an included help file which explains the controls and some basics about the game, and there are options for things like keyboard settings and audio volume. There is even a walkthrough for the first three bosses.

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There is one more aspect about Regressia which is important, and that's that it isn't free. There is a free demo to help you decide if you want to play the rest of the game. Payment is a simple process automated by the website using PayPal, and is a one time thing (you will never have to purchase it again). The process is outlined in the walkthrough and also on my game's main website (linked above).

Before starting this project I made a lot of free games, but there were generally lower quality and never completely finished. I decided at one point that I wanted to make a complete game as good as a commercial product. I decided that the only way to motivate myself make something worth charging money for was to actually charge money for it. The plan seems to have worked: The game is complete, I am satisfied with the product, and I think it is worth the money I'm asking (which, in my opinion, is only a nominal fee).

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So, comments, feedback, etc.

Also, it's good to be back at the CoN : )


This post has been edited by Iain Peregrine on 18th January 2010 09:50

I played the demo through and if you told me this was FFII I'd probably believe you, having never played it myself. I enjoyed it a lot. The music was cool, especially the dungeon music. The highlights for me were the Succubus, the pirate ship battle and the sage generally, oh and trying to fight Wilhelm a few times with different weapons, not realising that there were other places to go first.

There are just a few flaws that you might want to take into account. Firstly there's a bug in the dungeon with Wilhelm in it that doesn't let the game progress when a Flying Fox ambushes you. The game still thinks I'm not in the battle but the Flying Fox and the background thinks otherwise. It's happened twice to me.

Another thing is some of the balancing. I understand that you wanted the game to be hard, but the enemies' rewards are a bit too random. For example, I find that running from the high-damage Goblins and Flying Foxes is good tactics because the Death Heads are a breeze to kill and give out twice the experience as a Goblin. I suppose it is good to offer a different strategy to just fighting, I.E. running, but it might be a good idea to lower the HP of both Goblin and Flying Fox to compensate for their massively powerful ambushes. Also it might be a good idea to up the frequency of battles. This game requires a lot of leveling to... well... not die in one hit, so you could maybe make it a bit quicker to reach those levels but without detracting from the difficulty. Your battles are so rapid that it wouldn't feel like a chore going into a battle when you aren't trying to level, I wouldn't think.

Finally, I could be wrong and haven't seen it, but as far as I'm aware there is no button to check what an item actually does, or if a piece of equipment is better that what I'm wearing. This means I have to save and then buy or use an item in an experimental fashion before loading afterwards. Again, I could be wrong, but this is something I think you should add.

Having said all that, it really was a very good game. I can see you've put a lot of work into it and it has paid off.

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

Dude, that's amazing. The game looks great, and it's such a monumental feat to make something like that. Congrats on the release, and thanks for bringing us old-school gamers another experience like this. You're amazing, and deserve a pat on the back, and some time to relax and just feel good. You've just accomplished something that many people only dream about.