The Plan

The plan is to write an 8-bit RPG engine, and RPG compiler to create RPGs that run upon that engine. The aim is that the RPG description will be self-contained, and in theory a new compiler could be written to target a different system.

This blog will document my progress. It will likely in the beginning be more ideas and specifications and talking about what I want in my engine. It will have dead-end explorations of RPG game design. Hopefully it will show first an evolution of a design, an evolution of tooling, and finally an evolution of an engine to run what my tools generate - hopefully a bug-free game that might be mildly okay, story-wise.

What qualifications do I have to do this? Well, pretty much not many in terms of RPG design (I've played a few!), not much in terms of programming 8-bit computers (in reality, I have some in-depth knowledge about the target machine which will drive some design decisions).

So why do it?

The general reasons:

• something to do
• something to be creative
• something to make use of what I can do well currently (high-level programming in finance!)
• I like retro computers, and I grew up with my target system
• I like the challenge they provide, I'm just one person and bigger targets are really not viable in my spare time
• I like pixel graphics design
• This year the internet is full of despair and I need a break