Hi folks!
So, as you know, with limited computer, assembly, and Axe resources, I've been playing with pure TI Basic for the last week or so.  This will continue until the 19th.  However, there is good news.
I am announcing Edge, the next pure TI Basic RPG to grace your calculators!  It features amazing graphics, great battle mechanics, and an enthralling story.  I have already done the tilemapper (the very same one I have mentioned elsewhere), exploration, and the basic engine.  Much of the battle graphics are done as well.  I am extremely satisfied with the quality of graphics.  If not for the speed in tilemapping, and the slowness of certain sprites, it would look like it was done in assembly.  The only downside is it takes a moment to load each map, and some of the battle animations are slow.  However, this is not a problem whatsoever.  The tilemaps use 5x3 tiles, with a combination of ASCII and text sprites, and because of the small tile size, and entire town can be rendered and be explored without changing maps.  The sprite speed is not an issue, and it does not get in the way of gameplay.  In several places, I use the delay to my advantage, rather than using rand(XX.
Guys, I'm really excited about this game, and as soon as I can transfer it to an emulator, you will get screenshots galore.  It is a beautiful games, and I can barely tell that it uses ASCII tiles and has some sprite limitations.

That at the least sounds promising. Makes me curious about all the tricks you used to get it so small and fast.

Sounds awesome! Can't wait to see what it looks like!

Quote from: matthias1992 on July 11, 2010, 06:13:47 am

That at the least sounds promising. Makes me curious about all the tricks you used to get it so small and fast.

Erm, did I say anything about "small?"  I've already run out of RAM twice and had to re-organize things.  I'm pretty much forced to release it in episodes, because a full game will *not* fit in RAM.
As for the story, I'm keeping it secret, but I will post the opening lines:

Quote from: Edge

Welcome... to Edge.
This world, Edge, is a fantastic place.
Its namesake - the Edge - is where this flat planet ends.  It is the literal "end of the world."
However, something like this cannot possibly exist.  The universe simply won't allow it.
Luckily, Edge has found a simple and effective solution:
Magic.
I could go into great detail, but you will learn in time.
My point is that you are needed.  I have some... associates that have requested you by name.  I've taken the liberty of erasing most of your memory, for the time being.  I have also woven your new story into the recent history of Edge.
Speaking of names, have you thought of a new one?
[Prompt for name]
...[name]...
An...ironic choice.
Hmm... You are a pawn, [name].  You and me both.
Until next time.  We'll be in touch.  Until then, get used to Edge.  It's a nice place.  Heh heh...

Anyway, I worked a bit on the engine today, pretty much finished the battle system, and I put NPCs and signposts into the map engine.

Would using something like BasicBuilder be useful in putting all the episodes into one app? Then like have a menu at the beginning choose which episode to do. I don't know. It seems better in my head of how to do this haha.

The problem with basicbuilder is that it can only generate one-page apps. If his programs can't fit in 24KB of RAM, there is no way they can fit in the 16KB of a one-page app.
SirCmpwn, sounds cool! Can't wait to hear more about it!

Basicuilder also slows down games with more than a few subprograms.  I never really liked it myself, but it can be usefull if you are super intent on Memory and Aesthetics

I cant wait to see some screenshots of this!

The slowdown is extremely difficult to fix. I could see multipage, though.
The way BasicBuilder does it, IIRC, is that it has a parser hook to intercept things like "prgmYOURSUB" or "Asm(prgmASMSUB"
When it sees that, it copies the corresponding program from the app to a temp program in RAM, and executes that temp program.
So it's probably the copying and the hook that slow it down, I guess.

I wanna make some comments on the story so far. Specifically, this:

Hmm... You are a pawn, [name].  You and me both.
Until next time.  We'll be in touch.  Until then, get used to Edge.  It's a nice place.  Heh heh...

I see where you're going... but it just doesn't make much sense. You start with explain that "we're all pawns in something bigger" then then just suddenly cut off with a farewell. Seems like you'd either have to explain it more or take out the whole pawn part for now to be introduced when it can be explained. As it stands, it just looks so condensed.

Also, "Until next time.  We'll be in touch.  Until then..." seems repetitive. You could take out "Until next time" easily and it'll actually sound better. In fact, doing that may make the 'pawn' part not sound as bad cut off like it is.

To continue with the repetitiveness, we have "...get used to Edge.  It's a nice place." when we started off with "This world, Edge, is a fantastic place." Just seems like we heard it before, and we have. The entire 'farewell' could be changed to fit much better but how to change it would depend on the direction the story is going.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Really, I'm just wanting screenshots but thought I could help out a bit here since it just sounded so off to me but seemed like something that could be really great.