Thanks Crosmando and GamezRanker! It's very nice to hear such kind words and thanks also for voting!

I can only hope this turns out to be good enough to be in the same league with Spiderweb Software. And if all goes well there'll definitely be other games. :)

Couple of screenshots of the new beginning, UI and new bushes!

I just hope if there are, you don't release the same games 3 or 4 times with minor updates and charge like they're brand new games. I love Jeff's games, but I think I'm done supporting him by buying Exile for the 4th time. He'll need to make something actually compelling for me to shop at his store again.

The town graphics remind me a bit of Daggerfall.

(By the way, I'm in the early stages of developing my own CRPG, but it's not going to be similar to the one this topic is about.)

Edit: Or maybe they remind me of TES: Arena's town graphics more.

But don'tcha know that a TRU Spiderweb Software fan buys ALL new versions, a couple copies for friends/family, and also has all the original merch(strategy guides/games on cd-rom/etc)? :)

Side note: I'm still a wee bit saddened that one of my favorite SWS games only got one re-do and no sequels/prequels.
Which game am I speaking of? Why the one called Nethergate, of course.

@paladin181: :D I think if I keep developing games after this and someday revisit the old ones and feel the urge to enhance them somehow, I would probably give the update free unless it would really change the game and would take a lot of time to do those enhancements. I'm not really into this new trend in gaming industry that only few years old games are being remastered/remade. I actually like if old games are being brought back but I don't like if they're changed too much as they tend to lose the original charm. I think Shenmue I & II are the way I'd like these remasters to be made: Keep the original graphics and other stuff, just update resolution and aspect rations.

But I don't mean all those new remasters/remakes bother me, I just avoid them mostly. These days I'm just having hard time to find a new game that would keep my interest up, but maybe that's for the better as this development stuff steals most hours of my days. There are some indie-games though that I wait to get to play someday.

Anyway, for these Vaeltaja games I've been planning few parts and each are their own story and can be experienced as separate games, but all of them are connected and form a bigger picture of the story on the background and history of the game world. They take place in different eras of the world I've created and for example one of them is science fiction which is actually inspired by Sega's Phantasy Star series, especially the second one, but the game mechanics will be like in this one. Then there's one part which is something between fantasy and scifi, but not in the way like Shadowrun series or most jrpgs are. And one that tells about events before Twin Falls Kingdom was founded, which will be hinted in this first game. And after those there should be at least one game, maybe two if I ever figure out how to turn that certain story into a game.

And there are other smaller projects that I've been planning also, so if I can keep making all these games I'd love to make I don't think there would be any time left to enhance older titles. :D But who knows what happens, I just try not to take any pressure and keep my focus on this day and this project. :)

@dtgreene: Thank you, I like the town graphics in those old ES games, so that's definitely a compliment, and good to see you are still following the project! :) How early stage your game is? Still designing or is it already in-development? I wish you best of luck with the project - it may be long and windy road, but it feels worth it once the game starts to shape up and you can really see all the progress you've made. But there are also days when I think that I didn't really realize the size of this task. :D

My game is in an early stage of development. In fact, I've really just started on working on what I'm calling the "exploration mode", the mode where you're walking around outside of combat. Once that is done, I'll need to code menus and eventually combat, and once I have some of that written, that's when it will start to feel like a game.

I have made some decisions that should reduce the amount of work that I will need to do. For example, the graphics, if it can be called that, are based on the CP-437 character set. (Someone I showed an early screenshot, or rather a mockup I made using the program "tiled", said it reminded them of nethack, to give you an idea of the graphical style I'm currently aiming for.)

As for game mechanics, I'm aiming for something similar to early SaGa games, with multiple race choices, each with different growth mechanics, but no levels or experience points. (I find that the mechanic of levels and XP is overused in the RPG genre, so I'm aiming for something different.)

For that second game, there are some ways you could spice up the mechanics, keeping the same core but doing some things that wouldn't work in the first game's setting. In particular, two mechanics that might fit are:
* Modern weapons. Make it so that it's possible to get weapons like guns and flamethrowers. For that matter, futuristic weapons, like beam rifles could fit as well. Perhaps such weapons don't depend on having good stats, or they can hit multiple enemies at once, but there may be a cost to using them (much like there's a cost to using magic in most fantasy RPGs).
* Robot party members. Remember Demi and Wren from Phantasy Star 4? Or it could be something like in SaGa, or in Lennus (Paladin's Quest).

@dtgreene That sounds interesting, I hope the development goes smoothly!

Yeah, there's going to be some differences in the later parts to keep things interesting, but those ideas are still waiting to be properly explored. Now I just try to focus on this one, but of course I occasionally get ideas for the other games and write them down. With the same mechanics I meant grid-based movement and turn-based battles, just those basic mechanics.

Been doing lot of re-work for textures and now I'm starting to get close to my original vision for the graphics. Here's couple of screenshot to showcase new treetops and grass for Twin Falls Fields.

Auto/minimap added and it can be turned on/off in options, but I haven't decided what information maps will show. Don't mind the placeholder frame.

Idea: if possible, allow the player to add notes to spots on the map :)

I'll look into it, but there might be some restrictions. I guess we'll find out eventually if that's possible.

That's one thing I've also been thinking about looking into at some point. I already have a plugin for it, but haven't checked out what it's capable of.

No rush......Rome wasn't built in a day, or so they say. Best of luck to ya in your further efforts, btw.