Radiant Sword

Citing a list of influences this tasteful is like catnip to me. Seriously, give this game a look!

I don't have the heart to inflict that on anyone after that one sequence in Elden Ring XD

Vertical levels have played awesome so far with all the different movement options in the game. This one becomes a madhouse once enough casters are in the mix. XD #srpg #tacticsrpg #lowpoly #madewithunity #indiedev

Nighttime mood. #srpg #tacticsrpg #lowpoly #madewithunity #indiedev

More map demos! Originally, you were going to have a sequence of battles on & inside the boat after it took off, but that design got scrapped D: However, it's still a defining tactical element for this map. #srpg #tacticsrpg #lowpoly #indiedev #madewithunity

Facts 🏳️‍⚧️

It's made in Unity, although it isn't really leveraging much of the default rendering - modern lighting just wasn't a good style match. So, there's really nothing special going on engine side - just non-shadowcasting directional lights on lowpoly meshes with smoothed normals.

Thanks for the kind words! Yep, most of the lighting is in the textures (although not using an actual engine light bake - it's drawn directly in the main texture). Each tile is given 20x20 pixels of texture space. So each texture is 512x512 & supports up to 25 tiles, with 12 pixels of wasted space.

Recently I added a little debug camera animation for testing map angles & culling. It also happens to be perfect for showing off battle stages! Here's a recent addition, I had a ton of fun making this one. #srpg #tacticsrpg #lowpoly #indiedev #madewithunity

Thanks, I'm glad you like it! :D I found I had more success with this approach once I started treating the pixel art phase as just cleanup & polish for the downscale. Before that, I was actually treating it too much in the pixel phase, and losing the detail from starting at high-res.

Thanks! :D 90s anime vibes is the goal, so I'm glad to hear it's coming through.

Thanks Eddie. :p I'm never as comfortable with drawing as with pixel art or 3d, since I have no professional drawing background before Radiant Sword - just hobby stuff. Career 2D artists would draw circles around me! But I'm glad the layer of downscaling & pixel art touchup helps bring them to life.

I finally added the code to handle camera animations during spells and abilities, so I've been trying to make the sequencing of new skills look extra spicy. #srpg #tacticsrpg #indiedev #lowpoly #madewithunity

I'll keep an eye out the next time I do a replay! Cheers!

A 2x2 grid showing different art phases of the same pixel art portrait. The portrait displays a soldier in black wearing a metal faceguard stamped with a red hand. The phases are 1) pencil sketch, 2) inked and colored high-res, 3) raw downscale to 64x80 with artifacting, 4) pixel art touchup to remove blemishes from the downscale & increase clarity.

This is my process for the Xenogears-style portraits in the game. As you can see, my drawing skills are nothing special, and countless artists could do this phase quicker & better. The downscaling & pixel art phase actually hides some of my own limitations. #jrpg #pixelart #indiedev #gameart

:O No way! I've must've played that game at least a dozen times and somehow never realized that map made it into cutscenes. Do you happen to remember which scenes they were used in?

This looks so good! I'm super curious about the setup you're using to have your brushwork auto-antialias to a fixed palette. Is that a native feature of CSP?

It's #screenshotsaturday, so here's a quick lil gameplay peek at Radiant Sword, the FFT-inspired tactics RPG I've been working on. #srpg #tacticsrpg #madewithunity #indiedev #lowpoly

Steam page: store.steampowered.com/app/4180060/...

Scene from an isometric strategy RPG. A battle is going on at the front of a coastal manor. A long-haired woman in knight's armor is using a sword art that causes a phoenix to erupt from the ground beneath the enemy. The firelight casts the entire scene in intense red.

I use a lot of pushed animated scene lighting for spell and ability FX, so I often find it hard to grab screenshots that look good in still. But, I really like this single frame of Phoenix Slash where the lighting hits max red. :D #tacticsrpg #srpg #indiedev #madewithunity #lowpoly

Under the Island has been on my wishlist for a long time now, and now it's got a release date! Don't miss it! :D

Super exciting news! :D I've been so impressed every time I see your game - it looks absolutely fantastic. Wishlisted and looking forward to playing it on release!

Happy #TurnBasedThursday! I'm making Radiant Sword, a Final Fantasy Tactics-inspired retro SRPG with an emphasis on character customization & story. I hope you all enjoy diorama-like environments as much as I enjoy creating them!

That's the one! I saw someone actually running battles on it in an arena mod once. It was awesome, although the camera had to rotate multiple times every turn XD

Once, when I was digging in FFT map files, I found an unused map file where each of the 4 camera angles allowed you to see a different room. I thought it was so cool, I was determined to make a level like that in Radiant Sword. Now it's real! #rpg #jrpg #turnbased #indiedev #indiegames

Scene from a turn-based tactics game. A green-hooded archer stands on a bridge spanning a mountain range. She's just loosed magic arrow that sends a sparkling energy beam across the battlefield.

Lunar Archer is a really fun discipline that gets some wacky skills to play with. While their base damage is tuned pretty low, they're great at taking advantage of the enemy configuration. This is my favorite kind of kit to break! #rpg #jrpg #turnbased #indiedev #indiegames

Awesome work on these sprites, and good on you for getting that sorted out early! The effect of those revisions is clear to see, and well worth the effort. I love the style!

Image depicts an event scene from an isometric RPG. A robed man named Helsin stands in front of the warm glow of light cast from inside a medieval palace. A ball is being held, and nobles are scattered through the courtyard outside. The dialogue box reads "Raine, please accompany me inside. Your subordinate can wait out here."

The art from this event scene was very fun to do. #rpg #jrpg #pixelart #indiedev #indiegames

Screenshot from an event scene in an isometric game. The foyer of a dark, abandoned estate is dimly lit by the outdoor moonlit. The corpse of an exorcist lies against a wall in the corner. One of the player's party members is in a confrontation with a surviving exorcist, and shouts "Maybe you forgot, but you would have died out there if it weren't for us!"

Screenshot from a tense event scene. A team of exorcists were sent to investigate this estate, but things took a bad turn, and now everyone is on edge. #jrpg #rpg #pixelart #indiedev #indiegames

Thanks for the kind words! I'm not a lawyer so I really can't advise here unfortunately. All I can offer is the principle that's guiding me, which is: It's okay to wear your inspirations on your sleeve, but always do your own original work. I'd like to think the legal system supports that. :)

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it! Lighting is one of my favorite parts of level creation. :D