Nevergrind - HTML5 Action RPG
 

Hey guys, I wanted to share this game here at P1999. I've been developing it for over 30 months in my spare time. Nevergrind is like a cross between classic Everquest, Diablo 2, and Phantasy Star. In fact it was originally designed to be a lot like Everquest. Everything from zones, quests, races, classes, and even NPCs. But over time it changed due to IP concerns and a desire to eventually monetize. Nonetheless, the game is still heavily steeped in Everquest stuffs. Check it out and see what you think. Maybe finish a few quests in between corpse runs or medding to FM. :cool:

Nevergrind

Right now game data only saves locally, but I launched a Kickstarter in part to celebrate the launch of server accounts which come out next month. It's also free-to-play aside from some premium features. Any feedback you have would be cool, too.

Nevergrind on Kickstarter

Looks interesting, and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor.

Personally however I think I'll pass, because:

A) it seems like the entire game is just the "fight" sub-section of a real RPG
B) I'm not a fan of the name. Maybe the title is a clever riff on meta-game design, but to me ... I want to immerse myself in a fantasy environment; I don't want to just "not grind". I didn't start playing EverQuest because I wanted to grind, I joined because I wanted to quest forever ;)

But that's just my two cents, hope you find lots of folks who feel differently.

nevergrind has the pharmakos seal of approval. been playing this for almost two years now, and it has come a long way. it started out using all art from classic EverQuest (here's an old video of a Vox fight from back in those days https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8GF7Dkppoo). now Maelfyn has all original art and lore, here's a video of what its like now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djnBBZ6tv4E.

the kickstarter already has $1000 pledged to it after just a day and a half of being open, which surprised me a lot, but is pretty awesome IMO.

and yeah loramin, NeverGrind as a word is almost the opposite of what this game is. can pretty much grind forever in this game.

Any game with some sort of f2p currency always makes me wary. What are these Never Crystals in the rewards?

Will definitely check it out. I really wish Iksar was a choice though.

You can't just keep bringing this to my attention all willy nilly like you keep doing Maelfyn. Each time you do I dump like an entire week into it.

The Never Crystals are the in-game currency which will be used to purchase premium features. They won't be in the game until server accounts are released. They'll also be transferable to other future games I make (if any). In any case the game will still be completely f2p on normal difficulty.

Loramin, if I add an overworld and random battles a la Final Fantasy, will you like it more?

Well, first off I'm not sure you should even listen to my opinion :) I mean, look at Tetris: you could say "well that's just the /gems part of EverQuest without all the other good parts", but (obviously) Tetris mops the floor with EQ in terms of popularity. Similarly here, plenty of people would probably love a pure-fight game.

For me though what it all boils down to is just having some imaginary meaning to the fights. That could come in the form of a Final Fantasy-esque overworld, or it could be something entirely different. But at the end of the day I want to rescue a princess (and kill the monsters guarding her), or deliver a message a bard gave me (and kill the monsters in my way) or save up coins (that I get by killing monsters) to buy a magic sword +42. I don't want to just kill monsters.

When I think back on RPGs I've enjoyed, from Fallout 3 to EverQuest and even back to Wizardy, I remember enjoying more than just the tactical challenge of the fights. I also enjoyed exploring dungeons, seeing a new world, and talking to NPCs.

TLDR; my opinion is worthless, but if you want it then give the fights some meaning, somehow.

Oh, I hear you. You definitely have a valid point. If I had more time and a bigger budget this game would have an overworld. At one point I actually started working on a sprite map for the overworld tiles, but ended up deciding against it. I probably never would have finished if I put the overworld in. But maybe I'll add it later. Who knows?

In any case that's the reason I focused on the battles. Plus it's a browser game and I think people expect more simplicity from a browser game. Though I'm sure HTML5 games will become more complex over time. I could basically make any 16-bit RPG in HTML5 if I had the time and budget.