secunda

The new project of

arTm & friends

RPG secunda

After arTm & friends' first computer game (the adventure "Alurwe") the second game "secunda" is a role-playing game.
Developing the attributes of the playing characters is the main task for the human player.
Nevertheless the essential aspects of an adventure game are included in "secunda" as well:
You will have to find out what to do and how to do it yourself,
and there may be some puzzles involved...

In "secunda" you will be engaged in:

Explore the world around you.
Develop your character.
Earn money.
Find, steal or buy equipment and clothes.
Fight monsters.
Discover secrets.
Ask people to help you.
Find out the problems to solve.

Barbara fights against a monster rat:	successful!

In "secunda" you have a group of several adventurers working together.
But you and your friends are not alone. There is another group trying to do the same things as you.
Your party should try to be faster in order to compete successfully for the limited resources like weapons, magic things and so on.

"secunda" Features

"secunda" does not claim to be the most original game on the planet,
in fact it is a reincarnation of some classic game ideas.
Nevertheless it has its own character and a unique combination of features:

"secunda" ...

runs on many platforms
is easy to learn: game control by mouse and some few keys
has really large levels (worlds)
multiple simultaneous characters to play
competing party played by computer
is in English or German language
has fighting but no cruelties
has mazes and puzzles
...
written in Java ;-)

Preview Screenshots

"secunda" is an ongoing project at arTm & friends.
A first release is available now.
Some screenshots of the state of the project are presented below.
(Most screenshots from March 2002, running in KDE/Linux.)

Zoom Factor = Overview

Zoom Factor = Normal

Zoom Factor = Details

Barbara is Inside the Ruin

Take Something Or Put It Away

Shopping

The Power-Women Party

Supported Platforms and System Requirements

Platforms

"secunda" is a pure Java 2 program (J2SE).
As such it will run on any standard J2SE platform
provided it is powerful enough.
J2SE conform Java Runtime Environments (JREs) are available for quite a number
of operating systems and platforms,
including

Linux 2.4 (must have good* sound support) (* = Java Sound compatible)
Sun Solaris (current releases)
some other variants of UNIX
MS Windows 98 or newer
MS Windows 2000 or newer
Apple MacOS X (current release)

Note that Apple MacOS 9.x or older does not and will not support J2SE :-( .

Requirements

You should have a Pentium III running at 600MHz or better,
or a PowerPC at 400MHz or better,
or another J2SE compatible computer at comparable speed or faster.
You should have 128 MB RAM or more.

Further you should have a color screen with at least 800x600 pixels, and a CDROM drive.
The sound device must be supported by your Java Runtime Environment.
There is no advantage in using 3D graphics acceleration cards (secunda is not 3D savvy).

First Sketches...

Could I do a game with tiled graphics, animated characters, and large worlds?
I tried to find an answer by visualizing my ideas in these sketches.


Sepember 22, 2000	October 31, 2000

Email Contact Information and Links

If you have any questions about the "secunda" project, do not hesitate
to write an email to arTm & friends.

Interesting links to foreign game sites:

(All trademarks belong to their owners and are cited here for informational purposes only,
all comments are the personal opinion of rudolf mittelmann.)

MYST	the most famous adventure game ever
Riven	the sequel to MYST, and even better
MYST III	what a wonderful world - but a bit too simple (we solved it completely in two afternoons)
Alurwe	maybe the first adventure game using photographs instead of rendered images
Ultima 9	the most complex adventure game with many role-playing elements
Baldur's Gate II	a very professional graphic RPG with a complete AD&D implementation
Castle III	the best graphic adventure/RPG for Epoc handhelds, and an invaluable source of motivation to do "secunda"