Copyright © 2001-2003 by Mark Damon Hughes <mark@markdamonhughes.com>

Version 2.03, released 2003Feb24

[umbra.adv screenshot 5] (click on image to enlarge)

[umbra.adv screenshot 4]

[umbra.adv screenshot 3]

[umbra.adv screenshot 2]

[umbra.adv screenshot 1]

[sample.adv screenshot 1]

Hephaestus is a freeware computer role-playing game construction kit (often called an "RPG maker"). A map editor is included, and scripting is done in the Java programming language. Hephaestus is written in Java, and therefore runs on every platform.

You've wanted to make your own computer role-playing game all your life. Hephaestus 2 makes it easier than ever to make any adventure you can imagine. Use your own art and sounds, or use the standard libraries. Make "static" maps with the map editor, or create your maps entirely with code - even making mazes and dungeons that are different every time you play. There's never been a better time to start writing your own CRPG!

Hephaestus 2 now includes the post-holocaust horror adventure, Umbra! After the Great Old Ones return to reclaim the Earth, the few survivors cower in towns hidden in the wilderness, or have given themselves over to madness and worship of inhuman gods. You start out alone and helpless, but can rise to strike back, and perhaps return Earth to humanity!

Download & Installation

What's New?

Version 2.03 (2003Feb24)

• Just released a minor bugfix, which should take care of a bug in Sun's JDK on Linux; this doesn't appear to affect Blackdown JDK or any other platform.
• I've been getting bug reports with JDK 1.4 on Linux. If you're having problems in that environment, try dropping down to JDK 1.3. I develop on Linux in Blackdown JDK 1.3, and it works flawlessly there. Hopefully I can nail this bug down for the next release.

Version 2.02 (2003Feb22)

• Toolbar added for mouse users.
• Umbra's first release! Right now all of the wilderness (8km across!), towns, and temples are complete. There's nothing to do but explore and level up, but that's hard enough for now. Soon I'll have another update with smarter NPCs, bars where you can recruit additional player characters, ruins, magic spells, altars, and the main quest of the game.

(2002Nov18)

• I've started work on Umbra, a post-holocaust horror adventure! See the first screen shot.

  Umbra is a huge campaign environment - the world is randomly-generated, 8km across! All of the wilderness maps are working now, and I've started on towns, ruins, and cultists' temples.

Version 2.01 (2002Nov14)

• Minor bugfix for focus management and kwm.

Version 2.00 (2002Nov11)

• Scripting in Java
  The old scripting language, Minimal, is gone. While it was a neat idea, and it's a little easier to program in, it was a pain to maintain, and slowed the game down. In Heph2, adventures are written in standard Java, and Hephaestus has a secure "sandbox" to run them in, to prevent anyone passing a trojan as an adventure - it's just like applets in your web browser.
• Multiple Player Characters
  You can have up to 9 characters in a party. All characters normally move together, but adventures can temporarily take characters out of the party for animation sequences or "solo missions".
• Map Editor
  There is now a graphical map editor.

Last modified: 2003Feb22
Hephaestus 2.02