=========================
INTRO TO THE BETA RELEASE
=========================

	Realm of Sendai is a role playing game for the Amiga computer.

It has been strongly influenced by certain Japanese animated series.

The game has been designed around what I have termed a histrionic

model; wheras many CRPGs concentrate upon either puzzles (Monkey

Island) or combat sinulation (Ancient Domains), this game is meant

to concentrate upon developing a narrative. My undergrad thesis was

on reader response literary theory, so this type of game design is

of particular interest to me.

	When finished, I plan to upload both the game and its source

to Aminet as a public domain distribution. One of the great things

about the Amiga is the programming community; PD/Shareware titles

distributed via Aminet & Fish Disk have kept the machine compeditive

long after the death of Commodore. This program is my humble attempt

to keep this tradition alive and to thank all those programmers

who have come before. Amiga Forever!

	Permission is granted to copy this archive in its entirety

so long as no profit is made from doing so. The game may be included

in a PD collection or on a cover disk; if you do so, I'd appreciate

a copy of the magazine. Permission is granted to Aminet and Fred

Fish to redistribute this archive as they see fit. In fact, permission

is granted to Fred Fish to do whatever he likes with this archive-

smoke it, stuff it down his pants, he's earned it :]. All characters,

locations & events are (C) Joseph Hewitt.



============
INSTALLATION
============

	Unpack the archive; move amos.library to your libs: folder

if it isn't there already. That should be about it.



========
FEEDBACK
========

	This game is nearing completion, but there are still lots of

things that need to be tweaked and preened. One of the things that

I'd like to hear back on is character balance. How do the various

party members stack up? Is there anything which is overbalancingly

powerful, or underbalancingly useless?

	My second concern is somewhat related to the first. How is the

game in terms of challenge and problem solving? As noted below, puzzles

aren't my primary concern, but I would like the game to require at

least a little bit of thought. Is there enough secret treasure in

the dungeons? (I suppose that if you haven't found any, you'd have

to answer "no")

	Finally, I'd appreciate more comments on the narratives, the

animations, and the characterizations. 



======
FUTURE
======

	In the future, the PC Equipment menu will be

upgraded to show a picture of each item. I may also add something

to display an item's function, but as the game takes place on a low res

screen there's a finite limit to the amount of info that may be

displayed.

	The big thing to do for the next release will be to design

more of the adventure. I think that most of the big programming has been

done; the rest of this project will be data entry. :[



=================
SUGGESTED VIEWING
=================

	To prepare for this game, the author reccomends that the

following anime titles be rented & watched in no particular order.

This should provide adequate knowledge of the staples of the genre!

		Combustible Campus Guardress(*)

		Iria : Zeiram - the Animation (Pioneer)

		Heroic Legend of Arislan (U.S. Manga Corps)

		MADOX-01 (AnimEigo)

		Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind(*)

		Ranma 1/2 (Viz Video)

		Riding Bean (AnimEigo)

* Not commercially avaliable in North America at this time.




CONCEPT AND THEORY (long-winded, pretentious, and not important)

	This program began as a personal experiment in RPG design. Role
playing games on computer have traditionally concentrated upon puzzle
solving rather than story telling. In the 80s, there were several
attempts to reverse this trend... remember the ``Interactive Novel''?
Many of these programs attempted to boost the narrative aspect of the
game by providing the player with a greater freedom of action, but
for the most part retained the fixed-series-of-puzzles pattern that
has been used since Adventure.
	A few years ago, I played a fairly simple SNES game called
Final Fantasy II. Despite the fact that the game lacked the complexity
of most contemporary computer games, I was enthralled...
though the ``story'' was not necessarily interactive, it was
certainly involving. The player is assigned a role in the story,
but does not necessarily get to direct the action. Instead, he/she is
involved through taking part, through being given emotional cues,
and through other theatrical measures. In other words, the player is
drawn into the game in the same way as a reader is drawn into a book.
	According to Wolfgang Iser's literary theory, a good book will
provide the reader with adequate room to imagine. Having just completed
my degree in English, I decided to see if I could build a computer
game around this principle. The engine of said game is what you see
before you now... Let me know what you think!



=======
CONTACT
=======

	email: ataraxia@thezone.net
	
	web page: http://home.thezone.net/~ataraxia/sendai/

	phone: (709) 635-7178

	smail:	Joseph Hewitt
			Box 370, Rr 2
			Cormack, Newfoundland
			A0K 2E0 Canada