I was looking through an old version of LEARSON Chapter One and I thought I'd share with the few of you who are even remotely interested what it looked like early in development.
I was personally quite shocked as I'd forgotten how much the maps had evolved.
Here is the first iteration of Ralphs town. As you can see it's a lot smaller and the town doesn't end, it just stops.
The Desert was also originally only two large maps and the whole Mayor subplot didn't exist. (That was pretty much the last thing to be added in actually).
The Desert would also pretty much lead directly to Skyvale. Here is where Ralph would have been mugged. You can still see the Deserty bit on the left side.
It would turn into this (the desert/normal path bridge existing at this point) before being split up into several maps and pretty much completely redesigned.
You can also see that I was using XP sprites as placeholders for a while.
This map was the basis for a lot of the area after Skyvale (the meat of the game)
The bit in the upper left would be split off and turned into the bit where you bury the dead bandit.
The bridge would become the area where you recruit Riley.
And the bit on the the right is where you would have to knock out/fight the bandits.
This map would be after that area.
The upper left would become the Followers of Raphael area, although at this point they where not in the game.
This map would be the next area.
It would evolve to become the area where you meet the Nomads, who at this point were also not in the game.
I also originally went with a more 'epic' looking area for where you found Raphaels Sword.
I do still like this map actually, I just wanted it to be more closed off.
David also had a much larger role in this Chapter. He was originally meant to be captured by the Mad Dogs and locked inside the Forest Tower. (I originally planned for this to be a big dungeon but decided to screw it.)
This is the room he would have been held in.
I can't really explain these without spoiling future events, but basically, it's a dark/evil version of the forest.