I just added the first musics in. They're still a bit unfinished, but Noby managed to nail down a really really cool SNESsy style. In short, they're wonderful. It'll still take a while to get all the musics required for the demo, but once I get a theme tune of sorts, I'll whip up a trailer; hopefully that'll compensate the wait for the demo.

I kind of like that idea. That means I'll have to redesign the map there a bit, but that'd hardly be a problem.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!

I've been stuck with the underwater area - player's slow movement and awkward controlling makes designing interesting rooms quite difficult. It's not helped by the fact that I'm slightly out of ideas as to what kind of puzzles/challenges the area should have.

Here's a super-cool visualization:


The red blob represents areas that are quite much done, and the blue blob represents this underwater sector which is causing problems. Good thing it's small!

But you're just waiting for the soundtrack, right?

Yeah, the areas I intend to include in the demo are finished.

Unfortunately no; the code is quite much ready for that but my composer is in a great hurry so estimates on when he finishes the needed tracks are a bit unclear.

You could also add scrolling, but that size looks fine.

Yeah, scrolling could be a possibility, but personally I'm not a huge fan of it. I like a more compact design.

To continue the metroidvania talk, what kind of puzzles have you enjoyed in metroidvanias? The game currently consists mostly either of just plain fighting or jumping 'puzzles', but I can't think of any interesting actual puzzles that could go well with the design. Pushing blocks is a safe bet but that's kinda old and boring. Any ideas?

Who'd be up to some LackeyCCG? Hit me up on the IRC channel or something.

Unfortunately, there wont be much of an 'inventory' per se, but you can certainly see your collected items in the HUD. The 'pause menu' will look something like this:

As you see, the map eats a lot of space although technically I could go the Super Metroid way and include subpages. Don't know if that's really necessary, though.

If I had my midi controller/synth with me I'd ask if you needed music or sound fx or somethin.

I have my midi controller/synth with me.  If you're wondering.

I'll probably put up a public demo once my composer finishes some songs for the game!

Yeah, I've already got a composer. Thanks all the same.

You might try designing items the player will need throughout the game, then designing the puzzles to fit those, rather than the other way around?

Also, the enemy catalogue system sounds awesome. What's keeping you from including all distinct, cool items you can think of?

I don't want to repeat the past mistake of having 5+ actively-used action keys, and also many of them cover the same subject in different ways (i.e. how to reach a place that was out of reach earlier).

Mokesmoe: I think TP is a great example because it did have both the Spinning Top, an example of an interesting one-shot item and Dominion Rod, an example of an awful one-shot item.

I'm sure you're aware of this but I've loved to see this project get further!

Might be good if the powerups won't really be effective in the context of any other situation.  Were you kind of thinking something like the placement of powerups in Super Mario Galaxy?

I meant stuff like virtually almost every single powerup in modern Zelda games, such as the spinning top or the statue-animating staff in Twilight Princess, or the weird upside-down rod and the minish cap in Minish Cap. All those were used for 1-2 types of puzzles and almost nowhere else (though it must be said that the spinning top doubled as a really cool way of attacking enemies!) I personally dislike the concept, but then again it's impossible to make every powerup super-significant.

I'd need your opinion on something: What is the general consensus about single-use 'powerups' a lá Zelda games, that are needed in a couple very specific situations and virtually nowhere else? My initial plan for the game's powerups was like this:

3 weapon powerups (+ additional ammunition for one of them)
4 or so powerups that enhance your movement (like that hookshot seen earlier)
3-4 more specific powerups (upgraded map and the likes)
20 or so collectables that don't give you abilities but work as special 100% playthrough bonuses

Then there're a couple situations where you need to raise your 'access level' to get past a gate.
  However, I'm quite torn between wanting to add more powerups to the game, adding more secret rooms for these powerups but also having no ideas with what these powerups would be. Therefore I started thinking if there should be a couple less useful powerups that are needed to pass other similar 'gates', but in a cooler way than with the lame 'access levels'. Should I do this, or add more optional collectables?
  Or could the 'powerups' instead be items not useful but instead just 'interesting' in some way? Such as some sort of an enemy catalogue where you can see information on the enemies you've met, or databanks hinting at deeper structures of the game's story (as if there were any, duh)?

Also, can there be such thing as 'Too Many Bosses'?

Progress has been slowish due to enormous amounts of university stuff all the time. I've started working on a whole new area, which is rather interesting and also not all that big so it should be finished relatively soon.

Due to the slow progress, I have only this tiny picture to show:

Fish!

As for the background readability thing, the amount of background detail will be something like what is shown here at most, apart from some rooms with special background art.

Is it too bad?

The water there is silly because there'll be blue background stuff there to make it clearer; that specific area is a bit unfinished graphically.

@happymonster: that enemy wont appear in that screen; the darker part is actually background art but indeed looks glitchy with an enemy like that.

@Jakman: Mostly I just think of creatures that'd work with a specific environment and then think of how they could move, or think of cool movement patterns and then consider what kind of a creature could use them.

Here are the two main means of getting anywhere; the Generic Hookshot (tm) and the Generic Doublejump (patent pending). Also don't worry, the background wont hopefully be all black in the end.

Superb Joe: Ah, I'm sad to hear that. Thanks, and I wish you luck!

Thanks for the overwhelmingly positive response!

Painting: I use the pixel editor of Multimedia Fusion 2. It's suprisingly handy. Also sometimes D-Pixel.

Superb Joe: Thanks, I'm fine. You?

I'm quite sure I'll just be posting teaser picks and not much else.

[...You!]

The game has been greenlit!! Also a playable demo & new trailer thataway!!  




Subject #15K
Environmental station αlpha
Status: Unknown
The station was used to preserve unique species and natural environments. It was abandoned several decades ago. The main engine began to malfunction due to unknown reasons, and was shut down. However, we have been receiving signal from the station as of late. Investigating the station will be dangerous but necessary. To avoid casualties, we've sent our most durable explorer robot for the mission...

...You!

This game is basically my attempt at implementing one of my personal dream games - a very basic metroidvania with all those cliché map systems and powerups. I started planning the game about a year ago, but didn't start working on it partially due to being lazy and busy, but also because I wanted to make the game really special in some way and thus avoid the usual metroidvania clichés. Some time after christmas I decided to throw originality out of the window and just make the game; it's been a lot of fun and designing stuff like bosses and new, interesting enemies is a blast! The limited colour palette and 160x120 resolution are further attempts at reducing the amount of boring work. Hopefully the end product will be as enjoyable to play as it has been to create.

TRAILER HERE
Stream: http://www.twitch.tv/hempuli/b/543617522

To be released this Spring (I hope)

I'm practicing anatomy and facial features because I think I'll try to get a larger comic going soon.

Concept art of the main character: