Awesome sand is awesome. LOL

I only have a couple of suggestions:

1. The only place the sand tile 'breaks' is where it meets the water's edge.
2. You shouldn't be able to see the sand under the water's top level in your tile, unless the water's pulling in and out (animating).
3. Feels like there's a lot of colors in the sand, but not enough contrast. Try limiting it to 3 or 4 colors.

Other than that, it's looking great.

You can also adjust which audio output device is being used by altering the .ini file. If you have a keyboard, it might be going out a MIDI input or output device (which, to my knowledge, won't make sound). In other words, try adjusting the audiodevice hw value in the sunvox_config.ini file. Mine, for example, is set to this to use my external audio DSP:

// ALSA audio device name in Linux; or audio device number in Windows:
audiodevice hw:0,6

Nice. That looks perfect. Only other thing I could propose is to fade out the console until something is written on it or you mouse over it, and the same with the inventory section (I'm a fan of minimalistic GUI, as well). Other than that, it's fine the way it is!

@eigenbom - Yep, I'm using the Blender Game Engine for the whole game.

Update: Mocking up more gui ideas. (Yellow are notes). This time seeing if I can fit things into 800x600, which it turns out is easy with 24x24 icons and a 8px font. Question: At this res do you think the buttons or text is too small?

GUI's readable to me. Nice, clear font, too. Make sure you can minimize the inventory system stuff, and I would make the console at the top-left just display a few lines. Otherwise, it's awesome-looking.

@eigenbom - You would know, so thanks a lot! :D
@kitheif - No problem, and thanks!

So, I worked on a new map piece - a ruined office building. I think I'm getting better at expressing the destruction.

EDIT: There's some reflective-ness going on in the inside screenshot. The tile ground is supposed to be shiny, so I have a mirror plane set up, but it won't be shiny over the burned / dark areas when I'm finished with it.

Outside:



Inside:



Also, I started an IndieDB page, where you can find a particularly hideous piece of concept art for the city layout. Hurray! :D

Here it is again for good measure:



Next, imma prolly do something with the sewers.  

EDIT: Which I've already changed by making the water brown.   So... Yeah.

EDIT 2: Oh, yeah, I also did something with the enemies so that they respawn after you defeat them if you leave the map.

Hello, everyone. I just wanted to pop in and say that SunVox, the cross-platform modular synth tracker that is awesome to use on desktops is now available on Android. I plugged in my headphones, and it SOUNDS THE SAME - Awesome. It's also only $5! :D

Market Link Here

Pick it up!

I was suggesting world-speed, but perhaps Ashkin's idea would work better. It's kinda hard to imagine without any videos or screenshots, so you'll be able to tell the best, Gabriel.

The dirt's still too yellow for me, but it is an improvement. Nice work!

Oh ma gawd I'm really loving the added atmosphere the texture overlays add, it'd be interesting to see how that looks in-motion.

I agree with Ant. Make sure the texture loops and scrolls, though - I think it would detract from the feel if it wasn't 'world-specific'.

Downloaded it. From looking at the screenshots, it's looking well-drawn and extremely Zelda-like. I like it.

Wow, interesting idea, particularly the boxing glove part. I agree with J.R. - it looks really smooth. Only thing that I can see from this stage is that the camera needs to keep up with you under all circumstances. Keep going with it, though - it looks like it's going to be a super cool game!

Did you even read my post?
That's pretty much what I said too...

Man, that was a post fail for me! Sorry. I was referring to Felix0's post, I think. But now, I'm not so sure! Your points were spot-on.

Thanks everyone.

@Irock - Heh, that was unintentional. I'm glad it works, though.
@Angelbait, Jakman4242, Pemanent - Thanks!
@Chris Pavia - Yep, made it myself in SunVox.

Hey. Since the last post, I've gotten up to 11, and the latest is a technique tutorial on drops, for house and electronic songs. :D

Here's the latest tutorial: SunVox Tutorial Part 11 - Drops Technique

And I finally got around to making my own playlist for the tutorials, which you can find here.

Thanks you guys. I appreciate that. So, here's another devlog video. This one focuses on sound, which is slightly broken because OpenAL (the BGE's sound library) doesn't like my DSP... thing. So, it crackles a little when I recorded it (hadn't thought about that). Anywho:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4aoIKBbRxo

Cool game - it's looking good. Keep making progress! I think I mentioned this in another thread, but it's looking very polished. In addition, suggestion:

Hat on top of top hat-hat.

... I'm an idiot.

This thread doesn't get enough love. There's a post from December 1st at the top of the page.

Defending the world from killer iPhone cases?

Great graphics, Eldboll. Looks really sweet. I agree with Ashkin, though - the dirt's a little too yellow.

EDIT: Oh, and the signs seem a little flat to me. I think it's because you use the orange-ish color as an edge coloring rather than to give the illusion that the signs' top is that color. Other than that, it's pretty great-looking!

How do you guys go about that? How do you keep the player interested enough to follow your progress without giving too much away? It's a frickin science!

I know what you mean. I'm trying to figure that out myself - I'm pretty much working at the same pace as my updates, so once I get to working with the story, it might get hard not to spoil anything. I think that maybe you should so really small updates, like:

"Here's a heart container. It increases your life by a certain amount. We store the amount in a per-object variable so that different containers can increase your life by different amounts. So be sure to pick some up when you go to the supermarket!" *HAHAHALAWLZDEVLOGUPDATEOVER*

Keep going with it, indeed. It's looking impressive. Game Maker's quite capable, despite how easy it is to use.

As for your collision issue, I know you've probably figured it out, but perhaps you could shape the player's mask like a cube with a triangle at the bottom, like:
 _____
|    |
|    |
|____|
 \  /
  \/

(Theoretically), That with jazeker's idea should allow the player to get close to the hill to look like he's climbing, but still take hits in his chest area.