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[McMutton]

-Sorry if the images are a bit large. If need be, I'll scale them down.

 One day, I was playing that MMORPG Dragonica, and was inspired to make a character in a similar style. So I made a concept of the character, and then modeled her in 3d. But somehow, that single character resulted in more characters, which then ended up being this game. At first, the characters were similar to those in Dragonica proportion-wise

but then ended up evolving into slightly more normal proportions. To compensate for the more generic proportion, I thought that a unique texture style would be necessary, so I chose to use an actual paintbrush brush and painting hard edges.

Anyway, enough of the story. Here's some actual info on the game.



Key of Ethios is a modern Zelda-like. The story involves Ellie, Van, and Gil; Three adventurers that live in the land of Midia. It begins as they are hired by a man named Zane. Their job: To retrieve a 'Treasure' from an ancient ruin within the Wysterwood. The plot thickens as they find this 'Treasure': A little girl in a deep sleep. Afterwards, they are entangled in the plans of The Court: a mysterious organization that needs the girl, and will go to (almost) any length to get her.

The world that the game takes place in is called Midia. So far, there are four countries:
Albion - Your run-of-the-mill medieval fantasy place.
Galcia - A large country to the north of Albion. The denizens of Galcia have animal features, and are divided into several groups depending on them (Think Laguz from Fire Emblem).
Fujitake - On a separate continent over to the east. Your run-of-the-mill feudal Japan rip-off. Off the coast is an island inhabited by ninja.
The Wysterwood - Not really a 'country' per se. It's an immense mystical forest ruled by a being known as the Wysteria King.

Main Characters:
-Ellie is from Albion. Although she is the daughter of a Warlock, she never showed signs of inheriting his power. Ellie is quite greedy, and will occasionally 'blackmail' people for favors. She's also able to hold as much food as Gil, and the two often have contests of stomach prowess. Her sword, which was passed down her line for generations, is said to contain latent magical abilities.


-Gil is an Albionite. He's incredibly strong, able to lift nearly anything with east. His might is equaled only by his stomach. He's quite the eater, and often gets into contests with Ellie. Though he occasionally loses in eating contests, Gil has yet to be bested in an arm wrestling match. He also tells terrible jokes.


-Van is a ninja from the land of Fujitake. As is the case with all ninjas, you'll never find him without his mask, even when eating or drinking (ninja). He's quite the deadpan snarker, and always has a witty quip ready. Van somehow manages to hide his kusarigama, as well as what seems to be an infinitely long chain, up his sleeve. It's said that when fully extended, it could fully circle the Earth three times over.




Early, early demo build
http://rapidshare.com/files/436339212/KoE.rar

[allen]

Also, would it be better to get opinions on features I may implement on this thread, or should I make new ones?

I'd rather give opinions on what you are implementing currently (as in right now) than what you will in the future.

[McMutton]

 I totally forgot about this thread. Anyway, I can't say anything about what I have currently, since... Well, I haven't anything. I haven't really touched Unity yet, aside from importing some models to check if they work (They do). So far, I've done some documents detailing various facets of the game, including a portion of the story, items, status effects, enemies, and a level or two, as well as the heroes' character models.

 As I said, Key of Ethios will be a sort of hybrid Metroidvania-Action-RPG. You have the basic RPG world map that you use to travel about the land. Different areas are opened to you as you progress through the story. Towns use an overhead kinda camera similar to the one in Tales of Symphonia. They usually contain shops wherein you can purchase weapons, armor, and miscellaneous items, as well as inns and taverns where you can get info and rent rooms. The levels, however, use are 2.5D, and are kinda like the levels in Paper Mario 2.

 Concerning gameplay, you control one of the three heroes at a time. However, you can switch between them whenever you wish, and this will be necessary to traverse the environment. Each of them have their own special abilities that allow them to overcome various obstacles. For example, Ellie has the ability to slide on her shield, which allows her to cross over water, lava, and such. She can also Parry, which knocks enemies off-balance and can reflect projectiles. Van can use his kusarigama as a grapple to cross chasms and reach higher areas. And Gil can shoulder tackle stuff, which allows him to knock over trees, and pillars, move rocks, and other such things. Throughout the game, they'll obtain items that grant them new abilities that will enable them to reach new areas.

 This mechanic is also used in combat. Aside from basic mooks, enemies will require the abilities of a certain hero to defeat them. Perhaps a flying enemy that fires projectiles quickly floats away as you try to attack it normally, so you use Ellie's Parry to bounce back it's attack to stun it. Or an enemy that defends itself with a shield, so you use Van's Grapple to take said shield, leaving it open to attack. Boss battles are similar, except that you need the abilities of all three to defeat them(Teamwork!)

 As you progress through the story, you meet a variety of interesting characters. Most likely, when you first meet them, you'll be aiding them with a problem or some such thing. Later on, however, each character will have what I call "Sidestories" associated with them. Rather than a simple small sidequest, these are longer storylines dealing with the characters' personal life.

 I forgot to mention the smithing system. The stores stock normal weaponry, little of which have any special attributes. The second option is having custom weapons forged. When enemies are defeated, they drop a variety of objects. Among these are different types of metal ores and gem fragments. They can also be found around the environment. The metals are the base of the weapon, and its appearance and attributes are different depending on what type you use. The Gem Fragments, on the other hand, are optional, but will add a number of elemental attributes depending on the type used. Both are divided into grades: D, C, B, A, and S. You can take them to a number of smiths that live around the land, and are also divided into the same grades. The grade of a smith determines the materials they can use. For example, a B-class smith can use materials of the same grade or lower, but none of the A-class or S-class materials. The power of the weapon forged, as well as the rarity of the material and smith, are dependent on their grade.

[Gimym TILBERT]

looks interesting, look ambitious, and you have no basic thing implemented yet? Seems that it will be hard to finish this ^^'
How does it control?

I had a "similar idea" (action rpg with multiple character) but you were controlling all 3 character at once

[McMutton]

 Nah, it'll be fine. The controls, you mean? I haven't bothered yet, as I need to figure out everything you're able to do before starting with them.

[McMutton]

Doing some GUI mockups.

Character switch:


Boss meter:

Damage

The skull changes in appearance as you damage the boss:


Also, a little concept for the mood/style of one of the first levels:

[Sam English]

Still making progress on this, I hope? Everything looks great. I'll certainly be keeping up with your project!

[McMutton]

 Indeed I am... Very slowly.

 Some new screen mockups:


(Green is health, Blue is magic (Used by Celeste), and Red is boss health)

 Detail:



 And some info about another mechanic that will be implemented. Which is some sort of Split Up/Hold Position thing. Upon pressing the assigned key, your currently selected character will hold their position, and maintain the action they were performing. It'd be useful in a number of situations.

 For example, say you have to use Gil to open a large door, which is done rather slowly. The only problem is, there's an unkillable enemy with ranged attacks that keeps interrupting him. So you use Ellie, and set her up with her Parry to deflect the shots. Then, using the Hold Position key, you have her stay like that, which allows Gil to open the door all the way.

[AaronG]

So glad to see you're still chugging along with this.  Placeholder art gave me a good chuckle, as well.

The hold mechanic sounds like it has the potential to lead to a lot of great level design so I hope you really take advantage of it!  Looking forward to hearing more.

[JaJitsu]

Zombie cancer!

[McMutton]

HYEAH! *High Five*

So yesterday I finally began implementing stuff. So far, I've got the movement and camera kinda down, and the character switch stuff kinda done. I plan on having the camera not follow you when you jump. Also, blox are placeholders.

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

Not much, but it's the most I've ever done.

[unsilentwill]

That is some amazing looking models and parallax you got there.

Though I know you've heard this here before, the anime face look is pretty grating, and lacks character. And character is exactly what this game will need since it is slightly similar in in implemnetation to another indie darling, Trine (http://trine-thegame.com/site/). But, the Metroidvania aspect could make it stand out for sure.

[McMutton]

 Thahnk'eh.

 Yeah, the faces have been mentioned many times. The only problem is that I don't know what else I could do. How about some suggestions?

 Also, model turnarounds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d68NJdRPvDU

[RCIX]

I dunno, the faces seem fine to me. *shrug*

[unsilentwill]

They're fine. Yes. But they could be more unique!

Mainly what I changed was eye ratio, nose existence, and chins angles.

Just a suggestion, like I said, the game and the rest of the art style looks pretty dang good.