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[Nillo]

First off, I did not make this game myself! It's being developed by a friend of mine who calls himself NessStar3000 (or NS3K for short), so any praise about its awesomeness should be directed to him, not me.

Glowstone is a platformer with some RPG elements where you control any one of a party of characters, each with their own style of combat. You can switch character at any time by pressing a button. This is explained in further detail during the tutorial and in the first introduction level.

It's currently very early in development, so only the first of several chapters is playable so far. However, I think this is already showing an incredible amount of potential. This guy made all the graphics and music himself, and in my opinion he is truly talented at these things.



The game is being made in Game Maker 5.3A, so it should have about the same system requirements as other such games. You can download the alpha version from this MediaFire link.
http://www.mediafire.com/?yctrlua3ka7umd1

NessStar3000 doesn't read the TIGSource forum, so to give him feedback you'll have to go to his DeviantArt profile or comment on his videos on YouTube. I'd really appreciate it if you gave him some feedback, though. He hasn't really received much attention at all yet, and I think he'd be more motivated to continue with some constructive criticism and friendly encouragement.
Here are links to his YouTube channel and his profile on DeviantArt:
http://www.youtube.com/user/NessStar3000
http://nessstar3000.deviantart.com/

If you don't want to go to those other websites, you can also just post your comments here and I'll pass them along to NS3K the next time I chat with him.

Edit: Updated mediafire link with the "final alpha" version.

[eva_]

i couldnt get pass that climbing up the falling platform thing. it's like those platforms dont give me enough time to jump or i'm just dum

[Nillo]

I think that's definitely the trickiest part of the tutorial. The platforms fall very quickly, so you need to time your jumps and go from one platform to the next immediately. Give it another try and you might be able to do it.

[X-wing9]

Wow, this is a pretty darn good game! I see a lot of potential in it, and very few bugs so far.
I'm gonna give him some comments over at dA. =)

[torahhorse]

  rad
the animations are slick, both in the cutscenes and in-game.
i too found the platforming tutorial difficult, 'cause i kept jumping into the bottom of one of the blocks. it might be easier if it was a little bit to the right. here's a pic:


other than that,
+ the mega cats were great but hard to see against the background when they were movin' around.
+ in the status menu i could only see the main character and not the other one, even when i switched them.
+ i unintentionally quit a few times thinkin' that the escape key would close the menu. the ball's in your courttt on that

i'm looking forward to more,,, maybe uncovering the secret of the glowstone

[tesselode]

First of all, the logo animation looks bad since it's overly simple, but the menu looks nice. The style of the game seems a little inconsistent since there's both chiptune and not-entirely-chiptune music.

Most of the graphics are nice, but I'm not sure why there are red stick figures.

Gameplay wise, the combat seems a bit tedious, but I haven't played much of the game yet. I keep on accidentally exiting by pressing escape.

[Nillo]

I've updated the mediafire link in the first post with a new version. I talked to him about your comments in this thread, and I believe he's fixed most of the bugs and oddities that you guys had problems with.

Also, he told me there's a new reward for defeating the first boss, but I'm not sure what it is yet.

[Falmil]

Noooooo, I just got done beating the boss on the old version on advanced. Getting beat down time after time and finally succeeding only find an update. Awesome game, though.

EDIT: Argh, downloaded the new version and tried to use my old save file, but it appears they aren't compatible.

I also had some trouble with the jumping across the falling platforms part. It felt like the controls weren't responsive enough because it seemed like half the time I jumped right when I hit the platform and I still fell.

[Hach-Que]

Hot damn this is a good game.

There's a few tiny problems with it, first being that the fonts and their placement have been designed (I'm guessing from the screenshot) for Vista / 7 and so on XP, you can't actually read some of the messages as they get cut off from the screen.

The other thing is that I found I reached the boss really easily, but of course, this had the downside that the characters weren't anywhere near the level they need to be so I can't actually pass the boss.

Other than that, this game shows a lot of potential!

NOTE: You might want to tell your friend that he should turn off "Interpolate colors between pixels" as it tends to make games with this art style look better by removing smoothing on the sharp edges (it's most notable on the scaled fonts).

[Nillo]

The font issue is being looked into at the moment, and he will consider making the boss easier as well.

I don't think Game Maker 5.3A has an option to turn off color interpolation. This feature was probably added in later versions of the program, and NS3K prefers to develop games in 5.3A.

[Nillo]

Hey guys, it's time for an update! The "final alpha" version of the game is now available.



Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/?yctrlua3ka7umd1

The first chapter of the game is completed, allowing you to explore a secret base, recruit two more characters and fight a sneaky new boss. Let us know what you think! I'll forward any feedback given here to NS3K.

[Falmil]

Yessssss, I didn't realize this was still being worked on.

[indiegameplayer]

Nice game which looks promising.
I got stuck in the second level for like 10 minutes since I didn't know how to destroy the red blocks - a hint would have been good.
Also, that (->) + (->) hold -> (V) combo was kind of difficult to be made, it would be nice if it was explained what is the difference between + and ->

[FK in the Coffee]

The gameplay is fantastic and polished, and the presentation and art are absolutely superb, so props to your friend for that.  I feel like the design is largely lacking in direction.  The levels don't do a very good job at guiding me to the next location, and I often find myself wandering aimlessly across them, looking for some sort of hint as to where to go next.

[Nillo]

I've talked to NS3K about your comments, and he's going to look at the tutorial again and see if the instructions can be made more clear. As for direction, I think a simple compass would be enough to help guide the player in the right direction. Just a little arrow in the corner that shows if the current objective is to the right/left or up/down from where you are right now. Do you think that would work, or any other ideas?

[FK in the Coffee]

I think it's less that I can't find my way, and more that the game is giving me no motivation to do so.  The story is very sparse and hard to interpret.  Why should I be caring for these characters?  What makes me WANT to get to these new locations?

[Nillo]

Huh. In that case, I would disagree; the vague cutscene at the beginning of the first chapter made me feel more interested in what was going on. Without a word being spoken, you could tell that Peridot was reluctant to go with you, and only relents due to pressure from one of the agents. I think the scene would have been a lot less touching if it was all spelled out through dialogue.

We do appreciate any kind of feedback, it's just that I'm not sure what you are looking for. Do you want the characters to start talking to each other, or is there anything else you suggest that would improve the story in some way?