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[Gene]

Hi,

I've been reading this forum for quite a while now, and at last it's time for me to post a game as well. Like I said a few days ago, I founded a little company with some friends, called 'Digital Dreams'. And we kind of finished our first game.
The game is called 'A Tale by Alex'.

It's a game about a kid named Alex who likes to play at home. The player plays little Alex in his living room as well as in his fantasy. In his living room he's just walking on tables and sofas, but in his fantasy he's a strong knight in a forest. His cat is a lion, his rug is a lava pit, his vacuum cleaner is a robot, his annoying sister is an ogre and so forth. The player plays Alex in 3 floors at the same time; in his living room, a crossover world and his fantasy. All game art assets are twisted pixels (diagonally aligned pixels, pixels in a 45 degree angle).

We made the game in about 1,5 months in Flixel.


You can read more info about the game over on our site here.






It's on FGL now. Check it out here. I would really appreciate if you guys shared what you think of the game.

[moshboy]

It looks near. Digging the graphical style. Will be waiting for release.

[Gene]

It looks near. Digging the graphical style. Will be waiting for release.

Thanks for your reply. Great to hear!

[JarMustard]

Very interesting idea with the rotated pixel art style.  It creates an interesting painterly atmosphere.  I'm curious to see it in motion. 
It makes me want to see someone play more with this style; making slanted UI, having rotating pixels, or find some way to incorporate the view into the gameplay.

I can't comment much on how 'A Tale by Alex' plays, but I feel like the UI could use a bit of clarification.
It's a bit busy and distracting at first glance.   

Good luck finishing it and I'll be sure to check it out when you're done.

-justin

[Gene]

Very interesting idea with the rotated pixel art style.  It creates an interesting painterly atmosphere.  I'm curious to see it in motion. 
It makes me want to see someone play more with this style; making slanted UI, having rotating pixels, or find some way to incorporate the view into the gameplay.

I can't comment much on how 'A Tale by Alex' plays, but I feel like the UI could use a bit of clarification.
It's a bit busy and distracting at first glance.   

Good luck finishing it and I'll be sure to check it out when you're done.

-justin

We didn't feel like doing conventional pixel art, so came up with the angled pixels. It took some time to get a decent art pipeline though. It took quite some hassle. If we did normal pixels the project probably would have taken half the time. So be warned     
But yeah, I think the style certainly has some potential for interesting experimentation.

Too bad you aren't able to play the game, because the gameplay takes all of your focus, so we had to make the UI this way, to be clear.

We are putting the game up for bids if we feel like we had enough feedback and made changes, but when we sell it, I will definitely post a link to the game so everyone can play it.

[Gene]

We also released a trailer with (surprisingly) some moving footage of the game:

Checkout:

[King Hadas]

I liked it. At first I was going to suggest getting rid of the middle Alex because keeping up with three of them is frustrating since going off screen kills you and having that middle transitional screen doesn't really fit the premise, but I've changed my mind. I like how it works with your status bar, that is it going up faster for each Alex gaining ground.

The horse/skateboard makes your status bar go up faster too right? I always get hit and lose it before I can be sure. I'd really like it if there was some way of getting that back during gameplay, maybe if all Alexs are alive when you reach the next status your horse is revived?

On my playthrough I only ran into one glitch.

This chandelier gets stuck on the ledge and won't break. Also touching it hurts you.

Is there an end game to this? I've only been able to get to emperor status.

[Thijmen Bink]

On my playthrough I only ran into one glitch.
This chandelier gets stuck on the ledge and won't break. Also touching it hurts you.

Is there an end game to this? I've only been able to get to emperor status.

Getting to Emperor is no small feat It is the second last title actually, but as it's a highscore game it will go on forever.
Thank you for screenshotting that glitch, I'll fix it right away.

[Christian Knudsen]

Love the concept, love the graphics, not sure I like the voice work. The game has a retro feel and the voice doesn't really fit with that. The sound effects are also very retro, which just makes the voice stand out even more.

(Unless the voice work is only in the trailer?)

[Gene]

Love the concept, love the graphics, not sure I like the voice work. The game has a retro feel and the voice doesn't really fit with that. The sound effects are also very retro, which just makes the voice stand out even more.

(Unless the voice work is only in the trailer?)

I'm afraid it is. We don't really want to make retro games per se. So this was kind of our take on how to do things a little different.

[Gene]

The game is finally released. Please let us know what you think!
You can play the game at Armorgames.com.

[RichMakeGame!]

oops, link is borked man

[The Village Blacksmith]

I am completely in love with the visuals in this game. Well done!

[Theon]

That art style is fucking genious.
Stunning.

[Majestic]

I like the abstract art work

[Gene]

oops, link is borked man

Thanks, you were right. Fixed the link to Armorgames.com.
Let me know what you think

[Nate Kling]

Im not very good at the game but I love it.  Really great idea and execution!  One of the more original flash games I've played.  I actually enjoyed the voice in the game!  Ill have to give it a few more plays and get back to you.

[Christian Knudsen]

I kinda wish the three Alex'es couldn't go out of sync with their horizontal positions. I feel that paying attention to the three different worlds is enough of a challenge even when they're lined up, so it gets a bit annoying when you have to run up against a wall or into a hole to get them to line up again.

[Gene]

I kinda wish the three Alex'es couldn't go out of sync with their horizontal positions. I feel that paying attention to the three different worlds is enough of a challenge even when they're lined up, so it gets a bit annoying when you have to run up against a wall or into a hole to get them to line up again.

It crossed our minds to make them sync automatically on certain points or after a certain amount of time. Do you think that would have been better?

[Christian Knudsen]

Hmmm. I'm not sure. When I played, I would try to get them to sync up as soon as possible, so I probably wouldn't wait a certain amount of time or until a certain point. I was thinking you could just make it impossible for them to go out of sync -- i.e. the other Alex'es would be unable to move forward if one of them is moving into a wall. Of course, that probably wouldn't make much sense narrative wise if the lower Alex (the 'real' one) wouldn't be able to move forward because an imaginary wall is blocking an imaginary Alex. It could maybe also make it feel too 'gamey' with invisible walls hindering your progress and such.

I could be that I'm just not all that good at the game and because of that the unsyncing is more of an issue.