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[SolarLune]

Hey. So, I have been working on a game called Valchion for awhile, and I think it's time to give it a devlog. I would have liked to have a log for it when I could get a demo out, but I think a demo will be VERY close (probably just to have gameplay, not actual plot and stuff).

EDIT: (NOTE that there is an actual demo below.)





Valchion is a 3D game made in the vein of older retro Game Boy Color games - games that featured top-down graphics and bright, colorful graphics. For example, Link's Awakening is one such game. It will take a page from that game in that there will be a primary and secondary item that the Player will be able to equip at any given time (i.e. a pistol and a rope, or something like that). Such item-swapping will hopefully give the game some strategy (i.e. which is more important to have - a support item (like a health pack :O), another weapon, or an added ability?). It's being made in the Blender Game Engine.



This game will aim to be a Metroidvania / action-adventure type of game, in that there will be items and weapons to collect and use, alongside fast-paced shooting action. Here's a video showing what I've got so far.

~Devlog Video Playlist~

Welp, that's all for now.

If anyone could tell me how to embed YouTube videos in here, I'd appreciate it. :p

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~~ DEMO DEMO DEMO DEMO DEMO DEMO DEMO DEMO DEMO DEMO DEMO DEMO DEMO ~~
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EDIT: Hey, so I've released another demo for Valchion. The latest demo for all platforms can be downloaded from my homepage here.

[Chris Pavia]

This looks like it could be pretty cool! I like the style you're going for, but be careful because things look pretty busy in some places (like the brown building at top center), and it's kind of hard to tell exactly what's going on there. This is just from the screenshot though.

[SolarLune]

Yeah, it is pretty busy-looking. Thanks for the input - I'll probably tone down the brown building to make it easier to see the entrance. You actually can go into it right now, which is kind of a problem, because it doesn't look like you can (my brother mentioned that), so your input's probably absolutely correct. Thanks!

[Mef]

I think that apart from making it "less busy", You could do two more things to keep the visuals more appealing:
- avoid placing anything diagonally (like those barricades or something) - it breaks up the fun pixelated look.
- work on more textures like this lighter patch of ground with dark outline in top right corner and avoid those fuzzy dark ones with lotsa noise like in the very middle of this picture.

I'd go for something more simplistic for walls, check that out:

One tile, a row and a larger space filed with it.

[SolarLune]

1. Yeah, diagonally placing things can break up the look. But sometimes GBC games would have diagonally placed objects - of course, they were all in square tiles...
2. The darker ones are harder to read and less 'true' to the original GBC look - you're right about that. Perhaps simpler textures and simply placed tiles with rocks and holes on them would be better? Perhaps I will go back to the textures... I don't want it to look cruddy. Thanks.

[SolarLune]

Okay, I made the area in the brown building (a bank) both look less busy and look more 'entrance-like'.

I forgot to change the barricades according to Mef's suggestions, though...

I'm also working on an explosion animation.



EDIT: ... It's still a WIP. :p

[Chris Pavia]

You should try having your FX (fire, explosions, etc) not use the black outline (either no stroke at all or a colored outline) to separate them from the environment and make them look brighter.

[Pemanent]

Hey I really love this idea. Here is my input.

1. The sounds really confuse me, especially the walking. I understand they are totally place holder but it was my first thought while watching the dev-video.
2. agree on the diagonal stuff. It kinda goes against the whole theme of the game.
3. I love the humor of it all. 
4. Some of the textures confuse me. Some are super grainy while others have a more solid color. I mostly saw this while outside. On the inside of the buildings I wasn't as confused.
5. I really like the classic gbc transitions! 
6. I love that your using Blender. I've always like the bge but never been able to make a full game in it.

And I like the new explosion. I think you should leave the black outline in.

I will definitely be following this closely!! Keep up the work!

[SolarLune]

@Chris Pavia - Thanks, I think that changing the fire would be good.
@Pemanent - 1. Yeah, the walking sound's pretty bad. The gunshot sounds fine to me though - what do you all think?
2. Yeah, I see. I'll change it right now.
4. I think I know what you're talking about, but I'm not 100% sure. You mean the solid grey asphalt vs. the pixelly detailed tiles?

The explosion's okay, huh? Now I don't know which to go with. LOL Just kidding.

Thanks for the rest!

[capn.lee]

yeah, i agree that the bank's walls don't really match some of the other tiles around it.
the art style just looks a little inconsistent.

It's looking good though

[anonymous]

inspiring stuff, I always love games where you can search the trashbins.
as others said, the only crit I have, is making the style more consistent.  Making the textures more pixelatted, less detailed, and brightly colored like that of your main char, getting a nice thick outline around the edges like your main char - basically keeping it true to the style of gameboy color gfx [that's what stands out to me - candy for my eyes]

[SolarLune]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I'm not sure about the outline around the edges of the buildings and other, non-interactable objects, but pretty much every object will be outlined (as you could see).



Better, or worse?

In other news, I tied in the explosion with the normal guard, so that he explodes when you've defeated him.

There's currently a bug where rolling while targeting will move the Player toward the enemy, which isn't too good. I need to fix that, but otherwise, I think it's time to press on.

[laxwolf]

Looks great SolarLune! I've found that a vignette makes everything better, have you tried yet?

...and are your tiles and sprites matching up? They seem to be different.

Good luck,
Laxwolf

[Ashkin]

Hello Solarlune, I think this looks lovely.

[SolarLune]

@Ashkin - Hello, Ashkin. Thank you very much.
@laxwolf - I haven't on this game, but I have done a vignette filter before (a black noise plane in front of the camera rotating about). What do you mean by them 'matching up'? The tiles are the same size as the player's sprite (16x16), if that's what you mean. It might look weird because the building's closer to the camera and it's 3D.