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[Box99]

Good eve sirs and ladies
I am here to make a game with your support, criticism, and anything else.

The Who:
The player is a young girl with the ability to fly effortlessly who’s just looking for a place to live and survive in a strange and ruined world full of floating islands in a post apocalyptic setting. What she finds in her travels is the story.

The Where:
The game takes place “between clouds” in a literal fashion. There is a layer of impassable storm clouds above and below the player for what I imagine is most of the game or overworld. However, there are multiple indoor areas, such as buildings, caves, and giant machines that hold larger areas to fly around in. The overworld is planned to be a large ring of parallel clouds surrounding a greater mystery at the core.

The Why:
I really like games where it’s about discovery and problem solving and I aim to make an experience like that. I also wanted to make a game where the player could fly freely around the screen to ease things like backtracking and finding new things, but at the same time restrain where they can go unless they have certain abilities.

The How:
I’m using Game Maker 8.1, but I’ll probably upgrade to Studio at some point. I’m doing the programming and the art, which is really fun, but I think I’ll leave the music up to someone else. There is a whole dang lot I don’t know about Game Maker at this point, but I have a lot of spare time I can devote to learning what it can do.

Other features I plan on using - location sensitive player thoughts to flesh out the character. A weapon experience system based on fighting games wherein you get hit or hit something and your bar raises to unlock supers or other flashy moves(mostly eye lasers of various type). The thing going into the house at the top is a sunbeam - which I plan to use as save points.

I’ll make more mock ups and some animated gifs of the environments soon here since that’s easy to do in Game Maker and Photoshop. Any and all criticism is welcome as long as you’re not a jerk.

[Pilldom]

Seems pretty cool. Like the look of it and the concept seems great.

[SolarLune]

Sounds interesting, yeah. I like the idea of flight - never saw a free-flying Metroidvania before, if I recall correctly. Go for it!

[Box99]

Thanks you guys! I don't have any more content to post right now since I was busy today, but I have lots of time tomorrow.

[FK in the Coffee]

Sounds interesting, yeah. I like the idea of flight - never saw a free-flying Metroidvania before, if I recall correctly. Go for it!

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet and Aquaria would technically fit under that category.  Either way, this looks very intriguing and I'm looking forward to it.

What to all of the bars and icons represent?

[Kit]

What to all of the bars and icons represent?

On a hunch, I'm going to guess health,below that map, to the side weapon, weapon level out of 3, and ammunition or fuel for said ammo. Since it's free-flying, I doubt it'd be for flight. Just my guesses, I may be wrong.

On another note, I love the concept and the art style and I definitely want to see this progress. If you ever open it up to testing for feedback, let us know.

As for feedback, I think the protagonist would look adorable with a short ponytail :3

[Box99]

@ThePortalGuru
I was thinking of Aquaria at least some with the idea, so it makes sense you pointed it out.
@Kit630
Yeah there's no bar for flight, but the other represent basically what you guessed at. The weapon level and how it gains out of 3 of those icons is something I'm still working on. I was thinking about something like taking damage and killing enemies boosts it. As for testing I can put an executable up for the Game Maker file, but I don't have much to show yet plus I don't even have the pro version  (yet)
Short ponytail will be considered as I think it's a good idea too.

[mauz]

Sounds interesting, yeah. I like the idea of flight - never saw a free-flying Metroidvania before, if I recall correctly. Go for it!

I like very much the mood and the gameplay ideas, Box.

[Kit]

No worries, Box. Whenever you feel it's ready, and only if you want to put something to test out there. And yea, Gamemaker stuff is getting a bit pricey lol.

[Box99]

@mauz Thank you for your interest!

@Kit630 I'm planning to release an exe of the game maker file every week or so (maybe) so you all can see my progress. How does that sound? I should read more successful devlogs on here to see how they've done it.

Here's some screenshots:
You can't tell here, but the clouds move in both directions for the inner and outer layers.


I'm also thinking of a company name. This is what I have so far as a WIP.

[Linkshot]

I'm planning to release an exe of the game maker file every week or so (maybe) so you all can break my game. How does that sound?

Surely that's what you actually mean

[Box99]

I'm planning to release an exe of the game maker file every week or so (maybe) so you all can break my game. How does that sound?

Surely that's what you actually mean

Yes. You can break it all you want. And then send me the ways you broke it so's I can fix those things. Or continue breaking it and have fun with that. Either way I hope you all have fun with what I choose to update with in the coming weeks. 

[Linkshot]

I love breaking things! I'm actually kind of afraid I discouraged the development of Pivot by pushing it to its limits, haha.

We'll see if you stand up to the test

[Box99]

A wide shot of the first area I'm working on. The "bolt blocks" as I'm calling them will more than likely be broken with some kind of lightning power up....which I just realized is the icon I have in the UI anyway. Ha hah!
I would release a pre-alpha version now, but all you can do is fly around and bump into the non-animated landscape. It's okay, I want that chest too.

[wccrawford]

I love the concept!  Looking forward to seeing this one progress. 

[Box99]

Hi guys. It's been a couple days without work and I'm feeling ready to go at it again. I'm updating with something that really isn't a demo (there's not enough content for a demo), but it's how I'm starting the game from the very start and I want to see what you all think from this beginning. So, let me know if you encounter anything weird, if the game runs okay on your thing and I'll keep working on it.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/r1tyhp

Also @wwcrawford - thanks for the encouragement.

[Linkshot]

I totally went under the giant rock holding the house up.

[Box99]

I totally went under the giant rock holding the house up.

Hah, good catch. I thought my borders might not be aligned right and you proved it for me.
Thanks.

[Box99]

Minor update today - I didn't have internet since the 18th so that sucked. However, I did buy Game Maker Studio Standard edition on the 17th. I just have to reassemble things in the new version and then I can start working on the game again. Thanks for the comments so far guys.