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Ito
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« on: November 02, 2013, 06:27:33 AM »



Vote for this project in the Steam Workshop concept page

Spirit Huntress is a 2d action/adventure & platform game, with side-scroller view in development. Once it's finished, it will be released on PC, Mac, Linux, and consoles (PS4, Xbox One). This game will include English and Spanish languages.




Let me explain you a little more about this project.




In Spirit Huntress, you control Hibari, a female character with a wide range of abilities and special movements, in a non-linear 2d world.

As an aventure game, you'll have the chance to explore many levels with very different setting (desert, woods, ghost city, caves, mountains, rivers, modern cities, etc) as you progress throught the story.


As an action game, those levels will often be packed with enemies and hostiles to create different kinds of challenges (regular battle, mini-boss battle, final bosses). In these encounters you'll gradually discover all the abilities that Hibari possesses, learning to control her in a real time, dynamic and smooth battle system.


And finally, as a platformer game, you will find pits to jump over, ropes to climb, platforms you'll have to carefully land on, and many other obstacles that make level exploration harder, and more rewarding.


None of these three game elements (adventure, action or platforms) is more important than the others: Spirit Huntress tries to find the sweetspot between frantic combats, meticulous exploration, and milimetrically calculated leaps.

I'll be talking more on gameplay and Hibari moveset in future posts.




The gameplay comes along with a deep, dramatic story (with comedy bits), almost totally told through Hibari's viewpoint.

Spirit Huntress takes place in a fictional futuristic world with assorted locations and populated by human, animals, beasts and spirits.

These souls aren't but the vital energy that leaves someone's body when they die. They are pacific beings whose only duty is to journey towards their final destination (which won't be revealed at this moment). They are imperceptible for everyone, except certain people with a very rare gift.


However, if something gets on their way, keeping them from completing their pilgrimage, the spiri will turn aggressive, and will posses dead or live bodies, mutating them into terrible beasts craving for destruction. But the worst part about these beast is that they are immune to any sort of physical attack: ain't no bullet, hit or explosion that could harm them, for their essence (the spirit) is physically intangible.


At this point, I proceed to talk you about some of the main characters in Spirit Huntress:

Hibari: Main character. 25 years old female, with a cold personality. She's a little mistrustful, but she's also caring and motherly with those she loves. She's really talented in combat, but her most valuable gift isn't offensive, but perceptive: she's able to sense, see and hear the wandering spirits. This rare sixth sense that only a few women in the world share (those called "the spirit huntresses") is often a genetic inheritance. However, Hibari wonders if this is her case, since she didn't get to know her parents and their only legacy consists of a misterious dagger (wakizashi). She was raised in a quiet mountan village, along with other girls who shared her paranormal abilities, all under the care of Noa, the Elder woman from the Mountain Temple. Hibari learned from her all about fighting, spirits, and the mystic arts of "soul purging". Later, when she turned 18, Hibari left the temple alongside her sidekick, Lei.

Dot (A-00 unit): A tiny flying droid which escorts Hibari in every mission. Assembled by Garren, the engineer from Al's mercenary group, it's equiped with several handy functions for Hibari: items and equipment management, activity log, maps, comunicator, audio-visual player, flashlight, medical kit... Plus, he was designed to analyze Electro-Magnetic fields in search of spiritual energy traces. Sometimes, this detector actually works. Dot was programmed to be obedient and servile.

Al: 45 years old man, a little cad, and often rude, but always joking. He was a soldier for many years, but after certain incident he decided to set up his own mercenary group: the "Cracked Skulls". Initially, the group consisted of Al (the boss), Garren (the engineer) and Sash (heavy artillery). Then, Hibari and Lei joined, for the group needed someone to deal with spirits and the beasts that they possessed. Al is really fond of his group, to the extent he actually ordered custom uniforms and armors for the entire group. However he's the only one wearing this strange outift, what constantly causes arguments in the team. One more thing about the "Cracked Skulls": they do not operate like any other mercenary squad, being hired to solve a specific problem. Instead, they travel searching for conflicts, sticking the nose into other people bussines, "solving" the issue, and then they would address to whoever they apparently helped, asking for reward...

Lei: A vivacious 19 years old girl. She's happy, carefree, rebellious and a bit childish. Companion to Hibari, she's one of her only friends since they knew each other back in the Mountain Temple, where both were raised. She really admires Hibari's strenght and courage. Even her looks. When Hibari left the Temple because she finished her formation as a Spirit Huntress, Lei left too. She was only 12 years old back then, and she was only halfway through her formation, but decided to leave anyway. Not that she was specially gifted when coming to paranormal abilities... but the elder Noa just raised her to be a warrior like the other girls under her care. Lei's naiveness often gets her in trouble during missions. Luckily, Hibari is always there, looking after her, and helping Lei anytime she needs it.

Sash: 30 years old. Rough and somewhat rude. She's constantly swearing and taunting the others, specially Al, whom she holds dear nonetheless. That aside, she doesn't talk too much, but when she does, chaos reigns. Rebel and insurgent by nature, she drives Al crazy -since he's the boss-. She's the heavy artillery of the "Cracked Skulls" team, being large caliber weapons and explosives her favourite thing. She first met Al when they both were soldiers. But after some issue that got them reprimanded and expelled from the army, she blamed Al for everything. Thus, she made him responsible for finding her a new job. From that day on, she follows Al in his missions, resulting in a very helpful team mate. Specially when things require a little more brute force. She gets along with the other girls in the squad without a problem. She even is protective to Lei and Hibari whenever Al "harasses" them.

Garren: 32 years old man. He's shy, helpfull and a little clumsy if you put him out of his lab. He's the engineer, mechanic and scientific of the team. He can create any kind of gadget and fire weapon, and he can repair almost any sort of vehicle. His main occupation is fixing the only conveyance of the group so far: Al's chopper. He's also busy fixing every weapon Sash spoils. He created and assembled Dot, the flying droid that follows Hibari, so she could have a way to contact the group when she was on a solo mission. He also equipped dot with several utilities (lantern, map navigator, etc). He tried to put in Dot an Electro Magnetical Field detector that could help her to detect spiritual energy, but Hibari's intuition has proved to be more accurate. Garen is also the only member of the team that can't get away by himself in battle, what causes him a little complex. He's also really afraid of Sash, specially when she's angry.

* * *

I'll cover more information about other important characters on future posts. Let's now focus on the game graphics.



Spirit Huntress graphics are made 100 % by me, following digital drawing techniques, on Adobe Photoshop CS3 (my favourite). I often work my designs from a previos sketch I draw on paper.

All the sprites are drawn frame-by-frame, in one piece, using photoshop layers to ease the process. Then, I split the sprite as many times as I need, to draw separately in the game every custimizable pieces (Hibari's hair, weapons and ribbons) or those pieces that require it for optimization purposes. Then, I export everything to Game Maker Studio.


The visuals are somewhat like an animated movie, mixing characters and objects remarked with black outlines, and detailed backgrounds drawn one-by-one (but using assets), so there aren't two identical levels in the entire game.

(Note: I'm currently remaking most of these animations to match the new character design that can be seen in the first gif)


















Besides, thanks to the Game Maker Studio features, I garnish my art with rendered graphic effects, such as particles (fire, smoke, liquid, spray) or shaders (local light, volumetric lighting, night-day ambience, darkness, etc).


Volumetric light example


Local light example

The story is carried also by non-playable cutscenes that may come into two forms: as pre-generated animated movies (for the most important sequences), or as in-game sequences made with the game engine, featuring sprites and animations done for the occasion.



Now it's time to talk about the game music.



The game's music is also being composed by myself. I do not discard getting help on this from any professional musician, but first I'll try to do it all without help. You have some samples on Sound Cloud: https://soundcloud.com/manuel-aragon-1/sets/spirit-huntress-o-s-t

I'll poste more samples soon, but I don't want to reveal much of the game music before the game is finished.



The game will feature quality voice acting performed by both professionals and amateur actors, but no matter their previous professional experience, they are all very tallented and skilled for voice acting. I plan to have voice acting for every conversation in the game (and there are a lot of conversations!), except maybe those irrelevant (tutorials, explanations, tips, etc). There will be English and Spanish voice acting, of course.

This means I need tens of voice actors, which I'm hiring gradually. So far, I'm really pleased with the incredible people working on this: Laura (Spanish Hibari), Salva (Spanish Dot), Sydney (English Hibari) and Alvin (English Al).

If you are a voice actor/actress and are looking for a remunerated gig, you can contact me on twitter (@itoaragon), skype (itoaragon) or gmail (itoaragonATgmailDOTcom).



Spirit Huntress is a project influenced by some past great titles, like Metroid saga, Streets of Rage II, Shinobi III; as well as more recent games like Muramasa: The Demon Blade.

I must not forget about another important source of inspiration, the splendid "An Untitled Story" by Matt Thorson. I encourage you to play it if you haven't already. Download it at: Mattmakesgames.com. Do not be fooled by it's chlidish-looking graphics!




I started working on Spirit Huntress back in 2005, when I used Rpg Maker.



Old Spirit Huntress version screenshot (developed on Rpg Maker XP) from 2006

However, the game entered the production stage scarcely two years ago, when I started to code it on Game Maker, scrapping all the previous work. Needles to say that my skills as programmer, artist and music composer have improved since 2005, when I was only 16 years old.

After these two last years, the main character's code is 90 % completed, her animations being at 50 %. The levels, enemies, bosses and cutscenes are somewhere between 5-10%, and the music is around 20 % (there are 15 themes, most of them in need of a good upgrade!).

I made very little progress in these past two years, because I've been working full time since I finished my studies. My job left little to no free time to spend on the game. So, I decided to fix that: I quitted my job to finish Spirit Huntress. It sure was a hard decision to make, but the game's worth it. So long, spanish laws and contracts!

The bad news are pretty obvious: in order to finish the game I need one or two years of my full time, during which I'll need a financial support I lack. So, to finish this game in a decent time period, without having to slow it down because I'm working part time on any mall or restaurant, I'm going to launch a Kickstarter campaing, very soon I hope.


Coming soon!


* * *


And that was the introduction to Spirit Huntress. I hope that I got to explain everything clearly. Sorry if I didn't show too many screenshots. Also there are no videos today. If you haven't already, you can watch some of my old videos on my youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/itoaragon

I'll be waiting for your feedback! Thanks for your time!
« Last Edit: November 01, 2014, 01:50:43 PM by Ito » Logged

Twitter: @itoaragon
Website: Spirit Huntress.
Tumblr: Spirit Huntress.
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« Reply #1 on: November 02, 2013, 10:14:17 AM »

Wow, nice hi-res graphics! Smiley That must have been an enermous ammount of work!

Just one advice: One or two transition frames between the standing and the walking animations would make the movement a lot more fluid. (never mind, if it's planned already)
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« Reply #2 on: December 08, 2013, 01:13:01 PM »

The art is really cool in this, as is the light mapping and general design
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« Reply #3 on: December 11, 2013, 07:26:56 AM »

This is insanely beautiful. O.O

But the outline of the Huntress is freaking me out, it makes the character stand out of the rest of the scene too much:
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« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2014, 03:45:23 AM »

Woops, sorry for neglecting comments for so long.

The art is really cool in this, as is the light mapping and general design

Thank you so much! I'm aware it's far from perfect. But still, I'm trying to make something different. While I love pixel art and Low res games (and I have more experience as pixel artist), I feel that there aren't many 2d hi-res independent games out there that look good.


[
Wow, nice hi-res graphics! Smiley That must have been an enermous ammount of work!

Just one advice: One or two transition frames between the standing and the walking animations would make the movement a lot more fluid. (never mind, if it's planned already)

Thanks! Yeah haha, tons of work. And more to come...

About the transition animations, you're right, it was planned already. I just thought no one would notice, lol. Check the vines i'm posting at the bottom of this post to see the smooth transition ^^.

This is insanely beautiful. O.O

But the outline of the Huntress is freaking me out, it makes the character stand out of the rest of the scene too much:

Mmm. It's the first time that someone points out that issue.

I had thought about it. Maybe the blakck lines are to thick?

Anyway, I'll do my best to avoid that, so don't worry ^^.


--------------------------------------------


Ok, now I'd like to show you one screenshot from the introduction to the game.-



And here are two vines showing a little bit of the revamped animations.

Sorry for the bad quality tho

https://vine.co/v/MaUbn7Z6Q9A

https://vine.co/v/hlKIPnaHALD

thank you guys for your interest ^^

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« Reply #5 on: March 08, 2014, 04:36:16 PM »

Hi!

Sorry for the double-posting, guys.

I've been working a lot on this, and I'll update the main post with new information very soon.

Meanwhile, could I have your opinion on this character's design?

A or B?



Don't worry if you think A has too much detail for animation, I can handle.


Thanks in advance.

See you soon!
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Website: Spirit Huntress.
Tumblr: Spirit Huntress.
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« Reply #6 on: March 08, 2014, 06:33:12 PM »

Your art is very nicely done - and I'm sure it's far too late to change up now - but I'm not sold on cleavage-displaying, thigh-baring 'armor' for a "cold" character.
How dialogue-heavy is this?
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« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2014, 12:51:20 PM »

Your art is very nicely done - and I'm sure it's far too late to change up now - but I'm not sold on cleavage-displaying, thigh-baring 'armor' for a "cold" character.
How dialogue-heavy is this?

Hi! thanks for your opinion. I'm glad you like the art.

About the armor, believe or not, I'm not sure if you're talking about the main character's armor, or about that last character I was asking for opinion (since both display "cleavage" and fail to cover the thighs).

Anyway, I'm not really focusing on creating realistic clothing. And if you were talking about the main character, her fighting style requires light clothing and almost no armor. She wears pieces of light armor on her legs and arms so she can use them to deffend from not-deadly attacks.

About the dialogue, there's a decent amount of lines. I like to use dialogue to develop my characters. And the game is pretty much story-driven.

Here's another screenshot from a cutscene I just posted on the screenshot saturday thread.-



I hope you like it.

Bye!
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« Reply #8 on: March 28, 2014, 02:37:25 AM »

Hi everyone! I updated my blogger, tumblr, and indieDB sites with the following content:

- Info abou the Kickstarte campaing status.

- News on the game (port to GMS, switch to 1920x1080 resolution).

- New screens.

- One new song.

Link to blogger site].

Link to Tumblr site.

Link to IndieDB site.

--

Listen to the new original sountrack theme on Soundcloud.

Also, here's this animation I'm currently working on. I know it has some raccord errors, I'm already fixing them:



Thank you for your interest!
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« Reply #9 on: March 28, 2014, 02:49:26 AM »

The artwork is utterly charming!
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« Reply #10 on: March 28, 2014, 11:55:32 AM »

The artwork is utterly charming!


agreed, the animation is of very high quality
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« Reply #11 on: May 16, 2014, 11:38:19 PM »

The artwork is utterly charming!

Thank you very much!

agreed, the animation is of very high quality

I'm glad you like it, Professor Layton Smiley


I'd like to share with you a screenshot I took while testing some new assets.

Animated webm.: http://a.pomf.se/kxywib.webm



Thanks for the comments!
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« Reply #12 on: August 21, 2014, 03:47:43 PM »

Well, it's been a while since the last update here.

First, here's this screenshot:



Second, I'll be updating my blogger, tumblr and indieDB sites this week, with more info, screenshots, and announcements regarding the incoming Kickstarter campaing.

And third, here are two music tracks for the game OST I'm working on:

Surrounded by dripping leaves (Forest level)
https://soundcloud.com/manuel-aragon-1/sh-surrounded-by-dripping-leaves-wip?in=manuel-aragon-1/sets/spirit-huntress-o-s-t

Your path is open now (Action/optimistic theme)
https://soundcloud.com/manuel-aragon-1/sh-your-path-is-open-now-wip?in=manuel-aragon-1/sets/spirit-huntress-o-s-t

I'm a little short on time right now, so that would be it!

Thanks to anyone taking the time to read this, look at the screenshots, and listening to the game music!

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« Reply #13 on: August 21, 2014, 05:54:56 PM »

I really like your art style.
And the game looks really cool except for one thing... why is spirit huntress so sexualized?
The boobs popping out... the tiny mini skirt...
Yea I know every game out there does that to female characters, but unless there is a reason it's lame when anyone does it imo.
I know you have done a lot of work on her, but that is just something that grinds me about the project.

Let's ask, what does a real huntress look like?
Consider these Tapirape women:


or her:
  ...or her

NOTE: They are all TOPLESS yet look LESS sexualized than your rendition of spirit huntress.  Anyway, I don't mean to be harsh. I find these images inspirational, and I hope you will too.  I think it would make your game much more appealing if you made her not fit into the stereotype of 'a female in a video game must fit into the Western ideals of sexiness' box...  or sexy at all...
  
Just my 2 cents.  
From the bottom of my heart, best of luck!  Smiley
« Last Edit: August 21, 2014, 06:03:51 PM by dez » Logged

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« Reply #14 on: August 22, 2014, 10:29:54 AM »

I really like your art style.
And the game looks really cool except for one thing... why is spirit huntress so sexualized?
The boobs popping out... the tiny mini skirt...
Yea I know every game out there does that to female characters, but unless there is a reason it's lame when anyone does it imo.
I know you have done a lot of work on her, but that is just something that grinds me about the project.

Let's ask, what does a real huntress look like?
Consider these Tapirape women:


or her:
  ...or her

NOTE: They are all TOPLESS yet look LESS sexualized than your rendition of spirit huntress.  Anyway, I don't mean to be harsh. I find these images inspirational, and I hope you will too.  I think it would make your game much more appealing if you made her not fit into the stereotype of 'a female in a video game must fit into the Western ideals of sexiness' box...  or sexy at all...
  
Just my 2 cents.  
From the bottom of my heart, best of luck!  Smiley

Thanks for the kind words, dez.

About the way the character looks... well, it's not the first (nor the last) time someone points out that "issue".

I could just tell you that this game isn't but fiction happening in a fantasy world. But I'd like to elaborate a little more on this matter. Is something I've always wanted to do with a sane, respectful person like you.

Honestly, when I first designed Hibari, I was like 12 years younger. You can easily guess what's inside a 13-15 yo teenager head, don't you?

The thing is, even if she looks attractive (according to my standarts, not anyone else's), with every new iteration of her design and the project itself, I've always validated her appearance.

Even now that I'm a 26 years old adult about to get married, I still like her looks.

Unlike many people, I don't think there's nothing wrong with making her attractive. Where I come from, women wear cleavages and mini-skirts to look attractive, not only for men, but for themselves. Almost every woman likes to
look pretty and attractive. Everyone wants to be attractive.

And you know, as any sane person would agree, being attractive and looking attractive are no reasons to be objectified.

So, we may agree that there's nothing wrong with being attractive and looking attractive.

In that case... I may assume that what you find "disturbing" is, perhaps, the fact that I, a man, drew her that way?

Because I don't think there's a valid reason to keep me from drawing attractive women.

What I'm trying to make here is not only a game. I'm trying to make art here. I'm doing my best (which is not much) to make a beautiful thing.

To me, the femenine body is one of the most beautiful things to ever be represented.


But everyone can have their own opinions.

If her looks offend you, then I'm sorry. Even if I think there's nothing wrong with her, this might not be the game for you.

If that doesn't offend you but you still don't like it, then I'm sorry you're going to miss all that Spirit Huntress could offer to you.

And if it doesn't offend you, and you don't dislike her looks, yet you think that there's something wrong with my character, I'd suggest you to stop looking for hidden messages and ideology in other people's work. Also,you might have some kind of insecurity regarding the opposite sex, which is something to keep an eye on. I mean, I like people being feminist and trying to help restore some gender equality where available, but I feel like this is another case of misplaced effort.



I'm not trying to teach anyone anything about women. I'm just making a fantasy game. Starred by a strong, independent character that also happens to be beautiful and is not ashamed of her body.

Again, thank you for your comment.

I hope I haven't offended you with my reply, that wasn't my intenttion.

And in case you're wondering, I'm not taking any offense for the way you overlooked everything about this character...except for her looks.




Edit: I must insist... I hope I haven't offended you, dez. It wasn't my intention at all. But now, reading my reply, I see it's easy to think that I'm being rude. That's an unfortunate concidence, due to the fact that I'm not writing in my mother language here, and that I'm probably speaking about something that really "itched" inside me...My apologies.

 
« Last Edit: August 22, 2014, 10:40:20 AM by Ito » Logged

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« Reply #15 on: August 22, 2014, 11:55:41 AM »

Hey Ito,

no offense at all!  Shrug

We agree on most everything, I think.
The only thing I would like to correct you on is this:
Quote
I may assume that what you find "disturbing" is, perhaps, the fact that I, a man, drew her that way?
That is definitely incorrect (further, I did not know whether you were male or female).

Therefore, let me clarify.  
Consider the following portrait:

I found this Native Brazilian woman who -I think- is super sexy. I think she is stunning...  Yet consider that to anyone (including me, who acknowledges her as beautiful in a sexual way),  it's apparent that her identity is not her sexiness.  Her sexual attractiveness is INCIDENTAL to who she is - it is not in and of itself - who she is.

now holding that thought, lets bring it into your project.
The relevant description you gave of 'hibari' is in this sentence:
Quote
25 years old female, with a cold personality. She's a little mistrustful, but she's also caring and motherly with those she loves.
This is pretty good.  In fact, I know someone exactly like this.... my wife!  lol!
Now let me describe my wife to you when I first laid eyes on her:
She was wearing a black baseball cap low, covering her eyes. She had long black hair covering the sides of her ears and side of her face. She was wearing a black turtle-neck sweater, with long sleeves completely covering her neck and arms. She was wearing black jeans pants, and black sneakers.  Let's put it this way: she was doing everything possible to not get any attention at all!  (Obviously I found her attractive - incidentally - despite all of this)
Why do I bring this up?
Because your description - of someone who is outwardly cold and mistrustful - by definition would mean they would not want attention (as evidenced by my anecdote). In other words your DEPICTION is antithetical to your DESCRIPTION.  
As you said, there is nothing wrong with depicting a beautiful woman.
The issue is depicting her as a sexual object for the sake of fulfilling a male fantasy (ie dangerous combined with sexual desirability).  To be more direct: right now, you aren't depicting a beautiful woman as much as a very, very, very, very tired

.

And again I don't mean to sound harsh, but honestly the first thing I thought when I saw the Hibari character was that she is ripe for an Anita Sarkeesian video.  I don't want to be mean, so why would I tell you this?
Two reasons:
1) Because I don't want someone to call it out on you in the middle of a kickstarter or after a release (and btw I don't think you would have a good rebuttal if that were to happen).  Certainly you wouldn't want that to happen.
2) I want your game to be as awesome as possible! -and I think you can do way better and make it way more awesome with just a little more thought.

For example,  I know you want Hibari to be a badass.  
Consider the huntress on the left in the picture I posted earlier (the one carrying the child).
She FUCKING HUNTS ACTUAL WILD ANIMALS - WHILE CARRYING AND CARING FOR A 2 YEAR OLD AT THE SAME TIME -  WITH AN ATLATL!!!!
THAT. My friend, is REAL BADASSERY.
Most people who call themselves 'real hunters'  use a gun!..  and leave their 'womanly wives' home with their 2yo.
She makes Navy Seals look like girl scouts - in real life!

Or look at the one on the right - she looks like a GRANDMA... WHO HUNTS WILD ANIMALS with PRIMITIVE WEAPONS! BADASS!

anyway I hope you get what I mean.  I just think you can do better.  and I hope you do  Wink Hand Thumbs Up Right
best of luck!! :D

EDIT:  and btw I say this with a pretty good idea of how much work went into her already... and into the logos and animations etc. And I have a good idea of what it would take to change it all, too.  Still, you need to know how it is communicating, and decide for yourself what you want to do - if anything.
« Last Edit: August 22, 2014, 04:42:33 PM by dez » Logged

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« Reply #16 on: September 01, 2014, 03:30:18 AM »

Dude are you really comparing my "case" to those Anita is fighting against, which depict woman being raped, hit, and generally mistreated (see GTA)?

My character isn't a mere distraction or candy-for-the-eye, she's the main character, and she chooses looking this way. There should be nothing wrong with that. You'll have to trust me on this tho, till you play the game there's not much I can do to make you understand it.

I'm not gonna change anything about her. I might improve whatever needs be improved about the game art (animations, backgrounds, etc) but not her attire. Not because its extra work, but because I like it how it's.

I'm confident I can make a good work regarding the perception of the caracter by the players. Watching isolated screens you may think "just another sexualized girl". But damn, I'm gona take a wild guess and say people will wait at least to see a trailer before calling me things.

Thanks again for your opinion. One last thing: don't be afraid of whatever angry people may say about my game. Because, I'm the guy behind all this, and I don't give the slightest amount of f... Smiley
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Twitter: @itoaragon
Website: Spirit Huntress.
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TautNerve
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« Reply #17 on: September 01, 2014, 05:16:51 AM »

Well the only thing I can say to somehow contribute to the argument about Hibari
is that I can relate to Dez's point of view based on the character animation.
The design itself is not extremely over-sexualized in my opinion, if you want her to have
a gigantic cleavage that is your call to make. At least her top piece of clothing
is not designed in an unrealistic way to cover as less as possible (As seen here or here).
Just note that designing a character around cleavage and mini skirts often leads to sexualization
whether you intend it or not. Look at Lei for example, if I had to compare her outfit to Hibari, the
only thing I could say is something along the lines of: "Lei's outfit looks like Hibari's outfit but
with way less cleavage, longer skirt, less exposed areas of the body and a scarf".
That itself raises some questions about the character design, but If you are comfortable with it you
should stick with it.
Quote
Where I come from, women wear cleavages and mini-skirts to look attractive, not only for men, but for themselves.
If that is your way to make her attractive so be it, it is your call. Just remember that this is often
considered as a cheap trick that is used to lure in horny men, whether you follow this concept or not
is irrelevant. All you can do is just acknowledge that you are aware of this method and deal with it in
any way you please, just do not try to shake it off from existence because that won't work.

Furthermore, look at the way you animated her breast at the idle / walking position.
I'm sure that you have seen a woman with large breasts walking or standing at least once in your life, and
if so you can probably agree with me that it does not look like this:

I mean, look at the way they move, This is a Dead Or Alive grade boob simulation.
Animating her like that adds nothing to the table (from my perspective) besides emphasizing unrealistic
"breast physics" that could very well lead into thoughts of sexualization for very obvious reasons.

Just my opinion, take it with a grain of salt~
That aside I wish you the best of luck with this ambitious project, it s really
impressive to see how much it improved from it's old RPG Maker state.
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CasePortman
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« Reply #18 on: September 01, 2014, 05:32:58 AM »

These visuals are really great, I also like the lighting you got going.
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Ito
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« Reply #19 on: September 01, 2014, 09:23:13 AM »

Well the only thing I can say to somehow contribute to the argument about Hibari
is that I can relate to Dez's point of view based on the character animation.
The design itself is not extremely over-sexualized in my opinion, if you want her to have
a gigantic cleavage that is your call to make. At least her top piece of clothing
is not designed in an unrealistic way to cover as less as possible (As seen here or here).
Just note that designing a character around cleavage and mini skirts often leads to sexualization
whether you intend it or not. Look at Lei for example, if I had to compare her outfit to Hibari, the
only thing I could say is something along the lines of: "Lei's outfit looks like Hibari's outfit but
with way less cleavage, longer skirt, less exposed areas of the body and a scarf".
That itself raises some questions about the character design, but If you are comfortable with it you
should stick with it.
Quote
Where I come from, women wear cleavages and mini-skirts to look attractive, not only for men, but for themselves.
If that is your way to make her attractive so be it, it is your call. Just remember that this is often
considered as a cheap trick that is used to lure in horny men, whether you follow this concept or not
is irrelevant. All you can do is just acknowledge that you are aware of this method and deal with it in
any way you please, just do not try to shake it off from existence because that won't work.

Furthermore, look at the way you animated her breast at the idle / walking position.
I'm sure that you have seen a woman with large breasts walking or standing at least once in your life, and
if so you can probably agree with me that it does not look like this:

I mean, look at the way they move, This is a Dead Or Alive grade boob simulation.
Animating her like that adds nothing to the table (from my perspective) besides emphasizing unrealistic
"breast physics" that could very well lead into thoughts of sexualization for very obvious reasons.

Just my opinion, take it with a grain of salt~
That aside I wish you the best of luck with this ambitious project, it s really
impressive to see how much it improved from it's old RPG Maker state.

Thanks for your opinion, TautNerve.

I'm afraid that the issues you point out regarding her animations aren't but the result of a lack of skill animating not only girls, but everything.

Those animations I posted back in november have already been replace with much more realistic ones. I've deliberatedly decreased her bust size and made it less "bouncy". Animators often resort to this kind of thing to make their animations more appealing when they lack skill, and in these past 6 months I learnt it's not the way.

Here's a glance at the new walk, run, idle and combat animations. Hopefully they're more correct now, and don't contribute to make the character look over sexualized:

Idle

Walk

Run

Jump

Climb

Wall-jump (WIP)

Two attacks


Smiley The walljump is mostly a placeholder. Also don't mind the background images (that sea waves) since I still have to work on those, add more layers to the horizon, etc.

Quote
"Lei's outfit looks like Hibari's outfit but
with way less cleavage, longer skirt, less exposed areas of the body and a scarf"

Actually, there's a reason for that. Lei's and Hibari's outfit are different because of their different "grades" at the Spirit Huntress "dojo". When a Spirit Huntress completes her training and "fully blossoms as a woman" is rewarded that suit.

Spirit Huntresses were inspired by the ancient japanese kunoichi, who used seduction as another weapon. I wanted this feature to permeate into the Spirit Huntress design. The way their suits "reveal" their womanly features is also related to the fact that in my game only woman can have this kind of spiritual power.

It's really difficult trying to explain all of this here. Hopefully I'll be able to make it clear in the game and it will all feel natural and not a pathethic excuse to feature boobs.


Quote
Insert Quote
These visuals are really great, I also like the lighting you got going.

Thanks a lot, CasePortman! Definitely, the Game Maker Studio features help a lot when it comes to enhance 2d HD sprites!


I'll be updating the original post with the new gifs, the screenshots and the OST themes.

Thanks to everyone who posted. Knowing that my hard work is not being unnoticed really helps me to keep working everyday, as hard as being a full-indie is nowadays.

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Twitter: @itoaragon
Website: Spirit Huntress.
Tumblr: Spirit Huntress.
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