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30/30
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« on: January 09, 2014, 08:48:36 PM »





Cosmochoria is a love letter to old-school action / arcade games like asteroids, Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong. Maybe some new school games like Spelunky and Super Mario Galaxy also...

Cosmochoria is a mesmerizing way to kill hours: hopping between planets, unravelling forgotten mysteries, killing aliens and planting seeds to sprout new life across a long-barren galaxy.

Game Features:
- Relaxing single player High Score arcade action.
- Plant seeds to sprout new plants, new plants give more seeds.
- Build pyramid bases to shoot down aliens while you plant.
- Procedurally generated galaxy. Each game is unique.
- Baby-time training mode for those who lack real gumption.
- Aliens drop crystals from their bums when killed.
- Spend your crystals at the upgrade shop to improve your abilities.
- Radical interstellar boss fights.
- Mini-Map Upgrade to plot your journey.
- Fresh electronic soundtrack by Ilkae & Zebra.
- Hand Crafted 1080p vector illustration stylee.
- Befriend an old hermit alien at his wooden shack.
- Discover hidden artifacts strewn across the galaxy.
- Combine the artifacts...
- BE NAKED!

Cosmochoria is still in pre-alpha development. Release date is to be announced.
See www.cosmochoria.com for more details.

Want to help an aging nerds dreams come true? Please vote YES on Greenlight. Smiley
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=219694672



I'll start keeping my devlog up to date here. Feedback most welcome & thanks for any interest!
« Last Edit: March 23, 2014, 09:52:44 AM by 30/30 » Logged

KICKSTART COSMOCHORIA!!!: Old-school arcade game about hopping between planets, killing aliens & planting seeds for high scores.
30/30
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« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2014, 08:53:19 PM »

Getting very close to a functioning demo for Sprout, and and prepping to start a sharing campaign. If you're interested in trying Sprout out, I would be honoured to share it with you! Hit me up on steam - username "80bit".

To view a "Let's Play" I prepared the other day to show the previous build (070) (contains profanity, spoilers and insightful development related discussion) you can look here:

On Youtube:



If you're interested in keeping up with Sprout's development in general, be sure to check out the Steam Greenlight page at: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=212071982

Really looking forward to getting your feedback on Sprout!
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KICKSTART COSMOCHORIA!!!: Old-school arcade game about hopping between planets, killing aliens & planting seeds for high scores.
30/30
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« Reply #2 on: January 09, 2014, 09:01:27 PM »

I've been working hard on trying to finish up the things I need done for the public demo I hope to release in the coming weeks. Essentially the groundwork is now laid for the story to unfold through the collectible artifacts. There's also the introduction of portals, which will be an important part of getting around the galaxy once you have bought the map and are trying for a 'perfect run' (all planets).



With the introduction of the portals also brings the introduction of a new friend... this dude will play an integral role of the 'story' surrounding these planets as well as a key part of the progression of the game itself. I was originally going to make him randomly spawned 'somewhere' in the galaxy so that you would 'discover' him in one of your games and possibly not in other games, but since coming up with how Sprout will 'end' he now plays a much larger role than simply 'being there'... and with him being accessible near the beginning of each game, it gives me a chance to use him as a bit of a tutorial, to the point where i think i'll make him the one that gives you your first seed & instructs you how to plant it. I may also start you with an empty jetpack which he then fills up for you once the first plant blossoms -- sort of a somewhat natural way to introduce the gameplay to you a bit at a time.



The only thing I'm worried about, is if you're experienced, will it seem too much a chore to have to go see him first before you can get started? Once i have it set, i'll do some testing and get some opinions at that point.

One of the biggest challenges the past couple days has been keeping up with the information i have coming through the Steam Dev channel, as well as through some other privately shared sources (the people who are not on Steam). If there's anything I've missed, or you notice any new bugs, etc, (and you're in the dev group!) please keep them in that thread and I will then be able to work through it like a todo list.

Thanks for all your help and positive vibes so far, I hope you are enjoying the game (or at least watching the progress). With the next update, some of the 'treasure hunting' stuff will finally be setup so it will make it even better.

Cosmic Hugs,
Nate

Changelog - v0.72
  • Finally fixed glitchy store icons
  • Hopefully reduced some of the audio-based hiccups, let me know if it’s any smoother..
  • Rollover descriptions on store items (Thanks Lots of great peeps!)
  • Removed the background stuff (black stuff) on the planets. I was finding it too distracting actually.. was taking away from the simple aesthetic. Might revisit in the future but for now I dont see them as necessary..
  • Added portals. They Only open when…
  • Fixed fast plant — wasnt growing plants properly. (Thanks @Loopy)
  • Spawned Random Seed # for each plant. (Thx @Snorlaxxo)
  • Fixed Spawning bug. Should *never* spawn you in a planet now.
  • Added Bullet Helmet Flash, just some added ambiance.
  • Fuck it. I’ve added asteroids. Just something else to shoot. It comes into play a little later in the game too.
  • Fixed some minor bugs here and there.
  • Introducing the Old Hermit…

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« Reply #3 on: January 09, 2014, 10:08:40 PM »

Voted for you on Greenlight. I like the look of the game.
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30/30
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« Reply #4 on: January 09, 2014, 10:09:55 PM »

Thanks a lot, Impmaster! Im really proud of how it's coming together. Smiley
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« Reply #5 on: January 11, 2014, 01:49:30 PM »

Ok, im new to this. I'm one little guy working on a little game that I've been losing sleep over for the past 2 months of my life. I added Sprout to Greenlight last friday, right before (or right in the middle of) all the trouble steam was having over the weekend, etc. Outages, etc. They had their hands full, it took days before sprout was even listed on the Greenlight page and it NEVER appeared in the top 'recent items' section on the main page. By the time it was finally listed on the site, it took one more day to have new items push it off back into obscurity.

DESPITE ALL THAT!! I am so, so proud to say that 1000 amazing souls have clicked "YES" to the question of whether or not they would buy Sprout if it showed up on Steam.

That's huge to me! My goal this week was to hit 100. My goal was to hit 500 by the end of the month. It seems like all I've been doing with my life since I laid that first sprite down is work on this game, and I am so excited with how far it has come and how close I am getting to being able to properly show it off to you guys. The fact that so many amazing people have clicked that "Yes" button to show their support for this project is simply unreal to me, I am deeply deeply grateful for the interest and will do my very best to make sure this is a game worth getting into.

Sprout is coming, yo. These first 1000 votes are just the beginning!

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« Reply #6 on: January 12, 2014, 07:15:48 AM »

Will keep up to date, this is a clever and proper project! Love this type of games and it motivates me as a game dev see people devoted to their projects. Keep up the good work, C2 is quite amazing.
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30/30
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« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2014, 12:31:14 AM »

It's been a weird week. Sprout went on Greenlight last weekend, which was a big deal because I've been trying to use it to get some awareness of the game going but also to start trying to get some playtesters trying the game out more and check on their feedback. Through the group on Steam i've been able to get some amazing feedback, and in that feedback one of the most frequently stated items hit home yet again: what do I do?

I made some real challenging decisions right from the start of making Sprout that I wanted people to feel 'lost' when they first started the game. It was really important to me that the feeling of actually discovering the game's control system and method of progression was something that players actually learned on their own, though no matter what I tried I couldn't quite nail down exactly how to make that happen.

Though I did get one or two players that came to me and said, literally, that they relished the ability to discover it for themselves, and truly got a lot out of that experience—the vast, immense majority of people were stuck right from the start, even to the point where they didnt know what mouse button to push to move. Not good.

I think a lot of my mentality came from playing games like Starseed Pilgrim, Terraria, Minecraft, Proteus, et al. Basically i've been thrown enough times into a game where there was little to zero direction on what you needed to do from those very first moments. I took it for granted that people would feel comfortable with that, but I think because of the nature of the game being, ultimately, focussed on the core mechanics i needed to come to a compromise to achieve that.



This weekend I think i achieved that compromise. Through a tutorial system involving an old hermit living on a distant planet, I essentially introduce characters to the core mechanics within the span of about 60-90 seconds. The old guy basically gets right to the nitty gritty and teaches you what you need to know to progress through the game. It was a real challenge to ensure that players wouldnt feel coddled in this process, but I think the final result is quite a natural explanation. Backing that is the fact that I'll be making this tutorial sequence optional -- once you play through it the first time, the tutorial switch turns off on the title screen (you can enable it again later if you hit your head on the toilet or something).

all in all im quite proud of the way it all works, and by using narrative and not just a simple screen that literally spells it all out to you, i feel like the experience still stays true to the exploration aspect of Sprout. Even with the tutorial off, this same old guy will come into play in the main story line and ending of the game as well.

Reaching 1400 Votes on Steam Greenlight by this point has been a big boost to my confidence. My goal for the first week was 100 votes.. so to get 14 times that is a little insane. Im really proud of what has been built so far, and every single session of development is getting me closer and closer to this vision of awesomeness I think the game can be. I think my next key goal is to really think about a proper Trailer video to show off what the game is about, and using that I hope to be able to get some interest building not only for the game itself, but also for the Steam Greenlight page.

I could talk about this for days, but ill leave it at that.

Hugs, and huge thanks to all the people who have supported Sprout by sharing it to your facebook & twitter pages, as well as infinite love baskets to the amazing people who gave Sprout a YES vote on greenlight. And from the very bottom of my heart a giant sized cookie of passionate embrace goes to the incredible gamers who have been helping me test the game, pointing out flaws, giving me positive vibes and generally helping make sure this game is killer.

Night yall.
nate
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« Reply #8 on: January 13, 2014, 03:12:24 AM »

Congrats on your greenlight progress, I voted for you!

Sprout is looking really nice so far.
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« Reply #9 on: January 13, 2014, 04:14:23 AM »

Very cute. Voted as well.
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« Reply #10 on: January 13, 2014, 06:00:41 AM »

Voted! Wrote you a comment, tweeted on about it, started following you on Twitter and will be hitting you up there too. Beer! Can't wait for that demo!
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30/30
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« Reply #11 on: January 13, 2014, 09:05:05 AM »

You guys rock, thank you so so so much for the support! You're making me feel warm and fuzzy haha. Smiley
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« Reply #12 on: January 13, 2014, 10:03:57 AM »

Another "yes" vote from me. Looks like fun!
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« Reply #13 on: January 13, 2014, 12:54:42 PM »

Another "yes" vote from me. Looks like fun!

thank you so much dude! By the way, The Phantom P.I. looks amazing - great work!!
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« Reply #14 on: January 13, 2014, 01:10:35 PM »

You guys rock, thank you so so so much for the support! You're making me feel warm and fuzzy haha. Smiley
Feels great to see you happy too!
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30/30
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« Reply #15 on: January 14, 2014, 06:45:17 PM »

(taken directly from the Steam Greenlight page for Sprout)

What's in a name...?

...Apparently everything. I recently discovered that the name "Sprout" is already trademarked and I run the risk of legal trouble if I am to continue with it's usage. I have already chosen a new name for the game and have developed the new logo which I will be presenting officially at the end of the week.

I wouldn't have got to where I was with this Steam page without the amazing support of you guys so I need to ask your advice for my next step. I have 2 roads to take at this point and I want to give you every single ounce of my respect and ask your opinion of what road I should take.



Road One:
Re-launch Sprout with it's new name, logo, and an updated trailer on Greenlight as a SEPARATE project. This means I will lose the current comments, votes and announcements I've made so far. If you've voted YES for Sprout, you would have to vote YES again when it appears on Greenlight with the new name. This is the path I would prefer to take as it gives me a chance to start fresh, and though I would lose the existing votes, I have a feeling it wont take long to get back to where I am. 

Road Two:
Simply rename this project with the new name / reupload a new video, logo, etc. This means I can keep the comments, votes, and announcements on this page, but it also means that I don't have a second chance at the home page, which may make a difference. (when i launched this page, we were buried on the home page as Steam was going through some temporary server issues, so Sprout didn't get the traffic it could have normally, unfortunately). 

Let me know what you think. My choice is <strong>Road One</strong>, but I deeply respect your opinions.. if that is at all offensive to you the majority of you guys, I will avoid that path. If you don't think it's a problem to vote again, or don't care either way, I am infinitely in your debt and will make sure the relaunch is awesome, and you are made aware of it in case you would like to throw another vote down. 

Thank you so much for your support to this point, I appreciate every single comment and vote. The game is coming together so nicely & I look forward to sharing the public demo with you once it's ready. The new title and logo is pretty damn slick too, I cant wait to share that!

Infinite Respect, 
Nate
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« Reply #16 on: January 14, 2014, 08:22:50 PM »

Aw, too bad. I'd prefer a name that's still one word, though, because that's very elegant and memorable.

I'd say keep the old project and rename it. Just make sure you keep spamming out to your current followers via Twitter and TIG and whatnot, so that everyone is safely aware of the change. Do this for a week at least, probably, and then change the name. Use the time to come up with a new one, unless you're already sure about Road One.

It could have been worse! I don't think this is that big of a deal. Just make very sure people are made aware about this. Some sort of transitional period.
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« Reply #17 on: January 20, 2014, 02:07:58 AM »



Wow, what a week, so much has been going on behind the scenes and most of it has related to getting the game relaunched with a new trailer, new logo, new greenlight page, etc. The biggest thing has been the trailer, I've learned a lot from the feedback I've been getting and I think I can really improve on that 'preview' of the game, and let the trailer show you more of what the game is about, more of what the gameplay is like, more of what the enemies look like, more of what the story will be, etc. It's been challenging, as this is all stuff that is still in development, but I think I'm getting there. The new trailer should be filled with the good stuff I've been working on this week, including a brand new title track composed by Ilkae and Zebra. These guys are bring an amazing sense of atmosphere to the game, and I think it's really going to set the game up as the type of experience you can just sit back and relax with while blasting enemies into space crap.



The other thing that has been taking a lot of my attention is the fact that I've been experimenting with various technical aspects of the game to ensure that I can answer some of the questions that are being asked. Questions like:

Will the game have multiplayer support? (I still don't know... my hope is yes, but I still have not had a proper chance to test performance, etc.. a lot will depend on if the game is greenlit, and therefore if I can use steams servers for the connection.) Also, so far control is handled via keyboard and mouse, so to enable local multiplayer, I really have to get gamepad support working... which is the next question...

Will there be gamepad support? I've been working HARD on this. Not only does it mean I can sit back and play this on the couch, which is all ive been dreaming of, but it means I can have MULTIPLE cosmonauts blasting around space at the same time... or even open up new modes of gameplay where you race to plant as many plants as possible before the other person, or even a battle mode type game where its last man standing, etc.  It's tricky because of the way you shoot, there are multiple ways to handle gamepad support. Im thinking the controls will be a lot like crash commando for PS3: left stick moves, right stick aims / shoots (automatically), triggers jump, etc. normal buttons plant etc. Of course I can certainly allow modification of those controls to allow more customization, but yeah.. that's the gist. The main thing is i have to get it working first. So far, it's about 50% good to go.



What about touch screen? This game looks like it would be fun on ipad, etc This has been another thing I have been devoting a lot of time to. Im getting about 30FPS on an ipad 4, which i consider passable.. The touch controls are decent but they absolutely require onscreen controls / buttons. Im trying to think of the absolute simplest method to allow all the controls, and in addition to that i'm re-thinking how to simplify on the PC version as well. Im thinking this will evolve over time, but I want to make it clear that I WANT THIS TOO. Very much. Again, nothing better than rocking a game in bed on a nice ipad / iphone screen... I'll keep you posted on this though. Chances are it's going to come AFTER the PC/Mac version is released as I want to make sure the game is solid here first. So far, it is running on ipad with basic touch controls at about 30FPS.. so i'd say this goal is about 30% complete.

What is this even about? Im hoping the new trailer will help answer that. Let me just say it's about racking up a high score.. that's it. To do that, kill things with your gun, and plant seeds to turn them into plants which give you more seeds... The longer you stay alive, the higher the score. The deeper you get into the game, the more you will learn about the world, etc, but it's meant as a 1-life type arcade game. It just happens to have bosses, upgrades, items, etc which are all things I've added to make the game more fun / more interesting for the long term. At it's core, though, it's like a game of Asteroids mixed with a game of Spelunky... that's kinda the best way i can describe it...



Ill leave it at this. Im really looking forward to launching the new page, new trailer, new logo, new name. I think once you guys see what i've been doing for the game you're going to be excited to check it out! I cant thank you enough for following the greenlight page, throwing me Greenlight Yes votes (almost at 2000!!!) and leaving some great comments and feedback.

Talk very very soon!

Love,
Nate
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« Reply #18 on: January 20, 2014, 07:52:07 AM »

Roll Eyes



All these technical event-management-like screenshots, what are they? What software is that?

Great to hear that everything's going fine. Let's hope for this new attempt to be a success!
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« Reply #19 on: January 20, 2014, 08:07:51 AM »

Roll Eyes



All these technical event-management-like screenshots, what are they? What software is that?

Great to hear that everything's going fine. Let's hope for this new attempt to be a success!
It's Construct 2. It builds straight to HTML5 though, so I've found that it's rather disappointing if you're trying to build large games with it.

But it has some of the best event based game building I've ever seen.
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