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[captain]

Hello Fellow Indie-Devs!

After a long time (=years) of development, my game "The Terminal Angel Disease" is approaching the release deadline! It is a typical 2D Indie RPG with elements of hack'n'slay, story-driven adventure, item looting, and a sack of self irony. I'd like the DevLogs here so I decide i will write here from time to time!



The Situation
Four friends - our party - live in the city "Bunga Terra Tissa Tu", formerly the scenery of a successfull computer game series, the "Deep Deep Dungeon" and its Hero "Heinz Chamberlain". But with the invention of 3D graphics, the series got sacked. The Heroes, NPCs, and Monsters became unemployed and, ehm, fat.
SUDDENLY... one morning after a hot jazz night out, new packs of monsters are roaming the city! They ride desperado skateboard, kick out street lamps, and throw empty lemonade cans on the streets!
It appears that the guardian angels of the city, the "SCRIPTS" have been abducted! And even more obscure: "Friday Guy", the man responsible for the start of the weekend, did not turn up at work this morning, but his office is wasted with mountains of chewing gum paper.
There is only one solution: We have to go down the Deep Deep Dungeon again! It has been closed for decades, and only open if schoolchildren go there for a fields trip to learn about history.
This is the beginning of an epic adventure where our lovely 2D-characters have to fight not only against baddies, cappucino hangover and stereotyped quest-proving NPCs, but also against the threat of another dimension... the THIRD DIMENSION!!!  

Features
 * 20 maps with each 99x99 tiles, with city, wilderness, cave, and of course dungeon settings!
 * 250 items: weapons, armor, magic, food and facility items.
 * Lots of NPCs to talk and trade with!
 * Fighting! Once you encounter baddies, the fight screen appears and you control each party member in real time mode.

Background
I developed this game initially starting from 1998 and released it in 2005 in Germany only. I re-wrote the game during the last years in Java as a hobby project. 95% of the stuff is untouched: graphics (I introduced new tree graphics though), gameplay, design. It was then and now a lot of work and I decided to re-release it again!
The game is inspired by mid-90 games. Today, games tend to be short and accessible, and my game is nothing like that Fights are frequent and hard - most people complain about that. But the story, characters, puzzles and ideas are still really fine I think.

What's next?
So far I did no make a lot of publicity, but I want to track the progress here in this DevLog. I also want to collect feedback and therefore I'm working on a demo  ! The final release is scheduled after summer. If at least some people like it i'll make a sequel

Video
Now let's watch a video. This is raw, compiled footage of representive scenes of the game and shows the basic things to do: walking, fighting, looting!
 



Support
If you like the project pleeeease support it via the usual suspects:
IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/the-terminal-angel-disease
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheTerminalAngelDisease
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KurtisTheBlob

Official Demo Version
English: www.captainsoft.de/demo_en/tad.zip
German: www.captainsoft.de/demo_de/tad.zip


I love to hear comments and questions!
Mathias

[rascalpuppyjay]

Looks awesome! :3

[captain]

I played a bit with IrfanView filters:



Better or worse?  

[captain]

More screenshots with the new style:
http://www.indiedb.com/games/the-terminal-angel-disease/news/its-the-new-style

(somehow IndieDb "archived" my news, meaning they won't show it on their homepage... I have no idea why... life as an indie game dev is hard

Enjoy.... and P.S.: the release date is approaching soon 

[Caravaggi0]

Hehe, the title at the top is throwing me back to 80's pc games.  So much real estate....

[captain]

Summer is over i am still working on this project!
And here is a screenshot to get an idea of the new Quest Log. Whenever you get a new quest (mainly while talking to NPCs), the golden Quest Chicken on the top quacks. If you solve a quest, it sparkles and you get some coins. Btw: A new Demo is coming soon 

[captain]

This is not a screenshot from the game, it is me working on the game on Sunday. Greetings to all IndieDevs that do not know about weekends, holidays and Feierabends 

[williamkwan]

This looks hilarious! I have a thing for games with random funny text. But the UI is a bit of an eyesore, I'd replace that muddy mix of colours with something cleaner and get rid of the top bar that just has the title.

[captain]

Thanks  The quest texts are actually taken from the real game! This shows the beginning of the game, we'll have ~25 important quests later. For the graphics yeah, some like it, some don't. As I am doing everything myself they might not look great, but they're mine

[captain]

Hello Everybody again!

The latest Demo-Version V3 is now available. It includes the announced Quest Chicken  
This is also a big leap towards the release, so I am happy to update the DevLog Icon to 80%. Stay tuned  

Here are the direct download links:

English: www.captainsoft.de/demo_en/tad.zip
German: www.captainsoft.de/demo_de/tad.zip

Enjoy,
Mathias

[captain]

I have a question regarding IndieDB, I assume some of you are registered there?

I posted News about the Demo Version:
http://www.indiedb.com/games/the-terminal-angel-disease/news/official-demo-version-3-available-now

They archived it, what means it won't show prominently on their Homepage. I replied to their mail, asking what the problem with the news is, but I got no answer.

Can anybody of you tell me what could be wrong with the news - in fact, the archived the last 3 news for my game, I never got an explanation from them. 

[captain]

Oh dear, the last post was really a long time ago... but I'm still actively working on the game... in the end you're working on fine tuning and bugs and that can hardly be shown on new screenshots every week.

I'm targeting the release to take place in the midth/end of May (this year)... I want to finish it finally before going totally crazy   (and have also tons of ideas for a sequel)  

btw... i'm currently checking distribution options via Steam, GOG, etc...
And as a proof, a picture from the OUTRO:
What happend? Why are Owsed and Nowsed still hungry at the endof the game? Find out soon!  

[captain]

Yeaah Fighting.  
Today I'd like to present the combat system. Maybe in previous screenshots, you noticed the pink steam clouds. These indicate that there is trouble around. Once the party gets near them, the combat screens appears. Each of the four party members can attack the monsters, causing an "out of puff" state. The duration depends on the fitness and the type of attack. There are special attacks, for instance the Detective can try to "arrest", causing the monster to disappear immediately. You can always use items out of your "power-belt", like sweets, bombs, or magic. Tipp: if the monsters are "attacked", they can not fight back for a short time.

Tja, some people think there is too much fighting in the game, but after all, it's a hack'n'slay



Enjoy!
Mathias

[captain]

"Looks like something out of a drug trip and 5 hours in RPG maker." 

Yes... I put my game into the wild of Steam Greenlight, and that was one of the comments. I guess it is not my target audience... they're all currently into playing GTA for 98 hours a week, hahaha.

Anyway... I enjoyed working on it, I enjoy playing it. For fans for Ultima 7, Wizardry 7, and the Spiderweb/Exile indie RPGs it should be fun as well. 

Now as it is almost finished, I can return to normal life, and maybe the gym, hah.

Here is the Steam Greenlight Page 



 

Enjoy it and never give up my fellow Indie Devs out there!
Peace, out.

[Schrompf]

Love this stuff. Keep going!

[captain]

Thanks, thanks again, Schrompf, I read your threads about Splatter... jajaja indie game is a hard job... i funkin' love it 

[captain]

Hello again!

Here we go... the game is finished and released! and free as in love !



Download here:
English Version
German Version

Tipp: you can skip the Intro by pressing "ESC". 

Enjoy it as much as I enjoy making it! 
Mathias

[DangerMomentum]

I'm really not sure what to think of this. You've clearly put a lot of time and work into it, but there are puzzling choices about the design and appearance that make it off-putting. You should look to other games that have successfully pulled off the hand-drawn style for inspiration- particularly Guild of Dungeoneering. Your sprites all have blurry lines and harsh, ugly edges. There is no consistency between the environment and the characters- even making the backgrounds grayscale, or giving them a pencil filter in Photoshop, would make them fit better. The user interface has the game name and the company name onscreen the entire time, and all of the fonts appear to be Times New Roman.

You also don't seem to care about your audience at all, which is really important if you want to build a fanbase. In the opening post you say:

Today, games tend to be short and accessible, and my game is nothing like that Wink Fights are frequent and hard - most people complain about that. But the story, characters, puzzles and ideas are still really fine I think.

Who are you catering to if you yourself say your game is long, inaccessible, grindy, and hard enough to warrant complaints from the people who have played it? Then, about a Steam Greenlight comment, you wrote:

Yes... I put my game into the wild of Steam Greenlight, and that was one of the comments. I guess it is not my target audience... they're all currently into playing GTA for 98 hours a week, hahaha.

Tons of quirky, niche games thrive on Steam Greenlight. Don't write off feedback just because you don't like to hear it. You could gain some valuable advice from potential fans.

I played the first few minutes, and I intend to play more and report back. I'm already fairly puzzled, though. Your intro doesn't do anything to introduce the four characters- what is King Ole Ozelot a king of? Why is he friends with a blob and a detective? Why is health measured in Fun Points? Why do I have stats labeled "Bump Roll" and "Beating"? Being original and quirky can be a good thing, but too much can alienate your audience. You might actually have a fun game here with some polish and revisions, but I haven't made it far enough to be sure. I plan on playing farther, taking some screens, and posting more feedback here. I hope you find this helpful- I don't want to be rude, and I wish you the best on this. I just think you need some real constructive criticism to get this into shape.