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[Arkenova]

Introduction
Hello all, this is Arkenova, or you may call me as Ark-E, the lead of Project DragonBlossom speaking. Of course, I'm relevantly new to the site since a fellow developer, Strife, which is known for Freedom Planet, has pointed me out to hopefully get some aid to this indie title I've been on since late 2012.


_{*Logo not final}

What Is DragonBlossom?
A 16-bit action adventure platformer with RPG elements based off of elements from the Donkey Kong Country, Sonic, Klonoa and Okami, alongside many others. Choose between Adventure or Classic as Ayasuka and her friends are sent into an journey that rooted from the distant past on mains to stop an evil force from taking complete control of the Kingdoms.

Peek of the Main Story!
Long ago, after many struggles, the Four Celestial Sovereigns alongside with an unlikely Hero that took to the ranks of protecting a Princess, seals away the force as it was the cause of the among the spiritual imbalance of the land. It had caused many wars with the recent being the Dragon Wars that had brought much damage to the four Kingdoms; with rebuilding in progress and peace being restored, he made a one final vow before the Sovereigns scattered: it was a vow to pass his strength down to his future descendant in case the evil returned, leaving his sword in the ground where the seal was.

Time passes on and since the seal was weakening, there have been incidents of attacks that rose in the years, eventually bringing to the full release to terrorize the Kingdoms, bent on revenge and with the insight to cause the fulfillment of a dark prophecy.  At the wake of the crisis, three individuals from different Kingdoms, all from different lines of life are brought together through the strings of Fate as they must fight back to save their World and solve the mystery of the intentions of evil at hand.

What Has Been Accomplished:
- Rearranging of Characters
- Revamp and Overhaul of Storyline
- Spriting Has Improved! (though I will still need aid, especially with stages and such)
- Stages Has Been Planned (Mostly with the first 2 leads)
- Gameplay Mechanics Are Mostly Done (WIP)
- Some Music Has Been Composed (I have a composer on board.)
- Additional Help has been added (Mainly for the artside.)

What Needs to Be Done:
- Extra Team Members are required/contacted
- Programming (of cutscenes/stages and whatnot); Level Designers and such will be required for Use for Unity.
- First Goal to Get A Stable Demo Done Before Kickstarter Campaign

Currently Looking For:
Pixel Artists (mainly), Level Designers, Programmers (Must Have Experience with Unity)

Rules:
- You must have experience and if you are a bit lackluster onto making platformer style of pixelwork, you will be required to adapt to the style that I am going to lay out.
- You must get along with everyone. No drama please.
- You must show dedication. That means NO slacking off, I know I am usually flexible but slacking is a big NO-NO.
- You must be ready to go because once you're in the team, I will be laying out tasks for you to do. The deadline is variable as of current but once we get a demo/Kickstarter out, then we can discuss on what date we can aim for.
- You must have a way of contact, most preferred is Skype.
- Revenue share. Once a Kickstarter is done, that will come in as payment.

Team:
What I Do: Lead, HUD, Storyboard, Writing, Concept Art and some Character Pixel Art (stills/minor animation)


1 - Programmer (Unity)
2 - Composers (1 is busy with school; need another musician under request of backup musician)
1 - Pixel Artist (Available; need Tileset Artist)
2 - Additional Help (Artist)

Artwork Style:
Colorful and somewhat cartoony; somewhat Sonic-esque

Spritework Samples:
http://media.indiedb.com/cache/images/members/3/2967/2966593/thumb_620x2000/newtrio.png
http://media.indiedb.com/cache/images/members/3/2967/2966593/thumb_620x2000/db4.png
http://media.indiedb.com/cache/images/members/3/2967/2966593/thumb_620x2000/wipcheckpoint.png

Music Samples So Far (WIP):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ajz5odvxy4f4scp/Tsuki%20Forest%20%28Semi-Finale%20Edition%29.mp3
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g2k8ir1sjik01ty/Prism%20Valley%201%20%28WIP%29.mp3
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vru5o7r49i37eg0/prism%20valley%20wip2.mp3

Contact:
Via PM, via Skype at omegaearthzx or via e-mail at [email protected]
Further Details will be discussed in private. Please send your submissions there!

[Arkenova]

Meet the Mains!

Ayasuka
Spunky, tomboyish and adventurous, Ayasuka is the town rascal that enjoys causing trouble, from whenever she feels like it; she only does it to have some fun and often times she hangs out with the only friend that she has known to be her mentor when it came to thievery. She lives in a house on the mountainside outside Kazujin's capital city, Fujitobe.


Mao
Fierce, serious and down-to-earth, Mao is one of many sisters in the Zheng family, who owns a restaurant in Houng-Tu; as a child, she was trained and raised by temple monks who, on her departure, gifted her with a sword and mystical cards.

Seichi
Calm, soft-spoken and pure, Seichi is a youth that has resided in the lakeside of the Kingdom of Tsumizu-Le. He is very respectful to his mentor who has trained him in self-defense especially with the lingering threats that has been an issue; on the other side, he gets a bit homesick every now and then.

[Arkenova]

First World HUB Concept (Early)


Description:
I've worked on this sometime ago. I know, I'm not exactly the best at spriting stages like this but it's something.

News:
Expect an update to the DragonBlossom Logo sometime soon and many other things. Stick around!

[Arkenova]

Team Update:
We managed to pick up 3 new spriters and 2 of them are at work with the playable characters, waiting for a response for the third one; I have yet to reply to another musician via e-mail.

Game Update:
As for the Stages, I am working on tiles for the first stage and once it's done, I'll show it in another update. The next thing we need to do is gather level designers and programmers to implement this into an engine (which is already taken care of.)

We're making decent progress so far.

[Arkenova]

Update:

- It's a WIP but expect some changes around the HUB/Stage? (I think.) I'm working on the HUD for the format of it.

Update #2:


- Fixed the HUD and Ayasuka sprite and background has been updated. Still WIP.

Music:
http://www.musicraft.ca/music/080922A.mp3
- From our composer, here's a sample of a spooky unknown tune in the format of 16-bit style (the music format we are aiming for.) Who knows if it'll comeback? Ooooh~

[Arkenova]

Team Update: We're getting an engine together and I have been trying to contact the tile artist but no response. I will try again and as for character sprites, expect delays. I know that things have been slow but that doesn't mean we're not progressing.

Also, we have gotten a newcomer Musician on the team (something of a volunteer effort since he was willing). The tile artist on the other hand is still working on the tiles and progress may be a bit slow ..and my tablet won't work, so future character sprites will be worked by mouse.

Layout So Far:


Character Update - Several Newcomers!


Clay Zheng [ http://chibi-nuffie.deviantart.com/art/Clay-Zheng-119439784 ]

One of Mao's many sisters that runs the restaurant business in Houng-Tu. Unlike Mao, she is more upbeat and cheerful of the sisters. She will serve as a shop NPC.



- Unknown - [ http://i58.tinypic.com/2dboygh.jpg ]

The enigmatic character. He serves for one purpose and that is to track down whoever is responsible for causing the crisis in the first place. Many say that he bears a strong aria of darkness and is a curse among the lands.

Gimmick Update


Hear me out: the green, gold and cyan shards are unobtainable for inventory and serves as temporarily basis for life/energy replenishment. They are meant to be not abused because it will recover less each and every time; careful planning is key because if you take it for more than granted, the crystal will eventually shatter and disappear for good.

However, the other four are elemental shields and are obtainable for inventory for later use. Now, there's four elements: water, fire, wind and earth, however these can only provide the similar benefits as mentioned in the recent topic but are not able to be combined and are considered useful by everyone.

Wind: Increases Speed (increases speed on user depending on the level), grants user relevant elemental ability; will be able to boost dash into the air and can blow off enemies in different directions.

Earth: Increases Defense (lowers attack from enemies depending on the level), grants user relevant elemental ability; will be able to smash through blocked-off areas by boulders and ram through enemies without much problem. (ala Dash Attack from the Wario Land series)

Fire: Increases Offense (increase attack from user depending on the level), grants user relevant elemental ability; will be able to speed up on the ground, resistant against lava

Water: No additional effect; grants user relevant elemental ability; will be able to breathe underwater for extended period.

You can stack these to layer the effects of each shield to another level; max is around Level 3, however after one - two hits, it will break the shield.

[Arkenova]

Hey guys. Sorry it's been long but new information is out, including to the fact that 2/3 of the revamped storylines are complete as well as revamps of the crystals and new mugshots.






Team Update: As for the engine, we have it available but we need help with character sprites, that and we need a new musician since our current musician has school going on, which has slowed progress next to the fact that our tileset artist is in school, so yeah.

As a treat, have some artwork.

http://th02.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2014/261/8/b/dragon_blossom_trio_by_toto088-d7zoquv.png
http://th00.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2014/210/e/b/comission_3_by_lachicadelhacha-d7svivs.jpg

Keep your head up!  


*not final

[Arkenova]

Team Update: We have an new Sprite Artist/Artist to help out with characters as for our musician, a stage song is on the way.

Gameplay Style Update:

- Ayasuka = Platforming (leaning towards DKC/Klonoa Standards)
- Seichi = Speed Oriented/ Possible Stealth
- Mao = Combat-Based
- All will have exploration!

[Arkenova]

Team Update: We have a programmer on board, though we need a backup tile artist since our current one is busy.

Oh and have some more~


Seichi's got a nice revamp and expect some more from him soon enough.


Ayasuka's got a lively little jog to her, but there's going to be more to that soon.


Stage Title Rough Draft Version.

*Remember, these are not final.

[Arkenova]

Team Update: The engine we are going to use is Unity and as of currently, we're searching out for another Musician familiar with the 16-bit style (probably late into PS1 standards) and a Tileset Artist (since our current one is in school). We had picked up a Programmer and even though we are still far from completion, we are making lovely progress~


Have a jumpy Ayasuka. X'D (It's an unfinished version)

[Arkenova]

Very Early Gameplay video and Announcements

Some new animation


Modifications

Ayasuka isn't as jumpy as she was in the original version.


Her running's improved.

[Arkenova]

2015. A big year is ahead and only so much to do!

We have lots to work with and these sprite improvements are only the beginning.


In addition, we also have some more help on terms of additional help with stages/environments and hopefully progress will speed up in due time.

Oh and another thing, IndieDB, if you want to visit it, http://www.indiedb.com/members/arkenova < There you go and as always, stay tuned.

[Arkenova]

Heya guys! We've been busy but I'm going to drop to you a new tileset we have.


This tileset is made by someone that's volunteering for the time and he's known as Plom, who also runs the game, Bingo the Multiva. He's been a real help to us and cheers to him.


Me, experimenting with the tileset. As you may note it's not all that done, however atleast you get to see the title of the stage, AER RUINS, for the first time.

Oh and have some updated and new animations~

[Arkenova]

Sometimes, you just have to push it yourself to make an improvement.

Case and Point:


Yep, I'm breaking out my inner pixel artist and redoing the tiles my way, so expect a direction in the environment. Have fun there.

Oh and we have some music tunes!