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[ScaryPotato]

I've been working on different aspects of this for a little while, and it's finally to the point where I think I had better start showing some stuff. It's a top-down casual game where the goal is to collect as many different types of creatures as possible from Europa's great ocean.

Here are a few features:

-Randomly generated level/creatures/obstacles/powerups
-Hundreds of creatures to discover
-Three ships to choose from, each with different strengths and weaknesses
-Difficulty settings

I'm not intending this game to be a groundbreaking experience so much as something you can spend a few minutes with and see what you can find

Here are a few development sketches of the creatures. I've still got to figure out the types of fish to include, and am planning on having an adult and adolescent form of each creature, along with several colour variations to keep things interesting.









I am planning to keep this game fairly small, and then doing an illustrated book with all the different creatures (vital stats, biological info and colourful drawings). Hope you guys like what I've got so far!

[ScaryPotato]

Here is a direct link to a playable demo. The name is going to change to something more Adventure Apes related, but for now, it's called Astrocrabs-King's Feast. The format is for Android devices right now, but you can play it on your keyboard to try it out.
The controls are:

-Enter to get through the first couple screens and into the playable portion
-Arrow keys to move around and collect the large and small critters
-Escape to restart

[Kyle O]

   I am absolutely in love with those creature concept sketches!

[ScaryPotato]

Hey aldo, thanks! I'm having lots of fun coming up with them. I am trying to find a balance between things that seem alien, but at the same time similar enough to things in the ocean that we relate to them visually.

Anyhow, here is the last batch of critters: FISH!



Doing a quick count of everything, I get a total of a little over 40. I hoping that with the different colour varieties and maturity phases that I can get at least 150-200 total for the game

[ScaryPotato]

Been plugging slowly but steadily away on this project, and am trying to settle on a visual style. I always lean towards cartoony stuff, so naturally that's where this one is headed 

Here's an image of some characters I'll use in different situations (tallying scores or choosing ships etc), as well as the ships that the player can choose from. They originally were a lot more angular, but I chunkified them quite a bit, and am pretty happy with the result!

[ScaryPotato]

Here's a mockup for a menu screen I've been working on for a little while. The assets are about 90% there, but the next big step will to make it function in-game! I'm planning on making some characters locked until certain achievements are met, but the first two characters will be available with their selection of ships. I'm thinking the unlockable characters will only have one ship each, but that might change the further I get into it.

Feedback and critiques are always welcomed

[ScaryPotato]

So I've been thinking about what would make an effective start screen, and it occurred to me that showing a landing on Europa would help get the idea across about what the game is about. This isn't animated yet, but it kind of looked like a movie poster to me, which I found sort of neat. Hope to get some animation done on it tomorrow!

[ScaryPotato]

Click the pick have to see the video clip!:)

Here's a quick look at how the start/menu screen is shaping up. It's simple, but should get the idea of the game across when it's finished.The starfield is generated randomly, as are the thruster bursts on the ship. Probably stuff that would never get noticed, but it's fun adding a little variety when you can

[ScaryPotato]

Have been spending some time making the menus function how I want, and have gotten the startscreen to about 95%, and the character selection screen to about 60%. With the selection screen, I'm planning on having the player select a character, and once a character is selected, the various options for ships will be made available. Once a ship is selected, the player goes into the game

Also, I took a break from coding to make a little lineup of the characters in the game:

[ScaryPotato]

Here are a few ships that I finished off recently between my struggles with coding (scaled up 300%):



Continuing to chip away, but progress is slow at the moment 

[ScaryPotato]

Managed to get the menu fully operational (though I do see one tweak with prematurely displaying ship stats that will change). I ended up trying about 5 different methods before settling on a way to do it, and thankfully, it was far more basic than all the other methods!

Menu and some gameplay video here!

[Rolento]

This looks great! Really love the ship designs.

[Jonsm]

Really cool! I like the chunky style. One thing I'm not sure about, though, is the reflections on the ship windows. They look good at the large scale, but I think they might be too detailed at regular size, and it also might look weird when the ship rotates and the reflection stays the same.

I know this isn't a pixel art forum, but I thought I'd see what the ship looks like without the reflections:

Not sure which I like better, but maybe something like this?

Can't wait to see more!

[ScaryPotato]

Rolento - Thank you!

Jonsm - It may not be a pixel art forum, but any constructive critique is always welcomed! That's a good call on the reflections. At a small scale, it does end up looking kind of cluttered, and your simplified version would help show contrast much better. Thanks for the great suggestion!

[ScaryPotato]

Made a selection of achievement medals for reaching various milestones etc: