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[AwkwardKnightGames]

Caelis

Hey, I'm Matt from Awkward Knight Games and I'm an aspiring indie game developer working on my first major release, Caelis.

Development

Caelis has been in development since December of 2014. It is being developed by myself in Java with NO framework. All of the pixel art are original assets created in Photoshop.

Background

Caelis takes place in a medieval/fantasy type setting. It follows a custom made character who is an ambitious little boy who dreams of finding the last dragon left in his world. In order to speak to and control the dragons, one must possess a higher understanding of magic. Finn journeys in order to learn many of the unknown secrets of magic in the world. He not only learns about the magic of Caelis, but he learns more about the world around him and even himself as he transitions into an adult. On his quest, he experiences several life-changing events and meets people that will change him in ways that he never thought possible.

Features

Smooth Day-Night Cycle - time smoothly changes in Caelis and so do the NPC actions. The NPCs go to work in the mornings and when night falls, they return home. The sky colors gradually transition throughout the day and stars smoothly appear in the nightime.




Advanced Dialogue System - the dialogue system in Caelis reads the branches from a .txt file allowing the player to choose what they want to say and alter the course of the conversation. Based on what the player chooses, the character that they are talking to will have a different response as well as have their attitude towards the player change.



Dynamic Explosions w/ Lighting - when an explosive crate is broken, it triggers an explosion. This explosion made with particles causes the screen to shake and lights the surrounding area.




Many, Many, Mob Types! - there are many different animals and enemies that populate Caelis. My favorite so far is the bunny. When the player is far away from the bunny, it looks very cute and cuddly. But as soon as the player gets too close, some bunnies will turn evil and attack!




Contact

I post updates on Youtube: TheAwkwardKnight
I am the most active on my Twitter including small updates: @awkwardknight
Website (With a more detailed dev blog): awkwardknight.com
Like us on Facebook: Awkward Knight



Follow for more updates!
-Matt

[Quicksand-T]

I wish I had been doing stuff this cool when I was 15. Your title reminds me of the Lemony Snicket books.

When can we play a preview of this?

Also is your character one of the king's subjects, or from rebel territory?

A hostile NPC finds the player and when the player is in attack range, it hits it. When the player dies, the screen converts every pixel to grayscale and time slows down to 50% of the normal rate. There is also a death animation that I think looks decent.

You could make the music get a low-pass filter on it at the same time too (that's what I have in my game).

[Vesper]

Hey this looks good! I'm excited to see how it will turn out and to play it!

[SomberPixel]

You have great ideas! Make this happen. By the way , the day-night cycle could be less agressive but it is great at this early stage of your game though.

[sidbarnhoorn]

Looks cool! :D

[AwkwardKnightGames]

You have great ideas! Make this happen. By the way , the day-night cycle could be less agressive but it is great at this early stage of your game though.

I changed the the way the sky color changes by having the RGB components individually ease to the new color. Do you think it looks better?

[SomberPixel]

You have great ideas! Make this happen. By the way , the day-night cycle could be less agressive but it is great at this early stage of your game though.

I changed the the way the sky color changes by having the RGB components individually ease to the new color. Do you think it looks better?

Much better, It looks awesome now. A smooth transition is always better!

[FK in the Coffee]

Incredible work so far from someone so young!  Is this your first game?

[Gamedragon]

Great to see work from a developer my age! The game looks pretty, bloody good and that new day-night cycle looks really cool. May I ask, however, how does the ranged combat work? Do you aim with the mouse or just hold a key and it shoots in a straight line?

[AwkwardKnightGames]

Incredible work so far from someone so young!  Is this your first game?

Thanks! This is the first game of mine that I'm taking seriously. I hope the effort shows.

Great to see work from a developer my age! The game looks pretty, bloody good and that new day-night cycle looks really cool. May I ask, however, how does the ranged combat work? Do you aim with the mouse or just hold a key and it shoots in a straight line?

Thanks a lot! Haha. Finally another young dev  You aim with the mouse and the arrow is affected by air resistance and gravity.

[level20wizard]

Looks awesome! I really like how the world and AI behaviour is dynamic and responds to the time of day. Also 15 working on my first game, except it's not ready for a Dev Log yet (making one soon!). Definitely will be following this log. Bring on the new wave on indie devs!

Anyway, the art style is great, but I think you should make the lines on the mountains smaller or remove them. Animations remind me of Fez.

[Gamedragon]

Great to see work from a developer my age! The game looks pretty, bloody good and that new day-night cycle looks really cool. May I ask, however, how does the ranged combat work? Do you aim with the mouse or just hold a key and it shoots in a straight line?

Thanks a lot! Haha. Finally another young dev  You aim with the mouse and the arrow is affected by air resistance and gravity.

You're welcome! I'd just like to say that although you're the same age as me you must be a much better programmer and artist. On that note could you tell me where you learned how to do pixel art like that?

[AwkwardKnightGames]

You're welcome! I'd just like to say that although you're the same age as me you must be a much better programmer and artist. On that note could you tell me where you learned how to do pixel art like that?

The art in this game is sort of like the result of all of the other short games I've created.  My pixel art has progressively gotten better over time and I'm sure I'll continue to learn.

On another note, I am thinking of implementing a crafting system using the items in your inventory. It wouldn't be the Minecraft-style of crafting. I'm thinking of creating more of a Skyrim system where your skills and items affect the type of things you can create. Does anyone have any input on this?

[AwkwardKnightGames]

I made great progress with the dialogue system.

It reads from a .txt file and constructs dialogue branches accordingly. It used to be a very-time consuming process, but now I'm able to crank out great conversations pretty quickly! 

Below is a conversation with Blaine North, Rosemill's butcher who is also desperate for a relationship.

The player is given multiple dialogue choices and the response of the NPC varies depending on what choices are made.

Tell me your thoughts! Also, I'm thinking of releasing a playable build soon, so comment below if you are interested!
Matt

[LuluLu]

This looks really good! Definitely will be following! I wish I could do things like this when I was your age!

[SolarLune]

Hey, this is pretty cool. Nice work, especially if you're only 15 - I couldn't stick with it nearly as long as you have when I was your age, haha.

I think having the text appear letter-by-letter is good, and I think you would do well to put a little white background behind "Space" so that it's easier to see. Anyway, keep it up! The game's looking good.

[Mig (@wtfmig)]

Cool stuff guy! If you need any chickens...

[AwkwardKnightGames]

Update

I added pathfinding. Using the A* Pathfinding Algorithm.

I also added waterfall that uses animation and a particle system to create a splash effect.

[LuluLu]

I really like the waterfall. It looks simple but visually appealing!

I think that the size of the splash could be made a little bit smaller, but it still looks great.

Keep it up!

[Vesper]

I am really loving the art style of this game. It's turning out well