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[jmakegames]

Hey everyone!

So I've recently began work on my next project, A Journey to Tower. A Journey to Tower is an exploration-based game where the player can escape to this unusual world with an underlying story of intercepting a mysterious radio message (I wont divulge any more story to avoid spoilers!). The game will play more passively as to promote player exploration and discovery -- this isn't an action game!

I will update my development here, on my blog, and on my twitter.

The game will be released on Windows.

Here's some early material for you all!


Early mockup -- want to keep pretty identical to this throughout dev.



Basic movement!



Simple NPCs implemented!



Depth is working with the game world objects.


Thanks everyone and I look forward to sharing the finished product with you all!

[blekdar]

Holy crap I like the looks of this. So simple and yet so pretty.

Gonna watch this, always a fan of adventure games!

[jmakegames]

Thanks blekdar!

[Miziziziz]

 I like the style

couple things:
I feel like the barrels should be less obviously pixelated; as they are they don't quite match the style, which is very cuboid and not very pixelated looking.
Also, I noticed in the movement gif that the sprites on the building glitched around their edges a couple times (where you can see yellow around them). I'm guessing you're using Unity (this has happened to me before); a quick google will show you some solutions for this.

[jmakegames]

I like the style

couple things:
I feel like the barrels should be less obviously pixelated; as they are they don't quite match the style, which is very cuboid and not very pixelated looking.
Also, I noticed in the movement gif that the sprites on the building glitched around their edges a couple times (where you can see yellow around them). I'm guessing you're using Unity (this has happened to me before); a quick google will show you some solutions for this.

Thanks for the feedback! I agree with you on the barrels - not sure if I'll keep them yet but if I do I will absolutely change them

The building glitches are a tileset issue that I've got a fix for already. I had no blend outside each tile and as such was resulting in those artifacts due to scaling. It's purely an art issue which I'll implement before I start designing the proper maps/areas (right now I'm just running a test area).

Cheers!

[jmakegames]

I've now added a simple dialogue system in to the game! When you get close enough to an NPC they will stop roaming (to give the player a chance to talk/interact with them). If you press the interact button/key but aren't near something you can interact with, the exclamation mark will pop up over the characters head, otherwise (in the demonstration) it will trigger the dialogue system.

As you can see, walking away from the NPC will also cancel the dialogue. Each character will have story-specific dialogue and the generic NPCs will randomize theres. To scroll though it, the player simply presses the interact key until the dialogue disappears. They can interact again to restart the dialogue!

The NPC will turn to face the player when communicating. It's the little things



Cheers!

[autumnspark]

I loved the way you described the gameplay. Definitely oozes mystery. Side note: would love to see a mod where every character was BMO from Adventure Time in different emotional states.

[DwarvenArtisan]

oh the looks are great looking forward to see how it`s coming together!

[El-Metallico]

Looks and sounds really great! But in my opinion - camera moves a little bit harshly. Btw, do you have musician for this game?

[jmakegames]

Looks and sounds really great! But in my opinion - camera moves a little bit harshly. Btw, do you have musician for this game?

Thanks, yeah I think I may tweak that camera swing a little bit.

I'm doing all the music! That's actually something about my games - I do everything myself! If you were offering though, I appreciate it!

[El-Metallico]

Wow, that's really cool when you can do everything by yourself

[jmakegames]

Have been a little crook this week, so havent been very productive
I've ben doing some interior tileset stuff so will post in the coming days, and also have a name for the game: A Jorney to Tower.

Thanks!

[Miziziziz]

Looking good!

Are the characters little radios ?

[jmakegames]

Looking good!

Are the characters little radios ?

You'll just have to wait and see!




Yes, yes they are.

Well they're based on radios, but they're technically just an unusual race (the world isn't earth!) where the protagonist is able to sense/harness the phenomena of radio waves!

[jmakegames]

I've been sick this week but still managed to make some progress.

Interiors!





There's no subtle transitions yet and it's not entirely to scale, but it should demonstrate what interiors in the game will generally look like!

I also fixed an issue with tileset 'tearing'. I had to offset the tilesets and add 'bleed'/'blend' to the outsides so that scaling would no longer cause the artifacts present in some earlier GIFs.

[jmakegames]

So I've had some really great feedback from the everyone and one thing that numerous people have given me constructive criticism on is the aggressive camera swing/movement. I've come up with an alternative solution - in the GIF below the first run demonstrates the current camera system and the second run demonstrates the new, smoothed system (toggled on). Let me know what you think!

[oahda]

Aww, I like the premise of this, but no Windows. No chances of targeting more systems?

[El-Metallico]

Yeah, the camera is definitely better now, I guess there is no need to change it anymore. And, damn, love this game atmosphere!

[jmakegames]

Aww, I like the premise of this, but no Windows. No chances of targeting more systems?

Potentially, but it's really a licensing cost more than anything (using an engine), and I simply can't afford to purchase them for Mac and Linux right now!

I'll reasses closer to release (and post release) and if there's enough interest, this is definitely subject to change! I'm sticking with PC platforms though, as the game just won't play as nicely on mobile devices. I also want to add controller support!

Also thanks for the feedback on the camera, El-Metallico!

[El-Metallico]

You're welcome!