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[shinn497]

 Facebook | Twitter|#ArakaRises
 I also post about it on my twitter
Hi!

Araka is a game concept I've been working on for over a year. For a long time, I focused on design and story but have now shifted towards development. I'm inspired by games that are all about adventure and exploration, in particular Zelda and Oni.  Right now my resources are limited so I'm focusing on nailing the core gameplay. My goal is to produce a vertical slice that can be extrapolated to multiple levels spanning a complete storyline.

The titular Araka is a future vision of modern day city (I'll keep it a secret as to which one, but you are free to guess). It is the seat of world affairs and, for a very specific reason, is very influential.  However, to its denizens, it is far from perfect. Due to recent events, it is overpopulated, underpoliced, and heavily stratified. In a sense, it is both the best and worst of the world it inhabits. For this reason, it pushes the characters of Araka to the limit while testing their beliefs and virtues.

For now, I'll only reveal two characters:

The Main character and only playable character Dawn:

Her earliest memory is of killing her twin sister. Now a fugitive, she is trying to understand her past and what could bring her to do such a thing.





REDACTED (I'm not letting you know about me just yet - N) -

A mysterious man who seems to know Dawn and who's intentions are shrowded in mystery.



Sprites:



Gameplay will be 2d action but will also incorporate levels that feature exploration. I really really am inspired by zelda-type dungeons and want to push that game mechanic as far as I can take it. There will also be a story aspect but I'm thinking of ways to make it non-intrusive and voluntary. I really love game stories that are told with their sprites over cutscenes (a la FF6).

There might be some surprises too!

Right now I have an incredible sprite animator working with me. So more of what I post will be her work and hopefully in game gifs. We'll be working on Dawn's mechanics first then enemies, and other relevant NPCs.


Credits:

Creator/Director/Producer: Elliott Miller
Sprites:  Debbie Ekberg

 

[shinn497]

Small sprite tease. There could be more soon or I might post a gif of the protobuild....still deciding.

[EdFarage]

your lines and concepts are solid, keep it up

[Christian]

Cool. I like the concept and look of the art. Looking forward to see more.

So it's an action game? Adventure? Cinematic platformer? Brawler?

[shinn497]

Action adventure. I'm working on a protobuild that is more descriptive of the gameplay but I'm waiting on my spriter to finish more work.

I'd rather show than tell at this moment.

[shinn497]

Debating on whether I should post this but this is the third iteration of the rough for our light punch.

I'm also making posts on the fb about the game's development, so check there as well.

[wccrawford]

Looks interesting so far. 

Please keep us updated here, too.  Facebook always feels so intrusive when there are companies' posts in with my friends' posts, so I don't follow things there, generally.

[shinn497]

Mini Update.
 
Our Animator, Debbie Ekberg, has been hard at work on some of the animations and I really like what she has come up with.

I've been sitting on this one for a while but I really want to post it. Enjoy for now! And Check out more of her work.



I want some feedback. I'm not quite ready to publish gameplay details but is there anything else people are interested in? I.e. Posts about the technical process, game producing, or game assets? Right now we're using hand drawn sprites and the SDL API.

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

The character , the animation stance , the concept are sick.  Your animator is really talented.

But there is no game screenshot (at least a mock up or a level design or anything that shows how you're working on the engine).  For the moment this looks like your team is only composed of 1 idea guy and 1 artist.

This looks promising but you're teasing way too much and it might ends up disappointing.

Maybe you should have waited until there is more content before making a devlog.

[shinn497]

Time for an update:

As is the case for custom engines, things can take time. But we have been demoing some super early builds and getting good responses. Things such as designing an A.I., working out fighting game style mechanics, and nailing the level design are proving to be the most major challenges.

Right now we are on our 3rd prototype level, however I'm going to take a step away from game prototyping to code up a level editor since I want to rapidly iterate more level designs. I'm in between using QT creator vs staying pure SDL.

The first is a demo of how our fighting system is starting. There are more attacks planned but keeping just these two crisp is and intuitive is non-trivial. The later ones (which are animated but not coded) will be added after an engine update.

It should be noted that the enemy sprite is a place holder and dawn's animations are roughs only. It was important to get the animations in as early as possible so the gameplay can be tweaked before they are finalized.





Dawn's animations are now in phase I and have been roughed out. Our animator is going to be cleaning up from here. The last animation to have been worked on was her combat shuffle. Currently, the player has to manually switch between combat modes and normal mode, but I've been toying with the idea of a lockon system or having the game do everything automatically.

[shinn497]

Time for an art update.

We finalized Dawn's color pallete. It will be a while until these are in game but it is important to know this as it determines the colour of the level. It is important to make sure that the value, hue, and saturation of the characters contrasts with the backgrounds. Especially in an oblique orthographic perspective.


Initially I asked Debbie for a Color Test based on this link , and she tried some variations. She actually made the colors slightly more vibrate, which I think was smart.


I asked for a hybrid between 3 and 4 and a removal of the shading layer and was pretty happy with the results.



The shading layer could possibly return as a normal map but it is time consuming step on top of an already time consuming animation process.

[shinn497]

Some updated gifs on the fight system. Notice the blocks and throws. I'm still tweaking things to make it more intuitive. In particular, I need a reason to land her second punch.  This mostly goes into twiddling with the enemy A.I.





Production is going to ramp up soon so hopefully Dawn will be fully colored and we will have more levels by year's end!

[Jasmine]

I have to chime in. Kudos to your animator.

My main concern is the story-line (if there is one). Not sure if you'd be willing to leak it, though.

[shinn497]

It is always tough to figure out a story when the gameplay is still unfinished. That is one of the reasons some parts are vague. Trust me there is one and it will be revealed in time.

In fact. I'd rather send much more time developing a story but a story alone does not a good game make.

[tankorsmash]

Looking forward to seeing some new progress dude!