next »

[Chris MacAdam]

I finally decided to start up a devlog here about my game now that I have been working on it for a while with my brother.
Feedback on everything is appreciated!

What is the game?
Right now the game is planned to be a short but atmospheric creepy sort of 'zelda-like' adventure.

You are followed by a ghost throughout the game and there have been some recent disappearances from your town.
Throughout the game you will find out about both things. I would like to try and tell a story with game events and subtle objects and dialog in the game instead of cut scenes.

The items in the game now are standard sword,bow type of stuff. I would like to have more unique type items though!

The game doesn't have a name right now but if you have and ideas i'm all ears!

All stuff right now is WIP and might change in the future, but we are pretty happy with how it is looking.
We are also using construct 2 to make this game.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

small test build.
Play in your browser!
Updated June 16th

googledrive.com/host/0BzdJNgSdcIgWa19CMU9QcV9QZFk/index.html


Okay some stuff that might not be apparent;
-you should be able to use xbox xontroller (joysticks and triggers)(might have to hit a button so game recognizes it)
-keyboard keys are Z, X, and C. C strafes.
-After you pick up the sword or bow, hit start/enter to open your inventory and then hit a button to assign it to.(z,x,LT,RT)
-If you get the key use any attack button to open a door with it when next to it (Z,X,LT,RT)
-If you die you have to restart.
-The end of the area is just a dead end with a bunch of enemies. no real ending here sorry.


I know there are bugs still and if you see anything point it out please. The main feedback I am looking for though I guess is the fighting, how the sword and bow feel. If you think the enemies are too hard/boring or whatever. general aesthetics.

-The game was made with controller in mind really but both should comfortably work and I test with both.
-I also normally wear headphones when testing the game so the audio is meant to be heard like that. It works without them but need to do alot of tweaking so both sound good. (it might also be my speakers)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------






Our test area.


Mausoleum in the graveyard.


Mutant crawler in the town.

[Chris MacAdam]

Crossposting from the Gif thread.


Showing some basic combat and lighting. The game isn't as choppy as the gif.

Soon hopefully I will have some more to show you guys. I've been thinking about enemies I can try to add or some items.
Either way I have fun working on it, and I try to for at least a hour or so everyday.

[Pixel Noise]

I definitely like what you're doing with the art! Although I think the MC sprite needs touching up, it looks kind of chunky right now.

As far as a name goes - do you have any of the "lore" for the game worked out yet? Places, names, objects, etc - sometimes you can draw a name from that sort of stuff?

Looking forward to more!

[deab]

Love the dark look.

[Fenrir]

Yep I love the visual style too! Keep it up, it has lots of potential!

[TopherPirkl]

I'm really liking what I'm seeing here! Definitely going to keep an eye on this one!

[RujiK]

I like the bloody guy.

Will there be towns full of NPC's or is this more dark soul-ish with only a few friendly people sprinkled about? I'm looking forward to more screenshots and environments.

[Chris MacAdam]

The Npcs are still getting worked out, but the idea is there will be one small town, and just a few npcs.
Right now the town is also the only place you can save the game and heal also, and then you must venture out into the woods to complete the rest of it, or come back to save and heal.

I have been working on a small 'combat test' I think I am going to upload soon and get some feedback on.

Thanks for all the kind words guys! I should have some new stuff to show you real soon.

edit: Here is a small test area I threw together if anyone would want to try it. It should run over your browser, no download!
Hopefully google drive will hold it for me. :p
googledrive.com/host/0BzdJNgSdcIgWa19CMU9QcV9QZFk/index.html


Okay some stuff that might not be apparent;
-you should be able to use xbox xontroller (joysticks and triggers)(might have to hit a button so game recognizes it)
-keyboard keys are Z, X, and C. C strafes.
-After you pick up the sword or bow, hit start/enter to open your inventory and then hit a button to assign it to.(z,x,LT,RT)
-If you get the key use any attack button to open a door with it when next to it (Z,X,LT,RT)
-If you die you have to restart.
-The end of the area is just a dead end with a bunch of enemies. no real ending here sorry.


I know there are bugs still and if you see anything point it out please. The main feedback I am looking for though I guess is the fighting, how the sword and bow feel. If you think the enemies are too hard/boring or whatever. general aesthetics.

-The game was made with controller in mind really but both should comfortably work and I test with both.
-I also normally wear headphones when testing the game so the audio is meant to be heard like that. It works without them but need to do alot of tweaking so both sound good. (it might also be my speakers)

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

wow this is actually really cool.  A bit of weird playing it on keyboard( wish i had a gamepad).
Good engine here.   Oh , the mage should definitly friendly kill the other monsters.

as a title i suggest : sword & will-o'-the-wisp

[Chris MacAdam]

Thanks for trying it out! The mage/cultist guy can actually hurt and kill the other monsters if he hits them. Though it normally takes a few hits from him to kill something. Funny because he can actually kill himself too if he is by a wall and the explosion hits him enough.. :p

Oh and how did it run for you? Theres a FPS counter by the health. Curious to see if it runs pretty decently on most machines.

[The Great Emoticon]

You had me at "creepy Zelda-like"! This is awesome. I was immediately pulled in when I started playing - it feels very atmospheric and mysterious, and the sound and visual style of the game are very effective in adding to that. Really excited to see where this goes!

[Chris MacAdam]

Cross posting from the gif thread!



Lately I have been working on tweaking the items in the game, and waiting for my brother to do a few more things with the NPCs and triggerzones we started working on. Then hopefully I will have some more to show you guys.

I think today I will be doing graphic work with tiles and drawing out some NPCs.

[Chris MacAdam]

So I have a problem maybe you guys could help me with..
Before the perspective of the game was always at a 3/4 view top down type one. Which looks the best to me personally. But in level design I could only place locked doors and stuff on the top wall because of the perspective. I have been trying out the 'zelda perspective' while indoors, and while it doesnt look as nice to me, I can now place doors on all walls.
I am thinking I would only use the tileset indoors and the outside could still have the other perspective. I think zelda pretty much does this in the older games too?

But does anyone have any other 2-d type perspectives where doors could be placed on all 4 walls without going the zelda route?
Doors have to be pretty visable too so I could show the player if they are locked or so.

Here is an example of the new perspective while indoors.


Example of old.


While I think the older one looks better, It is about the gameplay and not really the looks I guess? 
Let me know if you guys have any ideas.

[PiedPiper]

I too feel that the old style is better but I can't think of the way to solve the door problem. Maybe have some special tiles to help see where the doors are?

Anyway, I liked what I saw in the test game. Will definitely be checking this in the future.

[RujiK]

There are lots of ways to show doors without a zelda perspective. Look what pokemon does, they just throw down a carpet.



And look at dragon warrior monster, they just make a hole in the wall.





Hopefully those sites allow hotlinking.

[blekdar]

I always liked how pokemon did their doors. Very easy to spot out. If I remember correctly instead of carpets didn't caves have a kind of limit emanating from a spot on the wall? Something like that. I much prefer that over Zelda's weird sort of not really top down perspective.

[Chris MacAdam]

Ya pokemon is a good example thanks for pointing that out One problem I might have with that is how would I show that a door on the bottom or side walls would be locked? Because instead of a door sprite, its a 'floor' sprite. I might be able to play around with it and see if I can figure something out.
I like the dragon warrior method, but I feel like that wouldn't exactly work for this game. I see that as a rogue-like or so.

But thanks guys, I will try and update this soon and show what I have been working on.

[Chris MacAdam]

I haven't been able to get a lot of work done on the game, but I have been tweaking the enemies sprites and the way that they act a bit. The cultist now can summon monsters, along with the fireball that it had before.



For now I am going to continue with the zelda perspective. It works for what I need it to do, and I don't think it looks too bad. I am still trying to work on the game even if its just a tiny bit every night doing tiles or tweaking an enemy or so.
I don't imagine this game being very long, but I would like to make it as polished as I can to my abilities! Any input in appreciated guys. Hopefully I have something cool to show soon.

[Igor Sandman]

Hey. I like the atmosphere. Desaturated colours work very well for it. The hearts might be a bit too cartoony as an idea for health meter for the tone of the game though. I don't know. It feels too whimsical in comparison. Maybe it's just me. ^^

[TopherPirkl]

I think sticking with the Zelda perspective is a good idea. No idea why, but that gif really looks good with the forced-perspective wall view on the bottom.