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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsAnd So It Was (Demo, Greenlight)
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Author Topic: And So It Was (Demo, Greenlight)  (Read 4214 times)
yanneyanen
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« on: July 27, 2015, 08:02:23 AM »


Hi guys, if you feel like you're having a deja vu, I posted this project in Townhall before. Most of this first post was covered in that thread as well.

Since the game has been in development for quite a while (and I didn't really know what I was doing when I started), I recently made a

that shows how the game has changed over the years, from the first, awful prototypes to the awesomeness that it is now. I found that pretty fun, so I thought I would continue here with updates about the project. I also couldn't decide if it's 70% or 80% complete, so I went with 70 to be on the safe side.

Premise:
You are the Boy. You wake up in a prison cell. As you get your bearings, you are suddenly released. Where are you? Who are you?  Explore dungeons, woods, mines and more to figure out (or indeed remember) the truth. The answers are out there, though they might not be what you expect.

Trailer:



The main features of the game include:
  • Mouse-driven gameplay inspired by old-school RPGs and RTSs.
  • Randomly generated levels, each with more to explore than the previous one.
  • You get one life to tackle the challenge (a.k.a. permanent death)
  • Familiar combat with a twist: the more damage you take, the less damage you can inflict.
  • Alter the way you play: Make deals so magic orbs give you stamina instead, inflict and take double damage, or pay the price of magic with your stamina…
  • Piece together the lore throughout the game. You might not get all of it on the first run, but you’ll want to play again to get the whole story.
  • Voice-acted narration that doesn’t interrupt gameplay.
  • Good old secret areas that are… well, secret.
After 4 years of work by a one-man team (that's me  Coffee), the development of And So It Was is nearing completion.
The game is currently on Indiegogo, asking for help to cover the final few months of development. The final game will release on Windows in 2015. Mac and Linux versions are also in the works.
The game is also on Steam Greenlight.

There is also a public alpha demo available: http://yanneyanen.itch.io/asiwdemo

Screenshots:











Additional links:
Official website - http://www.asiwgame.com
Presskit - http://www.volumeupstudios.com/press_asiw.html
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/volumeupstudios
Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/yanneyanen | http://www.twitter.com/volumeupstudios
« Last Edit: September 25, 2015, 09:34:16 PM by yanneyanen » Logged

yanneyanen
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« Reply #1 on: August 06, 2015, 02:15:48 AM »

Hi there!

Apart from trying my best to market the Indiegogo campaign (which only has a week left, so any help would be very much appreciated!), I've mostly been working on bosses and the final boss in particular, which I obviously don't want to spoil.

I have worked on a couple of other things though, one of them being a new enemy type: the mole. They essentially work like turrets, but the moles themselves can't be attacked, so you need to block the holes they attack from instead.


I also worked on the dodge roll animation a little bit. I made the roll start a little earlier and made the jump a bit higher and longer. It feels a bit more responsive now. The Boy now also gains a moment of invincibility while rolling, which should make combat feel more fair and fun.
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BlackseaOdyssey
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« Reply #2 on: August 06, 2015, 05:19:11 AM »

This game looks awesome! Evil  Beer!

Great work, the production quality is fantastic and holy shit, props for doing it all by yourself!!!  Shocked Smiley Tongue
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yanneyanen
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« Reply #3 on: August 09, 2015, 12:45:47 AM »

Thank you! I'm glad you like it Smiley

Here are a couple of new power-ups I added recently. The first one gives temporary invincibility, much like the star in Mario, and the second one gives the player full stamina and magic for a short time.





Also, snow moles.

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Music Vortex
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« Reply #4 on: August 09, 2015, 09:31:52 AM »

Downloading the demo right now Wink
Looks great so far! Congrats!
Did you also do the music for the game?

Cheers!
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yanneyanen
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« Reply #5 on: August 10, 2015, 12:41:20 AM »

Cool, thanks! No, music and sound effects are by Trevor Gast (http://tagsounds.com/)!
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BlackseaOdyssey
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« Reply #6 on: August 10, 2015, 04:10:29 AM »

I noticed in the gifs it seems that you primarily use the mouse. Any plans for WASD? Seems like that might be a good alternative control scheme. Smiley
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koutetsusteel
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« Reply #7 on: August 10, 2015, 12:17:30 PM »

Tossed up a gameplay video on Youtube and mentioned for people to check you out on IndieGogo and Steam Greenlight!

It's an interesting game with some interest concepts.  It's also pretty difficult for me haha.  I'm slowly learning things though... like correctly dodging. >_>

Here's the link if you want to check it out:



Definitely interested to see the final project. Smiley

Also, who is doing the narration, you?
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yanneyanen
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« Reply #8 on: August 11, 2015, 02:47:52 AM »

BlackseaOdyssey: I have thought about WASD, but I set out to make a mouse-driven game so it has not been a priority. Also, the mouse movement/clicking is intregrated into so many mechanics at this point that it might be pretty hard/time consuming to add keyboard movement. If I did it, I'd want to do it right and make it feel as good as the mouse movement ...so I probably won't (^_^,)

koutetsusteel: Cool, thank you! I actually subscribed to you, you've got some nice videos Smiley

Concerning a couple of things in the video:

- Currently Ghosts do contact damage, but I've gotten feedback it's kind of hard and unexpected, so I've changed them so they only damage you when they charge. They still go through walls though.

- There are very few spells that work on bosses, since they only have a brief moment when they are actually vulnerable. I might change this though, or at least make the Rune of Reflection spell protect the player from boss damage, even if it can't reflect it back to the boss itself. Ancient Armor also protects from boss damage.


- I've heard the Dark Souls comparison a few times now, and the game being hard. I'm still balancing things out, but I'm pretty sure I will tone down the difficulty of the first level just a little bit in the final version. Not too much though, since people seem to like the challenge Smiley

Also, since the final narration isn't done, I haven't announced the narrator yet (not that he is really a big name or anything), but he is a friend of Trevor's (the guy who makes music/sounds for the game).
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yanneyanen
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« Reply #9 on: August 13, 2015, 09:18:18 AM »

Our Indiegogo campaign has less than 24 hours left! Help us out? Smiley

With that out of the way, I've been working on some lasers today. They will be part of a boss battle, but I will probably modify them a bit to use them as traps or enemies in other parts of the game as well.

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AvaX
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« Reply #10 on: August 13, 2015, 10:00:52 AM »

looks realy nice Hand Thumbs Up Left
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if there is no plan...it can't go wrong
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« Reply #11 on: August 13, 2015, 11:27:46 AM »

This looks nice. Not sure why it isn't funded that much, but that might have something to do with indiegogo? I threw an upvote at your greenlight page Smiley
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yanneyanen
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« Reply #12 on: August 15, 2015, 07:40:47 AM »

AvaX: Thank you!

TammiDev: Thanks! I think having it on Indiegogo instead of Kickstarter has certainly at least a little bit to do with it, since many Kickstarter campaigns get a lot of their backers from people just browsing the site, and as I understand it, that doesn't happen as much on Indiegogo. Also the fact that it's summer and that there were a couple of fairly big gaming related events during the campaign probably didn't help.
I'm still happy that people who have noticed the game seem to like it. Just gotta finish this thing Smiley
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BlackseaOdyssey
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« Reply #13 on: August 17, 2015, 05:08:58 AM »

Makes sense regarding WASD  Smiley and lasers look so sick! Seems like there's a lot you can do with them and that they'll add a lot to gameplay.  Wink
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yanneyanen
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« Reply #14 on: August 24, 2015, 10:28:49 AM »

Thanks Smiley Certainly. I hope I'll have the time to use the lasers in more than just the one boss. Would be a shame to only have them in one part of the game.

I've been working on some more spells recently. I might polish the visual effects later, but I think they convey what the're supposed to do well enough for now.


This one damages enemies based on the player's missing stamina and steals half of that for the player.


A fairly standard damage over time spell. Currently does 3 damage over 8 seconds.


This one sacrifices half of the player's current stamina for an equal amount of magic.

I've also worked on a bunch of passive effects, like chance to evade, chance to regenerate stamina/ magic and a few other things.
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Highsight
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« Reply #15 on: August 24, 2015, 10:46:00 AM »

Really glad to hear about the ghost change!  It seems my feedback was taken to heart. Smiley

As for the spell conveyance, I would say all of those spell effects do a great job of conveying overall what they do, but not necessarily exactly what they do.  The poison one works perfectly, but the life steal one is only half conveyed.  By looking at that, I can clearly tell that I stole some of my enemy's life, but I have no idea how much was taken or why.  You should also consider standardizing those "+" and "-" effects, they are really nice and can totally help convey things.

I would say the hardest one to understand in this case is the "Stamina to Magic" spell, as it covers up both bars until the effect is done.  The good news is, you've already got a solution in place that would be easy to implement!  By using the + and - symbols, you can easily explain what is happening here.  In this case, once the spell is cast, you could have it come up with a blue "+2" and a green "-2" to convey a gain of 2 mana (color coded as blue) and a loss of 2 stamina (color coded as green).  Since enemies only have health (that I've seen so far) enemy health should stay color coded red, as it will be easy to distinguish as a "good" loss!

Just my two cents, thoughts?
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yanneyanen
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« Reply #16 on: August 25, 2015, 10:54:37 AM »

Highsight: Thanks for the feedback (both then and now)! The ghosts sure seem more fair and fun now.

When you get the spells, a text shows up that tells you what they do, but I think you're still right that it should be more clearly conveyed in game. I have been thinking about the "+2", "-2" etc. I initially thought I wouldn't want to do that, since I didn't want to make the game look too action rpg like with damage numbers flying all over the place.

I have been implementing a few spells/effects that have text popping up though (like in the gif below), so I think I will add the numbers to the spells that "need" them, because it's pretty much the same thing as the text anyway, and it will make them easier to undestand Smiley

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flashysquirrel
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« Reply #17 on: August 25, 2015, 11:57:59 AM »

I'm really amazed that you did all that by yourself, i really love your artwork and the animations look smooth, i will stay tuned !
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yanneyanen
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« Reply #18 on: August 26, 2015, 10:08:28 AM »

flashysquirrel: Thank you! Smiley

The damage/heal numbers for certain spells are now in! Still nothing too flashy, but they make the spells just a bit more clear. I'm still not quite sure how long the numbers should be displayed. Currently they fade out fairly quickly.



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Highsight
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« Reply #19 on: August 26, 2015, 10:10:02 AM »

Looks really good, I like it!  I would keep the numbers around a bit longer personally, but at this point it's really all to-taste.  Great work!
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