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[ompuco]

Roy is a co-op platformer exploration puzzle game following two characters Roy and Francis.

Help currently wanted! [profit share]:

• XNA/C# Programmer
• Animator

_{please feel free to contact me anywhere if you are interested}

At the moment, I'm still quite early into this project, but I've been working on designing the gameplay and the world for several months now and it's starting to shape up into something.

I'm still currently looking for a programmer (preferably one with experience with XNA and Mono), but I've been working on quite a bit of artwork and getting a pretty good feel for animation, as well as been writing down world design concepts on paper.

While I can't say too much on all the mechanics just yet, I have made an example of one of the mechanics I've already figured out which uses player cooperation. Here's a quick mockup of one of the simpler mechanics:



I'm hoping to explore a lot of game design concepts of mine with this project.

Until I find a programmer who's able to help, I'll be posting some mockups and animations.
I'll be sure keep this thread updated with any progress, and will be reorganizing this post to include more information when I get a little further into this project

[TomaLexi]

Hey, just wanted to throw you a message that I noticed your updates via tumblr (Please continue posting there since I dont check this forum). Pretty cute style. Keep going at it man, good luck with it

[ompuco]

Hey, just wanted to throw you a message that I noticed your updates via tumblr (Please continue posting there since I dont check this forum). Pretty cute style. Keep going at it man, good luck with it

Thanks! I'll always be posting stuff on Tumblr, so don't worry about that. I believe I've read a post you about this project on NeoGAF that I found while googling stuff, which was pretty cool to read!


I thought I might as well share these in this thread until I can make new content since I'm pretty busy until the weekend and I have a lot planned out to work on for this project once I'm free (currently a LOT of nature scenery artwork).

[Venomjack]

This is looking pretty great so far. Keep up the excellent work you've been doing for this.

[ompuco]

@Venomjack Thanks, man! I really appreciate the support.

@Alexanderpine Thanks for the compliment! I've heard of that game but hadn't looked into it until now, and I'll probably check it out soon. That's cool if you can help, but don't sweat it if you don't think you'd be able to right now. I'm looking for someone awfully experienced since I'm coming up with a couple of complicated technical mechanics for how the game would work well without feeling messy or lacking or something.






I've been working on gameplay design concepts outside of puzzle/platforming mechanics and rather on how the game will work with two players while keeping the players feeling free without overcomplicating things or constantly confining them to one single screen area at all times. I hope to be able to test out those designs to see what works well once I find a programmer.

I've also been coming up with a lot of level/world design concepts that I'll probably be able to test in some mockups. They aren't all so much new areas I hadn't thought of before, but rather concepts on how to design the layouts of specific environments and scenery near the ground while maintaining a really free feel that could easily be taken away by the concept of the ground. (I'm not sure if that made sense how I wrote it, but I'm awfully tired right now).

I'll try to make some more artwork and mockups during the next week and post it every now and then since I'll be on spring break.

While I'm still looking for a programmer, I may consider getting a little assistance with animations. I'm pretty capable at making some fluid-looking stuff for some reason, but I might need some help getting started with general character poses for animations. It's not really too important and I can probably get all the animations done well on my own, but I may consider some help so I actually know what I'm doing rather than doing trial and error for hours on end like I have in the past until I get something that only might be okay.

Here's an old WIP walk animation I improvised a while ago:
I may refer back to this if I make new animations soon, but the new animations will be mainly completely fresh and new, though I'll probably start some of the frames with stuff from the turntable animations since that really helps out a lot.

[Steven87]

Thumbs up for the character design 

[geepit]

Good to see you made a devlog for this! Love the characters, will definitely be following this

[SolarLune]

Yeah, "co-op explorative platformer" sounds like a good idea. Continue development!

[ompuco]

Thanks for all the positive comments, you guys!

I'm starting to write out a detailed list of different type of mechanics (puzzle specific and normal gameplay) as well as some checklists of stuff to make. I still need to find a programmer so I can start testing this stuff out, though. I thought of making a 'PROFIT SHARE' marked thread for this specifically in the Unpaid Work thread, but I'll wait a bit longer before (maybe a day or so) getting that thread ready. Until then, I'm still looking for someone available and capable.

I'm also looking at some designs for stuff I've made in the past to see about implementing their concepts in the environment (specifically some cloud art I made like this and this which were based around an old abandoned design from Phil Fish (though I'm going to add a little something more to these) and a few other old things I've made as well). I'm also looking forward to making some new tiles for a mountain environment next, and maybe see about fixing up the grass to be a little bit more interesting. I'll try to put together some new art around Tuesday or Wednesday, cause I have a lot of ideas right now I want to get moving on.


In the meantime, here's an unfinished doodle I was making of the characters.

It is very unfinished. Very very unfinished.

[ompuco]

I haven't been able to work on too much artwork in the past few weeks, but I have been doing a lot of planning and organizing.

I tried to make some sort of demo to test out sprites and animations and tiles using Game Maker, but I couldn't get my computer to run the projects and eventually gave up since it was getting ridiculously problematic. I'm still in great need of a skilled programmer. If anyone is interested or might know someone who is interested, please let me know, because I want to get started on this as soon as possible.

I've also tried working on a mockup a few weeks ago but stopped pretty early after realizing I'm going to need to work on a lot more different types of tiles. At the moment, I was pretty stumped on what to do, but I've figured out what kind of things to start working on tiles for. This still provides a good illustration of the scaling and the size of the display area for the screen.

I also still need to work on backgrounds, because there's a lot of planned details like parallax forest and such, and not too many areas with open skies on the ground. I may consider having another artist help me with some stuff, but I'm going to continue attempting to figure out designs and such for the moment.
Also, I've started some in-depth lists for what tiles and animations I need to start work on. It's pretty ridiculously comprehensive and dynamic (much more so than a lot of other games), but it should be worth it. I still might need some help with animation, but I'll pump out what I can for now.

Here's a mockup of the main menu. I took a somewhat minimal approach.

I'll add/revise some stuff to this screen later, since obviously there's a lot I can do to make this look more interesting and appealing, but I have this for now.


I have also been planning more on areas and locations. I don't want to say too much since I'm still planning these areas in depth and want to keep a lot of stuff secret, but I've gotten areas that take place in trees and caves and mountain tops already conceptualized and have started working on designing them. The map is pretty open, and a lot of the parts seamlessly connect to each other, so it might get a bit complicated putting everything together, but I'm honestly excited for that challenge.