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[Omega]

It's my pleasure--I'm glad to have helped. ^_^

As to the music, indeed--I'd already heard the piece via Twitter, and I do think that it's rather good! ^_^

As to collision detection, are you using a third-party collision system (or one built into a game engine), or your own? If the latter, I'm inclined to suggest the former: unless you have a specific desire to create your own collision engine, using a third-party engine seems likely to provide good results with far less pain and in far less time.

Whatever your next step is, I hope that it goes in whatever manner is best! Good luck! ^_^

Thank for you for the advice. Collision is something I have no desire to be an expert in, so I likely will go with a third party option.

[Omega]

Sorry all for the complete lack of updates! I'm currently working on moving halfway across the country. I should be back in action soon!

[Thaumaturge]

Well, good luck with the move! I hope that it goes well, and that you're happy at your destination. ^_^

[Omega]

Update 4.25.17 - Porting

Hello!

It's been a long month or so of dealing with moving and examining all the feedback from the demo. I'm proud to share the first status update since getting my home base back together. After the demo, I really examined the way that I'd built the game. I was happy that I coded it myself, but I also realized that I didn't want to be a professional engine support specialist post go-live (especially considering that the collective team has one programmer... me). Today, I'm happy to announce that I've been porting the game over to Game Maker Studio. So far, it's going perfectly. I don't have much work left until I have the functionality moved over.

Below, you can see a screenshot of the Game Maker version of the game. I'm taking advantage of a really nice lighting engine and a CRT shader to give it the look I want. I figure if I'm making a love letter to the Legend of Zelda and Gauntlet, I might as well go all in and get the exact feel I want. All in all, I feel moving to GMS was smartest decision I've made for the project. It's taking away all of the mundane boilerplate coding, which is forcing me to think about and focus on gameplay mechanics instead.

Finally, I can also share that I've signed a contract with Pixel Noise, and they will be exclusively providing audio for the game. They've been on the forums here longer than I have, but please check them out on Twitter! https://twitter.com/pixelnoisemusic I feel that many indie games really underestimate the impact of audio in their games and I don't want this game to fall into that category. They are a wonderful partner and I can wait to put their music in this game.

The train is back on the tracks. Time to buckle up kids, where we're going, we won't need cheat codes.

[Thaumaturge]

Ah, I'm glad to read that progress on the game has resumed--and congratulations on contracting with Pixel Noise! I've heard some rather good music from them in the past, I believe, and their style seems likely to match your game rather well. ^_^

I'm a big fan of the maxim "make games, not engines" (with caveats, at least), so I'm encouraged to read that you've moved over to working within a third-party engine. Hopefully this will continue to allow you to focus more on the game and less on other technical matters. ^_^

[Omega]

Ah, I'm glad to read that progress on the game has resumed--and congratulations on contracting with Pixel Noise! I've heard some rather good music from them in the past, I believe, and their style seems likely to match your game rather well. ^_^

I'm a big fan of the maxim "make games, not engines" (with caveats, at least), so I'm encouraged to read that you've moved over to working within a third-party engine. Hopefully this will continue to allow you to focus more on the game and less on other technical matters. ^_^

Thank you for the kind words. Pixel Noise is a dream to work with.

[Omega]

Update 5/7/2017 - Porting (Still lol)

This past week I've spent time moving the dungeon from the demo on over to the new Game Maker project. I'm not done yet, but things are moving right along. Compared to the first dungeon from the original tech. demo, I'd say this design is much more mature. Instead of utilizing a single map as the dungeon map, I've moved to a room-by-room approach, and I find it allows me to bring about a certain focus to the design of each area. My goal is for the player to feel that there is one thing to think about an accomplish in the moment. As a bonus this week, I'm going to share concept art along with the finished screenshot for an area, and a bunch of material from the revamped demo dungeon. Enjoy!

Undercroft Entrance Concept

Undercroft Entrance Final Product

Undercroft Screenshots

[Pixel Noise]

Pixel Noise is a dream to work with.

Best testimonial ever. 

We wrote a "Dungeon Theme" for the demo, and here is the link to that very same song on our Soundcloud, for any who might be interested.

https://soundcloud.com/pixel-noise/dungeon-theme-1v15

Psyched to be on the project - stick around everyone, there is some cool stuff ahead 

[Thaumaturge]

It looks good thus far to me, Omega! ^_^

[mike.cullingham]

That lighting looks great.  I'm always on the lookout for more classic Gauntlet inspired games.  Best of luck with it!

[Omega]

It looks good thus far to me, Omega! ^_^

Thanks as always, it's a blast to work on!

That lighting looks great.  I'm always on the lookout for more classic Gauntlet inspired games.  Best of luck with it!

I appreciate that!, I hope to have another demo out soon!

[Omega]

Update 5/10/2017 - West Wing Rooms Complete

Before the update, I have a question for the broader audience. If you've been following this and you're enjoying it, would you also enjoy seeing me livestream some of the art and development work? I would likely only livestream a few times a month. If you're interested, feel free to reply here or send me a PM!

Update Notes: With this update, the rooms within the west wing of the Undercroft are completed. I'm sure there will be minor tweeks as I continue to develop additional art and functionality, but it feels good to put an end to that part of the dungeon. I've still got coding to do throughout the dungeon such as re-implementing combat, pushable blocks for puzzles, and projectiles but at least room design and layout is finished. Formalities out of the way, here are a few new screenshots!

Design Notes: The Undercroft will be the first dungeon in the game, and the overall theme will be notably about darkness and a feeling of being in the dark with monsters. Other dungeons will have different levels of lighting.

[Thaumaturge]

Looking at the screenshots, I wonder whether it might not be a good idea to add a dark outline to the protagonist--it's present in some other elements, and thus aesthetically consistent, and should help to separate the character from the backdrop.

Otherwise, well done on completing that section of the level! ^_^

[Omega]

Looking at the screenshots, I wonder whether it might not be a good idea to add a dark outline to the protagonist--it's present in some other elements, and thus aesthetically consistent, and should help to separate the character from the backdrop.

Otherwise, well done on completing that section of the level! ^_^

It's funny you should say that, after I saw the contrast against a few of today's rooms, I thought the same thing! I'm thinking that'll be in the next update.

[Thaumaturge]

Excellent, then. ^_^

[Omega]

Happy Friday, a little micro-update for the crowd! I've sketch and colored a rough draft of the title screen. Needs a ton of work and I'd likely redo this as pixel art, but it's a start!

[mike.cullingham]

I think that title will look great as pixel art.

[Thaumaturge]

That looks like a good start, I think. ^_^

[Omega]

Microupdate 5/14/2017 - Attack Animations

This weekend I've taken a break from my work on porting over the Undercroft from the demo to GMS to work on a huge item on my TODO. For those who have been following my thread, I was previously toiling over attack animations. I didn't want to go simplistic like some games. I wanted to show a full broad stroke when a weapon was being used. I'm happy to say that I have a nice WIP version of that. I believe this version will make it to the final game, perhaps with a few minor tweaks.

I've put the animation in game and it blends very nicely with the rest of the art. Running at full FPS, the animation is buttery smooth. Once I can spend time with LICEcap and figure out an easy way to do fullscreen captures, I'll show this off in game.

[Thaumaturge]

Your animation has a fair bit of lead-in (relative to its overall duration)--will attacks then also have a bit of delay before they take effect, or does this not reflect the underlying logic?