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[MrAmlice]

Unworthy
A combat-focused DS inspired Metroidvania. Without jumping.
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I was inspired to do this game by an LDJAM entry done by a good friend and mentor of mine. He had made a small infinite enemy game where the only things you could do were dodge and attack. I was very intrigued by the idea and what lacking the ability to jump would mean for a Metroidvania. I definitely realized early on that taking away jumping would mean that combat would be a lot more up close and person (HOORAY!) but I was obviously concerned about vertical traversal of levels and the implications this would have on level design.

The artistic direction was also chosen to be very minimalist in terms of palette. I wanted to give myself half a year to finish this project and I've learned from past projects I've worked on that picking colors for pixelart takes an incredible amount of time. I did tell myself that I would not be compromising on quality of animations since I told myself those would be necessary to make the combat believable.

Here's some early combat footage:


Inspiration
I've always been a huge fan of Metroidvanias and more recently a huge fan of the Dark Souls franchise (Bloodborne too). So it only made sense that I make a DS inspired Metroidvania. I've also always been a fan of the darker more Gothic stories so I definitely though this aesthetic would work well. I also tweeted the death animation I put together pretty early and it had pretty positive responses so I just decided to go with it.

here's the death animation:


More Artsy Information
So originally I decided to go strictly with a grayscale color palette since I knew I could put animations together quickly and still get a pretty pleasing aesthetic. I eventually started experimenting with adding a splash of red for blood, this idea was inspired by the artistic direction in the Sin City films. I was very pleased with the results actually so I decided to stick with it. Eventually I also decided to use hard white to represent fire. Was also happy with this.

Here's what the splash of blood looks like:


Sticking with a single tone grayscale color palette also allows me to animate large sprites a lot quicker, this allows me to put more emphasis on the animations themselves rather than the color palette.

This is a sample of a very large sprite (main-menu):


More about art (Oct 15 2016) - so I recently decided to break a hard locked pixel color count rules I put on myself. I guess I broke it with the fog particles before... but that didn't count... it just didn't... anyways...

I decided to break this rule so I could introduce light shafts into the aesthetics of it. Using simple alpha-blended gradient rectangles basically did the trick.




The Technical Stuff and Game Design
So I'm using GameMaker engine to build this. I've used Unity and what not as well, but I find that when you're working solo, GameMaker is super fast and super friendly. The game is basically aims to be a love letter to Metroidvanias in terms of exploration, backtracking, and just giving that sense of rich lore and discovery. Where it differs from classic Metroidvanias is that it is a lot more combat intensive with enemy encounters.

Here's a more combat heavy fight (with some weapon swapping):


I mentioned that the only means of vertical traversal of levels would be via elevators and ladder systems. So far I've been able to create a reasonably large and complex map just using these elements. I definitely feel it still hold to true to the exploration / discovery elements of the Metroidvania spirit.

Here's gif of some ladder systems in action and the world map:


A key mechanic that I really wanted to add to the game is the influence of real world local time. Something about the idea of players experiencing slightly different things or discovering different secrets in the game depending on the time of day that they choose to open the game is kind of exciting to me. The first feature I added that was dependent on this was the day/night cycle in the game. I found this helped with immersion into the game and helped it feel a little bit more alive, also I was just kind of excited when the game was dark when it was dark outside (I have no idea why).

Here's the first boss fight with an accelerated day/night cycle (the hit collider was too large in this build):


The DevLog
So I've never made a DevLog before and I've only made a few very simple games as I was trying to learn everything I could about programming and pixelart over the past 2 years. This is one of the bigger game projects I've made so I thought it was time to document my steps somewhere. I've been working on the game for about 2 months now and I'm hoping to get it done in another 3. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[Pixel Noise]

Really like the look of it so far! Animations look very nice, and I really like the greyscale.

Along with ladders and elevators for movement, I wonder if there are any other methods you could tap: teleporters, zip-lines (maybe out of place), etc.

Also checked out your twitter - it looks like you've got another Metroidvania in the works too? Runic? Is there any carry-over in terms of assets, mechanics from that, or is Unworthy a completely re-designed game? Just curious - both are looking great!

[MrAmlice]

Thanks! I'm definitely considering other means of transportation. Teleportation is definitely being planned (gonna be a little bit darker of an aesthetic... but that's how it's going to work). This will just be used for traversing the world between different save points.

Regarding Runic, I actually finished a close demo (some people have played) and although a lot were happy... I kind of wasn't. I put Runic on hold because I was discouraged with some of the coding. I'm pretty much planning on overhauling the entire Runic engine once Unworthy is done.

[Pixel Noise]

Very cool - also wanted to mention that the death animation is very slick, and I really like the intro screen where the crow (raven? I'm bad with birds) flies into the camera. Great details. Very consistent in terms of building the aesthetic and atmosphere.

[Ludipe]

Love the concept so far, plus the animations and game feel look great on those gifs. It looks super advanced and polished for a two-months-long project, congrats! :-)

[MrAmlice]

Thanks for the kind words! I always feel like I'm moving way too slow

[bdsowers]

The animations look great. As everyone has said, because it's true.

I worry about readability in some cases though. ie: with your giant, it was hard to tell when he was about to do his "uppercut swing." And in the scene where he has the hammer, some of the enemies really fell into the background. 

[bacon]

Really dig the look of this!

Have you seen the work Carl Burton did for Serial? "Depth shading" seems to be an emerging aesthetic:



Then of course Inside recently:



Stoked to see more!

[MrAmlice]

Really dig the look of this!

Have you seen the work Carl Burton did for Serial? "Depth shading" seems to be an emerging aesthetic:



Then of course Inside recently:



Stoked to see more!

Hey thanks! I know of inside, did not know about "Serial" though, that looks awesome. Yeah "Depth Shading" seems to be a working and popular aesthetic. I mostly chose it because it's super efficient in terms of designing and animating though .

[MrAmlice]

The animations look great. As everyone has said, because it's true.

I worry about readability in some cases though. ie: with your giant, it was hard to tell when he was about to do his "uppercut swing." And in the scene where he has the hammer, some of the enemies really fell into the background. 

Thanks about the kind words for animations!

The gif for that boss is a bit outdated I think haha. I've had to change him and nerf him a lot after I had some friends test it... the telegraph window was far too short as you've pointed out, but also his downtime between attacks was far too short. That being said, I do want to make this a difficult but fair game (in the spirit of DS).

In terms of enemies getting lost in the background, I think it's harder to notice on the gifs, I never had any problem noticing in game nor have any of the people that have tested it thus far. That being said! I'm striving to get a demo done for the next DevLog update so I can get more people testing it and hopefully get some useful feedback.

[Apalka]

I mentioned this multiple times over the past few weeks - I love it. The art direction, animations and combat. Can't wait for the demo release!

[3dgeminis]

Just to see the first image caught me, Metroid+Darksouls+platforms, I can't wait to play it.
I loved the menu with the Crow flying towards the screen(I think I saw something like that in a movie)
2 things, the animation of the death I seemed a bit simple to be something important in the game, and on time management, it may be set up at the beginning of the game?

[Fenrir]

Nice to see you here! Good luck with your project, can't wait to see more of it!

[verticalvertex]

You struck gold. Everything looks great.

[MrAmlice]

Just to see the first image caught me, Metroid+Darksouls+platforms, I can't wait to play it.
I loved the menu with the Crow flying towards the screen(I think I saw something like that in a movie)
2 things, the animation of the death I seemed a bit simple to be something important in the game, and on time management, it may be set up at the beginning of the game?

Hey thanks for the kind words! Means a lot!

In terms of death animation. It's something I've been playing with, but I'm not sure if it's simplicity that you think is the problem or the length of it? Personally I very much dislike games where the death animation is super fancy but takes too long. I dislike it even more in Souls games because... well... we all know we're gonna be dying a lot... so I don't want to spend the better portion of my gameplay experience staring at one thing.

The time setting is based on your system clock settings.

Nice to see you here! Good luck with your project, can't wait to see more of it!

Thanks! I think Wanderer looks great btw!

P.S. I'm super noob at this forum stuff... so I kinda double posted earlier (was told that's bad) I deleted and grouped in this post. Sorry bout that.

[3dgeminis]

In terms of death animation. It's something I've been playing with, but I'm not sure if it's simplicity that you think is the problem or the length of it? Personally I very much dislike games where the death animation is super fancy but takes too long. I dislike it even more in Souls games because... well... we all know we're gonna be dying a lot... so I don't want to spend the better portion of my gameplay experience staring at one thing.

You are right, If going to die many times would be annoying. But rather was referring to the simplicity, which instead of just cut it, would that cut off the head, with a little bit of blood here and there.

[MrAmlice]

So one of my bigger concerns after having a few friends test the early prototypes with the game was teaching how the game works. Although the rolling / dodging and attacking is pretty straightforward, there are a few elements that aren't so obvious I guess. For example, based on the weapon you're using you have a "special ability" associated with that weapon. Some abilities are auto-triggered (i.e. sword and shield auto blocks periodically) others are activated (i.e. when you charge your hammer attack it will release a shockwave if the cooldown is ready). The special ability cooldown is indicated by the icon in the top left corner.

I played around with two tutorial / teaching styles. One interrupts gameflow but can't be missed, the other is less intrusive but not as much info can be fit on screen.

Here are gifs showing the two alternatives, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Less intrusive tutorial method.


More intrusive tutorial method.

[3dgeminis]

Visually I like more the first, does not interrupt the game and stick more with the environment.
The problem with this, is the time in that it shows, not enough time to read while these struggling and trying to survive; would that be in a place without enemies and that one can practice the moves (and the mensjae followed the camera and which does not remain fixed on the stage).
The second would be good put it in the menu, if one wants to go back to see it again.

[MrAmlice]

Recently been tampering with the Hammer secondary weapon and it's specific special ability. The hammer releases a piercing wave attack when the cooldown is ready. It also seems to be pretty useful for destroying random blocker objects.

[Apalka]

I personally like the "more intrusive" version better. You get the information you need in an easy-to-read form. The first sample might be "lost" or omitted during the battle.