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[SuperMistLand]

Day 12
A little bit 'o Raid The Core tonight.

• worked on a redo of the tiles
• worked on level design

[SuperMistLand]

Day 13 and 14

Crunched on our new game for the past two days. We released it last night. It's a facebook game called Ravenskye City. Won't pimp it anymore than that.

Updates will resume later today : )

[SuperMistLand]

Day 15

• finished up part IV of Derek's GM tutorials (game states)
• worked on walk cycle for Wanda
• copied over Grandma Engine to my game project line by line to help understand and learn it
• worked on SHMUP tileset and level layout

First baby step on the actual game! Porting grandma engine was a good way to read through it and understand it. Also exposed a few lessons I needed to learn that I missed from just opening up grandma engine.

[Ishi]

Wanda looks pretty cool. I'm hugely in favour of the non-combat angle, hope it works out for you.

Day 9

• worked a bit more on the ice climber sprite

Pondering two core ideas right now, represented here by the scale of the characters. Leaning more towards the right, which I feel is "mine" rather than just a rip of spelunky and archer.



On the other hand, the cuter light-hearted version could be a lot of fun! Hmmmmm... Either way, the idea is to base the game around a grappling hook platforming mechanic.

I like both. The tall one is more unique, style-wise. The short one would be easier to animate though, especially with the grappling hook mechanic. On the tall one I kinda miss the chunky boots from the sketches of her.

[SuperMistLand]

@Ishi I like the big version too! The final version will be similar to that.

Day 16

• put in a basic run cycle.
• Using the same method for the arm being attached to the character and pointing at the mouse as Archer for a hookshot mechanic. only playing around with this for now, as I have other ideas for how I want the game to control
• played around with some of the Grandma Engine settings to get it to my liking
• worked on figuring out resolution and scaling, struggling with this a bit but making progress.

Problem with the arm attatchment... I want it to pivot exactly on the shoulder, but it rotates around a circular area roughly near the shoulder.

Another issue, no idea how to make the player sprite face the mouse at all times. Working on figuring this out, but pretty lost on this point.

[Jared C]

Man, I am loving this conceptart. Can't wait to see where this goes, Mistland!

[-Rob-D.]

Both of the ice climber sprites are fine but I think I like the shorter one better. A mixture of the two or something in-between like happymonster suggested might work pretty good, too.

Really liking the sketch of the anti-hero/rival character for Wanda. Looking forward to seeing more of him/her. (Hard to tell gender from the picture, just like Wanda's sketch, heh.)

[SuperMistLand]

Day 17

• worked on some concept doodles
• worked on a little game maker sketch to try some animation ideas

hankering to work on Wanda full-time.

[SuperMistLand]

Day 18

• some rough ideas for the game environment.

Raw notes:

World: A large castle / frozen mountain environment. Game starts at sea level with a mixture of old castle walls, tundra environment, floating ice bergs. slowly moves "up hill" abd transitions to larger castle structures, perilous mountain environments, and dangerous areas that are mostly ice. For variety, you will find glowy blue ice caverns, castle interiors, and more recently built structures. I have been inspired by the environments of games like Ico and Another World which are extremely cohesive rather than going for lots of aesthetic variety.

Theme: For the environment I want to mix elements of traditional medieval environments (the castle) with inspiration taken from personal experience in northwest US. Places such as Alaska, Rocky Mountains, and Yellowstone National Park. Drawing inspiration from north american wildlife such as Elk and Bison for creature design. I want to address an issue in games where creatures always feel like clear design obstacles to overcome rather than actual living creatures.  My hope is to capture the genuine feeling of surprise and wonder when you see an animal in the wild, and hopefully a sense of danger too. There will be animals that you interact with to help you progress through environments without killing them, but rather just causing a reaction from them.

A single monster in the game that persists through the whole experience. Largely inspired by the Tuunbaq creature from the excellent novel the Terror. Never fully seen and represents the feeling of being lost in a dangerous environment rather than just being a blatant boss monster.

Traversal depends on Wanda's climbing tools - mainly ice picks and a grappling hook. This is my main current goal for prototyping. Want to get some version that working and hopefully find a fun traversal system.

Mixing in modern technology in the environment for areas like save spots, map rooms, and equipment enhancements. The environment is an ancient ruin, and a major expedition happened here a few decades ago from which no one returned. Their outposts still dot the environment and the player slowly retraces their steps throughout the game. (Spoiler: it was probably the monster that killed them all, but really it was due to their own stupidity and stubborness)

Scrambling up the side of icy surfaces and rock walls using the spike boots and ice picks. Smooth, contextual transition between types of traversal that leads to a feeling of engaging flow and mastery. Scramble up wall, jump into open air, use grappling hook to *just* make that jump across to the other pillar.

Death is always handled leniently. If you fall to your death or get killed, you are returned to somewhere that feels like you don't have to redo a section you have already completed or mastered. Perhaps a system with flares that light up and give off smoke to indicate a save/spawn point.

Not depicting violent deaths of characters. I really want to get away from needless portrayal of violence in games. I want the game to still have tension so you care about your decisions, but I don't want to show lots of gory deaths like Limbo. My overall hope with games is deeply inspired by Jenova Chen. I want to contribute themes and feelings in games that aren't often explored, and the main theme of this game is exploring the feeling of memory as time moves on and memories slip away from you. I want to take that idea and interpret it visually in the way the environment evolves and create a bittersweet feeling of life moving forward.

Might play more with the theme of memory and time with some environments that are a bit more surreal. Extremely inspired by this album and how it explores memory:
http://soundcloud.com/alteredzones/sets/the-caretaker-an-empty-bliss

[im9today]

[Ishi]

Day 18

• some rough ideas for the game environment.

Raw notes:

World: A large castle / frozen mountain environment. Game starts at sea level with a mixture of old castle walls, tundra environment, floating ice bergs. slowly moves "up hill" abd transitions to larger castle structures, perilous mountain environments, and dangerous areas that are mostly ice. For variety, you will find glowy blue ice caverns, castle interiors, and more recently built structures. I have been inspired by the environments of games like Ico and Another World which are extremely cohesive rather than going for lots of aesthetic variety.

Theme: For the environment I want to mix elements of traditional medieval environments (the castle) with inspiration taken from personal experience in northwest US. Places such as Alaska, Rocky Mountains, and Yellowstone National Park. Drawing inspiration from north american wildlife such as Elk and Bison for creature design. I want to address an issue in games where creatures always feel like clear design obstacles to overcome rather than actual living creatures.  My hope is to capture the genuine feeling of surprise and wonder when you see an animal in the wild, and hopefully a sense of danger too. There will be animals that you interact with to help you progress through environments without killing them, but rather just causing a reaction from them.

A single monster in the game that persists through the whole experience. Largely inspired by the Tuunbaq creature from the excellent novel the Terror. Never fully seen and represents the feeling of being lost in a dangerous environment rather than just being a blatant boss monster.

Traversal depends on Wanda's climbing tools - mainly ice picks and a grappling hook. This is my main current goal for prototyping. Want to get some version that working and hopefully find a fun traversal system.

Mixing in modern technology in the environment for areas like save spots, map rooms, and equipment enhancements. The environment is an ancient ruin, and a major expedition happened here a few decades ago from which no one returned. Their outposts still dot the environment and the player slowly retraces their steps throughout the game. (Spoiler: it was probably the monster that killed them all, but really it was due to their own stupidity and stubborness)

Scrambling up the side of icy surfaces and rock walls using the spike boots and ice picks. Smooth, contextual transition between types of traversal that leads to a feeling of engaging flow and mastery. Scramble up wall, jump into open air, use grappling hook to *just* make that jump across to the other pillar.

Death is always handled leniently. If you fall to your death or get killed, you are returned to somewhere that feels like you don't have to redo a section you have already completed or mastered. Perhaps a system with flares that light up and give off smoke to indicate a save/spawn point.

Not depicting violent deaths of characters. I really want to get away from needless portrayal of violence in games. I want the game to still have tension so you care about your decisions, but I don't want to show lots of gory deaths like Limbo. My overall hope with games is deeply inspired by Jenova Chen. I want to contribute themes and feelings in games that aren't often explored, and the main theme of this game is exploring the feeling of memory as time moves on and memories slip away from you. I want to take that idea and interpret it visually in the way the environment evolves and create a bittersweet feeling of life moving forward.

Might play more with the theme of memory and time with some environments that are a bit more surreal. Extremely inspired by this album and how it explores memory:
http://soundcloud.com/alteredzones/sets/the-caretaker-an-empty-bliss

That ticks tons of boxes for me!

[SuperMistLand]

Day 19

• worked on prototyping grappling hook mechanic

[SuperMistLand]

Day 20 small day

• fixed the position of the character's arm so it looks correct
• added falling animation

looking forward to this weekend to finally having two full days to work on the game!

[SuperMistLand]

Day 21 / 22

Getting closer to what I want Wanda to look like, sketched various ideas for environments.



Taking a break to play Dark Souls :D

update

[delete me]

Taking a break to play Dark Souls :D

Video games are for nerds.

[Jared C]

Why don't you just do the game with drawn sprites like the ones you've been posting? So far I don't like the pixel stuff nearly as much...

[SuperMistLand]

Jared, you might just be on to something

(that's part of the reason I'm using Unity)

Day 23

• Planned out environment for the small slice. now have clear target for prototype and everything that will need to be done to get there.

[SuperMistLand]

Spent my free time the past two days studying and drawing, not related to Wanda but still need to find time for that stuff too, when I can.

Day 24:

• Getting prepared for TIG Jam 4!
• Some mockup thumbnails.

[SuperMistLand]

Day 25

Headed to TIGJam tomorrow! Today is all wrapping stuff up to get ready.

[SuperMistLand]

There is really no set design for Wanda, but this feels closer to the image in my head:


Still not happy with it though.

In other news, I am starting up this project again. I will avoid holding myself to daily updates for the time being.