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Dear god that was an intense fucking trailer, I think my ears melted.

But yeah, I like the look of this game. The silouhette thing seems cool even if those are just placeholders. The system you have for destruction seems nice what with dividing blocks into 4 smaller blocks but I figure you could add some particle effects on top so it looks a bit less mathematical and a bit more melty and destructive.

So basically I like the direction this is going in. Now give me a second while I run down to get a hose as my headphones seem to have burst into flames after listening to your trailer.

Thanks Keyser, I'm not too sure what I could do to make the terrain seem less mathematical.
I may end up staying with just the pure black silhouette style, it's starting to grow on me.

Drill Pig!
The Drill Pig is a juggernaut who does not let any terrain get in his way.
Creating a hallway of destruction in his path.
(http://i.imgur.com/Fs9axym.gif)
Spent all day working on this guy yesterday, I had the oddest time trying to get him to destroy terrain properly.
I decided to create two objects per Drill Pig, the body and the drill mask.
The drill mask stays out in front of the Drill Pig and does all the collisions for the destruction now.

Currently my problem with this is that each marker is only following 1 Drill Pig.
So I can't currently have more then 1 drill pig, or else the 2nd one has no drill mask.

This is looking to be really awesome. Very original. Keep up the good work.

You could make the pig generate the drill in a script, then use the object id it generates to make the right drill follow it.

Yea I managed to fix it by doing just that mokesmoe.

(http://i.imgur.com/nGCUEnY.gif)
Watch a day in the life of a Drill Pig/Porkgrind. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FDkVA425QU)
(my attempt at zoologist type commentary such as Discovery channel)

Thinking of what to add next now that the Drill Pig is fully functional.

Edit: I decided that the terrain breaking sounds were too annoying.
So I went out and downloaded some better smashing noises, I also have now made it so the volume fades out the further it is away from the player.

I was having a major problem with the terrain the other day..
It started snailing the fps on me, and I had to do something.
So I did two things;

Self sustaining;
Destroy self after 5,8,10 seconds (each brick size)

Corrosive bullets;
What else could help but FASTER destruction, the bullets are now actually corrosive.
As smaller terrain continues to always break.
Your bullets residue will also melt any lower terrain, allowing for maximal destruction.

New video showing new destruction system
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROn4IXDfDz0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROn4IXDfDz0)

&&

NEW DEMO LEVEL (http://punky.ensellitis.com/mygames/demogunn.exe)
Try it and please tell me what you think I have done wrong.  :beg:

Nice! I played the whole level. I didn't know what to do before my first door to open because I didn't know I could use whatever I had. So I was like... HOW DO YOU OPEN THIS?! Then I accidently pressed Space near it and I was like "whoa..." and I was like... "oh those thingies I got!"

Overall I like this game because I haven't seen one like it. The ability to demolish your surroundings to pass obstacles is fun!

The idea of terrain destruction being a main key kind of spawned from Bomberman and Dig-dug oddly.

Yea, I should probably make it more obvious that it is a key, and maybe keep track of the keys in some kind of HUD.

GENERIC (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHdof27bYow)
I've also recently found this game on Pixel Prospector, it's terrain destruction is a bit more dramatic but I liked their approach to the platformer aspect so I'm looking to add this to my game.

---

Falling Brick (Thwomp!)

• Falls when player is underneath it
• Destroys any bricks below it
• Can only be killed when falling
• When killed it leaves behind a solid brick
• A well timed fall brick can become a convenient elevator

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/fallbrictjt.png)

---

Peg Prowler

• These bounding critters sure love to jump
• If they land on the player he is damaged
• You can walk on them (thinking of making a brick hazard that maybe only they can walk across)

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/horse.png)

You have my attention. Definitely gonna keep track of this project.

Cheers Dragonmaw
Always looking for testers  :handjoystick::tired::handanykey:

I have added a few new things.
The gun now overheats (So no more holding down shoot)
When it overheats there is then a timer for it to reset.
You can do burst shots to not overheat the gun as it will cool back down automatically.

Player health is now implemented and I have to say that obviously the game got much harder.

Wall jumping is now easier, you just jump while in a wall slide.
As supposed to pressing the opposite direction.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/foodchaimom.png)
There is an eco-food chain at work here anything at the top of the food chain can eat and destroy anything weaker then it.
Terrain creates worms which allows for this loop each enemy can destroy terrain, each enemy can potentially kill the player.

Worms

• Random spawn when terrain is destroyed
• Eats small terrain 8,16,32 (Not 64)
• Push you around
• Deadly in swarms
• Dies if it hasn't eaten any terrain after a while

Peg Prowler

• Holding down allows for you to control the Prowler
• Wanders off if the player is not riding it
• Steps on worms

Looks good. I was about to complain about the wall jumping when I saw that you already changed it.

It'll be interesting to see how this can be made into a nice game.

In this world of surrealism
Destruction = Creation
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/trees.png)
(Don't mind the 2x tree zoom I have not animated the 10-20 tree types as planned)

The tiny little chunks of terrain have the chance of planting a tree seed.
That seed will spawn a random selection of foliage, allowing you to destroy the lack of atmosphere in this square world.

Certain trees might create power-ups on their branches, I haven't decided yet since I'm not really sure what kind of power-ups the game might actually use.

For giggles I will list some off the top of my head
Speed-Up, Big Jump, Juggernaut, Double shot, Shotgun, Cluster grenades, Gravity swap, Charged shot

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/treess.png)
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/rockseye.png)
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/treeshqh.png)

Edit: The texture doesn't shrink they are just supposed to be smaller rocks.

I think that shrinking the texture on the smaller blocks looks odd.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/rockz.png)
I'm more un-satisfied with the way the smallest rocks look, when they fall as a group.
They can either be circles, or bricks.

I'm rather happy with the general tiling of the cluster.
It's not like I can wrap 1 texture across separate objects and really I wouldn't want to.
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/rockztkt.png)
Dither solid block

1 pixel dither transparent block?
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/rockzzgz.png)

or a different dither pattern
(so far I'm more set towards this pattern)
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/rockzwmw.png)

I like the last one too.
For the other blocks, the way the smaller ones light up looks weird too, and changing that might help. Also, you could make new more destroyed looking texture (cracks and stuff), but that would take more work. (Depending on if you make one for each size of just a couple different ones.)

Love the dither!  This game is reminding me a little of Forbidden Forest, mood-wise.

Yea the reason the smaller rocks get brighter is because I was trying make it appear as though light was hitting the outside rock texture, but I guess that effect doesn't pull it off.

Thanks Scut, I checked out Forbidden Forest after you said that.
The only game I could find was an old Commodore 64 game with an archer, but it had black trees so I assumed that was the game you mentioned.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/bossteaser.png)
Tried working on some kind of boss thing, it's not much of a fight right now.

Also I have begun to implement power-ups!
So far added and working to an extent are...
SpeedUp, Double Shot, Cluster Grenades

I got double shot to act like a jet pack which you can use to gain vertical lift.
I'm trying to think of a good way to handle power-ups, as right now they are just timed events.
(which really doesn't work for Cluster Grenades)

And occur as soon as you grab the power-up, some sort of inventory/slot system would probably really add to the game I think.

Project is not dead*

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/screenshimi.png)
Was experiencing some computer issues, but all is good now.
Attempting to pull together a complimentary color scheme of some kind.

Is the HUD too small? Too see through?
Is it too far to the left?

I think I'm going to have to make the solid bricks something other then rock material.
Also don't mind the mockup of a damsel in distress.
Next up is level design so I can start making this game proper.  :crazy:

hud not too small I don't think but the icons and numbers are definitely too see through, methinks

glad to see you're still workin' on this

TheSnidr (http://www.thesnidr.com/) is working with procedurally generating trees.
And I have to say, they are awesome.  :giggle:
A bit large when put in the background of a screen shot but that will be sorted out.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/procedurmkm.png)
Though it may not be as windy in game.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/yay.png)
(this is just an overlay I haven't merged the two Game maker GMKs)

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/wowza.png)

The procedural generation system is improved each day, it now looks like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98HAIwJRxyU

It's still far from finished, but I recon it'll look good :)

Progress! It's been implemented
Though there is no wind on the trees.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/yayqtq.png)

Until then enjoy a gameplay video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHhGWpDLS2c).

Will release a new demo soon once I have some levels made up.
or by a release date of November 12th because it be the two year anniversary since I started working on this game concept.

November 12th 2008 video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1DaJwiLl40)

I have seen this!

I have tried it!

It has been really fun, and each addition feels wonderful. The trees are amazing, but maybe they shouldn't poke through landscape like they do? (dunno how to avoid that though).

Sadly we can't make the tree's collide with the solids, or else that would be a whole lot of collision checks every step. ^^;
I've added some very basic shadows, as well as updated the HUD.

These two screenshots are different, the first shows the current (new) hand pixeled gradients which I am now using for shadows.

Personally myself I like the hand pixeled gradients as supposed to the computer generated version (image #2) which seems more like a solid darker block as supposed to a shadow.

Thoughts?
It does look a bit weird since this effect isn't cast below on the destructible rocks, and likely it wont ever.

I'm also re-thinking how to go about the tiles, I'll probably make the ground thicker then 1 row of 32x32 tiles, and give the solid walls a better feel of permanence.

As for the HUD, I gave it a small graphical update, but also decided to position it 32x32 pixels on screen.
I've noticed a few other games have their huds away from the edges of the screen to allow for more visibility above the HUD.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/shadowskyk.png)

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/gradientpep.png)

I have also begun working on some new level designs (making them less flat)
Attempting to work out a small learning curve for player actions, ect.
Such as conditioning the player to adjust to the way the character moves, to gather their concentration towards the goal at hand, and work on their consistency of destroying the terrain while on the move.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/chomper.png)
Also fleshing out the Chomper's AI some more.
Right now it's having a tough time returning to it's starting position when the player leaves.

The blocks the player is standing on are solid wall's with HP that break after being shot at for a bit.
Unlike the destructible tiles which break on direct impact, though the enemies will break them on contact.
These dummy walls will be spread along the level, if you keep your eye out they could give you a shortcut.


EDIT: (http://www.imgjoe.com/x/weirdshadows.png)
What's your opinion about these weird layering shadows... I can't seem to get them to work any other way
Does the tiling of the shadows seem off? Or does it work if so I'm leaving it.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/weirdshakok.png)

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/acidsplat.png)

... Kind of lacking motivation to work on this project every time my thread gets kicked back a page or two.
But I digress...
For I have some progress this afternoon along with a new video for you all.  :gentleman:

Shadows, Splatter effects, Splash effects, Checkpoints

Water is currently very static, so static that they way it's done I cant seem to put break-able terrain inside the water or else it wont update it's self.
So that means that water will likely just be for little pools and not full on-water levels, at least not right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x3Jiupbqes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x3Jiupbqes)
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/waterhth.png) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9x3Jiupbqes)

Anybody have any suggestions or ideas from what they've see so far?
I kind of restricted myself from doing slants in that I used the default hspeed of game maker. >.<

I need to think about how I'm going to go about levels this really wont be much of a metroidvania.
But I don't want it to be too linear, I was thinking of giving two exit options which lead to different paths/levels but still eventually get you to your final destination.

I like the split path idea. It could be like Space Invaders Extreme, or... ehm... Shadow the Hedgehog... basically, they had a starting route, and it branched out to multiple areas, depending on a multitude of factors; path taken, grade gotten, etc.

SECRET ITEMS / DOORS FOUND whoops I left caps lock on

To do list:
- Work on level changing some more
- Figure out different scenarios/puzzles for each creature
- Work on making it more challenging
- Think of something to do - other then collect keys to open doors.

I haven't quite gotten the hang of warps.
Thought I had done a decent system but I made a temporary one that will work for now.
Also; Press DOWN ('S') to enter a door

 :handjoystick: New Demo (http://punky.ensellitis.com/mygames/demolishv2.exe)

Added since the last released demo:
- Procedural trees are in
- Simple shadows
- Better blood particle behavior
- Water effects
- Water physics
- Fine tuned the players movement

Need people to tell me how it's running on their computers, see if im getting any lag spikes from different pc builds, since I have added a lot more objects into the game.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/dirrtt.png)

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/dirttnfn.png)

This is looking awesome dude.
I'm missing our collab sessions.. I need to get net again.
I think this is my favourite yet of your demos :)

~Badger

fantastic work!
great engine and art style.
very promising work. keep it up :)


played through the 2 levels without any lags.
system specs:
core duo 2 @2,66 ghz
geforce 9500 gt
2 gb ram
win 7

@Badger yea I'd certainly like to start up with Sinister Corridors (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28sjRJ14JaY) soon again.

Thanks for playing the demo guys, I'm glad you like it and happy to hear that it's running smoothly.
Will be nice to hear if any people with some older builds have any problems or slow spots.

Recently I've been working on the storyline, basically a re-take of the expulsion of "Adam and Eve" except our main character's are named "Atom and Eva"
I will likely change the name of the creator from "El" to something more obviously god sounding.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/storyeoe.png)

By now you all know the story of Temptation... El created Atom from the dust of the ground and in his sleep, split Atom to create Eva. Atom knew that to eat from the Tree of Knowledge was forbidden. Tempted by the serpent, Eva offered Atom the fruit...

Atom knowingly chose to sin 'Cursed is the ground because of you; until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. You are dust,and to dust you shall return'. Eva was ripped out of existence from this world and forever remains, drifting through dimensional planes... Expelled from the garden and now alone Atom became increasingly rebellious. Using his obtained knowledge to create a weapon to destroy El.

New video! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoTxk0bCiOo)

I have finally added the ability to upgrade your gun, you can also purchase grenades as well.
Eventually you will be able to upgrade your grenade proficiencies, such as blast radius, sticky bomb, cluster grenade or missile.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/bullets.png)
Currently you don't change your weapons on the fly, you have to purchase and swap out your gun at the "Shop" area.
Enemies now drop "gems" which are known as "$cores"

As for the gun upgrades currently implemented are;
Single Shot $Free
Slow single bullet long range
-weak against enemies and terrain
-slow overheat

Double Shot $125
Average double bullets long range
-average against enemies and terrain
-average overheat

Triple Shot $300
Fast triple bullets wide range
-strong against terrain and enemies
-fast overheat

Spread Shot $400
Average triple bullets wide range
-strong against terrain/average against enemies
-average overheat

Acid Spray $350
Fast single bullet short range
-strong against terrain/weak against enemies
-slow overheat

This is getting better and better!
The sound effects really enhances the creepy feeling already in the game. Pretty awesome story telling, can't wait to try this out!

I just played the demo and I am in love. Can't wait to see more!

(on a side note, are those trees randomly generated? I have been trying forever to do that.)

I'm happy to hear it's looking good in the previous videos but I'm running into issues now...

As per usual I tend to add so much to my badly programmed games that they begin to lag.
I'm trying to isolate the issue, I have all the new weapons implemented but probably not in the most efficient manner.. Not sure if this is the issue, or if I'm creating too many bullets now and now there are too many step collisions occurring at once with the bullets or something...

Basically I have it checking in the "Left Click step event" for all the powerUp information and then shooting the proper bullets.
This could be slowing things down.

The player is now making more bullets, and the more bullets maybe too many more?...
So many possibilities as to what could be slowing me down.

This lag is basically dragging me and this project down faster then a cement anchor.  :facepalm:

I'm sure most all of my "scripts" occurring in each step event is not nearly as efficient as it could be if it were written my someone else.
Argh, this always tends to happen to me and my game development.


(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/sprgunsala.png)
Ace Rifle, Duece Rifle, Acid Spray, Tre Rifle, Tri-Spread, Charge Cannon

I was just adding the weapon images into the game when I noticed this sudden drop in FPS from 29/30 to a 23-25 lag drop when firing around. Doesn't even seem that constructing smaller scaled levels is helping the lag issue.  :'(
Thought that making 640x480 levels instead of 1280x1280 could have helped, but no.

Sure hope I can figure something out or this may be doomed...
Or at least a much much longer dev-process than I had anticipated.

This is looking really nice, man! A really crazy concept, too.

Long time since update! How's it going? Have you figured out the lag problems?
This is such a wonderful concept, it can't be stopped by a simple resource leak!
Let me have a look at the file some time, and I'll see what I can do

Looks weird and wonderful. I think ill give the demo a whirl if i have time.

Looking hot there, Bones!

I have narrowed it down and have been able to find some parts responsible for the resource leak.

- obj_bltpar && obj_bullet: Doing wayyyy to much collision detection.
- obj_player left click: Inefficient weapon changing had much too many if statements checking global.singleShot and global.doubleShot... and then creating the bullets, and setting their speeds,and direction ect which was really slow...
- obj_block4: The seeds which create obj_tree, are also taking up a lot of memory with gravity collision checking and interaction with obj_watertop && obj_lavatop (obj_player does not collide with these but over 70+ and its a dead frame drop)
- obj_blood && obj_acid particles && obj_waterdrop: Being that my particles are objects, they are taking up a lot of resources...
- obj_lavatop: Bad obj_lavaball spawning per step

So lets try and count my average object count in a large 1280x1280 room...
- 150+ 64x64 blocks (I can shorten this by adding 128x128 blocks which break into 64x64 blocks)
- 90+ 4x4 blocks (during a large explosion that's 90+ objects with gravity and collision)
- each bullet creates about 3 acid particles which live for about 5 seconds
 
By removing most all of these resources from the game I am achieving a higher frame rate, so it's obvious that these objects are all impacting my frame rate.

So I need to figure out an efficient method for bullet collision between obj_enemypar, obj_solidpar, and obj_blockpar (break-able block)
And come up with a better particle system that isn't so resource heavy.
Still getting a small resource leak but I can say it's not as bad anymore now that I've removed all the code that was hauling me down.

This is what I get for making my "First game" ambitious.
I'm adding so much to it that my bad programming is slowing the project down.

Everyone's first game is ambitious, they just don't realize how ambitious until after they start :)

It's not even that it's overly ambitious for me in-terms of previous game scopes.
This isn't really the first game I've "designed" just the first game I've decided to take a design into.
I had designed a few web RPG/mmo concepts and learned how simpler single player games are to getting finished.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/edenconcept.png)
How about some concept art to liven up the thread.

It's really just a combination of my bad coding habits + the amount of it I've put into my game.
Everything I've done could be re-written much more efficiently.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/gateconcxgx.png)
Been trying to pixel some characters to get motivated into working on this again. ^^;


So far my major issue coding wise is my lack of arrays for the gun and bullets.

You can do it Bones! 

Here are some excited emoticons for motivation...  :handshakeL::handanykey: :handanykey: :gomez: :gomez: :handanykey: :handanykey: :handshakeR:

Thanks for the support, I've roughly attempted to put the Ouroboros into the game.
Here is a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh3mnumFs2A) of what I've got so far and it is quite glitched as it is.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/ouroborus.png)
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/ouro.png)

Colt, Ram and Phish (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF-KOM1fa9k)

New video shows off some of the water effects.
And some new ramming type enemies I've added.

I have been experiencing some lag issued for the last 6 months, and I've finally found the culprit.
All the 4x4 blocks/seeds were checking collision with the water and then slowing vspeed.
Apparently that was too many checks per step.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/drillfam.png)
Just managed to make it so the Drill pigs will kind of bounce up and down out of water.
It looks a little silly how much air they get, but it seems to be the only way to get them out.

New- Drillpig video (They swim!) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcJwsW0iqdk)
New- Wasps and Chompah video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg6QfwojWY0)

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/screen1iui.png)
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/screen1ulu.png)
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/chompah.png)
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/deadchomp.png)

June 04th

• Minimized the scope of the levels from being 1280x1280 to more reasonable sizes like, 480x1280, 1280x480, 640x480 Basically Tall, Wide and Small
• Working on level changing
• Rethinking the weapon shop and how health will be distributed such as making health appear from monsters instead of money and put money in the ground.
• Have to decide if this boss's effect will be used by any other creatures.

(click for youtube video) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7dfPpA05as) To see it in motion.
Also voting on names, Walled Garden, Gan Eden, Eden's Gate or Gates of Eden?

Originally TheSnidr had programmed the thing to run very smoothly at 60+ tentacles.
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/bossxox.png)

Sadly in my game it only runs at 15-20 before I start losing frames... So the result is.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/boss1fif.png)

The face is still placeholder and will likely not be the final design.
I hope to also give the boss some emotions and different tentacle speeds ect.

*Dont worry the bosses actions in the video above won't be the final actions in-game.

June 07th

• Decided that after starting on what could be the final boss, I should start working on the first boss.
• In the garden where he was cast out by the lord Flames an Omni-directional sword to guard against any future entrance into the garden.
• Implemented some persistent level changing kind of like metroid
• Worked on multiple root/paths which you can take, based on the Kabbalah of Judaism which references the Tree of Life each level corresponded to qualities of "God"

Been working on a Firesword tonight
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/fireswornpn.png)
Fire will now burn and destroy trees.
And you cannot kill this sword directly, it must be done in-directly I'm sure you can guess how.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/levelplan.png)
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/flameswosws.png)

Nice Bones!  This looks awesome!  I love the enemy designs, and referencing that tree of life thing is a really cool concept! And the tentacle boss looks incredible. That blew me away!

It's like I can feel the awesome building..  :epileptic:

Looking really interesting, and the level layout is a nice touch. Looking forward to seeing more of this! 

New video showing some weather effects and the fire sword in action. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU-ogDfsff8)

June 08th

• Added tree rotation to simulate wind when outdoors during windy weather
• Added a rain effect (next up lightning)
• To-do: Paralleling backdrops
• I need to try and finish off a solid level changing system, right now it's pretty messy. next_room and previous_room and it's hard to make multiple pathways in one room that way.

Was working on some logo's today after I decided upon The Walled Garden as a name.
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/walled.png)

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/logomockyzy.png)

*Edit implemented some lava, though I'm not quite sure how you would get passed the emmiter.
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/lavaogo.png)
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/lavalul.png)

I am intrigued.

I think the logo with the sword angel would look better if the angel and the text were on the same background. So it would be more like the angel would be standing on top of the words rather than on top of the text box.

your videos showing little gameplay aspects of your game are great, i've been following them on youtube; i need to try doing the same for my games, it seems like a fun thing to do

Looking good.

Hey thanks Paul, they have been rather fun to make.
I want to make them more satirical explaining the enemies diets, and main habits.

So I decided that it's only natural that lava that travels a long distance without joining a lava pool, or fizzing out in water it will become a small solid block.
At first these blocks weren't destroyable, DERP  :durr:
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/failchange.png)

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/lava1vqv.png)

wallEd
  garden

Nice connection Droqen, I didn't even notice that.


Let the lava flow. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPZj7mZFmiw)
This is a whole new gameplay mechanic to play with.  :tired:
Dammit... it's also very deadly when it takes over a region, need to think of a good puzzles to divert it's pathways.  ???

Okay, some minor updates.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/tentacletrt.png)
I've added some new spikes.
A video of them in motion can be seen here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYB5wpmruS4).

Also I've made an object that can bounce/ricochet bullets.
You can see that here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOdsfeDlXuE).


ATTENTION MUSICALLY INCLINED TIGers!
I am currently looking for any musician(s) willing to help out with this game.
The scope for music tracks I'm going for is about 10 level tracks + 5 boss tracks.
Each track would have a different theme or emotion going for it such as; Intrusive, Wisdom, Love, Truth, Power, Choice, Creation, Destruction ect.
So roughly 15 songs, if you feel this is way too many songs, I can use Creative Commons tracks such as the examples below for filler.

The type of music I'm going for is dark ambient experimental type music.
Here are some examples of what I'm kind of shooting for.
01 (http://gratisvibes.com/post/rust-to-rust/)
02 (http://gratisvibes.com/post/the-sky-is-never-dark-anymore/)
03 (http://gratisvibes.com/post/greenbient/)
04 (http://gratisvibes.com/post/dark-dark-music/)

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/snail.png)
Slimy and slippery,
Snails are such fun.
Slowly they move,
They can't even run!

Leaving their trail
Behind as they go.
You can see where they've been
And how very slow.

On their back is a shell,
It's really their home.
It's ever so small,
But it goes where they roam.

On stalks are their eyes,
That wave all around.
One can point up,
And one to the ground!

They eat lots of plants,
And all of the flowers.
Munching away,
Especially in showers.

Shiny and slippery,
Snails are such fun.
They eat and they eat,
They must weight a ton!

Click to see video of snail development. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-65ZAyeJmM)
Snails implemented into the game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdElKU99Vv4)

• Snails don't hurt you! The first real passive insect in the game.
• They climb on all walls, it is actually really fun to play with.
• Their shells deflect your bullets.

Attention everyone!

I am in some desperate need of funding.
http://www.indiegogo.com/Walled-Garden (http://www.indiegogo.com/Walled-Garden)
Please if you can't donate to the project pass the link on to someone who might.

Also I've been working on swimming in my game
Left and Right now moves towards your mouse_position
Up and Down control your altitude in the water.

Watch the short video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WrSsEn2ay0)

would love to donate but i can barely fund my own game right now; i'll at least tweet your link on my twitter in hopes that someone will like it

Thanks Paul, I can use all the support I can get including referrals.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/shadedrgr.png)
This is going to mean more work but I've decide to try shading most the sprites rather then keeping them silhouettes.

I've also decided to record myself doing a little bit of pixel pushing.
Animating a shaded drillpig (http://youtu.be/THNqllO8C-c)
I may show me designing a new creature from the ground up.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/lightingvuv.png)

Ah, money, the love and scourge of our lives (or at least mine). I hope your funding works out.

Also, nice job with the shading- I think the silhouettes had a different kind of charm, but the new shaded ones come out on top.

Update July 11th
It's time for celebration

I've taken a risky move with the audio system for my background music.
Using MCI_commands instead of a confusing DLL made by someone else, game makers default sound system sucks for the fact that it can't play OGG's naturally.

MCI_commands only work as long as the person has their correct sound driver installed.  :shrug2:
I will include a readme file with the game explaining what to do if peoples in-game music does not work.

The MCI_command function (http://wiki.yoyogames.com/index.php/MCI_command) is a function in Game Maker that allows you to interact with Windows' Multimedia Control Interface (MCI (http://wiki.yoyogames.com/index.php/MCI)).

Now for the last two months I've been having issues with the music starting in the creation event of the room or an object.
So my issue was if I saved and closed the game, came back and loaded my save file, no music would play because there was no file initialized or ready to play .

So to fix this I made an object for when I want to change music for each level I include a load and save object in.
The con of this, is that I need to make an object per song but oh well.


Now I have an object that checks the status of the song, if it is loaded && playing.
If not it plays the correct song, I also have a variable which is changing the speed of the song so that if something has happened in a level and the songs tempo has changed, and you come back to that same level, the music's speed would not have changed back to regular speed.

From what I can see the speeds are based off of 1000 being regular.

• 250 = %25 speed
• 500 = %50 speed
• 1000 = %100 speed
• 2000 = %200 speed

I think you get the point, anyways this has been fun to play with and it makes the music a bit more dynamic.

 Wow, Bones! This looks AMAZING!

I'd donate, but I'm poor. :<

been watching this game for a while, donated 'cause you know, i can.

i have a mac tho so i'll just sit and watch the videos and cross my fingers that someday you port it.

Holy smokes close call today.  :screamy:
As I said my MCI_command system is a risky choice.

The first person I gave to test the music was having issues with the music not playing at all.
I have sorted out that issue and have included a readme file explaining how to fix it.


So far that was "B" bug #1 of today.

"C" bug is for some reason speeding up the music or slowing it down was causing a stutter playback so that's not good I may not be able to play with the speed of the music as I thought I could... hmm

It may be because the device isn't enabled.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/watur.png) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1btaNumYjA)
New waterfalls + continuous sound emitters.
Click image to see video and hear the emitter.

You can also join the fan page on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Walled-Garden/219910951381317).

I found out a major leak in the frame loss I was experiencing.
My water was built of 8x8 tiles, so the instance count went over 1500 easily.
It's now for the most part 1-2 screen filling objects now.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/flower.gif)
I've also made some flowers that stick their tounges out and pull you into them.
The animation was just slowed down so you could see it.

Here's a short video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVkQda0Ivqo) showing them in-game.

:biglaff:
Anyway, this looks really awesome, I would give you money but I have none.

Hehe, water leak.

Monopods! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APXcSzr17gg)
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/sprmonopuou.png)(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/sprmonopuou.png)

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c8/Nuremberg_chronicles_-_Strange_People_-_Umbrella_Foot_%28XIIr%29.jpg/250px-Nuremberg_chronicles_-_Strange_People_-_Umbrella_Foot_%28XIIr%29.jpg)
From wikipedia:
Monopods (also sciapods, skiapods, skiapodes, Monocoli) are mythological dwarf-like creatures with a single, large foot extending from one thick leg centered in the middle of their body. The name Skiapodes is derived from σκιαποδες - "shadow feet" in Greek, monocoli from μονοκωλοι - 'one legged' in Greek.

I think the question on everybody's mind is: Can you tip them?

You better be able to knock them over and watch them struggle to get back up again :D

Well that picture is actually showing a monopod using it's foot as a form of shade from the sun.
Though I'm not sure how you would tip it over, do you mean like shooting it while in the air?
Or do you mean legitimately tipping it over by running into them?

Not sure, more like bumping into them I guess, though I was actually thinking of something like they have rudimentary physics where they lean forward and hop and that can lead to funny stuff/belly flops when they jump off high ledges. But that might be more retarded than the mood of the game allows.

I've heard of these guys before from a podcast. They are pretty creepy. I watched the video and they lean forward too much imo. His center of gravity is always in front of him and it seems kind of awkward. Maybe add some frames where he balances himself before the next jump? Other than that, things look pretty sweet man.

The reason they have to always hop around is because their center of gravity is so infront of them.
It's unnatural and awkward but that's why I like it.

Btw, they were said to not have the greatest of balance and were easy to knock down (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGWXObVm2Ic).
Monopod tipping is the funnest thing to do since Drillpig bareback riding.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/concept1.jpg)
Here is some old concept art from 2010 that I forgot I never posted.
You can see I had originally planned for the character to be much more slender and white.
I also had thought about him hanging onto aerial creatures as well as being able to punt things away from him.

Also I've got a nice little lantern effect going on now as well.
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/fog.jpg)
Though it may be a little dark and a bit too small.

Because most everyone loves achievements.
I have found an achievement example (http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=496129) and have implemented it successfully.

The colors of the menu are likely to change since it's un-changed but I have implemented a couple achievements already.
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/achievement.png)

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/achievement1.png)

I wanna know how a monopod lives with one buttcheek.

Looks like a great game so far. I wish I could donate.

i am digging that lantern a lot!

and monopod tipping looks like a grand ol time

Theo: they poo from their belly buttons.

Worked on some achievements/experiences, the bold ones are in the game so far.
Tell me if you think any of them are redundant or stupid.
None of the names of the achievements are final either, I just couldn't think of anything good at the time.

Comparing N+, Limbo and SuperMeatBoy each have 12 achievements for xbox 360.
SuperMeatBoy for steam has 46 achievements, Aquaria has 27, but a lot of them are "accomplished a level in the game"

• Automatic Acid : Fire 1000 bullets
• Top-Gun : Fire 5000 bullets
• The Baby is Evil : Die to a baby Drill-pig
• Crunchy : Get a Drill-pig to kill a Fall Brick
• Tip-Time: Tip over 25 mono-pods
• Excavator: Destroy 10 tons of ground
• Ricochet: Ricochet a single bullet 5 times
• Ricochet v2: Ricochet a single bullet 10 times
• Creationist: Create 1000 trees
• Exterminator: Kill 100 worms
• Ace shot: Shoot a grenade out of the air
• Explosive Hoarder: Carry more then 50 grenades
• Going out with a bang: Kill a boss with an explosion
• Demolition Man: Kill 10 enemies at once with a grenade
• Hot Stuff: Die in lava 15 times
• Know Thy Enemy: Kill every type of enemy
• Speed runner: Complete a timed level in half the expected time
• Cowboy: Kill a creature while riding another creature
• Bone-yard: Create 500 bones
• Death is fun: Die 100 times
• Death is for the weak: Die less then 5 or 10 (undecided) times
• Flawless Victory: Kill a boss without losing any health
• Speed Demon: Beat the game in less then 30 minutes
• Tempus fugit: Play the game for more than 5 hours

If you can think of any more to add I'm all ears.

Basically I'm trying to avoid creating any achievements that you would get just by going through the game, such as completing a chapter isn't worth an achievement because you would do that anyways.
I do agree that achievements ruin the immersion a game can have, and so that's why the achievement tells you what you have done so that you don't have to go out of your way to find it.

I'm also wondering if achievements should give out increments of cash so you can upgrade your guns and buy more grenades.

Achievements for dying sort of seems counterintuitive to me.

The death achievement was based off of the only N+ achievement that wasn't "you beat levels"

Practice Makes Perfect
Die 1000 times in Single Player mode.

I find the achievements to just be there for people who like stats and for people who like exploring outside the norm. Sometimes achievements are just there to giggle at how much you sucked while playing.

I naturally expect people to die over a hundred times or more in my game.
The game plays off of N+ it had lots of dying.
If you don't die, that's the true achievement right there.

I hope the lava in my game can claim 25 kills, if people want to go ahead and leap into lava because they are told to that's fine, if a friend told you to jump off a bridge would you?
But if lava just happens to kill you 25 times while your playing, would you not laugh at yourself for dying to lava so much?

I'm sure psychologically people are going to see an achievement and want to do it.
But I guess that comes with the territory of telling people they can do things.

Anyways, I'm not going to worry about achievements too much right now.
They are in that's all that matters. :B

I've made a creature that regenerates tiles around it's self (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE9Fg87ACnU).
You get crushed if you're caught inside it's regeneration.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/regen.png)

Yappy dogs are implemented.
I'm pretty sure their design was based from something very similar I saw a while back in a game prototype.
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/dogs.png)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3knIHfwd1o (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3knIHfwd1o)

They are much more spastic then the monopods.
So far they don't really like water and kind of hover above it which is not what I want.

Also, should the monopods swim or sink?


Edit* their sound pitch has now been lowered so that they sound more like dogs and less like mice.
They are still just about as annoying but at least the sound isn't death on your eardrums anymore... ^^;
The video shows the old sound effect it's a bit squeaky.

Did you try contacting OverCoat? Given that The Sky is Never Dark Anymore EP was made in one day (I think) he might be willing to come up with something.

@Sergio - I contacted him on youtube, he said he'd try and make a few tracks he also gave me access to his archive which has plenty of similar tunes.
I've also been contacted by a few musicians and the game will probably feature 2-3 composers maybe more.

@Gabriel - Thanks man, I need all the encouragement I can get I'm about to work on the graphics portion of the game...

(http://i54.tinypic.com/1zlzy1k.png)

I realized my backgrounds were lacking in some hd pixel graphics so I thought I'd start there.
This is inspired by this.
(http://www.canvasreplicas.com/images/Expulsion%20from%20the%20Garden%20of%20Eden%20Thomas%20Cole.jpg)

(http://i52.tinypic.com/33oofoz.png)

(http://i52.tinypic.com/6fv8tl.png)
(http://i56.tinypic.com/280tgdu.png)

(http://i54.tinypic.com/15rhbwh.png)

Thanks man.
Bleh... It seems my image host is down and all my development images have disappeared.  :facepalm:
I'll upload whatever I've got left on my hard drive and at least update the first post with some images again...

A wild tech demo (http://www.host-a.net/u/MrBones/The%20Walled%20Garden.rar) has appeared! (19.77 MB) the game has a lot of objects made for it, just lacking levels and tunes, my estimate for release size is around 25-30MB when all the music is included.
Check it out, if you don't have any sounds playing there is an included readme explaining how to fix your sound problems.

Please tell me if you experience any major issues with the game within the first 10 or so levels. The rest I know are failures.

For testing purposes atm you press Q and E to switch rooms, E is next room / Q is previous room
If you run into an error, you should be able to ignore it and the game will go on.

There are roughly 10-12 levels that are just test levels.
Most levels contain about one enemy each so I could test them out (not all enemies have their own room yet)
But at least now there is a demo that can be play tested again.

Also you can press F4 to view the achievements, this button will likely change in the release.

Current issues I'm aware of:

The player sprite isn't correctly drawing at all times, sometimes two sprites are being drawn when only one should.

Dying to Anti-Atom will crash the game because the player does not exist so his arm has nothing to point at, therefor it crashes. Easily fixable.

EarthWyrm collision is a little fucked up, they aren't colliding properly with solids at the moment.

When lava touches a tree the entire game slows down because of all the fire being created, because fire touching a tree also creates fire; so it's creating things it collides with whoops.

Woo! Grabbin'! :)

Cheers  :toastL: :)

Yea you can kill it, spoiler below

Try and find some water to lure it into... maybe I should add a bit more throughout the level to make it more obvious.

I'm going to go to my local zoo today and do some sketching, hopefully I'll come up with some cool birds and stuff like that.
Thanks for the feedback though it's good to know if things are obvious or too hard.

Wow great feedback man this is exactly what I needed from releasing this demo to a few people I'll need to ask some questions obviously for some bugs so that I can attempt to repeat them myself.

- Fire sword movement
Yea, I tried making the fire sword move differently then the homing missiles I have in the game (they aren't in any levels)
They are based on the N+ missiles that kind of circle around you if they miss rather than move_towards_point

- Yea, this has been an issue since I made the whole swimming in water thing.
I may end up just removing it and sticking with standard mario type swimming with jumping rather then following the mouse. ^^;
I think the issue is from you aiming down so your moving towards your mouse downwards rather then getting out of the pool of water...

- Thanks, I want it to be very surrealistic so ambiance is important I feel in order to emerge the player in a strange world which has been the funnest part of making this game to be honest. It's been exciting to see and hear things sycnronizing and working together.

- Semi frequent bug crashes?! Not good, first off are these when you begin roaming beyond the first 10 levels? Or are you experiencing crashes within the levels that are in working condition? I should just delete the rooms that don't work. There error I know of that sometimes crashes is when I don't have a checkpoint in a room with the player.
Which occurs in the rooms of the fail realm.

- Youre being damaged when shooting into terrain?
I have not been able to replicate this, can you tell me where your doing it?
The outer ring is the health, the inner circle of the HUD is your gun overheating is that what you mean? Or is the doughnut actually losing health? :(

- Sure thing I'll increase the friction a smidge.

- Yea those pick-ups are still temporary I haven't quite decided how I plan to distribute the points, and because of this I'm not sure how to distribute the guns other then a shop which seems kind of lame.

- Haha I'm glad you like the snail guys they are the reason many of the level beyond 10 don't work because I had to change the origin of all my solids so the snails would collide with them properly.

- Thanks, I thought that would be a neat way to make killing it difficult but the thing is super overpowered with it's laser and you can't actually kill the tentacle boss right now.

OH Also I forgot to mention!!! When your outside fighting the Firesword Press SHIFT and you will activate rain and wind.
The effect sounds, and looks stupid in-doors so just shut it off when your inside. :P
(The rain effect sucks right now but the lighting is pretty neat)
I really just enjoy seeing the trees rotate back and forth.

Can't play this cuz I'm on a mac, but it looks siiiccckkk.

Oh my Hieronymus Bosch you sly dog you, thanks for the concept art bud.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/The_Garden_of_Earthly_Delights_by_Bosch_High_Resolution.jpg/800px-The_Garden_of_Earthly_Delights_by_Bosch_High_Resolution.jpg)

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/shadedqiq.png)
Oh hey imgjoe is back with all my images, now my devlog isn't empty.

H. Bosch fuck yeah

 Amazing...this is actually the best tech demo I've ever seen for the Game Maker platform in my life.

I've updated the EXE in the RAR, so if you'd like to play around with a few more enemies I added a larger level with a few fallbricks, and mountable enemies and the rams and regenerative block.

I also fixed the swimming, I hope.
I changed it so its not based on the mouse position anymore but the player still spins around.
Walls are a bit glitchy underwater you can kind of rocket jump off a wall, but so far that's the only issue I'm finding.

I tried making the firesword less homing, but it's a little glitched sometimes now it kind of just circles around aimlessly.

I forgot to fix the friction as Gabriel had suggested so I will do that now and it will be in the next update.

Enjoy and have fun, please paste any errors you recieve if you get one in any of the first 10 levels.

Tech demo download (http://www.host-a.net/u/MrBones/The%20Walled%20Garden.rar)

Working on some mini-boss sprites.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/shadedbsb.png)
Of course I've seen Princess Mononoke.
(http://chibipodhiei.webs.com/Princess.Mononoke.339705.jpg)
(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTzj9yNJm_3E8qhqU5GcloL0pUTtgDHxoR_CeJOHVV24RLt0NNxkg)
(http://images2.fanpop.com/images/polls/271000/271491_1248128611607_160.jpg?v=1248128692)

Wow.  This is something I really want to explore.  Really, really great stuff so far!

I am loving that frog boss :-* Can't wait to see it in motion.

Hey TIGs long time no chat.
My laptop has betrayed me, but I did manage to save and backup everything I had, graphics and game source codes so not all is lost.

Just need to retrieve my desktop back from my dad, he's become accustomed to using my PC.  :-X
ETA on when I'm back to work on this should be no more then a week longer.

http://www.mediafire.com/?t2a3b6qjq22anfi (http://www.mediafire.com/?t2a3b6qjq22anfi)

Anyways, I do have an update over the past couple months I've been trying to organize with some composers on an OST, here is a zip containing 6 tunes from 3 composers.

Austin Har / 2 tracks
Overcoat / 1 track
Alex Hawthorn / 2 tracks

I am pretty sure there are a few tracks missing from the zip, I'll update that as I find them in the slew of emails.

Most of these are samples, but tell us what you think.

Sept 24th, 2011

• Working on the storyline some more
• Hope to fix the colors of the sprites soon, everything looks so dark on other monitors.
• Creating a list of biblical locations and objects which will be included in the game
• Also searching for any locations or areas mentioned within Eden.
• Sifting through Medieval Bestiaries to try and find some more enemy ideas.
• Organizing the boss ideas, and attack sequences for each boss.
• Combining religious beliefs; Christianity, Muslim and Judaism

There are so many similarities between the three religions that borrowing myths and writings from each one seems to work as a stepping stone for more of the story; Since I've had a hard time coming up with new content, because Adam (Atom) never went back into Eden.

Crazy news, I won $900 on the radio at 7pm - I'm ecstacic
I also managed to do this earlier tonight.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/conceptseie.png)

I'm really liking the looks of this game. Keep up the good work!

(It's also nice to see I'm not the only Calgarian game developer here :) )

Hells yes, fellow Calgarian.
We must jam soon.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/frogleap.png)
Sketches for an animation if anyone cares. :waaagh:
I also got permission from all owners of the artwork used for newest sprites.
They were oddly excited for me to use their work.

So with out further ado some introductions and credit is necessary.

Reykat's Caramel (6 legged monster) (http://reykat.deviantart.com/art/Caramel-Monster-199878039)
(http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/064/2/f/caramel_monster_by_reykat-d3b02vr.jpg)

Ellier's Critter (http://elleir.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d4ajypq)
(http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/264/9/5/critter_by_elleir-d4ajypq.jpg)

Tickoo's "The Horror" (http://tickoo.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=72#/d1ho7h4)
(http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs25/f/2008/181/0/4/THE_HORROR_by_tickoo.png)

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/horror.gif)
Watch the arm ooze, it's mesmerizing.
The rest isn't done but it's been a long day of trying to make that loop.

I think if you teamed up with Amon26 you guys would make the ultimate mind fuck game.

Funny you should say that, Amon actually sent me an email out of the blue last January.
I totally forgot to reply to his email...
Thanks for reminding me about it.

Agreed. They are beautiful.

The lighting and atmospherics are really nice, and the enemy designs are incredible. I love the art that inspires you, and I hope you really push the envelope with it - like you already seem to be doing. :handthumbsupR:

 :wtf: :-*

(http://i43.tinypic.com/2gv3lz6.gif)

that's awesome, boss!

I already want this game.

Great game, I can't wait to see it finished!

I see you need a lot of sprites, so if you need some help with them, I can maybe help you. ;)

@xoorath thanks, I aim to please. I actually wasn't sure if the whole ceramic face style was going to work, obviously doing it on the smaller ones is a bit harder and doesn't look as good, but I think the larger sprites help show what the little ones don't need to show.

Should I post more of my inspiration along with my posts?
If that's the case I'll do it since I enjoy appropriating material as new content a lot.
Most of the scenery in the game will be coming from old paintings of paradise among anything else I can find.

@beef haha that post cracks me up.

@yameki You will just have to wait a bit longer so I can work some kinks out.

@jazeker
I'm honored you decided to use your first post in my thread, you should perhaps introduce yourself here (http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=45.0).
Thanks for the offer, but I'm a veteran pixel artist of 8 years. The only things I really need help with most the time is music and occasionally some coding problems I run into.

Thanks for the support everyone.
I've been having a lot of technical difficulties lately so development has again slowed down a little bit.
Just need to get a new hard drive, or attempt to get my old one working again.
I will likely be doing a lot more art over the next month if that's the case.

Now for some devlog material.
I am combining Atomism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomism) into the mix.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/39/Daltons_symbols.gif/689px-Daltons_symbols.gif)
I'm thinking of making Atom collect atoms through out the game, but I can't really think of any reason for doing this besides to please people who like searching for hidden objects.

20 elements hmm... this has a neat corrispondence to the Kabbalah tree of Life

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Sefiroticky_strom.jpg/291px-Sefiroticky_strom.jpg)


I'm thinking of trying to add some sort of hand menu so you can unlock doors.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Shefa_Tal.png)


Edit:

@ Belimoth
The first page shows that the Kaballah Tree of Life was the level/chapter plan.
So it was already in this, I'm just wondering if I should include more?

@ hangedman
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/handsxhx.png)
Yea I was thinking that you'd probably start off with little to no finger markings.
And it would be inverted for the sake of style, I'll re-draw the hands and stuff thats no problem.

I'm wondering if I should make the finger tattoos into the atom symbols.

Somehow I knew the Kaballah was going to find it's way into this.

Go ahead. The esoteric value is well worth possible complaints.

I like the hand puzzles to unlock doors, it's a vary cool concept. Rather than find keys, you find words, and maybe the word combinations would be granted by NPCs or written on walls in the game world or something (like the colour puzzles in Biomenace).

Maybe you construct upgrades out of atoms? So the player can save up for bigger upgrades or something, or get small ones immediately.

First of all, AWESOME GAME. Really enjoying the atmosphere.
i was checking the minibosses and this came in to my mind http://www.ragdata.com/index.php?page=bmonstros&mob_id=&mob_name=Thanatos&element=&race=&size=&exp=&jexp=&sort_r=1 (http://www.ragdata.com/index.php?page=bmonstros&mob_id=&mob_name=Thanatos&element=&race=&size=&exp=&jexp=&sort_r=1)

i prefer the Hayao Miyazaki reference, but you should take a look at this creatures too :)

keep up the good work!

Thanks Lehmann, it seems most my compliments are about the atmosphere which is good since it's one of my main focuses.
I have played Ragnarok, I forgot about that awesome panda creature.

I made some sprites last week not sure I like them.
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/conceptdgd.png)

I've also made a large collection of "No Face Creatures"
If you would like to see where some of my inspiration is coming from.
punkypenguin.deviantart.com/favourites/47128865 (http://punkypenguin.deviantart.com/favourites/47128865)

Today is my birthday!
I was 20 when I started working on this and now I'm 23. :tired:

Happy Birthday!!

(http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/387999_2740773921706_1328160082_3055572_980767533_n.jpg)
Birthday fanart by Amon26

Happy Birthday, you talented jerk :beer:

(http://www.jakobhaglof.com/items/walledgarden.jpg)

Well now you have to continue development.

Yeah, he's right.

Dang it, I got excited when I saw this pop up because I thought there was going to be a progress update!

Dang that post-it is absolutely boss.  :-*

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/splitstrip14.png)
It's taken me a while to figure out how this thing would open it's dual mouths.
I was working on a walk cycle but my program crashed.  :-X

 >:D This is great, and CEDE's post-it is great too.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/tumblrln3rky.jpg)

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/lighthougtg.png)

btw, this game is probably the indie game i'm most looking forward to playing, i'm enjoying the updates/videos to it even if i don't say much

I opened the first page, looked at the IndieGOGO page, and saw it's already due and unfunded. This was surprising, because the game is so original and creative, I guess it really show that these kind of funding need a lot of marketing and connections to really work?

Wow thanks Paul, I'm happy to hear that your enjoying the updates.
I hope the game keeps up with the expectations.

@Pompi I was happy to get $250 it helped for my tuition, I didn't really market myself much, but I've recently been making marketing connections so it's certainly not a bad thing to have.

Speaking of which I owe three people t-shirts.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/lighthoufef.png)
Bah this thing is getting complex I haven't even started shading it. Dx

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/lighthourmr.png)

So I'm thinking this void building will be like 3 levels.

You walk in from the left and end up in a forest level, where there is a door to an ocean level.
You go out the end of the forest level and end up on the other side of the building.

It's like inception a level within a level, 2 levels deep... or is it?

- First level outside the building
 - Forest level with a door
  - (Beach level possibly more)
 - Exit on the right edge of forest level
- Outside of void building

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/levelvov.png)

Felt like you guys may care to see some of my inspiration source material for this project.
Prepare for some surrealism and such.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/2354c2696dc5.jpg)
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/tumblrkyuud3.jpg)
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/superstock15.jpg)
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/deadtreeands.jpg)
(http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/141/a/e/The_Paradox_by_jslattum.jpg)
(http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/155/0/a/darkness_by_NegativeFeedback.jpg)

There is more I'm just not sure how many I should post, this seems like a small amount.

Tried running my game on a AMD Athlon 2400+ Processor 2.00 gHz 2.00 GB RAM - Radeon 7500.
Had some issues, first time I ran the game at regular resolution and the trees were all solid white rectangles, there were no trees.
Second time running it I was told to run it in a smaller resolution and I did, but then I received random errors with the trees that weren't there before.

I took the same source code, ran it on my other computer.
AMD Sempron Processor 3100+, 1.5 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT
Trees are working, no errors besides the ones I'm aware of.
Seems to run, so at least development is back up, I can begin fixing stuff again.

I'm noticing Game Makers default room transitions are slow as molasses in winter.
Also when I use the shift left or right, the graphics on screen kind of drag across and repeats on the screen.
Fade-in and out's aren't as quick as I'd hoped, so I may just go with no effect for level changes.

New video! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZQIR4iNfIc)

Watch the new video to get a glimpse of the building in-game. :D

Also created an object that creates a forest in the creation event.
It covers the bottom layer of the level in a random number of trees in random x positions.

I also slowed down tree growth, I may slow it down some more see how it looks.

Love it.

Here's some random inspiration pics I've collected:

(http://i.imgur.com/31hzf.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/Dw9qG.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/ANRyP.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/lPcyq.jpg)

[EDIT] Sry, feels like I'm pooping in your devlog.

Awesome little collection!
I like like this kind of weird and dark stuff, don't feel sorry for posting possible inspiration material.

I'm liking this one.
I wonder why...

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Shefa_Tal.png)

Elaborating on the idea for the hands.


(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/handsxhx.png)

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/handsrur.png)

Combination lock maybe?
Or maybe the sum total of both hands, or something of that manner.

I don't know what this is, but it looks amazing. The trees growing was awesome, and all the art is great. Good luck with the rest of it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMyG5emzOCA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMyG5emzOCA)

Small video to try and see how changing hands would look without animation, not bad.
Trying to create a way so that every hand position creates a unique variable when you combine both hands.

Left hand is 1,2,3,4,5

Right hand is 6,7,8,9,10

Left hand*righthand=total

But I've found a flaw with that way.
6,7,8,9,10
12,14,16,18,20
18,21,24,27,30
24,28,32,36,40
30,35,40,45,50

There are 6 duplicates that occur.

My next idea is to assign words to each finger.
And then combining the two words to get a unique combination without duplicates.

Edit: There are 25 possible combinations.
1,2,3,4,5
+
10,20,30,40,50

Changing the numbers and adding them instead of multiplying seems to be the fix.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/handsrur.png)

It has no back leg.
This has been a fun animation.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/giraffe.gif)(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/giraffewalk.gif)
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/giraffevlv.png)

Oh and spoiler (http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3250/2300598737_a0a7d9f9c9_z.jpg?zz=1)
When the giraffe dies it turns into Dali's Burning Giraffe.



Giraffes are deadly (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huxDnZs2_OQ).

Fascinating project, I managed to miss this one until today.

If you're not fill to the brim with music already, I might have some suitable stuff you could use. Take a listen to my ambient stuff at www.icefishing.gallardosound.com (http://www.icefishing.gallardosound.com) if you fancy it :)

Hey awesome thanks!
I've lost track of how many people are helping out with music.
So I'm starting to make a list and check it twice.

Always looking for more music, though I can't seem to access your site. :(

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/giraffewalk2.gif)
This animation still has a lot of kinks to be fixed.

This creature is excellent, it really reminds me of Miyazaki like in Princess Mononoke.

Hmmm very strange, the link works for me. Is it broken for anyone else?

[edit] AH. It is broken. I thought I'd worked out all these issues. My former domain name service killed my domain and it's been a huge ball-ache since.

[edit 2] OK, sorted. It's working now :)

Youve got some pretty awesome ambient stuff, I also like that you listed the items used to make some of the sounds.
I could see myself using a couple of these for sure.

Thanks dude :)

icefishing I has been implemented (remixed) in Red Rogue, but icefishing II is up for grabs.

I also have buttloads of general ambience and such I've generated over the past few weeks, so that's on offer too if you're interested!

Cool good to know, I'll find a nice spot for them.

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/explosiobob.png)
Decided to make a new grenade explosion animation.
Better than the old circle I was using before.

New grenade explosion is looking nice and seems to work better visually in the world then the old one. I was trying to create an explosion like yours for my game but sucked at it and gave up  :)

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/explosionani.gif)

Thanks Franklin took myself a little bit to get the animation to look right.

Today's Update
Added randomly generated 32x32 boulders to the terrain that can fall and crush you if you are underneath them.

Working on some more boss action ideas and getting them working in-game.
Designing a couple levels for early tutorial type levels that show the basics.

Made the shooting have some recoil instead of shooting in a straight line all the time.

Sorry for the terrible quality video but I'm working on some boulders.
They wont always fall from the sky I'm just testing collisions, noticing a few errors grenades need to get pushed by the falling boulder instead of keep the rock floating in the air.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CNWhBK7yeQ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CNWhBK7yeQ)

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/boulders.png)

Hasn't been too much to update you all on.
Fixed a few bugs in some of the enemies behaviours, trying to get everything that is already made to work with no problems.

In the mean time, decided to post some more inspirational works.
Here (http://punkypenguin.deviantart.com/favourites/47128865?offset=0) is a small collection of no-face/mask creatures.

The game is currently very dark graphically, I feel I need to bring a lot more colour into the aesthetic and make the darkness really pop out against the colour.
Beksinski will likely be the number one influence in this portion.

(http://beksinski.dmochowskigallery.net/gfx/db/big/002478.jpg)

(http://beksinski.dmochowskigallery.net/gfx/db/big/002222.jpg)

(http://beksinski.dmochowskigallery.net/gfx/db/big/002503.jpg)

(http://beksinski.dmochowskigallery.net/gfx/db/big/002459.jpg)

(http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/114/6/f/City_on_a_Hill_by_One_Vox.jpg)

(http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs25/i/2008/162/0/b/Moon_Shadow_by_RedEyeLoon.jpg)

(http://th03.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2011/322/7/b/siikwynders_and_sfynxes_by_yenk-d4gjzp1.jpg)

(http://th00.deviantart.net/fs42/PRE/f/2009/114/e/7/e746919eb1fe49cc750cc101c2ba23a7.png)

This is great - love looking at these.

(http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs9/i/2006/038/0/7/No_Face_by_zooni.jpg)


Looking forward to seeing this.  I already really dig the colours for the explosion, as so:



Don't have anything bad or anything I dislike to comment on :shrug2:

That new grenade effect is beautiful and I love the weird designs for enemies you keep creating.  I can't wait to see more updates.

Haha well thanks but those enemie designs are not mine.
Just a collection of masked creatures I've found on dA, if I choose to use any of them I will be sure to get permission from the original artist like I have for the creatures I am using that are not of my original design.

First on the agenda, some awesome news! (this is not an april fools joke)
I met Steve Sim aka Steb Sly (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1980521/) at the Global Game Jam in January.
He has offered to help me out with creating some original sound effects for the creatures and bosses in my game.
Steve was the Lead sound designer for Bioware he worked on Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Jade Empire and Star Wars : Knights of the Old Republic to name a few.
So lets make a warm welcome for my new mentor in sound design!  >:D
He's moving to Nova Scotia... D: Frack.

(http://s18.postimage.org/foxq3c2tj/handofgod.jpg)
Saw this in the game "Rage"
Thought it would make for a good Hand of God.

Here are a few notes I've jotted down from a few books I've been reading.
"The Tree of Life: Image for the Cosmos - Roger Cook" & "Creation Myths: Man's introduction to the World - David Maclagan"

(http://digital-art-gallery.com/oid/3/640x494_1759_Gate_Tree_2d_fantasy_forest_gate_dark_tree_godbeams_dappled_sunlight_picture_image_digital_art.jpg)


(http://s18.postimage.org/ycybafy2x/treedoor.jpg)

This is gorgeous.

Why thank you Rhubarb, I'm trying my damnedest to make it all look pretty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g6Wrsl3Ggw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g6Wrsl3Ggw)
Working on the void boss known as "The Horror (http://tickoo.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=72#/d1ho7h4)"

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/horror.gif)
(this animation still needs to be finished)

Doesn't quite work how I want it to, the bullets are also supposed to start homing in on the player.
And then the player is supposed to boomerang back into the void, still not sure how that will even work...
Cant seem to get any screen capture software to run well enough cause my computer has like no virtual memory D:

Here is some Guns N' Roses cause they support being lost in the Garden of Eden (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuhLVl5qf2A).

OOOohhh The Horror is awesome. Love it.

I don't want to distract from your thread with self-whorage but I thought I'd mention I've got a new extended noise/drone/ambient kind of piece you might be interested in for TWG... It's here (http://icefishing.bandcamp.com/album/icefishing-iii) if you fancy having a listen. It's 40 minutes long so I'd be happy to chop it up and whatnot if you were interested in it :)

Oh hey, didn't notice your post Nate.
The tracks are decent, but not sure if some of the noises seem suitable in-game.
I really am digging the large ominous windy sound you have, certainly gives the tracks a cold feeling.
If you think you can chop something down to 2-3 minutes, send me a track or two and I'm sure I'll find a place for it.

Updates

• Working on implementing an inventory system of some kind
• Coming up with item ideas that will be useful in particular areas or used against particular enemies
• Working on more boss animations

Also reading over this got me questioning my game's map
This is my map, well technically it's the chapter listing, each circle will have 10 levels or more.
So my question to the forum is, should I create a more in-depth map or is this fine to keep track of where you are?
(http://i41.tinypic.com/mrpu1k.jpg)

In the meantime here is more inspiration art I have laying around.
(I did not draw these)

(http://i43.tinypic.com/91h209.jpg)

(http://i39.tinypic.com/aeobyw.jpg)

(http://i44.tinypic.com/16061c.jpg)

Going to try working on the snake/ouroborus today.
previous design:
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/ouro.png)

(http://s18.postimage.org/p3ye1ocjb/snake1.png)

(http://s15.postimage.org/6ixsz63zv/snakeplans.png)

I like where this is headed.

Hehe.

It's always nice to see this bumped with more cool creatures and scenery.

I like the Ouroboros.  In fact the occult theme of the whole game is awesome.

Tonight I shall deem to be a productive one art-wise.
(http://s14.postimage.org/765aykurl/colortest.png)

Working on some new tiles and so I'm doing some colour tests, obviously I'm not going to want the character to be on anything too dark or he'll disappear.
I don't currently like the destructible tiles, not sure what to do with them.


In other news...
Went to the library today to try and find some books on the Tree of Life, Adam and Eve or the Kabbalah.
Couldn't find ANYTHING, all books were at other libraries...

I walked over to the $1 bin and grabbed a random awesome looking comic called "Promethea"
When I got home and started reading it, I realized it's all about ascending through the Kabbalah.
My mind was blown, I managed to pick a needle out of a hay stack by chance.
I just judged the comic by it's cover and a quick flick through, didn't actually realize what it was about until I read it.

(http://d1466nnw0ex81e.cloudfront.net/iss/600w/661/516611/3789291_1.jpg)

Promethea is awesome so nice find :) Love the artist layouts in it.

Looks so awesome! >:D

It all depends on the levels themselves, as the quote says. Can you distinguish level 4 from 7? Can you tell 4-1 from 4-8? Are the sub-levels complex and branching, or short and linear? Is it clear that a given door isn't the only way to exit the area? How clear do you want it to be?

It can be hard visualizing and orienting oneself in a side-view game when no overworld map is provided. Imagine SMB3 or SMW without the top-down level selection maps, just levels leading to other levels (sometimes more than one, and not always "forward").

I love Promethea.  Sometimes I feel like Moore sort of looses the characters in an effort to get across some of the most interesting concepts, but that doesn't make it any less fantastic.

Actually, now that I think about it he did a lot of that in From Hell, too.

Have you read Grant Morrison's series The Invisibles?  There's plenty of occult fun in that too.  Admittedly, he draws on a whole lot of New Age weirdness and it's not nearly as coherent as Promethea.  In my opinion it's more fun, though.  It's very much in the spirit of The Illuminatus Trilogy.

@Rek
(http://s14.postimage.org/hkn4obmep/kabalah.png)
Each sepiroth has a colour, so I was thinking of the sky being used as a tool to know where you are.
For the over-world map it would have like a little \/ arrow pointing where you are on the tree.

@oyog
Besides V for Vendetta and The Watchmen I haven't read anything else from Moore.
I'm liking the abstractness of this over the other two.
It seems like the first 12 issues are about introducing promethea and her doing things in modern day.
Issue 13-18 seems to delve deeper into what I was looking into.
But I'm only at issue 5 now that I've downloaded the rest of them.

(http://s9.postimage.org/cx4kskflr/mockup1.png)
Thank you Promethea, you've giving me the push I needed.

(http://s9.postimage.org/pcoh7df5r/rocks.png)
Started doing some rock studies yesterday night.

Good.

(http://i.imgur.com/zUghb.gif)

Sky eyes are best eyes.

Estimated release date.

December 23rd, 2012

I have a technical question.
It's a bit weird to try to describe so I made a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyFe9M2KSaM) to show what I'm asking.
I've been suggested to try using Blend Modes, so I'm going to look into these as much as I can.

Working on some effects and stuff.

(http://s18.postimage.org/5vucjnk0p/horrorscream.png)

(http://s13.postimage.org/4vx3xyqav/tornado1.png)

Yes, use blend modes when drawing that sprite, I don't know exactly what blend modes you need for source and destination but take a look over here (http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=512187).

Rock and roll.
(http://s15.postimage.org/9exlbqn7v/rocks1.png)

They look awesome. Are they destructable?

nice piece of art !

Hmm... I don't know if all those rocks will be destructible.
I've been having issues with rocks and gravity, they keep getting stuck on eachother and floating in the air.

My question from earlier has been solved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT9AcSTT6bY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT9AcSTT6bY)

TheSnidr figured out how to get the effect working.
Now I've gotta start finishing his animations.

Stationary texture, yesssss
(http://i.imgur.com/eCPOC.jpg)

Spoiler alert (http://s12.postimage.org/zcngtzc2l/firegiraffe.png)
This is going to be a bitch to animate...
Still don't like how it looks to be honest.

You're drawing a void background with a surface over it, the monster sprite subtracts from the surface showing the background is that right  :lol: ?

Hopefully that monster moves around a lot, so that the effect is obvious enough.

Roughing out some tile ideas.
(http://s16.postimage.org/m9j0xqiwl/subdivtiles.png)
Better than the old?

(http://s9.postimage.org/vr02o1ebz/subdiv.png)


I guess so?
I don't know, I'm not much of a programmer - I'm an artist.
Had to ask assistance of a programmer friend to get it figured out.
Since I don't know anything about surfaces in Game Maker.

Yea I'm hoping to make the monster move a lot, the background will also be fixed and touched up.

I'm going to start a new part of this devlog now.
Please let me know if you like this sort of information, I'll keep posting things like this in the future as I begin working on the chapters and levels more thoroughly.

Today we learn about the first sphere of consciousness "Malkuth"
(http://s7.postimage.org/tx4ep9wuf/malkuth01.gif)


Symbols and images often identified with this sphere are;
Storages
Memories
Gravity
Freedom
Earth, dry land
Rose

This sphere is divided up into sections:
North -- Karmic forces
East -- Desire and emotional forces
South -- Silence and forces of inertia
West -- Limiting and restrictive forces


Malkuth will serve as the tutorial chapter, teaching you all aspects of the game without actually telling you anything about it.
It will likely be one of the largest chapters in the game.

(http://www.ghostwoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/MalkuthTemple.jpg)

I like the new tiles, but they look kinda odd with lots of little ones stacked together. Also they might look odd being destroyed.

Your right the tiles do look weird in-game.
Especially when it breaks up...


(http://s16.postimage.org/u6xd5aus3/wolf.png)
This is all very WIP
Never really drawn a wolf before.

(http://s14.postimage.org/y0ckpngnx/chomp.gif)
The jaws look pretty messed up, will have to fix this add some tension to the the bite so it doesn't feel so mechanical.


(http://s13.postimage.org/p1yyjbirb/walled_garden.png)

You want the image to link to this: http://s16.postimage.org/6spdtdcur/wolf.png

I think the bottom part of the legs are too long. Looks pretty good though.

I think the lower jaw should be moving more than upper.  It might also look better if its head draws back and then lurches forward for the bite.

To clear up the back legs, they are bulls legs maybe I should just make them normal wolf legs.
I agree with all of these suggestions.

(http://s17.postimage.org/7lg96ttjj/pyramid.png)
Okay so thats one background started, I should concept out a few more before the night is done if it's in me.

I like the wolf design very much, it's really creepy! Maybe you could use an intercalation frame or two to the jaw. Maybe you could use the same mechanic of white shark jaws as a reference.

Thats a great idea I'll certainly look into some shark chomps.

Lets keep this momentum going.

(http://s13.postimage.org/6k0y77ujr/moonriver.png)

Great colours in that night water scene.

(http://s15.postimage.org/tv1fo30y3/hands.png)

I really feel like using this beksinski piece as a background.
Mainly because look at the small guy at the the bottom of the piece.
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Dhcwuz5P-IQ/T4w33-kF2AI/AAAAAAAAG1Y/xhd8-Gr9wkw/s1600/Zdzislaw+Beksinski+polish+art.jpeg)
(http://s14.postimage.org/p0f8am569/beksinski.png)

Threw this up in the sky, cause I felt like it.
It along with everything else in this thread still needs to be finished but at least they are started.  :tired:
(http://beksinski.dmochowskigallery.net/gfx/db/big/003442.jpg)

(http://s14.postimage.org/hk3k5ps4x/ocean.png)

Made a new tree of life based on the Yggdrasil from norse mythology.


(http://s7.postimage.org/8xjchfxiz/treeoflife.png)
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/The_Ash_Yggdrasil_by_Friedrich_Wilhelm_Heine.jpg/465px-The_Ash_Yggdrasil_by_Friedrich_Wilhelm_Heine.jpg)

Better than my old placeholder "tree of life" if it could be called that.
(http://s10.postimage.org/evtm9fegp/treeofcrap.png)

That's gonna be a monster to pixellate.  Nice new avatar btw!

gosh

Are you familiar with Barlowe's Inferno?

I don't remember seeing any images from it in the thread and I think it fits the theme of your inspiration.

So;
(http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NDk5WDcyMA==/$%28KGrHqF,!k0E67ynY32KBO8qs5f%29cg~~60_3.JPG)
(http://spacereptilesareyourfriend.com/images/2-Wayne-Douglas-Barlowe-War-Horse.jpg)
(http://ftp.kwasd.ru/dropbox/Barlowe%27s%20Inferno/bs-WayneBarlowe-Inferno-Agares.jpg)

Inferno (and pretty much anything by Barlowe) is definitely worth owning if you don't already.

I really appreciate your imagination, Bones.  This is great, compelling stuff that I definitely want to experience/explore/see more of.  One of the very few games I'm looking forward to.

It has long been following the project. So, I downloaded and tested the tech demo. This game combines really interesting mechanics and awesome graphics. Interesting that this game developed for 4 years. I really surprised about content of this game.

So, how I can complete first stage?

Bugs:

- Error with o_antiPlayer in player VS anti-player stage
- room_goto(Menu) error in shop stage

Cheers, Dec.

Thanks very much guys, I need some motivation these days.

Seeing as though I'm unemployed which makes me broke and rather hungry.
Since being kicked out of art school out for being too poor, my motivation has been pretty low lately.

@Scut
Figured this is my feature game so I may as well go all out in terms of pixeling objects and backgrounds.
I feel like I've bit off more than I can chew, but I do have a large mouth.
Don't want to let my mouth write a check that my ass can't cash.

@oyog
I believe I've seen some of Barlowe's Inferno long ago, but had forgotten about a lot of it.
Thanks for the references.

@Connor
Golly such a nice thing to say, thanks.
After working on something for so long you start to question if any of it works at all.
So it's good to get that reassurance that things are looking decent.

@UncleDec
Thanks for taking the time to try it all out.
I appreciate the feedback and bug reports.
The first stage I believe has the fire sword in it, you are supposed to lure the sword into some water so that the fire sword gets put out by the water.

Though I have to work on making that seem a bit more obvious to the player.
At the moment I'm worried that the boss fights don't have enough impact.
The ones I've started to work on seem a bit boring, so thats no good.

For the last few weeks I've been trying to implement an inventory system.
I've come very close to getting one to work but I seem to run into issues with moving the view and inventory at the same time.
I wanted to try and avoid making the inventory a separate screen.

It's a shame I suck at programming or a lot of this process would go quicker.

you should try teaming up with a programmer perhaps? there are probably plenty who'd like to help, you just need to find the right one

anyway too bad about art school, but i've never heard of someone being kicked out for being too poor before; usually if you're poor you can take out school loans or get financial aide? unless it's a private school that doesn't accept those things i guess

TheSnidr has been helping me out big time, since he's the one who created the procedural trees, and a few of the effects.
I've been looking around at inventory examples but I haven't found any that are;
a) Easy to implement
b) Easy to work with
c) Stay in the view properly with no errors
I've had three examples get close to working, but never got close enough to fully work without errors.


I DID IT!
Found this example (http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=448094)
(http://i35.tinypic.com/25jxfg2.png)
So far I've managed to get it all to work in my game.

As for school it's a complicated mess.
I was receiving financial assistance for the first two semesters from a provincial service.
When the third semester came they paid for my tuition and gave me $1800 for living assistance and school supplies.
18 days later I received a letter stating that the payment was a mistake and they had taken my tuition from the school and I owe them $1800
So I owed my $1800 tuition + $1800 living assistance cheque.
I paid off my school tuition that semester by taking out all of my savings.

The following semester I fell back in payments because I had no money saved up and my job as a sign spinner wasn't giving me enough hours.
I won $900 on the radio so I managed to pay half of my tuition, but I still owe $1800 to Alberta Works for their financial mistake.
I was two months over due and so they told me I wont get credit for the semester I just finished, and cant register for my next classes until I pay them $900

Here are some more inspiration images.

Salvador Dali - Saint George and the dragon
(http://ujuo.org/wp-content/uploads/HLIC/6bff3cd0650089c155126384a4349a39.jpg)

Anne Bachelier
(http://www.cfmgallery.com/Artwork/Anne-Bachelier/1010/Anne-Bachelier-C%27est-un-Ile.jpg)

(http://www.cfmgallery.com/Artwork/Anne-Bachelier/1010/Anne-Bachelier-Au-Dela-de-la-Grande-Porte.jpg)

Telarca@dA
(http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/356/4/4/telarca_by_afantini-dlx10m.jpg)

JasonEagle@dA
(http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/339/0/4/ascendant_by_jasonengle-d4ia5rk.jpg)

Started on some items.
I'll probably get some more done tonight.
See if you can guess what they are, some of them aren't very obvious.

(http://s17.postimage.org/az6n8omrz/items.png)
(http://s14.postimage.org/g59h7hapt/items.png)

Lantern | Eye of Providence | Twig | Apple
Lantern Oil | Grenade | Phoenix Ashe | Incence
Mushroom | Gryphon Feather | Egg | Coin
Snake Tongue | Seed | Drum | Sand
Skull | Black Mass

All seem obvious to me (I think).
Lantern | Pyramideyefuckyou | Twig | Apple
Potion? | Eye or Mine | Burning sand? Pheonix? | Rocfeather
Drugs |

Nice icons :-*

I'm begining to organize all of my music collection together so I can keep track of everything I have freedom to use.
Feel free to take a listen to them and let me know how they fit.

Sound producers who have contributed:
OverCoat
★ Aussie All-Star ★

http://archive.org/details/GardenArt (http://archive.org/details/GardenArt)
http://gratisvibes.com/post/dark-dark-music/ (http://gratisvibes.com/post/dark-dark-music/)
http://gratisvibes.com/post/the-sky-is-never-dark-anymore/ (http://gratisvibes.com/post/the-sky-is-never-dark-anymore/)
http://gratisvibes.com/post/rust-to-rust/ (http://gratisvibes.com/post/rust-to-rust/)
http://gratisvibes.com/post/greenbient/ (http://gratisvibes.com/post/greenbient/)

Hoping to collect all the original scores that have been sent to me and I'll zip them all up so they can be downloaded as well.

And here is a video update on an enemy from my game.
VIDEO (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp0n1Ivx-DA)
It's animation is so realistic I could almost touch it.

So after four years I have finally designed the FIRST 5 seconds of this game.

(http://s10.postimage.org/3mz2ucr4p/firstlevel.jpg)
I took a page out of the mario book and decided to let the player learn how to play the game in the first 10-15 seconds of gameplay. Without specifically telling the player what to do.

After this wall I think some kind of large gap which the player has to jump and learn to wall jump will be the best follow up lesson.

(http://s9.postimage.org/eqinckzyn/beksinski.png)
(http://s9.postimage.org/62f9a8snj/beksinski.png)
Been working on this piece.
Once it's done it will decide the final quality for all the others.

I'm getting a good vibe from the latest update, keep up the good work !

Thanks man, I'm starting to feel good about this piece.
Still a lot to be done and not just on this background...

(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/beksinski.png)
(http://www.imgjoe.com/x/beksinski.png)

(http://i46.tinypic.com/htznu0.png)
Here are 7 of the 12-20 backgrounds I still have to make.
Trying to make it all one big panoramic image.

I especially like the last one with the creepy planetoid.  :handthumbsupL::wizard:

Looking great Bones.  I wish I could do giant pixel canvases at the speed you do.

That's actually another Beksinski homage, I still have a lot to add to it to make it a bit more mine and not a blatant copy of his painting.

Thanks Scut, I wish I could work even faster but I'm stuck with the speed I can do for now.
Will have to wait until I get robot arms so I wont ever have to undo a line.

Terrain idea!
I'm hoping to do a bit more with the terrain destruction feature of the game.
So to add a bit of variety I thought of having three different terrain types.
(http://s19.postimage.org/fwkefufkj/terrain.png)
- Rock; normal terrain, doesn't react to player
- Ice; cracks when the player jumps or lands on it
- Sand; pushes down while the player stands on it, also has a timer and will disappear shortly after the player walks on it.

Big thanks to Hempuli for two more terrain ideas.
- Lava Rock; Technically it's the same as "Rock" but it damages the player while he stands on it
- Sacred Ground; Standing on it makes attacking prohibited.

You could get into some really interesting puzzles with the different types of terrain. great idea!

Maybe i just didnt look hard enough, is there a mac demo anywheres?

Thanks I think it will add a lot more to the gameplay of the world so the player isn't always shooting to break the terrain.

I regret to inform you there is no mac demo, I will hopefully be releasing on mac but there likely wont be a demo unless I can get a game maker pro working on a mac to export one.

Edit:
Bahhh I just realized a problem with sand.
When you shoot out the terrain around it, it just stays as a big block...
(http://s19.postimage.org/ttbgu2mab/sand.png)
Looks a little lame for sand...

(http://s19.postimage.org/fo65z66oj/sand.png)
Decided to make the sand blocks generate a sand particle, I think it makes the sand at least seem a little more sand-like.
Though it's disappearing...

Which seems a bit odd for sand since sand doesn't just vanish and poof away.

Not sure if I can make the sand move without messing with the players collision.
Which has been a major problem with making any terrain have gravity, when it falls on top of the player; the player can't move.

Right now sand at least works differently to rock, but there are still times where it doesn't seem like sand because it doesn't sink or move, it just vanishes.

yay, bones is back!  :-*

I sure am!
And I'm back fulltime, now that I have a job I wont have to worry about starving to death in the near future.
So now I can devote all my time at home on the game, like I should have been doing everyday for the last three years, I'd be much further along if I had such...

Last night I officially released Phase two of my Indie-gogo campaign (http://igg.me/p/186672?a=192636).
That's right ladies and gentlemen donations are open yet again!

Benardete’s paradox

I got GameMaker Studio for free!


Now making levels should be much easier!
Since GM8.1 level editor allowed you to zoom out which I really liked.
I've been making this game in GM8 so it will be nice to get a free upgrade to the better level editor.

Guess that means I no longer need to raise $99 to purchase it since they just gave it to me, cause I'm awesome.  8)

Expect some more levels and a stable demo in the near future.

Awesome!

I have a question for you, Bones:

For the inventory, does it stay throughout rooms? Basically, does a persistent object keep it's variable values throughout rooms, or does it disappear?

The inventory is a persistent object, if it's open when you change rooms it will stay open until you close it.
Though I could put a timer on it and make it disappear if it's not used for a while.

Plugged in my scanner for you all.
Here are some paper notes I've jotted down here and there.


This first page was the first game design doc I wrote during class one day.
(http://s19.postimage.org/dlnt8v8lv/notes.jpg)

The following is a journal as kept by Atom.
(http://s19.postimage.org/pkzbg6e6r/Atoms.jpg)
(http://s19.postimage.org/nugaeownn/kabbalah.jpg)
(http://s19.postimage.org/6jpvmo503/treeoflife.jpg)
(http://s19.postimage.org/hkl0rox8z/Infinity.jpg)

Seeing physics diagrams and spiritual symbols on the same page makes me hot.

Okay hopefully this can better answer Gabriel's question.
Guess this could basically be the "Mission statement" if my game was ever to have one.

Simply put, this game is about infinity. ∞
Life from Death, that lovely juxtaposition which guides our lives and all generations of galaxies before us.
There are always two forces warring against each other within us, Yin and Yang.

(http://s19.postimage.org/p3e9uk18z/yinyang.jpg)

The Kabbalah tree of life is a metaphor for understanding the temple known as your being.
To ascend into the tree is to find one’s self and place in this metaverse.
Striving for Kether and gaining greater creativity; any ending information; finishing an inner spiritual quest and its causes and attainment; union with Elohim.
By the end of this game I don’t intend to have any specific ultimate meaning.
The assumption is that the player will walk away with their own take of what this game fundamentally means.
Since I suspect not everyone will play it the same way.

beautiful!

Thanks man.

Okay so IGF just announced that submissions are OPEN.
Now that I don't have to spend $99 on GameMaker:Studio I may as well spend $95 on entry fee.
Can't hurt to enter really.

I have opened a Twitter account for TWG, follow me @WalledGardenTWG

Have a lot of books to hunt down and read;
Trivium
Quadrivium
A theory of fun for game design
Valis - Philip K. Dick
Burt Harding: You are a light being
Power of now
Celestine Prophecy
Be here now

Does anyone else know of any existentialist books I should read or take into consideration?

Also does anyone know of any blogs that would be willing to feature my game?
I am in terrible need of some publicity for this project.
Afraid that if I have no coverage over the summer, I'm going to have a tough time releasing on December 21.
Since no one will know about it.

Today is my cake day on reddit so please upvote my posts. <3
I submitted my game to r/atheism, r/gaming and r/occult

www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/xycms/for_the_past_three_years_i_have_been_creating_a/ (http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/xycms/for_the_past_three_years_i_have_been_creating_a/)
www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/xybvu/today_is_my_cake_day_for_the_past_three_years_i/ (http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/xybvu/today_is_my_cake_day_for_the_past_three_years_i/)

Thanks Gabriel, I figured now is a good time to kick into gear and start cranking out some updates.
I spent one whole day on Reddit and Twitter, so I think I don't need to do that anymore.
I'll still use twitter to show updates, but it's best I stay away from procrastination traps.

As for the 3370 followers.
I already had $5 on Fiverr from a drawing I did of a potato in a kilt (http://i45.tinypic.com/vz9fmc.jpg).
Some guy just offered to get me 1000 followers for $5.
So really that drawing paid for the 3000 fake twitter accounts.

I assumed most of them would be fake, but with the fake ones come real followers.
I'd say maybe 300 of them are real, the other 3000 are likely bots.
But still from 10 followers to 300 seems worth the $5

I agree that the money could be spent better, but I don't plan on doing this again.
Just did it so my twitter page would seem inflated with followers and perhaps appear more popular than it is, thus enticing someone to follow me.
And so far it appears to be working since it's rising slowly.

I wish someone of importance would retweet me, that'd obviously help a lot.

My indie-gogo went up by $60 yesterday so I think it seems like a $5 well spent.

I did get some awesome comments on reddit yesterday here they are:







These honest comments are absolutely what I needed.
Some of these are the kind of questions I have been asking myself.

which retweet do you want retweeted? i'm not important but it'd perhaps help if you'd say stuff in the forums here like 'retweet me! here's a link to the tweet'

Retweet me! Here is a link to the tweet. (http://twitter.com/WalledGardenTWG/status/233266568593801216)

Thanks paul much love.  :gentleman:

Today is payday, I shall go buy some pens and Post-it notes.
Need to start making some to-do lists and get organized, my desk is a mess. I need to find a direction, create priority bug fixes and get that shhtuff done.

Met this local musician (http://www.hellomoth.com/) on Saturday his stage name is Hello Moth.
Will definitely be cool to get an original track from him.

Pressing 'S' aka Down will allow Atom to meditate.
(http://s13.postimage.org/4cffoykcz/meditation.png)

Meditation will let Atom save his game, and also allow him to astral project.
Astral projection will give Atom the ability to move through solids he can't break.
(http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs44/i/2009/124/2/3/ASTRAL_PROJECTION_by_swarooproy.jpg)
Image by swarooproy.deviantart.com (http://swarooproy.deviantart.com)

 :handclap: >:(

What to say?

The art style is effective for the mood, i't works,

I'm interested in physics, so you hooked me a bit with the physics thing but it doesn't really make that much sense nor the other "stuff".

It works, it looks cool.
 :handthumbsupL:

What doesn't make sense about it?
Care to elaborate on that? perhaps I could help answer some questions about how it all fits.

Are you wondering how physics plays into the game, it's actually not that deep into the game quite yet.
I don't have like 2d box physics or anything like that, so there are some pretty rudimentary video game physics inplace instead.

What "other 'stuff'" ?
All the religous/spirutal/accult "stuff" like Adam and Eve, Kabbalah, Yggdrasil, the Ouruborus, Yin and Yang, The Eye of Providence and Meditation?
I guess you may not yet see the connections between all of the related topics yet.
But they are there I assure you, I'm not just picking topics out of a hat.

Based on Nassim Haramein’s most recent scientific paper, The Schwarzschild Proton.

"This significant paper marks a new paradigm in the world of quantum theory, as it describes the nuclei of an atom as a mini black hole, where protons are attracted to each other by gravitation rather than some mysterious undefined strong force."


You must keep in mind the main characters name is Atom not Adam.

Perhaps you could help me fill any gaps in my idea that you may see?
Or ask questions so we can try to make the connections stronger.

If anyone feels there is something that needs to be discussed about the logistics of my game, this would be the place to do it.
I have been looking at this thing for so long that I'm convinced now that it's working as a whole, but if something doesn't work; If you see any flaws or plot holes in my storyline, let me know.


This thread has been extremely useful for me when people have ideas to contribute or suggestions on something I may have overlooked so please, help me.  :beg:

New video showing some actual work in game maker.
and attempting to make Atom meditate in-game.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i7UI9Ts2fU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i7UI9Ts2fU)

Maybe Atom should just slowly sink into sand instead of it breaking up?
and I could just do like sand animations when you enter it like the water.

This is looking really good - keep up the hard work.  :)

Looks really cool!  Perhaps when Atom is meditating, he could animate up and down slightly so it isn't so static.

I feel like meditate shouldn't be down because that's too easy to press and it brings up a save menu and stuff.

Well I was thinking of creating a decently long timer on it so the save doesn't pop up instantly, to avoid players from saving every two minutes.
Also have to think of how to let the player load their save file.

Though perhaps instead I should make save areas? Like a save stone or something.
The meditation could be a form of slow healing perhaps?


Found some older concept art from when I watched "The Fountain (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0414993/)"
Contains some of the HUD ideas I had.

(http://i50.tinypic.com/2qk13yq.jpg)

New youtube video (http://youtu.be/96oQ6yBmBQs)

Just working on air gusts, need these for a few levels.

The video looks great, like the way the ground deforms too.

What's the tune in that video? I dig it.

paged

Thanks although I'm considering changing the rock texture, since I still don't like how it looks.

It's an original track made by Overcoat (http://gratisvibes.com/post/the-sky-is-never-dark-anymore/) for the game.
He's going to work on another track when he gets some time.

Oh snap, I love that EP, got it in a compilation at some point a while back, didn't recognise it in the video though!! I mentioned I'd like to contribute some music a few pages back, would you still be up for that?

Yeah man I'm down with it, I'm encouraging everyone to attempt to work outside their comfort zones with sounds they may otherwise not have worked with before.

There are a few examples posted, but feel free to take your own interpretation on them.

I can give you a specific set of words to work with if you'd like?
Each song will have a certain theme or mood to it, to help contribute to each levels setting.

I'll take the time to read back over the thread and seek out the examples in the morning. A set of words is a good idea, I like working within confines, otherwise I just tend to 'do my thing'.

I hope when you release the game, you release all the strange occult concept art along with it.  I really dig that sort of stuff.

At the bottom of the first post.

Also pick a Sefirot and I shall give you a list of words based on that choice.
(http://www.chabad.org/media/images/68/EpsV680019.jpg)

Yeah I was considering putting them in some sort of "Extra" area of the game so people could see them all.
There are lots of them that I have laying around that have not yet scanned or posted.

In other news;

I found this page (http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WalledGarden) explaining what a Walled Garden is when referring to Wikipedia pages.
Also found this breakdown of Promethea (http://www.enjolrasworld.com/Annotations/Alan%20Moore/Promethea/Promethea.htm).
Putting these here so I have them for later.

The description of these Walled garden's reminds me of Beksinksi's void buildings.
(http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvx99lNJo71r7e3v8o1_500.jpg)

Also this page (http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?PiecemealGrowth) which talks about Piecemeal Growth is pretty interesting.
It's pretty much how my development has gone as an inexperienced game developer.

Karma system (http://youtu.be/BZnJaQaYLj8) is go.

The experiences aka "Achievements" will alter your karma as you go depending on what kind of experience it is.
Some will give you no karma, and some may alter your karma for the rest of the game.

Productive day so far.

Meditation + Astral Projection (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diNMevGVcLA) is implemented.
(http://s11.postimage.org/5l2e247kz/astral.png)

Working on adding depth to the backgrounds.
Parralaxing background attempt (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e05R0NCv_2M)
(http://s17.postimage.org/t10weavnz/screenshot.png)

That background...

Inventory update. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VckYsjdzEio)


I've had a couple of comments lately about the gun play and achievements in my game.
Not exactly sure how I should take them.



Since the gunplay adds to the casual factor of just destroying the world and seeing trees grow, so I don't see how it loses it's atmosphere if anything the gunplay adds atmosphere because of the Creation from Destruction juxtaposition.

The achievments are going to be changed to experiences and they will alter your karmic alignment.

Do I really need to make a passive game like Knytt in order for my game to be seen as deep or metaphorical?
I mean it's the players choice to use the gun, I will make it so the game is beatable in a passive way if people want to play it that way.

I've also changed the HUD because I realized all the information I had on the hud is displayed in the new inventory.

(http://s17.postimage.org/vl9t6uz4f/hud.png)
So I can just use the HP bar and Overheat circle

Yeah, finally some colors from you. I have missed them so much in the early screenshots. Excellent background! :handthumbsupL:

Thanks Lazycow, you should go back a couple pages if you want to see all the other backgrounds I have to finish still.

Tweaking the tree growth speed. (http://youtu.be/76EzX4vM-G0)

Waiting for TWG's Indie-DB page (http://www.indiedb.com/games/walled-garden) to become public.

Parralaxing attempt #2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrkCI1qKPfw)

I have to remember to read all of this (http://www.illuminati-news.com/00363.html#ia) and this (http://www.lawofone.info/).

In the next few days I will be applying for an artist consultation from Alex Grey and his wife at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (http://www.cosm.org/events/artists_con.html).
I would like to go for a week retreat and set some life goals and measure my accomplishments while I'm there.

And just a reminder to everyone there are only 50 days left in my indie-gogo (http://www.indiegogo.com/WalledGarden?a=192636).

That's incredibly exciting. I'm still a little disappointed I never got up there while I lived in MA.

Cool, I've got relatives who live a few minutes away from there.  Enjoy your stay and good luck with the campaign!

(http://button.indiedb.com/popularity/medium/games/19313.png) (http://www.indiedb.com/games/walled-garden)
Put TWG on indiegogo

Yeah I live in Canada and have never been to the US.
So it should be interesting if I'm accepted for consultation.

Thanks, nothing is for certain yet - all I can do is hope. :D

In other news.
I have figured out a way to hide Experiences aka Achievements so they don't break the emergence of the game.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZnJaQaYLj8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZnJaQaYLj8)
To elaborate on this video from earlier in the week.

I have implemented the karma system into the HUD

(http://s12.postimage.org/ve2j1i05p/hud1.png)

With that I leave you with this science factoid;
Magnetism is caused when atoms are all pointed in the same direction.

For the next little while I will be working on the Hidden Hand.
(http://gonzoj.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/6a00d8341bf6cb53ef00e54f2d53428834-800wi.jpg)

Based on Left for Dead's info_director (https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Info_director)
The Hidden_Hand object will be an automated entity which will alter different aspects of gameplay based on the players actions and logic timers to add a bit of randomness to the mix.

I will keep the information that is monitored a secret, however I will list a few things the hidden_hand might manipulate while you are playing.

• Add or remove certain level geometry.
  
• Specific spawning behavior depending on it's "anger level" such as panic events.
  
• Weather.
  
• Complete emptiness/silence and choice of music.
  
• Spreading out of particular items.
  

The Hidden Hand has three modes
Mother, Teacher, and Destroyer

Mother is nurturing, it's friendly doesn't put you in danger.
Teacher isn't as nurturing it tries to teach you about the dangers of the destroyer.
If you anger the Teacher the Destroy takes effect and begins to throw curve balls at you.

(http://s15.postimage.org/qvmrp1y1j/h_h.png)
The equivalent of  :smb02:

If anyone has any ideas as to other things the hidden_hand could manipulate I'd love to hear them.

Sounds both very intriguing and interesting.

I don't know how well this works with the gameplay you have planned or even if it's possible to implement but randomizing creature behavior a bit. You'll also have to excuse me if you've already mentioned something like this in the devlog, I haven't been following it that long.

I imagine the world would feel more alive if the creatures aren't always behaving the same way when alone or around other creatures. Occasionally creatures of the same kind might be playing before interrupted. Or a predatory creature might be hunting something before interrupted. Stuff like that.

Ok, I watched the "parallax attempt 2"...

The parallax effect itself: It looks supercool at the beginning when the player descends, but then some glamor vanishes in the sidescrolling area. Maybe because you just see the background and almost no foreground blocks are there for your eye to look at. (maybe scrolling a bit more downwards would help?) Also, another background layer with different speed would be nice of course...

Another thing: I was thinking about these fragments that stay in the air after you destroy some blocks... A cool effect would be if they just fall to the ground, otherwise they look a bit "wrong", because they just float in the air.

Anyway, nice work so far, keep it up!  :handthumbsupR: ;D

I tought I recognized that animation style! Then I realized who you are from your nickname from your youtube channel. We attempted to make a red ninja game once a while ago :)

Good luck with your project, it seem to be a pretty rich game with lot of great features. I absolutely love the art, since not only I love your style but I'm also a Miyasaki fan.

Keep up the good work!

@oyog Yeah, for a while there I was contemplating having certain creatures actually mate for spawning and stuff. But I thought that was a little over-kill.
I do like the idea of like an idle/frolic mode to change up the standard moving.

@Lazycow
Hey thanks, yeah that room is just my sandbox room where I'm prototyping everything at the moment so it's not really much of a level.
I had terrain them falling, but everything kind of just falls apart when I do that, and then there isn't much of an actual level in very little time.
At the moment when you jump on them they do fall if they are single bricks.

@Kapser
Hey yeah I still have all the animations and images from that project.
Red Ninja was quite fun, I enjoyed the little wall jumping and stabby prototype you had made.
I appreciate the comments; This solo project has taken a lot out of me over the past few years. :tired:

Thanks to a kind donation of $150 from an individual on indiegogo I was able to purchase myself a new laptop.
So development should start coming back to daily updates very soon.

Attempting to convert the game over to GM Studio so I can release on Mac.
Have been having a lot of issues with most of my code being now obsolete.
Have to change my entire sound system.
I finally got the game to compile and run in GM Studio, but it gets an error if you do just about anything at the moment...

Release on mac isn't looking too bright.

In other news...

Yesterday I got a tattoo of TWG's desktop icon, now my dedication to this project is on my body for life.
(http://s12.postimage.org/jgmyod39p/yinyang.jpg)

This is all really high-level stuff. I don't see that often in games, and I'm intrigued to see more.

Also, nice tat.

That's some hardcore game deving commitment right there.

That's some dedication you got man. If you ever need any help, be sure to hit me up.

Thanks Swagger, that's quite a compliment to be called high-level.
I am honored for such a title.

CD, green thanks I take my game quite seriously these days.
So this tattoo is a visual reminder that I need to be working on my game at all times while I can.


Fanart by Bannon Rudis (http://Bannon Rudis)
(http://s11.postimage.org/gt8ofhleb/garden.jpg)
(http://s11.postimage.org/gt8ofhleb/garden.jpg)

(http://s8.postimage.org/c8mombi3p/Gryphon.png)
Working on implementing the Gryphon.

At the moment you jump to dismount horses, so I'm trying to think of how the Gryphon will work when you jump on top of it.
Perhaps pressing up will flap it's wings otherwise it like perhaps kind of glides falling slowly to the ground?
Since it's not on the ground the more likely button to push is down for a dismount.

Here is a video of it in action. (http://youtu.be/nrDLcOQbbbU)
There are no animations yet so it's static, bare with me.

Love lurking this thread and seeing how this project is coming along. Awesome tattoo!! Even if it wasn't from TWG it would be an awesome tattoo.

Thanks Calvin! :]

Here is a nice obstacle I've come up with.
(http://s9.postimage.org/4fcgbdum7/IMG_1620_1.jpg)

(http://s15.postimage.org/i4qrrh763/castle.png)
It's actually a neat little puzzle to get up to that ledge.
These "castle" graphics are placeholder, I will need to do up a castle tileset.
I also have to work on the global pallet and making sure all the colours match and are coherent throughout the entire game.
Because right now certain things stick out being more saturated and what not.

- In the North you come face to face with your karma. However, this karma is presented to you in a most unique and wondrous way: in some kind of dramatic adventure. Sandalphon has a castle in the North, and often you will have to travel to this castle to retrieve some kind of tool.

You may have to cross a mote or engage in some kind of struggle to get there. However reaching this castle or goal is a sign that you are able to balance out your human karma and is one of the signs needed to show to Sandalphon that you are ready for the rest of the Tree of Life.

Working on fleshing out the castle tiles.
(http://s18.postimage.org/ems3h23u1/castletiles.png)

(http://s16.postimage.org/ve8wxj8xh/wiptiles.png)
Considering giving the fall bricks faces.

(http://s15.postimage.org/88hgqtk6z/Shading.png)

(http://s15.postimage.org/km65mdta3/coloumns.png)

(http://s11.postimage.org/6ww5ms8ar/throne.png)

(http://s10.postimage.org/4canphwjd/castle2.png)

Less than 38 hours remaining in the indiegogo fundraising campaign (http://www.indiegogo.com/WalledGarden).

(http://s9.postimage.org/qmx04og2n/malkuth1.png)
Constructing Malkuth.
Based on an earlier post (http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=14623.msg741882#msg741882) in the thread.

(http://s8.postimage.org/j4bz2nlhx/Malkuth_Temple.jpg)

Guess I'll just keep on truckin'

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Cole_Thomas_Expulsion_from_the_Garden_of_Eden_1828.jpg)

The next few videos will be the construction of this level based on the painting by Cole Thomas.
I will record myself pixeling each separate layer of the background in the next video.

Here is video 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM8rI_AeohU)

Here is video 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IziOPm05MCo)
A short video showing some dither action for anyone interested in seeing my process, let me know if I should do more of these or not.

Yes, please. It's frustratingly uncommon to be able to see people's workflow on projects of this sort.

Alright, here is a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y4_n16MCT0) of me working on the Yggdrasil a bit.
(http://s13.postimage.org/99hpg6e3b/treeoflife.png)

(http://s11.postimage.org/nca0qjukz/treeleaves.png)

For some reason I'm getting some draw problems with the border of the surface.
(http://s13.postimage.org/jf8w6g513/leafboarder.png)

This will currently be what I'll be working on implementing in the next few days and get it all working.

A big thanks to TheSnidr (http://thesnidr.blog.com/) for his awesome contributions.
Here is a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_bVE6yDVfg) of the leaves in action.

I've been trying to figure out good things to put along the top area of a level.
For a while it's looked weird having terrain so high up all the time, so it's nice to have some alternative objects to walk on.

Decided to take a page out of the book of Mario.

(http://s15.postimage.org/jk24w49x7/airlevel.png)

That looks nice!  :-*

This looks really great so far, but I can't help but feel that the brick tiles are boring, especially compared to Yggdrasil and those awesome trees.

i'm surprised the indiegogo campaign didn't succeed, the game looks far better than a lot of games that reached much higher goals. i think it's mostly a matter of marketing

@Happymonster - Cheers - Right now I'm hoping everything looks like it belongs together.
Need to establish a global palette still.

Yeah they are pretty boring... Tiles and backgrounds have usually been my down fall.
So all the tiles are all still very WIP until I've made up my mind on a good design.

What can you do right.  :shrug2:
I'm amazed this game has gotten me $550, it's my most profitable project as far so I'll take what I can get.
It seems to be that if I don't do a good professional trailer, I have little chance of getting any viral hype.

I got a fairly good reception on reddit on the Occult (http://www.reddit.com/r/occult/comments/xyh0j/for_the_past_three_years_i_have_been_creating_a/), Esotericia (http://www.reddit.com/r/Esoterica/comments/y1sop/for_the_past_three_years_i_have_been_creating_a/), Antitheism (http://www.reddit.com/r/Antitheism/comments/xyj15/for_the_past_three_years_i_have_been_creating_a/).
Although gaming and indie gaming didn't seem to like it as much.

Here is a video of the clouds (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lETcffCEKMw) I posted bout an hour ago.

(http://s11.postimage.org/nu85o9byb/Relax_Concept.jpg)

(http://s11.postimage.org/4hh9hzmbn/Cave_Concept.jpg)

Working on refining some of the sprites designs.

(http://s17.postimage.org/d868e8mij/frog.png)

(http://s10.postimage.org/fmsyq9pc9/touchups.png)

<3 Creepy Unique Beautiful.

(http://s17.postimage.org/6wi583qnj/beesandphis.png)
Doing some more sprite work.
The wasps/bees I had in game just seemed pointless, they flew around and crowded you but it was fairly boring.
So I decided to make a deadlier bee by giving it a drill like the drill pig.

They will be like moving fall bricks, perhaps not an instant-kill when the hit you.
But perhaps something like 1/2 or 2/4 of the players health.
You also wont be able to shoot them from below as their drill will be their defense point.

Also I didn't like that the phish I had just looked like a regular fish, and it also didn't have any attack patterns.
(http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/104/cache/fish-transparent-head-barreleye_10442_600x450.jpg)
The phish will now charge at the player and jump out of the water at him and fairies.

 :-* @ EVERYTHING

Looks real ambitious, keep it up!

(http://s8.postimage.org/r7iqni50l/raven.png)
(http://s12.postimage.org/mp8zyn6st/phrog.png)

(http://s10.postimage.org/c89tk1twl/cloudgif.gif)
(Animation still WIP and appears faster in-game)

Have added what I believe to be a decent logic system to distribute karma influence based on the actions taken by the player.

Here is an example of an interaction with the Bee enemy -
1. Lawful to jump on the bee and disable it
2. Chaotic to shoot the bee while it's enabled
3. Good to let it live and become re-enabled
4. Evil to kill it while it's disabled

Video of the bee in action! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9wNbvglA5s)

Is there anyway to achieve Chaotic Good with that rule set? Or can shooting it disable it as well?

Absolutely.

You can be Chaotic Good just as much as you can be Lawful Evil.
If you jump on the Bee after shooting at it; Managing to disable it, leaving it to re-enable it's self.
That could be considered Chaotic Good.
I could also make it so you can disable the bee by shooting it from the side, perhaps being the chaotic choice?

I'm currently working on establishing a global palette of 60-64 colours.
That way I don't end up with weird clashing colours or pick a colour that really isnt much different than one available in the existing palette.
(http://s8.postimage.org/r11lj5kkh/globalpalette.png)
(http://s11.postimage.org/g6ukw9yqn/globalpalette1.png)

(http://s8.postimage.org/m9rv48hph/magicianroom.png)
(http://s12.postimage.org/6wx7o0xcd/malkuthnorthtemple.png)

(http://www.learntarot.com/bigjpgs/maj01.jpg)(http://www.learntarot.com/bigjpgs/maj02.jpg)

Those old tiles were starting to bug me.
(http://s13.postimage.org/y3utegxzb/rockandfoliage.png)

(http://s14.postimage.org/cbfc4xlvl/rockandfoliage.png)
Going to need a lot more foliage than this if I don't want it to seem too repetitive.
Have a little over 276 hours until the demo for The Walled Garden will be released.

looking cool

Thanks Jan, glad you like what you see.

(http://www.learntarot.com/maj00s.gif)
(http://s9.postimage.org/g1naa1lwv/foolcard.png)
(http://s7.postimage.org/e5x6wk06j/expulsioncole.png)

I absolutely love all the referential material you have for this game. And your karma system is an interesting thing. I might have to backtrack a bit if you already told us, but how will the karma affect things in the game?

Great stuff, keep it up!

I think if you are going to throw in Rider-Waite Tarot cards symbolism then the rest of the graphics should reflect that style. It looks a bit odd at the moment as the rest of the graphics are in a very different style.

The karma system I am using is Dungeon & Dragons alignment system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignment_%28Dungeons_%26_Dragons%29).
The things in game that karma affect are monster interactions, item drops, determines storyline quotations that appear throughout the game, and possibly decide what music to play.

If you are evil or chaotic, you will be able to meditate on these actions, and get your karma to return to neutral status.

BTW, nice avatar - little guy looks like my main character.

Well I'm throwing in a lot more symbolism than just Rider-Waite's cards, since tarot is all about interpretation.

As for trying to get the graphics to be a similar style - I don't quite see what you mean.
I figured the game is starting to look more polished, rather than things are starting to clash or stick out.
But your saying it seems out of place? Care to elaborate on what exactly sticks out to you?
(http://s10.postimage.org/5fm1tatmh/foolsjourney.png)

You have detailed textures on some parts and very flat section on others (such as the outlined mountains, pillars, sky, etc..). Are they not done yet, or is this the final style? (which I thought it was)

Consider all current graphics work in progress.
The only background even close to being "rendered" is the big skeleton statue background.
That's why I had an indie-gogo so I could try to get paid to do this.
With my old full-time job I didn't have time to really work on much.

But since I quit my job recently these next two weeks are to be full-time gamedev.
The graphics that will be shown in the released demo will not be representative of the final draft.

Your getting to see everything get made including huge pixel art pieces.
I just have so many of them to do + animations + programming and finishing the game... xD
So yeah it's a slow process, especially at the scale I'm using - I'm fighting against pixel art at this point.
Most artists just say to use non-pixel art backgrounds at this scale, it's just logical.

But I'm illogical, which is why nearly everything in this game has been drawn in msPaint so it's taking me probably 100x longer than it would if I used a more appropriate pixeling application. Or at least something with layers.
Although now that I have some cash from the indie-gogo I should purchase a legit copy of Promotion.
That will making tiling 100% easier for me.

Oh I see, sorry I thought that most of the backgrounds were finished.

Cool, I'll read up on that D&D alignment system, thanks for giving me the link.

Yeah, now that you mentioned it the small character in my avatar image looks kind of exactly like your main character, haha. The image is a couple of years old though.
Lets see it as a common good taste  :beer:

I love the Beksinski references too. I worked on a movie project a year ago where Beksinski's dark imagery was a huge inspiration, though the project got cancelled a couple of months later.

Cool to hear that you have some more time on your hands now too. Really want to see this finished someday!

I'd say far from, I should infact change the percentage bar.
It's certainly not accurate as to how far I am into the graphics for the game which is why it's sat at 60% for a while.
It's that last half of development things have been conceptualized, now it's time to make them.

Most the backgrounds are still very rough sketches at most.

Here is about 10 minutes of rendering.

(http://s11.postimage.org/z0x73s2sj/foolcard.png)

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

As of tomorrow I have only one week remaining until Dec 21st, I will be releasing the demo for The Walled Garden during the end of the world.

Here is a to-do list for myself

• Finish the first 10-12 levels.
• Get the music system back in and working 100%
• Change save system to three save slots.
• Change some of the sound effects so they aren't so annoying.
• Get the Hidden_Hand at least working on a basic level.
• Implement crafting in inventory.

I've also solved the grenade distribution issue I was having.
I will be placing more less the equivalent of Mario coins around the levels aka Atoms.

You will be able to create basic grenades from the Atoms you collect.

I think this is the most successful end of world conspiracy ever, should be a brand of its own.

You've got my attention. This whole project reminds me a little bit of the Shin Megami Tensei games. And Persona.

Will your alignment affect the ending, and if it does, how? Like, is it going to be a simple 'good ending for good alignment, bad ending for evil,' or will Law and Chaos factor in?

Or am I digging too much into spoiler territory.



Also, I was wondering about what you're doing with the Tarot: are you going through all 22 major arcana? I remember Persona 3 based its plot on the Tarot, but it stopped after the 13th arcanum, Death. Iirc, the reason (or one of them) was that the ones after Death were just too obtuse and abstract to really be able to write a plot around.

I don't believe the alignment will affect the ending, there is ultimately only one very vague open-ended ending.
It's kind of been the keystone highlight of the entire game like "The moral of the story is..."
Karma plays more influence with in-game interactions than post-game results otherwise people will play a certain way just to get that particular ending rather than play how they want to play.

Atom ultimately has just one goal and objective in the game and that is to find Eve at all costs. I could perhaps think of one or two more endings, but they don't quite fit with the main ending that I have already have in place.

The 8 tarot cards after Death-13 are still quite important within the tree of life, so of course they will find their way in.
If Alan Moore can do it in Promethea, I should be able to do it with TWG.
I will also be trying to incorporate the lower arcana into this if I can find a good way how to, although that may be too much for me to try and include.


In other news...

I've been doing some soul searching lately and have been coming up with some interesting things that point to me making this video game - I'll share them with any of those who are interested in the things I'm beginning to notice.
Or perhaps it's simply a case of the number 24, seeing connections to things that aren't really there.

Adding my birth month, day, and year - then add the total digits together to get your "fate" card.
11+25+1988=2+0+2+4=8

8 =  Strength

Attributed to the card Strength is
"Intelligence of the Secret of All Spiritual Activities"

• Without my mother I wouldn't have become an artist, or had such interest in the Tarot.
• My grandmother introduced me to Mario and video games as a kid.
• My uncle and my dad's girlfriends were both very encouraging in my game creations.
• The four most influential figures in my life have all passed away.
• Since making this game I've noticed a lot of synchronicity in my life.
• Coincidences stacking up placing me to where I am now.
• The people I'm meeting, it feels like I was supposed to meet them.
• I've noticed that when people with the same energies or ideas come together in the same place magic happens.
• Our experiences from the past play a larger roll on the present moment than meets the eye
• I started pixel art when I lived in the same Group Home my mother lived in up until she met my Dad.
• Until attending Art College this game had no context or storyline.
• Since deciding upon the story of Atom and Eve, everything has sort of fallen into place.

Piecemeal Growth used to be considered bad by many of those who thought about software development. It was a sign of not planning ahead. But now most people acknowledge that iterative development and phased delivery are good. Piecemeal Growth is not nearly as controversial as it used to be, though many large organizations still try to develop software with a Master Plan.

Your bullet point list as 8 consecutive bullets, then a sentence is long enough to separate the the next four and the final paragraphe is four line long, 8!!

therefore 24 is the ultimate question to the ultimate answer 42, 24<>42

Yesterday after I had posted the 320th post, there was 32323 views with 22 pages.
I would have been royally mind fucked if it was the 323rd post on the 23rd page with 32323 views.

420 is a very important number to me.

I have used then number 42 often in random chances and variables within the game.

Four people, four tarot suits.
4+4=8

8x3(the holy trinity)=24 <> 42
It's all there. :giggle:

Today's updates

(http://s16.postimage.org/n1hlw0l6t/aceofswords.png)

• 9 Levels are now mostly finished!
  Although not aesthetically polished, they are each different enough and teach the player new things about the game.
  
  (http://s11.postimage.org/op7ip85v7/fungi.png)
  
  (http://s7.postimage.org/e22i0qtsb/first_9_levels.jpg)
• Hopefully without telling the player what to do in any of the levels they learn it on their own.
• I will have to get these first levels play tested before I release them to public this up-coming Friday
• If you would like to play test this demo please let me know so I can directly send you a link.

According to your method, I am the sage, or hermit.
 :wizard:

On the contrary, this isn't my method, it was one provided by Mary Katherine Greer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_K._Greer) in her introduction to Amber Jayanti's (http://s11.postimage.org/op7ip85v7/fungi.png) book I've been reading "Living the Qabalistic Tarot"

The Hermit eh?
Spiritual values, Guidance, Mystery quest

This formula can apparently be done to every day of life as well by attributing a card to each particular day from using this formula.
Although it doesn't say what to do if the number is above 22.

Today would be... 6
The Lovers.

Wholeness, Union, Harmonious interaction

The graphics look better with the shading and detail work. :)

You know I'm a fan but this is really coming on now Bones, I'm really looking forward to playing the demo!

I you're still working on it when I finish uni in April I'd love to contribute some more sound or music if you need it.

Yeah I feel it starting to actually come together as a game finally.
There will be lots of tile appearance issues in the demo, bare with them until I can manage to make a nice working tileset.
(http://s14.postimage.org/8718ipnlt/hiddenroom.png)

@happymonster Okay good, glad that it's only the WIP graphics that are clashing.

That's nice! I like the aura bands. From the earlier images in this devlog it seemed like the theme of the game was more of a nightmarish quality. Are you still going in this direction, or adding more positive elements too? :)

Thanks, I'd say it's still a dark theme with it's bright and cute moments.

(http://s11.postimage.org/xhhla9u2b/waterlevel.png)

Alright, giving this a spin on my nearing 6-year-old laptop with processing troubles.

Pressing E wherever will just send me to the next area, apparently. Holding down E eventually gives an error I have to ignore twice to proceed.

Eventually I got one that wouldn't let up, so I held Enter and it sent me back to the controls screen.

And now there are three of me

Using the download link on the first post.

@mooosh
Yeah it feels like it's finally coming all together.

@Linkshot
You just play tested a two year old tech demo that doesn't need anymore testing.
In the real demo, you will not be able to change levels like that.

I didn't really need a play test on a tech demo that I already know is glitchy as ass. :P
Maybe when I actually release the demo this Friday, you will then have something to actually test out.

I will probably select a few play testers to try it on Thursday to make sure it all works before I release to public.

Okay thank goodness for that. I was worried for a moment!

Places with finished art are looking great.  I really like the destructible terrain and the story/theme of this game.

Can't wait to play the demo when it comes out on Friday.

Oooo. Can't wait. Been silently watching this for a while. :)

Thanks, I was worried for a little bit that the destruction mechanic wasn't really working out level design wise.
But I've finally gotten the hang of how to distribute it throughout the levels.

Yeah, I just went back and played that old demo.
Be prepared for something more meaty and chewable.

Did an extensive play testing session today; Stomped out a game crashing bug! Made a couple more levels, Friday release is not looking so scary. :D

Besides the whole beginning of a new age with all that esoteric winter solstice jazz.

I can't get motivation if your invisible and silent - Thanks for speaking up.

I'm interested to play this. It has this vibe that kinda' reminds me of old 1980's Speccy games, where there was a proper sense of mystery and it didn't just bare it's soul like so many games do these days.

3 minutes to midnight!

Well the end of the world is upon us Ladies and Gentlemen.
I hope you know where your children are at this time.

We are all entering a new age.
Let this be a good one.

Without any further ado, I present to you the
2012 Winter Solstice Demo for the Walled Garden (http://www.indiedb.com/games/walled-garden/downloads/winter-solstice-demo-2012)

Enjoy the demo - I hope no one runs into any major issues.
I hope a good time is had by all.

Keep in mind, this is still my first ever video game. It's not amazing, it's not stunning, but it's a game!

Hey everyone, happy new years - Welcome to the Age of Aquarius!

Has been a couple weeks, since I've worked on the demo.
I see some major flaws in the design I've made so far, it's back to the grid paper for me.

Will be re-desiging levels so I can introduce things better and create better flow for the player.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOct_NM_vnY (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOct_NM_vnY)

Here is a video I would consider to be SPOILERS for anyone interested in learning the game on their own without any help.
But it shows the first level and half and the first actions one must take to get through such levels.

Now, I know this is a demo, and you probably expect glitches, so here are some I found, and also some criticism and stuff.

Pros:
That intro was cool as hell.

These graphics are cool as hell

Platforming is solid and it was fun to jump around and shoot stuff.


Cons:
Saving and loading with the generic Game Maker popup.

Random trees growing at inopportune times. (Yes, I know they come from destroying the blocks, but doing so isn't immediately obvious.

Fall damage that the game tells you nothing about until you hit the ground, and there is nothing to heal you at that point.

"Interact with object is Right-Click" Oh, I guess I'll right click on this savepoint? "No, that only applies to items in the inventory. Press S to interact." Oh. Explain this to us before we learn the inventory.

What objects are interactive? This blue block? Oh, a sword killed me. Okay.

How do you get past the sword? It's invulnerable to bullets and running away seems dumb because I just came from there. Oh, it killed me. I have to start all over.

I am at a dead end. What do I do. Oh, I can make a gun. Thanks for telling me back when I needed it.

I have to jump over these snails... oh no! I stepped on one! But it didn't hurt me. Oh.


Glitches:
When killed by the flaming sword, the camera no longer follows the player after a save game is loaded.

Two heads during a wall jump.

Random music ending.

Continuation of burning noise and no sound after death from flaming sword.

The trees have artifacts and white outlines that look like someone cut and pasted glitchy paper trees onto my screen.

No sound is coming out of my computer anymore. Why would you have people install a third-party program in order to listen to the music and sounds in your game? There are thousands of ways to implement sound without third party programs. Why would you do this? I have to uninstall this and restart my computer now, because I have no sound.


Basically, fix the glitches and review the cons and you should be fine. Capitalize on the pros and you will be great!


Damn that intro was really cool...

You liked the simple text and image intro that tells the story? :)
That's good I was afraid it was too simple.


ATM I don't even know how to add details to the slot based save system.
It's stuck being just Slot 1 - Slot 2 - Slot 3
But I certainly agree, I just got it in there so things would work properly. (Even though they don't)

The seeds that plant the trees have a random chance to do so, I could make them less random but that means more trees.

There is supposed to be a screen shake to alert the player of the impact.
Don't expect the game to tell you about it, the game tries to tell you as little as possible on purpose.
SPOILER: Once you have your weapon you can use Atom's to heal.
Eventually you find an item that removes fall damage.

This is an interesting point, I will add the 'Press S' instructions to the save points, that way it's more obvious what to do.

Blue block? It sounds to me like you are somehow seeing invisible objects.
The blue block would be the object that controls the players warp, it is set supposed to not be visible, so I don't understand how you are seeing it. :(

The fire sword level is being changed at the moment from feedback I got on the feedback forums (http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=30547.0).
I am making it more compact so I can put the water on the right side of the door.
At the moment there is such a SMALL window of survival to make it into the water.
Putting it on the right will make more sense, that way the player doesn't have to backtrack.
This is a learning curve for me, I've never made a game before.

Again, I don't want to tell the player anything - the inventory and the items themselves explain that you need to collect 20 Atom's to build a weapon of some kind.
Ironically after building your weapon, it is useless against the fire sword.

Yes, the snails are passive on purpose - Mainly because they cannot be killed.
Maybe later on I'll add ones with spikes.

Huh... Camera issue.. First I've heard of this.

Yeah drawing sprites at the right times is still weird for me, sometimes your entire character disappears.

The music ends randomly? Or randomly when you change levels?

I knew about the fire sound continuing after death, have that already fixed.

White pixel artifacts... This is out of my realm -  I didn't make the trees will have to speak to the creator.
Sounds like a graphics card issue, perhaps your graphics card does not like surfaces in game maker.


That "third party program" is the codec required to play OGG sound files on your computer.
I plan to have likely over 50 songs, which will make my file size huge. OGG is as small as I can get my sound files.
If the person doesn't have the codec to play OGG they wont have any music playing.

The demo is overly glitchy due to me rushing myself to release it by December 21st.
Updating the demo is easy and I can release v1.1 soon

Wow, looks like you have all of this under control. Very, very nice. I'm definitely looking forward to the next demo.

My graphics card handles surfaces really well. I don't know what that is.

I said blue instead of grey, accidentally. I can't see the warp thingy, so that's good ^^;

I still think the snails should be colored or act differently, or even be smaller, because to me black and white things moving up and across pillars screams 'enemy' to me.

Also I understand the 'idea' element with the first weapon, but I had no idea that I needed 20 atoms until I absently moused over it way later on, when I had around 40. The icon should glow a little, I think.

Also setting up the first level so the player learns how the game works without it telling them would help a lot. Right now it doesn't tell you anything, which is even worse.

Started working on the GUI, and implementation of the Karma system into the Exeperience Pop-up


(http://s8.postimage.org/598rlrm9h/karma.png)

(http://s9.postimage.org/kc40qo9tb/gui.png)
The bar will only appear when you experience something unique.

My religious opinions asside, this game looks really good.

Thanks.

I've been re-organizing the design document.
Instead of being a rather large word document, I decided to convert it into HTML form.
Allowing it to be organized like a wiki.

It can be viewed here (http://punky.ensellitis.com/TWG/index.html). (WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS IN SOME PARTS)
I am still working on much of it but this new organization allows me to add a lot of citations to references being made within the game. Which is handy for myself to remember them all.

The links for Unlockables, Experiences, Karma System and Hand of God are coughing up 500 Internal Server errors when I click them. Which is probably just as well; I don't want to spoil the game for myself.

but then again I do
even though I know it'll suck

are you making some point about forbidden knowledge
is that what this is

you monster

Hey Bones,

I made a profile here to post to you. I'm on a mac... but I love the sprites, and the backgrounds, and the demo vid. Love the intricacy of the theological world you're building too. W/r/t surrealism, Magritte's my guy, but I'm sitting here under GoED, so yeah I'm a fan.

I'm an indie musician and music producer, under the name Visager. I was emailing with Nate today, and he mentioned that he was turning over some tracks to you. Are you still looking for more music? I might have a good complement to those that are on the WG soundcloud. Let me know. Thanks and good luck.

Best,
~Josh

Absolutely, maybe, no?


I'm honored to make you register to tig source, I can always use some more original tracks, I'll send you some details via PM.

(http://s9.postimage.org/jh3brgdob/savepoint.png)

This weeks updates:

• I managed to get jumping through platforms to work so now I wont have the low roof issue with the clouds and mushrooms.
• Furiously studying level design
• Fleshed out most of the entire game
• Began working on a radial drawing effect

(http://s12.postimage.org/mp6z6irsd/astralplane.png)

(http://s7.postimage.org/knoil5b17/1_1.png)
I've been attempting to dissect the second level, as it's general feel is something I need to really work on throughout the whole game.

(http://s7.postimage.org/v3j65jfy3/aces.png)

Started working on a few radial type effects.
(http://s17.postimage.org/ow39wmi2n/karmarings.png)

(http://s7.postimage.org/96iuzxym3/sphere.jpg)

(http://s3.postimage.org/ro2c8k8xv/eyeofprovidence.png)

This effect seems to have a few uses like drawing multiple objects in a ring.
(http://s17.postimage.org/5qpem2cuz/cloudring.png)

Looks cool! :)

Very, very nice~

The firesword at the moment when rotating becomes rather temperamental when moving about.
I'm going to make it's behavior a bit more suitable, perhaps make it a bit smarter.

There were issues with the collision it was like this [-o----] and the o was the part that did the collision.

By creating this new object to do come collisions for me, hopefully I can get the sword to work a bit better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWbXT5Wx9II (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWbXT5Wx9II)

[ooooo]

Now I can do something like this, at the moment it is [o o o] but it is easy enough to modify and make the circles smaller and more of them to be in a straight line.

Decided to make the in-game quotes easier to to read by giving them a background.
I don't currently like how the curl looks on the scroll.

(http://s3.postimage.org/93p89ikfn/scroll.png)

That is Mario 1-2 you silly goof.

Whoops your right, total error in details on my part.  :facepalm:
I can always edit the image so no one will ever be the wiser.  :whome:

(http://s12.postimage.org/ljcclgr4d/1_1.png)

watching a few of the most recent videos (but not having read most of this thread, or tried the demo) a few questions:

- is the gun that destroys stuff going to be limited somehow in the game? like with limited ammo or something? because otherwise i can see any level being too easy since you can just blase your way through anything

- if you do damage to an area, and leave and return, is the damage repaired, or is it still there?

- do the procedural trees that grow up from the ground do anything, or are they just for cosmetic purposes?

anyway, been looking forward to this game for a while. (i'd rather wait and play the full game before trying out the demo though, so as to get the full experience all at once.)

Why is the in-game image different than the one on the left? The left one is much better.

There is a limit in the ammo.
The gun it's self has an overheat and can only be shot for so long.
I'm trying to make many of the bosses fights indirect so you aren't just shooting it for a while till it dies.

I certainly wont make it easy for the player to directly shoot all enemies.
The gun was really only intended for destruction of terrain.
Which I'm trying to create a more focused game design based upon while also including the enemies I've created.

At the moment the damage is still there when the player returns to old levels.
I'm not too sure the tree's will stay if you close the game and return, but the terrain will likely stay broken.

At the moment they are strictly aesthetic, although I was considering adding some bird objects that interact with the tree.
I just spent an hour or so figuring out how to create fruit objects on the branches, was harder than it should have been.

I was planning on creating a couple tree types so the fruit will change depending on the tree.
Or I could just have one fruit that simply heals the player when you use it in the inventory.

Thanks, I've been doing my best to not let the story devour the game, which is what has been happening.
I don't think it's a bad thing, but it's slowing down the creation process cause I just keep finding new stuff and want to add it right away.

I know a few people who wont play it until it's done, likely the best choice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItziNSatj8w (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItziNSatj8w)
This might be an extremely rare item that may be fun to play with.

(http://s12.postimage.org/4i8yrb3w9/buddha.png)(http://s7.postimage.org/ohb29waqf/buddha.png)

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/10890_513777661994643_1514437599_n.png)
I've been productive this week, made 2-3 levels.
Been looking at my old videos for some inspiration.

I'll hopefully release a new demo in the next month or so.

Updates

• Restricted meditation to only when the player is standing on solids.
• Restricted the ability to meditate underwater, instead now when you hold or press down you swim down.
• Added oxygen to the game when the player is underwater.
• The player now heals slowly over time while meditating.
• Astral projection will not occur unless the player is full health.

(http://s17.postimage.org/ltzhlr4y7/oxygenbar.png)

I love the concept and the whole aesthetic of this. So many interesting ideas and details (one I've just noticed is the 'eden' in your logo - nice touch!).

It might be because the curl is very round whereas the main body of the scroll is very rectangular with a slight curve. Try incorporating that kind of shape language to the curl part by making it resonate the main shape of the scroll better.

"Eden" in the title was totally coincidental.

Here is a new destruction tile I'm working with.
(http://s10.postimage.org/nu1rt1o0p/new32x32.png)

(http://s8.postimage.org/5mdw9rtnp/newdestructable.png)

(http://s10.postimage.org/k74fthluh/colours.png)

(http://s8.postimage.org/5by41oipx/decor.png)
Started working on these decorative dollar bill things seen on the great seal.
Can't quite get them exactly how they appear on the bill, but close enough.

(http://s14.postimage.org/peijpzpyp/decor.png)

(http://s15.postimage.org/jvy6zjgzb/marchup.png)
Got some more pixel pushing done this morning.

Here is a list of updates I've made in this past month.

• Roughed out 4 new levels
• Began creating the Astral Plane
• Added an asteroids/jezzball type object that splits when shot.
• Added a Bullet Bill type object.
• Created a teleporter object (the black rectangles)
• Pixeling more foliage and scenery

Not much progress lately I'm sad to report.
I'm at a fork in the road where I have to choose if I start to develop the game in GM:Studio for the mac release and better level editor.

Or do I do I continue to work on the GMK that I have been working on for 4 years while I've been learning Game Maker.
The existing GMK has become messy, I've forgotten what some things do, and often look at it unsure where to start.

I now know more about game maker than I did when I started.

The con to GM:Studio is it's often unstable and crashes on me.
The con to staying with GM 8 is no mac release and crappy level editor.

Pro to GM:Studio mac release + and zoom function in level editor and the GM8 version still exists to work from.
Pro to GM8 I don't have to rewrite anything and just keep working on it how it is in the flawed and broken shambles it is.

Also lack of responses from anyone has left me without much motivation to do either.
As I have been the last one to post here in the last couple months...
Many of my friends have been preparing me for the first re-write of the project.
I assume it's natural for many large projects to need to do so after a certain amount of time.

Fez got restarted like three times I think, so I'd only be working on second version.
Luckily not many of the levels are too intensely developed for it to be hard to recreate them in the new version again once it's all working and in order.

It's a difficult problem. I guess it comes down to what kind of person you are - if you are A: the type who likes a proper marriage to a project and can work on it for ever, or if you B: have new ideas all the time and the difficulty is finishing anything.

If you're an A, it might be worth it, because you want to create one game, and make it perfect, and you know that you are commited enough to continue. I've no idea what it looks like in an A's head, but I can imagine that they would be dissapointed to release something flawed, making it worth it to work even longer in order to get it right.

If you're a B, like me, it's under no circumstances worth it to restart! B comes up with four new ideas every day, it's finishing them that's difficult. So to the B ideas are not a valuable resource, but work is. Which makes it a bad bargain to trade away many hours of work in order to save an idea.

As I totally dig the style of your game, I'd prefer that you'd just wrap it up and finish already!  :)

I love the look of this game. It's interesting and original and there seems to be a refreshing amount of substance behind its style. Onwards!

I like the graphics and the idea also. The problem here is the number of Devlogs mean a Diary can be top of the boards in the morning and on page 2 or 3 by the evening..  :(

I am mostly a hardcore A, but I am also B as I've made 18 game prototypes while making this game as I needed to learn game maker.
I did however get the video games desktop icon tattooed on my body so...
Not to mention this game has become a snowball of ideas and content, it would be nice to like sort out all the mess and clutter.

I'm ADHD and can become very obsessive as the content of this game should show. :P

I think I'm going to try a month of Game Maker: Studio and try making the new prototype and see if I can at least get the Platforming engine re-written.
Everything else exists already, it's easy enough to port over but if I tried to just convert the GM8 file into GM:Studio it would take way more time likely sorting out what is wrong.
Rather than just start from scratch in the new platform.

I feel the game has to be what I feel it needs to be, any less and I would feel like I let you all down.

I'm motivated to get this game done as long as I don't die accidentally first.
I do live chaotically and not at all within my limits.
Trying to sort out my life as a full-time starving artist in my city.
While also finding time to work on the game. ^^;

It'll happen.
If the Game Maker: Studio shows no promise for me, I will just keep on making it in the original GMK.

they are improving studio all the time, so if it's crashing for you, make sure to report those crashes in the gm studio bug tracker, and they'll fix them

i am still working in gm7 for saturated dreamers though. it's just too much of a hassle to port it to new versions each time one comes out, especially because it'd involve a lot of changes to the graphics and code. i plan on porting it to studio for the mac port *after* it's released

also: remember that you *can't* port it to mac even with studio unless you own a mac and a software license for that mac (which costs 99$). that's a big drawback

Hehe well the tattoo stays where you put it, so I guess you're the commitment kind of guy.

When it comes to the way you live your life, this is obviously not at all my thing to get involved in as a random guy on the internet, but have you thought about changing your approach? Instead of living chaotically and on the verge of starvation, you could perhaps pick up a job. Granted, it will rob you of 8 productive hours every day. But a job provides you with two things, structure and food - and in the end it might be that getting up in the morning and not starving increases your productivity so much that your monthly output is greater compared to your current life style. Just give it a thought.


Well, you probably know about the Allegory of the Cave - the perfect form of your game only exists in your head, and what you can create will always just be a shadow on the Cave wall. No matter how good you make it, you can only approximate the ideal. It might take twice as long to reach 99.5% of perfection than it takes to reach 98%, and you'll never reach 100% - ask Tarn Adams. So you might as well relax and not think about this too much.

I don't know about GM, but if you're just updating to a new version of the same software, maybe some code can be moved over straight? Also, it will of course be much quicker to write everything the second time. Just be sure to not get stuck in an infinite rewrite loop:

(http://www.derekyu.com/tumblr/finishgame04.jpg)

I don't have a mac but I have lots of access to them.
And I did do an indie-gogo campaign that earned me $750 over two years.
I still have some of this saved up for just that purchase.

I actually wrote an extensive paper on Plato's Allegory of the Cave and compared it to Galaxy Quest for Art Humanities. :P


This makes a lot of sense actually, it's like how an experience curve works in RPGs.
(http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/RFF_04b_gra01.gif)
It's as if after so long of looking at something you begin staring at this huge grey wall.
And you can't see the flaws, and so you spend so much time just looking for what you should even be working on.

And this reflecting on what to even work on takes time.
Then you need the time to actually work on what you've reflected on and then time to reflect on what you have made.
I can certainly say without a doubt that this game is obviously over ambitious for me to even take on by myself. :P
I have people willing to offer help but my problem is I'm so unorganized and unstructured in my game design process that it's kind of just a trial and error approach. So I don't even know where I would put them to work.

As for living within my means, this is something I need to do.
But I can't find myself working with my hands if it isn't creatively productive or like mentally interesting.
I get that in the reality of things it's what a grown up does, but I've worked jobs - I'm sick of jobs. I just quit my job three weeks ago and opened up a Gallery for the week on the main avenue of my city.

So I'm focused and becoming more proficiently directed towards making a living as an artist and still being able to do what I love with the time I have to work on it.

I guess it's a little bit like approaching the speed of light; put in a certain amount of energy, and you get to 50%. Put in as much energy again, and you get to 75%. Put in as much energy again, and you get to 87,5%. And give it as much again, you get to 93,75%. To actually get there, it takes an infinite effort :P


I've run into this problem as well. Luckily, there's a very simple solution for it - make a to-do list.

As you encounter things that are not finished, put them on the list. Small and big, my list has things like "move the button ten pixels to the right" next to "rewrite the collision engine". When you don't know what to do, go to the list and pick something you feel like doing.

Went to a local chiptune show on Saturday and got some extensive play testing done from multiple random participants.
Gave me some great feedback, I made a lot of notes.
For the most part everything was coming natural to them.
The only problem most people found with my demo is that there is an item called
"Knowledge" and separate items called "Atoms"
When you right-click the Atoms a menu shows up that says "use your knowledge"
But this was me attempting to tell the player they have to use their knowledge...  :facepalm:

Most people just sat there clicking the atoms or dragging around the knowledge to the atoms.
They didn't really think of right-clicking the knowledge item and creating a gun with it.

The obvious choice is to just make the choice in the Atom's actually do the same thing as the knowledge thus removing any sort of mistake on any party.

Hey everyone, this project is still going!

During the Alberta Floods (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Alberta_floods) my laptop was stolen among many other things.
Dropbox doesn't seem to have the backup - Ironically when I originally released the Solstice Demo on IndieDB 25 people downloaded a version that contains the source code. So 25 people have a source code GMK that I no longer seem to have access to.

But it's no big loss just a years worth of work.
It's okay, now I can really focus on how to make everything run properly.
The game has come back on track - I'm working pretty efficiently considering my extended break from programming.

Stay tuned.

sorry to hear, but on the plus side it's probably less than a year because the second time you do something it's like half as easy as the first time since you already did it once

Thats so sad, sorry to hear that. But like paul said you're going to be able to catch up real fast because you've already done it once, and at least now you can make changes or fix something that may have not been fixable before hand.

That's rough dude! I'm glad you're sticking with it.

I share the feeling, hope it does not bother you too long

If the level editor is a problem, you should try 8.1, which has a better level editor than 8. (zooming and scrolling) I believe the 8 license carries over to 8.1.

I remember hearing complaints about 8.1, but I think they were about the free version and I haven't had any problems personally. 8.1 doesn't overwrite 8 so you can still go back anyways. (You can't load an 8.1 file in 8 though.)

the problems of 8.1, if i recall, were much greater than just problems with the free version of it. you'd have to ask teegee for details though; he's always recommended that people stick with 8 rather than 8.1 for their serious games

This is seriously true.

I have already re-implemented the inventory system and astral projection.
I've decided to re-make all the levels with less objects so it uses less memory.
I'm also noticing so many inefficient habits I picked up over the years.
Have a lot to clean up and organize, but it's coming together quickly.

Just making sure I use the Game Maker manual more and read up on anything I'm not sure of.

I will likely stay with GM8 as I know it pretty well.
I can live with the level editor, I've organized my objects in a more efficient manner.

yay!

boost powa!

Glad to hear it's back on track; I was/am looking forward to this one.

This game is looking friggin' sweet. Where did you find that font?

bones, are you still working on this?

Hey Brett I sure am.
Managed to open the beast up a few days ago.


I wish this were true for what I just spent a while trying to fix.

The player was not drawing correctly on Jump_through platforms for a few months.
I couldn't wrap my head around it worked just fine before my laptop was stolen.

Was holding off on level design until I got those working again as they were pretty crucial actually.
Now to figure out what I should work on next.

Am attempting to severely pull back my over ambitious scope so I can get back to the basics of the game and focus on the story telling.

I remember this game. c: When I came to tigsource, my introduction with forum began from this devlog.

Hey Winged Doom, glad I could help bring TIGs to you.
I see your working on a new bad ass project, looks sweet.

Update:

I have just added some rocks, changed their original properties a bit.

You can push individual rocks.
Grenades will blow them up into smaller rocks that have no collision with the player, but shooting them will also break them it just takes 10 or so bullets.

(http://postimg.com/146000/pushrocks-145957.jpg)

A gif is way better than a screenshot.

Tricky little bastard bats.
(http://i.imgur.com/mLwQHM9.gif)

:handthumbsupL: :handthumbsupR:

Moar gifs of stuff I have been working on.

Teleporter
(http://i.imgur.com/OicxksR.gif)

Drill specific block
(http://i.imgur.com/nGCUEnY.gif)

(http://oi57.tinypic.com/11h6xjs.jpg) Drillbox
Changed the sprite, decided it needed some contrast.
The drillbox can only be broken by an enemy with a drill.

(http://oi61.tinypic.com/np52lt.jpg)
Pages from Eve's Diary.
I have added a collectable item where you can read each page of the Diary as you collect them.
You can also go back and read each page again if you need to.

(http://i.imgur.com/zmbV5W6.gif)

(http://i60.tinypic.com/33xbv9g.jpg)
Yoshi Island 5-1

(http://i.imgur.com/Fa3mOON.gif)

Lightning clouds?
Working on taming this lightning.
(http://i.imgur.com/obaTcvs.gif)

Whoops too much.
(http://i.imgur.com/dgL5y1K.gif)

Think I've got it under control now.
(http://i.imgur.com/5xsHpfh.gif)

Animated sprite instead of lightning fork?
(http://i.imgur.com/wd2VjTi.gif)

The animated sprites looks way better.

Thanks Momeka, I added a couple extra frames at the end to give the lightning some more umphf.

Working on pixeling this beast this morning.
(http://i60.tinypic.com/27ybwue.png)(http://i59.tinypic.com/6ola2t.png)

(http://i60.tinypic.com/zu1dat.jpg)

Also got ice working pretty well.

• You slide on ice
• You break ice when you jump on it
• You can't wall slide on ice

(http://i.imgur.com/unQuhcc.gif)

(http://lh6.ggpht.com/-Rvg3Ctr8D-U/TPuqag7EjlI/AAAAAAAAEy0/DNB6W9kkpN8/s800/From%252520Red%252520Lion%252520A%252520Wind%252520Marked%252520With%252520The%252520Saturn%252520Symbol%252520Blows%252520Out%252520Of%252520A%252520Cloud%252520-%252520Hermetic%25)

(http://i.imgur.com/sxkbG1L.gif)

I was worried that these clouds with faces might seem out of place.
But now that I see them in game, I feel they work well.

(http://i.imgur.com/b2HG9lE.gif)
Added these little guys inspired by the mole's in megaman.
They can also drop from the ceiling.

I also made it so the Lantern can be turned on or off in the dark.
Some enemies react to the lantern being on or off.

(http://i.imgur.com/H8AvoJy.gif)
Added invincibility frames.

There are so many good games being worked on these days, I can understand how interest in such a long dev cycle could be very small these days.

I've gotta say I'm a long term follower of this and I'm deeply in love with the concept. However I feel like much of the stuff you've implemented recently feels a bit too conventional compared to the weird, dark theological theme you have for the concept as a whole.

Like, conventional platforming hazards such as ice, megaman-inspired jumping enemies etc feels a bit too light-hearted compared to the tone of the main story. Aren't there other things you could implement that are more connected to the mood of the game? Like, have the atmosphere of the story be reflected in the mechanics rather than implementing standard platforming hazards?

I remember the gun that broke blocks and also made trees grow, that was awesome! Like, an allegory that destruction is creation and life is destruction... Mechanics as metaphor (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QwcI4iQt2Y) stuff!

I want original stuff from your brain, not floor spikes, jumpy enemies and achievements that I can see in so many other places!

This is kind of what I was worried about.
Warps, lightning clouds, bats, spikes and ice are all pretty common things in every game.
So certainly this phase of updates are pretty standard, I just wanted to make sure people knew the project wasn't dead.

I was hoping the air blowing clouds would be a good start back on the track I was where I was appropriating existing mythologies and concepts from days of old.

I have added a few story based things I just don't want to post them for the sake of not spoiling it.
Such as mushrooms in my game do something helpful, but I don't quite want to spoil what that is.

The idea is that you go from Physical plane to the Astral Plane to the Atomic Plane.
I'm still working on the physical plane, the Astral Plane will have a lot to do with this image.

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vFE98OvL1cE/TaH7O5Lt_II/AAAAAAAABek/JrXoFiI0F_c/s320/out-of-the-astral-plane.jpg)
As this will be the moment the player kind of realizes what this game is about.
I'm thinking when I make the astral plane that I include a few floating variables that show the players status like, vertical speed and stuff. But I'm unsure about that idea.

The Atomic plane will probably be where the game gets harder in it's platforming, likely where the spikes will come into play. Same with homing missile turrets and such.
But again, those are standard game things.

I still have all that... I've just never made levels before really.
So my level design is pretty poor for ideas with the terrain destruction.
Right now it serves as something that slows the player down really, my original reason for the terrain destruction was for a run and gun game where you had to destroy it to make a new path for yourself to avoid enemies/change the level to your liking.
The levels have a lot less destruction than they did before ever since I created an indestructible solid...

Thanks for the support and honesty.
I've been really trying to come up with my own stuff, but I realized a lot of the enemies simply existed because I made sprites for them. They didn't actually serve the game so I've been trying to figure out how to make the enemies and the levels exist together as a whole.

So I've run into a bit of a snag attempting to create player lives.
Basically the idea was to have an inventory item for the lives of the player.
I had it working for the most part removing the inventory item and restarting the room.

My first problem was that the rooms are set to persistent, but I quickly learned that can be changed on the fly

My second problem was this scenario:
The player collects a coin in the level and then dies.
The coin is still in the inventory when the room is restarted because the inventory is persistent.
The original coin has also respawned due to the level being reset.

So my first idea was to make it so the game autosaves when a room starts.
Then upon player death instead of restarting the room I simply load the save file.
Problem with this is when the game loads the save file, it's not deleting the inventory item for player lives because the save file initially had that extra life...

Any ideas for solutions to this problem?

My decision was to not restart the room upon player death, do not remove items from inventory.
Respawn, remove life item. That will be all.


Implemented a smart camera based on this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCIMPYM0AQg#t=98) which explains indepth the logic behind the camera in Super Mario World.

(http://i.imgur.com/x0vb3F4.gif)
Here you can see the horizontal border allowing the player to freely move left and right 32 pixels before the camera moves.
I also have platform snap on so the camera will scroll to the player when they have landed on a platform.

Trying to work on some more art these days.
(http://i.imgur.com/Mw0Hqbf.png)

amazing artstyle!

Your game looks great, I like the art style. If you're still in need of a musician I might be interested - I messaged you :)

Thanks guys glad you like what you see.
I'm trying to get back in to the groove of things both programming and pixelart wise.

(http://i.imgur.com/9oQHuyA.gif)
Wanted to add some more interactions for the gun.
(http://i.imgur.com/wQlr63n.gif)

(http://i.imgur.com/Wbh2ggQ.gif)
Working on a new fire particle animation.
Not sure about the blend mode version, it looks nice but the sprite loses a lot of detail.

(http://i.imgur.com/Qjt5suR.png)
Most all of these items are in-game and working.

I've finally added pick-ups that will heal the player, give him extra lives, or protect him from a hit.
(http://i.imgur.com/7QoDgJ0.png)

Tried adding a visual display for the controls, does it work?
(http://oi59.tinypic.com/153bf5h.jpg)

Sorry for being so gif heavy lately, it's rather addicting...

Background is temporary (couldn't think of a good cave texture)
Add some Boo-like ghosts.
(http://i.imgur.com/rmgv1uI.gif)

A ghost is created when ever you are killed.
The only way to kill a ghost is with Bone Grenades
Which you create by collecting your Skulls upon death.
(http://i.imgur.com/rL3TfFC.gif)

Hm, not sure I agree with making the game harder the more you fail. Maybe the ghosts would just taunt you based on what killed you.

Perhaps I could put a maximum cap on the amount of ghosts there can be in a level?

Well, I just mention it because, generally, if you're dying a lot, the last thing you need is more things that will kill you. I do like the idea of your past attempts taunting you, especially given the theme.

(http://i.imgur.com/sIbTNS5.gif)
Here is a work in progress boss.
It will swoop down and also drop grenades on the player.

Also I was having an issue where the player couldn't move when he was reacting to being struck.
So I removed that problem and it's pretty easy for the player to get away from like 25-50 ghosts it seems.

(http://i.imgur.com/X2I3cnB.gif)
Made a respawn animation for after player death.

(http://i.imgur.com/5oDSqnt.png)
Also worked on some small 16x16 flowers.

Amazing, simply amazing.  :beg:

Liking the respawn animation.

This is looking really nice, glad to see development on it has picked back up again. :) :handthumbsupR:

Thanks fellas I was worried for a while that I may have started something I couldn't finish.
But a finished product is nearly designed and most of it has been made a reality. :)

(http://i.imgur.com/hgolsQa.gif)
Based on the Flammarion Engraving.
(http://blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org/brainclouds/files/2011/02/flammarion-c1.jpg)
And combined with the concept of Yggdrasil the Tree of Life.
(http://www.viking-mythology.com/img/Yggdrasil_The_Tree_of_Life_Ratatosk_Nidhug.jpg)

GOD!!!! Graphic's 'wesome 'gain!

Thumbs up for that circle cloud area!  :handthumbsupL: :handthumbsupR:

Paintings of the hills look somewhat raw, still wip?

@Jimbert I try my best to please.  :gentleman:

@LC Yeah the hill among many other backgrounds are all still very work in progress.

As such I am trying to figure out what kind of background to put in this level.
(http://i.imgur.com/JAQzuar.png)
(http://i2.wp.com/vigilantcitizen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/masonic-symbols-6-e1340033183561.jpg?resize=300%2C296)
(http://www.enterprisemission.com/images/tower3.jpg)

(http://i.imgur.com/2VB4iyX.png)
Finally got around to redesigning Eve.
I think this gives her a lot more character than her previous sprites.

Today's update:

-Added moving platforms.
-Added sand blocks that break upon the player touching them.
-Made 4-5 new levels.

(http://i.imgur.com/cNZBagi.gif)
Here is a gif showing some of the things I was working on yesterday.

(http://i.imgur.com/9yv84Pz.gif)
Something I was working on this morning, noticing some drawing depth issues.
Other than that it works fine.

blond and curvy does not mean more character, it's just more conventional : P Is there no old antic art to take awesome inspirations from like other awesome interpretations

I meant character as in the sprite no longer appears rather stiff like the main character is.
She has a unique pose and a unique silhouette now.

(http://i.imgur.com/2VB4iyX.png)

(http://i01.i.aliimg.com/wsphoto/v0/794963863/Classic-Adam-and-font-b-Eve-b-font-Garden-of-font-b-Eden-b-font-manmade.jpg)
There is not much in terms of eve concepts, all of them have long hair.
And longer hair just looks weird on this particular sprite as it just covers up many of the details I added to the body.

Nah do what you want, just challenging you a bit : P
BTW eve is black she came from africa where all human came from hahahah

Just keep doing awesome!

Wasn't expecting a new page I'd better post some new things.
(http://i.imgur.com/4fVV8cY.gif)

(http://i.imgur.com/eGDXicF.png)
I've been walking a thin line with the Mushroom Kingdom... ^^;

The "pipes" are wells or fountains.
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_JmOhe-3opIc/TRF70j5LScI/AAAAAAAAALE/yLFRWzwACfE/s400/mylius-1622%2Bsuper%2Bmario.jpg)

(http://i.imgur.com/LUYeSV1.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/wgTztFb.png)



(http://i59.tinypic.com/a1q2ah.png)
She needs an afro then.

(http://i.imgur.com/6aOrUJ7.png)
Flower boss?

hahahahaha cool!

There are roughly 30+ complete levels made for the first chapter now.
The first chapter has four elemental realms, each realm will have about 10 levels each plus some side bonus rooms. Each of the four elemental realm will have a boss obviously.

Currently working on designing the Air Realm.
(http://i.imgur.com/y5BoV8L.jpg)

(http://i.imgur.com/56khSsk.gif)

(http://learntarot.com/bigjpgs/maj19.jpg)

It's the first day of the Summer Solstice!
I released a demo during last years Winter Solstice, so I feel like I should release another this weekend.

I've got work until 4pm, but hopefully I can spend tonight fixing up the demo so it's ready to play by midnight or at least tomorrow/Monday at the latest.

Sorry for the lack of a demo, the Air and Water realms are mostly complete.
I have been working on the Fire and Earth realms, after I'm happy with those two realms I will release a demo.

How bout them apples?

(http://i.imgur.com/vcevBUu.gif)
I wanna be the guy reference also a reference to Newton.

• You can eat an apple and heal 25 health.
• You can throw the apple.
• The apple will hurt you if it lands on your head (Newton's Law).
• Certain enemies react to the apple.

(http://i.imgur.com/MtpNHNa.gif)

(http://i.imgur.com/F4bOA1l.gif)

The colorful pixels come up nicely. Finally something of the bones-style I know from the past. (that's a good thing) ;D  Small quirk: Doesn't the fireball looks down too early? (when it is still moving up) Don't like the main character very much, though. Hey, didn't you want to replace him with a female one? Maybe it's about time...

Thanks for the compliment on the colours.

Yeah I had noticed the fireballs, they were linked up to their states but I had to add vspeed in there to insure it was going down before it flips.

I wasn't intending to replace the main character, Eve is an unreachable character who you are attempting to save. I want Atom's appearance to be rather ambiguous and without much character details.

(http://i.imgur.com/zXlo7A7.png)
This is about the only time you see a close up of Atom.

Also there was an odd similarity in the main character and this wandering figure found in a Beksinski painting.
(http://i.imgur.com/5BXHCdd.png)

Been trying to work on the entire Graphic User Interface.
(http://i.imgur.com/SRrrt8Z.png)

Decided to make a brick object that can break upon impact of certain things.
And a cannon that can shoot large cannon balls with gravity.
(http://i.imgur.com/7N64eIQ.gif)

Plinko anyone?

(http://i.imgur.com/zXlo7A7.png)

Tell maslow to bring the concept of chakra, atom want it back

BTW I hope you think of the "azerty" of us  :beg: can't play tons of awesome game because wasd failure

Thanks for the reminder when I get around to the options menu I will be sure to add that as a toggle-able thingy.

TWG's indieDB page has been getting traffic from an unknown site for the last couple days.
Which leads me to believe someone posted an article about it somewhere, but "The Walled garden" is a hard subject to google without finding actual walled garden discussions.

+10 awesome points to who ever can find the unknown source.

(http://i.imgur.com/wFrRRKA.gif)

How about some Frogs that jump when you jump sometimes, and also sometimes when you don't.
Unpredictable bastards.

Also shows off the new scanline/white noise damage effect.

(http://i.imgur.com/hJ5E7s7.gif)
Amphibious enemies!

Pipe dreams
(http://i.imgur.com/EAp3px0.gif)
Cannon pipe launcher

(http://i.imgur.com/ucAUaNn.gif)
Multi-directional and Multi-channel pipes.
(http://i.imgur.com/oBRkZaE.png)
Here is how the pipes works behind the scenes.

Yes!!! Games with rich story and mystery! Love the inspirations for this game!

Thanks Lai, I had noticed you were a Miyazaki fan as well.  :beer:

This looks more brilliant every time I re-enter this thread. I look forward to seeing more in the future.

Thanks JctWood, I will be sure to keep working hard and keeping everyone posted.

The update for today got page bumped, so I figured I would move it to this page.
Update:
Been busy working on some aesthetics this weekend.

(http://i.imgur.com/WQAdGdT.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/DG9WWf8.png)

Update:
Made 2-3 new levels, and polished up some of the existing ones.
Feeling more confident in the demo release it will contain roughly 20-25 levels!

(http://oi57.tinypic.com/2912fl4.jpg)
Been working on more organic tiles.
(http://i.imgur.com/UARA49D.png)
Here is a small example of how to pixel art. The tile isn't completely done but you get the idea.

(http://i.imgur.com/3pjrYVg.gif)
Working on the collision with flying fishs, they are supposed to help you out of the water.

Looks really good, I would like to see how this game turns out.

(http://i.imgur.com/gg2qHPq.gif)

Swordfish enemy inspired by Engaurde the Swordfish from Donkey Kong Country.
A mountable water-type enemy allows you to move fast under water and damage enemies.

Added some vertical motion.

(http://i.imgur.com/MmLE8bN.gif)

Image_angle rotation
(http://i.imgur.com/v35kVk3.gif)

Love the feel of the first pic! Question --what is the orb at the upper left?

(http://s12.postimage.org/ve2j1i05p/hud1.png)
The orb your asking about is the players HUD.
Not shown in this image is the white circle around it all which is the players oxygen.

Inside the dome (http://i.imgur.com/hgolsQa.gif) has even more feel.

This was too awesome to not post an update.

(http://i.imgur.com/9EZ4mrQ.gif)

I would play an entire game based on riding that swordfish, seems really fun hahah
Liked that collision with the flying fishes too, this is something really unusual and unique!

The inventory seems to be kinda complicated to use, will you need to open it really often?

Yeah it's actually really fun it feels a lot like reverse gravity Flappybird mixed with like a Jet Ski.
It will be hard to not want to put it everywhere in the game.

As for the inventory it isn't that complicated right click an item to bring up an option menu left click to select from the options.

But doing dry runs with my friends and strangers the first issue I noticed was they couldn't figure out the inventory for themselves. They would always try and drag the items around to try and use them (which does nothing considering removing it).
For some reason right-click which is like the default for bringing up a menu on a computer isn't the first thing people think of clicking.
Since the interaction is very much just like the default computer rightclick with option select.

I was trying to avoid text tutorials or really text telling the player what to do.
However it feels like it is unavoidable at this point.

So I restricted the player in the second level they can't continue forward until they make their gun and learn the inventory. Obviously they are going to hit the ? box if they are stuck.

If they don't have enough atoms it will tell them they have to collect 20 atoms,when they get 20 it will show the following message. When you collect 20 atoms an arrow shows up next to the inventory when it is visible instructing the player to right click a specific item.

(http://i.imgur.com/WQAdGdT.png)

Hopefully doing this once will be enough to fully teach how the inventory works without having to repeat myself.
However it could be handy to do a follow up tutorial just to confirm they learned from the first one.

Ok, that GIF where you hop out of one pool, over a gap, and into a another water area... That's rad.   :coffee:

I love it!

Yeah it was originally just a plain old gap but then my friend suggested removing the middle pool and things became epic.

Updates:

Swordfish

• Added sliding on flatland feels like Penguin belly sliding from Mario.
• There is currently a bug where when the sword fish collides with a wall outside of the water he sticks into it...
  Wondering if I should keep this bug cause it's funny.

(http://i.imgur.com/0MWrHwM.png)

NEW!Rooster/Raptor

(http://oi62.tinypic.com/xfvs42.jpg)
Trying to pick/design a sprite for a Yoshi type creature that could flutter jump and also a slow fall/multi-jump.
I wanted it to be more raptor like, but I am pretty partial to the Rooster design.

(http://i.imgur.com/YlCKCmQ.png)

Still not a fan of the plumage, might end up keeping the Lizard/bird hyrbid look.

NEW!Rooster/Raptor interactions

(http://i.imgur.com/nu8P2om.gif)

Has been difficult getting the rooster to work, it likes to clip with the terrain a lot.
Obviously still prototype stage, it exists and that's all that is important.

Rooster features

• Fast and nimble horizontal speed
• High vertical jumping
• Extended flutter double jump

Edit: Whoops I paged the sprite design.

(http://oi62.tinypic.com/xfvs42.jpg)
Trying to pick/design a sprite for a Yoshi type creature that could flutter jump and also a slow fall/multi-jump.
I wanted it to be more raptor like, but I am pretty partial to the Rooster design.

(http://i.imgur.com/YlCKCmQ.png)

Still not a fan of the plumage, might end up keeping the Lizard/bird hyrbid look.

Liking the new Rooster/Raptor design and also prefer the version without the plumage. Seems like you're progressing with new features quite quickly at the moment.

Thanks for the input Franklin, I appreciate the feedback about the sprite.

Yeah I can certainly say that over the four years of development of this game I have been learning learning Game Maker.
Now I feel like I've got a good grasp of things, obviously I can learn more advanced stuff but it's becoming easier to visualize something and then execute it in a few tries. Luckily I already had a mount system integrated since the first year into development, so essentially I just re-purposed the mount code and made some new movements for the mounts.

I was a bit worried that adding too many new features within such a short amount of time doesn't leave much room for getting that mechanic 100% solid and getting some levels designed for it.

(http://i.imgur.com/3JISCaI.gif)

So here is an example of how the Chicken could be used in terms of designing levels for him to jump in.
This raised ground is just high enough for the chicken to make it up there.
Level design wise however, what if the player decides to kill the chicken?
Then all of a sudden they can't reach that high point.

So I would have to make two ways to complete this area, perhaps adding a pipe cannon to one of the pipes to give the player the ability to make it up without the bird.

(http://i.imgur.com/864YPls.png)
Thought about maybe making this the first enemy with a spawn.
It becomes a baby and hops around until it eats a Worm or an Apple or a Worm in an Apple.

Every wonder how a Cockatrice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockatrice) is born?


(http://www.rastrickict.co.uk/pra5688/Sources/Dragon%20Footprints%20and%20Eggs/Cockatrice%20Dragon%20Egg.png)

Okay... So what I get from that.
(http://i.imgur.com/xpTb4wF.gif)

Worked on some new Bees today.
(http://i.imgur.com/qrLEV.gif)

Inspired by Frog sord I decided to give the hive some AI.

• The queen bee will be difficult to catch.
• The workers will collect honey and if you let them gather enough honey the hive will spawn a Royal Jelly when you destroy it.

(http://i.imgur.com/S1rnPhE.gif)

Then I realized the bee does a lot more than sting people.
It also pollinates flowers and gets honey for it's hive.
So now when they aren't chasing you they seek out the nearest flower and get some nectar to return to their hive.

(http://i.imgur.com/1nrJDjx.gif)

Any ideas for flower dynamics? A way the bees could somehow spread flowers around perhaps if a flower has been pollinated enough it creates a flower next to it.
At the moment they find the nearest flower and then go back to their hive, they are supposed to go from flower to flower but I can't figure out a good way to do such.

(http://i.imgur.com/DVtJ3Fs.gif)
Turtle and turtle shell

• Plan to have the shell slow down
• Frogs can jump on the shells
• Shooting the turtle will put it in the shell
• It will bounce off larger enemies like they are walls

(http://i.imgur.com/88sqfDy.gif)
Working on getting the shell to act more dynamically.

• Added 0.05 friction
• Shell now comes to a stop and the turtle can come out of it

Should the shell take out other turtles? Or should they curl up into their shell as a defense?
Should the shell have less friction so it doesn't stop as quickly as it does now?

Nearly 10 posts in a row... Always fun to develop a game by myself with no feedback on anything I'm working on.

(http://i.imgur.com/nkC6yUb.gif)

Update
Bees have gotten more added to them.
They now have a priority based system.

0 - Wander
1 - Flower
2 - Agrro
3 - Home/Hive

Which allows for them to wander about randomly before they decide to find a flower.
However if they are too far from any flowers their priority changes to flower and they go find the closest one.

The Hive now spends honey on creating new bees, so it has a bit of an RTS to it's self.
The Bees return with 2 honey allowing for exponential growth even if they are beeing killed off.

May I ask why you're directly copying super mario brothers related gameplay mechanics and not thinking of original ones? Or ones that are adaptations of those mechanics? It's one thing to pay homage to a game you like, but making the same game down to exact details like this isn't going to get your anywhere.

!Great question ALERT!
Hopefully my answer is more of an explanation than me attempting to sidestep the fact that I am making a philosophical Mario

The reason why mario has influence on this game is because my Grandmother gave me Mario Bros as a child. It was my first interaction with video games and is therefor very important to me as a game developer as it's the entire reason I do what I do with pixels and video games.

I don't feel like I am directly copying - I'm adjusting. By taking all of my favorite games, combining all the things I liked about them and fixing the things I didn't like about those things. And do new things that the Mario team never touched on.

Such as:
Koopa's never got to come back out of their shell and the shell never had friction.
By adding friction to the shells, their mechanic has already changed drastically they no longer become this scary constantly moving object. Then they can stop and get out of their shells and stop being a threat.
Other enemies who can jump such as the Monopod or the Frog can both jump off a turtle shell.

It's basic mechanic has been copied but it's new interactions make it feel different.

None of the enemies act exactly like any of the enemies in Mario.
They are similar in concept, and their execution feels familiar but the game does feel like it's own entity, it doesn't feel like it's a Mario Clone.
I want people to feel like they have played the game before by having these familiar mechanics, combined with the systems of interactions I have in place. I want a lot of the interactions to happen between the creatures without Atom interfering.

As far as I know, that doesn't happen very often in any games let alone Mario.
Enemies don't usually passively have any effect on each other.

The only enemy that interacted with other enemies was the Koopa shell after it was hit by Mario.
In my game, there are many more creature interactions than simply hitting them with a shell.

Hope that answers your question.

(Koopas have been emerging from their shells since Super Mario World, as well as being able to jump back into them)

This is true, however if a turtle was forced out of it's shell - that would kill them.
So turtles in my game are timid, and they hide in their shells whenever in danger. They don't come out unless it is safe.
They can not be killed by any normal means, they are indestructible unless hit by a DrillPig drill from the side, or a Thwomp brick from above or it falls down a hole and goes out of screen.

I made it so when a turtle is hit by a shell, they go into their shell and stay put.
Causing the other shell to bounce back off. Meaning other turtles shells can't kill them.

(http://i.imgur.com/HIGGhkN.gif)

This is also the first game I've ever made - so I feel like I am allowed to make a mario clone that is better than just a mario clone.

There may be a lot of mechanics from SMB, but they're being taken a bit further. Plus there's bees and suchforth that are more unique. I think the art and ideas make it quite unique even if it does play with some familiar mechanics. Looking forward to playing it someday.  :eyebrows:

Update
Straight from the horses mouth.

New horse concept

• You can mount it
• It can eat you
• Possibly kick?

(http://i.imgur.com/DkwiTlL.png)

One mouth or Two mouths?

(http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/083/c/0/zombie_mario_by_dlincoln83-d4trbwz.jpg)
Eat your heart out mario.

So this weekend I was working with a friend on trying to flesh out the demo levels and start introducing all the new features I have added.

The first 4 levels have always remained the same.
Fall of Man -> East Eden -> Yggdrasil -> Malkuth Temple
From Malkuth Temple you are given four options for each elemental realm.

AIR, WATER, FIRE, EARTH
Each of these realms will have basically 10 levels.
The demo will contain 5 of those levels.

AIR realm demo is now conceptually completed.
Here is a list of the introduced mechanics and enemies

1. Newton's Tree

• Apples (http://i.imgur.com/vcevBUu.gif)
• Clouds (http://i.imgur.com/4fVV8cY.gif)
• Cupids (static and moving) (http://i.imgur.com/4fVV8cY.gif)
• Grab-able object (http://i.imgur.com/4fVV8cY.gif)
• Rooster (http://i.imgur.com/3JISCaI.gif)

2. Skyland

• Sylphs (http://i.imgur.com/sxkbG1L.gif)
• Lightning Clouds (http://i.imgur.com/wd2VjTi.gif)
• Spear Cupids
• Mushrooms
• Rainbows

3. Three of Swords

• Health Powerup
• Three sword minibosses

4. Rooster Tale

• Rooster Eggs
• Thwomp Bricks
• Seeking Cupids

5. Towers of Light and Dark

• Switch palace in Tower of Light
• Switch creates platforms in the Tower of Dark
• Must bring an item from Tower of Dark to Tower of Light

Update
(http://i.imgur.com/Llk7dpf.gif)

Today's Update

• Mounts can now go through levels with Atom
• Door interaction button has changed from 'S' to 'Q' to allow Atom to bring mounts with him
• Added teleporting doors that bring Atom to an invisible "PointB" a secondary teleporter separate from portals (http://i.imgur.com/OicxksR.gif)

I also tried adding a sliding action.
(http://i.imgur.com/c7wGB52.gif)
Sliding seems like it could be fun to play with.
But the player gets stuck in the terrain if they come out of the slide from under it.
There is also the potential they could slide into a walled area and get stuck in a corner.

     |___________
 (player)->>        |

So there could be a problem with implementing such a mechanic.
However it feels much more Run and Gun which is what I am going for.

Most platformers with sliding treat sliding as a crouched state and then allow the player to walk (slowly) in that crouched state, thus preventing the player from getting stuck. Not sure if that's what you're going for. I guess the bigger question is how you want sliding to be used.

Sliding would only occur when moving.
Pressing down while not moving causes the player to sit down and meditate, there is no crouch.

Was going for a run and gun/endless runner feel with the slide.
Could be used for scrolling levels ect.

If I can't get it working well I'll probably just scrap it.


Decided to scrap it.
It was a nice idea but it just doesn't work in the way the game works.

Wow, I just noticed this game now? This looks awesome.

Hey thanks Dinosword guy.

So I've come to a strange fork in the road called Music Design and deciding how I am going to do the music for the game. I have some existing music but it feels too disjointed from the project at this point. The songs aren't evoking the theme or mood of the level like they should be.

My original "plan" was to try and get 60-80 songs for 110 levels from a ton of different musicians.
That would mean you would only hear a song once and only once for the whole game.
Attempting to organize that many tracks for each level with multiple musicians seems rather hard/slightly impossible to get it to work.

The other option is to work with a solo musician or 2-3 musicians in creating a solid cohesive OST.
But that probably means I would have to pay for the musicians...

So here is my study on how other games did their OST.
Let's start off with the classics.

Mario Bros. 3

• 30 tracks
• Level victory, You're dead, Game Over, Bowser Battle, End song
• 2 Overworld theme songs aka Outside (Slow tempo & Fast tempo)
• 1 Underwater theme song
• 1 Underworld theme song aka Underground
• Different music for every world map and unique levels

Zelda II

• 24 tracks
• Treasure found, Temple clear, Level up, Boss, Game Over, Ending
• 1 Overworld song
• 3 unique flute songs
• 11 unique level tracks for each level theme (Battle 1+2, Village, Indoors 1+2, Temple 1+2, Great Temple

Super Metroid

• 34 tracks
• Item Room Ambience, Item Acquisition, Failure
• Roughly 2-3 songs per each world (Crateria, Wrecked Ship, Maridia)
• Unique event tracks
• Cinematic transition tracks

So this seems like a pretty basic set up for a sound track and seriously less complicated.
3-4 game theme tracks that can repeat throughout the game (slow tempo, mid, faster tempo, double time), a world themed track that could cover multiple sets of levels and game status based tracks with some unique tracks to separate them all.
Seems like this allows the music to have more quality rather than have a huge quantity of different sounding music. Which could allow for more catchy tunes and less background noise.

It's been a while...

I'm back and alive, for now.

Currently getting back into the groove of things.
I added a few small player based effects such as cloud puffs and little stars when he bonks his head or jumps on things.

At the moment my main focus is trying to make the player inventory more intuitive and user-friendly.
(http://i.imgur.com/IvN5l20.png)

Having this big red arrow seemed like a good idea, but through a few play tests. It was easy to see that it went unnoticed.
I've decided to remove the ability to organize your inventory with left-click.
Instead left-click will now do what right-click did.
Except there will now be an option to "Organize" or "Arrange" from the item option menu.

There may be a solution to the inventory problem.
Perhaps as long as the information is displayed upon mouse hover the player will see it?
(http://i.imgur.com/IMG9l07.png)

I originally had the inventory button information displayed where the item info is displayed.
But it would dissappear when the player put their mouse over the inventory.
So essentially they were unable to see the information I was providing to them.
Hopefully this new visual cue will be enough to teach them the inventory system.

In other news...
I have a good portion of levels prototyped, it comes down to putting everything in place.
Have to stop making new things and get everything that exists to be represented in the right levels.

(http://i.imgur.com/fr06N5M.png)

(http://i.imgur.com/XhSBzUZ.png)

Tried adding some extra information when the inventory is closed.
I don't particularly like it... I want to avoid using direct text whenever possible.

The tutorial text on the right stops displaying after you have opened and closed the inventory about 5 times.

You could make opening the inventory a puzzle of itself. "To retrieve your belongings, look into yourself. Who are you? You are the key."

I added some more behaviors to the Rooster/Cockatrice.
They end up getting stuck in holes.

So I decided to give them some attributes from our old friend the monopod.
Now it will attempt to jump on it's own rather than not at all.

It still needs some tweaks but it's fun to play with.

Also because it is practically a giant chicken, I have decided to make it automatically run from you.
The player will be able to lure the Rooster with Apples.
(http://i.imgur.com/11JnZGT.gif)

I forgot how much fun it is to make animated gifs of my game as I'm working on it.