Hello!

Sorry for lack of updates on the game, after reading the article in the forums about finishing projects, I have decided to stop idling around with this one and get it finished!

Wrote down a bunch of improvements needed to get the game done on the train home:

1. Finishing the menu structure (buttons, pages, linking)
2. Putting levels in a linear order
3. Add different levels of difficulty (easy medium and hard) with varying statistics that alter accordingly
4. Recreate the upwards counting system to a countdown timer
5. Tally zombies killed per level
6. Fix death animation for player

Other things I also fixed in the process were:

1. Fade speeds decreased to reduce waiting time for player
2. Smallness of text on screen was fixed by allowing the player to rollover the text and see a larger version of the writing.
3. Level buttons were added with restrictions dependant of levels unlocked

I proceeded to fix the lists above then moved into the area of testing to see what else needed adding. This list of findings included:

1. Zombies took too long to die
2. Barbed wire killed off too many zombies leaving long idle sections at beginnings of levels
3. Testers who were player 2 requested shift to be used as the firing button rather than F due to shift sitting nicely where the thumb rests
4. HUD needs to be clearer
5. Alter the order of levels to make it easier
6. Request for more lighting - suggested a droppable flare that the player can drop to give an extra bit of light to cover a route throughout gameplay
7. Players were confused by sudden changing between levels.

I took went through and fixed all of these problems then proceeded to contact my good friend Luke Smith with a list of sound effects I needed for the game. This included:
Rifle Firing
Rifle out of ammo
Zombie moan left
Zombie moan right
Sprinter moan left
Sprinter moan right
Flare sizzle
Thunder rumbles
Rain pattering
Click menu noises

The ones he created whilst I was there sounded fantastic and since he has a week off, I should hopefully have them by the end of the coming week!

I will doing a bunch of testing in the form of a WIP demo to get ideas from the wider community (since testing thus far has been in small physical groups) to gain a wider insight into what tweaks are needed to get the project to that joyous place - the land of the finished. I will try to get this posted by the end of the week but University final year keeps piling the work on.

Answering previous questions!

Looks nice and atmospheric. Reckon music & sound will make or break this one.

Love the lighting concept!

Motion of the everything needs to be much smoother, going by the video.

As mentioned above (or in previous posts), I've acquired the help of a sound designer to get the needed sound effects for the game. With the player view being so restricted with light sources, the use of different senses to judge the position of enemies will be used. Since the zombies entering the screen are separated into left and right, earphone users will be able to hear which direction the zombies are coming by sending certain sounds to certain headphones.

The video included in earlier posts sadly doesn't capture the gameplay at it's optimal speed. Things run a lot smoother in gameplay, along with a couple of memory drains that were slowing it down in the previous builds plugged. I'll try and get a video posted up in the near future showing gameplay at realtime speed!

NEW SCREENSHOTS!


Added in a transition screen between levels to avoid the player becoming disoriented. Has total zombies killed and zombies per level killed.


Flares introduce the ability to light up chosen sections of the level at the beginning of the round to give the player a chosen route they want to view. In this case, its the rather *ahem* active ground floor as seen in the screenshot below.


An accidental benefit of setting the player two firing function to shoot is that it works as a flash for the screenshots (since shortcut is shift command 3 for screenshots), meaning you get lovely screenshots such as the one above!


Revamped the menu, creating separate pages for each aspect of the screen. Additionally, for those who struggle to read the text, upon rolling over the text reveals a larger more in depth description of each button in game below the title.

I will try as hard as I can to keep this thread as updated as possible, thanks for reading!

[Visible marker for player]

Update – Trenchbrain Build 2

Upon testing the game with a bunch of people in a local (e.g. non published game) environment, I came to these conclusions for needed updates:

Visible marker for player
There is no way for the player to see where they are going, meaning the characters become lost in the dark to the point where they can’t play the game, especially when the player runs out of ammo. To give the players at least an idea of where their character was, I created a radial torch for each player so that they could at least see within a basic radius of their position.

Telling the difference between each player
Since both characters are duplicates, telling the difference between them is near impossible. Need differently designed characters. Solution to this was to redesign the characters to give each a distinct look. I looked into the conflict of World War 1 and noticed the variety of gas masks available. I gave each of the characters a unique gas mask and a slightly different structure to their character.

Background light
Whilst using ammunition as a method of light helped, the player had limited ways of seeing the battlefield. To give the player a sneak peek of the battlefield, I added in lightning consisting of a 3 frame flashing animation approximately .3 seconds long. (.1 seconds per frame). This gives the player a freebie look at the battlefield and creates atmosphere by building on horror stereotypes.

Ammo Refinement
Since the players seemed to continuously die at the same point, This was 42 seconds. This happened to be twice the amount of ammunition that the player received, so I came to the conclusion that the players were using their first set of ammo, using the second batch then running out, at which point they were swarmed by piles of zombies. As it stood, the players received 1 bullet in the ammo pile a second, so to increase those numbers yet still force the player to slightly wait, the player was required to wait 3 seconds and receive 5 bullets each time. Further testing in this area will determine whether this is enough, too little or too much.

Co-op Refinement
Rather than creating characters at the start of the level (which didn’t allow objects to be assigned to follow such as the radial light), the players were already placed in the level but dependant on the number of players in the level the correct number was deleted e.g. if player numbers = 1, recycle player 2 and recycle player 2 glow.

Also included in the co-op refinement experience was making more suitable keys for the player to use. The two sets of controls I decided on were WAD for movement, S for aim and F for fire and for player 1 up left and right arrow keys to move, down to aim and spacebar to fire. Once again, testing will prove whether this is the most comfortable layout for gameplay.

Enemies Recycle Upon Screen Exit
Found a slight leak of memory in which enemies were able to cross the entire screen and fall off the other side. To fix this, I ensured the zombies recycle upon exit from the screen.

Bullet Consistency
Bullets in the original flash as they are fired, but the flashing makes them unclear so players didn’t know if they were even causing damage to enemies. To fix this, the flashing animation was made to not loop e.g. flashes from black to yellow. I additionally added an impact animation in which the bullet scatters when it hits an enemy to indicate the bullet hit something in the dark.

More Levels
Built some additional levels including a warehouse/bunker layout, a tunnel with holes in the ceiling, a series of stepped terrain and a couple more that I am yet to build.

Things yet to complete -

Music and sound
Need to pitch project to the bloke who creates my music, Luke Smith (http://soundcloud.com/lethalbadger) so that he can get started creating some music and sound effects for the project. Music is going to be bleak haunted house with a retro sound (or whatever he comes up with as an alternative). For sound effects, as with Narcissus, the approaching direction of the zombies will determine which earphone the sound will come out of. This is to give the player an additional sense to work with to help them find enemies in the dark.

More Levels
I am aiming for the final number of 15 levels and dependant on the demand will continue to construct more.

Zombies
I might be incorporating more zombie types in the game, E.g. one that can only be seen in the dark (zombie in flames?)

Refinement of Scoring System
May take an alternate approach with the scoring system e.g. Based on kills, a countdown system from 100, a countdown timer in which you have to get as many kills as possible, wave based etc.

Refinement of co-op deaths
As it stands, if one player dies, they both die. I hope to fix this soon with an alternative. If you think this approach is fine, let me know!

Updated Screenshots


The Menu (New Levels to be added)
 

New Outpost Level – Less safe than it appears…


Warehouse – Choose your route of death!
 

Radial Character Lighting on the level outpost

Updated Video



Stay tuned for future updates and let me know any improvements, feedback or suggestions below!

Latest Gameplay Footage





-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

INTRODUCTION

Trenchbrain is a zombie shooter designed to use the muzzle flash horror effect used in many Hollywood films as a gameplay mechanic. In this game, this flashing muzzle effect is the one of the few light based tools you have at your disposal to illuminate the level you inhabit.

The game is loosely based in a WW1 trench, in which an experimental gas attack sends soldiers into a state of rabies. As one of the few wearing a gas mask, you face a far worse fate…

SCREENSHOTS & VIDEO

Here is a video of the first available footage of gameplay!






Main Menu
 

Muzzle Flash View of "Tunnels"


View of “Bunker” with only spotlights on.

 
A muzzle flash view of “Bunker”

An early version of the game will be available in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more updates and thanks for taking the time to look at Trenchbrain!

Hello Guys!

Now that my University work is out of the way, I've updated Narcissus with the suggested updates and improvements;

http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/9768

Here is a list of the stuff I've added!
1. Controls have been changed from U and D to B for black and W for white so that the controls are co-ordinated using colour rather than position
2. Introduction of 5 new levels with mechanics which focus on mis-aligning the two players.
3. Refining of earlier levels due to too slow learning curve - levels are split into pairs of introducing a new mechanic then increasing the difficulty on the level after.
4. Level selection - for testers or players who can't get past certain levels can have the option to play them all by using the Level Select button to choose from 20 levels!
5. Death volumes - allow me to eliminate players on the inside as well as the outside of the track!

Hope you enjoy playing the latest version and remember to give the levels a try with someone else if you're struggling!

All feedback is greatly appreciated!

I'll be over there in New York State this summer for 3 months; about 5 hours away from Buffalo near to a place called Binghamton. Good luck finding any other developers around the area!

Thanks for the swift and honest feedback guys!

I didn't finish the game, I got to the levels where you have to start giving asymmetric input. It was neat in concept, but most of my deaths came from the characters falling out of synch with eachother (from getting stuck on a wall in a jump). If they were always synched up I think it would be better a single player game. The music was pretty good though, I have to say.

Was it both characters catching on the walls or one specifically not jumping high enough? Originally I was going to make the characters automatically die upon impact with walls, but liked the idea of allowing the player to try and make it through the level rather than immediately killing them off. A friend of mine, Luke Smith (Listed in credits) created the music for the game. Here's a link to some of the stuff he does if you're interested! http://soundcloud.com/lethalbadger

played alone, quit at level 11

U/D correspond not to up/down but to black/white which switch places and sometimes start reversed

first 10 levels felt like canabalt mirrored for no reason because i beat them by jumping in sync

first 6 levels felt like a dull canabalt because i beat them by jumping full-force every time

i don't believe that this game will bring people together because it doesn't require cooperation and restarting the level because of the other's player's death feels unfair

Thanks for the W and B suggestion, sits nicely on the keyboard for the left hand; will definitely consider as an option for the final game!

Originally Narcissus featured a very punishing set of levels. Due to testers struggling to beat the earliest of levels, a slower learning curve was introduced. Levels 11, 13, 14 and 15* are asymmetric and require faster reaction times (shorter blocks) and obviously represent a small proportion of gameplay next to the rest of the game. I will be creating more complex and challenging levels in the coming weeks. Would you suggest refining the first 10 levels down?

*To save yourself going through the first 11 levels again, a walkthrough the levels is available on the provided video link to show the content of the last 4 levels.

Hey!

I'm currently based in Huddersfield so the prospect of a game jam so close to home is awesome! is there any plans for future Halifax Jams in the coming months and are us Huddites allowed entry?

[TESTING AND FEEDBACK:]

Hello!

Narcissus is an ongoing project I have been developing over the past 6 months. On the belief that games should bring people together, Narcissus achieves this by making the levels easier  through co-operation with another person.

Play it here!
http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/9768

Gifs of up to date gameplay:
MENU SCREEN

LEVEL 3

LEVEL 4

LEVEL 13

LEVEL 10 (PLAYED AT INSANE SPEED)


Most recent video build of gameplay




TESTING AND FEEDBACK:

If you would give the game a try, see how far you can get and if you are struggling, try playing with another person. Once you've finished, if you kindly would answer the following questions:

1.Did you manage to complete the game?
2.If no, which level did you reach?
3.Keyboard Layout - Alternate suggestions for controls?
4.Is the learning curve steady enough?
5.Did you find any bugs or inconsistencies in gameplay?
6.Were the characters clear enough?
7.Was the moon/sun distracting at all?
8.How did the gameplay change when a second player was introduced?
9.Did you try the different speed settings?
10.Did your characters disappear off the screen and not come back at any point?
11.What was your favorite level and why?
12.What was your least favorite level and why?

Any suggestions or other feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for all your help and hope you enjoyed playing!

Alex

Hello!

My name is Alex, I'm a Games Design student at the University of Huddersfield. I've been into games for about 5 or 6 years but only started building them around a year ago since I realized if I went into industry the opportunities for putting my "Ideas" across to developers would be non existent, so I would have to make them myself ^^

For this I put together a small blog called AlexVsCoding which I used to record my progress in building my own games. The initial plod of learning to code gained speed when upon visiting Eurogamer Expo I came across Stencylworks after a chat with some of the indie folk. Since then I have been developing my first game, dual running platformer, Narcissus.

I've always had a love for games since a young age, going through the typical phases of being terrified of them as a child (DK Dinosaur Hunter, Rayman Gold and Descent 2), obsessed with them as a teen (Burnout 3, Halo, Left 4 Dead) and dabbled in them as a grown up (Cry of Fear, Time Fcuk, Rayman Origins). I spend a lot less time on major titles and more on fresh and new stuff that the indie community produce since lot of big games these days are more about the looks and I'm all about the gameplay mechanics ^^

I look forward to getting to know you all!