This has a really interesting art style and I love the overall theme of the game as well.

A 1 hour game doesn't bother me if I know that's what it was designed and sold as, though I know some will pass if it's short.

I like the 2D combat. Very cool. And the improved visuals are nice.

My only issue is I have no clue how to pronounce the name of the game and if I couldn't see it spelled out in the devlog, I wouldn't know what to say with the logo font. That may just be me though...

Thanks for the feedback! I've had a friend tell me the same for the font. The logo isn't final, so I'll probably play around with that some.

love that last gif looks great where you can see the detail on the sprite work a bit more. the character expressions really sell it! Was that zoomed in just to show the detail or is that the screen size?

That gif is actually the real resolution of the game, non-zoomed. The image is heavily cropped though to save on filesize.

[DevLog Update #1]

DevLog Update #1

It's been far far to long since I posted here. I'm trying to force myself to be more public about my work, so I'll be posting here more regularly now. The game sort of sat on the side for a while for a number of reasons, but I've been back at it and have a solid plan moving forward. Talking about it on here regularly should get me to where I want to be.

Anamynta finally has an official name! No longer am I working under the code-name Zeltima-Ulda. It certainly helps to have an official name when talking about the game. The name stems from the greek works ana(again) and amynta(defender,vindicator) and plays into the central theme and story of the game.

Also, I've finally settled on a story and am currently working on an intro sequence to the game! That's exciting. =)

I changed out the old graphics in the original post, but I'm going to post them into this post so that peeps can keep track of the visual progress. What's the point in a dev-blog if you can't look at the history?

Images:



That should preserve them for future reference. =)

On that note, here are the newer images showing off the progress being made on the game. Lots of engine work has been done and you can see the newer sprite work.

Images:



Final note. The next big steps are to blockout the entire game so that you can play it from start to finish. This will require putting sprite work to the side and making sure the core game is done and fun before I get back to making things look nice. Once the game is solid, I'm sure the sprites will flow right along. I'll do a sprite here and there when I'm in the mood still, but that won't be the focus of the majority of the next step of development.

Links:
http://www.squibbons.com/
http://twitter.com/Squibbons

I've got up and down thrusts in the game currently, but I'm experimenting with getting the controls to feel just right before I show them off. The down thrust feels pretty good and simple to use overall. You jump and press down and as long as you have learned how to downstab, you do so. The problem arises when the player wishes to transition to a crouch-stab in mid-air, as then the animation transition feel fairly sloppy between the two. Probably easily fixed with some extra anim frames and adjustments to the state switching during that special case. However, there is another issue, and I'll get to that in a second.

The upstab feels pretty rough and poor currently, as it's too sensitive to pressing up, which players want to do often when jumping, even if it isn't necessary. If I switch to a system that stays consistent with the other attacks in the game, it would require you to press a button while also pressing up. This is nice because it would allow for the player to actively choose when they want to upstab, and would also allow for a standing upstab and standing upblock, which I want to also implement.

So herein lies the issue I mentioned earlier. If upstab feels good when pressing up+attack, downstab seems like it should work the same way, but it can't because down+attack is a crouch stab at all times. I could remove crouch-stabbing from the air attack to fix this issue, but I'm not sure how I feel about that currently, as crouch stabbing in the air is a skill maneuver that I currently like the concept of.

Having enjoyed games like Binding of Issac, I'd play this. I've got a couple friends who I know would love this game as well.

[Title:]

Title: Anamynta ( was Zeltima Ulda )
Platforms: As many as I can compile it on(windows for certain)
Language: Monkey X used for custom opengl engine
Genre: RPG Platformer
Progress: Prototype

Synopsis
Anamynta is an action platforming rpg where combat requires skill and timing. It is heavily inspired by games of systems past but certainly not limited to their game design palette.

Idea
Anamynta is a game I've been wanting to create for a long time. I loved Zelda II and Ultima 3-6 as a kid. For years I've wanted to combine those style of games, but explore it in ways that old NES style games couldn't have dreamed of. The combat styles of Zelda II and the more modern Demon/Dark Souls appeals to me because their combat systems let masterful players beat the game through skill and not just through grinding stats. The world of Ultima always amazed me because of the depth of the characters and the world as well as the non-linear flow of the gameplay.

Philosophy
Anamynta follows the easy to learn but hard to master design philosophy. Players who are extremely good at the game will be able to fight enemies without ever taking damage or needing stat upgrades, while others may find it takes a lot of practice and patience to get through areas. While the game is designed to be hard, I don't like trial-by-death sort of gameplay, so the player will be introduced to new mechanics gradually. Early enemies will start off simple but get more intelligent and gain new attack styles as the game goes on.

The core of the game should understood and playable without players feeling lost and frustrated. I want the player to feel as if they can make choices and take different paths to the end, but not get confused about what exactly they need to be doing or where they need to be going along the way.

World
The game will feature an over-world with towns and dungeons to visit. NPCs in towns will have dialog trees and give hints to players about items or areas in the game. The over-world is intended to be non-linear allowing the player to explore and visit harder areas early in the game. Certain areas may require or be easier with certain items, and the player must discover this through playing and talking with the towns folk. The over-world will have enemies traveling on it. They will have ai for the over-world and will patrol areas and move at speeds similar to the player and only give chase to the player if they see them. Encountering an enemy will bring you to a combat map with them which is based on the terrain you encountered them in.

Combat
The combat uses a sword/shield style mechanic. At the start, players can attack and block both high and low. Enemies will also attack and block high and low, though some early enemies may only do one or the other. Blocked attacks do no damage, so successfully blocking and timing attacks to pass the enemies blocking is the key to mastering combat.

Goals
The biggest goal is not to over-design. I've been making games for over a decade now, and was in the mod community before that. Years of experience should help me focus on the meat of the game design and keep the rest trimmed. I'm approaching this from a game-mechanics first standpoint. I want the movement and combat with several enemies to feel solid before I even design the larger world or get deep into art for the game. That way if it starts to feel to big, I can easily cut the secondary features and still have a fun game.

I love hearing feedback, so I can't wait to hear from peeps.

Vids:
None Yet

Images:



Links:
http://www.squibbons.com/
http://twitter.com/Squibbons

This definitely appeals to me. I love hard games, I love top-down games, and I love Dark Souls, and Demon Souls for that matter.

Something I really enjoyed about Dark Souls that I'm curious as to how you might address is that really skilled players can play through the game with relatively few to no upgrades and still come out successful as the combat is skill based and not luck based. So once a player has master fighting each enemy type, they can do so without taking any damage ever. Is this something your game will do as well?

Very cool game. Played it for a bit this morning, and quite enjoyed it. I love traffic management in games, oddly enough, and this is right up my alley in that regard. Looking forward to where you take this. =)

I've found memories of playing EWJ when I was a kid, and there aren't many platformers these days, if any, that go that route. The care in your art and animation style really shines through and helps it stand out among the games out there. Very much looking forward to playing this!

This game looks amazing! Totally looking forward to playing this. The movement on the characters, both player and enemy, seems really fluid and not stiff at all, which is very good to see. Character movement is one of the first things that will make or break a game for me.

Heya! I'm Squibbons or Squibs as my friends shorten it to. I've been a professional developer since 2001, and before that did maps in the quake mod communities under the name Charon. I've been doing my own things on the side in hopes of being able to produce and release my own titles.

I started as a level designer at a young age, but over the many years I've become a jack-of-all-trades. I'm now self taught in programming(C++,C#,MonkeyX,BlitzMax,Java,HaxePunk,and others), pixel art, and electronic music creation. I love learning things, so I'm constantly challenging myself to try new stuff to force myself to broaden my skills.

My current top 15 games, in no particular order.
Ultima 6
Doom
The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past
Sim City 4
Ultima Online
Maniac Mansion
Dwarf Fortress
Tetris
Super Mario World
Shadow of the Colossus
Dirt
Ikaruga
Skyrim
Quake
MechWarrior 2

It honestly feels weird writing this much about myself. I'd rather talk about my games and not about me. =)