When you find the key in a loot drop

 I agree with you it affects the personality portrayed. Both are good. I like what you do to the foreground arm.

Your ascii art is better than my pixel art.  I hate myself right now

Keep working at it and if you don't have try to find someone to mentor you to help identify and improve on weaknesses. How long have you been making games?

Can i pick?

I choose 3, or 2 if the dust(or flare? Is that what it called?) doesn't fly that high.

Not sure what they're called either, I usually say 'particles' for generalization. I'm liking #3 as well, but it can still be improved. I feel like its got the right shape and movement now, but I gave the top section the same size as the bottom one and that can perhaps be remedied. The best part is that it doesn't look like a wand anymore so it's probably safe to include this feature in the game now.

When the particle system is complete I'll try different particle densities, shapes and color progressions to see if we can give this a proper smoky feeling.

Couldn't resist and made 3 more variations on the torch.

Redrew the background for the Bronze Gate as the context has changed a bit.

Great color choices on the worm!

Current solution indicates (with a highlight) which items are equipped on left/right hand (some items take both hands) but its still WIP. Pressing on an item brings up a dialog with details about the item and options to equip/unequip/drink.

On the PC/web version I'm thinking to allow inventory management by typing, e.g.: "equip boomerang right"

Edit: Of course you also see which items are equipped on the character itself!

Here's a mockup of the item screen. Its mostly implemented except for the consumables that appear at the top row and occupy half space. The final version won't have the anti-aliasing (just a fast mockup).

Items shown in order:
Wands, Shard Box, Potions, Treasures/Keys,
Hatchet, Shovel, Bow,
Grappling Hook, Boomerang, Sword

The blue back-light on the brown character looks great! For a second i thought it was a battering ram (and an epic one at that) then I realized the context. Very cool.

It does share a point-click adventure feeling, but the system is dynamic. For example, in an adventure the items are traditionally tied to a puzzle/screen, useless elsewhere (with exceptions), and then are gone post-use, and often there is no combat. In SStory items and combat behave more as a western rpg meets rogue-like, except for the A.I. bit.

The reason for the A.I. is because the challenge is not supposed to revolve around execution of the character's micro-actions. Instead the focus is on the discovery and progress.

Great idea. I did spend a lot of time on the torch already, though. I'll come back to that. I'm weighting not having them at all because they are too visually similar to the wands, which are really important and I'm concerned about confusing the player. Thank you for the great feedback!

I should play Paper Mario

I'm still working out the gameplay, but as of right now you select the location (e.g. Caves of Fear) and the character goes there and an A.I micro-manages all the actions. You can also select which items to use and that's where most of the game's depth lies. I'm not sure what genre this fits into yet but its not a JRPG. Its very strange, which is interesting and scary at the same time, as without conventions to fall back on the process relies heavily on testing. Some people find it incredibly fun while others don't get it at all.

The shaking head is funny ^^ I imagine that could be an issue if that were going on during the entire game, but lets say you got some weapon upgrade or temporary boost that would be a funny extra.

I find that kick really charming, but it looks kinda odd. Maybe the arms should turn into <'s, like "pumped" arms? Or maybe just the other arm should also do something, because it staying like \ doesn't really look quite right. I think his right arm should go forward and the left back to maintain balance and add torque?

I tried that, tried pumped arms, etc. They all look odd but in different ways while reducing the idea that it's a kick. I want to keep the focus on the leg. In the end I spent too long on that task and had to move on to other things, settling on the one where the left arm counter balances. Hopefully this can be revisited later.

[Dimension]

   

 

I think you spelled Dimension wrong.

Cool animations.

I type the animations in a text editor. The tools are slow, I'll have to make my own tool for this.

Gameplay is c#.

Trying to figure out a style for the torches.



Edit: added 3rd variation

WIP torches