[official levels]

Custom Levels part is working pretty solid at the moment. Now I am working on the official levels part.

I have all the levels on the server. They are very small files, even a very big and decorated level is 20 kb or something. So when player opens the official level selection page, client will ask to the server to get a list of about which levels did he finish.

After getting that list in client, I will have hardcoded ID's of the levels in the client and match them with the list I get from the server. And then draw them like this ->

https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/CNX0HxGVAAAxi9S.mp4

as a net of levels. Level connections will be also hardcoded into the game. And I will lock or unlock the level nodes and paths depending on the "completed" info we get from the server about every level. If player wants to play a level, client will download the level from the server (I will do some caching thing here, later) by simply asking with the level ID client has. And if he wants to see the scoreboard, same thing, he will ask to the server for it, with the hardcoded level ID.

If player finishes a level, his time and replay is uploaded to the server, this also equals to the "completed" information about the player and the level.

So this way player won't lose his finished levels everytime he does a fresh install on different computers and leaderboards will be a little more safer because level is loaded from the server. And they haven't a "COMPLETED LEVELS" file to edit in local.

Only issue would be the situation that player has no internet, I think of having a local copy of every official level. Leaderboard stuff won't work ofcourse but he will be able to play. Since leaderboard is not working in this situation, saves also won't work, this might be a problem but I don't really want to overthink it at the moment.

I am trying my best to keep every leaderboard safe but yeah ofcourse someone will figure out a way to break it, unfortunately.  

New OST, Enchanted Crevice!
https://soundcloud.com/pronomicalartist/remnants-of-naezith-ost-enchanted-crevice

Made a guide paper for the event at 4 February,

http://puu.sh/mFOP0/e11c9adf71.png

I am happy to see games similar to mine, mechanics look very smooth. I will be following, good luck! 

(in promo art she looks super ugly at the same time trying to look sexy, has she got a story?)

[smooth and cool]

I need help about menu colors and stuff.

Currently its like this but I hate them.



Can you recommend me some color combinations that look smooth and cool? (RGB codes would be 30x better)

I also need a fitting font which is CC0 licenced. You can recommend me!

Here I tried a pixelated one but I didn't like the look.

This reminds me Alien series, quality work.

Loved the art-style, following this, good luck!

Hey! I just wanted to add how amazing this game looks.

The gameplay looks really fluid and the story seems pretty interesting.

Do you have a Beta? iOS or Android? I'd love to start playing!

Hey, thanks!

Still only my friends are doing the play-test. Everyone recommends me to make it for mobile but it's kinda hard to play it there so it is for PC, Linux and Mac.

[Jake]

Haha that's interesting actually. Someone from SFML community recommended naming him "Jake" because Jake Gyllenhaal is playing the Prince in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time movie.   

Then, how about "Jordan"? It's not as common as Jake. And the name of the author of  PoP. And also reminds old-school players of the "Stone of Jordan" maybe.^^

I think I will just leave him nameless. Haha this reminded me that there was a quake player named "unnamedtony".

Is there anyone will be there at GIST2016, Gaming Istanbul event at 4-7 February?

I will be there with RoN!

Here is a new gameplay video for you

This time we don't use any grappling hook.

Little touches like that are icing on the cake and definitely should be in.

"Remnants...of Naezith...FIGHT!" 

I'll have it then. It also would teach the unique name of the game, and it's pronunciation. (evil plans )

Haha it's cute,

I clicked the replay button and expect to watch my gameplay but facepalmed myself 5 seconds later.

["RESIDENT.. EVIL.."]

By the way, an old game opening randomly popped in my mind today. Resident Evil 3 Nemesis, do you remember the opening of those games? Like a deep voice says "RESIDENT.. EVIL..". I found that cool when I was a child and it would be fun to have references like this so I thought about having one of those for my game.

So I asked to a friend with the sexy voice,

He made one : http://puu.sh/mwMWX/2b0c39bed3.mp3 ( My favorite )
Alternative #1 : http://puu.sh/mwO5L/5ca0702adb.mp3
Alternative #2 : http://puu.sh/mwO74/a3df764a8e.mp3

Feels super weird but I liked it, what do you think?  

This is the reference I talk about:

[Changes:]

This morning I worked on sounds a little bit and the surface difference.

Changes:
Removed running sound loop.
Added mud step sound.
Added metal step sound.
Synced steps with step sounds, depending on the surface.
Interaction with metal surface does not create dust particles anymore.
Added water jump sound.
Added water contact sound.
Sound pitches are mostly randomized now to create variation.

These changes affected the feel a lot, really.

[Jake]

If you are going to use screen shake, I'd only use it sparingly. I feel like it would disrupt the flow of movement if it was too common/easy to induce.

And if you're still looking for a name...I dunno, this might be lame, but "Zenith"? I got there by just re-arranging the letters in "Naezith", and dropping the "a" because who needs that one anyway....

Then again, I guess the two weren't related in any way, until unnamed treasure hunter falls and gets possessed...so I guess there's really no reason to tie their names together. Just a thought that occurred.

Haha that's interesting actually. Someone from SFML community recommended naming him "Jake" because Jake Gyllenhaal is playing the Prince in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time movie.   

What's your thoughts about screenshake by the way?

I removed all the screenshake from my game because it's more clear this way, but still I wonder if it was a bad idea to get rid of them. I don't really know when can I use that effect tho, only when the hook hits the wall or something?

[Spin in the action:]

Nice. Love both looks and gives appropriate "this is fast" and "now this is fast!"

The new character animations look great!

Thanks a lot for kind words!   




Today I added the spinning animation as double jump and dash jump (yes this also new!).

Spin in the action:





At the next one, you can see many things like slow running -> dash -> dash jump -> weird water! -> weird water kills you if you're so slow -> epic LIGHTNING helps you avoid death by teleporting you back to checkpoint



Finally, I smoothed the hook trail using bezier curve, following this epic tutorial.

[front arm]

Hello folks,

In new animations, player will have the hook in his hand inside the sprite, not dynamicly.

Today graphic artist gave me the sprite sheet of the slow running animation,


The other running animation

feels too fast for slower speeds, so the new one will play between 0 and top speed.

In sprite sheet, there are 3 lines of sprites. First row is the front arm, second row is the body, third row is the back arm. You can see it here:


I also have separate front and back arm sprites to use when hook is active(hook is not in hand).

I hardcoded eye, left shoulder, right shoulder, left hook and right hook coordinates in the sprite sheet into my code so I can map stuff dynamicly ingame like particles going out of the eye, glow on the hooks, trail of the hooks and the dynamic arm with shoulder pivot(when he throws the hook or swinging).

Frame time for running animation was constant, I decided to make it dynamic. Character steps every 6 frames in animation, step size is about 80 pixel in spritesheet, I multiply it that with player's scale so if player sprite is small, step length also becomes small. Character moves "movementSpeed.x" pixels a second which is dynamic, so this calculation gives me the correct frame time for a running animation with realistic steps:

Code:

1.0f / ((abs(movementSpeed.x) / (step_size*player_sprite_scale)) * step_frame_count)

However, because my game is fast-paced, the lowest speed character runs at is too fast, so animation has to be too fast. And it looks very funny when animation runs fast so I slowed it down a little bit. Steps are not very synced to be correct now, but it is okay.

I was spawning a dust particle group for steps in a fixed time interval like every 0.2 seconds or something. But I realized that I know at which frames character really steps, so I can create the dust when he really steps to get a better, more realistic feel.

My finals are just passed, I have about 5 weeks of non-university days now. I will spend so much time on the project!

I decided to bind the hooks into the sprites. And draw the hook dynamicly when character throws them. So if both hooks are passive, this is how it will look like (without effects like glow ofcourse)


It will be the one of the random double jump animations I guess.

So both hooks can be active(in air) or inactive(in hand) individually. That's why I will use 3 layers of sprites like back arm, body, front arm. Active hook's arm will draw the hook dynamicly while passive arm will have the hook in his hand, inside the sprite, not dynamicly drawn. That's the plan.

And for some other situations like swinging, I will need dynamic legs. It won't be easy I guess, but if I do everything right, it will feel pretty awesome in my opinion.