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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogs"Project Darkside"
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AndroidScholar1
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« on: July 15, 2010, 08:40:08 AM »

Project Darkside
- Working Title -

Recently, after going through all of the various game ideas of the past few years, I've finally landed on a suitable first project - simple, yet hopefully artistically satisfying.

The idea is essentially a linear platformer in the spirit of Silent Hill, with the game world shifting between light and dark areas. Think 'Eversion', but with a more serious tone.

The game follows the player attempting to make his way from his home and out of the surrounding forest, on the way having to piece together clues left along the path to find out what's happening to him.

It's a fairly simple platformer game, and is more of an artistic experience than an innovative one.

I've finished the engine for it (it's being made in Flash using ActionScript 2.0, to save me time on graphics and the like), and now all that's left is to get the artwork into it. I've done a few pieces of concept art for the levels so far, and am still working on the character's design.

Here's the engine so far, which isn't too bad - it has all that I need there, and I'll iron out the bugs later on:


Also, don't mind the programmer art - it's going to be there until I can either be arsed to use my laptops touch pad to use Photoshop or until I buy a tablet, but my spendings gonna be pretty tight for the next couple of months.

Controls (subject to change later on):

WASD - Movement
Space - Interact (climb/get off ladder, open/close note)

Testing Controls:
Left Arrow - Shift to dark environment
Right Arrow - Shift to light environment
Up Arrow - Change x axis velocity to 10
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AndroidScholar1
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« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2010, 02:52:39 PM »

Update


Additions:
  • A health bar (damage is currently given by falling from great heights)
  • A sanity bar (depletes in the dark area, refills in the light area)
  • Better floor collision, so it's no longer colliding with a single point in the center bottom of the player, but rather three points - this avoids falling through the corners of the ground

Any suggestions as to what I should add or work on are welcome, and I'll get to finishing up one of the current pieces of concept art tomorrow and scanning it in.
« Last Edit: July 15, 2010, 04:20:40 PM by AndroidScholar1 » Logged
Swattkidd
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« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2010, 03:03:03 PM »

Your progress is really good and the engine is looking solid, good job! Although I find it kind off odd that I am "locked" on the ladder, sometimes I want to go near the top and just jump off (could be used to get on top of something or get a better jump) but instead I am locked on it. No big deal, just a suggestion.

Also your link in the second post is broken.
« Last Edit: July 15, 2010, 03:07:27 PM by Swattkidd » Logged
AndroidScholar1
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« Reply #3 on: July 15, 2010, 04:22:39 PM »

Your progress is really good and the engine is looking solid, good job! Although I find it kind off odd that I am "locked" on the ladder, sometimes I want to go near the top and just jump off (could be used to get on top of something or get a better jump) but instead I am locked on it. No big deal, just a suggestion.

Also your link in the second post is broken.

Yeah, I was thinking that as well - I'll be changing that soon to the more traditional "up and down to instantly move on the ladder", as it feels less... restricting.

The link is now fixed, and thanks for the feedback Smiley
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AndroidScholar1
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« Reply #4 on: July 16, 2010, 02:36:13 AM »

Update


Additions:
  • Two small pick-ups, which I'm undecided on what to use for in the final game (probably to unlock concept art - nothing gameplay oriented I don't think, unless I decide to have multiple endings)
  • Made the ladders feel more accessible, and had to make their collision boxes a tad wider to do so
  • Changed the readable message to change depending on whether the player was in the "dark area" or "light area"


Any suggestions are welcome, as well as feedback on how it plays. I'm thinking of slowing down the climbing speed just a little bit, seeing as it's going to be a serious game rather than a Mario platformer.
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Maikel_Ortega
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« Reply #5 on: July 16, 2010, 04:11:11 AM »

Update


Additions:
  • Two small pick-ups, which I'm undecided on what to use for in the final game (probably to unlock concept art - nothing gameplay oriented I don't think, unless I decide to have multiple endings)
  • Made the ladders feel more accessible, and had to make their collision boxes a tad wider to do so
  • Changed the readable message to change depending on whether the player was in the "dark area" or "light area"


Any suggestions are welcome, as well as feedback on how it plays. I'm thinking of slowing down the climbing speed just a little bit, seeing as it's going to be a serious game rather than a Mario platformer.

I like the concept so far, specially the sanity bar and the dark-light-sides thing. The engines works properly too and you are improving fast, so keep up the nice work ^^

About the ladders, i suggest you to wait until you got your character sprites working, so you can see if he looks weird (like climbing faster that he should do, according his moves).

And I don't know if you want something like this in your game, but some lighting effects in the dark side would be cool. Like limited field of vision or something like that. That could wait until you got your art though.

I hope i was helpful and made my point, my english doesn't make any sense sometimes.
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AndroidScholar1
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« Reply #6 on: July 16, 2010, 04:25:53 AM »

I like the concept so far, specially the sanity bar and the dark-light-sides thing. The engines works properly too and you are improving fast, so keep up the nice work ^^

Thanks Smiley I started working on platformer engines a while back, and it's good to see that I can do something like this in a couple of days whereas in the start it took me about a month to get a semi-working one, and it was still glitchy as hell.

Quote
About the ladders, i suggest you to wait until you got your character sprites working, so you can see if he looks weird (like climbing faster that he should do, according his moves).

Good idea, it just feels a bit fast for a human to be climbing at the moment.

Quote
And I don't know if you want something like this in your game, but some lighting effects in the dark side would be cool. Like limited field of vision or something like that. That could wait until you got your art though.

I am thinking of having some lighting effects, but not enough to cloud the entire map. The areas in "dark mode" will have a genuinely darker art direction than the "light mode" area, and I'm hoping to have some kind of trick effect that sort of blends the two.

Gameplay wise, I'm thinking on the "dark mode" areas there could be a chasm you need to cross, and you do so by finding a flare that creates a sort of area effect around the player that has the "light mode" area in it, and in that place the chasm is replaced by solid ground, allowing the player to traverse it. I know I messed up the explanation somewhere in there, but I'm sure you get the gist of what I'm aiming for.

Quote
I hope i was helpful and made my point, my english doesn't make any sense sometimes.

Your English is great, don't worry Smiley
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Maikel_Ortega
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« Reply #7 on: July 16, 2010, 05:22:02 AM »

I am thinking of having some lighting effects, but not enough to cloud the entire map. The areas in "dark mode" will have a genuinely darker art direction than the "light mode" area, and I'm hoping to have some kind of trick effect that sort of blends the two.

Gameplay wise, I'm thinking on the "dark mode" areas there could be a chasm you need to cross, and you do so by finding a flare that creates a sort of area effect around the player that has the "light mode" area in it, and in that place the chasm is replaced by solid ground, allowing the player to traverse it. I know I messed up the explanation somewhere in there, but I'm sure you get the gist of what I'm aiming for.

Yep i get it, and sounds great. Mixes the lighting effect i though with the 2-sides mechanic. Looking forward to see that!
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AndroidScholar1
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« Reply #8 on: July 16, 2010, 03:52:46 PM »

Quote
Yep i get it, and sounds great. Mixes the lighting effect i though with the 2-sides mechanic. Looking forward to see that!

Thanks for the support Smiley I won't be updating this weekend due to having no access to a computer (even now I'm posting off of my iPhone), but I'll be working on the player's art and animation as well as some art.
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« Reply #9 on: July 18, 2010, 11:42:16 AM »

Concept Art #1

Here's a raw scan of the first screen in the light area, with the protagonist's house on the left and the entrance to the forest on the right. I'm unsure on whether this'll be the beginning or the end of the game yet. Don't mind the random marks and whatnot (though the two shapes along the top are meant to be clouds), it took me ages to get the scanner working and by the time I'd finished I'd only just noticed all the dirt on it.

I'll be working on recreating it in Photoshop CS5 when I get my tablet, but for now it will remain black and white, as I prefer my colours to be named and easily removed before I start working. Being colour blind is annoying when for the last hundred times I've tried colouring the sky it's been ruined by someone waiting until the last moment to tell me I've coloured it purple by mistake.
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AndroidScholar1
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« Reply #10 on: July 19, 2010, 05:32:08 AM »

Concept Art #1.1

Here's the first piece of art partly done. At the moment it looks horrible, with very little shading on the tree on the right, no shading on the trees in the background, the stone wall being very basic and the clouds not even done.

That's what I get for not being patient enough to wait for the cash to buy a tablet - doing this with a laptop's touchpad is time consuming.
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AndroidScholar1
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« Reply #11 on: July 29, 2010, 07:44:56 AM »

I'm going to postpone development of this for a couple of months, at the most, due to not having access to a tablet at the moment and manual art development via a touchpad is a ridiculous time sink. I'll be using the time to progress ever so slightly on my other projects, but as soon as I get my hands on a tablet I'll be back to working on this one.

Thanks for the support so far guys Smiley
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