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[Hangedman]

BACK IN BUSINESS

History:
March 02: Ruinstructor preview. It's ON
September 16: Tilesets are done. Mockups are go. BAM.
August 31: Bosses, Virgil, Stationary, SHAZAM.
August 21: Got down to work, made devlog full of fluff text.

I have shifted all the story content into my first post down, because previewing and saving changes to this post currently takes forever.

[Dozer]

I love this whole idea. The story just has a great feeling to it and brings to mind The Foundation Trilogy... I would play this game just for the story but the gameplay sounds pretty well thought out too. All in all... can't wait for a playable release! :D

[Inanimate]

This idea has some serious merit to it. I could see this as a series of novels, and you're making a GAME out of it. God bless you, you magnificent man.

[Hangedman]

THE STORY SO FAR

Common Era 2X2X.
One lowly coder, an anarchist by the name of Joe Sayonara, decides to play a trick on his bosses. He inserts a comma into a code project for some unknown government organization. The errant comma sets off a chain reaction of automatic defense systems, long laid dormant by the ending of all war on Earth in 216X. Within three days, 99% of all life on planet Earth has been wiped clean. Survivors are far and few, but medical science and automatonic aid prevent most of the survivors from further harm. A massive fallout shelter built beneath the Kanto plain becomes the hub of the world's remaining population, and there is a new hope for mankind.
The shelter comes to be known as 'Station Eden'.

Common Era 2X3X.
Terraforming is underway to return the earth to its former glory. Suddenly, the unstable core vibrates, sending massive shockwaves around the world. Thousands of survivors are lost, but Station Eden still stands. A scouting party seeking survivors discovers that the earthquakes cracked open the base of Mount Fuji, revealing a massive underground complex. The sign above the massive barred doors at the entrance reads 'Elysium'. Outside the Ruins of Elysium, the remnants of humanity find a strange petrified plant in the soil, which comes to be known as the 'YHVH Seed', which provides them with psychic powers. They learn to attack, and defend, and move objects psychically. But many die from the mental strain. Dr. Emmanuel Yoshida of the Station Eden Institute, determines the secret to surviving the use of psychic powers with a technique called 'Psychholler'. It is based on the idea of creating a passive state of psychic activity that occupies ambient space around the user, much like the sound of an active voice. Just as one can replace their hands with psychic force, one can replace their voice to fill ambient space with psychic energy instead of sound, and imbue objects with energy to do the user's bidding.

AE (After Elysium) 3.
The three greatest minds of Station Eden, a soldier, a technician, and a doctor, are trained as the ultimate psycholleric combat squad, trained solely to investigate the inside of the Ruins of Elysium. "SQUAD OUROBOUROS" enters with the hope of mankind... and never returns. Two days later, a strange poison the survivors call the 'Ragnarok Fallout' begins to emanate from the Ruins of Elysium, withering and weakening every living lifeform it touches. Station Eden closes its doors permanently, in order to seek a cure, knowing their air purification cannot keep it out forever. But no cure can be found, and so they are drawn back to the mysteries of the Ruins of Elysium.

AE (After Elysium) 14.
Those with an affinity for feeling psycholleric vibrations spend years training to act in four elite squads: "SQUAD GARMR" who specialize in psychic combat, "SQUAD DULLAHAN" who specialize in psychic defense, "SQUAD BASILISK" who specialize in psycholleric effects, and "SQUAD AXEX" who are balanced in their affinities. The Station Eden air systems are on the verge of failure, and so the four squads, knowing their mission is likely suicidal, nevertheless steel themselves for what lies in the darkness, and set out across the wastelands.

GAME BRIEFING

Elysium has 4 entrances. Each one has a different path with slightly branching levels, but all paths lead to the center. Any of the four squads can enter any entrance, with different specialties to aid them, but once you choose an entrance for a squad they cannot return to the surface until their task is complete. You play the squads in the order that you assign them entrances. The squads work as three-man teams, either separately or together attacking, defending, and psychollering. The more who do each task, the more effective: multiple or stronger attacks, longer lasting and faster recharging shields, and faster psycholleric manipulation. But they have to adjust their tasks on the fly, because ultimately they are just people, and even the minimal exposure to the Ragnarok Fallout has made them very vulnerable to any physical harm that penetrates their psycholleric shield. The soldiers act as "lives": if one dies, the other two take in their spirit and become more powerful, but more limited in their abilities. If the team dies, well, that section of the Ruins of Elysium remains unexplored and the questions unanswered. The more who make it to the center, the more hope they have of solving the mystery.

Some may live. Some may die. But no matter what, they must discover the secrets of... the RUINS.


So, it's not the milestone yet, but here's a preview of the tilesets. They are fiddly to work on, but fun.

[Hangedman]

Milestone 1: Virgil


Progress:
Gameplay: 85%
Graphics: 65%
Levels: 15%
Sound: 0%
Total: 41%

Since I have a habit of making different parts of the game depending on my mood, I will likely not have a demo for a fair while. Instead, I'd like to use these milestones not only as progress updates but also a chance to throw around some gameplay concepts and see what people think.

Let's start at the end, shall we?

Bosses are usually lauded for their design. Creativity in challenge, in visual design, in style of combat the boss induces in the player. But, as many games self-consciously trope these days, bosses are often just major dicks.

It's remarkable that people often compare cartoonish game villains to Hitler, because it's actually a big mistake. Skeletor would be better. The thing that Hitler had, that Skeletor doesn't, that most video game bosses (both ironically and unironically) are lacking, is motivation.

And I don't mean 'I want to rule the world' motivation, because that isn't so much a motivation as the use of a really large MacGuffin (the world), the same as any other MacGuffin that can be pursued as a plot point, whether it be giant crystal or dildo of the gods or a sword that says SHAZAM on it in Greek.

I mean a purpose, not only for existence, but for both their goals and their methods of pursuing them. The most interesting (and often the most disturbing) villain is that one that does not in any way think his actions are incorrect. This is one of the reasons why serial killers and psychopaths fascinate and entrance people so: they do not think what they are doing is evil for the sake of evil, as others might perceive it, it is simply something that they do.

Most bosses are too comically one-sided for any such depth, so I set out with the task of creating a boss with a reason, a purpose, and a touch of insanity.

What I created was "Virgil".


Right click und stuf.

No, it's not discount SHODAN. But he is a synthetic intelligence.
I'm not going to give away his base motivation, to save something for the end.
All I'm going to say is that he was used to store a lot of information.


Onto mechanics!

Now, Virgil is synthetic. So he is going to be one of those bosses that sits there, while other stuff does the work for him... at least at first.

A lot of games take the route of having a stationary boss, and most do the same damn things over and over. Let's look at them!

• Boss shouts insults at you
• You have to wander about the screen disabling/enabling things to get to...
• Giant glowing shining weak point available FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY
• Mobile enemies that arrive periodically to offset the monotony
• Flashy background effects to distract you from the foreground
• Being really friggin' big
• Repetition in dangerous conditions in place of challenge

This stuff is very, very common. I wanted to avoid all that or maybe just some of it, if at all possible. So I've set about researching stationary bosses of various kinds, from various action games. It turns out that no one really changes up the same formula. As functional as it may be, I'm looking for ways to shake it up.
Some ideas I had:

• Having the boss always be vulnerable, from at least one angle, which would encourage attacking from different angles
• More obvious targeting of the player to encourage movement and discourage repetitive play
• Randomly generated attack patterns to prevent...patterns?
• Making use of abilities in reliable ways

The last one is a cruncher.
I wanted to attempt to make the player do something they hadn't done before, without resorting to introducing new mechanics and just confusing the hell out of them, as many bosses do to prevent stagnation, usually just resulting in frustration. Now, I haven't played all the games with stationary bosses, and I'd like some input. So, what do you think when you hear "good stationary boss"? Do you have any examples you could pass along?

Don't worry, it'll still be flashy though.

(just an old mockup )

Also, I've heard that some people may take issue with my use of religious terms and imagery in the game. For their benefit, I have decided I may just co-opt Assassin's Creed's disclaimer screen:

With one minor addition.

Today's question:
"What makes a good stationary boss? Do you have any examples?"

See you guys again September 16th!

[Dozer]

Milestone 1

Post is currently being rewritten due to losing it due to bad internet, check back in a minute.

Couldn't wait to comment I am so damn excited for this game. The art looks amazing and this piece in particular just blows my mind... The emotion in such a simple piece makes me want this game NAOW. Keep up the good work.

[RCIX]

very interesting game you have here! The only thing is "psycholler" comes out very close to "psycho-loler" to me :D

[Hangedman]

Post has been updated and cleaned up again after last night. For some reason my internet has been freaking out of late.

[Hangedman]

totally still on time for the milestone you guys

okay back underground

also

[Inanimate]

A good stationary boss requires thinking and strategy, and would work similarly to a good RPG; it would be heavily dangerous at times, and require analysis of patterns (or for a more action-game, agility and reflexes as well), and be vulnerable at times. However, to liven it up, you could merely make it easier to attack it at certain times, but always give the opportunity for damage, so the player doesn't feel like they're "waiting", which is annoying.

[Hangedman]

Milestone 2: Tilesets are done.

Less talk, more rock.



Still working on the HUD and character sprites.

See you in October.

[deathtotheweird]

ooh that looks very nice.

[Inanimate]

Fantastic HUD.

[Hangedman]

Thanks, guys. Tilesets are done, excepting a couple of extra props I haven't imagined up yet.
The level editor is next on the menu.

I really wanted to keep the HUD nice and simple. Current abilities and nothing else. The pause menu will have the rest of the info. But I think I'm going to restyle it, as I'm going to have muted colour throughout.

...I wonder if colouring it like the current area would be too visually problematic?

[Rumrusher]

from reading this thread the chain of event went in my mind as followed
-hey this guy game seem good.
-virgil the non shodan
-that room map looks just like that octo sub boss from megaman 10 that brought some bad memori...  DILDO DUEL WIELDING WOODY! skskahgjksja jfjkdsdfjasajq
-(during writing this) virgil would be A.M. from "I have no mouth and I must scream" then, only with less subtle references to the power rangers.

still wonder how one would go about making a boss fight that won't cause folks not to flip out in rage over the 'randomness' of the boss and find a way to Game break it.

[Pineapple]

Your game idea is awesome and backstory is captivating, but when I was reading it I was envisioning more of a top-down TBS game.

Would you be upset if I copied stole adapted your ideas and tried to get something done using the same story and stuff? If not, though, it's all good. 

[Hangedman]

Um, I'd rather you didn't. I appreciate the support but I have lots of plans for the story 

...although if I ever make a tactics game, it would make a good setting...

 

[Hangedman]

Okay dudes, Super Nitpickio Bros. time.

People have expressed interest in a larger and/or brighter HUD.
To that end:

Classic:                            Larger:

Brighter:                           Larger/Brighter:


Thoughts?

[Scut Fabulous]

I'm not trying to be a dick here, but I can't tell the difference between any of those screens (except the first one I think seems a teeny bit darker on the corner icons).  Are you referring to the HUD elements in the upper corner?  If so, maybe crop the images to just show the element you want us to analyze.

[Hangedman]

Good point. Let's try that one again.