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[eddietree]

Wazzap TIGers!  

It's my pleasure to introduce to you a new project that I've been working on for the past week, it's called Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea and it has become my new obsession.


About
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is a sea-faring adventure-RPG where you take the role of a protagonist who is set out to slay the epic sea-monster which captured your loved one.

Most the game takes place underwater where you battle dangerous sea-creatures to gain experience points in order to level-up and to grow more powerful. The underwater levels are procedurally generated and is random each time you play through the game!

You can resurface anytime to board your boat, where you go sea-faring amongst open water in search for your long lost love. Nearby, there lies a port town where friendly locals give you advice and offer you weapon upgrades and equipment to aid you in your journey.

The epic sea-monster lies below waiting for you. Do you think you have what it takes?


Art
The art in this game is done by Michael Hussinger. As you can see from the art in the game, he is quite awesome.


Music/Song
The music in this game is composed by Brandon Day. He produces the fattest beats.


Screenshots



Progress
The project is heavily under construction.

I currently have the overworld pretty much complete. But the meat of the game, the underwater, is heavily under construction. The camera is kind of wonky, I apologize for that.



You can check out the work-in-progress (Press X to skip intro):

Play (WIP)

[sereneworx]

So far, the game is excellent. The art really is very good. Nice and simple, but really effective. I can't wait to see what you guys do with the look of underwater.

[aeiowu]

wow. this whole atmosphere you've got going warms my heart to pieces. amazing!

[Renton]

Awesome.

[AaronG]

I love it!  I can't wait to see what you do with this going forward.  More updates soon, please!

[Ant]

omg omg OMG!  :handshakeR:

[Alex May]

Good going so far.

'Avast' means stop btw.

[Jared C]

OH MAN!  This is AMAZING. The atmosphere is fantastic.

[PlayMeTape]

This is all so lovely! I love the music, it really tightens the mood (allthough I'm guessing you're going to fix the looping errors and maybe they're not all done yet?). Looking forward to seeing where this is going. 

[eddietree]

Wow! Thank you all for all of the positive feedback and kind words! You all are like angels from heaven who have descended to the Tigsource forums to bless this thread with nice comments. Really motivates me to work harder!

Anyhow, to respond to some of your comments...

'Avast' means stop btw.

Funny, I didn't really look up what "avast" meant. I just thought it meant GO FORTH because I hear pirates saying it in movies all the time. Any other word you would recommend?

(allthough I'm guessing you're going to fix the looping errors and maybe they're not all done yet?)

Yep, much of the music there is just placeholder until I receive the music from the composer who is working on the tracks currently. But stay tuned for some tunes! 


Now back to the code dungeon...

[Miguelito]

Thank you for the nice words regarding the art, because I am... kinda the one doing it.

The game is still heavily under construction indeed, and I'm planning to add a ton more flourishes to the atmosphere and especially the characters!

Thanks again, and stay tuned!

[magnum_opus]

Just a note, the boom on your sail is way too long. The center of effort would be way too far back in the boat as drawn. Should either be shortened up a bit or the mast moved forward.

I know it sounds kind of pedantic but to anybody that sails or sees a lot of sail boats, the current layout looks... off.

[KM]

MUST try this out when I get home.

[Nate Kling]

This is awesome!  The artwork and the animation is so great!  I love when he transforms into his diving suit and the animation of him jumping in with that rounded splash really impressed me.  Man this is coming along quickly!

[eddietree]

Thanks guys!

I've been trying to code the underwater swimming mechanics. But for some reason, the player doesn't really feel as if he is swimming in water. He seems to be just floating in outer-space.

Anyone have any good tips to make the player feel as if he is underwater? If I added a slight sinking motion, do you think it might help the player feel more immersed in this underwater environment? I want to prevent the old school Mario style jump to swim thing.

Any tips or references to other games that had a good underwater swimming mechanics would be greatly appreciated.

[tsameti]

You've got a killer atmosphere going on.

if you need suggestions on swim mechanics:


controlFunction()  // where you translate key input into player motion
{
player_v += a constant in the appropriate direction
}

mathLoop() // calculations! whoo.
{
   player_v += a slight downward drift. Add your gravity but make it fairly small

   calculate your magnitude velocity if you have to (v_mag)
   // friction only happens when you're moving

   if (v_mag>0) {
   new_pos_vector+=player_v * deltaTime;
   }

   if (isFriction) {
   player_v-=frictionConstAlpha*asymtot(player_v);
   }
}

where asymtot is a quick little math function that looks like this:

function asymtot(epsilon:vector) {
   if (epsilon !=0) {
      return (epsilon + frictionConstBeta*epsilon.normalized);
   } else {
      return frictionConstBeta* epsilon.normalized;
   }
}

where friction Const Alpha and beta are whatever you want them to be. tweak away and have fun with it!

[tsameti]

Oh, warning. Beta should be set really low or use this

function asymtot(epsilon) {
   if (epsilon !=0) {
      return (epsilon + frictionConstBeta*epsilon/Math.abs(epsilon));
   } else {
      return 0;
   }
}

Here's an example of it, it's fairly tweakable, though it might do well with a v^2 component

http://tsameti.com/exampleFlash/floating.swf

[JaJitsu]

This game is turning out so friggin great. the concept is so simple and amazing in a "why didn't i think of that!" way

also the art and music is really great too! can't wait to see the underwater.

[deathtotheweird]

http://tsameti.com/exampleFlash/floating.swf

that feels pretty good..definitely better.

Going to second all the comments about the atmosphere, very nice. Anything to do with water and boats and I'm in 

[tsameti]

I actually went ahead and added a v2 component, and it works just a little better. You max out your speed a little more naturally, and you aren't able to dive as crazy fast anymore.

function asymtot(epsilon) {
   if (epsilon !=0) {
      return (A * epsilon*epsilon.magnitude + B * epsilon + C * epsilon/Math.abs(epsilon));
   } else {
      return 0;
   }
}

Where I'm using A = .9; B = .9; C = .28; in the example