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[deathtotheweird]

Sophie Houlden (GirlFlash previously) creator of BoxGame, Linear RPG, ZAGZIGI, Dinosaurs Didn't Have Keyboards, etc) has a new game coming out soon, it's having a pre-order phase now
here: http://witch.sophiehoulden.com/

Right now you can get it for 2 dollars (USD) but as she works on it the price will gradually increase. Cool way to do pre-orders (I guess not unlike Minecraft with it's alpha/beta/finished phase prices). Although it's unclear how much the final game will cost.



There's also a free Unity web-build here: http://witch.sophiehoulden.com/preview

The game is a procedurally generated dungeon crawler, and play a witch with various powers. You could compare it to a roguelike, action rpg. Kinda like Diablo and Torchlight, but with the cute factor cranked up to 11. If you like any of those games, you'll probably enjoy this. Also, here's what she says about the gameplay:

gameplay wise, if you can imagine diablo, spelunky, and a sickeningly cute j-rpg all had a magnificent three-way and an even more magnificent baby, which is now in it’s rebellious teen phase and wants to be a shoot-em-up, that’s what I’m going for.

It's really fun, even for being in it's early stages. I played to around the 10th level a few days ago, only to turn it on today and notice how much she has completed in just a few days.

She also has a blog where she has been posting updates to the game
here: http://www.sophiehoulden.com/blog/

edit: The name is changed to Lottie's Dungeon and website is here
http://www.lottiesdungeon.com/

[phubans]

Charming Is that white outline around the HUD elements by design or is it poor aliasing? I'm not really sold on the 2D sprites and textures. I get that they're trying to have that rough/cutesy kid-with-a-crayon appearance, but I'm not entirely convinced it's working.

The gameplay itself sounds pretty fun, though!

[deathtotheweird]

It's a common problem with transparent textures

http://technology.blurst.com/remove-white-borders-in-transparent-textures/

This is a good solution to that, so Sophie if you're reading-check out that video ^^^

[phubans]

What is she making the game with? I usually export stuff as PNG with an alpha channel enabled to avoid this problem, and newer versions of GM recognize PNG alpha.

[deathtotheweird]

Unity, but I think she's getting the halo because she's using PSDs and not PNGs (I may be wrong)

[Melly]

The game shows promise, but she'll probably have to overhaul those graphics at some point. Though they're probably mostly placeholders.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i wonder if a price model would work where, every time someone buys it, the price goes up by 1 cent, and it starts at 1 cent

by the time it reaches 100$, you'd have had 10,000 sales

[Melly]

I'm not sure that would actually work, but it might upset people.

[Landshark RAWR]

What if it increased by one cent but capping at $15 - $20

[HDSanctum]

That actually sounds like a pretty good idea, but you would have to limit it otherwise it will reach a point where it's too expensive for anyone to want to buy.

I wonder if pirates would be more or less compelled to pirate your game while it's being sold for cents. Some people say they can't buy because of no credit cards, so maybe offer another way for them to pay (ie, community activity).

[/offtopic]

I like games with the happy, toony charm, although I am not sure the character outlines fit the rest of the scene in those screenshots.

[deathtotheweird]

The game shows promise, but she'll probably have to overhaul those graphics at some point. Though they're probably mostly placeholders.

Overhaul the graphics? What do ya mean specifically? The dungeon is a little basic and rough, but every thing else looks quite nice (aside from the 2d stuffs). I do think the black lines around the witch stick out a bit though, as the above poster pointed out.

 I do agree with phubans about the mixture of 2d and 3d, the potions/bags/key/etc being two-dimensional feels a little out of place in the three-dimensional world.

(and funny how nobody corrected me on the two identical screenshots in the original post, fixed now though).

[Hangedman]

I say there needs to be more of a unifying style, definitely. Sticking to 2d or 3d excepting HUD elements and menus.

Also, it kept not crashing but just suddenly jumping to a blank webpage.

[SophieH]

Although it's unclear how much the final game will cost.

yeah, even I don't know that lol, I'll charge what I think it's worth at the time but I just dont know how good it will be when it's done.

Is that white outline around the HUD elements by design or is it poor aliasing?

it's actually by design, heres one of the graphics in a larger size:

but yeah, the border looks quite horrid when scaled down to what it is in game, I'll probably have to resize the graphics myself instead of letting the unity importer to do it, but honestly I havent even played with the import settings.

I'm not really sold on the 2D sprites and textures. I get that they're trying to have that rough/cutesy kid-with-a-crayon appearance, but I'm not entirely convinced it's working.

a lot of the graphics are totally placeholder (esp. dialogue portraits lol, those things are uuuggglllyyy!) a few people elsewhere said they liked the 2D-item-in-3D-world stuff, but it's something I'll guage what people (and what I myself) really want, there is already support for items that have 3D models in the game, but I plan on having hundreds of different items and the thought of making 3D models for them all right now is a bit of a put-off, so for the time being, 2D they shall stay I guess, but my mind is on it

Unity, but I think she's getting the halo because she's using PSDs and not PNGs (I may be wrong)

actually I'm making the graphics using paint tool SAI, not photoshop, and I do save a .png for unity, I dont like dropping source stuff into unity even though it can handle it.

i wonder if a price model would work where, every time someone buys it, the price goes up by 1 cent, and it starts at 1 cent

by the time it reaches 100$, you'd have had 10,000 sales

that certainly sounds like an interesting model, but I dont know how fair it is, right now I'm more comfortable setting the price to be whatever I think the game is worth, plus I have no idea how to increment the price every sale without going totally mad lol.

I wonder if pirates would be more or less compelled to pirate your game while it's being sold for cents. Some people say they can't buy because of no credit cards, so maybe offer another way for them to pay (ie, community activity).

I recall with the humble indie bundle, there was a lot of piracy and people could pay whatever, so I dunno if having a super low price would make that much difference to pirates, and I dont see pirates as lost sales anyway tbh. if they are the kind of people who would pirate a cheap indie game, they arent the kind of people I would ever get money from anyway.

I like games with the happy, toony charm, although I am not sure the character outlines fit the rest of the scene in those screenshots.

yeah, I've been thinking to myself about that, since the witch is the only character with an outline, originally it was to keep her from blending in with a similarly coloured floor (and because I have a 3D model outline fetish) but I dont know if there is still a need with how the lighting is now, I'll experiment without a bit

it kept not crashing but just suddenly jumping to a blank webpage.

thats not cool, have you gotten other unity content working in your browser?

-

anyhoo, thanks everyone, you've given me lots to think about

[s0]

Game looks real nice, but unfortunately freezes for me when I try to enter the cellar.

[deathtotheweird]

Are you sure it's freezing or did you miss the upper left corner? A menu should pop up when you press space and you can select the level of dungeon you want to enter.

that weird placement confused me at first, should be centered. but it's just a placeholder until a real menu is made anyways

[dlan]

just play through 3 levels, quite nice for an early version. the first spell ribbon-trails are a little slow IMHO, it feel weird to have you character almost as fast as the spell it launch.  but so far, the game have a good pace, will definitely keep an eye on it.

[starsrift]

This game smells like awesome.

I look forward to see where it goes!

[SophieH]

Game looks real nice, but unfortunately freezes for me when I try to enter the cellar.

ah yes, dark buttons over a dark background, I wasn't totally smart there lol, but the UI is totally temporary right now, a lot more thought will be going into its appearance, especially the dungeon level select, I cant wait to get to work on that bit actually :D

the first spell ribbon-trails are a little slow IMHO, it feel weird to have you character almost as fast as the spell it launch.

Yeah, I have yet to really get into tuning the attacks and stuff yet, but that attack will likely stay at that speed until you get the more stronger versions which will have faster projectiles, fire rate, and mybe stuff like homing and/or spread shot, I dunno, lots for me to experiment with

[Melly]

Overhaul the graphics? What do ya mean specifically?

The textures are a bit too fuzzy and lack contrast. It reminds me a bit of Nintendo 64 games, and quite honestly I never liked how nearly any N64 game looked, except for a handful few.

I'll probably play the game a little more later and give better feedback on the graphics. I think more defined textures would do it good overall.

[Destral]

The game looks very promising! I like the concept and the gameplay, and I'm looking forward to see what you do with it, Sophie! 

I'm just a little sad because I've been working on a dungeon-shooter with a witch (sorceress) protagonist for the last month and a half, but now if I show it people are going to think I'm ripping this off.