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[Fifth]

Looks great so far!

I'd advise you to watch the value of your colors so that the unwalkable areas don't get confused for ground, and vice-versa. Also, watch to make sure you're not pushing too much noise into the tiles and sprites (the green trees from the previous pic, for example).

You mentioned weapons - are there also enemies in the game at the moment?

Keep it up!

Thank you!

I know, the readability isn't the best.  It's one of those things I've been struggling with.  I've mainly ever dealt with platformer tilesets, which are a bit more forgiving, so I've been having to try to figure out readability vs interest.

Where there any bits in the gif there that stuck out?  Maybe the rocky ground tiles on the Tropical tileset?  Or the stone platform?

And I'll see what I can do about the trees in the Mine tileset.  But since they're solid obstacles, it shouldn't be too vital.


...As for enemies, I'm still not sure how to approach them, organization-wise.  I feel like there's this perfect way to set them up, be it categorically or thematically, that's just eluding me...
I have got a few implemented, but they're a random bunch.  A slime, a mouse, a few traps, a bird-thing, a couple plants, and a shark-bomb.

But, yeah... enemies are on the to-do list.


In the meantime, maps!


Been working on the portable map, which included some larger (and more important) steps such as detecting what edges of a given screen are "passable".  This map here also shows the difference in environments, and also where adjacent voids are.
If you pass by a a screen that was previously a void, it will show a ? on the map to indicate that there's been a change.  I'd like to work in a system where you can automatically scan all the known voids at once for changes, but I'll have to see if that's doable, database-query-wise.  It may end up being a paid shop service of some sort.

Oh, and shop icons are still pending.

[SolarLune]

Nice maps! In the previous GIF, the trees in the Tropics and Forest zones, and the rocks in the grasslands and Savannah zones stand out, and look a bit awkward. Not too bad, just kinda "off".

I love the tropics rocks - they're really smooth.

Nice map system - will it map any other interesting locations, like the weapons and stuff for each character? Or are those going to be in the shop as well?

Keep it up!

[Fifth]

Nice maps! In the previous GIF, the trees in the Tropics and Forest zones, and the rocks in the grasslands and Savannah zones stand out, and look a bit awkward. Not too bad, just kinda "off".

I love the tropics rocks - they're really smooth.

Nice map system - will it map any other interesting locations, like the weapons and stuff for each character? Or are those going to be in the shop as well?

Keep it up!

Alright, thanks!  I'll have to take a look at those and see what I can do.  Although I thought the Savannah rocks turned out pretty well...

For the map, most items and weapons and upgrades will actually be handled at the shops.  ...Though "shops" is kind of a broad term in this case, as they'll include a lot more than just buying stuff.  You'll also get some important stuff from treasure chests, but the way those are handled won't really make them location-specific.

Beyond that, there's also dungeons and the players' starting screens, both of which will definitely be on the map.


Anyway, I just added two new meta-tools, which shall join the Hammer as a means of manipulating a screen after its creation.

The Shovel
Whereas the Hammer is there purely to help - to build bridges or smash paths through wall and stone - the Shovel's only purpose is to hinder.

You'll be able to use the shovel to dig pits of spikes, like so:



Which, like the hammer, become hidden once you return to the screen.

But when someone wanders back onto it, there's a SNAP, a brief pause, and then...



Instant pitfall!


...And, as a side effect, the shovel ended up being good for building timed platforms.
But nobody's gonna use it for something like that, right?




And the other addition is

The Button


...which I am admittedly still working on.  But it's going to do... various things.
Like uncover paths/traps, reveal/destroy enemies, act as a springboard, and whatever else I can think of.  It should add just a bit of variety to screens.

Like the Hammer, they're going to be a limited resource (I haven't decided if they'll draw from the same resource AS the Hammer, or else each have its own collectable amount), and they can only be used on a screen that hasn't been considered "cleared" yet, meaning all exits and the treasure are accessible.

[brantkings]

This is really impressive, and I'm loving the idea. Good luck, dude!

[Fifth]

Alrighty, update time!

I've been mostly mulling over the enemy setup, trying to get an order to things that I'm satisfied with.  I think I've finally come up with something I can work with, except it's not really much to show.  But if I can pull it off, it will a bit of enemy variety to the different environments while also classifying the enemy groups into something that will HOPEFULLY make some sense to the player.



So, this appears at the bottom of the screen whenever you want to place enemies.  Each screen will have its own "Strife" level based on how far you are from the start.  This Strife level is represented by Strife Tokens, which look like little skulls.  You can fit the tokens into the red/blue bars, filling up the slots to create a more powerful enemy, which you can then place on the map.

The top bars, Red Strife, correspond roughly to movement, health, and intelligence, whereas the bottom bars, the Blue Strife, are attack, special abilities, and general threat level.  So in any given screen you can use the tokens to create a bunch of small, weak enemies, or else make fewer, but more dangerous enemies.

But this is all old stuff.
What I've decided since was sort of an overall classification of the different strife levels, and ways to vary that amongst the environments.

The first three levels will be elemental, and cover 0: traps, 1: crawlers, and 2: bouncers.  Low-level enemies and hazards that pretty much do their own thing.  The next two will be based on altitude, and include 3: critters, and 4: beasts.  These levels will be able to react to the player and (hopefully) some of the other enemies.  The last group is for sapient creatures, and will be based on territory.  They are 5: warriors and 6: magicians.  Like the player, they'll be bipeds who carry weapons and tools, and (again, hopefully) will be able to more readily predict/fight the player.

The three major groups will vary their coverage of the environments in different ways, so that each environment has its own unique set of the recurring enemies.

...But if that doesn't work, I should always be able to dial it back.


Otherwise, I just tackled the Info Shop's map, which was something I was kinda dreading having to do.  Turns out it went pretty smoothly!



You'll only get to see this from an Info Shop.  Like last time, it'll be free to look at.  It's not supposed to be an exact thing, but instead give the player an idea of what's around.
(colors subject to change)

[Fifth]

Playing with colors and proportions a bit more.  This one's closer to the Grasslands tileset.
Also, I can fit 7x7 screens comfortably on the map like this (instead of 5x5 screens), but to do so I have to make vertical tiles 1.5 pixels high.  That is, alternating 1 and 2 pixels.  I've been deliberating between this and 2x1 pixels, but the latter just doesn't look right...

Anyhow, I hope this will work well enough.

[RujiK]

I hope your still working on this! I saw your post in the glitches thread and this game looks really nice.

The characters and animations are really good. I suck at animating. Keep it up!

[Fifth]

Hey, does anybody still remember this game?

I've actually been working on it again recently but I'm not really sure how to share what I've done so far.  So here's a little sampling of things:

There's been a lot of progress on the environment tilesets.  The Savannah is an old one, but it's pretty much good to go now:


I've got a bunch that are really close, like the Volcano:


And the Swamp was one that I was looking forward to, so it ended up being no trouble:


I finally got the menu bar functioning, along with persistent inventory and equipment changing.  Which may not seem like much, but was actually a big step towards everything becoming more of a game.

I've got a good set of weapons all working, but they might need some balance before they're ready to go.
I still need to get to the gear and magic, though.

A lot of the basic shops are functioning, including Gossip:


Saving:


Potions:


And Weapons/Armor:


There's still a bunch to go, and I still need to come up with shopkeepers for a few of them.  But it's going well enough.
...Also the shopkeepers are just still images right now.  I'll have to think of ways to animate them that don't look super-weird.


...Onto enemies, I reworked the enemy system into what will be (I hope) the final setup.
Now there are different tiered categories of enemies, with a few of the categories being element-based, according to what environment you're in.  And each category has four different enemy types.
Both higher categories and stronger enemies require more skulls to access.


I finally got around to animating the Projectile Trap.  It really gives it a lot more life:


The Hive is as intimidating as ever (especially when there's five of them on a screen):


And I got a simple enemy scripting system up and running, so it's a lot easier to implement enemy behaviors, like for this dragony thing:


So... it's been going!

[Alec S.]

This is looking really nice! 

[Zorg]

O wow!

[JobLeonard]

One of the best things to happen on TIGForums is if you get an unexpected update from a devlog that has been slumbering

[SolS]

Love the colors! Very unique and cool!

[qMopey]

Very good art and animations. Posting for follow!

[Palm]

Looks great! I love this style. What are your plans for music?

[J. R. Hill]

I still fondly remember this!

Hope it gets revived at some point in time. Early access?