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[Phlebas]

I do a lot of drawing, started doing some pixel are, found it to be fun, found I was making a lot of it, then I thought, well, I guess I might as well make a game.

I don't have any programming experience, so even using gamemaker things are sort of... kludgy, and my solutions to problems are probably not ideal.

Our hero here is a fledgling assassin who is trying to track down someone who witnessed his first job and gets caught up in events far beyond etc. etc.

I'm taking some vague design concepts from Arkham Asylum, namely that the hero should be good at things, even if they player isn't.

so, to that end, no health. Instead, a sort of energy. Mainly just a nomenclature thing, but instead of getting hit, the assassin dodges and uses energy. This pleases my combat sensibilities more than get whacked repeatedly, and sets up counter-kill actions. Actually being wounded will be more like a status effect. Out of energy triggers an automatic fallback.

The assassin is good at killin'. Any human who isn't paying attention should be taken down just about instantly. If you're fast, you can take them before they get ready. Any one guard you can take even if they're aware. Two guards is a problem, and it's more than just being one guard and one guard. So alerted guards will move towards each other and pop together into two-guard mob.

Skill tree:
The three things you want in an attack are speed, surprise, and violence of action. So those are the branches.

Speed- Mobility, positioning abilities. Being able to get to the guard before he's ready even if he spots you.

Surprise- Hiding abilities, trick attacks. Blending into shadows, hanging from ceilings, throwing a knife out of a backwards roll.

Violence of action- Being able to bust open guard mobs and take on two or more guards at a time, knockdowns, takedowns. 


a gamplay video! featuring some guard ai, a few particle effects, some glitches :






Some concept art! (i get a kick out of the difference between the concept and the implementation)




and a minotaur doing his thing:


The current player controls/movement map:


animated but no idea yet how to make it work in the game:

[Cornelisjordaan]

Just watched the video and I think it looks fantastic. The aloof-but-deadly-at-a-moment's-notice air about the assassin is remarkable. Can't wait to see more!

[Phlebas]

Thanks! I updated with a big more about what I'm trying to do.

and another concept/sprite:
[img src=http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j84/cphlebas/tikihunterconcept.jpg]

[negativeview]

This looks like it would be hard to balance between being either 1) too difficult to control or 2) feel like you just mash a button and have no control. That's just a guess based on just how many different movements I saw in the youtube video.

That being said... it looks awesome! If you can find that balance this game will be remarkable. The fluidity of motion and the number of options you seem to have is great.

[Phlebas]

A lot of the movements are more context-based than explicitly controlled. So you're pressing jump because you want to jump, and lil' buddy is jumping straight, or diving if you're running really fast, or a backlayout if you're dodging backwards. Feels okay so far but then, I made it so it does what I think it should.

Did some basic spriting for the kitchen:


My goal is to have a basic castle divided into zones (outer wall, stable, kitchen, etc.). They'll all be fairly straightforward, but then as plot events happen, they have a chance to morph into monster-filled alternate forms. I really like the phases in Castlevania: SotN when you're collecting stuff, finding all the loose ends, and you're looking at the map trying to figure out which way to go to get there. So I'm aiming to develop that by having the zones interconnected, but then depending on the current monster situation it may be easier to go one way or another.

To do: come to terms with surfaces to make night/lighting filters
scripting pieced/differently timed animation
maybe moveable ropes
lots more rooms and sprites.