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[Tazi]

Hey!  

Neon Grey is a 2D sidescroller with a dystopian/cyberpunkish setting, inspired by 8-bit/16-bit games, and will have similar gameplay, as classic action platformers from NES era like Megaman, Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden, etc.... or the more recent indie game Oniken. (tho I'm aiming to be less cruel as those NES-hard games, while keeping the difficulity level on high.)



I aim the visuals to be colorful and dark at the same time. Kinda like Lyle in Cube Sector meets Blade Runner, or something like.

I also have some very early previews of the soundtrack here:
https://soundcloud.com/bitstortion/project-neon-knight-bgm
It's inspired by 80's spacesynth stuff, but there are also some chiptune, and psytrance, and a lot more influences actually....

I started this game at the last months of 2012, and it's still very early in the whole development span, but hopefully I'll have a lot more time to work on it after this summer. Until that, I'll be as active with updates as I can, but won't be suprised if weeks pass without a single post.



Like me on Facebook for AWESOME FREE SPAM: https://www.facebook.com/neon.grey.the.game

Game's also up on indieDB, with a very short test-video: http://www.indiedb.com/games/neon-grey


Well, thanks for your time, and lemme know what you think! Cheers!  

[McMayhem]

Hey! Some impressive stuff you got there. Love the NES look to it, gives it that extra cyberpunk atmosphere. I also really liked the smoothness of the animations and the transitions of the sprites overall.

I noticed there was a lot of melee combat, are you planning on including any ranged weapons? If so, how are you going to implement that system? Seems kind of like the Metroid route, but I'm not sure if you had something else planned. Otherwise, it looks pretty spot on .

[Tazi]

Thanks for the feedback!

I love metroidvanias, tho the game will be more of a straight forward action platformer, with a few explorable secret areas.

The player character will have a few more moves to use against the enemies. There will be a mid-air falling stab move, which will work a bit like in nes ducktales, or the stomp move from 3D platformers). Also, there will be a chargeable projectile attack if you hold the attack button, but with a difference to Megaman/Metroid: if you do it, the player will be unable to move while powering up for the attack. This way he will avoid overusing it, but if he is skilled, he can create advantage out of it, if it's used in the right situation.

Btw the basic sword attack will have about 3 tile range, which is 3 times bigger than in NES Ninja Gaiden, and it won't be as slow as the whip move in Castlevania 1. Hopefully this will make the game less frustrating. Yet, it will be still hard. 

[Evan.Greenwood]

Hey, I enjoy this sort of game.

Glad to hear there's no Metroidvania, I've played a few too many of those recently and, unless a game is doing something really clever with the unlocks and the exploration, I find the backtracking to be just not worth it. (For instance the Metroidvania in Dust:An Elysiam Tale didn't add anything for me).

The slow whip in Castlevania wasn't completely frustrating... well... I can't imagine it working now, but not every game needs a really powerful base attack (unless the game is meant to be a power trip). Sometimes it can be cool to make the player feel a bit threatened/ineffective... so long as there is a way for them to get more power (like the special attacks in Castlevania... which were pointless in Castlevania 3 when the whip was more powerful).

(though that's just me rambling really)

Anyway... I like the theme and the setting. I'm hoping there's some cool cyber-punk mechanics in it (like hacking robots or projecting into cyber space).

[Tazi]

Thanks. The enemies/level design will be adjusted for the longer range of the fast sword attack, so the challenge will still remain hopefully, only that the player won't be so vulnerable after a badly timed attack.

The cyberpunk thing is actually more about the technological state of the world the game takes place in, and not really present in the gameplay, but actually there's a shorter astral projection themed level, I'm planning... After all, making a game like this, I can't avoid adding some pleasent 80's wireframe sci-fi stuff.

Here's a tiny update:

(an abadoned industrial zone - work in progress)

[Tazi]

Unfortunetly not much progress in this week (and weekend). With the temperature being over 35°C here, it's kinda hard to focus...
Well, I started one background music today, it's just a short snippet, but I think it could turn into something interesting:
http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23327853/pnk-darker-001A.mp3

(it's inspired by Perturbator's music, btw. it's kinda obvious if you familiar with his latest album)


The first level of the game will be a highway/slum area, I'll work on it's tileset at the next week, and then I start to construct the actual level. I think I have done way too much gfx/music content already, without working on the actual level designs, and programming the gameplay...

[absenter]

I'm enjoying the style of this.

[c023-DeV]

Hey! Thanks for the Beer! I like the 80ties style you got going! Just one advice: don't force yourself into keeping "guiedline limitations" tooo much - I think you can mix in modern elements too if they improve the impression and feeling that you want to put out =)

And a little Mood Tune 4 u:





Cheers!

35° C - Hahaha, was the same here in Bavaria! Killing heat! Like what you are doing! Looking forward to the results!

[Conker534]

The art for this is great!

[Tazi]

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

Hey! Thanks for the Beer! I like the 80ties style you got going! Just one advice: don't force yourself into keeping "guiedline limitations" tooo much - I think you can mix in modern elements too if they improve the impression and feeling that you want to put out =)

And a little Mood Tune 4 u:

Oh, I love Lazerhawk, this is my fav from him:

That bassline arpeggio is a killer!

No worries, I won't limit myself musically to pure 80s sound, I aim to that direction, but I've got a lot of musical influences from elsewhere (like psytrance, industrial, chiptune, electropunk, hard dance, doom metal, sludge, etc.), and elements of those genres will probably find their way to the soundtrack. So basically I just do what I enjoy.

[Cloudiest Nights]

Love the feel of the graphics! It really does feel like a "neon gray" style. Really cool seeing a darker NES look!

[louisdeb]

Fucking love those colors! That gradient background ah.. And that subway art. Beautiful.

You ever play those old Tony Hawk Skateboarding games? Like on the PS1? That subway reminds me of it - could mainly be the graffiti. Keep the graffiti / Add some more.

I would say that if you could come up with some more original hearts that'd be cool.

And finally, cool name :D

Looking forward to the first available build.

[moi]

deliciously megadrive

[Benearg]

I really like the style of your game, I really love these kinds of games! Keep it up mate!

[Tazi]

Here's some update:

This slum-area will serve as the first stage of the game (not counting the intro/TOTOREAL level), the tileset is close to being finished, so I can finally start spriting/coding the enemies I want to use here, and of course: building the first real levels, instead of test/techdemo maps.
I'm so satisfied that I'm finally getting somewhere! 

Oh, and thanks for your comments, sorry about not replying yet. The truth is I wanted to post here something new, as in screenshots, not just bumping the topic up with pure text.

You ever play those old Tony Hawk Skateboarding games? Like on the PS1? That subway reminds me of it - could mainly be the graffiti. Keep the graffiti / Add some more.

I would say that if you could come up with some more original hearts that'd be cool.

I'm glad you like the subway! I think I played Tony Hawk 2 on PSX a long time ago, but most of the ideas actually came from irl subway stations, and tunnels from the city I live ii, Budapest. ...oh, and the movie called "The Warriors". 
About the hearts, if you ment the lifebar, that's just a placeholder for now, until I figure out what's the final 'HUD' should be like. So, no worries, I'm not planning to keeping it that dull. 

[Games Inquirer]

Great stuff :D

[Tazi]

A running cycle for that enemy:


Not perfect, but I guess that okay for today. 

[louisdeb]

I'm glad you like the subway! I think I played Tony Hawk 2 on PSX a long time ago, but most of the ideas actually came from irl subway stations, and tunnels from the city I live ii, Budapest. ...oh, and the movie called "The Warriors". 
About the hearts, if you ment the lifebar, that's just a placeholder for now, until I figure out what's the final 'HUD' should be like. So, no worries, I'm not planning to keeping it that dull. 

Ah awesome - very interested in this, looking forward to this. What language / engine? (or did you make your own)

[Tazi]

Ahh, it was a while ago... time to post an update!

So what happened since then? Not that much, but still:
- I finished the gunner enemy, both the animation and the programming. He has a simple AI, he runs around, and in every few secs he stops, rises his gun, and fires toward the direction of the player.
- I slightly retouched all of the player character's anims. Now he has a bit better sword (aka. looking less like a giant pink dildo ), longer legs, and a new slash animation that looks better then the previous. (and has a standing, crouching, jumping variation)
- Player now can crouch/duck, which will be usable to evade some projectiles, and hit short, and otherwise unreachable enemies.
- I made a lot of concept sketches for enemies, while figuring it out how they will be all different and unique to the game.

I also made some base sprites for the enemies, some of them are finished and programmed, some of them are just a single frame, and work in progress:


(now, looking at that Dalek-ish robot... I really have to improve that sprite)


@louisdeb: A bit of a late reaction from me, but thanks for the words!
I'm pretty much of a beginner in programming, and not super-enthusiastic to go deep in it, so I'm using Game Maker Studio for this. I kinda have a hard time learning it too, but so far, I was able to script everything I wanted, so I'm satisfied.

[Tazi]

Okay, so I made some fair progress in this weekend, and other than writing long paragraphs about it, I'd like to post a video, instead!





It's finally starting to look like a game...