next »

[Kit]

**Update**


HTML5 (Firefox or Chrome, otherwise it blurs due to GM bug. Not formatted for Mobile... Yet.)

Meiroban!

Windows (But not Windows 8 or other platforms...Yet.)

Meiroban Exe!

Controls

A S D W or Arrow Keys

F2 to restart a level

*******

Hey Folks,

Mockup screenshot will be at the bottom. This will go on a bit, because I intend to be very thorough in logging this development process, and to set expectations of those reading.

I decided to start a DevLog for a game that I am working on tentatively called Meiroban. It is a game in early, early development but things are moving along quite quickly which I just started.

Mostly I've left comments in feedback and had one failed DevLog, so I decided it's high time to actually work on something that I intend to see through. I call it Meiroban, based off of the concept of Sokoban. I believe Meiroban means Labyrinth Keeper, so if anyone knows for certain I'd love to be certain also  .

The Idea

Based off of the concept of Sokoban, meaning Warehouse Keeper, this game at it's core is about puzzling out the correct pushing of blocks around onto the correct squares. I intend to follow the tried and true puzzle game formula by taking that simple mechanic, and adding other simple mechanics over time in order to create a diverse series of more complicated puzzles as the game goes on. I intend to prompt the player with what to do in intuitive ways with visual clues and encourage a bit of experimentation with the mechanics. They will learn each mechanic individually and as levels progress, these learned mechanics will be combined in what I hope are new and interesting ways. I do not want to hit people over the head with text and instructions, but I want to make the casual puzzle player able to catch on quickly.

Setting/Concept

The game will take place in a tower dungeon. The heroine, yet unnamed or perhaps player named, will enter in order to reach the top. Those who reach the Labyrinth Keeper alive receive a gift, a single wish. Cliche, yea. Still with me? Great! In order to progress floors and be deemed worthy, the heroine must complete challenging objectives, mainly pushing rune stones onto magical seals in the floor in order to unlock the magic barrier and proceed to the next area.

Mechanics

As time goes on, other mechanics will come into play. So far, I am ideally toying with the following concepts:

• Logic puzzles
• Buttons and switches
• Obstacles such as flame jets that can be blocked with bricks for passage
• Obstacles such as magic beams that can be blocked by runestones, but disintigrates them over time and causes them to respawn. With buttons and this, timing puzzles are available. Beam direction will also be able to be changed via "arrow" blocks, and rotatable "arrow" blocks.
• Pits, water, and Lava. They can be traversed by pushing blocks in. Blocks in water will follow their flow, and blocks in lava will slowly melt away and must be passed quickly.
• Character puzzles - There will be NPCs in the tower as well who are trying to progress through the tower. You may solve quests for them, help them progress, or hinder them. I am likely going to add more than one ending depending on who you help or hinder and how. This will also introduce the story of the world in a non-intrusive way and over time through the gameplay.
• Considering adding monsters to some degree, a la Zelda style. But this will not be the focus of the game, and more a mechanic to add challenge to certain areas, add to the story, and advance the plot. As well, some enemies will help introduce puzzle based boss fights.
• Some blocks will be able to be pulled but not pushed.
• Some blocks will be able to be pushed or pulled at range with magic, but not both pushed and pulled
• Scoring based on time to solve, optional pick-ups, and risk/reward based situations involving both.
• And perhaps more...

Mockup

This is a very simple mockup showing a work in progress art style.

I used contrasting colors in hopes that it would help the objectives and character be obvious and "pop" from the background.

Intents

So yea, that's it in a nutshell. First and foremost I intend to make a fun experience for players. In addition, I intend to sell this game to HTML5 web portals, which will then allow people to play the game for free and yet allow me to cover costs and time, as well as generate an income. I also intend to add bonus features and levels and then port the game to both iPhone and Android, and perhaps Windows 8 App Store, where I hope to sell it for a reasonable and fair price. I am inspired by Truevalhalla's ability to make an income, as well as his transparency, and I intend to be transparent with my earnings if there are any, in order to further inspire others. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out, but regardless I intend to finish this game and see where it goes and what other opportunities become available to get my game out there.

Any questions, comments, etc. can be posted here and I will do my best to address what I am able, and let you know if I'm not!  

And hey, thanks for reading :3 <3333

[Kit]

A little update: Got a little bit done on a windows engine, though I will be building it with the use of HTML5 in mind. Currently that's not visible, but anyway I got a bit of a movement engine. Not a ton, since I have a day job, but it's something.

Sticking to a set schedule has been harder for me than I thought, but I'll just keep jammin' through. Small accomplishment, but once I get the proper movement and brick pushing in I'll upload a small playable demo, both windows and HTML5 just so the basic mechanic can be seen in action and the art style can be seen in motion.

One thing I've done to try to stay on a better schedule is utilize Google Calendar since I can have alerts both there and then on my phone. It's a little easier to keep track of it all since they're synced up. I plan to get the movement and block pushing finalized by end of Friday, and then adding the other mechanics. Those should fall in line quickly, as I think the actual zelda-esque block pushing style I want will probably be the hardest part of actually making the game. There are a few other things unrelated to gameplay that I will likely find difficult and will take a bit of time, but that's what tinkering is for. I think the biggest obstacle I'll need to learn is implementing API if that becomes a necessity for sales (Which reading tells me is likely). Ah well. Gotta learn sometime!  

A little mockup of one of the block pushing sprites :3



And a little peak at the minor work I got done:



The little torches move, the door wavers, and the little blocks have a shine that goes across the surface of the crystal parts every once in awhile. I will probably be adding little things to differentiate background versus interactive items like bricks. Probably little animations. Exception being the torches, they'll animate but there won't be much to do with them but stare.

[Kit]

Got the base mechanics coded, meaning a tiny test demo! For now it's Windows only (Well, except Windows 8 ) but I will need to test other platforms so eventually it will make it's way.

The base mechanic is pushing blocks onto the rounded slots. So far with the graphics I am not quite happy. I redid the door sprite, and I'll likely redo the round slots on the ground until I find something that I'm happy with. Something that says "Hey I'm important, push a block on me!" without looking so glaringly generic. As well, with all the little animations going, I'm wondering if there isn't too much going on visually at once. I guess once I put this up for feedback, I'll ask.

So far, completely off schedule. But I'm going to keep chipping away at it bit by bit! (Pun not intended?)

It can also be played via HTML5. Not yet formatted for mobile, and it works best on Firefox or Chrome currently. Others such as Internet Explorer still interpolate and make it blurry, due to a bug with GM I believe. Still working on figuring that out!

But hey, it's a start!

HTML5 (Firefox or Chrome, otherwise it blurs due to GM bug. Not formatted for Mobile... Yet.)

Meiroban!

Windows (But not Windows 8 or other platforms...Yet.)

Meiroban Exe!


Controls

A S D W or Arrow Keys

F2 to restart a level

What's next?

Next in line will be adding the other base mechanics, so that when combined there will be more complicated puzzle types available. Some of these include pulling blocks, fire vents that can be blocked off, pits, water, lava with varying effects on blocks pushed into them, magic beams that can be routed around the level, perhaps ice floor tiles, and some other little fun things. After that, it's all about polish polish polish. Tweaking for different platforms, resolutions, finding a viable size for mobile play, etc. Once it feels stable and quite portable between platforms, I will begin implementing the puzzle and level designs I have been working on. As one can tell now, this is not tailored for mobile play quite yet. So that's the plan, in a nutshell.

[ｍａｓｏｎ]

Sweet. I should hop onto the HTML5 train soon.

Here, have some feedbaq.

-The player moves super slow. Moving from tile to tile takes like a whole second. You should make it near instant. That would make it way nicer to play.

-The bilinear filtering makes the cute pixel art look icky gunky.

-The ground should be darker. The main character blends in a bit with it.

Easy changes overall. Good luck!

[Kit]

@Raycast: Hey, thank you so much for those points! It's valuable info to have! :3 And yea, HTML5 is pretty portable and I like it so far. I'd almost recommend learning it from scratch, though. Currently I use Gamemaker Studio but it's a bit buggy still for HTML5.

As to the filtering, I'll check into that. This may be a bug with GM to HTML5 yet (Though it definitely could be something I did instead), so I'd be curious to know what browser you used and if it was just blurry or if there were lines between tiles. I'm definitely looking into ways to fix this. I may even have to work with the html directly. Cute pixel art? Well thank you :D :D :D

As to the floor color, I definitely want the player character to pop out from the background.  I'll work with some different color schemes to see what I can come up with. If yourself or anyone else has any suggestions, I'm definitely open to that. I'm considering change of either the character color scheem or the floor, whichever people think would be better. Eventually I'm going to post this in the feedback and the pixel art feedback areas as well.

And in regards to the speed, I definitely will improve that. Ideally I'd like her to slow down just a bit while pushing blocks just for effect but of course I don't want to annoy players with a slow movement speed so I'll tinker with it tonight.

Thanks again!

[Kit]

Small update, made the dungeon walls more of a drab blue and the floor is a bit darker in order to make the character pop out more. I also changed the effects so the rune stones fade to gray instead of the annoying glow effect. This doesn't always happen on the HTML5 version for some reason, it appears some frames are being skipped or something. Once in awhile they skip straight to grey. Added some sweat beads when she pushes blocks too for aesthetics.

Also, I changed the character speed to be faster, and pushing blocks is now the original walk speed. I want the block pushing to be slower than the actual walk for effect, and it feels less annoying and slow to me, but if it's still feeling clunky feel free to let me know.

Still working on ideas to fix the wierd interpolation and blur that happens with IE and some other browsers. Still recommending Chrome or Firefox.

<3