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[zachstronaut]

The Legend of Equip > Pants
  Retro Pantsventure RPG with Short Episodes and Bad Puns - FREE on iOS and Google Chrome - Available Now.  

This game is in on-going development, and this is my first DevLog!  I'd love your feedback on the game, and what kinds of things you'd like me to post about here while I work on it.

You know that dream where you are at work or school, and you realize you forgot to put on pants?

Now Playing: GoGetYourPants.com Play now FREE on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Play FREE on Google Chrome for Windows, Linux, and Mac. Episode 1 is titled "The Underwerewolf" and Episode 2 is titled "Pantsylvania I". Next Episodes: "The Princess" "Pantsylvania II" I will continue to DevLog my progress here. Art, story, and level design for episodes 3 and 4 are under way.  Future episodes will come as I complete them.  I'll continue this DevLog to share my progress.

The Concept: I hope you like puns... The Legend of Equip > Pants is an episodic pantsventure RPG where instead of equipping and upgrading a sword, you have to equip and upgrade your pants. In fact, the entire universe revolves around pants, because why not?  Visit the Pantsmith. Beware the evil creatures living in Pantsylvania. Enjoy epic pants puns. Short Episodes: 15-20 minutes to complete. Secrets for replay value. Each episode of Equip > Pants will be a mostly self-contained quest that can be enjoyed in about 15-20 minutes -- much like a cartoon episode.  There will be achievements and secrets if you are the kind of player who wants to spend more time inside an episode, or return to play it again.

I've broken the RPG elements down into delicious, pint-sized episodes so you can satisfy your thirst for the genre quickly and easily.  Avoid the confusion, head spins, and frequent breaks often associated with giant, cask-sized servings of RPG content. Please consume responsibly.

Gameplay and Story:

Don't expect a sword... "In the vast multiverse exists a world where knights live and die -- not by the sword or the lance -- but by the quality of their pants." Episodes 1 and 2 are very much not hack-and-slash.  In fact, you can't even die in the first two episodes.  They are much more about the experience... puzzles and weird people and secrets. However, when Episode 3 comes out, I will be introducing death and danger and combat.  And as I make more episodes, the gameplay will evolve based on my growth as a game maker and with the feedback from players. I'm making a universe that's all about pants.  You should expect powerful and interesting pants you can equip in future episodes, but you shouldn't hold your breath for a sword.

Push only the finest of crates.	Attempt to survive a race against the deadly cold.
Will you find all the secrets? Will you collect all the hearts?	Nice people. Bad events. You know the drill.

The Beginning of a Journey
Will you join the quest?

This is only the beginning of this game.  I'm starting a journey here to produce many episodes.  I will refine my art, storytelling, and gameplay skills as I go.  I need players to join me on this quest.  Your feedback will help guide me towards better and better episodes.

I plan to devlog future episodes here as I'm working on them.  I look forward to your feedback!

[Alex Higgins]

niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice

Really nice art, good shadows and colors. This should be fun.

[DrunkDevs]

Would it be fair to assume save files will continue from game to game?

[zachstronaut]

niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice Really nice art, good shadows and colors. This should be fun.

Thanks Alchiggins! 

Would it be fair to assume save files will continue from game to game?

For the most part every player will start each episode in the same state, so your progress normally will not spill over into the next episode.  You won't even have to necessarily beat or play all the previous episodes to play the latest one.  These RPG episodes will be like a cartoon TV show where you know the characters, and when they encounter conflict and change, by the end of that episode's story everything is pretty much back to where it started.  That way you can enjoy them out of order.

There will be some multi-part episodes where your progress definitely will carry over.  Episode 1 is a stand alone story.  Episodes 2 and 3 are a two-part story with continuity for your save state.  You have to beat 2 in order to play 3.

Since I'm trying to make fun episodes that anybody can pick up and play to get a quick RPG fix, continuing a save state from episode to episode would create problems over time.  By episode 9 you could have an episode that would either be unplayable by some people or too easy for others.  I don't want to create hurdles for people to enjoy the episodes.

I will, however, be putting secrets and other special accomplishments into each episode for people who want to get more depth and replay time.  Can you tell me more about why you'd like your save state to carry through?  Maybe I can find some interesting ways to reward the most avid players.

[DrunkDevs]

Can you tell me more about why you'd like your save state to carry through?  Maybe I can find some interesting ways to reward the most avid players.

I was just curious, that's all. But since you are making the episodes 15-22 minutes long, it might be better to keep the files separate. That would make things easier for people who want to bounce around from episode to episode (like someone re-watching episodes of there favorite show)

[zachstronaut]

Here are some creature sprites to help bring the game to life:


And here are a couple more of my favorite GIFs:

The Underweartaker and Mausoleum

The Pantsmith

[karlozalb]

This is really,REALLY nice

[KM]

Looking forward to playing. Will balloon pants with sequins be available?

[zachstronaut]

Looking forward to playing. Will balloon pants with sequins be available?

I can at least guarantee gold lamé hammerpants at this point.

[lagemanngui]

I loved the art and the overall concept, good luck with this! 

[JoshuaSmyth]

Nice artwork!

[zachstronaut]

My goal is to release Episodes 1 and 2 in late October / early November. I'm currently targeting desktop (Chrome Store and Facebook) and iOS as platforms for this timeline. Other platforms and episodes will be released in the future. Episode 3 is in early production, and I'm targeting December 2013 or January 2014 for that.
 
Episodes 1 and 2 are both almost finished. The bulk of my current work is on menu systems, platform integration and porting, mobile control scheme, saving data, etc.  Here's some progress updates:

Episode 1 Entity programming, story, level map are complete Play testing "complete" (is it ever really? heh) Art needs some updating (I switched to larger character sprites while doing production on Episode 2, as you can see in the image.) I need to write achievements Episode 2 Entity programming, story, level map, and art are all complete Achievements are written Again, I've already done play testing for this episode Porting to iOS Episodes are running on my iOS devices! Mobile input controls working! Still some minor work left to deal with different device resolutions. Need to come up with an icon for the game on iOS

General

• Menus (episode select / progress, pause menu, level complete / achievement) all finished except for minor aesthetic problems
• Think I still need to do some confirmation dialogs in places...
• Level completion / accomplishments are saving
• Big TODO: Need to do payment integration for the release platforms

I'm making steady progress!

[zachstronaut]

Progress update!  I'd say I'm now 70% done.  I just finished updating all the old tiles and drawing the new sprites for Episode 1.

Episode 1

• Entity programming, story, level map are complete
• Play testing "complete" (is it ever really? heh)
• Done! Art needs some updating (I switched to larger character sprites while doing production on Episode 2, as you can see in the image.)
• I need to write achievements

Here are just some of the cast of characters:

[zachstronaut]

I updated the first post at the top to include some GIFs showing gameplay elements.  Progress has been going very strong!  Will I release on at least one platform by Halloween?? Fingers crossed. 

And now, a happy little tree...

[DrunkDevs]

What engine are you using for this game? Or is it a custom engine?

[zachstronaut]

What engine are you using for this game? Or is it a custom engine?

A custom version of Impact. The iOS port is via Ejecta.

[zachstronaut]

Happy Halloween from the Underwerewolf!   



Legend of Equip > Pants will be coming out in November!

 

[eigenbom]

Woah, this looks very nice. Well done! I'm looking forward to playing it.

[Irock]

I am very interested in pants and pantslessness, so this is right up my alley.

[KM]

Will I be able to equip and unequip my pants mid battle?