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[clewcat]

Axe, Bow and Staff is a running-action hybrid features retro look'n'feel and local + online co-op multiplayer gameplay.

You play three characters: Axe the warrior, Bow the archer and Staff the wizard. Each character has his own abilities to get rid of the obstacles on one of the three "lanes". Eg. Axe is good at melee attack but weak at dodge while Bow is good at dodge but weak in defense. You can interchange the characters on different lanes to solve variant puzzles.

The idea is partly inspired by Trine but I'm sure ABS will play different - it's fast-paced and more focused on coordination.



Homepage





Download the demo: (5 Levels + Boss Fight)
Windows
Mac
Linux



Controls: (Instructed In Game)
Single Player:
Mouse left click - First skill
Mouse right click - Second skill
W/S - Move up/down
A/D - Deactivate/Activate
1/2/3 - Switch to Axe/Bow/Staff
Hold mouse left button to drag hero.

Multiple Players (supports up to 3 gamepads):
Gamepad button 0 - First skill
Gamepad button 1 - Second skill
Gamepad axis Y - Move up/down
Gamepad axis X - Deactivate/Activate

=======================================================

Features:

• Unique gameplay
• Joyful pixel art and chiptunes
• Funny dialogues
• Tense boss fights
• Item & Upgrade systems
• Local co-op and online multiplayer co-op

Art:
Oryx's 16-bit Fantasy tileset is used for prototyping. Our pixel artist Bo is working on a brand-new version of the art:






Music:
Check out the NES-style chiptunes made by our composer Naruto! The track used in the Gameplay Video is also the one used in Stage 1-1. His music goes so well with the art that I can watch the game screen scrolling while listening to the tracks all day long!

Milestones:
10% - Core mechanisms, basic skills, a tutorial level.
20% - All tutorial levels, a boss fight level.
30% - Add experience and coins. 2 more levels with more enemy types.
40% - Upgrade system and all hero skills. An arena level.
50% - Items. Merchants.
60% - Networked Co-op. Finish 60% of the levels.
70% - World map. Misc. UI.
80% - Finish all levels.
90% - Beta testing and bug fixing.

Thanks for your feedback!

[clewcat]

First gameplay of the warrior:

[clewcat]

More warrior gameplay:


Learnt how to make the trailing effect of dashing from here:
http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/75502/create-a-trailing-ghosting-effect-of-a-sprite

[clewcat]

Gameplay for the archer:



The skills are Shoot and Jump. Jump can jump over some obstacles that the warrior can't get over, eg. the stones.

I don't have any idea for the third skill of the archer yet. She is good enough for now: ranged attack and good mobility. Maybe it will be a powerful one with long cooldown.

[bdsowers]

A little early to give too much feedback, but that flip animation is awesome.

[clewcat]

Just came up with ideas for the wizard. It should be a fun class:



Two skills: Teleport (enemies) and Slow (time).

[Trilaterus]

I quite like the concept! Nice to see the difference between classes is defined very clearly with gameplay, although I hope switching between classes doesn't overcomplicate things. In any case keep going! ^^

[Savick]

If you use ScreenToGif there's no tag saying where it's from.

[clewcat]

If you use ScreenToGif there's no tag saying where it's from.

Thanks for the advice! That's a really handy gadget!

[clewcat]

Update #5


The mechanics are quite simple now because there are only 6 basic skills and a couple of kinds of obstacle/enemy. But the controls are not, as you have to react quickly for the heroes on each lane, and sometimes you have to interchange characters. I want to make the controls simple and instinctive. Here are two thoughts:

1. Click on a lane to activate the first skill of the hero on that lane. Hold 'Ctrl' for the second skill, and 'Alt' for the third skill (if any).

2. Move the mouse or click to focus on a lane. When a lane is focused, press '1' to activate the first skill of the hero on that lane, and '2' for the second skill, and so on.

[clewcat]

It's been long time since the last update. I've finished the first level and optimized the controls:

• Left-click to cast the first skill, and right-click to cast the second. The third one? Maybe both-click
• When dragging the hero to another lane, time will be slowed down;
• No need to use both mouse and keyboard to control one hero;

If you have played the demo1, please tell me how did you feel about the controls.

[clewcat]

Update #7



Finished a boss fight. The boss has four abilities:
1. Casts a fireball for each lane. The heroes should be stand in a same lane and protected behind the warrior's shield;
2. Tramples and summons a slime for each lane. Killing a slime will drop a heart (1 HP);
3. When there's only one lane available, cast a fire meteor to burn the heroes in its path. Only the wizard can teleport it away;
4. Summons two lightning balls which deal damage up-down. The heroes should split up to avoid damage.

[lrasomattos]

The Demo1 link is broken. But through the gifs I really like the design of it! It looks perfectly designed to be played on tablets and maybe smartphones, are u developing for mobile? Or the idea is to stick with mouse and keyboard?

[clewcat]

The Demo1 link is broken. But through the gifs I really like the design of it! It looks perfectly designed to be played on tablets and maybe smartphones, are u developing for mobile? Or the idea is to stick with mouse and keyboard?

I've fixed the link. Thanks!

I'm not targeting mobile platforms for now, but glad to see you asked I think it needs some effort to play smoothly on mobile devices.

[clewcat]

Update #8

I've changed the name to Axe, Bow and Staff because staffs looks cooler than wands 

So, this is a major update. I have filled in the tutorial levels for each characters. Hopefully each level feels different in gameplay, but connected together.

The controls had been further more optimized. Now you should be able to play the game with the mouse only.

The most challenging work was to optimize the mouse drag for the characters. In Unity, a GameObject need a collider to respond mouse drag events. To make the characters easier to drag, I split the collider into two colliders and put them in different layers:



Now even a small, fast-moving object can be dragged easily. But a new problem was introduced: when a hero moves close to an enemy, their colliders overlap, resulting in one of them almost unable to drag:



I fixed this by "shrinking" both draggable colliders when they enter each other, and restoring their size when they exit.

[clewcat]

Update #9

Had been away from home for 3 weeks. Although I tried my best to spend 2 hrs per day to work on the game, the progress is still slower than I expected - it seems I need more time to focus on the game design. Making level, tutorial and story design at the same time is almost beyond my capability, and scattered time just make it more painful!

Anyway, two new levels are added, with a boss fight. I also added support of local multi-player for fun. You can use a keyboard and a gamepad to control different hero, while the mouse is still usable to control all heroes.

The rating for each level is based on deaths and the proportion of the coins collected in level. I plan the stars of the rating for further use, e.g. to unlock some bonus levels.

[clewcat]

Update #10

Last week I started working on the subsequent levels. Here's some new stuff:

[clewcat]

Update #11

I can't wait to show the brand-new look of the game, created by the awesome pixel artist Bo:

The first scene:


Running animation of the wizard:


And casting spell:




I thinks Bo's adorable style matches the game perfectly. I was used to Oryx's 2-frame animations and when I saw the Bo's animations they just blwe my mind! 

[Bo]

yes I like very much this gameplay, of course maybe I am not totaly objective, I hope we can bring you all a new demo soon.
Have a good day all. Bo.

[clewcat]

Update #12

Here's what I had been working on for one or two weeks:




So, Upgrade System! There will be an upgrade to choose when a hero reaches level 2, 4, 6, and 8. The requirement of upgrades is hero's level rather than coins or stars, because I want players to try their best to keep the heroes alive - generally it's easier to finish a level if you operate only one hero and let the others die, but no reward(experience), so the others hero can hardly level up to upgrade.

Most upgrades are passive effects, buffing existing two skills of each hero. But when reached level 6, the upgrade will unlock the third skill. So in the middle of the game, our heroes will gain powerful skills which are very helpful to deal with evil bosses.

The UI looks not good for now, and I need icons for the upgrades. Bo is still busy designing character animations. I just can't help showing some of his cute animations: