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[ernanir]

TURTLES OF DESTINY

CONCEPT

Turtles of Destiny is a a story-driven puzzle platformer set across in a imaginative environment with a immersive voice-over narration.
Magical creatures with peculiar behaviors, unforgettable landscapes and ancient spells will shift from one world to the next as you try to unveil the hidden truth.

FEATURES

• Rich story
• Voice Acting
• Clever puzzles
• Unique game mechanics
• Mesmerizing soundtrack composed by Geoff Moore

TEAM

• Ernani Rocha |  Game Designer
• Sarah Duffield-Harding | Artist
• Bashar Saade | Programmer
• Fernando Finamore |Animator
• Geoff Moore | Composer

LINKS

• Like our Facebook Page
• Follow us on Twitter
• Check our Tumblr.

Here is the OST for the first world created by our lovely composer Geoff Moore.

[ernanir]

 
First Post

Lets talk a little bit about what I did today. Since we are still developing the story around the levels and some mechanics, I have my hands tied down a bit. But I managed to make some tweaks in a level me and Sarah created yesterday. This one.

Old Screenshot
 
Now our lovely Sky can use her own blocks to stop bullets

In the first 10 levels or so we want to introduce to the player everything that the regular block can do (without having to spell it out to him/her). Probably I will work on a extra level today (at night time) and use the gate/switch mechanics. Lets see how this plays out.

Talking about the daily things, well two days ago something very special happened. From nowhere a player of the prototype told us he would pay for our game. That made me feel very excited , knowing that people wants to buy the game and its not even 10% done yet.






Im also excited about the Meet Up that Sarah will be a visiting. It will be the first time our game will be in front of so many game devs. I hope we get a great amount of tips on what to work in order to make the game better.

If you want to make part of the Turtles of Destiny group, just click here https://www.facebook.com/groups/764788843605715/  to send your request.

PS: Big props to Daniel who gave me the idea of making this devlog

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Second Post

Old Screenshot
 
This will be a small one. Yesterday I was planning on making only one more level and that was it. I went way beyond that and made a whole new prototype. After I was done with it, it got me thinking about the length of the levels. Im really uncomfortable how small they are, but I can’t make them longer without adding some senseless obstacles. Maybe the levels will be longer when we add more platforms or different types of platform. Maybe we should do 100 levels instead of 80 and keep the quick levels. I was under the impression the I was responsible for designing the game, but in some way the game seems to have a life of its own.  Im happy with the feedback I received so far.

[ernanir]

Yesterday was a great. I wasn’t able to get much done, but we got some great feedback on the prototype v.2.1. Everybody uses the same cliche about this dev journey being a roller coaster of emotions, but it sure is. Sometimes I feel like what we bring to the table is not unique enough to Steam, but other days Im sure the game will receive great  rates by the public and critics. Yesterday falls into the second category.

I had hard time to sleep last night, so I went to the computer to try a new mechanic.  The final version of it will be different from gif below. I want to give the player a new type of block that has two pieces, with one of them he will set the spawning point of the clone and the second one will be used to active the clone. I think it will fit perfectly but we have to test with the Beta testers.

Old Screenshot
 

The next version of the game will have audio on it and I’m really excited to see how it will turn out. The story plays a huge factor in the construction of our project, so Im thrilled to see the reactions of the players when they hear skys voice for the first time.

Hopefully JJ will deliver today the new mechanics, if he does so, I will build a level or two and post it here.

PS: Big props to Arjon van Dam , who gave some ultra-detailed feedback We really appreciate it man.

[ernanir]

This one is going to be a super short one.
JJ just sent the gravity block mechanics and it will look something like this.
I can barely wait to play around with this and experiment new levels.
Tomorrow I will have a meeting with JJ at 16h and with Sarah at 17h.
Uhuuuu  

 
Old Screenshot

Great weekend everyone

[Geoff Moore]

I know it's early days, but this looks like it'll be a lot of fun. I really love how much character you've squeezed into the tiny main sprite, if the rest of the game looks consistent with her it will be very easy on the eyes. You mentioned concerns about not being original enough, but it looks like you're prototyping some interesting mechanics that should work well together, there's some really neat solutions to the levels and you're clearly putting a lot of heart into the game as well. Can't wait to see where this goes!

[ernanir]

Thank you so much for the kind words my friend. We are doing our best to make a fun that its fun and respects the intelligence of our audience. Sky (main character) is full of life and people are getting really attached to her, but the credits goes to our amazing artist. Just like you said, she did magic putting so much emotion in those few pixels. Yes! We are trying out some new mechanics that we hope will work great, we will have a new prototype soon and in this new version you will be able to switch between many types of blocks. Thanks again for being the first one to reply to us...it really pumps up the team!

Have a great sartuday. 

[ernanir]

Hello all! I’m Sarah (http://tinystuffz.tumblr.com/  ) and I’m creating the art and animation for our game! :D
I wanted to share a little creepy story with you…



The other night, Ernani sent me the latest prototype of the game so I played it and then we worked on the story/level design some more over Skype. I was pretty shattered and close to falling asleep but somehow at the end, we were brainstorming new block ideas and I thought up one that makes the ground beneath and above the block ethereal so that Sky can’t stand on it and falls through. Ernani loved the idea! So we said goodnight and closed Skype.
Now behind my Skype window was the latest prototype that I had been playing and it looked like this…




I have no idea how Sky knew about my idea, but it sent a chill through me… a spooky but thrilling one. I think Sky was trying to tell us that she liked the idea! :D

[Geoff Moore]

That is beautiful. Love the subdued colours, they really help pick out the heroine. The soft highlights blend really well with the pixel art as well, the statues are adorable and the ageing on the pillars is a very nice touch. Can't wait to see more!

[ernanir]

Sarah is very talented indeed! We will puts this art on the game before april, hope you like the end result.
Thanks for the comment George, a real pleasure to read them

[ernanir]

I created some new art yesterday and I’m really happy with it so far! :D Starting with a blank canvas is pretty daunting to me. At first we hadn’t worked out what the story was going to be. Therefore, I didn’t really have anything to pull inspiration from and was struggling to create art for the game. Since then we have been developing the story and enriching the world. We still have far to go but it was enough for me to work with. By drawing the King and Queen of the Kingdom that Sky finds herself in, the rest came naturally ^_^



Gathering reference pictures is a really important first stage to me. I loooove Pinterest and am constantly pinning art that I love to my Pinterest boards. I constantly revisit them when creating my own art. It helps me to spark off ideas and figure out colour palettes.
For the first world in our game, I pulled out all of  the pins that are similar to how I would like the world to look and I created some reference boards of the strongest ones to narrow them down.





I find mood boards to be really useful, especially for the colour palettes. I wanted to create something moody but visually pleasing and drew a lot of reference from the game, Alice The Madness Returns which does this very well.






Now I need to translate this art to the first two levels of the world and see if it works! I can’t wait to see my art in the game! :D

[ernanir]

Long time no see. How have you all been?  So many things to tell you guys, I don’t even know where to start. Lets do it in chronological way.

Two weeks ago Sarah posted a WIP art of our game on twitter and it received a huge amount of positive feedback. Right after that I posted same piece in some gamedev groups in facebook…same thing, marvelous feedback! This single piece got us connected to some amazing new devs, musicians, artists and boosted up the team morale. Way to go tiny.

Sarah had this idea for a new type of block ( she mentioned it in a previous post) and JJ was finally able to make it work. We really like the result, but there is room to do some upgrade on it. Here is how it looks on the game.


 
Old Screenshot

Pretty cool hun?

Beyond all that, we are starting to put the art on the game and I just love the outcome so far.  

8 Days from now we will have most of the levels with art ready to show at the indie game meet-up. Thats all for now. Great week everyone!

[MereMonkey]

The pixel art is incredible Sarah! Also this looks like it will be super duper fun, checking out the lastest build now!!  

[ernanir]

Sarah: Thank you!
Ernani: Thank. Hope you have fun MereMonkey! 

[ernanir]

 
Old Screenshot



Sarah took almost two weeks off to work on a personal project, while she was doing that me and JJ went back to the basics: Sky’s movement.

Everybody was talking about how it wasn’t precise enough or how floaty it was, so we decided to focus this two weeks on that.  It was no easy task, I read a bunch of articles* concerning acceleration, friction and gravity and played a bunch of others 2d games. In the end JJ nailed it and Im very happy with the result.



Beyond that we managed to make  a new mechanic and the beta testers like it a lot so far. :D
  
Big props to Mark Venturelli whom wrote this series of articles.


Game Feel Tips I: The Ghost Jump
Game Feel Tips II Speed, Gravity, Friction
Game Feel Tips III: More On Smooth Movement

[ernanir]

 
 

Turtles of Destiny won Best Game, Best Art and Best Game Design at the Gamepolitan Expo awards. I hope everyone can find the thing that they love doing, just like we did, it’s magical.

JJ, Sarah, Geoff… I love working with you guys.  

[ernanir]

Small piece of sketch, maybe not so small...

[Geoff Moore]

Hey all! I'm extremely pumped to announce that I've officially joined Team Turtle, and I'd like to take the opportunity to show off the first track I've composed for the game:



Thanks for listening!

[EdFarage]

Didn't see this devlog here!
Im looking forward to this game, i see a lot of passionate devs involved, the result is obviously going to be just as good.
Keep going guys!

[ernanir]

It's a pleasure to have you on the boat my friend. People love your music and on top of that you are a great person to work with.   

[ernanir]

Didn't see this devlog here!
Im looking forward to this game, i see a lot of passionate devs involved, the result is obviously going to be just as good.
Keep going guys!

Mineiro! Thanks for the kinds words fellow. You probably didn't find us before, because I just fixed the name of the topic hours ago.
Enjoy your weekend!