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[LucasMaxBros]

EDIT: The game is going through an art phase currently. What yo see below is old news. THIS, is what the game will be trying to look like now:



Old News below:





This is what stuff is looking like right now, below is what it looked like for the most part when I posted this thread for comparison sake. A good amount of progress is happening. Biggest challenge is just setting up the game and making sure the design is solid. I've pretty much figured it out at this point, but I just need to mess around with different level layouts and decide what would be the best order to put them in for players.



BELOW is stuff mainly from March in this post with minor updates here and there.
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DOWNLOAD 2.0 BUILD:  http://www.indiedb.com/games/vivid-wolf

VIVID RADIANCE?
Vivid Radiance is a 2D-Puzzle-Platformer about a magical girl named Vivid who has to return the color and life to an empty world. Her most prominent abilities are her ability to switch from Red, Yellow, and Blue, allowing her to affect objects that are the same color as her or go through objects that are not the same color. But with enough energy, she can activate he Wolf Powers and do new feats not possible out of this mode. Though both Normal and Wolf transformations will be needed to get through the many stages and to reach the lost color of the world. The color may be scattered as Stars or inside Colored Blocks that you can only touch when you're the same color. This game has the interesting feature that the collectibles are not just airborne coins, stars, or what have you, but the platforms themselves which may present different designs and challenges than your typical platformer.



DEVELOPMENT
Before posting this, I've been working on this game for a little over 2 months. Many changes and different sprites have been made and will be made. For instance, there use to be a Wolf Transformation where the character would turn into an actual wolf. But due to the different hit-box, animation, and overall look I decided to drop the Wolf idea. This has now freed up some new things I can do with the game, such as making some new sprites that would have took far more work had I included the Wolf as well.

Additional, one of the hardest thing to figure out has been the overall controls/handling. The game has you walking(2 buttons), attacking, jumping, grabbing, transforming, and switching between colors(2 buttons). During testing, there was some worry about the color switching because on a keyboard it may not be convenient enough for the player to switch to a color in a pinch. This is no problem for a controller, since the defaults for switching are the L&R Bumpers (Which works heavenly by the way!) but you might be taking your fingers off a important key when attempting to switch colors.

Fortunately, I discovered a pretty good alternative which was relocating the default color-switching keys to "W" and "S" (or "Up Arrow" and "Down Arrow"). This makes switching very fast and convenient, only needing to use your middle finger to switch instead of the original "U" and "I" to do so. In the future I plan on also making the "1","2", and "3" keys have the ability to switch to those colors, or whatever you set them to since there are many different keys on a keyboard.

Speaking of which, the control configuration, while it took FOREVER to do, it's pretty damn good. I believe it even has the ability to read foreign keyboards,as well as pretty much every key that Game Maker labels as such. You can also do the same for the controller, though I've yet to get to making the options menu.

Anyways, I'll update this specific section from time to time with anything super important.
SUPER IMPORTANT UPDATES:
-Wolf animation removed!
-New NEW HUD!
-New NEW Backgrounds!
-Color changes your attacks!
-New Modes!
-New animations and enemies!
-Sound and Music!!
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WHY ARE YOU MAKING THIS GAME?
After an attempt to make a platformer, I decided to rest for a month and plot ideas. I had several ideas, and was even going to work on a completely different game when a particular idea came up around late 2014. I had played DKC:TF and had watched Kirby's Triple Deluxe from various Youtuber's. I was particularly amazed with the idea of switching between different planes and thought that a game like that would be interesting. So I thought what about a megaman type game where you had 3 differently colored planes that you could switch between? I thought about it for a week then remember a game called Mighty Switch Force.

In that game, there were no planes, but rather blocks that the protagonist could switch from solid to transparent, which would affect  her platforming or such. So I decided that making a game where you could switch between 3 different colored Blocks would be more simple than one with 3 planes. But upon thinking this, I went "What's the point of switching between 3 Blocks when clearly I only need 2 like Might Switch Force?". I thought longer and had a eureka moment. What if they really WANTED to touch these different blocks? That would both justify and lead to interesting design, which is why when you touch these color blocks you're rewarded with energy as well as your main requirement to unlock new stuff!

But of course, I wanted a bigger, more mechanical reason for you to touch these. When you do you get energy, and when you get enough...you transform and have new properties that you didn't before. Now you can climb walls, your attacks can go across the screen, you're faster, and you can land on any colored block without having to switch! But, you also can't go through them and you're harder to control due to your speed. Meaning the player needs to decide how/when they transform as well as think outside of the box when trying to collect all these colors.

So this led to the story, which was based off you collecting stuff out of the blocks; color. The world lost it's color to some intrusive monsters and you have to get it ALL back. I decided a girl would fit the role due to the inspiration from MSF as well as the fact that I needed someone who would perhaps not have there color stolen; perhaps a goddess or deity of color whom wold then be entitled to HAVE to return the color to the world?

Anyways, here's a video from over a month ago. It's an earlier build and even has the old sprites/no effects, but its still the same concept:





The music is being done by Oliver Lacota. We discussed it and thought that t would be interesting that as you go through a stage, the color would return to that stage depending on how much color you collect. Eventually you'll collect 25%, then 75%, then 100%! And as this happens not only will the environment and backgrounds return but the music would get more instruments as time progressed!
Here's the examples for 25%: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/150661682/theme%20%2825%25%29.mp3
and 75%: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/150661682/theme%20%2875%25%29.mp3
(Mind you these are not part of the official soundtrack nor the final versions)



The game won't be too long, I'm guessing it will be around $10 USD maybe, that's if it ever launches of course.

Anyways, I'm currently working on smoothing out the new sprites and effects to Vivid before releasing a new version for people to test. I'm wondering how people will do with the new color switching controls. I'm the only one whose tested it, but upon the first test it was simple and easy to utilize. After that I'll work out some kinks and work on some various objects like elevators and such. Then design some more enemies and ramp up the art.

The biggest challenge at the moment is keeping between a somewhat minimalist art style, but also using a simple but colorful one when you return the color to the world. Fleshing this out will be very important.

WHAT THE?!

(Don't worry, this doesn't actually happen now!)

ALSO: If you'd like to try the only version of the game that's out, go to this thread: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=46566.0

[LucasMaxBros]

Added:
-Her tail
-New attack animations
-costume changes costume when she does
-fixed a few bugs I stumbled upon
-Also added some effects to her Wolf Transformation, but I'll show that later.

Now I need to work on making her transformation more fluid and fancy, got to give the player the idea that they've gotten a huge energy boost. I also need to redo the few backgrounds I've made since I want to have them present even when there is 0% color in the game, that way you have at least somewhat of an idea of where you are and so when you do get the color back the change between nothing and a colorful background isn't so apparent.

After that and a few more touches, I'll release a 1.4 version, then get to work on Menus, redo enemy sprites, redo the HUD, a more.

[LucasMaxBros]

Devlog #2:

Added:
-New effects to the Wolf Mode
-Wolf Mode is different than before, you no longer transform into a wolf (This is due to a few reasons I'll explain soon).
-New attack animation for Wolf Mode.
-Took out (UP) and (DOWN) actions since they no longer do anything. Instead, you will use (W)and(S) OR (UP-ARROW)and(DOWN-ARROW) on the keyboard to switch between colors, since this is the most convenient way for the player to make quick switches without any delay.
-new HUD! Looks much sharper and cleaner while also taking up less space.

Now that I have that out of the way, I'm going to release 1.4 to public for testing! Please tell me if you think the default controls are okay or not. And tell me how you think of the design so far:

DOWNLOAD: http://www.mediafire.com/download/ys4araate4b3n7e/Vivid_Radiance-Default-1.4.0.0.exe

Next is to work on a few more effects and make more enemies/objects. I plan on doing this before I put sound in, since sound takes up a lot of memory and I'd like to get as many visuals done before-hand. Plus my composer has been having a little bit of trouble with his FL Studio, so music is a bit behind schedule.

I also took out the wolf transformation because, when redoing the sprites, I tried to do the wolf in the best way possible... but it always came out bad. Plus I have to animate that and all the actions it does accordingly with the Human mode which takes a lot of time. Biggest reason was the hitbox. I originally wanted them to have different hitboxes but it didn't work out how I wanted, so I gave them similar ones, but it always felt weird and made no sense. So I said screw it and just gave the human sprite a cooler effect when you unlock her power.

Here are some new GIFS!
WOLF MODE:

IDLE TEST:

[LucasMaxBros]

Devlog #3:

I don't have any pictures to show for today's log, since most of the stuff to report are small changes/fixes plus some beta testing results.

First of all, I went to a party and had some people try out the short level I built and took notes. It went quite well, in fact after giving it a day I realized the game has potential. So I had them use a controller and getting use to the color-changing was a snap after a few tries. Once they knew what to do they'd try to get to a place that would give them a reward that required color switching, fail it at first but immediately try again usually getting it the next time.

Note 1: Give the player small rewards before them that requires them to experiment as well as see EXACTLY what they did wrong should they fail. Give them many attempts when starting out. There were a few notable places here I had this happen, but I need more of it.

Now unfortunately I had to explain some things since this build isn't quite a tutorial level or reveals what button does what; such as  Grab or that holding Attack lets you run. There weren't many items that you could Grab so experimentation with that was limited, but there were instances of it. I'll have to figure out a clean way to explaining the Grab for players, while I did have a situation where they were forced to clear a wall of Blocks using it, they never knew how to throw them. I should make a scenario where they are given an infinite amount of Grab-able items and have to use them in order to proceed, and perhaps throughout the level so they can take advantage of enemies they fight.

Note 2: Force the player to learn basic mechanics and make them clearly obvious what does what. 

Now a funny thing I had completely forgotten since I never needed them when running back through levels was Health. I forgot to give Health items the ability to respawn when you die! Now this wouldn't have been too big of a problem  had it not been for the fact that the people who played ALL decided to destroy the check points so they could get a Bomb to use (Checkpoint system functions like Shovel Knight, but there are various rewards instead of plain Money). So whenever they died, they started from the beginning! So they'd have to track back just to get to where they were, but since all the Health items were now gone they had to be extra careful.
I would make a note for this, but this was me overlooking the Health regen. This has been fixed!

Now on the other hand, the Wolf Transformation had them puzzled. There's an indication that tells the player that they can transform, but apparently it wasn't enough for them to get the idea to press the "Transform" Button. So I'm going to have to make sure I do everything in my power to tell the player that they have the ability and they should use it NOW. But they eventually got it since there are points where the games turns you automatically. They noticed then, and even got the idea to go up the walls pretty fast! However, I had to explain that they could attack upwards while on walls. I tried to make sure the situation would force them to do that, but it wasn't enough. I'll have to think of a new way to make sure they get the idea to try attacking while on walls when in this form.

Note 3: When you want the player to do a very specific action, get them into a scenario where not only do they need to perform but so it's their only option!

I think the most interesting bit of news is that there were absolutely NO Glitches encountered. This is a first for me, in fact I've seen plenty of glitches on Demos for games (Even high quality ones), but we were playing and goofing around for at least 2 hours. I didn't even see a small one, despite how many times they went through the level, sometimes hitting their heads as much as possible for the sake of goofing off. I'm not sure what to make of this, because in every other game I've made, there were at least a few glitches that would happen, usually minor.

Now the biggest problem was the last segment of the level, which was a more advance segment that I threw at players to see how they'd deal with it. This part has you in Wolf Mode to climb two walls which have spikes which you need to walljump off to the other wall if you want to proceed. The spikes and walls were labelled very well, but it wasn't the spikes or walls that were the problem(Though the spikes would end up killing them in the end). It was how they were using the wall jump. The walljump works like Mario Bros where you hold on to one side then it would leap you in the other direction to another wall.

However that's assuming you know Mario Bros walljumps. When they tried it, they would keep trying to move to the wall they jumped off of and it would ruin their momentum. They would succeed in doing it, but it seems that pulling it off was tricky for them. I wasn't really getting how they we're failing it, my only guess was that maybe the Wolf Form was tricking them, since in order to scale walls you had to hold a direction TOWARDS them, but when you wall jump you'll face the other DIRECTION. This seems a little counter-intuitive so I might have to change how wall jumping works at least for the Wolf Mode.

So that's how it went. The best part was that despite the constant failure at the end, they would end up doing the level again with flying colors (besides a hit or two) and they enjoyed it. They said they really liked the challenge (Even though this was suppose to be more of a beginners level...though to give myself credit, I'm trying to show off as many elements of the game). I think the biggest faults I made were some level design choices and the health items not respawning. Had they respawned, they would probably have beaten the level much faster since they were effectively playing the level again when they died, but without ANY Health items.
Even better, after another test, I had one of the previous guys beat it again and they did it with zero deaths!

Give this game some more time and I think we'll have a fantastic game here!

Only fixes to report is the Health-Respawning and I changed how items respawned so they work like how they were suppose to. I think I'll work on making the Wolf Mode more obvious plus the Walljump before doing what I said i the previous log.

[LucasMaxBros]

Devlog #4:

This will be a short one. An issue I had been having and wanted to get to was the overall look of the game. After a few tries I really like the Minimalist look (At least where it's going...nothings final!) but the deal with this game is that it has two styles going with it; Minimalist and Colorful/Detailed sort of look. I first did the color with a marker-esque look but I didn't like it and tried plain color which also hasn't worked.

So I'm doing research on games like Rayman to see how to make it like I want it. I want a colorful and detailed style but I must keep in mind that players will only get to see  little bit of it since most of the stages will have no color until they obtain enough. So I don't need to go out of my way to put well drawn trees and plants EVERYWHERE (Though I do plan on having a New Game+ and possibly making all the levels in that mode fully colored so players get to see what they actually look like).

Here's what I have so far:


I'm going to have to change the backgrounds to match the new style, but I'm really digging it so far. I'm probably going to have to re-modify the Fir Douglas Tree since it's not quite the same style as the others, plus the background tile objects (Trees, Grass, etc) could use another touch up so they look further back instead of painted on like they are now.

But hey I'm getting closer to the look I'm after! I'm even working on a few new tilesets to see how those look.

[tjpalmer]

Been keeping some eye on this. I think this has some good potential. And I like color.

By way of recommendations, I know some folks will complain about gradients (aka "pillow shading"), and I might recommend to have shading match object texture instead of ignore it. But maybe you're doing that on purpose as part of coloring idea. Overall, I'm not a visual expert, so others might see things differently.

I also personally think the UI in the upper left is too busy, but maybe it's needed for the game.

Anyway, just some thoughts. The overall premise for the game sounds nice, and I like platformers.

[LucasMaxBros]

I wasn't sure at first what you meant by pillow shading (I don't keep up with different art terms or programming terms very well)...so I had to look it up. Then I realized what you meant. So originally there was no shading like part for the black blocks, it was just lines. I just tried the shading part to see if I could tell which lines were solid better, and it worked. Though now that you pointed this out, I could do this better so I'm going to experiment, probably make thicker lines for the solid. So thanks!

And the HUD (UI) after some thought could be better. There's a tracker that's suppose to keep track of every color you get individually. However, now that I think about it, I don't think I have a need for this anymore. There was going to be a gimmick where you got an empty Paint Bucket and had to fill it up with a certain amount of a certain color and it would turn into some reward or key. But I could give the bucket a counter instead, so I'll remove this. The Goal and Total could also just become a 0 / 190 to simplify the look. I would get rid of it, but I want to keep it there for challenges such as win the level with a specific number of color.

And one of the other indicators I need to simplify is when you can go Wolf Mode. I just need a better visual indication rather than words. In fact the Beta Testers never noticed it so I might as well change it. Thanks for pointing that out, I'll see if I can polish them up!

[LucasMaxBros]

Devlog #5:

So I got around to changing up the tilesets again, this time with sharper quality and more appropriate lighting. I'll have to adjust grass and such tiles so that they fit with the blocks since it looks like it's floating over the blocks rather than actually living on top of them. But otherwise I'm really digging it, and it gives the world a little more complexity to its design. This way I can also avoid using opposite corner tiles (The point when two sides of a Block meets, like a Right side meets a Top side below it, and you need to place a littler corner tile to make it look like it's joining, but really hard to make look right...)and just use Blocks with different sizes or designs.



Still need to do the Trees and such so they look further in the back, and perhaps make some that pop out in front to give the idea you're in a forest. Also still haven't done the backgrounds BUT I've been doing a lot of other fixes which are not all present in this image.

Wall Jumping is a little different. When you initiate a Wall Jump you will fly off, but you can't change direction for an instance. You use to be able to immediately turn back to the wall that you Wall Jumped from, though you wouldn't gain much altitude if any at all unless you perfected your jumps. Now you can't change direction until roughly 35 frames later. This is in case the player was still holding on to the direction against the wall. This window will allow the player enough time to either release the direction or change it so they don't make their Jump stop. It's also just enough that if they didn't mean to Jump they will move back without gaining too much distance. Ultimately the player needs to know that this wall jump is made for leaping away to another wall like Mario Bros and not made for scaling a single wall like Megaman X.

I also changed this because of Wolf Mode. When you climb a Wall in Wolf Mode, you need to hold the direction towards the wall, which meant letting go of the direction when trying to perform a Wall Jump, which can make things confusing. With this, it lets the player get enough time to make the Jump then switch to the direction they're headed without wasting too much time. Speaking of Wolf Mode, the icon that appears when it prompts you to change forms (PRESS (SHIFT)!) has been changed. When you have over 75 Energy, it will begin Flashing to let the player know that it's there and to listen to it.

It's also now Black and really blends well with the HUD and Vivid's overall color scheme. I got a few more things that need to be worked on involving with that Mode such as the name of what Mode you've entered appearing when you change and an animation for the Energy Bar when it's depleting.

I also found a Glitch with one of the Grabbing objects; If I grab a Breakable Block and throw it while there is a ceiling above me and it breaks Immediately by hitting the ceiling, it won't get a chance to tell the player object that it has been released and therefore can Grab again. So I can't grab if I do that (Unless I die). I've also had some weird stuff happen with Grabbing objects such as when I died with an Orb, it disappeared then reappeared when I went far enough away from where I died. So it looks like I have some stuff that needs to be fixed with Grabbing stuff!

And before I forget mentioning it, I changed the HUD again. This time, it's a lot cleaner and I got rid of some stuff I didn't think were important or was taking up unnecessary amounts of space. The Energy Bar is also bigger. One thing I still need to add is an Arrow that points at how much energy you need before Wolf Mode becomes an option (It needs to be separate since there will be upgrades to get Wolf Mode faster).

[LucasMaxBros]

Devlog #6:

Alright! Got a bunch of glitches taken care of that had to do with items. I found another glitch where if the item falls or moves away at a certain rate, it wouldn't spawn back. This has been fixed as well as the one I mentioned in the previous Devlog.

I've also done the Backgrounds! In fact there are multiple Cloud layers which move at different rates to give the feeling of depth. I've also toned them down accordingly so they aren't too distracting. The Mountains in the back have also been changed so they have more complexity to them. The transparent clouds in front gives a very nice feel.

I also changed the tilesets for the grass again so I can do more with them and so they match with the Blocks and lightning a little bit better. Made some of the background tiles lighter and more dull so they don't look like objects that are in the way.

So with all that out of the way, I'll be uploading a video to showcase how the game looks and plays at the moment.

Main objective now: Sounds/Music.

I got someone who was looking into making sound effects and I wanted to create a few more objects before hand so I could make a list for all Sounds I needed. Plus, I need to check on my composer so I can make another list for all the music that might be needed as well. But once that's taken cared of I'll release 2.0 which has Sounds and Music, and new level design.

And perhaps some more work and tests I'll try Steam Greenlight!

No screenshots today, but I might post the video when it's done.

[LucasMaxBros]

I'm not going t count this post as a Devlog since there isn't really anything new, but there is stuff to show! I have a new Screenshot which is a cool comparison between 0% color and 100% color:



Next of all I have a video which runs in 60fps. Only problem was that I had the black border appear again (I'm not sure what's causing it) and I had to crop it, so it's a little blurry, but nothing bad. I promise much better visuals when I get to making promos and the such.





Hope to report something new soon.

[LucasMaxBros]

Devlog #7:

So a few big things (one confirmed, one we're still waiting on). One, I have added in some Shaders to really make the game feel more alive and sharper in quality. Two, I have someone whom is most likely going to help with Sound effects and composing for the game. I still haven't heard back from them but I'll add that to the main post when they confirm they are working on the game.

So here's a comparison between the game without the Shader and with it:



It's a contrast/brightness shader based on xygthop3's shader from the GM community (Though I had to re-modify some things to make it work like I wanted). This effect makes the color really pop and widens the difference between colorless and colored levels. It also makes the images sharper and shading a darker tone to make the colors and light pop out.

I really like it and wanted something like this from the beginning. I'm surprised I got it to work this fast, I've only barely studied shaders and it took some tinkering (Since when making these effects you have to consider the fact that it's drawn at certain proportions and if you change the screen size, it can have weird effects. I fixed this though!).

I wonder what other effects I might do, don't think I will though unless I randomly find one I think would really work. Most of the effects I want from here on out I can just draw or make as particles. So I think I'm good for now.

I did find a few tile mistakes while doing this that I'll have to fix. And speaking of art I've pinpointed what all I want to design now, so sketching it out is the next task on the art list. I did say I was going to remake the enemies a while back and I'll get to that before I release the full fledged demo.

The game is getting closer and closer to completion! I'm getting excited!

[LucasMaxBros]

Decided to give the Devlog a break so I could give some more info on the next one. I have some new stuff, but not as much as I thought I would considering I had some technical difficulties that ate away two days of progress.

Devlog #8:

There are many new concepts that are being thought out, not yet implemented, but they are simple and would give the game more ways to be designed. I plan on adding something called Number Blocks. There will also be Anti Number Blocks. The idea is that they are normal sized Blocks with a specific number inside. The properties of a Number Block changes depending if you have MORE or LESS color collected than the number that appears on this block.

So if I was in a room and there was one exit with 3 Number Blocks blocking the way, I would need to collect a certain amount of color equal to or greater than what was on those blocks so that the properties change to transparent, thus clearing the exit. By doing this I can manipulate what the player needs to do or figure out in order to progress or even find a secret. It also will give the player the idea to always try and collect as much color as they can find, exploring everywhere.

Anti Number Blocks will do the opposite; they start transparent without any physical properties until you get enough color. Then you can land on them, so it will be interesting what I can do with these Blocks.


In other news, I am trying to make a new title and Logo. Unfortunately some titles I wanted to use are already in use, so here's the title for the moment until I might come across something better:



Now with this name in mind, I'm trying to now focus more on a Wolf sort of influence. I plan on making a Spirit Character that with follow Vivid that is simply named Wolf. When Vivid Attacks, Wolf will appear and attack for her. This also gives me the idea that perhaps instead of a separate button for Grab, I could have Wolf simply grab an item you come across and hold it while you hold the attack. So even more similar to Mario. This will also cut down on the complexity of what the grabbing mechanic does, since it really doesn't do that much in the first place. Though I'm going to have to figure out how this will work in Wolf Mode, since your attacks fire off as projectiles then. Perhaps I'll just give the player the ability to grab stuff from far away? Maybe!

I also re-did some more art, which has been the biggest focus at the moment. I've been making new tile-sets and re-modifying old ones, changed some of the backgrounds to have shading, gave a more paint-like aesthetic to the plants and grass, and remade ALL of the enemies.



I still got quite a bit to work on, but it's all getting figured out. Biggest thing though is that I'm still waiting on the music and sound from a few other people. Not much word other than one song is nearly complete. I'm hoping to release 2.0 Demo within April, but at this ate it might be May, which I certainly hope not.

[tjpalmer]

By the way, I think the changes were an improvement, but again, I'm not the expert to give detailed advice. And for what it's worth, I kind of like Vivid Radiance for a name.

[LucasMaxBros]

Whenever I make a YouTube video for the game, because of the name, LOTS of make-up/fashion products are listed in the related videos. The game has nothing to do with that, but it's because of the name, it makes me feel it isn't very fitting. Plus I need something to hook the player; they need to hear the name and go "Woah, what's that about?" instead of "Vivid Radiance? Is that some sort of fashion game?...ummmm...". And third of all, I really wanted an O in the name so I could use the Earth (sort of like MOTHER), but Vivid Radiance doesn't have an O. But Wolf does.

The character's name is still Vivid Radiance though!

[tjpalmer]

Makes sense.

[LucasMaxBros]

Devlog #9:

Alright, been busy with Sound Effects and making special adjustments to the game. I was originally going to hire another person to help with composing and making Sound Effects, but after taking a few good looks at my game I decided to try and simplify it to the best of my abilities. This meant getting rid of various mechanics and making less work happen. After all, this isn't suppose to be a huge game. I'm making a Puzzle Platformer that will probably sell for $10 USD or less. So I had to let the new guy go.

And another big deal that has been happening (I also mentioned this in the last Devlog) has been my Game Maker: Studio update which has caused some new errors to arise. While I got all the major ones out of the way, I still have a few minor ones. UNFORTUNATELY, the problem isn't my fault, but rather a bug which will eventually get fixed. This is a bug with the Collision Detection and many others have reported about it. Essentially, it seems that anything that meets at the west or north of your collision will also be detected, which can cause you to not jump or collide incorrectly into a Block.

I have made it so these problems don't happen as little as possible, better yet I made it so you don't get stuck. This never happened until this update and I can say without a trace of doubt it is this bug that causes this, since I had been playing the game for several months before hand without error.


Besides that mess, there have been Sound Effects. I am surprised at how fast and fun it was to do! I have gotten most of them done now, and within two days. I have a few more to do, but I can't do them until I've actually added the objects that make those noises in yet. My basis for making the sound effects was to heavily modify existing ones and splice them or change the tempo/pitch until it sounded very different but still got the point across. Fun-fact: Most of the effects you'll hear come from a Zelda game, mostly TP since it had very good Sound Design! However, you'd probably not even notice even if you heard the effects compared to each other I've modified them so much!


Next biggest piece of new is what gameplay changes have been simplified? I've taken out the Grab mechanic ENTIRELY. You can no longer Grab or throw items. There use to be over 10 unique grab-able items, but all of them are gone. Only one is left, and those are keys but you'll now automatically pick them up. A person mentioned what the point of the grab mechanic was, and I had many ideas for them, but there are some problems with the concept that interfere with another. That being the Sword Attack that Vivid uses. Many of the throw-able objects are weapons to throw at enemies but what's the point if your own attack is better? Additionally, the other items change gameplay, but I can do that without the need of the player having to learn a completely separate button or grabbing.

It all comes down to the fact that this game needs to be more focused on being a puzzle platformer rather than having all these action elements. The sword attacks she does are a big part of the game, which is why I chose to keep that instead of throwing it away and keeping throw-able items to justify the use. The sword has both offensive use and puzzle use since it can be launched to gather color blocks normally not accessible.

And another sort of big gameplay change has to do with Wolf Mode. You use to only be able to transform when you had at least 75 Energy. However, I have changed this by making it based on your collection percentage. When you begin a Stage you have 0% Color collected, meaning in order to change you MUST have 100 Energy. However, once you get 10%, you only need 90 Energy! So every Percentage drop will be deduced from 100. When you get 100% Color, you can transform as much as you want. This also makes it less annoying, because I KNOW there will be instances where the player will wait to have the ability to transform, thus if they instead try to search for more color they can make the wait FAR shorter.


No screenshots for now, but I'm always thinking about new ways to make the art better. I've redone it like 5 times now. Just can't seem to settle with anything. I just want something simple, but can stand out. I think my problem is that I keep on making it two styles rather than one. I'll eventually get it working someday! Until then, I'm very close to making the 2.0 Demo. I just need Oliver to finish the track he had set out to do.  

Oh, and I'm thinking about making the new name be - Vivid Wolf - I think that would get the point across while still sounding like itself. And on top of that, I was going to have a spirit animal for Vivid, but it's kind of redundant seeing as she is already part wolf, the fact that grabbing has been taken out, and I actually tried making Vivid's new attack her spirit animal but it didn't feel right. So it has been cut!

[LucasMaxBros]

I want to show more this Devlog, but I'm gong to holdout since I'm literally a day before releasing the 2.0 Demo! And I'm getting excited because I've been working on certain aspects of the game I hadn't done such as completing a level or the starting screen. It makes it feel so much more complete!

Devlog #10:

ALRIGHT. Have all of the Sound effects done (other than the unplanned ones) AND I've implemented Music into the game! I do wish I had a few more tracks, such as one for a Starting Screen and a Goal/Results theme.

Speaking of which I've been working on a Results screen. To finish a level, you have to find this Silver Ring with a Wolf Symbol. Once you do it will take you to the Results Screen immediately and tally up certain objectives. I haven't gotten to make the tally up part, but it will grade you on: COLOR completion, if you got all 6 Wolf Coins, and Deaths. This is all tallied up and will decide a Grade for you. Grades are: D, C, B, A, and then a perfect is a WOLF grade. Getting these grades won't do anything at the moment, BUT I'm trying to figure it out. For now it's more of a completion type deal.

Some might note that I don't have a timer for the Grade Results, which would be a good idea. However I'm going to actually make a separate mode for Timers called "Time Attack". The idea is of course to get the fastest time possible on the stage, but the twist is that all color is changed into Clocks which will slightly reduce the CURRENT time the timer is at (It won't go below 0). This means you have to not only go fast but consider if it's worth it to try and nab a few Clocks to reduce the time. So there's a little more meat to it than a simple Time Trial which I think will give the game more play-ability. In addition when in Time Attack you will ALWAYS have Wolf Mode on standby and the levels are fully colored.

And when I was thinking about that I had a really interesting idea for a Mode; Invasion Mode. It has yet to be tested, but I'm really considering it. Basically, once you have 100% a level with color, you can eventually play a Mode on it called Invasion Mode which is the level but with ONE BIG TWIST: All the Color Blocks/Color that was in the level, is replaced with ANTI COLOR. Now it becomes a matter of how few blocks you can touch before you reach the goal? Your grade it determined by the amount of anti color you've collected and maybe your time. It's still only an idea so I don't know. And in that Mode, if you collect too much anti color, you instantly fail the Mode and get kicked out. My only concern is if it might slow down the gameplay, since there are sections where you have to constantly change color to go in between Colored Blocks which might make the player nervous and slow down the pace. I guess it will just be a matter of me designing the levels better.

I also have the Options Menu done! There was originally going to be more options, but the game is so simple that there wasn't a need for things like Brightness or Contrast. There is also no need for resolution sizes/manipulation since Game Maker: Studio automatically adjusts it for you. Which only left Fullscreen, Sound, and Music for options. And there really anything I can possibly think of that this game would even need for options.

Speaking of Brightness/Contrast, there was a Shader being used but I have eliminated it since making new tilesets renders it unimportant. And I've changed the tilesets...again. But not by much. In fact I'm pretty sure this is the last time because I feel like I've nailed it! I don't think there's a need to anymore and the foreground/backgroundtiles look different enough that the player can tell (Nobody had a problem like this to begin with, but I want to make 100% sure you can tell especially when you're in a moment where a frame perfect reaction might have been needed but your were distracted by a suspicious tile. Got to be precise, especially with platformers!


Other than that, Demo 2.0 should be out very soon. I plan on doing everything in my power to have to people at least take a peak at it. Once it's been out for a bit, I'll try making another short level or two for when the game is put on Greenlight. That way I can get some Let's Player's to try it out because the current Demo is only about 10 minutes long TOPS. Plus I'd like to include some additional designs such as new areas (Like a desert or deep forest) and enemies.

Still a lot of work ahead, but I really am beginning to feel this game could go far if I play my cards right!

EDIT: Also, Happy Birthday to my composer, Oliver! :D

[Zorg]

I think you had a cool artstyle in the your first images (gifs in the first post). It does not matter if it was just placeholder graphics, the black outline with the pillow shading (yes, it could be a style choice!!) creates a cool look, maybe it was a lucky accident. But you completely lost this stylized look in your latest images, imho.

In my eyes, it's caused by a missing separation between the foreground and the background and the use of too saturated colors. The colored blocks and collectibles should draw the main attention of the player and use fully saturated colors exclusively.

I don't want to sound too harsh, but it's sad you lost that vibe of the first images on your way.

Mockup:


Edit: By the way, "Secret of" is very generic, i like the old name. Fashion products popping up on youtube is better than thousands of JRPG and House Stark videos.

[LucasMaxBros]

I haven't posted the new tilesets in a while. Then again, it's not that different from the ones that I currently had, except that there is a saturation difference for the colors in the background and foreground, and the grass has a more distinct line on top so you can tell it apart from background objects better. Also, the background tiles have "lines" on them, just in case you couldn't tell whether or not you could touch a certain tile or not.

Me and my friends personally think the new ones are better. But I think I still have the old tiles in the game which might be used in other levels. However the pillow shading is a bit much so I would have to tone them down. Even then I don't know if I'll actually keep them. I'm basically having to work harder on how the art is made because of how the game functions with all the colors and tiles changing. Meaning I have to do everything to make sure people get the point across on what is what.

Also, I was avoiding to post this in the devlog I did about the name until tomorrow, but since you mentioned the name, here's the name I'm changing it to:

[LucasMaxBros]

Alright no Devlog today, but this is an important post:

Demo 2.0 is OUT! So go play it, test it, let other people know. I only have some many other people who can test it, since all my friends IRL are terrible at platformers(Don't worry they know it and are fine with it. They tried anyways, and they actually did decent. So that counts for something eh?). If you want my opinions on what you should playtest it for go to the thread about it here:

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=47655.0

Or download it right now!: http://www.indiedb.com/games/vivid-wolf/downloads/vivid-wolf-20-alpha-demo

What I've been working on currently is renewing the old sprites that have been in the game since pretty much the beginning. And man does it make the game look SOOOOO much better. Can't wait to show a screenshot of it!