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[and]

Got a mention on indiegames.com! Check it out!

Some other super cool games on that article too.

Been spending my time rating other entries, but I did find time to work a little on the title screen:

It's a little bit better than massive white letters in a random font.

@Fat Bard - there'll definitely be hurt dealt out by dropping the sword on enemies or landing on them sword first. The other stuff could work but I want to make sure the basics are totally awesome and then build on that. I really like the idea of your total move set being really simple, but able to used in many different ways so there's still depth and a real mastery to the combat.

@solkar - I've started sketching out some levels and there's definitely something big and boss shaped missing at the end of them...

[Ticebilla]

When I first saw you were putting Among the Willows to rest  for the time being, I was really bummed.

But seeing that you're working on this now has changed my mind. This looks spectacular. The combat looks really, readout awesome. I have yet to play the current build, as I'm on my phone, but if it's anything like what I'm imagining, it's going to be super good.

[TopherPirkl]

Yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to playing it too once I get home from work. I love the look of the game, and what I'm reading from other peoples' experiences.

[Christian]

Definitely keep the combat mechanic. There's so many cool things you do with that. Enemies that can only be attacked from certain angles, forcing you to strategically place you sword. The ability to embue your sword with different elements and abilities (flame, frost, richochet, etc.). Weapons that have different flight patterns (zigzag, boomerang, diagonal)

It could be a cool mix of puzzle aspects and strategic combat, plus maybe a twitchy arcade element of evading attacks, traps, etc. while in faerie form

[and]

@Christian - Yeah I'm definitely going that way with my planning. It feels like a nice mechanic to stick things to without it actually getting any more complicated.

There's definitely going to be enemies that can only be attacked from certain angles and enemies with weakness to fire/frost etc. I was thinking there could be things in the environment that you pull the sword through to give it different powers for a limited time - for example, pull it through a flame and it can now hurt enemies with a weakness to fire.

Ricochets I was thinking about adding in certain blocks that the sword will bounce off, and I think I will be playing around with different sword flight patterns if I'm still needing mechanics.

I've added in a bit of stuff just to tidy it up and make it a little more forgiving. Now, if you die as a faerie, you are resurrected wherever you left the sword:



This doesn't mean that you won't be able to die as the faerie, but that I can have specific traps that target and can kill the faerie. I'm aware it might make things complicated, so I'm just going to try it out and possibly just give you lives instead.

I was planning on adding in fireflies as well, that you would collect until you had enough to create a checkpoint in the level for restarts.

I've also added in being able to drop the sword on enemies, which is pretty tricky but VERY satisfying:



You probably noticed a heart in the corner too. This isn't your life, but it is the life of the world. It's just another visual cue to how much the colour has drained out of the world.



I've tidied up the enemy AI now too so I can use them more as building blocks for actual levels rather than just spawning at you randomly (although I was thinking of leaving in some randomly spawning enemies like the zombies in Super Ghouls & Ghosts - probably some kind or shambling mole-demon thing, I'll see what I can come up with).

I'm just going to finish up adding in the code for having a 2nd player for drop-in/drop-out co-op and I might see how it works with a versus mode, but then I'm going to draw some platforms to add a bit of interest to the levels and finish a couple of new enemies off. Then I need a couple of traps and I guess I'm ready to start building ACTUAL levels!

Fun times.

[and]

Hmm.

Ok I'm already not sure about this invincible in faerie form thing.

I've put a Windows build here where if you die as a faerie you go back to the sword.

Any thoughts would be welcome - would you prefer basic 1 hit death? Would you prefer lives?

[Christian]

Hmm.

Ok I'm already not sure about this invincible in faerie form thing.

I've put a Windows build here where if you die as a faerie you go back to the sword.

Any thoughts would be welcome - would you prefer basic 1 hit death? Would you prefer lives?

I think being able to die as a faerie could add to the gameplay possibilities. For example, a puzzle where you have to drop your sword through a space you can't fit through and then die as a faerie to return to your sword, now in a new area you couldn't reach before

[and]

I think being able to die as a faerie could add to the gameplay possibilities. For example, a puzzle where you have to drop your sword through a space you can't fit through and then die as a faerie to return to your sword, now in a new area you can't reach before

Ok, yeah that sounds pretty cool. I'm starting to think of a few other uses for it now you've made my brain start working.

Cheers!

[sandfella]

Saw this at the LD and immediate become my favorite. Looking forward to see how you develop it further! 

[and]

Thanks everyone for saying all of the nice things! Aside from rating as many entries as I can, I've been working on adding more variety to the environment and fixing up enemy AI so they actually react to the ground.




I only did a single variation on the tile to make sure I was happy with the size before drawing more, but yeah I'm pretty happy with it.

I'll probably leave that as it is for now and work on more enemies/traps etc

[alwex]

I really like the graphics, the forest remind me about sword and sworcery, that's a very good point!

[and]

Thanks alwex! Tikotep Adventure looks pretty awesome too

Adding in functionality continues. Here's a nice gif of a resurrection shrine (a checkpoint basically) being lit and lots of fireflies to collect.



Chasing fireflies is fun. I might just make that the game...

[and]

Good evening.

For some reason I decided it would definitely be a good idea to try and get some kind of build ready to submit to Indiecade, because why not huh

So, over the last couple of days I've been working on adding a few building blocks that I can use to make up the levels. I'm kind of rushing these in with the art and animation so I'll be doing more polished versions once I've got it playable - as always feedback is more than welcome!

First up I've added in stone pillars of varying sizes that neither you nor the sword can pass through.



The stone pillars were initially just something I wanted to add to teach the player what happens when they try to jump, but because of the sword trajectory when it hits the pillar there's a few puzzles I'd like to try out. Also I figure the logic can be reused for building local multiplayer maps if I start experimenting that way.

Here's the new enemies so far:


The Zombie/Mole/Sloth/Thing:



The idea of these is to provide a low threat 'complicator' kind of enemy. One that isn't really a threat on their own, but will still kill you if you get too distracted fighting off the evil demon monkeys.


Evil Demon Monkey (he'll actually just be a regular monkey when you're in the forest)



These little nuisances just love that big shiny sword and will run off with it given half the chance. Be sure to cut them in half before they do - unless there's a reason you want them to run off with it...


HORNETTO



Just one Cornetto, give it to me.....

This is my favourite (and the only one I really spent any time on!), so much so that I named him after my favourite ice cream. Another early game, low threat enemy. Except that his threat grows the longer you leave him alive, what with those mini homing hornets coming right at you every few seconds. There may also be a sweet surprise if you do cut him in half.

And finally...

...


Kamikaze Ninja Spider With Swords For Hands (And Not Enough Legs)



I ran out of time to animate him, and I'm pretty sure he generally looks awful. It had been a long day by this point. At least he's got a super cool name that all the kids will get on tee shirts.

Cool, I think that's it for today! Tomorrow I need to actually build a level (or 4 (or 68)).

For the time being, I bid you farewell.

[and]

There's just too many GIFs on here, so here's a video instead:

Work in progress video of Stage 1 (in which Andrew dies repeatedly)

I say 'work in progress' because I've only ever made things that are procedurally/randomly generated, or generally don't have levels or stages.

I really want this to be a memorable game though, like when I think back to my old favourite SNES games I can still remember all of my favourite bits (and the bits I hated - the top down bits on Super Probotector I'm looking RIGHT at you).

I felt it was important to have an authored experience, and also to have variety between the stages. To this end, there will only be the very first stage in the forest as you see it here. Stage 2 will be a slower level, fighting through a flooded forest with a slow moving boat that will be the only place you or your sword can land (except for a few islands perhaps). I know I said no GIFs but here's a gif of the work in progress of that:

(I basically wanted a level where you had to be a bit more cautious and also I suck at shaders, so I have to learn them)

After that, you'll be having the main boss stage for the first area (the forest being the first area). This will be a moving wall of death that tears down the level as you move through it. The final post boss stage will be escaping the forest as it burns down, because that will look awesome.

Then you'll reach the first hub and your adventure will truly begin! I mean sure, you can go back to the forest but it's just gona be stumps.

I've got to say I'm absolutely loving making this. I'd totally forgotten how much fun making games and drawing silly pixelart creatures can be!

If anyone can help by playtesting the levels then let me know on here/twitter/email, whatever suits you. I want it to be difficult without being punishing, so it's going to need a hell of a lot of balancing.

[and]

Oh yeah and if anyone who can playtest has half decent video recording capabilities then you truly will be a friend for life.

LIFE.

That's a long time.

I hope.

[oldblood]

I can help with testing. May even be able to help with video capture stuff depending on what you need.

You can hit me up at [email protected] if you need any help with that.

[and]

Cool, I'll send you an email with the link in the morning - thanks!

[and]

Hi everyone!

I've made a first level:



Apologies for the amazing mouse cursor there!

I've also submitted a build of the first level to Indiecade, which you can download for Windows here.

I was going to keep this private between just a few playtesters, but to be honest I need all the help I can get.

So please, if you can, play though and send me feedback

There are some bugs I'm working on with the sword glitching against the edges of the stones as well as some issues with Mable falling through platforms occasionally. Also the ground sometimes disappears momentarily when you respawn.

I'll fix those things through next week, but if there are any other bugs please let me know.

EDIT - fixed the link. Sorry.

[and]

And just in case you didn't see how pro I am at this game:



Beat that sweet triple kill.

[tehPHEN]

I gave your game 15 minutes! Here's some of my impressions (raw&unedited from my head, so take it as you will):

First Impressions:

• Nice intro ,music!
• How do I start the game? Small detail: good way to introduce *all* controls is on the menu! Space to start, WSAD to navigate.
• Minor: Oh man, I love the menu effects ! Although it should be cut animation bit shorter.
• Minor: Use positive statements to indicate status in the UI. Display "Music On" for when the music is on and "Music Off" to indicate its off.

In-game:

• Landing a sword on an enemy is satisfying with the blood (juice?) splatter!
• Noticing my FPS dips slightly when blood splatter occurs (from 30 to 20-ish). Running on a older laptop though
• I didn't notice the fireflies were collectable. The sound for picking them up seems to blend in too well as ambience.
• The bee thing sometimes flying enemies are too close to the top of the screen, putting the player in scenarios where he can't kill it.
• I forgot to recall Marbel's(?) sword once, the clinking sound it makes really helps!
• Calling the sword to return to Marble(?) seems to push you in a direction, spamming this lets you go fast :D! This is kinda fun.
• I can't get past the one area with a flying thing, a rock, and two spiders dropping down
• You've already mentioned it, but yeah the ground sometimes disappears when you respawn.