Hey everyone! This thread is going to follow the progress of a project called "The Last Alchemist!" I'll be posting video, pngs, gifs, successes, frustrations, failures, life lessons, dad jokes, general wisdom, and all about this awesome game I am making! I already have quite a bit of background work don on the coding side, and am starting to put together some artwork in order to compile something to show off to the world! So here goes nothing!
STORYLINE
The Last Alchemist kicks off in a dream. The main character is visited by an ancient and powerful being named Munus. Munus begins to explain that in the distant past, his brother Malus had assembled a group of blood thirsty monsters that called themselves the Sensum. Seeking to enslave the human race, Malus and his Sensum wreaked havoc on humanity. The underlings of the Sensum called the Nisl made up the main force of Malus’ army. Burning villages, killing villagers, and enslaving those they did not kill, humanity was quickly descending into darkness. Then rose Arthominas Alexander Romonius, a human whose brilliance exceeded all others of his time. Arthominas equipped with nothing but his sharp mind and ability to unite all those around him, stood against the Nisl, and vanquished an entire legion with 66,000 men. However, it was not enough. Though the humans were able to defeat the Nisl through massive numbers, they were no match for the Sensum. Munus moved by the will and strength of humanity, a race he once considered weak, and filled with nothing but greed, equipped the humans with the power of Ab Elementi, the ability to control elementals. Not every human was capable of wielding such power, and out of those that could, even fewer would stave off the corruption that such power could bring. Munus did his best to select only those humans who would use the powers granted to them by Ab Elementi for the good of humanity, and not seek their own desires. One of those men, was the mighty and wise Arthominas.
Equipped with this new gift Arthominas assembled all humans Munus had blessed that he could. This band of humans equipped with the powers of Ab Elementi called themselves Alchemists. With this new gift, Arthominas was able to shift the ground as he wished. Using his brilliance and tenacity for battle strategy, Arthominas controlled the flow of every battle. The Nisl and The Sensum struggled against humanity, and lost many great battles due to the humans uniting under one banner, under the blessings of Munus. The turning point of the war was at hand, humanity after many years of struggle and loss, were pushing the evil that threatened to world back into the depths of the abyss. Embarrassed and enraged by the human resistance defeating his army again and again, Malus directly confronted Arthominas and the Alchemists. While the Alchemists fought bravely, they were no match for Malus, and all but Arthominas was killed. Poised to finish off Arthominas, Malus slowly delivered the final blow to Arthominas, but Munus could no longer control himself, if his brother could get involved directly, so could he. Coming to save Arthominas at the last moment, Munus subdued his brother, and had Arthominas seal them both in rock and stone. Arthominas was able to secure a single stone from that mound, and found it to be blessed by Munus and was able to grant the powers of Ab Elementi to any human capable and selfless. He called this stone the Philosophers stone, and with it he rebuilt the Alchemists. With Malus defeated, the Alchemists gaining in strength, and the Sensum and Nisl being hunted by humans, the evil ones were scattered throughout the world, and went into hiding to protect themselves from the humans.
After the war was over, Arthominas became known more commonly as Alexander the Great. Under his rule, the world lived in peace, united under a great and powerful ruler. However, the Sensum and Nisl were not completely defeated, and after Arthominas died, they stole the Philosophers Stone and slowly eradicated the Alchemists. As time continued to draw on, they rewrote history, and completely eradicated the memories of the war, and of Arthominas. Now after nearly two millennia, they are poised to strike against humanity again. In order to release Malus from the seal, they also released Munus. Munus, weakened after having put his essence into Arthominas’ Philosophers Stone had only enough power left to bless one human with Ab Elemnti. It now lies with you to find the Philosophers Stone, and re-establish the Alchemists in order to save humanity.
GAME DESIGN
Main Character
After awakening from his vision of Munus and receiving the gift of In Elementum the main character has the ability to morph between four different states of being, each of which relates to some form of large scale element. Listed below is a composition of each state and the abilities that the player will have access to in each individual state.
“Formatio Aqua Congelata” (Ice)
-Create a platform underneath the feet of the player while in mid-air. Only 2 platforms will be able to be created between jumping off of solid ground and landing back on it.
-Throw ice spikes as a ranged attack. Limited distance, and only can throw one at a time.
“Ignis Imperium” (Fire)
-Double jump ability
-AOE attack, close range to the character, not a projectile
-In air AOE attack, an explosion originating from the playable character
“Powerless” (Normal)
- Wall Jump
- Climb ledges
- Air dash
None of the powers or abilities are accessible from another state of being. The player will have to switch states of being (which will be a seamless and very quick process, the player will be able to change states at will, and it will happen instantaneously) in order to access different abilities. The list of states of being and abilities of each one is listed below. Additionally, the playable character will only be able to change states a certain number of times within a specific time period before entering a cooldown. This will also increase the challenge by limiting the number of times you can change states to make a complicated and difficult jump.
The idea behind this structure of splitting the abilities is to create a challenge for the player. The players will be challenged to push themselves to the limit in being able to switch between the different abilities in order to maximize jumping height and distance. Not only that, the order and combination in which the powers are used are going to be key. Players will be able to approach different situations in different ways, and play the game how they want to.
A lot of time and attention is going into each control scheme for the different platforms so that the gaming experience is going to be smooth and fun for everyone. A lot of attention is going into every aspect of gameplay, far more than any other aspect of the game. Don’t misread that though, EVERY aspect of the game has been worked, reworked, reworked, reworked, and reworked, polished, polished, and then polished again. Optimization is something that will never stop on this game, and we will always be listening to feedback from the players, and any ideas that prove to genuinely improve the experience will seriously be considered for implementation.
Then for those of you looking for a true platforming challenge, prepare yourselves for the “Are you F***ING KIDDING ME?!” difficulty level. It’s going to be AWSOME. The number of allowed transformations will be lower, reset time will be longer, platforms will disappear faster, enemy projectiles will move faster, attack ranges will be reduced, and a few other things! Get ready and prepare your pads and keyboards for hours of tight gripping, knuckle busting difficulty. Not to be read CHEAP difficulty. I hate that unavoidable death nonsense.
WHY SHOULD YOU WANT IT?
I mean, just think about how awesome it will be when you finally reach that really high platform! How accomplished you’ll feel when you finally make that fantastically frustrating jump! Switching between the different ability states, and in rapid succession creating platforms, jumping walls, performing double jumps, wall jumps and mid-air dashes to just barely catch that ledge at the very top, finally reaching that secret area! The intensity of the boss battles as you combat “Ira”, “Timore”, “Avarita”, “Odio”, “Tristia”, “Dolus”, “Dubium”, “Ultio”, and ultimately “Malus”, the evil one seeking to dominate the human race. Fighting your way through the “Nisl” as you attempt to complete each level and grow as a hero.
Character concept/design:
http://wayofthepixel.net/index.php?action=profile;u=47680Animator: Me
Programmer: Me
Level Design: Me
Everything Else: Me
We would love to hear your thoughts and opinions!
Main Character:
Ira:
Odio:
Timore:
You can only achieve greatness by experiencing absolutely terrible crap in your life. It's what will motivate you to not have a crappy life anymore. - Me
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