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[Silkworm]

Try the Demo v. 0.8.3 (Windows only)
Download(Itch.io)
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Hey guys, I'm Silkworm and this is the devlog of my game The Wizard and the Slug. After nearly 5 years in development the game is in beta.

The game
-The strangest Love Story ever told-
Aid your wizard companion on an adventure playing as the fastest, most agile slug in video game history. Traverse a unique, oddball fantasy world and unravel the mystery surrounding an ancient curse befallen the mortal race.



---Features---
•   A narrative-driven action platformer full of charm, humor and endearing characters.

•   Fun controls integrated with a unique health system.

•   A spell casting Wizard companion as well as other A.I companions you meet along your journey.

•   Over 2 hours of original music blending 8-16 bit with jazz and orchestral flair.

Music
Demo OST

Follow me!
Twitter: @Silkworm_SwShop
Website
Youtube

[David Stanley]

This is an interesting idea! It reminds me in a small way of Loco Roco (PSP).  Certain things became easier or harder depending on how large you were.
The artwork is looking good, and the way your tileset builds itself is very impressive.  A real time-saver.  Your branching dialogue path is nice, and could increase replay value depending on how you use it.   

[and]

Looks cool, look forward to seeing where you go with this

[TonyManfredonia]

This is looking fun and quirky!  The art style is great .

I just wanted to give you a high-five for your music.  You use some harmonic progressions (like in the title screen and boss battle music) that most "composers for hire" never even touch on.  I'm fairly impressed, considering you don't consider yourself a "video game composer," when there are sooooo many out there who look for musicianship work and never use more complex musical ideas.  And in terms of the mixing, it wasn't a problem when I listened to the tracks. That equilibrium of volume will come in time, as I know mixing is sort of the final, tedious part of producing music. 

[Chris MacAdam]

Cool video you posted! I like the terrain system, and the art style reminds me of Adventure Time. Good luck on this

[Silkworm]

Thanks Guys!   Now that Ludum dare(feel free to play and vote) is over I can continue working on this.

This is an interesting idea! It reminds me in a small way of Loco Roco (PSP).  Certain things became easier or harder depending on

how large you were.
The artwork is looking good, and the way your tileset builds itself is very impressive.  A real time-saver.  Your branching dialogue

path is nice, and could increase replay value depending on how you use it.  

There probably won't be that much use or weight to the dialogue choices but it's nice to have it implemented.

This is looking fun and quirky!  The art style is great .

I just wanted to give you a high-five for your music. You use some harmonic progressions (like in the title screen and boss battle

music) that most "composers for hire" never even touch on.  I'm fairly impressed, considering you don't consider yourself a "video

game composer," when there are sooooo many out there who look for musicianship work and never use more complex musical ideas.  And in

terms of the mixing, it wasn't a problem when I listened to the tracks. That equilibrium of volume will come in time, as I know

mixing is sort of the final, tedious part of producing music.  

*High five* I do consider myself a composer though, I just haven't made music for games really (well except this little ditty and some for an earlier failed game project I started). I think it crossed my mind to do it more but it never really happened. I've tried my hand at movie scores, written musicals, played in bands. Just amateur projects though and I never focused in on it (like pretty much all my artistic endeavors) and have gone years not writing anything at some points and very little without a specific project behind it. I do think I have a pretty good ear and a solid understanding of basic music theory and production even though I was never trained and can't read music for shit (well maybe really slowly) .

As for the progressions, to be honest I don't really think about it too much. 90% of my compositions starts with a motif in my head and then I kind of just "feel" what the harmony is and progressions doesn't always fall into the common standards, which is nice because that'd be boring . I used to be really into progressive rock so I do like to play around with time signatures, syncopations and just weird stuff in general. These tracks are pretty tame in that regard but I'd like to make at least one track that's balls out crazy.

Anyway have some more music.

Bring a coat

Bird of prey

It's nothing really finished but It's a pretty clear example of how I'm working with theming. I will be using a lot of recurring/reworked motifs in the soundtrack. It's pretty obvious here, but sometimes it's more subtle (like woodlands/wafer-thin-mints). It's a really fun way to work :D.

Cool video you posted! I like the terrain system, and the art style reminds me of Adventure Time. Good luck on this

I Love Adventure time! I do think I'm inspired by the show in some way although I think it's more that we draw from some of the same sources, which is a cutesy Japanese aesthetic. I always think of those Japanese emoticons as my biggest inspirations for the look and always figured Pendelton Ward drew some inspiration from this type of style for Adventure time.



Anyway here's some content. Don't you just hate when a wizard asks you to save the world or whatever and then just leaves you to it.

Well, Charm will be your companion throughout the game and I'm planning to not make him useless.

[TonyManfredonia]

*High five* I do consider myself a composer though, I just haven't made music for games really (well except this little ditty and some for an earlier failed game project I started). I think it crossed my mind to do it more but it never really happened. I've tried my hand at movie scores, written musicals, played in bands. Just amateur projects though and I never focused in on it (like pretty much all my artistic endeavors) and have gone years not writing anything at some points and very little without a specific project behind it. I do think I have a pretty good ear and a solid understanding of basic music theory and production even though I was never trained and can't read music for shit (well maybe really slowly) .

As for the progressions, to be honest I don't really think about it too much. 90% of my compositions starts with a motif in my head and then I kind of just "feel" what the harmony is and progressions doesn't always fall into the common standards, which is nice because that'd be boring . I used to be really into progressive rock so I do like to play around with time signatures, syncopations and just weird stuff in general. These tracks are pretty tame in that regard but I'd like to make at least one track that's balls out crazy.

I think you have a true gift.  As a first and foremost contemporary classical composer before I delve into video games, it's so great to hear more interesting harmonies being used for your game compared to countless titles out there.  I can definitely pickup on your innately gifted musical ear.  Using the ear is a powerful tool!  I also encourage you to delve a bit more into the realm of music reading and music theory.  It can go a long, long way for video game composing!  Video game music, after all, stems from all of the rules of historical classical music .

Either way, I don't want to push it too hard.  Ultimately, your ear is a wonderful guide from what I've heard so far.  I think in the constraints of time, too, if something works, just go with it!  No use spending countless hours studying music theory when your ear will do a brilliant job on its own for your projects.

Seriously, keep it up.  Some people are born with a better musical ear than others; you have quite a creative musical voice!

[flipswitchx]

CUTE! keep it up, looks like fun. Thumbs up on the music too. 

[Silkworm]

Hey guys! This will probably be the last update of 2015. Most of the assets are done for the first area of the game. My plan for the beginning of next year is getting a save system working and then putting together a demo as soon as possible.  In the meantime, here's some stuff.

Music (Because I can't stop writing boss themes): From the funky, murky depths

Just because you're cute doesn't mean you can't live in a creepy cave/house.







Happy holidays!


 

[and]

 

I love this! Looks cute, but I'm guessing it's probably deadly.

[Grhyll]

I like the art style a lot too! Nice work, looking forward to more updates

[TonyManfredonia]

The banana is perfect :D

[Silkworm]

And I'm back, happy new year everyone! I'm working on getting everything ready for the demo which will feature an introductory area and the first level.
 

I've implemented an inventory system. There won't be many (if any) equippable items as such, it's mostly just for information and holding key items.




Also been playing around with transitions and probably have more than I need (EXCEPT A STAR-WIPE).

                               

Made some weapon pickups just for the demo as upgrades won't come in this form in the final game. Also mysterious icons, what could they mean?




Background objects are now intractable too.

Music: Children of God

 

I love this! Looks cute, but I'm guessing it's probably deadly.

Well, it is the final boss after all.

That's all for now. Sorry, no Banana Man this time.

[and]

hey transitions look cool! Except maybe the stripes, they hurt my eyes a little bit. Looking forward to playing the demo

[Silkworm]

First off, I think I've settled for a name. I've had a few in mind but the one I keep coming back to is Pools of Creation. It's not perfect but Prölen was never really a good name to begin with. I'll sleep on it before I finally decide.

hey transitions look cool! Except maybe the stripes, they hurt my eyes a little bit. Looking forward to playing the demo

 
Thanks for the input! Maybe adding more and thinner stripes would be better. But for now, I won't use them.

Work on the the demo is going good! I'll be traveling abroad in a week and will be gone for two weeks. I hoped I would've been done by then but I have some other obligations right now so I don't think I'll make it. I'm guessing probably middle of February instead.

Except for some polishing, this is what is pretty much done as far as the demo goes:

• Intro!
• All enemies!
• All graphics!
• All cutscenes!
• All music!
• Dialogue, Transition, Inventory and Save systems are functional.

What needs doing:

• Audio overhaul: Audio levels are all over the place at the moment and there is a lot of placeholder sound without much thought put into it.
• Level design: The pieces are there, now I just have to put everything together. I have a rough idea of what I want to do. It will be pretty simple and the first area will be a tutorial area for just learning the basics. I'd also like to have at least one mechanic based puzzle in the demo as well.
• New GUI:It does work, I just don't like the look of it.

I've been doing some writing as well, which is really fun, but tricky. It's not just the words themselves, the pacing is really important, a pause or the text speed can make a huge difference. My dialogue boxes use portraits as well, but haven't done that much with the sprites which would be optimal because I love when sprites are really expressive. But that's for another day.

I'm also looking for tips on platformer games with really good design as I've been playing some games while taking notes. Feel free to give me suggestions (preferably PC or old school stuff as the last console I owned was the first Xbox).

Stuff

Forgotten shrine


It's Barry!
Music: Valley of the Barries


Beginning of an adventure.


This is very important.

 

[and]

Sounds like you've got a good plan there, I'm looking forward to trying out the demo!

Regarding platformer design, you probably already know about these but I'd suggest:

- Super Meat Boy
- Mighty Jill Off (this is free and among my favourite platformers ever)
- Any early Mario (you can also find a LOT of content online breaking the design of the games down)

In fact I'd recommend reading everything you can find by Anna Anthropy that discusses level design. I found it extremely insightful and helpful, so you may do too.

Pixel prospector has some good articles on platformer design too, so I'd recommend visiting there.

Hope you had a nice time abroad

[TonyManfredonia]

I agree with the above.

Super Mario World is personally a favorite of mine in level design.  Accomplishes the left-right style of early Mario games, but also has a ton of vertical content.

[flipswitchx]

I see you've made progress on various systems, nice work 

[Silkworm]

Hey guys! Thanks for the tips! Yes, Mario games are always relevant when it comes to platforming. I've been playing Shovel Knight too which has some really great design. I'm also looking at shooters since having a range attack does change the design approach a bit.

Regarding platformer design, you probably already know about these but I'd suggest:
In fact I'd recommend reading everything you can find by Anna Anthropy that discusses level design. I found it extremely insightful and helpful, so you may do too.

Pixel prospector has some good articles on platformer design too, so I'd recommend visiting there.

Will definitely check this out!

Anyway I'm back home and working on the demo. Been dealing with some annoying bugs and trying to keep some event triggers in check. Also protip, never use characters like "Ö" in anything .

The name change is now official and I reworked the title screen and did away with the standard menu.

Tutorial area is pretty much done. I went with simple button prompts for the basic controls. At least it doesn't stop the gameplay. There is also some narrative in there to make it feel like there is a reason to do stuff other than just for the sake of learning the controls.

Next up is designing an actual level with some challenge, but after that all that's left is looking over the audio, some play testing and hopefully just some minor polish .

If you'd like to play test before official release just contact me and I'll send you a build when everything is put together.

[Jalapenosbud]

My take on level design is that, be ready to do alot of different layouts and scrap them again, then redo it.
Or like, do alot of different scenarios, and by scenario i mean; some levels might be jump "themed", or some might have alot of straight running, or some might have alot of hazards, and some might have alot of enemies in them.

And then when you're done with designing all those different levels, kinda mix them together, so they have elements from each scenario / theme. But then again, you dont want to start too hard out or punishing out, you wanna slowly ramp up the difficulty, so the player get a feeling of being "safe" in your game, and then slowly throw them out in more dangerous areas.

Playtesting also plays a big role. When showing it to friends or people you dont know, i know this sounds cliché, but let them play the game and dont comment, cause then its easy to recognize the patterns in which they play the game in. So you can see where it might be too difficult and then go back and edit that place.

Anyways, thats just my experience in trying to design my first game. Take it with a grain of salt, cause i dont have a hella lot experience doing it.