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[chrilley]

Nice, that definitely helps! Will see if I can either throw in some trees or something else in the foreground too. Though the camera is a bit far up so might just be tree tops...

[chrilley]

A few days ago a couple of people suggested adding automatic item sorting in the inventory and also some way of organizing items by type.

So with a little bit of help I managed to put something together. Items now automatically offset when an empty slot is available and you can organize the inventory by item type with a click of a button.

[flipswitchx]

Cool! I love the menu screen, stats, little portrait, etc... Do you have a little description when you cursor over items?
I've been doing menus lately too. Wasn't into it at first but slowly came around to it.

On the title screen, try moving the Title away from the top of the window a little bit, there's usually a bit of a gap between the top and the logo. 

[chrilley]

That's a neat idea flipswitchx! It might be hard to fit all the menus if I move it down too much though! Will see how much I can nudge it.

And yeah, the items do have a short little description text appear when you have the selection cursor on them.

[chrilley]

Currently working on the shrine/sanctuary area of the game. Looks a tad empty at the moment but we're getting there!

Any ideas on what I should add?


A new enemy to go along with that theme:



I also ran into an interesting bug that I'd really like to try turn into an actual combat move:



And finally I touched up on the health/magic bars a bit today.

More or less I wasn't entirely happy with the clean and round look that the old one had.

[Jalapenosbud]

oooo it all looks good! all the new stuff!

maybe make the bug into an actual move, but only have it at a very certain frame so people cant just spam away, and its a special move u gotta time right

[CesarD8]

It's looking good, man. But I feel like the character is a little too overpowered, that's the only complain I have  Everything else has my seal of approval 

[chrilley]

Thanks guys!

maybe make the bug into an actual move, but only have it at a very certain frame so people cant just spam away, and its a special move u gotta time right

Definitely! It's also still unclear just how useful it would be. Like, how often do you encounters enemies lined up in that manner? Perhaps its a way to work your way up to something you can't reach? Hm... Need to justify adding this move somehow

But I feel like the character is a little too overpowered

Yeah, one of my biggest challenges at the moment is to make sure that the game won't be too easy. I think the answer lies in tougher enemies. As in adding some moves, tricky patterns and some health balancing(without turning into bullet-sponges).

[Phonetic Hero]

As a huge Metroid and Castlevania fan, I'm loving the aesthetic you've got going!  Definitely keeping my eye out for more updates

Also love the look of the second sword slash in the combo - reminds me of MMX4/5

[chrilley]

Thanks! I'm obviously also a Castlevania and Metroid fan so that's awesome to hear!

Jarvis has indeed studied the ways of Zero

I was unhappy with the previous slash animation so I took a peek at two of his combo slashes and then also his uppercut. The rest are inspired from Dante's moves from the Devil May Cry series.

You can actually see the old versions of the slashes and uppercut in the trailer on the first post. Terrible!

[chrilley]

New move!
So I went and created the first iteration of the air uppercuts recently:


There's no more need to bug out the game in order to perform it.

Basically you hold Up and keep hitting Attack. In total you can perform 3 uppercuts in a row. While the 2 last uppercuts are performed mid-air, the very first one has to be executed from the ground. Most likely the player will simply have the first uppercut to start with and later on acquire this "upgraded" variation.


Website
I also improved that old Jarvis site along with some brand new screenshots. The trailer is still outdated along with its less cool moves and "thwacky" attack sound effect however.


http://www.jarvis-game.com/

[edit: website adress was messed up, should be fixed now.]

[chrilley]

Someone suggested dust particles around light rays, so made a quick attempt at it. It seems the Gif compression is having a field day with it though:

It's not the most optimized idea however. Each dust particle is its own little sprite/object. I guess the optimal idea here would be to have some way of baking all those dust particles into one sprite as a looping animation. Can't figure out a good way of doing that though so for now this will do!

[chrilley]

I managed to bake the dust particles + light effect into one single animation. Almost cant tell the difference!



Then I  went back to work on the shop system:



Spent about a day on it and almost done now. I need to get the attributes to update properly when hovering specific items though.

[chrilley]

Okay!

It feels like it is time for another round of game title ideas. While I personally like the name Jarvis some pointed out a while ago that the current name can sound a bit dull by itself(not to mention there is also a marvel app already with that name).

It should also be noted that I am terrible at names and am not native English speaker so I'm sure my titles are bound to sound cheesy and/or corny. 

Since the game is heavily centered on the title character and his magic arts I figured that's what the title should be about. So his name + elements from his abilities and then maybe one more word that implies its his story?

Keywords that come to mind:

Magic, Warlock, Wizard, Wizardry, Sorcery, Spell, Spirit, Cast, Fire, Blaze

Tale, Legend, Lore, Adventure, Journey, Story, Myth, Saga, Quest, Fable, Fantasy, Legacy

Title Ideas:
Warlock Tale Jarvis
Wizard Legend Jarvis
Blaze of Jarvis

Am I onto something or is this still terrible? Anyone sitting on some idea?

[NoLocality]

Since the game is heavily centered on the title character and his magic arts I figured that's what the title should be about. So his name + elements from his abilities and then maybe one more word that implies its his story?

I'd love to say I have some good names for you there but I'm honestly coming up short of ideas.

I'm just kinda throwing my vote in that a name-change is a good idea.  I drool over the gifs and look forward to playing it but I keep forgetting what it's called when I want to look it up...   Usually my thoughts go something like "that sword-air-juggle game" or "The beaver guy's game", but the name (no offense) is pretty forgettable.


Hmmm, to me what stands out and first drew me in was the "sword" combat and how it looks like it "feels" good to play.  It sounds like you want to put forward that Jarvis is a warlock in the title also sooo...

Maybe something like "Mage blade Jarvis" or "The trials of combat warlock Jarvis".

To me a title like this would make remembering this game easier while putting forward that this game promises some good combat, which imo looks to be your game's strongest offering.


Good luck with the title and the game, I really like what you've been showing and I can't remember if I've said as much on your dev-log.  Cheers 

[chrilley]

It's a good point that the sword mechanics is a big thing and worthy to be part of the title. I'll make a note of it

I did some back and forth yesterday and ended up with a few more ideas:
Lil' Warlock Jarvis
Once Upon A Jarvis
Prophecy of Jarvis
Warlock Hero Jarvis

You might notice that I try really hard with putting the "Jarvis" away from the beginning of the title in another effort to distance myself from looking like some kind of sequel to that Marvel Jarvis app.

Someone suggested Jarwiz as well which is a funny pun on Jarvis + Wizard.

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

is there a specific reason you stick with the name "Jarvis" ? i wonder if you could just drop it from the title.

[chrilley]

It is an option but it would be my least favorite choice unless I can think of a really good title to substitute with.

Besides being very attached to it, all the associated links, social media/promo is tied to it as well. I could start from scratch on that front but I rather not if possible.

Then besides Marvel's Jarvis app it is not a common name either which makes it easier for people to find it when googling. Like "warlock game" is going to be very hard to compete with but  something like "warlock jarvis" would be doable.

So I would consider dropping "Jarvis" if a much better title came along but so far I have not been able to think of one that I like. It's definitely not off the table though. If anyone is sitting on some gold they're not planning to use, don't hesitate to let me know!

[Davi Vasc]

Okay!

It feels like it is time for another round of game title ideas. While I personally like the name Jarvis some pointed out a while ago that the current name can sound a bit dull by itself(not to mention there is also a marvel app already with that name).

It should also be noted that I am terrible at names and am not native English speaker so I'm sure my titles are bound to sound cheesy and/or corny. 

Since the game is heavily centered on the title character and his magic arts I figured that's what the title should be about. So his name + elements from his abilities and then maybe one more word that implies its his story?

Keywords that come to mind:

Magic, Warlock, Wizard, Wizardry, Sorcery, Spell, Spirit, Cast, Fire, Blaze

Tale, Legend, Lore, Adventure, Journey, Story, Myth, Saga, Quest, Fable, Fantasy, Legacy

Title Ideas:
Warlock Tale Jarvis
Wizard Legend Jarvis
Blaze of Jarvis

Am I onto something or is this still terrible? Anyone sitting on some idea?

I like Blaze Of Jarvis. 'Blaze' is just a cool word in general and I like the idea of having the character's name in the title because it makes it more memorable imo

[chrilley]

I also felt having blaze in the title would be cool and it seems to be the most popular among my new title ideas but me not being a native English speaker makes it hard for me to know what actually sounds good. =P

Btw isn't "blaze" kind of hinting towards motorsports?