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[Think Inside The Box]

-=Synopsis=-

The Stonekeeper is a fast-paced top-down rogue-like twin-stick shooter with RPG and arcade action elements. Every run is unique with generated levels, vicious enemies and over 200 different items. The goal of the game is pretty straight forward: destroy all enemies in the arena, advance to the next level, rinse and repeat. Collect money to buy items, lottery tickets, gamble, or simply toss it into the wishing well. Fill your inventory with items that increase your stats or give you powerful abilities.
And most importantly: DON'T DIE.

-=Gameplay=-

• Twin stick shooter. Move around with keyboard and aim with a mouse, or if you prefer playing with a controller: one stick controls character's movement while the other stick controls the aiming.
• Destroy all enemies. The main concept of the game is simple as that: defeat hordes of bad guys in every level.
• Rogue-like elements. The Stonekeeper revolves around rogue-like elements: short runs (around 30 minutes long), generated levels, secrets and permanent deaths, meaning if your HP hits 0 mark you have to start from point A.

-=Features=-

• 250+ synergizing items. The Stonekeeper has a huge variety of items. Some of them increases your stats, the others grant you with crazy abilities, some of them upgrades your weapons, while the others give you a companion to help you out. But most importantly items are synergistic, meaning they combine with each other, which leads to some wacky outcomes.
• 20+ weapons. We tried to make every weapon to be as distinctive as possible, that is why they range from electric thunder shots and lasers to glue and toxic weapons. Oh by the way, weapons also synergies with the items.

• Generated levels. Every run is unique: different map layouts, different enemy placement, different items and pickups, different weaponry.
• 100+ different types of enemies. Skeletons, orcs, spiders and wizards... Classic bad guys never goes out of fashion.
• Special rooms. Gamble, trade items, attend the lottery, sell your stuff. Stonekeeper has 15 different special rooms that appears in-between action levels to help you out.
• Shops. Spend your hard earned money buying items that will most certainly come in handy in your quest.
• Secrets. Every self respecting rogue-like game comes with handful of secrets, so keep your eyes peeled.
• Unlocks. Unlock new weapons, items, game modes. The game unfolds as you play.
• Pixelated art style. Look at those little colorful blocks.

-=More Info=-

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[Pixel Noise]

Looks cool! I'm interested to see what you mean about the synergizing items!

Though, I'd check your spelling on "rogue-like"   

[bdsowers]

Your tileset is looking pretty clean. The bones littering the ground seem to add a bit too much noise though, I'd consider looking at those again.

Can you please have an idle animation where that muscular fire guy just flexes his muscles?

Do you have plans for what the arena-based combat will look like? It sounds more like old-school JRPG than rogues, which usually keep you in the same world while you fight.

[SkullPixel]

Nice job on the art so far!

Crawl the dungeons but watch out for the enemies lurking in the dark.

Does this mean that enemies will be ambushing you? If you built the exploration phase with a sort of stealthy survival-horror feel to it, and maybe made it difficult to defeat the enemies once you came into contact with them, that could be a really cool touch.

[Think Inside The Box]

Looks cool! I'm interested to see what you mean about the synergizing items!

Though, I'd check your spelling on "rogue-like"   

Thank you. Yeah, pesky words like "rogue" or "miscellaneous" always gives me trouble .

Synergizing means that some items combines with the others. We've been testing items for quite a bit and there are some wacky combinations you can get. Once we are done with the items I'll post some synergies for sure.

Your tileset is looking pretty clean. The bones littering the ground seem to add a bit too much noise though, I'd consider looking at those again.

Can you please have an idle animation where that muscular fire guy just flexes his muscles?

Do you have plans for what the arena-based combat will look like? It sounds more like old-school JRPG than rogues, which usually keep you in the same world while you fight.

Thanks, yeah we are probably have to cut down on bone liter, we are still on a testing phase so a lot might change.
As for the combat system we are planing to go with the Smash TV type of formula (after all the game controls in a similar manner), where you have to shoot down waves of enemies, it's not going to be like a traditional RPG where you and the enemies take turns. I would say The Stonekeeper will borrow the elements from both genres, even though, of course, it's not going to be 100% RPG or rogue-like.

P.S. A man made from fire probably doesn't have any muscles, but hey, who knows i'm not an expert on mystical creature anatomy. 

Nice job on the art so far!

Crawl the dungeons but watch out for the enemies lurking in the dark.

Does this mean that enemies will be ambushing you? If you built the exploration phase with a sort of stealthy survival-horror feel to it, and maybe made it difficult to defeat the enemies once you came into contact with them, that could be a really cool touch.

Thanks. Unexplored areas will be covered in shadows so you won't be able to see what's waiting ahead of you. Every enemy acts differently, some of them might be able to ambush you.

[Think Inside The Box]

Finally updated character animation to make it look hotter.

[Think Inside The Box]

Testing some enemies, still a lot of things feel clunky. We are planning to make over a hundred different enemies, so base AI has to be just right.

[SuperSmithBros]

Im a big fan of Roguelikes, this is looking great.

Im wondering how the player progresses after each death? In most roguelikes you become stronger in some way after each play through or gain access to more powerful equipment... whats you strategy with that kind of thing?

[Pixel Noise]

Is that last .gif at real-time speed, or is it altered? If it is, it looks like this is going to be a bit of a bullet-hell/dodgy type gameplay? That's not a criticism - I'm a big fan of that. Just curious.

Also - having reread your initial post - I'm curious to see how you execute the transition from exploration to action phases.

[Bahototh]

That's some pretty neat pixel art right there!

[Sitatop]

The game looks really nice already! Luv the look of the projectiles.

[Think Inside The Box]

Im wondering how the player progresses after each death? In most roguelikes you become stronger in some way after each play through or gain access to more powerful equipment... whats you strategy with that kind of thing?

Well, we are testing a lot of possible ways to do that, so nothing is set in stone yet. One thing is certain however, players will be able to unlock powerful items after completing runs and so other quests.

Is that last .gif at real-time speed, or is it altered? If it is, it looks like this is going to be a bit of a bullet-hell/dodgy type gameplay? That's not a criticism - I'm a big fan of that. Just curious.

No that .gif is not altered and yes there will be some bullet-hell elements, some enemies will shoot a whole chunk of bullets. As a matter of fact skeletons in the .gif are one of the first enemies you'll meet in the game, later ones will be much more aggressive.

That's some pretty neat pixel art right there!

Thanks a lot!

The game looks really nice already! Luv the look of the projectiles.

Thanks, those projectiles went through a lot of makeovers.

[_metamythical]

Looks cool already!

[Think Inside The Box]

Looks cool already!

Don't you mean "hot"? 

[Think Inside The Box]

I guess practice makes it perfect. Few month ago v1.0 seemed like a perfectly drawn sprite.

[Think Inside The Box]

For the past few month we were redrawing and completely redesigning The Stonekeeper. We decided to drop the dungeon crawler part, since we felt like it slowed down the pacing of the game, and simply focus on the action. The game retains RPG elements :you can level up your strength, speed, HP, but now it's faster and more aggressive.

[Think Inside The Box]

First level enemy roll-call Skeleton Peasant, Skeleton Joker, Rogue Skeleton, Skeleton Knight, Skeleton Priest. I guess you can easily guess this level's theme.
We had to redesigning enemies to make them look more menacing, since we decided to use a bit darker color palette.

[Think Inside The Box]

Lately we've been working on little game effects. Apart from adding more visible enemy hit indicator, we also felt like bones & skulls should stay on the ground once you destroy an enemy, instead of removing them, when they stop moving. This effect kind of gives a sense of permanence, (like a battle took place here).

[ANtY]

Damn, it looks great!

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

it's incredible to see the evolution. new redesigned enemies are really cool