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[hawec]

Gameplay reveal:





What is Gloom?

Gloom is a modern roguelite action RPG with reactive, methodical gameplay inspired by the Souls-series
and an original story in the spirit of author H.P. Lovecraft. A basis for the design was translating
Souls-like gameplay into the 2D plane and attempting to bring roguelike elements in - in the vein of
Binding of Isaac or Spelunky. This all is wrapped in a simplistic pixel art coating with the audio to match.
It's basically a one man love letter to the games and stories I love the most!  


Who's making it?

Aleksi Sirviö (me) - design, story, art, programming, sound, amateur in all the things
Valtteri Hanhijoki - music


When and where is it coming out?

Spring 2017 on Windows, Linux & Mac


More resources:

Website: gloomgame.com
Twitter: twitter.com/hawec
E-mail: [email protected]

I hope Gloom interests you, feel free to share your thoughts & questions to help Gloom become the best it can be!  

[hawec]

Here's a small screenshot dump of the current stage of the game:











Current thoughts:

The trailer hasn't really kicked off yet, so I haven't gotten as much feedback as I would've liked.
From the little I heard on /r/indiegaming some of the main concerns regarding the game seemed to be
the seeming lack of weight and feedback in combat. Especially when going for the methodical style of
the Dark Souls games, I agree that these things are of utmost importance and I will definitely look into
slowing the game down a bit, retouching the player animations and trying to improve the overall "game feel".

Other than that, I will keep working on creating more and more content. More levels/environments, more
unique enemies for each level, more bosses, weapons and items. Currently one of my biggest worries is that
since the game is a roguelite, there needs to be as much variation between each individual playthrough as
possible to keep the game fresh. At the moment each run feels just too similar. One thing I imagine would
cure the problem, is giving the player much more options in where they can go and what they can do, as well
as just adding more random elements in the game. I would like to implement more verticality in the levels and
alternative routes for the player to take.

[flipswitchx]

I appreciate the style and the fact that since you don't have to worry about colors as much so you can go about producing more animations more quickly. The atmosphere is really nice. Those big bendy trees in the background are really great. I realize it's a work in progress so I don't mean to point out the obvious but I just thought that the animations could use some more smoothing out. The individual frames seem a little rough at times. Other than that this is really good for a 1-person undertaking!

[hawec]

I appreciate the style and the fact that since you don't have to worry about colors as much so you can go about producing more animations more quickly. The atmosphere is really nice. Those big bendy trees in the background are really great. I realize it's a work in progress so I don't mean to point out the obvious but I just thought that the animations could use some more smoothing out. The individual frames seem a little rough at times. Other than that this is really good for a 1-person undertaking!

Since I'm a solo developer and not particularly good at art, I tried my best to find an art style that was as simple as
possible while not looking too cheap. I think this silhouette style ended up working really well too.
This is also my first time seriously doing animations, which explains why they tend to come out a little rough.
However I see where you're coming from and I think it might be a good idea to sit down at some point and try adding much
more frames in each animation to smooth them out. This could also help with slowing the game down a bit and making each
move feel weightier. The game definitely deserves better animations.

Thanks for the kind words and showing interest towards Gloom!

[hexdie]

This looks great so far! I'm looking forward to seeing this progress. I agree with flipswitchx that more frames in the animations would be nice , but it still looks really nice.

[hawec]

This looks great so far! I'm looking forward to seeing this progress. I agree with flipswitchx that more frames in the animations would be nice , but it still looks really nice.

Thank you! I'm so glad you like it. 

[cloudgods]

Whoa I love the visual style of this as well! It's nice to see different temperatures of monochromatic palettes.

[hawec]

Whoa I love the visual style of this as well! It's nice to see different temperatures of monochromatic palettes.

Thank you! The idea is for every environment to have a distinct color to differentiate them from each other and to help set a different mood in each area.

[io3 creations]

I actually like the current animations as those make the character a certain type of uniqueness.  Kind of reminds me of the Hyper Light Drifter character's somewhat rough movement (and of course the teleport).

Interestingly, another just came across another similar (monochrome, blade wielding) game's devlog: Unworthy https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=57296.0  inspired by another similar game: Grave https://uheartbeast.itch.io/grave
But still each game has it's own uniqueness in terms of style and gameplay.

[hawec]

I actually like the current animations as those make the character a certain type of uniqueness.  Kind of reminds me of the Hyper Light Drifter character's somewhat rough movement (and of course the teleport).

Interestingly, another just came across another similar (monochrome, blade wielding) game's devlog: Unworthy https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=57296.0  inspired by another similar game: Grave https://uheartbeast.itch.io/grave
But still each game has it's own uniqueness in terms of style and gameplay.

Thanks for introducing me to Unworthy - I hadn't heard of it before and it looks like a really interesting game.
Seems like the combat in Gloom and Unworthy is quite similar and it will be interesting to see how the end products will differ as both games are going for a different genre. One is a metroidvania while the other is a roguelike. 

[Eluardian]

Lovin this.
The scenes with the curvy trees looks really great. The wonky postures and asymmetrical eyes, and the curly foliage and bendy trees all work perfectly together.
Some neat character design too, I love how lots of the enemies dissipate and reappear. Bolsters the spooky, otherworldly-ness.

I really like this guy in particular.

Looking forward to seeing more about gameplay and the world.

[hawec]

Lovin this.
The scenes with the curvy trees looks really great. The wonky postures and asymmetrical eyes, and the curly foliage and bendy trees all work perfectly together.
Some neat character design too, I love how lots of the enemies dissipate and reappear. Bolsters the spooky, otherworldly-ness.

I really like this guy in particular.

Looking forward to seeing more about gameplay and the world.

Thank you, those are quite the compliments! I'm so glad you enjoyed my artwork 

[rj]

dammit i love this

[hawec]

dammit i love this

Heh, thanks! 

[CesarD8]

I know that it's still a work in progress, but i feel like the game could benefit by giving more information to the player, like a UI and add more "feel" to the combat, like a camera shake. Aside from that, it's all good I have always loved this kind of monochromatic art style, it's looking good, congrats on doing this all on your own, keep up the good work

[hawec]

I know that it's still a work in progress, but i feel like the game could benefit by giving more information to the player, like a UI and add more "feel" to the combat, like a camera shake. Aside from that, it's all good I have always loved this kind of monochromatic art style, it's looking good, congrats on doing this all on your own, keep up the good work

The game actually has a WIP UI that I use while testing, but I found it too intrusive and immersion breaking for the trailer, so I decided to disable it while filming. I've gotten mixed feedback from friends regarding what should be conveyed to the player through the UI. For example some have said that enemy health bars are necessary to have fair combat, while others have said that disabling them adds to the immersion and atmosphere. Of course some things must be visible, such as player HP, bullet count, money and xp. I will definitely try to create new, more appealing graphics for the UI and decide on what else I want to communicate to the player.

"Game feel" is another things I'm passionate about and I'll definitely look into implementing more feedback in the combat.
Thank you for the feedback and compliments! 

[io3 creations]

The game actually has a WIP UI that I use while testing, but I found it too intrusive and immersion breaking for the trailer, so I decided to disable it while filming. I've gotten mixed feedback from friends regarding what should be conveyed to the player through the UI. For example some have said that enemy health bars are necessary to have fair combat, while others have said that disabling them adds to the immersion and atmosphere. Of course some things must be visible, such as player HP, bullet count, money and xp. I will definitely try to create new, more appealing graphics for the UI and decide on what else I want to communicate to the player.

This issue is something that I've also come across when playing games.  Sometimes the extra info can be useful yet other times sort of a hindrance.  I've been thinking that it might be better to let players set those things in the options so both groups could be satisfied.  Being able to change options would probably need to be communicated in trailer(s) and other game introductory material so that players are aware of it and players from neither group potentially dismiss the game.

[Sankar]

I enjoy what you've shown us so far, I think that the idea looks cool and black and white graphics are always interesting. My only grip so far is that I feel that the smooth gradients (Snow and the Glow around lights) don't really fit the hard-edged pixel art you're going for. Dithering this stuff could really help making the whole style harmonize better.

Other than that, keep up!

[hawec]

I enjoy what you've shown us so far, I think that the idea looks cool and black and white graphics are always interesting. My only grip so far is that I feel that the smooth gradients (Snow and the Glow around lights) don't really fit the hard-edged pixel art you're going for. Dithering this stuff could really help making the whole style harmonize better.

Other than that, keep up!

Thank you. Personally I enjoy the contrast between these elements, as the smoother gradients add a sort of dream-like element to the environments, however I'll experiment with dithering and see if that'll add more cohesion to the style without changing the atmosphere too much.

[Torchkas]

Have you thought of how dying in this game will work? Considering it's a rogue-like combined with souls combat, a lot of the challenge in souls games comes from retrying different strategies in the same environment where your death has some consequence. In a roguelike game though, the level will get reset when you die, or at least I assume it will. So if you come across an area that you're not acquainted to, how would you ever get a second chance at tackling that area again? Is the consequence of death that you have to start completely over, or will there be some checkpoint system?