next »

[ITTA]

HOME is a relatively small survival game. Keep up with your needs and avoid danger and you can pretty much keep going without too much trouble.

NATURE and AESTHETIC!

The earliest starting point for the game was simply me wanting a top down pixel game that allowed me to travel through dense forests and fields filled with dynamic animal life, towns, other wanderers, etc.

My top priority even over gameplay, is to make an aesthetically beautiful game. Obviously I'm rocking some programmer art at the moment but it looks okay.

GAMEPLAY!

Obviously walking around a pretty setting isn't much of a game so a survival-lite game makes the most sense with the vibe I'm trying to achieve.

Crafting will have a role in HOME however it will be small and you will not need to craft items in order to craft other items. Weapons, tools, shelter, beds, fires, etc will be built from relatively simple supplies.

Combat at the moment will be simple and dodge heavy as that's what I typically enjoy in top down games. Hunting will work relatively the same way.

Shelter will be free form, allowing you to build whatever you want out of tiles, the number of forward facing & side wall tiles will determine the interior size and shape.


Farming like crafting will be simple with everything needing to be done manually. Not to worried about implementing farming anytime soon as it would become most important if the player decided to have a family and that’s not a set in stone mechanic at this point.


Quests will definitely be in the game to some degree though I’m not sure what the best structure for these would be yet.

Current State:


First screenshot:

[PirateFish]

Sounds cool - Will it be something like Don't Starve?

How are you planning on Combat and using tools will work? Will it be a "free swinning" with hitboxes like Minecraft or a more Runescape "click to activate mode" kind of style?

I like the style, reminds me of Atari graphics.

[ITTA]

I'm not actually a huge fan of Don't Starve though but that mainly comes from it's art style (even though it's beautiful). It is probably the closest game in style though I want more peaceful downtime in HOME.

All combat and tools are free swinging and work like the ranged and melee weapons in Nuclear Throne or other games like that. I currently have the axe working and I'm really enjoying running up to trees and smacking them as if they were enemies.

Once everything's kind of working properly I'll probably hire an artist for some better pixel art, but I don't hate how it looks now.

[PirateFish]

Ok cool - The style of Don't Starve didn't really do it for me either, but it's well done, and fits the tone of the game.

I personally also best like the free form swinging. So that sounds great.

Good luck, looking forward to see the progress

[ITTA]

For a small update I've decided against the Nuclear Throne esque combat and will be taking the game in a much more peaceful direction. Combat will still be necessary at moments but overall their wont be tons of fast paced combat as it contradicts what the whole game is about.

Currently I'm only working on a small forest area in order to test out things for maximum immersion and making the building fun/non-restrictive.

Also wheat fields!

[ITTA]

A large part of the inspiration was a game based off of sword and sworcery's Logfella so I've put in a logbag (not sure what it would be called) that you need to take with you if you want to carry large amounts of wood for crafting.

The main character also has 8 sprites for his body and 4 sprites for his legs for smoother rotation which is also something I notices for s&s and really love the look of.

[Pizzamakesgames]

I can't figure out how to downsize pixel perfect screenshots... they pixels keep getting wonky...

Downsize only by multiples of two and make sure all your pixels in the original image are 2x2, 4x4, 8x8, etc. pixels.

General advice - don't copy or mention other (especially indie) games in your game without at least contacting the creators about it first. It's not so cool.

Humm, what's the asian letters mean?

[ITTA]

Considering Sword & Sworcery uses what is essentially an upside down triforce in the game, I'm sure Superbrother's are fine with me recreating a walk cycle for prototyping. I'm currently paying someone to do the actual art and don't have it yet.

Personally I don't think I've done anything disrespectful towards any other artists or developers.

自宅 just means "HOME" it's really only there for aesthetic reasons as a lot of the inspiration stems from Japanese art.

[Pizzamakesgames]

I mean yeah, sure. Capi are most likely not gonna care much, but your first instinct when designing your game shouldn't be to copy something you saw somewhere else but to create something of your own. It's just a couple steps more work and makes for a much more satisfying result.

I think the heart of a game comes from trying to create something of your own in every facet of the game no matter how hard or easy it comes to one, but hey, different devs, different approaches.

Just thought this little piece of mind might help ya down the road, sorry if it came off patronizing or anything.

[ITTA]

It's a top down survival game who's main character is inspired by Logfella, but that's pretty much it, nothing else is being taken or inspired from S&S.

I now have tools/weapons that stay in one hand!

[ITTA]

Started work on some form of random generation. I don't know much about it at the moment so this is most certainly not the best way to achieve this but it'll do for now!

[ITTA]

Not sure if I'm into the skewed grass yet but I'm keeping it for now. I think I'm gonna go in the direction of having varying room sizes or zones rather than a fluid open world.

[Bricabrac]

F O L L O W I N G   F O R   T H E   A E S T H E T I C

[MrHassanSan]

This looks really cool. Loving the visuals, and I'm interested to hear more about the gameplay!

[ITTA]

Thank you! I'm glad you like the look so far!

I've continued adding to the scenery and I continue to hate the way my trees look.

[marcgfx]

I don't think the trees are that bad. The gras is a bit too much for me though, so much movement. Maybe you could restrict the gras movement to where the player passes? leaving a trail of moving gras could look interesting.

[ITTA]

Maybe you could restrict the gras movement to where the player passes? leaving a trail of moving gras could look interesting.

That was actually the original intention! Unfortunately the only way I understand to achieve that is by making each blade of grass individual and then move independently based on collision. I can't imagine gamemaker would handle that very well! The wind effect will vary though, sometimes barely there, other times it'll be extreme as it storms.

It's current amount is somewhere between.

[andyfromiowa]

Considering Sword & Sworcery uses what is essentially an upside down triforce in the game, I'm sure Superbrother's are fine with me recreating a walk cycle for prototyping. I'm currently paying someone to do the actual art and don't have it yet.

Personally I don't think I've done anything disrespectful towards any other artists or developers.

自宅 just means "HOME" it's really only there for aesthetic reasons as a lot of the inspiration stems from Japanese art.

I think you should stick with the style you've got.  There's nothing wrong with being influenced by existing art - as long as you're expanding into new territory.  I'm digging how the Atari-esque environments and bright colors mash up with the modern animations of the character.  Just my 2 cents.

[ITTA]

New direction... both visually and gameplay wise. More arcady, fun, and fast. Focused on smaller playthroughs. I'm not sure what I'm doing..

[Bricabrac]

Reminds me of Neftelia.