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[subliminalman]

Looks pretty cool so far, I'm digging the lighting. Is there going to be leveling up / player progression?

[Omega]

Looks pretty cool so far, I'm digging the lighting. Is there going to be leveling up / player progression?

Thanks! I'm mulling that over, that's why I haven't gone too far yet. I'm thinking of approaching things in a way where you, the player, can use magic, swords, axes or whatever you want. The more you use each type, the more skilled you become for that discipline. I like the idea of letting the player become better the way they want versus a static grind process you see in a lot of games. I like the idea of a player being able to pivot and become a mage at any point in the game.

[subliminalman]

Would it be additive stats? Like if I started being a figher then wanted to be a mage I wouldn't lose any abilities in fighter class or would it be replacing but still able to go back after some leveling? If it's too early to ask sorry haha

[Omega]

Would it be additive stats? Like if I started being a figher then wanted to be a mage I wouldn't lose any abilities in fighter class or would it be replacing but still able to go back after some leveling? If it's too early to ask sorry haha

Totally additive! If you switched to using magic, it would NOT take your other stats away. I really like these questions, feel free to keep them coming! You are helping me to think through my ideas.

[Pixel Noise]

I'm a big fan of this sort of use-based progression system. It feels natural, and allows you to explore the options and find a mix of abilities that you like, without being locked in to one path. It also allows you to completely alter your playstyle at any time, which is nice.

It's then a question of whether you want to have a skill "cap" (total number of skill points), to prevent players from just maxing everything, or whether you want them to be able to max everything, if that's what they want.

[Omega]

I'm a big fan of this sort of use-based progression system. It feels natural, and allows you to explore the options and find a mix of abilities that you like, without being locked in to one path. It also allows you to completely alter your playstyle at any time, which is nice.

It's then a question of whether you want to have a skill "cap" (total number of skill points), to prevent players from just maxing everything, or whether you want them to be able to max everything, if that's what they want.

I was thinking about a cap too. One way that I could approach it would be to use a Fibonacci sequence as the curve for leveling a skill. The increase alone would create an effective "soft cap" on progression by slowing it down exponentially after a certain point.

[subliminalman]

This slightly sounds like the progression in RuneScape. Every stat you can get to 99 (92 is halfway to 99  ) so you can be both fighter and mage but it doesn't feel like you are crafting your character outside of what you equip when you max out. Something to think about is maybe playing the tropy classes but switching them at will which can give buffs or debuffs from a menu or some guild system. You could also make it equipment based that would effectively change your class purely on loadout.

[Pixel Noise]

I was thinking about a cap too. One way that I could approach it would be to use a Fibonacci sequence as the curve for leveling a skill. The increase alone would create an effective "soft cap" on progression by slowing it down exponentially after a certain point.

That could definitely work - though I was thinking more of a cap in terms of the total skill points a character can have. I'm drawing from Ultima Online here - where you basically had ~700 skill points to work with, meaning you could max out 7 skills to 100, or you could max a few (or none) and spread those other points around to more various skills. This prevents an OP "can do everything" character. Though if you don't want to prevent that option, then soft-capping each skill is a good approach I think.

[Omega]

This slightly sounds like the progression in RuneScape. Every stat you can get to 99 (92 is halfway to 99  ) so you can be both fighter and mage but it doesn't feel like you are crafting your character outside of what you equip when you max out. Something to think about is maybe playing the tropy classes but switching them at will which can give buffs or debuffs from a menu or some guild system. You could also make it equipment based that would effectively change your class purely on loadout

That could definitely work - though I was thinking more of a cap in terms of the total skill points a character can have. I'm drawing from Ultima Online here - where you basically had ~700 skill points to work with, meaning you could max out 7 skills to 100, or you could max a few (or none) and spread those other points around to more various skills. This prevents an OP "can do everything" character. Though if you don't want to prevent that option, then soft-capping each skill is a good approach I think.

One potential approach could be that the player in and of themselves never really get better, aside from increasing their max health. Maybe they get better through better weapons and items. I'm thinking back to how Legend of Zelda played out. Rather than incremental progress, you get a better sword, or clothing, or arrows and then you notice a real jump in power. Not saying I would go with this approach, but I'm thinking through the different ideas.

@Pixel Noise I kind of like the idea of a floating limit. This reminds me of how you build Dungeons & Dragons characters with a fixed set of points. You can only ever earn so many, and you can allocate that limited amount in the areas of your choosing.

@subliminalman I would possibly approach the idea of changing your classes at decentralized hubs outside of dungeons. I'm thinking a hub where you can buy more supplies, upgrade weapons and items, and maybe change classes or adjust skill points.


I have so many ways to go about this and I need to get myself in gear for the 3/1 playable demo, lol. Decisions, decisions 

[Omega]

Hey! Good progress!

Just some thoughts:
If you want a simple, but good looking attack animation, maybe look at how the game "Castle in the Darkness" did it.
[]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQzbdMZYj98[/]
Also, that way you can simply replace the art if the weapon changes.

And i think some knockback on the enemys would work well.  

Hey! I somehow missed this reply. Thank you for the feedback, I will definitely look at this. I need all the ideas I can get, lol.

[Omega]

Update 2/19/2017 - Demo Preparation

[/size]

v0.3.0-alpha

This past week I've been focused on bringing everything together for a demo. I still have much to do, but many hard things are solved now. This week I'm introducing a place called "The Hearth". This will be a place that resides outside of the various different levels of the game. It will function as a way for the player to buy potions, upgrade weapons, and acquire unique items to help throughout the game.

+Added -Removed ~Changed

• +NPC framework
• +Shops
• +Transitions between maps

[Omega]

Update - 0.4.2 Demo Release!!!

After several weeks of silence, I am happy to release a playable demo! This demo is FAR FROM PERFECT. It should be considered as a proof of concept in a sense. It will contain many bugs. Without further ado, the release notes:

Version 0.4.2
+Added, -Removed, ~Changed

• +Destructible monster spawners
• +Bow
• +Loot drops when killing monsters (So far, coins, healing hearts, and a boss loot drop
• +Treasure Chests
• ~Changed the health meter to a static health counter for now

Download the demo now at Itch.io

[Pixel Noise]

Whooo!!!

For those interested, here's a link to the Dungeon Theme currently heard in the demo.

https://soundcloud.com/pixel-noise/dungeon-theme-1v15

Demo only takes ~10 minutes to complete, so please check it out and give some feedback! 

[nam1995]

Nice progress you've got there so far. I'll definitely try it to play with my friends.
Just two question: Do you have any further milestone for co-op multiplayer? And are you planning to include LAN support in the game?

[Omega]

Nice progress you've got there so far. I'll definitely try it to play with my friends.
Just two question: Do you have any further milestone for co-op multiplayer? And are you planning to include LAN support in the game?

I am definitely planning co-op support and LAN support. I also want players to have the ability to host their own maps. I plan on giving a full creative tool suite along with the game that purpose. The last big thing that comes to mind immediately is that I'm also planning a Mod API so that players can add their own enemies and items to the maps they create.

Thanks for giving the demo a try! It's definitely an alpha demo in the sense that it needs work. I hope you and your friends can leave us feedback!

[Ayrik]

This looks great! However, I played the demo but I couldn't figure out how to do anything except walk around. Didn't have a lot of time to figure anything out, but putting some controls on your itch.io page would be helpful. Also, there were some weird collision issues where it would bounce my guy around a little bit. And finally there was a bit of stuttering, probably from C# garbage collection.

[Omega]

This looks great! However, I played the demo but I couldn't figure out how to do anything except walk around. Didn't have a lot of time to figure anything out, but putting some controls on your itch.io page would be helpful. Also, there were some weird collision issues where it would bounce my guy around a little bit. And finally there was a bit of stuttering, probably from C# garbage collection.

Thank you for the feedback! If you don't mind, can you share your specs for your computer? I've been very interested in how this engine runs on different types of computers. To be clear, in no way do I think your machine is underpowered, I just need to assess if I'm being as optimized as I should be.  Thank you for the call out on the controls, I'll update the itch.io page today. As for the stuttering, I'm not entirely surprised. Most of the code is clean but very much non-optimized. My next goal is to take a step back and really scrub some of the rough areas.

[Thaumaturge]

I've tried the demo, and it looks like a decent start, to me. ^_^

Feedback:

• I like the the slimes (is that what they are?) glow in the dark: it's cute, and makes them easy to spot.
  
  
• There's no real sense of impact to hits, either given or taken. It can be quite easy to end up taking several hits before they really register, and with the health indicator at the outskirts of the window there's little real "feel" for how much damage one is taking. In addition, the lack of knockback means that one keeps taking damage unless one intentionally moves away.
  
  On top of this, I suspect that the combat might feel a little more rewarding--and dangerous--with a bit more feedback on hits.
  
  
• The player's hit-box feels a bit big to me--I had a number of cases in which I took damage from enemies that I didn't expect to be close enough to hit me, as I recall. (Indeed, I believe that I took at least one hit while not at all (visually) in contact with the enemy in question.)
  
  
• While attacking the spawners, enemies can spawn right on top of the player-character, immediately doing damage, which feels to me a little unfair.
  
  
• Arrows seem to stop when they encounter slime-tiles.
  
  
• Why do I take damage when walking past the shopkeeper? o_0
  
  
• Collisions with walls seem a little iffy at corners.
  
  
• Please include a volume slider--or turn down the default volume. It was awfully loud at startup, and I ended up turning my system volume down to something near zero, I believe. o_o
  
  
• Conversely, the music just stops at some point, which is a pity. :/
  
  
• The text that displays the name of the current area was cut off in at least one case.
  
  
• I encountered some chests that didn't seem to do anything. I'm guessing that they were locked, given the key-counter near the top--but there's no indication to this effect, and at least one did open, giving me the bow.

[Omega]

I've tried the demo, and it looks like a decent start, to me. ^_^

Feedback:

• I like the the slimes (is that what they are?) glow in the dark: it's cute, and makes them easy to spot.
  
  
• There's no real sense of impact to hits, either given or taken. It can be quite easy to end up taking several hits before they really register, and with the health indicator at the outskirts of the window there's little real "feel" for how much damage one is taking. In addition, the lack of knockback means that one keeps taking damage unless one intentionally moves away.
  
  On top of this, I suspect that the combat might feel a little more rewarding--and dangerous--with a bit more feedback on hits.
  
  
• The player's hit-box feels a bit big to me--I had a number of cases in which I took damage from enemies that I didn't expect to be close enough to hit me, as I recall. (Indeed, I believe that I took at least one hit while not at all (visually) in contact with the enemy in question.)
  
  
• While attacking the spawners, enemies can spawn right on top of the player-character, immediately doing damage, which feels to me a little unfair.
  
  
• Arrows seem to stop when they encounter slime-tiles.
  
  
• Why do I take damage when walking past the shopkeeper? o_0
  
  
• Collisions with walls seem a little iffy at corners.
  
  
• Please include a volume slider--or turn down the default volume. It was awfully loud at startup, and I ended up turning my system volume down to something near zero, I believe. o_o
  
  
• Conversely, the music just stops at some point, which is a pity. :/
  
  
• The text that displays the name of the current area was cut off in at least one case.
  
  
• I encountered some chests that didn't seem to do anything. I'm guessing that they were locked, given the key-counter near the top--but there's no indication to this effect, and at least one did open, giving me the bow.

First, thank you for the feedback! It's nice to see such in-depth feedback. The specific feedback on bugs and lack of polish are very helpful. I'm going to have to repro the shopkeeper damage thing, lol! I am very unhappy with my collision detection so far. I need to get to the bottom of the cornering issues with that. Pixel Noise did our music and they did an awesome job. Funny enough, I fixed the music looping and forgot to merge the code prior to the demo. It seems the thing that is really keeping this demo from being better is the lack of general feedback to player actions (enemy knockback, chests not opening or displaying when they are empty, etc).

I think my next steps are to take a step back and think about where to go next. There is a lot of interest in many of the other proposed features (multiplayer, custom maps, mod api, and LAN support). Right now, I know two things. There is potential in this game and that I intend to keep Pixel Noise as the source for the game's music.

Thank you again for all your feedback. Objective honesty will help make this into a great game.

[Thaumaturge]

It's my pleasure--I'm glad to have helped. ^_^

As to the music, indeed--I'd already heard the piece via Twitter, and I do think that it's rather good! ^_^

As to collision detection, are you using a third-party collision system (or one built into a game engine), or your own? If the latter, I'm inclined to suggest the former: unless you have a specific desire to create your own collision engine, using a third-party engine seems likely to provide good results with far less pain and in far less time.

Whatever your next step is, I hope that it goes in whatever manner is best! Good luck! ^_^