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gimblll
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« on: January 10, 2017, 03:35:39 AM » |
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BarbearianHi, I'm Kimmo ( Twitter), I've done some games that nobody has heard of. This is my new such game!  Barbearian is an arcade/action/hack'n'slash type of game that takes place in a colorful isometric world. The player controls the hero character (and his minions), collects loot, gains upgrades and so on. It's a level based world, with a combination of random generation and hand designed content. The aim is to take a genre that's traditionally '1 vs ~5' to '1 vs 100', or even '100 vs 300' style battles (Dynasty/Samurai Warriors style). Targets platforms are Windows and iOS. I'm using a custom game engine, with an aim for super smooth 60fps gameplay on all platforms. Release date: August 15th 2018. More info: www.barbearian.comOut Now!Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/813450/Barbearian/App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/barbearian/id1351822099?ls=1&mt=8Trailer(added March 2018) (added August 2018) Screenshots Skeletons, spiders, graveyard Hero with minions (yellow shirts) Monster themed level (added Jul 2017)Gifs Killing skellingtons with melee Boost attack Escape Monsters and spawners (added Aug 2017) Scared of fire (added Nov 2017)Concept Art Longing for adventure |
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« Last Edit: August 14, 2018, 08:20:20 PM by gimblll »
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gimblll
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« Reply #1 on: January 10, 2017, 03:35:58 AM » |
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« Last Edit: August 02, 2018, 09:41:50 PM by gimblll »
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Ohmnivore
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« Reply #3 on: January 10, 2017, 03:25:08 PM » |
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I love the art style! Reminds me of Kingdom Rush in a good way. Some questions What engine are you using? And did you have any trouble with displaying so many sprites at the same time? Were some optimizations necessary? And what's the new direction for the game you hinted at? |
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gimblll
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« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2017, 10:00:04 PM » |
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Awesome art. Looking really good  Thank you! I love the art style! Reminds me of Kingdom Rush in a good way.
Thanks! It's definitely influenced by Kingdom Rush games (I love them), but I hope it stands on it own. Some questions What engine are you using? And did you have any trouble with displaying so many sprites at the same time? Were some optimizations necessary? And what's the new direction for the game you hinted at? The game runs on a custom C++ engine built by me. Yes, there are some things I had to do the get that many sprites and units to run on a low end iOS target. It's a task based multithreaded system to get most out of the slow 2-core CPUs and then it runs on an OpenGL ES 2 rendering backend, so I have systems to batch all sprites to be drawn in one draw call etc.. Then there are many little systems like pathfinding, AI, collision detection, particles, lighting, grass, water, etc. that need to fit in there. If it was PC only on the other hand, none of this would be really necessary, but at least now it runs on a really old PC... Lots of work. And I don't really recommend this approach to anyone... About the change of direction. I started the project originally as an RTS-light, or a tactics game like Total War-lite (toyed with some TD elements too), but I just couldn't get it anywhere where I would've been happy with it. Then in the end, after months of frustration, I abandoned all that and added the hero character and went with more of a directly controlled action game. Mostly I think it's due to just being a solo developer, so I can't really do any super elaborate designs if I ever want to get this done. It's already taken longer than it was supposed to take, and I'm nowhere near the finishing line. |
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« Last Edit: January 10, 2017, 10:07:21 PM by gimblll »
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Ohmnivore
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« Reply #5 on: January 11, 2017, 10:55:03 AM » |
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The art stands on its own, don't worry The engine design sounds really interesting! I have lots of respect for people who roll their own engine. I haven't really seen multi-threading used in indie 2D games, that's pretty impressive. It does sound like a huge amount of work, but hey I have a shitty PC and I'm grateful  I definitely like the new direction, I find that it's unique. There's a lot of RTS games out there, but not many where you're a barbarian smashing enemies left and right in a sea of enemies. This sense of scale (one big dude vs an actual army of dudes) is unique. Plus, it's fun! |
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Tuba
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« Reply #6 on: January 11, 2017, 12:06:53 PM » |
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Yep, the art looks pretty good I like the ideia of a 2D dynasty warriors, sounds fun. I'll keep my eye on this!  |
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HoffmanIV
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« Reply #7 on: January 11, 2017, 12:22:26 PM » |
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This looks great! It's about time someone capitalized on the pun!
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gimblll
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« Reply #8 on: January 11, 2017, 09:51:12 PM » |
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The engine design sounds really interesting! I have lots of respect for people who roll their own engine. I haven't really seen multi-threading used in indie 2D games, that's pretty impressive. It does sound like a huge amount of work, but hey I have a shitty PC and I'm grateful Heh, yeah, it's a lot of work. I'm a game programmer by trade, so I'm trying to play to my strenghts so to speak, and do a game that maybe would be difficult with Unity etc. on iOS. Probably a stupid choice in the end, but whatever! Yep, the art looks pretty good I like the ideia of a 2D dynasty warriors, sounds fun. I'll keep my eye on this! Thanks! This looks great! It's about time someone capitalized on the pun!
Thank you! Not sure about the final name, haven't checked if there are any other projects with the same name etc. |
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gimblll
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« Reply #9 on: January 12, 2017, 04:42:59 AM » |
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Log Entry #1So let's start with the updates. Rambling to follow. This week I've been mostly trying to think what kind of shape the whole world takes. I was thinking that it would have something like 4 'Worlds' with 5 levels each and an end boss in each world and then you'd buy/get permanent upgrades for your charater like in standard RPGs. But testing things out more, I started to think that it would be a huge amount of work and I would also need much more content than that as the levels are quite short. So I'm now planning on doing a basic arcade / 'Gauntlet-like' system where it's 99-levels (or something) and then an end boss. And if you die, you lose all and are thrown to the beginning. Then could throw in some warp gates in there, so you don't have to do everything again every time. I think it makes more sense for the game, as I'm really trying to keep the levels short and packed with action (+ some randomization thrown on top to try to keep replay value high). Let's see when I'll change my mind next... And now I'm prototyping a power-up system, where you pick up tokens and they give you different boosts and abilities for a limited time. Like speed-up (movement++, attack speed++), or invulnerability shield, or some super weapons and so on. I think it'll add a bit of variety to the second to second gameplay (which is quite monotonous right now).
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« Last Edit: January 18, 2017, 02:38:36 AM by gimblll »
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gimblll
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« Reply #10 on: January 14, 2017, 05:17:25 AM » |
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My #screenshotsaturday .gif. This is the box you get the (random) power ups from. Not sure if it would be better to show what power up it is on the item. Would give the player more tactical options, but this way it's more unpredictable. I'll probably have to test it later, when there's more content to play and to get a better feeling for it.  |
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Reyn
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« Reply #11 on: January 14, 2017, 07:49:53 AM » |
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Love the effects on those gifs,
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nu_muso
Level 1
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« Reply #12 on: January 14, 2017, 08:42:18 PM » |
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Well, it looks awesome As for the unpredictability, it might add a little more fun to the game. I guess you'll really just have to wait to see how it affects gameplay. |
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gimblll
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« Reply #13 on: January 18, 2017, 02:46:51 AM » |
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Thanks! Log Entry #2I've been doing the power ups now. I've got the basic system working and I have three different powerups for initial testing. I'm hoping final would have 10 or more? I don't know. Also, getting a random pickup feels wrong. I'll have to change the pickup present boxes to show what's inside. Otherwise, it seems like a fun addition to the gameplay. I'm now working on a bit of a few visibility problems. For example when archers shoot arrows, they're really hard to spot sometimes. I'm going to add a trail to the arrow and see if it helps at all. The chosen graphics style has proved to be really hard on clarity/visibility for the game as it's sometimes hard to spot things in all the details that are on the screen. I wanted to have a ton of details from the start, but now it's quite annoying sometimes! Hmm... struggling to think what I should write in these posts. On the other hand I don't want to give everything away, but on the other hand. Any ideas about what you'd be interested to read about? Or should I just post pictures/gifs? |
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nu_muso
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« Reply #14 on: January 18, 2017, 03:48:22 AM » |
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I agree with the arrow trail. It'll gave the player a little more control. As for content, gifs are always welcome You could write about your experience with other aspects of making a game or things that you're struggling with as a developer. Basically anything is welcome as long as you don't over do it |
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gimblll
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« Reply #15 on: January 21, 2017, 01:29:47 AM » |
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Log Entry #3Here's the arrow trail now finished, helps a lot with visibility. I also finished the first pass at the power ups. There's only 3 now for prototyping, but they seem to work great, so eventually I'll add much more. Next up, I'm starting to implement a pass on the shop system. I'm planning on having some super simple shops in-level where you can buy max health, damage upgrades, minions to fight with you, etc.. No menus, just hit a shop to buy. Some debate in my head if shops should be in-level or a separate level you go to, but I'll start with in-level as it's the simplest to do for now. The details of the upgrades and the minion systems are a bit unclear too, but time to start experimenting! I agree with the arrow trail. It'll gave the player a little more control. As for content, gifs are always welcome You could write about your experience with other aspects of making a game or things that you're struggling with as a developer. Basically anything is welcome as long as you don't over do it Good info, thanks!
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dotsquid
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« Reply #16 on: January 21, 2017, 04:10:35 PM » |
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Nice art-style and the whole game concept. Since you are using your own engine, any chance to see some interesting screenshots in debug mode (I'm pretty sure you have one  )? |
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gimblll
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« Reply #17 on: January 22, 2017, 02:54:05 AM » |
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Nice art-style and the whole game concept. Since you are using your own engine, any chance to see some interesting screenshots in debug mode (I'm pretty sure you have one )? Thanks you! And sure, why not! I'm not sure what's interesting to you, but here's a bunch of the more interesting displays enabled.  All those debug menus are written with 'dear imgui'. Top left, that's my task profiler. Running release mode on PC, so there's pretty much nothing happening on CPU... more helpful for weaker CPUs. Bottom left display is an interface to set some global flags and values defined in code. Bottom right is another property editor, allows you to modify instances of data, also saved to JSON on disk. Then there's some bonus debug indicators enabled in the background visualizing all sensors currently active (though they're rendered at 0 height, so they don't match the sprites right now). |
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dotsquid
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« Reply #18 on: January 22, 2017, 11:28:14 PM » |
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Ah, that's exactly what I asked for (that's kinda of my gamedev fetish  ). Dear Imgui is recognizable at first glance. I've used it too until I joined the dark side (Unity3d). Ah, I miss C++ so much. Thanks for sharing. Glad to see you have such an advanced framework under the hood. |
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Davi Vasc
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« Reply #19 on: January 23, 2017, 10:44:42 AM » |
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Whoa... Isometric perspective with Disnasty Warriors-esque battles. I know some people that will be WAY into that. Then again, most Dinasty Warriors fans are WAY into anything even remotely related to Dinasty Warriors, haha. Anyway, the game looks great so far, love the cartoony style. Nice work  |
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