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[Frankienaitor]

*first game disclaimer*
Hi all, I've been learning how to make videogames ever since Tom Francis' excellent gamemaker tutorials have hit the net. (although since then I've switched to Unity. Brackeys and GamesplusJames are wonderfull too) This project is easily the one I've put the most effort into. Obviously it's full of artist code and programmer art, but I'm proud of it nonetheless so I thought should probably throw it onto the internet to see what other people think of it

synopsis
Castilla del Muerte (very not-final title) is a game with Dark Souls-esque Combat: timing your attacks, blocking, rolling, stamina management, stagger, parry, all that good stuff, combined with old school top-down looks and twin stick shooter controls.
The game also has some rogue-like/lite elements such as a dungeon generator (This is my first game. Yes, I'm a bit mad :d)

First of all, here are some obligatory combat-gifs



There's a bunch of different weapons to choose from, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and timings. Here's a bunch I've already drawn, with player character for scale (but not all of these are implemented yet)




Here's a bunch of baddies I've sprited (again, not all are implemented)



Here's a little gif of the dunGen doing its thing


This is the level it made



Besides stringing random prefab rooms together, this dunGen also spawns some locked doors and the corresponding keys to open them somewhere in the level.



I'm currently working on a double-boss battle to neatly round of a demo sort-of-thing.
One is quick and has a spear, the other is slow and wields a stonking great axe
Maybe I'll put 'em in a big marble room with some destructible pillars
Lets call 'em 'Bornstein and Smoog', that should clear the lawyers :d


Playable alpha-demo plans
What I need to sort out first:
-Make a start menu of sorts
-add the boss battle
-Some kind of design idea for unlocking weapons instead of just having them all unlocked from the start
-tweaking loads of numbers to fine tune the game play (movement speeds, damage output and stamina drain and such)
-Fix bugs. Particularly concerning sprite layers since those are the most jarring

With more devTime(/actual money//ideal situation) I could add
-Gear weight; Bigger weapons and shields make you move slower, but make you less easy to stagger. (Think of Dark Souls' equip load and poise)
-Make it more “Spelunky'y”. Players and baddies already move around via their rigid bodies as opposed to setting their transforms. So I reckon all I need now to add that weighty feel is...
-Weapon knock back. And spike traps and stuff to get knocked into.
-More traps in general.
-I could make the 'key rooms' a bit more interesting than just a chest on the ground waiting to be opened
-Projectiles. You know, arrows and stuff. I also feel these should then be tennis-able like in all the good Zelda games.
-With projectiles, I could consider making some bullet-hell kind of enemies to diversify the game play a bit (think Enter the Gungeon)
-Different dungeons. Basically Id just need to make some new prefab rooms with a different look and feel to them, but I could just use the code I already have to make a level out of them. (each with a cool boss at the end obviously)
-Maybe I could even use the same code to generate some sort of over world to travel from dungeon to dungeon. (would be a great place to actually use the alpaca-riding I've already added to the game, haha)
-Maaaybe then I could even add some Metroidvania-esque elements such as; Get the scuba gear in the ice themed-dungeon to gain access to the underwater dungeon, where you can find the hookshotlikething to clear the gap to on the bridge to get the castle of doom etcetera, etcetera...
-Maaaaaybe I should add some sort of music at this point. I've allways wanted to have a go at fruity loops :d
-Story? What's that?

That's pretty much what I've got so far. I'll try and get something playable up on itch.io or something sometime soon so you can play it if you want
Tbh, I'm kind of burned out on this project by now, so I'll probably put it on a bit of a break after that. I really want to do (and have allready started on) new stuff. Convince me otherwise, haha

Feedback would be greatly apreciated so please let me know what you think

I'll leave you with a gif of the player riding an alpaca because why not

[Pineapple]

This is surprisingly appealing for a first game. Keep it up!

[fireboy]

Using guns that way is cool.
And this mount's gif is funny.

[Frankienaitor]

Thanks guys
I'll see if I can post an update at the end of next week

[Alevice]

is the bad spanish grammar deliberate?

[Frankienaitor]

Nope, I just made up a random title as I was writing up the post :d
Basically, I was looking for something that has a Castlevania vibe to it (linguistically at least) so I could make a title card some day with a nice Gothic font.
But apparently it is actually gibberish in Spanish, so please do correct me

[stryfe]

Very appealing for a first game! [2]

The sprites have a real charm of their own and everything looks really fluid.

PS: I really need this, don't you give up the project.

[Frankienaitor]

So first of all; This project isn't dead! yeay!
Actually quite a bit had happened since I last posted about this:

I completely redid the dungeon generation. It looks much more organic or 'handmade' now imo. I now also have much more control over it, should I want to add or alter anything to it later.
Oh, and it's also not a buggy mess that crashes all the time now, haha


Old dungeon


New dungeon (without set dressing yet obviously)


I've also created a world generator of sorts. Because any Zelda-em-up is incomplete without a cool overworld, right?   (Scope creep? What's that?)



At the moment, all that you can find in the 'overworld' are some skellies to fight, and the different dungeon entrances (and there's only one kind of dungeon right now), so it's kind of lackluster and empty. But I've got some ideas to bring it to life a bit more.
You start of shipwrecked, because I still have no ideas on the story front, haha
(you do get a chest containing a random item and a dagger to start you of
Also, I just noticed the water is a bit too dark blue, I shall fix that)


I've also made an allmost bugfree inventory system.



And I made weapon pickups look a bit more sexy


Also added some gameplay tweaks;
-baddies now make a noise and have MGS-style exclamation marks over their heads to indicate a change in their state of agro
-they also have actual pathfinding
-there's a rudamentary knockback system (needs tweaking, and things to be knocked into, but it works)

Right now it's mostly a matter of tieing it all together, so I have a first playable alpha for you guys to check out. That should be doable in the next week or so
Once I'm at that point, I recon the basics are pretty much in place and I can start adding more content:
-more baddies
-more dungeons
-more weapons
-some related mechanics such as ranged weaponry
-traps
-explosions
-etcetera

I also need to start thinking about some kind of meta-game arc.
I guess I should try to define what a 'run' of my game would look like.
If anybody has any ideas on that front, let me know

I shall leave you all with a romantic alpaca ride on the beach

[foofter]

Just wanted to say wonderful GIF in your sig! That really got me. Good luck with the game. Love the llama!

[Frankienaitor]

Thanks foofter

Soo a first playable alpha isn't quite ready yet (gamedevelopment in a nutshell, amirite?)
But I did get some work done.
Structure wise all the menus, world generation, dungeon generation and transitions in between are all pretty much tied together and functional now. That pretty much means that as far as I can tell there are no fiendishly hard (for dumb old me) programming challenges left, and I can now focus more on just adding content. That feels like a giant milestone and I'm super stoked to get busy just doing that :D

On the content side of things;

first, I implemented bombs. bombs are cool


Then there's my first boss design. He's a real charmer


He will look progressively worse as you beat him up
(The final version will have more health and fight back )


His little craft has a bit of a tilt as he moves around, and throws some sparks and smoke around too :d

All things considered, I'm pretty happy with how things are going now.
I daren't put a date on a playable alpha build anymore, but 'soon'


PS, I started a personal daily doodle art-challange on twitter to keep myself motivated, got an eleven day streak going right now, yeay me :d

[nathy after dark]

Cool to see someone sharing their first project here! It looks really cool.

Scope-wise I think it's fine to have an over ambitious project to play with and take as far as you can. Just promise us if it gets unmanageable you won't give up on gamedev altogether like a lot of people do when they get frustrated. 

[Frankienaitor]

Thanks nathy
I know, starting out with teenie tiny flappy bird sized projects is something that pretty much every single Youtube-tutorialiser advises, but would I listen?
However, like I said, I think i might've done the impossible and make my overly ambitous scope actually work somehow, haha
The groundwork is pretty much done at least, so all I have to do now is sprite some more dungeons, enemies and weapons and such. Still a ton of work of course, but not "I'm new to programming, let's make a procedural game" kind of difficult anymore 

I promise I won't give up on gamedevelopment, I'm enjoying myself far too much for that

[AgentAvis]

Hey this looks really cool! Hope its not dead.