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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsSeas of Saturn (Demo available)
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Author Topic: Seas of Saturn (Demo available)  (Read 3357 times)
SolS
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« on: February 18, 2018, 01:10:06 AM »



Seas of Saturn

A game where you play as a small earwig like creature that can climb walls, shoot bubbles, and swim short distances exploring the prehistoric deep sea caves of a mysterious planet.

An early demo can be found here: https://solosols.itch.io/seasofsaturn

In the distant past the planet began a transformation melting it into a gaseous form. During this period of time many strange changes began within the ecosystems of the oceans. Your journey begins as a small arthropod struggling for survival deep within the dangerous regions of the tropics.





The palette changes depending how deep underwater you are. The black lines are only in the deepest areas.



A test level made from random rectangles which turned out to be pretty fun to explore so I've been using it as a guide lately when working on level design for the game. I'm planning to include this test area in the game as some kind of hidden extra.



A couple early gifs



Some early mockups


« Last Edit: April 30, 2018, 05:30:00 PM by SolS » Logged

Snö
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« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2018, 03:07:39 PM »

The concept for the game is awesome Smiley
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andyfromiowa
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« Reply #2 on: February 19, 2018, 05:18:36 PM »

I'm always in awe of your games' visual style.  It's so unique and distinctive.  Please keep doing what you're doing.  Hand Clap Smiley
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SolS
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« Reply #3 on: February 24, 2018, 12:22:42 AM »

Thank you both!

I've been getting a lot done lately. Mostly just doing level design and planning out how big the first area should be. But I'm hoping to add the bubble attack and some more enemies soon.

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woodsmoke
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« Reply #4 on: February 24, 2018, 11:39:48 AM »

I'm watching you!
 Smiley
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rarelikeaunicorn
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« Reply #5 on: February 24, 2018, 03:49:06 PM »

Your style, especially when using the scanlines, is amaaaazing  Kiss
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hexdie
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« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2018, 07:19:44 PM »

This is crazy and awesome looking! Keep it up!
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SolS
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« Reply #7 on: February 25, 2018, 01:22:53 AM »

@woodsmoke - Hey there! Glad you're following.

@rarelikeaunicorn - Thanks! That's good to know. I was a bit unsure if people would like that or not. The scanlines definitely can look a bit off when changing the screen size though.

@hexdie - Thank you!
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« Reply #8 on: February 26, 2018, 01:11:12 AM »

Seems interesting. I'll be following Smiley
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SolS
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« Reply #9 on: February 27, 2018, 05:31:29 AM »

Thanks!

Here's a shot from an area I'm working on at the moment connecting the orange caves to the pink coral area.



And here's a few mockups showing what this area would look like closer and closer to the surface.



The demo should include a bit of the pink area but it will mostly just be a decent chunk of the orange caves up until you find the bubble attack ability.
You find the temporary swim ability early on but there will be areas later in the game that are too cold to swim in, where you'll have to rely on wall climbing only.
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rarelikeaunicorn
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« Reply #10 on: February 27, 2018, 05:07:16 PM »

@rarelikeaunicorn - Thanks! That's good to know. I was a bit unsure if people would like that or not. The scanlines definitely can look a bit off when changing the screen size though.

They can be a polarizing style choice, for sure. If anybody expresses issues with them you could always consider moving it from being reserved for the deepest spots to just being a general toggle-able option?
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SolS
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« Reply #11 on: February 28, 2018, 06:16:45 AM »

I considered doing that actually at one point. I don't think it would be too difficult to add that in as a toggle-able option later on. The last game I played that had a filtered effect also gave me the option to turn it off which I appreciated.
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SolS
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« Reply #12 on: April 07, 2018, 03:52:25 AM »

Work is coming a bit slower than I had hoped. But I am making progress and I've narrowed down what's left to do to about five more things before I'm ready to release a demo.

Here's a few new crab-spider like enemies.

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JobLeonard
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« Reply #13 on: April 07, 2018, 04:42:46 AM »

Oh my, this is a different kind of retro. Very interesting, following Smiley
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SolS
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« Reply #14 on: April 07, 2018, 06:12:54 PM »

Thanks a lot!
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muki
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« Reply #15 on: April 29, 2018, 11:23:03 AM »

Love the aesthetic! Watching this closely..
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SolS
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« Reply #16 on: April 30, 2018, 08:16:37 AM »

Thanks, I do have a demo ready that I'll be posting here very soon!
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SolS
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« Reply #17 on: April 30, 2018, 05:27:20 PM »

Alright so it's untested by anyone but me and the boss has some timing issues but here's the demo!

https://solosols.itch.io/seasofsaturn
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« Reply #18 on: May 02, 2018, 07:11:26 PM »

Initial impressions from a very short play session:
  • Initial audio + title screen is really awesome.
  • Starting off with monochrome red for the first screen in-game doesn't seem ideal.
  • Since I got the jump/float ability so early, I wasn't sure if it was an actual powerup or if I just hadn't pressed up before until I reread some of your earlier comments.
  • Jumping physics are...odd. Not bad per se, but the abrupt up/down takes some getting used to.
  • ^ also made tracking bubble projectiles more difficult, though those are more timing related rather than something you're supposed to dodge, so it's not the biggest deal.
  • When I went to another window and back, audio stopped playing and never resumed. Death noise was all I could get from that point, seemed glitched.
  • Sometimes hard to grab onto a wall when I wanted to, and instead ended up jumping/floating. Couldn't grab on at all after a jump, it seems, not sure if that's intentional.
  • Seems like the little fish aren't dangerous, but they shared a color with stuff that was deadly, so that was a little confusing.
  • Snails(?) seem really unpredictable.
I'm intrigued, hopefully I can give more comprehensive feedback in the next couple of days.
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SolS
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« Reply #19 on: May 02, 2018, 09:03:57 PM »

Hey, thanks for the feedback!

The monochrome seemed like an interesting idea but I agree probably not ideal. I'm going to try to rethink that most likely.

with the swim powerup I was going for kind of an original metroid, morph ball right away kind of thing. with the idea that later on in the game your float ability would be unusable for waters that are too cold and you'd have to use just the wall climb. Originally I was going to put that powerup into a room where you had to swim to escape so maybe that would help. I can also add some text saying what you picked up though I was hoping to have the player try to discover it themselves.

jumping physics can be improved, I'm going to be prototyping the distant valley game next most likely where I'm going to spend more time on the jump. Then I can take that and use it for this game.

The clicking off screen thing is an annoying games factory issue which I don't think can be fixed. Maybe if I can get the game to somehow recognize that a track has cut out prematurely I can get it to come back on but I'm not sure.

Wall grabbing is buggy. The major issue I found was in the very first yellow room, that rock ledge for whatever reason is hard to grab onto and you slip off, I thought it was a width issue with the ledge but I think it's actually an issue with hitting a ledge at an angle. Is that what you're talking about? Also not being able to float/swim after clinging to a wall is on purpose but I don't think that was what you were referring to.

With the fish being red, I considered that but I was hoping the player would figure that out, similar to how the net like seaweed is yellow instead of green even though it's not a solid object, it just looked better to me. What color would you change them to out of curiosity? If I can find something that doesn't stand out to much I'd change those too. power ups are red as well, I'm going to probably allow the player to eat the fish to regain health so maybe it will make more sense then.

The snail thing is completely broken. when the timing is right it's very doable but when it's off timed it's ridiculously difficult. I can fix that easily in the next update and if it's still broken like that then I'll just move it to a more open location. The volcano before that room is a bit unforgiving as well so I'll probably tweak that too.

Thanks again for the feedback and I'm hoping it was still enjoyable even with the current flaws.
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