next »

[Ark Heiral]

CHAINED ECHOES IS NOW ON LIVE KICKSTARTER. Check it out!

Chained Echoes - A classic 2D RPG with Swords, Magic and Mechs.

---

Update: The game has been updated and is now called Chained Echoes.

Discord: https://discord.gg/txj5J4k

[/b][/center]
Hey everyone! I've been working on this game for 2 years now and I am finally able to present my game and launch my website and all that social media stuff.

Chained Echoes is a classic SNES-styled RPG, bringing back all the fun things from that era while reinventing and developing them further. Follow a group of heroes on their journey through the war-ridden land of Valandis. Fight against hordes of enemies in a turn based battle system. There are no random encounters and no separate battle arena is involved. This allows for the player to use the environment to his advantage, either in the midst of the fight or in preparation for it. In case fighting your enemies with sword or magic is not enough, you can switch to your Mech and bring out the big guns. A complex battle and skill system makes sure that everything stays balanced and fun. Additionally there will be a deep equipment system, allowing for a lot of customization of your characters, your Mechs and even your own airship! And having an airship means that there will be a whole world map waiting for the players to be explored. Chained Echoes is a colorful adventure full of surprises, fun characters, and an engaging story.

Here are some pictures of the game:

Although I've been working on this for 2 years I was limited by my job and could only do a little in the evenings. I used this time to built all the key systems in Unity and made the assets for a few areas and characters. After launching the website and social media pages my next goal is to produce a short teaser, showcasing the core elements of the game. A few months after this I hope to release a bigger trailer for a potential crowdfunding campaign.

All that said I'm still in very early development and I would be glad to get some feedback.

[Ark Heiral]

UPDATE #01

Hi guys, one month has already passed since my announcement of The Grand Grimoire. Thanks to everyone who followed me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram from this forum. In this past month I've gotten great feedback from you and have finished a lot of assets.

This month consisted of like 70% drawing, 29% marketing and 1% coding. The reason for this: I'm focusing on finishing my first teaser video, kind of an announcement trailer. I think it will be about 30 to 60 seconds long and will be showcasing a general look and feel of the game.

Additionally to this I concentrated on my twitter account. I decided to make an account for myself in order to post WIP stuff and an official game account. On both accounts together I got about 400 new followers which I assume is quite good considering I started with 15 who were all just friends. On the other hand my facebook account sits on a little more than 10 likes. Might optimize that but I'm actually not the guy who is focused on those numbers that much.

The best thing about this month was getting feedback on my game outside of my friends. This doubled my motivation and I was able to finish quite a lot despite having so much to do on my regular job.

Here is some of this month's WIPs

[whistlerat]

Whoaaaa that art. No wonder you got a following so quickly, being pretty catches the eye, and you have pretty in spades. Getting real Owlboy vibes from that airship, too. That you managed to achieve so much while working full-time is a real accomplishment How much of the actual gameplay is implemented? I can see in one gif you've got the party movement into combat mechanic going, plus some of the combat itself. How playable is it in its current state?

[koyima]

this looks better than most in the genre. good job. keep it up 

[Ark Heiral]

Whoaaaa that art. No wonder you got a following so quickly, being pretty catches the eye, and you have pretty in spades. Getting real Owlboy vibes from that airship, too. That you managed to achieve so much while working full-time is a real accomplishment How much of the actual gameplay is implemented? I can see in one gif you've got the party movement into combat mechanic going, plus some of the combat itself. How playable is it in its current state?

Thank you very much! Most of the core elements are completed. You can play a battle from the beginning to the end. It's just that there are no animations yet beside the standard attacks. And some menues are missing like checking for status ailments. In fact currently there are more systems in place than there will be in the final game, like charges for skills or boni for certain turns. I'm still testing for the perfect balance of easy to understand yet still being deep and complex. Besides the battles I have a lot of systems already finished, like NPCs, item collecting, all the databases, early cutscene "system", teleporting, weather/surrounding effects, dialogue/choices. Though I still wish to add features to many of those systems. The more complex stuff is still missing like shoping/crafting/menues/minigames/airship customization...etc. These are things that are not set in stone and depend on how my crowdfunding campaign goes. So I'll do them at a later point.

Next month I'll conecentrate on showing more of the gameplay.

this looks better than most in the genre. good job. keep it up

Glad to hear. Thank you!

[SimonFelix]

Wow, the pixel art is gorgeous! I'm very curious to see more gameplay Seeing the gif, I assume it will have turn-based RPG elements?

[cynicalsandel]

good

 

[Ark Heiral]

Wow, the pixel art is gorgeous! I'm very curious to see more gameplay Seeing the gif, I assume it will have turn-based RPG elements?

Thank you. Yes, it will be turn-based. In my next update I'll concentrate on showing more of the gameplay and explain some features in detail + more pictures and videos. 

good

 

Thanks! 

[Ark Heiral]

Update #02

Hi everyone! This is a rather short update. The last week I've been working on 2 new areas: a mystical flooded forest and a high tec lab/factory interior. Both are still WIP but I'm already quite happy with the direction! I also added some details to the fields area (wind blowing, butterflies, birds) which was a lot of fun.

Here are some gifs. (Working desk picture as bonus  )

[Ark Heiral]

Update #03

Here I am finally with a new update. It was a very busy month, but I made a lot of progress and I even found a great composer after listening through over 100 of portfolios. Right now he is working on the main theme and it's a really great song. I'll introduce him and his music soon.

The progress on the trailer is coming along niceley and it will be released in the second half of July.

Two important things I want to work on in the upcoming weeks beside the trailer are:

- An update to my website and social media pages. Facebook and Instagram are currently heavy neglected because of all those limitations in posting gifs. It's such a huge pain. I've got to work out some kind of workflow. Meanwhile Twitter is still going strong. After 3 months I'm currently at ~1500 followers which is alright, I guess. My most successful post Like-wise was an pixelart cross over of Disney and God of War. It got almost 1.3k likes on twitter and was a huge success on reddit with 35k upvotes and making it to the front page. Follower-wise it only brought me small boost. Most ppl follow me for my Grand Grimoire related stuff. I also noticed a huge boost on my game twitter account in contrast to my personal account where I post all of the WIPs. The first one and a half months my personal account had more than three times as many followers as my game account. But currently I'm at 900 on my personal and 600+ on the game account. So it's closing in.

- My Newsletter. The GDPR was scary but I made all neccessary adjustments. Unfortunatly only a few subscribers accepted the new terms so I lost some. But it's not that bad because there were not that many to beginn with. I have to advertise my newsletter better. (And I need to send out more of them.)

Well that's the marketing aspect I want to focus on. But now for some juicy gifs & pics that I made since the last update.

[bryku]

I am loving the graphics, especially the airship. Keep it up!

[Ark Heiral]

I am loving the graphics, especially the airship. Keep it up!

Thank you! I'll give it my best!

[Ark Heiral]

Update #04

Huge update this time around: My first teaser for The Grand Grimoire is finished!





The next step is preparing the Kickstarter campaign: Checking out workshops, making a more explanatory trailer, coding some features and skills into the game to show off the battle system, redraw some stuff, make promotional art and a lot more.

[Mloren]

Wow, that trailer gave me goosebumps.
So will the robot armor only be available for limited parts of the game? will it be something unlocked and then always available?

[Ark Heiral]

Thank you!

It will be unlocked and most of the game available. There will be some areas that you won't be able to use it though. Such as interiors like houses or castles.

[tylerfunk]

Looks beautiful! Was that a nod to Chrono Trigger with the purple lighting and black background during the mech reveal?

[Buckrider]

Looks beautiful! Was that a nod to Chrono Trigger with the purple lighting and black background during the mech reveal?

I think the whole game screams Chrono Trigger but in a very good way.

Finish this and take my moneys!

[Dinomaniak]

Following. Would like to know more about the lore.

[Ark Heiral]

Looks beautiful! Was that a nod to Chrono Trigger with the purple lighting and black background during the mech reveal?

Thank you. Maybe 

I think the whole game screams Chrono Trigger but in a very good way.

Finish this and take my moneys!

Haha, glad to hear this, thank you!

Following. Would like to know more about the lore.

Thx! I'll be working on a presentation of the game's story in the upcoming months but here is a short text about the beginning of it I sent someone earlier:

The story is about the so called Grand Grimoire, a powerful weapon created by the gods but stolen by human hands and brought into Valandis - a war-ridden continent. For generations the people have known nothing but war between its three kingdoms... until recently.

The game will start at the third anniversary of the peace treaty signed between these three kingdoms. A great festival is held in Thansa the most southern kingdom and all of Valandis is invited to celebrate. By chance all of our heroes attend this event. All with a different agenda. We have Victor a celebrity known for writing the most famous stage plays all over the world. He is invited as a guest of honor to join the banquet at the royal palace. We have Seth a thief who tries to take advantage of the reallocation of security around the treasure chamber this evening. There is the princess Lenneth who fled her country in search for something and ended up after a series of coincidences as one of the guards. Always at her side is Robb her bodyguard and childhood friend. And there are Glenn and Wyce, mercenaries on a secret mission infiltrating the palace.

The beginning of the game switches between those characters and the player follows them as they try to reach their respective target. Of course their paths somehow crosses and in the end everything goes wrong, everyone fails or cannot reach their goal. Additionally the whole festival is hit by a major disaster which in the end leads to a new war. Worse then ever before. Surrounding the newly discovered weapon of mass destruction: The Grand Grimoire.

It is up to the heroes to change the fate of Valandis and destroy the grimoire.

[jg.camarasa]

This looks amazing, following!