I'm already working on ideas for another game once I finish Karma. It's Untitled as of yet but is going to be another 2D platformer heavily influenced by the Wind Waker. Here are some mockup screen shots to represent some of the ideas for the game. I was going to make a new project page but it's going to be awhile before I can start this.
Maybe make the ghosts more human looking? Casper-like?? But yeah, this looks great! With this after Karma, you've got some great games coming, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
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I make other people create vaporware
Dr. James, the ghost sprites are definitely going to get overhauled. Some of these graphics were whipped up very quickly.
Spitznagl, I guess I don't have much confidence in my graphics abilities but I'm going to give it my best shot. After all if I don't practice I'll never improve.
OMC, I will add a project page eventually when there is some-what of an actual game to show off.
I'm taking a very different approach with this game. I'm actually going to have a lot of the graphics and level design figured out BEFORE I start coding (the opposite approach I took with Karma). Here are a few more character sprites I made up yesterday.
Looks nice! I like the graphics.
The part that interest me most is the haunted island
I always loved games like Luigi's Mansion and movies like ghost buster, something about the corny/cheesy Haunted House feeling has always allured me.
I think you should make ghost like Luigi's Mansion. That would be really cool! Luigi's Mansion ghost look just like humans only light-blue skin. What made Luigi's Mansion's ghost so cool was that they were riddles within themselves. Like with a glutton ghost, in order to be able to damage him, you would have to use a vaccuum to suck up his food, and for a dog ghost you had to steal his bone, or for a ghost combing her hair you had to move the curtains so that it messes up her hair. I think ghost like that would be awesome
I love the look of it, and I love the ghosts as they are. Looks like it'll make for some great adventures! I've never really had a great adventure in a game... either it's so open the exploring gets routine, or just plain scripted. I'd actually like to know about some of the design concepts you're using, unless you want to keep it to yourself for now
Oh, and looking forward to Karma, the demo was quite excellent.
This looks like it can be a really amazing game!
You should post some of your ideas so we can read up on it.
You should make it kind of a open world to explore, would be really nice!
Your just jealous that you're not as awesome as me.
(And my megaman avatar )
I've been working on Karma double time the last few day. But I took a break to whip up these new ghost sprites:
What do you think?
As far as game design goes I want it to be an expansive non-linear world where you are guided by treasure maps that you will collect along the way. At first you will have a basic compass which will tell you your x and y coordinates and you will be able to travel "east" or "west" locating treasures by following your compass. When you get an upgraded compass (which will also give you a z coordinate) you will be able to travel to the background or foreground (north and south). I'm calling this 2 1/4D. I'm going to keep certain islands off limits until particular items or upgrades are found, etc. I also plan on making lots of references to famous nautical adventures in movies, tv and literature
Originally Posted by OldManClayton Is a thumbs up too little feedback? I hear people get mad if opinions aren't in-depth.
Good call sir.
I love the moon graphic, the house looks a little too bright IMO. The purple sky could look better if it was desaturated a little. But again... It looks superb!
I think the house looks fine as it is. I think the ghosts are an improvement, but would look better in a shade of lime green to complement the green used in the house roofing. At the moment you already have a lot of blue with the sea.
Id also do something about the clouds. They'd look better pixelled IMO.
Originally Posted by Klayman Again, as always, thanks for the kind words and advice. I think this new version looks even better.
Adam - Green looks much better, thanks. I gave the clouds a different look too. Is that what you had in mind?
Dr. James - Thanks for the tip. I desaturated a few things and it really looks nice. Thanks. I wish I had a better eye for color.
Looks much better. Have you considered not making the ghosts semi-transparent? I know they're ghosts and all , but if they have little ghost tails already and hover, it will be clear enough that they're ghosts and they'll stand out even more.
WOW!! This looks bloody brilliant! I much prefer the last picture and i think the x, y, z co-ordinate idea is a fantastic one. Really can't wait to play this, but also can't wait to play Karma too.... man you got some good games coming!
I think I prefer the first ghosts, I like the old-school abstraction, looks dangerous. Unless the ghosts would be ones you talk to, then the human-type ones are better.
I think it depends on what the ghost do. If they're just somewhat indestruble enemies like Boos on the old Mario games, the ball deals would be fine. But if there is riddles behind them and stuff like I was saying, I think the more human style is the best.
Haha, I love all this speculation and opinions. I think the game will definitely have a nudist ghost now (I'm writing it down). Well I was thinking these particular ghosts would be NPCs that would either present you with plot or missions. I like the idea of doing some different non-human like ghosts (maybe specters?) that will be baddies.
I'm finishing up the first chapter of Karma (which consists of a Prologue level and level 1) and I've been working on this Boss character. I finally got the walking animations to look good and this is just an example of a couple of frames. I think it needs to be polished up a little bit through so I thought I'd get your alls opinions.
Originally Posted by Klayman Haha, I love all this speculation and opinions. I think the game will definitely have a nudist ghost now (I'm writing it down). Well I was thinking these particular ghosts would be NPCs that would either present you with plot or missions. I like the idea of doing some different non-human like ghosts (maybe specters?) that will be baddies.
Definitely! The biggest thing to this will be that the NPC ghost are all distinguished. If you can't do it by appearance, you can at least do it by they're dialogue. It would be cool if you have to take care of they're "unfinished business" to get to the other side.
You should make the drill with shading on top and bottum, maybe shade to light on the top, or something like that, that would finish it to me.
I've been working on the engine for "Untitled Treasure Adventure Game" and I've got some of the game play mechanics that I wanted working pretty well. I've been enjoying the feedback so far to continue with that trend I'm releasing a very early engine demo for you to check out.
The demo has one island and here's what you can do so far:
Run (Arrow keys)
Jump (A)
Attack with claw hand (S)
Use boat on water
Dig for coins, chests and turnips (S)
Open chests (Up)
this is pretty cool so far, I really liked the music too. Looking forward to hearing some sound effects too!
You do have some troubles with shading on the turnip though, I think the shading should demonstrate the form more - not the edge.
just a quick edit to show what I mean:
UrbanMonk, as per your suggestion the project page is officially up.
I also made a updated demo and linked to it on the project page.
Alastair, thanks for your advice. Hope you don't mind if I use your version of the turnip. Let me know what you think of the shading in the new demo, i'm trying to improve my techniques.
I sent the first beta of Karma to a few people for testing, so in the mean-time I worked on some tiles for my next game. I'm going to go for a more surreal atmosphere than in Karma and one of the first ideas that came to mind was this:
What do you think? Any suggestions on colors or anything else? I have a hard time determining which colors go well together.
It's quite knytt/cavestory. I'm not so keen on the light mushrooms then the dark background. I'd make the huge mushrooms darker than the blue background
Alastair: Thanks. The block thing is def. a cavestory rip off, but this is how I work. I start with something I'm familiar with and then find a way to make it unique. I'll probably end up using the blocks in a different context when I'm designing the game though.
Adam: How this look? I agree that they need to blend it a little more.
Alastair: Thanks. The block thing is def. a cavestory rip off, but this is how I work. I start with something I'm familiar with and then find a way to make it unique. I'll probably end up using the blocks in a different context when I'm designing the game though.
Adam: How this look? I agree that they need to blend it a little more.
I don't see why those large mushrooms are silhouettes. They don't really look that far away, and even if they were really far away but just incredibly huge you would be able to see some shape.
Everything since 2004 with square tiles will look like cave story. Don't worry about it.
You could perhaps try putting something between the huge mushrooms and the foreground, to suggest they're far awayish. Perhaps a layer of mist or trees. Pixel, mind. Don't use photoshop again
Andy: You would be correct in assuming that I was too lazy to put detail into the large mushrooms. I wanted to convey the idea that they were in the distance and HUGEMONGOUS!
Adam: I tried some misty clouds, and I think it's better. I'll try some other things as well.
Here's an up-dated shot, now with MUSHROOM PEOPLE!
Hmmm, i'm not a big fan of those mushrooms now they are so dark - before they looked like they were just slightly further back and clouded by mist/fog/smog, which i though looked better. Now the darkness of the bigger ones contrasts too much with the other kind, and it kinda doesn't make (visual) sense to me. The cloudy mist makes it look better, but i think i still prefer the lighter shade.
Looks f***ing awesome, by the way! I hope it's finished tomorrow so i can play it!!!
Ok, it's looking a lot better now. This is why I love daily click! All your honest advice helps me more than you know
Adam: How's the detail on those now? Doesit looks ok with the different background? I took the old background pattern and made it very translucent and layered it over top the entire frame. I think that when it's all scrolling it will have a neat effect.
Marko: I agreed with what you said too, so i went somewhere between the light and dark mushrooms. Much better.
Wow, this is really turning out nice! I can't wait to play!
Somehow the "gameplay" from the demo engine reminded me of "Cave Jumper" but maybe just because I've been playing it alot.
EDIT: That giant fog overlay kills the contrast too much!
Is that the real resolution you are going to use?
If so, I think you should deffently think about making it smaller and more focused on the little guy. (:
But other than that, it looks great! I like the purple, greenish/grey colors. Looks nice!
The blocks do look like cavestory blocks, (Not that its a bad thing) but something you should do it maybe make them jump out at you less?
I think you could do that by adding more shading to the rocks, more than just on the edges, as if the rocks were a 3-d object.
Your just jealous that you're not as awesome as me.
(And my megaman avatar )
I'm pretty happy with the Mushroom Cave for now. I started working on another area I want to include, a Crystal-Mine. Like the mushroom cave I want this to have a somewhat surreal atmosphere but I'm having trouble figure what direction to take. Here is a very much work-in-progress screen shot of the crystal mine.
More depth - it looks very flat. The other screenies had some depth to it, and made you feel like you were looking into a big world. This doesn't manage that somehow
Yeah you can go mad with the crystals to give it all some colour. A the moment it's a bit dull with all the brown and grey. Also crystals should probably look much more translucent.
Also the Stalactites at the top look more like pain dripping down the screen.
Originally Posted by AndyUK pain dripping down the screen.
Heh heh. Anyways... yes, the stalactites look like liquid as opposed to jagged rock formations, and the background could stand for a more defined texture. Add some more variation in the stalactites and add some stalagmites (the ones on the bottom) and maybe crystals sticking out of the walls.
If there is going to be light, it should bounce off the crystals and give the cave a multi-colored look. Not too saturated on those colors, not too bright, but enough that you can say, "light is coming off those crystals!" Darker tones all around would really bring out those colors, too.
Once again, all your advice was very inspiring. Here's what I came up with:
I think I'm going to try some run-time lighting effects when I start coding (maybe something similar to cave jumper where the frame gets lighter as you get closer to the torches).
Wonderful! That section has a great feel now. I think you're on to a winner with this game, Klayman! Because of this and Karma, I think you're my new favorite.
Yea, maybe make the crystals in the immediate background (foreground?) a slightly more orange tone, bringing up the brightness on the faces and saturation on the edges. That should help give it a warmer look and add a touch of life.
If you made everything (not the crystals or torch lights) darker, then that would give a more ambient look, too.
Fire doesn't emit white light, maybe make the glow a more yellow/orange?
OMG that looks effing amazing! This is exactly what i was getting at - look at the depth?! You could go for miles and miles with that background!! The lighting is good and i like the idea of the runtime effect you mentioned - try it and make a video so we can see it in action (don't want much, do i?!)
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Edited by Klayman
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, but if they have little ghost tails already and hover, it will be clear enough that they're ghosts and they'll stand out even more.
Anyways... yes, the stalactites look like liquid as opposed to jagged rock formations, and the background could stand for a more defined texture. Add some more variation in the stalactites and add some stalagmites (the ones on the bottom) and maybe crystals sticking out of the walls.
