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Game Design

What do you think about this idea of mine?

Hey all!

So yesterday I came up with an idea that I thought was pretty cool at the time. That's why I would like to post it here and see what you have to say about it.

One of the main characters in my game is very close to the nature and the astro aspect of my world (She's closest to what we would call a scientist). Since she's very geeky in this area I thought it would be cool to add this small idea to her 'dreamy side' that she often engulfs in during the game's progress.
So the idea that struck me was to use 'terra' or the world that we live in as a reference to a planet that she has read about in a book about the legends of Aspicio (The world the character lives in).

Including it as a place that she dreams about going to, and something that she once in a while talks about. Since the world is functioning very differently in my game, I wanted to use our own world as a fantasy world in her eyes.
A world where you need water to make things grow, where your vital system doesn't determine who you are and several other things that will build upon her wish to live in such a 'dream world'.

As I said, this world should resemble our own world (Terra) but It's not that particular world she's talking about. In her eyes It's a magical world, a place that she would dream to visit. A world so different, and fascinating to her that It's something she can't comprehend. But for the player she will talk about a world that's very similar to Earth, and in the players eyes It's the world of Aspicio that's full of magic and is very different from our world.

With this I wanted to have a connection with our reality in the game, and have that character showing her impressions and thoughts about a world that we as humans know exists, but is as alien for her as another planet full of life would be for us.
If I can build upon this concept in a good way, I thought that it could end up pretty nice. I'm not sure if I have played a game with this being included in some way. More than that I think it could be a neat thing to have her 'dream world' relate to our world because the player will feel that, and think about earth. Something they can draw a resemblance to, and relate to.

I also think that it can be a cool resemblance to us human's will to explore and learn more about the cosmos above us, but from another world's perspective.
I'm not sure if this could break the immersion of my game, but I thought the idea sounded pretty sweet when it came to me.

This idea merely came to me since I have always been fascinated about space, and the planets. And since my game is touching a bit on a psychological aspect I thought it would be cool to add something that would touch upon all the questions that we humans ask (At least It's something I think about from time to time, and have thought about several times), things like how did everything came to be?, how come that everything works the way they do? How come that we as humans which are full of meat, bone and cells can function the way we do... etc, etc

I'm aware that I might have been a bit confusing in my post, and maybe havn't adressed the idea in the best way. But since It's still just a early concept, I hope you can understand somewhat what I want to show.


Any thoughts about this?

Progress Report

Progress.

Update:
2014-02-15

  • Screenshots updated.
- New pictures have been added since the game has been polished a lot.

Been a while since I updated the thread. The game is still in progress (Even though I lack time, and I can't work on the game as much as I want).

There have been plenty of polishing on the demo, and I have fixed some confusing scenarios. I've also added some new scenes that will explain things better, and introduce the player to Vincents condition in a more in-depth way. I have also changed the Injured soldiers event a bit and also added Conor as a playable character inside the Uncharted Grounds.

Town Of Duke is now remade, even though it needs some more polishing. I have almost mapped the entire 'flood dungeon' (It has a name but that's what we call it for now):

Remade Town Of Duke:




Flooded Area Maps:




In game:




I have also changed some sprites to look a bit more like the battlers:




More than that I have written down some dialogues for different parts of the game so far..

Until next time!

~Dark.

Announcement

Game is still in the works.

Small Update:
2013-11-15

Wanted to share some of my progress of the In-game manual that I have been working on today, that will be included in the Final Demo version. I have also replaced a lot of placeholders, so things are going pretty smooth. Hope that my final demo version will be up soon enough.

(As said before, I will make sure that this final version will take old save files for the rest of the content of Chapter 1.)

In-game Manual:



I will also have importance levels that will be displayed before the option to read the Information, they will be low, medium and High depending on the information within the manual section. I decided to add this to alert players on when they might want to save the read for later, or read it instantly.

Anyway, this is just a small update.

As always, Stay tuned!
~Dark.

Progress Report

Some graphical updates.

Update:
2013-10-14

Just wanted to share a small update.

I have started using an overlay script, so I can parallax my maps to make them look a bit better. So far I have parallaxed 5-6 maps,
and I'm now working on spicing up Town of Duke a bit.

will share some pictures of my process:









I'm really enjoying working with these overlays, and I'm about to add some glow and lighting effects as well. Looking forward to spice up some of my maps, and I hope it will turn out nice!

I'm also trying to implement my own light effects (in caves, inside houses, and glows etc)

I decided to try this out since Khas script has giving me some struggles, as in frame drops, script errors, and weird tints.

Here's a screenshot of my progress (Any thoughts?)



As always,
Stay tuned!

Best Regards!
~Dark.

Progress Report

New puzzle!

Update:
2013-09-25

Done with the third puzzle of my game, and I'm really happy with how it turned out.
(This puzzle will be located in the Town of Duke's sewers, for those that have played the demo). Took me about 3 hours to complete, but after some frustration I finally finished it.

Some screenies of the progression:




Other Updates:

I have also polished the demo up a bit, and changed some confusing scenarios. I have presented Vincent's condition in a more direct way now, since I wasn't really bringing it to the surface (in a good manner) during the length of the demo.

I have switched up some of the starting skills, and changed them accordingly (Mostly in a manner that will make Vincent more useful when being teamed up with more party members, since he was lacking a bit in the previous set up)

I have also included that the characters will gain 1-2 skills automaticly every 5 levels now as a contribution next to the Academic oracle system. So instead of starting the game with 1 skill (Fury of Thunder), and getting Vendetta and Battle cry at level 2 and 5 I have implemented so you start with 3 skills instead, and get another one at level 5. After that you can use the oracle system as usual in order to get new skills, and then an individual skill at every 5th level.

More than that I'm working on a boss list, where I'm trying to work out a combat pattern based a bit around the history behind the boss, and also a bit on how the fight will progress according to that (like strategical points, Boss behaviour, skills and turn patterns etc.) Still a work in progress but I'll try and polish up my boss battles once I have most of that done.

Lastly I'm working on my Kryptonian weapons effects, and how they will change the characters or the skills. While I have everything set in stone I'm thinking about posting a recruit request for some of the programming that involves around this in the database. So if you have good experience in the database, and feel like helping me out with this feel free to send me a PM about it. It would relieve a lot of stress and frustration if I could get some assistance in one or two areas, since It's so much work to do everything yourself.


That's it for this update, but remember to stay tuned for the next one!

As always, stay tuned!
Best Regards
~Dark.

Progress Report

Working on new areas.

Update:
2013-09-18

Been working a lot on new areas for my game and thought I could share about an area in my game where the characters have to swim.

The area will be interactable, and the goal for the player is to drain different areas from water in order to advance forward, or refill it again in order to reach areas that can't be reached without the water being raised etc, etc. The out-of-combat skills will also have a big impact in reaching areas in this dungeon, and there will be plenty of events where the other characters have to stay behind, and leave it to the actor that can progress at that specifc time.

So will share some very early pictures on how it will look like:


Area filled with water, and actor has to swim:



The swim graphics is something that I could work on (It has no animation when the actor is swimming, and no graphic around the character that really indicates that he's in the water) but I am not really sure how I would work around that, so this is how it looks like at the moment. If you have any tips on how I could polish this up feel free to share! Also, any feedback on the idea. or the graphic of the characters when they are swimming, would be very valuable to me! :)

Same area when water has been drained:



This is in a really early stage, but thought I could share what I'm working with at the moment.

As always, stay tuned!

Best Regards
~Dark.

Announcement

Version 0.4 now available for download!

Beta version 0.4 of Violent Whispers is now available for download! You can find it under the Download page.

The game profile will be updated with new changes according to the new version as soon as possible.

As always

Best Regards
~Dark.

Announcement

New version

Beta Version 0.4 will be released very soon, and down below is an update log for it:

Update log for Version 0.4

- Changed title screen -
- New music -
- Updated Status screens -
- Implemented travel system -
- New Items -
- Item Indication -
- Other maps have been polished -
- Updated quest system -
- Sneak peak on the new weapon and skill systems (a long with sneak peaks on some of the Tier 2 skills)
- First choise quest available -
- System Options added -
- Save points have been removed and been replaced with the possibility to Save everywhere -

Version 0.4 will be up in a couple of days, and hopefully the Full release will be ready soon!

Progress Report

Updates for Version 0.4

Major Update:
2013-08-27


Demo Version 0.4 is soon to be released!

Been a while since I updated the thread now, but the project is still active.


The game has been polished quite a bit, and a new demo version will soon be released (Version 0.4). The demo will include some upgrades, new functions, along with a small taste of the new upgrade system. A change log will be posted some days before the new release. Sadly, old save files will not work but the demo is almost ready for a Final release (which will allow the player to continue from the save).

Most noticable updates for Version 0.4:

New menu screen layout and system options:

The layout for the menu screens have been polished, and new features have been added. The Items are placed in different categories and new items gained will be tagged with a 'new'-icon to prevent the confusion as to which items are new. This was a major issue in the previous version, since it was completely impossible to see which item you recently picked up. You will also be able to change some settings in the new 'system' menu. All these functions are now implemented into the game.

New Menu:




System Menu:


Balance Issue fixed for Upgrade system:

The upgrade system for spells have been changed, since the older system had a severe balance issue. Instead, the player has to use the lower Tier spell a specific amount of time in order to upgrade it to the new tier. Once the player has used the spell the amount of time that's needed, they will recieve a booster item that is unique for that spell. By returning this item to one of the Academic oracles they will have the possibility to upgrade the spell to the next tier. This system is now fully implemented into the game.

Skill Progress:

- The Skill Progress let's the player see how many times the spell have been used, and how many times it needs to be used in order to upgrade it to the next tier-



Item recieved on skill advance:

- Needs to be taken to a Academic Oracle in order to upgrade the skill-



New oracle function:

The function for the oracles have been updated (previously used as save points and to fully restore the party). Instead the oracles are used as travel points, and whenever the player interacts with a new oracle, a new travel point will be available for them. Once the oracle is active, they will be able to travel to this location from any other active oracle in the world. The oracles will also be able to heal the entire party as long as they have the correct item in their inventory. Due to the change of the oracles, the player will now be able to save whenever they want.

Interaction with an active oracle:



World map and travel locations:

(The travel locations will only be accessible as long as the player has activated the oracle in that specific area)




Further Updates:

The progress of the game should be around an hour of playtime after the ending of the current demo.

I've also been working a lot on the lore, and more in-depth towards the characters and the locations of the world of Aspicio.

A change log for Demo version 0.4 will be posted later on.

As always, take care!

Signing out.

~Dark.

Game Design

Reworked title screen..

Been working on getting a new titlescreen together, and it hurts to say that I'm not really set out for doing this..

Made some changes in the logo and enlarged the outlines of the characters a bit.
I'm still not sure if I should just remove the characters all together, but I really want them to be setup like that. I think the logo fits a bit better now, but I'm not sure if the characters look way to out of place still..

I also changed the background, and moved the Title-screen options more to the left of the screen.

Any thoughts on this? And does it look better than the previous title-screen?

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