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Announcement
Tentacle-Related Action Available NOW!!
NewBlack
17 post(s) 
- 08/30/2012 08:10 PM
- 6137 views
Hallor folks.
So as of a few minutes ago you can now download a demo of tCoCL for your ludic enjoyment. So please, do go ahead and download the demo and give it a whirl.
GET YOUR TENTACLE ACTION HERE.
A few notes about the demo:
* The demo consists of one level (the first) of the game.
* All relevant features are included in the demo (unless we add more later)
* Scoring is implemented, this means - We'd love to see screenshot of your score scrolls results!
So if you you manage to clear the level (kefka.wav) we'd love to see your results, preferably in screenshot form. So please post them up here on the game page if you play.
For the record we know that an S rank is totally possible so that's the rank to aim for it you consider yourself a true pirate.
Anyway, for the public demo we ended up including a few extra things (when compared to out closed testing version), one of which was facesets for the cutscene between the level boss and the player character. Now due to the fact that rm2k3 is limited to 256 colours per asset I thought I'd throw up a higher resolution/colour depth preview of that art here:
So yeah, play the game, post your screenshots of results. Please enjoy and leave any/all feedback you feel like. We've been working on this project for probably something like a year (not counting various hiatuses due to real life stuff) so we've love to hear what everyone thinks!
ENJOY!
So as of a few minutes ago you can now download a demo of tCoCL for your ludic enjoyment. So please, do go ahead and download the demo and give it a whirl.
GET YOUR TENTACLE ACTION HERE.
A few notes about the demo:
* The demo consists of one level (the first) of the game.
* All relevant features are included in the demo (unless we add more later)
* Scoring is implemented, this means - We'd love to see screenshot of your score scrolls results!
So if you you manage to clear the level (kefka.wav) we'd love to see your results, preferably in screenshot form. So please post them up here on the game page if you play.
For the record we know that an S rank is totally possible so that's the rank to aim for it you consider yourself a true pirate.
Anyway, for the public demo we ended up including a few extra things (when compared to out closed testing version), one of which was facesets for the cutscene between the level boss and the player character. Now due to the fact that rm2k3 is limited to 256 colours per asset I thought I'd throw up a higher resolution/colour depth preview of that art here:
So yeah, play the game, post your screenshots of results. Please enjoy and leave any/all feedback you feel like. We've been working on this project for probably something like a year (not counting various hiatuses due to real life stuff) so we've love to hear what everyone thinks!
ENJOY!
Progress Report
Testing!
STUFF!
So as of a few days ago the first level of tCoCL was officially entirely complete and the game "engine" finally had every essential feature implemented (you could finally die when playing! and a bunch of other stuff that was previously not implemented).
So today we finally had the first closed tests of the first level of this game and was able to get some important feedback, with the help of EvilEagles, Archiea_Nessiah and Rhyme (and soon hopefully there'll be a couple more sets of feedback from Scinaya and Elements ;=;).
To cut a long story short, despite a few annoying bugs and general rough-edges stuff, it went pretty well!
Also thanks to the recently implemented "Score Scroll" (of humiliation) we've been able to use it to gather useful information on how people performed while trying the game out, that is , assuming they make it through the level. kekfa.wav
Basically the game calculates your performance of the level based on damage dealt, damage taken, and your clear time and scores you accordingly, based on a combination of your performance in those three criteria. Then based on a series of thresholds for total score of all criteria combined - the game determines your level rank result as either E, D, C, B, A or S (we were thinking about an "F" but we decided that is just basically when you fail entirely and get a gameover instead)
There are also some other performance-based statistics and "titles" based on certain ways of playing or achieving certain performance thresholds. The vast majority are based on a player having a predominant preference for a particular weapon over the course of that level, but some others are based on things like using a lot of bullet-time or achieving a very high accuracy score. Stuff like that. It's kinda fun to see what people get.
So, in an effort to make sure this blog entry has pictures, here are some of the results scores from today's test runs.
Testers: (I'm not saying who is who :P)
Here's my personal best (screen-capped) result:
..and last but not least; here is Kazesui's:
;_;
So, from that I guess I could say the game is certainly shaping up to be fairly challenging and I like that a lot. Even with experience of the game, working on it, and having experience of all the previous builds before this one, the best I have managed to muster is a B rank. Kazesui's managed plenty of A and S rank runs but that's apparently because he's just good.
In terms of general feedback from today, it's mostly been positive, with a few issues here and there. But thankfully it seems like the vast majority of the issues were caught by testers and that they enjoyed playing, even if it was hard/painful :>
tl;dr - People played the game, they seemed to like it a fair bit, I am very pleased.
Oh and of course - Big thanks to Nessiah, EvilEagles, Rhyme, Scinaya, and Elements for offering to test for this! :3
Thank you for your time.
.
..
...
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
Public demo soon?
..maybe :3
Watch this space and all that.
So as of a few days ago the first level of tCoCL was officially entirely complete and the game "engine" finally had every essential feature implemented (you could finally die when playing! and a bunch of other stuff that was previously not implemented).
So today we finally had the first closed tests of the first level of this game and was able to get some important feedback, with the help of EvilEagles, Archiea_Nessiah and Rhyme (and soon hopefully there'll be a couple more sets of feedback from Scinaya and Elements ;=;).
To cut a long story short, despite a few annoying bugs and general rough-edges stuff, it went pretty well!
Also thanks to the recently implemented "Score Scroll" (of humiliation) we've been able to use it to gather useful information on how people performed while trying the game out, that is , assuming they make it through the level. kekfa.wav
Basically the game calculates your performance of the level based on damage dealt, damage taken, and your clear time and scores you accordingly, based on a combination of your performance in those three criteria. Then based on a series of thresholds for total score of all criteria combined - the game determines your level rank result as either E, D, C, B, A or S (we were thinking about an "F" but we decided that is just basically when you fail entirely and get a gameover instead)
There are also some other performance-based statistics and "titles" based on certain ways of playing or achieving certain performance thresholds. The vast majority are based on a player having a predominant preference for a particular weapon over the course of that level, but some others are based on things like using a lot of bullet-time or achieving a very high accuracy score. Stuff like that. It's kinda fun to see what people get.
So, in an effort to make sure this blog entry has pictures, here are some of the results scores from today's test runs.
Testers: (I'm not saying who is who :P)
Here's my personal best (screen-capped) result:
..and last but not least; here is Kazesui's:
;_;
So, from that I guess I could say the game is certainly shaping up to be fairly challenging and I like that a lot. Even with experience of the game, working on it, and having experience of all the previous builds before this one, the best I have managed to muster is a B rank. Kazesui's managed plenty of A and S rank runs but that's apparently because he's just good.
In terms of general feedback from today, it's mostly been positive, with a few issues here and there. But thankfully it seems like the vast majority of the issues were caught by testers and that they enjoyed playing, even if it was hard/painful :>
tl;dr - People played the game, they seemed to like it a fair bit, I am very pleased.
Oh and of course - Big thanks to Nessiah, EvilEagles, Rhyme, Scinaya, and Elements for offering to test for this! :3
Thank you for your time.
.
..
...
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
Public demo soon?
..maybe :3
Watch this space and all that.
Progress Report
Drop the Bass
No not Bass...
...BASS
I'm generally pretty reluctant to make too many updates on this, firsly because there's often not a lot to report, secondly I don't wanna make crappy empty updates and have nothing interesting to show/talk about and lastly - even when there is a newsworthy updae I don't wanna give everything away in blogs, screenshots and stuff and leave nothing to surprise/entertain potential players later on in the game itself (for the record, we worked on this game for a good few months in secret before posting anything to RMN or elsewhere, so I guess that habit has kinda stuck with us later into the development process)... But seeing as tCoCL has just got a Dev Spotlight I thought it was probably a good idea to drop an update, luckily there is some sorta substantial stuff to report!
So... as of today stage 1's end-of-level boss has all-but-one one of his animations and behaviors, is fully functional, and beatable. All that remains is the make the second half of his death sequence and it's all pretty much good. This means that once a couple more core functions are implemented the game can be sent to a handful of testers to see how the first stage actually plays from start to finish.
What I'm personally really pleased with is how the movement of the boss sprite turned out once all of the battle behaviors were implemented by kazesui. it's a lot smoother, cooler and has a lot more personality than I expected... BUT I'M NOT GONNA SHOW YOU HERE, because I'd rather have players than watchers :>
But I'll show you this death thingy, I guess, because I feel like I should share SOME in-game content in this update (although this is only part of the sequence):
Also some collectibles I made a while back:
Both of which are ammo collectibles for weapons, the first is a powder horn and the second is a shot flask.
Considering level 1 is almost complete I suppose now would also be a good time to talk about the level itself or something.. So here goes:
The first stage of the game, tentatively titled "Ledge Above the Deep", currently features six normal enemy types with varied behaviors (4 swimming, 1 land-based moving, 1 land-based stationary) a sub-boss and an end-of-level boss. You also will obtain your first non-starter weapon half-way through the first stage (you start the game with the cutlass and pistol).
You begin the stage emerging from the wreck of your former vessel and advance along the sea-bed; hacking and shooting your way to the end of the stage to face the first real boss of the game: Final Bass... and that's pretty much it right now :D (which reminds me, we probably could do with some updated screenshots of the first level, it's come a long way since the video preview where the same group of three fish get shot over and over again with different weapons.)
As for the rest of the game's content, level 2's background is coming along decently, I pretty much know what enemies I'm gonna have to sprite, and plans for the levels after the first have somewhat expanded. Not to include more levels but rather to add more depth to what happens in them, hopefully lessons learned getting this first stage to completion will carry over into the next lot and make things go a little smoother as we approach the more complicated and interesting stages.
I think that's about it for now. There may be an updated video showing a big chunk of the first level in the near future if all goes well so keep an eye out for that :>
...BASS
I'm generally pretty reluctant to make too many updates on this, firsly because there's often not a lot to report, secondly I don't wanna make crappy empty updates and have nothing interesting to show/talk about and lastly - even when there is a newsworthy updae I don't wanna give everything away in blogs, screenshots and stuff and leave nothing to surprise/entertain potential players later on in the game itself (for the record, we worked on this game for a good few months in secret before posting anything to RMN or elsewhere, so I guess that habit has kinda stuck with us later into the development process)... But seeing as tCoCL has just got a Dev Spotlight I thought it was probably a good idea to drop an update, luckily there is some sorta substantial stuff to report!
So... as of today stage 1's end-of-level boss has all-but-one one of his animations and behaviors, is fully functional, and beatable. All that remains is the make the second half of his death sequence and it's all pretty much good. This means that once a couple more core functions are implemented the game can be sent to a handful of testers to see how the first stage actually plays from start to finish.
What I'm personally really pleased with is how the movement of the boss sprite turned out once all of the battle behaviors were implemented by kazesui. it's a lot smoother, cooler and has a lot more personality than I expected... BUT I'M NOT GONNA SHOW YOU HERE, because I'd rather have players than watchers :>
But I'll show you this death thingy, I guess, because I feel like I should share SOME in-game content in this update (although this is only part of the sequence):
Also some collectibles I made a while back:
Both of which are ammo collectibles for weapons, the first is a powder horn and the second is a shot flask.
Considering level 1 is almost complete I suppose now would also be a good time to talk about the level itself or something.. So here goes:
The first stage of the game, tentatively titled "Ledge Above the Deep", currently features six normal enemy types with varied behaviors (4 swimming, 1 land-based moving, 1 land-based stationary) a sub-boss and an end-of-level boss. You also will obtain your first non-starter weapon half-way through the first stage (you start the game with the cutlass and pistol).
You begin the stage emerging from the wreck of your former vessel and advance along the sea-bed; hacking and shooting your way to the end of the stage to face the first real boss of the game: Final Bass... and that's pretty much it right now :D (which reminds me, we probably could do with some updated screenshots of the first level, it's come a long way since the video preview where the same group of three fish get shot over and over again with different weapons.)
As for the rest of the game's content, level 2's background is coming along decently, I pretty much know what enemies I'm gonna have to sprite, and plans for the levels after the first have somewhat expanded. Not to include more levels but rather to add more depth to what happens in them, hopefully lessons learned getting this first stage to completion will carry over into the next lot and make things go a little smoother as we approach the more complicated and interesting stages.
I think that's about it for now. There may be an updated video showing a big chunk of the first level in the near future if all goes well so keep an eye out for that :>
Progress Report
New James Cameron deep-sea exploration mode planned.
...Not really.
In fact, a hell of a lot has happened since the last update so I'll try my best to give a lowdown of what we've been up to:
* Thanks to DynRPG by Cherry, and some coding wizardly Kazesui's pulled off, the game was saved from an issue with enemy handling/lag that would have made progressing with the project a nightmare.
* 99.9% of necessary components/resources etc for the first stage are made and either implemented or ready to be implemented.
* The first stage is 50-60% complete and playable including a handful of enemy types and a mid-stage miniboss which took LOTS OF ANIMATION.
* Stage 1 end-stage boss frames are all but done, there may be one or two additional animations added for certain actions but all of the main actions are currently covered.
* Loot drops and collection have been implemented through some fancy code magic, and they work gloriously.
Once the first level is playable from start to finish we're gonna send the game out to a few select people to give it some testing and see how it plays, if any issues come up and generally get some in-depth feedback.
A large chunk of the game's details have been planned out, at least roughly. Stuff like stages, enemy types, bosses and progression has been worked out a lot more thoroughly than before (although stuff could always change before or as it comes to implementation). Here's some rough idea of the stages:
(Stage 1 isn't pictured because the background/junk for it was already made and you can see it in the screenshots)
Annnd here's a sneak-preview-test-shot of level 2's WIP foreground junk that I'm working on right now, plus some enemies from level 1 and stuff (please ignore the second octo and the boxes around the fish :>).
Also, it's become apparent that at some point in the future we may need to get a composer on-board. Originally I thought I'd be able to make all the music for this but really I don't think I'm gonna be up to the task with me already making all of the graphical assets for the project. Not 100% sure what the plan is right now but if you're a music-maker and may be interest then please feel free to pipe up.
Eeeeh I thought I had more to say, so it's likely I've forgot to mention a whole bunch of stuff, but yeah!
That's all for now folks :>
In other news:
We're not dead!
But I felt like it was time for an update so that anyone who cares knows what's a-happenin'.
Recommended listening for this blog post:
We're not dead!
But I felt like it was time for an update so that anyone who cares knows what's a-happenin'.
Recommended listening for this blog post:
In fact, a hell of a lot has happened since the last update so I'll try my best to give a lowdown of what we've been up to:
* Thanks to DynRPG by Cherry, and some coding wizardly Kazesui's pulled off, the game was saved from an issue with enemy handling/lag that would have made progressing with the project a nightmare.
* 99.9% of necessary components/resources etc for the first stage are made and either implemented or ready to be implemented.
* The first stage is 50-60% complete and playable including a handful of enemy types and a mid-stage miniboss which took LOTS OF ANIMATION.
* Stage 1 end-stage boss frames are all but done, there may be one or two additional animations added for certain actions but all of the main actions are currently covered.
* Loot drops and collection have been implemented through some fancy code magic, and they work gloriously.
Once the first level is playable from start to finish we're gonna send the game out to a few select people to give it some testing and see how it plays, if any issues come up and generally get some in-depth feedback.
A large chunk of the game's details have been planned out, at least roughly. Stuff like stages, enemy types, bosses and progression has been worked out a lot more thoroughly than before (although stuff could always change before or as it comes to implementation). Here's some rough idea of the stages:
(Stage 1 isn't pictured because the background/junk for it was already made and you can see it in the screenshots)
Annnd here's a sneak-preview-test-shot of level 2's WIP foreground junk that I'm working on right now, plus some enemies from level 1 and stuff (please ignore the second octo and the boxes around the fish :>).
Also, it's become apparent that at some point in the future we may need to get a composer on-board. Originally I thought I'd be able to make all the music for this but really I don't think I'm gonna be up to the task with me already making all of the graphical assets for the project. Not 100% sure what the plan is right now but if you're a music-maker and may be interest then please feel free to pipe up.
Eeeeh I thought I had more to say, so it's likely I've forgot to mention a whole bunch of stuff, but yeah!
That's all for now folks :>
Announcement
RPG-Atelier.net Project of the Month Poll.
So every month over at the German RM community site, rpg-atelier.net they hold a poll to vote for the "project of the month". It can be a proposed project or a playable project (but your project can only win twice tops; once as a proposal and once as a playable game) so long as you have materials to show to the people of the community and all that. Anyway to cut a longish story short - The Curse of Cpt. Loveless came second in the user poll for project of the month December 2011 over at RPG-Atelier.net!
I already posted it on the game page but I just thought I'd put it here anyways :>
For those who're interested, the full results of the poll were as follows:
# 1 - Terravetus of Abrax
# 2 - The Curse of Cpt. Loveless by Kazesui and NewBlack
# 3 - Professor Stone of G-Eight Brothers
# 4 - Vampires Dawn X by Nicetwink
# 5 - Fantasy of Genesis by Master Nicetwink
You can view the poll in full by clicking here.
So thanks a bunch to the guys over at rpg-atelier.net for the interest and support (especially at such an early stage in production) and congratulations to the rest of the guys! :3
In other news I have been drawing a lot of seabass:
The first boss of the game will be a huge sea bass called "FINAL BASS" and 36 iterations later I think we've (sort of) got his design design sorted out :>
Also, here's a tiny crab!
That's all for now folks, thanks for reading :3
-NewBlack
I already posted it on the game page but I just thought I'd put it here anyways :>
For those who're interested, the full results of the poll were as follows:
# 1 - Terravetus of Abrax
# 2 - The Curse of Cpt. Loveless by Kazesui and NewBlack
# 3 - Professor Stone of G-Eight Brothers
# 4 - Vampires Dawn X by Nicetwink
# 5 - Fantasy of Genesis by Master Nicetwink
You can view the poll in full by clicking here.
So thanks a bunch to the guys over at rpg-atelier.net for the interest and support (especially at such an early stage in production) and congratulations to the rest of the guys! :3
In other news I have been drawing a lot of seabass:
The first boss of the game will be a huge sea bass called "FINAL BASS" and 36 iterations later I think we've (sort of) got his design design sorted out :>
Also, here's a tiny crab!
That's all for now folks, thanks for reading :3
-NewBlack
Announcement
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