LUCIDSTILLNESS'S PROFILE

Design-wise it looks good, though I think the different saturated colours clash a bit too much. You might want to consider desaturating the entire tileset just to even things out a bit.

@Lezales

The lighting effects look quite good! I also like your choice of music, though I think it is a bit too loud in that demo. I also suggest using ambient background noise in most parts to enhance the feeling of realism. The font is cool too!

@Marrend

Those edits look good. For more variety, I suggest creating some glasses-wearing students as well.

Far_Oz

Your custom text screen is quite nice! The area looks very complex and involved. It's hard to tell from the size, but it looks like some of the taller rock faces have an obviously looping texture. It's not a big deal though.

Here is my latest work on the cave tileset for my game. I'm just posting it here to show it with some of the revisions people have suggested (thanks guys!):



I think I've gotten the hang of the basics now, so next time I'll post something more exotic, I promise. ;)

Thanks xeilmach! I feel the same way about my game. The more pain, the greater the reward after all!

Since I can't link to the files I was going to, and to avoid cross posting with the screenshot topic, I'll post some sprites from a new area I'm working on (though some of it is texturing, which might be considered 'cheating' ;))

As others have pointed out, it is easy to convert a MIDI into an MP3, but doing the inverse isn't really possible with existing technology (as narcodis pointed out though, some programs can give you an approximation, though I haven't used any of these myself).

Personally, I think the sound of an MP3 file is generally a huge improvement over MIDI, though of course it may not always be the best choice for a project.

This sounds like a cool idea for a short adventure game. Here are my thoughts on each of your questions.

~ What do you think about this idea ?

Survival games can be quite engaging, though I believe variety of locations, events, and activities are important for keeping player interest. You don't want to have the player get one routine that works and just doing that until the end of the game (even if that is how real life works, lol).

~ What elements would be make sure to incorporate in this game ?

I'd definitely include a day and night system, as well as a weather system. Being at the mercy of the elements really adds a lot to the feeling of survival. I'd also include a lot of random events, such as flash floods, randomly spawning animals, rock slides, etc.

~ What would be the main goal of the character. To survive for a certain number of days ? To reach some place or find some place ? To build a raft ? Should time be a limit or is it annoying ?

I think multiple endings would be pretty neat, like 'escape' or 'rescue', as well as some more intriguing goals. If it was me, I'd have some kind of ruin on the island, and possibly even one or two supernatural elements. Nothing sets someone more on edge than the unknown.

I would avoid a time limit, instead having a game over if the player runs out of resources or otherwise makes poor decisions.

~ What do you think about special hidden recipes for the crafting system that could possibly lead to slightly crazy/fun tools, allowing replayability ?

That sounds like fun, and you could even implement some of them to solve certain puzzles. This really depends on how much time you want to spend on the game, however.

~ What should I focus on to make sure the player has fun all the time and doesn't feel like grinding for 90% of the day to barely survive and to only be left with 10% of his time to explore ?

I would focus on exploration. I think the player should find a way to survive early on, and, after gaining confidence, encourage said player to explore the rest of the island. You could perhaps accomplish this by having the player gather ingredients for tools from around the island, such as the materials to make gun powder to blow up a boulder that is blocking their path to a new area.

~ Should the night be very dangerous ? Should the player have to come back at his shelter before the night ? What happen if he doesn't ? Game over ? Wake up the following morning with low stats (hunger, thirst, possibly health) ?

I think the night should be dangerous in some way, but not so much that the player is guaranteed to die. You don't need to have a smoke monster chase them, but something sinister about the darkness could really add life to the experience.

~ Could the player go to sleep whenever he want to pass the whole day ?

This could be a useful feature if the player just needs to kill time for some event to happen, yes. Depending on where they sleep though, you might want to have them rudely awakened (rain, animals, etc.)

~ Would there be any dialogue at all ? Like the character talking to himself or more realistically "thinking".

Thinking could be interesting, but I'd keep that down to a minimum. In a game like this, I think a player self-insertion is more effective, since it relies so much on mood and atmosphere.

~ What are your ideas for the hunting system ? Something simple, effective and fun.

Pit traps, spears, things of that nature. Certain animals could be dangerous, but it shouldn't be too difficult to hunt.

~ What do you think will be the biggest challenges of this project ? Traps I should avoid ?

I'd avoid busywork for the player, even at the expense of realism. If a player is exploring a new part of the island gathering food, you might want to have the food be automatically teleported back to his home rather than forcing the player to walk all the way back with a full inventory.

~ Should there be a "story" behind it or simply the gameplay put to the front ? Possibly trying to find someone else on the island ?

I'd have a story to keep things interesting. Maybe the island has a dark secret!

That's all for now. Good luck with the project!