Or whatever else you play to feel succesful. So I’m just gonna take some time to post some of the concept art we were going over. Images are so pretty afterall right?
Note that these are still not final. some things will go thorugh changes. Most notably the glowstick.
Alright, see you next time.
Ciao!
So I was talking with Toast, and he said he couldn’t listen to my idea for the intro at the time. I said I’d prepare it for him when he got back. I did this:
Was trying to have some fun. That’s all unofficial, but I thought someone would like it,
Ciao!
Nuff said. Progress is beyond slow as nowone seems to be available, so I’ve been forced to try my habd at concepting the forest in the beggining. Be warned as the next image was made in short time and totally doesn’t fit the look I want.
Yeah. I dislike that, but thought it was nice enough ot make a desktop background. Anyways, I need to spend more time on this before I’m willing to start making tiles for it, and only a select few elements from that picture are worth keeping. It’s difficult to find a reference pic that suits my desires. I’ll have to think long and hard about it.
Till next time! Ciao!
I just keep forgetting I have a blog. 😛
Alot keeps changing, so not much gets done despite the desires of many. I also found that XBox live Indie titles have the most odd restrictions on them, and feel like we should consider our desired platform a bit more. I’m attempting to gather more people on this project, and I believe we may have a concept artist! I’ll update once I know for sure.
Till then, Ciao!
So my friend Justsometoast showed me a video titled “Sequalitis” and it talked about gameplay and design as well as other stuff. It was all really interesting, and I went about watching gameplay and playing a few flash games to see what things we subconciously do when playing games an how to design about that. So here’s a few of the notes I made along with things Justsometoast had already known:
-Games that force you to jump every milisecond are extremely anoying, and to avoid this slopes should be used.
-If you can use tricks to draw a player’s eye towards something they need to see instead of putting text on the screen.
-Instead of telling the player what something does, design the level so they can see the effects of something before they have to deal with it in a challenging setting.
-When hiding things, a player will naturally look in corners and small spaces.
-Backtracking is only enjoyable when it’s scripted in some way, instead of being the same map.
-Don’t make the player “farm” for money or EXP. It gets old, fast.
-To mix up gameplay, try to avoid sequences that require playing minigames or completely change the style of gameplay, and instead search for ways for the player to use the same tools and controls they have in different ways. “DAMNIT! I’m trying to save the world, and you won’t let me pass because I can’t time button presses!”
-A long game does NOT neccesarily equal a fun one.
-If something visually pops out, the player assumes it is important, so it had better be important in some way.
-Open space is usually what the player looks to first, as something probably will or should occupy it.
Alot of this was straight from Justsometoast and credit should go to him for that much. I wanted to take advantage of a few of these tips and techniques to try some things out. We talked for awhile and came to a few conclusions. The first being, designing the tutorial level of the game to not display any text or messages. The player will figure out what they can do based on how the level leads them to it. There’s actually quite alot more, but that’s really plot spoiling stuff, so I’ll leave you with this to ponder at.
Ciao!
I was on development break for a bit, and learned a helluva lot more about using Gimp, writing, and drawing in that time. I also got a creeper T-shirt for Christmas along with a keyboard so I can compose on an actual intrument.
The creeper T-shirt wins by the way.
But scholarship hunting for college has been an exhaustive effort and I hope it pays off. To be fair, it’s for a video game art school that apparently wants me, so They’ll probably help me with these development skills…
Anyways, progress mentioning time!
I spent ALOT of time trying to make a better art style. I hate the way Veyrn was drawn because it made things difficult to animate. So I’ve completely redrawn his body, and when I get it off paper and on the computer you may marvel at it. I did manage to redesign his hand however, and I’ll let you compare the new style to the old.
The left hand is the new one, and the right hand is the old one. Sorry that it’s small, I didn’t feel like changing the size on Gimp.
While doing so, I’ve started on the design of Miza, which has been difficult considering that since she will only compose of two colors, “the outline and fill colors” her cloting and hair REALLY need to stick out. This will also apply to Soyah, who I’m terrified to start designing, so they need to have several different characteristics. To combat this, with Miza I’ve given her a witch-like hat, which is a giant difference in the head, as most of them will have the same basic shape, and am trying to put her hair in a ponytail as to deviate more from my plan for Soyah. On the body, “which I haven’t even started yet!” I have to be alot more original, “I can’t use Paper Mario for any sort of tip as most characters only wear one article of clothing” I need an outfit for Miza that doesn’t consist of any sort of dress or skirt, but still looks villanous. It also can’t look too serious or too free spirited. Both would contradict an aspect of the character and thinking about it hurts my head. I’m considering a jacket of some sort for that part of the torso, but at this point I’m taking any suggestion you may have.
Well, on the programing side, I’ve purchased a book on Java, and it’s pretty interesting. I don’t think extreme programming development will come in anytime soon unless I get some actual help from a person, but I don’t expect that to happen. Until then all I can do is refine the concepts, visuals, musical style, and game layout as much as possible when I’m bored at school and am supposed to be doing something else.
Well, I hope you guys had or are having a nice break, and I’ll be sure to post again soon.
Ciao!
I have a blog. That’s right huh…
Well, I’ll have to feel guilty for lack of progress then. I’ve been doing some sprite art for N0rty games and been trying to apply for financial aid so I can pay to go to college. It may be the most frustrating thing I’ve done in… forever.
Not much was actually done for Murky Oddity. The only notable thing is that I decided on the final design of Veyrn, and need to create it now. I gotta figure out how to make the vector art programs less of a pain in the ass.
If you feel like helping, then you can answer a question for me: How do you create soundfonts without expensive recording studios?
If anyone wants to volunteer some time as a programer to help Murky Oddity get started, “cause I won’t have time for awhile” then they can let me know. The goal for the game might switch to an Xbox live title, as I know people who make those types of games, but I’ll probobly give a few copies away to a select few of those loyal since the beggining.
The summary of today’s post is this: I suck, help if you want.
Ciao!
So uh, Still planning thins out, and since this game is in beggining stages I obviously have time to change ideas or concepts and other things. SO this is what’s going on right now:
1.
Simply put, I don’t want to use Construct to make this. I have learned that the ability to create large games is very hindered and is only possible with shit tons of memory saving programing things, which I don’t know.
2.
I have a solution, I have recently started doing some spriting for n0rtygames, and after some time I might be able to convince the very kindly programmer to huild me some tools to get started, “it’s not much of a task, he’s gotten games running in 3 days”, if not, I have to find an engine in either Java or C++ to work with.
3.
All the games graphics will be vector based. The bitmap images take too long to draw. I’ll still be making sprites, just not for this game.
My apologies for not posting sooner, these were big hoops to jump through. It basically means that I’m starting fresh, we’re even considering remaking all the current music to have custom soundfonts. In time I suppose. If anyone wants to recomend something after this announcment’ “a program, engine, etc…” then let me know.
Ciao!
It appears development slowed for a little bit, but it’s been school time so I’m gonna get some stuff done. I would like to finish working out the ‘bump’ that occurs when an enemy damages you, and am almost finished with that, alog with other tedious bits of programing. I would like to get up an experiance system along with a few enemies by the end of march, an the glowstick combat system by the end of November. Until then enemies shall die in the Super Mario Brothers style. Jumping on them. A big thanks to CrippleChair for assisting me in getting started on the first of the cave tilesets, and ideally there will be about 5. They will each have multiple 128×128 chunks of rock so variety will be there, and I would like to avoid certain things Pixel did, “such as tiles not always fitting together” as that really bugs me.
Music has been going as expected. Slow. My skills have improved though, and thanks to piano class I’ve been able to come up with a few compositions that need to modified. I’ll also try to learn, “and possibly buy” how to use the program flStudio, as it is currently the program justsometoast uses to convert my midis to mp3 format and add onto them. It’s certainly an interesting program.
While all the level ideas are already in my head, I’ll give a spoiler as to what I would like the first to be. After Veyrn and Soyah discover that the mirror may be able to help them, and they head off to where a piece is rumoured to be, the Rooted Caves. After adventuring through various tunnels to get there, the reason for it’s odd name is evident. The caves are full of roots and plants! Apparently the plants from the surface have roots growing so deep that they have infested this cavern. Off of these roots various little plants have grown, making the place much more green than the average cave. Shortly after exploring, our heros meet the Sunflowers. A race of walking flowers that live off of the nutrients in the ground and water. They radiate light off the pedals, that under the right conditions is very bright. however they are very dim at the moment. It appears an odd shard of black glass has been found by a younger sapling, and then stolen by a much larger plant. That plant began to grow more monsterous and has secluded himself far away from the others, in the more dangerous parts of the cavern. He continues to grow and continues to suck up more and more nutrients, leaving almost nothing for the Sunflowers. They may very well lose all the nutrients in the ground and water and starve if something isn’t done. Of course our heros are up the task. But what awaits them in the Rooted Caves? Only time will tell.
My hope is to get this far into development by the end of May or June. This will mean the following is done:
The last is the easiest part, I have many friends willing to assist. I would like to leave you with something other than a wall of text to read, so here’s a midi I worked on. It’s just a short one, that I will reference when I want to make a sad song:
http://www.mediafire.com/?1f7g34vtdwx5v13
I’ve been writing more little tunes than full songs lately, which is what happens when your in piano class and don’t have infinte channels and 128 instruments at hand.
Sorry for the length of time between posts. I wanted to post something, but had nothing to post. So I just posted the level idea and whatever else came to mind. I’ll try to accomplish more so I’ll be able to post more.
Ciao!
EDIT: Apparently I posted the wrong link. Should work now.
Just made a few changes to the animations. As always esc to escape, but jump has been changed to “S”.
http://www.mediafire.com/?yit7a9o39vvdi6g
Ciao!
HyMyNameIsMatt development blog 