itch.io

Excellent controls, gameplay and models and animations for the player character.

Needs more actions for the player to do, and actual level design, but a pretty great start!

The Devil Spire 2 Music Program is officially complete!

You can check the full song list here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d2s886gM91KmrPwmNm3I1D6tkENAyA0X-p17r8VW...

Thanks to everyone who participated!

And until Phase 2!

We're happy to officially announce the Devil Spire 2 Music Program!

Ever wanted your music to be featured in a game? We're offering $50 USD per minute to get the rights for your songs!

Please read through the attached Copyright Assignment Agreement document model carefully for the terms and conditions. This is what I'll use to make our specific contract that you'll sign to seal the deal:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y-wW3sPKK2AnR_83l0eN3a1ILzP0g_7f/view?usp=drive...

We're looking for Dark Fantasy, retro-MIDI-style songs, think King's Field and Daggerfall!

There are several loose slots open, and if your music is approved, it will be assigned a role by our team!
Check the Google Sheets spreadsheet for it:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d2s886gM91KmrPwmNm3I1D6tkENAyA0X-p17r8VW...

Your music could be featured in our new proc-gen Open World Action RPG, the sequel to Devil Spire! With all credits and linking.

!NO AI-GENERATED OR STOLEN SONGS!

• Contact us through our Discord server, on the #music channel:
  https://discord.gg/Hd2tESGqyE
• You can also DM me on Twitter/X:
  https://x.com/1r0
• Or, you can be an OG and reach me through email:
  ithiro_sumi@hotmail.com

I see, thanks for caring!

Unfortunately, content is the last thing that's gonna be added (right after balancing, polishing and finalizing the mechanics), so the game will keep feeling barebones for a good while. But rest assured I know too well the trappings of large empty open worlds, doubly so if they're procgen. So I'll be sure to fill it with interesting stuff all around.

Consider also that I'll be adding fast-travelling (at a cost), mounts, and all sorts of magic things to help with travel.

Yeah, well, it really isn't an actual finished prototype, it's mostly very early in-dev builds, with a ton of really crucial stuff missing or not polished at all... That's why I decided to pull it from Demo Days because while most of the complaints are valid, they are about stuff that will be added or improved later on.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts anyway, but I'll come back once the game can actually use general criticism, as for now it really does suck, but it really isn't even close to being finished.

yes, I'm going that route. no trashy lmao look how WACKY and SILLY this game is. I plan on making afully fledged game with actual content and quality, but it'll take time. looking forward to it!

thanks, specially for the video!

I'm still adressing all the bugs since this is very early still. you can find weapons in dungeons or by spawning them with numpad. You just look at them then and press E to take. it might be a bit too precise.

the save file is uncompressed, human readable data for now, but it'll get much better once I optimize it for non-debugging purposes.

WARNING: Opening the menu in the overworld with a Greatsword equipped crashes the game!
I've already found a solution, but I won't have time to implement it!

ah yes. I'll save each chunk individually still so it's easier to load, and I can store stuff like NPCs, villages and dungeons innit. but I'll definitely have to stop saving the whole ass terrain heights.

Thanks! Ragdolling is just there to show it sucks, basically. And we'll get a better feel for the combat once better AI, different enemy types, and the other systems like equipment come into play.

Hmm, good idea. I was too focused on just making it just work way back then in the Godot 4 Beta, so this might be a huge optimization improvement, thanks!

Well, the thing is that the terrain can be modified with digging and building, so that's why.

Thanks for the feedback.

Lightning is cast on the closest foe not behind cover, or yourself if none are available. You might've been doing power attacks instead of normal ones (by holding the button). The enemy might've been poisoned, I dunno. You press C to descent (sorry).

It's gonna be similar to Kenshi, yes. Like a first person morrowind version of that instead of almost like an RTS/CRPG.

Thanks! But unfortunately, the world gen breaks when generating a small world because of all the biomes and wild variations in terrain.

What changed from last demo day:

• Fall Damage
• Running, Jumping and Crouch animations
• Dodging with Jumps
• Hold some actions buttons for different effects, like power attacking and longer jumps!
• Final control layout and full controller support
• Spell Casting! (Spells not final at all)
• Interacting with the environment, like opening doors, and sleeping! (no time passing yet)
• Many misc improvements to stamina, substats, Impact X Balance / Force system, animations and collisions
• Several bugfixes and engine updates, plus code organization

it's a great honor to inspire anyone. take whatever you like!

we're on, brudda!

Thanks for your feedback! I believe most of the issues you fear with the game are gonna be sorted out soon, so stay tuned!

Could work... I'll try it out, thanks for the tip!

Using a shovel, or a fireball, would be the idea.

The shoulders need to look like a ball so rotating them around looks decent no matter the pose (without using low poly deformations). I'll study improving them regardless.

The AI is mostly a placeholder with several tests for different functions of it. I'll heavily modify it.

Ah, RPG Maker, how I missed you.

Now, I don't know how seriously you want to take this, but I think it needs more funny moments other than cutscenes. Like interacting with the environment should provide some funsies, and also with items and other micro-quests, like bringing a piece of beef to the grandma and she yearning to stew it but not being programmed to, etc.

"Vanilla" RPG Maker games are a dime a dozen, even back then, so you have to put in much more work to make it stand out.

owo what's this? Dungeon Speedrunning + Management + Hentai? Very new and interesting concept! I love it!

So, I don't think you need several different Jump powers that you need to switch between. You can easily have them all together all at once, and simply unlock them one at a time on a skill tree of sorts. Seems like it'll be more fun, rewarding, and less finicky. Toss in more powers in that skill tree and you're golden.

Also, people hate Time Limits, so try to ease them up by making it so you do get more Gold if you clear it, but instead of just Losing, you could instead let people keep playing and just earn less Gold. You get halfsies if you choose to not have a time limit at all, and you could elevate the hardcore do or die time limit to be the greatest gold reward, sort of like an Easy, Normal and Hard mode.

And finally, lots of mechanics and menuing around. This will probably be tidied up in time, but I recommend focusing on trimming it down and narrowing it as you go along.

Can I get a Naked Man vase too?

Oh, and Stamina is a sad concession to make climbing and blocking work (and have a sane reason for enemies to stop attacking), but I'll make sure that it's as unintrusive as possible, what's with actions only being stopped at negative values, and no "out of breath" states.

Thanks a lot for recording with commentary, it helped me a lot!
In general, I'm sorry I just dumped a prototype full of debug and placeholder stuff. A lot of what you criticed is one or the other, but a lot of valuable insight was gained from your video, so thanks again!

Hey, thanks for the criticism regardless! Unfortunately the game is very early, and I should have waited a bit more before submitting, but the feedback has been invaluable.

• The World is indeed empty for now. I plan on filling it with as much stuff as I can, but I can easily adjust the world size (and probably make it an option) based on what people think later on.
• Negative SP is intentional. It's only when it's at that value that you actually can't do things anymore. I didn't want an excessively punishing Stamina system, so I went the Dark Souls route. Combat is also intentionally slow, but will get faster with higher stats.
• Terrain modification is one of those mechanics I added early just to see if I could. It's gonna be used later on for terraforming and to help with exploration (who am I kidding, I'm just gonna fill the world with buried treasure).
• Climbing is based around a bad animaton for now. I'll change it drastically. I plan on making Stealth mode the same as Climbing mode. Let's see how that turns out.
• I'll definitely add than later on in development.
• Shoulders being small was a concession I had to do for animations to look decent. I'm going for a PS1/Morrowind style, but I'll consider changing the models or getting an artist to do all of them.
• Shading styles and other artistic details will be ironed out later. I like the very harsh, polygonal shading but I can accept if people don't like it.
• Lagging is also something I'll have to worry about later, when there's even more stuff on screen at once. Maybe just disabling shading is gonna be enough, huh?

Nice demo. If you want to build on these mechanics, I'd recommend adding jumping to the hoverboard, so people can use slopes to gain momentum for free fun. Also, the camera shakes way too much in weird ways. Finally, I think the bow aiming zooms way too much in, and it should allow you to fire without aiming, or at least combine aiming with shooting for a better feel. Keep at it!

Thanks a lot! And don't worry, I'm doing stuff starting from the most difficult to implement, or important, so I won't get caught up in silly diversions or details and actually finish this.

Tested on Linux (Ubuntu, yeah sue me).

Seems well made in general. Performance on Linux isn't great, and multiple explosion sounds tend to cause stutters and glitches in the audio. I'd recommend, since you're doing destructible environments anyway, to make your scenarios look more like things instead of just caves to make them more interesting.

Good luck with your game!

Thanks! Directional attacks will be in in the form of special Power Attacks with unique effects. I'll avoid adding directional parrying because a lot of the enemies won't be humanoid, and I don't want to, like, "force" wolves to attack vertically. I'd rather focus on making the effects of weapons, stats and perks matter more. We'll see as development progresses and more mechanics are added.

Thanks for playing! The cubes are the NPC's detection markers, to show where they last saw you, they don't have collision. I'll improve on the movement mechanics, including jumping, later on.

Very neat idea, I like it. I think only the effect of flapping your wings needs work, as popping up when you do it doesn't feel right. Experiment with adding speed instead. Add in the work on the animations and you can have a banger.

I'll change the ESC quit asap to avoid heart attacks from people after waiting to generate a world.

Pushing NPCs was borken and I forgor to remove the debug option.

The little white pyramids are the NPC's detection spots, marking the last palce they saw you.

The buildings are intended to not spawn perfectly above ground, and sometimes dig a bit in or out. The big one in the middle of the map is just a loose test asset.

The button in the main menu for Continue is not greyed out, but of course I'll work on the menus afterwards.

The slowness is gonna be ironed out with stats, as Attack Speed is gonna be a thing, we'll see how people that both like and dislike it think of it then.

Thanks for playing and the review!

Very interesting concept, I like it. Good luck sorting out all the quirks from the mountain of bullets.

I didn't particularly like the wall jumps and the parries and attacks that derive from it, I think a different mechanic should take their place. Just doesn't seem to gel with with the ultra destruction/fuck platforming angle it's going for.

Art looks good so far, I'd say it's a good start. Dash seems mostly useless, though, but maybe with some invincible frames and animations it could be good.

and thanks for playing!

Thanks! I'll consider several different digging patterns, including for stuff like explosions, but accepting the square holes seems like a good idea for the people that like landscaping.

it's fine, thanks for trying it out!

Nice work! So here are my thoughts:

• The Flash game aesthetic is a difficult and dangerous style to pull off (I speak from experience). I'd recommend at least getting a lot of feedback from artists to make sure you get it just right for it to look good.
• No clicking the text box to advance? Let me cultivate my carpal tunnel syndrome!
• Using something to differentiate Dialogue and Action text would be good, like Madodev said
• I'd recommend adding a lot more flair to the character sprites during scenes, as the "talking PNGs" effect is harsh. A little breathing animation, some varying poses, animations for coming in-and-out etc. Try to put in the work in these scenes to avoid the VN-hater effect
• I'd recommend a lower angle for battles, the current one doesn't look too appealing. Try the Orthogonal camera mode for a sick 2D-ish look that I think would go well with your artstyle for 2D and 3D.
• Zooming the camera way in for some sick angles during combat would do wonders, I think.
• I think units that've already acted should be a little darker.
• I'm not sure about bows having only 1 cell of range, that seems like a spear thing.
• This is something for the future, but please avoid the typical pitfall of TRPGs that is to constantly bend and break the combat rules for "variety" and "surprises". Keep the systems consistent and focus on their own depth and exploring it instead of cheap tricks to keep your players engaged.  Make it feel like playing against several chess masters, instead of against your little brother that suddenly says his king "powered up" and is now a queen after turn 3.

I see. I'll investigate, thanks!