itch.io

I know there's bound to be many, I won't see them all unless you describe them to me. It helps out a lot! 

My game I've been working on for years now has been coming together more and more as months go by, I'm beginning to add feature after feature and it keeps becoming closer to my vision long ago, but also into something I never thought of.

Design your hero and power him up to levels of god like proportions and achieve immortality. Beware as an evil force is also striving for the same goal as you.

This update introduces the power of immortality to enemies you encounter. It will be features like this that cause moments of increased difficulty and  unique challenge, based on the area and circumstances that arise. The already undead enemies coming your way now can become ghosts and then reincarnate... spooky!

In this update you can see that it is possible to communicate with a friendly npc in the spawn area. You can even buy and sell items to him and he will have more items over time. This is the first implication of the shop, but when it is vastly expanded and more shops are added we might see a sort of economy form throughout the world, as shops can have different buy and sell prices for items!

The game still feels like its missing a lot because it is. I am nearing part of development where I vastly expand on every mechanic I have implemented. I intend to finish this game and deliver a world or universe that will grow over time  by the individuals who enjoy existing inside of it, for pretend of course.

With the latest version of GMS2 came effects and filters as well. So I couldn't help myself from adding distortion, blur, colorization, and desaturation to the whole game! When new effects are released I will be experimenting with this more.

View the games official page here: Immortal Quest by Jay Arnold (itch.io)

Here is the full change log.

UPDATE ALPHA 4.0 (11/1/2021) Happy Halloween

• Switched to installer method, because its easier!
• Added title to menu
• made menu darker
• Added basic branching dialogue system. (Currently only 1 npc to talk to, the shop keeper)
• Added shop system
• F10 to toggle fullscreen
• Buying and selling items
• Currency equivalence system (100 bronze = 1 silver = 0 .01 Gold)
• Made crystals spawn from the sky
• Added Enemy Crystals that revive bad guys, destroy them for XP
• Changed summon ability to possess ability! Temporary feature.
• Options menu (Music, SFX. ambience Volume)
• Various minor tweaks
• Made difficulty increase based on player level, instead of Day #.
• Game Balancing
• Damage Balancing
• Filters to make the game pretty, grainy, and slightly distorted.
• Stars when it turns night
• Fixed earthquake ability

Try Immortal Quest Alpha 4.0

Download from the Game's page: https://jay-arnold.itch.io/immortalquestalpha

INTRODUCTION

I'm looking for feedback on my enormous game project. It is in early alpha stages, but will be vastly expanded upon. I'm trying to get people to break and/or beat the game. The game has many dynamic mechanics and can be played so many routes, as far as character customization, class, and strategies.

You will begin in a character customization screen and will be thrown into the game world, with a companion to help keep your crystal safe. You must level up and acquire skills that will make you powerful enough to take down even a dragon. But at all costs, your crystal must live, for it has the ability to revive you upon death.

You will find this game challenging as it progressively gets more difficult. It is easy to get yourself in a sticky situation that ends the game. If you can make it far enough, you might find the dragon boss that I recently added. He will be one of many mechanical bosses found in the finished game. For those of you playing, I challenge you to defeat the dragon. You are likely to encounter bugs or crashes between now and then, but It is possible. Are you up for it?

SCREENSHOTS

FUTURE OF THE GAME

When the game is more developed, It will contain a vastly expanded ability system and branching story lines. You will encounter a wider variety of enemies in each region and will have to defeat several epic-ly challenging bosses. The dragon is absolutely nothing compared to what you will encounter later in the game.

DOWNLOAD the game (demo) for Windows HERE

FEEDBACK

The type of feedback I am looking for is constructive, or supportive. Again, the game is in it's infancy and needs many features and improvements to the core before it is completed. Please report to me your honest opinion on how captivating the current game is. I'd also like to hear your suggestions for continued development, or any other concerns you might have. Maybe you really like something I did and I should build off of it more? Whatever you're thinking, I'd love to hear it. I'll be sure to check out your game(s) and return the favor!

"The Chosen One"

This is a game that I have been working on for half a year. The progress I have made on this game since then has been astounding, considering I am still in school. When I graduate, I will be rolling into full development. To get a head start, I'm trying to get my game seen and build a following. I plan to release it cross-platform, and perhaps on your mobile device.

I have prepared a demo made available to you, so that you may test out some of my game mechanics. You will begin in a character customization screen and will be thrown into the game world, with a companion to help keep your crystal safe. You must level up and acquire skills that will make you powerful enough to take down even a dragon. But at all costs, your crystal must live, for it has the ability to revive you upon death.

You will find this game challenging as it progressively gets more difficult. It is easy to get yourself in a sticky situation that ends the game. If you can make it far enough, you might find the dragon boss that I recently added. He will be one of many mechanical bosses found in the finished game. For those of you playing, I challenge you to defeat the dragon. You are likely to encounter bugs or crashes between now and then, but It is possible. Are you up for it?

Download the game (demo) for Windows HERE

FUTURE OF THE GAME

When the game is more developed, It will contain a vastly expanded ability system and branching story lines. You will encounter a wider variety of enemies in each region and will have to defeat several epic-ly challenging bosses. The dragon is absolutely nothing compared to what you will encounter later in the game.

I will soon be adding shops, and simply begin expanding some of the features I already have in place, before moving on to story development and dialog.

SCREENSHOTS

WANT TO STAY UPDATED?

I will soon begin regularly posting update videos that highlight the game's current progress. You will find them on my YouTube. To be the first to hear about these videos, either subscribe and turn on notifications, or follow me on Twitter @ProdJaydog. Lastly I will post frequent blogs about game development and design on my itch.io page. You know where to find that :)

So what are some ideas you have for this game? I would love to hear creativity from the community, so that I can shape this game in a way that keeps you players in mind. I am also glad to answer any questions you might have for me.

I'm glad you can relate to what I'm saying here! Notes are a great way to organize your thoughts and clear your head sometimes. I pull up my notes almost every day and brainstorm some hypothetical feature. Then I am able to plan out what is necessary and what needs to wait until later. It's easy to come up with ideas, but it takes a mature developer to approach them in a logical order. Thanks for the reply!

"Advice for Solo Developers"

ABOUT ME.

For the past several months, I've been putting my all into developing my own indie game project. It is the most ambitious project I have ever started. I had made games when I was way younger when I had just learned the basics of coding, but I knew this time I was gonna give it my all.  I wanted to make an epic side-scrolling adventure with loads of content, inspired by many of my favorite games growing up. This meant that loads of art and music would have to be created to bring my idea to life, and every detail would be hard coded or designed in the editor. The journey so far has been fun and tasking, but is far from over. During this time, I have been doing a bunch of thinking and came up with some helpful ideas for all fellow solo game developers who are currently or about to start development on a huge project. You'll also get a lot out of this if you are starting your first game.

I have no plans to stop development, and will be taking these ideas with me as I continue to create the literal game of my dreams. I think that many of you can do the same, but it must be approached it in a way that is good for the project, and for you as a human being.

GRAND VISION.

If you are the sole developer of a game, you will start off knowing better than anyone, what your game will be. There has to be some sort of vision you had that encouraged you to make a game all by yourself. Always be thinking about what that final product will look like, sound like, and how it will play. What will the player feel while they are playing?  Why am I creating this game? If we ask ourselves these questions, and always come up with better answers to them, then the game will better reflect the vision.

BE REALISTIC.

I'm sure anyone would like to make the perfect game that is everything you could imagine. However actually making these ideas play on the screen can take much more skill than you might anticipate. If you are creating your first game, start with the basics. It's fun to think about what could be, but only seriously consider the features that you already have an idea for how they could be incorporated. Even if you have confidence that you can learn how via the Internet, you may be wrong. If your idea is truly groundbreaking, there might not be a tutorial for it. Also try to be realistic with your milestones, If you're trying to make something you've never even attempted, expect it to take twice long as you would expect in the first place. If you promise more than you can deliver, you might end up upsetting a community that you worked so hard to attain (more on that later.)

ONE STEP AT A TIME.

One of the most important things is to have a grand vision, but keep looking at your feet as you reach it. With an ambitious project, it's easy to get over excited about the next feature you are going to add. I've learned recently that Its crucial you build a solid foundation by solidifying what you have already made. If you do that, I assure you will have a much more stable and clean game once you finally do reach that anticipated next feature.

It's okay to get excited about getting close to those milestones we all set for ourselves as game developers, but don't rush when your'e close to done, because that is when you might introduce a minor issue that could be worked a better way, but was just settled for so that you can move on to the exciting stuff. I promise you the things you look forward to incorporating will behave a lot better if you think the foundation through in an efficient way.

KEEP IT MOVING.

There is another side to this, some developers get so wrapped up in optimization in a way that slows their development progress to a near halt. It is when this happens that developers' milestones begin to seem far away and that they might never reach them. Many become demotivated because they end up rewriting the same code numerous times just for that extra few frames per second. While fps and smooth play is important, so is your sanity. Sometimes we just need to add that exciting feature, just to keep us looking forward and development in motion. 

I worked on a game called "Seed of Andromeda" a few years back. I didn't code, I was working as the lead sound designer, while my older brother coded and designed the game itself in C++. He reworked the core code so many times I lost count, each time performing a bit better, and able to handle new functions he was creating. After the couple of years of development of the game he had a gnarly engine with loads of potential, but it was broken into parts that he never really connected. The work he did was incredibly impressive, considering he was basically the sole programmer for most of the time it was worked on. He had a 1:1 scale 3D voxel planets, orbiting in a binary star system, with procedural generation, and volumetric water physics (just to name a few features.) The game looked great, but ended up falling behind what he anticipated having by that time in terms of gameplay. 

He abandoned the project after accepting a job from Arena Net, and did the right thing by making it Open Sourced.

,COMMUNITY.

One thing, among many, that my brother did really well, was build a community for people interested in his game. He created his own website and forum for the development of his project. There people could see his Development Logs (which he actively posted,) provide feedback, submit fan art and suggestions, and download the game for testing. It's important to get people interested and then involved, when you have a community, you will find yourself acquiring a more refined vision. Having people play your game can help you find unseen bugs, and get an outside view of your game. You will be able to answer those questions we ask ourselves: "How will people play it? What will the player feel while they are playing?" 

I found one thing that really compelled him to make something great, was the fact that people were excited for what he was creating. He was doing it for the right reason, which was to make something that not only made him happy, but other people as well. If people don't know about your game, and you aren't actively searching for the people who want to, then you must ask yourself: "why am I creating this game?"

If you are making a game for money, that's understandable, money is great, but you will make a better game if you have the player in mind instead of how many advertisements you can squeeze in before it gets annoying.

___________________________________________________________

Thank you for taking the time to read my post. I know it was long, but I had a lot to say. I'm not a saint by my own rules though. As a developer I'm not doing the best job at all of the points I made. I have yet to build any sort of community, and am always adding shit that can wait. I guess I kind of made this post so I could clear my head and realize these ideas in the future. If you found this post useful, let me know why? How is the development of your game? If you are working on one. Or maybe tell me what kind of game you'd like to make (realistic or unrealistic.)

If you'd like to check out the project I'm working on you can read more about it and download the Alpha Demo HERE.

Follow me on Twitter. and Instagram @JaydogProduces

Hi! I'm Josh Arnold, and I used to make small games in Gamemaker 8 when I was young. Since then, music has been my main passion. I'm in an alternative rock band, but mostly produce EDM. I'm in my last semester at MTSU about to earn my degree in Audio Production. I recently rediscovered my coding talents and have been spending a ton of time working on an epic side-scrolling rpg defender. It's the first large scale game I've ever worked on and its coming along promisingly! You can see and play it here: https://josh-arnold.itch.io/the-chosen-one

Nice to meet you!