So when I include screenshots, I get this error message... so: sorry no screenshots for you. Also I shorted the text drastically, I hope I can post now ;v;
What is this project about?
Currently I am working on a game you could possibly call a mix of mega plumber creator 2 and stubborn vampires castle: nocturnal music.
It is a pretty big project, but I am having great progress so far:
- Characters
- run/jump etc. + determine values like movement speed, jumping power or HP
- attack using 2 buttons + create chains to create combos
- proof-of-concept equipping weapons
- Enemies
- currently this is very WIP, only walker (zombie-ish) type enemies are possible
- they can also run around, they can jump (if enabled in the mod) and attack
- There is a very basic map editor
- this is my current focus, I am reworking it entirely. I have a proof-of-concept saving/loading a map with blocks and tiles from a tileset. so it's mainly a UI thing.
There's no character/enemy editor yet, so everything has to be made with txt files containing information about the character. Note though, I am working alone and doing lots of stuff, so progress is really slow.
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The game will be free and anything created for it will most likely be uploaded as public domain somewhere on the internet.
Screenshots or it didn't happen
Here's how my testing character Jeela looks like: [REDACTED]
I created some sprites with Aseprite and saved them as strips, which are loaded into the game. There's basic stuff every character needs (stuff like standing, running, being hurt or a mugshot for the character selection) and everything else (attacks, alt sprites when a weapon is equipped etc.).
I tried to make the file contents as simple as possible: [REDACTED]
There's no sprite helper yet, so getting the x-y-origin is a little tricky for now. That is one of the reasons, why I didn't show this to anyone so far and why I don't want to provide a demo yet. It is scary, I don't want to scare people.
Attacks look like this: [REDACTED]
You can do things like sliding (which means, the character will get pushed into a direction and slow down/slide on the ground) or moving (move continuouslywhich includes "flying" through the air). Your attack can have impact, smashing enemies into a certain direction. The combo information below links the attack to another one. Note: Most values are optional, I wrote "nothing" as a combo but I could just leave it empty. "combo_nothing" for instance is not in the file; this triggers an attack/animation if you don't press a button during an attack (might be useful if you want your character to dash forward and then smash the ground IF no button was pressed. If a button was pressed, maybe you want them to do an uppercut instead. Idk, I just try to create possibilites.)
I might expand it even further, allowing directional input for combos; it shouldn't be a big deal really.
[REDACTED] The title screen is just here to be here... but it shows a general direction where I wanna go artistically. Don't worry, I'll make the title screen moddable in case you want to create a happy rainbow game.
[REDACTED] A cheaply pixeled zombie smashed our poor hero away.
[REDACTED] Revenge.
[REDACTED] The current state of the map editor. The red line is the border for the UI elements (like disabling the grid on the bottom right or switching between creating blocks and placing tiles on the left). The black line shows that the chunk ends there and a new one begins.
I want the maps to have chunks so they can be huge but don't impact performance too much. Background music will be settable per chunk, so you could have a beginner area with a specific soundtrack and then it switches to a different one as you progress.
Why the devlog?
There's so much to think of and I'd love to get in touch with more people. I have read a few reddit posts what a good metroidvania would need... so you can definitely count on a map, minimap, teleportations and map markers. But there's more I need to think about and I don't want to decide that stuff alone.
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I will be publishing updates here every now and then and ask questions hoping to get some feedback. I'd love to hear your thoughts on topics like grinding, content/mod downloader, what happens when you finish a world (do you carry things over to a different world? balancing?). On a big project like this, there's a lot to talk about.
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