One Shade's Fate

A game where you control a spirit with the power of possessing objects · By Monkosum

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Brilliant

A topic by theomega669 created Apr 08, 2019 Views: 578 Replies: 15

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theomega6695 years ago

This was brilliant. Utterly brilliant.

I fashion myself quite a critical person, focusing on finding all points of improvements of a product I am reviewing. But this. Of course, there were some points to polish: Enemy speed (got awkward a few times, locked in precarious situations), and I believe there was one jump which was proportionally difficult.

Yet, there is struggle to find anything else to improve upon.

The presentation is clean, concise, and coherent. Goal and motivation summed up without words or even referencing events, but through gameplay itself.

The game evolves as you play it, progresses naturally and unveils mechanics that slot together wonderfully, without a single word the methodology of play is laid bare at our own grasp. The few times I was confused, barely a glance at the environment was enough to teach me a new aspect about the game.

The motion is so smooth and pleasant from the soul's flight to even the very transitions between possessed objects. And the music, synced and dynamic music, lovely sounds throughout.

This was an utter pleasure to experience, and I would not hesitate for a second to play more.

It scratched an itch of "Parasitic" gameplay I have been urging for years, and now I just want more~.

MonkosumDeveloper5 years ago

The last 3 days were pretty exhausting for me. I only slept a few hours a day, was stressed near the because of the deadline and on the last day i had a headache. And even if this ends up being the worst rated game of the jam: This comment made it all worth it. Thank you. I sat here for half an hour thinking about what to say. I had no words when i read this. The fact that someone I don't even know personally describes my game design as "brilliant" is just amazing.

And yes, there will be more. It will however have to wait because today I started working on a really complicated thing in my main project and I want to finish that first. But I will update this game in a month or two. It will feature a new world with some new mechanics and a new possessable object, a few extra levels per world, a new miniboss at the beginning of the last world and some small changes like bug fixes, level design changes and balancing.

And again, thank you very much for this comment. I haven't been this happy probably in weeks.

theomega6695 years ago

You deserve all the praise I gave and more.

Being involved in the creative field myself I instantly recognized the feeling you were describing, sitting up late day after day, struggling through hardships for the good of the craft, to bring an idea into reality. You put together something worth celebration. Whereas I often see half finished works come from jams, or a game focused on conveying a core concept to be developed later, your contribution is a fully fledged experience; creative and intriguing but also carried a sense of completion in its cohesion.

Where others produce a puzzle of odd pieces, and some focus on making one puzzle piece particularly strong, yours is a full picture and a beautiful one at that.
Would you mind me asking a few questions regarding the game? Or showing it to some of my fellow producers?

MonkosumDeveloper5 years ago

Of course not. Ask whatever you like.

theomega6695 years ago

What was in mind when creating the aesthetic? I can see speed playing a factor, but there was thought put into it.

When in the process did you start working on the music?

Did it start as an idea of the beginning or did the beginning and end come later?

How did you envision the game?

What are you proud of within the game? Perhaps something that is not noticeable, but a great feat of programming or design.

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MonkosumDeveloper5 years ago

I just noticed how long this actually was, so I wil try to answer your question in a shorter way so you can actually get some information out of it.

1: The speed change at the final boss is something to improve the gameplay, but I thought I could do better, so I added a different version of the final boss theme which plays when the speed is changed.

The art style and audio were made in a way I thought it would fit the game and the atmosphere well.

2: I made it every time I took a break, which was when I finished some major element or when I was exhausted. This also meant that I still had in mind how everything was build up and I could make music that would fit the situation.

3: I started working on the story as soon as I chose the main mechanic for the game. I wanted the main mechanic to be a consequence of the beginning, so I had to make it rather early.

4: I wanted it to be a puzzle-platformer with a combat system. There are still a few puzzles, but I realized that I didn't have enough time for more.

5: I'm proud of the polishing because my games are usually very unbalanced, I'm proud of the organized code and a functioning music system, and I'm proud of the overall game and how it was received.

theomega6695 years ago

Honestly I did prefer your longer answers, they gave a lot more insight into the process and your thoughts behind it. However, I do appreciate and enjoy the clarified statements you compiled them too, even if I would have preferred to see in depth most of all.
Deadlines and pressure has kept me busy lately, and I did not have chance to give a proper reply before now.

Either case, these are well thought out answers, and I can see how much thought and effort you poured into this project, quite amicable and inspiring.

From the people I have shown this so far I have gotten a positive response, many like me were as astonished to see such a complete product made in this time span and with these restrictions.

You do incorporate the story through the mechanics and gameplay splendidly, one great perk of thinking about the two concepts in tandem this early on (or even thinking about them as the same subject of development.)

If you had much longer time to develop this game, along with some form of budget, what would be the three main aspect you would want to work on towards improving?

MonkosumDeveloper5 years ago

I mean, I don't actually need budget because I don't have a team and I'm rather young, so there's nothing I need money for. And I am actually working on a full release for the game right now, which means that I thought about what to improve before. And there actually are three things.

First, there's the art. I want to keep the monochrome art style, but I think the sprites should have a bit more detail. I think the game doesn't look bad, but it doesn't look good either. The different areas shouldn't only be differentiated through the music and level design, but also through the optics. And I really need slopes to improve the looks of the first area of the second world.

Then there's the music. You said that you liked that the music was dynamic, and that will still be a thing in the full game, but I want the music to be longer than 16 seconds at best. For some reason I can't make even remotely long music tracks, which seems to be a problem very few people have.

And since the game is only about 5-10 minutes long, I need to make the game WAY longer. The worlds in the full game are going to be much longer, each of them probably being as long as this version, and there will be 15 of them. At least for one playthrough. At one point in the game you can decide on which path of world you want to do first, and because I don't want the difficulty curve to be a mess during that part, each of them will have 3 similar versions. So there actually will be a total of 33 worlds.

Because that would take an immense amount of time, I made a level editor where I can test the levels in real time without having to wait a few seconds every time I start the game. The editor is almost ready, I just need to adjust some things to prevent the game from crashing when placing some objects.

So that's it: Art, music and length. Please tell me if you have some more questions. And thank you very much for every comment you've written so far.

theomega6695 years ago

As long as you have ideas and thoughts to express through the game in new levels, puzzles, and visual storytelling, let the game grow. Making a game longer for the sake of length itself isn't as important. Your method of developing under constant feedback from the game is lovely, the sooner you see what your code is doing the sooner you can improve it, or make sure it works properly. Making music is something everyone will have struggles with, and making a long loop of music that has enjoyment and quality to it is not something to scoff at.

How full of a release are you planning for? If you presented the game in its current form to a game designer, what do you think they would say about it?

MonkosumDeveloper5 years ago

I don't want this game to be too long because it would get boring after a while. I don't think I can make a game that surprises you for several hours. But I also don't want it to be too short. I will make it as long as I can, but I don't want it to just drag on near the end because I ran out of ideas.

The feedback I got for this game also helped a lot because I now know what's good about the game. The only problem now is that I don't know what's bad about it. If there's anything you don't like about the game, even if it's just a minor thing, please tell me.

So after answering a question you didn't even ask: What would a game designer say if I showed him the game in its current state? Well, he would say that it's a giant mess. While the things I changed were made to decrease the development time, it also completely screwed up all the levels in the jam version. However, I could redo them probably twice as fast as I could before.

theomega6695 years ago

What choices did you make for the jam version that caused all these problems? How did it affect the process?
Playing through the game again I have some pointers which could be improved upon.
There is some lag during the first bossfight.
Perhaps make the pillars you can pass through and cannot pass through a bit more clear, it was presented in a great way during the first level, but they all look a little bit too similar to distinguish between.
Bread moves a little bit too floaty at times, especially in their jumps.

When moving, the heads that follow the shades look like they mesh over each other in a strange way, it is something I took notice of first time but it didn't bother me too much, looking at it closer, it has a strangeness to it.

The camera moves a bit quick when shifting to another object on screen.

Maybe switch enter for something else, I didn't notice it at first but it is a bit annoying to switch to the keyboard when you are using mouse and wants to switch bodies. I have enter tied to my mouse, which is why I didn't think about it

Maybe right mouse button?
same thing I said about the enemies from earlier applies.

MonkosumDeveloper5 years ago

Well, most things that messed up the game weren't caused by the choices I made in the jam, but rather by adding things to the game that would make level creation much easier later in development, which on the other side completely destroys the jam version. The only thing I changed was the main tileset, which used to consist of just 4 tiles that I would manually adjust to fit the level, but now there are 47 tiles, and I also automated the process.

Since most of you pointed out are objectively bad things, I will try to fix them. But personally I like how the track of the soul still exists if you are possessing something. I'm not sure what I will do about that. Maybe decrease the length of the track or make it so you can turn it off.

Everything else should be easy to fix. I don't know what's causing the lag during the first boss, but why fix it if it isn't even in the game. It will be similar, but since the final boss in the full game will be different, I need to remake it.

theomega6695 years ago

Oh I really enjoy that the track stays even when you possess other objects, it is just the way they are synced after you that bothers me. There is some odd overlapping that messes up close to the core spirit.
I am very curious on how this will be turning out, are you planning to make the game commercial once you have finished the new version?

MonkosumDeveloper5 years ago

Ah, okay. I think I know what you mean with the track. I had already fixed it before writing the last post, so I had to play the jam version to see it. By now I was never at the stage of polishing when making a game, except for jam games, but those are small and easy to polish. I have however seen people say that this is the part of the development that takes the longest amount of time, so before I quit the project near the end because of polishing, I just fix every issue I see right away.

Yes, this game will be commercial. It will be a full game, it takes time to make such a thing. But since it will be rather short, it's not going to cost too much. Maybe $5 at max. Really just depends on how long development takes. The problem is that I'm too young to actually have to means to receive the money, so I will have to wait for the release, even if I finish the game before that.

theomega6695 years ago

Then the confusion is understandable, and glad to see that fixed as well.

Definitely aim for a release version, it is more than worth it. A bit of a shame you aren't able to receive monetary gain from your work yet, but perhaps that will give you the extra time and perspective to fine tune it even further. I know I will be there to buy it once it comes out, and happy to help along the way too

MonkosumDeveloper5 years ago

So, it's been a while and I thought I would give you an update on the current state of the game. Cleaning up the code took longer than I thought, so there's not a lot of new stuff, but I will be able work way faster now. I also made my first song that's longer than a few seconds. I'm sure it will be changed later on, but for now I'm satisfied with it. I also created some assets for a new world and made 2 new possessable beings. Of course, it could be more, but life has been busy lately, so I didn't have as much time as I thought. Anyway, here's a small teaser for the new world. I also made a twitter account to get updates out more often and to popularize it a bit. Check it out if you want to:

https://twitter.com/One_Shades_Fate

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One Shade's Fate

Brilliant