Castle Paradox

Chaotix · Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 6:13 pm Post subject: Indego Rune Info Released!

As many of you know, my game "Neo Tek Armano" plain out sucked. Well, I have stopped that project. Some of you also know that the opening story was very much a secondary part of an already thought up story. Well, as Newbie_Power has said in his review of my crappy demo,(oin the first issue of OHR's new online magazine), I have been working on the, very much less crappy prequel! I have been working my ass off trying to make this game look as good as I can, to the best of my abilities. Most of you have not heard from me since I was getting advice on making a hero battle sprite.

Well, I am posting this topic to show how work on this game has come along.

Ready to see? Well, here we go! Screen shots and all!
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Indego is taking a stroll through a canyon.

Indego is relaxing on the beach. The red haired look alike is a NPC that you can talk to to test my VOICE OVERS!

Indego is standing above the first save point. A fully active, floating orb!

Indego standing next to a house. It even has an open roof.

Indego is in the Inn/Shop. The look alikes are place holders.

Indego is resting in bed.

Indego looking at some FISH!

Can you find Indego? No he's not in the tunnels...

Wait till you find out how you get here!

Indego is training at the training grounds. Fish here to...

(Place holder) Indego fighting a training dummy. I made the back drop myself! Be sure to tell me what you think of it. It is the best I can do as far as I can tell...

My next post will show off some of the games features!
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Chaotix · Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 6:13 pm Post subject:

So, I am sure most of you people are, (or will be) wondering, "Why should I play THIS game?" Well, that is what this text document is for, to tell you some of the many features that are special to this game, and very few other. I am takeing a load of time to perfect this game, gameplay wise, and give a full on attempt to get the players of this game to want to keep playing as much as possible! Ready to learn what this game comes with to capture your attention? Well here we go!

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A completly new cast of original, creative characters that wil blow your mind.

A brand new world, where few things are as they should be.

Joypad Compatable!

Many races live on this planet, including ones no one has thought of before!

This world is alive! Fish and animals roam free, no more static enviroments that are dull to look at, stale, and boring. You can talk to animals, fight them(you crule bastard) and even play with some.

Many extra quests, ranging from the usual item findeer quests, to the most brutally cruel extra bosses!

No over world(world map), this game plain out does not have one. You go from place to place by traveling through forests, dungeons, or even just a stroll around the block, or hop down a cliff.

Liner, but not! this game is pretty strait forward, but you can play around with side quests, mini games, and more.

Why ride a boat. when you can SWIM! After a certain point in the game, swiming becomes an option, allowing traveling through water at you leisure. You will even be able to travel under water all on your own! There is even an entire dugeon that you swim through! No walking through the underwater dungeon, SWIMING!

Fusion! Break the laws of nature, and fuse with your brother for many extra possibilities!

A giant floating Scyth? WTF? (Belive me, the way it is used, will blow your mind!)

No air ships, so get over it... Fly instead!

Only two party members? This game has an interchanging party, where the last party member is only there temporaraly. (don't expect to have one at the last boss...)

Challenging battles. Don't expect to grind a few levels, and never have to worry about getting your butt kicked. This games enemies take some thinking to defeat. Even though, this game will not force you to die of boredom cause you cant beat a boss, and cant' stand level grinding. Grinding is only needed if you want to do so!

A deep story that isn't boring. Humorous, yet quite serious. Doesn't take it's self so serious that it will make your brain bleed, and it pulls random helarity out of nowhere.

Main character has a dark side? Pfft, it's been done before... (But not like this...) This sadictic, satanic, bastard will make you glad he is not real.

Grind boots! Take explortation to a whole new level!

Not to easy, not to hard. Some things will take somke thinking, but it wont take you a week (or a stratagy guide) to find the solution. Easy to spot markers will tell you where you can start to swim, fly, or dive under water so you will not be wandering around lost, just to find you had to push a button to make you character hop a cliff.

Easy to under stand, easy to get hooked. Everything is explaind to you when you need it, so those long tutorials are history. Find out what you need when you need it. YOu will even be at a place to practice that conveniently placed new item or ability at the place you find it. ( Think, learn the ability to swim, now go jump in that water over there.)

Interactive envirments! Pull switches, bomb walls, attack helpless critters...

A entirly optional, long as hell dungeon, there simply because it can be... It would be well worth your time to finish it, but can you? (save points included, even quick escapes!)

Save points? Sorry girls, none of that save any where crap, there are parts in this game, where if you are to low a level, and you enter and save, you are screwed.

Thogh you will learn new abilities through leveling up, the are some items that can be equiped and un equiped to BOTH character, that teach rare, powerfull magic.

Brother combination attacks!

A full working power point document. It will be this games instruction manual. Full with pictures, bios, instruction, credits, and every thing elses an instruction manual would have.

and finnaly...

VOICE OVERS! This game will feature them at the most crucial of time, such as cut sceens, and other important times. But dont expect them from many villagers.

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Now, I must know. tell me what you think so far. Spare no details.
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Artimus Bena · Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 10:16 pm Post subject:

heeey, I don't know if you were looking for critiques, but here's my thoughts on each of the screenshots, can't hurt.

first shot: Indego is taking a stroll through a canyon.
I totally would not see it as a canyon if you hadn't said anything, and even now, I have a hard time. Maybe make the ground on the lowest level a little darker than the high levels?
Also, the grass is way bright. You're doing an OK job on repetition elimination, but it stills need another level of it. Try using diagnal lines, instead of drawing each blade of grass.

second shot: Indego is relaxing on the beach.
Again, really bright colors, and right next to eachother (murder on the eyes). However, the rock textures are really nice, and eliminate the grid. Ya know those long, random left-to-right lines on the wall ? That's how I would imagine the grass looking, just green.

third shot: Indego is standing above the first save point. A fully active, floating orb!
I really like the wood texture on the outside of the house, I don't know if in this world they have planks that long. The sprite's pretty cool too. The path is majorly "gridded" though. Maybe if you put in some path tiles that have some grass peeking over the bottom of tile, to help sustain the illusion of a camera angle.

fourth shot: Indego standing next to a house. It even has an open roof.
The doors of the house look way small for Indego :p The windows are cool though. Same bright colors comment as before. If you're going for a cartoony look, I'd still darken the colors a little bit. You could also round the edges of the corner grass tiles over the water.

fifth shot: Indego is in the Inn/Shop. The look alikes are place holders.
The floor's texture is cool, I would just get ride of that open space between each tile. This is one of the better maps, but I think it would help the illusion if you darkened the tops of the walls, and maybe make a different tile altogether for that.

sixth shot: Indego is resting in bed.
Same notes as above

seventh shot: Indego looking at some FISH!
The water looks like jello with slits cut into it; if you're going to use lines, make the lines wavy!

eighth shot: Wait till you find out how you get here!
Ride the fish?? : p

ninth shot: Indego is training at the training grounds.
The gate is wayyy small, but I donno if you care much about proportions. The dummies are cool. So far the very best work has been the sprites. I'm guessing those are birds on the gate; if so, nice detail.

tenth shot: I made the back drop myself!
I can tell the airbrush was used on this, but despite that, the flow of the grass is quite nice. The lightest color you use there, I would probably tone it down a couple shades. The wall is pretty nice, as well as the dummies. The way they stand draws the eye.

Ok those are my comments, take 'em or leave 'em, either way they're free.
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Moogle1 · Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 10:23 pm Post subject:

How come Indego has spiky hair in his walkabout, but almost no hair in the battle picture? Similarly, his walkabout has blue shoes but his battle sprite is all grey. I also don't like the bodyless design, but that's a style decision.
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

Artimus Bena · Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 11:50 pm Post subject:

Hey I got a chance to read your second post there. You seem to be packing quite a bit into this. Hehe the enthusiasm makes me want to try it.
_________________
SACRE BLEU!

|||Compositions!
|||Eldardeen Soundtrack!
|||Red Mercury!

Newbie_Power · Joined: 04 Sep 2006 Posts: 1762

FUSION-HA!

...

I'll try out the demo later (Chaotix PM'ed me with a demo)... I've been in and out the OHR scene, not working on my game (I did play some of the terrible games) mostly out of laziness, Poke'mon, and inability to focus on things.
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Chaotix · Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 1:26 pm Post subject:

Chaotix · Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 1:26 pm Post subject:

Calehay · Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 3:48 pm Post subject:

Your tiles suffer severely from the grid.

Your tiles are also lacking perspective. Everything looks flat. Now, please don't retort with, "Zelda did it!" The reason Zelda works is because every wall is at such a high perspective that it feels more like you are looking into the room. Here's it just looks like everything is flat. Here's a nice perspective tutorial:

http://www.khulsey.com/perspective_basics.html

As for your backdrop:

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever use the airbrush tool when you are doing pixel art. The problem with this grass is that it's not textured to look like grass. Grass is made of individual blades. Look at examples such as Tales of Phantasia, Final Fantasy VIj, and Seiken Densetsu 3 have done grass. You won't find any just stray pixels that were airbrushed on there.

In general, this is the problem with most of the tiles. As someone stated earlier, if you hadn't said that it was x, then they never would have known. If you're in doubt about how to go about pixelling a canyon, take a look at how others have done it. Don't be afraid to get ideas from others, emulating their technique.

I personally want to hear these voice-overs. I had an interesting experience with some of the "movies" from Lionhead's The Movies game's website. The quality of the audio was so bad that it detracted from the movie. Make sure that if you are going to add voice-overs that you don't have otherworldly distractions distancing the player from the action.

You seem to be very interested in doing this game, and that's a great start. However, there's a few technical things that are getting in the way. Squelch those out with a little refining, and you could be on your way to a completed game.
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Calehay

Artimus Bena · Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 4:40 pm Post subject:

This is what I was suggesting

There's still a little bit of grid elimination needed, but this is to be expected for something I spent 5 minutes on. Anyways, it illustrates the diagnal line idea.

If you can zoom in, take a look at how some of the grass blades were partly drawn at the bottom or top, and completed at the opposite side. This is one technique for grid elimination. Notice the color choice too. There's only three greens. You had brownish and yellow blades of grass mixed with healthy green. In 2d graphics, a bunch of details aren't what's needed. In reality, what usually looks the best is the simpler approach.
_________________
SACRE BLEU!

|||Compositions!
|||Eldardeen Soundtrack!
|||Red Mercury!

Chaotix · Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 7:08 pm Post subject:

This is great guys, keep it coming!

Im going to fix the weird looking wood on buildings.
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msw188 · Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 1041

Hmm, I'm not sure how old you are or where you are from, but judging from the way you post (and honestly, I am not trying to make fun of you here) I would suggest taking serious time to proofread your text boxes in the game (or if you are not very proficient at standard written English, try to find someone who is to do it for you). It sounds like you want this game to be taken seriously, and it seems like you are putting a lot of work into the graphical aspect of it. Do not slack off on the text. If nothing else, you could type all of your text first in a word processor and have that grammar check for you. It will make it MUCH easier for others (or at least me) to take your game seriously if it does not include textual errors like "Im going to fix" or "A completly new cast ... that wil blow your mind".
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My first completed OHR game, Tales of the New World:
http://castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=161

This website link is for my funk/rock band, Euphonic Brew:
www.euphonicbrew.com

Chaotix · Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 1:24 pm Post subject:

I only have A few text boxes, and none of them are permanent yet.

How would you know what my text boxes say any ways? Only 1 screen has text on it.

I'd like to know if you do not mind.

Me adding any *REAL* text boxes is a while away...
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Moogle1 · Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 1:47 pm Post subject:

Re-read his post. He's not saying he knows what your text boxes say. He's saying that based on the way you post, your text boxes are likely to contain spelling and grammar errors.
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Slime Salad :: Independent Game Design

msw188 · Joined: 02 Jul 2003 Posts: 1041

Yes, Moogle1 is right. By "posts" I mean "posts on this internet forum". Of course I have no idea what any of your game text says. I am sorry if my wording was confusing.
_________________
My first completed OHR game, Tales of the New World:
http://castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=161

This website link is for my funk/rock band, Euphonic Brew:
www.euphonicbrew.com