I never thought this project would get anywhere but it is looking beautiful. Nice work man.
Agesilaus please respond.Will the player character wear pants though?
whew, this is looking real good! and the music is awesome, reminds me a lot of Arcanum!Still plan to release this year. Ideally in a month or so, but I don't have any audio assets and the art is still being produced.
Set in classical antiquity, this game features old-school adventure and role-playing mechanics. Your choices will have consequences. The primary goal of this game is to bring the ancient source material to life; if you appreciate classical antiquity and mythology, then this game should fit the bill.
Key Features:
- Over 20 unique locations to explore, based heavily on classical texts like Pausanias' Guide to Greece.
- Beautiful modern artwork created by artist Klaudia Jankowska (https://klaudiajankowskaart.myportfolio.com).
- Detailed choose-your-own-adventure style cut scenes, decorated with historical artwork.
- Turn-based combat with many different opponents and items. Party
mechanics are included, but will your noble companions be willing to travel side by side with the wretched ones?
The ancient sources tell many different tales about Theseus and his journey to Athens. Now, it is your turn to step into Theseus' sandals. What will you seek to achieve, and how will you conduct yourself as you make your way to Athens?
$7 based on a two-minute trailer and the promises of a hitherto unknown developer.
As exited as I am to try it out, there's no way I'm paying for a demo; give it for free, and if it's good I'll purchase the full version on release.
Tried to save at the bandit camp and got this error:
Gave another try at this of saving. If I do it on the very first screen (home), just as I begin the game, it works. After I leave —no matter where—, every time I save, the game crashes.___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Eventobj_bcursor
for object obj_savegame:
ini_write_string argument 3 incorrect type (array) expecting a String (YYGS)
at gml_Script_sc_save
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Script_sc_save (line -1)
gml_Object_obj_savegame_Collision_9f5e539f_5fb4_4a56_9489_c1f93d0f52b8
Will jump back into the game and come back with the rest of my impressions.
Ok, just played it through the end. Nice amount of C&C from what I gather, it'll be nice to see how it affects the adventures further on. I'll be purchasing when you release full version for sure.
Liked the writing style. It's simple, but not poor because of it. The dialogues are quite nice, each character feels like it has its own personality.
Assuming you're hoping for some feedback, here's mine:
Since you made no mention with regards to what is final and not, I'll make the comments accordingly.
Looping picture in the menu screen doesn't look very good. Do you have the permission to use it anyways?
Nothing against Albinoni, but wouldn't Niko Skalkottas be more fitting to the setting?
Also, you sure the track you're using ain't copyrighted or some shit? That's Karajan's version if I'm not mistaken, too recent to be royalty free.
First time I booted the game, music cut off and had no BGM at all; coupled with the lack of background sounds made me wonder if something had fucked up with my audio.
After the second time, music carried on from the main menu into the game, so at least there was something setting the mood.
Response text in green looks awkward against the palette. A similar shade of royal/golden yellow to that of the portraits'd be better, I believe.
1) Splash screen isn't wide but it starts me in fullscreen. Either add more resolutions of the image or windowed mode by default.
3) Same for the music, add something greek. Also it shouldn't be on a loop. While i don't do anything it should stop and have some ambient bird noises etc from time to time.
4) Battle needs huge improvement. I lost to the boars, only one of my 2 characters can attack per turn and it's very slow. You should make it more automated. Maybe after attack remove the walking points from the hero and switch to the next in line then end the turn when they both have no points?
I can't get to the menu during battle(a lot of boars in the farms from the old guy) and there is no information for the enemy units, like hp and name, you should add that.
5) Is there any inventory and other menus?
6) Is there a command to take screenshots?
7) The character keep walking on the same spot if you click on that area. Also i guess there is no waiting/fidget animation yet, because when he stops walking it shows a random frame of the walk animation?
8) Depth sorting issues, the character is on top of the open building too.
9) Can't open dialogue again
maybe but you can remove the dialogue options that are already used, so they won't repeating it. If it's important add a journal menu/notes.
A kinda prefer open world but this town is interesting, you can keep it room based i guess.
Overall it's very promising and you should keep the good work! What about making a kickstarter?
Btw as a fellow GMS user, this reminds me of my game. I put it on itch.io as early access with a price too but then made it free. https://yanbg.itch.io/bogarash
That'd be nice, as long as you don't push it. Descriptive text in the way FO handled it when clicking on different objects or in the midst of fights could be an interesting feature.In terms of the writing style, I feel like I need to include more descriptive text in the overworld dialogue screen.
An inconsistent choice of imagery can become a real eye-sore (not to mention it looks utterly careless and amateurish), so careful with that, get feedback from the graphical artists all the way through.Next step is to test them with my photographs from the Peloponnesos and some action scenes from pottery. I'll either have a scenic shot I took, or a scrolling action scene in the background. Although I have driven around the Peloponnesos, sadly I never stopped in Troezen.
Oh, I mentioned Nikos because his compositions are all firmly rooted in greek music, though come to think of it, most —if not every— recordings will demand some kind of royalty.Now, I am inclined to package that youtube video asset with some other music and then use those assets in the game proper, but I have some loose ends to tie up with some other audio artists before I can commit to anything. In terms of how fitting the current placeholder is, I am woefully ignorant when it comes to music, but I was aiming for something melancholy and unobtrusive.
Kiting makes for shit combat, it becomes redundant.I beefed up the enemies, and now I think the only way to defeat the boars and some other opponents is to "kite" them. If I remove the attack-move combo, Theseus will get stomped, so I need to debuff the enemies.
An inconsistent choice of imagery can become a real eye-sore (not to mention it looks utterly careless and amateurish), so careful with that, get feedback from the graphical artists all the way through.Next step is to test them with my photographs from the Peloponnesos and some action scenes from pottery. I'll either have a scenic shot I took, or a scrolling action scene in the background. Although I have driven around the Peloponnesos, sadly I never stopped in Troezen.
On the same page: I forgot to point it out, but the painting by La Hyre sticks out against all the previous use of engravings for that very same reason, it has nothing to do with what up to that point is presented.
Oh, I mentioned Nikos because his compositions are all firmly rooted in greek music, though come to think of it, most —if not every— recordings will demand some kind of royalty.Now, I am inclined to package that youtube video asset with some other music and then use those assets in the game proper, but I have some loose ends to tie up with some other audio artists before I can commit to anything. In terms of how fitting the current placeholder is, I am woefully ignorant when it comes to music, but I was aiming for something melancholy and unobtrusive.
I'm with Yan here in any case. You don't need period instruments or that kind of gimmickry, but it'd be nice if the music was composed with some leanings into modality and (what we know and understand as) Ancient Greek music.
Perhaps if each picture style is contained within its own "chapter", it might look more coherent, though personally I'd stick just with the sketches. You can only lose time by trying, though.
Textured bg looks great imo.
I can link you some videos and informative texts with regards to the music, though you'll have to wait a bit... probably today's night.
Ok, on Ancient Greek music. First of all, it's worth pointing out that all we know is based on conjecture and educated guesses (which holds true for most of ancient music as well). We will never be 100% sure of what it sounded like, but subjectivism will lead us nowhere, so let's take what we know and accept as canon, and head onwards.
It's important to understand that starting on the Ancient Greece, and well into the Renaissance, Music (that is, academic music) was considered a science. Music was the acoustic manifestation of numbers, which is how the nature of the universe was understood:
You had modes (tonoi) which respected relationships believed to be the very reflection of the divine structure that moved the heavens; so, if you played a certain melody in the hypolydian mode, it wasn't because it should sound nice, but because it would lift your humours and help you relieve a pain of the liver.
Whence came all of this? Hell if I know. Take any Medieval treatise —the biggest fanboys ever on sciences from the classical period— on these kind of subjects, and the amount of unfounded bullshit you'll find will be as amusing as it is mind-numbing.
A sharp contrast against modern music, which favours the dramatic and the ability to hold as effortlessly as possible onto the listener's attention. But in turn, anachronistic as it is, due to its very nature, ancient music serves greatly for the purpose of setting an ambiance.
There aren't many, but the do have some original sources. You can even find transcriptions into modern notation here; even a scan of Plutarch's On Music, in case you really want to dig into the subject. Needless to say, none of this material is copyrighted, so anyone could very well take the melodies, reharmonize them to enrich the monodic palette, and make some excellent background music.
On reharmonizing: to make it sound ancient, it'd be good to know that the only intervals they considered consonant where those that kept a (or as nearly as) perfect relationship with the whole. So, octaves, fifths, and fourths, to which every other interval (mostly thirds) were added for the sake of contrast: to bring forth the beauty in the resolution of such perfection.
Now, there's no obligation to take heed of this, but if I were to give advice to a composer, I'd say to stick mostly to either empty or stacked fourths chords, and use triads only to spice up and add emotion where needed. Alternatively, modern popular harmony can work very well when staying outside the boundaries of common cadences (stay diatonic, though!). Satie's oeuvre can make for a great inspirational source, he certainly knew how to strike that feeling of melancholy and mystic awe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kE48Ql0CjA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7IKBRqOz8Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGyBRbbHpno
If you're itching to know what the music of the greek could have sounded like, there's an excellent album by the De Organographia Ensemble. Up to minute 25, they're all greek pieces.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHDwvqyqdn8
Well, that's my take on the subject in any case. Take it with a grain of salt, as if it's but the opinion of a single man. It'd be interesting to see where we meet and where we clash iff anyone's got another point of view to share.
Gotta leave for work now, promise to share my thoughts on Chinese music tomorrow.