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Indie Morgana - a cutesy-Lovecraftian pixel blobber

GarfunkeL

Racism Expert
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Insert clever insult here
Looks pretty nice, though I'm usually not a fan of blobbers.

Is the focus going to be on puzzles or on combat?
 

karnak

Arcane
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Negative Zone
Grab the Codex by the pussy Strap Yourselves In I helped put crap in Monomyth
Feel free to ask any question and I'll do my best to answer.
Damn!... Elvira 1 is one of my favorite games! And I hate that it's not available on any digital store.
Your game has brought me some very good memories of playing that game and it smells strongly of Incline.

Are you considering selling your game on GOG when it's finished?
 

JaumeAlcazo

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Apr 24, 2020
Messages
17
Location
Catalonia, Spain
Thank you all for your interest :).

About turn-based combat, which system do you like best or think it would be more suitable for this game, from what you've seen? I'm thinking Bard's Tale Trilogy remake (bought on GOG), Dragon Wars, or Starcrawlers (backed but not yet bought (again) on GOG), but I don't know, my first intention and instinct was Lands of Lore 1. Wizardry 8 looked interesting when narrated by Matt Chat (bought but still haven't played :( ). Elvira 1 combat was interesting and innovative as well, but tedious to parry left and right. Hmm...

Turn-based combat please!

With a 5-strong party - definitely turn-based.

Yeah, I think this may be the way to go even if it doesn't match with my initial instinct of Lands of Lore 1. Listening to the people (while mantaining your own vision) is important, with that we evolved greatly to an interesting party of characters and new cool paperdolls which I'm eager to share with you, but it's not yet the time. Don't worry, the skull and cauldron is not lost, we are recycling it into another screen.

I think we will do some more screenshots promos before video2 and video2 will not have combat on it. Combat is a very important part of every game and before exposing it to a bigger audience I'm thinking on doing a short hidden link video on Youtube here and in Dungeon Crawlers facebook group battling with just one creature to get criticism of the system and ideas, and fixing it. But that combat demo will come after video2, which I'm hoping to release before the birth of my second son/daughter on october. We already have a good chunk of material and new improvements to show for video2, such as a cell transition system animation similar to Lands of Lore 1, wobbling compass hand, working money, hidden walls, new pit system, etc... but my time is limited, and the deadline of october is very interesting since surely I will be even busier then.

Looks pretty nice, though I'm usually not a fan of blobbers.

Is the focus going to be on puzzles or on combat?

In my mind ideally the focus should be equally divided between history, puzzles, combat, exploration, replayability and the sense of improving your characters from nothing to a semigod through the game. But it's very hard to tell for sure in this phase of development.

Damn!... Elvira 1 is one of my favorite games! And I hate that it's not available on any digital store.

Mine too, obviously :) Oh, that's true! I didn't notice it's not yet available, even when I voted for that on the past. I encourage you all to vote for that as well. I own Personal Nightmare (not played yet :( but probably I should ) and Waxworks (played and finished) on GOG already, so I guess this is a problem of license with our cute favourite witch (BTW, I own this on my bookcase, but it looks better on Amazon than what it is on reality). I even backed this failed 3d Waxworks remake in Kickstarter (you can check it out in my Kickstarter profile page) and from what I read seems they had a better time purchasing the Waxworks license than Elvira's one. But they haven't surrendered after their Kickstarter failure and they courageously keep developing the game, so I hope they do a second Kickstarter when they are ready and of course I will back them again.

Your game has brought me some very good memories of playing that game and it smells strongly of Incline.

Thank you very much. What's up with that jargon you got here? :) Incline, brofist... I think I can guess it but as not a native english speaker I would appreciate an explanation on that. It's curious.

Are you considering selling your game on GOG when it's finished?

Of course. I'm a hardcore DRM free GOG supporter, and already bought a shitload of games there, as you can check. In my mind ideally I would gladly make it GOG exclusive forever, but it's not on my hands and can't tell yet and I can't guarantee anything. People recommended me Steam for sales. But it is simply too early to tell. We need a hell more work on development and actually finishing the game before that unfolds for itself.

Oh, I forgot to mention. There will be collectible tarot cards in the game, it's a cool feature of planned video2 and you can check my own current tarot card upscales from another artist here. Reception on that hasn't been the best. Nothing is definitive but I was disappointed that all the time spent on the upscales (there's a lot more which you haven't seen) becomes wasted, so maybe we could do several tarot decks, who knows, Mrmo probably would love doing the tarot cards postkickstarter, so maybe my job there is an ok-placeholder pre-Kickstarter.

As a bonus track, check out this very early demo of the tarot system (wallset is scrapped for now for being too purple and bricks too small, we have a better unseen dungeon now but maybe we should repalette this old one to grey and recover it, hmmm... but bricks are still too small). Don't mind the icons on the top, they were early tests of a spell system.



Best regards
 
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V_K

Arcane
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Nov 3, 2013
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at a Nowhere near you
About turn-based combat, which system do you like best or think it would be more suitable for this game, from what you've seen? I'm thinking Bard's Tale Trilogy remake (bought on GOG) or Starcrawlers (backed but not yet bought (again) on GOG), but I don't know, my first intention and instinct was Lands of Lore 1.
If your original intention was LoL1, then I'd say go with the system from Might&Magic3-5, as it's the closest you can get to that in turn-based.
Alternatively, you may also want to look at Lords of Xulima and its initiative queue (and also some other fun mechanics to work with the front/back row division).
Ideally, in this sort of game you want combats to be over very quickly (which is a big problem with Wiz8), but still remain somewhat tactical.
 
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karnak

Arcane
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Negative Zone
Grab the Codex by the pussy Strap Yourselves In I helped put crap in Monomyth
Thank you very much. What's up with that jargon you got here? :) Incline, brofist... I think I can guess it but as not a native english speaker I would appreciate an explanation on that. It's curious.
Thank you for your replies.
Regarding Incline: it basically means that your game contributes to the positive and upwards evolution of the CRPG genre, unlike some decadent shit lately created by most AAA devs, which is responsible for the stupidification of RPGs and gamers alike.
As for the Brofists: well: since you're one of the "Bros" now trying to bring "Incline" to RPGs, you deserve Brofists.
Simple as that.

At first I though of creating a Wishlist entry for your game. But since you're the developer, I suppose you should be the one to do it, when the development is well on its way. Keep us updated.
 
Self-Ejected

Jack

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Insert Title Here
Another question, which wands you do prefer or look better for Amon-Khamûn (the dead pharaoh), the old ones or the new ones (the latest screenshot or the others).
The new ones, but wouldn't it make more sense for him to have one crook and one flail as it would be more proper for a god-king of Ægypt?
 

JaumeAlcazo

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Apr 24, 2020
Messages
17
Location
Catalonia, Spain
Hey ho boyos, how is it going? Thank you very much for your previous answers.

Finally I've been able to implement the glitch sanity effect suggested by a friend of mine, check it out in this youtube hidden link video and if you want our technical discussion with Tilengine creator: http://www.tilengine.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=273&page=3



What do you think about it? The progression is too hard or annoying? It will be disableable by the user in the options menu if it annoys the player but switched on by default, I think, to entice the user to raise his sanity with sanity potions.

I don't know if it is interesting, but is already done, so, what do you think: enabled by default or not? Glitching too hard? More progressive sanity glitch worsening?

What are your thoughts about it?

Check out this inspiration:

3e582422cdd1469ffb458f37efc010ac.gif
 

karnak

Arcane
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Negative Zone
Grab the Codex by the pussy Strap Yourselves In I helped put crap in Monomyth
Thanks for the update. It really looks like a cool concept. Maybe you could even try to use different effects as well (like inverted colors, monochrome, etc) to suggest different types of mental sickness.
 

flushfire

Augur
Joined
Jun 10, 2006
Messages
771
I understand limiting the effect to not affect the UI but IMO it would look better if it affected the entire screen.
 

Generic-Giant-Spider

Guest
HEY BABY

WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO PLAY AS MORGANA

BUT CAN WE PLAY WITH MORGANA

HEHEHEHEHEHE

THAT MEANS SEX
 

JaumeAlcazo

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Apr 24, 2020
Messages
17
Location
Catalonia, Spain
Hi everybody, I hope you are doing well in this uncertain and difficult times.

Here is the latest promotional screenshot for our game:

doble-res.png


Homage to 'All is Vanity' by Charles Allan Gilbert, 1892 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Allan_Gilbert). Art & art direction: Mrmo Tarius (http://pixeljoint.com/p/7846.htm). Design & Programming: Jaume Alcazo (jaume.alcazo@gmail.com). This inventory icons: Caz (https://cazwolf.itch.io/) & Cyangmou (https://cyangmou.itch.io/). Programmed with C, SDL & Tilengine (http://www.tilengine.org).

Ah, here is another hidden link youtube WIP internal video, just posted to Mrmo and here (music of Eldamar used with permission) (don't mind the bug of the chest at the end).



You can see how I solved the problem of the hands/health/mana displays by making them appear just on hover (except for Morgana). This means everyone (or almost everyone) will cast spells. This generates some problems, maybe, for combat and otherwise and I think I have a solution or cool idea for that and for combat.

Ah! You can see as well the compass animations, and the Lands of Lore 1 transitions between steps!

Other notes about the video:
- music of Eldamar used with permission (bought the album and contacted with the autor: https://eldamar.bandcamp.com/album/the-force-of-the-ancient-land)
- Scythe and Halberd will be two handed, not implemented yet.
- Gold ring needs to be resized.
- Blue-black wallset walls are too dark seen from the sides.
- Check out real time played in the paperdoll screen.

Regarding the classes (Morgana will choose at start, attributes, background, traits, etc... companions have fixed ones), I came up with this:

Amon-Khamûn, class: Undead Pharaoh Necromancer --> casts necromancer/death spells.
Valkyrie, class --> Heavenly Winged Healer --> healing spells, sanity healing.
Mad Witch, class: Witch Mage --> poison spells and mage spells.
Magos Lazar, class: Slimy Priest/Cultist --> Priest spells, prayer to Gods, water spells and sanity lowering spells (to enemies).

About the combat, this is what I came up, I will make some day a prototype, I promise, but meanwhile share your thoughts please:

Enemy is on the screen:
- You click over it, let's assume you make contact, impact spike bubble over Morgana hand and number of damage there and over the enemy. Slice or impact animation as well over enemy.
- Morgana hands run a cooloff counter, similar to what you saw in Command & Conquer.
- Morgana spells get displayed on top of the screen, you cast them with numbers, 1,2,3 or 4. Let's say similarly as you do with abilities in games like Dota2.
- Enemy keeps attacking you, displaying his animation, blood overlay animation etc...
- Then it's turn for companion, you click a second time over the enemy and Valkyrie gets automatically focused (displaying her hands, impacts, health & mana) and showing her spells that you can cast with 1,2,3,4 and cooloffs (both spells and hands).

Next times you click on enemy companions get turned until you reach Morgana again.

So basically combat could be clicking blindly at the enemy and casting spells watching cooloff timers. Then if you are cooling down (spells and melee) player can step back or strafe-circle the enemy to avoid his attacks, or hide temporarily while you drink potions/eat food and wait for the enemy to come back. I plan the combat to be paused with the paperdoll screen as in Lands Lore 1, or Skyrim, to give time to the player to eat/drink or to arrange weapons, magic scrolls, etc... (despite time played keeps going, tracked in the paperdoll screen).

Of course you can hover manually over each companion and click his/her hands or press 1,2,3,4 for his/her spells.

Thoughts? I know it's not turn based, but... This may be more agile and engaging than turn-based, which tends to be very slow and unintuitive for new players (I feel). It's just my current thoughts. I have to play all Bard's Tale remastered Trilogy (turn combat) and Dark Heart of Uukrul (tactical combat) to get new ideas (and have some deserved fun), hmmm...





Morgana Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/morganadungeoncrawler/
 
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CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
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Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,548
Thoughts? I know it's not turn based, but... This may be more agile and engaging than turn-based, which tends to be very slow and unintuitive for new players (I feel). It's just my current thoughts. I have to play all Bard's Tale remastered Trilogy (turn combat) and Dark Heart of Uukrul (tactical combat) to get new ideas (and have some deserved fun), hmmm...
I understand how the feeling of the systems in such games as The Bard's Tale can repel some players especially because enemies don't directly walk around the map and the combat layer is separated from exploration. However I really think that what you can find in Might & Magic 3-4-5 (and Legends of Amberland) is intuitive, with visible enemies and instant feedback of each action, and is as fast as you click which quickly makes it faster than cooldowns. I don't consider turning around the enemy in real-time while waiting for the end of cooldowns that fun although for sure I still had a lot of fun with many games playing exactly that way, starting with Lands of Lore, but the reason is their intricate dungeons rather than their combat part.
 
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newtmonkey

Arcane
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Aug 22, 2013
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Goblin Lair
It sounds your combat is just typical real-time blobber combat, complete with the combat waltz, which is disappointing. You will likely find that there is only so much complexity that can be had with such a system, which is why even the greats in this sub-genre (Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, Lands of Lore) are well-regarded for basically everything EXCEPT their combat.
 

JaumeAlcazo

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Apr 24, 2020
Messages
17
Location
Catalonia, Spain
It sounds your combat is just typical real-time blobber combat, complete with the combat waltz, which is disappointing. You will likely find that there is only so much complexity that can be had with such a system, which is why even the greats in this sub-genre (Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, Lands of Lore) are well-regarded for basically everything EXCEPT their combat.

Noup, it will be turn based, I changed my mind in part due to the feedback and maturating it by myself. The objective is similar to classic Bard's Tale style, I made a prototype in paper and tought deeply about it, but it's not yet implemented.

Some progress:



I made the Swords Tarot Wall as a placeholder but I'm liking it so much that I would like to keep it, what do you think on this?
I made the Tarot Wall itself from here: https://theteaguns.itch.io/flat-shaded-low-poly-swords
The Tarot Slot FX is a modified pixel effect bought from here: https://henrysoftware.itch.io/pixel-effects

Sorry for the lack of updates.

Opinions and c+c will be very much welcomed.
 
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Glop_dweller

Prophet
Joined
Sep 29, 2007
Messages
1,161
Bard's Tale is not turn based; it's phase based. The distinction is that in every turn based game, the player knows what events have come before their turn when they make it. In phase based, it is a list of intents; each PC commits to a planned action, but this action might or might not come to pass. The PC or thier target might be killed or incapacitated before they get the chance to act, and in Bard's Tale (for instance) this then skips over their action.

Phased based does not allow for actions done in tandem, or cooperation between characters; never offering an informed choice, all actions are locked until after the events are linearly evaluated; not turns.
 

KeighnMcDeath

RPG Codex Boomer
Joined
Nov 23, 2016
Messages
12,859
Yep, I'd buy this. I love blobbers of just about every sort. Bardstale phhasebased combat? That's fine though some might prefer the original Might & Magic which is turn-based. I never really thought about it until brought up. Honestly, I like both.

I like the art design and sound/voice. It makes the game unique enough. I never finished house of wax or Elvira (tbh my amiga disks were damaged). I should playthrough the gog ones.

cheers
 

Lady Error

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Strap Yourselves In
Wow, this looks very promising actually.

Party and turn-based, good art style and music. Will it have NPC interactions as well?
 

Adenocaulon

Educated
Joined
May 17, 2021
Messages
74
In phase based combat like Wizardry or Bard's Tale you define the actions and both your characters and enemies will make them in order of initiative and/or casting duration. You have a bit less of control and the learning curve is probably more elevated.

In Might and Magic 3 and 4-5 you will be taking actions immediately for each character in order of initiative. You have more control as each character can make an appropriate movement according to the last enemy action.

I liked the Might and Magic X design, because there is not individual initiative, your characters take the actions immediately in your chosen order and then all the enemies. You will not have a stat related with this, but this gameplay is at the same time more directly and you think more because you have control in the order of your character actions.

One important thing that I think is desirable to not have in turn based combat is cooldowns, it is better to avoid them if the combat is turn based. It is better to use other costs for powerful spells.
 

JaumeAlcazo

Arcane
Developer
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Apr 24, 2020
Messages
17
Location
Catalonia, Spain
Thanks for all your answers and for your clarification Glop_dweller and Adenocaulon.

I played Bard's Tale superficially. I bought the remake trilogy on gog: https://af.gog.com/game/the_bards_tale_trilogy?as=1649904300

I'll play it to study it well before coding the combat prototype. I'll study your answers calmly too.

I'll publish the rough combat prototype here when it's ready to get some c+c from you, but I can't commit to a date, sadly development is very slow, check out the reasons here: http://www.tilengine.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=273&pid=2692#pid2692

I had some periods of inactivity and worked on and off on the project, but since this last august I'm working in a more consistent manner.

It is definitely not abandoned Smile But the progress is slow due to several factors, in no particular order:

- Scope of the project (a lot more ambitious than I thought previously).
- Me being a solo programmer/developer (I commission Mrmo Tarius as a freelancer).
- Rebooting the project from C modular to C++ OOP paradigm.
- Switching to TLN_GetAvailableSprite() instead of using fixed sprite id's.
- Covid impact both on me and Mrmo.
- Depression/lack of motivation periods.
- Full time job.
- 2 daughters, aged 1 and 6.
- Serbia government imposing strong restrictions to freelance workers (Mrmo is from Serbia) (https://twitter.com/mrmotarius?lang=ca)
- Managing money to buy/commission assets keeping a balance with the familiar finances.

Will it have NPC interactions as well?

Of course, giving objects and recieving from npc's, buying and selling, and scenes (check out Mad Witch scene screenshots earlier in this thread, touching and interacting and picking some objects in her study/etc...). Not all npc's will have corresponding scene, tough.

Best regards.
 
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unseeingeye

Cleric/Mage
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Strap Yourselves In
This thread is one of the few truly inspiring and genuinely enthusiastic reads for a new game I think I've encountered in a long time, even with the most recent update. The fact that you've already produced such remarkable imagery and gameplay is astonishing; my two children (12 and 16), depression and work burn me out from doing much of anything at all, so your capacity to motivate yourself is truly admirable.

The influences behind the game are among my favorites and everything I see looks very nice; the music is the only thing that was a bit overwhelming for me but.. yet, it was somehow still good. I would be all about trying it when its ready.
 

Arthandas

Liturgist
Joined
Apr 21, 2015
Messages
1,368
The pixel art is amazing. sadly it's the only good thing I have to say about it.
Even in this early stage I see a lot of red flags:
- point & click adventure game style of inventory (when you have so many different items you should make it a grid with optional tabs for different types of items)
- the dungeon feels extremely busy with almost every tile having something on it, that's not a good dungeon design and it will make traversing it very tedious since you'll have to examine everything
- having to constantly drag and drop consumables on your party members and click interactables on walls doesn't look like fun
- the exploration aspect seems really basic since it doesn't look like there's any mapping involved and the map shows all your surroundings
the sense of improving your characters from nothing to a semigod through the game
Yeah, just like in jrpgs... Seems the combat aspect will be popamole too.

Dungeon crawlers live and die on dungeon design and challenging combat, I honestly have no faith in either element.
You should play some proper Wizardies, maybe there's still hope.
 

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