Vapourware Codexian Game Development Thread

[Zed]

64x64 dating?

Almost. I can PM you the details of the current idea just for shits and giggles.

yeah can't have your brilliant idea posted in public, someone would steal it for sure

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

64x64 dating?

Almost. I can PM you the details of the current idea just for shits and giggles.

yeah can't have your brilliant idea posted in public, someone would steal it for sure

Doubt it.
It would feel good if anyone was crazy zz enough to actually use them.

 

[Ninjerk]

You'd have to understand it to steal it.

 

[Zed]

 

[Alchemist]

Hah.. this is hilarious. So are three of us making 2D 1st-person dungeon crawlers now? Great minds think alike.

Zed Those tiles look great! You're way ahead of me. Been working on my tile template today - the first day I've done any work on this.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

I love you guys, you're way more productive than me.
Done with that RK/Tzaero joke, making a quick Dragon Slayer clone just for phun.

A small mockup:

 

[Zep Zepo]

I love you guys, you're way more productive than me.
Done with that RK/Tzaero joke, making a quick Dragon Slayer clone just for phun.

A small mockup:

Ha! Sort of reminds me of Custer's Revenge with that man sprite.

Zep--

 

[Ninjerk]

I went through about the first 40 pages and brofisted some of you fucks whose games I want to play.

 

[Zed]

I've done the raycasting and I think I'll settle for those tiles as "base tiles". I'll make another set for mossy tiles and see if I can use multiple tile sets on the same level (i.e. having one side of a room be mossy, or metal bars, or whatever). After that, the "boring" graphics are done.
32x32 or 64x64 or something in between is a good size for enemy sprites for combat, so I'm looking forward to draw some enemies.

Gonna write some notes here... feel free to steal ideas, as I've stolen yours.

• Enemies are invisible until you trigger an encounter. You face only 1 enemy at a time, so it's 1v1. Enemies can have maybe up to 2 special abilities. No idea what those could be.
  
• The combat will be automatic.
  There will be like a pendant swinging between turns, and if you click some skill (dunno how the hell to fit that on 64x64), you will perform that action. If you don't click anything, it will be a standard attack.
  Example:
  Your turn |- - x - -| Enemy turn
  Your turn |- x - - -| Enemy turn
  Your turn |x - - - -| Enemy turn <- you attack normally
  Your turn |- x - - -| Enemy turn
  Your turn |- - x - -| Enemy turn
  Your turn |- - - x -| Enemy turn
  Your turn |- - - - x| Enemy turn <- enemy attack
  Your turn |- - - x -| Enemy turn
  Your turn |- - x - -| Enemy turn <- you click "bash"
  Your turn |- x - - -| Enemy turn
  Your turn |x - - - -| Enemy turn <- you bash
  repeating until one dies.
  
• Character progression will be minimal. You gain exp, gain levels, but other than that equipment will make the biggest difference (which you'll find, which promotes exploration). No character classes, may not even get to name your character.
  
• Dedicated inventory screen. Grids, as many as will fit... should be able to fit at least 6x2 slots, or 4x4, or something.
  
• Themes: Sunken/swampy ruins, classic animals>undead>demons enemy progression. Story completely irrelevant at this point.
  
• Do-or-die end boss. Beat it and win, or lose and die. Will require some serious "explore everywhere, get all the best stuff" "min-maxing", with very little room for missing abilities and stuff.
• OH YEAH I forgot. In the picture above I have like an armor system (gray dashes under Health). I thought that'd be cool. Like in Doom or whatever, just pick it up and gain armor to buffer your life lost in combat.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

In my case it's pretty simple right now:

• Big ass dungeon;
• Collect items and deliver them to your shelter to raise stats;
• Actions are time-based, which means that you can move/attack/do something every X seconds, but speed stat affects the pause between your moves, same goes for the enemies (if you're utterly slow, some enemies can rape you before you'll be able to run away, or if you're fast enough, you can take down some of the stronger enemies by memorizing the intervals between their attacks);
• Not sure about the amount of stuff you can carry around, but I think about limiting it to one or two items (e.g. sword and shield, sword and cross, cross and shield, etc);
• Right now the item list is the following: sword (boosts your attack power), shield (boosts your defence), cross (increases speed), ring (allows you to push walls and other things);
• I thought about some AoE magic attacks to get out of the most shitty situations;
• Theme: tomb raiding.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

http://rpgcodex.net/chess.php?game=1

Php clunky click chess ftw! I just need to figure out how to check if the king is in check, so I can castle, then lock it off to only the relevant players.

 

[Zed]

cute & simple coordinates + direction compass

X: 8, Y: 12, south

 

[mutonizer]

Well, late to the party but I'll give it a go as well

Current plan is some kind of side scrolling beat'em up turn based, grid based, tactical RPG system using GURPS mechanics.....or something
- simple character creation: name, sex, face selection (oh yea, rock that mustache or play as a dumb blond!), armor type (light/heavy), weapon type (long sword & shield, axe and shield, polearm, bow and dagger, etc depending on type, going for just 2 at first).
- head/body/arms/base/weapon/shield are separate shit for customization sake. Should allow very small "animation" (a pixel up down move or something for idle and shit).
- character is put in some kind of arena against 1 (and progressively more) enemy (will try to go random stats/equipement a bit)
- then turn based simili GURPS combat happens (all basic maneuvers, ready/unready concept, multi turn actions, body hit location and above all: 3D6 curve bell check system). Should be deadly

IF time allows
- more art for customization
- some kind of enemy "type" (brainless, ultra careful, tactical, berzerker, etc) and dialogs
- some kind of level up system after each batch of fights
- some kind of crowd/arena system where you can earn favors from the crowd if you do actions with "style", or are ultra gory


Something interest happened during quick mockup phase: 64x64 is actually AWESOME for people like me who SUCK at art. I found myself LOVING what I usually hate with a passion. Anyway, current mockups after couple hours work and thinking.

Spoiler

actual 64 viewport for player

actual 64 menu mockup

zoom out battle (red square is intended 64x64 player viewport

same with menu

The grey lines are the grid obviously.
Yellow dots on the "miniature bases" are the facing indicators (8 possible since squares..FUCK hexagons in 64 pixel shit!)


working screenshot not at scale

Good fun


edit: bigger screenshot added for...reason!
Also, credit where credit is due. I had some kind of epiphany (the blond pixels on the right) while looking at Zed's 6th screenshot of his old shit here.

 

[Zed]

I'm having so much fun with this that I'm being quite productive.

Added doors and pillars (of eternity lol!!). Didn't add the moss walls because it would be too time consuming and look too weird with restricted color palette and at this resolution. Pillars also add a bit of "depth" to otherwise flat walls/corridors.

I also added idle and attack for my first enemy sprite.

In addition to all of that I named my game. So without further ado...

Spoiler

 

[mutonizer]

Had a lot of fun with the pixelart myself but haven't yet really got into the coding part, too busy with something else this weekend, but productive as well, quite happy.

Spoiler

But overdosed a bit on that so coming weeks will all be on pixel shit whenever I have time. Good practice anyway!

 

[Alchemist]

Progress today - a sample dungeon map to work out my wall-drawing code:
(this will also serve as the map view when the player brings it up)

And here's how it looks in the 1st-person view:

Now I just need to get movement in there and I'll at least have a simple maze exploration game.
By the way, I haven't even started to make this pretty yet. This is all probably placeholder graphics - just getting stuff functional. That said, I kind of like the minimalist Wizardry 1 look of it.

 

[mutonizer]

Meh.. quick update to keep the ball rolling this week

- Menu core system done so can easily add the ones missing.
- Grid, rotation indicator and pathfinding done.
- Turns, spawning, AI spawning done.

TODO
- Implement actual combat mechanics inspired by GURPS (ugggh!)
- make the custom rigging (head/weapon) work better.
- add custom shit into character creation beside head & name
- make infinite random/progressive fight progression and put in a "killed X enemy" scoreboard or something.


Got a name too, and some dummy title screen that looks like shit (/cry at seeing Fig's art)

Spoiler

Hoping to have enough time and motivation to have some kind of playable version by the end of the week or something.

 

[Alchemist]

Alright, this is getting more real. Came up with a name and created my page on itch.io: https://cryptifex.itch.io/liber-cryptis
Also created my indie game dev alter-ego, Cryptifex. Alchemist was already taken, of course.

Here's the info I typed up (and title screen / game cover), if anyone's curious:

Liber Cryptis
The Liber Cryptis is an ancient tome revealing the secrets of the most mysterious and hidden places of the world. Forgotten tombs, ancient crypts, the deadliest dungeons, ruins of distant aeons, and even stranger locales are detailed within.

Its location is unknown, and many of its pages were lost to the winds of time - but on occasion, a lucky few may come into possession of scraps from this book.

And today is just such a day, as a lone thief finds a mysterious parchment during a lucrative burglary stint on a nobleman's manor house.

A map leading to... the Vault of Vanzynea!

Liber Cryptis is my entry in the #lowrezjam2016, where the theme involves only using a 64 x 64 pixel screen size.

I'm a hobbyist developer and this will be my first game jam. I have limited free time to work on this and got a late start, but I hope to complete as much as I can by the deadline, and learn from the experience. I'm using the Godot game engine.

Liber Cryptis will be a retro-style first-person 2D dungeon crawler RPG, inspired by classic 80's computer RPGs such as Wizardry, Might & Magic, and The Bard's Tale. For this jam, I'll be creating a small introductory module with a single playable character, and a simplified set of game mechanics considering the limited development time frame. Eventually I plan to expand this to include full party creation and a full set of CRPG game mechanics.

Currently in progress... with much work to be done. I'll post more details and screenshots soon!

- Cryptifex

 

[Zed]

man I've been swamped with work what the hell.

today I added door opening/entering animation.

at least there will be one more weekend to tinker on this...

 

[Alchemist]

Starting to look like an actual game now:

Walking around the dungeon is in. And a first quick-and-dirty pass at making the tiles prettier and shaded (not much done on the walls yet aside from a flat tone).
Also this morning I whipped up this little 16 x 16 pixel portrait for my Cryptifex profile, and possible use in the game:

 

[Ninjerk]

Needs pebbles so you can see yourself moving in long straight corridors. Looks p. good otherwise.

 

[shihonage]

So, about sound effects. Is it possible to get away with using one of those "Hollywood sound libraries" or whatnot, that are floating around torrent sites, without getting sued by someone for intellectual property? Will Youtube flag videos of such games?

Looking for sounds on freesound.org is really hit-and-miss. Mostly miss.

Or can someone recommend an actually -affordable- huge pack of thematic sound effects? Like, "sci-fi", "life in the city", etc?

 

[Alchemist]

Needs pebbles so you can see yourself moving in long straight corridors. Looks p. good otherwise.

Yep definitely planning to do stuff like that - have the background textures change up as the player moves, and possibly add extra sprites for debris. And have walls cycle through a sequence of variants to give more illusion of movement.

 

[Ninjerk]

there's that TEN GIGABYTE gdc sound library that was just up a week ago

 

[shihonage]

there's that TEN GIGABYTE gdc sound library that was just up a week ago

Aw.

My.

GAWD.