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1

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: April 14, 2024, 09:12:30 pm »

It's good to be tinkering on the game again.

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.28.045 (28 maart 2024)
* Added ability to walk while using charged up gloves

v0.28.046 (3 april 2024)
* Fixed small tiling issue in demo dungeon

v0.28.047 (7 april 2024)
* Set up Discord channels and onboarding steps

v0.28.048 (11 april 2024)
* Added backers section to credits page

v0.28.049 (12 april 2024)
* Fixed issue when mirroring HUD
* Removed Kickstarter link from demo menu

v0.28.050 (13 april 2024)
* Improved 'hookshot' movement script to better stop near targets
* Added corner cutting hero movement during 'hookshot' retraction
* Fixed boomerang not bounching properly of some types of wall
* Improved diagonal movement on stairs vs walls corners

v0.28.051 (14 april 2024)
* Controls displayed on title page
* Implemented latest music tracks
* Replaced a few more placeholder sound effects
* Small keys can now have different colors per dungeon (+ changed color in demo dungeon to make it stand out more)


2

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: April 07, 2024, 07:12:14 am »

And the game is now fully funded, with 8 hours left to go to build a small buffer!
It has been quite the rollercoaster. 

3

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: April 05, 2024, 07:15:42 pm »

Just 43 hours left, with 1.5k needed before the game is fully funded. This is so nerve wrecking

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Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: March 30, 2024, 04:18:40 pm »

Ah okay. Well, I am open to people transferring rewards to others, but it's up to you if you want to go through that hassle for the rewards/discount.

The timer is a site rule. The creator asks for a certain amount of funding from the public in order to finish their product (in exchange for a future copy of that product and often added rewards/discounts). If the funding goal is met (or exceeded) on the end date, then the creator receives the pledged funding to finish their project. And if the goal is not met, then they don't and backers do not pay anything. That part is good for backers, because it lowers the change of underfunded doomed projects. Overall it's a nice setup where the dev can get funded without greedy companies or loans. And the backers get nice quirks, rewards and discounts. Just make sure you trust the developer to actually deliver on their promises.

The 30 days time limit is pretty common. Maybe because some people live paycheck to paycheck or something. I'm not really sure.

5

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: March 30, 2024, 09:56:50 am »

Thanks!

You mean you don't have a creditcard to make an account? No worries. It's no obligation to support.

And if it fails.. hmm.. then I'll probably cry in a corner for a bit. Take some time away from the project. Scale back my plans a good amount. And give it another try in a year or so. It also depends on my work situation and such how I'm going to continue.

Although at this point I don't want tot think about spending this much time and energy on a campaign again. Kickstarters are a LOT of work and stress man.

6

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: March 29, 2024, 09:31:54 am »

Thank you, thank you!
I really hope we can get the project funded on Kickstarter. The campaign is so nerve wrecking at the moment.

7

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: March 28, 2024, 04:12:07 pm »

Hey everyone

We're currently sitting at 129 backers, 55% funding, and 211 project follower who have not yet backed. The amount of backer per day is picking back up again, but let me tell you: it's pretty nerve wrecking to see if we are going to make it.

Just 9 days left to support the game on Kickstarter and make the dream a reality.


Also, I recently posted another project update with new item reveals:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hornofbalance/horn-of-balance/posts/4058979

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Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: March 17, 2024, 08:45:57 pm »

Had that craving to work on the actual game again, so I added an awakened item into the game today:
https://youtu.be/cl9CQr7ytAM

9

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: March 16, 2024, 08:59:50 pm »

I'll be skipping the next few regular weekend updates as it's all about the Kickstarter right now.
We are currently setting at 44% funding, with 21 days left to go.

Also, I've posted the first few Kickstarter updates, including an interview with the developer of the Zelda-like "Ocean's Heart":
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hornofbalance/horn-of-balance/posts/4053615

10

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: March 11, 2024, 10:16:24 pm »

We're currently at 37% funding with 26 days left to go.

If you're reading this after all these many many years of development, then what are you waiting for? This is it! Let's do this!

11

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: March 08, 2024, 05:36:24 pm »

IT IS TIME!!

The Horn of Balance Kickstarter has just gone live!!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hornofbalance/horn-of-balance?ref=project_build

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Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: March 03, 2024, 10:24:21 pm »

Just 5 more days everyone!

I'm fully beat right now, from all the work that has already been going into the Kickstarter preparations. I'm skipping the longer news message again in favour of getting sleep, but more news is coming real soon!

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.28.038 (26 februari 2024)
* Finished reviewing and implementing new sound effects
* Reviewed more pixel art

v0.28.039 (1-3 maart 2024)
* Reviewed more pixel art
* Made more assets for the KS page
* Reviewed more music progress
* Send out interviews for fellow devs
* Adjusted the “controls” menu pages to not show the run option until you collect the required option.
* Added annoyed bird mode

13

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: February 25, 2024, 08:59:18 pm »

It's been another busy week!

We're almost done adding in the new batch of sound effects. And with finishing the new pixel art and music packages. So I've been doing a lot of reviewing these last few days.

I'm not really sure about the status of the French translations. It's going to be a challenge to get it done before the Kickstarter at this pace I think.

And finally all my remaining time was spend on building the Kickstarter page. As seen in the attached screenshots.

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.28.034 (16 februari 2024)
* Expanded pixel art commission
* Improved alignment deep water terrain surfaces in underwater prison dungeon
* Adjusted music volume per track
* Fixed game title page not getting translated instantly when switching languages
* Created Pinterest account / uploaded screenshots

v0.28.035 (20-22 februari 2024)
* Reviewed new music
* Reviewed and implemented more new sound effects
* Made more progress on KS page
* Fixed missing sound effect for final boss

v0.28.036 (23 februari 2024)
* Reviewed new music
* Reviewed and implemented more new sound effects
* Reviewed new pixel art
* Implemented new effect visuals for sandworms
* Made a little more progress on KS page

v0.28.037 (24-25 februari 2024)
* Reviewed more pixel art
* Made progress on the KS page

14

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: February 14, 2024, 07:09:00 pm »

Yeah, I'd like to do a Switch version at the very least.
However, note that my first priority is to make the game the best that it can. And I don't want to over promise (given the time and money required). So I would need to hit the Switch milestone during the Kickstarter, or it might happen later down the line if the PC version is enough of a success.

15

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: February 12, 2024, 07:39:29 pm »

How much time and money did I spend on this game do you mean?
Oof. Uuhm.. Welll... That's kinda a painful question. Hahahaha!

Its pretty massive with about 18 years of time spend all in all. Just this last year was already at least 8 or 900 hours spent in total on my end, if not over a thousand. Although I have really raised my efforts a lot for the demo/trailer/Kickstarter deadlines. I also had missed income due to taking extra time off from work. The sprites, sound effects, music, fees and misc expenses just last year have also been several thousand euros. Which is honestly very low. You can easily spend several times that amount for the same work depending if you're unlucky with partners and rework. (Also the reason why I'm doing a Kickstarter to be able to complete the game).

If you're interested cause you want to make games yourself then I highly HIGHLY recommend picking a different genre. Zelda-likes are some of the more complex options out there. At least coding wise. Smaller puzzle and/or action game are way more viable and less risky. Tactics and strategy games are also better options cause there's a bigger market for them on Steam.

16

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: February 12, 2024, 12:21:37 pm »

Hey everybody,

I was so caught up in things that I completely forgot to do actual updates. Long story short (as I'm on my break from work right now):
- A demo has now also been released on Steam! It was a bit more complicated than expected at first, but it's yet another milestone reached.
- Already updated the demo based on the Steam stats: the early areas have been made slightly simpler (= more hints and smoother curve). The average Steam playtime has been going up, so that's good!
- There's still new dungeon music coming in.
- A new batch of sound effects has also been commissioned, covering about 1/3 of all the remaining sounds needed for the full game. So that's actually big step being made on that front.
- And also put out the next pixel art commission package. So there's progress on all fronts of development at the moment.

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.28.025 (22 januari 2024)
* Adjusted sound effects when using the cane item without magic or at an invalid location
* Fixed funny glitch resulting a dual 360 sword atk when the enemy blocks the hit during certain frames
* Fixed not being able to create magic blocks on some bridges

v0.28.026 (26 januari 2024)
* Tinkered around a lot looking to replace a few more old sound effects; replaced one more sound effect
* Reviewed latest music track

v0.28.027 (29 januari 2024)
* Made new demo version for sound effect commission testing

v0.28.028 (30 januari 2024)
* Added boss name to initialse encounting of the demo boss
* Fixed max amount of secret(chests) on the credits screen to be 4 instead of 3

v0.28.029 (3 februari 2024)
* Added sound effect to adjusting sound effect volume

v0.28.030 (5-7 februari 2024)
* Reviewed new music and sound effects
* Fixed a placeholder mountain tile accidently visible again
* Implemented various new sound effects

v0.28.031 (8 februari 2024)
* Reviewed more new sound effects
* Delete button no longer acts as default cancel button
* Several more keyboard buttons (including the numlock area) are now valid for key rebinding
* Made intro boss do less damage
* Added extra text and visual hints to weakpoint intro boss
* Added more hints to the early demo obstacles (= mostly making sure players don't just receive text based hints)
* Tweaked NPC dialogue hinttext
* Rotated starting equipable elementals
* Added extra sound effect to rusted buttons
* Added hinttext to intro boss fight

======================
Released demo 2.2
======================

v0.28.032 (9-10 februari 2024)
* Put out new pixel art commission package
* Tiled another new room
* Reviewed more French translations

v0.28.033 (11 februari 2024)
* Reviewed more French translations
* Reviewed new music demo

17

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: January 28, 2024, 03:36:11 pm »

Some big news this weekend:
- We have a Kickstarter start date -> March 8th!
Follow the project here for a notification the instance it starts. Which will help get one of the cheaper early bird copies .
- Also demo 2.1 has been released over on Itch!
- And the Steam review process has been initiated, so expect the demo on Steam soon as well!

More details can be read over in this Itch blog post:
https://hornofbalance.itch.io/horn-of-balance-pre-ks-demo/devlog/668213/10-demo-update-and-kickstarter-launch-date

18

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: January 21, 2024, 10:30:47 pm »

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.28.020 (15 januari 2024)
* Fixed minor coloring irregularity within demo boss fight
* Tweaked boss atk values ever so slightly
* Fixed collision issues after hitting an enemy with the atk boost if it does not kill the enemy
* Fixed a placeholder sprite showing up in the demo dungeon mountain range

v0.28.021 (18 januari 2024)
* Fixed masking issue in the cave to the big demo dungeon
* Reviewed new music demos

v0.28.022 (19 januari 2024)
* Temporarily disabled french language for the next demo
* Added extra language debug function
* Default character name is set to Linden
* Expanded screen resolution options
* Made smaller pushable statues easier to distinguish

v0.28.023 (20 januari 2024)
* Re-enabled french language in the options
* Replaced the upslash sound effect with the actual custom sound made for it. (Can't believe I forgot to actually apply it) :S
* Prepared next sound effect commission package

v0.28.024 (21 januari 2024)
* Added new visuals for floor grates
* Fixed small tiling issue in dungeon A04
* Added new visuals for magical blocks
* Created and added new (dis)appear animation for magical blocks
* Fixed small oversight between magic blocks and enemy collisions
* Made hero immune while a little into performing the 360 attack

19

Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: January 14, 2024, 10:38:31 pm »

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.28.017 (8 januari 2024)
* Further expanding fonts for the missing œ letter/symbol
* Implemented the first French translations that came in
* Replaced one of the ingame fonts that got messed up by some windows change
* Fixed error with a late game boss name

v0.28.018 (9-12 januari 2024)
* Applied more translations
* Fixed a few language related alignment issues
* Expanded fonts with several more special letters
* Added options to use special letters in your character's name. (Although we all know that Linden is the best hero name ever, so why would you ever want to ??!!)

v0.28.019 (13 januari 2024)
* Added a roomhint in one of the basement rooms in the demo dungeon that's on the critical path
* Improved demo intro boss stability
* Lower default and max music volume values
* Positioning in options menu now remembered between screens

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Other Projects / Re: Horn of Balance

« on: January 07, 2024, 10:47:21 pm »

Went a bit late in order to get the extended fonts working (to be be able the full French language), so I'm keeping the update minimal again.

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.28.015 (3 januari 2024)
* Made more progress isolating game's text (for coming language option)

v0.28.016 (6-7 januari 2024)
* Finished isolating game's text (for coming language option)
* Added placeholder language option to the options menu
* Expanded fonts for French language