Wow, it's been 3 years.... 3 Y E A R S... and this topic was still on the first page in the discussion sub-forum. The activity here truly is no joke.
So anyway, I'm reviving this because I decided I needed to make something smaller scale before continuing on my far bigger game project, and this is one of the game projects that I always felt a little more passion for than all my other small scale ideas and doodles.
SAME TOPIC... WHY?I don't know if this game will belong in the "Zelda" or "Other" projects section just yet, as I'm still not sure if I'm truly making this a Zelda fan game or if I'm just going to make it open for the player to see him as Link or not. Secondly, it's still very early in development (spent 2-3 weeks of my free time on it so far), so it might not warrant a project topic just yet. I could give a demo, but it's literally just 3 playable screens where you can do nothing but jump around.
OH LOOK
[ NOTE that the gif timing makes the gameplay look a little sped up from the real thing ]
I obviously ditched the Pico-8 palette. I also updated the main character a little to give him a tad bit more height and to be more readable.
And of course, my previous mock-up is now actual in-game stuff ("I'm a real bo-.. er, game!"), etc. etc.
3 YEARS LATER, IS THIS THE SAME GAME? WHAT TO EXPECT?Still the same, but a more fleshed out concept; now I have a good idea of where I want to go with this. The plan is to make a very tiny love letter to Zelda and Metroid.
The world is currently planned to be 7x7, so just 49 screens. The only item planned is a sword made of spirit/phantom energy, but there are some upgrades for it. For e.g., a "dash slash" which can be used on enemies, to bridge gaps, and to maneuver around better. I want all upgrades to be very usable, not just something to use on an obstacle and to set aside until you come across another obstacle again.
So you'll pretty much get a sword, explore, fight stuff, get upgrades to reach new places, etc. - very typical Metroid-like, except with a sword. Other people have done this kind of game many times before, I know, but I haven't, and I really want to make my own. Plus, I think it'll end up unique enough to stand on its own as a tiny-yet-enjoyable experience. That's the hope, anyway.
WHATCHA GOT DONE SO FAR? WHAT'S NEXT?I'm coding the game in GML, using GameMaker Studio 2. I programmed a movement engine which properly handles sub-pixel movements and also avoids staircasing movements via an alternating ratio-based x y movement loop. I've also got things like a jumping grace period, etc. - technical and UX stuff like that. Aside from those things, I've really only done a bit of graphics and animation work, implemented screen transitioning, and I've tweaked the various variables with physics to get it feeling mostly good, and I'll be tweaking that further soon™.
The next step is to work on the player character's sword, starting with the basic attack. I haven't done anything in this area yet, so I'll have to draw the sword and the attacking animations, figure out a good sword reach, etc.
I'll leave it at that for now. Any thoughts are certainly welcome.
