My Game Had No Identity. I Fixed That.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ต.ค. 2024
- Wishlist Lost Resolve on Steam: store.steampow...
Hey guys! Been a little bit since my last video, but rest assured that I've been hard at work on this project (perhaps more than ever)! In this video I'll walk you through the brand new and much more polished tutorial area that introduces you both to the game's basic movement abilities and its world and story. Gone is the generic "Pixel Parkour" - welcome to the dismal world of Lost Resolve.
Lost Resolve is a great name, I love the choice.
For the Altars, I think it would be cool to have the candles beside the statue and the eyes of the statue blank before the player unlocks it (no fire, no eyes), and then when they do unlock it, the candles can ignite and the eyes can turn on. It would feel like you've activated an arcane ritual and would provide some diegetic feedback.
I love the hub world idea and think making the keys unlock secret doors or doors for progression is a great design choice that reminds me a lot of classic platformers. Really cool. Gives the player a reason to hunt keys down more than them just being unlockables.
I think the story direction you've chosen is super interesting and reflects the style of the game well. The character has lost the will to go on, but the player is then encouraged to rekindle that resolve through the speedrun-style gameplay. I do think that the tonal transition from the tutorial's dismal atmosphere to the upbeat and exciting level causes some whiplash. I wonder if that transition can occur throughout the game with the music and tone evolving to be more upbeat as the player regains their resolve. I'm sure you'll figure something out!
Also, all the music in the game so far is wonderful!
Looking forward to what you come up with next!
Thanks so much for the feedback! I really like your idea for the altars and I'll probably try to do something like that soon. Glad you're liking some of the ideas and concepts so far, I'll keep working hard to hopefully make this game something special!
For the alter: I think having the candles next to it be 'off' when not activated and then when you get the checkpoint they light up could be a cool detail.
I like the changes. But I have three suggestions:
- The one about the Altar a lot of people already mentioned. So I don't need to go specific here.
- I don't think most people will understand that you can break though the vertical barrier left of the altar by themselves. This requires backtracking and they don't really look odd or interactible to begin with.
Maybe add some cracks in them? Like the 2D Legend of Zelda Games (and similar games) often indicate breakable walls.
- There is currently no real indicator to see which fall will kill you and which don't. The gab right to the altar and the one which killed you a few moments later looked similar. I know you want to teach player to die and respawn here. But it would also be a good situation to show player how to find out a gab kills you or are the intended way to go (or maybe even have a secret instead of an death barrier).
On example: Super Mario Wonder has a small black border at the bottom of the screen. And when there is a secret, they remove the border there. It is subtile, but noticable if you look out for it. I think something similar will make your game much more user friendly.
Otherwise: Good work! Have only found your game and channel a few days ago. But I like both of them, you have a very charming way to explain and show things.
Okay about the second point:
I took another look at the spot and they indeed look different and even show little cracks. But I think it wouldn't hurt to make it look a little bit more obvious.
I know it's hard to find a sweetspot between making them look interactable and don't make them stand out too much. But I'm sure you will find a great way. Your sprites look beautiful so far.
Thanks for the suggestions! I'll definitely work on making the difference between hazardous falls and intended ones more obvious - I'll probably have to try some different methods, but I agree that it would be a better experience for the player. Appreciate the feedback!
Super underrated. I can tell you're putting a lot of passion into this project and I'm excited to see where it goes!
Thank you! I'm glad the passion shows. I'll keep working hard!
I love the idea of it being a hub. Almost like kirby. I love the semi-transparency of the character, and I also love the fade out bit at the end.
Yeah, I'm definitely feeling like I want to expand this initial area to be the central hub, at least for the first part of the game. Glad you like it! :)
So much progress in such little time. Love where this is heading so far!
Thank you! :) I'm definitely excited with the progress I've made so far!
wowwww, I really like the direction you went, especially game-design/atmosphere wise! I'd go even further into the whole "explain without words" tutorial, for example you could see spirits of the past going the same route you're supposed to (maybe they're leading you somwhere [to the altar?]?), and thus you can find out that you can wall jump (maybe this doesn't fit the lore, it's all just ideas)
I'll be definitely waiting for further devlogs and 12 hours long lore videos :D good luck!
Thank you! I really like the idea of the spirits showing you the abilities - I'll have to see if it's something I can figure out how to do!
I recommend telling the player they have to press x key to go to next dialogue so theyre not confused
Will definitely be adding a prompt for the key press to advance dialogue!
the altar somewhat reminds me of “pokey poke”, a spear-platforming game.
Wow. I'm usually not into platformers, but this one has such great atmosphere and mystery. The mechanics look so fun and I love how fast the character moves. I'll be following these devlogs from now on 🤩
Thanks so much! :) Glad this game has caught your interest despite not being a huge fan of the genre. I'll keep working hard on it!
The death and revive sound effects are amazing I love it. The game is very visually appealing too (the dash smoke is not my favorite though)
Thanks! I'll probably look at the particle effects for the bounce and dash again at some point to make sure everything has a cohesive look and feel.
Altar’s candles should light up to indicate that the checkpoint has been collected!
Amazing work, i love the direction you are taking it, i can see the vision you are trying to portray and im loving it. I can't wait to see more and how you flesh out the story.
Thanks so much! I'm excited to keep building the world and story!
Mans absolutely grinding! I love the progess, you are an absolute mad lad 👍
Thanks so much! I've been working on this project whenever I have time and energy to spare, and really happy with the progress so far.
I saw that you had the game in regular fullscreen, you can use exclusive fullscreen to get rid of the grey border around the screen. Great progress!
This is GREAT to know! Thank you!
i did't realize how good looking godot's ui is. It's so clean
Yeah, it's really user-friendly - I love it!
Babe wake up new swinkly just dropped
You could make the candles light up when you get to the alter of the lost. Also, I love the menu music!
Yeah, I'll try doing that or having the eyes light up as another commenter suggested! And I'm glad you like the menu theme! That's the advantage to being mostly a musician before starting game dev... I have a whole library of past music to use if I need it :P
I love where this is going. A thought I had is that the rain looks flat, and to me, when running the vertically scrolling lines decrease the feeling of speed and make the world feel static. I think having the rain lines get skewed as you go faster, so their direction is always parallel to their motion relative to the camera, would look nice and make the world feel more dynamic
Hopefully that makes sense. The lines are more or less imitating motion blur of the droplets, so in theory the lines should always be parallel to their motion on screen. You could also just have moving dots and a custom shader that applies a motion blur/ghosting effect, so you dont have to do calculations with velocity or whatever…
I'll definitely be revisiting the rain soon since it looks pretty rough. Thanks for the suggestions!
Really nice. Love the intro and how the tutorial doesn't stop your progress. That scene where you find the body, is it interactable or automatic when you get there?
I like that you are finding the 'voice' of the game and that you are willing to reinvent to figure out what the game has to say. I think that's what makes art happens.
I agree the mood of the first dungeon and the upbeat music is now discordant with the intro level. There is also the disparity in tone. The intro is very purposeful and somber, granted you are learning the controls, but it feels slow and precise. Then the dungeon with the big timer wants you to go fast.
I am just rambling at this point, keep it going!
Thanks! When you stumble upon the body the game does make you stop, and you have to advance through the dialogue manually.
Yeah, I think that the first "action stage" will have to be very similar in aesthetic and tone to the graveyard (probably using some of the same assets). I'm not yet sure how I'll introduce or handle the speed-related aspects, but there's endless possibilities! Thanks for your comment :)
really minor thing but during the tutorial i recommend you put the checkpoint in a spot where you cannot miss it as some folks will likely ground slam without realising they missed an important thing.
overall tho the game's looking really good!
At 4:08 I recommend u to help the player figure it out, I can point on myself that if I didn't knew this I could spend a lot of time on this ( maybe shake this wall and add sound, or some kind of arrow)
this game is already looking amazing, keep it up!
Thanks so much!!
Looking awesome, you're really hammering away at this, good job!
The Altars of the Lost could indicate they're unlocked by the candles lighting up from some magic flash of light or something, you could even have the altar candle flames be a different color to show their significance compared to the background art candles.
The dialogue should have some kind of prompting to click to go to the next dialogue, otherwise you might run into a player sitting still waiting for the next message thinking it would automatically skip ahead like the death dialogue.
Thanks! Yeah, I'll be adding some type of prompt for the dialogue soon and making a visual indicator that the alters have been discovered. Appreciate the feedback!
5:54 hmm, the character you’re controlling is suspiciously transperent and resembles the one who is dead. I wouldn’t want to spoil though.
😂you might be onto something with that...
This is amazing, I felt that the timer/speedrunning text in the top left was part of the disparity in the vibe between the story and the first dungeon, I think it would cool if it wasn’t there by default but rather a togglable setting
Yeah, I think I'm going to have to revisit the HUD in general and think about how I can rework it to maintain the immersion and overall mood that's established in the graveyard. Could definitely be a setting at some point as well.
The rain looks weird in my opinion because the raindrops are evenly spaced out.
In the beginning the walls and such look like Minecraft grassblocks stacked on top of each other, if you know what I mean. I can see where one sprite ends and the other begins and idk if that’s intentional
For the rest it looks great!
Thanks! The rain is something I will need to revisit soon since I sort of just slapped a sprite together and threw it in the project... the final version should look much better!
Looking pretty good actually!
Thank you! :)
I think it would look awesome if the sword glowed blue on an active respawn statue
The title works great for what you have shown! On the Altar of the Lost, you could have the candles be unlit until the altar is activated. Glowing eyes is also a nice go to for visualization
I like those ideas! I'll test some things out and see what works!
I like this idea. Something similar kneeling at a Prie Dieu in Blasphemous
If you are taking suggestions I would recommend adding customizable controls or change reset from enter to R
Edit: Maybe add an intro comic as well
Hoping to add a menu to remap controls eventually! Probably something I'll look at a bit later down the line.
in the background by the graveyard add a big hill with lots of graves in the background and also maybe a big chapel in the distance or something
also crows
Some cool ideas! I plan on adding more to the backdrop eventually for more visual interest :)
I loved every second of this video. When is the next scripted log? Also, I love your excitement but **PLEASE** do not over do yourself, you will feel burntout and hence not finish this game. I have seen many, many developers fall into the pit hole of burning out.
Thanks so much! Right now it's been easy to spend huge amounts of time on the project with how excited I am about it, but I'll make sure to pace myself and take rest when I need it to avoid getting burned out.
Hi, I can suggest lite changes to rain,
you can use some GPU particle system instead static animation, and make lite more transparent,
when you walk on the bridge rain could be slowly stoping :-)
active Altar of the lost could light eyes when get active.
I noticed your Debugger go from (32) to (41) is because Animation problems?
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i think adding ranks based off clear time and number of deaths would be fun! like F-S rank!
That sounds like a fun idea. I was thinking something similar, with having a bronze, silver and gold medal for each level!
nice job
Thank you! :)
just a quick thing: maybe make the rain be behind tiles or at least put an option to have reduced graphics. It kinda hurts my eyes.
Yeah, I'll definitely be working on making the rain look a bit more subtle... and better, lol.
Last Resolves sounds more warrior like.
How did you create the platformer character? Did you follow any specific guides or tutorials? I'm interested in creating a platformer too.
I started with Heartbeast's 2D platformer tutorial and a few others, but after watching several tutorials and getting a grasp on the basics I sort of dove right in and tried to figure out the rest with trial and error. Sometimes that can be a good way to learn!
Hey man thanks for the reply I reused the code and modify and use it like you said "grouping". but the problem now is that the player respawn to the place it hasn't 'arrived yet... can you share how you use Area2d to set to active? do you create separate area2d node for each respawn points? or different ways??
rip pixel parkour
😂i see what u did there
How do i know which pit kills me?
Thought the same. Already with the last video. There seem to be pits that are part of the necessary route, but there's no indication and no visible ground.
I'm definitely planning to broadcast the difference between safe drops and hazardous ones with stronger visual cues - time will tell what that ends up looking like.
Idk why but the rain effect feels off
Yeah, it's something I threw together without being much of an artist and will have to revisit in the future. Eventually, the visual effects should look more polished.
One tip of mine, never think that player will “just” figure it out.