The blood bar could be a bloody pattern/sigils on the sword that fills up vertically, certain stand-out sigils would mark what abilities the player has access to at what point on the sword's blood meter. I feel like this also opens up cool narrative ideas like the sword being a demon sword that is granting the play character their movement powers (and the demon sword could talk if you want an npc guide for the player)
I was about to comment that he could use the sword changing colour as an indicator for blood rather than the meter at the top. Also red drops for blood pickups instead of a cross?
for the health pickups, vials/beakers of blood (with a nice uncorking noise when you pick 'em up) would work well. also I think the red cross will hunt you down if you even hint at showing a red plus sign for healing so i'd recommend changing that before the cross shows up on your steam page powerup ideas: maxed out blood bar for duration, ranged "blood slash" attack with your sword, projectile reflect/parry, small AoE damage field that surrounds you (grows bigger the faster you move?) edit: also wanted to say i'm really enjoying these devlogs, hope to see them continue throughout the dev process.
The blood bar could open up to a lot of interesting narrative aspects, maybe you have a gaping wound that was given to you by the final boss at the beginning and it sets up a sort of revenge arc where you have been placed in a sort of cycle of violence where you need to kill in order to stay alive which ends after you kill the one who gave you this cursed wound
I watch a dev log when I wake up every morning before I work on my game whilst I drink my coffee. I am glad I watched this one. This was awesome man. You all looked like you were genuinely having a great time. The bloodbar was a really cool idea. I subbed. Can't wait to see more. Good luck brother.
Quick suggestion: Consider organizing each room as a group in Trenchbroom and make use of the VisibilityNotifier Node in Godot. It can significantly boost performance. Also, try using a single, large collision shape instead of the individually generated ones by Qodot. Keep up the great work with your projects :)!
As a developper myself i can confirm than showing my game to friends cures every tiny bit of burnout and motivates me even more. I really enjoy your devlogs and can't wait to see how your game will turn into!
Just want to say this video really helped me solve some issues I was facing in something I’m working on!! I am really excited to play this game and am a big fan of how all of this has been shared and talked about!! The blood bar is genius!! Thank you for sharing these!!
Hey, good video! Here’s what I would’ve reworked for the play test. I thought the blood bar was great too! Mine would require a lot of changes, so it’s probably not worth it: 1 - Slides should not activate without some motion. Instead of being able to slowly move and then break into a slide, I’d require a running start on the ground or have some motion in the air. That would address it being OP when in a bad spot. 2 - I would make it so the slide always gives a small boost of motion whenever an enemy is hit. 3 - Crucially, a non power up slide should redirect your motion upward like skateboarding up a ramp. The faster you are, the higher up you go. 4 - This would make your first power up for the slide great to gain high speed on the ground. Your power up would stop pushing your player up and would keep their speed up. 5 - Finally, I’d make the air attack not throw you back up without a power up. Instead it’d move you down with a small speed up. 6 - also I’d make the bunny hop slightly less speedy to incentivize dunking on enemies for speed. Probably not the best fix, but I thought it would be fun to not worry about a bar.
I have a perfect solution for the health pickups. Have it be part of the story that you are morally wounded and thus bleeding out. The pickups are bandages to slow bleeding but of course exerting yourself "tears" them which is why they aren't a permanent solution and explains why doing moves reduces the meter. Also this would give a reason why you are rushing and why you die when the meter runs out. Maybe the story is something like: you're the royal guard of the King's daughter and a Ganon-like bad guy takes her and mortally wounds you then runs off with her. With literally no time to waste you give chase trying to stay alive long enough to catch up and get her back. Would make for a sick Boss fight. The knights could be his cronies that he stormed your kingdom with so this works for start and end game. You could have different color knights laying dead around the starting levels to show it was an invasion. Lmk if you like my ideas, I've got more and would love to work with you. Also shout out my buddy Breaker from Break Niche on TH-cam if you use this, his channel needs attention.
A goblet full of blood could work instead of a cross with the sort of dark aesthetic you have going on Also Im not sure if you already have enemy sounds but I think it would help prevent problems like 8:08, especially if they are directional
Yeah I need to spend more time working on sound effects and all that. Agreed it would help the "getting hit from behind" problem. Love the goblet idea!
I think I mentioned having a blood bar in the comments of the 1st devlog, so its cool to actually see it in game. Also, Id recommend a smaller blood bar or maybe if you get hit and the blood blocks it, you should lose some of your max blood bar, so the player stays alive, but getting hit is still punishing.
Really great video and a very timely reminder for me to get my own game in front of some play testers too! Hopefully I can get as positive a reaction as you did!
duuude i painfully related with you so much when you fell into dev hell and obiwan pulled you out of it. I've been working on Operation: Black Mesa since 2012! I keep adding content but it's going to pay off for sure, I've just been learning to decide when enough is enough. It was really cool to see your buddies get such a kick out of playing your game, and I've been thoroughly enjoying your process, keep it up!
3:33 -A power up that creates a ring of fire around you when you jump. -A power up that let gives your melee attacks a ranged attack. -A power up that let's you walk on lava. -A power up that make you invulnerable for a short time after you kill enemies. -A power up that makes you invisible. -A power up that increases your jump speed. -A power up that increases your slide speed.
So happy for you bonding with your friends over your project. Too often we stray too far from the important people in our lives while pursuing new ventures.
15:00 No, I would critically surmise that you chose exactly the right time in your dev cycle to do this. It was no accident. The game is significant, understandable, and playable specifically at that point. You built a foundation then you crunched to deliver it.
Might be your best dev blog yet! As for the health pickup, how about a stylized syringe type object (with crimson liquid) with a lock sort of thing attached (lock, cause we're a thief)? What about, later down the line, different coloured syringes (=different effects) with harder locks? Lock difficulty level could somehow tie in with the quick play mechanic: the more gracefully one speeds through and slay enemies, the more advanced pickups would open up to be grabbed in one's frenzied slash'n'dash, allowing to snowball, given you can utilize each next difficult to achieve opportunity🤔 Are the knights guarding this blood we steal? How about (later down the line) there's heretic knights who can in some shape use these powerups, too? Could mean racing to reach pickups before the enemies, even choosing which powerup one gets and which goes to an enemy, therefore varying possible playthroughs within one room/map. My god, I'm rambling. Hopefully, at least some of this is of interest, lol
Thanks, glad you like it! I like the heretic knight idea where you have to beat them to the powerups, though that could be hard to implement. We shall see. Appreciate all the ideas!
Chalice (filled with blood) for Blood pickups Powerups... Different arrow types for player (fire, exploding, zip line - to navigate areas if you dont have enough blood to cross over lava etc). Sword block move to deflect enemy arrow's, lightening sword - electrocutes enemies
My health pickup idea is that you could move the blood bar to a diegetic visualisation, your sword being soaked in more or less blood depending, which would increase visibility by moving it out of the peripheral. And then you could make the pickups swirling, floating orbs of blood that simply refill your bar when you walk into it, as you presumably run the sword through it
The blood bar has its benefits but it also has one very large drawback: it disincentives exploration in a game where you want your player hunting down secrets through exploration. I'm not sure if I can post links here but check the video 'Was it Good? Nightmare Creatures' by Josh Strife Plays. It covers a mechanic exactly like your blood bar and talks at length about issues with such a system. Congrats on your playtest though! I agree There is no better feeling than seeing your friends play your game and you'll never forget those moments.
Really happy this video got recommended to me! Love your game! Powerup ideas: Bullet Time, teleport with a cool blood puddle animation, periodic blood wave aoe
I loved this video and you 100% deserve more subscribers. I think that adding a simple bobbing animation for whenever you walk would help tremendously. That and just a bunch of smaller immersion features, like footstep sounds, monsters making sounds as they get close to you, etc.
showing somethign you've worked on is intimidating to say the least. But seeing how your friends were having a blast im glad you showed them your project! keep it up!
The use of the slid at 9:08 makes me think of a level that heavily encourages the player to PLOW through them. Imagine a giant slide through the level that you can knock down enemies like bowling pins!
Its always funny to me as a dev when I have friends play a game I make how they will break the hell out of it, get very confused by things that seem obvious to me and find so many bugs because I know the game so well and play it a certain way subconsiously to avoid bugs. Its great to get their perspective. Nice Devlog
I'm currently unable or unwilling to game dev because of specific elements in my life hard-countering the practice(ie. starting school, unity fuckery, laptop is about to shit). I am glued to your process though and am loving your video format/development progress. This was cool and wholesome, just wanted you and anyone else that's watching to know that, while we can't all be John Carmack, you are one of the individuals out here showing us all that we can come close, and get our friends to belly laugh in the process. Cheers on your success brother.
I know this is kind of basic but like a slow motion power up would be awesome, especially if the player will be able to use a bow. I imagine a scenario where the player is bouncing of a wall and picking off a couple of enemies mid air. I am sure there are other benefits besides affecting the gameplay but also for adding like secrets areas where the player has to carefully charge towards enemies or something. :D
I'm so in love with games like yours, the quake aesthetic, the secrets, really looking forward to this project. Keep up the great work, for the health pickups i'm thinking maybe flesh related stuff, maybe hearths, or other kind of organs, gruesome, but it adds to the dark fantasy aesthetic
Here's a small powerup idea: A sort of potion or spell type thing that allows the sword to impale multiple enemies at once to quickly regain lost blood, like swinging close to 2-3 enemies to eradicate em. I have no idea how it'd be balanced or if it is even fun but its a thought I figured I'd share. Also the blood bar seems like a pretty fun and fitting way to balance the mechanics of the game, hopefully others can playtest soon to see what it's all about!
Idea 1: Losing health in water should not equal drowning. Instead, your character's armor could rust over, damaging you(due to... tetanus? I'm not sure) Idea 2: Archers can track your character all around, except behind pillars or other objects, which would stop their sight trail in its tracks. I absolutely love how this game is turning out, keep up the great work! (Ichorsquire Ichorsquire Ichorsquire Ichorsquire)
Having the blood bar be at zero might lead to situations where the player is soft-locked, idk if there's a bullet-proof way to fix it but having some sort of infinite refill station (mini blood fountain?) at select spots could mitigate it or maybe a way to respawn enemies in an area?
Hoping you see this Blargis I had an idea that the lore reason the player was able to dash at people is that their other hand was some eldritch being like tentacle. and you should also add a grapple ability which would still work with the tenticle idea.
Im sure it has been mentioned already but if you want your secrets to be a bit more impactful it might be neat to introduce an overheal mechanic where when picking up a secret you get an extra bar of blood, or perhaps a powerup that lets you use extra powerful blood abilities without any blood cost for a few seconds. Also, i don't know if you have a publisher already or plan on self-publishing, but if you are interested in working with a larger publisher consider talking to New Blood Interactive. It is a medium sized publisher who specialize in 'boomer shooters' or quake-like games, having published games like Ultrakill and Dusk. They have a huge community that im 100% sure would be INCREDIBLY interested in a game like this. Excited to see the future of the game, this is definitely going on the Wishlist.
Adding that blood bar was a good choice, I dont want to fill your head with more over scope but im thinking a time trails mode with your parkour mechanic or maby integrate it into your level design perhaps a falling castle that you have to escape! With the blood bar it makes you having to manage movement and health together a good combo with the health pickups filling your movement meter. Very good idea!!!
You could add a "bloodrush" powerup to give you unlimited blood for a certain amount of time, the "healing" objects could be droplets of blood, you could also add a bow powerup which adds a bow to your inventory (possibly temporarily), the downside of the bow is that you dont gain blood from kills, which makes it possibly not even have to be a powerup, rather a secondary weapon that you unlock after beating a certain amount of levels
Do not use a red cross as a symbol in your game because it is in violation of the Geneva convention! Games like among us have had this issue and were forced to change them to be green !!
Wow, that blood bar mechanic is a stroke of genius, solves so many gameplay issues with one bar! Could've easily made a clickbait title "this one mechanic saved my indie game!"
Some of the issues i saw in the footage you showed was players not realizing there were enemies Maybe try introducing a bark when enemies are alerted to you like, "Halt!" or "Thief!" for the guards and the archers have like "I see him!" or "Die!" in a slightly different voice. Plus a sound for when an arrow is being louded in a bad guys bow and when the arrow is fired would be good as well.
Oh boy this is turning into a vampire game :D A power up idea could be throwing enchanted knives that also give you blood. You'll get 20 knives and they will be homing to the enemy when you throw them. You can't save them for later because you can't switch to your sword without finishing the knives.
Maybe you should add a projectile deflect mechanic where you attack an arrow and it get's sent right back to the enemy or breaks outright. Perhaps you could also implement charging attacks for more damage and add enemies that require more than a single hit to take down. Enemy variety is important. I cannot wait to play this game I'm so excited for it.
12:51 I noticed something while playing this part sometimes I would get caught on the geometry while doing an air dash towards the end of the parkour. It’s not too bad and certainly not game breaking I just thought I should bring it to your attention
Blood trickles, huge trails while sliding, dashing spurts from gaps in armour, smears on walls etc to reinforce blood loss, embrace the bloody Aesthetic!
This reminds me of my first multiplayer game where both my brother in law and brother learned to shoot through a specific wall to kill other players with some bug that I literally could never fixed. It was the oddest glitch and only worked in 1 spot.
I have a couple of ideas on how the game could be improved! Firstly, forcing the player to always move around can could a lot of stress if you have to backtrack through rooms where you've already cleared out all the enemies. Also, I think having your blood run out if you stay completely still for a while seems a little unfair. I'd suggest that when you run out of blood, you're stuck at 1 HP and you move a little slower than usual until you get more. Maybe also add a slight red glare around the edges of the screen to indicate that the player is weakened. If you're looking for weapon ideas, I'd introduce a grappling crossbow for moving towards targets, and a long-range weapon with splash damage that makes the player decide whether or not to risk getting close for more blood, or to deal with enemies at a safe distance. Maybe a magic staff or a book with a fireball spell. As for power-ups, I've always thought it would be cool to see Descent-style combat in a regular FPS game (6dof, no up or down). As more enemies are introduced, a power up that lets you change into an enemy and play using their combat would be very interesting. I'm super excited to see more of this!
For Powerups, I have two ideas. One: *Homing Arrows.* When shooting a bow, it will home to enemies. This could also be multishot, or some other powerup. Two: Keeping with the Jedi theme, why not make a powerup to give you Jedi powers? Deflecting arrows back at enemies, pushing people away with the force, or mind tricks. The options are endless
First Video i saw about this. The bloodmeter seems to be a good idea. Lorewise you could write that the "hero" of the Game builds somekind of hardened fluid armor with the blood (because magic) and it can be used in ways, like letting a part explode to propell you forward, or to liquify it again, so that you can slide or hard dry ground. This explanation could be added as sound queues, like a sloshing sound when sliding and a wet explosion sound when dashing. If you feel like it becomes a problem for the player to get to certain places. because they played too sloppy, you could add fountains, that the player curses to become blood instead of water. Then you have a makeshift checkpoint (Gasstation) the player could come back to refill the bloodmeter. Of course this could be cheesed, by going forward and go back multiple times. So if you don't want it to be cheesed on certain points, you could just place these at a point where you come through, but can't come back. Or that you could only use the blood fountain for a limited amount of uses (different fountain size? for more uses). Sorry if i wrote something, that is already in the game
To fix the issue where your friend died because he didnt see the enemy: maybe add like a red half-circly indicator to signal when an enemy is close and in which direction
Here's 2 new enemy ideas. 1: a larger, tank type enemy that can counter the slide attack (they stop you if you slide into them) and has more health. 2: a speedy rogue enemy that can counter air-dashes by dodging, and maybe also have the ability to slide attack or air dash the player. These 2 enemy types could add a lot of variety to the gameplay and force the player into varying their approach.
Maybe change the crosses to drops of blood? You could also add a blood vial used to regain some blood meter and avoid getting resource soft-locked (until you run out of vial uses). Your progress is looking awesome!
Love seeing the progress on this game, I cannot wait to actually play it! Powerup idea: I know that this is a very medieval, probably low magic setting but it'd be cool to see something like a one-time use spell. Maybe a fire ball or lighting bolt that chains between enemies so that in later levels if there are mobs that are forming small groups you can kill them all in one blow. Fireball would probably be OP but I could see chain lightning having some cool interactions with the fast, melee style of the player character. Having the lightning bolt go from one mob to the next while the player finishes off the other mobs down the line, almost like there are two PCs. EDIT: Just saw the part where your friend goes into the secret cave and laughs at the guards running outside. Would be hilarious if some bitcrushed audio of them yelling "COWARD!" at the player happened whenever they ducked into an inacessible area haha EDIT 2: Health pickups could be vials of potion! I think there's actually a law that keeps you from using a red cross in video games anyways so definitely good to change it.
Magic is certainly not off the table, I like these ideas! And omg that is too funny. I def want to add some "aggro" audio for the knights. It would be hilarious to also have what you're suggesting, I've never seen that before in a game, haha
Wow this video was really interesting. I like the way you think. Can you share more about how you manage working on your game? I dream becoming an indie game dev but I also have a wife/job/etc. and it's difficult to find time and motivation to work on side projects (I'm a web dev so I already code or do technical stuff a big part of the day)
Not going to lie, it is really tough! Here is what I do (not sure if this is good advice fyi, just what I've been doing): 1. Saturday and Sunday mornings are non-negotiable work time. I usually work all morning, at minimum I'll go from 7am to 11am but sometimes Ill go into the afternoon 2. Weeknights I usually chill and don't do much. I have a hybrid work schedule so on days where I work from home I may try to get a little done before and after work. Usually I don't get much done on weeknights though as I work much better in big blocks of time. Hope that helps!!
@@Blargis3d Thanks for you answer! I'm usually not very productive on mornings so I'm not sure I can apply the same method :) However this would suite my hybrid work schedule as well... I'll maybe give it a try! Anyway here my suggestion to replace the cross powerup: a chalice! It would fit nice with the medieval theme and the blood gauge as the most well known chalice is filled with... blood :)
hey man this video was incredibly fun!! keep up the good work, ur game is looking great and for ideas about the heath pickup i think a simple solution would be a blood drop or a heart
Might want to add a system where the blood bar will not drain all the way, and instead go down to half or have it not drain when out of combat? I’ve played level-based games with systems where a vital resource goes down constantly and it makes secret hunting a pain, and just looking at the environment becomes impossible. I guess it could also be helped by just putting a blood pickup before every combat?
A cool idea might be an findable pickup that puts a big blood vile in your left hand that you can choose to break and replenish your bar in a tight spot. Sorta like a health potion but you can only carry one and they're maybe rare.
power-up ideas: Before we talk about powerups! I think you should heavily consider your slide dashes killing enemies. Honestly, I would abuse the hell out of this. You need to make sure this is what you want for your game, because it is the go-to move! Why not make your leg a chainsaw (wink-wink) at that point? It seems overpowered, in a sense. Something to contemplate, not pull your hair out over. (This is covered in the video, nice!) on to power-up ideas. Attack/retrieve: Your attacks become physical beacons you can teleport with. When you slash, you send out a wind scar/ shock wave and at any moment can hit the right mouse button (or w/e) to teleport to where that scar is (even upon effective hit with an enemy). This will be interesting in terms of furthering your platforming capabilities. FREE movement: No matter the terrain? air, land, water, you move with pure dictation and without restraint. For the water segments, it's obvious that water movement is better. For land-based gameplay, you could make the arial combat more advantageous to the user. In terms of level design, this powerup can be forced upon the user to make the decision of combat focused, or exploration focused. Secret Vision: this one is quite obvious but highlight things that would otherwise be overlooked by the user. Seeker: your melee attacks are temporarily projectile slashes (as well as melee attacks) Obvious Max Payne mechanic: Need I go on? But you can add to this, not just stick with mundane gameplay. I'm honestly quite stuck on the health-pickups for the "blood-bar". I think the Blood Bar is a great incentive to be aggressive, and the actual pickups to refuel the blood bar should be.... spare. Secrets, if you will. You want people to engage with your system, right? Not just abuse it with the "health" strewn about the level? You might have to run the gauntlet of Ghostrunner, where you need more traversal spaces than not. Though, in my opinion, you are ultimately moving farther way from Quake and just making a low-texture version of this game. Ultimately, how is this game going to progress? What environments, enemies & combination of the two, will you invent to keep the game engaging from beginning to end?
You know, i think you can center mechanics around the blood bar even more than you can think, and i also have an idea which im not sure if it could fit with the game's aesthetic/lore. Since you said some areas are only within reach if you have X amounts of blood in the bar, how about to cause a trigger in some areas where the enemy would drop infinite blood? What i mean might need a bit of making a scenario: You just got in a huge fight. Hordes of enemies, maybe a mini boss or an actual boss and etc. Since the game already gives you that bloodlust since its a SERIOUS necessity to progress in some areas or to play with a style, the character of the game would get so much adrenaline from a big fight that his blood meter could be so high it could be infinite for a set amount of time or until they reach a certain point for ex after the platforming section. Could give a good flow as well since that means you have more freedom getting stylish moves towards the end goal of the obstacles while it also gives some breathing space from the player to not worry about combat related stuff in a non-combat section of the game, while also keeping them on the move. Getting precise choices and movement in your game is a clever idea to keep people engaged in it and it showed with your friends, but in the long term it might be annoying mid-late game where the platforming could be more difficult and end up making the bar annoying in said sections. Plus this idea i think if it can be implemented in the game it could have potential to indicate how it gets activated. Maybe a loud scream from the player after letting all his rage into this fight that just ended, maybe the hands and the weapons are all bloodied up, and much much more which i cant brainstorm right now. After all i really love how you went so far with your progress! Your dev logs really inspire me to continue working on my projects seeing how people like you overcome such mental obstacles during the process i wish you best luck for the future dev log!
If enemies always drop blood, I guess it could be different them a pick-up, and automatic! Like a simple particle animation from the bodies to the player, and a "jar filling sound" or the blood equivalent of that. And I guess if you can have blood just floating around the map, outside or secrets or anything, that's fine, but I like the (almost) always-get-blood-from-your-enemies idea, it makes the game more aggressive Also, will the blood be an abstraction, like just some resource to manage, or will it have thematic and mechanic reasons for blood? (Getting it back as you kill enemies it's a really cool direction away from the "abstraction-only" vibes, i'm guessing it'll have more functions)
Maybe as a powerup you could increase the size of your sword and make it deal some kind of sweeping damage, allowing you to hit multiple enemies at once and from furhter away
The blood bar gives a feeling of prince of persia the two thrones with section of the dark princes where you have ton constantly kill more and more ennemies because your health bar is depleating
Red vials, representing blood, instead of the crosses. Power-up idea: Powe-rup, where actions do not deplete bloodbar, neither it depletes on its own for the duration of the power-up time. Damage taken still depletes the bar.
The blood bar could be a bloody pattern/sigils on the sword that fills up vertically, certain stand-out sigils would mark what abilities the player has access to at what point on the sword's blood meter. I feel like this also opens up cool narrative ideas like the sword being a demon sword that is granting the play character their movement powers (and the demon sword could talk if you want an npc guide for the player)
yo that's a sick idea
The sword's name, obviously, is "Bloodthief"
I was about to comment that he could use the sword changing colour as an indicator for blood rather than the meter at the top.
Also red drops for blood pickups instead of a cross?
THIS.
Sword talk
I don't think that fits the game but a demon sword might
for the health pickups, vials/beakers of blood (with a nice uncorking noise when you pick 'em up) would work well. also I think the red cross will hunt you down if you even hint at showing a red plus sign for healing so i'd recommend changing that before the cross shows up on your steam page
powerup ideas: maxed out blood bar for duration, ranged "blood slash" attack with your sword, projectile reflect/parry, small AoE damage field that surrounds you (grows bigger the faster you move?)
edit: also wanted to say i'm really enjoying these devlogs, hope to see them continue throughout the dev process.
Whoah those powerup ideas are sick, noted them!
And I'm glad you're enjoying the devlogs!
Maybe a green cross?
@@Blargis3dI'm a big fan of his ranged "blood slash" attack and projectile reflect/parry suggestions, just throwing in my 2 cents lol
@@Blargis3dcan I test the game?
The blood bar could open up to a lot of interesting narrative aspects, maybe you have a gaping wound that was given to you by the final boss at the beginning and it sets up a sort of revenge arc where you have been placed in a sort of cycle of violence where you need to kill in order to stay alive which ends after you kill the one who gave you this cursed wound
love this idea. Could also be a curse cast from a necromancer or sorceror where you must draw blood or you die
I watch a dev log when I wake up every morning before I work on my game whilst I drink my coffee. I am glad I watched this one. This was awesome man. You all looked like you were genuinely having a great time. The bloodbar was a really cool idea. I subbed. Can't wait to see more. Good luck brother.
Thank you so much for the kind words! I've been watching your content for years, so this is really awesome coming from you.
yoo look who it is gamers
Quick suggestion: Consider organizing each room as a group in Trenchbroom and make use of the VisibilityNotifier Node in Godot. It can significantly boost performance. Also, try using a single, large collision shape instead of the individually generated ones by Qodot. Keep up the great work with your projects :)!
As a real bloodthief myself I can proudly say that this game is a perfect representation of our people, something you can rarely find.
As a developper myself i can confirm than showing my game to friends cures every tiny bit of burnout and motivates me even more. I really enjoy your devlogs and can't wait to see how your game will turn into!
Wishlisted this on Steam already and been following since the first video, excited to play this game and I wish you the best!
Just want to say this video really helped me solve some issues I was facing in something I’m working on!!
I am really excited to play this game and am a big fan of how all of this has been shared and talked about!!
The blood bar is genius!!
Thank you for sharing these!!
Hey, good video! Here’s what I would’ve reworked for the play test. I thought the blood bar was great too! Mine would require a lot of changes, so it’s probably not worth it:
1 - Slides should not activate without some motion. Instead of being able to slowly move and then break into a slide, I’d require a running start on the ground or have some motion in the air. That would address it being OP when in a bad spot.
2 - I would make it so the slide always gives a small boost of motion whenever an enemy is hit.
3 - Crucially, a non power up slide should redirect your motion upward like skateboarding up a ramp. The faster you are, the higher up you go.
4 - This would make your first power up for the slide great to gain high speed on the ground. Your power up would stop pushing your player up and would keep their speed up.
5 - Finally, I’d make the air attack not throw you back up without a power up. Instead it’d move you down with a small speed up.
6 - also I’d make the bunny hop slightly less speedy to incentivize dunking on enemies for speed.
Probably not the best fix, but I thought it would be fun to not worry about a bar.
I have a perfect solution for the health pickups. Have it be part of the story that you are morally wounded and thus bleeding out. The pickups are bandages to slow bleeding but of course exerting yourself "tears" them which is why they aren't a permanent solution and explains why doing moves reduces the meter. Also this would give a reason why you are rushing and why you die when the meter runs out. Maybe the story is something like: you're the royal guard of the King's daughter and a Ganon-like bad guy takes her and mortally wounds you then runs off with her. With literally no time to waste you give chase trying to stay alive long enough to catch up and get her back. Would make for a sick Boss fight. The knights could be his cronies that he stormed your kingdom with so this works for start and end game. You could have different color knights laying dead around the starting levels to show it was an invasion. Lmk if you like my ideas, I've got more and would love to work with you. Also shout out my buddy Breaker from Break Niche on TH-cam if you use this, his channel needs attention.
A goblet full of blood could work instead of a cross with the sort of dark aesthetic you have going on
Also Im not sure if you already have enemy sounds but I think it would help prevent problems like 8:08, especially if they are directional
Yeah I need to spend more time working on sound effects and all that. Agreed it would help the "getting hit from behind" problem.
Love the goblet idea!
Great video. I also want a golden goblet. Maybe make it spill over and drop some blood drops, making it look more creepy and magical.
I think I mentioned having a blood bar in the comments of the 1st devlog, so its cool to actually see it in game. Also, Id recommend a smaller blood bar or maybe if you get hit and the blood blocks it, you should lose some of your max blood bar, so the player stays alive, but getting hit is still punishing.
I needed to see this, I think. Booking in a playtest session of my own game soon. The joy on your friends faces is god damn infectious!
Really great video and a very timely reminder for me to get my own game in front of some play testers too! Hopefully I can get as positive a reaction as you did!
duuude i painfully related with you so much when you fell into dev hell and obiwan pulled you out of it. I've been working on Operation: Black Mesa since 2012! I keep adding content but it's going to pay off for sure, I've just been learning to decide when enough is enough.
It was really cool to see your buddies get such a kick out of playing your game, and I've been thoroughly enjoying your process, keep it up!
3:33
-A power up that creates a ring of fire around you when you jump.
-A power up that let gives your melee attacks a ranged attack.
-A power up that let's you walk on lava.
-A power up that make you invulnerable for a short time after you kill enemies.
-A power up that makes you invisible.
-A power up that increases your jump speed.
-A power up that increases your slide speed.
So happy for you bonding with your friends over your project. Too often we stray too far from the important people in our lives while pursuing new ventures.
15:00 No, I would critically surmise that you chose exactly the right time in your dev cycle to do this. It was no accident. The game is significant, understandable, and playable specifically at that point. You built a foundation then you crunched to deliver it.
Might be your best dev blog yet!
As for the health pickup, how about a stylized syringe type object (with crimson liquid) with a lock sort of thing attached (lock, cause we're a thief)?
What about, later down the line, different coloured syringes (=different effects) with harder locks? Lock difficulty level could somehow tie in with the quick play mechanic: the more gracefully one speeds through and slay enemies, the more advanced pickups would open up to be grabbed in one's frenzied slash'n'dash, allowing to snowball, given you can utilize each next difficult to achieve opportunity🤔
Are the knights guarding this blood we steal? How about (later down the line) there's heretic knights who can in some shape use these powerups, too? Could mean racing to reach pickups before the enemies, even choosing which powerup one gets and which goes to an enemy, therefore varying possible playthroughs within one room/map.
My god, I'm rambling. Hopefully, at least some of this is of interest, lol
Thanks, glad you like it! I like the heretic knight idea where you have to beat them to the powerups, though that could be hard to implement. We shall see. Appreciate all the ideas!
Chalice (filled with blood) for Blood pickups
Powerups... Different arrow types for player (fire, exploding, zip line - to navigate areas if you dont have enough blood to cross over lava etc). Sword block move to deflect enemy arrow's, lightening sword - electrocutes enemies
My health pickup idea is that you could move the blood bar to a diegetic visualisation, your sword being soaked in more or less blood depending, which would increase visibility by moving it out of the peripheral. And then you could make the pickups swirling, floating orbs of blood that simply refill your bar when you walk into it, as you presumably run the sword through it
The blood bar has its benefits but it also has one very large drawback: it disincentives exploration in a game where you want your player hunting down secrets through exploration. I'm not sure if I can post links here but check the video 'Was it Good? Nightmare Creatures' by Josh Strife Plays. It covers a mechanic exactly like your blood bar and talks at length about issues with such a system.
Congrats on your playtest though! I agree There is no better feeling than seeing your friends play your game and you'll never forget those moments.
Really happy this video got recommended to me! Love your game!
Powerup ideas: Bullet Time, teleport with a cool blood puddle animation, periodic blood wave aoe
I loved this video and you 100% deserve more subscribers. I think that adding a simple bobbing animation for whenever you walk would help tremendously. That and just a bunch of smaller immersion features, like footstep sounds, monsters making sounds as they get close to you, etc.
showing somethign you've worked on is intimidating to say the least. But seeing how your friends were having a blast im glad you showed them your project! keep it up!
The use of the slid at 9:08 makes me think of a level that heavily encourages the player to PLOW through them. Imagine a giant slide through the level that you can knock down enemies like bowling pins!
Its always funny to me as a dev when I have friends play a game I make how they will break the hell out of it, get very confused by things that seem obvious to me and find so many bugs because I know the game so well and play it a certain way subconsiously to avoid bugs. Its great to get their perspective. Nice Devlog
This is really great, your work is lovely, game looks like a ton of fun! Keep up the good work.
Great video, this is what it's all about! My favorite devlog series for sure!
Wow thank you!
Thank you YT algorithm, finally some good game dev content. WELL DONE MATE THIS IS SICK
Really good devlog and promising title. I love the idea. I subbed and looking forward to more devlogs!
I'm currently unable or unwilling to game dev because of specific elements in my life hard-countering the practice(ie. starting school, unity fuckery, laptop is about to shit). I am glued to your process though and am loving your video format/development progress. This was cool and wholesome, just wanted you and anyone else that's watching to know that, while we can't all be John Carmack, you are one of the individuals out here showing us all that we can come close, and get our friends to belly laugh in the process. Cheers on your success brother.
The health pickups could be bloodbags (someone probably suggested this already). Love the bloodbar idea, and the game looks really fun now!
always happy to see an new episode of this devlog. keep it up
I'm happy you're enjoying them, thank you!
I know this is kind of basic but like a slow motion power up would be awesome, especially if the player will be able to use a bow. I imagine a scenario where the player is bouncing of a wall and picking off a couple of enemies mid air. I am sure there are other benefits besides affecting the gameplay but also for adding like secrets areas where the player has to carefully charge towards enemies or something. :D
This is the most interesting devlog series I've seen in a while
Thank you, that is really kind of you to say!
I'm so in love with games like yours, the quake aesthetic, the secrets, really looking forward to this project. Keep up the great work, for the health pickups i'm thinking maybe flesh related stuff, maybe hearths, or other kind of organs, gruesome, but it adds to the dark fantasy aesthetic
Here's a small powerup idea:
A sort of potion or spell type thing that allows the sword to impale multiple enemies at once to quickly regain lost blood, like swinging close to 2-3 enemies to eradicate em. I have no idea how it'd be balanced or if it is even fun but its a thought I figured I'd share. Also the blood bar seems like a pretty fun and fitting way to balance the mechanics of the game, hopefully others can playtest soon to see what it's all about!
This is VERY encouraging as someone who is making their first game a birthday game for one of my best friends
Idea 1: Losing health in water should not equal drowning. Instead, your character's armor could rust over, damaging you(due to... tetanus? I'm not sure)
Idea 2: Archers can track your character all around, except behind pillars or other objects, which would stop their sight trail in its tracks.
I absolutely love how this game is turning out, keep up the great work! (Ichorsquire Ichorsquire Ichorsquire Ichorsquire)
This is really amazing. Keep up the fantastic work! :D
Thank you!! Will do!
for powerup ideas, maybe you could add a Max Payne style guntime when using the bow
I was thinking of something like this! The bow currently is a little under-powered so I like ideas that beef the bow up a bit
Loved the video and cant wait to see more as well as to hopefully play it one day!
Having the blood bar be at zero might lead to situations where the player is soft-locked, idk if there's a bullet-proof way to fix it but having some sort of infinite refill station (mini blood fountain?) at select spots could mitigate it or maybe a way to respawn enemies in an area?
Current idea to solve this: Those health pickups just respawn after a bit
@@Blargis3d That makes sense!
kind of as if the walls were leaking blood over time@@Blargis3d
Hoping you see this Blargis
I had an idea that the lore reason the player was able to dash at people is that their other hand was some eldritch being like tentacle. and you should also add a grapple ability which would still work with the tenticle idea.
Great devblog. I've been following you since your first upload, and you've come a long way!
Thank you!
Bloodbar idea was genius, this project is sick keep it up I just wish listed it
Im sure it has been mentioned already but if you want your secrets to be a bit more impactful it might be neat to introduce an overheal mechanic where when picking up a secret you get an extra bar of blood, or perhaps a powerup that lets you use extra powerful blood abilities without any blood cost for a few seconds.
Also, i don't know if you have a publisher already or plan on self-publishing, but if you are interested in working with a larger publisher consider talking to New Blood Interactive. It is a medium sized publisher who specialize in 'boomer shooters' or quake-like games, having published games like Ultrakill and Dusk. They have a huge community that im 100% sure would be INCREDIBLY interested in a game like this. Excited to see the future of the game, this is definitely going on the Wishlist.
Adding that blood bar was a good choice, I dont want to fill your head with more over scope but im thinking a time trails mode with your parkour mechanic or maby integrate it into your level design perhaps a falling castle that you have to escape! With the blood bar it makes you having to manage movement and health together a good combo with the health pickups filling your movement meter. Very good idea!!!
You could add a "bloodrush" powerup to give you unlimited blood for a certain amount of time, the "healing" objects could be droplets of blood, you could also add a bow powerup which adds a bow to your inventory (possibly temporarily), the downside of the bow is that you dont gain blood from kills, which makes it possibly not even have to be a powerup, rather a secondary weapon that you unlock after beating a certain amount of levels
Do not use a red cross as a symbol in your game because it is in violation of the Geneva convention! Games like among us have had this issue and were forced to change them to be green !!
Wow, that blood bar mechanic is a stroke of genius, solves so many gameplay issues with one bar! Could've easily made a clickbait title "this one mechanic saved my indie game!"
Some of the issues i saw in the footage you showed was players not realizing there were enemies
Maybe try introducing a bark when enemies are alerted to you like, "Halt!" or "Thief!" for the guards and the archers have like "I see him!" or "Die!" in a slightly different voice.
Plus a sound for when an arrow is being louded in a bad guys bow and when the arrow is fired would be good as well.
Lucky side affect of changing the health pickup design is that your game won't violate the geneva convention anymore haha
This game is going to be fricking incredible! Cant wait to try it!
Thank you for this very important video for my own gamedev journey :') Subscribed
Glad I could help!
Oh boy this is turning into a vampire game :D A power up idea could be throwing enchanted knives that also give you blood. You'll get 20 knives and they will be homing to the enemy when you throw them. You can't save them for later because you can't switch to your sword without finishing the knives.
Maybe you should add a projectile deflect mechanic where you attack an arrow and it get's sent right back to the enemy or breaks outright. Perhaps you could also implement charging attacks for more damage and add enemies that require more than a single hit to take down. Enemy variety is important. I cannot wait to play this game I'm so excited for it.
Wow, I saw the thumbnail and thought it was Neverlooted Dungeon, which is another really cool game concept.
12:51 I noticed something while playing this part sometimes I would get caught on the geometry while doing an air dash towards the end of the parkour.
It’s not too bad and certainly not game breaking I just thought I should bring it to your attention
Blood trickles, huge trails while sliding, dashing spurts from gaps in armour, smears on walls etc to reinforce blood loss, embrace the bloody Aesthetic!
make the blood pick ups a blood tear drop
a fun power-up could be to launch you in the air when you slide into someone, could couple it with some drop attack or goomba stomp power.
This reminds me of my first multiplayer game where both my brother in law and brother learned to shoot through a specific wall to kill other players with some bug that I literally could never fixed. It was the oddest glitch and only worked in 1 spot.
the health pickups could be blood cell shaped, and there could be a sickle-shaped one for an attack damage increase, riffing on "sickle cell anemia".
temporary water debuff to your slide, wet factor lasting a couple of seconds and being done once you use it. Also u can leave a puddle
I have a couple of ideas on how the game could be improved!
Firstly, forcing the player to always move around can could a lot of stress if you have to backtrack through rooms where you've already cleared out all the enemies. Also, I think having your blood run out if you stay completely still for a while seems a little unfair. I'd suggest that when you run out of blood, you're stuck at 1 HP and you move a little slower than usual until you get more. Maybe also add a slight red glare around the edges of the screen to indicate that the player is weakened.
If you're looking for weapon ideas, I'd introduce a grappling crossbow for moving towards targets, and a long-range weapon with splash damage that makes the player decide whether or not to risk getting close for more blood, or to deal with enemies at a safe distance. Maybe a magic staff or a book with a fireball spell.
As for power-ups, I've always thought it would be cool to see Descent-style combat in a regular FPS game (6dof, no up or down). As more enemies are introduced, a power up that lets you change into an enemy and play using their combat would be very interesting.
I'm super excited to see more of this!
Love these videos, can’t wait to see more!
Idea for power up - blood rage - lasts certain duration allowing you to jump higher allowing you to reach secrets?
This game looks sick.
For Powerups, I have two ideas.
One: *Homing Arrows.* When shooting a bow, it will home to enemies. This could also be multishot, or some other powerup.
Two: Keeping with the Jedi theme, why not make a powerup to give you Jedi powers? Deflecting arrows back at enemies, pushing people away with the force, or mind tricks. The options are endless
First Video i saw about this.
The bloodmeter seems to be a good idea. Lorewise you could write that the "hero" of the Game builds somekind of hardened fluid armor with the blood (because magic) and it can be used in ways, like letting a part explode to propell you forward, or to liquify it again, so that you can slide or hard dry ground.
This explanation could be added as sound queues, like a sloshing sound when sliding and a wet explosion sound when dashing.
If you feel like it becomes a problem for the player to get to certain places. because they played too sloppy, you could add fountains, that the player curses to become blood instead of water. Then you have a makeshift checkpoint (Gasstation) the player could come back to refill the bloodmeter. Of course this could be cheesed, by going forward and go back multiple times. So if you don't want it to be cheesed on certain points, you could just place these at a point where you come through, but can't come back. Or that you could only use the blood fountain for a limited amount of uses (different fountain size? for more uses).
Sorry if i wrote something, that is already in the game
To fix the issue where your friend died because he didnt see the enemy: maybe add like a red half-circly indicator to signal when an enemy is close and in which direction
Here's 2 new enemy ideas.
1: a larger, tank type enemy that can counter the slide attack (they stop you if you slide into them) and has more health.
2: a speedy rogue enemy that can counter air-dashes by dodging, and maybe also have the ability to slide attack or air dash the player.
These 2 enemy types could add a lot of variety to the gameplay and force the player into varying their approach.
Maybe change the crosses to drops of blood? You could also add a blood vial used to regain some blood meter and avoid getting resource soft-locked (until you run out of vial uses). Your progress is looking awesome!
Love seeing the progress on this game, I cannot wait to actually play it!
Powerup idea: I know that this is a very medieval, probably low magic setting but it'd be cool to see something like a one-time use spell. Maybe a fire ball or lighting bolt that chains between enemies so that in later levels if there are mobs that are forming small groups you can kill them all in one blow. Fireball would probably be OP but I could see chain lightning having some cool interactions with the fast, melee style of the player character. Having the lightning bolt go from one mob to the next while the player finishes off the other mobs down the line, almost like there are two PCs.
EDIT: Just saw the part where your friend goes into the secret cave and laughs at the guards running outside. Would be hilarious if some bitcrushed audio of them yelling "COWARD!" at the player happened whenever they ducked into an inacessible area haha
EDIT 2: Health pickups could be vials of potion! I think there's actually a law that keeps you from using a red cross in video games anyways so definitely good to change it.
Magic is certainly not off the table, I like these ideas!
And omg that is too funny. I def want to add some "aggro" audio for the knights. It would be hilarious to also have what you're suggesting, I've never seen that before in a game, haha
Wow this video was really interesting. I like the way you think. Can you share more about how you manage working on your game? I dream becoming an indie game dev but I also have a wife/job/etc. and it's difficult to find time and motivation to work on side projects (I'm a web dev so I already code or do technical stuff a big part of the day)
Not going to lie, it is really tough! Here is what I do (not sure if this is good advice fyi, just what I've been doing):
1. Saturday and Sunday mornings are non-negotiable work time. I usually work all morning, at minimum I'll go from 7am to 11am but sometimes Ill go into the afternoon
2. Weeknights I usually chill and don't do much. I have a hybrid work schedule so on days where I work from home I may try to get a little done before and after work. Usually I don't get much done on weeknights though as I work much better in big blocks of time.
Hope that helps!!
@@Blargis3d Thanks for you answer! I'm usually not very productive on mornings so I'm not sure I can apply the same method :) However this would suite my hybrid work schedule as well... I'll maybe give it a try!
Anyway here my suggestion to replace the cross powerup: a chalice! It would fit nice with the medieval theme and the blood gauge as the most well known chalice is filled with... blood :)
hey man this video was incredibly fun!! keep up the good work, ur game is looking great
and for ideas about the heath pickup i think a simple solution would be a blood drop or a heart
Thank you!! Yeah hearts have the benefit of being universally known as health which I like.
The Bloodthief is a Vampire, thats why they can fly around at mach speed, the blood pickups could be a vial or something similar.
love this. I always tried to become a vampire in elder scrolls games
Excellent video.
Might want to add a system where the blood bar will not drain all the way, and instead go down to half or have it not drain when out of combat? I’ve played level-based games with systems where a vital resource goes down constantly and it makes secret hunting a pain, and just looking at the environment becomes impossible.
I guess it could also be helped by just putting a blood pickup before every combat?
A cool idea might be an findable pickup that puts a big blood vile in your left hand that you can choose to break and replenish your bar in a tight spot. Sorta like a health potion but you can only carry one and they're maybe rare.
some sort of fast and/or flying enemy will be very helpful in forcing the player to do what you want.
not exactly a power-up, but a grapping hook of sorts might be cool and would def fit the parkour theme movement
power-up ideas:
Before we talk about powerups!
I think you should heavily consider your slide dashes killing enemies. Honestly, I would abuse the hell out of this. You need to make sure this is what you want for your game, because it is the go-to move! Why not make your leg a chainsaw (wink-wink) at that point? It seems overpowered, in a sense. Something to contemplate, not pull your hair out over. (This is covered in the video, nice!)
on to power-up ideas.
Attack/retrieve: Your attacks become physical beacons you can teleport with. When you slash, you send out a wind scar/ shock wave and at any moment can hit the right mouse button (or w/e) to teleport to where that scar is (even upon effective hit with an enemy). This will be interesting in terms of furthering your platforming capabilities.
FREE movement: No matter the terrain? air, land, water, you move with pure dictation and without restraint. For the water segments, it's obvious that water movement is better. For land-based gameplay, you could make the arial combat more advantageous to the user. In terms of level design, this powerup can be forced upon the user to make the decision of combat focused, or exploration focused.
Secret Vision: this one is quite obvious but highlight things that would otherwise be overlooked by the user.
Seeker: your melee attacks are temporarily projectile slashes (as well as melee attacks)
Obvious Max Payne mechanic: Need I go on? But you can add to this, not just stick with mundane gameplay.
I'm honestly quite stuck on the health-pickups for the "blood-bar". I think the Blood Bar is a great incentive to be aggressive, and the actual pickups to refuel the blood bar should be.... spare. Secrets, if you will. You want people to engage with your system, right? Not just abuse it with the "health" strewn about the level?
You might have to run the gauntlet of Ghostrunner, where you need more traversal spaces than not. Though, in my opinion, you are ultimately moving farther way from Quake and just making a low-texture version of this game.
Ultimately, how is this game going to progress? What environments, enemies & combination of the two, will you invent to keep the game engaging from beginning to end?
Those divine messages man. I could use some myself.
You know, i think you can center mechanics around the blood bar even more than you can think, and i also have an idea which im not sure if it could fit with the game's aesthetic/lore.
Since you said some areas are only within reach if you have X amounts of blood in the bar, how about to cause a trigger in some areas where the enemy would drop infinite blood? What i mean might need a bit of making a scenario:
You just got in a huge fight. Hordes of enemies, maybe a mini boss or an actual boss and etc. Since the game already gives you that bloodlust since its a SERIOUS necessity to progress in some areas or to play with a style, the character of the game would get so much adrenaline from a big fight that his blood meter could be so high it could be infinite for a set amount of time or until they reach a certain point for ex after the platforming section. Could give a good flow as well since that means you have more freedom getting stylish moves towards the end goal of the obstacles while it also gives some breathing space from the player to not worry about combat related stuff in a non-combat section of the game, while also keeping them on the move.
Getting precise choices and movement in your game is a clever idea to keep people engaged in it and it showed with your friends, but in the long term it might be annoying mid-late game where the platforming could be more difficult and end up making the bar annoying in said sections.
Plus this idea i think if it can be implemented in the game it could have potential to indicate how it gets activated. Maybe a loud scream from the player after letting all his rage into this fight that just ended, maybe the hands and the weapons are all bloodied up, and much much more which i cant brainstorm right now.
After all i really love how you went so far with your progress! Your dev logs really inspire me to continue working on my projects seeing how people like you overcome such mental obstacles during the process i wish you best luck for the future dev log!
there's quite a few parts of where you're going with this that remind me of melee ultrakill
lookin better every time
If enemies always drop blood, I guess it could be different them a pick-up, and automatic! Like a simple particle animation from the bodies to the player, and a "jar filling sound" or the blood equivalent of that. And I guess if you can have blood just floating around the map, outside or secrets or anything, that's fine, but I like the (almost) always-get-blood-from-your-enemies idea, it makes the game more aggressive
Also, will the blood be an abstraction, like just some resource to manage, or will it have thematic and mechanic reasons for blood? (Getting it back as you kill enemies it's a really cool direction away from the "abstraction-only" vibes, i'm guessing it'll have more functions)
I think a powerup that made enemies shoot shrapnel out when you kill them would be a cool idea
needs medieval blood grapple hook (+existing movement mechanics) - think of the movement chain combos
Maybe as a powerup you could increase the size of your sword and make it deal some kind of sweeping damage, allowing you to hit multiple enemies at once and from furhter away
The blood bar gives a feeling of prince of persia the two thrones with section of the dark princes where you have ton constantly kill more and more ennemies because your health bar is depleating
Red vials, representing blood, instead of the crosses.
Power-up idea: Powe-rup, where actions do not deplete bloodbar, neither it depletes on its own for the duration of the power-up time. Damage taken still depletes the bar.
You should add a parry mechanic, for projectiles it could swing them back!
6:40 CREATIVES LISTEN UP. IF YOU SUCK BUT YOU WERE GOOD EARLIER YOU PROBABLY JUST NEED A BREAK
Make the sword hand dynamically move and it'll look minty. When you slide, if the sword rotates a bit, it'd look fresh.
Great vid 👌
The crosses for life force are fine because of the knight thing that would have been a symbol of life.