/agdg/ - Amateur Game Development General

Forgot to say that there is also an artist, not just me who is making this game, just in case you wanna visit this is my blog

https://etheriaoffline.wordpress.com/

Okay, sorry for being late with a demo, I posted this on /v/ agdg too.

Can you guys please try my game and tell me what do you think about it? I would seriously appreciate if you can tell me if you would enjoy to see a full game out of this. Would you play it, or do you find it boring?

In case you want to try it there's a CONTROLS.txt in the download, so please read that for the controls, since I haven't added a menu for changing them yet, or a tutorial.

And I assure you there's no lostboy, I wouldn't want to scare everyone of downloading my game.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lt0jsi43x136kme/EtheriaOfflineDemo.zip?dl=0

>>24800

I forgot to write how to teleport to next level, sorry about this, to teleport to another level you must go to a blue portal and keep the up arrow pressed

It's me again, promise this is the last bump for now, I forgot yet another thing from the controls.

When knocked down, to get up you must press UP three times.

I'm sad to see this thread having no response.

progress officially acknowledged, keep up the good work.

>>24999

Thank you man, this is the first post that I get that is not mine, it really means a lot to me as I'm going through a shit situation at the moment.

Playing it right now, I'm terrible at it.

Is there any way to leave the ship area?

I like the way the game looks by the way.

>>25478

Someone commented, yes!

There is a way to leave the ship area, you get near the blue portal and keep the UP key pressed. I was suggested to make the levels switch automatically at the edge of the screen, and I'll do that, but until then you can use portals with the up key. If you are not in combat. Also the controls and movement need to be tweaked soon, so don't worry, you aren't terrible at it, just be sure to keep pressing up if you get knocked down. And thanks for the compliments.

Also... I'm trying to figure out the reason for why the game doesn't look interesting to others. Is it because it's very very basic (most features not implemented, nothing special about it yet), or it's because 2D pixel platformers feel generic now, or the game's idea is simply not that promising or interesting, I'm not totally sure. And I would appreciate you guys telling me your opinion on this.

If you keep in mind that the game's just bare bones now, do you think you'd be fine playing a finished version later in the future as a 2D platformer, or you feel that it's too generic and would really like a third person 3D version instead? I will not change the vision of the game for others of course, this is what I want to make, I'll stick to my idea. But I wonder because I'm indifferent when it comes to 2D or 3D, I just play games regardless of their view so I personally wouldn't mind it in either cases.

However I still want as many people to try it, so I would do something that would gain more attention, so any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

I scrolled past this the first time I saw it but your persistence got me to try the demo.

my first impressions trying to play it without any bias; controls were really clumsy, I don't play too many platformers but they don't usually do their best on a keyboard, having an unconventional mapping didn't help. character feels slow and stamina runs out too quickly, felt like I was spending more time waiting for the yellow bar to fill than actually fighting. I didn't get why there were so many NPCs, I couldn't interact with them and they stole all the loot, more annoying than anything. all in all, this works as a tech demo, but doesn't really pass as a game play demo.

and then I read through your small wall of text and I'm getting the sense your spreading yourself thin with this game, like you're trying to build an amusement part, but instead of one working ride, you have three half finished ones. building a fun platformer on it's own is hard enough, balancing an RPG and community simulator on top of it is way too much for one dev. I may be speaking out of bounds as I haven't finished a game myself but my understanding is that every mechanic of a game has to be able to be fun and stand on it's own, so finishing this game would be like working on three separate games at once.

I ended up rambling a bit but I'm not trying to discourage you, what you've done so far is really impressive. but I've seen a lot of projects die due to poor scope, game or not.

>>25491

It's great that you tried it, I love any kind of honest comment that I get.

And I agree with you on the controls and everything else you said, I tweaked some things since the last time but I won't update the link until I do some major changes. For the loot, I can increase the drop protection time, and for the stamina and movement, it needs to be worked on. Other people also said that they didn't find the base game fun, and I will try my best to fix that, so it has something to stand on before piling up features. I made a mistake not focusing on the core of the game first.

As for NPC interaction, I want to make you chat with them, invite them to your party, duel or trade, though none of this is implemented yet. And you'd use this to advance in the game as you progress through the story, which is again, not in the game yet. Well it's like you said more like a tech demo, a prototype for now. There are so many NPCs because I just made a bunch of maps for testing and an arbitrary number of NPCs, I have to try to make them spread a bit.

So this is the thing that I wonder, keeping in mind that I will try to fix the core mechanics, I want to know if people lose interest simply because it's 2D pixel platformer, or just because it's not really a game yet, it's a very basic prototype and not polished at all.

From what replies I got so far, and from yours, I figure that the core game mechanics are really clunky and need to be fixed before moving on and adding more advanced features. I have an idea for what the game is supposed to be, but it's just gonna take a lot of time to make it and I want to get some early feedback, so it doesn't just sink once I finish it.

I'll try to add more things so you have an objective, make a second demo, and fix the stamina/movement and other things. And THEN after that I'll try to get some more opinions, so it looks more like a game and not a playground. Appreciate the comment and that you tried it.

>>25492

the more I read about your game the more I think you're biting off more than you can chew. a game with just one of the elements that you want to include can take a full time team years to see to completion. not to be harsh but throwing the kitchen sink at a one man hobby project isn't realistic.

given that you're willing to drop the 2D platformer portion altogether, and that AI is generally the first thing you mention when describing the game, why not put the brunt of your work into making the AI the core of the game? games like animal crossing and the sims are great at making AI interaction a blast without needing too many other mechanics to support it. even then, a lot of research, math and art assets go into making a computer program feel alive.

>>25501

I know all I described so far about the game seems like a lot and believe me it is, but I can do it. I just need years to complete it since I'm alone in this and work on this as a hobby now.

Here's the thing though, I can only complete it faster if I keep doing it as a platformer, but I don't know if people are gonna ignore it in the future just because of that. So that's why I'm willing to do 3D if necessary, to get more attention to the game, but it will be much much harder to do this all alone, overgrowth is 3D by a team and you know how much that took them...

The AI is actually the core of the game, but just like I said before I have to bounce between working on the non AI aspect and the AI. You mentioned the sims, one of the things that I am planning is to have the AI have conversations with others, including the main player, and relationships between each other. That is somehow similar to the sims, and I want to add more things related to mmorpgs, such as global chat, opening private shops, going to the arena, and growing pets. I think this is totally doable, and I have a lot more listed in my small design document.

So I know I could narrow down the scope but I don't want too because I know I can actually implement all the features that I listed, and I want to put all this effort into creating something great. My only problem is that I have no idea if people will most likely pass on it because it looks like a generic 2d platformer, it would really suck if no one would want to play it. I know how much work this, a ton of work especially for one person doing everything in it, including the assets, but I still don't want to abandon this concept at all.

>>25503

it's generally better to highlight your strengths than to patch over your weaknesses. make the parts of the game you think are the most fun, and then find like minded people. making another game find players for your core game is putting the cart before the horse.

and I'm not questioning whether you're willing to put the time in, just make sure to schedule it out. it's not uncommon for a game like this to take 5+ years to finish when it might be better to finish and learn from five smaller one year projects. having your first game be your magnum opus is ambitious to say the least. I'm assuming this is your first game, didn't see anything on your blog that says otherwise.

again, I haven't finished a game myself so I'm mostly talking out of my ass.

>>25504

I made another game which is simpler than this before, but I figured it's not worth posting. And some small games meant as tests with the help of tutorials, so I guess I can say Etheria is my second game.

It doesn't matter if you haven't finished a game, you don't have to be a cook to taste bad food. So I take advice from everyone if it makes sense. You are totally right about not making a game for other people but yourself, and I am making it for myself first, and polishing it for others later if needed.

I was just wondering if the reason for why it looks generic is because it's very very basic and clunky at the moment (I should rename this to prototype, not demo, oups!), or because it's a platformer. I guess that the only way is to find out by trying to make a 3D prototype while still working on the 2D version, and see which one turns out to be more fun. Either way... you said it, it's gonna take a long ass time.

I am probably overthinking everything right now as I haven't slept in more than 20 hours so if I said something really stupid I have this excuse, I'll just shut up for now and come ask for more feedback when I come with another version of this demo or a 3D prototype.

>>25509

Hmm, I see, I have to do something about the level design. I have a couple ideas in mind so I fix the generic look, I didn't thought of this as the reason but it makes sense because after all what attracts someone to a game first is how it looks. A lot of good platformers I played had really great art, though I have to speed things up since it's taking a lot of time. When I'm done with the background and tile assets I'll try to use another style, so everything looks more "full", and I'll try to see if I can make the level design seem more connected.

I guess that not everyone hates games in this style because after all everyone loves Cave Story for example, I just thought in my mind if I'm too late for the party. But I'll try to remake the generic parts and I'll ask again, it's the only way to be sure.

As for this being a massive undertaking I also like to say that what's in the to do list for this is totally able to be completed, it's not that impossible. It gets complicated sometimes but overall it's just a massive time sink that's all, and I want to make sure I make a good first choice before doing all this. I should have known better not to release something with a 'demo' title near it, because it means a demonstration of a full game which I am far from completing. I would rename this to something like alpha or prototype but it's a bit too late now. Thanks for commenting anyway.

Fleshed out NPC behavior has always been one of the most interesting things to me. Even the simple system you have so far makes the world feel much more alive compared to most that are almost entirely reactive.

Hope you find an artist.