Alpha testing open!

I've released the first alpha testing version of Wings of Albero. The alpha test is open to the public and everyone is welcome. The alpha testing page with the game download is here.

It's missing a lot more than I would like, but it's got enough that I'm (barely) comfortable releasing it for alpha. The main gameplay is there in something like its intended final form, even though it's short, with most of the planned game not open to the player yet. More details tomorrow.

Onward

Forging ahead. Here's my hasty but passable art for castles and caves, because I felt like sharing:

Week 34: First area done (pretty much)

Major crunch time here. Did I mention that art takes a long time? It does. In fact, everything takes a long time. I'm going to have to scramble to get a sufficiently semi-complete game together for alpha testing next week. So I'm cutting myself off in this post. That's all. Goodbye.

Well, first, here's a video of the first area, complete aside from some gameplay details that need to be changed or filled in.


Dev 5: Forest path (first area) from Griffin Knodle on Vimeo.

Week 33: Art takes a long time

So yeah, art takes a long time, even though I'm just doing pretty simple colored-in outlines. For the player character, it ran me about half an hour for each frame. Now, being the player, that was unusually complex and I spent unusually long fine-tuning details, and I'm sure it'll get faster as I get more practice and nail down my workflow ... but it's taken a long time so far. I'm now trying to figure out all the ways I can cut corners on art requirements (e.g. rather than a typical character having one standing frame and two or three walking frames, maybe I'll just have two walking frames always cycling (the classic NES RPG "guys walking in place")).

I'm pleased with the results so far, at least. It won't win any awards, but it's quite adequate.

There'll be a video along soon as soon as I get the first area all presentable. To hold you over, here's one of my art files for a sample. Yes, you're a standard spiky-haired hero. Why mess with success?

Week 32: Crunch time, crunch crunch

It's clear that it will be a near thing whether I can progress fast enough to start alpha testing next month on a reasonably complete game. This is despite having cut (well, "de-prioritized," let's say) a lot of features, and looking at probably losing some more. (For example, I really wanted to include a simple version of the flexible ability-up system I have in mind for the full game. But I'm realizing that it's just not as important as a lot of things I initially had prioritized lower. My stand-in "generic level-up" system is by no means bad if it comes to that.)

I'm currently hustling to get the first area put together with its real map, real enemies, and real graphics (that is, the best I can manage for a quick job -- hopefully they'll come out passable) for everything. I've got my three enemies acting right, subject to change. You've got the hoppy one, the stabby one, and the shooty one. (They're all currently recycling my existing animations, making them appear to be horrible misshapen shapeshifting knight-slime things, which is one reason I won't post a new video for a bit. Yes: I'm using my stand-in art as a stand-in for proper new stand-in art.)

I uploaded all of my videos to all of the several video sharing sites I've tried, as planned last week. Sure enough, they've each already picked up a dozen or so views from random people. I have no idea if anyone's clicked through to the blog from a video, much less started following the project. If you're such a person, welcome! Stick around, tell your friends, etc. This video thing really drove home to me that I have to get my art in order. I can write whatever disclaimer I like about stand-in art, but there's no substitute for a good impression.

Finally, yesterday I got my act together to set up proper version management for the project. (After getting mugged by the collision system the other week, I wanted to just roll back to my previous version. Fortunately, I could, from my manual backups, so it wasn't really even a close call, but it could have been troublesome if I'd had a larger problem.) I'm using Subversion, and liking it very well so far. Easy to set up and use, and seems efficient with operations and space usage. Shoulda done it a long time ago.

Week 31: It's a game! It's an RPG!

I had some good, productive time this weekend. I put in a rudimentary ability-up system (just a plain-vanilla "level up" system, which is not what I want for the real game, but it works as a stand-in), which really made the whole thing come together much better and was a great morale-booster for myself. It now classifies as an actual RPG in my book. Sure, it's very short and simple, and the implied plot is, "Kill the slimes, then kill the red slimes, then kill the knights, then finally go and wipe out the horde of yellow slimes that's grown up in the meantime." But it's a genuine rudimentary action RPG, so it's an exciting milestone for me.

I also added a basic GUI display of the character's condition. Oh, and I also spent a couple of ultimately wasted hours messing with the collision detection, which I'd rather not discuss. >_< Also the yellow slimes now shoot at you rather than always to the right.

So for the contest, the game will definitely be just a long demonstration of the battle system, with as many additional things as I can fit in. At this point the "optional features" list includes things such as "people to talk to," "more than one weapon," and "plot."

Regarding publicity, I had a brainwave this afternoon (that seems embarrassingly obvious in hindsight). The other week I tried a few different video-sharing sites to choose which one to use. So today I logged in to Revver to check something technical. Lo, my test upload ("Knights") had 15 views, and I know those weren't all me. So, brainwave: Why don't I upload all of my videos to several sites? No need to choose only one. And -- hey! -- instead of assuming that everyone goes from this blog to the video, why don't I link from the videos back here too?

Finally, here's a full walkthrough video! Yay! (I'm embarrassed to admit that I got killed twice trying to take this video. I blame the lag caused by the video capture process. Actually, I think I forgot a setting on the knights so that they can hit you rapid-fire if you get stuck against a wall.)


Dev 4: A real, simple action RPG from Griffin Knodle on Vimeo.

Notes--
0:35 - I run because I'm not strong enough to fight the knights yet (did you see my 0 damage?).
2:40 - I'm beaten up enough that I go back to the red slimes before the knights get me.

Week 30: Griffin filibusters

I was on vacation last week, so have no progress to report, but wanted to post to keep on my regular posting schedule. So I'll ramble on about the main design issue I'm struggling with.

I'm still waffling over exactly how much action and how much RPG I want in my action RPG.

Consider those knights I recently added. Currently, if you run into the sword side, you take a hit, and the knight is unharmed; if you run into any other side, the knight takes a hit and you are unharmed. This is an action-oriented gameplay mechanic [ADDED:] because you have to perform an action-gaming feat to win the battle.

There's another possibility that I've been thinking about a lot, but haven't (completely) implemented (yet). It would work like this: when you and the knight (or other attacking enemy) run into each other head-on, each combatant has a chance to hit the other and/or block the other's attack. I envision that you'd usually parry each other's attacks and bounce back, several times, until eventually one of you won the encounter, and the other took a hit and got knocked backwards.

If you hit the other from the side or back, you always make a hit.

This is a more RPG-type mechanic [ADDED:] because you don't have to perform any action-gaming task except running into the enemy, and can still win; it still has an action element in that outmaneuvering the enemy gives you an easier win. It makes the player's action skill much less important. It appeals to me. But I'm afraid it would wind up feeling like a MMORPG or FF12, only faster, which does not appeal to me. That's why I've been leaning more towards action-ish battles (more towards the Final Fantasy Adventure end than the Secret of Mana / Seiken Densetsu 3 end, to reference one of my touchstone series).

One complicating factor is that one of my sub-goals is to make an "Easy" level that really is easy -- easy enough to be accessible to non-gamers. Action gameplay is a major obstacle to that. I need to figure out ways to make it easy to win and progress even if the player has no skill for the action elements of the gameplay. So making it more RPG-like would help with that.

So. Waffling.

[edited 20080128 0710 to clarify what the heck I'm talking about]