It's coming along beautifully. The color choices and new details look wonderful.
Would it be safe to assume that there is or will be parallax scrolling on the tree trunk background?
It's coming along beautifully. The color choices and new details look wonderful.
Would it be safe to assume that there is or will be parallax scrolling on the tree trunk background?
https://catmacros.files.wordpress.co..._beautiful.jpgQuote:
Originally Posted by BigEvilCorporation
Yes indeed there is!Quote:
Originally Posted by avlon
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigEvilCorporation
Of course if all this applied did not impact significantly in the game development. I think that because the game happens in an environment with many trees, it would be interesting to add tricks of animated tiles, to provide more dramatic impression of depth and add a lot to the game atmosphere.
Awesomesauce! Well played sir.Quote:
Originally Posted by BigEvilCorporation
Yup, we've got animated plants, mushrooms, water on the way, on top of the existing slow falling leaves. If we have the VRAM/CPU budget I'd also like flocks of birds that disperse when you get too close, and something squirrel-like climbing the trees in the distant background. I've got a (rather tall) list of small extra touches like this, but I have to keep scope under control until at least the main story path is fully playable. If there's time/budget left towards the end, then I'll go crazy with extras.Quote:
Originally Posted by EPSYLON EAGLE
Hi, Matt! How are you doing?Quote:
Originally Posted by BigEvilCorporation
These last screenshots show some serious improvements. Awesome (especially the first one; neato shading in those leafs)!
The shading of the tiles has been dramatically improved IMO.
I know it's all WIP, so I'll be obnoxious enough to suggest/point to a few things:
- I think the main character could still use a bit more detail; especially on its dorso/back. Something to give a bit more texturing to its skin would be cool IMO.
- It would be neat if the main character palete was also "affected" by the background predominant colors like you seem to be already doing for the foreground tiles. I think it would make the character look a bit more "into" the environment. Its whiter shades would fit really well in this approach IMO.
- Giving how vertical your maps seem to be and the exploratory nature of the game, I think it could be cool and visually useful to apply to it the kind of palette effect that Ristar uses in some stages: the deeper/lower you get in a level, the darker the palette gets; dynamically. Ranger-X also uses it and looks great IMO.
The good part of palette-based effects/touches is that they usually do not require extra VRAM space usage.
The stylized far background looks good. I think it's always a good way to provide depth sensation without spending too many palette slots. AND having less texturing and details as the art goes far from the camera is always a good approach IMO; makes things easier to distinguish and more pleasant to look at.
Thanks for answer! I see tremendous potential in Tanglewood, Sega 16 can provide you with excellent feedback.Quote:
Originally Posted by BigEvilCorporation
Good Luck!
The backgrounds have been nicely improved indeed. I think the protagonists animations (and other surprises) are coming along nicely as well as I make progress on the new spritesheets.
I just love totally vertical trees in 16bit forests, Very Shinobi III and very nice. This is getting exciting, nice work.
Wow. Amazeballs.
I just noticed that this game's visuals remind of the incredible "Inside".
Looking forward to getting my hands on this thing. Good luck dude!
Limbo was the major influence for starting this project some 5 years ago, so bits occasionally seep through into the design.Quote:
Originally Posted by bagmahnutz
I've got plans (albeit vague ones) to alter the player palette as the time of day changes, but a bit tricky at the moment since other things are sharing the same palette. I managed to cram all 4 Fuzzl types into one palette (colour index offsets when loading their sprite tiles) with space left over, so I could try cramming more into that one and give Nymn a dedicated palette so I can play around with this stuff a bit more. Nymn also changes colour when he gains a power, so we would need quite a few palettes creating.Quote:
Originally Posted by Barone
As for adding extra detail, it's all down to budget - change one pose, gotta change them all, and a fair heft of animation work has already been done (plus at least one cutscene). I want the absolute best game we can get for the time and money, so if I can then I 100% will. We'll see.
Palette lerps are the cheapest effect, so dynamically changing the lower/higher you go sounds really appealing, I'll add that to the list.
Oh, and there's shadow/highlights on the way for the water pools, *if* I can get it to play nicely with the existing tile/sprite priority work for the cave sections. I might cheat a bit and mark a scene object (water pool or cave entrance) as either shadow/highlight or priority compatible, and switch the register on the fly - I'd just need to make sure no more than one object of each configuration can fit within one camera frame (I can make the editor warn me about problems like this easily enough).
I also think the new screenshots show great improvement! I like the huge amount of detail which have been added, the leaves, the textures to the ground, better shading etc. Unlike Barone, I think I'd prefer more detail in the distant background, at least for the trees second furthest away. Something like: most detail in the foreground, then a bit less on the closer trees in the background and even less in the trees furthest away. The palette is better, but I think it can be improved slightly more as well - less vibrant colours might fit better with the lugubrious feel of the game. Also (sorry if I complain too much, I hope I'm constructive), but is it just me or is one ear of Nymn cut a bit on a few of the screenshots? Keep up the great work, I'm really looking forward to play this during the cold nights of the next winter!
I love vibrant colors so I'd vote to keep them in instead =P Only thing that I'd say doesn't fit is the overly magenta trees in the background at dusk (would prefer red or orange there, which would also give more contrast with the foreground).
Deliberate :) He's a bit downtrodden.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zebbe
/EDIT: Although the outline should probably extend to the cut section, I'll ask Armen to take a look at it.
I've added all suggestions to the list, need to keep scope/time/budget under control but I'll sort them all into priority order and weigh up the pros/cons.
Palette adjustments are cheap so I'll have a go at those first.
The sudden block transitions on the non-walkable border could be improved, IMHO:
http://i.imgur.com/GR2g2LU.jpg
Huh! How cool is that, that was more of a feeling than an actual thought and turned out to be spot on.Quote:
Originally Posted by BigEvilCorporation
PS. I never actually liked Limbo, I was more of a Braid guy. Inside though, wow, what a piece of art that is...
I enjoyed the bit where I got to play as my balls.Quote:
Originally Posted by bagmahnutz
A very very early work in progress (only received the first draft of the tileset this morning) of Chapter 3 - "Heritage".
This is the level that was cut to save on scope, but brought back 'cause we can afford to give it the time it deserves. It's got some complex mechanics - lifts, ropes and pulleys, traps and contraptions, all left behind by an extinct humanoid race.
I've already got basic working rope physics and working lifts, just need to some puzzles to put them all together. It's fun sending Fuzzls up lifts! Confused little things.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C6F7aAuWMAI7IfM.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C6F7ascWQAELyuq.jpg
Great artwork ! :D
Good luck for the physics and other ! ;)
Thanks for all of these little updates. It's really nice to see the game evolve and be connected to the development.
Looking nice, really slick. Wow, Paprium AND this? Looks like I'm going to need a cooling fan for my MD.
Hows the project coming along Mr. Corporation?Quote:
Originally Posted by BigEvilCorporation
Fantastic, we're about to hit alpha (need to add the level logic for one more act, some adjustments to the final boss fight, and the credits screen). I'll be doing a Kickstarter update explaining the next steps once that build is in my hands.Quote:
Originally Posted by RvR
Lots to talk about for this one; we have a new cutscene system so we've been able to add some non-interactive scenes explaining small parts of the story, the new levels are looking and playing brilliantly, and I've got some updates about the Play Expo show where we exhibited a new section of the game, and got to talk to some high profile games industry folk about what they think. We have the final box art and label, an almost-final instruction booklet, all 700 cases for the first batch have now safely arrived from the US (first batch was damaged!), and some of the stock ready for the Collector's Edition box. Our custom Big Evil Corp cartridge mold is done, and I'm finally happy with the samples I've been sent so the production batch begins this week. I'll also be talking about release dates and the lead time for PCB manufacture (as you may have noticed, November is fast approaching...)
Just waiting on some news of my own and I can start writing up an update!
We hit Alpha! Update right here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects.../posts/2027641
Thanks for the update. Quite detailed and pretty well-written IMO.
The delay was expected from my part, since I thought the original schedule was too tight.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the update! The game seems just better and better.
http://www.azquotes.com/picture-quot...o-20-21-20.jpg
Take your time, and get it right. You only get one shot at it when it comes to carts.
You've done a great job at keeping everyone up-to-date on things without spoiling the game itself which is great.
There's 2 things that I'm very glad to hear with the latest update. The first of which is that the game is longer than I expected: The game has 29 acts. I thought it would only feature 6 stages so this is a pleasant surprise. The other thing that I was shocked to hear was that there are boss battles! Boss battles? Yes boss battles!
Below is a still image of one of the bosses in the game which was posted on Twitter:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DLAB0N1X0AAbaC8.jpg
(Borgus: The last (and most pungent) of the Djermisch swamp dwellers)
This game is really going to look nice on a big screen television (with or without scanlines). For those who did not get a chance to support the project yet, full disclosure can be found below:
Quote:
TANGLEWOOD Alpha Update
Posted by Matt Phillips (Creator)
Make a fresh cup of tea, we've got a lot to talk about!
TANGLEWOOD has reached Alpha!
This is a huge milestone for the project; the whole game is now playable from start to finish, on real hardware, with all mechanics, puzzles and level transitions working, and all cutscenes, menus and credits in place. There are a few placeholder assets still to replace, some sound effects missing, some small extras to squeeze in, and a whole lot of bugs to fix, but there's light at the end of the tunnel!
With all 29 acts now playable in one session, we have a better idea as to the length of the game. For a seasoned pro who is familiar with all of the puzzles, the game can be finished in around 1 hour 40 mins, which is quite long for a platformer of the era! We reckon that players new to the game will take between 2 and 3 hours to figure out the puzzles and boss fights.
Another benefit to hitting this milestone is that we can see the bigger picture. Being able to play the game from start to finish has allowed us to note parts that don't fit, sections that overstay their welcome, steep difficulty curves and poor segues between areas. We've got some changes in mind to smooth out the rough bits, liven up the boring bits, and make sure there's a level of consistency throughout.
Some big boxes have started to arrive
We have an office full of equipment, cartridge cases, test print work and prototype shells, and it's starting to get very exciting. We've received the proofs for our custom moulded cartridges, a small batch of finalised PCBs which we're very happy with, the final cover artwork, test prints of the game manual, and various parts for the Collector's Edition boxes. Nerves are now calm regarding the manufacturing stage, and we think it's going to be a lot smoother than we anticipated!
We're going to be a little late, and we're sorry
You may have noticed that November is fast approaching, and unfortunately we're not going to be able to fix up the remaining bugs and have the cartridge PCBs manufactured in time to make the original release window. This is all on me. I made some large-scale changes following our last demo release - which required a batch of new assets and animations authoring - as well as letting some problems with the development tools fester until they bit us back. These problems led to difficulty fitting the game onto cartridge, performance issues, and a few big unexpected bugs. Rest assured, everything's now been resolved, and the final stages of development are running full steam ahead, but it's set us back a little bit.
Taking into account the rest of the changes I'd like to make (see below), the remaining bugs that need fixing, the testing cycle, and the lead time for PCB manufacture and cartridge assembly,we expect to release TANGLEWOOD in spring 2018.
We only get one shot at burning the game to cartridge - we can't patch it like a modern title - so we hope you'll understand that we need to have the game in a 100% releasable state before we send a build to the factory. We'd love for TANGLEWOOD to be remembered as being a great game, one that is both fun to play, and of an exceptional quality, and to achieve that we need a little more time.
This will also affect the timescale of opening up pre-orders to the public. More news on this as we work it out.
We'd like to make some changes
After playing the Alpha build and collating feedback from testers, we think the game could benefit from a few additional extras to turn it from a good game into a fantastic game. Considering we've already overrun our original time budget, we're being very careful about this. We've weighed up the pros and cons of each idea, with regards to time and cost to implement vs. reward, and we think we have the best "bang for buck" list ready to go:
Critter enemies to fill open spaces
The vista parts of the game in-between puzzles are beautiful to look at, but could benefit from a little extra danger. I'm sure you're already familiar with the Djakk monsters from Chapter 1, the Elders from Chapter 3, and those following our Twitter account might know about Borgus from Chapter 4 - the disgusting swamp monster designed by one of our Kickstarter backers. We've got some other boss enemies in the game that we won't be revealing until release, but otherwise the only other hazards to Nymn are environmental.
We'd like to add some critters. Small in size, small in memory, small in cost and time to implement, but if placed in the right areas of the game could provide a big payoff to the overall experience. We would need to add a way for Nymn to kill these little pests, but we think it'll be worth it.
Transitional cutscenes
We have a brand new cutscene system! We've been using it for small director cutscenes to highlight hazards and introduce enemies, but we'd like to add some transitions between levels to show how Nymn got from place to place. The new system makes it fast and easy to build cutscenes from existing in-game assets and animations, and it's tried and tested, so this will be a low risk high reward addition to the game.
Password save system
Originally we planned to leave traditional save systems out of the game, since lives aren't limited and each level contains multiple checkpoints, but considering the final length of the game compared to others in the genre, we think some players might like to take a break. Our cartridge PCBs don't have the capability to hold save data, so we'll be adding a password feature so you can continue where you left off.
We're very proud of what we've achieved so far, and we think you're going to love the game. Just hang in a little while longer while we get it polished up and perfected!
Matt <3
This guy's gonna be a reaaaallll pain in the rear end to get rid of, hope you're ready for him ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by SEGA.GENESIS1989