"A coming of age Action RPG about a lazy boy who gets kicked out of his home and forced to join the king’s army. In this first episode, Cacildes is tasked with finding a bear that might be involved in the disappearance of his mother’s chickens."
This is a revival of an old RPG Maker project I had a few years ago. Development for this first episode started in January 2022. All mechanics were coded from scratch, including an Event System similar to the one present in RPG Maker, which allowed me to create npcs and cutscenes with ease. I plan on developing this Event System further on future episodes. All the game’s source code is available for free at github.
~ KEY FEATURES ~
For the soulslike fans, you’ll notice a lot of mechanics that we all love from the Dark Souls games: there are boss fights, weapons that scale, bonfires and, of course, poisonous swamps!
Here’s some of the main features of Episode 1:
Heavy focus on melee combat, with emphasis on stamina management and spacing;
Dialogue with multiple choices;
Reputation system tied to your choices;
Two boss fights available, one of them a secret!
Enemies can throw projectiles and some have environmental attacks;
Poison and fatigue status can affect your character - more status planned for future episodes;
Bonfires allow you to level up;
Weapons scale with your attributes;
Hotkey system to favorite items and use them in combat;
Lighthearted story and atmosphere;
New Game +, keep your weapons and armor from previous playthroughs!
And more…
~ MEDIA ~
~ ADDITIONAL NOTES ~
Use F5 to quickly save game, F9 to load
Any issues / bugs / improvements, feel free to comment, Episode 1 will continue to receive support while I work on future instalments
Some systems like the New Game + and levelling up past a certain number have not been tested extensively, so expect some issues here and there
~ EPISODE 2 AND THE FUTURE… ~
Episode 2 and future updates will include a more Dark Souls gameplay style, with third person camera and so on.
Here’s some of the things I’ve been working on that you can expect to be present in episode 2:
New Dialogue UI where you can leave conversations by just walking away;
Multiple save files;
Parry system similar to Sekiro;
Jumping;
Climbing Ladders. In essence, more verticality;
Day / Night mechanics that influence NPCs, Enemies and Harvesting;
Alchemy system to craft potions that not only alter your stats and attributes, but also unlock certain gameplay mechanics (i.e. higher jump);
A better combat and gameplay, overall!
Follow this thread for updates Any feedback is appreciated.
Here’s what you can expect for episode 2 in terms of new features:
Lock on system - just like in Dark Souls, you can lock on to enemies to ease combat direction. Also, attack animations have a initial time where you can rotate the character before it commits to the attack, blocking your rotation. This feels really good and it’s the way it’s done in the souls series;
Multiple Save Files - wanted to do this for a while! You can now have multiple save files, and they will have a screenshot of your character and also the total game time!
Better UI - my girlfriend complained that the weapons stats and equipment was very confusing so I tried to improve the UI. You can now get a better sense of where you attack values are coming from (basically physical attack that scales with Strength and Dexterity, then the equipped weapon which will have a base damage and then scaling bonuses, like in the Souls games).
Negative Status Effects - it was already available in Episode 1 v0.1, but I’ve improved it UI-wise;
Better Dialogue UI - It’s just that! A better Dialogue UI You can now leave conversations in the middle as well, just like, you guessed it, Dark Souls;
Jump & Ladder Climbing - Since the camera is now third person, these systems had to be added. Climbing was a lot of work, but it’s really cool and it will add a lot of verticality to the maps. Quite excited about it!
And much more!
What is up next?
Alchemy crafting system (yes, the game needs one. Crafting potions is so cool, and I have some neat ideas for potions that influence gameplay);
Day / Night system, with NPCs showing up at certain times of day, or plants growing once per day if you pick them up, or harder enemies at night. It will be done!
Parry System like Sekiro where enemies have posture and if you break it, you’ll receive a chance to punish the enemy with a critical attack;
Finally, I leave you with some videos showcasing all of these updates:
Here’s something new in the works: alchemy system.
You’ll be able to craft potions out of ingredients you can find in the world. These ingredients, once harvested, will respawn in game time after X amounts of days passed.
It works hand-in-hand with the day/night cycle. There’s an internal counter that counts the days passed in-game, and then for every ingredient picked, an integer variable is set for that item with the day that the item was picked. Then, the day/night system will do the rest of the guess work to know when to respawn the item.
In this example, the flower respawns every 4 days.
The UI is lacking some sound effects and neat particles, but it will be added in due time!
Next in line is adding potions that add consumable effects for a time (think raising attack power for X time or double jump for 10 seconds).
Last in the roadmap is the parry system, and being able to inflict negative status on enemies as well (it would be cool to bleed an enemy with an axe, or poison them).
Anyway, here’s the video showcasing alchemy. Enjoy
