Hi there! This is a just single image post to show next game; I had to post a hiatus on my other first (big) FPS 3d game (is just humongous and been working 7 years on it; I need to pause, do something else, am burning out; will come back later after this new one or other ones); this here is a type of game that is quicker to be made, thus, it will help (a lot);
it is a Beat’em’up genre game; in 2D style; think like old days arcade 2d fighting games with scrolling backgrounds; (it is not a ‘scroller’, nor a ‘platformer’ nor a RPG, nor any other type of pixel 2d game); it is, a Beat’em up; or, you could say a ‘hack&slash’…but not; it is a Beat’em up, exactly; beat’em up games often have a sort of ‘isometric’ plane where we can 'walk around in 2.5D; instead of 2d platofrmers where you go left, right or up down…that’S it…here you can ‘walk around’ on the plane/ground, you can ‘recede’ or walk towards camera (well…not really; it’s a orthographic view ‘isometric diagonal view’ (2.5D); like Stardew Valley; but not same genre at all (this game is a ‘mining/extraction/farm/animal/micromanagment sim’ game; mine, here, is a beat-em up; in it, you have to ‘beat’ many many opponents that come wave after wave as you progress in the levels; the melee is very important, and beat’em up games…are all about the Fighting/beating action.
As you see it is a bit jumbled up here; because certain assets are not supposed to be there; it won’t look jank half-assed assets that don’t fit together; or, at least, the least I can…I understand/know that cohesion is critical for a game/assets…and its ‘art direction’…other it looks jank/unfitting/uncohesive world; thus, the player will feel disengaged and ‘spot’ the ‘uncohesion’…thus, lose ‘immersion’/be ‘out of it’…disengage from the game.
The old saying is : ‘‘Home Sweet Home. A Place For Everything. And Everything In Its Place.’’
Meaning…every asset…needs to fit/blend/be cohesive…and have ‘its place’…there; everything fitting, and everything having a place; and everything in its place. This is the putting puzzle pieces–in their respective ‘holes’…plug them in…correctly. Don’t peg a square/cube…in a sphere/circle hole.
It will look ‘forced in’ / ‘jammed in’ / shoe’horned in…(just for sakes/because why not; sometimes, it is better, not).
It is set in the Middle Ages/Medieval Brawl… (fantasy).
It features HDR color, detailed graphics/large sprites (like in beat’em up games), runs at 3K resolution (around 200fps, can have many ennemies around, is just 2d sprites), pixel art like graphics (working on them; I removed the ‘pixel’ look…on purpose, it runs at 3K resolution crystal clear), has
14 protagonist hero classes
Cimmerian, Tarotmancer, Witcher, Stealer, Paladin, Templar, Northman, Regis, Amazon, Gael, Polar, Byzant, Shaman, Xolotl.
in both gender, female and male; for a total of 28 warriors to choose from.
cimmerian = barbarian; tarotmancer = necromancer; witcher = sorcerer; stealer = robber/assassin; paladin = cleric; templar = hospitaler knight order; northman/northwoman= viking/shield maiden; regis = royal prince(ss);
amazon = jungle like warrior, but more like fantasy Valkyrie/greek armor (ukrainian-greek amazones women)-in jungle…than jungle autochtonous indigenous.
gael = scots-gaelic/scottish kilt warriors.
polar = northpole-like warriors mix autochtonous-mix-eurasian (beringian/mixinuit-mongolian-asian; like a combo of both); byzant = baltic/byzantines/constantines (though they may share some with eurasian/mongolianturq; they are their own self (less mix, more euro/caucasian than asian; still eurasian (more asian than more western euro); different than poles); more like caucasus/pontic steppes mountains (georgian macedonian) balticbyzantin)…, shaman = caribbean voodoo-like; I was trying to find new classes to make the game Very Replayable (more classes, more times/more replayability…to replay); and I was not too sure…I thought certain other ones…but, I felt it was departing from the ‘west’ feel of it and less coherent (they are mostly all westerners, per se; or, are farther east-eurasian or southamerican native; still have euro connection/coherence between all them; even shaman because caribs were mix eurasian native). xolotl = inca-like warriors, different than amazones.
Mixing things is good; but there is overmixing too (it’s called ‘spoiling a recipe’…with aphasard ingredients (fangled up mix, because why not); diversity/variety is important…but measured/dosed (and somewhat relating/‘complimenting’/supposed to fit (for coherence) with the rest; (or else, spoilt)).
Like your grandma’s pie recipe…or (making) a game. It’s ‘baked to perfection’ (not the 1st try).
It has powerful Music…Medieval/Viking Blasting music, and fantasy like…but feels/fits with the medieval/Fantasy theme; think Conan the Barbarian bombastic or Lord of The Rings, Dark Medieval with Percussion/huge drums and grand Orchestral arragmenr; I am seeing that finding medieval music is a challenge – I mean Great music; not crap; crap/generic crap is aplenty; but incredible Medieval music…is hard to find; there is tons of fantasy/medievalesque music…but, afte hearing many; it can feel a bit too homogenous/starting to feel bland; and not enough ‘spice’…it’s why I seek music that is more Rhythmic/Epic like…and not boring/sad…medieval music…that just kills the mood. You’re supposed to be a Hero…the music should fit…and make you feel ‘powerful’…llike Conan or my 80s American cartoon show as child,
HE-Man. I am going for the He-Man vibe (he-man, was a spin on Conan) and his arch ennemy Boss:
Skeletor. It a fine line when dealing iwth medieval stuff…between ‘fantasy’ (dragon, goblins…etc) and ‘reality’ (no medieval mythological creatures); or as they say: ‘‘Science based Dragon MMO’’.
You could (also) say, I’m going for the Dungeons & Dragons…vibe.
Only this is a french product; so 'Donjons & Dragons… (btw; dungeon in english/anglicized…is a french word…from donjon/donjion, which a ‘closed room’/jailcell often for torture); While Dragon…is a word from romania/bulgaria or vikings/pre-danish/gaulic kelt; it is from ‘dragull’…which means a flying monster lizard since middle ages and before (Vikings had ‘their dragons’, the dragons on the Drakkar…Drakkar is very close to Dragon)…and (also) btw, Dracula…from Romania…is a word from Dragon/Dragul → Dragulia → Dracula/ Vlad (imir) Tepes (the real ‘dracula’ that existed). So Dungeons & Dragons…was French Romanian all along. Safe to say (that you are not safe in any way… stuck in a dungeon); that Dragons…were in every culture ever.
My biggest inspiration(s) is from 2D beat’em up games of 1990s…think like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (Turtles in Time); the recent ‘Streets of Fury’ 4…of course…Double Dragon…a fav…
And, perhaps, one huge inspiration…won’t deny it…
Golden Axe: Revenge from Death Adder…this one is my fav, I poured soo much money in arcade at it.
I am tring to capture this Japanese sega Golden axe beatem up feel…with spectular graphics and music. Plus fun challenging gameplay; there are over 100 monsters in the game/many Bosses…to fight.
In finding the desing…I realized that it would be bland…if I did not go Full On Fantasy…and medievall-like…so, it’S why the mythological element is Very strong in the game…it is not meant to be a ‘real medieval simulation’ (think like Medieval Total War games…sim…are real, not fiction/mythos); so, there are creatures like: Ghouls & Goblins…I am going for Gouls and goblins vibe…with a touch of Castlevania…of course…but is not a vampire Castlevania game…is a beat em up medieval game like golden axe revenge one; dragons…obviously; orcs; many soldiers, knights, very cool types of knights; huge hulks…templars; yes very Harry Potter vibes…what else…?..it has harpies, ghouls, zombies, undeads, lich, wyvern, banshee, ghost, worm, skeletons—Army of skeletons. the whole beastiarium…in films…i would say Army of Darkness (with Bruce Campbell) vibe…
There’s more to show, it’s just I don’ wish to show crap…it’s what I learned…you must wait to show any thing ‘presentable’…or else ‘bad 1st impressions’…better to wait.
Thanks for checking/reading.
PS: During the mean time, I have come to the conclusion, that (though I will finish it earlier), I won’t be working on something else; thus, here is an image of my ‘other’ project (starting to accumulate the unfinished projects (trail of dead-end projects), need to finish 1, 1st); it is a
3D survival horror game, in the style of Resident Evil; it is set in the modern day and is about like Jurassic Park meets RE; it has many dinosaurs, the whole project is in 3D graphics (not 2d); I am not going for the ‘too action-y’ adventure vibe…it is an adventure…but rather, a ‘survival horror’…it wil use old style/retro look and ‘fixed-camera angles’ (just like old survival horror games of my time…in 1990s); I did not want to make a ‘free flowing camera’ survival horror (like Resident Evil 4);…but, rather like Res 1 to 3, old style cinematography with movie-like fixed angles; yes…you figured out which is my biggest inspiration (not denying)…
Dino Crisis…I am trying to get the Dino Crisis (1) Vibe back. It is between pure action-adventure, and between pure surival-horror; so, like ‘adventure horror’…it will blend a mixture of very actiony action…but very much in a horror fashion (like a haunted house); which is, what Dino Crisis 1 did exactly; it blended horror and dino-action well, it worked; because, Idon’t wan’t it to be a pure adventure ride…the player must feel fear…playing against ‘velociraptors’ and TREX…these dinosaurs must be scary…thus, I will use darkness…but not to the point of ‘seeing nothing/too dark’…thus, ‘lit enough’ (in the picture below…it’S very dark…but it will be more lit), this way the dinosaurs will look more fearsome; added with lots SFXs of dinosaurs roaring and screams…the tension will be felt…the music will be mostly subdued and very ‘unnerving’…like ‘disonnant’ music (synths and 90s horror synths) that creates a mood of dread, creepyness and unknown (Dino Crisis had very ‘synthy’ horror music score); suddenly, the dinosaurs look much more menancing than ‘regular trex…regular raptor…regular joe…’; we’ve seen them, so not scary…bui with great lighting, sfx and music…now they sound ‘real’…and this increases the ‘survival horror’ genre aspect; which is dependent on that. I will limit the ammo, and their will be plenty of weapons – but not infinite neither; a good selection; but scarce ammo…they will have to find ‘health kits’…and ‘ration’…just in survival horror games – micromanagment (of your resources and odds). To survive. This game will probably, appear after the 2d one above; because of lenght; I calculated I need 3000 plans (Camera shots) to ‘make a full story’…inside a large ‘jurassic park like reserve complex exhibit’…sort of; the dinosaurs will be : T-rex (obvious), velociraptor – many types of raptors; pteranodon (flying one); quetzalcoatlus (Biggest flying one); giganotosaurus; brontosaurus; allosaurus; dilophosaurus (the spitter one); oviraptor (stealer of eggs); Spinosaurus (a favorite…the Epyptian Spinosaurus - half trex half crocodile); the Triceraptors (three prongs); Albertosaurus or Edmontosaurus (my game is made in Canada, thatv one is evidently from Alberta); Plesiosaur, basilosaur, tylosaur, the Sea King - Mosasaurus…the action will take under water also, well , I mean they will be in a large’ dino water tank’ (kind of like Sea World); the dinosaurs (plot) is that they are revived,as ‘de-extinction’ – Instinction. Like scientists trying to revive the Wolly Mammoth…well. in this case, dinos; but they are beat at their game-- and mother nature makes deextinction via emps. Anyway, the story is not suppse to be very deep or the Most important thing…but it does matter; because it is a story game (survivar horror movie like game); think, like ‘Umbrella Corp’ in Resident Evil…but in my game…it’S not an ‘evil entity/evil corp… reviving dinos…’; no, it’S rather, scientists…who try to deextinct animals…and nature gets ahead of them…and makes it anyways…so then it is ‘chaos’ (like in Jurassic Park, where dinos ‘escape’ from their compartments/park exhibits). But, the game is not a ‘Park’ per say; rather a Reserve (faunic reserve). It will be a mixture of indoor and outdoor…mostly, indoor (like Dino Crisis, was mostly all inside the dino compound/facility).
