The Plight of Sotham (Formerly Zelda-Mouse)

[nicktheslayer]

Here's a game, check it out. For the Spriting and Pixel Art thread for this game, click here!

The story so far:
Set in the steampunk-esque fantasy land of Sotham, there are two cities (Vyrase and New Moenc), each housing powerful generators, called Ventrichors, powering their respective civilizations. While they are at peace, there is a third faction, and undead army being risen from the dead to storm the walls each night, fruitlessly, as the undead are brittle and weak. (They're made of bone, a'ight?)

The cities fear not the dead creatures, as the fall with ease, and return to the underworld to be resurrected again in the following night.

One night, something unheard of happens. One of Vyrase's guardsmen fell victim to one of Hell's skeletal warriors. As the guards take position at the city walls, they see a much larger army than ever before, and send you to warn New Moenc of this new danger, only for you to find that their king has made a pact with the undertaker to share your city, the King gaining ownership of your source of mechanical power, the Undertaker claiming your life force. They will stop at nothing.

Gameplay:
Inspired by the handheld series' of The Legend of Zelda, this game's graphical style greatly resembles the Oracle games, while taking it's game play cues from Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks on the DS. I will be making major adjustments to the Zelda formula, however, and it may not feel entirely too familiar to fans of the series. I have plans to make the story tie in very closely to how the game mechanics run. For example...

As the story progresses, the undead enemies become stronger, and the life force is slowly being sucked from your citizens. Instead of collecting heart containers, this game starts you out with a full HP meter. Rather than increasing your Max HP as you progress, the amount of health items you come across will decrease gradually.

Another focus of the game I have are the separate enemy factions. The two enemy types will have different styles of attacking and defending, so keep in mind that you can't fight them all quite the same.

The Undead enemies are smarter. They move quicker, and are more likely to overwhelm you, or attack you directly. They are typically weaker, and can be knocked back easily, however.
The Mech enemies, (The first of which can be seen in the demo, I might add.), are far different. They are much stronger, generally speaking, as they are made of metal. They can not be knocked back, but are generally the big dumb powerhouses, dealing lots of damage, but mostly wandering around, or attacking you indirectly, (or in some cases, accidentally.)

More on the gameplay in the future.

Screenshot:


Demo:
Most Recent! - http://www.mediafire.com/download/42x827...mo2-18.exe
Left Mouse Button moves you, the farther you hold it, the faster you run. Holding it close to the character makes you walk slower. Right Mouse Button to attack. Wanna play with the HUD? Up and Down.

Let me know what you think, guys.

[Gors]

idk what the hero is supposed to look like... a man with goggles?

I suggest making him more like a mouse.

[nicktheslayer]

idk what the hero is supposed to look like... a man with goggles?

I suggest making him more like a mouse.

He is a man with goggles. Maybe I shoulda been more specific. The game is controlled with the mouse, he himself isn't a mouse..

[Gors]

oh LOL help

DISREGARD WHAT I SAID THEN

[nicktheslayer]

More. I have all but the upper facing diagonals.

I feel like the lower facing diagonals are okay, but iffy. Oh god someone help me with the side view. I can't get his hair to not look like Brutus the Hedgehog, or whatever preteen deviant art monstrosity this most closely resembles. The wheel thing is the stamina HUD, if you see any problems with that, lemme know, I kinda like it though.

Engine update: Movement is done, no more sticking to walls. hud is nearing completion, just need health/money meter.

Gonna start on the rest of the items soon. The demo I used screenshots from is no longer editable, so I have to make the new items from scratch. Shouldn't be too hard. There should be a demo with items and *hopefully* and enemy, damage taking and money counting this weekend.

If anyone want's to do the honors of spriting an enemy, that'd be a lot of help, otherwise I'd be using Zelda enemies for stand-ins.

[Gors]

The diagonal poses aren't that accurate, because it kinda makes it look like his face is completely flat. give him some volume on the cheeks, for example. and the goggles look weird

the side view looks weird, i suggest looking Earthbound Zero's sprites for reference.

[nicktheslayer]

Can you be more specific with the goggles? I think I got the cheeks fixed, whattya think?



The earthbound references didn't help much, but Ralph from OoA made a pretty good reference, I think I fixed the side hair. I'm also gaining more respect each day for the developers who had to abide by these restrictions.

[nicktheslayer]

Bit of a selfish bump. Making sure everyone gets to see the new demo, including sound effects, enemies and whatnot. The movement has been perfected. Let me know what you guys think.

[Gors]

hmm, i think that 'Link's' movement doesn't really loop well

i'll edit it right now, hang on

[Gors]

changed the ones with the red lines

also, i suggest putting attack button on the keyboard, because attacking with the right click is awkward

[nicktheslayer]

These look nice. I'll put them in the game now. Then I'll attempt the upper diagonals (Oh Boy), and probably ask for help on those, too. :I

I'll post the new demo soon, with real enemies and health pickups and stuff. (And the new sprites.)

I know it's a bit awkward, but I don't think it's any more awkward than say.. Phantom Hourglass or Spirit Tracks
Once I have a full demo, (Dungeon+Boss or something like that.), I'll take a poll, and if the idea is popular enough, I'll program a secondary control scheme.

[nicktheslayer]

Oh God what am I Doing

Someone help? What can I do to improve these? I didn't even finish the second one, actually. No clue what I'm doing.

[Gors]

how about these?

[nicktheslayer]

how about these?

Those look great. I need to get out of the habit of trying to splice sprites apart and together. It messes up my perspective.

Do you want, (Or rather, would you accept,), credit for these? If you don't want your name in the final product, just let me know.

[Gors]

well, it was just 4 frames that i made so there's no need for that

but i'll give you a tip (that you already realized), when making different animations, don't be lazy/afraid to start from scratch. Splicing and editing other sprites may 'hide' better ways to place the pixels, and make the product look 'warped'. Don't forget that different animations of the same character must have equal-sized body parts and proportion, after all you don't want the character's head to shrink every time he walks left, for example.

don't forget that now that all walk frames are changed, you need to update the attack/swimming frames a little!