My game - A little about development

Community Games showcase
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I am currently creating a game in the metroidvania style, a style that is my passion for games.

And I want to post here, the mechanics and some features that the game will have.

First of all, I would like to say that this video only shows the debugging area of ​​the game, without enemies and without any other item, only two that would be the double jump and one of tests.

The game will contain several elements and mechanics not shown here.

As the basics:

  • Run
  • Slide
  • Wall jump
  • Attacks
  • and many others

Various mechanics of scenarios, such as doors, passages, puzzles
will have more than 50 enemies (Which are all already working), hundreds of rooms to traverse, a well-designed and hassle-free map, everything a metroidvania should have.

Currently the game is in development with about 40%, Some things I am still waiting for the GD5 to improve, and add. I also need to improve the issue of Collisions on the map, which is currently created with objects, but I am already developing something lighter and easier.

The main character will not be the one in the video, I’m looking for someone who has more in common with the story and the game itself

All enemies are respawn when we pass the room. Red room, means that there is an important item in this room, which can be picked up by the player, not necessarily at that time.

There are 4 room statuses:

Gray: not accessed yet (only with the map you can see it)
Green: accessed and clean
Red: Important item
Purple: Save game

There will be one more color, which I haven’t decided yet, but it will be part of the game’s history.

Name and history the game already has, but I don’t want to disclose it now! For there may be changes.

That’s it for now. Over time, I will update and improve this page here. It may take some time, but I’ll keep you updated!

Update: Icons for abilities!
ezgif-3-f3ea25f8d30d

10 Likes
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I like how you’ve got grey floors, but a coloured floor section where the player can drop down. It blends in with the grey quite well, making it unobvious and easy to miss. But once you realise it’s there, it’s impossible to miss. Definitely a neat touch/feature.

2 Likes
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Thank you MrMen, but this is just a debug room, with badly placed tiles on purpose, and in this case, the floor was really cool haha

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@willianholtz Good start, I can see this turning into something cool, keep at it…

Some tips to focus on:
1-Work some more on visuals (Visuals of your game is what people see first)

2- The character movement, speed, gravity, jump hight is the most important aspects on any game character, don’t make your character feel floaty, or feels like a rock, keep everything balanced.

4- Test the character first and when you’re comfortable with how it feels controlling him, start working on platforms and how they can benefit the movement of the character, does it need to be flat? does it need to have sharp edges to make players know that they can grab onto it? does it need to be curved from the sides?

5- Same with enemies, don’t add enemies until you test how it feels to hit them, how your character attacks affects how your enemies die … always have steps to create your game, don’t create everything and start editing because that can get messy pretty quickly (I’ve been there a lot).
Focus on one thing and grow from there.

6- Platforms placements is so important, don’t put platforms in awkward places where players can’t jump or get to easily, I always like to make the challenges happen before getting to your goal.
In short:
The goal in a level or a place don’t equal the challenge. (it turns into frustration)
The process of getting to that goal in the level/place is the challenge. (it turns into satisfaction)

7- Platforms variations is so important to your art style, get a .png of a platform and change how it looks without ruining the purpose of it, let me explain more…
You have a drawing of a platform … when you repeat it beside each other, you can clearly tell that it’s the same platform but only repeated.
You can fix that by changing how some rocks look underneath the surface of the platform, adding some foliage, changing how rocks look in the platform… etc…
Then after you repeat, you see platforms variations, you feel like it’s real because in real life everything is unique, every wall is unique, every rock is different and so on … make your game like that.
Make it look unique with so much variation.
Just imagine you’re making all the platforms from 1 single .png but every platform is unique.
Check a game like Hollow knight or Ori and the will of the wisps to learn more about this.

There is a lot more, but I thought to share with you some tips, some of the stuff I learned a long the way when I was creating my game.
You have a great start, just keep at it …

2 Likes
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Hello @CorianderGames, thanks for the tips.

And as for everything you told me, yes, I work in parts and never go through things.

Everything you went through on tips I have been following since the beginning of the project.

As for number 2. it was the first thing I did, but I only took the base of this current one to build the whole scenario of what the player can do. The real character that I am going to use, will have many more animation frames which can help and a lot in the appearance of it! As I said, it’s just a DEBUG room, nothing there is nice or nice for the player, it’s just for me to test, mechanics, items, map, jumps, etc.

Games like Ori and Hollow Knight, unfortunately it is not an example that I want to follow, I find it very colorful and very flashy.

As for 7. Yes, I know that this is one of the biggest problems of games and most independent developers sin, but you can be sure that it will be well worked out.

1 Like
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New update:

Map: Now the map can be seen in detail. It needs to be improved, but it is already under development.

Now with RPG Mechanics:
EXP
STR
LCK
MP
HP

Each enemy has a level, and each level the enemy has a portion of health, as well as attack power.
Maximum Level for all enemies (not counting bosses) 60
Player max level: 99

The map now moves, and you can zoom (accuracy even improves), No exact release date for a demo yet.
Many things have already improved, as well as enemies that got smarter, random attacks.

also, the game only saves if the player enters a save room (that green one I jumped there is a save was there for testing), I need to get an icon still for that!

I look forward to LDtk being integrated and starting to develop the rooms, until then, I have a lot to do.

2 Likes
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Update:
I bring you my game inventory. It has 3 tabs that can be switched by the keyboard (number 1 and number 2) or by the controller (R1 and R2).
It also shows the description of all items with their respective items (note: many items do not have a description like the weapons in the game and I also didn’t level the equipment.).

Simple inventory for an RPG game. In the end, I show how it looks when leveling the character.

Update:
A small demonstration of how the game is getting.

https://games.gdevelop-app.com/game-90cd121a-1f80-41cf-b2c7-c6412fdefcae/index.html

Keep in mind that it’s just a development version, and everything can change. Although, the main character and enemies are already correct.

Warning: Many unlocked skills will be collectable in the final game, so please disregard everything you see here. Although some skills are not enabled.

Z: attack
X: Jump:
D: Dash
M: map
ESC: Inventory

other command only in the final game;

3 Likes
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Great job. Seeing this brings back so many memories of being a kid in the 80’s.

Good news is our 6 year old son likes this style too, so it’s good to know this style transcends through time.

Keep up the great work. This looks just like the games I used to play on Nintendo, Sega, and the Neo.

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I’m making a game based a lot on 80’s and 90’s games. Best gaming times.
Thank you for the compliments.

1 Like
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No worries and thank you. Keep up the great work.

1 Like
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Update + Game Link! Hope you have a good experience. Thanks!

Update:
A small demonstration of how the game is getting.

https://games.gdevelop-app.com/game-90cd121a-1f80-41cf-b2c7-c6412fdefcae/index.html

Keep in mind that it’s just a development version, and everything can change. Although, the main character and enemies are already correct.

Warning: Many unlocked skills will be collectable in the final game, so please disregard everything you see here. Although some skills are not enabled.

Z: attack
X: Jump:
D: Dash
M: map
ESC: Inventory

other command only in the final game;

1 Like
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Heh, I stumbled at the main menu. I tried pressing space, return/enter and mouse clicking to start the game. Eventually worked out it was ‘x’ that begins play.

Maybe a tutorial on key presses. It took quite a few goes to realise holding down attack created a type of combo (only realised thanks to the debugging info on the screen :smiley: )

I found the dash key in the wrong place - making it ‘C’ feels more natural. It’s an unnatural stretch of the hands to press ‘D’.

On some scenes the platform is just at the bottom of the screen, making it look like the player’s walking on air, and meaning you can’t see any gaps until you drop down :

image

But otherwise the game has a nice feel to it, you’ve done a great job with it so far.

2 Likes
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Yeah, definitely a tutorial, or some kind of in game assistance/help on how to activate things (like the shop and save points)

Oh, and your shop is very intuitive - easy to see what’s available and the description is simple and easy to understand.

And will you have enemies respawning when you re-enter a room in the final game?

1 Like
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Hey, thanks MrMen. As for the tutorial, I’m really going to do it, because watching my brother play I got the impression that many will get lost. However, the game is to show with all the mechanics, character evolution, enemies, menus etc.

As for some platforms, I realized this only after I uploaded the game on the server, so I left it anyway! The fact is that I’m not developing the rooms yet, for the simple fact that I’m waiting for Gdevelop to accept collisions coming from Tiled. Because it sucks having to keep putting objects by objects whenever you have to change something on the map.

As for the commands, I’m developing a menu for keyboard and control customization, making it better for anyone who wants to play, in their own style. I didn’t put it in the DEMO because I’m still improving.

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Yes, it will be as it is, Castlevania style. And all enemies will come back upon re-entering the room. Well, I’m 100% inspired by the game. A mechanical RPG and all the style of menu, weapons, items etc.

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They worked fine for me.

Also, there is a noticeable slowdown when there are any enemies on the screen. The game runs faster when the enemies have been dispatched.

1 Like
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This slowdown I noticed too! But I don’t know if it’s something from the server or from the build. Because enemies are only created in the current room, and deleted when leaving it. That is, entered the room, all enemies in the game are deleted, and only the enemies in the current room are created. Not overloading the game. I did this thinking seriously about the performance of the game.

But these are small things that I will fix until the final version

1 Like
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Wow. This is a very cool and amazing game. It reminds me so much of my childhood. Great job.

If this is just your demo, I’m sure your final release will blow people away.

Keep up the great work.

2 Likes
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Thanks, I got some feedback, and I fixed and improved a lot of things, the new demo is on the way. But it will still take a while, new implementations will come there!

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You’re very welcome. No worries. Understood.

End users and movie watches usually think these things are done overnight. :slight_smile:

I’m sure your game will keep getting better and better. Looking forward to seeing it.

1 Like