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Project: The Bubble
Project Started: 8th November, 2009 Last Update: 5th March, 2010
Project Owner: HitmanN Project Members:
Project Type: Metroidvania-ish platformer RPG Project Progress:

First devlog entry, with a teaser
Posted 8th Nov 09, by HitmanN  
If this catches on, I might make bi-weekly updates or so, about where the project is heading.

Here's something to start with.

Story in a nutshell

The Bubble is about a huge sphere of warped time and space in the middle of a city. The main character is trapped inside and must figure out what's happened, what is about to happen, how to survive, and escape The Bubble.

Content

Although I've made lots of anime-style art in the past, this is actually my first serious spriting project. I plan to do all the art myself. I'm also experimenting with sound effects, but I might need to rely on an expert with those. I also have no musical talent, so I'm looking for a musician to create some music. For now it's not a priority though.

I have a small group of online friends who are testing the game, and they've proven more than enough help for now to find out a large variety of bugs, and I only have couple of them to fix right now. In future, I might recruit more testers and request help in tackling some AI things, which will without a doubt be my biggest challenge.

What's done so far

I decided that I'm going to create all the collectable and usable items and all the skills and bonuses before I start expanding the game world. So far there's only one level, used to test all the different non-enemy things you might encounter in the game. Once the items, obstacles and skills are done, I will start creating the world.

- 14/16 melee weapons have been implemented, though are still subject to balancing tests.
- 8/8 ranged weapons have been completed, and are still also subject to testing
- 9/10 special items are done, including explosives, healing items and some funky special things.
- 8/14 accessories are complete, show up on the character, and affect performance as planned.
- Character movement is for the most part complete, and includes the obvious running, jumping, climbing, crouching, attack stances for different weapons, etc. I haven't yet decided if I'll add attacks to be performable on ladders (which I'm going to try and avoid using too much).
- Inventory is implemented, and can be accessed at any time when not taking damage
- Character profile, skill point distribution, learning skills, etc are all up'n running, though still subject to some expansion.
- Three enemies exist, mainly for testing. Two of them are passive, one has a line-of-sight it reacts to. These will most likely remain the first foes, and require nothing but careful movement and a few quick swings with your favorite melee weapon.
- 3/5 special skills have been implemented, two movement related, one is... well... you can hide behind boxes and crates to avoid detection by enemies with a line-of-sight.
- Enemies, containers and obstacles all spawn randomly.
- A variety of containers are usable only once, and remain in that state even when exiting and returning to a level. Other containers spawn again randomly, to provide ammo, healing items, etc.
- Three different types of obstacles have been implemented, one requiring a key item, the other two a strong enough explosive or other attack.

Plus plenty of more stuff, but that's about what I've completed in the last four or so months. It's taken me a lot of time learning about a variety of extensions' and MMF's features. Why do I need to be so ambitious right from the get go is beyond me though. >_<

Teaser

I bet you already clicked on that teaser screenshot. It's not a very recent one actually, but displays a good bunch of working stuff. Effects, all three of the first enemy types, the main character jumping, dialogue screen, HUD, etc.

I'll provide more screenshots and some animated sprites of the main character later.
Preview


Posted by UrbanMonk 10th November, 2009

I recognize that explosion sprite. I can't remember from where though.
 
Posted by HitmanN 10th November, 2009

UrbanMonk:

I haven't directly used any existing sprites, but the explosions have been inspired by NES/SNES era games, so I wouldn't be surprised to find similarities.
 


 



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