Author Topic: Dungeon Quest Man: REALLY EARLY DEMO is available  (Read 5350 times)

チソウ タイゼン

  • tarzan cheetos
  • you'll thank me for the cropping later
Dungeon Quest Man: REALLY EARLY DEMO is available
« on: July 24, 2012, 05:38:07 AM »
So, I'm working on a game.
You know, again.

~ダンジョン クエスト マン~

Download link: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/48264981/New%20folder%20(1)/dungeon%20quest%20man.exe
Video 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neEIPMLbS8E
Video 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prK84C3vmqQ]

This started with me going through Game Maker-related withdrawals because I refused to touch the unregistered version of Game Maker 8 (GM 6 doesn't work on Vista/7, the new DRM is pants on head retarded), but I eventually caved and started work on something I thought I could get done quick and easily.

So this!

It's a platformer / metr- no, there's no exploration, it's actually entirely linear / RPG thing where you control nameless/faceless/ideal-less/thoughtless/voiceless protagonist #400,000 through an incredibly monochrome brain. That is, your brain.
Our unidentified Exposition Fairy explains this to us, and rather rudely too.




(He's referring to all the black and whiteness)

The goal here is to create a bit of a recognition for this, and ideally, lots of Hype Backlash :3

The first publicly released demo will feature gameplay up to the Tertiary Sector (or the fourth one, if I feel like it), and will allow me to gauge whether or not the game's worth taking to the end- that is, up to level 10, the Denary Sector.
If you're interested in playing, please tell me! Perhaps I can let you try it out or something.

Thank you for reading!
« Last Edit: July 31, 2012, 10:46:29 PM by チソウ タイゼン »


Re: Dungeon Quest Man: I made a game!
« Reply #1 on: July 26, 2012, 09:51:20 AM »
Sounds interesting. So how will the RPG mechanics play a part? If there are any (to clarify this, is their gonna be actual grinding potential and enemies to do it upon, or is it just gonna be one of those where levels are there for no other reason then for flavor like in Monster Girl Quest or something.)

Oh and don't you mean Quaternary Sector.  :D

I pride myself on knowing all of those up through ten (and twelve as well, though to my knowledge no such one exists for eleven.) Yes it's a stupid thing to feel pride upon, no I don't care that it is.  :derp:
« Last Edit: July 26, 2012, 10:02:24 AM by blabla1994 »
I am a compulsive post editor. There is a 95% chance that any post you see from me will have gone through at least 3 edits. Often more.

チソウ タイゼン

  • tarzan cheetos
  • you'll thank me for the cropping later
Re: Dungeon Quest Man: I made a game!
« Reply #2 on: July 26, 2012, 12:09:28 PM »
Quote
Sounds interesting. So how will the RPG mechanics play a part? If there are any (to clarify this, is their gonna be actual grinding potential and enemies to do it upon, or is it just gonna be one of those where levels are there for no other reason then for flavor like in Monster Girl Quest or something.)

Your stats are random; STR and DEF have obvious effects, VIT tacks on HP*, and Luck determines money and drops.
The game randomly distributes 45 points at level 1 and 5 points for every level thereafter (but the chances are stacked for STR and VIT.)
My RNG for some reason keeps giving me glass cannon characters- the ratio between the four stats is supposed to be about 3:2:3:1 but I keep ending up with like 200 / 100 / 160 / 60.
Generally speaking, your stats should be about 180 strength, 120 defense, 180 vitality, and 60 luck, as well as about 550 HP, at level 99, interpolate linearly for middle levels.

*Extra HP is great when you have buttloads of defense; something that deals 50 damage at defense 9 will still probably do about 15 at defense 140.

RPG mechanics are present mostly because if something is too hard then you can go and kill a few things and then it'll be a bit easier when you come back.
Most of the difficulty, I aim for, would be from memorizing how bosses attack. If you figure out how a boss works then not dying should be easier.

When the Mysterious Ghost sways to one side, he's about to spin attack.
When Kaikirai throws back an arm, he'll shoot arrows.
He jumps up? Run away, he's going to fire something kind of like a Master Spark.

Quote
Oh and don't you mean Quaternary Sector. 

I pride myself on knowing all of those up through ten (and twelve as well, though to my knowledge no such one exists for eleven.) Yes it's a stupid thing to feel pride upon, no I don't care that it is. 


Primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary, quinary, senary, septenary, octonary, nonary, denary.
I knew all of them, but I just didn't feel like typing out 'quaternary' at the time, it's a pretty big word for '4th' :getdown:

You'll have to excuse me, I cannot not wallpost like this in my own threads :ohdear:


Esper

  • <Temporary Title>
  • <Temporary Text>
Re: Dungeon Quest Man: I made a game!
« Reply #3 on: July 27, 2012, 10:55:34 PM »
I'm interested in playing. Though you may make glass cannon characters I can at least see if I like what you're doing. It looks like it's coming off well, with the unknown voice seeming like a Deadpan Snarker just from that one line.

Wait, is this a game with RPG elements that is live action or is it a flat-out turn-based RPG?
My profile picture is whimsy until I feel like adding something else.

Enjoy.

チソウ タイゼン

  • tarzan cheetos
  • you'll thank me for the cropping later
Re: Dungeon Quest Man: I made a game!
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2012, 06:27:58 AM »
I'm interested in playing. Though you may make glass cannon characters I can at least see if I like what you're doing. It looks like it's coming off well, with the unknown voice seeming like a Deadpan Snarker just from that one line.

Wait, is this a game with RPG elements that is live action or is it a flat-out turn-based RPG?

I'm actually thinking about letting you customize the general outline of your stats, but whatever >_>
The voice is somewhat of a deadpan snarker, but it'll go away as time goes on.

It's kind of like Super Paper Mario.
It's a platformer with somewhat superficial RPG elements.


KrackoCloud

  • I don't mean to be greedy...
  • ... but white rice is my favorite food.
Re: Dungeon Quest Man: I made a game!
« Reply #5 on: July 29, 2012, 01:10:11 AM »
This looks interesting! Also it looks like I will be pretty bad at this game but it looks like fun :U
Does the player get any knockback or invincibility frames from getting hit? It seemed hard to tell when you took damage unless you were already focused on the health bar.

チソウ タイゼン

  • tarzan cheetos
  • you'll thank me for the cropping later
Re: Dungeon Quest Man: I made a game!
« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2012, 05:43:03 AM »
This looks interesting! Also it looks like I will be pretty bad at this game but it looks like fun :U
Does the player get any knockback or invincibility frames from getting hit? It seemed hard to tell when you took damage unless you were already focused on the health bar.

Haha what makes you say that?
Also, you get 0.6 seconds of invincibility, which will be evidenced by your player flashing. I just implemented that, actually.

I made the healthbar larger and fancier and more obvious and in general the HUD is quite sexier.

...Tertiary Sector boss is going to take me a while.
In the meantime, who wants to listen to some music!? :V

Edit: Okay, fuck working on the boss, I just found out that this enormous freaking elevator puzzle is broken and needs fixing

Screenshots!

New HUD:


Oh, my, what is this
« Last Edit: July 29, 2012, 08:11:57 AM by チソウ タイゼン »


Garlyle

  • I can't brain today
  • I have the dumb
    • Tormod Plays Games
Re: Dungeon Quest Man: I made a game!
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2012, 09:03:47 AM »
Might I make a small interface suggestion?

The stat displays are kind of oddly spaced out.  It looks like it's saying "St" , "34 Df" , "28 Vi", and so forth.  Even though it's pretty obvious how it's supposed to be read, the numbers could probably be placed together a little better.

But with that said this actually looks pretty good?  It's hard to tell from still images but I actually like the black-and-white aesthetic, and the "Maybe you should try having more of a personality" is just so glorious

チソウ タイゼン

  • tarzan cheetos
  • you'll thank me for the cropping later
Re: Dungeon Quest Man: I made a game!
« Reply #8 on: July 29, 2012, 04:31:05 PM »
Might I make a small interface suggestion?

The stat displays are kind of oddly spaced out.  It looks like it's saying "St" , "34 Df" , "28 Vi", and so forth.  Even though it's pretty obvious how it's supposed to be read, the numbers could probably be placed together a little better.

But with that said this actually looks pretty good?  It's hard to tell from still images but I actually like the black-and-white aesthetic, and the "Maybe you should try having more of a personality" is just so glorious

It could totally be done. What if I added like
St   38 / Df   28 /
and so forth, with the slashes and mess? There's room, since your stats won't be more than 3 digits.

Spoiler:
That line gets better when you get to the twist at the end of Stage 9/Nonary Sector, because hilarious plot development pertaining to why everything is black and white slash lack of personality :getdown:

Anyway, thanks for checking it out!
I just have a little more to do in terms of things like balance and making Kaikirai not the dumbest AI ever (there was a certain distance you could stand to him where your regular attack would hit, he would slash rather than move to you, you were out of his range, and his arrow rain move missed you) and finishing the third boss.

I think I'll produce a playable version after then, because I seriously doubt I could put together the Quaternary Sector before long, due to how large it's supposed to be. The first three sectors still have a good thirty to forty minutes of play anyway, which is by far the longest game I've produced yet. (If you don't count Lunacy Star >_> )

Edit:

Third boss is done!

It's also difficult as a motherfucker.
I had to tweak it specifically to where it's berserk move didn't do 60 damage (out of, say, 100) and generally make it easier to avoid and shit and I still took 25 tries to beat it.

Then again, this game is already really bitchy and I've always been crappy at platformers *shrug
« Last Edit: July 30, 2012, 08:17:10 AM by チソウ タイゼン »


チソウ タイゼン

  • tarzan cheetos
  • you'll thank me for the cropping later
Re: Dungeon Quest Man: REALLY EARLY DEMO is available
« Reply #9 on: July 30, 2012, 06:34:33 PM »
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/48264981/New%20folder%20(1)/dungeon%20quest%20man.exe

It's a playable version!

There might be a few bugs or two that I haven't detected. Please tell me if you encounter any!


If the third boss is too hard (It took me 15 tries), refer to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QidMnrjRfBo&feature=youtu.be


BTW: Be sure to collect all three keys in the first half of Sector 3, or else you might make it unwinnable. I haven't confirmed this yet.


EDIT!

To anyone who might have downloaded the previous link, it's been updated with a bugfix that I somehow managed to miss. Namely, the one-way platforms were broken, but work now.
« Last Edit: July 31, 2012, 04:30:57 AM by チソウ タイゼン »


KrackoCloud

  • I don't mean to be greedy...
  • ... but white rice is my favorite food.
Re: Dungeon Quest Man: REALLY EARLY DEMO is available
« Reply #10 on: July 31, 2012, 05:15:33 AM »
This game... Is hard!
I haven't gotten past the first boss yet. I think the attacks are fine - It's just that the interval between different attacks is so short! Really fast-paced. It could catch a lot of people off guard, considering the rest of the level is pretty much just tutorial.

Dying can get pretty tedious too. If you could skip already-read dialogue sessions, that would work wonders.

Esper

  • <Temporary Title>
  • <Temporary Text>
Re: Dungeon Quest Man: REALLY EARLY DEMO is available
« Reply #11 on: July 31, 2012, 05:39:24 PM »
Okay this is fun to me :V The music's pretty damn good as well

Also, there's what I suspect as a glitch where it's possible to sink through thin platforms that you can jump through. Also, might I suggest telling the player they can duck to help them with the first boss?
My profile picture is whimsy until I feel like adding something else.

Enjoy.

チソウ タイゼン

  • tarzan cheetos
  • you'll thank me for the cropping later
Re: Dungeon Quest Man: REALLY EARLY DEMO is available
« Reply #12 on: July 31, 2012, 08:11:49 PM »
This game... Is hard!
I haven't gotten past the first boss yet. I think the attacks are fine - It's just that the interval between different attacks is so short! Really fast-paced. It could catch a lot of people off guard, considering the rest of the level is pretty much just tutorial.

Dying can get pretty tedious too. If you could skip already-read dialogue sessions, that would work wonders.

Oh damn. Well, if it helps, the S key is a shortcut key to instantly level you up for now. I forgot to take that out :<
The Control key kills the active textbox, also

Okay this is fun to me :V The music's pretty damn good as well

Also, there's what I suspect as a glitch where it's possible to sink through thin platforms that you can jump through. Also, might I suggest telling the player they can duck to help them with the first boss?

Haha, thank you. How far'd you get~?

Oh, damn. I thought I fixed those bastards. What exactly were you doing?


KrackoCloud

  • I don't mean to be greedy...
  • ... but white rice is my favorite food.
Re: Dungeon Quest Man: REALLY EARLY DEMO is available
« Reply #13 on: July 31, 2012, 08:40:03 PM »
Well, if it helps, the S key is a shortcut key to instantly level you up for now. I forgot to take that out :<
The Control key kills the active textbox, also
Well, looks like my problems have been answered already :U
It helped too that I found out you can hit an enemy without going through the attack animation. Don't know if you want to change that or if it's intentional. It looks kind of funny but it's still very helpful.

チソウ タイゼン

  • tarzan cheetos
  • you'll thank me for the cropping later
Re: Dungeon Quest Man: REALLY EARLY DEMO is available
« Reply #14 on: July 31, 2012, 09:16:33 PM »
Well, looks like my problems have been answered already :U
It helped too that I found out you can hit an enemy without going through the attack animation. Don't know if you want to change that or if it's intentional. It looks kind of funny but it's still very helpful.

I think you're referring to hitting something immediately after attacking while in mid-air? There isn't really supposed to be a delay, since you begin spinning immediately...


KrackoCloud

  • I don't mean to be greedy...
  • ... but white rice is my favorite food.
Re: Dungeon Quest Man: REALLY EARLY DEMO is available
« Reply #15 on: July 31, 2012, 10:03:19 PM »
What happened was when I was fighting the ghost, I decided to duck pretty much the entire time. If found that when the ghost was open, if I stood up, pressed the attack button and immediately crouched again, the ghost would still take damage. However, it looked like I didn't do anything because I canceled out the animation at the very start.

チソウ タイゼン

  • tarzan cheetos
  • you'll thank me for the cropping later
Re: Dungeon Quest Man: REALLY EARLY DEMO is available
« Reply #16 on: July 31, 2012, 10:45:14 PM »
What happened was when I was fighting the ghost, I decided to duck pretty much the entire time. If found that when the ghost was open, if I stood up, pressed the attack button and immediately crouched again, the ghost would still take damage. However, it looked like I didn't do anything because I canceled out the animation at the very start.

Oh, I didn't think about that. Yeah, in the code, ducking takes precedence over attacking :<
Thank you, I'll have to fix that~


Esper

  • <Temporary Title>
  • <Temporary Text>
Re: Dungeon Quest Man: REALLY EARLY DEMO is available
« Reply #17 on: August 01, 2012, 12:15:17 AM »
Haha, thank you. How far'd you get~?

Oh, damn. I thought I fixed those bastards. What exactly were you doing?

1. I got to stage 2 and got one key then fell asleep at my computer, which bluescreened while I was asleep :V

2. I believe I jumped and attacked in midair and landed on it by accident. It's a good thing you put that double layer in or I might have broken sequence.
My profile picture is whimsy until I feel like adding something else.

Enjoy.

チソウ タイゼン

  • tarzan cheetos
  • you'll thank me for the cropping later
Re: Dungeon Quest Man: REALLY EARLY DEMO is available
« Reply #18 on: August 04, 2012, 07:45:02 AM »
WHO'S READY FOR HORRIBLE DICKISHNESS ON MY PART?

I figure the game can go like this (Spoilers, if you care):

Primary: Tutorial stage.
Secondary: Introduction to keys and mess.
Tertiary: Elevator puzzles and early platform hell, as well as multiple screens.
Quaternary: More multiple screens (Three this time), gravity puzzles, and more platform hell, but overall Breather Level-y, except for a Dual Stationary Boss
Quinary: More battle-oriented sector with lots of enemies in a largely linear zone, seven screens. The Spirit of this sector is that of the protagonist's Fear and will produce an Advancing Boss of Doom corridor.
Senary Sector: Full-blown Metroidvania-lite with 12 screens
Septenary Sector: Breather level, short, sweet, and chock-full of plot
Octonary Sector: Protagonist cannon puzzles, one way door and wall puzzles, Return of Elevator Hell, and more of those spinning traps in jumping puzzles. Also, 15 keys across 16 rooms, some rooms with special triggers to spawn lots of Demonic Spiders.
Nonary Sector: Battle-oriented sector centered around using Doors to Before around one hub room.
Denary Sector: Ridiculously large, complicated, and will take a third of the gameplay time by the end. (Which total will probably only be about seven hours.) Will make you wish a map system existed in-game.

I've been suggested the following by a friend of mine:


- adding a save point on the other end of the spin trap spikes hell in the first screen of Tertiary Sector, before you have to go through it again
- Making Kaikirai even easier oh lord (His contact damage is a little high i guess)
- Making Zouhesse hit less like a truck
- adding something to make the screen transition between the two Tertiary Sector zones more obvious

When I get back from vacation, I'm going to work on the next cutscene, as well as the Quaternary and Quinary sectors. I don't think I'll need to release a public demo again anytime soon so private testing only or something. I don't know.

Thanks for playing, though ~