New Gameplay Mechanics and a Slightly Controversial Change! | Farewell North Devlog #17
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- Опубліковано 27 чер 2024
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What a month! There's been so much progress on the game, it's hard to condense it down to a 10 minute devlog. First I've been thinking a lot about the game mechanics and how they fit into puzzle gameplay. I realized that the demo (by the way, you can sign up to be a beta tester over on Discord!) doesn't currently have enough variety and movement in the gameplay, so I've introduced a new mechanic and a few new puzzle pieces to help mix it up.
I've also made a somewhat controversial decision to remove free-jumping from the game and instead replace it with a targeted jump system. This gives me way more control over the level design and really doesn't hamper the gameplay at all (in fact, I think the jumping is actually more fun now).
Finally, I started incorporating @unity's new Photo Mode demo project to the game over on Twitch! It's been a fun project to work on each stream, and something that I think is going to be a nice little bonus feature for the game.
I hope you enjoy the video, leave your thoughts down below, and don't forget to like, subscribe and of course, wishlist the game on Steam!
Song: Venkatesananda - Jesse Gallagher
Original Score by John Konsolakis: www.johnkonsolakis.eu
Farewell North is my personal passion project, an open world adventure game about restoring color to a dark and desolate archipelago where all color and life has left. You play as a collie working alongside your human companion to explore, solve puzzles, evade monsters, and restore color to the islands.
#devlog #gaming #videogames #indiedev #indiegame #gamedev #unity #unity3d #madewithunity #steam #steamgame #blender #graphics #puzzle - Ігри
Thanks for watching everyone! Come join in on the jam and help test the demo: farewell-north.com/discord
Farewell Kyle
You continue to blow my mind with this game
Thanks so much mate, you've actually been a huge inspiration 🙏
I personally think that the new jump mechanic fits the game very well as dogs aren't exactly known to be parkour experts, and a limited jump allows you to spend more time on the level design amf not just glitch proofing.
Yeah exactly! Awesome, glad you like it
@@kylebanks One thought for those who miss being able to "free jump" at any time is to add a simple "excited pup" mechanic with the jump button. Just something the dog does while running along, like bucking excitedly as dogs are known to do. Adds character and immersion, and hopefully not a ton of extra time to build in!
God I can’t wait for this game
Thank you very much, I'm really excited to get the public demo into peoples' hands as well
Omg the real Barji
4:15 what do you mean? Skyrim did it flawlessly, super realistic and a great way to climb mountains.
Great new mechanics. The video gave me a few ideas...
Dogs love digging. Could the dog dig up things / keys / collectables?
Could the dog bark to get the girl to throw a stick / toy. The happiness this brings the girl and the dog gives a wider colour burst for a shorter time, kind of like a radar ping. Or the player positions the dog near somewhere you'd normally use a thistle and the girl can throw a found stick. Each stick has a limited lifetime, or there is a random chance the stick gets lost when thrown.
A silly idea, most dogs have a couple of silly mannerisms. How about adding in some as Easter eggs? I mean this is purely eye candy. One idea was a butt scoot. They could be added in if the dog had been inactive for a long time.
I feel like the digging idea has a lot of potential, because it can also be used as another obstacle by having the dog dig through a tight space for some solo adventure. Could be a lot of opportunities there!
What actually attracted me strongly to your game is the charming quiet experience which is just amazing!
And I really love the way enimies work in the game.. they keep it away from getting "boring", yet they don't ruin the quietness of the game..
Your develogs are so enjoyable, I hope you do more of them 🌷
Glad you enjoy it, thanks so much!
I think the change in jumping mechanics is really smart!
You brought up that the play testers missed having something to idly so from point A to B, I think filling in the dead space of point A to B with little goals would be enjoyable. Similar to how god of war has hidden areas, maybe you can use the color to find hidden rooms that trigger memories, or things in the environment that gives the audience something else to play with.
I really enjoy these dev logs and what I’ve seen! Can’t wait to play it!
Yeah totally! More little side content such as collectables could help, and it would let me create a lot of little interesting optional areas
The new jumping system looks like a great idea, both for yourself and to prevent frustration in us players (as jump bugs are wont to do). And it's funny how limitations can often provoke great creativity - I look forward to seeing how this influences your level design :)
(BTW, if you haven't already thought of it, you could probably generalise the system to all movement, not just jumping. Under certain circumstances (like on a cliff edge) the dog might not only refuse to jump, but refuse to walk forward, too. That might feel more natural than invisible colliders if you ever find a situating that calls for such things.)
"it's funny how limitations can often provoke great creativity" - I couldn't agree more, design through subtraction is often much better for the end result
Good choice with the jumping change! In my experience, free jump breaks immersion, as the player no longer feels constrained to the play space. I'd say that your play testers jumping around as they moved from A to B was a bad thing, so I think this decision was great! Keep it up!
My thoughts exactly, thanks!
I teach computer science at the high school level and found your devlogs while looking for CS content. I appreciate how you discuss both the mechanics of how some particular action works, but also the more creative side of deciding what elements to implement. I plan on showing my students some of these videos, so they see writing a "program" is more than just making it run, but also making it "good". Thanks for detailing the journey!
That is amazing! Not to toot my own horn but I would have absolutely loved this kind of content in school if I had been aware of it. I think it's wonderful that you look to UA-cam and other avenues to find content for your students, that's just really cool
The way you explained why you made the change to remove free jumping makes it obvious you put a lot of thought into it. As someone who appreciates the story and experience of a game more than the actual gameplay, I agree with your decision.
Really happy to hear that, that's exactly the reaction I'm hoping for ☺️
Immediately I think the carrying a thistle is a good idea, but I think that also having a type of thistle-perhaps a different color?-that pings within a range should be included, because there is a certain charm to a simple "touch to activate" puzzle that, with this game's design, works well.
Not to be too critical, I'll compliment you on the dog's animation when he's holding the flower in his mouth. It may not have been fully intentional, but the manner in which his head stays up and sort of fixed in position as he bounds around is really reminiscent of a dog holding something in its mouth that he's trying to be careful with.
So removing the jump probably is a good idea with this game. Platforming was never the point and unless you wanted to spend a ton of time on it, you'd likely just end up with a more generic game overall.
On the point that jumping around is fun while going from point A to B, I highly recommend adding in a pelting option, so you can run full-tilt to really eat up ground if you're trying to get somewhere quickly. This will not only be useful to speed things up, and will not only be a feature that really is only useful in the one instance so that it doesn't break your mechanics, but it will be fun, too.
So far it looks like you're gaining a better understanding of the game you're trying to make. I personally prefer more relaxed puzzles for a story-focused game like this, which the removal of some of the character's freedom of mobility bolsters. If we were to compare this game to, say, Hellblade, your game in some ways would be the same style of game but in a different genre. That is, you walk around, follow the story, and solve puzzles to progress. For Hellblade, combat adds a secondary level of mechanical interest, while in your game it's avoiding enemies.
In Hellblade, the subgenre is horror, while in yours it's, I dunno, drama? Whatever Spirited Away is, lol. Coming of age? Semi-slice-of-life-with-a-twist?
I just love these kinds of thoughtful comments, thank you. Your comparison to Hellblade is really apt, because my initial vision for the game was essentially 'Journey meets Hellblade', a slightly strange comparison given Hellblade's focus on combat but I think you hit the nail on the head pointing out how combat/horror was a secondary mechanic to Hellblade, and here I really think the (light) puzzle/stealth gameplay is the secondary.
I agree with your suggestions as well, and I'll be adding those to my backlog right away. Thanks again for the well thought out comment!
Awesome vid! Liking the progress. You actually managed to capture the real world scene into your game. Keep it up! :)
Thanks so much!
Love watching the progress and how you have solved for the problems your users are encountering!
Thanks so much Stephen! Man it's been ages, hope you're doing well
Amazing Devlog! Really love how the jumping and the other new mechanics :D
Awesome, glad to hear you like the changes!
Is there a way to tell the difference between a hidden object that needs a perspective solution and a hidden object that needs a thistle?
I think it shouldn't be immediately obvious, but once you learn about both puzzles, I think you should be able to guess which method you need to use
I absolutely agree and yeah you can: the perspective puzzles have a white silhouette and the fragments of the object float away in the direction of the perspective, whereas a normal hidden object is just solid and has no outline.
for the jumping problem you should allow some levels to not have the ability so the freedom will still be present in some parts
this looks amazing ! added on my wishlist :)
Thank you! That helps so much
I think the change in how the jump works makes a lot of sense and it seems to be working pretty good, for the people that miss idly pressing jump maybe you could add kinda like a roll mechanic or something similar. Great job so far tho!
Thank you! Yeah giving another satisfying button to press should solve this
Still looking good. Keep at it! :)
Thank you 🙂
Great devlog. Carrying the thistle around is an awesome idea and feels very Scottish!
Glad you enjoyed it!
An idea you could implement for those who miss having the jump button to idley press while walking is a sort of dash(?) that can happen if the trace you've implemented doesn't see anything to jump onto (ie, a flat surface like a road). Something like that can also help in stealth sections if an enemy grows suspicious of you and starts coming toward you, you can quick dash behind cover. Zelda does this well, especially in twilight princess, and other games have a sort of dodge/evade button that serves a similar function. Though, something like that might speed up the game more than you'd like, since it's supposed to be thematically slow and beautiful. If you like the idea, you could put limits on how many dashes you can perform, almost like a stamina meter, or like how many times you can dash on a horse in Breath of the Wild, that sort of thing.
As always, fantastic progress! Really big fan of the jump changes. I think they'll help a lot with making sure the players don't break the game too often :)
That's a great idea, and I personally love quick dash buttons so something I'll most definitely experiment with. Thanks!
Have been waiting for this
Thanks, hope it was worth the wait!
Love that low poly style so nice to look at :D Great work!!! Might give the demo a test!
Thanks!
Amazing stuff!
Thanks Florian!
very clean solution for jumping! if people really like idle jumps, maybe you can do a simple radius check to make sure the dog is not close enough to any walls and then allow small idle jumping. not really needed for anything and it could re-introduce some of the complications but it could gives the dog a happy bouncy feel while exploring and let people play with an idle animation button. either way, great job on the progress!
Yeah that's a great idea actually, I wonder if it might be confusing though when you can't jump? Anyways something to try out for sure, thanks!
@@kylebanks thats a good point. unless you had some indication that its "safe to jump" with like a tail wag or unsafe with a whimper anim then someone may get used to the idle jumping. they could get close to a wall or edge and not be able to jump, then not know to jump again when it is part of the objective. maybe instead of a full jump, its just a tiny hop forward. no higher than what the human can traverse on foot, which would eliminate the need to have safe and unsafe areas for jumping, and prime players for potential uses for the jumping
Would be really cool if at some point in the game if the woman received a bird of some sort that the player could control with of course limited color interactions maybe limited to just grabbing a thistle to interact with colors. Given that the dog would not be able to pass the same terrain it is fair that a good person (woman character) would not leave them behind. Flying around this level design would be vary enjoyable while allowing players to explore without bypassing any puzzles. Could limit it to a horizontal range from the player character.
Leading a flock while it is colored would be an interesting way to see this world colored.
Or limiting the bird to already colored sections would give the players a cool way to explore the colored world without interfering with breaking current mechanics. If this mechanic was introduced would allow additional puzzles to show up in the colored world that the player could solve with the bird to unlock the next stage or check points. If limited to the colored parts of the map, the bird could act as a means to quickly fly to a place previously unlock and maybe teleport the dog and woman to it as a way for players to explore previous parts of the map.
I'm interested in knowing what others think of this idea!?
Maybe you can implement a way for the girl to throw food or a bag of seeds to make certain animals move in a general direction. I think this would be a cool mechanic because you would be able to throw food over or across obstacles where both you and the dog can’t reach but birds or other animals can.
That's actually a really clever idea, something I hadn't considered before. Thanks!
It's really coming along, I can't wait to play it.
Thank you! It feels like things are starting get really come together which is exciting
Instead of jumping, maybe add a button for the dog to sway like they're in a dog show dodging between pylons. That way the itch will be scratched and it shouldn't cause any issues from a gameplay perspective.
Oh I love this idea
it might make for more varied puzzles if different thistles across the map created color for different lengths of time, maybe with different numbers of thistle per patch to show you how long they last
Nice idea, thanks!
This game is really getting into proper shape .. Well done !
Thank you! I feel like its really tightened up since testing started, so I'm glad that's coming through
Looking amazing! I love idly pressing some key to have a reaction on screen when running around (normally jumping), but it doesn't have to be a jump. A short dash or something else could be a replacement for any player like me who likes making movement more interesting through spamming some key for an extra animation.
Yeah I definitely know what you mean, I think the color ping button is a pretty addicting on to press though, and maybe adding a boost of some sort to the sprint could also help fill that gap
The the colour ping will definitely be something I will spam :)
Nice
So nice :)
The theme of the game is so interesting
I'm glad you think so ☺️
Just a thought, the flower carried by the dog could use a bit of physics to really sell it, looks a bit too much like a static object as it is. A small thing, but the devil's in the details
That's a good idea, thanks 👌
Suggestion: when color is restored through campfires monsters should become negative figures in the girl’s life
Hey kyle, have you thought of adding traps? Big black areas on the ground that pull you into the ground when you stand on it, and then in the colour world it's a patch of flowers?
That's a great idea, I think that would fit very well
Cool!
Seems like nice proggress even if I don't normally like games that don't give me jumping or direct control of it.
I know what you mean, the change wont wont be for everyone but I do think it'll make a better game overall
jogo incrivel
Surely it couldn't be that hard to enable jumping on essentially flat terrain so players can idly jump while running from place to place.
That's not really the problem though, it's how do you explain to players that it's only available on flat sections? If you give it there but take it away other times, you actually make them miss it more I feel
I'm just curious: have you ever played Okami? I thought they did a good job with most of the movement things in that one. The main character, while she takes the form of a wolf, is also goddess, so she has some abilities that are unrealistic compared to a real dog and jumps higher than a real dog would. Might be something to look at though. Not that I really know anything about these sorts of things, but I can never pass up the opportunity to recommend Okami LOL
Yeah, I missed it when it originally released but a few people have recommended it since I started sharing Farewell North. Seems it has a big fanbase but I have to be honest, I'm not sure if it's just me because I missed it when it originally released and maybe it hasn't aged well, but I didn't love it :|
Still there's definitely some useful lessons in how they did things, I just couldn't personally get into it
@@kylebanks That's perfectly fair :)
cant you just make a script that you can add to objects that makes you slide down and cannot jump while sliding
my biggest problem witht the game is that i just think the colorless world looks a lot more beautiful than the colored one, which cant be right if the colorless world represents anxiety. i have literally no idea how to make the colored world look nicer, but it could also be personal opinion and lack of exposure to it, as devlogs mostly show the colorless world.
That's funny, I get such a wide range of feedback from the colorless world being boring and flat, all the way to it being more attractive than the colored world! You spend the majority of the game in the uncolored world so its definitely received more time and attention, but I personally still prefer the colored world. It's a tough one because it's so subjective, but different strokes I guess 🤷♂️
Will it be on mac though? looks like a mac game 😊
We are actively testing on mac and the plan is to release the mac version at the same time as windows