Enhancing my game's pixel art! | Devlog
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- Опубліковано 9 кві 2024
- Check out my game on Steam!
store.steampowered.com/app/25...
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Music:
Windfall Island from Wind Waker
8PM from Animal Crossing - Ігри
I think adding higher grass and maybe flowers would make the world seem more lively. That would also fit with the destructable-objects theme.
That with like tall grass could go a long way, expecially if you could cut it with an axe for example
They could also have gameplay implementations
I agree!
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@@user-xl3wn9sb4ehello newborn, GET OFF YOUR MOTHERS PHONE
rolling into unsuspecting furniture is one of my favorite pass times.
Same!!
Legend spotted
I think random dead time between the tree animations would look nice. Something light, like the banner should always be moving, but heavier objects should only be blown by less frequent gusts. You can show exactly how windy it is by the time between animations and animation speed. Maybe as you get closer to the wind-based area it gets stronger?
Maybe add a weather cycle, and if windy day, make animations move.
Else, keep them still or light movement. Would be another cool feature to implement.
Maybe a pedantic/overly complicated suggestion, but: for the trees, I think it would look more natural if instead of the whole tree wobbling always, maybe the leaves are animated always, and the entire bush part moves much less frequently. Maybe the trees all shift slightly in the same direction according to which way the wind blows if there are sporadic gusts of wind.
Good feedback!
I think letting some NPCs walk around or move in some way is a great way to add more life to a village or town. For example you could have kids running around, playing with each other or guards having to walk around an area to protect it. You could use Zelda Breath of the Wild and Red Dead Redemption as references. Obviously those systems are quite complicated so you wouldn't need to go as in depth but they are great for learning. The game is looking great!
Also, sassy npc dialogue would be cool, maybe when the player break something in the area? Something to make them feel like people, and not just random extras. Maybe even backstories that are revealed a little bit in each interactions. Kind of like undertale or deltarune~
Maybe some lights ? Like make differents times of the journey with differents sun colors and sun inclination ?
Nice additions but I'd recommend to reduce the particles of destruction, they just don't feel too good. But hey, that's my opinion. Nice devlog as always!
I may have gone a bit overboard with the particles 😅
@@Challacade I think they are quite charming. Maybe an option-slider? Particle-Density or something like that?
Agreed. I love destruction particles, and they should absolutely remain, but even a single chair almost seems to become bigger when destroyed because of the amount of particles flying around.
@@Challacade Try to correlate the amount it ejects on destruction with the size of the props, and optionally, its "explosion" with the amount or type of damage dealt.
@@Challacadecan you make them be rotated randomly?
I like the idea of the NPC's increasing as the game goes on! What would be interesting, is if the townsfolk had a couple new dialogue lines whenever a new character is introduced to the town, maybe commenting on their personality, or why they got there, which makes the NPC's feel more alive and connected.
The rain sounds soo gooooood 😩
I love rain ambience in games, especially when the OST still plays faintly in the background
When it's raining and not windy, maybe the animations on the trees (and maybe other wind-blown environmental animations) could be a little slower if that looks good? That's just the first idea that comes to mind, since it would logically make sense.
I love watching these updates, it's helpful to hear the thought process behind changes and additions, and it's cool to see how you try to keep systems modular. And the new stuff looks great!
I recall reading an article about GTA 5 where they had issues with civilians' animations where they played in sync with each under certain circumstances. They had to create a unique system so that the civilians wouldn't suddenly play the same animation at the same time and create your exact issue. Heck, even in Kingdom Come Deliverance, they never accounted for this so you can sometimes see people eating and drinking all in perfect sync which is very bizarre and amusing. Anyways, game looks great and cannot wait to try it!
If you're looking for advice on the visuals, maybe make it so that the particles don't fly so far when you break something? It looks like you thwack a box and all the little chunks of wood then fly off into the stratosphere. That's just my opinion though
It looks fantastic!
I really enjoy the idea of having more NPC in the town as time goes on, it gives a sense of progression and calls back to earlier missions.
A lot of games tie additional NPCs to power ups (in a rougelite, rescuing the blacksmith lets you buy gear before each run; in Dark Souls, new NPCs give you more gear to buy) or hidden questlines (in Hollow Knight, you can only fight am optional boss after saving two specific NPCs). I'm interested to see what you'll do!
Unrelated to the update, will Moonshine have fully rebindable controller inputs? Sorry if this has been address in the demo, I haven't had time to play it yet.
It currently supports fully rebindable controls, even on controllers 🙌
It has been amazing seeing this evolve.
I think a great way to add minor immersion and progression would to be to add an aspect to the village similar to Tarray Town from the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, or at least something similar. You already suggested things like that lady being able to build a shop, but a step further could possibly be town progression and every time you return you could maybe bring people or items you found on your travels. For example you could bring a Tangue to the town and slowly build a community that feels like your own and adds to the coziness and the familiarity of the town.
I think one thing that stands out in pokemon are rivals, then in the legend of zelda is zelda itself. They have these npcs that make you feel like you're not playing alone. They're not just npcs, they're someone who accompanies you throughout your journey. You should add this feature in the game ☜(ˆ▿ˆc)
Adding a whole lore to the project would be cool. Keep going, I love what you do
I did a similar sort of overhaul in my game, adding swaying animations, particle effects, and interactable objects to make it feel a lot more alive (I literally used the exact same "bringing the environment to life" term in my devlog). These little details have a huge impact.
Love how the visuals are coming along so far!
Some thoughts:
Changing the walls to be slightly darker and/or saturating some of the decorative sprites and characters (especially the green trees) could help them pop out a bit more from the background and give the game some more depth.
Having the NPC's walk around idly and/or have some specific animations that let you know a bit more of their personality (whistling, checking their watch, etc.) could give a lot of life to the town.
Indie devs almost always release more than 1 game to be successful. Keep working hard, good luck with the eventual launch!
One thing that added alot of life to games like crosscode was having npcs talking to each other with dialogue boxes over their head the player can read well walking around. I think it'd be a cool addition
This game is very quickly becoming the epitome of "just because you can do it, that doesn't mean you should"
My fav part of a lot of games is the little town from the start and I love when you get to come back to it and get to know the npcs through your the game
I like the visuals of this game a lot! Maybe you could have some characters react to things you do. It’s kinda strange how that man at the desk doesn’t react at all to you destroying all his furniture. Maybe character could also attack if you swing your weapon near them, they can get scared or something. The game already looks better than some finished games, so keep up the good work!
What I'd love to see is a bunch of lesser NPCs that just have something funny or silly to say. For example, a guy is laying on a bed and when you break it, he yells at you. You could also have NPCs that you can't interact with, but when you walk by them they say something. I think these simpler and smaller interactions would also help the game feel more lively!
i think reshading the player sprite will make it look so much better.
Hey let some NPCs walk around going to different shops
And let the NPCs running shops have animations which show them doing their job or talking with another NPC!
"rolling into furniture breaks it"
Nah, more like rolling into furniture to break your neck/spine
I have been there since the day one when I found you on TikTok. I’m happy to see the game progressing throughout the years. Can’t wait to play the full version 🤞
Love the progress. Here are some suggestions
For visuals, maybe adjusting the speed of the animations to the weather and the audio. Also, slowing it down would make the peaceful parts calmer.
Also would love if you got the community to add many different variations to the trees and maybe different outfits for the npc. Giving thne a starter route would be pretty cool too
That sunflower save thing is pretty cool.
I think adding some mobs(not enemies) who you could befriend or use would be very cool.
That'll also make the dungeon environment more lively.
it's a good opportunity to add secret entrance hidden behind furniture you can push ;D, like pushing a library to reveal a door
Great update! A small detail I'd suggest regarding the trees is to not separate the layers at specific pixel heights (which it looks like currently), but rather have a curved border, i.e. some overlap in the layers. We are, after all, looking from a viewpoint up above, and not straight on, so in the worst case the straight borders look like horizontal screen tearing to me.
Really been enjoying and feeling motivated with your content. Great job😊
NPCs getting mad at you for destroying furniture would be hilarious. Getting game over-ed because you pissed one of them off would be really funny.
I'd like to see grass on top of hills darker than where you walk, making you focused on the actual "play-scenario" game part. Nice work, keep goin!
Oh my... the game looks gorgeous!
And the modifications you said will improve significantly the gameplay.
I can't wait to play this game! It will be awesome! 🤩
well done man, the game looks really professional now
i think it would be cool to be able to push the particles around when you walk into them, at least larger ones. And ngl i liked the way the water looked before imo
I love watching your devlogs, always so inspiring 💙
Nice!
My main recommendation would be to change the burn effect visuals- it doesn’t feel very lifelike, can be a bit hard to see, at times may look like the fire emoji, and contrasts awkwardly with the larger enemies, like bosses.
Good feedback, thank you!
You were speaking about animated trees, you could for example make animated lanterns in which the light shimmers. It’s a small idea but it gives a little more life to the lanterns in the cloud area.
Yo, particle collision tip, because particles are oftentimes pretty small, you can assume they are one pixel wide and instead of having a vollider you canjust lookup if there is a tile in that spot which is much faster and then you can truly have a million of those
bro u pic is CHALLACADE'S sibling brother or sister LOL
idk never mind
@@StepTheGlow lmao
I'm also a gamedev and I like soo much of your work, and the wind animations are cool, my tip to you about design: Make the houses more unique, they seems too equal and medieval/fantasy houses sometimes are more unique, look to kakariko village in Zelda Link to the Past.
I was talking about town progression in my last comment, however I didn’t really mention how you could earn the trust of the town. My idea is maybe adding a bounty system for certain monsters or mini bosses in the area. For example an npc could tell you about a monster that has been recently terrorizing him during his hikes or walks, then he could offer you money in return for a trophy or body part of the monster you killed. Again these are all just suggestions you could possibly take into consideration, keep up the great work!
It’s looking good man! Watching you grow and make progress on your game is really really cool, thank you for sharing with us!
I really love this game a lot, it looks awesome! One thing you could look into is hue shifting for some of the sprites! For example the main character sprite. He could use some hue shifting in the shadows and light! This would bring more contrast to the game!
The way the NPCs switch which way they’re looking to follow the player is a small detail that charms me
I admire you a lot i wish you and your game the best!
Maybe having some encounters where you can see some npcs fighting throughout the game might also liven the world. (Possibly with more intense mob count to make up for the extra help.)
In my TESV: Skyrim Modlist I almost always include the mod "Populated Roads and paths" because it makes for cool moments when you're joined by a fellow adventurer passing by when taking on a bandit camp or a pack of wolves.
I really like your devlogs, i get to learn soo much about game development.
i think your game's visuals looks way better than other indie games. There is .... a different feeling in your game than other games.
In a cave area, to convey the feeling of an echo, you can make glare and reflections on the walls, contrary to logic, also appear several times, each time being decreased.
I think the tutorial area should be covered in pink grass and pink leaves as their are cherry blossom trees, Ik this isn't really a thing in real life but lots of games have that sort of area and i think something along those lines would be a very visually appealing start to the game
You mentioned the town will grow over time. Instead of it becoming cramped, you could have a staircase constructed part way through the game which takes you up the cliffs in 6:12, and the town starts expanding up there.
Keeping the NPC count low is a great touch. Sometimes less is more
Awesome work man, love seeing the progress 😁
I like that you're thinking about how the players will learn but dont forget replay value if someone loves your game they'll play it again so think about that too being handheld when you do know what your doing is frustrating too
Love watching your journey ❤
Wow, this is very good, very good indeed.
I'm liking to follow the development; it's getting better with each entry.
It's already on my Wishlist, and I hope I'll be able to play the full version, but take as much time as you need, to make it as good as it can be.
Cheers, mate.
I LOVE the game you are making I can't wait for more!
Man im so proud of you!!! Look at your game!!! It's getting better every day!
Big idea: have cloud "shadows" move across the screen for some areas. The speed of said shadows could be a visual representation of your wind. Depending on how comlex you want to make it, you can really give the environment a dynamic feeling of depth.
Edit: mind you not true shadows, the fake easy to make in Aseprite shadows. You can easily draw up some 20-30 variations in an hour and randomize their spawn. Maybe even have more / thicker ones beneath the cloud dungeon area.
I remember commenting (maybe on my other account lol) about how much I loved the animated flags and that itd be cool to see more, so im SO stoked to see this progress! Great work dude
Little changes really go a long way, great job!
Very impressive stuff. It seems like you're progressing with the game way faster than at the start.
It looks like its coming along great! Keep up the good work, it looks very fun
This is such a cool art style!
It's always inspiring to see you upload! It's a good reminder to myself not to fall out of CS stuff, I have a bad habit of forgetting I like it, if that makes sense lol. The game looks like it's coming along really well, I'll definitely pick it up once it's released!
i think cloud shadows slowly rolling across the screen and some occasional sun rays could look good for different weather conditions
It looks amazing! Can’t wait to see how the game turns out!
The game is looking awesome my friend! Keep them coming!
Your game looks perfect and i will definetely buy it once its released
This looks so good, as long as somewhere along the way you were told the "sunflower is your save point" you might add some glow or something that indicates this is something special and I like the fact you take note to the "reading dialog" because what makes me hate some of the later Pokemon games is that I was inconstant DIALOG hell! which was not the case in Red/Blue etc... Player does not want to read a full on bible history of every NPC they meet along the way.. but other than that I can't wait to play this game when it actually comes out!.
amazing job as always, looking forward to the next update! :)
As an art oriented dev I see a lot of programmer first dev's try and take shortcuts with pixel art tweening software, its nice to see you give pixel art the respect it deserves and it only enhances what you have built. Cool to see your progress!
Love this! Keep up the good work!
Good too see the graphics get updated ❤
After playing the demo, I noticed a couple of bugs and whatnot. Firstly, when your character dies, you can still control your character as the animation for dying is playing (I guess it’s a separate scene or something???). You can also clip into obstacles by opening chests from behind, then moving to the front with the animation. Another thing is that in the sky islands, if you fall, but a cloud platform touches you during the fall animation, your fall will be canceled and you will “land” on the platform as if nothing happened. Idk if there is a place I should be reporting these or not but please let me know as I can provide clips too
Lovin the updates keep it up!
This is starting to look really good!
It is a beautiful upgrade. Good work brother
I loved this video. Every time you post I'm like "Yessss!!" Haha
Add a bookcase in the library, mirror in the blacksmith, a watchtower so the sentries can watch out for threats, a fortune teller to give hints on where to go next, a dock so the people can fish, a world map in the village elders place so players can look at the world, let the player utilize fast travel via wings from the tengu, oh and a shrine that is dedicated to the different spirits that the villagers look up to, oh and lets not forget about a player owned house. I just wrote what came to mind, I love your game so far!
This is just perfect, the game keeps getting better, keep up the good work man i can't wait to get my hands on the game!
Not criticizing anything really but i would like to see more bosses!!! and i hope that each boss is related somehow to the other, not random entities with completely different personalities that is irrelevant to the story, i hope there is depth to each of them other than just a gameplay and aesthetics
I think that some higher grass would be really helpful with over all theme, but making them so that they also move with the wind is crutial in my opinion, and you could make some more flowers, but the importance of sunflower as a place to save is important and i think some people could get confused when they see another type of flowers, as such i think either make different kinds of flowers unlocked when you kill a boss, or only make small flowers, but personally i think the second one is worse as it will make the world kind of wierd when it comes to flora.
I love the tree waving, maybe try using sub-pixel animation to make it less stiff? love the project, keep up the good work!
i think other random side quests gives by the NPCs world be a great idea, they would reward u useful stuffs that would help in ur journey but not essential, rather optional...
You NEED to make sassy npc dialogue, maybe when you break something in the area. Something to make them feel like people, not just random extras. Maybe even backstories that are revealed a little bit in each interactions. Kind of like undertale or deltarune~
Sweet! Loved the demo!
When you break a chair or stool it feels like extra mass spawn out of nowhere. For example: the stool has 4 tiny legs and the seat totaling 5 pieces. When you break it 6 (rather large) pieces spawn. I can wrap my head around cutting things in half thus creating an extra piece, but it feels like too many / large particles are being generated for such a small object.
true, I need to tone it down on some of the particles
holy hell man i just came across this and this looks phenomenal
wishlisted immediately
Love your game and also the process, I suggest the trees move a lil bit slower would be nice. Btw, can’t wait to play the full game ❤
looking nice!! gotta say destructible environments are always a fun feature XD
You should make it so after curtain quests or event the land around the village is destroyed and replaced with mor houses under construction that will be built after special events. Also love your videos.
Looks great, man. Very inspiring
The terrain tiles look almost flat. Maybe you need a darker shading or outlining to provide a bit of depth and dimension. Rocks with dimension, bushes with outlining should provide good depth. Awesome work on the destructible environment. The beds and chairs look fantastic. Now put it to use also and allow for certain types of destructables to be picked up for your townsfolk to build with. Yep, it's a fetch quest but provides another system for the player to engage in. Honestly you could take destructables even further for a small crafting system. Maybe craft structures for the townfolk.
I know this isnt exacly something to do with enviromental detail, but i think the checkpoint should be something more unique/recognizable then just a simple sunflower, unless it has something to do with future lore, it kinda just looks like decoration making it easily ignorable and that could lead to some really bad progress setback on some deaths because the player couldnt see the checkpoint, anyways really nice project looking forwards to when its finished!
2:40 add "random" pauses between the frames.
also the large trees move somewhat weird. if there is a blow of wind, all parts of the tree would move (with some delay) in the same direction (by different magnitude depending on the length of the branch they are on) and when the gust of wind ends, they would move back (overshooting a bit) and settling.
your large trees shake all parts in opposite directions.