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Author Topic: Cendric: An RPG Platformer  (Read 57709 times)

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fallahn

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Re: Cendric: An RPG Platformer
« Reply #15 on: February 13, 2016, 09:06:17 am »

Wow, that's your game, isn't it? Looks awesome, I'd love to see more :)

Long abandoned unfortunately since I realised I should have built in networking from the ground up. (It is open source though). Anyway you're doing a far better job, keep it up :)

Ironbell

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Re: Cendric: An RPG Platformer
« Reply #16 on: February 14, 2016, 01:06:38 pm »

Long abandoned unfortunately since I realised I should have built in networking from the ground up.

I know that feeling, sometimes I just want to throw everything over and start again, but that's just too late now :).

Progress update:
Unstable blocks are implemented! I think that we will reduce the time these blocks are shaking before they fall. They are - of course - highly inspired by the donut blocks of some Super Mario games.
 

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Re: Cendric: An RPG Platformer
« Reply #17 on: February 21, 2016, 12:00:07 am »
I did a lot of art this week for Cendric as we will finally start with the game's story and level design.

Our hero has to face this monstrous cat - a welcome change to the rats you've seen so far.


Still, I couldn't keep my hands of programming. The enemies (and npcs) in the game have learned some serious platforming skills. Previously, they only "guessed" whether they could do a jump or not. Now, they send a "ghost" to check where and how they land if they do a jump or walk over a cliff. We also thought about using algorithms like A* to solve this problem, but pre-calculating jumps is not a good solution for Cendric as the levels collidable regions are not static.



This is going to be the tutorial level where you learn that some blocks can be destroyed. The speech bubbles are also a new feature, but it is not finished yet.

AncientGrief

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Re: Cendric: An RPG Platformer
« Reply #18 on: February 21, 2016, 12:04:53 am »
I am really impressed!!!

And reading that you are writing the physics stuff yourself makes it even more awesome!

I like the idea, and the graphics! I am jealous  :-[ ;D

Keep up the good work!

PRE-EDIT:
I just wanted to post this and you just updated this thread!...WTF, the AI algorithm looks awesome :D
The "Ghost" thing is something I always wanted to implement myself, but never had time for it! Looks great!

The "Cat" looks cool :D Reminds me of Sesshomaru  :D

Does the AI calculation slow down the game or is it just the recording software or my computer?! Seems laggy a bit...
I grew up with C++...but then I met C#...got lazy...time to turn back to my one and only love!
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Ironbell

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Re: Cendric: An RPG Platformer
« Reply #19 on: February 21, 2016, 12:14:45 am »
Thanks  ;D

The "Cat" looks cool :D Reminds me of Sesshomaru  :D

Oh my god, you recognized it! He really was my inspiration, this monster is a mix between him and Kirara ;)

Does the AI calculation slow down the game or is it just the recording software or my computer?! Seems laggy a bit...

It is the recording software (screen to gif), its compression also messes a bit with the colors. The fps in this scene on my computer is still 60 (limited by vsync)


AncientGrief

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Re: Cendric: An RPG Platformer
« Reply #20 on: February 21, 2016, 12:24:12 am »
Oh my god, you recognized it! He really was my inspiration, this monster is a mix between him and Kirara ;)

Hehe, that explains the stripes, i guess :D I remember playing Inuyasha:  A Feudal Fairy Tale on the PS1 ... the series and games gave me some ideas back then, great to see I am not alone with this :D too bad I suck @ pixeling ...  :(

Can't wait to see this "monster" in action ê.ê

It is the recording software (screen to gif), its compression also messes a bit with the colors. The fps in this scene on my computer is still 60 (limited by vsync)

Okay, I see, maybe switching to YouTube (Fraps/DxTory + MeGui h.256) to get rid of the stuttering is an idea?
Anyway, I like how your game evolves!!!
I grew up with C++...but then I met C#...got lazy...time to turn back to my one and only love!
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Ironbell

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Re: Cendric: An RPG Platformer
« Reply #21 on: March 08, 2016, 12:31:25 am »
Progress Update

We've accomplished a lot of things for Cendric in the last two weeks as we've finally moved on from testing the engine to actually developing the game itself. Our first pre-alpha build (0.1.0) is pretty outdated and we wanted to compile the game in its current state as a test. The binaries of 0.2.0 for Windows and Linux (Ubuntu) can be found on Github: https://github.com/tizian/Cendric2/releases. If you wish to play it on a Mac, you'll  have to compile it yourself (it's actually compiling, we've tested that) You can download them for your platform and play through the tutorial of Cendric.

In the tutorial, you can see the four first quests, of which three are solvable. The map is not finished and it's really just a sneak peek into the game. There are three levels in the current build, one tutorial level, one "real" level and one level that's just there for fun and will be extended later. As this is just the tutorial and the beginning of the game, you only have a beginner weapon and the default spell. If you want to see more items and all spells, you can load the savegame "Elemental Power" but be aware that this is a major spoiler as all spells and spell modifiers are unlocked and there are items in your inventory that you should not have yet. But if you're not interested in the story and only want to see some gameplay mechanics, feel free to load that game.

New Features


Cutscenes
A simple cutscene format, where you can define the texts that get displayed and an arbitrary number of images that move with a certain velocity and angle, to create a parallax effect. The cutscene you see in the game is very scetchy and only a placeholder.

New GUI Elements
The GUI has a new look and feel! We've implemented "arrow-selector" buttons (seriously, what's the proper name for this kind of button? See below) for the options screen and redesigned the tab buttons in the quest journal, inventory and spell book, to get a more homogeneous looking GUI.



Bitmap Text update
We don't use TTF but our selfmade bitmap fonts. To make the text more visible, we've added a shadowed version. To avoid aliasing problems with the font, we've made a 8px and a 12px font.

Hints
Our first intention was NOT to have hints in this game to make it harder. But, we've realized that it may be a better idea to have them and for the "hardcore" gamers who despise hints, there is still an option to turn it off.

Screen Overlays
Screen overlays that fade in and out give the game a nice touch. We've used them for location texts, quest state changes and hints.

Items with permanent boni
The consumable items in Cendric act as a buff, they can be consumed in a level and strengthen the player for a certain time. Permanent items add permanent attribute boni to the character.

Screenshot function
Using the built-in function from SFML, we've included it into our game.

Scripted enemy behavior
A scripted (lua) enemy behavior can be fed into the engine. The hunter in the tutorial level with his speech bubbles is such an example and we hope that we can also implement the logic for boss fights using lua.

New items, quests and NPCs
Just take a look :)

If you find any bugs or have other suggestions, feel free to write, we appreciate any feedback :)
« Last Edit: January 15, 2017, 09:58:30 pm by Ironbell »

eXpl0it3r

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AW: Cendric: An RPG Platformer
« Reply #22 on: March 08, 2016, 08:25:13 am »
Cool! :)

Too bad it didn't came out before the weekend when I wrote my blog post mentioning you guys. ;)
Guess I'll have to mention the project again next time.
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SeriousITGuy

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Re: Cendric: An RPG Platformer
« Reply #23 on: March 08, 2016, 10:28:58 am »
I just wanted to give you a quick shoutout that I really like what I see. The two different game perspectives for world and dungeon are a real cool idea. It also looks polished to some degree, which is a heavy acomplishment for indie/Hobby devs ;)
Keep up the work.

p.s. You may look into OpenBroadcaster for screen recording, it's available for all common OS'es

Ironbell

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Re: Cendric: An RPG Platformer
« Reply #24 on: March 08, 2016, 01:34:23 pm »
Cool! :)

Too bad it didn't came out before the weekend when I wrote my blog post mentioning you guys. ;)
Guess I'll have to mention the project again next time.

Shame on me, I missed that blog post! I'm not spending much time on Twitter as I was pretty busy the last few days  ;) Nice blog btw, I feel honored and will follow your blog from now on :)

I just wanted to give you a quick shoutout that I really like what I see. The two different game perspectives for world and dungeon are a real cool idea. It also looks polished to some degree, which is a heavy acomplishment for indie/Hobby devs ;)
Keep up the work.

p.s. You may look into OpenBroadcaster for screen recording, it's available for all common OS'es

Thanks! Yeah, using the demo version of Fraps was not the best idea for that video. You can see the "lags" when I had to start a new capture (captures in the demo version can only be up to 30s long). I think the full version of Fraps would be nice, but I'm going to check out OpenBroadcaster for my next recording.

Update

After a long night of intense .app building, my Cendric-buddy Tiz managed to finish the Mac version of 0.2.0 ;D. It's also available on the Github Release page.

eXpl0it3r

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Re: Cendric: An RPG Platformer
« Reply #25 on: March 08, 2016, 11:12:46 pm »
Nice blog btw, I feel honored and will follow your blog from now on :)
Thanks! I hope to get a bit more active again.

I'm going to check out OpenBroadcaster for my next recording.
I can recommend OBS as well. Keep in mind though that there are now two versions available. Open Broadcaster Software and Open Broadcaster Studio, both do essentially the same, the later is also available for OS X and Linux, and is still in heavy development.


I just played around a bit with 2.0 and I really like it! The quests already made my intrigued (who's the elderly in the village!?! ;)). Here is some feedback - I'm sure some of the stuff you've already thought of.
  • After the intro some small hint regarding the movement with arrows/WASD would be interesting, because some might try and click around with the mouse.
  • The first mission didn't trigger nicely. I walked into the other guy, then into some stones and then randomly it started.
  • The trigger for the hint regarding "press W to leave the level" (paraphrased) also showed up when I was on the platform above the exit. Might want to narrow the trigger area.
  • How you actually use the stick is not really explained (left click or F key)
  • How you can pickup things is not explained
  • The lines of text in the dialog boxes are nearly a bit too long. Makes it harder to follow.
  • It's currently not clear from the visuals on the map where you can walk and where not, plus the collision grid needs to be a bit more granular, i.e. you can get "randomly" stuck quite a bit.
  • The ESC key should close dialog fields, i.e. the fireplace dialog field

Currently mouse and keyboard are in my opinion quite mixed in regards to the tasks they do. For the beginner I think it would be a lot easier, if there was more of a separation. Meaning the mouse can do these 5 actions and the 5 actions are "similar" or it just makes sense to use a mouse for them. And everything else is done with the keyboard.
Right now it's just confusing and makes me try random combinations, e.g. Does left click work? Does right click work? How about F? Or maybe E? If the use cases for mouse and keyboard where clearly defined, it would lead to less guessing.
However you might still leave all the possibilities open with custom key bindings. ;)

I hope these points help! :)

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Ironbell

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Re: Cendric: An RPG Platformer
« Reply #26 on: March 08, 2016, 11:41:56 pm »
Thanks for testing  ;D These are valid concerns.


 Here is some feedback - I'm sure some of the stuff you've already thought of.

  • After the intro some small hint regarding the movement with arrows/WASD would be interesting, because some might try and click around with the mouse.
You're right. As we already have hints, this would be an easy thing to add. The problem and reason why we don't have this yet  is that you get a little overwhelmed with all the hints in the beginning and the second thing you do after trying to move with the mouse is probably using WASD or the arrow keys anyway.

  • The first mission didn't trigger nicely. I walked into the other guy, then into some stones and then randomly it started.
The stones with the torch on top is the entry for that level. You can enter that level after you've talked to the first guy and then he will walk there and you have to follow. If you just run there alone after having talked to him, it will also start. Maybe we should "open" the level only after the hunter has walked to the entry.

  • The trigger for the hint regarding "press W to leave the level" (paraphrased) also showed up when I was on the platform above the exit. Might want to narrow the trigger area.
There is no trigger area, the hint appears after the npc leaves the level, so that you can follow. We might want to change that, though.

  • How you actually use the stick is not really explained (left click or F key)
There is a hint in the beginning of the level on how to use the stick (F key)

  • How you can pickup things is not explained
True, we can add that.

  • The lines of text in the dialog boxes are nearly a bit too long. Makes it harder to follow.
I've already thought about that and I agree. Will be changed :)

  • It's currently not clear from the visuals on the map where you can walk and where not, plus the collision grid needs to be a bit more granular, i.e. you can get "randomly" stuck quite a bit.
The game has a very efficient collision grid (a boolean matrix, O(1) lookup). For the map, this might be too chunky. We will change that in the future, still using the grid but with a higher resolution.

  • The ESC key should close dialog fields, i.e. the fireplace dialog field
I just implemented that, thanks :)

Currently mouse and keyboard are in my opinion quite mixed in regards to the tasks they do. For the beginner I think it would be a lot easier, if there was more of a separation. Meaning the mouse can do these 5 actions and the 5 actions are "similar" or it just makes sense to use a mouse for them. And everything else is done with the keyboard.
Right now it's just confusing and makes me try random combinations, e.g. Does left click work? Does right click work? How about F? Or maybe E? If the use cases for mouse and keyboard where clearly defined, it would lead to less guessing.
However you might still leave all the possibilities open with custom key bindings. ;)

The mouse is there to pickup things / interact with npcs and switches and for aiming spells. All these things need  the accuracy of the mouse  (especially aiming, the other things could be implemented with keys when you are "standing on them" but this seems cumbersome to me).

All other tasks are on the keyboard. We tried to do as much as possible on the keyboard. That you can click to execute a spell that has no target or to choose a dialogue option is only for convenience, all these things can also be accomplished by only the keyboard. Maybe I exaggerated a bit by assigning many keys to the same function (to skip the intro, you could press Esc, Enter or Space; to choose a dialogue option you could use W/S, the arrows, a left click or the scrolling wheel).


I hope these points help! :)
They do :D
« Last Edit: March 09, 2016, 12:34:10 am by Ironbell »

Ironbell

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Re: Cendric: An RPG Platformer
« Reply #27 on: March 23, 2016, 07:44:43 pm »
Progress Update

After the first alpha release with content, we fixed a lot of small issues in the game, based on tester feedback.
And, we went on with development, of course.

New tiles (and enemies)

Falling, spikey tiles, inspired from the thwomp tiles from Super Mario.



Books, which can be read (with a very interesting content)



A few new levels

(click to show/hide)


Ironbell

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Re: Cendric: An RPG Platformer
« Reply #28 on: April 22, 2016, 09:31:20 pm »
Cendric Pre-Alpha 0.2.1 Release

Hey all.
We're working like crazy on this project and I finally found time to make a new release and update this thread.

News & Features
  • First of all... We've taken the tester input we got from the last release and tried to use as much as possible to improve the game's features. We are really thankful for every feedback, negative or positive, that helps us build a better game.
  • GUI changes The whole GUI got revised and is much more consistent now. Checkboxes, sliders got a new look and we've implemented scrolling for dialogue options, inventory, etc.

  • Healthbar/Death changes The health bar is no longer a flat, red rectangle - it is shaded and uses an overlay logic to show damage taken. The health bar and the death screen are highly inspired from dark souls now (we spent a lot of our time with that game when we weren't working on Cendric  :P.)
  • New content New lore, enemies, levels, quests, npcs, dialogues, maps, hints, items, a new cutscene, a readable book, convertible items, a reputation feature... The tutorial is now completely finished and the "real" part of the game has started. I can't explain everything here, take a look yourself.  ;)
  • Music and sound Which means, more placeholder music and sound effects. Most of them are taken from websites that distribute music/sounds with CC0/CC By SA licenses. But they are not final yet and we don't know which we are going to use in the end.
  • Bugfixes and other improvements We did a lot of them and I only want to mention the improved version of the water here:



If you're interested to play through the roughly 20-30min of gameplay we already have, go and get it @ Github:
https://github.com/tizian/Cendric2/releases/tag/v0.2.1

Feedback is always highly appreciated!

Cheers,
Team Cendric
« Last Edit: April 22, 2016, 09:45:57 pm by Ironbell »

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Re: Cendric: An RPG Platformer
« Reply #29 on: April 23, 2016, 12:37:33 am »
Awesome! :)

It's downloading now, I'll be back with some feedback later on.
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