Cendric: An RPG Platformer

[Tukimitzu]

MSVCP140.dll missing from Cendric_v0.2.1_win64.

EDIT: Ah, I didn't read the Important Notes.

[Tukimitzu]

I've made a platformer where you controlled a pokemon trainer and your pokemons follow you around, like your NPC on the gif does, so I have a suggestion on how you can make it more smoothly.

I had an object called MoveInstruction that stored:
- The position x,y where the action occured.
- The action (jump, go down, go left or go right).

The pokemons had a list of MoveInstructions, but these instructions were only used for "mid-air" behavior. By default (meaning if the list of move instructions is empty), the pokemon would just see where is the coordinate x of his master, set that as a target and move towards it.

Whenever the master jumps or goes down, the master sent a MoveInstruction with the coordinate where the action occurred and while master is in mid-air, he kept sending MoveInstructions whenever left/right was pressed. The follower would go towards that coordinate and perform the same action, and while in air, it would move exactly like the master did. When master landed, it would stop sending instructions to the follower and when the follower landed it would resume the default behavior described above. Cycle continues.

I was very happy with the results, the followers would move like pros.

[eXpl0it3r]

Long day, so I only got to play through part of it, so here's a list of things I noticed:

• The help dialogs for opening the journal or the inventory don't disappear fast enough, so for a little while you get the dialog overlaying the journal/inventory window or the other way around.
• It feels a bit odd, that when hovering with the mouse over the provided answers during a conversation there's no reaction. I'd expect that the answer is being select or that I at least get a highlight, so I know that I can select this option by clicking.
• There's only a hint to use F to chop things, but not hint, that you can also use the left mouse button.
• While I like the font, the small "g" does look a lot like the small "s", which can make the text harder to read.
• When you click on the Waypoint it mentions that you can teleport back to it whenever you want, but it doesn't explain how you can teleport.
• The entrances and exits in a platformer level are often not very clearly displayed. Since they are not consistent across all levels, this may be tricky for people to understand/recognize.
• In the cutscene with the Elder, Cendric freezes water at the end, but it's not clear where that water came from. Maybe make the Elder offer some water to Cendric first.

I'm not sure how "finalized" your dialog scripts are, but I've noticed quite a few English mistakes, maybe have some native speaker (or some English "teacher") look over them at some point. I'll share my points (so far) regardless. If you think this is helpful as well, I can look more closely in the future as well.

• (Hunter) "You must have seen it as you've come here!", I don't remember all the English tense rules, but "as you have come here" sounds wrong in my head, I'd probably use "as you came here".
• (Ingrid) "or you've drunk too much", should either be "you've drunken" or "you drank".
• (Elder) "But you're lucky,", not really wrong, but I think "But you're in luck," feels more natural - being "in luck" and being "lucky" is not necessarily the same thing.
• (Elder) "I've felt that[spaces]you have", there are two or three spaces between "that" and "you".
• (Elder) "Your job would to get...", looks like "be" was dropped here, should be "Your job would be to get..."

After you've received your first spell thingy, I think it would be important to teach people how to use the "spell dialog" and it might be even better for the first spell to give all the needed "ingredients", just so one can get familiar with the concept.

A final questions: Will the character that you move around in the top-down map adapt to the look of the play during platformers? For example displaying the Hawthorn or some new "armor" etc.

I really enjoy it and will be looking forward to play some more of it. Keep up the awesome work!

[shadowmouse]

With your grammar corrections, 'as you've come here' is fine as long as it is being used to mean 'because you've come here', otherwise it should be 'as you came here' if it means 'while you came here'. Also 'you've drunk too much' is grammatically fine, although 'you drank too much' is also correct. The former seems more correct if you are telling someone before they have finished drinking (or maybe shortly after), whereas the latter refers to a finished activity from the past. Of course, I may be wrong, but you did say get a native speaker to go over it, so I thought I'd try and help.

[Ironbell]

@Tukimitzu Thank you for your suggestion! I've looked over your algorithm and it seems like a good idea - unless you have a level with a collidable grid that can change. What about Cendric jumps off a block that gets destroyed shortly after? The follower npc can't reconstruct the jump then. We were in need of an AI algorithm that is able to handle a changing environment.

@eXpl0it3r Wow, another list of very useful and detailed feedback! Thank you so much.

• The help dialogs for opening the journal or the inventory don't disappear fast enough, so for a little while you get the dialog overlaying the journal/inventory window or the other way around.
• There's only a hint to use F to chop things, but not hint, that you can also use the left mouse button.
• While I like the font, the small "g" does look a lot like the small "s", which can make the text harder to read.
• When you click on the Waypoint it mentions that you can teleport back to it whenever you want, but it doesn't explain how you can teleport.
• After you've received your first spell thingy, I think it would be important to teach people how to use the "spell dialog" and it might be even better for the first spell to give all the needed "ingredients", just so one can get familiar with the concept.

Very good points. We're already on it!

• It feels a bit odd, that when hovering with the mouse over the provided answers during a conversation there's no reaction. I'd expect that the answer is being select or that I at least get a highlight, so I know that I can select this option by clicking.

Well, we can't do a select on mouseover, because the scrolling also works over the up/down (arrow or W/S) keys. But we'll try how it looks and feels with a highlight.

• The entrances and exits in a platformer level are often not very clearly displayed. Since they are not consistent across all levels, this may be tricky for people to understand/recognize.

I agree, but that's also part of the gameplay. It also opens the possibility to have  something like hidden levels - like the Pokémon games with the high grass - suddenly, you're in a level! (Choosing the wrong dialogue option can also open a level, so those level entries are not consistent at all.)
[edit] Ah, you meant the exits *inside* a platformer level. Yes, maybe we could add some up-arrow when you're standing in front of them to signalize that it is an exit? (like some Mario games, when I remember correctly). I think about something like that. Thanks.

• In the cutscene with the Elder, Cendric freezes water at the end, but it's not clear where that water came from. Maybe make the Elder offer some water to Cendric first.

Yes, the mysterious water. The cutscenes are not final yet, and when reworking them, I keep that in mind

I'm not sure how "finalized" your dialog scripts are, but I've noticed quite a few English mistakes, maybe have some native speaker (or some English "teacher") look over them at some point.

They are not yet "finalized" but we already have someone that is going to proofread them. Thank you and also shadowmouse for your inputs, they help a lot.

A final questions: Will the character that you move around in the top-down map adapt to the look of the play during platformers? For example displaying the Hawthorn or some new "armor" etc.

It was not planned in the beginning - creating those sprites is a lot of work as we're going to have at least 50 equipment items. It would also mean that we have to change the dialogue sprite when you're wearing another  hat, for example. But when I find time... why not

Thank you again for testing! It really means a lot to us. 

[Ironbell]

Progress Update

I just wanted to throw a quick progress update into this thread. The game's content is evolving, but rather slowly, as we still rather like to code new features for the engine

Level exit markers
We added a level exit marker for the platformer part of the game. It was not really clear before where the player could leave the level as eXpl0it3r pointed out.

Signs

A small but neat feature that allows to place signs, sign posts etc on a level or a map.



Interaction
We decided to rework the interaction of the game to make it less point-and-click-ish and more convenient for the player. Interactions (such as item pickup, reading a book, talking to a NPC, toggling a lever, activating a checkpoint, looting an enemy...) can now be executed using a keyboard key and not only the mouse. The nearest object that can be  interacted with gets highlighted.



Shooting tiles
Not exactly enemies, but level objects that shoot spells. Examples are fire flowers like you know them from Mario. They can be destroyed by the player with two hits, but will respawn after a certain time.



Fog of War
We decided that the player shouldn't see the whole map from the beginning 



Weather System
Using our particles, we are able to let it rain or snow in a level or a map. Weather conditions are triggered like other game conditions - choosing the wrong dialogue option might let it rain or darken a map, so better be cautious.



Level, map, enemies
After the first map of the game is finished, we'll build another alpha release to show you the new content - but this is going to take at least another month. But here's a content sneak peek:







Cheers 

[Brax]

It looks gorgeous.

[Jesper Juhl]

Absolutely beautiful.

[Ironbell]

Progress Update and Demo Release

Hey guys!
We're back with a progress update for Cendric.



Change Log

• Content: We managed to complete the first chapter (out of five) of the story.
• Keys: Chests can now be locked and only opened with special keys (or the lockpick spell, if the lock is weak enough)
• Gui: The GUI got an overhaul.
• Logo: Redesigned.
• Cutscenes: Redrawn + fixed inconsistencies.
• Screen Overlays: "You Died" never looked more beautiful!
• New enemies: Wolf, Cairn Wraith
• New bosses: We won't tell, play the game!
• New levels: Stone garden and howling caverns
• New items: Don't get me started, we got > 100 items in the game.
• New tiles: Shooting fire flowers, one-way platforms, ladders and particle tiles.
• New mechanics: Moving platforms can now be activated by using levers

If you feel like you want to try this all out, get your demo release at Github:
https://github.com/tizian/Cendric2/releases/tag/v0.3.0

You can use your old save files, but read the important notes on Github on where to copy them.

Feedback is highly appreciated! One thing we'd really like to know, is whether the "boss" of this chapter is beatable or too hard. Who makes it till this monster really deserves a cookie 

Cheers

[eXpl0it3r]

"Thanks for playing!"
(Total play time roughly 1.5h)

First off some big negative points:

• The game is too short!! I need more!
• Where are my magic hats and clothes and ...!!!

Okay, okay now some more serious feedback, some I've already sent you, but I'll include it for completeness sake.

(Intro) cutscene

• I think the cutscenes could get a bit vivid by adjusting the text. Make it a bit bigger, so it doesn't just get lost and place the text inside the scene and don't just glue it to the top.
• In the intro cutscene one can see the end of the background image at the end of the cutscene (hard image cut).
• I don't recall if it's the same with other images, but the intro image moves very jaggy. Maybe it's a floating point issue with OpenGL, where the position jumps between two values multiple times while the floating point value slowly counts up. Try once to round the position yourself.
  

Levels

• The AI seems to like living on the edge: http://i.imgur.com/sjutwQM.png
• When you have the inventory open you can still attack even when you click on the non-interactive UI elements. Maybe attacking while clicking on the game space is fine, but IMHO click "through" the UI feels a bit odd.
• The information that you can't equip items inside a level only shows when you try to unequip something and not when you try to equip it.
• Why exactly are there two check points? Seems a bit odd: http://i.imgur.com/qzULIvQ.png
• Why can Visps sometimes shoot through platforms and sometimes they can't?
• The hint about checkpoints only shows in the Rats Nest level, but if you don't do that level first, you never get the hint and only when you come around later you might see it. Hints like that should show when you run into the first checkpoint.

World

• Should the first walking stick really get self-equipped? Wouldn't it be more useful if the player had to do that themselves? Maybe you could implement something that only allows the player to enter the first level once they equip the stick.
• The map gets mentioned at the first way point, but you only learn that you have a map and how you open it when you talk with Ingrid. So the hint about the map can come across a bit confusing when it doesn't even say how to open the map.
• The way point hint says "Use the mouse to click on the map". For me this is not very clear especially since it can be confused with the minimap, like what exactly is the map? Maybe "world" or something similar might make more sense?
• Bridge collision path seems a bit off. Like in the picture I'm standing perfectly on the bridge, but I can't move over it in that position: http://i.imgur.com/VsqHHQR.png
• Maybe I clicked too fast, but for me it wasn't clear that I needed to bring multiple and different meat types to the wolf-man. Also not sure why it failed.
• If you don't visit the wolf-man before fighting the boss, it's nearly impossible to win. This might be a more general problem with this "open world", where some quests kind of depend on each other, but you don't have to really follow the "design" path. I don't think there's a general solution to it, but you can try giving some more hints what to do first (then again you do give the hint with the "north" mention, but I just ignored it :P).

UI
This is more a general thought. For me it's a bit confusing that I have to use two different UIs for inventory stuff and spell stuff. The confusing part is not the UI, but the fact that I can't easily switch from equipping something to adding a spell. Have you ever thought about having something like tabs (top) or bookmarks (on the side) where you can easily switch between the different interfaces? Like have some clickable icons there and you can switch between, inventory, spell stuff and journal?

Menu

• Game saved "notification" is a bit placed oddly. It's in my opinion not very clear when the game actually got saved. Maybe if the state didn't change, grey out the save button? Or maybe even better just return to the game once it's saved.
• Would be great if the save games were sorted after the date with (newest at the top)

Crash

• As discussed not really your fault, but more an SFML "issue". When I unplugging my headset (i.e. removing an audio device) the game crashes within dinput:  http://i.imgur.com/0aKvaOs.png / http://i.imgur.com/ykMCm80.png
• Already fixed, the issue was when you tried to add a spell to the walking stick the game crashed.
  

After all this here a few things that I really like. :)

• I like that the intro cutscene is quite short and to the point, so I can start playing right away.
• The art is great and I look forward to seeing more of it!
• I'm not a huge RPG fan, but I do love platformers, this mix here makes this game great. It feels more like an adventure game.
• The story telling is integrated very well. Not overwhelming and yet you get the narrative.

[Ironbell]

Wow, thank you again for your very detailed and useful feedback, we really appreciate what you do for this game. We have already implemented/fixed half of the issues you mentioned:

Fixed

• The AI seems to like living on the edge: http://i.imgur.com/sjutwQM.png Adjusted bounding box
  
• When you have the inventory open you can still attack even when you click on the non-interactive UI elements. Maybe attacking while clicking on the game space is fine, but IMHO click "through" the UI feels a bit This is no longer possible
  
• The information that you can't equip items inside a level only shows when you try to unequip something and not when you try to equip it. The information will show now
  
• Why exactly are there two check points? Seems a bit odd: http://i.imgur.com/qzULIvQ.png Fixed
  
• Bridge collision path seems a bit off. Like in the picture I'm standing perfectly on the bridge, but I can't move over it in that position: http://i.imgur.com/VsqHHQR.png Fixed
  
• Would be great if the save games were sorted after the date with (newest at the top) Done. Also: Autosave and an option to continue with newest game when it is restarted.
  

Regarding the jaggy cutscenes, I don't really see what we could change here. The way it's implemented is as follows

cutsceneImage.setPosition(oldPosition + velocity * frameTime.asSeconds());

Where the cutsceneImage is of type

sf::Sprite

Do you mean we should round this float vector to an int vector first and then set the position?

Maybe I clicked too fast, but for me it wasn't clear that I needed to bring multiple and different meat types to the wolf-man. Also not sure why it failed.

The quest failed because you attacked the NPC. Quests can be viewed in detail in the quest log (open with J, for Journal). I think we should add a hint for the quest log. Expecting the user to try out every key or to take a look at the keybindings is maybe not the best thing to do.

Why can Visps sometimes shoot through platforms and sometimes they can't?

They always can (their spell ignores colliders), but maybe they just choose not to.  No, but seriously, did a collider stop their spells?

And regarding the boss, we'll work on it. It's a fine line between challenging and frustrating. Maybe the player could get some hints or information about the bossfight from other things, for example, signs or documents.

"Thanks for playing!"

Yeah, thank you . We are going to check/think about your other points as soon as possible. And keep you posted.

[Ironbell]

Short Progress Update

For the last few days, we were working on a tool to make the process of creating dialogues easier. To accomplish this, we've  used ImGui and the nice ImGui-SFML binding from Elias (great work btw!  )

Here's a screenshot of the tool in action:


The tool is not yet very polished, but creating dialogues already takes less time. It's funny to write c++ code that writes (SQL scripts and) a Lua script that, again, links to c++ code. May seem redundant but in the end, it was worth it

Meanwhile, the progress of the content got delayed a bit because of the tool, but we're still on it!


Cheers

[CleverBoy]

Hi,

Really a wonderful game and I am looking forward to learn from it.  Trying to compile on Ubuntu and managed to resolve some of the errors. Now I gave up and thought some one can help me here. I copied the imgui header files in the include directory and after running make, I am getting this error.

/home/git/Cendric2/tools/DialogueTool/src/GUI/LogWindow.cpp:14:44: error: invalid initialization of reference of type ‘const ImVec4&’ from expression of type ‘sf::Color’
   ImGui::PushStyleColor(ImGuiCol_Text, log.second);
                                            ^
In file included from /home/git/Cendric2/tools/DialogueTool/include/global.h:3:0,
                 from /home/git/Cendric2/tools/DialogueTool/include/GUI/LogWindow.h:3,
                 from /home/git/Cendric2/tools/DialogueTool/src/GUI/LogWindow.cpp:1:
/home/git/Cendric2/tools/DialogueTool/include/imgui.h:177:29: note: in passing argument 2 of ‘void ImGui::PushStyleColor(ImGuiCol, const ImVec4&)’
     IMGUI_API void          PushStyleColor(ImGuiCol idx, const ImVec4& col);
                             ^
/home/git/Cendric2/tools/DialogueTool/src/GUI/LogWindow.cpp:15:39: warning: format not a string literal and no format arguments [-Wformat-security]
   ImGui::TextWrapped(log.first.c_str());
                                       ^
CMakeFiles/DialogueTool.dir/build.make:182: recipe for target 'CMakeFiles/DialogueTool.dir/tools/DialogueTool/src/GUI/LogWindow.cpp.o' failed
make[2]: *** [CMakeFiles/DialogueTool.dir/tools/DialogueTool/src/GUI/LogWindow.cpp.o] Error 1
CMakeFiles/Makefile2:109: recipe for target 'CMakeFiles/DialogueTool.dir/all' failed
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/DialogueTool.dir/all] Error 2
Makefile:127: recipe for target 'all' failed
make: *** [all] Error 2

[Ironbell]

Hi CleverBoy, thanks for checking it out!

The error you experience is due to the fact that there are currently two projects packed into that repository. One of them is the game itself (Cendric) and the other one is the dialogue tool I mentioned above. The dialogue tool is only built for Windows (it also runs on Mac, but not Linux), because it is a dev-tool and we don't really use Linux to develop the game.

You can just switch it off by changing the cmake option in the CMakeLists.txt to

option(CENDRIC_BUILD_DIALOGUE_TOOL "Build Dialogue Tool?"OFF)

It won't influence the compilation of the main project. I hope this helps. 

[CleverBoy]

Perfect Thank you!  Enjoyed playing it and thanks for making it. Lovely art as well...