(copypasta from my devblog with slight updates) Well, this year's 4E contest was announced. The elements game must consist of are: Accountants, Ponies, Crystals and Explosions. Sounds ridiculous enough? Well, let's get started on my game idea: There was this HUGE ASS building, with lots of companies in it some shopping mall, etc. Due to some cataclysm, it was shut off from the outside world. Well, the people managed to live couple years on the supplies inside, then eventually started cultivating seeds etc. You are their descendant. Descendand of the tribe of V. Rich and Co. This was very bad year, crops grew weak, so you are sent by your tribe elders to find the magical key to big bird on roof (helicopter). There are big ass rats, mutated people from floors closer to roof, CRAZY VAMPIRE LAWYERS, and so on. You can gather a 'Crystals' left overs from Yup-Pie tribe of your ancestors, which make you move faster and feel less pain ;) You can hunt for Ponies, which escaped from a local petting zoo - they are cute and don't attack you if you don't attack them, so you're presented with moral dillema - kill the innocent creatures (powerful when attack!) to gain health, or leave them be and hope that you can find something else to eat. Game will be cross between Chaos Engine/Cyberdogs style, Get Medievial/Gauntlet and Diablo. You'll have one of 3 classes: Accountant armed with Staple Gun - fast attack, but weak, Secretary armed with Coffe Dispenser - medium speed, medium strength, Janitor armed with buckets - slow but powerful. I'm going to make the game in simulated 13h mode style (320x200 res, 256 colors). Upscaled with nearest neighbour so you can play on TFT displays as well ;). I've never done any pixel art, so keep an eye out for ugly pictures :D My influences include, but are not limited to: Monty Python's Crimson Permanent Assurance Chuck Palachniuk's Fight Club Scott Adams's Dilbert Die Hard with Bruce Willis and games (in alphabetical order) Bioshock Cannon Fodder Chaos Engine Cyberdogs Diablo Fallout Gauntlet Get Medieval Thanks for all the fun I had with these, respective creators ;) Each class will have one special attack (for example coffee dispenser for Secretary), constructed out of pieces gathered throught the building. Since the health of the player is slowly depleting, he will need to search for HP-refilling stuff. He CAN kill ponies for health, however after killing certain amounts of ponies (between 1 and 100, random for each game :D) they will start swarming at you from each corner of the earth. Once they'll kill you, it won't be enough. They'll destroy your save game as well. That is, unless you can fend them off for 15 minutes after which they will get bored :) Here's my devblog. [Edited by - EliteWarriorManTis on February 4, 2008 8:30:10 AM]

Well, after long time spent with tutorials, here are first visible results:



It's just a beginning, but since I don't have gfx artist, I had to do them on my own :D. Now I'll populate the world a bit.

PS (cause lot of people ask about that): Yes, my main source of inspiration is Secret of Mana 2 ;).

EDIT: updated picture with fixed shadow ;)

[Edited by - EliteWarriorManTis on October 18, 2007 3:54:36 AM]

I really like the general idea, but having the ponies destroy a saved game is a pretty risky concept. Especially if I had spent a long time playing the game and suddenly I lose all of my hard work (I'm not really good at games, so there's no way I'd hold out for 15 minutes, which is quite a long time)

Edit: Nice tiles!

Attempt at drawing Murderous Pony made:



Will tweak it some now :)

Dark Adept: Thanks :D. What I think is - you don't HAVE to kill the ponies. You can get by using other means. This will be emphasised on when you start the game. If you, after all warning signs STILL want to kill the ponies, then the risk is only your choice ;).

[Edited by - EliteWarriorManTis on October 17, 2007 12:40:34 PM]

I'm also hesitant on the destroying save game files. That is one of those meta-game things that people kind of count on. Maybe have checkpoints in the game and the ponies destroy that and do the limited save games, but don't wipe out the save games.

Ah right, I missed that shadow, thanks Ezbez. However, I'll probably change to LOS visibility shadows (soft like in Diablo, not hard like in Nox if you played that).

Even though I had massive crunch time at work, I pulled through and created some new stuff for the game. Not much to display, mostly behind the scenes - etc, but I managed to create weapon trails which look cool (I think)



Also, a lot has changed in the mechanics departament. Instead of 3 classes to choose, you'll have 3 tree skills:

-Snipe (sniper rifle-like)
-Speed (minigun-like)
-Spread (shotgun-like)

With each having it own merits, for example Snipe mode has high chance of piercing the enemy or scoring a critical hit, speed mode has higher average damage, and spread mode has highest damage potential and is absolutely devastating at close range. Here's a picture of early concept testing



You will be able to pick up weapons and armor, with each having different abilities. To further differentiate weapons have couple damage types, and each monster type can be resistant or immune to given type. The types of damage are:

-Smack (base damage)
-Slap (blunt damage)
-Splash (fluid damage - acid, holy water, lava, etc)
-Slice (cut damage. it was supposed to be called Emo damage at first but then I noticed that nearly all of mechanic stats in my game are beginning with S, so I decided to roll with it)

Here's a simple editor I whipped up for testing if this makes sense, simulates player attacking a boss, MaulingMonkey ;)



Well, that's it for today. Expect in-game pictures to come more often now, as I'm taking 2 weeks off from work. YAAAAY!