Jelly Kid (Updated 2013-03-04)

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21 comments, last by Aeranima 11 years, 1 month ago

jellykidtitlepreview.jpg

Hi guys.

My name is Fredrik Nilsson and I'm now back with more information to share with ya all. Thanks to gdnet we have now managed to start working on a prototype of the game "Jelly Kid" which some of you may know of as "Dragon Kid" as it was first called during the early stages of this started thread. Things has developed even further and thanks to some newly made friends we could develop some illustrations of the game and then conceptualize them.

jellykid.jpg
The character is copyright and belongs to Aeranima Designs & Aeranima Entertainment.

Now, hold your horses, things aren't progressing super-duper-uber-fast because developing games takes a while. That's the reason I am here. To gather some feedback and collect ideas/suggestions for the game. So let me talk about it a little to get you wrapped around the genre.

The Background Story

A long time ago in the world the jelly food and jelly forces were loved by the people; especially the royal family who was the only one of its kind with its skillful jelly management. Until one day when a scientist within the royal family tried to create new jelly flavors and accidentally gave life to the jelly. The jelly cloned itself; took various forms and shapes of animals and monsters which began to spread across the kingdom and eventually the entire worlds. The royal family eventually went out to stop this madness, but when they were gone some strange jelly-figures broke inside their children's bedchamber and managed to devour the children as the guards was trying to fight them off. But it was already too late. Some of the kids were altered both in appearance and mentality. And when the royal family finally returned after a valiant attempt to stop this tragedy as they immediately faced a new one... The kids were gone.
The world changed and the people had to get used to the transformed nature. The royal family realized that all hope was lost. They could not do anything to stop the jelly. Legend says that the world was redesigned by these lost kids so that people still could live in it.

Now like you've probably already has figured out; the game features Jelly Kid and his jelly-like hair decades after this tragedy occurred. The game however opens up with Jelly Kid, his seven smaller siblings, grandpa and grandma; all sharing dinner at their tiny acorn-shaped house at the outskirt of a great forest. The granny, grandpa and his siblings will become kidnapped by none other than "Jelly Prince" and his jelly-like minions. He however is an evil wizard who troubles the world with his evil minions and monsters. The Jelly Kid immediately sets out to find them all to put an end to everything but has to face 8 different worlds first (+1 optional) with a wide range of climate variety.

jellykid2.jpg
The character and Jelly-minion is copyright and belongs to Aeranima Designs &
Aeranima Entertainment. Goomba belongs to Nintendo and is there for a funny/sarcastic
appearance only.

Like everything so far? smile.png
Where you come in!
It's firstly recommended that you read what's written in the paragraphs above to brief yourself a little bit regarding background story. Now, to give you a minor glimpse of the world... The overworld will be designed in 8 different continents such as Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. U. Each continent will feature several different obstacles on top of the action panels which will provide you with the levels the game will evolve around. What these obstacles are or what kind of continents there will be we don't know. So this is where you come in! Below there's a list with categories provided for you where you can find some minor guideline of where your mind should be heading when deciding to help out. ^^ Every help we can get will be much appreciated. And of course there will be a special thanks in the credits where you all at gdnet will be credited for helping us out. ^^

Brainstorming List
Continents
What continents could there be? The world is jelly-themed so is there anything associated to jelly you can come to think of that would look good for the continents? ^^
Obstacles
Is there any obstacles you can think of we can provide for the overworld or levels? Maybe both as a united obstacle? Maybe a chain obstacle that will effect other parts of the overworld? Anything? ^^

All help we can get on these two topics would be awesome. ^^ And this is not an actual "help wanted ad" it's more of a "brainstorming ad" where we can come together and build on this areas together. ^^

Thank you for your time, and here's another concept since you guys are awesome!

jellysheep.jpg
Jelly-Sheep is copyright to Aeranima Designs &
Aeranima Entertainment.

Best,

Fred

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Welcome to GameDev Aeranima,

I am very glad to see that you re-edited your post from the original version, as what you had was not really conducive to any reply other than a request for more information.

That said: I want more information smile.png

I understand this is very early days for you -- the beginnings of a design concept - some basic art, ideas as well a proposed platform.

As far as ideas go yours seems fine but as I said, it is very early days and I myself would like to see more development of your intial work into something more substantial -- In a sense I am looking for more meat on the bones upon which to chew and reflect some insights.

One question I would have for you is would your scroller be purely linear? What I mean by this, is have you considered creating roadblocks to alternative paths and other levels that intially you might have to bypass due to not having an attunement but once having an ability you might return through the map to unlock another section previously unpassed.

You might also give consideration to having a skill tree (or unlockable abilities) associated with each attunement, fire for example might have:

  1. the melee burn component,
  2. the grappling hook component,
  3. then perhaps a ranged burn component which might be used offensively against enemies or alternatively to burn a support thus dropping a bridge to you.

Your artwork seems fine but truth be told - Not my area of expertise.

Also on a completely separate note, you may wish to reconsider the name you have proposed as quick search using "drago game" popped up enough results to conflict with your name. It is a somewhat common practice in the industry to give projects a temporary name by which to refer to and when getting around to the publishing point to then name it for the release/marketing etc.

Hope this helps smile.png

Hey there fellow "artist". :)

Firstly, thanks for the kind chosen words. A bit motivating which is needed for a newcomer to this site. Makes one wanna stay longer regardless of how their games turn out! Thanks for that.

Secondly, It wont be as linear as I might have made it look like. Super Mario World is slightly too linear for my taste (still played the heck out of that game though) but this game will be slightly adjusted to every ones taste for side-scrolling games. Just that I haven't decided which way to go yet. I do have a slight knowledge in Maya to render the character cool but idk yet. In my head the game will look good as New Super Mario Wii graphics and as Super Mario World spriting. However, sorry for the compare with Mario games, they're closest to what I have in mind. Map grid progressing etc.

And the abilities, yeah, it will be close to spot on as you said. Though the sword is made out of water it wont be able to become fire attuned but might make something cool with his hand like a "smokish/steamish" push-back attack? Would be cool to see steam co-work with level objects to unlock hidden paths as well as other attunements.

But here's what I got for skills:

  1. Push
  2. Jump (jump on things to finish foes)
  3. Fire Grappling (with fire attunement to get over steeps and other things. Not actual grappling. Rayman is a good example. His hand is in mid-air as he grapples and swings.)
  4. Fire Ball (For ranged attacks)
  5. Double Jump (Water attunement. Some sort of a water tornado pushes you up from underneath to make a water platform to jump off. Time limited.)
  6. Water Slash (Hit foes with a water attack. Can remove fire attuned roadblocks.)

Something like this. And as for the name, I just named him Drago (close to dragon with his hair-like horns and lizard arm) and went from there. Name can definitely be discussed.

Thanks for the reply! ^^

Have you considered adding a few more playable character you encounter during the course of the game ?
with (slightly) different abilities, they would give the game more variation and add much to the non-linear gameplay

Have you considered adding a few more playable character you encounter during the course of the game ?
with (slightly) different abilities, they would give the game more variation and add much to the non-linear gameplay

In the beginning there was only Sonic. ^^ So no, will be too much content for a first game. At least in my opinion. smile.png

Letting you guys know that I've updated the thread! :)

Letting you guys know that I've updated the thread! smile.png

You might consider doing a developer's journal to show your updates. Don't forget feedback you have already received would be based on previous versions of your original post which can lead to confusion amongst new people reading the thread as they try to marry your edited post with advice below. Nice pictures though :)

Letting you guys know that I've updated the thread! smile.png

You might consider doing a developer's journal to show your updates. Don't forget feedback you have already received would be based on previous versions of your original post which can lead to confusion amongst new people reading the thread as they try to marry your edited post with advice below. Nice pictures though smile.png

Thanks, will look into it. Hope you enjoy the further updates to this thread that will come the upcoming 2 weeks. :) Stay tuned! And if you know people who might be willing to help me out in any ways - please, refer them here.

The last sentence goes to everyone. :) Best regards,

Fred

And if you know people who might be willing to help me out in any ways - please, refer them here.

Nay young one - lead not the people here for prospective teamwork, lest you invite the unwelcome attentions of the moderators and their kindly words of doom. Instead make a recruitment post in the "Classifieds" forums under the sub-forum "Hobbyist projects".

And if you know people who might be willing to help me out in any ways - please, refer them here.

Nay young one - lead not the people here for prospective teamwork, lest you invite the unwelcome attentions of the moderators and their kindly words of doom. Instead make a recruitment post in the "Classifieds" forums under the sub-forum "Hobbyist projects".

A sorry. :P Wasn't my intent to violate any laws of this forum. Been notified and will be heading there for a recruitment thread! ^^

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