PAX East and MGC Demo
about 5 years ago
– Thu, Apr 18, 2019 at 10:01:51 PM
First, for those who have not yet seen, our buddy K3VBOT has a Kickstarter campaign for the first NES homebrew dungeon crawler called Candelabra: Estoscerro. It's an awesome game with a very cool, very unique play style and battle system that utilizes two NES controllers at once. There's only 3 days left! You gotta check it out: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1545426105/candelabra-estoscerro-a-new-game-for-the-nes
As for our progress, we just returned from the Midwest Gaming Classic and two weeks earlier we were at PAX East. We showcased a new demo of Full Quiet at both events and things went great. Thanks to everyone who came out and played the demo, we loved hearing first-hand feedback!
Here's a quick video of some of the new things we showed including tuning the radio, indications of change (locally and remotely), some new enemies and some new tricks. I won't waste your time writing about them, just check the video :)
We're still banging away at this game crafting something that seems to be resonating with players. We hope to continue this progress at a solid pace over the next few months. We're really excited about how things have been going recently and will posting more updates as we go.
The Map and a Few Other Things
about 5 years ago
– Sun, Feb 03, 2019 at 10:39:23 PM
We've been working hard on some new things, most importantly our map system! There will be an overview world map and a localized map for each area of the game. The overview map will show players where areas are in relation to each other, e.g. the Plateau is north of the Dense Forest and west of the Field. The localized map will show more detail, specifically the paths in each area as you traverse them. This is by far the harder part for us because we can't fudge anything, the in-game distances have to match up everywhere in all directions.
We've also been cleaning some things up and building out more of the world. Aside from the map, in this video you'll see some new areas like the tower, bridge/tunnel and hillside along with some other features of the game that we're comfortable showing at this point. Please excuse the debug features like "c0de" and thought bubble "8", those won't be in the game :)
Regrettably, we still don't have a release date yet. We're just going to keep pushing forward and do our best to fit this entire game in as initially planned. Next update we hope to show some inventory, the overview map, the radios and a few more areas of the game.
Fall Update
over 5 years ago
– Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 12:22:49 AM
We've got a good bit to show in this update which we'll get to below. First and foremost is addressing the release date. We had hoped for a fall release this year but with only about one month left of fall there's no way we'll be ready. Development will definitely push into 2019 and as of now we'd just be guessing at a hard deadline. We definitely don't want to drag this out but literally every single backer that has played the build thus far has said the same thing.. that we should not force this out and should finish the game the way we set out to make it; so that's what we're going to do. This advise and encouragement given to us at various conventions has been wonderful to hear and we're very grateful for the support!!
By far the most challenging part of developing this game is building out the world. We have a good chunk done and we've really been hitting a good stride lately but making sure that every section's background matches up properly, that we keep cardinal directions in mind at all time, that local cues are in place and that elevation changes are accounted for is a maddening process on the NES. We considered showing the topographical map in this update but we'd like to hold off on that until a bit later.
So what you'll see in this video is the following:
1. Day/Evening/Night Cycle - It's extremely accelerated for showcasing in this video but you'll get the idea of what we're going for.
2. Enemies - We've still got a ways to go on these but you can see a few scattered throughout.
3. Diving - Used for evading enemy attacks.
4. Cliff View - Lookouts like these will help orient you and will show you where you'll be headed.
5. Circuit Puzzle - These will be used to unlock doors and other blockades.
6. Damage - Either kill enemies or stay the hell outta their water.
7. Dense Forest - Explore the darkest parts of the forest, sometimes you'll have to do this off the ground.
8. Look Around - Holding up or down in certain places will allow you to look around to see what's above and below you.
9. Swamp - Spiral inward towards the structure at the center.
10. Environmental Factors - Walking through shallow water or tall grass will slow you down.
11. Nap Time - There's only so much electrocution a man can take before it's lights out.
We hope to have another update in December to keep showing yinz snippets of what's to come.
Development Status and PAX West Demo
over 5 years ago
– Sat, Sep 01, 2018 at 11:17:02 PM
We've been making good progress on the game as we transition into the fall. What we haven't made good progress on is updates so we owe you all some details on what we've been up to. We've got many of the key mechanics in the game now, e.g. 8-way aiming, instant bullets, mantling, cover sprites, running into and out of the screen, health, enemies, etc... Oh, and we also updated the main character sprite to better fit with the environments. This means that the core of the game is now built which is what we will be demoing this weekend at PAX West. If you are at the convention please stop by our booth (6616), play the demo and give us some feedback!
We don't want this update to get too long so you can just take a look at the video footage of some game mechanics. If you care to know more, here's an explanation of what you'll see:
Parallaxing and Distant Objects - On the plateau you can see the rock wall in the distance, a path heading north will take you there. In the field you can see a far-off mountain When you turn 90 degrees you can look back at plateau where you were before your decent. Paying attention to things in the background will help, especially with navigation. We set out to build a three dimensional world and we're sticking to that goal.
The Z Axis - NES platformers typically only take place along X and Y axes but in running with the idea of a 3D world we're incorporating the Z axis at times so you can run into and out of the screen. So pressing up or down when you're at intersecting paths will change the direction you're heading.
Mantling - Jumping and grabbing onto ledges will play a significant part in this game and will allow you to reach places you couldn't without mastering this skill. There will be some weight to the character and his momentum can be transferred through the swing to allow you to get more distance when mantling. Make sure your palms aren't sweaty when attempting this, you don't want to slip!
Shooting - You'll notice that there are none of the standard slow moving bullets in this game. The shooting mechanic has been built so that the muzzle flash and bullet contact marks convey where you're shooting. If we get the details right this should feel intuitive as far as where you're aiming and if you're hitting or missing your target.
What's next? - After we process the feedback from this demo we'll map out more of the world and implement more of creatures. Then we'll be sending out the test carts to backers for more feedback on the overall game. This demo only shows a few areas of the game world, the test carts will have much more to them. Stay tuned...
Nuts and Bolts
about 6 years ago
– Sat, Apr 28, 2018 at 11:11:25 PM
Thanks to everyone for being so patient while we did a lot of the boring, nuts-and-bolts, back-end work! It means a lot that we're afforded the luxury of hammering that stuff out without people assuming that we bought a boat and are sailing away with suitcases full of your money.
We've made some very good strides over the past few months getting the foundation of the build locked down. Since this game requires us to build a brand new engine from scratch we really had to do a lot of work just to figure out how best to approach everything. We've been primarily focused on establishing our physics, building/implementing backgrounds in a new way and ironing out navigation as our top priorities... and we're just about done. This means we should have some screen shots and video ready soon! From that point on we can start showing visual progress periodically through the rest of development.
The question now is how much do we show?? While we want to include backers in this process we definitely don't want to give too much away. Since a large part of this game will be about exploration we don't want to give out any important details that could spoil the fun. So we'll really try to be tactful in our approach and will only show some of the basic stuff in the game.
Special thanks to the backers who play-tested our short demo at MGC! Your feedback was wonderful to get first hand. Thanks to your help we're very confident moving forward with our approach to building out and navigating this world we're creating.
Visuals coming soon...
