HellBounders [Strategy/Comedy] (WIP & Browser Engine Demos)

[ffs_jay]

A contemporary fantasy adventure/RPG set in the afterlife, following the adventures of the newly deceased Harmony Winters as she deals with a world of creeps, daemons and a constantly raging, world-spanning war. Has a fairly strong western influence and a rather oddball sense of humour that mightn't be for everyone.

WIP 'Prologue' Demo (Win/Mac/Linux versions in zip, playtime: about 10-15 minutes, some strong language).

HTML5 'CHLOE' Engine test - Just a sneak peek at the new HTML5-compatible engine. Note that some of the debug functions ('load script' and 'execute') will not work correctly, as they're for offline use.

HellBounders Screenshot

A word about the demo

I created this for the 'Pirate Kart V' comp over two days as a bit of an exercise for myself. All the art, music, dialogue and characters were created inside that 48 hour window, just to see if I could do it, really, and it was my first time properly using Ren'Py. Which is why it's not nearly as polished as I'd like it to be, and it's missing features I'd like to have included such as a decent battle system, more branching options, prettier interface, etc. That said, I still think it's pretty representative of the direction I'm working towards, and gives a good idea of the characters and stuff.

Anyway, I'd love to know what you think. Try and be gentle

[ffs_jay]

Currently about to start on episode 1 proper, but having a bit of a rethink regarding using Ren'Py as the development environment. I may move over to GM HTML5, as it'd make my life a whole lot easier designing the non-VN elements such as the battle system. It'd be perfectly doable in Python, but a good deal more work. And as I already know GML fairly extensively at this point, it's kind of luring me back. Either way, I'll keep you posted with how things are progressing.

Here's a rough mockup of a battle screen, thrown together with bits and pieces I had lying around and some sprites I sketched out in a bit of a rush. Everything seen here will be replaced with better assets as I go on, but you get the idea. Although it's got the classic side-on Final Fantasy-style view, mechanically it's much more heavily inspired by one of my favourite DS games, Etrian Odyssey. Those weird red bars at the side will eventually be mini-portrait 'slices' that give a quick visual display of the current attack order.

[silenteve]

I like what the battle scene looks like It looks like the kind of games that I play
Your art style is distinctive and unique. Wish I could draw like that...
Can't wait for the release ^^

[Wee]

I enjoyed the short intro, and as a fellow western-style user, I salute you and wish you the best.

[clua]

I managed to play it!

what I like were:
+the somehow agresive intro..I mean everything cames very fast and I liked that I think It could be something very exploitable
+you are planning a battle system(I wish I could know how to do that D:)

what I didnt like:
well I guess I cant criticize much since you did this in a little time:
+An sprite showed next to the text box along with the main sprites(I think its not necesary when the main sprites are showing)
+Even if I liked the fast intro..I think It need some small pauses---welp

Im sorry I hope this is somehow usefull...Im forward for your next realese!

[ffs_jay]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

The text box sprites were going to have different expressions as a way of getting some extra character into it, as I wouldn't have time to do separate poses for everybody. Turns out I didn't even have time to do that :S

As for the pace, yeah, it might be a little too fast. I don't like overly 'talky' stories, so I like to write about half as much but make it twice as dense (almost every line's either a joke or a plot point). I might have overdone it a bit there though. There's probably a happy balance somewhere between the two styles.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback, I'll get back to work.

[SusanTheCat]

Looking good. Very impressive for 48 hours. The artwork is terrific.

Look me up if you need some help with the programming. Have you looked into the RPG Battle Engine? http://eviscerate.net/article/rpg-battle-engine-renpy

Susan

[ffs_jay]

Hi Susan, thanks for the offer but I'm a bit of a coder myself, so no worries there.

I decided to go with my earlier idea and code a simple VN-style system in Gamemaker HTML5. I figured once I get that painful task out of the way, throwing in whatever battle systems and minigames I like would be a breeze, as I've got a lot of experience with earlier versions.

Here's the result of the last few days coding, my bog-simple text file parser called CHLOE. A very cool bonus is that it lets me run games in most modern browsers. I've left the debug functionality in the live demo (though 'load script' and 'execute' won't work as they're more for offline testing), so you can click the debug button to get a look at the scripting used and so on. Still needs one or two bits to be feature complete for what I need it for (the big one being that it can't currently compare and assign vars within a script), but for my first go at a scripting system I'm really happy with it.

This coming week I'll be starting work on the battle engine and then, hopefully, starting work on the game content proper.

[SusanTheCat]

That's looking pretty sweet.

I never got into Game Maker. It looks like one of those tools that you can use to make impressive stuff if you know what you are doing.

Susan

[ffs_jay]

It's pretty decent, and you can get some great results with it, you just have to get past a lot of trash to find the good stuff. My main gripe with it was that you could only develop for windows, but with html5 they're starting to address that finally. It's got a bit of a learning curve too, as my dozens of unfinished, half-broken attempts at different types of games can attest to. Still, every one taught me a couple of bad mistakes to avoid, and most of all to plan out my systems properly before I get myself too tangled up in code like I usually do.

Horses for courses, really. I wanted a simple VN system with complex game elements, but if I were developing the other way around, I'd be mad not to use Ren'Py. And being familiar with it to begin with certainly helped. Now I just have to try and actually get something finished :s