Tileset Preview!

      Good morning everyone! Today I have put together a preview of a first pass tile set for the autumn themed zone. This will be the zone the game might start in and is one of the zones I am most excited for. Not enough games go for a white birch/autumn aesthetic, which I feel is a missed opportunity as it can be a very lovely look to a zone and it could be used for deeper meanings. Autumn is the time when the leaves start to fall from the trees and everything begins to go through the death process, its the end of a cycle for a lot of plant life and can be very symbolic for you playing as the reaper and beginning your journey in this game. Is that why I chose the look though? Absolutely not! I just like the way it looks as opposed to a pine forest or something similar.

      My other option that I was thinking about was going with a more Japanese spring type feel with blooming Sakura trees and the such. After a bit of thought I decided that it did not fit the theme of the game and scrapped the idea, even though I felt it could have been a beautiful design choice. I want this game to be more western based since I myself am western, I don't want to fill my game with stereotype culture even if it could have looked nice. My lack of knowledge on how everything would look and even folklore for enemies would probably result in a subpar experience that I would not enjoy myself. So after going through the thought process a bit I decided on the beauty of a more western choice.

      As always, this is pre-alpha design and everything is VERY likely to change. The resolution of this demonstration is not even what the actual room sizes will be. This is just a showing of what my current mindset is on the matter. The image in question does not even have any backgrounds yet and the physical blocks are still a little blocky. If you look at the background tiles you will notice that the sloped background tiles are just rotated and not even shaded properly, rocks casting shadow/showing light in the wrong way. So take what is shown here with a grain of salt since it very well could change very quickly.

      Anyway, I just wanted to post an update showing what I had in mind for graphic design aesthetics. Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments :)

Notepad Ideas

      When creating the first concept doodle I also jotted down several notes for either aesthetic ideas or mechanical ideas and rules. These are not complete ideas but the very most basic ideas that eventually go towards progressing the design process. Some of these ideas may or may not make it into the final game, some have been tweaked or changed already, some may go unchanged. The list is not very long yet but this is the first draft of ideas that I jotted down in the first day.



      This list is in no specific order and everything I wrote down for my information was written down as it came to my mind.


Red - Removed/No longer planned
Green - Still planned for the game at time of posting
Blue - Uncertain of its future

-Game will be a platformer, deciding between a Zelda 2 game style or a more traditional Metroidvania style.
-The game will have a level system of some sort. If Zelda 2 style it will be traditional EXP on enemy kills.
-Player starts with 5 hit points and can achieve up to 25 hit points total through 10 life upgrades scattered across the game, each granting 2 more hit points.
-Players starts with 1 power(NNF) and can gain up to 5 total power through 4 power upgrades. Power is used for Double Jumps and Air Dashing, both seperate items, allowing a combination of double jumping and air dashing a total of five times before needing to land and recharge. This is a more unique spin on these mechanics as most games only give you a set number specific to the upgrade. This will allow more creative uses of the mechanics and more detailed puzzles.
-Skull's eyes on the Boss HP Bar will follow the player during a boss fight.
-When the boss runs out of HP the Skull will be surprised for a moment as its mouth closes and squishes the hp bar away. The Skill will then explode in a burst of smoke.
-Bosses will have TONS of HP.
-The game should be HARD. Not in the sense of how unfair many old NES games could be, but hard in a more Dark Souls sense. I want this game to be something where you can die a lot but you feel like you messed up and that the game did not kill you unfairly.
-Getting upgrades in game will increase the player level by 1 for each upgrade. This is mostly a way of show how powerful you are as well as determining if you have or have not collected all the items in the game. At Maximum level the font will change to express that you have acquired everything.
-Thinking of a Morph Ball equivalent ability I have decided upon a transformation ability. With the current hero being the Grim Reaper I am thinking of a small skull spider transformation that could move through smaller areas. Possible upgrades for this could be the ability to walk up the sides of walls but not on the ceiling.
-Player will throw spinning scythes for their attack with a short range and limited number to start. An example being that Mega Man in Mega Man games can shoot three pellets on screen at any given time. You will start out only being able to throw one scythe at a time but upgrade to throw more.
-Scythes will boomerang, when you throw them out they will eventually come back before you can throw another one.

-In game environments planned.
      -Sewer System
      -Autumn Forest
      -Underground Caverns
      -Lava based zone

Graphics style choices

ARCHIVED POST

So, with more details now ironed out on proportions, resolution, and such, I now begin taking everything one step at a time and ironing out more details.

One of the details I want to get out of the way early is style. I already know how I want the game to work mechanically at the basic level so now I want to consider how the game should look aesthetically at the basic level.

Originally I was planning on working in a very high detail level, as seen with the concept art of my previous update. Since then I have also begun exploring other options as seen here.
 

I am making the game I have always dreamed of since I was a kid, and while its been overplayed to the point where many people are fed up with it, I do like the 8bit style of games. Its what I grew up with and its a style that is truly timeless in my eyes if used properly. After all, I am making this game for myself! This is the game I want, not a game that is attempting to appease others. As I have said before, I am a firm believer of making something I want to play which in turn will attract other like minded gamers.

The second option is a Stylized option which takes the heart of true 8-bit limitations but without the actual limitations. Simple and bright, easily recognizable, ect. This is the option I am leaning to the most because it still holds the true heart of what I loved about the games in that day. It give everything the feeling of more detail with much less actual detail. The extra color detail, while staying conservative, really brings out more of a sense of detail. Its just something I feel looks better overall and has a great deal of soul and detail to it.

The last options are higher detail and high detail simplified. I honestly have never been a big fan of the high detail, heavy shading, style. Its really not something I have ever been a big fan of but I cant really explain why, it just looks off to me. On the other spectrum though is HD Minimalistic which give kind of a cel shaded look to the tiles. It gives them emotion and detail with bold lines and bold colors/shading while staying minimal and traditional. Its got its own look that I do enjoy but I also look at it and find myself looking back towards the more traditional styles.

Overall I think each style has its on place in a game and are all compatible but I am really soul searching for what fits my game and how I want it to look and feel overall.

I find that by posting these updates on Facebook(Blogger now) it keeps me going and moving forward as well as even giving a bit of an inside view to some of the process I go through. Its been a long time since I have actually made a game, in fact the last project I finished to completion was a 1 level Mega Man fan game for a friend. I built the engine from scratch and designed the boss from scratch as well. You can find that at the link here.

http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/125937-wrath-of-kennon-man

Before that was a game I made called "Grimmy", which this game is actually a re-imagining of. I will not link to that game because of some unfortunate consequences where the site I was affiliated with has become a virus infested place and my original exe was put into an installer with tons of bloatware and such.
 
I believe a friend uploaded the plain exe on his website and it still may or may not be there. If it is I am sure he can post a link on the comments. Be warned, it was my first game ever and it is HORRIBLE! I mean... It is bad, it has so many poor design choices.

One last note. The "Wrath of Kennon Man" game may or may not trigger some virus protection programs. The game is 100% safe and includes no malware, spyware, or viruses of any kind. It is a known issue with the platform it was compiled and programmed in. So if you get an alert, do not worry it is safe.

Evolution of concept, Concept 3

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Evolution of concept art. Taking the original idea from paper and working out proportions and placement. The original concept would not work well in a 1080p resolution and would have created extremely short but wide rooms. As such the UI has been relocated to the side to create better proportioned rooms. As you can see the rooms are massive in comparison to the character and the game will be designed around the idea of single room per screen gameplay.

The bricks are super basic and low res, the cleaned up bricks will be roughly double the quality due to size. The room also does not currently have a background but due to being concept it was left black.

Also, early look at character concept.

Early concept 2 and Boss ideas.

ARCHIVED POST

So, here is a question. For the sewer area I am torn between how I want to do the boss. Either make the boss a sewage construct, yellow devil style, or a rat creature that summons and uses sewage based magic attacks.

Early concept work for the UI and basic design

ARCHIVED POST

After talking with a friend the other day about game design and our theories and whatnot, I've been inspired to continue working on my game. Why don't have a computer I've definitely been spending some time on concept art and design ideas while watching 2 player productions videos on YouTube via my Wii U.

This is one of my favorite parts of working on game design is having the chance to just sit down and put my ideas to paper and really just think of like the possibilities that this game could turn out to be. Really right now the potential is unlimited in the fact that I can do anything. I don't have anything set in stone just yet so this game could really turn out to be 100% different than the concept or it could go straight from concept and become final product.

As a kid I've always been deeply in love with platform based games like Metroid, Megaman, and even the Mario games. One of the many ideas I feel that died off well before its time was the zelda 2 style of an over world that was three dimensional but then random encounters and dungeons were two-dimensional. I am also a fan of the idea of nonlinear platformer games like Super Metroid and the concept of sequence breaking. Open world games I feel with no set path have tons of replayability that I would like to capture in my game.

As of right now nothing is set in stone, both concepts are something I'd like to explore but because of the nature of each of them it's hard to put them both together in a way that does not feel tedious or overly gimmicky.

I'm excited for the possibilities that can come from these ideas and I can envision both styles of gameplay in a final product. For now though I will be working solely on concept and through that process hopefully decide what venture I want to head towards for this game.

It has been years since I've actually taken something from concept to a final product and I can no longer just sit by and not complete something. I want to finally create something that I can look at it and go "this is a game that I would play for hours on end and I would have fun with". I feel that if I make a game that I would like to play then I would be making a game that others would also like to play. I feel that the idea of pandering to others when creating something creates a subpar final product and can easily obscure the original idea, twisting it into a monstrosity that no one will enjoy.

With all of the said I feel that this will be a solo project that I do not want team members distracting me and pushing me away from my original idea.

At any rate this is all still a concept idea and there is a ton of work to go towards bringing concept to reality.

Archived Posts

      Note that any post with "ARCHIVED POST" at the top of the post is a copy paste of an older post from a different source. Before starting this blog I was making posts about this project on my personal facebook until it was suggested that I consider making a dedicated blog.

Welcome to the official blog for Project Grimmy

      Hello and welcome to the official blog for Project Grimmy, a platformer indie game in progress. The purpose of this blog is to be a dedicated space for updates and possibly even discussion during the design and development of the game. Updates and posts will not be made on a regular schedule and may be very random overall.

      Project Grimmy is a project based on the games of my childhood, such as Metroid, Mega Man, Zelda, and so on. What I hope to achieve with this project is a game that, at the core, maintains the heart and soul of the games of my childhood in this modern day. I am not looking to re-invent the wheel or to be completely original. I am making a game that I would want to play, something I personally find enjoyable and that I miss from classic games.

      This is a solo project with currently no funding, a game that is being made in my personal time and hopefully something that I can turn into the start of a career. I currently have no idea on when this game will be finished as it is still in the early concept and design stage. I hope to work hard and make quick progress and hopefully have a chance to post about the development process as progress is made.

      With that said, thank you for taking the time to look at my blog and please feel free to leave a comment and follow along with the progress of Project Grimmy.

Thank you and have a good day.
~BassZ1890