TORNABY (a Dark Metroidvania-Sci-Fi-HD-Platformer) + DEMO!

UPDATE 03.11.2018:

SADLY, THE ORIGINAL THREAD GOT SOMEHOW DELETED DURING MY LAST UPDATE

So, this is Part 2 with all the updated information ,but without your comments already posted though.

I'm sorry if i did not answer them properly back then...

All right, then. Finally the upload of a playable Demo of "Tornaby":

http://tornaby.cjurek.at/demo/Tornaby_Alpha_Demo_2018.zip

Some Screenshots

http://www.cjurek.at/web/uploads/pics/1.jpg

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Some older Screenshots

http://www.cjurek.at/tornaby/3.png

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(Sorry for the formatting, i just dont have enough rep-points to post real links)

It's mostly about game mechanics and handling, please dont expect any storyrelevant cutscenes/features in there right now.

Included are one mini-boss, 2 extra-weapons, a few power ups - the gamepart is taken quite from the beginning of "Tornaby".

There is rudimentary Gamepad-Support, most important things are described under "Settings".

For "debug", press <tilde>, to see fps, objects in the current layout,...- if you can give me information about your avg fps, that would be really helpful, since i have to develop the whole thing on a laptop with Geforce M650 graphics

To clearify things about the chosen character design once more: The whole game should sort of represent one full life-cycle, beginning with "birth" of the character (which is actually the start of the game)... which is why i chose the childlike appearence for this part.

The demo contains one setting (alien structures indoor), 2 others are already finished right now. I plan to make at least 3 more - my aim is to post screenshots of different surroundings in the upcoming weeks as well as infos about content of the whole game (already done and in preparation).

And: plz dont mind the rather conventional enemy design - i plan to finally go into a much darker scenery after the first third of the game:)

I would be glad if you could spare 30 minutes to test the demo and give me feedback i can work with:)

Questions (beside possible bugs) that i have in mind are:

Your oppinion on the graphic style (also performancewise)?

the game mechanics/character behaviour?

the time needed to complete the demo?

and anything else;)

Since i still dont have enough rights in this forum to answer directly via pm, feel free to mail me:)

Hey there

it's been a while since my last post in here

• i have been working on this game literally for ages now in my spare time.

originally i wanted to post a demo here in early september, but things turn never out as expected

• so there still seems to be some work to do beforce i can present something more substantial:)

anyway, i finally decided to make some screenshots instead.

tornaby is inspired by, as you might guess, games like metroid and turrican (my first c64 game, i always wanted to pay tribute to this one). many things need more time because i want to draw animations by hand (such as explosions) and give this world proper detail.

i will try to post more details in the upcoming weeks but would be really glad to get some constructive response till then:)

It seems like my original thread vanished after editing :/ Sorry to start this new....

Unless I am doing something wrong (playing on xbox joypad) there is an issue that the player is missing some of the ledge grabs near the start which for me make it hard to progress very early.

I am totally in awe of the graphics and overall design though.

Utterly STUNNING.

turrican and the sequel are some of my favorite games ever

I can wait to see the upgrades and the ed209 i see in the pic.

the artwork is AAA.

on a surface pro 4, i5 integrated graphics, the experience was very very smooth no framerate issues at all

Will play more tomorrow need to go to bed now

But yea.

Brilliant.

Thanks for the quick reply and that vid you took!

I will look into the ledge-bug as soon as possible (i only have playstation ds3 tested which seemed to work fine) and keep you informed - do you have the same problem when using the keyboard?

I noticed some other minor issues (wrong animations) in your vid too.. so that is really helpful.

Also glad that the performance is good - its a thing that is hard to judge when working on my old laptop:D

And yeah, there are (and will be) many more or less obvious references to my childhood-favs in this game ( turrican, motu, ...robocop )

Best regards,

Chris

Yea performance was really smooth. No janking or slowdown whatsoever.

While Im here having a tea break at work I was wondering....

and tell me to f-off if you like but.....

I think one of the less attractive limitations of the 16bit era was the dpad move and aim control for these sort of games.

and yes you have implemented it pretty perfectly but...

have you considered dual analogue control instead?

I think it works much better in these metroidvainia type games.

Have you played Shadow Complex ? I think it one of the best metroidvania games in recent years. Really really recommend it as you are making this type of game. and I think, due to your AAA graphics, like it or not your game will be competing and be judged at this sort of level. And if I remember it has a dual analogue control which makes the gameplay really smooth.

anyway just throwing it out there....

I was thinking about posting a walkthrough-video on my own maybe later this day - since im used to play it, that might be a good comparison, especially on how "certain things are ment to be" (e.g. sudden wrong animations, like the transition in your gameplay to another room,...) and what is actually just a bug:)

On one point during development i was indeed thinking about alternative controls:

The thing is, it might be hard to implement a 360°-shooting-range without fully breaking the players animation-style (running forward while shooting back might look rather strange here). While making the game, i mostly played those old games from "Turrican 1+2" to "Super Metroid" and - more current - "Axiom Verge" - and it was one of my main targets, to keep the experience true to that era, tho using relatively modern visuals (despite the obvious fact that pixel-art would make much more sense)

On the other hand, a limited range (~90-120°) into the "looking"-direction with the ability to finetune with the right analog-stick might be an idea that could work.

Maybe i will start a poll regarding certain design-desicions:)

Again, thanks for the input!

looks cool

The game is getting very good, but impossible to play through the gamepad, it is probably programming "keyboard and gamepad" independently.

I found a bug in the shots.

If I hold "Arrow Up", jump and then shoot, the shot goes up.

Hey, thanks for the feedback. I did some quick bugfixing on some major issues:

The jump strength (resulting in the incorrect ledge grabbing behaviour) while playing with the gamepad has been fixed.

Animations when changing the room should now be correct.

When jumping and shooting up, the Animation is now properly shown.

Screensize (during scene transitions) should now be corrected.

Those are now corrected in the uploaded link above.

I got some mails with very useful input too (also, huge thanks for that) & will try to fix the biggest issues in the following days.

Best regards,

Chris

I did a little gameplay of the game, it's very interesting.

Post the game on Itch.io or gamejolt.com

It is much better to receive feedback

https://youtu.be/vsU19lx8LXE

The gameplay-video is great , such things help me a lot to see what needs further improvement.

Since you seem to know where to go, it looks like that take was not your first try?

Actually the plan is to post the demo on those platforms in april (with more detailled info about what's next)

• i just wanted to post it first here to get some advice before i release this into the wider public.

This looks absolutely great! Has some "Abe's Oddyssey meets Metroid" feeling if you ask me

"AAA"

This looks absolutely great! Has some "Abe's Oddyssey meets Metroid" feeling if you ask me

I loved Abe's Oddyssey - though i never managed to play through the whole game

At one point of the design process i was thinking about adding some cuteness/comedic-factor to "Tornaby" -

which i am still not sure of, is the amount that would be suitable for such a rather dark scenery...

thats definitely a question thats still left unanswered.

The gameplay-video is great , such things help me a lot to see what needs further improvement.

Since you seem to know where to go, it looks like that take was not your first try?

Actually the plan is to post the demo on those platforms in april (with more detailled info about what's next)

- i just wanted to post it first here to get some advice before i release this into the wider public.

Yes, it was the second time I played.