Brookesy's Forum Posts

  • A couple of relatively unexciting gifs from the WIP of the second level.

    Also you can now download the Exoder Demo on IndieDB

    http://www.indiedb.com/games/exoder/dow ... alpha-demo

  • The Exoder playable DEMO is now available on Itch.io

    https://vincentguff.itch.io/exoder-demo

    Let me know what you think.

  • NoSoul8 Nope, not available anywhere because it's quite far from done : p

    However I do intend to release a demo soonish to let people give the first level a whirl.

  • Hear's a clearer shot of the HUD

    Starting from the left and going down, here's what each section represents.

    The top is Exoder's health (obviously). In this shot you can see she has nine health, after each row of three are depleted they can't be replenished unless you find a health booster.

    The square just below that is a proximity alarm. The closer the writhing mass rising toward you the more opaque the image in the square becomes. In this screen nothing is visible because it's quite far away. Here's an illustration in gif form.

    Touching this mass is Game Over.

    Below that is the Boss health, omnipresent like in Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden.

    Beneath that is the number of "attacks"(deflector) Exoder has left. Use of your deflector is limited. Each use uses up a "bullet", however if you strike an enemy or projectile the bullets completely replenish. If you use them all up without hitting anything you will be unable to use the deflector until a short cool down period is up and replenishes your uses.

    Below that is your current power-up, empty in this screen.

    On the left is your score. the left most number is the score, the right is the multiplier. More on how scoring works in a later post.

    Bonus gif

  • And some more power ups, also, UI!

    Decoy power up creates a doppelganger which can be utilized as a shield or to fool turrets and other seeking enemies.

    Evasion, makes you invincible for a short period (very short period).

    Giga-Blast, clears the screen of projectiles, most of them. Some projectiles are immune.

    Orb Shot, makes Exoder's Orb deflector fire a projectile.

    Wave Smash, fires projectiles from Exoder's ground smash.

    WIP Title screen

  • Here's some details on a few of the power ups in the game.

    The vessel which carries the power ups appears randomly from either above or beneath the player and has a random wave movement which makes it hard to predict its exact trajectory. Getting a power up is also one of the few ways to get back a peg of health. Power ups also have a limited use time so if you don't use it, you lose it.

    Double Jump

    Pretty straight forward buff which allows the player to jump twice.

    Slow

    Slows the speed of the game to about half speed for a brief time. Gives you a chance to take a breath.

    Float

    Slow the speed of your fall.

    Barrier

    Create a barrier around Exoder for a brief time. Destroys/deflects projectiles.

    Health Boost

    This power up is a bit different. It isn't spawned by the typical item vessel but instead a few of the them are hidden inside each level. This power up both completely regenerates the player's health and doubles the max health of the player.

    Bonus gif of the first boss.

    MPPlantOfficial Good eye. There's a very slight Bulge effect in place. Like real small, the scale is set to 2.

  • MPPlantOfficial Definitely NOT a Metroidvania. My last game was a Metroid-like and it's a relief to work on something really straight forward and linear.

    Kid Icarus is actually a really apt comparison, minus the shops and the dungeon levels.

  • A smattering of enemy gifs

    And a gif of the most recent build.

  • Exoder's Steam Page is now open! Huzzah!!

    http://store.steampowered.com/app/840980/Exoder/

    pleaseclap.gif

    ... anyway

    PSA PSA PSA PSA PSA PSA PSA PSA PSA PSA PSA PSA

    Exoder needs some able bodied late stage bug testers to run through the game, spot any bugs, issues etc. and give some general feedback before release.

    All you have to do is write a brief report and submit it and you'll be granted the oh so prestigious honour of having your name in Exoder's credit sequence.

    If you volunteer you'll be given a steam key which grants you early access to the game.

    You get a free game. What more do you want from me!

    This is time sensitive so don't hesitate, if you do you might have to add not getting into Exoder's credits onto your long list of life regrets.  

    PM me or email me at feverdreamgameworks@gmail.com if you are interested.

    Q If I don't beat the game or I'm not very good at it, will my input really matter?

    A Yes. Even if you can't beat the game it's very useful to get as many hands and eyes on the game as possible to weed out any lingering issues and bugs. You don't need to be any kind of an expert.

    Q But Brookesy, I've never bug tested before, I don't know what I'm doing.

    A Neither do I!

    Thank you for your cooperation.

    Try the PLAYABLE DEMO on Itch.io

    https://vincentguff.itch.io/exoder-demo

    Or download it on Indiedb

    http://www.indiedb.com/games/exoder/dow ... alpha-demo

    Or play it in your browser in the Scirra Arcade

    https://www.scirra.com/arcade/action-ga ... demo-21176

    Exoder is a frantic, fast-paced, challenging 2D platformer.

    Pretty simple concept (and a departure from my last game which was a bit too obtuse for its own good) but with a few twists that keep things fresh and (hopefully) fun.

    Exoder's central idea is to capture the haste and fervour you feel at the very end of Metroid when you are attempting to escape Zebes only stretched out through an entire game (and with a lot more variety and obstacles).

    The game is broken up in to two stage types.

    The first type is a vertical climb where the player jumps, climbs, avoids and deflects enemies and obstacles while a constantly rising, instant death enemy follows behind you.

    The second type has the player push through horizontal, auto-scrolling sections.

    Each level will culminate in a boss fight. In total there will be seven levels. 4 Vertical and 3 horizontal.

    First boss fight, the three boxes

    The plan is to make the transition between the levels seamless, no score screen or story gunk or anything, just constant, non stop action.

    First boss design

    The goal is to make an action game that technically doesn't actually involve any explicit combat. Your attack is less of an attack and more of a shield which you use to stop projectiles, but most of the enemies and obstacles themselves can't be destroyed, merely bounced off of.

    All of these gifs are from the initial prototype of the first level. Currently the first level can be played from start to finish, though admittedly it is extremely difficult in its current state.

    Shield power-up

    The number one design problem at the moment is figuring out how to maintain a sense of frantic, satisfying mayhem without making it near impossible to beat, and without constant checkpoints.

    Powerups are also a big part of the game but more on that later.

    I'm panning on releasing a demo of the first level for feedback when it's all done so stay tuned for that!

  • Brief look at the early prototype of my frantic platformer called "Exoder".

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  • "Blinded, maimed, buried and surrounded by the fleshy mound created by the soiled bodies of the Marrow cancer. His eyes have been taken to the fringes, guarded by those dear sweet Emissaries. That shameful crime I helped produce is caught in the deepest place it could be brought, now haunted over by those few selfless minds left behind. This should be enough, but it won't be. Instead I must bury all of it, tower the earth above this valley and envelop all beneath a mountain of dirt. Will it be enough? Men are prone to dig. My hope that the terror of Frederic's wake will be enough to ward off any curiosity, before any travel further below. Curiosity has ruled me, and now may have doomed us all, if my measures are not enough to silence these beacons."

    The Imprisoned Seer is a an optional boss at the end of an optional section of Marrow and possess the final weapon (Tendril), a very powerful weapon which is needed in order to get the game's true ending.

    The road to the Seer requires a careful eye and a good memory of your previous surroundings. It isn't enough to simply reach his cabin, the entrance to the Seer's prison isn't so easily broken in to. In order to open the path to the Seer the player must collect a number of the Seer's eyes, hidden in secret rooms around the game world, and protected by a set of mini-bosses. Finding these locations is where your memory and instincts have to be sharp.

    The boss hangs from the ceiling and fires projectiles at the player. Each projectile spawns with a random colour. Use the orb to destroy the ones which spawn from his hands and reflect those which come from his head, that is the only way to damage the boss. Striking the boss with your weapon will damage you so be cautious about engaging the other enemies in the room during the fight. Two of the "Taken" enemies will continuously spawn during the fight, in addition to the enemies which spawn from the Seer's dripping blood. Managing the other enemies and timing your attacks are the keys to winning this fight, which can be a bit of an endurance match given how difficult he is to damage.

    In Echo mode, this boss fight plays out a bit differently. Since you can't distinguish colours in Echo mode the Seer's projectiles will always spawn in a state that can be reflected only with a weapon strike. It seems like a small change but the challenge is ramped up significantly due to the position of the attack and the precision needed to hit it. Interestingly enough, due to this change the boss doesn't technically require the Luminous Orb to defeat.

  • "What devilry?! I am at my wit's end! No matter what we try, those which succumb to the sickness have an insatiable thirst and will to remain. We have buried them, locked them away, chopped them and even burned them to no avail. Perhaps in this pursuit of the secrets held within the deep we have neglected this saddening display of the will of man to circumvent his very death. Some have formed hulking masses, twisted perversions, melted into a husk of dead flesh and bone, writhing in the darkened corners. They are harmless though, unless approached, best leave them where they stand, cemented in the ground, waiting for a second death."

    Mass is a simple enemy type encountered a number of times during the game under varying circumstances. It does not move or chase you, it will not curse you and it doesn't pack the hardest punch in terms of damage (though it is still substantial). However it is impassable, and they do guard a number of important places and are often assisted in this task by other enemies making them a little more complicated than they may seem at first glance.

    Their main and only attack is to swipe at you with their one big arm. In order to damage them they must be struck in the head. The length of your weapon makes all the difference in these encounters, assuming you have beaten back any assisting enemies striking the head and avoiding the claw attack should be quite easy, but, do look up from time to time.

    Echo Enemies

    The Echo realm contains one very distinct enemy type, and in this state, most other enemies become invisible and harmless, however there are few enemies that retain their damaging qualities even inside the Echo realm.

    Some of the harmless threats in the echo realm will turn invisible after you have viewed the echo light, but not all. Even inside the echo realm certain enemies will see you and attack you but can't do damage, though you won't know this until after the enemies have already struck. In addition, there are enemies, like the Mass, which will remain a threat even inside the altered perceptive state that is the Echo realm. The Mass in particular is a nuisance because it cannot be passed by or avoided, and since you cannot attack in your echo form, the creature must be defeated in the realm of normal perception.

    As a side note, non-echo enemies which remain active in the Echo realm also deal different damage percentages in their echo state.

    Marrow OST - Into the Breach

    https://youtu.be/sWffRj_fiQ0

    Up next

    Boss profile

    The Imprisoned Seer

  • "It has been weeks now... or is it months past since that bulbous, beautiful sphere had been cracked, and that low, maddening hum still wafts out from the walls and hollow ground beneath. My workers, the simple but observant men from Windheim could sense a presence, a mind, inside that darkened and dormant orb found beneath the Manor. Something was hiding inside, like a turtle flees to the inside of its shell. After it was cracked, but before it could be shattered, a face emerged, or so I was told. I did not see it, I seem rarely so lucky to witness such things, but others have said the face seemed to mimic the face of a man. The others surmise it was pleading to us, pleading for its life, I read it differently. I believe it was a warning to its kin below of the form of its captors. That is why it needed to be shattered, and soon we will have what's needed to harness that wretched hum."

    The Migrant is an enemy composed of two parts; the body of the creature is a muddy, scaly blue form with two legs and what seems to be a single eye, but the "brain" of the creature is the sphere which is attached on top.

    The migrant is a kind of mid-boss of sorts. It is only fought a few times in the game and can even be circumvented in one particular case. The enemy's only weak point is its brain, the body is impervious to both weapons and fire. Fortunately, the migrant begins in a kind of sleeping state and can be damaged easily from far away without making it aggressive if you are willing to spend the clarity to do so, otherwise you must approach it and begin attacking.

    Weapon length matters in this fight since the body of the creature protrudes out enough that hitting the orb without taking damage by colliding with the body is hard with something as small as the dagger.

    The migrant essentially only has two attacks. For one, it can strike one of its legs into the ground and send it shooting out of the ground at the very spot the player is standing. The only way for the migrant to move is to send its head flying across the room in a circular motion, it protects itself by forming two projectiles around itself and firing them at the player as it moves away. At this point it could emerge just about anywhere in the immediate area, even right where the player is standing so it is important to try and defeat the monster as fast as possible. Later fights with the Migrant also introduce some other enemies into the mix to make the fight a bit more difficult to deal with.

    Marrow OST - Entombed

    https://youtu.be/XmVZD8Xme4Q

    Up next

    Mass

  • "The most peculiar of the delegation, the Octave, shrouded in hooded cloaks, skulking about in a crudely inhuman manner, adorned with masks depicting some vaguely lizardly face. Terrifying creatures, easily mistaken for the otherworldly things beneath the Manor, but still normal enough to remind the eye of their human past. They will frighten the children, the women, but it is worth it, to have audience with this most magnificent guest. The Octave, these witnesses of the deeper truths. Beneath the cloaks and masks I've glanced the most gaudy and pitiful of forms, yellow, skeletal things; armless, with a plunging endless hole where instead should be a face."

    The Witness is one of the more common enemies in the game, though it only appears in a couple of areas. It is an emaciated human form, without arms, with pikes instead of legs, and a faceless head. Its Idle movements are erratic but the Witness only has one way to move, and that's leaping. Presumably it can't walk due to the bizarre shape of its legs, its arms likely removed to prevent it from falling over.

    Like quite a few enemies in Marrow the Witness can only be damaged by attacking a specific spot on its body. Striking or shooting the legs or head won't do anything, instead the Witness must be bisected by hitting it in the abdomen.

    Another wildcard factor with a number of enemies in the game, including the Witness, is their behaviour. Some of the Witness enemies will act differently than others. Some will bounce randomly around a room, while others might lie dormant until you approach and than retreat backward until you are close enough for them to strike, leaping forward and catching you off balance. Variable health is also a trait shared among a number of enemies in the game.

    Certain types of enemies may buckle under a couple of hits but enemy health is individual based, not type based, so enemies of the same type both later on in the game and even mingling with their weaker kin may have an unexpectedly higher pool of health.

    Marrow OST - Back Through Shadows

    Up next

    Migrant