Iris - 2D Adventure / Platformer WIP

[xhedgehogx]

'Iris' is a 2D platformer taking inspiration from classic Nintendo games such as Metroid and Zelda. And so far this year has been filled with so much hate and violence, I wanted to see Iris more as a pacifist character. So instead of basing the game around a battle system, it's focused on a stamina meter - which is that object circling around the player in the video. There is no regular jump button, just the 'boost' button. This will allow the player to run and scale walls faster at the cost of stamina. When the meter is completely drained, Iris cannot climb walls and will move slowly until that meter is back at 100%. There is also no health bar, it's basically a one hit death. However, there will be lots of automatic checkpoints and auto-saves to get right back where you were. Because of this, I hope to make some interesting puzzles and dungeons around the concept.

I have the basic story outline drafted already, making tweaks here and there. And a basic world map is being worked on right now - but, I'm not yet sure if I want to do an open world or something that's level-by-level basis. The base system/engine you see in the video is pretty much complete, minus the enemy AI. I just have to get some of other things done like a pause button, and those auto-save spots finished before I start building levels in Fusion. Of course, the buttons and joystick are not final. And the current background is just a placeholder.

This project has been through so many revisions the last few years (1, 2, 3, 4, & 5) (Edit: Apparently I first started the project in late 2011), but I think I finally decided on how I wanted to build it. I hope to use this forum to show off the development as I get more done.

This is going to be a fairly big project, much bigger than my last games. I don't expect to have it complete for a long time. I'd love some feedback from all of you, like what do you think of the animations? With the stamina meter, I've played around with a few ideas already; I like this one the best so far, but worried it looks too much like one of those direction arrows telling you where to go.

Thank you so much!
(I also hope this was the correct place to post this)

Edit: I should also add that I'm targeting iOS (maybe HTML 5 too) for this game since it uses screen zoom. I'd love to get it on other platforms though as well.

[MEHRDAD]

Beautiful game . Nice job

[aenever]

Looks neat, can't wait to see more updates

[SirRandom]

Creating a pacifist game is a noble cause indeed I think the graphics are OK, but the backgrounds could use softer edges and more flavor. Having a really simplistic art style is different from having just a bland art style.

The stamina bar does look like a direction arrow in my eyes. I would opt for a simple meter, which fills in, and at 100% goes invisible. The gameplay looks solid though

I also wish the guys at Clickteam would make the ScreenZoom available for at least Windows and Android platforms also It just looks so neat in realtime.

[xhedgehogx]

Thanks, everyone!

@SirRandom , I do agree with the backgrounds. Those mountains were pretty much just placeholders to test out the parallax. I hope to make something similar to it, but more in the style of the foreground scenery. Definitely needs some clouds and trees among other things.

I'm curious what you think about this stamina meter, which is really just a regular Counter object:

(This is from a slightly older build)

Ideally, I'd like something like this, but more of a circular style. Sort of like the Zelda Skyward Sword Stamina Wheel. I just have no idea how to make it or animate it with my current tools.

And I agree, I'd love to see Screen Zoom come out on more platforms. I believe it's also on the HTML5 runtime too?

[SirRandom]

I like that! Sometimes simple design is the best.

One really indie way to make that counter would be to make an active with 32 directions. Then take a circle and chop it into 31 parts (plus empty circle). And I guess you'll know what that leads to...

Yeah, the iOS and HTML5 are only ones. I made a demo while back with mouse zoom effect. It's a shame really, because that extension works quite well on the supported platforms.

[mobichan]

The concept of stamina "sounds" interesting. But I don't think people enjoy being constrained to one action at a time with a mandatory pause between actions. If you can still give a good amount of varied player control that doesn't rely on the meter, then you might be on to something. But if every climb or run needs a lot of stamina use, then it might wear on you very quickly to have to wait for the refill all the time.

Good Luck!

[xhedgehogx]

@SirRandom, yeah that's definitely a way to do it too. I wanted to probably do something a bit smoother though. I think Adobe AfterEffects can animate that, but I haven't really looked into pricing or anything on it yet.

@mobichan, thank you for the feedback! I do see your point with that, especially with a mobile game, being limited and constrained may get annoying after a while. One of the bigger reasons I decided to go with the stamina meter was to limit how much the player was, say climbing a wall for example. Maybe a way I can make it less constrained is cut the recovery time down and make collectable items in places that will automatically re-fill the gauge. I can probably try partially removing it. The player won't see it on the hud, but as they're climbing I can have the character start slowing down and a more tired animation will play until she eventually gives up and falls back to the ground. And completely remove any of the stamina drain while running; running will still allow her to hop over ledges while walking is just dropping off of them - to keep them different.

I'll definitely play around with these ideas when I have more time this weekend. I also had an expression system I was playing around with that might work well with this.

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Edit: I've been working on this the last few hours. I think it's finally at how I like it. Stamina will no longer drain while she is running. But while climbing, a red overlay will start blinking and will blink more rapidly as stamina is draining. I'm probably still going to play around with the color though, I'm not really feeling the red with it.

[xhedgehogx]

Little bit of an update here. I still need to change the ugly mountain background and buttons. One thing I am stuck on is the water, any ideas on what i can do with it? Right now, they're just transparent active objects moving up and down, just looks a little lazy.

And I wanted a custom thumbnail in these videos, this'll probably get changed for the next one, was a bit rushed.

Thanks!!

New tile sets. The grass, walls and other platforms look better now, they were built with AutoTileGen.

There's a water hazard now, when Iris falls into the water, the player will have to restart at the checkpoint.

New transitions. The screen will fade along with zooming.

Text boxes. When Iris walks into an NPC, sign or in this case, a floating block; dialogue will appear on the screen. To dismiss, simply walk away from the subject. - Special thanks to Chris Burrows' extension-less Text Blitter example.

And last; small, minor tweaks to the ragdoll for better quality. Along with water physics adjustments. Tapping on the screen when the ragdoll is active will immediately respawn at the checkpoint. Otherwise, as soon as the screen completely fades black will auto-respawn.

[SirRandom]

Good work!

Maybe add a slight gradient to the water, or make its surface move up and down slightly? Also, the surface could be lighter than the bottom.