Tales of Gorluth - Development Thread

[viddi]

Happy New Year, mates!

I wanted to let you know, that I am working on a new Backbone title.
It´ll be an Action Adventure and it´s German only atm.

Check out this crappy DigiCam video:
[ Show youtube player ]



I need some advice:
Can the Backbone addicts around here confirm, that the "above view" setting does have some collision detection problems?
(sporadic solidity on non-solid blocks)



Anyway, let me know what you think about it!


Thanks!





New sample video:

[ Show youtube player ]

New ingame screenshots:







ToG teaser online:

-> [ Show youtube player ]
or
-> http://www.talesofgorluth.de/


I hope you like it.




Check out this "ToG Music Medley" and listen to some Gorluth mod files:
http://www.vidworx-mediengestaltung.de/ToG-Medley.mp3

[s2325]

Good luck. I'm happy it's not another SNES-like rpg with big heads and manga eyes.

[DDNI]

It looks very nice! Can't help you on the collision detection though.

[s2325]

If you need some inspiration maybe take a look at this game http://en.android4gamers.com/arcade/...ht-castle.html

[leathered]

Very impressed, nice style and lot's of content there already. I hope you get around the collision detection issue. Look forward to playing it, at least my other half speaks German!

[viddi]

Originally Posted by DDNI

It looks very nice!

Thanks.
And it´s pretty fast despite EHB and a fullscreen playfield.

Originally Posted by s2325

If you need some inspiration maybe take a look at this game http://en.android4gamers.com/arcade/...ht-castle.html

Thank you. I´ll take a look!

[viddi]

Originally Posted by Lielo

Very impressed, nice style and lot's of content there already. I hope you get around the collision detection issue. Look forward to playing it, at least my other half speaks German!

Thanks Lielo!
An English version is on my list.

[amiman99]

Looks nice, I'm myself working on a platformer using some Cammy's textures.

[Graham Humphrey]

Nice to see you start another project viddi and good that you ignored the snobbish idiots who dismiss your games purely because of what they're made in and because they think the graphics look rubbish (gotta love YouTube comments...).

Good luck!

[Amiten]

Hi Viddi, looks good!! I see how backbone powerfull are when knows how to work with it.

Continues with the cool works!!!


Amiga4ever!!

[rockersuke]

At the risk of being included in the "snobish idiots who dismiss your games purely because of what they're made in" bunch, I would honestly suggest you to consider giving the step into some lower level programming language.
And I have a strong reason to think so.
At this point it's an undeniable obvious fact that you've got something many of us lack: talent for old-school game desing, for getting the right graphics and music, for reaching the right level of playability. Given that, in my humble opinion, Backbone is creating and undesired "barrier" effect.
I'm not stating that you should enter in the arcane and demanding dungeons of C and assembly, I just think It's time for you to consider taking a look at the friendlier worlds of BASIC dialects as AMOS or Blitz.
As far as I know, Backbone itself is an AMOS based tool. If you invested your time in learning to code with it you could skip that layer. Your games would run faster, smoother, would be more versatile, and would do it all in a wider number of real Classic Amiga machines. You've proven you can make awesome Backbone jobs for some game genres it wasn't even intended for. I just can't imagine right now what you could achieve without its restrictions.
Of course, only you can judge whether the time required is worth the investment. Just watching this last youtube makes me think that the answer is a definitively obvious "yes". Just wanted you to consider it!

--

[leathered]

@Rockersucke- I think you make a fair point, if Viddi was using amos it would certainly offer a means of exploring the collision detection for example.

However I also think that 'drastic' measures such as re-programming are not necessarily the best use of one's energy and can easily lead to loss of focus & 'coders block' (if I may use such a term). The other thing is, after gaining some experience trying out different projects within any framework you get an idea of how best to use it.
Working within limitations offers it's own challenges and requires a particular focus, and I think it's kind of buzzing if you can create something decent out of that. If the end result a a good gaming experience then that's what counts! And finishing, of course

[Graham Humphrey]

Originally Posted by rockersuke

At the risk of being included in the "snobish idiots who dismiss your games purely because of what they're made in" bunch

Not at all. That was a very good and constructive post. I was more referring to the sort of attitude on display in the comments to his Agent Lux video (which admittedly I should have made clear) which is the sort of thing we can well do without. But more posts like yours would be great. I do see your point but I also find myself subscribing to Lielo's "if it's a good game that's what counts" school of thought.

Actually on the subject of Backbone and AMOS I am sure I read a post a while back that Backbone outputs a temporary AMOS source file in RAM when you run the game in the Backbone environment? I guess if you already have a bit of knowledge of AMOS that could possibly prove advantageous.

[viddi]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

Nice to see you start another project viddi and good that you ignored the snobbish idiots who dismiss your games purely because of what they're made in and because they think the graphics look rubbish (gotta love YouTube comments...).

Good luck!

Thanks, Graham!

[viddi]

Originally Posted by rockersuke

At the risk of being included in the "snobish idiots who dismiss your games purely because of what they're made in" bunch, I would honestly suggest you to consider giving the step into some lower level programming language.
And I have a strong reason to think so.
At this point it's an undeniable obvious fact that you've got something many of us lack: talent for old-school game desing, for getting the right graphics and music, for reaching the right level of playability. Given that, in my humble opinion, Backbone is creating and undesired "barrier" effect.
I'm not stating that you should enter in the arcane and demanding dungeons of C and assembly, I just think It's time for you to consider taking a look at the friendlier worlds of BASIC dialects as AMOS or Blitz.
As far as I know, Backbone itself is an AMOS based tool. If you invested your time in learning to code with it you could skip that layer. Your games would run faster, smoother, would be more versatile, and would do it all in a wider number of real Classic Amiga machines. You've proven you can make awesome Backbone jobs for some game genres it wasn't even intended for. I just can't imagine right now what you could achieve without its restrictions.
Of course, only you can judge whether the time required is worth the investment. Just watching this last youtube makes me think that the answer is a definitively obvious "yes". Just wanted you to consider it!

--

Thanks a lot for your constructive post.

Too bad, I don´t have the skills and time to put my teeth into AMOS.


I would join a game dev project (for music, testing, whatsoever) immediately.
But let´s face it: Either these projects will be canned after a short (or long) time or there aren´t any...

[viddi]

I still need some help from Backbone users:

Originally Posted by viddi

I need some advice:
Can the Backbone addicts around here confirm, that the "above view" setting does have some collision detection problems?
(sporadic solidity on non-solid blocks)

I could also send you a demo version.
Thank you very much!

[lesta_smsc]

Firstly, this looks great! Don't forget the English version!

As for the idiots' comments, ignore them. You can't please everyone. Certainly, I am liking the graphics in this game very much! I could see this on a large scale for a game - e.g. final fantasy, Zelda, therefore I think a music selection similar in nature to the background music used in those games might be what's needed to give it the final touch.

Have you thought about a name for the game?

[viddi]

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

Firstly, this looks great! Don't forget the English version!

As for the idiots' comments, ignore them. You can't please everyone. Certainly, I am liking the graphics in this game very much! I could see this on a large scale for a game - e.g. final fantasy, Zelda, therefore I think a music selection similar in nature to the background music used in those games might be what's needed to give it the final touch.

Have you thought about a name for the game?

Thanks for your post, lesta!
You can already get an impression about the ingame music in the video.
I think it fits perfecly.

I already have a name for the game...





____________________________________________


*Cough*

Sorry, I have to bother you with my "solid block" problem again.

Watch this video and see what I mean:
[ Show youtube player ]




I also checked the Backbone game "Statoscuro".
It also uses the "above view" setting (32x32 blocks, though).
The problem I have is non-existent in this game.

So, Backbone-Lovers, please help.
Thanks again...

[s2325]

I think in Statuscuro light gray blocks is background and dark gray blocks are solid objects. If you are close to dark gray objects you have illusion that light gray blocks blocking your path which is not true.

[viddi]

Originally Posted by s2325

I think in Statuscuro light gray blocks is background and dark gray blocks are solid objects. If you are close to dark gray objects you have illusion that light gray blocks blocking your path which is not true.

The blocks you are talking about are handled as "blocks".
Some with solidity, some without.
The dark gray blocks aren´t objects resp. sprites.


In this context, I don´t understand why my non-solid blocks next to solid blocks appear to be solid when the player sprite tries to walk on it top down.