Draco Chronicles: Unbalance (WIP) (Demo is out)

Neotyguy40 · Jun 06, 2009 6:11 PM

You know... Instead of making your own game engine, try using an already made game engine?

Here are a few:

I actually suggest TGE because of it's powerful scripting and rendering engine...

If you can't afford it, just download the demo and run the WYSIWYG editor and make what you want, them ask me to put it together for you.

Hepolite · Jun 06, 2009 7:42 PM

Why get something new when I know how to use the current? Also, I'm not making my "own" engine, I'm using one called "Ultimate 3D". And no, I'm not going to change that, I'll continue where I am now.

Neotyguy40 · Jun 07, 2009 3:28 AM

Hepolite wrote:

Why get something new when I know how to use the current? Also, I'm not making my "own" engine, I'm using one called "Ultimate 3D". And no, I'm not going to change that, I'll continue where I am now.

Ohh, I was under the impression that you were making a game engine from scratch, lol.

Well anyways, looks like it will be a cool classic spyro version type game.

Maybe I might make a dragon game when I finish my current game that I am making.

~cornys~ · Jun 07, 2009 4:18 AM

lol... talking about other peoples's games... Mine are like really bad... lol... I'm not good at programming yet... lol

ontels · Jun 07, 2009 9:38 AM

Hepolite wrote:

No, I haven't received any recent mails from you, try to send it again.

I have sent it again, I hope you recieve it ok.

Hepolite · Jun 07, 2009 11:33 AM

@ Neo, there's been some misunderstandings with that before, so you're not the first wink

@ Cornys, You'll learn. Took me a week before I made my first "game". After that, things went more fluently smile

@ Ontels, this time I received it.

Hepolite · Jun 22, 2009 10:31 PM

Due to lack of public interest and no one to help with art and models, I might have to put this project down. It's such a shame, because this project has lots of potential. There's no problem in the technical parts, only the "visible" parts are a true pain. Since those who volunteered to help (Both here and other forums) could not continue/failed to do anything, I can't really find much point in continuing, as I'm not capable of creating the entire game myself. If this game should get anywhere closer to completion, I need help from you!

I'm not referring to Ontels, you've done a lot already. TheAnvil, so have you. The voicers haven't had much chance to prove what they could do, but I appreciated their help. I hope that someone might help me re-boot this project, so it's not all wasted. It's already way on the way, a lot has been done.

This is very grave news, both for me and everyone who wished to see this game grow to something large. I'm going to be around here and announce if things gets any better, so feel free to reply. I really wanted to make this game, I've dreamed about it for more than a year now, and it's already one of the best games ever made using Game Maker. And it also have no speed issues when it came to performance, running at full FPS at all times. Could keep going, but there's not much point doing that now...

I really hope that someday a modeler and artists wish to help turn this into a complete game, or at least a demo. It's such a shame to let a month-and-a-half worth of work go to waste.
Thanks for your time, and I hope you understand. It's been a pleasure to be able to work on this project, and I've enjoyed ever hour of the development. I would never been able to get this far without the help of those who spent hours on helping out where they could. Thanks for the great time we had together
~Hepolite

RedDragonX · Jun 22, 2009 10:50 PM

I would really enjoy helping you with the areas that you're having trouble with but I lack the appropriate skills when it comes to modeling and such. The most I could do was the voices but I will surely look around to see if some other people can help you out because I would like to see your dream realized.

TheAnvil · Jun 22, 2009 11:40 PM

So would I. I do keep plugging away, albeit very slowly as my time is severely limited, but when I get a couple moments I'm tweaking away.

Wish I could have been more help to you Hep.

ontels · Jun 23, 2009 4:07 PM

If you really need artists Ill pitch my pencil in for you buddy.

Hepolite · Jun 23, 2009 5:48 PM

Thanks for your replies, it helps a lot smile

I found out that no matter how hard I try, I can't keep myself from adding a bit here and there and fixing some small problems. I'm going to continue working where I can, with the coding and some models.
Ontels, that would really help! Is there any chance you can make those images you've written about in the intro of the story? I asked three people to do this, and all of them said "Sure, I'll so that", but no one replied after that... Now that's funny <_<

Trasher258 · Jun 24, 2009 1:09 AM

Those are what I would call either backsliders or slackers. Of course, they might have their hands full with something else or just forgotten about it. I wonder if I could round up some support somehow on YouTube... it's worth a try.

ontels · Jun 24, 2009 5:44 PM

Hepolite wrote:

Thanks for your replies, it helps a lot
I found out that no matter how hard I try, I can't keep myself from adding a bit here and there and fixing some small problems. I'm going to continue working where I can, with the coding and some models.
Ontels, that would really help! Is there any chance you can make those images you've written about in the intro of the story? I asked three people to do this, and all of them said "Sure, I'll so that", but no one replied after that... Now that's funny <_<

I was thinking more of doing concept art, the opening I thought you might have been able to do with the game engine.

Hepolite · Jun 24, 2009 8:22 PM

Any help that you can find will help a lot.

Ontels, I already got the opening cutscene ready, it's all done except the last part of it. All I need now is the images, and some better voice recordings from Trasher (That's why I asked for those lines in the mail, Trasher). Ontels, those images is something I can't make, and I can't find someone to make them either, so I really don't know what to do with that.

ontels · Jun 25, 2009 4:28 PM

Well I would do them but I don't think my drawing talents are good enough to appear in the actual game, it would only be embarrassing to watch.

Hepolite · Jun 25, 2009 8:13 PM

You're without doubt better than me wink
Those images can just be placeholders until someone more experienced can make them, don't you think?

And one more thing: I have some very, very nice music to go with the game big_smile
I got a perfect intro music and very good battlemusic. I also have some sound pieces that I can make some more music from, so I'm not running out of that anytime soon.

Trasher258 · Jun 30, 2009 10:13 PM

Here are a few sound file resources for things such as walking/running, collision of objects, breaking of objects, ambiance, elemental sounds, etc. They are not too bad...

Freesoundproject (Requires free registration in order to download sounds)
Findsounds (Search engine for WAVE, MP3, AIFF, and AU audio file types)

Hepolite · Jul 01, 2009 9:35 AM

Interesting sites, I'm going to see if I can find a few useful sounds there smile

I haven't said it here yet, but there's going to be a beta out within 10 days, and it's going forward.

Swaffy · Jul 01, 2009 10:31 PM

Hey guys. How's the game going? Thought I would drop in to say hello.

Hepolite · Jul 01, 2009 11:32 PM

It's growing slowly, but it's coming piece by piece.

As I said, I'm working on getting a beta out. I hear that the people who try this game experiences some weird graphical problems, any since I don't get those problems, it's not really much I can do about that right now.
As for the graphics, they're coming slowly but steadily. I've improved the waterfalls and the water a bit, and I've improved the brightness and such of the level. The animations are currently pretty stiff and sort of lame, but that's going to be fixed when I can solve some stupid problem with the model file. It acts weird when I try to add another "bone" to the model.
As for the technical parts, things are moving together. I took a day off, so not much has been done today, but tomorrow or the day after that, I'm going to re-do the entire combat system to something that actually works. Two enemies has been added (A spider and a scorpion), but one of them lacks a brain, so it's not doing anything at the moment. The other is just plain stupid. This WILL be fixed before I release the beta.

I felt like adding a little checklist for what to add until I release the beta: (May add or remove points later on)
- {100% working, 30% done} Re-do combat system (Combo attacks, animated attacks, making attacking easier)
- {70% done} Improve the AI of enemies
- {100% done} Dieing issues (Fail to restart game)
- {WIP, 60% done} Tweaking user-input (Awkward controls, improving user friendliness)
- Fix some animation issues
- Adding in-game help system

I'm working on them in this order. I'll edit this post later when I get those points fixed.

Swaffy · Jul 02, 2009 3:28 AM

Yes, the game restart after dying is an important attribute. But make sure
there are checkpoints instead of restarting the whole game.

Also, allow the player to free-roam more than fight. It should not be a
game like TLoS A New Beginning where you fight enemies non-stop.

Other than that, your game seems to be doing well. For the number of
people that is working on the game, it is going well. Do oyu think you can
hook me up with a shot of one of your character models? In a PM?

Hepolite · Jul 02, 2009 9:57 AM

I was thinking about what kind of save-system I wanted, let the player save when he/she wants or using a checkpoint system. I think I'm going with the checkpoint, as that should improve the challenge of the game.
I will try to make the levels in such a way where you can walk your own path, but I'm a bit unsure about how to accomplish this. Well, I'll think of something.

And Swaffy, do you want a screenshot or the model file? We'll take that over PM.

Trasher258 · Jul 02, 2009 7:23 PM

How about this: Each path that has it's own challenge but the player can only choose one out of how many there are. For example, one has a puzzle, another has some enemies, and the third is a series of bridges and some are busted in some way... and a few enemies. Once the player takes a path they are blocked off from turning back by some obstruction. I don't know what exactly... a force field or rubble?

I have a question to ask you. Does the player have a number of lives or is it unlimited? If it's limited then put a limit on the max number of lives they can have. I don't think its necessary to gather up 99 lives and rarely have to find more. I suggest the simple 9 lives max or less depending on difficulty.

Hepolite · Jul 02, 2009 8:35 PM

I think I'm going for the unlimited lives, a limited number of lives will sooner or later backfire, and it's the player that has to pay for that. Let's say you're not among the best, and only have one life left at the last boss, which is close to impossible (Not saying it will be), then what? I'm going for the unlimited lives, if noone wants a limited number.

Having the way back blocked is something I've considered, and most likely going to use. But your idea of splitting the path is a good idea. I'll see how that goes, but I'm sure I'll use that idea wink

Hepolite · Jul 04, 2009 10:13 PM

Combat system up and running, working nicely. Just some more work, and it's done! Still adding more moves and attacks (Which will take a while), and fixing some smaller parts with that, then it's ready to go.
Before I release the BETA, I will finish off this task, improve the AI, fix the dieing problem and add a basic game manual. It should take max 5 days, unless something gets in the way.

EDIT:
Just went to YouTube and searched a bit for random stuff. I was shocked when I suddenly saw the title "Fan made dragon game" and saw a screenshot from this game. I thought someone had stolen the game! Then I viewed it, and luckily it wasn't someone who had stolen the game, it was just some advertisement wink

Trasher, you should fix up some of the info there. The tools used include Anim8or, UVMapper, Audacity, GIMP, Photoshop, MS Paint and a whole bunch of other things which I've either forgotten about or too lazy to mention, as well as a few other things which is used for sound and some other misc things. You can also toss this link up there too, which is the the other main project thread. You might as well mention that the YouTube "Hepolite" is not me, just someone who grabbed that username before me.

#201 Jun 06, 2009 6:11 PM

Re: Draco Chronicles: Unbalance (WIP) (Demo is out)

#202 Jun 06, 2009 7:42 PM

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#203 Jun 07, 2009 3:28 AM

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