Unfortunately I don't have the manpower to release very often, but I'll try to speed things up a bit :-)
Regarding the graphic, this looks ready but things from the ascii version are still missing, for example animations of potions being thrown and ranged attacks. I'd also like to try a simpler item system: the "most items are boostable with all runics" pattern is difficult to grasp and hard to balance.
i don't understand.
i said "i prefer frequent small uploads rather than rare big ones"
u have been releasing once 1 year (with LOTS of changes)
instead, can't u upload once a month with very small changes?
example:
add graphics to wall and floor: upload
next month, add graphics to monsters: upload
...
instead, it looks to me u are planning to add graphics to everything and then upload (next year maybe?)
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u talked about the animations for throwing stuff. can't u just upload using the new graphics for walls/floor and keep the old animations?
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btw, i'm loving the game
the only 2 things i dislike are the graphics (jsut want enough to be able to recognize things better)
and not being able to save (if i get tired of a build i can't simply try out another one and also i can't let my friend play. it would suck if i was at the end of the game, i let my friend who never played the game before try it out and he dies? lol
Unfortunately the ascii and pixels backends are distint in my code, so for example I cannot use the ascii animations with the rest of the pixels backend. As of now, the animations are just not there at all.. Also I did release in a partly-done state, I bet players would complain that some stuff is not there or incomplete. So it's a tradeoff between polished content and frequent updates :-(
Also at the moment, I miss quite a few sprites for monsters in the pixels backend. I need to negotiate with my pixels artist to do them before being able to release anything with the pixels backend (I mean: otherwise some different monsters would have the same sprite, urgh..)..
i'm actually a developer myself :) ...
well, kinda. i'm studying IT
i developed a game by myself (not anything awsome haha, but it's playable. can entertain for an hour) as a means to study a programming language and have fun at the same time
u are talking about hiring an artist. that would be the ideal, however, until then, i suggest u use this site for free images (in 1 hour u can easily get a decent image for everything:
i have no doubt whatsoever u can get better images on this site than "g" for a goblin for example
another thing u could do is keep the current image (letters) for monsters and just upload the latest playable version u have, but keep the previous version uploaded as an option (and name it something like "dm_optional version with some graphics"?)
the image u showed with walls/floor/player are so beautiful, i would love to play it, even tho there are no animations and new graphics for monsters
please upload your latest playable version (even if it's just for me, i really want to try it out) but keep the older version uploaded for anyone that would prefer it
Hey cool, do you have a link to your game ?
I don't want to mix images (some from my pixel artist, some from opengamearg.org), because most players would complain the graphics are inconsistent. There's momentum with each release and I don't want to ship a half-baked game.
Regarding mixing letters and graphics, the two backends are distinct; I can't mix both. The letters aren't graphics: I really am drawing text using a bitmap font; so the code differs from drawing graphics.
If you want to have access to early builds, I can add you to my list of betatesters, to which I usually ship versions one month or more before an upcoming release. Would that suit you ?
my game:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KapE8Pl28C-dx4-dFj7UC1mZgMwL6IK2
how to play:
wasd moves
left mouse button shoots (infinite ammo)
right mouse button lauchens grenades (they are consumables)
u can change weapons by going above a weapon on the floor and pressing "e"
your life is on the upper left corner. you can recover it by picking up "food" or "health packs" that are dropped by the enemies u kill
obs: the game has sound
the art and sound used were acquired from free sources
i'm thinking about putting it on itch.io. what do u think?
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i knew u were drawing text. but there is a very simple way to mix them. get images of the text
my suggestion to get images from opengameart was a temporary solution until the artist finishes drawing
i do want to have access to early builds. thanks :)
Cool, you can put it on itch; but I would recommend a more friendly place for first timers: GameJolt. I had much more feedback on GameJolt, because I think it's more friendly towards "real indie" games like ours. There are so many games on itch.io that the competition is fierce.
I'll happily add you to my list of betatesters if you provide me an email.
You can find my email address on my twitter description (on the left): https://twitter.com/hgamesdev
