itch.io

If you are interested in certain parts of the code for learning-purposes and how to do some stuff, sure. Even though the code became a mess. But I won't give away all of the code (and assets). Sorry!

I like the idea of grabbing an enemy and using it as a weapon and to throw it at other enemies. :)

Cool editing of the gameplay. I really like it :)

Thank you. I really appreciate your "exaggerated" comment :) Makes me kinda proud.

Thank you very much for your time you put into your comment! It's really welcome and helpful.

You are right with the AI.. basically there is no "AI".  I tried to implement some sort of pathfinding in a later version, but I wasn't satisfied at all and left it like this. It will be improved for sure in a newer version. I also agree with all the other issues you mentioned. Most of them I already noticed and noted. But some of them are actually pretty smart and will go directly to my todo-list.

Unfortunately, I can't currently put the effort into this game as I wanted to.  But there will be a new/better version for sure. It's just a matter of time. :)

Cool! It was fun and helpful to watch it. Thank you :)

Thank you so much :)

Thank you so much for the Let's Play and feedback! I love to see people play the game and comment while doing so. Helps me so much to improve. I like the idea of necromancy! More spells were planned, but I hadn't enough time yet to implement (technically it's possible to get the blue fireball of skeletons with some cheats :D ). More equipment (like trinkets and armor) is also planned.

I really, really want to make more and improve this game as much as possible, but currently I am pretty busy with other stuff. But I am sure this game will get updates in the future!

Thats true. I disabled the gamepad support because the switching between mouse and gamepad was buggy. Also the menus and inventory could not be controlled by gamepad. So I figured that I want to focus on mouse controls. But I forgot to disable everything related to gamepad, hence the movement is still available, but the viewing is not. Sorry!

- My goal is to have released a "full game" before I have graduated university. I'm not yet sure if I will choose this game for this.

- This is far from my first game. I think it's rather my.. 30th game? :D However most of them were really unfinished and even smaller prototypes than this game. So I consider Seal Breaker to be the "first big game / prototype" I have developed. And it's the first game I released to the public. I struggled a lot with createing a game like Seal Breaker over the years (I always wanted to). I started out like 5 times and surrendered soon after (I lacked a plan, knowledge and motivation to pull it off).

- I started to study computer science 4-5 years ago. Since then I have coded in several languages (e.g. C, C++, C#, Java, Python, Javascript). I have worked mostly at university in non-gaming areas and in a small company that created Augmented Reality applications with Unity (first contact with the engine). I also attended some courses at university to learn making games.

- I would really recommend getting familiar with (OOP) programming in general before jumping on a big game engine. Pick a language you like and pick up a simple framework to render stuff to the screen and getting keyboard / mouse input from user (e.g. SFML, XNA / MonoGame). It's easy to think that an engine like Unity will make stuff magically work, but having a solid understanding of what Unity (and other engines) do in the background really help to create a game and it will reduce the frustration that might arrive working with them.

Some recommendations to start with:

- Start small, make simple games like Pong, Tetris, Break Out, Space Shooter and FINISH them. It's really easy to abandon projects and to start over and over again. It's really hard to finish them. Show them to friends and family get some feedback or upload them to platforms like itch.io. Improve from there. Make bigger / more complex games, but keep it yet simple. After some time you will find youself to re-use some code over and over again for a lot of different games. And thats the time you might want to jump onto an engine.

- Try to surround yourself with people that develop games aswell. Make games together with them if possible. Find blogs / YouTube channels / Facebook groups that create games to keep you motivated.

- Attend Game Jams (like Global Game Jam, Ludum Dare). You will learn a lot of stuff in a very short amount of time. Try to find Game James nearby and attend as a real person if possible.

- Make it a habit to create games. E.g. set yourself some goals for a week / month and work on them a little bit every day.

- Be patient. Developing a game is a very time consuming thing and it will frustrate you over and over again. Don't give up. It gets easier and easier.

Okay I will stop here. It's already a lot of text and I don't want to bore you. :D All of the above is just my experience / opinion. People might disagree and for some people other things worked aswell.

I hope it helps you a little. :)

Don't be afraid to be too harsh. I know that this game has a lot of issues and it's hard for me as a developer to see each issue on my own. Having critical comments help me to identify these and hopefully make it better (which doesn't mean that I will implement each comment straight away).

I also had the feeling of "always" moving backwards, the game lacks some mechanics that "rewards" not to. A shield is a very good idea to at least stay at a certain distance and maybe a shield-bash (block + dash into enemies) could be something to get closer to enemies. Also I have planned to allow the player to customize his style of playing (e.g. play more aggressive, passive, melee, ranged, one-handed, two-handes, shield, magic) with certain game modifiers (e.g. the regain-system like Bloodborne or mana refresh when blocking attacks or increasing damage for sucessfull attacks in a row). A player will be allowed to choose like 4 modifiers by equipping certain items that he be can found in the game. I hope that the game will feel more unique to each player with that system.

The idea of different "move"-modes is nice. One in which you can't attack but move faster (travel-mode) and one in which you have your weapons drawn but move slower (fight-mode). I will put this to my list of stuff that I would like to implement!

With "lisibilité" you probably talk about more (visual / acoustic) feeback from the game to be able to know when to attack and when the enemy attacks. I tried this most of the time in the game (e.g. zombies make a sound when raising their arms and holding it there for some time before attacking), but it's true that it can be clearer. Especially for other enemies that only have visual cues.

Thank you for your time writing this. :)

Thank you for your feedback (I really appreciate critical ones).

In the version I am doing right now I aim to solve most of you points. I want the gameplay to be more fluid and a bit faster. I will implement shields and the structure of the game will change. Currently it's very linear (and narrow). I want the world to be more open to have more paths that you can take and thus there will be more space.

However I don't want this game to be played like a "normal Hack & Slash" game. So it will be probably slower than most action RPGs (I want the player to thinkg about when to attack and see what will come from enemies).

I had the idea to put doding to the mana-pool since I wanted the player to be upfront to the enemy and use dodge when necessary and not to spam it. Since your attacks restore mana I thought this shouldn't be a problem. I admit that the situation when you have no more mana sucks.

Thank you!!. Also good to hear that it works on Ubuntu 16.10 aswell, since I never tried it myself on different platforms.

Me neither :D

Thanks for sharing. I uploaded a new version. I think and hope that this bug is fixed by now.

There is a new version. The intro is now skippable. Thanks for your feedback.

I just uploaded a new version. The bug might be fixed.

Really odd. For most people it just works fine.

Can you provide a screenshot or / and the log file? You can find the log file at the folder where your .exe file is located (where you downloaded it or with the itch app: rightclick my game, then "show local data"). There is a folder "SealBreaker_Data" and inside of that is the log file called "output_log.txt".

That would be a huge help! Thank you :)

That's true. I didn't have time to implement the skipping (I had a hard deadline for a submission with that game). In a newer version it will be skippable. Thanks for your feedback :)

That is a good question. I am currently rewriting the whole thing to make it more robust. I would like to have a longer/better version in in several months. I also would like to release it someday. However I can't promise anything.

Thank you. :)

I really appreciate your comment. It's good to hear that people enjoy playing the game, gives me huge motivation to keep working on it. :)

I really like the style! :) The music is fitting aswell. The only issues I have so far:

- Platforms feel buggy. Sometimes you can't move correctly (especially when moving in the direction the platform is moving)

- When you die, nothing gets reset (which is fine). But then people might miss the hearts in the level, that would help them progress. (Workaround just switch levels, see below)

- When changing the level EVERYTHING gets reseted, even switches, coins and hearts. That feels not very satisfiying. I would either only reset hearts or nothing at all.

Keep going :)

The character is supposed to look (not visually, it just has graphics for left / right) at your mouse (indicated by the arrow around our character). That is not working as intended? Can you give more details on this? Or even a small video / gif?

Hi folks,

yesterday I decided to release my small game Seal Breaker. It's an action-RPG that is inspired by Dark Souls. I aimed for a dense and dark atmosphere and challenging (boss) fights. It's rather short (roughly 25 to 60 minutes) since it's a small prototype. There are of course some bugs (a funny one: healing might trigger a state where your hero screams and drops blood everywhere, very funny to see :D ), but there are no game breaking bugs.

https://furiousfury.itch.io/seal-breaker

I would appreciate any feedback. Have fun playing :)