Elven Blood by nihilaleph
Welcome to Duran, a magical city of humans and elves!
Or is it? Now humans see the threat of the elves and began a great slaughter.
Anya, an elven girl, is trying to flee the city that it's consumed by the fire of hatred. Armed with the elven knife that her now deceased mother gave, she must find a way to escape this living hell. Will she survive? Will she become the monster that the humans fear so much?
How to Play:
1- Controls:
A / D Move,
W Jump,
Spacebar Attack,
R Retry;
2- Anya is not a fighter, she can only attack while standing still;
3- If a city guardian sees Anya, there is no escape;
4- The 'ending' will be different depending of how you play the game
Tools:
- VisualStudio2013 (C++)
- Box2D (Physics library)
- Taengine (my own engine)
- GIMP
- Bosca Ceoil
- Audacity
//////////////////////////////
// Known Issues and bugs
//////////////////////////////
1- In some computers a weird white box is being render with the flashlight.
http://i.imgur.com/YcRvKKr.png (Thanks to @avultima for the printscreen!)
2- Controls are very floaty... It was supposed to be difficult, but not that much >.<
3- Maybe related to the control, in some computers the game is running really slowly....
4- The hitbox of the flashlight is a rectangle rather than a triangle.
/**************** POST COMPO RELEASE 1.1 ******************/
Bugs fixes:
- Physics simulation fixed, won't go on slo-mo on low performance
- FPS now is printed in the cmd for debugging
- Flashlight hitbox is now a triangle
- Trie to fix shader bug. Couldn't really reproduce it so it's just a guess
- Anya jump won't fail anymore
- Changed some texts (specially endings, so it's clear which one you got)
/***********************************************************
*************************OBSERVATIONS***********************
***********************************************************/
1- Make sure to leave a comment so I can test your game too! ;)
2- Posted my post-mortem! Link below!
Or is it? Now humans see the threat of the elves and began a great slaughter.
Anya, an elven girl, is trying to flee the city that it's consumed by the fire of hatred. Armed with the elven knife that her now deceased mother gave, she must find a way to escape this living hell. Will she survive? Will she become the monster that the humans fear so much?
How to Play:
1- Controls:
A / D Move,
W Jump,
Spacebar Attack,
R Retry;
2- Anya is not a fighter, she can only attack while standing still;
3- If a city guardian sees Anya, there is no escape;
4- The 'ending' will be different depending of how you play the game
Tools:
- VisualStudio2013 (C++)
- Box2D (Physics library)
- Taengine (my own engine)
- GIMP
- Bosca Ceoil
- Audacity
//////////////////////////////
// Known Issues and bugs
//////////////////////////////
1- In some computers a weird white box is being render with the flashlight.
http://i.imgur.com/YcRvKKr.png (Thanks to @avultima for the printscreen!)
2- Controls are very floaty... It was supposed to be difficult, but not that much >.<
3- Maybe related to the control, in some computers the game is running really slowly....
4- The hitbox of the flashlight is a rectangle rather than a triangle.
/**************** POST COMPO RELEASE 1.1 ******************/
Bugs fixes:
- Physics simulation fixed, won't go on slo-mo on low performance
- FPS now is printed in the cmd for debugging
- Flashlight hitbox is now a triangle
- Trie to fix shader bug. Couldn't really reproduce it so it's just a guess
- Anya jump won't fail anymore
- Changed some texts (specially endings, so it's clear which one you got)
/***********************************************************
*************************OBSERVATIONS***********************
***********************************************************/
1- Make sure to leave a comment so I can test your game too! ;)
2- Posted my post-mortem! Link below!
Ratings
| Coolness | 100% | 1 |
| Overall | 3.16 | 442 |
| Audio | 3.00 | 333 |
| Fun | 2.82 | 599 |
| Graphics | 3.14 | 439 |
| Humor | 2.29 | 648 |
| Innovation | 2.76 | 614 |
| Mood | 3.59 | 125 |
| Theme | 3.24 | 566 |
@trashmob Well... Actually you are the elf ^^;
@Shaw I'm glad you enjoyed it! =D
I do wish you could attack while moving, but that's subjective.
Great job!
Question, what was that white gradient bar next to the vision cones meant to be?
@avultima Could you send me a screenshot please? I'm not sure what you're talking about xp
I feel I should note here that the conclusion is different depending of how you play the game....
http://i.imgur.com/YcRvKKr.png
OMG that's super wierd!!! It was supposed to be like the screenshot I took for the entry... I guess there was something wrong with the shader... Maybe your OpenGL version didn't like it..? T_T
It seemed the flashlight area was a big rectangle as opposed to the cone as I was caught a few times without actually being within the cone. You should indicate this more clearly.
I liked the graphics, though, and the music fit the mood.
About the flashlight, you're right! I actually I used rectangles to detect the player, and then I had the idea to put the light cone. I was gonna change the sensor to a triangle later but in the end I didn't have time to do it T_T I'm sorry that it spoiled the experience... u_u
The mood is quite nice. The music, in combination with the colors, and fire, etc. all come together well.
I like the story telling method of dumping the character into an event where the player knows nothing. It's a good way to hook the player from the start. It made me want to keep playing.
I like how you did the fire with 2 frames of scribble. Good job.
As others have said, nice twist on the monster theme. Kudos.
Cons:
Controls are very floaty. The gradual acceleration/ deceleration was annoying to get used to, and even once I was accustomed to it, I still felt it took away from the game.
The visual aid for the humans vision I feel was necessary, but it was very misleading. I'm not sure what the giant block of white was for, as it seemed to serve no purpose save to mock illumination. At first I thought the yellow cone in the center was the "they've seen you" zone, but you can still be seen a little outside the cone.
Also, the white block obstructs player view of platforms and such, so there were often times where I had no idea there was a platform to be jumped on until the human turned away.
I didn't like how it's possible to avoid killing the humans, but then if you finish the level without killing them, you have to restart anyway. I feel like, at the very least, the level design could force your hand. So you have to "clear your path" so to speak.
Overall:
I feel like the mood was definitely the best feature, and the floaty controls were the worst.
If the controls were tightened up, and the visual aid for the human's view were changed, this is a game I would thoroughly enjoy. Kudos.
@djfariel Thank you for the feed back! As already posted, I don`t know what is that wierd white box that appears... Also it seems that the game is running slower than inteded in some computers... I will try to fix them ASAP! Hope these problems didn`t spoil all the fun >.<
I just uploaded a post-compo release that fixes a bug with the physics simulation (it was in slo-mo in low performance). I'd be glad if you try it again! ^^
Replayed.
The human view cone seems to be fixed. It accurately represents where you can be seen.
The giant white...thing (lol) is gone, so no more issues seeing platforms.
The floaty controls still remain however.
To try to describe it with more detail, as MGD mentioned it lies almost purely in the player characters horizontal movements speed.
When you start running, you go from 0% speed to 100% speed in a little less than 3 seconds. Same for 100% - 0%
This gradual accel/ decel, is what makes it feel "floaty"
Also, I think I was misunderstood about the killing vs not killing thing. I absolutely agree with your decision to give the player the option. What I was saying was if you try to complete the level without killing them, it makes you restart as if you had died. Meaning that while you CAN avoid killing them, you still have to to "win."
As another final thought, if the controls are adjusted a little, even in the games current state, I would thoroughly enjoy playing through multiple levels. All things considered, this was one of my favorite games out of about 30 I've tested :D
I see what you mean by floaty, I'm sorry for making the controller feel uncomfortable T_T I guess I can't change a mechanic part of the game now ^^; As I was talking with MGD, I realize now that I should've made linear damping different for vertical and horizontal velocity...
Oh about the ending, sorry I misunderstood you >.<. I actually offered the option to restart in all "endings", so you can go through again and try to get another one~
The best I could do so far is not kill anyone except the last guy.
It was too hard to get the last "peace" ending so I cheated and just looked at the source code :D
Don't judge me!!!
@theholychicken Well, the dark side is "quicker, easier, more seductive" ;) I did the 4th ending for those who just kill everybody anyway, so you ARE the monster! kkkk
Oh don't you dare look at my source code! xp
@patvanmackelberg It was intended to have more stealth features, but you know, you can only do much ^^;
@kidando Oh, I actually did the voice over xp And the line of sight is actually just a shader~
Nice work!
A little difficult to jump, so I failed to pass the guardian on the 2nd floor without killing.
I tried to play the compo version but stopped by the shader bug.
The yay:
- general mood
- different endings
- nice touch with eyes getting more and more filled with bloodlust
The nay:
- controls felt too slow and floaty
- intro text is replayed every attempt without any option to skip whatsoever
- endings could be a bit more rewarding
- game could also use arrow controls aside from W/A/D ones; while it's not a problem for me personally, I think people with AZERTY keyboard would appreciate
Pretty climatic entry, but gameplay needs quite a polish.
@Biruts I tried to play your game but couldn't find it! Could you please send me the link?
@LastLeaf The path of peace is a hard one to walk ;)
@Sunflower Thank you for those insights! Didn't think about the AZERTY keyboards xp
I thought people wouldn't mind the intro text ^^;
And I wished I had time for better endings... Hope you enjoyed nevertheless!
On my first finish, I left two humans alive because I didn't bother jumping up the tower area, and got the ending where it says I wouldn't rest until all the humans are dead. I took this as a hint... so I tried again, making sure to pick off those two guys at the top too... and got the same ending. Dang!
I won't complain about the flashlighting-through-crates anywhere else since the challenge/setup relies heavily on this, but in one particular spot (the rightmost guy on the bottom) the flashlight's range feels a little misleading. The light doesn't quite go past the crate, so it looks like standing behind the crate should have been a safe spot... but it's not. Oopsie--had to find that out the hard way!
The jumps near the end are pretty brutal, where it's easy to hit the wall above you. Takes a lot of practice to get the feel for it!
Great job overall! I went and got all the of the endings. Super challenging to not kill anyone!
I had to modify your original light shader to use `discard` for the case where no light was projected. Not explicitly setting the out color of the fragment shader is implementation-defined, I think, which is why some implementations default to vec4(0) and others will have random data in there. (Mine showed the full color spectrum circle in the light quad)
@Jelinib Sorry for the misleading text ^^; But who knows, one day I may finish this game and killing every single human could have a new ending ;)
Oh that tricky spot, it was suppose to get you, but not so misleading! xp Glad you enjoyed it anyway!
@zenmumbler Why thank you ^^ It was a lot of hard work, and got really exhausted after it! Of course I had more in my mind when I made the concept of the game, I hope I'll be able to finish it some day~
Thank you for pointing it out that bug! I tried to set alpha = 0 on those cases but I guess it didn't work properly. I still need to learn more about shaders ^^;
@pirate_shell Thank you for reading my post mortem! ^^ Oh yes, additional time would had been great xp But if I really continue this project there will be plenty of time to polish~
@MAnimal Quoting @Nurbs "The pacifist run is the true competitive" ;)
@CtrlAltTea Oh yes, probably the controls... Sorry about that ^^; (btw, loved the username xp)
is there a web/other download method~~?
your game seem so great(also have a good narrative and full of potential
after i played it,i will write more feedback here~~