Archersaurus Originally, this enemy was going to have a bow, hence the nick-name Archersaurus. It ended up getting changed to a spear, but its name has stuck around. Nothing too crazy in terms of its behavior. It stands at a distance and throws spears at you. It can be annoying for a melee build, however, as it will constantly try to maintain a distance between itself and the player. Its spears can be avoided, but if you are fighting any other enemies at the same time, it becomes more difficult to do so.
Alright, the big guy! Here is our concept for the Jungle Level's boss of all dino-people. He is one of the keepers and protectors of something our heroine needs very badly.
Wow, I really like what I see there. How are you guys going with development? Releasing in early/mid 2013 from what I can gather, right?
Ya, that's the plan. Mid-Spring '13 is the goal. Development is going good. We decided to add a new themed Arctic area so we are excited to do that. Right now we are white-boxing out GUI, test driving it, working on SFX and making more levels. Glad you like it so far, can't wait to get it in people's hands!
Wow, this is really coming along since the first time I checked out this thread. Good job! Once again, I have to commend you for the art style. It feels perfect for this type of game.
I really like the video, it reminds me of Iron Lore's Titan Quest. One suggestion I might make is to reconsider the color of the damage pop-ups. When watching the video on the iPhone, the damage indicators get lost in the similarly colored blood at times. I'd also suggest that you consider a premium pricing model rather than an IAP-based one. I realize that IAPs provide a continuous revenue stream, but they are really starting to turn iOS gamers off, in my opinion. Perhaps a setup where you have a premium-priced game with small, non-necessary IAPs for people who want to accelerate their progress through the game. Otherwise, I can't wait to give you my money!
For sure, in fact fixing combat text came up this week. Right now, it is just IN, hasn't been polished. The numbers stack on each other and it becomes a mess, really confusing, so we want to make sure it gets cleaned up and made easier to read. As far as pricing, you hit the nail on the head. We have developed our in-game currency system to support a premium-priced game with non-essential, mostly cosmetic IAP. No pay-wall or egg-timers. You can't buy uber loot etc
Jungle Boss Render We posted the concept art for the first boss yesterday, and we wanted you guys to see the finished product!
Level Design Hi all! We have a big post for you today. We wanted to show you our level design process, step-by-step. The pictures you will see are for a third environment that has not been shown in any of our other posts! First we start out with concept art, of course. Our concept artist, Andy, painted these first two images for our third environment, which is for now just called The Cave. Next, our level designer, Luciano, designs the layout of an area with minimal detail. Luciano then creates a whitebox version of the level with dummy assets to make sure the layout works. No actual assets are added in this stage. Once the whitebox is finished, and the rest of the art team has finished creating level assets, Luciano places assets into the environment, and then puts in all of the lighting to get the finished level. And here is the finished Cave environment from the in-game perspective:
Woah, great level design it looks great!! Are you going to make it so there are many different ways to get where you're going in the level or are you going to make it so there are things blocking your path through the ice so you can only advance on one path?
My turn! So the icy stuff you see in the screenshot is not ice, but water! It's just hard to see the water shader in action in a still frame. As to the path: Any part of the path that is above the water, you can walk on. So yes, you can wander your way through this swampy/cave area in whatever fashion you wish. Of course, there are a couple of areas that are more linear than this one. Bonus level creation info: After Luciano is finished setting up the level in engine, he then hands it off to me, where I set up the more technical things, like physics colliders, scripts, player spawn points, low/hi rez asset lists, etc... After I get all the levels for an area set up that way, I then begin adding and scripting each enemy (setting up animations, AI, textures, etc...). And finally, after all of that is done, I kick out a build and we all play it!
Desert Monsters Hey all! Moving on to the next environment's monsters. Here is the concept art for the desert environment enemies! Stay tuned for the renders and bios on each one of these guys!
This game keeps looking more and more promising. Is there an anticipated release timeframe? What about price point (please don't be freemium)? Looking forward to more information.
Estimated release date is sometime around Feb-March 2013. So not too long And don't worry: We're not fans of freemium, either.
I stumbled across this game today, and I'm very impressed! It looks great and the gameplay sounds really deep. I like the way the enemies interact with each other and with the player to make the game more strategic. I really like the idea of the skill breakpoints, I've never seen that before. And as an added bonus, I get to take a peek at the developement of a game; really interesting. Thanks guys! Something I like to do when I find a good ARPG to increase play time is focus a character on one skill tree and one stat. That way I can play the game twice more using the other two skill trees/stats. I know you talked about switching up skills depending on items found, etc., but does each skill tree have enough substance to create a character using only one tree? Oh, I guess I should also ask, will we be able to create multiple characters?
First off, thanks! Glad you are liking everything! The trees have a "theme," if you will. For example, the intelligence tree is built around spells, ranged attacks, and AoE. It is also the only tree with a direct healing skill. So, if the makeup of a specific tree fits how you want to play, then you by all means will be able to focus on one tree! There are currently 11 skills per tree. 7 active skills, 3 passive skills, and 1 additional passive skill that will be only be unlocked when you have built up a large amount of its respective stat. So for example, when you build up 500 strength (not necessarily what the number will be), a new passive ability unlocks. If you were to switch out some gems, and your strength dropped below 500, you would no longer be able to use that ability. We thought this was a unique way to encourage someone to devote themselves to one specific stat if they want the best of what that tree has to offer. But, there are also great ways to combine trees. We intentionally built functionality into skills across all of the trees that makes use of skills from other trees. For example, dexterity is the only tree that has the opportunity to add a bleed effect to certain attacks. But there is a move in the Intelligence tree that does bonus damage if a target is bleeding. You could probably still get your 3 unique play-throughs by using a different combination of trees each time! Regarding having multiple characters, I do believe we are building in that functionality, but don't quote me on that just yet. I will clarify with our programmer and possibly have him answer that. Hope that gives you some more insight! Hit us up with anymore questions!
looks really really nice! hoping for a tap to move, tap this guys to attack him, etc kind of control as another option. Also, the environments seem a bit empty but yeah it's an early footage. Definitely following this! Edit: Any idea on how long the game will be? and the replayability?
The first mechanic of this game that we tried to work out and play-test early on was character/combat control. We've all played various ARPG type games on the iPhone and iPad, some with touch controls, others with the virtual stick, and we had seen mixed feedback on forums and in reviews on both systems. So, we tried both for Pylon, and tried to make our decision based on the premise of which control system resulted in the most fun experience for the player? We ended up with a virtual joystick and buttons, but had various skills that required additional interaction with the touchscreen. For example, tap the button to "cue" a skill, and then tap on the screen where you want that to occur. We really wanted to utilize the unique nature of a touchscreen device. Overtime, however, throughout many hours of play-testing various parts of the game, we realized that those additional interactions with the screen actually hindered gameplay more than it enhanced it. So, as of now, combat controls are based solely on the virtual stick and the buttons. And, unless something in our production schedule changes drastically, alternate controls probably won't make it into the launch. Something we have talked about doing, is making it so the player can move the joystick and button configurations to wherever they want on the screen in some sort of settings menu. Whether we have the time and resources to implement something like this, at least initially, remains to be seen, but its something we're considering. Sorry for the long responses! To address your last question, we don't have a great estimate of length at this point. If I could guess, I would say the 1st play-through will take most people at least 5 hours, possibly more. But just like in many other ARPGs, you will not have reached the maximum level after the 1st play-through. And I'm not even going to try to guess how long that will take yet haha.
I have allowed for three save slots per device, so it should be no trouble if you wanted to make three separate characters, each focusing on a different skill tree.
