Garland's Quest

[WILL]

I am very pleased to show off my latest project, Garland's Quest. It is a small puzzle game intended for both young and older audiences alike. The gameplay is inspired by an early 1990s NES game called 'Adventures of Lolo'. I'm coming really close to a completed Alpha and predict under a months time I'll have a nice shinny new Beta in my hands and ready for final testing.

The game's story:

Garland the 'Grand Wizard' was out in the woods walking about and decided to take a nap in a near-by meadow. Just as he started to fall asleep, a dark wizard named Nem attacked Garland and stole his Wizard's staff. The old wizard, now in shame could not return home without redeeming himself and getting his own staff back from the dark wizard's keep. So Garland's Quest begins...

I'm gonna need some helpers:

It seems however I will need 3 kinds of help to complete the project. I had an artist working with me, but he however had other events come up that prevented him for finishing his work. To be honest he didn't really get too far past the starting point. I have only gotten some of the sprites I need and haven't been able to start animation yet without completed sprite sheets.

To complete the project I'll need:

• A graphics artist that commit to the full required list of graphics and sprites needed, including menu graphics, a title screen and a short ending sequence. I'd like the game characters to be cartoon-ish and fun, but allow for some really nice visual effects such as ambient glowing on the gems, and magic poofs, etc...

• A musician to score the title screen, ending sequence, menu and levels within the game. I'm looking to have mostly a fun feel to the music. The 5 boss maps can have a more battle tone to them, but most of the score would be a cross between ambient & light toned fun music. A nice theme track would be great too. Something catchy in case I decide to make sequels.

• A few intelligent folks that are creative and like making puzzles to assist with come creative brain-twisting level design. I may have a tiny level design competition for those that want a chance to earn a spot in the game's credits and put their own design into the game.

I'm now offering up a copy of my current pre-alpha so that anyone who wants to join as an artist or musician can get a taste of the gameplay. I've included a small Player's Manual so that you will be able to learn and understand how to play the game. It's really simple and fun once you get into the game.


Please download and tell me what you think: Garland's Quest Pre-Alpha (936 KB)

NOTE: because there is no animation you cannot see object facing, player will change facing in the direction of the arrow key last pressed. Magic will be cast in the direction that the player is facing. Also because I do not have up-to-date door & exit portal graphics yet, the exit is denoted by a larger green '?'!

[savage]

I like the character graphics, not had a chance to play it yet. MacOS X is taking up too much of my spare time.

[WILL]

Thanks Dom!

Once I've found a new artist [size=9px](in the next few days I'm hoping :?)[/size] I'll be able to do some nice animations. Which will help the players actually see which way the characters are facing. [size=9px](with some it makes a big diference for the gameplay)[/size] Red Drakes and your own character...

I've just improved the Guardian movement so they'll still move around after you walk on something they cannot pass. Next will be adding Fireballs and Red Drakes spitting them.


Though technically your MacOS X efforts will help Garland to appear on the Mac in the near distant future.

[Huehnerschaender]

Since I already know the game, I have not much to add to the things I already talked about with you.

The new implemented features (like the Eyeballman killing you at sight) makes the levels more senseful now.

The missing graphics are essential for some things, as you already mentioned. I wish you good luck in finding a good artist!

Keep the good work up! There is much to do (not only for you! I think the artist and musician has much work to do, too).

Greetings,
Dirk

[WILL]

Thanks Dirk, will do!

I'm just adding some special effects now. Gonna look great once I have them in. fire, smoke, ambient glow around the gems and scrolls and mugic puffs galore. Oh and I almost forgot the exit portals.


Hey, how come after 60+ people have read the thread and a probable 10% have downloaded and tried the game, I've only gotten a response from 2 people than knew about the game from before I even posed?

If you tried the game, give me some feedback. I don't bite.

[FNX]

Hi WILL,
downloaded and tried as you mentioned so i give feedback.

Maybe it's premature to say something at this stage because you know
better than me what to do next but, the first thing i don't like is how
the screen is moving. As far as the tiled bg stays in the window size don't
scroll it, it should remain centered. The scrolling effect can be added in
bigger rooms that can't stay in the window size.

Also, i would suggest to descrease the tile size at 32x32 maybe, it can
give a better looking feel to it.

For the rest as i said it's too early to say something, i just wait to see what
are you up next! I would leave sfx and music at the end, focusing on
leveldesign and gfx first. The gameplay it's all there, simple and clean, it
just need a better look and feel

Bye!

[WILL]

The graphics situation seems to be resolved for the moment, I'm glad to say. It seems that I'll not have to look for a new artist afterall, so I am relieved.


Thanks Federico!

Good point about the moving screen for small maps. Though, I don't anticipate too many of the final maps to be quite as small. But I'll remember to put this on my list of things to do.

As for reducing the graphics down to 32x32, trust me, you'll see the reason for the large sized tiles soon enough. I'm planning a rather visually stunning experience when you play the game. You just don't have any of the cool graphics to see all the detail worth the dimentions of the maps.


A little update, I've managed to get some pretty cool looking fireballs made and once I work out a tiny bug in the managing of the new fireball objects, I'll post a few screenshots of them... along with some of the newly added floor tiles!

[WILL]

Well unfortunately I don't have anything to show off yet as I'm still debugging. Darn bugs. :?

But I can at least show you guys some of the wonderful graphics that Kas has sent me.

This is a neat little concept scene showing the different types of tiles and the new wall and door graphics!

[czar]

the gfx look good - nice junior appeal going on there.

Tile transitions might be a good idea - where rock makes way for grass etc

[tanffn]

wow, the new graphics look awesome! Looking forward for the update!