Swift Postman [Metroidvania - RPG Platformer(Itch.io Page Renewed)]

alper41

Member
Month 1 Devlog Released

Important Changes:

- Attack animation accelerated

- The mapper has been added and you can now see the map of your area if you have purchased

- The problem of low fps and mana usage when buying a new skill has been solved.

- Fixed the issue where the map could be opened while on the shop page or in a dialog
 
Last edited:

alper41

Member
Month 2 Devlog Released

Important Changes:

- The issue where the character sometimes gets stuck in the wall has been solved

- Added checkpoints

- The map has been expanded and a new puzzle has been added

- The problem of constantly resetting the ducking animation solved
 
Last edited:

alper41

Member
Month 3 Devlog Released

Important Changes:

- Checkpoints now also record things like seals, gold, experience points, etc.

- The issue where loots is stuck in the wall has been solved

- Dash capability restricted, now you can only use it once inthe air, reset when you hit the ground

- The character's walking, jumping, and crushing speed have been slightly increased
 
Last edited:

alper41

Member
Month 4 Devlog Released

Important Changes:

- Fixed an issue where checkpoints were not saving the objects you collected

- The map feature is temporarily unavailable, so the dialogue with the map vendor is disabled


- Playground has been expanded, you can test all the features added in the previous patch and this patch
 
Last edited:

alper41

Member
Month 5 Devlog Released

Important Changes:

- Added new attack patterns to the sword, now you can attack up and down

- Major optimization improvements, real fps value increased from 600 to 1500

- You can now deflect all enemies shots
 

alper41

Member
Month 6 Devlog Released

Important Changes:

- New weapon type added to the game: Bow. You can buy woodenbow from gun dealer for 5 gold and try


- Added two new abilities to the warrior class: the first is a passive ability that allows you to quickly strike a second, the second is an ability that makes you completely invulnerable for a short time.

- Since directional attacks have been added to the game, some keyboard inputs have been changed, don't worry, the new keyboard inputs have been adjusted according to hand ergonomics and the information boxes in the game show new keyboard inputs.
 

alper41

Member
Month 7 Devlog Released

Important Changes:

- New character class added to the game, Hunter: hunter is a class that hunts its enemy by keeping it away from itself


- Added 4 hunter abilities, I will write a blog about classes soon and I will provide more details there, stay tuned

- Now your stats increase according to the class you choose so class selection is more of an issue
 
Last edited:

alper41

Member
Month 8 Devlog Released

Important Changes:

- Added vibration feature to gamepads


- A new boss has been added but it's a bit experimental at the moment so if the boss fight and dialogues are liked more features will be added if not the existing things will be improved

- The minimap has been removed but the big map is available after a long time
 

alper41

Member
Month 9 Devlog Released

Important Changes:

- Dash mechanics revamped and looks smoother


- Added 2 general abilities: doubles the healing power of health potions and mana potions

- Added 2 new hunter abilities: diagonal arrows and berserk

- Fixed a bug that prevented you from using buffs more than once
 
Last edited:

alper41

Member
Month 10 Devlog Released

Important Changes:

- Now the game has a main menu, but a very simple main menu, the number of settings you can make is low for now, but will increase in the future.

- Now you can turn off the gamepad vibration completely (I added this setting option considering wireless gamepad users)

- You can also access the settings menu from within the game
 

alper41

Member
Month 11 Devlog Released

Important Changes:

- The potion system has been completely changed

- Added abilities - Hunter Trap: Places a trap on the ground and enemies caught in this trap cannot move for a while

- Class selection will now be made in the shop page view, but a skill orb is required to select a class
 

alper41

Member
About the Progress of the Project

Greetings, there are a few issues I would like to talk about about the progress of the project, as I explanied before, the visuals of the game will be completely renewed and music and sound effects will be added as you all guessed :D I was able to find a composer and I'm very happy with the music and sound effects he made, but I haven't found a 2d artist yet.

I can't pay them any fees at the moment, so we have to work with dividends, people do not look forward to working with dividends, so it becomes a little harder to find the person I'm looking for. Once I've signed with the 2d artist we will start the making of the first zone, probably no new devblog will come until the making of the first zone is finished.

Even if the devblog does not come, do not think that the project is canceled, I will write articles about the progress from time to time. If you ask what you have done since the last devblog, I added a few music and sound effects, even these little things have a positive effect on the atmosphere of the game. I also do localization work and will work on making the game feel better.
 

alper41

Member
Status Update

Greetings, I promised to keep you informed of the developments, and now I stand by this promise and explain the latest developments:

I mentioned that I found a composer and looking for a 2d artist and finally I found a 2d artist, if all goes well I plan to release the first demo in March but I probably won't be posting a new dev blog until March

By the way, I want to talk about some of the things I've done, I'm working on localization and I added the Turkish language to the game, of course I would like to add more language options, but it depends on your interest in the game.

Other than that, I tried to make the game feel better, I made the gold and xp orbs drop more smoothly. I also increased the number of particles dropped when we damage enemies, now particles drop when enemies die, and particles drop from bosses are bigger.
 

alper41

Member
Status Update

Greetings, I haven't shared a post for a long time because I'm trying to make a nice demo for you, but I need to inform you about the progress.

My team is having a bit of a busy year this year so our progress is slow, our composer is preparing for the university exam, our illustrator is in his last year of university, I am trying really hard to publish the demo to April, but I may have to postpone it to present a decent demo.

Let me talk about what I've developed, I had about 10 people test the game and they said that the game should guide the player better. I made some improvements in the tutorial section, now the game gives you small tasks to grasp the in-game items on the left side and when you complete the task, a new task comes automatically.

Apart from that, I added the difficulty level setting, but I will not share the details right now because there may be some changes, I fixed many mistakes and when your health points decrease, an effect appears as if the character's eyes are blacked out. At first, we thought of doing this as a blood effect, but it would be more appropriate not to add things that evoke blood and violence to the game. We found the blackening effect to be more suitable instead of the blood effect, as we thought it would be

I did a lot of things apart from that, of course, but I wanted to share the most important things with you, that's all for now, see you in my next article, goodbye
 

alper41

Member
Status Update

Greetings, I feel the need to inform about the latest situation and that's why I'm writing this article. I mentioned in my previous articles that my team is a bit busy and our progress is slow, we had a meeting about 2 weeks ago and we decided to release the demo in the summer (probably in August).

I would like to talk a little bit about the content of the meeting, since the game's development process went beyond the planned date, we thought of removing one or two biomes from the game, but nothing is finalized at the moment.

We hope to get an animator on the team and reduce the artist's workload and release biomes on the scheduled date without having to remove them from the game.

I was planning the game's release date to be in the last quarter of 2023, but I felt that the game time was not enough so I added two more biomes to the plan and set the release date to be the first quarter of 2024.

Apart from this, we discussed which platforms we should use for marketing, but I think it is unnecessary to give any information about this.

I'm not happy with the delays either, but sharing a demo that I'm not satisfied with is not something I feel comfortable with, I hope I can release a good demo in the summer, that's all I have to say for now, stay tuned.
 

alper41

Member
Status Update

Greetings after a long time, I hope you are well. I share articles as a status update when there are important developments, and yes, it was an important development again.

I was making plans to get an animator on the recommendation of the illustrator in my team, but nothing was finalized, as of yesterday, I officially started looking for an animator.

Other than that, there have been improvements, of course, I've added the mage class to the game, it has features like high magic damage, low survivability and advanced resource management as you all would expect, but it is not available for testing at the moment and will not be included in the demo that we plan to release in August

I also created 3rd and 4th quality items (sword, bow and staff) but none of them are in the final design, I just worked on the interactions of the items with the enemies and the character, I've added a few new enemy types but they are not available for testing yet

That's all I'll talk about for now, before I end the article, I will answer the question of why you don't upload it for us to test the innovations, for the demo we plan to release in August, we have people whose feedback we really trust to test it, so we do not publish it in public.
 

alper41

Member
Status Update

Hello again after a long time, we've finally entered the summer term and it means we have to take a break from things like school exams for a while. Which means that there is no longer any barrier to continuing development on a regular basis.

We have meetings as a team from time to time and we take important decisions on some issues. We had a meeting 2 days ago and we made very important decisions.

In our previous meeting, we talked to the team that we could get an animator, but we could not find the right candidate, I talked to people but unfortunately we could not reach an agreement, but I will meet with a new animator soon.

in this meeting, I offered the early access option to the team members and they approached it positively. Actually, I don't like early access very much, but I don't want the team members to wait too long to get the reward of their efforts, so we switched to the early access formula.

It is not yet clear when it will be available on Steam, but we plan to release the first version containing the first 3 biomes and 2 character classes in the first quarter of 2023, and we consider it as the first quarter of 2024 for the transition to the full version.

Apart from this, the full version of the game will have 9 biomes instead of 11 biomes, but we can add biomes that were removed from the game later, I made such a decision so that the transition to the full version would not take too long.

Finally, we plan to release the first big demo by August 31st, gameplay mechanics are almost all ready but need some polishing

That's all for now, see you in the next article, wait to hear from us.
 

alper41

Member
Developer Roadmap

Greetings, after our early access decision we published our new developer roadmap, we didn't have a roadmap before and I decided it would be better to have a roadmap now, we are considering going step by step. Our roadmap is as follows:

2023 January: Demo release (1 biome, 2 character classes) {In Development}

2023 February: Opening social media accounts, opening the website, opening or promoting their pages in various forums {Pending}

2023 March: Opening the Steam store page {Pending}

2023 Spring: Early access on Steam (3 biomes, 2 characters class) {Pending}

2023 Summer: Early access to tier two (5 biomes,3 character classes) {Pending}

2023 Autumn: Early access to tier three(7 biomes, 4 character class) {Pending}

2024: Winter Early access to phase four and full version preparations for the upgrade (9 biomes, 4 character classes) {Pending}

2024 Spring: Full release on Steam, on Epic Store publication {Pending}

Unknown: Attempts to release on console platforms be made and, if appropriate, published on console platforms {Pending}

Note: This is our developer roadmap but there may be some delays due to some unforeseen reasons
 
Last edited:

alper41

Member
resim_2022-11-17_201546539.png
a.png

resim_2022-11-17_201715756.png

Working...

Note: When you download the game from itch.io right now, you will encounter a version without new images, I only share the current version with people whose comments I trust, if you want to test the current version, please contact via dm
 
Last edited:

pixeltroid

Member
Hi. I tried the demo. I played it for around 45 minutes and reached the "evil mushroom king" and then after many tries, I gave up.

Now here are my thoughts:

- the menus, HUD, shop system, dialogue systems, controls and all the technical bits have all been mostly implemented, which is a good thing.
- Level design with underground/above ground areas work fine for now, but can still improve. Overall, it felt like one big room with different sections. Maybe they should all be separate zones. You could have a main "hub" area where the NPCs live and from there you have paths leading to other areas containing different items and enemies. So some backtracking will take place.
- There was one problem with the controls. When I had to jump out of the water, I cannot do so if I'm touching a wall. I can only jump out of the water if I'm not touching a wall, which feels counter-intuitive.
- the sword attack did not look or feel fast and powerful enough. But maybe that can change with the final sprites.
- enemies don't seem to react if I hit them with the sword. They just keep charging at me. Ideally, they should be knocked back a bit when they are hit.
- the enemies in general don't seem to react to my presence. They just patrol an area and none of them follow me around so I can easily just run away from them.
- In the boss fight, there needs to be an interval where he stops and shoots something at you or dashes at you. Right now, he just bounces around all the time. Add some variation in how the boss moves.

And now, the most important thing. The graphics! I cannot comment on it right now, because right now, everything looks like stand-by art. But I'll say this:

You're planning to open social media accounts and the website in December 2022... but your game is in no condition to be marketed. You're also planning to open a Steam page in January 2023 (next month) but do you think you'll be ready with graphics by then? Remember, you'll need to have the following:

- player sprites
- NPC sprites X number of NPCs
- enemy sprites X number of enemies.
- sprites for interactive in-game objects (doors, spikes, blades, treasure chests etc.
- sprites or tiles for decorations for each area (like trees, plants, rocks, statues etc
- sprites or graphics for collectible items (coins, weapons, health etc)
- sprites or graphics for effects (fires, energies, lightning, blood, explosions etc)
- unique tilesets for each area.
- multiple layer backgrounds for each area.
- hi-def graphics for cutscenes.
- icons for health, lives, weapons, power ups, potions etc for the HUD and other UI elements
- promotional graphics for Steam, website, social media etc.
- Logo for your game

That is the scope of work ONLY for graphics! That's a lot of work and you know it will take a lot of time to plan, create and refine. It will be difficult to try and create it all at once.

Unless you have already started work on graphics, I think you will have to re-adjust your schedule. I also suggest you begin the work of creating graphics immediately.

Anyway, that's my overall feedback. Hope I didn't come across as too harsh.

Let me know if you want to discuss this some more. I'll be happy to share whatever I have learned.
 
Last edited:

alper41

Member
Hi. I tried the demo. I played it for around 45 minutes and reached the "evil mushroom king" and then after many tries, I gave up.

Now here are my thoughts:

- the menus, HUD, shop system, dialogue systems, controls and all the technical bits have all been mostly implemented, which is a good thing.
- Level design with underground/above ground areas work fine for now, but can still improve. Overall, it felt like one big room with different sections. Maybe they should all be separate zones. You could have a main "hub" area where the NPCs live and from there you have paths leading to other areas containing different items and enemies. So some backtracking will take place.
- There was one problem with the controls. When I had to jump out of the water, I cannot do so if I'm touching a wall. I can only jump out of the water if I'm not touching a wall, which feels counter-intuitive.
- the sword attack did not look or feel fast and powerful enough. But maybe that can change with the final sprites.
- enemies don't seem to react if I hit them with the sword. They just keep charging at me. Ideally, they should be knocked back a bit when they are hit.
- the enemies in general don't seem to react to my presence. They just patrol an area and none of them follow me around so I can easily just run away from them.
- In the boss fight, there needs to be an interval where he stops and shoots something at you or dashes at you. Right now, he just bounces around all the time. Add some variation in how the boss moves.

And now, the most important thing. The graphics! I cannot comment on it right now, because right now, everything looks like stand-by art. But I'll say this:

You're planning to open social media accounts and the website in December 2022... but your game is in no condition to be marketed. You're also planning to open a Steam page in January 2023 (next month) but do you think you'll be ready with graphics by then? Remember, you'll need to have the following:

- player sprites
- NPC sprites X number of NPCs
- enemy sprites X number of enemies.
- sprites for interactive in-game objects (doors, spikes, blades, treasure chests etc.
- sprites or tiles for decorations for each area (like trees, plants, rocks, statues etc
- sprites or graphics for collectible items (coins, weapons, health etc)
- sprites or graphics for effects (fires, energies, lightning, blood, explosions etc)
- unique tilesets for each area.
- multiple layer backgrounds for each area.
- hi-def graphics for cutscenes.
- icons for health, lives, weapons, power ups, potions etc for the HUD and other UI elements
- promotional graphics for Steam, website, social media etc.
- Logo for your game

That is the scope of work ONLY for graphics! That's a lot of work and you know it will take a lot of time to plan, create and refine. It will be difficult to try and create it all at once.

Unless you have already started work on graphics, I think you will have to re-adjust your schedule. I also suggest you begin the work of creating graphics immediately.

Anyway, that's my overall feedback. Hope I didn't come across as too harsh.

Let me know if you want to discuss this some more. I'll be happy to share whatever I have learned.
Hello, thank you very much for trying and sharing your feedback, let me explain some points, there is only one chapter at the moment and there will be chapters with different themes in the future, we will think about having npc in a single region together with my team, but since we plan the player to learn the story from npc, the section is randomly placed, I think it's more logical to have it, yes I'm not doing this game alone, but we had to progress very slowly due to the intensity of the team members, it's a mistake not to be able to jump in the water while touching the wall and I will try to fix it

I agree with this, the feeling is not good enough because the drawing and animations of the sword are not done at the moment, the enemies actually react when they are attacked; the enemy is slightly kicked back and the screen flickers but if there is anything else I can do I would like to know it, there are only patrolling enemies at the moment yes I didn't want to push the player too hard for the first episode, but different types of enemies were made, there will be a lot of variety in terms of enemies and traps, I think You're right about the boss fight, we're going to think of something different, or we can do the first boss like this and reduce its power a bit.

I created the developer roadmap in the summer, unfortunately we had to postpone everything for at least 1 month, sometimes I have a hard time motivating the team because I can't pay them regularly :(

You really tried hard and gave a nice feedback, thank you very much, I continue to improve the game by getting feedback from various people, I don't think your comment is really harsh, I live in Turkey and sometimes people can write very hurtful things, I think what you wrote is very reasonable
 

pixeltroid

Member
the enemy is slightly kicked back and the screen flickers but if there is anything else I can do I would like to know it,
IMO, the enemy needs to be kicked back for a longer period of time and also stop charging. I'm not an expert on sword fighting games. But check out other 2D games where sword fighting is the main fighting mechanic and you'll get some ideas for sprite poses and mechanics. Right now, my opinion is that it's too dangerous to even get close to the enemies to hit them... and it's safer to just jump over them and run away.

I created the developer roadmap in the summer, unfortunately we had to postpone everything for at least 1 month, sometimes I have a hard time motivating the team because I can't pay them regularly :(
If you're paying them, then you're the team captain. So it becomes your responsibility to plan how the time and resources are allocated.

I suggest you make a separate plan to handle the graphics of your game because that needs URGENT attention. Find someone reliable who can make the art for you. Arrange for the payment. Prepare the art brief etc. That is your responsibility.

For your references, I'll repeat the checklist again:

  1. player sprites
  2. NPC sprites X number of NPCs
  3. enemy sprites X number of enemies.
  4. sprites for interactive in-game objects (doors, spikes, blades, treasure chests etc.
  5. sprites or tiles for decorations for each area (like trees, plants, rocks, statues etc
  6. sprites or graphics for collectible items (coins, weapons, health etc)
  7. sprites or graphics for effects (fires, energies, lightning, blood, explosions etc)
  8. unique tilesets for each area.
  9. multiple layer backgrounds for each area.
  10. hi-def graphics for cutscenes.
  11. icons for health, lives, weapons, power ups, potions etc for the HUD and other UI elements
  12. promotional graphics for Steam, website, social media etc.
  13. Logo for your game

If you are planning to market your game anywhere, you will to have all those things ready. Right now, I don't think you can expect to have a steam page ready by January, so be realistic.

I'm not saying all that to be harsh, but it's the reality. The first thing people see are the trailer and screenshots. If they are not good quality they will close the window and move on. Steam customers are merciless and will not give a second chance to a game that is not visually appealing. So you can only make a Steam page only when your graphics are in a good enough state. They don't have to be AAA quality but they should at least be decent looking for an indie game.

The good thing is that you have already created things like the menus, HUD, shop system, dialogue systems, controls etc. So you know how to do it technically. It's just that you need to make the gameplay more fun (by improving the combat and levels) and make it more visually appealing (by adding the graphics).
 

alper41

Member
IMO, the enemy needs to be kicked back for a longer period of time and also stop charging. I'm not an expert on sword fighting games. But check out other 2D games where sword fighting is the main fighting mechanic and you'll get some ideas for sprite poses and mechanics. Right now, my opinion is that it's too dangerous to even get close to the enemies to hit them... and it's safer to just jump over them and run away.



If you're paying them, then you're the team captain. So it becomes your responsibility to plan how the time and resources are allocated.

I suggest you make a separate plan to handle the graphics of your game because that needs URGENT attention. Find someone reliable who can make the art for you. Arrange for the payment. Prepare the art brief etc. That is your responsibility.

For your references, I'll repeat the checklist again:

  1. player sprites
  2. NPC sprites X number of NPCs
  3. enemy sprites X number of enemies.
  4. sprites for interactive in-game objects (doors, spikes, blades, treasure chests etc.
  5. sprites or tiles for decorations for each area (like trees, plants, rocks, statues etc
  6. sprites or graphics for collectible items (coins, weapons, health etc)
  7. sprites or graphics for effects (fires, energies, lightning, blood, explosions etc)
  8. unique tilesets for each area.
  9. multiple layer backgrounds for each area.
  10. hi-def graphics for cutscenes.
  11. icons for health, lives, weapons, power ups, potions etc for the HUD and other UI elements
  12. promotional graphics for Steam, website, social media etc.
  13. Logo for your game

If you are planning to market your game anywhere, you will to have all those things ready. Right now, I don't think you can expect to have a steam page ready by January, so be realistic.

I'm not saying all that to be harsh, but it's the reality. The first thing people see are the trailer and screenshots. If they are not good quality they will close the window and move on. Steam customers are merciless and will not give a second chance to a game that is not visually appealing. So you can only make a Steam page only when your graphics are in a good enough state. They don't have to be AAA quality but they should at least be decent looking for an indie game.

The good thing is that you have already created things like the menus, HUD, shop system, dialogue systems, controls etc. So you know how to do it technically. It's just that you need to make the gameplay more fun (by improving the combat and levels) and make it more visually appealing (by adding the graphics).
You are right in what you said, I should not rush to release the demo of the game or open the steam page, but I should pay my team for their work as soon as possible, they do not have trust issues with me, but I do not feel comfortable, we will evaluate all your suggestions with my team, by the way, there is not only sword in the game. You can use bow, staff and dagger weapons and yes there are things to fix about them I'm aware of that
 

alper41

Member
Status Update

Hello after a long time, unfortunately I am coming with the news that the demo has been postponed again, but this time I had really troubled situations.

Final exams were held in January and I had to take the make-up exam from 5 courses, I only had one course left after the make-up exams, but other than that, there were troublesome situations.

My grandmother was in the hospital for about 15 days and passed away 10 days ago, so we stayed at my grandparents' house for a week, so the funeral home is not left empty for a week.

Apart from this, I also had some family problems, when everything came together, I couldn't deal with the project much.

We are working on the project, I want to present the demo to you as soon as possible and in the best way.

By the way, I would like to inform you that I have expanded my team, I have included a translator in my team, it will only translate between English and Turkish languages, but I am aware of the importance of quality translation, I would like to support more languages in the future, but our opportunities are limited at the moment.
 

alper41

Member
About the Earthquake in Turkey

Greetings, maybe you have seen it on the news, there were two earthquakes with a magnitude of over 7 in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey. 10 cities were affected by the earthquake and 3 cities were subjected to great destruction. I am Turkish and I follow the developments with great sadness as I live in Turkey, on the one hand, I see the news of the aid coming from abroad and this situation makes me a little happy. I don't want to talk about these issues too much, but I can't help but say that the economy of the country is really bad and the government unfortunately did not manage the process well.

I'm not in the earthquake zone, likewise, no one in my team is in the earthquake zone, thank God, but unfortunately there are people whose relatives died in my team, my grandmother passed away recently, so I can understand people's pain. The number of deaths and injuries is constantly increasing, the number of destroyed buildings is increasing, I see people who are under the rubble. I also see looters and I get really angry and sad when I see them, it drives me crazy that looters can think about this when people are suffering so much.

I am really happy if those who have the opportunity to donate, i will definitely share the usd, eur and gbp accounts of an institution that i trust, you can also donate on youtube, i will share the link for it

USD: TR320006400000210212150262
EUR: TR150006400000210212150277
GBP: TR370006400000210212260849
Swift Code: “ISBKTRIS”


If you don't trust the ibans I copied, you can have a look here and compare.

In addition, there is a panel on the right side of the video on the youtube link i shared, youtube does not deduct from your donations from there, if you do not trust the ibans i share, you can donate directly to youtube.

Youtube Link(Turkey Earthquake Relief Fund)

Note: Moderators, if there is anything illegal, please ignore it this time because we are in an extraordinary situation right now.

Also, someone I trust reached me from discord and shared a link where you can donate and you don't have to deal with things like iban, but I saw this site for the first time, but I still share it because someone I trust wrote.

Alternative Link
 
Last edited:

alper41

Member
I think I'm in a position to show something from our project named swift postman (yes, that will probably be the name), don't care about the dialogs you see

 
Top