Evil IS Eternal - Isometric ARPG

Evil is Eternal is a single player isometric hack and slash action RPG that echoes the days of 90's and early 00's ARPG's. Along the player's travels they stumble upon a town that has been the victim of some grisly horrors. Demonic possessions and other worldly creatures wreak havoc as you become intertwined in the hellish plot of a demonic uprising. You as the player are not a supreme being or almighty hero. You are but a mortal combatant against an everlasting evil. The game world will consist of dark and grim locations, characters, and subject matter. For example rather than clear a cellar of rats for the town bar keep you will be pursuing a possessed priest that has abducted some of the town children. Players will have 3 classes to choose from. Each with their own unique look, stats, and abilities.





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YanBG

Member
Well the graphics are from diablo 1 and maybe some other games ;) But yeah looks very interesting.

From your profile picture i wouldn't think you'll make an isometric game like that :D

Edit: i think the title is too generic and the story about fighting demons as well.
For a first game it's pretty great though.
 
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Thanks for the replies. Yes some of the graphics are place holder. ( portrait, and a couple of the items.) The rest was done by myself and two other artists. Agreed the story is a bit cliche but I think with the right twists and turns it could be interesting enough to keep players engaged. Although it's still in its infancy many things are subject to change.
 
I made all the ui and all the items that are not place holder. My character artist created all the valkyrie sprites and an artist that I am potentially going to start working with made the ground tiles and dead horse with carriage. Both of which are place holder to get an idea of the direction of the art for the game.
 

JacobV

Member
Adore the graphics, Diablo 2 is what got me into gaming in the first place so I really love that dark ominous look. Two things - the player's resolution differs from that of the environment, which looks a bit odd. Also, the environment itself is a lot larger than the player in terms of scale - I'm pretty sure that dead horse would be about the size of a house if it stood up, though that may just be me. Looking forward to seeing some gameplay!
 
Thank you guys for the replies. Diablo 2 is one of my all time favorites and definitely serves as a huge inspiration for this project. As far as the background images being a little off they are both place holder. Just an idea for the art direction. Hoping to have a nice little demo within the next few months. Here is a small preview of how the ability menu will look and how it will work. Player uses the D-pad to navigate the Ability Rings and uses the right thumb stick to point towards an ability within that ring.

 

YanBG

Member
Nice! I can see now that the characters are yours. These zombies look unique. Were they drawn or modeled?
 

Morendral

Member
Are you planning on doing a demo at all, or straight to release? If you are going to do a beta test I'd love to help out
 

YanBG

Member
Interesting. Do you mind sharing how you made the models pixelated?

Also why don't you use Youtube? :D
 
I do plan on doing a demo and you would be more than welcome to beta test . My artist takes care of all that. I handle things like ui and small tweaks to characters. Also I just used the first video service that popped up some how YouTube didn't cross my mind lol.
 
C

Cow

Guest
Looks cool, hope you can continue! I've had a hankering to make a Dark Alliance/Diablo-like game recently. Looks like you're doing a great job of that so far.
 
Ahh Dark Alliance! Many fond memories there. Thank you very much for the kind words. I am having a lot of fun making this but also a lot of headaches due to being isometric lol. I now have an even deeper respect for isometric games.
 
On the technical side I battled depth sorting for awhile as well as enemy AI. I've never attempted to create an isometric game before this one so it has been a learning experience. On the other hand there is also the creative aspect and design choices. I am a bit of a perfectionist so I'll overthink and rework things multiple times when I should be moving on to other tasks. At this point I feel things are going very well. I was thinking I might try discussing some design choices on here so I can get more than just my own point of view. Being the only developer working on a project its easy to get tunnel vision.
 

mar_cuz

Member
On the technical side I battled depth sorting for awhile as well as enemy AI. I've never attempted to create an isometric game before this one so it has been a learning experience. On the other hand there is also the creative aspect and design choices. I am a bit of a perfectionist so I'll overthink and rework things multiple times when I should be moving on to other tasks. At this point I feel things are going very well. I was thinking I might try discussing some design choices on here so I can get more than just my own point of view. Being the only developer working on a project its easy to get tunnel vision.
Hey man absolutely liking your work so far. Are you able to tell me how you handled the depth sorting? I'm having the same issue in my isometric game and so far have had to use objects and depth =-y but that is not a bullet proof solution.
 
@o_minus My approach is very similar. I tried a lot of different things but for me this approach works best. I have all larger wall pieces broken into smaller pieces with their origins set so that they line up seamlessly. Make sure you have objects like these deactivated when out of a certain range and it should be fine. I have it polished out where its working without hiccup at this point. If you end up running into a problem let me know. I'll do what i can to help.
 
Oh, my! Greetings, stranger! :D
Looks great! And sounds... familiar ;)
Diablo II for me is the most atmospheric RPG of all times. Love it's grim locations, characters and beasts. Hope you'll get close enough to the Masterpiece! :) Good luck, guys!
 

mar_cuz

Member
@o_minus My approach is very similar. I tried a lot of different things but for me this approach works best. I have all larger wall pieces broken into smaller pieces with their origins set so that they line up seamlessly. Make sure you have objects like these deactivated when out of a certain range and it should be fine. I have it polished out where its working without hiccup at this point. If you end up running into a problem let me know. I'll do what i can to help.
Awesome. Thanks for taking the time to reply
 

YanBG

Member
@o_minus also make sure that your character sprite isn't wider(e.g. weapons) than the tile size, because he can still clip over the neighbouring wall piece. To avoid making the character smaller you can increase the tile size(e.g. to 96x48).
 

mar_cuz

Member
@o_minus also make sure that your character sprite isn't wider(e.g. weapons) than the tile size, because he can still clip over the neighbouring wall piece. To avoid making the character smaller you can increase the tile size(e.g. to 96x48).
Hey thanks that's great advice. I had issues with clipping and couldn't figure out how to fix it.
 
G

Guy_Typing

Guest
@Homeless_Pixel you mean how in the first one you have to hold it for a second and the second one is instance press? Because if that's what you mean then I would say it depends on the context of your game. The second one, faster press would be preferable and the former, with the longer press, only necessary if you are going to have these kinds of interactions in the middle of battle. Otherwise you can just keep these interaction separate from battle, having the battle sections isolated from npc interactions. Stuff like the door opening could even be triggered without a button push at all just let the player get close enough to trigger a collision detection that opens the door automatically.
My preference in a game like this would be to have as little interactions as possible with npc and dialog and have most of gameplay be based around combat/actions. But that's a matter of personal preference.
You can also isolate npc's in a safe zone like a town and have your interactions take place there.
Hopefully this is the type of feedback you are looking for and I didn't miss the point of the post.

By the way, I'm stoked to try this game out. Can't wait for the demo!
 
Not exactly but that is helpful. I meant the promt in general. The reason I have a delay on talking to an NPC is because you can drop items out of your inventory. The A button is the main interact button for things such as talking, opening doors/chests, and picking up items off the ground. I have the delay on the NPC because I feel like it could get annoying if you were trying to pick up items near an NPC or a similar situation. The reason I didn't put the delay on the door is because its not a lengthy commitment. Rather than having to stop and see the NPC greeting pop up the door just swings open lol. Going off what you said I can tell you that NPC interactions around combat zones will be rare if at all. Thanks for the input and the kind words its greatly appreciated.
 

Cameron

Member
This game made me fire up the original Diablo and play it again to get a fix. Looks really good! The good thing about isometric games is they aren't an overly saturated market because it's not an easy game to make.
 
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bumpercarstudios

Guest
Excited to see how this comes along, and would be interested in any beta testing in the future. We have a lot of great Diablo memories, this is evoking some nostalgia!
 
Hello Everyone! Unfortunately I haven't been able to get a lot done lately due to being so busy. Been messing around with how the alpha works when walking behind walls. Wanted to get some feedback on this style of alpha.

Excited to see how this comes along, and would be interested in any beta testing in the future. We have a lot of great Diablo memories, this is evoking some nostalgia!
Diablo-esque is epic.
Thanks guys! I really appreciate the comments. I love that this project is bringing back some classic Diablo nostalgia.

 
Hello Everyone, I am back with a small video showing the early stages of death inside a test room. Still haven't decided if death will be permanent or if the game will allow the player to re-spawn similar to D2. In this video enemies flash red when hit. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

 
Thank a lot guys! As I mentioned before Diablo 2 is my all time favorite. I hope to capture the feeling of dread D1 had with the fun addictive gameplay and awesome loot system D2 had. Of course with my own twists and features . Here is a quick look at the first unlocked ability in one of the Valkyrie's ability rings.

skillsscreen-1.png
 
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MEITdev

Guest
Looking pretty good. It is hard to give an opinion prior to being able to play anything. But I think I agree with everyone that it looks and "feels" good. Is this a hobby project or are you planning to release once done? Also, what platforms do you plan to support? Keep up the great work!
 
Hello and thank you meitdev! This is a title I hope to release. After I get a small polished demo together I'm hoping to get some kickstarter support to help bring this project to life. Planned platforms will be dependent on funding. PC is a for sure but I'd also like to port to xbox and ps. There is a large hole in the hearts of a lot of d1 and d2 players. I'm hoping EIE can fit in there nicely .
 

YanBG

Member
Hey thanks that's great advice. I had issues with clipping and couldn't figure out how to fix it.
Welp, turns out i run into that problem again. I want to have objects with different size.

@Homeless_Pixel you made every piece to fit inside 1 tile? How big is that, 32x64? I don't want to have empty spaces on tiles with small objects, it would be weird if the player can't walk right next to them.
 
Hello @YanBG ! My game scales up from 640x360 so my tiles are much smaller at 16x16. I have pieces that are larger than that but I break them up into multiple sections. If you are still having trouble feel free to direct message me.
 
Hello everyone, I wanted to share some content with you all. I have recently been working on the Valkyrie ability Glowing Shield. Here is a little video of it in action. The damage is increased dramatically for this test video.

 

YanBG

Member
Hello everyone, I wanted to share some content with you all. I have recently been working on the Valkyrie ability Glowing Shield. Here is a little video of it in action. The damage is increased dramatically for this test video.
Nice, keep it up! Now the inventory art, reminds me of a korean diablo clone from 2000s, forgot the name though.
 
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