Heart of Darkness | Story Based Mythical Action Role-Playing Game

BiTrunade

Member
Heart of Darkness
Alpha Stage


Heart of Darkness is a role-playing desktop game, currently in early development stages. It tells the story of a notoriously evil mythical creature Minotaur, with aid of his mobs, attacks the land of [the hero] and kidnaps their people. The hero, simply known as the Player, is a self-contained knight who seeks neither help nor trouble for his people, discovers his wife's disappearance, and heads to look for her, with the aid of a longtime wanted robber and amateur criminal, Alexandro.

Upon the discovery of a massacre, the story takes a turning point and the journey changes radically.





Controls
The game controls are the classic WASD for movement, and mouse for aiming and attacking.

Features
  • Two players: the Knight, and Alexandro
  • Multiple weapons and Special Effects
  • 7 levels each with 5 checkpoints
  • 8 enemy types
  • 5 bosses (might be 7 in the future)
  • Challenges and puzzles
  • Storyline and dialogue
  • Cutscenes
  • approximately 1-3 hours of gameplay time (calculated from the storyline, I will update it when solid results are made.)
  • many more soon to be listed

Update 0.0.1
  • RPG system
  • Melee attack system
  • Enemies
  • Screen shake and Special Effects
  • other more
Update 0.0.2
  • Exploding Imps
  • Fixed depth issues with player and weapon

Videos

The first video of the development series, so far just an RPG system and sound/special effects.


Heart of Darkness is in early development stages, please follow the development on Twitter and here on the forum as well.


Thank you very much.
 
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Roa

Member
Hours from sunrise
here in the heart of darkness
where even demons fear to tread.
Restraints that hold you down
and render you helpless
behind the walls, a child's crying

You with the broken wings
You the sinner
You the patron saint of self inflicted pity.

In search of the pieces you lost when you fell apart
To suffer the children, who like you, knew no better.

Mistakes and abuses
scars, wounds, and bruises
So close your eyes
just close your eyes.
 

BiTrunade

Member
Added a teleporting Necromancers into the game! I obviously won't add many of them in a single range, they are terribly annoying!

Hours from sunrise
here in the heart of darkness
where even demons fear to tread.
Restraints that hold you down
and render you helpless
behind the walls, a child's crying

You with the broken wings
You the sinner
You the patron saint of self inflicted pity.

In search of the pieces you lost when you fell apart
To suffer the children, who like you, knew no better.

Mistakes and abuses
scars, wounds, and bruises
So close your eyes
just close your eyes.
This is incredibly beautiful! Where is it quoted from?
 
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Roa

Member
This is incredibly beautiful! Where is it quoted from?
It's a song called suffer, from a duo group called VNV Nation. One of my favorite artist of all time, and yeah, Ronin Harris is a master lyricist and good at tapping into emotions. Didn't mean to go off track, I just read the title and that's instantly where my mind wandered.
 

FoxyOfJungle

Kazan Games
Looks great! I think it's cool RPGs in this style of having a sword and killing NPSs that are spawned 😍
Putting torches on the walls with particles that will be cool, different powers can be interesting too, can you use magic? 🤔
 

BiTrunade

Member
Ronin Harris is a master lyricist and good at tapping into emotions.
I really thought it was a medieval poem or quoted from the book "Heart of Darkness," it was really nice to read!


Didn't mean to go off track, I just read the title and that's instantly where my mind wandered.
Haha, that's alright, it is actually right on the track heading home. I was thinking of adding a quote in the beginning of the game, but I'll use a public domain one.

Looks great! I think it's cool RPGs in this style of having a sword and killing NPSs that are spawned 😍
Putting torches on the walls with particles that will be cool, different powers can be interesting too, can you use magic? 🤔
Haha, it would be hilarious chasing down NPCs with a swinging sword. 😁

Yeah, of course, so far I am concerned about the core system and enemies/bosses, mechanics, cutscenes, etc., and hopefully I will add the artistic features along the way.

You have a sword and a bow, where you can shoot exploding arrows and freezing arrows. Alexandro can teleport and do other things (I am still planning on it). And I was thinking of adding "Wrath" as a special power after the massacre sequence, similar to that in Evil Dead.

I was looking for a lighting system for GameMaker but the one in the market requires GMS2 license, do you know one for 1.4? I am mostly concerned about performance, which is so far a solid 60, and hopefully it stays this way.

Thank you very much!
 
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Mk.2

Member
As long as the game style and concept is different I wouldn't mind.
Yeah, it's a completely different kind of game, just thought you should know. When I saw the title I immediately thought it was related to the PS1 game, and anyone searching for "heart of darkness game" or similar will find results for that one instead of your game.
 

BiTrunade

Member
Yeah, it's a completely different kind of game, just thought you should know. When I saw the title I immediately thought it was related to the PS1 game, and anyone searching for "heart of darkness game" or similar will find results for that one instead of your game.
Thank you very much! Yeah, I was concerned about that, too, since there is already Heart of Darkness the novel; Apocalypse Now, based on that novel; and now this game.

It really worries me, I would have named it something unusual (like my brand BiTrunade) for many reasons including buying a domain name that isn't already taken, and of course, I won't be flooded with unrelated searches like another game or brand.

However, having an unusual name has its cons as well, most people won't know it or care to remember it. I am not sure about that though, and I might be completely wrong.

I remember "The Shawshank Redemption" flopped because people couldn't remember the name, lead actors Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins blamed the name, Freeman said that the most important marketing is word of mouth. However, most of the people who enjoyed the film couldn't remember the name to promote it in the first place, "Yeah, I have seen a great movie, it was called ... shinkshank reduction."

Not to mention, in 1994 they were competing against Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump, names that are easier to remember.

I have drifted away to movies, let's talk about the game. As I said, it really worries me, and even if I finished the game and compiled the final build, I wouldn't release it until I have enough potential buyers. I will do what I have to do and hope for the best, after all, only time knows.

Again, thank you very much for pointing that out, it will do me great deal of help when doing a marketing research.
 

FoxyOfJungle

Kazan Games
I was looking for a lighting system for GameMaker but the one in the market requires GMS2 license, do you know one for 1.4? I am mostly concerned about performance, which is so far a solid 60, and hopefully it stays this way.
I don't know any light systems for GMS 1.4 at the moment, but I've seen some on the marketplace that work very well. You can look for some free and try it out. On the YoYo Games blog, they already posted about a lighting system, you can try to make it similar or modify it to work.
 

BiTrunade

Member
I don't know any light systems for GMS 1.4 at the moment, but I've seen some on the marketplace that work very well. You can look for some free and try it out. On the YoYo Games blog, they already posted about a lighting system, you can try to make it similar or modify it to work.
Thank you very much! I will certainly take a look at it. (Those coffee-break tutorials are sweet, totally forgot about the blog existence.)
 

BiTrunade

Member
Added a Chasing Goblin into the game!

One of the enemies/challenges of the game is the quest to steal an item (e.g. a crystal) from a guard goblin and deliver it to a targeted position. The goblin chases you down until either you deliver it (and he dies) or he takes it from you and runs back.

Obstacles get created when you steal it, you can destroy them but they slow you down. Although you might have destroyed them, they get back created again once the item is returned.


Follow the development on Twitter!
 
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BiTrunade

Member
Added Ice Zombie and now 5/8 enemies have been completed! (And trying out a different map ;) )

Once I finish with the enemies I will begin developing the bosses, then the challenges, then the puzzles, etc. The game is progressing nicely and I hope it keeps this way.

I hope maybe this October I would finish:
  1. Dialogue system
  2. Cutscenes
  3. All the bosses, challenges, and puzzles.
  4. And hopefully, and most importantly, the Final level and the First level. The juiciest of the levels, top of the line, if I managed to pull them off, exactly just how I envisioned them to be, I would carry on with the development. If not, I would have to pull the plug off development since those 2 levels are the pillars that will hold the rest of the game, and I cannot afford the time, money, and energy for a project that won't meet my standards. (Not implying that the other levels are not good or as good as those 2 levels, but with a good beginning and an adventurous finale, I would stay on the safe lane throughout the game.)
I will start writing devlogs in the future, probably after I have a stable version of the game, something to showcase, so far the game looks threadbare and quite unappealing since most of the heavy work is being done behind-the-scenes. With almost 10% of the game done? I cannot complain.

 
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BiTrunade

Member
MAJOR UPDATE

After a lot of thinking and attempts, I have decided to port Heart of Darkness to Android devices instead of Desktop.




I still have some challenges to face, including (or majorly) transitioning to GMS2, and leave 1.4 behind..

Virtual Keys System
I have been developing a new GameMaker: Studio asset, a Virtual Keys system with multiple analog sticks. I have encountered several challenges including implementing multi-touch, especially with twin virtual thumbsticks. However, I have overcome those challenges and implemented a system that can be easily incorporated into any game.

The system is simple, using few functions to add it to the game. Those functions are:
GML:
/// Create event
analog_id = vk_analog_init(x, y, rad, thumbstick rad, max_value);
GML:
/// Step event
analog_id = vk_analog_update(analog_id);
GML:
/// Draw event
vk_analog_draw(analog_id);
You can also use other functions to return the values of the analog sticks including vk_analog_get_value_x(analog_id), vk_analog_get_value_y(analog_id), vk_analog_get_angle(analog_id), and vk_analog_check(analog_id). As well as many others.

I am still busy improving the system, I will add virtual keys and keypad. But so far, the system is progressing nicely.
 
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