Demo Horn of Balance (Just went live on Kickstarter!)

martijndh

Member
Library header.png

Synopses:
"Take on the role of the wood golem Linden, as you play games with the other children from the orphanage and the local ghost Murray. The joy soon fades however, as you find out your caretaker got captured in your absence, by the newly arrived nobleman Heimgartner (junior).

A trade is required: find and bring him three rings and all will be made right again. Three little rings named after the gods, each protected in a dedicated dungeon and all said to hold much power when brought together. Something tells you your trails have only just begun."



[Features]
  • One full non-linear dungeon, good for roughly 1+ hour of gameplay
  • Several secret chests for added challenge and special items
  • A solid gameplay engine that feels just like the games of old
  • Modern conveniences like auto-saving, controller support and button remapping
  • A lot of love and passion put into the hero animations
Tremors.pngEntrance.png
Graveyard.png Overworld.png

[How to play]
Download the latest version from Itch and just unzip the game to start playing.
You can review the controls and settings from the starting menu, or by pressing ESC to bring up the in-game options.

[Content creators]
The following link provides several title pages for your convenience.
There is also a whole set of free to use emotes in case you feel like adding some extra streaming flavour.
Press kit (via Google drive)

[Links]
Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hornofbalance/horn-of-balance
Itch.io page (incl. demo) - https://hornofbalance.itch.io/horn-of-balance-pre-ks-demo
Steam page (incl. demo) - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2738140/Horn_of_Balance/
Discord - https://discord.gg/redHXyZ2Gc
Mastodon - https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@HornofBalance
Twitter/X - https://twitter.com/HornofBalance
 
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martijndh

Member
Thank you for the complement! And please let me know about your experience. I'd love to know.
The engine is not intended to be identical, as I've purposely altered and added some things, but I believe the gamefeel and fluidity should be about the same as the original.
 
Yup, played it a bit last night. It was a lot of fun, and it was cool seeing the little things you changed up. Breaking pots with the sword was a nice addition, heheh! The gamefeel was very good, too, even though it wasn't identical, like you said. I think you're doing a great job with this engine. Get some unique art for it down the road, and you'll have a big pile of money on your hands, I think. Blossom Tales did great, and this feels much better, I think.
 

magicweapon

Member
How to make it fullscreen ¿?

Edit: Ok I figured it out, I gotta say it was very fun to play good job man, I didn't notice any bug btw
 
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martijndh

Member
There is an optionsmenu found via the game select screen. You'll find the option to change to full screen under there.
 

martijndh

Member
[Redacted by creator:
I'm removing all assets and links related to my older fangaming work in this topic, as I'm now solely focused on building an original IP]
 
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C

Cablefish

Guest
That is pretty amazing work. If you'd like to save a stripped template so other people can look at your code i'd be quite happy :)
 

martijndh

Member
Thanks for the compliments. I really appreciate it.

Also, I'm currently doing final testing and bug fixes on the next demo, so look forward to that during the next month or so.
 

stenol

Member
It's a really good demo. I love it ! Just to let you know that if you grab something and pull it, some particle stay and don't disapear :)
 

martijndh

Member
[Redacted by creator:
I'm removing all assets and links related to my older fangaming work in this topic, as I'm now solely focused on building an original IP]
 
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martijndh

Member
Just a quick update to let people know that the next demo is coming together nicely (with a full new dungeon - the largest and most complex to date). The image below is an older development screenshot to give you a sense of the theming.

The alpha version will be released on the zfgc.com development forum shortly. That will contain bugs, lack various enemies and be generally unfinished/unpolished. So go there if you want to be part of the testing and development process. Once all known points have been adressed and the build is stable, I'll also release the latest demo in this topic again. The timing will depend on the feedback, but expect it a few months later probably)

[Image redacted by creator:
I'm removing all assets and links related to my older fangaming work in this topic, as I'm now solely focused on building an original IP]
 
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FoxyOfJungle

Kazan Games
This is totally incredible! From your video, I noticed that the gameplay is very similar to the original, the movements are smooth, the camera respects the positioning. I've always been a fan of "The Legend of Zelda - A Link to The Past", I played this game 5 times and I would have the courage to do it again! I played a lot in my childhood and at school break. I've always wanted someone to make a game like this, even if it's not for Nintendo, congratulations on that! I look forward to this game. I will download the DEMO and try it out.
 

martijndh

Member
Sorry about the long silence. I had to switch to the latest Gamemaker version and that resulted in months worth of issues. (Floating point rounding is even now still a thing in a few places). On the plus side: I've also fleshed out the intro area a bit more in the meantime.

[Redacted by creator:
I'm removing all assets and links related to my older fangaming work in this topic, as I'm now solely focused on building an original IP]
 
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martijndh

Member
[Redacted by creator:
I'm removing all assets and links related to my older fangaming work in this topic, as I'm now solely focused on building an original IP]
 
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martijndh

Member
Sorry, but it's not going to be shared.
That's because this engine has been painstakingly build from the ground up over the last 15 years. And it'll likely be used to created an orginal IP in the future. (Also, it's not at all user-friendly without documentation).
 

martijndh

Member
[Redacted by creator:
I'm removing all assets and links related to my older fangaming work in this topic, as I'm now solely focused on building an original IP]
 
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martijndh

Member
[Redacted by creator:
I'm removing all assets and links related to my older fangaming work in this topic, as I'm now solely focused on building an original IP]
 
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martijndh

Member
It sure has been a while since I posted here. Sadly I do not have a new demo to share this time (though a *lot* of progress has been made since the last post). But I do have some other good pieces of news in regards to this project:

1. The focus of development has finally shifted away from Zelda assets and towards the creation of the original IP called "Horn of Balance". So: same engine but all original (=non-Zelda) characters, visuals, music, story and with tweaked versions of the dungeons already playable. This move has actually been prepared for a long time now, but I feel I've finally reached the point of no return and have gone "all in" on the new direction. Expect more news about this little guy in the future:

Hero sneak peak.png

2. My next immediate goal is to get a small demo ready for SAGE 2022 and a kickstarter in the second half of the same year. Actual screenshots, music and gameplay will be posted on this forum as those dates start getting closer.

3. And in case you want to stay fully up to date about all progress in the meantime. A new Discord sever has already been created for those that are interested in following my week to week progress (including screenshots, insights and sneak peaks). I don't want to spam this forum too much, so that's why I'll be using that place (and the ZFGC.com forum) for the smaller, more frequent, news.

Discord join link : https://discord.gg/redHXyZ2Gc
 

martijndh

Member
It's been another little while since I last posted here, so it's high time for an update.

How's the project progressing?
Fairly well actually. Starting was (and still is) a very time consuming endevour. I'd like it to go a lot faster, but I also have a fulltime job and personal life to balance. Given the circumstances I can't complain too much. Lesson are being learned and it's slowly coming together.

What about the actual progress?

1. Internal menu

As you can see in the images below, the internal menu has been fully redesigned. It now includes the options menu, a save feature, the dungeon map and an enemy glossary.

The map menu especially has had a big overhaul behind the scenes, in order to show bigger rooms and symbols. You'll also notice that these rooms are more detailed than before. This way it should feel more intuitive to pinpoint where you are rather then when you were looking at rectangles. Finally, I've added in extra goal indicators to help players remember key targets (they've already visited).

The items have been spread across 2 screens in order to add space for additional equipment and features. For example; you can see that the player can now carry multiple tunics to allows switching at will. Plenty of sprites and text still need to be replaced, but that will be done as rest of the engine catches up. In fact, about half of the required visuals have already been made and simply need to be added during a second pass.

The overworld maps will also be integrated into the menu later down the line. This next demo will not include outside sections, so that features has been pushed back to prevent getting bogged down.

2. The HUD
The HUD has also gone through some redesigns. The hp and mp bars are now more diagetic. Same for the context button (which you can still hide via the options if you prefer your HUD small). The sword indicator has been dropped altogether. I figure people will remember their primary attack button pretty quickly without help. :) You´ll also notice that the rupee, key, bomb and arrow counters will sometimes be missing. Rather than showing everything all the time, I've opted for more contextual visibility.

3. The first dungeon tileset
Finally you can see that work is well underway with replacing the first dungeon tileset. The immediate goal is to release a next demo with just the uncut original first dungeon. Therefore this is the only area being worked on for now. It still contains nearly 50 rooms so I'm sure it'll make for a good enough showcase for new players.
What do you think? How does the new dungeon style look?


Future plans
As for what's next: I've just begon the search for a sprite animator and a composer, so hopefully I can show plenty of progress on those fronts next time. The other big thing to mention is that the kickstarter plans have been delayed for now. While I am fairly happy with the rate of development overall, there have been delays due to finding team members and experimentation. I don't want to risk missing SAGE2022, so I've decided to prioritize a kickstarter second. Succesfull kickstarters take months of effort and advertisment to prepare afterall.

If you want to stay updated on the weekly progress inbetween these messages (or just want to get in touch) join the Discord server.
Join link : https://discord.gg/redHXyZ2Gc


mockup menu v6.0.png
Ingame v9.png
 

martijndh

Member
It's been yet another two month, so high time for another update post.
I must confess that I've postponed it a few times, hoping to include just that one extra sprite or resource around the corner. But it's probably better to keep some small things secret for you to discover on your own. 😄

1. First dungeon tileset
This is now fully finished and implemented! It took quit a bit longer than expected (also due to me adding a small extra details here and there) but it's been fully completed.

2. Dungeon objects
Meaning all those dynamic things inside the demo dungeon. Like doors, chests, switches, lights and so forth. It's very very close to being done, but I'm still waiting on the last few sprites for hitswitches and some destructable terrain. And then there might still be some tweaking to make sure everything fits together and stands out enough. But hey, another major milestone (nearly) done. Feels good.

I've added a newer version of the last screenshot, so that you can see how things have slowly been changing and coming together.

3. Music
We now have our first custom track in the game (=boss music), as well as some of the needed jingles (for secrets and so forth). A second track is expected to drop any day now. Still a LOT of work to do on this front, but a start has been made.

4. Enemy animations
The search for a skilled and consistent animator continues. In the meantime I've been editing / creating the animations myself mostly. Can't claim I'm great or very fast or anything, but I am proud to get some of these visuals done and smooth. Currently about 1/3th of the demo's enemies are now finished and implemented. There IS a new trail gig ongoing to look for paid pixelartists, so here's to hoping the results are good enough so that I can soon outsource work and really step on the gas with this project.

5. Credits list and stats screen
Not quit as flashy as spritework and audio, but neccessary. The credits have been updated, re-coded and expanded with an endscreen to show player time, item usage and deaths. Seemed like a nice little reward for speedrunners and those that enjoy their own challenge runs.
 

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martijndh

Member
It's been another month, so let's see where we are at:

Sage 2022
Let's just start off with the piece of bad news first: I've decided not to try to attend SAGE 2022 anymore. I really wanted to just crunch in order to make it in time, but the harder I push myself the less productive I seem to get. So rather than wreck myself on shortterm goals, I've decided to pace myself more and to also (on occassion) work on things needed beyond the first public demo. Because I can and because it's fun to vary things up every once in a while. Which leads me to...

Final boss

I've commissioned the first batch of artwork required for the final boss. For those of you that already saw the final boss in action in the last demo (or twitch recordings): it'll be the same concept and coding. But just imaging how it can make it look with an actual art budget. ;) <sounds of excitement> I'm very much looking forward to the day when I can show this one off. Even more so now that I've seen the first pieces come in.

Dungeon objects
All demo dungeon objects have now been fully completed.

Music
The 5th and final demo music piece has been implemented yesterday. That should be enough to keep development going for a while.

Titlepage / intro menu
The titlepage is now fully completed, and the same also applies for all the intro menu's. I´m almost done with the file selection page; just some character actions that need to be animated first.

(Character) animations
I've finally found a good and reliable animator (that works slow but steady). The walking animations are now fully completed (= 8 directions, cause of transitions etc) and a few character actions are also ready to implement. There's a lot more to do on this front, but it's a big step in the right direction to build upon.

And various small tweaks
Check out the more extensive weekly post over on Discord if you want to hear and see more.
 

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martijndh

Member
Two more months of developments, so it's time for another update:

Final boss
Fully completed! Well, not counting intro scenes, but it's too soon to get bogged down in such detailing. I also added in an extra intro phase to guide players into the boss mechanics. As well as worked with the artist to come up with a fresh (and slightly disturbing) visual approach for the boss's main body. *grins*

File select screen
The sexy side of game development. This is nearly done, but is waiting on the last pre-requisites to make sure that it matches the visual language of the rest of the game.

(Character) animations
Great news! Last time I mentioned I had finally found a slow, but reliable animator. Currently I'm working with two such animators! Well, reliable AND fast is better, but reliable in and of itself is already worth a lot! Focus has now finally been able to shift from scouting to detailing and implementing. Newly implemented character animations include:
- Carying items
- Opening chests
- Victory jumping
- Falling into the abyss
- With a more animations already underway, or ready to implement

Character items
Speaking of the character. One additional revamped item has been implemented: the monocle / goggles.
Why two names? Well, it replaces both the book and lantern from the original game. One form exists for each, wherein the player can influence the order of collection and combining. Also an upgrade exists later down the line.

HUD updates
As you can see in the screenshot, more changes have been made to the HUD. For example: the health and magic bars now grow gradualy as you improve your character. Also, the equipped items are now drawn on the side to allow for bigger and more imposing visuals in the center of the screen (like a certain large final boss).

Collectables
Rupees have been replaced with gems as the game's currency. I've been experimenting a lot with colors and shapes, and ultimatly went for gems over gold (or something like cubes) to hopefully make it stand more on it´s own. Also, not sure how other developers handle coloring, but I dropped the green>blue>red value progression very early on due to colors not standing out enough.

Sound effects
I've been replacing some sound effects over time using (free) databases and assetstores. It's done in between other progress to keep momentum going, but it's already become clear that some required sound effect are just too specific to just stumble across and will need to be commissioned. This will be the next (and probably final) big puzzle piece to tackly on the road to completing a full demo: finding a competent sound effects artist.

Twitter
The plan is to spread to more and more socials over time. With the expansion for this update: Twitter. Feel free to give me a follow if you want to see new screenshots every sunday. Or if just want to show support.
You can find met at: https://twitter.com/HornofBalance

Various other develompments
Check out the more extensive weekly posts over on Discord or follow me on twitter if you want to learn more.
 

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martijndh

Member
Big game development update #6

It's been another three more months of developments, so high time for another bigger progress update. Let's start with the biggest items and go from there:

Spriters and animators
We officially have a spriter on the team: Kohari! I've been working with her for a while now so it was a little while coming. And since it was a gradual process there won't be any shift in visuals or development really. It's just good to have the added stability.

Check out her work on this plushy.. I mean.. effigy quest item:
D1 WIP screenshot 19.png

As for animators. Last time I was working with two. Both cooperations have since dropped off for differing reasons. Honestly, looking for capable and reliable talent has proven to be a big time-consuming and demoralizing headache. So I've decided to lean more on Kohari, and now consider myself as the animator where needed (as I already needed to tweak all incoming results anyways).

Character animations
Which leads into the new character animations and actions.
Big strides have been made in this area, such as:
- All idle animations are completed
- The default sword attacks are completed (incl. for all sword upgrades)
D1 WIP screenshot 21.png
- All visuals for collectable tunics (and gauntlets) have been completed
- The character can now grab, push and pull objects
- The lamp replacement item has been implemented
- The mirror replacement item has been implemented, along with a nice teleportation character animation
- The new cloak item has been implemented, along a new set of movement animations

Enemy visuals
Three new enemy types have been given the planned visual overhaul and are now fully done. This includes the subboss of the upcoming demo dungeon, which was a lot of work! Additionally, early spritework for the remaining demo enemies is already ready to implement, so expect more good news on this matter in the next update.

Menu updates
Nearly all items, quest items and collectables now have new visuals and descriptions in the menus. Also, for flavor and guidance, Murray (=BestBoy.png) has decided to gift you a little commentary for every per item you select. He swears it'll all be useful descriptions, but I don't know... Sounds kinda sus.

Anyway, moving on. The Journal page has temporarily been disabled for the upcoming demo.


HUD updates
Some slight tweaks have been made. Bomb visuals are now included and the health alarm has been replaced with a visual effect on the character sprites themselves.

Sound effects
I've talked about this in earlier updates, but this remains a challenge. Nevertheless small steps have been made. The combined number of new sound effects needed for the next demo has shrunk to 64.

Cursed cape of healing.png

Social media presence
As planned my media presence has been slightly expanded once again. I'll likely leave it like this for a little while until I have an early demo ready and/or have an early kickstarter link to promote.

Here's all the places I can now be found (not counting my Itch profile)
Weekly updates:
Twitter - https://twitter.com/HornofBalance
Mastodom - https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@HornofBalance

Weekly updates and devlogs:
Discord - https://discord.gg/redHXyZ2Gc
ZFGC forum - http://zfgc.com/forum/index.php?topic=33701.msg376449

(Bi) monthly updates:
Reddit - follow me @: u/HornofBalance
Gamemaker forums - https://forum.gamemaker.io/index.ph...e-zelda-style-topdown-action-adventure.45087/
Mailinglist - Just send me your emailadress

And more
Of course there have also been a series of bug fixes and tweaks performed. The text engine has been updated to now also display who is talking. The demo dungeon has received updates to several rooms to make puzzles more intuitive. And some smaller quality of life gameplay improvements have been made.

Check out the more extensive weekly posts over on Discord and ZFGC (or follow me on Twitter) if you want to learn more about the inbetween progress being made.
 
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martijndh

Member
Development update #7

Horn of Balance - Emote - cheer.pngHello everybody. Long time no see.

I just wanted to let you all know that this project is still going strong!
In fact: not only has a proper demo been released over on Itch a while ago, but I recently released the 3rd (!) update. Work on a 2.0 demo is underway, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Sadly I rarely have the time to write blogs anymore, so I'll just summarize the general state of things. Where to begin...?
  • So earlier this year I took a long sabbatical from work to make progress on the project.
    That time was used to fully complete one entire dungeon. So all the sounds, music, coding, character animations, enemies. The whole thing is done. Which I am still very proud of. Play it for yourself if you like. The link is in the starting post and in my signature.
  • That is not the end of the story as I've immediately shifted over to working on the next few area's: the overworld (!), inside houses and inside caves.
    The new goal is to first release a second demo in order to show people a wider ranges of biomes and colors. All as a lead-up to an inevitable Kickstarter campaign. This is also the point where I'm at right now: A good deal of sprites, tiles and sound effects have already been implemented ,so I can't complain about how things are looking.
  • That Kickstarter campaign as originally already plan to go on right about now, but I ultimately decided to postpone things. It takes a lot of work to prepare such a campaign. (Mostly in terms of building hype - although I've been trying TOO hard yet). I do not believe I'm sufficiently ready yet. Instead I'm working to add more content for the demo and trailer. All in order to (hopefully) have an easier time convincing people to check out the project, when I do start up more serious advertisement efforts.
  • Also there are some stray thoughts that might be interesting:
    - I ended up following advice to hire someone to make me some (Discord) emotes. (Like the one above). We had a lot of fun making those and they've proven to be surprisingly versatile and useful. You can use them on any of the socials to add a bit extra personality so I'm glad I did that.
    - I also hired someone to make me custom capsule art for Kickstarter and (eventually also) Steam. It comes highly recommended whenever I research successful games, but time will have to tell if the (quite sizeable) investment will really have been worth it. That being said, I absolutely love the results regardless. The artist really nailed the core concepts I was going for. What do you all think?
    - I'll be attending the SAGE2023 event with my latest demo. Fingers crossed that people love it.

    Horn of balance capsule art MID.jpg
 

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martijndh

Member

martijndh

Member
IT IS FINALLY HERE!
After 2,5 years of working on the new direction, many preparations (and a last minute flu infection), I can finally happily report that the "Horn of Balance" Kickstarter has started! And sits at 30% backed within less than 24 hours.

KS link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hornofbalance/horn-of-balance/description

Horn of Balance - Emote - Celebrate.png

Come check it to score the game at a nice discount (or even bigger discount if you back early). Or make use of the one-time opportunity to pledge at higher tiers to receive rewards such as:
- Gaining BETA / ALPHA access
- Including your (OC's) name and lore into the actual game
- Designing your very own enemy, NPC, pet or even boss for me to include
- Having your (OC's) name, likeness and lore as part of a final end-game boss fight. NO JOKE! You can be the boss!

Beyond that we are also sharing new information about the game's world, mechanics and goals on the main page. Like, what's up with this huge villain group and massive amount of dungeons we've got planned.

NPCs2.png

And you can look forward to periodic blogs that go even further in detail. And interviews with fellow indie developers for even more Zelda-like games coming your way.

Greetings,
Martijn
 
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