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Demo Meskhenet - A Platformer/Adventure [closed by author request]

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Red Phantom

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[UPDATED] Download Link (you must be persistent in clicking yes to download this old-gamemaker-version executable):
https://gamejolt.com/games/twodimensionaladventureplatformerdemo/359690

Video is updated. Sound effects muted in video

It's a very short demo (5 minutes expected completion time, 2 minutes completion in creators time), please give it a try. Please give feedback, all feedback appreciated.

Absolutely everything is 100% original - sprites, backgrounds, S.E., music.
These have also already been completed - just putting the game together now which is taking longer than I expected.

FINAL DEMO VERSION NOW RELEASED
Additions since previous demo version:
  • ***Character can jump!
  • ***Change in character sprites! (main character, enemy soldiers and intro guy)
  • ***2 more scenes with 2 new characters!
  • ***Can enter another building!
  • ***First major enemy battle!
  • **Can enter final house's second room
  • *Controls are explained after the first scene
  • *Introduction can be skipped
  • + MANY MORE SECRETS
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
TIPS FOR WHEN YOU'RE STUCK - WARNING: SPOILERS
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
1. Stuck in the graveyard after the introduction?
------> Press down to converse
2. Have you picked up the gun yet?
------> It's beside the light-post, to the right outside of the old man's house (down to pickup)
3. Red Building Locked?
------> Have you talked to the child yet?
------> Have you taken the child to the old man (includes talking to the old man with child)
4. After unlocking the red building and going through to the other side, what do I do?
------> Have you tried opening the inside-door in the left-most house?
5. I've talked to Chisiri now what? I try to go west of the city and it says "I must go to the hill in the East part of the city."
------> Go back through the red building so that you are in city east area
------> A new crate should have appeared, which the Meskhenet acknowledges
------> Jump on-top of the crate, then on-top of the buildings and you will find the laboratory
 
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Red Phantom

Guest
Thank you so much for playing this and doing a video of it! You have no idea how much I appreciate this even though it didn't work out as I planned. (You missed out on: reading gravestones, entering the 7 houses, talking to the child --> talking to the old man --> getting the key to unlock that red building --> game continues)
The controls were actually at the bottom of the gamejolt link where you download the game. Although I should have included them on both this thread and in the game itself, which I will now do.
I was praying the whole time you would try press down! on the door or any house door, or perhaps down on the pistol in the area just after the graveyard.
Funnily enough I believe you hit every single debug key which I should have removed for the demo
- you skipped the intro of Meskhenet conversing with the graves by pressing S rather than down.
 
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Calvert

Member
Although I haven't played it yet, I figure I'll give feedback on what I see in your main post because you value all feedback. Your game looks pretty good, and I really like the inventory bar. Good job on that.

The visual artwork: I think the characters do stick out like a sore thumb. In a lively looking world, they look stiff. Do they have knees? If so, where are they located?

As far as the art goes, it's okay. I like it, and I can tell you've put some heart into it and that's important. A little bit more work on the characters form and shading would make them fit into their world better, and it would entice me to play the game more.

The textbox kinda sticks out too much being in the middle of the screen, but maybe that's just because there is a really big box with empty space even when there is very little text in it. Easily fixable and not a big deal.

Also, pressing "down" to walk through doors doesn't seem natural to me. I would prefer the "up" key, but that's just me.

Great job making all of the assets 100% original, keep it up!

Also - I like how the woman looks like she's smiling while desperately screaming for help in the picture.
 
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Red Phantom

Guest
Thank you very much for your helpful feedback Calvert.
Your game looks pretty good, and I really like the inventory bar. Good job on that. Great job making all of the assets 100% original, keep it up!
Thank you.
I think the characters do stick out like a sore thumb. In a lively looking world, they look stiff. Do they have knees? If so, where are they located? A little bit more work on the characters form and shading would make them fit into their world better, and it would entice me to play the game more.
I have now shaded the characters.

Also, pressing "down" to walk through doors doesn't seem natural to me. I would prefer the "up" key, but that's just me.
The "up" key has been reserved for jumping, I intend on adding jumping to the game in the near-future.

The textbox kinda sticks out too much being in the middle of the screen, but maybe that's just because there is a really big box with empty space even when there is very little text in it. Easily fixable and not a big deal.
I would like my text to to "stick out" to encourage people to follow the story of the game.
However I do not necessarily want the text-box itself to "stick out".
I think:
I should not remove the empty space even when there is very little text in it BECAUSE I want the size of my text-box to be consistent throughout the whole game - for the sake of simplicity and especially consistency.
Rather I made the textbox more transparent.
 
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Calvert

Member
I should not remove the empty space even when there is very little text in it BECAUSE I want the size of my text-box to be consistent throughout the whole game - for the sake of simplicity and especially consistency.
Rather I should make the text-box itself more transparent so it "stands-out" less.

Do you agree with what I think?
Simplicity and consistency is good, I agree with that.

You mentioned keeping the textbox where it "sticks out" in order to encourage people to follow the story in your game. I personally have never wanted to follow a game's story more because it's textbox punched me in the face and told me to notice it. I have wanted to quit playing the game if it's textbox was bad though. I understand what you mean, and I don't think your textbox is bad, but I think it could be better. As in, it also sticks out like the characters do.

Have you considered making the textbox the same brown/tan color as the inventory bar? I imagine that might look nice.
 
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Red Phantom

Guest
Have you considered making the textbox the same brown/tan color as the inventory bar? I imagine that might look nice.
Ultimately I wanted to make a substantial lowering in the transparency while still making the text-box look like an actual text-box (so not lowering it too much)
 
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Calvert

Member
Colour Change Option 1:
View attachment 22105

Colour Change Option 2 (the one I decided on):
View attachment 22106

Lowering The Transparency to Degree 1:
View attachment 22107

Lowering The Transparency to Degree 2:
View attachment 22107

Lowering The Transparency to Degree 3:
View attachment 22108

Lowering The Transparency to Degree 4:
View attachment 22109

Ultimately I wanted to make a substantial lowering in the transparency while still making the text-box look like an actual text-box (so not lowering it too much) --> I think Lowering The Transparency to Degree 3 is best. Let me know if you think: 1,2 or 4 would be better.
To be honest with you, I think all options here look great. Nice job on that. Judging by the pictures I wouldn't actually go with any of the "transparency options". The way it looks in Colour option 2 looks perfect to me, because it's still transparent and totally looks like a solid (nice) textbox. Though if you like number 3, I still think it looks good too, just a bit too transparent for my taste. Perhaps more people could vote on this?

I'll give it a play soon and let you know what I think of gameplay.

EDIT:

I liked it, good job. It reminds me of an old game I played called (I believe it was Aftershocked) where you are in a post apocalyptic world. It had a great story. Anyway, this is a game I would play, I'll keep my eye on it. It's got something special about it.

My favorite parts were "Thank you old man."

and the part where I told a kid to follow me; only to lead him to gunfire where bullets were zipping past his head. Yikes.

Again, good job. I'd like to see more of it!
 
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Red Phantom

Guest
Clutzo(motion64x64).gif
A small spoiler: Future Enemy Boss Character that you fight in the game. My favourite character in the story.

Thank you to everyone who has either/both played my demo or given me feedback, I currently have a lot of things to do and am wanting to release a better-and-expanded final demo version (which will be about 1/5 of the entire game) - FINAL DEMO RELEASED VERY SOON - HOPEFULLY ON 1ST OF APRIL
 
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ProjectGamesInc

Guest
Well, to be honest isnt really my favourite game style.
The game is really basic, its easy to play and well, it was fun indeed.

But i have some hints, 1st of all the graphic style, i think you need a bit more elements in the background, the game feels a little bit "empty", i don't know, maybe add some birds shadows in the far when you are in the city, add some basic things like clouds or starts. I also suggest to work on characters, since they look a little bit "weird" (By the way they are not bad, i have 0 skills in drawing human figures).

Also the music, the music in the city/housings is a 10secs loop, if you want a suggestion since one of my main role is composing, try to have a little bit longer track, then make this track a little more "animate", adding an instrument or making crescendo/diminuendo moments, and try to loop it well, like fading in/out, or making the track finish at all at the end and then restart.

For all the rest, the work is good and i'm sure you will continue to improve, the main idea and the general style is not bad at all, so go on!
 
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Red Phantom

Guest
"The game is really basic" - basic in a bad or good way? I have just added jumping to the main character, but I am not completely changing my game style.

"i think you need a bit more elements in the background" - I don't want to draw too much attention to the background, it is a background after all. I want the game to have a bit of a "dark"/"dead" theme, so I like the background being fairly 'dead'. Although I may add the occasional crow that flies past in the background of the cities, to make the game slightly more scenic and add to that theme.
I may make it rain with lightning throughout all outdoor rooms when it hits the final quarter of the game to make it increasingly more scenic and dark.

I'm likely going to re-do the first main music theme (10s loop one) which you mention.
 
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ProjectGamesInc

Guest
Basic in a good way, beacouse its simple to understand.
I think that even if you want to keep the dark atmosphere, you still need a little bit of ambience "population". 1 or 2 really small details can change a lot and even give a better feeling of the dark theme, as you said, some crow flying in the far, a little bit of rain, some animated smoke effect, they wont change the feeling of the dead/dark theme, but they will increase it.

You can for example, make 2/3 crows that fly at random, with random size maybe, or you can do a rain or smoke effect that the game will play also at random, sometimes the rain, sometimes the smoke, by the way you will understand yourself as you try and test it in your game ;).

Keep up the good work!
 
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RandNR

Guest
The dark theme is quite cool I like themes like this. I like games where you start in a graveyard.
Dialogs and interaction with objects seem interesting.
Intro is quite funny to watch but could be shorter a bit, maybe a way to skip it would be good idea too.
You need to improve PC collisions, at later level when you jump ledge down, the char object jumped dozen of pixels, you can fix this with move_contact_solid function or writing better collision conditions I suppose.
More variety of core gameplay, more weapons maybe ? But maybe you got this covered in plan already?
From gameplay perspective only locked doors and walking might not be enough. Need more gameplay features
ESCAPE Auto quit game / need to fix that for people like me that have auto-habit on pressing ESC to invoke menus or skipping stuff for instances
If target controls are simple few keys I'd add at least one more key for main interaction ( ENTER / SPACE usually the best choice )

The theme have potential you should continue this game for sure.
 
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Red Phantom

Guest
Intro is quite funny to watch but could be shorter a bit, maybe a way to skip it would be good idea too
By funny I assume you mean dodgy? How could I lessen this 'dodginess'? Skip added to intro.

You need to improve PC collisions, at later level when you jump ledge down, the char object jumped dozen of pixels,
--> This is a temporary solution (teleporting the character) before I add in gravity code and jumping --> next demo
 
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