Demo PROJECT ABEL: CLASSIC 2D SURVIVAL HORROR

abeldev

Member
Over the past year and a half I've been working on creating a game that truly calls back to classic survival horror, with a 16bit aesthetic. Inventory management, limited resources, itemboxes, save rooms, ridiculous puzzles - it's all here. I would love if you guys could play my latest demo and provide me with honest feedback! This project is still very early in development, keep in mind.

The demo is available here: https://abeldev.itch.io/project-abel-alpha-demo

or here: https://gamejolt.com/games/projectabel/324978


Social media:

https://twitter.com/ProjectAbelGame

https://projectabel.tumblr.com/






 
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Inventory management, limited resources, itemboxes, save rooms, ridiculous puzzles - it's all here.
"Protagonist clops around like a horse in high-heels when he walks." - you forgot to mention the most important one, hahah! When I heard the foorstep sound in the trailer, I thought "yup, seems like this guy gets it," heheh. Game looks cool. I'll give the demo a try tomorrow. It's obvious you love horror games and that you've put a lot of work into this. I have pretty high hopes for the demo! =D
 

Fanatrick

Member
I love what you did with the inventory systems and the overall UI. So far seems spot-on for what you're trying to create!

Would love to ask, are you hard-coding the map?
 

abeldev

Member
The graphics are outstanding, good work!
Thank you!
"Protagonist clops around like a horse in high-heels when he walks." - you forgot to mention the most important one, hahah! When I heard the foorstep sound in the trailer, I thought "yup, seems like this guy gets it," heheh. Game looks cool. I'll give the demo a try tomorrow. It's obvious you love horror games and that you've put a lot of work into this. I have pretty high hopes for the demo! =D
Haha yeah, wouldn't be survival horror with out it tbh!
I love what you did with the inventory systems and the overall UI. So far seems spot-on for what you're trying to create!

Would love to ask, are you hard-coding the map?
It's been a little since I coded the map (I'll have to return to it soon though). From what I can remember each room on the map is it's own object that just draws itself the first time you enter it. Each room has it's own set of properties defined in a grid too, like "is the room cleared of items?" or "is the player present in the room"? etc
 
'This looks awesome! I've been waiting for something like this. I will edit with a review after the demo.

Short Review:
I played the demo and really enjoyed it. Right from the opening screen I could feel the Resident Evil and Silent Hill vibe. Didn't have enough time to be able to test combat out. If that was in there lol. The controls feel good and natural from what I could tell. I enjoyed click clacking around the level :). I noticed that the footstep sound effect doesn't register when walking into a wall. The background music and lighting gave the demo a great atmosphere. The sprites overall are awesome and are spot on besides the stairs. They were hard to make out for me. All in all this is a great project that I am really looking forward to!

Do you plan on adding meelee combat? That would be awesome and make the game a little more nerve racking.
 
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PlayerOne

Member
It is that time of year for horror games so I'll download it and give this a playthrough. The art style gives off a BIOHAZARD 1 vibe and I love it. If this games gets on gog I'll be putting this on my wish list.

Good work.
 

abeldev

Member
'This looks awesome! I've been waiting for something like this. I will edit with a review after the demo.

Short Review:
I played the demo and really enjoyed it. Right from the opening screen I could feel the Resident Evil and Silent Hill vibe. Didn't have enough time to be able to test combat out. If that was in there lol. The controls feel good and natural from what I could tell. I enjoyed click clacking around the level :). I noticed that the footstep sound effect doesn't register when walking into a wall. The background music and lighting gave the demo a great atmosphere. The sprites overall are awesome and are spot on besides the stairs. They were hard to make out for me. All in all this is a great project that I am really looking forward to!

Do you plan on adding meelee combat? That would be awesome and make the game a little more nerve racking.
thanks for playing! glad you enjoyed. Melee combat is def planned. Figured out a new animation system that I showcase here a little: https://twitter.com/ProjectAbelGame, so melee animations will be easy implement now!

I love this!
I'm glad!

It is that time of year for horror games so I'll download it and give this a playthrough. The art style gives off a BIOHAZARD 1 vibe and I love it. If this games gets on gog I'll be putting this on my wish list.

Good work.
Thanks! hope you have fun.
 

PlayerOne

Member
Just played the demo. Loved what I played and looking forward to playing it in full, but a few nitpicks:

1) The footsteps sounds use the same sound effect over and over. If you use 3 or 4 different sound samples to mix things up my ears would thank you. Especially on concrete floors where the player runs.
2) The transition between viewing the inventory can be a chore. I know you put work into the inventory transitions on and off screen but if you have it fade to black it would work better. If you intend to have a game mechanic where the player is attacked while viewing the inventory then I refer you to the Resident Evil / Biohazard Outbreak games with such a mechanic to get a sense of how the inventory-vulnerability mechanic is used.
3) Maybe I'm blind but I didn't find a weapon or fight an enemy in the entire demo. I'l play the demo again and find what I missed.
4) Please have the arrow for the numbered lock snap to the given numbered row instead of moving freely. It was rather annoying having it move like it did.

Aside from my nitpicks I loved the enviroments and design style. Cheers!
 

abeldev

Member
Just played the demo. Loved what I played and looking forward to playing it in full, but a few nitpicks:

1) The footsteps sounds use the same sound effect over and over. If you use 3 or 4 different sound samples to mix things up my ears would thank you. Especially on concrete floors where the player runs.
2) The transition between viewing the inventory can be a chore. I know you put work into the inventory transitions on and off screen but if you have it fade to black it would work better. If you intend to have a game mechanic where the player is attacked while viewing the inventory then I refer you to the Resident Evil / Biohazard Outbreak games with such a mechanic to get a sense of how the inventory-vulnerability mechanic is used.
3) Maybe I'm blind but I didn't find a weapon or fight an enemy in the entire demo. I'l play the demo again and find what I missed.
4) Please have the arrow for the numbered lock snap to the given numbered row instead of moving freely. It was rather annoying having it move like it did.

Aside from my nitpicks I loved the enviroments and design style. Cheers!
Thanks for playing Glad you enjoyed. Feedback noted!

Good idea with having multiple SFX per surface, don't know how I hadn't thought of that yet.

The entire inventory has actually been reworked, you can view it here https://twitter.com/ProjectAbelGame/status/1048200217030356993. I went back to an RE1-3 style because I didn't feel RE4 inventory tetris was really worth the time it took fixing bugs for it. Especially when the classic style essentially serves the exact same purpose and will just minimise time spent organising things.

Yeah I tied enemies spawning to picking up the broken lighter in the classroom you go through, not realising that some players just won't notice it after the moaning sound. I should have just tied it to a collision box when you're about to leave the room, oh well. The next demo will be a substantial step up from the current one so I hope you can play that too whenever I finish it.

Also the cursor should be quite easy to implement that way so I will do that eventually too. or just tie cursor movement to the mouse I guess.

Again, thanks for playing!
 

abeldev

Member
I'm gonna treat this thread as a place for devlogs from now - for those interested. :)

A few medium sized updates since the release of the last demo:

I've decided to opt for a 3D -> 2D sprite creation workflow which will allow me to create many more animations in a fraction of the time!

New Animations!

The inventory tetris system seen in RE4 will be no longer - mainly due to the ridiculous amount of bugs it was still causing one year after initially coding it. I've instead decided to go with the classic RE1-3 style of inventory. I'm very happy with this change. It's bug free, simpler, easier to balance, and will reduce unwanted item management time.

New Classic Inventory

Item combining is now a mechanic. This adds an extra element of decision making - as there will be times where you will have to choose between crafting stronger healing items, more ammo or extra save matches. Also seen in this video is the new trench area. This area will truly represent the horrors of WW1 before the player enters the iconic Spencer Mansion-esque University area.

Item Combining

Taken from my itch.io page:
https://abeldev.itch.io/project-abel-alpha-demo/devlog/52063/recent-project-abel-dev-update-roundup
 

abeldev

Member
why did you use GM? You can make a game like this in few hours using rpg maker. no?
Yeah sure thing, I've spent 18 months developing this game by myself but good to know I could have done it in an afternoon on RPG maker...
 

abeldev

Member
ahhahahahahahahahaha.... no just "few hours" but I think that it's the better engine for your game...no?
I dunno... It's not an RPG and there's nothing wrong with GMS. I don't know anything about RPG maker but I know it's limited in what it can do.
 
N

nlolotte

Guest
I dunno... It's not an RPG and there's nothing wrong with GMS. I don't know anything about RPG maker but I know it's limited in what it can do.
Ignore this user, they post a load of junk comments. RPG maker is severely limited in terms of what you are trying to achieve. The game looks good so far. This person is merely trying to increase their post count.
 
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Guy_Typing

Guest
Looks great. Definitely has the classic resident evil vibe, but in 16 bit 2D. Will play the demo when I have more time. Keep up the good work!
 
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