"Project Mordaro" top down action adventure game.

[Tcrakman]

Hi there!

I thought it would be a good idea to show progress of a game im making, working title "Project Mordaro".

Its a top down action adventure game with strange creatures, robots, deer and your special ability to jump on stuff and peoples heads!
Okay... there´s more than that but first i would like to show the progress so far, so you can get a basic idea of the gameplay

Here´s the twitter if you want to keep following the game progress:
https://twitter.com/Tcrakman?lang=es

Most recent video:

Old screenshots:

-The player can move in al 360 directions as well as jump normally, jump to reach top of pillars, jump to reach higher grounds or just jump on top of other characters to bounce off!

-Some Enemies can jump too:

-And of course! you can jump on them too...

Spoiler

-Moving characters, be NPC´s allies or enemies, can move through the enviroment and reach their targets wherever they are, all while avoiding each other (this will be important in the future as i want the player to have allies/companions that
follow and battle alongside him in his journey).

Spoiler

-Branching dialogue system that supports portraits (Its very ugly looking right now but the basic system is there!)

Spoiler

-Combat:
This is the most recent update. How the combat will feel is something i have been working on these past weeks and well, its starting to feel right!
Generally speaking Combat is fast and well... i think its too difficult right now, like, these new bot enemies i made like to jump, A LOT... (or maybe the reason is too difficult is that im a sadistic person and put 30 of these guys in the same room...) sooo, i think i´ll be tweaking and polishing these mechanics in the next weeks so it feels more easy on the player.
Here´s what combat looks like:

Also, here´s what the first versions of combat looked like!

Spoiler

Thanks for looking, more updates coming soon!

 

[StoneTide]

Liking the combat so far!

 

[Tcrakman]

Liking the combat so far!

Thank you! been working hard to make the combat look and feel cool, its slowly getting there!

 

[Guest User]

Looks very good. Does it have some kind of story?

 

[Tcrakman]

Looks very good. Does it have some kind of story?

Yep! the story will be one of the strong focus points of this game, I plan to have lots of conversations as well has characters that develop over the course of this story.
For now im more focused on having the basic gameplay before anything else but, of course I´ll be giving some small hints of the story in the next updates

 

[swonqi]

The combat looks really cool and fun to play! I'm very impressed by the graphics aswell. You've got some special here I hope platforming won't be too big part of the game. To be honest it doesn't look as fun to me compared to the combat.

Looking forward to the demo!

 

[Tcrakman]

The combat looks really cool and fun to play! I'm very impressed by the graphics aswell. You've got some special here I hope platforming won't be too big part of the game. To be honest it doesn't look as fun to me compared to the combat.

Looking forward to the demo!

Thanks! glad you liked the combat, its the mechanic im putting more effort right now, and im glad its paying off!
About platforming, its a topic i´ve been thinking since i started making the jumping mechanics, i want it to be a way of giving the player more exploration options through the world. But, for this type of perspective (top down 3/4), i also realized it can be difficult for the player to know where he will be landing/jumping to, no matter how precise i make the platforming. So, im not making platforming a recurring theme in this game, specially in combat sections...I´ll only be putting it in very specific sections, and plan it to be easy to avoid frustration.

Ok! i been working on adding some sounds for the game, it´s not much of an update but sound is a new topic for me in game maker, so here it is the combat, with some sound.

 

[swonqi]

Thanks! glad you liked the combat, its the mechanic im putting more effort right now, and im glad its paying off!
About platforming, its a topic i´ve been thinking since i started making the jumping mechanics, i want it to be a way of giving the player more exploration options through the world. But, for this type of perspective (top down 3/4), i also realized it can be difficult for the player to know where he will be landing/jumping to, no matter how precise i make the platforming. So, im not making platforming a recurring theme in this game, specially in combat sections...I´ll only be putting it in very specific sections, and plan it to be easy to avoid frustration.

Sounds good, I'm glad to hear this. I think so many games have annoying platforming phases, while the game itself is mostly about the fighting. That often makes me want to stop playing the game.

Thanks! glad you liked the combat, its the mechanic im putting more effort right now, and im glad its paying off!
Ok! i been working on adding some sounds for the game, it´s not much of an update but sound is a new topic for me in game maker, so here it is the combat, with some sound.

Great job on these aswell, sounds really juicy!

 

[FROGANUS]

sweet artwork and sick fighting so far.
i dig your 'furious' approach to testing!

 

[Niels]

Nice art! Also the gameplay looks like a lot of fun

 

[Tcrakman]

Hello, thanks again for all the responses. Been working hard on the first area of the game, this place is like a space airport orbiting a planet...
Many different species reside in it currently waiting for the spaceport to descend to the planet, which will be in less than an hour...
While waiting, one can visit some of the ship most iconic places including the food area which currently holds the famous kofee shop, and the ship´s very life support system core known as mother.
Its advised for the passengers to be nice and to not go around kicking cans, break stuff or jump on top of other passengers!

Just need to fix a couple of things but i will upload a video soon showing this area. Thanks!

 

[Tcrakman]

Okay! big update, here´s a first look at the tutorial area of the game, been working a while on this!
Still tons of work to do but im happy enough to show how it is going.

 

[Tcrakman]

Hello! here´s two new updates!
First one is a new type of enemy, this one comes in packs and will surround you if you´re not careful!
here it is, the crawlbots (or swarmbots as the video suggests).

These new bots will be your first enemy in the combat tutorial section, they´re a bit too hard right now so im gonna be tweaking them in these next weeks!

For the second update i´ve been working on cutscenes, they´re a bit of a chore to setup but they´re not that hard to make and implement as i thought they would be. Also, conversations are beginning to take place, i want them to be animated but that will be in another update!
Here is how these cutscenes and conversations look like right now.

All the conversations will be animated in the future.
Also, right now, these sprites are only a rough png image (i like to make these in flash then export as png) but i will pixelate them in the future of course!

Slowly getting there... been a ton of work but step by step is slowly taking shape. This is it for this 2 updates, thanks and see ya later!

 

[nnynas]

This looks good. Not sure what kind of look/feel you were going for, but for me it's looking like a mix of Fifth element, Avatar, Guardians of the galaxy etc.

I liked the jumping mechanics in the first test videos, but now looking the food area video, I think that bouncing of the aliens seems somewhat strange. Maybe it's just that there isn't anything going on that would push me to do that in that otherwise relaxing environment.

 

[Tcrakman]

This looks good. Not sure what kind of look/feel you were going for, but for me it's looking like a mix of Fifth element, Avatar, Guardians of the galaxy etc.

I liked the jumping mechanics in the first test videos, but now looking the food area video, I think that bouncing of the aliens seems somewhat strange. Maybe it's just that there isn't anything going on that would push me to do that in that otherwise relaxing environment.

Well, since this part is like a tutorial area i want the player to be able to do this jumping on characters thing, it will be important later for fighting enemies and interacting with the world so i want the player to have this option early on as to learn what this do and what happens when you do it. A little bit later the player will need to do this in order to progress a certain section so its ok if the player decided not to jump on the friendly passengers. For the style im just trying to come with something i like and ,so far im liking how everything is looking!

 

[Silver_Mantis]

This is all very impressive. I really like your use of color and your characters are creatively designed. I look forward to more stuff!

 

[Tcrakman]

This is all very impressive. I really like your use of color and your characters are creatively designed. I look forward to more stuff!

Thank you, more to come soon!

 

[kami '86]

You had something here,I feel hooked from the first time i look up. Please, tell me that the demo it's coming soon.

 

[greenystone]

I like the ORIGINALITY here a lot, jumping on heads when others wait for snack is not something you see every day!

What resolution do you use - 640x360 or even bigger?

 

[ras maxim]

Great art style. The area with al those alien species reminds me of "Star diaries. The eighth voyage" by Stanislav Lem. Also I love the glowing deer from the first video.

 

[Tcrakman]

You had something here,I feel hooked from the first time i look up. Please, tell me that the demo it's coming soon.

Thankss! i plan to release a demo somewhere along may, i´ll put details here in the coming weeks

I like the ORIGINALITY here a lot, jumping on heads when others wait for snack is not something you see every day!

What resolution do you use - 640x360 or even bigger?

Thank you hehe, is fun to do that specially when the diners are strange creatures!
The resolution im using right now is 1216*684 (for combat or very large scenarios), i want to use different resolutions depending on the situation, like indoors for example i´ll use a much
smaller res so the characters details can be seen better.

Great art style. The area with al those alien species reminds me of "Star diaries. The eighth voyage" by Stanislav Lem. Also I love the glowing deer from the first video.

Wow, thanks! interesting book, gotta take a look at it later.
Glad you liked the glowing deer, i love them too! they´re still there, just a little unattended while i work on other stuff, but dont worry, they´ll come back later!

All right, these weeks did a lot of stuff... or at least thats what i think.
I worked on the main character remaining animations, mostly all of the animations when the character is facing up or down.
I also worked on the AI of the crawlbots a lot, to make them not so aggressive and only attack the player if it is on their line of sight and at a certain distance of them.
If the player is not in the vecinity, the crawlbots will just fool around, jump randomly (occasionaly bumping on their allies) and doing little (and if they find a plant pod or a crate they will sure charge at them, they love doing that).
As a last thing, i started making props that the player (or other entities) can destroy hehe, these are fun!
Heres a video showing all the new stuff:

 

[Neptune]

Dude... the Mordaro food area is so awesome...
You going at it solo?

Keep it up!


EDIT: Yes, im still here lol... i could imagine this game's universe being inside the starcraft universe. Obviously i know nothing about the story, but it gives me interesting/good starcrafty vibes

 

[Tcrakman]

Dude... the Mordaro food area is so awesome...
You going at it solo?

Keep it up!


EDIT: Yes, im still here lol... i could imagine this game's universe being inside the starcraft universe. Obviously i know nothing about the story, but it gives me interesting/good starcrafty vibes

Yes, right now im going by myself, although i´ll be searching for more help once i have this project a little bit more advanced.
Well, not quite like starcraft, but there will be many different species in the story, some of which will even help you in battles!

 

[Tcrakman]

Hello, good saturday!

This past weeks i´ve been working into how the player (and other characters) will fall into pits, into an abyss, or just falling straight down to the universe...

Right now the player character is the only one that can fall into an abyss as other characters will just jump away eternally if the "fall" in one.

Also been working on a couple of enviroments, those that still are nowhere near completion but they finally are in the game, these just need a lot of polish
and some small animated sections

 

[Xer0botXer0]

What an epic looking game.

 

[Hyomoto]

The sense of depth is not really well established. It's clear what you can stand on, and what you can't, so that's good. But as far as where anything is in relation to each other, there doesn't seem to really be a consistent style. Like when you start jumping ... up? ... the "lava" the background implies that there is some sort of height. But the platform you jump to appears to be a wall rather than a floor because it has the same vertical height as the background. After you get to the top, the wall stops at the lip, so is it tall or not?

I mean, in this shot, is that a platform? or a wall? The red gradient suggests a wall, as does the /// suggesting a drop. But nope, you can walk on it. Now, as I said it appears there is no height whatsoever because you just disappear if you touch red, but all in all it creates a very confusing visual narrative.

 

[Tcrakman]

What an epic looking game.

Thank youu!

The sense of depth is not really well established. It's clear what you can stand on, and what you can't, so that's good. But as far as where anything is in relation to each other, there doesn't seem to really be a consistent style. Like when you start jumping ... up? ... the "lava" the background implies that there is some sort of height. But the platform you jump to appears to be a wall rather than a floor because it has the same vertical height as the background. After you get to the top, the wall stops at the lip, so is it tall or not?
View attachment 17753
I mean, in this shot, is that a platform? or a wall? The red gradient suggests a wall, as does the /// suggesting a drop. But nope, you can walk on it. Now, as I said it appears there is no height whatsoever because you just disappear if you touch red, but all in all it creates a very confusing visual narrative.

Mmm, perhaps you´re right, i made this enviroment without proper looking if it was visually understandable. Tried to make those gradient falls to make the enviroment a bit more eye pleasing but now it looks it confuses more than it helps.

Also that middle part you said, when the player is jumping up the lava, with all those gradient falls... i dunno what was i thinking, now that i look at it closely.

Instead of making it this confusing (and harder for me to draw all that stuff) i believe i´ll do this level the same way as the other two.
I´ll use a parallax background to indicate where you can fall and nothing else, i believe its very clear where you can fall in the other enviroments (the one with the trees, grass and space).

I dunno what do you think about those other two enviroments? is it clear where the character can fall?

(Also the shadow of the character when he is jumping is very dim right now, so i´ll work on that to make it clearer where you will land after you make a jump).

Thank you very much for the feedback, it has helped me to figure out how to properly treat these platforming levels.

 

[Hyomoto]

@Tcrakman - Yeah, the other levels it's very apparent what depth everything is at. Or at least you have two distinct planes: infinity and not. That said, and it's a very small criticism, but the 'edges' of the word just disappear into infinity and it would be more aesthetically pleasing to have some kind of buffer there. Otherwise it makes the world look 1 pixel thick. But yes, those levels it's very clear where you can and cannot be.

 

[Tcrakman]

@Tcrakman - Yeah, the other levels it's very apparent what depth everything is at. Or at least you have two distinct planes: infinity and not. That said, and it's a very small criticism, but the 'edges' of the word just disappear into infinity and it would be more aesthetically pleasing to have some kind of buffer there. Otherwise it makes the world look 1 pixel thick. But yes, those levels it's very clear where you can and cannot be.

Right! yep, ill work on the edges of those levels, so they dont look that flat, (also being extra careful as not to make them confusing). Thanks again!

 

[Deleted member 16767]

It would be nice to know what kind of furry creature the hero is and what kind of faction he belongs to. Every pillar seems to be there, the aesthetics, the code, the sound but not the story background. Since you seem to be making a Star Oceanish game story-wise, maybe it would be nice to have a map of a few solar systems, one being the heroes home world? I might be wrong about this. If he is just in one hub where all different planet inhabitants gather, maybe you should make a cut scene on why they are there and for what purpose. Possibly a rebel scenario or on a journey to build a new settlement?

Here are some feedback about my impressions seeing the videos of the game.

This makes me think of Sonic and Star Ocean but in a top down action environment. The hero seems to be a memorable icon, a blue furry bipedal animal with antlers. The fundamental idea and the idea branches for the combat seems to be intriguing and reminds me of CrossCode, a game I played in early access but got stuck somewhere. Another reason why I don't buy early access games anymore. I know that back in the days you could call people that worked on gaming magazines for help, but who wants to get stuck on a quest or in the main story line. These should be only googled on when doing hard achievements.

Good luck on your game project.

 

[Tcrakman]

It would be nice to know what kind of furry creature the hero is and what kind of faction he belongs to. Every pillar seems to be there, the aesthetics, the code, the sound but not the story background. Since you seem to be making a Star Oceanish game story-wise, maybe it would be nice to have a map of a few solar systems, one being the heroes home world? I might be wrong about this. If he is just in one hub where all different planet inhabitants gather, maybe you should make a cut scene on why they are there and for what purpose. Possibly a rebel scenario or on a journey to build a new settlement?

Here are some feedback about my impressions seeing the videos of the game.

This makes me think of Sonic and Star Ocean but in a top down action environment. The hero seems to be a memorable icon, a blue furry bipedal animal with antlers. The fundamental idea and the idea branches for the combat seems to be intriguing and reminds me of CrossCode, a game I played in early access but got stuck somewhere. Another reason why I don't buy early access games anymore. I know that back in the days you could call people that worked on gaming magazines for help, but who wants to get stuck on a quest or in the main story line. These should be only googled on when doing hard achievements.

Good luck on your game project.

Oh man, i should really start telling more about the story, its, after all, the thing im focusing most for this game.
Just a quick peak of the backstory:

SPOILER!

Spoiler

The humans dissapeared a very long time ago, not without leaving small traces as to why did they dissapeared...
the cosmos is now inhabited by thousands of species of different shapes, sizes and colors, some of which still want to know why the humans left them as most of these species refer to the humans as their ancestors.
Your name is Char, a gelava (lizardlike humanoid species) who is searching for his father, who dedicated his whole life searching for clues about the humans. Char father dissappeared in a far away planet known as Doe, that happened 20 years ago when Char was still a newborn, his father believed that this planet was the last location the humans went after they dissappeared.

Char never really met his father but still wants to meet him so, in a lucky strike, his kingdom royal family decides to travel to Doe, as after its discovery, this planet has started to become densely populated, thanks to the tale that this planet could hold the last of the humans in its interiors.

Together with your mother, you managed to become part of the gelava kingdom royal army thanks to your fighting abilities. And have traveled among them aboard a gigantic ship known as Mordaro.
This ship being one of the many human relics that had been found in Doe,s desertic surfaces.

Char mother reminds him that they will look for his father but they must not disregard any of the kingdom orders, as if they do, they will both get thrown back at the mines back at their homeworld, where most of their life went... (The gelava kingdom is not known for his mercy or kindness).

After a meeting with the royal family, Char is bound with the task of escorting the kingdom princess, Ayla.
Something goes wrong and both of them get stuck outside the gelava waiting room (the place where Char was supposed to take care of the princess safety) and now have to find a way to their waiting room through all of Mordaro populated interiors.

And thats where the game starts, in a nutshell...
I posted a video showing Mordaro´s main area, where many different folks walk, all of them being the other passengers of the ship.
Mordaro will serve as a tutorial area and then, the whole game will take place in the planet Doe.
Still, a picture is more worth than a thousand words so the whole tale will have animated sequences and some conversations between certain characters.
Not want to bore the player with too much talking so i´ll try to make this intro as small as posible, maybe even omitting some lore details and putting them through the world for the player to find.

Im still thinking seriously about the early access thing, although i will post a free demo somewhere this year.
I planned to have the demo by may but... o man... i think that will not be possible sigh...
Still a ton of work to do and there´s only one chance for getting a good impression of your game (as far as i know), so i want this demo to be something really fun to play.

Thanks very much for your thoughts, i will keep working to make this game something story wise memorable.

 

[Hyomoto]

Turns out the humans disappeared... Into animal suits. At first to protect them from cosmic radiation when the Earth's atmosphere decayed. However, it became their identity, inseparable from their persona.

 

[JeffTheGamer]

It's me Jeff Cotten, Hope you'll have more to post about Another Soul soon. Did you read my recent messages on Facebook about the SOTB style game?

 

[Tcrakman]

Hi...its been like a year since the last update but im still working on the game (tbh i´ve been
reworking most of it).
Here´s a new video showing some of the stuff i´ve been doing in these past months:

-I been working on TONS of new sprites, made a lot of new animations and well, started making tests with some sweet parallax effects.
(Also reworked many of the sprites i had since i wasnt happy with most of them).

-Tweaked all mechanics in general, made it easier to jump on objects be NPC´s, enemies or boxes, also tweaked player movement in general to make it move/jump through the world feel smooth and easy.

-At last, worked on some puzzles (been brainstorming some of these for a while) for now they´re simple ones like destroying switches to open doors or falling platforms that dissappear once you set foot on them.

-Made a pause system as well as a cutscene system that will pause NPC´s enemies or threatening objects until the cutscene finishes (man, this one was hard but i love how this pause system came out).

-Made some interactable props the player can interact or destroy.

-Reworked enemy behaviours and upgraded their moveset (i dont show any enemies in the video but in a future update i´ll show them in action once again)

-Finally, as a more recent thing i worked on, i created some non_hostile service bots that will just roam through the world dungeons.
(I plan for these bots to not only roam aimesly but also be able to repair broken stuff or do some other small tasks. Still brainstorming these ideas tho).


Next up, i´ve been working on the other characters the player can choose to play....
Yep, one of the main things i want for the game is the ability to swap to at least 4 different characters at any moment.
Each character should have its own strenght´s and weaknesses to help the player overcome puzzles or exploit enemy weaknesses.

May seem a complicated idea but, so far i´ve been making very good progress with these new characters.
Nothing to show yet but im looking forward to showing them in a near future!

Thanks again.

 

[Tcrakman]

Some bots fighting with their own brethren.
Been working on a system that could make multiple npc be enemies or allies fight with themselves and not just the player. So far it works, now i just need to design what kind of npc will help the player along their adventures.

 

[chorrus]

I love the art in this project if the gameplay is just as good this will be an outstanding game. Good luck with it, I'll keep an eye to this project!

 

[Tcrakman]

I love the art in this project if the gameplay is just as good this will be an outstanding game. Good luck with it, I'll keep an eye to this project!

Thank you! i hope to deliver an interesting experience, thats what im aiming for

 

[Tcrakman]

Been a while since i last updated the devlog here in the forums, here´s what i´ve been working on through these last months

Title screen:

The player can now swap to at least 4 different characters at any moment.
Each character has its own strenght´s and weaknesses to help the player overcome puzzles or exploit enemy weaknesses.
Here´s some examples of characters abilities:

Char Impact Jump:

Spoiler

Ayla Spark Attack:

Spoiler

Sancho Charge:

Spoiler

-The Sewers: this is a main hub like town where the player can rest in-between the dungeons as well as interact with all the different folks the player has rescued through these dungeons.

Spoiler

Gotta keep pushing, so i can finally release a small demo this 2020.
Thanks!

 

[Tcrakman]

Hi!
Its been and long and really difficult year, but still, there´s been slow but steady progress.
Im mostly active on twitter nowadays where i mantain a devlog in case you´re interested:

https://twitter.com/Tcrakman

Here´s a bit of what i´ve been working on recently.
I´ve been playing around with different abilities such as a summoning mechanic which spawns the selected alien, each alien summon has their special attacks and effects.

Thank you for looking and also happy upcoming festivities.

 

[Xer0botXer0]

wow, haha I like how near the end the guys like well that's it for today and goes back through the entrance xD

Also your link says this :

"

Leaving Facebook

We're just checking that you want to follow a link to this website: https://twitter.com/Tcrakman?fbclid=IwAR113dEPoq_Vs84UXZWKiEOu-lAIgcGCm6v64XaneDppT58l_KhqhVpy3rEww


"

Why aren't you just directly linking your twitter ? HAX

 

[Tcrakman]

wow, haha I like how near the end the guys like well that's it for today and goes back through the entrance xD

Also your link says this :

"

Leaving Facebook

We're just checking that you want to follow a link to this website: https://twitter.com/Tcrakman?fbclid=IwAR113dEPoq_Vs84UXZWKiEOu-lAIgcGCm6v64XaneDppT58l_KhqhVpy3rEww


"

Why aren't you just directly linking your twitter ? HAX

Thank you! hehe the last big guy with a cap is a pretty chill guy

Uh? that´s weird i thought it linked directly to my twitter?
I added a space hope that works fine now!

 

[Jeff Cotten]

Me and Tcrakman are in talks about a potential metroidvania project. When Tcrakman gets his Paypal fixed, he'll share some concept and pixel art of the game we're in talks about on his Twitter. I can't say what it is, but I will give the hint that it's heavily inspired by a Amiga computer classic.