Demo [Video Update]Tale of Topanga Kool-aid Chronicles (Castlevania II and Zelda II Combo)

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Blakkid489

Guest

A cross between
Castlevaina II Simon's Quest exploration with Zelda II Link's Adventure's RPG elements




Story:


Princess Topanga is the keep holder of 5 different flavors of Kool-aid. Out of nowhere her town was attack by a mysterious entity in hopes of gathering the Kool-aid. She rushes over to her safe house and summons a hero from another world to help her and the town. As the hero was being summon she was immediately kidnapped. Before they carried her off, she used her magic to send the 5 flavors of Kool-aid to 5 hidden locations. Now it's up to the hero to save the day......



Standard controls: (Changeable control types available)
Arrow keys - Move
Z - Jump/Select
X - Attack/Back
C - Activate Power
V - Use Passive Item

Video Update: 08/05/2017



Credits:
Music by
@Yal (itch.io page)


Note: The demo does NOT represent the final version and is entirely subject to change. Options, cut-scenes, and certain NPC info will be disabled.

Download here......
 
Last edited by a moderator:
D

Docker

Guest
An African-American main character in a game centered around kool-aid? I mean... ok lets see what I'm dealing with lol

Error within 5 seconds of getting in game with joystick controls pressing y:
Code:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of  Step Event0
for object o_ray:

Unable to find any instance for object index '30' name 'o_pause'
at gml_Script_scr_normal
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Script_scr_normal (line 0)
gml_Object_o_ray_Step_0
Start button on joystick doesn't do anything at the start but worked when I tried it again in area 3

LOL 'I don't take food stamps'

Also if you go back into the room that you originally start in, you end up with two player characters sometimes? I could only make it happen once.

AREA 3:
The seemingly impossible heart to get is quite irritating, the blocks are shining so I guess there is something that can be done to them but I couldn't figure it out, the thing I don't like about this type of thing is if you fail then you die, and you have no idea if there is a special way to do it or you just can't get it at the moment, I died 5 times trying before I got fed up of rekilling the skeletons and assumed it can't be done yet.
The fish are very pedantic, I'm not a fan of having to jump out and in again to get them to jump as there is 6 of them and its get repetitive, again one mistake or failed key register and you're back to the start of the area.

AREA 4:
Maybe make it so people only go down ladders if they press down on them rather than falling down the gap where they are located.

Will play a bit more when I have time.
 
B

Blakkid489

Guest
An African-American main character in a game centered around kool-aid? I mean... ok lets see what I'm dealing with lol

Error within 5 seconds of getting in game with joystick controls pressing y:
Code:
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of  Step Event0
for object o_ray:

Unable to find any instance for object index '30' name 'o_pause'
at gml_Script_scr_normal
############################################################################################
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
stack frame is
gml_Script_scr_normal (line 0)
gml_Object_o_ray_Step_0
Start button on joystick doesn't do anything at the start but worked when I tried it again in area 3

LOL 'I don't take food stamps'

Also if you go back into the room that you originally start in, you end up with two player characters sometimes? I could only make it happen once.

AREA 3:
The seemingly impossible heart to get is quite irritating, the blocks are shining so I guess there is something that can be done to them but I couldn't figure it out, the thing I don't like about this type of thing is if you fail then you die, and you have no idea if there is a special way to do it or you just can't get it at the moment, I died 5 times trying before I got fed up of rekilling the skeletons and assumed it can't be done yet.
The fish are very pedantic, I'm not a fan of having to jump out and in again to get them to jump as there is 6 of them and its get repetitive, again one mistake or failed key register and you're back to the start of the area.

AREA 4:
Maybe make it so people only go down ladders if they press down on them rather than falling down the gap where they are located.

Will play a bit more when I have time.
Thanks for the feedback. My "testers" have not found this error with the start button so thank you so much.

The heart in area3 is definitely a little later catch. There's an item that removes "magical" barriers you find eventually.

As for area4, I'll consider it. Sometimes I found running pass them not an issue but other times I fall through as well. Didn't bug me too much so if I get more complaints on it, I'll definitely go with your suggestion.
 
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Blakkid489

Guest
Bumpidy bump bump, Bumpidy bump bump, Look at that kool-aid gooooooo. Bumpidy bump bump, Bumpidy bump bump, Top of the list for shoooooowwwwwwww :D
 

RangerX

Member
I tried you game tonight (finally) and I must admit you're SO making the type of game I like.
In overall it feels good and I don't know if its your first game or not but you're doing a ton of things right. I really want to follow your development now.
So here goes with my comments (no intelligent order...)


- Wierd parallaxes on the title screen.
(the further away the slower it should scroll. Right now its all messed up)

- File choose menu: "left" is "right" and vice-versa (playing with the ASD JKL style)

- Anti-alias on the text looking bad
(Its gonna look tremendously worse when the game will scale up. I suggest you remove anti-alias and if it looks like crap, find a font that doesn't look bad :))

- Not expecting to fall in a ladder unless I press down
(Yeah its wierd, I can stand on them and then I start to move and I fall.)

- Alt-tab doesn't pause the game

- In-game menus not "pacman"
(you know what I mean there, when I press "up" at the top option, it doesn't being me to bottom. Same for bottom doesn't bring me at the first option when I press "down")

- Items section of in-game menu and also any text boxes with choices: "left is right" and vice-versa

- ESC kills the game without any "are you sure" type of messages
(Just saying. Always better to prevent the "oh crap I didn't want to do that)

- Would never have expected "enter" to open my inventory (in-game menu)
(I tried "I", "E", "shift", "spacebar" to no avail)

- Total Castlevania 2 vibe! I love it.
(basically, am like the guy that tells us to come back later)

- Hitting ennemies is satisfying and feels good.

- Town exit wasn't evident
(yeah I sort of wandered around a bit too much before finding where the exit was lol)

- Church music never stops once started
(its good music though)

- Graphics are pretty nice although there's much room for improvement
(an you already are improving when I look at your other threads on the subject!)

- Would like to not have to jump when at the bottom of a ladder
(ok this one will REALLY make the game feel more fluid)

- Squeletons are passing behind the ladders
(they will get cursed omg)

- Pink fishes are jumping only once
(frustrating when you miss them the first time)

- Stronger squeletons should have a different visual (if only colors)
(well, traditional videogame logic there. Just to distinguish the mobs that aren't the same ones basically)



Thumbs up and keep up the good work. I really want to follow your game.
:)
 
B

Blakkid489

Guest
- Wierd parallaxes on the title screen.
(the further away the slower it should scroll. Right now its all messed up)
Not entirely sure what you mean lol but the back is actually going to change to something else :D

- File choose menu: "left" is "right" and vice-versa (playing with the ASD JKL style)
- Items section of in-game menu and also any text boxes with choices: "left is right" and vice-versa
Nice catch. I've never tested that out and just assumed it worked flawlessly. Bad programming choice at it's finest....

- Anti-alias on the text looking bad
(Its gonna look tremendously worse when the game will scale up. I suggest you remove anti-alias and if it looks like crap, find a font that doesn't look bad :))
After taking a look at the font controls, I noticed the Anti-Alias option. Never noticed that before lol thanks for that. It's been bugging me forever and couldn't find a way around it.

- Not expecting to fall in a ladder unless I press down
(Yeah its wierd, I can stand on them and then I start to move and I fall.)
This seems to be a constant problem for many players. I personally just jump over it because I feel it's an obvious pit with an optional ladder. However, I understand the frustration and will go ahead and change this.

- Alt-tab doesn't pause the game
How do I fix this? I'm sure it's a game maker option.


- In-game menus not "pacman"
(you know what I mean there, when I press "up" at the top option, it doesn't being me to bottom. Same for bottom doesn't bring me at the first option when I press "down")
Haha that would be convenient :D. Done deal!!!

- ESC kills the game without any "are you sure" type of messages
(Just saying. Always better to prevent the "oh crap I didn't want to do that)
True. . . .So true.. . .I mean I have the option to quit in the pause menu and yet Esc ends everything lol I'll probably just make it another pause key.

- Would never have expected "enter" to open my inventory (in-game menu)
(I tried "I", "E", "shift", "spacebar" to no avail)
Hahaha oh wow. Sorry about that. I wanted to make this a simple 4-button game. If that becomes more of an issue I'll change it around. No problem.


- Total Castlevania 2 vibe! I love it.
(basically, am like the guy that tells us to come back later)
The map layout is 100% castlevania II lol good eye there sir!


- Hitting ennemies is satisfying and feels good.
YAY :) Believe it or not, That was the first thing I coded before anything else in the game. I wanted to achieve a fluent and delicious feeling fight lol


- Town exit wasn't evident
(yeah I sort of wandered around a bit too much before finding where the exit was lol)
Fair enough, I'll do some changes to the overall experience so it seems more natural


- Church music never stops once started
(its good music though)
Thanks, But all credit for the music goes to @Yal . I change the door code which happened to glitch when using a controller but didn't notice it altered my music manager as well.


- Graphics are pretty nice although there's much room for improvement
(an you already are improving when I look at your other threads on the subject!)
Thank you and yes improvement is much needed in fact I already changed graphics for the game but I don't wanna reveal publicly. . . yet :rolleyes:...


- Would like to not have to jump when at the bottom of a ladder
(ok this one will REALLY make the game feel more fluid)
If you have a ladder tutorial or a different way to implement the ladder that differs from Shaun Spalding's tutorial, By all means please guide me. :)


- Pink fishes are jumping only once
(frustrating when you miss them the first time)
Totally meant to troll you :p


- Stronger squeletons should have a different visual (if only colors)
(well, traditional videogame logic there. Just to distinguish the mobs that aren't the same ones basically)
Agreed will change this indefinitely

Thanks for playing the game. I appreciate that so much. As promised I will test the CRAP out of your game :cool:
 

RangerX

Member
- Check for the function "os_is_paused()" in the manual. This will trigger ONCE when your game window is out of focus. Normally enough to let you pause the game :)
- Never watched any Shaun Spalding tutorial so I sure wouldn't know how he makes ladders.

About the testing the crap out of my game... knowing you, you will probably find some nasty stuff so I fear now.... lol
By the way I am fixing the save points. There totally was a bug in one of scripts and I am currently redoing it completely!
 
B

Blakkid489

Guest
I can use maybe one more piece of feedback and I'll stop with the shameless bumping. . . . . . . .Squirrels
 
L

Linkforce

Guest
Overall I see this having a lot of potential and I had a lot of fun, however there were a few things that crossed my mind while playing it.
I'll just write this as it goes along.

-I believe this error occurred in area 8(An area with 3 or 4 spiders) when I died and minimized.
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Create Event
for object o_camera:
Unable to find any instance for object index '139' name 'o_ray'
at gml_Object_o_camera_Create_0
############################################################################################
-I feel when you level up and are allowed to choose your stat to increase, your health should be refilled before hand to let the player know they don't have to upgrade hp to heal up.

Maybe grass should sway while it's raining, it'll give it more of a stormy feel, especially in the areas with heavy rain.

In area 7, I had one of those flying eyes, while they were still in the wall, as a result the coins he dropped were stuck in the wall, Maybe make it so your attack can pick up the coins if you don't want to go through the trouble of making them unstuck?

This screenshot shows an area that is unnamed and doesn't have the music playing
Maybe add a small time of invincibility when you enter a room? There were a few occurances where enemies were so close to the entrance that you were swarmed by them.

In Town of Dark Neos, you may want this building to be a slightly darker colour, right now I thought it was a wall until a guy walked on by.

Is this to let the player know they can be entered

The purple water has the same blue water splash

This placement of blocks and skeletons are just pure troll feel. I love it haha!

Flying eyes don't stop when the game is paused, allowing them to get a free hit on you once you unpause it.

Really nice touch on having the bones fly all over the place when you kill a skeleton.

Oh I lose coins on game over. That explains why I feel like I haven't been getting a lot. How about having some coins fly out of your grave when you die to show that?

It's possible to attack through the underside of blocks
On area 9, right after the above gif ended, I had respawned in these blocks
Not possible to jump out of it, or anything, so it broke the game entirely for me.

But with that out of the way, I've gotta stop for now, got school to go to. Good and funny game though, I'll see if I can test it more once I get home from school.
Good luck on the game!
 
B

Blakkid489

Guest
Overall I see this having a lot of potential and I had a lot of fun, however there were a few things that crossed my mind while playing it.
I'll just write this as it goes along.

-I believe this error occurred in area 8(An area with 3 or 4 spiders) when I died and minimized.
___________________________________________
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Create Event
for object o_camera:
Unable to find any instance for object index '139' name 'o_ray'
at gml_Object_o_camera_Create_0
############################################################################################
-I feel when you level up and are allowed to choose your stat to increase, your health should be refilled before hand to let the player know they don't have to upgrade hp to heal up.

Maybe grass should sway while it's raining, it'll give it more of a stormy feel, especially in the areas with heavy rain.

In area 7, I had one of those flying eyes, while they were still in the wall, as a result the coins he dropped were stuck in the wall, Maybe make it so your attack can pick up the coins if you don't want to go through the trouble of making them unstuck?

This screenshot shows an area that is unnamed and doesn't have the music playing
Maybe add a small time of invincibility when you enter a room? There were a few occurances where enemies were so close to the entrance that you were swarmed by them.

In Town of Dark Neos, you may want this building to be a slightly darker colour, right now I thought it was a wall until a guy walked on by.

Is this to let the player know they can be entered

The purple water has the same blue water splash

This placement of blocks and skeletons are just pure troll feel. I love it haha!

Flying eyes don't stop when the game is paused, allowing them to get a free hit on you once you unpause it.

Really nice touch on having the bones fly all over the place when you kill a skeleton.

Oh I lose coins on game over. That explains why I feel like I haven't been getting a lot. How about having some coins fly out of your grave when you die to show that?

It's possible to attack through the underside of blocks
On area 9, right after the above gif ended, I had respawned in these blocks
Not possible to jump out of it, or anything, so it broke the game entirely for me.

But with that out of the way, I've gotta stop for now, got school to go to. Good and funny game though, I'll see if I can test it more once I get home from school.
Good luck on the game!
Thanks for the feedback. Like seriously there are some things that I don't catch as a developer so having more than 1-2 opinions is always welcome.

- The spawning glitch is an easy fix and I glad you caught it. (Truthfully, my spawning engine is probably the glitchiest part of the game and needs to be perfected)
- I did feel like having your health restored before the upgrade window appeared was gonna be a thing. It crossed my mind but wanted to see what others thought so this will be fixed as well.
- After a game over your experience and coins are halved unfortunately. I think a message that tells you this before you hit the continue option is in order. There's also the option to quit and load the game from your last save. Your lives always reset to 4 when you load your save. Little niffy trick for those who find that out. That's actually the main purpose I gave the ability to save anywhere (except during boss fight areas).
-The purple water splash is missed and obvious issue that I just completely forgot about. Done deal fix.
- The eyeballs still moving while paused was something I thought I fixed before releasing this so I sincerely apologize for that. As for grabbing the coins with your attack, I like it, therefore added.
- Grass swaying is definitely a graphic advantage that I will take. I've upgraded to GMS2 and with tile animations being a thing, no doubt the game will feel more alive.
-The room with no name is supposed to be labeled area12. I'm actually baffled that this wasn't noticed by me before. I've honestly spent countless hours on this particular area because it's the most important and I just found out that the music is actually not checked here, the label for this area was never added and it's apparently not finished. Like WTF. Thanks for that catch. I'd also like to mention a few things about your suggestion for the invisibility during room transitions. this is was definitely intentional due to the game this map is based off. but I went ahead and moved the enemies around so you have more time to consider attacking.

Once again thanks for the feedback. If there's a game you've got on hand, I'd like to return the favor o_O
 
L

Linkforce

Guest
Back from school, let's see if I can help with some more things.


Let's just get this outta the way, in case you didn't see it(I was out of time earlier so I sent a link that ended up getting expired)

Alright, Quit button just straight up doesn't work for me.

Can't pause in Ray's House, not sure if this is on purpose, but it's also not that big of a deal.

In area 9, if you go all the way to the right, and exit on the top layer, (to area 8) then go back to area 9, you end up at the bottom layer.(This also corresponds to the gif above)

Fish don't drop coins? At least they haven't for me.

Maybe add a little bit more time before you can choose an upgrade, or put in a confirm action. I just say this because I just leveled up while spamming jumping and attacking and ended up upgrading health on accident
-Hey I got to Castle Hall, look at me advancing-
I had managed to get stuck in the ice ladder when you first enter Castle Hall.

I like the use of the tear in the castle.

I had reached the boss area, saw the guy in the cloak, used my fire power(once I triggered the power he vanished),so I ran forward and once I reached the center I got this error.
############################################################################################
FATAL ERROR in
action number 1
of Step Evento_ray
for object o_boss1_trigger:
Unable to find any instance for object index '164' name 'o_mtony'
at gml_Object_o_boss1_trigger_Collision_3
############################################################################################

Okay that error occurred again, I didn't even use any powerup that time.

This is what the girl looks like before the guy vanishes into thin air rather than running off the screen:


I did get an error four times, (1 time on area 7, and 3 times on area 8), but it was the same one from my earlier post, so I didn't feel it was necessary to write it again.
That's about all I can find though.
And about the returning the favor, either game in my signature, preferably Dungeon of the Unknown(Your game actually let me realize I should also have the hp refilled before choosing an upgrade so I'm glad I'm tested this game haha)
 
S

Spike

Guest
Nice job so far. Any way to time out player input when you lvl up? I kept lvl'ing up my life on accident :confused: Great work so far!
 
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Blakkid489

Guest
Nice job so far. Any way to time out player input when you lvl up? I kept lvl'ing up my life on accident :confused: Great work so far!
I like that idea. I'll either do that or make it an option in the pause menu as a skill point to add at your will. Thank you fellow developer
 
S

ScrabbitRabbit

Guest
I enjoyed the demo a lot already but it's looking a lot better in the video. Love the new sprite! It makes the combat look a helluva lot more exciting.

One small issue nobody else has brought up (maybe I'm the only one it's an issue for :p) is the behaviour and placement of some enemies can encourage some kinda cheesy, dull tactics. Lots of standing on a platform below skellingtons and just jump-slashing whenever they get close. Might be worth having them throw something at you if you're close but on a different elevation to prevent people like me from being cowards.

Also, the Metroid-type monsters can be a little frustrating. You can't seem to jump quite high or fast enough to get over them. Really it does seem more like a speed issue. Slowing them down would help a lot but I feel like you could maintain the challenge while having it feel fairer by giving them a more charge-and-stop type behaviour rather than just following the player at a flat speed. I dunno, maybe I should just gitgud.

Anyway, I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to seeing how it progresses :)
 

RangerX

Member
Glad to see you're not giving up with this game.
You didn't want to give us any details about your new version? :p
 

Ladi_Pix3l

Member
Oh wow where did this game come from? Hope I didn't stop you from working this game. If you want I would be more than happy to help with this one too. I can do some additional pixel art for you if needed. You should really release this updated version to the public. :rolleyes:
 
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Blakkid489

Guest
I enjoyed the demo a lot already but it's looking a lot better in the video. Love the new sprite! It makes the combat look a helluva lot more exciting.

One small issue nobody else has brought up (maybe I'm the only one it's an issue for :p) is the behaviour and placement of some enemies can encourage some kinda cheesy, dull tactics. Lots of standing on a platform below skellingtons and just jump-slashing whenever they get close. Might be worth having them throw something at you if you're close but on a different elevation to prevent people like me from being cowards.

Also, the Metroid-type monsters can be a little frustrating. You can't seem to jump quite high or fast enough to get over them. Really it does seem more like a speed issue. Slowing them down would help a lot but I feel like you could maintain the challenge while having it feel fairer by giving them a more charge-and-stop type behaviour rather than just following the player at a flat speed. I dunno, maybe I should just gitgud.

Anyway, I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to seeing how it progresses :)
Lol Thank you so much for the feed back. The game is definitely in its early stages and skeletons (at least in the first areas) are throw away enemies for the most part. They do get hard and at eventually as you get further in the game
The other enemies I think you're referring to are hard and I do think they should be changed a bit to make it a little more fair. (a little) :D


Very cool looking game man. Well presented and the mechanics look good. I love zelda 2 so this is great.
Your words are too kind and I don't deserve them :oops:


Glad to see you're not giving up with this game.
You didn't want to give us any details about your new version? :p
I'll be honest. I kinda have this knack to please everybody and with all the found glitches, I feel they need to corrected before I release my extensive changes to the community. Just the passion I had for this game is a little low right now and I feel i just needed to take a little break from this so I can crunch on this bad boy once again with motivation I had before when I started

Oh wow where did this game come from? Hope I didn't stop you from working this game. If you want I would be more than happy to help with this one too. I can do some additional pixel art for you if needed. You should really release this updated version to the public. :rolleyes:
You shush lol I would love you're help though. We'll talk in discord though o_O
.
 
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