Trying to decide if I want to keep the black marble surface of the stage or just have grass there.
I like the marble, maybe you should try the grass one as a separate file, to decide if you like it or not.
@CrimsonBlackGames I just Googled Terraria Corruption and I can see what you mean by purple tint. I have never played Terraria and my idea is as old as 2003 back when I made games in RPG Maker, while Terraria is from 2011, 8 years after I came up with the idea for Diamondsion Assault.
Yeah, terraria is an RPG more than it is a sandbox. The theme for it is awesome.
If you were to listen to the corrupt theme, underground theme, and the corrupt underground theme, youd see why I like the game, because they blend a certain tone with an already existing one, and you get this… hybrid.
Even better, the hallow theme and underground hallow theme is pretty good. (Hallow is like a good version of the corruption)
(UG hallow is my favorite)
I’ll be doing songs that are a mix of chillstep, dubstep, drumstep, drum and bass, and electric rock.
A couple years ago I did a thing with stones, pillars and obelisks of light that gave the game a more alien feel. The problem is, I don’t really have any lore on Planet Tactix. I kinda just let the nano bots build it from random, made 3 cities, and never really explored 95% the planet. I was thinking of adding a plot point to the story that Crystal didn’t actually build the first nano bots, but she found them in alien wreckage. The nano bots naturally rebuilt old data from a presumed dead ancient alien civilization on my planet and I had no idea about it. The nano bots have been doing their own thing for decades and are starting to boot back to their original programming which creates more issues and enemies in the game, besides the current enemies already invading the planet. These ancient relics will end up teaching you new abilities and adding story to the game and depth for more exploration and critical thinking. Maybe the alien race isn’t dead if the nano bots revive them from old DNA data. There’s so much I can do with this floating lore, and I probably should have finished writing the game story before working on the game, but this is basically an evolved version of the original Diamondsion Assault plot about elemental aliens invading and destroying the planet. The relics and ancients can just add more to the story.
You started talking in crystals first person. Lol
The nano bots naturally rebuilt old data from a presumed dead ancient alien civilization on my planet and I had no idea about it
Any, that seems like a good lore.
@CrimsonBlackGames
Info about why I did that.
[spoiler] Since Mhx and Crystal are actually representations of myself, I will tend to do that. Most of the stuff already in the lore are just old dreams I had. I used to write down my dreams and after years they got more and more detailed. A lot of the time, if I recognize a place in a dream, I can continue where I left off in a different dream, even though when I’m awake I can’t remember anything, I remember it perfectly in my dreams, like when I fall asleep, I’m actually waking up in a parallel life. It’s weird to explain, but my game is mostly based off of an over exaggerated version of my dream life. Crystal is a pretty cool person. I don’t remember when I met her in my dreams, but she comes and goes. They say you can only dream of faces or people you’ve met, but I know I’ve never met Crystal in real life, just like I never used to have spiked silver hair and white eyes in real life, only in dreams. I do now, just because I’m so used to seeing it in dream mirrors. Anyway, yeah, I’ll talk in first person for the characters by accident because I am the characters and the world exists in my dreams. I really have barely explored the world in the dream, because lets be real, I have barely explored my own real life town and state, I don’t have time to explore an entire planet. Who knows what is out there, so there’s plenty of room for new lore. [/spoiler]
I decided the stage was too big, so I shrank it 64px, and then redid it in pixels and decolored it to be 16bit. I gave it a floating platform effect and forced a collision size while it plays an animation. I’ll be finishing up the grass so it looks nicer and then giving it a blowing in the wind look. I was also thinking of having bits of sand and rock falling from the floating platform stage. I wanted to have water or something drip off, but that wouldn’t make sense because the water source would deplete immediately as gravity forces the platform to float off the ground. Also made Mhx’s jeans more like the grass color. They were dark blueish.
(Simple concept gif of grass moving and sand falling)
<img src=https://i.imgur.com/Z6Iga9F.gif" alt=“a” title=“a”/>
(Compared to the drawn larger concept art of it)
Looks really nice… good job
@PixelPizza I wish it looked nice. I suck at graphics. If I get a kickstarter, I’m paying someone to redo all the graphics in true Sega Genesis 32bit. Sonic Mania looks soo crisp, and The Mummy game looks incredible. I can’t pull off that level of detail, because they spend hours per sprite. I sacrifice quality for quantity so I can get more done, even if it doesn’t look as good as I’d like.
Nah, it still looks fantastic. You could come back to the graphics after you’re done the whole “quantity” part.
@Luminous I might touch up on sprites here and there, but if they’re animated, I won’t. They’ll be moving too much for people to see the cheap effort in detail. Things like idle frames and tiles I’ll maybe fix up a bit, but there are over 100 sprites for both players, hundreds of enemy sprites, hundreds of boss sprites, 12 area environments each with their own tileset and tile animations, and so on. I’ll very likely lazily sprite as much as I can to get the beta done by summer.
If grazer adds more background layers and background animations, I’m going all out. You’ll see clouds, shooting stars, earthquakes, volcanoes erupting, moving galaxies and planets, waves crashing, floating platforms in the distance, it will look amazing.
So I just wasted like 3 hours of behavior making, because NOR wasn’t turning off when the input was on, so NOR was always turning off switches and always going into numbers. I got annoyed and refreshed, noticed all my work was gone, then noticed I was signed out of flowlab. Man I hate Facebook login.
Alright, since I knew what I was going for, I redid the controls, and honestly I like them better now than before, so that loss of data helped.
Left toggle now active. You can move left and right. Holding R1 will make you run. Double or Triple tapping R1 will make you dash. When I add powerups, I’ll add speed upgrades.
You can now jump with A. I did my own revision of jump, and I truly believe it is far superior to the run and jump bundle version. This jump uses filters to decide if your Y velocity is +0 or -0, so no more collisions or buggy switches. Plus, using this, I can jump off of floating platforms. Platforms that move with Position have a broken collision sensor and can only be detected on certain pixels. Now I can jump even if it’s off of a falling object, as long as my Y velocity hits -0 for 1 frame.
I also added jump boosting, so you jump slightly higher if you are holding any direction AND R1. If you stop holding L Toggle or R1, you will jump lower. This way, you jump low while walking and high while running or sprinting.
Also added bounds to the test room, and falling off the platform sets you in the air above the platform. You have 5 seconds before you fall. Unlike Smash Bros, you do not spawn on a platform, you fly, and while flying, you can move and hover anywhere you want, to choose your spawn point. This lets you get an advantage if I add multiplayer, so you can press A to fall right on top of another player or test boss and begin your attack combo with a drop attack, or keep away from the other players or test boss by flying away for 5 seconds. At 5 seconds, you drop, so don’t float away from the platform.
Trust me, it will look better when I add animations. I’m more focused on game logic and bug testing before adding animations.
Controls Reminder:
[spoiler] L Toggle: UP DOWN LEFT RIGHT
R1: K
A: U
[/spoiler]
I just added a .cfg file to my Dropbox. Download the controls for JoyToKey here.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5glvapkcl49oh56/Shifter.cfg?dl=0
Put this in your JoyToKey folder and launch to see it in your controls options. Every single button for Player1 is in here, even controls that don’t do anything yet. If for some reason the buttons don’t match the controller on the Shifter menu, just map them yourself, but they should be accurate or very close.
Decided to fix some bugs in my older games out of boredom, but now it’s time to work on sprites.
First thing is first, walking sprites.
Got bored, decided to do some concept art instead.
The concept art is of the Tatican city Tepala. It is one of 4 cities on the planet Tactix.
Below is a detailed description of the lore behind each city and the people that reside in them.
[spoiler] The 4 cities are:
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“Tatican” Tepala (Teh-pah-lah). Tatican is a pull off Vatican, the holy city of the Pope. Tepala instead of being religious, is spiritual, and full of Tactians that prefer improving themselves with meditation and martial arts over mechanical upgrades, war, or elements, like the other 3 cities. This city is inspired by the architecture of ancient Earth, and is a place of peace and tranquility. Tactians come here during times of stress, when they need advice, or decide to further awaken their psyche. There are several pillars, stones, and obelisks made of energy stones that are believed to increase focus and calm the mind. Diamond shards are even said to be used for healing and power, from stories and theories of the source of these gems in the Diamondsion. They are dug up or collected, and are used as somewhat of a currency or gesture of trade here. The large temple dojo is where you will find the most disciplined monks. The Tactians used their telekinesis to raise the mountains into the sky, leaving a massive crater below. This was done to help protect the city in case of a flood, asteroid, earthquake, or war. The hundreds of chunks of ground became the floating platforms used as stepping stones to get to the floating island, used by Tactians that have not mastered some form of flight.
(Concept art of the crater temple city Tepala)
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“Electrocity” Ectroazi (Eck-troze-eye), the city of technology, full of skyscrapers, wild highways, hexagon tiled roads, energy tubes, and Tactians racing each other or lounging at the many stores and cafes. Ectroazi prides itself on futuristic vehicle races and sports, as well as impressive technological body modifications. This city also has experimental foliage, some of the only non-grass plants on Tactix, because of the water source since this city rests by the sea. Sitting on top of the “Saturn” tower, you get a great view of the waves rushing up against the waterside towers. The pure white sands sparkle like grains of diamonds. This is the only area that gets a lot of rain, as the rest of the planet lacks large bodies of surface water, since most has drained underground through the surface cracks left by the now floating islands and platforms.
(Old 2015 sketch of Mhx and Crystal at the central park in Ectroazi. You can see the Saturn needle tower and winding highway in the distance.)
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“Livewire” Zetyre (Zay-tier), the city of power, built of steel and copper, this city acts as a massive lightning rod, and because of that, it is surrounded by constant raging thunder bolts of crashing flickering light. This is the training ground where Tactians come to test their strength. Through raw training and harnessing the infinite lightning, Meta Cybers are able to permanently stay in Overcharge mode. Normally, Overcharge wears off fast, and too much can damage you back. However, decades of training in constant Overcharge has lead to them becoming far more powerful than could normally be achieved in normal training. If you seem like a challenge, you will be attacked, no questions asked. The Tactians here live for battle. Their speed and strength goes unmatched, especially in Overcharge.
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“Atylon” Vyteon (V-eye-tee-on), the elemental marble city in the sky, this is where Tactians practice controlling the elements. Water flows upwards, fires never go out, plants and vines flourish in the city and the dozens of floating islands and platforms, and gravity is lighter than usual because of the distance from the planet core, being in a windy city so high up. Meta Cybers are spirits in a nanobot structured body. Different cities have different beliefs in how the combination should be treated. Vyteons choose to combine spiritual energy with technology to will the elements, and even evolve elements. Aside from Fire, Earth, Water, and Air, some Tactians have learned to mix them like Fire and Earth to make lava plasma, Water and Air to make storms, Earth and Air to sharpen stone and sand to dangerous levels, Fire and Water to make fog and vapor to become elusive. A rare few can even evolve the elements. These few can create metal blades from thin air, bend and burst gravity itself, or break the prism of light to become invisible or blind foes. Mhx Air and Crystal Aero are the only Tactians that can wield the rawest power of lightning, by combining Fire and Air like flowing Water in their veins using Earth type magnetism. The results are devastating.
[/spoiler]
If you didn’t read all of that, I don’t blame you, but it is very interesting lore, if you want to know more about Shifter before it gets built.
@CrimsonBlackGames - Tagged because you actually remembered some old details and seem to have been interested in the history of Mhx and Crystal.
@grazer - Tagged because I’ve been on flowlab for over 4 years and never actually explained anything about why I made Diamondsion Assault and all these sequels in the first place.
@PixelPizza - Tagged because you have an interest in role storytelling and mythology. Based on Awakening being set in gladiator times of gods, villages and empires, you might be interested in the inspirations behind these cities.
This is so AWESOME WOW!! Really nice