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Ghost Song Kickstarter - Metroid meets Dark Souls - GAFer made - funded!

Jobbs

Banned
Looks good and I am tempted...

May 2014 though? Christ, dude...I hope you don't get burnt out like team meat and Phil Fish when they were making their games.

This is such a rough guess. :) You have to put a date down. If it goes that long and the goal is just met ($15kish), I'll be working on my own time to some extent. Which I'm fine with, I've already been doing that. I love this game.
 

McSpidey

Member
Good luck Jobbs! It's been awesome watching it grow. The trailer is rad and I understand why you didn't do a pitch, but maybe consider a small voiceover at some point? I'd love to hear you just talking about your game in your own voice. A creators passion is infectious!

#IndieGAF<3
 

Jobbs

Banned
Good luck Jobbs! It's been awesome watching it grow. The trailer is rad and I understand why you didn't do a pitch, but maybe consider a small voiceover at some point? I'd love to hear you just talking about your game in your own voice. A creators passion is infectious!

#IndieGAF<3

I did this exact thing with an earlier version of the game, way back in May. Since I'm posting this, I want to take the time to mention that the very tiled, plain style of environment graphics that you see in some areas of the map is a result of the flash game nature and me struggling with keeping the size down. The game I make as a unity game, full fledged stand alone, will look quite notably better, particularly in terms of the environments. More graphics, and higher res graphics for big screens.

Anyway, here: (Note that the sounds are *PLACEHOLDERS* and some of the graphics are old.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-qul0R60Gg

It was done impromptu for a handful of people -- that's why it's so rough around the edges. People ended up posting it around, and that's cool -- People seem to dig it. Note the existence of way too much blue overlay back then. :)
 

Bedlam

Member
Backed!

I just signed up a new account to back this game (deleted my old account because of that disgusting Susan Wilson scam KS).
 

RPGCrazied

Member
Wow, doing what Nintendo won't. This looks really cool, I always wish Nintendo would return to 2D with Metroid, but guess its not happening.

Hope this eventually comes out.
 

SerRodrik

Member
Backed despite never having played more than fifteen minutes of Super Metroid (which is something I've always been meaning to remedy). It's a good sign when I find myself replaying your video a bunch of times just to listen to the music.
 

eXistor

Member
Looks fantastic, we're not gonna get a real Metroid anytime soon, so I'll just have to look elsewhere and this looks to do nicely. I'll back it when I get home.
 

Valtýr

Member
Cautiously optimistic. Stuff like this really hinges on the map being thorough and cleverly designed.

Also the feel of jumping and shooting is very specific. Most games in this genre don't get that feel down.

Any chances of a demo?
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
I backed this up. Even though things are tight with me, the promise is high and Jobbs seems like he's got his head on straight. People should give this time and expect it on the date set. Not sense in rushing this out.

Hopefully some PSN/VC/XBL could be in the works as well. Pending the funding.

The sounds, even though early, sound good already. Hope you have a high quality but somewhat 32bit synth like soundtrack alongside some of the stuff you've sampled.

You could probably use some broad strokes with the music and go semi Far Cry Blood Dragon (not in the futuristic sense) but use some of the instruments they use. I think it would go well with some of the sci-fi elements.

Something like this for your title theme

I know I'm not being super specific but I do like some of the tones that you could go for with the same sounds used in FC3BD.
 

Jobbs

Banned
I continue to be amazed by the positivity coming out of this thread. I read all your replies and absorb each one into my body, becoming larger and stronger each time. Soon nothing will be able to hurt me.

Valtýr;74969335 said:
Cautiously optimistic. Stuff like this really hinges on the map being thorough and cleverly designed.

Also the feel of jumping and shooting is very specific. Most games in this genre don't get that feel down.

Any chances of a demo?

While you're taking a certain leap of faith when you back something, re. the map and the controls, the best I can tell you is that I really care about this stuff and I remain endlessly interested in 2D action/adventure (metroidvania).

A playable demo is technically possible but I don't know whether a good idea yet, since I like to show the game in the best light, it's not exactly put together in a way that's polished. The map is a patchwork of some areas finished and some not. stuff like that. It'd take work to make a presentable coherent demo and then there's the question of whether it's even worth it to do so. I've been pecking away at this game for a long time, but it's been by myself and so even though it's been a while, the game is quite early. The mechanics are sound and polished but the game flow/level design are rather early.
 
Looks awesome, will back when I get home. Love that grub animation.

Any chance of getting a gog key instead of a steam key if you make it on that platform?
 

Jobbs

Banned
Looks awesome, will back when I get home.

Any chance of getting a gog key instead of a steam key if you make it on that platform?

To be perfectly honest, I don't even know a lot about GOG because I don't use it. If it's possible to get it on there, I'd be happy to do it and give a key to anyone who backs.
 

CTLance

Member
With this being a Metroid-inspired game: I half expect we don't get to see the answer to that until we finish the game, paolo11.
To be perfectly honest, I don't even know a lot about GOG because I don't use it. If it's possible to get it on there, I'd be happy to do it and give a key to anyone who backs.
Awesome. Thanks for that. Much appreciated.
 

Jobbs

Banned
Backed right now. Question, is a main character a male robot or female robot or what? Just curious.

Oh I'd love to tell you but I don't want to spoil things. I'll say that I let some info about this slip in an interview with cassandra that showed up on usgamer.net a couple weeks ago. I was running my mouth about how I got started with the story of the game and didn't think that maybe I was saying too much. :) Go look for that if you want some insight.
 
To be perfectly honest, I don't even know a lot about GOG because I don't use it. If it's possible to get it on there, I'd be happy to do it and give a key to anyone who backs.

Great stuff.

It's basically like steam but without the drm or social aspects(all games have to be drm-free, no leaderboards, no achievments etc).

They started off releasing old games (gog stands for Good Old Games), but last year they also started doing new games too.
 

Fireblend

Banned
Congrats on getting past 5k! It was a little under 1k when I backed it yesterday
3AQmK.gif
15k does seem like a low goal to me though, so I hope you get all the extra funding you'll need to make the game as awesome as possible. Are you planning to introduce any stretchgoals (you probably already answered this)? Again, I think I'd rather see you use any extra funds to work on the "core" game itself, although I fear funding will considerably slow down if people think there are no stretch goals to look forward to. I've seen many kickstarters start out really strong and then lose steam immediately after their goal was met because there were no stretchgoals available. I just thought I'd mention it.

Anyway, to anyone on the fence, I've had great results with Kickstarter so far. Double Fine Adventure, Planetary Annihilation, Giana Sisters... can't wait to see what you can manage to deliver, you seem very focused on level design and progression and all the things that make a Metroidvania great. Is there going to be any semblance of an inventory or experience/leveling up? And, it seems Super Metroid is a major inspiration, but what did you think of Metroid Fusion? The part about there being someone stalking you throughout the game made me think of it, and it's quite probably my favorite Metroid game.

Again, congrats! I hope the game is really successful. Is there a Greenlight page for the game yet?
 

Jobbs

Banned
Jesus, surely Nintendo are going to have issues with this game, it looks just like Super Metroid!!!!

This is a fair criticism, but as for Nintendo having a problem - I doubt that, but even still, the resemblance will be reduced a bit when the game is rebuilt. It'll have the same spirit that it has now and the same overall asthetic, but it'll be more its own thing. I'm aware there's a fine line between "homage" and "uncanny" and I'll be continuing to try and improve this mixture moving forward.

Looks like Super Metroid, even some of the enemies. Except you can't shoot diagonally or even vertically it seems.

You can shoot vertically up and down. Diagonal will be in too, I didn't get around to including it in my flash game at the point in development it got to because I was becoming annoyed at how hard it was setting up all the angles with how many different types of bullets I had. But it'll be in.

aimupdown.gif
 

Lettuce

Member
This is a fair criticism, but as for Nintendo having a problem - I doubt that, but even still, the resemblance will be reduced a bit when the game is rebuilt. It'll have the same spirit that it has now and the same overall asthetic, but it'll be more its own thing. I'm aware there's a fine line between "homage" and "uncanny" and I'll be continuing to try and improve this mixture moving forward.



You can shoot vertically up and down. Diagonal will be in too, I didn't get around to including it in my flash game at the point in development it got to because I was becoming annoyed at how hard it was setting up all the angles with how many different types of bullets I had. But it'll be in.

aimupdown.gif

I hope you dont stray too far from this artistic look thought!?

Backed anyways!! :D
 

Jobbs

Banned
I hope you dont stray too far from this artistic look thought!?

Backed anyways!! :D

No, just tweaked. The character will be similar/the same it is now, it'll just have more moves and the flow of combat will be a bit different/more deep. I fear I'm confusing people by talking about some additions/modifications I'm planning. Suffice it to say, the game you see now is representative of how the game will continue to look, it'll just be better and more detailed.

and thanks :) I won't let you down.
 

Portugeezer

Member
This is a fair criticism, but as for Nintendo having a problem - I doubt that, but even still, the resemblance will be reduced a bit when the game is rebuilt. It'll have the same spirit that it has now and the same overall asthetic, but it'll be more its own thing. I'm aware there's a fine line between "homage" and "uncanny" and I'll be continuing to try and improve this mixture moving forward.



You can shoot vertically up and down. Diagonal will be in too, I didn't get around to including it in my flash game at the point in development it got to because I was becoming annoyed at how hard it was setting up all the angles with how many different types of bullets I had. But it'll be in.

aimupdown.gif
Sweet. I'll make sure to back it.

If I had the talent I would make games inspired by Super Metroid, so this is nice to see.
 

Jobbs

Banned
Congrats on getting past 5k! It was a little under 1k when I backed it yesterday
3AQmK.gif
15k does seem like a low goal to me though, so I hope you get all the extra funding you'll need to make the game as awesome as possible. Are you planning to introduce any stretchgoals (you probably already answered this)? Again, I think I'd rather see you use any extra funds to work on the "core" game itself, although I fear funding will considerably slow down if people think there are no stretch goals to look forward to. I've seen many kickstarters start out really strong and then lose steam immediately after their goal was met because there were no stretchgoals available. I just thought I'd mention it.

Thanks. :) I have some ideas about putting up stretch goals if and when that time comes. It's not even been a day yet and my head's still spinning. We'll see what happens. I understand the goal is a little low. $15k wouldn't be a full time living wage for the entire development cycle, I'd continue to go on my own time as I've been. I just needed help.

Anyway, to anyone on the fence, I've had great results with Kickstarter so far. Double Fine Adventure, Planetary Annihilation, Giana Sisters... can't wait to see what you can manage to deliver, you seem very focused on level design and progression and all the things that make a Metroidvania great. Is there going to be any semblance of an inventory or experience/leveling up? And, it seems Super Metroid is a major inspiration, but what did you think of Metroid Fusion? The part about there being someone stalking you throughout the game made me think of it, and it's quite probably my favorite Metroid game.

There'll be a lot of design discussion if this thing funds, about what we might want to add or improve (or not add/improve). As the game stands currently, there's a minimal stat system for weapons, ammo, recharge rate, damage, crit rating, special damage rating, armor rating -- stuff like that, and it can be improved incrementally by finding things (or via your pet) but there is not currently "items" or "levels" per se. You find power ups, you find new abilities and new weapons, and that's about how it works -- No real "inventory".

I'm open to expanding this a bit once working as a two man team and rebuilding the game, we'll just see.

Metroid Fusion is a good game, but it's not very metroidy in my opinion because of all the linearity and mission briefings and so forth. It's therefore hard to talk about -- Great game, but always with that asterik *not a real metroid game. :) The stalker is quite a bit different from SAX. He's basically a derranged robot, he's slinky, he runs on the ceiling and on walls. The importance of this character is one of the major reasons I didn't want to continue developing the game on my own -- I simply lack the programming skills to do his AI to the level that I wanted it to be. Roger is an experienced programmer, and he can set up all kinds of crazy AI and pathfinding to make this character really scary.

I'll have more to show of him in the future. I plan to reveal some art on him and talk about him a bit in a future update to the KS.
 

Gbraga

Member
No, just tweaked. The character will be similar/the same it is now, it'll just have more moves and the flow of combat will be a bit different/more deep. I fear I'm confusing people by talking about some additions/modifications I'm planning. Suffice it to say, the game you see now is representative of how the game will continue to look, it'll just be better and more detailed.

and thanks :) I won't let you down.

No, you're not, please continue, the combat depth seems great, it's probably my favorite thing in a game.
 
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