[CHEZZY]

I'm a bit hesitant to make this journal as most of my other journal fell over and were promptly buried under such famous journals as "Goshi's Games" "Kuroneko's Other Projects, MKIII" and "Genission Bromide Chloroform Argon Magnesium".
But I have good ideas and a good feeling about this game:

Oppo
There is no story (so far), it's a 2D exploring game inspired by Knytt (Knytt is a game by Nifflas, creator of Within a Deep Forest). You are a hermit living in a cave, one day you wake up and feel like a bit of adventure.

Completed so far:
Hermit's cave
Intro cinematics (if you can call getting out of bed a cinematic)

I plan to give it a day and night engine, and for once the jumping engine won't be like abe's oddysee.

[CHEZZY]

Okay it's going all good. Completion:

Engine - pretty much 100%, but I might add stuff to it later.
Day/Night Engine - 100%
Title - 0%
Boards so far: 4

I'm starting to get a story formed in my head, but it won't be forced on you as soon as you start the game. You'll figure out whats going on a little while into the game.

[Genrok]

Maybe you could add the ability for it to rain every once in a while. That's what I'm doing on one of my projects. I think it's pretty cool, and makes your game a little more realistic. That's my suggestion at least.

[CHEZZY]

Yes Genrok there certainly will be rain!
I'll only make it rain in certain places (you wouldn't want it raining in a desert) but the rain will probably be constant.

[Sai'ke]

Wikkid, I loved knytt! However, if you're going to do a knytt-style game, you are going to need lots of pretty ambient. That is, if you want the same mood.

[CHEZZY]

I do want the same mood, and I have an idea. This game won't have music (at least, in the gameplay section. There may be music on the title/menu). Instead, there will be ambient background sfx, meaning rain, thunder, wind, water sounds, cicadas etc.
If anybody can post some of these I'd be grateful. Things like thunder or birds chirping can be wav/sam/ogg, but all other looping sfx like rain or wind must be ogg.

[CHEZZY]

Screenies!


some plains (at night) That thing in the middle is a save point. It animates.


This is your cave that you start in, also at night (see the window) The day and night system is functional, I just happened to take these screenshots at night.


This is a cavern with a pool of water in the center, which kills you. Touching the spikes also kills you. As you have seen so far, the graphics are simplistic but nice to look at, that is what I am striving for.

[Elig]

This game is brilliant. Seriously, this is an awesome game from the looks of things. I love the artistic style, good idea.

[Val]

Actually, I still stand by my opinion that your art style is too plain... I don't think you should use so much solid, uninterrupted color.

You might also not want to have all the blades of grass standing straight up: It looks unnatural.

[CHEZZY]

Quote

Actually, I still stand by my opinion that your art style is too plain... I don't think you should use so much solid, uninterrupted color.

Thats just my style, Guy. I can't change just like that.

Quote

You might also not want to have all the blades of grass standing straight up: It looks unnatural.

I suppose I shouldn't have a white mzx char as the player because it's unnatural. Or maybe those trees should be removed because they look unnatural. Or maybe the water shouldnt have ripples in a cave because it unnatural. Or maybe the entire level should be started over because thats not how ground looks, it's unnatural.
Guy, games do not have to be natural, especially this one.

[Goshi]

I think its fine. Its no too good but its not too bad either. I'll admit the House area needs a lot of work and that grass is way to straight.

Actually the grass really clashes badly with the ground too.

This post has been edited by Goshi: 23 July 2007 - 09:16 AM

[CHEZZY]

Yeah I might add small caves up in the dirt in the house area, (with small creatures living in them and such) I'm just not going to texture all the dirt.
What do you mean when you say it clashes badly with the ground? I need to know specifically what the problem is so I can fix it.

[Goshi]

I'm terrible at explaining myself but has something to do with ground being brown or something like that -_-;

[CHEZZY]

Well of course that can't be changed, but I'm working on new grass graphics, just to see what looks good.

edit: made some changes to the grass, and it looks quite nice. It is sort of bent over with some still standing up. It's still very similar to the old grass so there's no point in doing a new screenie but if I make a screenie of new areas you might see it.

This post has been edited by CHEZZY: 23 July 2007 - 10:14 AM

[Frobozz]

I like the style. If fancy graphics were required then a lot of the games in the archives wouldn't make it. Just because good graphics can be made doesn't mean you have to. I'll play the game when it comes out.

[CJA]

CHEZZY, on Jul 23 2007, 05:05 AM, said:

I suppose I shouldn't have a white mzx char as the player because it's unnatural. Or maybe those trees should be removed because they look unnatural. Or maybe the water shouldnt have ripples in a cave because it unnatural. Or maybe the entire level should be started over because thats not how ground looks, it's unnatural.
Guy, games do not have to be natural, especially this one.

No, all those things you listed actually look natural. Green prongs sticking out of the ground don't.

Also, "especially" for this game? It's an exploring game, "nature" is at the core of it.

Nice art style. It was pretty nice the first three times we saw it and it's still pretty good.

[CHEZZY]

Oh ok, well this isn't really earth but I don't want to give too much of the game away yet. I've changed the grass anyhow.

[CHEZZY]

In case you were wondering, I'm still working hard on this game, I just haven't had access to the internet for a couple of days. I've made a lot more areas, including a forest and a tower. I've also added some sort of aim to the game, you must collect different coloured orbs from different elemental areas. So far I have made the Sky orb and I'm busy making the forest area to house the Green orb. I'll keep you posted.

This post has been edited by CHEZZY: 04 August 2007 - 06:01 AM

[NoahSoft]

Just wanna say; shit looks tight.

However, one thing I think you should watch out for is the elemental trap. The usual FIRE EARTH LIGHTNING WATER crap. That shit is gay. I think you're on the right track using sweet shit. Like Sky, and Forest are a good start.

[Frobozz]

CHEZZY said:

I'm still working hard on this game, I just haven't had access to the internet for a couple of days.

Amazing how no internet can really help things isn't it? How long till you're done? I can't wait to play this.

[CHEZZY]

lol yeah. Lesson to be learned here, everyone.

Frobozz said:

How long till you're done? I can't wait to play this.

Just check my sig for how much is complete. Of course I don't really know how far into the game I have completed, but it should be slightly accurate to what I'm aiming for. I also won't have constant access to the net to update it, but its there.

Noah said:

I think you're on the right track using sweet shit. Like Sky, and Forest are a good start.

I guess elemental was the wrong word. Expect to see Cave, Urban and Alien orbs, for some examples. 'Theme' would have been a better word.

[Sai'ke]

Here is a sample of a thunderstorm in high quality. The site requires login but they have a lot of neat samples under the CC license there. Lots of natural sounds to be found. You need to attribute the samples to the people who sampled it, but I doubt that's much of a problem.

Graphics style looks cool. It doesn't matter that there is not much texturing, you can make up for that in style .

[Lachesis]

CHEZZY, on Jul 13 2007, 06:16 PM, said:

it's a 2D exploring game inspired by Knytt

Heh, just before I saw this I was about to be like "WADF, ANYONE? :D" Oppo looks really good from the screenshots and I like the similarity in style with Knytt and WADF. GJ

Also there was nothing wrong with his previous blades of grass <:[

This post has been edited by Kuroneko: 04 August 2007 - 02:12 PM

[CHEZZY]

Again, another long absence from the internet, and I must say it works. I have completed another 3 areas, and fully planned out the storyline. 3 orbs are available now, there will be a total of 6: Sky, Forest, Urban, Desert, Water and Cave. I am making about 5+ boards a day on average.

[Sai'ke]

Wikkid. If you need some small choons for things, let me know and send me some stuff you need them for.

[CJA]

NoahSoft, on Aug 4 2007, 03:23 AM, said:

However, one thing I think you should watch out for is the elemental trap. The usual FIRE EARTH LIGHTNING WATER crap. That shit is gay.

dark, needle, magnet, bright, and esdemo are also good choices

[CHEZZY]

Okay, I have gotten myself into a sweet routine. I make 10 boards a day, if I don't manage to make 10 by the end of the day I must punch myself in the face. So expect the game sooner than expected. (if thats possible)

[Sai'ke]

[asiekierka]

CHEZZY, on Aug 19 2007, 07:48 AM, said:

Okay, I have gotten myself into a sweet routine. I make 10 games a day, if I don't manage to make 10 by the end of the day I must punch myself in the face. So expect 1000000 Oppo versions sooner than expected. (if thats possible)

Cool one

[paulguy]

Sweet, i've been wanting to make a Knytt like game in MZX but it's nice to see you're doing it. Just, don't do wrong what Knytt did wrong. The whole game seemed really unvaried as far as what you're doing. It just had a lot of the same obstacles and NO INTERACTION WITH ANYTHING except stuff that kills you. Add some people who talk a little.

EDIT: I also find it a shame you wont have the ambient music. That was my favourite part of knytt. I even have the sound track on my computer.

This post has been edited by paulguy: 19 August 2007 - 06:50 PM