Golden Hour - Live on Kickstarter! Thread

A hi-res pixel art metroidvania with juicy destruction and a thrilling, timeline-twisting story!

Official Kickstarter trailer:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLczPoXUfXk

- Unravelling story following a main quest and many tangled side-quests
- RPG leveling system including four primary and many secondary skills to improve your battle, platforming, crafting and other possibilities
- Explore a world composed of beautiful hi-res pixel art
- Destructive environment with special effects and realistic physics
- Use your enviroment in battle!
- 4 bindable quick action slots
- Over 30 spells whose power depends on players levels and skills
- Variety of melee and ranged weapons
- Game-altering items and equippables such as potions, magic jewelry, shields and armor
- Dynamic music following the mood of the game events
- Procedurally generated biomes and dungeons

After death of king Faragon and the end of Lindgren family reign, the four provinces of the Heratos kingdom are about to break out a war as the four kings want the reign of the whole kingdom for themselves. Our hero, eighteen year old Arion, gets drafted for a skirmish at the Idessa mine. What seemed to be a mild encounter between two provinces, actually turned into a massive battle for an important strategic spot - as the kings of the remaining two provinces sent in their armies as well.
At one point, the mine starts to collapse, and only four people, including Arion, survive, getting trapped, without weapons, food, sources of light or a way out. Arion, Lazar, Venegor and Rhea, hopelessly trapped for hours, realize they're better off trying to cooperate in finding a way out than killing each other. As they improvise a torch and light a fire, they notice a funny coincidence - they were all carrying a same item in different forms - a fourth of an orb, as a necklace, brooch, pocket watch and a buckle. They join the orbs, summoning a mystic spirit; The spirit shows them a prophecy, warning them what will happen if events continue to unfold this way and a war breaks out: It shows that a fifth side will use the kingdoms weakness to invade all of Heratos; but more importantly, other than a catastrophic war, they each see a devastating personal tragedy. After a handful of rage, denial, cinism and convincing, they agree to abandon their lives, unite and try to stop the war.

Arion is an eighteen year-old blacksmith apprentice, and also a blacksmith's son. His mother died at childbirth, for which Arion sometimes blames himself. He is actually a half-mage, of which he's not aware until the incident at the Idessa mine.

Lazar comes from a powerful, influential Lanstrean military family. His father, a liutenant in the army, never really saw Lazar in the army due to his weak constitution. He intended a job in the treasury offices for his son, which always drove Lazar towards adventure and wilderness. The desire to prove himself made Lazar develop other skills which would make him the ultimate predator in ranged combat. He's very tactically smart and agile, an excellent archer and a skilled craftsman, often improvising bombs and traps.

Venegor comes from a poor, criminal-populated neighborhood of Vinstrel. A kind hearted joker, Venegor is actually a suffering widower. While he's given up on hope for himself, this intimidating brute is amazing at spreading hope to others. He's seeking the Zosimos Lantern, a relic that can bring a single soul back from the dead.

Rhea is a Natrian pure-born sorceress, highly intuitive and connected with the nature and animals. Sometimes deeming as frighteningly powerful, her intuition and visions affect her physical being, getting faint and weak with bad feelings and stunningly powerful with positive ones. She's charmingly playful and juvenile, yet there is a dark side to having extraordinary powers at such a young age - and everybody has their own way to keep the emotions at bay.

The cities are peaceful, free-to-roam areas where Arion can buy and sell equipment, get upgrades, talk to NPCs and gather quests and information. While the more remote parts of the cities hold some chests and loot, the real treats can be found in the procedurally generated biomes between the cities - forests, abandoned villages, canyons, mountin passes, archipelagos and more, and, of course, the underworld - the dungeons, treasuries and passages under the cities hold amazing loot and bosses. The player won't be able to reach all of more than fifty generated areas at once, as most of the areas will require the player to posses a certain combination of skills, be it magic, melee or agility.

Where possible, each of the four edges of a level connects to another level, forming a metroid-style map. At the highest point of each town there is a grand chest with very valuable loot. There’s a lot of secret areas, each containing rewards for discovery like pieces of runes written by a character whose story resembles the main charcter’s. On the ends of major levels there are bosses that leave behind powerful loot.

The kingdom of Heratos consists of four provinces: Vinstrel, Lanstrel, Ringstead and Natris.

Ringstead is the kingdom's capital and the home of the protagonist, Arion. Before his death, king Faragon held his residence in the Ringstead castle. The industrial and economic powerhouse of the kingdom still heavily depends on Vinstrean ore, Lanstrean army and Natrian magic.

Lying in the tropical paradise of the eastern Island, Lanstrel could be called the military capital of the kindgdom; The famous Military academy provides 9 out of 10 cavalrymen for the Heratos army; They say a good Lanstrean steed is worth as much as an estate. Lanstrel holds the kingdom Treasury, and the gold lying underneath the city is unmatched.
Vinstrel is the brute, tough guy of the kingdom.

Hidden in the foothills of the Taumant mountain, Vinstrel provides the kingdom with ore, steel and livestock. The men and the creatures residing Vinstrel, used to extreme conditions, are the toughest in Heratos. They are raw and virtually untrained, yet they say a Lanstrean general could never beat a Vinstrean woodchuck in a bar fight.

Natris is the oddball of the kingdom; Smaller in constitution, pale-skinned, and usually magic-born, the Natrians are truly the most specific people in Heratos. They condemn mixing with other Heratonians. The beautiful yellow stone and waterfalls of Natris can fool; What lies in the forests and tundras beyond the city has been keeping humans away for centuries.

Kickstarter.com

We started the work on Golden Hour almost two years ago, and back then it was supposed to be a simple, free platformer which we did for fun. As time passed, we implemented weapon swapping, then a whole inventory system, then an enemy AI based on skill variables - and eventually we realized how much potential the game has. After all this work, we've run out of resources and time, and finishing this project will be virtually impossible without the proper funding. We want to bring the immersing story and characters as close as possible to you, the players, and we would like to hire an illustrator for a comic book/digital booklet, musicians for a live soundtrack and additional artists to make the world as bountiful as possible.

Stay in touch!
Official website Goldenhourgame.com
Twitter Twitter.com
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Update 2 - What makes this game so awesome?

What is it that makes this game so awesome? What does it have to offer, unlike other games of similar kind?
That's simple...

JUICINESS! Sweet, violent juiciness!

I mean, look at this:

Or this:

Sure, metroidvanias are always more about exploration than action, but why does it have to be so? Why wouldn't we bring destruction into the genre? And not just any destruction! It's that sweet,sexy destruction that makes you say 'nice' out loud!

I mean, who doesn't like to splash someone's brains out by pushing them under the big fat stomper, or make giant stone golem run into a tower that has a person on top and break them all together? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never seen a metroidvania with such elements. And not only that! You can also go for stealth if you don't feel like spraying blood all over those beautiful pixels. Although, only on certain places, like castles or towers, with accented vertical maneuverability. Which brings me to another reason you would like, and ultimately, back the game:

Many ways to go through the game!Imagine this situation: There's a gate in front of you, and there's the lever that opens it, at the reach of your arm. There's also a loot chest that seems really nice, it's gotta contain something valuable! But, there are enemies behind the gate, keeping the chest. Like, a lot of enemies, it seems risky. Then you notice you have a choice! You can climb the tower on your side of the gate, all the way to the top balcony, you jump forward, and open your parachute, flying over the enemies. Now you have another choice!

1. Sneak up to them from behind and silently kill 'em all as they are looking the other way and collect the loot from that super shiny chest

2. Violently beat the hell out of them (or get yourself beaten) and also collect the loot from the chest, or

3. Just walk away safely towards your goal, but without the loot and the XP you would've gotten in a fight.

So now you see, this is not just another metroidvania. It's like a metroidvania on steroids, but not those bad, fugly ones! They are the steroids made only of the most sophisticated, high quality ingredients!

Edited by: Monoplex