First the eye candy: This is a part of the maze level you'll have to traverse just after you finish the demo.
Now on to some real talk... the item find system. Those of you who have tried the demo are generally familiar with how the game hints that there is an item of interest nearby. For those who haven't tried the demo there are two systems:1- A sparkle animation plays on top of the item -- these items are generally story related (letters, books, notes, etc...).
Narrative based hinting system
Whenever you come near an item of interest you get an exclamation mark on top of your head "!" -- these are task related items in general.
Task based hinting system
The reason behind creating the 2nd system was that I didn't want to have a lot of hand holding and allow anyone playing the game to explore without having to feel "Oh, there is what I came for. OK, cool... let's leave the room now." I wanted them to explore around and take the environment in and try to find the item themselves. However, it seems I have over done it by a notch.I have received feedback that some people find it hard to figure out (with the 2nd system) which item is the one the game is hinting at. So I am trying right now to implement a different approach, a much clearer system that gives you a clear message where the item is, while still not making too obvious.Here is a sneak peak at the new system as I work on it:
A WIP of the new item hinting system
Once it is fully functional and tested, I'll show you how it works in more details!
That is not all... I still have one major news to share.
As you may have seen A Quest of Life's alpha was made entirely using the art packaged with RPG VX Ace, no custom art... nothing. While the art in itself isn't bad... it isn't quite what I wanted. In fact, I used it solely so I could cut down the time required to submit the game for the 2014 Indie Game Maker Contest.Of course, if you are looking for a professional product, you wouldn't use that kind of art as it may not mesh well with your atmosphere and game design.
So recently Igor Green and I have teamed up! He is an extremely talented pixel artist. You should check out his work here, it is really beautiful and well done.Now I can confidently announce that A Quest of Life will have its own art, once we have something solid we'll post an update with some scrumptious eye candy!
On a different note we are currently on GameJolt as well, if you haven't tried our demo yet, you can check out our game page here, rate us, comment on the game's progress or follow our progress.You can also follow us on Twitter @Va11ar or our IndieDB page.
For now, stay safe and have fun everyone! And in case I didn't catch you... good afternoon, good evening and good night ;)
