Blogs - Thatmanoverthere

I have two ideas for games bouncing around in my head, one of which is a slight re-imaging of an earlier idea, and I even have a sprite sheet for some of the first idea, but a sightly better idea for the second one. Well, here they are:

Thief Sisters:
-You are the country famous set of Thieves known as the Thief Sisters, and your goal is to kidnap the Princess. It's a stealth based 2d-platformer you can't actually kill any of them enemies, and getting spotted will result in them chasing/arresting you. A "side" goal is to rob just about everything/building you come across.

Walpurgisnacht
-2-d action platformer set in the year 19XX, where you are the shade-familiar of the Magi Rockspin, who you have just discovered was killed by members of the Anti-Maleficium squad, who have gone rouge and are trying to take over the world. Organized by their Captain, Wilson Luxburg, the five Prefecture Sages have organized their units in an attempt to rule the world. All basic attacks are projectile based, and you have to navigate through their Fortresses to destroy them, and discover the location and weaknesses of the Captain.
If this sounds like another game, there's a reason for that.

So, which one would be the best to do?

Gauntlet was one of the first video games that I played, and it's successor, Dark Legacy and also Legends, are two of the first games that I managed to beat. I've lost count of the number of hours that I've lost to replaying Dark Legacy, and every run I'm still noticing things I haven't before. In fact, Dream World is one of my favorite places in video games, and the music for the Forbidden Temple still brings back fond memories. Gauntlet Seven Sorrows was released in 2005, and some how, I never got around to getting a copy. So, when I found a copy of Seven Sorrows for the price of $5, I decided to go and fill my Gauntlet collection.

In retrospect, I could have done without it.

In place of the awesome cut-scene showing Skorne killing Garm and an epc world saving plot line, you instead have to help some old man who nailed you to a tree because he realized how bad of an idea it was and because his advisers went evil...

Ok, I could live with that, now just give me the characters I've come to expect from your other titles and-

Oh...your back to only four...

Well, I suppose that could work, so long as the over-world is-

No over-world? No.

O.K. Well then, this game better have some great mus-

OH COME ON...oh wait, this is actually decent.

Coming off of Dark Legacy, you'd expect something more like this:

But, that's ok.

Now, I may be being harsh on the music, but the Sumner's music is the kind of music you'd expect in the background. To top it off, the tracks in Dark Legacy were unique in the fact that they were just trying to do their own thing however they wanted: and were not heavily influenced by Lord of the Rings. And I'm being serious here: everything in Seven Sorrows feels like they just kidnapped the team from Lord of the Rings and had them do it at gunpoint. Now I'll admit, the other Gauntlet games aren't the best thing ever, but they did do whatever they wanted to and didn't care what others thought. This game...

Yeah.

Unlike with the other Gauntlets, none of the enemies stick out in my mind as being overly tough and almost all of them died in one or two hits. The same goes for the bosses: I don't remember getting anywhere close to dieing on any of them, while the first boss in Dark Legacy has killed me more times then I have him.

Come to think of it, and this may just sound like I'm a bad player, but: I still haven't beaten the first Gauntlet. As for Dark Legacy, It took me several days of hard core gaming just to beat the game, yet alone get to max level. Seven Sorrows, I managed to get max level AND beat within the great time span of FOUR HOURS. I've spent more time on one world in Dark Legacy.

And that's another problem with the game, you can't choose your path. With the original Gauntlet, you were more than able to skip levels, and with Dark Legacy you could (dare I say had to?) repeat levels any time you wanted to. With Seven Sorrows the missions are linear, the levels are short, and there are only six worlds.

Oh yeah, did I mention that there are only Sixteen Levels in the game?

No? Well there are.

As much as I've been harping this game, there are some redeeming factors.

First on the list:

Those are some cool enemies. And it's not just the concept art for death that look good:

Considering the number of enemies who can appear on screen at one time, they actually put some detail into the guys, to the point of them having different weapons. The downside to this is that there really aren't that many different types of enemies, but the ones you get do turn out well designed so, kudos.

Another thing I kind of, maybe, sort of like was the whole upgrade system. Unlike the other Gauntlets, you are able to upgrade more than just your stats, and are capable of learning new abilities and spells, which is neat. However:

FOUR CLASSES
The whole system would have worked better if their were more classes to choose from, and if it wasn't so easy to get upgrades.

Final Warning!
All things considered, I got what I paid for for the game. I suppose if I had looked up some reviews first, I wouldn't have had as high expectations and wouldn't be near as harsh on it. In fact, I think them trying to recapture the whole feel of Dark Legacy while trying new things is what caused this game to end up like it did. While there is very little incentive to go and replay the game, if you come across a cheap copy and want to see why there's no harm done.

With that said, I give this game:
7 Lord of the Rings rip offs
Out of
1 Dark Legacy

I managed to get some more concept art done for Gift. In addition, I am looking for anyone who would be willing to lend some of your spare time to this project. I honestly can't pay anyone, so, it's entirely up to you if you want to help. If you are interested, contact me and tell me what you can do.

Watch Yard
Unnamed One
Unnamed Two

Your name is Daniel Vail, and you've just had an ok day. You just
started at East High school, met some odd people in class, got chased
around by the truancy officer, and went to the library. Oh yeah, while
at school you were told to go to a website called Watch.U. You did at
the library, and found yourself pulled inside of the computer to a place
called "There" by a jagged arm. Inside of the computer, you help a man
by the name of Tod Smith, who you just agreed to help destroy Him, the
man behind Watch.U and, by extension, all of There, and claim an object
called "Gift". This means you are going to have to fight your way
through dozens of Sites and legions of Vieri. And on top of all of that,
you also have a test on Friday.
Still, at least the choice is yours.

There-Central Station
Watch.U
Watch There Theater

I have run into a problem: I'm starting a new project. The problem is, I want to do two different games, but, only have time for one of them. I would like an honest opinion on which of these I should pursue, as one of them is simple and short, but the other is complex and long:

Scarred Silent
Moddb.com
A 2-D side scroller with an art style similar to old style cartoons. The object of the game is to get to the end of the level. At the end of each level is a boss who you have to defeat in a sort of rhythm based game.

Gift
Moddb.com
A RPG set in There. You play as Daniel Vail, Elisa Osiier, Hector Malo, Halot Mark, and Tod Smith: people who have been sent There by Watch.U. Your job is to find out who's behind Watch.U, and what they have to do with There.

Thank you for taking your time to read this.

I have run into some problems, not necessarily with Mary, but, they all do seem to be related to them. The main one is: I'm not 100% how to correct most of the problems I've run into, and am considering either:
a) tinker them out
b) restart it on UDK
c) start it in a new engine
any thoughts or suggestions would be helpful.

Due to the fact that I'm not able to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing (and I want to test some things) I decided to create another game first. This one will be survival-horror themed, but, don't expect guns to do you any good. I'll try to have an art up for it ASAP. I will be trying to make it in UDK, so any advice would be appreciated.

Like many other projects, the King's Shadow is a work in progress RPG. The game will be in a first person shooter style, and won't feature leveling as in exp, but instead through equipment upgrades. The game type will be more along the fantasy design of things. If you are interested, I do have a legend that was made a while ago, that I'm using for this game:

When the world was born, it was nothing more than a barren desert filled with fire and darkness. then came the goddesses, whom looked at our world, and took pity on it. The goddess Croluva, who was the wisest, started by gifting the world with water, which quenched the never ending fires. The goddess Piriue, who was the strongest, came next, and gave the world the sky, which cast out all of the darkness. The goddess Hoelmeth, whom was the most graceful, came last, and gifted the world with life, so that it may fill those barren lands.

For many years, the three goddesses lived among their creations, and life was peaceful. Then one day, there sister goddess Yuobi, who was bent on destroying all of her sisters' works, came to the planet and saw what her sisters had done. Jealous, Yuobi went to the farthest reaches of the world, and gathered together all she could. She managed to gather together all of the elements which had been the world in the first place: fore, desert, and shadows. When she had them all in one spot, she gifted them life, and so created the Heklurs.

With a horde of these monsters on her side, she waged a blasphemous war against her sisters, and very nearly succeed in undoing her sister's work. Only by sacrificing their mortal frames were the goddesses able to kill Yuobi, who sealed herself in her medallion. The goddesses' followers sealed the medallion in the city of Willows. In return for their help in sealing Yuobi, the goddesses named one of them to rule in their name, and sealed themselves with the medallion so that they may guard over it for all eternity. Centuries have passed since then...

Thank you for taking your time to read this.