This is the 3rd take at the gold coins. I think I’m getting better at this!
The skull’s progress looks really good. The coins look way better. Obviously, good reference is the key to good art. Don’t skip it.
Photoshop wise, a samurai sword is made with a anvil and hammer… but it sure doesn’t look that way right… In the same way your art should not look like it was produced in Photoshop, even if it is.
If i where the art director I would go this direction… But this is much more about personal choice. Your 4th skull looks quite watercolor esque and actually quite “book” like… and maybe a good match depending on who you ask.
My example, about 5 min more work in Photoshop and illustrator using a wacom tablet.
interesting that you used illustrator - isn’t it for vector graphics (straight lines and gradients)? What role did it play in the 5th image - the outline?
I used it to palatalize the image and clean it up. It’s also good to use as you can be really sloppy and it will still look nice. Here’s is a version you can see the details in. Don’t mind the black outline… that was really quick to show an idea.If the skull was big on screen you would probably want to spend a bit more time with it.
Cheers
_ In A Hero’s Journal you are a weary and weathered adventurer. All of your questing and dungeon plundering days are behind you - but that doesn’t mean the stories and hardships need not live on! By filling out this journal you will allow some of your greatest feats… and failures… to live on as campfire and bed time stories. _
_ Luckily you still have the same map you relied on so long ago… _
_ But as you explore the map you will also need to explore your memory as some of what occurred is a bit fuzzy. You will encounter many stories and will have to make many choices. _
Concept + description = pure win. I salute thee!
I’m an RPG fan, and I love everything about your game. For programmer art, it’s absolutely amazing. I wish I could do something like this. This game could turn into something really special.
Thanks so much! That’s the first bit of feedback I’ve gotten outside of my family & friend circle - your response is such a great motivator to keep plowing through.
Thanks again for taking a look.
So I did a design iteration on the cards, wanted them minimalized and went for more of a tarot-card like approach. The orbs along the top indicate: damage (red), defense (blue), and healing (green).
The outline of the card indicates what type of ability the card has: strength (red), intelligence (blue), dexterity (green), and charisma (yellow). When the user clicks to inspect the card, it will give details about the ability.
This week I started working on the combat portion of the game - which is a small / quick card game.
All the art is temporary, but I really just wanted to show off the direction I am heading in. Let me know what you think!
In terms of combat mechanics, I don’t get the complete picture. Don’t know the purpose of the agility/strength/intelligence cards in the top row. Also, you seem to show the cumulative damage dealt to each character rather than the remaining hit points. Maybe you’re trying adjudge the victor of the duel in a short match?
Presentation wise, I like it. Nice UI layout and good use of available screen size. Keep going!
The main idea behind the game is that the player has lived through all odds - and is now recounting all the adventures and fights he got through in his younger days (he’s old and is now recounting the tails as he remembers).
So that is partially the reason why I’m not using health (counting down) - it is indeed about who does more damage (you never die). And as you said, there are only 3 rounds, so that is part of what keeps it quick. This has been unclear to a few folks - so I’ll probably work on making this more clear in some manner… or perhaps change the direction altogether.
What actually isn’t implemented yet is the role the cards along the top play. Basically when you play a card - the attack, defense, and heal values will always take effect, but each card also has some ability. For that ability to trigger - you need to play it on the appropriate top card - and also pass the roll (which ties into your character from the RPG / story side).
As mentioned before - I greatly appreciate you taking an interest and giving me feedback. I appreciate it far more than you probably think. Are you working on any projects you want some feedback or critique on?
You don’t need to change the direction. Remember, there were no directions presented to us here. Just a gif showing us part of the combat. So why not introduce a new mechanic if it’s fun and fresh? You just have to present a concise tutorial for the player’s very first duel in the game.
You could also probably mix it up by including more options in the top row. Attack/Defense/Heal multipliers for instance. Ex: If a player’s card has X attack, and if one of the top row cards offers double damage, then the player can do a 2X attack with his card.
The combat could be easy at first, but it could get progressively harder. For increasing difficulty, you could pre-calculate the maximum damage that can be done by the player by combining his 3 cards in the best possible way with the top-row supplement cards. And then using a damage number (to be dealt by the enemy) just small enough than the calculated maximum figure to keep things challenging. To increase difficulty further, you could include a timer to hasten the player’s actions (“I was confronting a giant dire wolf and had to react quickly”).
If you haven’t checked it out already, I think you should try Hearthstone (Blizzard’s free-to-play collectible card game). The matches are not only quick but also offer enough depth to keep both casual as well as non-casual players engaged. You could get some nifty ideas from there.
I wish I was working on something as cool as you are. I just quit my day job to develop mobile games. Tried my hand at designing an arcade puzzler. Since I can’t draw for nuts, I ended up getting a quote for the art work from a good design studio. But the cost was too high (although appropriate). The concept wasn’t exactly golden, so I shelved it. For my first game, I’m developing a simple casino game (with self-done art) to get the ball rolling. We’ll see how that goes.
This is such a good idea - I’ll definitely look into things like this!
I wish you the best of luck sir. I did the same a little over 3 months ago. I’m just hoping I at least make minimum wage at doing this - so I can call it a real job! My wife (who is supporting us at the moment) gave me the best piece of inspiration:
Just have fun with it and create something that you can be proud of.
Thank you. And the best of luck to you too!
If you need somebody to brainstorm with, let me know.
So I got my first android device in for testing! Check this thing out: Nvidia Shield Tablet
Unfortunately I was disappointed that my corona app didn’t just work on first installation. I was really hoping the process was just that easy… so here goes trouble-shooting, yay -_-
With all the right tools in place, it was very easy to see where the problem was. I had a single line the case didn’t match for a lua file import. And now I have this, wahooo!
By the way, the folks at corona could (and it should) definitely come up with some build warnings to help with the many complaints regarding something like case sensitivity!
I added shops and perks to Heroes Guard!
You now have the option of visiting a town while it is not under peril (no events active). You will then be able to visit the shop (with random items) to spend your gold. Even if you don’t see any items you want, you will get a perk from the town you visited. Each town has a different perk, but an example perk is “Well Rested” which gives you +1 to all your stats!
Be careful though… relaxing at one of the safe towns might mean those in trouble might have their situation escalated or you could lose a town all together. The player will have to decide when is the right time to relax and re-arm himself!
I’m a few weeks away from a closed beta with friends and family - its really starting to come together!
Corona is pretty sweet with providing many things out-of-the-box, but sometimes you still have to create your own tools to help with your specific game features or domain.
So the past few weeks I’ve been working on a tool to help build the short stories that will be found in Heroes Guard.
Now that is out of the way I can get back to working on the game!
Looks really good! How much time would you say you spend developing this game? I probably code only a couple of hours a week because of school and stuff. Corona is just a hobby for me.
Roughly 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. Roughly. That includes art, design, coding, testing, and marketing/socializing. I might squeeze in 3-4 hours on the weekends.
The setting of each journal will be randomized, each with unique title/cover art. This one sets a “at war” theme:
