[WIP] Heroes Guard - Interactive Gamebook

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!

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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!

Been hard at work trying to implement the card game to be used for boss battles:

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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!

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I’m a few weeks away from a closed beta with friends and family - its really starting to come together!

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.

So I attempted to use a spinning token to represent a “dice roll” but from showing the game off a few times, folks didn’t really get it. I did this partially because actually creating rolling dice seemed “impossible” in corona. Well… I got more experience and confidence and gave creating some dice a whirl! 

So after about 10 hours worth of animation and sprite sheet work, I did it! I think it looks pretty decent and has sort of that hand-drawn feel that the whole game has:

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I agree. I’d take a dice roll over tokens in an RPG too. There’s something very satisfying about it. Maybe we’re too used to it.

Awesome work by the way. Everything is just right about that roll - duration, speed, art style.

Corona made you sweat, huh? Now you know why I was so curious earlier about how you were doing your dice animations. :slight_smile: I’ve had some ideas for dice-based games, but shelved them since I realized I’d to create static sprite sequences for each number. And if I wanted to have multiple roll animations for each number (just to keep things fresh), the number of sprite sequences would go up drastically. This problem is compounded in a pool (8 ball) game. How can we realistically simulate the 3D roll of a ball in Corona? I’ve given up on that for now.

For the rolling of a ball, I would do something algorithmically. I think there was recently a tutorial on how to do dynamic shadows - might be able to apply something from that.

Other great news: I deployed to both my iPhone and my iPad and things look exactly as expected from the simulator - impressive! I am seeing an odd issue on the dice roll, but I think it may be timing related. 

We had talked outside the forum about text positioning being a problem on different iOS / Platform versions, and at first glance I’m not having any issues. This is probably due to the unique way I position and size everything - it’s all percentage based, allowing everything to scale and be positioned relative to each other component. Seems to worked out well so far!

As always, thanks for your feedback!

The dice rolls looks really good… perfectly matching your game.

I think I’d just flashed images of the different die sides to convey the “rolling”

@Rick

I’m pretty sure dynamic lighting on the balls as well as dynamic shadows of the balls are both achievable in Corona. Not too bothered about that. What I meant was dynamically rendering the textures of the balls as they roll about. You never know what other object(s) they might collide with (and at which angle). The numbers and patterns on each ball must “roll” in a particular direction. I’m not saying it’s impossible in Corona, but rather pointless to put in so much effort. More of a “Use the right tool for the right job” kind of thing. Might be better off with Unity if accurate 3D rendering is desired.

Good to know text placement isn’t an issue for you. The text displacement issue that I’ve noticed only happens to particular fonts at particular font sizes. And the difference is noticeable between iOS6 and later versions (iOS7 and iOS8 have similar behaviors). If you’ve cracked it and if text placement in your game turns out to be perfect across all devices/OS versions, then please write a guest post about it sometime. It’ll definitely help out other developers.

Been hard at work trying to implement the card game to be used for boss battles:

SYZ2ajH.gif

It’s been a while since I updated so I thought I’d share the latest feature I’m working on!

Unlike most interactive fiction or gamebooks, I’m really focusing on replayability. As such, I wanted to have a trophy room that holds all the treasures and mementos the player had gathered in their adventuring days.

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The treasure chest will serve as the player’s score, and each trophy is like an entitlement.

As always, any feedback is greatly appreciated!

I’ve signed up to show the game at 3 conventions! if you are going to be in the Oaks, PA or Baltimore, MD area you should stop by to say Hi and try out Heroes Guard!

Oaks, PA: June 26-28 http://toomanygames.com/
Baltimore, MD: July 17-19 http://www.artscape.org/
Baltimore, MD: July 24-26 https://www.otakon.com/

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Been awhile since I’ve done an update, but have been busy attending conventions. And let’s just say it was a HUGE SUCCESS!  :smiley:

As most of you know, the game is pretty niche and not for everyone. Basically you have to be into story-oriented games and enjoy reading. Something that is so text-heavy can be hard to show off at a convention, but it went far better than I could have hoped! 

Folks liked the game so much they brought friends and family back over and even came back to the booth multiple times for hours to play. I was blown away…

I know now for certain I’m on the right path to getting this game out. It can be so very difficult to get a gauge just from a few comments on the web from static screenshots or even friends & family who tend to not give critical feedback. But the hundreds of players at the conventions that left their contact info with me is evidence enough!

geX0Qti.jpg QYoMogk.jpg

I hope to have an open beta in september. Feel free to drop by the website and sign-up for the newsletter if you are interested!

It’s been a while since I updated so I thought I’d share the latest feature I’m working on!

Unlike most interactive fiction or gamebooks, I’m really focusing on replayability. As such, I wanted to have a trophy room that holds all the treasures and mementos the player had gathered in their adventuring days.

K0z7TCel.png

The treasure chest will serve as the player’s score, and each trophy is like an entitlement.

As always, any feedback is greatly appreciated!

I’ve signed up to show the game at 3 conventions! if you are going to be in the Oaks, PA or Baltimore, MD area you should stop by to say Hi and try out Heroes Guard!

Oaks, PA: June 26-28 http://toomanygames.com/
Baltimore, MD: July 17-19 http://www.artscape.org/
Baltimore, MD: July 24-26 https://www.otakon.com/

JvsJw3O.png

Still working hard on Heroes Guard! Hoping to get out the first beta in the next 2 weeks! Taking longer than I want… but getting there…

A local artist offered to do some free work for me! I had him do some marketing material, which I think turned out pretty well!

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If you like table-top RPGs or choose-your-own-adventure books, sign up for the beta and give me your thoughts on the direction!

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I’m excited to share that I am nearing beta status for the project. If you like what you have seen so far, please sign-up for the beta!

Been awhile since I’ve done an update, but have been busy attending conventions. And let’s just say it was a HUGE SUCCESS!  :smiley:

As most of you know, the game is pretty niche and not for everyone. Basically you have to be into story-oriented games and enjoy reading. Something that is so text-heavy can be hard to show off at a convention, but it went far better than I could have hoped! 

Folks liked the game so much they brought friends and family back over and even came back to the booth multiple times for hours to play. I was blown away…

I know now for certain I’m on the right path to getting this game out. It can be so very difficult to get a gauge just from a few comments on the web from static screenshots or even friends & family who tend to not give critical feedback. But the hundreds of players at the conventions that left their contact info with me is evidence enough!

geX0Qti.jpg QYoMogk.jpg

I hope to have an open beta in september. Feel free to drop by the website and sign-up for the newsletter if you are interested!

It has been a while since I posted, but I’m making tons of headway! 

First off, the beta is going amazing! Here are some of my favorite quotes so far:

  • “I am really enjoying the game so far, and will definitely buy it when it comes out!”
  • _"_Got to try out the game; it was really good"
  • “General feedback: Awesome…”
  • "I am having fun with the beta testing and will easily want the complete version. "
  • “It is a lot of fun… and I can also see it being a neat way to get younger people to read more!”
  • “it was a really fun game!”
  • “Excellent gameplay fantastic story I can’t wait for it to be fully released… I wait with bated breath”

Secondly, I got into the Smithsonian Indie Arcade! This is pretty prestigious (in my book), and I’m really excited and honored to be showcasing there on January 16th. If you are in the MD/VA area - you should swing by!

And finally, I’m working on the final public beta. Here is a video gif of the updated card game.

Oh and I almost forgot! I wanted to get more into tumblr and blogging so I started sharing stuff on the business side of being an indie game developer: underbytestudios.tumblr.com

Let me know if this stuff is interesting to anyone out there - I can share more or less :slight_smile: