Advent Prime - 2nd Demo just released!

Game Synopsis:

In Advent Prime, players will go on an epic journey to uncover the lost power of the "Prime" warrior. Starting off as a small child, training and learning basic combat, and then being sent on a quest to help a small mining village clear terrible creatures out of it's mine. It's soon discovered that an extremely powerful artifact resides within this mine. After recovering the artifact the player will discover it's immense power was not unknown to all. Terrible forces have been seeking the power for a long time, and now that it's uncovered, the race is on to secure the power before the evil of this world overcomes the entirety of the planet. Can you find the courage, the power, and the nerve necessary to accept your new responsibility?

Screenshots:

Notable Features:

Optimized for play with Xbox 360 Controller (You can use the "A" button to activate things. Certain events/menus still require "X" button to confirm. Such as the enter name screen. Still working on getting D-Pad support as well.)

Custom Menus

Custom Battle System

Spendable Skill Point System

Enemies on Screen

Unique Classes that Change Gameplay

Multiple Sidequests and Rewards for Exploration

*Note: "Custom" means non-default, I coded very little of these systems. ;)

Demo Download:

Latest Demo: June 24th, 2014:

Click Here to Download from Google Drive

Design Concepts:

So some of the things that I haven't quite gotten around to fleshing out directions for in-game:

Leveling Up:

So, based on your class selection, certain stats will level up specifically. Wizards will always get a boost of MP and Magic Attack, Warriors will get more HP, etc. However, I want the player to feel engaged in EVERYTHING that happens with the character. So in addition to auto-leveling stats, the player will receive 3 Skill Points on each level that can be distributed however you see fit! Want a Wizard with more Defense? Do it. Want an Archer with ridiculous HP? Do it. Want to just boost the default stats a few extra points? Do it! The character is yours to mold as you see fit, the game just nudges you in the right direction. Additionally this system adds another level of item options, as certain "Tomes" can be found in the world which grant a skill point to spend upon reading them. Thus allowing even greater exploration rewards! It's a win-win system. :)

Unique Classes:

The class selection is extremely important to the overall game experience. I'm basically using the Mass Effect class system as a core concept here. So, there are 3 classes, "Warrior", "Wizard", and "Archer". Each one plays uniquely, offers unique skills, weapons, stats, and skill lines. There is one skill line that is universal, the "Prime" abilities, but more on that later. The "Warrior" focuses on pure force of damage, and can use a wide variety of melee based weapons, and can wear all armor types. The Warrior has increased physical defense, and outputs much higher physical damage. However, the Warrior has no Mana or unique skill line. The "Wizard" is one of the more diverse classes, and uses Mana and magic spells to deal damage. The Wizard can only use Staff and Claw** weapons, as well as only equipping Light and Magic armor. Wizards can be built out in two sub classes, as they can either equip weapons that remove all physical attacks, but greatly boost magic damage, or equip weapons that offer physical damage, but don't boost magic attack. Finally, the "Archer" is a fun class that stands on it's own in being a unique state-based class. Archer's focus on debuffing enemies, attacking fast, being extremely lucky and agile, and then using physical damage to finish them off. Poison arrows, scatter shot, etc are all unique Archer skills. They employ the "Special Shot" skill line and have a fully unique set of abilities.

**Personal Note: I'm currently working on switching away from "Claw" weapons and making Wizards use Staff and Wand weapons only. Staves would be able to attack, and Wands would only boost magic damage, disabling physical attacks.

Exploration Rewards:

Nothing is placed in the game world without purpose. Talk to NPCs multiple times. They may have quick blips of dialogue, but upon further conversation they may give you a unique quest. Maybe you need to complete a quest as soon as possible to get the best reward, or perhaps you should abandon the quest and just keep what you find. These are choices that the player has to make, and I focus greatly on giving the player full control of the situation. I think of my time in Dark Souls as core design concept for this aspect of the game. The world is reactive to what is happening, and things may not always be as they initially seem. Keep prying, keep exploring... always!

**Spoiler Warning:

For example, in the demo there is a hidden quest in the Pub VIP room. If you visit the Inn, the innkeeper will mention she hasn't had time to clean the last room that was rented. Explore this room, and you'll find an invitation to the VIP room has been left in there. Go to the VIP room, and a miner will tell you his tale (after talking to him multiple times) of how he was attacked by one the creatures, and upon running out of the mine for his life, he lost the amulet he was wearing. Should you locate this amulet while down in the mine, you'll notice it's not a Key Item, but rather a wearable piece of armor. The necklace will grant you a small HP boost, as is a pretty good item at the beginning. So at this point, you could just put it on and keep it, forget the quest and keep this as your reward. Also, if you clear the mine and progress the story without going back to town and returning his amulet to him, you will not have the chance to, as something happens and the town changes... However, should you immediately return to town after locating the amulet, and give it back to him, he'll trade you a "Gold Ring" for helping him out. The "Gold Ring" grants a greater HP boost, an MP boost, and an Evasion bonus! A much better item indeed, but you have to take the time to complete all of the steps in the correct time frame to get the ultimate reward!

**END SPOILER

The Story:

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, is the overall story experience. Obviously I have a main story I want to convey, but in designing the world and the story, I want it to be constantly evolving and reacting to what is happening. What at one point may seem to be the single most important arch, may in fact turn out to be a mere side story in the end. So I try to write stories and sidequests that are incredibly engaging and important, even if they really aren't. When you are speaking to NPCs involved, or completing tasks, that's all that should matter to you. Only when the job is done, and you feel satisfied that you've helped as much as you can, only then should you turn back to the "main quest" and realize that what you just did was perhaps a small sidequest, or completely optional.

Feedback Requests:

Obviously, any and all feedback is greatly appreciated! However, I'm specifically looking for feedback in relation to the "feel" of the game. Do the characters keep you interested, is the pacing appropriate, etc. I know the game uses default resources. I know the game uses default maps. I know the game uses default concepts and ideas. This will all flesh it's self out in time. I have a very hands-on visual development style. I need to see something working before I can worry about how to detail it and customize it. The demo above is roughly 30-45mins worth of gameplay, and I've logged over 20 hours developing it. Is that insane? Maybe. But I lay it out, get it working rough, and then smooth it all out one piece at a time. That's just how I do it. :)

Credits:

Known Bugs *Spoilers*:

I'm playing through the demo, because I play anything with stat allocation:

First off, the resolution of the game screen is really weird (assuming it's not just me), my monitor isn't THE biggest, but it's a pretty average screen size and the game screen is huge, if this was intentional, you should go with a smaller resolution, or just let switch to Fullscreen mode if size was that important. (Actually I found the option to change it in the menu, but at first it was a bit odd)

I'm not liking that I can't see my money count unless I go all the way to a shop first. I finished the first "boss" fight, it was really just a guy with a lot of health, instead of giving him a Heal, it would be more fitting to give him a Powerful attack skill, I think.

I like what you did with the "character creation" although its a little weird to transform right in front of someone like that. Maybe do that earlier and have the class selection done with him. The combat system is still pretty basic right now, but one thing I would recommend is not having enemies apply status effects simply from basic attacks (as in give them a Poison Bite, or Blinding Dart skill). At least, not the initial monsters (spiders and bats). You're pretty much guaranteed to get poisoned by the Spider and that means buying a ton of antidotes. Also Blind is annoying as hell. The Prime Seeker fight did indeed retrigger when I entered the room to get the Miner's Amulet. That pushed me up to level 5. In the burning town, the two homes that are initially "Locked" and "Theres no answer", are completely identical besides holding a different item in their chest. The Infantry enemies in this area also apply a status ailment on basic attacks much like every other enemy besides slimes, except these particular enemies apply "Stun." On fight I was hit with 4 stuns in a row, I know its all chance, but something like that shouldn't happen because it's just unfair, and can be easily fixed by giving him a Stun Skill.

Back on the combat subject, the Armored Guards was a really lame fight considering I only have one skill at this point. Also, these enemies have a double attack, the same Stun on hit effect, they guard (which is annoying), and also have a Heal. It's just random and makes the fight tedious and long for no reason. And then I fight the final guy, and Game Over.

Very Important: the only reason that I could defeat the two Armored Guards is because I decided to return to town and buy a couple more potions and an antidote. I had around 3 on me, which was more than enough for the first boss, but I wanted to be safe. Since the item shop is unusable after you beat the first boss, it would have been impossible for me to beat the two Armored Guards had I not gone back for potions before fighting the boss, having only 1 or 2 during that fight would mean a defeat for sure, and then you're stuck there and have to restart the game. (If they couldn't Guard or most importantly, Heal, this would not be a problem)

So I guess it's on to the game's "Feel." When it comes to characters keeping me interested, I don't believe there really ever were "characters," just people that said stuff to me, then they were gone. The pacing is a bit strange, it doesn't feel like much of a story is in place, you simply appear in a town, you're told to go to a mine, and you do it, just like that. Fleshing out the main character would be nice, but if you're going for a Blank Slate type of character where everything is up to you, you're going to need to make the world at least feel alive.

I played as a Male Warrior, I only put points into Attack, ending off with 47 at level 5. I finished the demo in around 35 minutes. I'd like to try any more versions of the game in the future. Also the file size is very large and might scare people away.

First off, thank you so much for all the useful feedback. I've literally spent all day taking these notes into account and tweaking things. :D

I've made a lot of changes, and have started working on the farther parts of the game. I probably won't release a new demo until some more content is available, as there's more story development after the mine incident. I also want to finish the introduction and make the beginning a bit smoother and more refined.
 

Yea, I'm trying to splice Fullscreen++, Window Resizer, and the Options menu into one coherent set of scripts. It's still a little wonky. I think I've got it working better now, but I'm still tweaking it. The options menu works great, but if you don't know it's there it's not worth much...

Oh yea, this was on my to-do list before releasing the demo, and I just completely forgot to fix it! Anyway, your gold count is now properly displayed on the main menu.

Thanks for the compliment. I wanted to make it kind of like the character was throwing off his/her cape/hood and revealing his/her true appearance. Maybe an animation overlay or something would help out, I'll work on it...

This is the kinda feedback I was really hoping for, I never would of thought making these kinds of changes. But I switched everything up, changed the state changing attacks to their own skills, and the new level of control by being able to define when and how often they are used makes everything better both for the gameplay and the back-end system. Thanks! I also redid the boss fights, Prime Seeker and the Armored Guards to take some of your suggestions into account. The Prime Seeker no longer heals, but rather has a Life Steal ability that attacks and heals for a smaller amount. This keeps the battle lengthened, but at a more diverse set of skills and attacks. The Armored Guards also no longer heal, and have had the Stun effect replaced with a special "Shield Bash" attack that causes damage, and has a chance to stun as well. I also removed the Guard from them, but left it on the Infantry enemies.

This has all been fixed. The trigger is fixed for the Prime Seeker battle, and I made a brand new map for one of the burning houses. It's more of a storage shed now, and uses a different tileset than the other house as well. :)

Yep, the lack of a proper introduction is something I've been struggling with. I don't want to just scroll text across the screen for 5 minutes, and long opening cut scenes can be just as bad... So I haven't decided what I want to do yet. Obviously the way it just drops you into the game right now isn't very user-friendly. I do want the main character to be more player defined than pre-defined, but it still needs a lot more tuning to start off more directly. I'm also considering a sort of gameplay tutorial option, to show how to use the unique menus, stat allocation, etc. So yea, the entire beginning of the game is still being actively developed. Which looks hilarious on paper, but it's true. BD

Thanks again for all the awesome notes! :thumbsup-right:

All right! Time for a new demo, and this one's a HUGE update to the game. I am really excited to see what people of think of the game now, as it's really evolved a LOT since the first outing.

Download the new 6-24 Demo from Google Drive!

Notable Changes:

• Entirely new introduction. You're no longer just dumped into the game, you now get to experience your characters' birth, childhood, and training. Select your name and gender at birth, get hints as to the story via bedtime stories from your father, and grow to join the Training Hall where you will select your combat path and train to use your unique class abilities.
• Experience a new chapter of the storyline, after the mine! Once you've cleared the mine of the terrible infestation, continue your journey and see what General Rolt really had planned for you...
• New items, new armor, new town, new maps, new music, new abilities! Every class and every monster has been re-balanced to provide a better feel.

Again, thank you so much for reading, playing, and leaving feedback! :D