Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

This is the place for video games!

Moderator: Userbase Moderators

Weegeesquare
Fighter Fly
Fighter Fly
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2015 12:54 am
Contact:

Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby Weegeesquare » Fri Jul 15, 2016 4:51 pm

[center]GRAPHIC REVAMP IN PROGRESS[/center]

Image

Astral Dreamers is a platform game featuring large, exploritive worlds similar to Super Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie!

Planned Release Date: TBD

GAMEPLAY:
The game takes inspirations from Kirby, Klonoa, and Freedom Planet in terms of combat, with level design inspired by Super Mario 64 and Sunshine, each stage split into 7 missions like the DS port of 64. There are a lot of alternate paths and hidden areas to explore. The stages aren't the usual platforming "go from A to B" however.

-As of now, there isn't really a plot.-

CHARACTERS:
Ankhe-Image
A jackal with the mark of Anubis. She wants to rid the world of nightmares so the living and the dead can rest in peace.

Indigo-Image
A timid street artist who was brought into this journey by a mysterious anubian jackal. Voiced by Mateus "Ryleth" Criken.
sprite not yet final

Alto-Image
A musician who's dream is to compose the world's greatest composition that will be unmatched by any other work out there, but the nightmares have impeded his work. Very patient and mostly calm. Voiced by Drake "Ducky" York.

Vanta-Image
A warlock of mysterious power, willing to fight the nightmares with the power of his Eternal Flames. Easily pissed off. Voiced by Ryan "Weegeesquare" Ellis.

There will be many other characters in the final, however they have not been sprited yet.

(Sprites will get shaded in the future, don't worry!)


Screenshots!
Spoiler: show
Image
Lots of hidden areas throughout!
Image
Vanta's Eternal Flame ability speeds up his run speed and the speed of his attacks overall at the cost of his energy bar draining.

Please note this game is in a very early part of development, so these will not represent the final game in any way.
I'll be gradually updating this topic as I make more progress on the game.

LOOKING FOR HELP!
I need a few additional writers to proofread the story (when I have one), a few more VAs, and a few beta testers. I may need more help in the future, but if anyone is willing to be part of the team right now, please PM me what you would like to do on the game team and you may be considered.
Last edited by Weegeesquare on Sun Jul 31, 2016 7:54 pm, edited 5 times in total.

aero
Palom
Palom
Posts: 4787
Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2014 2:51 pm

Re: Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby aero » Fri Jul 15, 2016 7:44 pm

why are the characters furries

mechamind
Eerie
Eerie
Posts: 784
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2015 9:56 pm
Flair: You can set your mind to it!
Pronouns: He/Him/His

Re: Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby mechamind » Fri Jul 15, 2016 8:39 pm

I saw the part about early development, so these must be just the ideas for now. I'd like to see everything shaded the same way. Compared to the tileset, the characters are cartoon-like, and the flame (or smoke?) is too realistic. Bring them just a little closer together, and it will look a lot better.

On the side, I can probably relate to Alto already.

MistakesWereMade
Torpedo Ted
Torpedo Ted
Posts: 1646
Joined: Tue Dec 31, 2013 4:13 pm

Re: Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby MistakesWereMade » Sat Jul 16, 2016 12:57 am

this game is going to have carol isnt it

mechamind
Eerie
Eerie
Posts: 784
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2015 9:56 pm
Flair: You can set your mind to it!
Pronouns: He/Him/His

Re: Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby mechamind » Sun Jul 17, 2016 5:28 pm

Me again. This actually looks more like Within A Deep Forest than I first thought. But it would probably have very different music.

Weegeesquare
Fighter Fly
Fighter Fly
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2015 12:54 am
Contact:

Re: Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby Weegeesquare » Mon Jul 18, 2016 1:03 am

Taking care of feedback.
AeroMatter wrote:why are the characters furries
I don't know, why is Mario a human?
mechamind wrote:I saw the part about early development, so these must be just the ideas for now. I'd like to see everything shaded the same way. Compared to the tileset, the characters are cartoon-like, and the flame (or smoke?) is too realistic. Bring them just a little closer together, and it will look a lot better.

On the side, I can probably relate to Alto already.
The graphics will definitely get closer before the final release. Right now, just getting all 6 main characters sprited is the big thing.
Nien wrote:this game is going to have carol isnt it
If GalaxyTrail gives me permission to add her as DLC, I will.

then I'll promptly add my fursona to the game and make it a semi-canon ship
mechamind wrote:Me again. This actually looks more like Within A Deep Forest than I first thought. But it would probably have very different music.
Never heard of it :/

Yeah, I actually got myself a composer/remixer to do some music for the game. The remixer part comes from the fact I'm also doing a few songs for the game... In Advanced Mario Sequencer.

Okay, update time!
We have ourselves a new character!

Image

Her name is Ankhe, a jackal with the mark of Anubis. I need a VA for her, so if anyone wants to audition, feel free!

But wait, there's MORE!
Image
This alternate costume, Anubis' Love, will be obtainable by early supporters of the game. It'll first be obtainable with a save file patcher that will be made for the sole purpose of enabling this costume. Then, sometime in August, I'll be releasing a demo of the game that will also enable it if the first stage is beaten. Once the second demo rolls around, this costume will no longer be obtainable.

Anyways, that's all. I start school in a few days so hopefully I can get feedback from my fellow peers as well! :)

Weegeesquare
Fighter Fly
Fighter Fly
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2015 12:54 am
Contact:

Re: Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby Weegeesquare » Mon Jul 25, 2016 12:33 am

Oookay, so no one has any comments on Ankhe.

I know how I'll be distributing the alt costume now as well:

At NCFC, I'll be releasing a demo of the game, and the reward for completing it is the alt. costume. That's it :D

------

New screenshot!
Image
I listened to your guys' suggestions, I added some outlines to the tileset!
Also, mystery jar! <w<

Ace
Volcano Lotus
Volcano Lotus
Posts: 579
Joined: Sun Mar 23, 2014 4:50 pm
Pronouns: he/him

Re: Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby Ace » Mon Jul 25, 2016 1:55 am

Weegeesquare wrote:Oookay, so no one has any comments on Ankhe.
It's because everything you've shown so far looks terrible, and nobody has the heart to tell you. Characters are badly drawn, your screenshots look like 5 second MS Paint drawings... and that's really all you've shown. However, I'm not holding my breath for amazing gameplay. I'd be surprised if this will be even remotely playable.

mechamind
Eerie
Eerie
Posts: 784
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2015 9:56 pm
Flair: You can set your mind to it!
Pronouns: He/Him/His

Re: Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby mechamind » Mon Jul 25, 2016 8:56 am

Ace wrote:Characters are badly drawn, your screenshots look like 5 second MS Paint drawings
You clearly don't know about the countless Five Nights at Freddy fangames posted by Marionette long ago.

The drawings by Weegeesquare do at least have detail. There's still plenty of room for improvement, but I feel it's getting somewhere.

Now as for the gameplay, I figure it will take a while to do the code for something like this.

qig
Ninji
Ninji
Posts: 980
Joined: Sat Dec 21, 2013 5:14 pm
Contact:

Re: Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby qig » Mon Jul 25, 2016 12:52 pm

Astral Dreamers is a platform game featuring open-world exploration similar to Super Mario 64.
do u know what super mario 64 is

FireyPaperMario
Toad
Toad
Posts: 6206
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2014 1:39 pm
Flair: 90's kid born in late 1993 ^_^"
Pronouns: He/Him
Contact:

Re: Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby FireyPaperMario » Mon Jul 25, 2016 3:07 pm

I love Mario 64 as an little kid back in the 1990's. :!: :!: :)

YellowMe
Tweeter
Tweeter
Posts: 147
Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2015 11:01 am

Re: Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby YellowMe » Mon Jul 25, 2016 3:49 pm

Welp, looks like Nien predicted the future. I think Ankhe is missing some clothes... and the contrast between the black and yellow makes my eyes hurt.

You're planning to release this in 2017? Looks like a bunch of Game Maker tutorials combined into one... thing. I highly doubt you will be able to finish this game in time based on your ambitious ideas.

Unless you're planning on making the game really short and half-assed, I'd suggest pushing the release date a few years later and much more practice in sprite work. Since you haven't shown us any gameplay, I'm guessing you are still working on the basic physics.

Garro
Swooper
Swooper
Posts: 71
Joined: Mon Dec 23, 2013 2:59 pm

Re: Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby Garro » Tue Jul 26, 2016 4:38 am

I'm the only one seeing the strong resemblance between this game's title and... Asriel Dreemurr?

Because I REALLY don't want to be the only one or I'll feel like one of "those" Undertale fans.

Anyways, keep up the hard work, I think it's more than obvious your game needs a lot of polish, and you probably won't be able to succeed alone considering the reach you are planning for your game, so good luck finding help.

Snessy the duck
Mouser
Mouser
Posts: 2699
Joined: Sat Sep 20, 2014 6:04 am

Re: Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby Snessy the duck » Tue Jul 26, 2016 10:00 am

I do think this little project has potential. What you've shown us so far does look promising, and i don't think the character sprites look that bad! They've got an unique style to them imo! But i do think you should improve on a few things, such as the shading on the characters and tilesets, and adding more detailed Backgrounds and BGO's, you know, something like this:

Image

mechamind
Eerie
Eerie
Posts: 784
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2015 9:56 pm
Flair: You can set your mind to it!
Pronouns: He/Him/His

Re: Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby mechamind » Tue Jul 26, 2016 8:43 pm

The 8-bit/16-bit Nintendo theme won't work with the current graphics. It's going to have to be a newer style.

Egg
Snifit
Snifit
Posts: 206
Joined: Sun Jan 26, 2014 6:27 pm

Re: Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby Egg » Tue Jul 26, 2016 10:39 pm

mechamind wrote:The 8-bit/16-bit Nintendo theme won't work with the current graphics. It's going to have to be a newer style.
The current graphics are pretty bad

BTB
Nipper
Nipper
Posts: 419
Joined: Sun Jan 26, 2014 4:24 am

Re: Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby BTB » Tue Jul 26, 2016 11:43 pm

Snessy the duck wrote:I do think this little project has potential. What you've shown us so far does look promising, and i don't think the character sprites look that bad! They've got an unique style to them imo! But i do think you should improve on a few things, such as the shading on the characters and tilesets, and adding more detailed Backgrounds and BGO's, you know, something like this:

Image
i agree with this completely, i think the project looks really good but could be way better if you made it look more like a mario game, or just make it about mario altogether.

Weegeesquare
Fighter Fly
Fighter Fly
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Mar 19, 2015 12:54 am
Contact:

Re: Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby Weegeesquare » Wed Jul 27, 2016 12:56 am

Oooh! Lotsa' Spaghetti Thingies! Lemme go through these one by one.
Ace wrote:It's because everything you've shown so far looks terrible, and nobody has the heart to tell you.
Fun fact: I tell myself that every day.
Ace wrote:Characters are badly drawn, your screenshots look like 5 second MS Paint drawings... and that's really all you've shown.
No, 5 second MS paint looks like... this.
Ace wrote:However, I'm not holding my breath for amazing gameplay. I'd be surprised if this will be even remotely playable.
However, I'm not taking this post seriously because it's obvious you hate me though I've done nothing wrong, I've never even met you so what could I have done
qig wrote:do u know what super mario 64 is
Do u know what exploritive worlds are, that's what M64 uses: big, explorative and fun worlds.
YellowMe wrote:Welp, looks like Nien predicted the future.
Mind if I put a Shulk meme here?

YellowMe wrote:I think Ankhe is missing some clothes... and the contrast between the black and yellow makes my eyes hurt.
I'll work on finding a way to wash out the colors while still making it look fitting with the art style. ;)
YellowMe wrote:You're planning to release this in 2017? Looks like a bunch of Game Maker tutorials combined into one... thing. I highly doubt you will be able to finish this game in time based on your ambitious ideas.
Oh, well, the coding is actually all done by myself. Kudos knowing I'm using Game Maker: Studio. Got it for Christmas quite a few years ago!

Perhaps 2017 is a little too enthusiastic. I guess I'll just release it when it's ready :P

YellowMe wrote:Unless you're planning on making the game really short and half-assed, I'd suggest pushing the release date a few years later and much more practice in sprite work. Since you haven't shown us any gameplay, I'm guessing you are still working on the basic physics.
The physics do need work, but it's definitely playable right now. I can't show gameplay because... I have a Windows XP laptop with an Intel Atom processor. I'm not lying about this, any recording software grinds the system to a snail's pace unless I make it so poor quality it's unwatchable.
Garro wrote:I'm the only one seeing the strong resemblance between this game's title and... Asriel Dreemurr?
It's loosely based on the concept of Astral Projection, not Serial Murderers.
Garro wrote:Because I REALLY don't want to be the only one or I'll feel like one of "those" Undertale fans.
Just watch WhoisthisGit's video about why he hates the game; that's pretty much my entire opinion on it as well.
Garro wrote:Anyways, keep up the hard work, I think it's more than obvious your game needs a lot of polish, and you probably won't be able to succeed alone considering the reach you are planning for your game, so good luck finding help.
Thank you!

Yeah, I need to do some serious polish. I honestly wouldn't consider it in alpha phase yet. But I've got a team... not a big one, but a team nonetheless.
Snessy the duck wrote:I do think this little project has potential. What you've shown us so far does look promising, and i don't think the character sprites look that bad! They've got an unique style to them imo!
Art style is based off how I actually draw IRL. Not sure if that's good or not.
Snessy the duck wrote:But i do think you should improve on a few things, such as the shading on the characters and tilesets, and adding more detailed Backgrounds and BGO's, you know, something like this: [Insert the Mayros]
Kiiiiiinda already know graphics need work. Thanks anyway! :)
BTB wrote:i agree with this completely, i think the project looks really good but could be way better if you made it look more like a mario game, or just make it about mario altogether.
You... want me to downgrade my game, with original concepts, ideas, and everything else... to a FANGAME?!

Aside from being called an attention whore and I should kill myself by an artist with an ego bigger than Jupiter probably, that's probably one thing I never needed to hear. To hear my idea sucks and I should make fangames.

Not that I haven't made them already.
But seriously, I want to make something original. Even though the game looks like absolute shit right now, I can assure everyone that the final product will be something amazing. I've begun to work on shading the graphics and everything, shown here, but only when a character's sprites are done being drawn is when I'll start on shading.

Like I said, perhaps 2017 is too ambitious, so I'll take a deadline off the game so I can flesh it out more. Lots of games have taken much longer than they should have to be made (coughcoughMightyNumber9coughcough), and though a few don't follow the rule...

A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.


I'm really glad you guys have given me criticism to think about. So... here's an idea I came up with earlier today.
If you guys have played Triple Deluxe and Robobot, you know about the keychains and stickers. This gave me an idea...

throughout the stages, there are pins to collect. Not only will they be fun to look at, but your character could equip them in the HUB World (named REM's Rememberance, going back to the dreaming concept :D) for some additional boosts or whatever in-game!

For example...

One pin may give you an energy shard bonus for defeating an enemy, or another may increase your current HP or AP.

But others may remove health pickups from the stages or weaken you, but in exchange you earn more money or stuff at the end of the stage for using them.

It's just an idea. Please give feedback!

BTB
Nipper
Nipper
Posts: 419
Joined: Sun Jan 26, 2014 4:24 am

Re: Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby BTB » Wed Jul 27, 2016 1:04 am

Weegeesquare wrote:
BTB wrote:i agree with this completely, i think the project looks really good but could be way better if you made it look more like a mario game, or just make it about mario altogether.
You... want me to downgrade my game, with original concepts, ideas, and everything else... to a FANGAME?!

Aside from being called an attention whore and I should kill myself by an artist with an ego bigger than Jupiter probably, that's probably one thing I never needed to hear. To hear my idea sucks and I should make fangames.
i mean no disrepect, ill likely play and enjoy this no matter if you follow my suggestions, i just think adding more mario features or making it into a full mario game will do nothing but enhance it. and sometimes fangames do become canon mario nintendo games, just look at the wario series.

Ace
Volcano Lotus
Volcano Lotus
Posts: 579
Joined: Sun Mar 23, 2014 4:50 pm
Pronouns: he/him

Re: Astral Dreamers [Indie game by me]

Postby Ace » Wed Jul 27, 2016 1:06 am

Weegeesquare wrote:No, 5 second MS paint looks like... this.
get ur head out of your ass, big boy, I'm talking about the tiles and background, which definitely could be made in 2 seconds (not that the characters look much better)
I mean, if you think this game is even remotely presentable in the state it's in now, then that's pretty worrying.
Weegeesquare wrote: However, I'm not taking this post seriously because it's obvious you hate me though I've done nothing wrong, I've never even met you so what could I have done
That's a beautiful logical fallacy dude, "you're just a hater so your opinion doesn't matter", just beautiful.
Like I said before, the reason I don't have high hopes is because you think this is actually presentable as it is now.


Return to “Video Games”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests

SMWCentralTalkhausMario Fan Games GalaxyKafukaMarioWikiSMBXEquipoEstelari