First Video of the Game

Hey everyone, I'm back with another update. This time I've actually got video for you to see thanks to me finally finding a decent video recorder. Check it out below.

This video basically shows off everything we've done since starting from scratch. It's a test map featuring the new engine in action with the slopes, and the new combat. You can also look at the animations I had mentioned in the last post. As you can see, there's a sword and a gun which both act differently. The gun can shoot fast at a long range, but is weaker. The sword is short range, but will be stronger and also provides invincibility frames if you're able to keep connecting hits on the enemy. The enemy here, by the way, is very basic at the moment as it just rolls back and forth. We've yet to add in any of its attacks, though you still take damage just from touching it.

That's about it for now. Rest assured that we won't be starting from scratch again as everything seems to be working out so far.

A New Start

So, as fate would have it, just as soon as we started this blog... we began going through the biggest change to the game yet. Funny, I know. Honestly, it's more like a complete overhaul; basically, we've started from scratch. Really, I must apologize to the four(three?) of you who have been waiting patiently for the next release.
So, what's the reason for all of this? To put it simply, the game was becoming a mess due to our own incompetence and lack of experience in making any kind of game at all. After recently gaining new inspirations from other games, and studying our own flaws, we felt it was simply best to just start with a clean slate.

The first order of business was fixing up our art direction. For one, the sprites we made had the obviouse flaw of relying way too much on black outlines. This made them cluttered and larger than they needed to be. You can see an example of a character made with both styles below.

The new style is on the right.

The sprites are also animated very well now, but you'll have to take my word for it until we get a good video recorder.

Here's a look at the main characters.

We've also learned a bit about color, and will be more conscious when choosing what colors to use in the game. It's important that everything looks good together after all.

 

 Here's a shot from the new game so far. It's basically a test map at this point.

Something you might notice in the screenshot above is the addition of slopes. They're something we really wanted to have in the game since the beginning and finally decided to put effort into getting them. You also might notice that the resolution of the game is different than before. We chose to zoom it out a bit to give the player more room to see, and to give us more options with level design. We also chose a 4:3 aspect ratio since it looked the best, and is the norm for most platformers.

We also looked at some of the core gameplay mechanics and made changes. A platformer where you shoot things should be fast paced and fun, not slow and clunky. That's why we made the basic weapon spammable, and allowed the player to shoot while running. It's just more fun that way.

See all those bullets? Spam that shit.

The story is entirely new as well. I won't go into too much detail there, but we think it's way more interesting than what we had before. Admittedly, It's still going to be riddled with cliches, but it's the better cliches. It's all about robots, evil scientists, and an entire planet nearly covered with factories... You know, to have a nice visual motif.

The music also needed some touching up. I've always felt that the 8-bit chiptunes I made just didn't fit with the game, especially with the way it looks now. Thankfully, I've recently discovered soundfonts and how amazing they are. I managed to find some that were made from SNES sounds and got to work. I'm still learning, but here's what I came up with so far.

http://soundcloud.com/uebo7/snes-style-video-game-song-ice

http://soundcloud.com/uebo7/snes-style-video-game-song

http://soundcloud.com/uebo7/snes-style-video-game-music

http://soundcloud.com/uebo7/snes-style-video-game-song-1

http://soundcloud.com/uebo7/snes-style-video-game-music-1

These probably aren't even done, and some of them are a mess, but they're interesting.

And in case you haven't realized it yet, the game is no longer called "Fallen Leaf" as that doesn't make any sense anymore. The new title of the game is... well, we're still working on that. Naming shit sucks. Oh, and speaking of that, our new company name(if you wanna call it that) is Neon Leaf. It sounds way better than Bobby's Pants, that's for sure. We would have used Fallen Leaf, but can you believe there's already a "fallenleafgames" here on blogger? Whatever, you know, that's fine... They can have the stupid name.

And one last thing that I want to say about our new approach to the game is that we'll be planning things out a lot more. Sure, it means it'll take even longer for a playable demo to come out, but it also means that a more solid product will be made. We wouldn't want to get tangled in a mess again.

Anyway, that's it for now. Be sure to check back for updates on the new game's progress, and know that we won't be restating again any time soon. I mean, I hope not.

About the Music

This will be the first post talking about and showing some music from the game. I'll be posting tracks that I make here every now and then, but that doesn't really guarantee that they'll show up in the game or sound the same if they do. It just means that they're worth listening to, I guess. It's just too early to know which tracks will make it in or not.

Anyway, the music for this game is being made in FL Studio, and it's basically chip tunes. I still don't think I have the right technique for it yet, but it sounds close enough.

This is the Main Theme right now. It's what would play at the title screen.

This is a variation on the main theme. We're planning on having different versions of some themes that play in different areas of the game for different reasons. For instance, this version might play during a cut scene or something.

And finally this is another variation on the same main theme that would play somewhere else.

Well, that's all for now. Look forward to more music being posted in the future.

Fallen Leaf Introduction

Hi everyone, and welcome to our blog. My name is Logan, and I'll probably be the one writing most of the entries here. This is our first post so I suppose I should go over a few of the details of Fallen Leaf and talk about how this project started.

It was about 9 months ago when my cousin Eddie and I were sitting around and thought "Hey, we should make a video game.", and so we did. Oh yeah, and my brother Chase decided he wanted to help out from time to time as well. Anyway, we didn't actually know what we were doing - and it's fair to say that we still don't - so we're just slowly making progress. Still, progress is progress nonetheless.

Here's a shot from how the game looks right now.

So, what kind of game is Fallen Leaf? Well, it's a 2D action adventure game. It's inspired by some of our favorite game series such as Megaman and Zelda, although Fallen Leaf is shaping up to be more of a linear, story driven game in the vein of something like Cave Story. We're also going to be focusing on having lots of characters with side quests and whatnot.

The story so far is pretty cliche as far as anime and video games go. You know, you've got an ancient evil, a girl falling out of the sky, and an average boy who happens to get caught up in everything. Hey, we're not professional writers, but hopefully some of the charm will make up for that.

See? Right out of the sky...

Since this project has been going on for almost a year now, it's pretty amusing to go back and look at some older screen shots. They look like crap, to say the least. However, that just means that we're getting better. It also means that anything posted here might end up being changed at some point in the future. Everything from the story to the art is constantly getting reworked, so who knows.

Ew man, just look at that.

Okay, that's better.

Anyway, that's about it for this post. I'll try to keep this blog updated semi-regularly, but there's no promises. It just depends on when I feel like it, really. Oh, and don't forget to check out some of the character art on the side there.