Coldfire Keep

I'm very interested at the moment in hearing negative things about Coldfire Keep. If you look at any of those screenshots and have a negative reaction to them - i.e. something jumps out at you that you really don't like etc - then please let me know.

EDIT: Will post some more screenshots soon too. Really need to do a new video as well.

 

Hey Steve, what you have is looking great. A few Suggestions, 1 maybe add a bit more variety to the textures. Your walls, roof and floor are all a similar colour which can make everything look a bit flat. 2 add some decals like dirt to break up the repitition of the tiles a bit.

 

Thanks for the input!

Both of those items are already on the list. I'll be redoing ALL of the environment textures much later in the development process.

I've been looking into how I'm going to manage decals too - blood spatter, dirt, moss, etc. I've been holding off on implementing this as I was considering having certain decals (e.g. the blood) come about as a result of combat so they feel more "real". Anyway, still thinking about that stuff.

 

Thought I'd share something a little different in the form of the WIP main theme for Coldfire Keep, written and performed by my friend Evrim Leventler.

Coldfire Keep - Main Theme​

 

I've been going a little crazy lately building levels (in my tedious way), and I thought it might be fun to play around with some time-lapse. Here's one of the tiny sub-levels being built, for anyone that's interested

 

I think the game looks like it is coming along pretty well, but the hud feels very heavy and bulky. I think if you just reduce the border thickness on the hud items it would help a lot (right now that border frame looks to be around 8 px wide).

 

There's been a couple of comments about the interface along the lines of what you're saying. I've grown really fond of the way it is, but I might have to overrule myself. Will have a think about it.

 

amazing...and that rat's of dogsize...

 

That's cause it's a "Giant Rat"

 

And Steve a small suggestion from my side...i think the HUD is disturbing the gameview a lot,maybe you can change the texture and make it a lil smaller... and i would suggest a stick control rather than keeping each side keys...

 

I'm playing around right now with the size of the portrait areas. Which texture are you referring to though?

Stick control is definitely not an option. It's a traditional Dungeon Master (see screenshot) inspired RPG, so the control scheme is pretty much what defines it. I do have the option of full touch controls though for people who want to turn off the traditional directional controls. This is more for the "young, hip kids" though... definitely not how I would play the game

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Made some tweaks.

* Window border is thinner throughout. Hence the portrait boxes are smaller.
* Also separated them more.
* Screenshot includes the combat buttons which animate in and out of view when enemies are nearby.
* Also added some gradient to the window backgrounds to make them prettier. You can see that clearly in the second screenshot.

Thoughts?

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Thought I'd post a few of David's (nipoco's) concept sketches for creatures he's been modelling for Coldfire Keep. I think they're pretty neat, and it's a shame for them to go to waste.

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Looks awesome!

 

Lookin' good! Really like the clean looks!

 

I finally got around to recording a little bit of gameplay footage for everyone to check out. Let me know your thoughts.

Note that this is just running on my Mac - hence the mouse pointer. iOS version is of course touch control.

 

Love it, is there going to be some sort of attack feedback besides the sounds? Like a flash or something similar?

 

Hmm... the enemies have a flash, blood, damage display, animation, and sound

The characters just have damage display and sound. I was concerned that the damage display gets a little lost as it appears over the portrait, so maybe something additional wouldn't hurt.

Hmmmmm...

 

One more time-lapse from this morning's work. I think I'm done with these now. The novelty has worn off

 

I was thinking something like in Legend of Grimrock for example.

 

Ahh, I see what you mean. Like an actual sword trail.

I guess I could try it out and see how it looks.

 

Just found this thread - very cool and inspiring. Any updates on the project?

 

After playing Legend of Grimrock, I can't imagine a better HUD. I understand you're not trying to copy it 100% but perhaps you could modify yours to be a little like that, or just smaller all around?

Looks great.
Khelton

 

Also, the environment seems much too plain!

 

Thanks! Should be finished at the end of this month. Final testing early next month. When it's released is up to the publisher, but I'm guessing end of April.

 

I'm not trying to "copy" Legend Of Grimrock AT ALL.

 

.....or maybe end of May.

Just a quick update on Coldfire Keep. I'm done! Currently just play-testing and bug-fixing.

Will post some final screenshots, trailer, etc soon. Maybe other details if anyone is interested.

 

Hey we should join forces, If you have a second please check out my project axis game factory.

 

So, is it still coming or did it get stuck on the lower levels of the Abyss?

Looking at the screenshots, it seems that you didn't go for a 1x1x1 geometry with your building blocks but slightly stretched them along the Y axis (1x1.5x1?) - is that correct?

 

Yes, Steve, how's the game coming along?

We are developing a similar title (Dungeon Lord, aka Darkwurm) and we found that 1 tile high didn't look as appealing, 1.5-2 tiles being a a little more grand, with 1.25 being acceptable.

Out of interest, Steve, how big are you tiles? Ours are 3m.

Looking forward to the game. I am not surprised by the time the finishing touches are taking. We're not quite at that stage with our effort but I know how long the last 5% can take!!

 

It's still on the way. Crescent Moon wanted to rework the creature models, and that's still in progress. I'm just waiting on those new assets to come through to finalise the game and get it out. Other than that, it's good to go. It should be happening VERY soon...

My grid squares in Coldfire are 8x8' with 10' high ceilings. In Descend (my previous RPG), I used cubes (10' squared from memory) and it always felt kind of "cramped". Not in a good dungeon-cramped kind of way, but just generally squashed and bad.

 

While I'm at it, here's a couple of recent screenshots straight off the iPhone 5 screen:

 

Wait, 8x8 in Unity units? I have constantly scaled down my tiles to avoid stretching - maybe I was going the wrong direction?

 

In Dungeon Lord we have 3x3 in unity, so effectively 3m x 3m and 4.5m high (though that varies).

The actual size doesn't matter so much - we chose to stay in metres and stick with 1unit = 1m which is what Unity considers to be the case I believe. This has an affect on physics, though everything can be scaled up or down. However, deviating from the ratio can mean that forces don't have a real-world effect or it has harder to achieve.

 

Looking nice Steve. Did the publisher shell out for the new models?

 

Well it's all relative. For me, it's 8 modo "Game Units", which converts to 8 Unity units, etc. As long as everything that you're doing is done to the same scaling rules, then it all works out in the end. It really depends on the way you're modelling/sourcing the parts.

 

I shouldn't really discuss that sort of stuff probably.

Thanks though! I'm pretty happy with the way it's turned out. I think the game looks good and is fun to play, and that's all you can really ask for

Can't wait to get it released.

 

No, that's fair enough. At best I guess it's a bit public on here

Yeah 8x8, 3x3, 10x10, doesn't make much difference. If you rely on any physics then 100x100 you're going to be scaling things up an uncomfortable amount, but it can still be made to work.

 

Are you releasing as paid I presume? I guess it's still too early to disclose the price? Did you add any IAP at all?

 

Definitely paid. No IAP. Haven't discussed the price with the publisher as yet. My assumption would be $3-$4.

 

How many hours gameplay not counting replay value do you reckon?

 

I estimate the average person will spend 7-8 hours to finish the game.

 

Sounded like good value. Keep us all posted on the release! And GL!

 

Thanks! I'll definitely post something to let everyone know when it's up for grabs on the App Store

 

The new screenshots look awesome. Do you play as a single person just traveling in a group? or?

 

It's a traditional 4-character party type of deal. You create 4 characters at the start of the game and manage each of their inventories, etc.

 

Are you planning any IAP content like additional campaigns after release? A game like this is practically screaming for some.

 

No plans for anything like that at this stage. I'm not really a big fan of IAP.

In the early stages I was building in doors on some levels that had a "mysterious symbol" on them. Basically the intention was to allow players to "unlock" those doors via "some undetermined method" - maybe IAP, maybe just a later update, etc. I thought I was future-proofing, but the whole thing just seemed wrong design-wise. The only thing behind those doors that a player would want to find would be "Better Items". If those existed though, I would have to build the game to take them into account during balancing, but the fact that they were optional and wouldn't be obtained until later just made the whole thing kind of complicated and silly. After much deliberation (with myself), the best answer turned out to be the most simple: don't put in the special doors; just let the player have access to everything "here and now".

Anyway, rambling a bit. But yeah... not planning anything beyond "The Game" at this point. I'm old-school, I liked games better before IAP and DLC and all that S***

 

This man is a saint!

 

Nah - I love money as much as the next guy

I'm just one of the many developers out there who are unsuccessfully trying to recreate those video game golden days.