Ruzar - The Life Stone (Dungeon Crawler RPG)

Hi everybody,

It took me quite a long time to decide to post my current project here But here we go!
I have been working on the project for quite a while now. At first I wanted to publish my game on IOS, but with Unity5 (and the personal edition), I decided to switch my first release for PC.
This is far from being one of the greatest Indy games on Steam, but I hope to have something good enough so the community can enjoy it. I plan to put it soon on Steam Green Light.

Difference with the Dungeon Master Genre (or Legend of Grimrock)

• This is a dungeon crawler in the same genre as Dungeon Master and Legend of Grimrock but,
• This is not a Dungeon Master clone in the sense that the ingredients and the gameplay are quite different (but the controls to move the character around remain the same).
• You control only one character, but the character has a deeper gameplay:
  • The player:
    • He has the ability to level up his character to the level 50.
    • When the player completes the first play through (around lvl 20+) he can restart his game and encounter stronger enemies and better loot (similar to NG+ in Dark Soul).
  • Bonus Stats:
    • When you level up, you gain points you can spend in your stats.
    • Each stat provides bonus that is directly link to the play style the player chooses (Magic, Melee, Range).
  • Skill system:
    • When you reach the level 10 (for now) you can start spending skill points. These points can be spent between 3 trees. Each tree contains 13 different and unique skills that are linked to the play style I talked about above.
    • Each skill can allow up to 3 upgrades and you can, if you want, spend your points in all three trees.
  • The spell system:
    • You don't use glyphs. Instead you find books in the dungeons you can learn and then use.
    • You intelligence level allows you to memorize [x] amount of spells or dispel them (a bit like D&D or Dark Soul) when you are close to a binding stone.
    • There are 50+ spells available in the game.
  • Economy:
    • You have the possibilities to buy or sell your loot to the merchant in the mountains.
    • You can buy or sell potions, weapons, armor, shields, spell book and consumables.
  • Quest system:
    • Quest rewards with quest logs.
    • You need to find "entity" that will ask you to grant them a wish so they can return to their home. In exchange of this service they will reward you with item and/or experience.
  • Storage Chamber:
    • There is also a Storage system that allows the player to store his items if he has too many.
  • Binding Points:
    • When the player finds a binding stone he can bind to it.
    • Like other games, the player can bind himself here in case of emergency (a spell allows the player to quickly return to the binding stone).
    • If the player finds other binding stone, he can travel quickly from one stone to another one.
  • Fire Camp:
    • When the player discovers a new fire camp he has the option to lit it using a torch. When the fire camp is lit, the player regains health and mana.
  • Creatures:
    • The player has the ability to grind the creatures in the dungeons as they will reappear after a certain amount of time. The player will be able to prevent the creatures from reappearing but he needs to find how.
  • Environment:
    • There will be 5 different themes and around 15+ levels.

What Needs work:

• Some assets are still targeted for IOS. I am working on it.
  • Tower in the foreground, snow falling, some vfx.
• I need to work on some levels, as all of them are not yet completed.

Video:

Screenshots:
The Mountains:



The Merchant:


Skills:


A Creature:


Thanks for your comments and taking the time to read my post

 

Hey man, looks nice. Will be looking forward to your project on Steam Green Light!

 

It looks cool. Congratz!
I am a big fan of these games (nostalgic) and yours seems pretty good.
I haven't seen a lot of these games using only character, but if this is well balanced it could be really interesting.

Anyway, keep up the good work! It's not always easy to complete/polish a project

 

Thanks for your support guys!
It doesn't look like there are a lot of fan for that kind of games
But anyway!

The game is now in Steam Greenlight!
If you want to support it, please vote!
Ruzar - The Life Stone on Steam

 

It looks great.

But you could make simplified gameplay and options :
-When you loot money : just have some money text effects scrolling on the screen, no need to have a window box and no need to have the player clikc "Loot All" , it's a waste of time
- Auto Loot option : you click on some treasure chest or some bag, all items are auto loot without a window displaying them , only some text saying "loot 5 money, 1 water cup" , and you continue playing
- clicking in front of you if a monster is present , he uses his main attack , right click and he could use a pre choosen power : this is lot more intuitive then having to clikc on icons , what is borring.

Keep up the good work.

 

@zenGarden

- Loot money, agree, this is something that could be changed easily to accommodate players who loots creatures and where there are no items available (gold only).
- Auto loot option, how do you see it? I have a "loot all" on the window when you open the chest. There are some situation where the player could not want to loot all the items in his inventory (or if the inventory is full). How would you tell you can auto loot a chest without clicking on the button?
- True, in the video I show both situation. You can actually use shortcuts (r to attack and x to switch attack type (melee Vs magic). This is really quick when you use the shortcut (and you can change them in the option menu if you want). The icons are also present to tell the player what mode he is using, so clicking on it is optional to release an attack.
But the point is interesting, I'll try it and see how it goes.

Thanks for your feedback!

 

By auto loot i mean like in GW2 , you really don't mind about picking something valuable or not, you just want to go throught the level and just collect anything and you will just check your loot lot more later.
For player not focused on loot, more exploration and combat focused.

It will be more interesting if you had like Follout 3 some weak points system where you could choose where to strike.
It's like FPS games some people can prefer mouse to strike instead of a shortcut, why not having all actions configurable by the player ?

 

I see what you mean Zen. I'll see what can be changed. Thank you for the feedback by the way

 

Just looked through your video and I really like what I see. This is my type of game.

The touches that set it apart for me visually included:

- the open-topped nature of the dungeons, and the sight of nearby structures, and snow falling inside

- the bells that tolled at one point near the end of the introduction video.

What I think would be really neat would be to transition from this stone roof-less corridor, to the entire a dark roofed-over dungeon, perhaps set against a building.

Or else, perhaps the maze could approach a mountain and enter a natural cavern, obviously carved in a geometric fashion such as how the game grid works.

I like that you can side-step rather than have to turn and walk forward, but that type of control can prove tricky on touchscreen. Sometimes it's easier to go with step back/forward, and turn left/right only for touchscreens.

Good looking stuff, a lot of nice work done here I can see!

 

@Kurt Dekker, thank you!

For now I have 4 other interior themes. They are all part of the mountains. I need to setup a new video to show at least one more environment so everybody can see what else is in the game

Before moving to Unity5, I had the game running on Ipad2+. All the controls (touches) are already functionnal. Unfortunately, as I have moved to PC, I will need to optimize the tablet version as now it probably doesn't run very well (the new shaders are really heavy). But to answer your question, I have the touches working fine (I think) with side-step / turn / and moving forward/backward. It is not too difficult to perform them (you swipe in diagonal to turn left/right) and the other touches are normal (up / down / left / right).

A lot of effort have been put in that project. If you want to support me, you can vote on steam for the project!

And thanks for your comments

 

Hello,

A new video has been released:

• Some gameplay elements
• New Creatures
• One new environment

Enjoy

 

Very nice looking game!

I think you might be incorrect about this. This is what I'd call a casual game for hardcore gamers.

I like the aesthetics shown in the first video, but the second video shows reduced quality visuals in the cave/dungeon environments. It may be due to lack of proper lighting, but the over world scene just seems like a better quality than the others. Maybe some environmental effects in the cave/dungeon would increase the presentation in addition to better lighting.

Adding some type of player reaction to the enemy attacks would add to the presentation.

Lastly (maybe personal preference) the second video was a little too long to me. I watched the first video and liked what I saw. The second video was a little slow (opinion). I think you could show the same amount of content and game play options in half the amount of time.

Looking forward to the next update!

 

Thanks for your comments. I agree with the visual quality of the dungeon. It is not as good as outside, and this is what I'm working at right now The lighting is somewhat a difficult task for me in order to make it look good. The bad side of the videos is that it doesn't show up the exact same quality. I think it looks much better when you actually play it than when you look at it in the video.

I wanted to show more element from the game, so people when looking at it (steam for example) can see a product that is much more developed than just moving through a grid based area. But, your opinion is valid

Are you talking about some blood splash, screen effect, camera shake, etc?

Thanks for your feedback!

 

Yeah, something - maybe even an audio trigger, umpfh, or a slight camera knock back. etc.

 

Yes make sense.

I already have audio for the combat (hitting, dodging, swinging). I don't have camera effect when hit, but the audio covers it I think.
The reason why you don't hear anything is that I wanted to focus on the music So I removed all audio sound from the video. So... you don't hear anything

 

@theANMATOR2b, I've noticed that on most of the forums, you don't get the HD quality on the video...
Can you tell me if you looked at the video on this forum or directly on youtube?
Because the HD version is obviously better

Thanks.

 

I looked at it from the forum here but at full screen in HD mode.

I just compared on youtube and there isn't any difference. But you are right - if just watching it windowed here on the forums all video resolutions are reduced.

I watched your second video through again. The part that doesn't hold up is the underground environment starting at 2:16.
The parts before that look just as good to me as the above ground.

I think possibly adding some subtle environmental effects underground may increase the quality to match the above ground environment. Maybe some subtle whisps of dust of dust particles floating by, or randomly falling from wooden planks. Just something to match the environmental 'feel' of the above ground scenes.

Sorry to detract from game play, but game play tweaks were mentioned above and everything else really looks nice and functional.

 

Yes you are right, I need to add life and movement to the dungeons because they do look a bit static. I had a list of some items, and I will add yours to the list. The whisps, dust and/or firefly could be cool Thanks!

Don't be. The overall experience must be satisfying. When the visual looks good, you don't pay attention to it anymore and focus on the action. But when the visual is missing something, we are asking ourselves what is wrong sometimes... So if I can improve the visual, I'll do it.

Happy Easter

 

Greetings,

We wanted to share with you that we have been Greenlit on Steam!
This is a major step forward for us and are really proud of what have been achieved so far.
We wanted to thank you for your support!

Our goal now is to prepare a Steam Early Access.

Thanks for supporting us