Trial by Viking - Out today on Steam!

The boat gif is really cool

 

thanks Chemaxmax!

 

Update #17:

I was like, if he's gonna charge, he should definitely crash through some stuff

 

Update #18:

The Grappling Hook! This is one of the upgrades that Odin can grant you later in the game. So many grappling hooks I've played with take too long to aim and are cumbersome to use. I wanted to make sure this one was simple and fast to use. Sorry for the darkness of my gifs. For some reason my screen caps are way darker than the actual game.

 

Hello, awesome work gratz ! !

I'm curious, what is your experience on unity ? (how many games did you do before this one ect..)

 

Thanks chewdri!

I downloaded Unity for the first time when I started making this game in December of 2013. This is my first and only Unity game, but I have made other commercial games using other tools before, and I am a life-long programmer. It was tricky at first, especially since this is also my first 3D game, but now I've gotten very comfortable with it (and quaternions xD). I'd recommend it, but the older GUI stuff is kind of painful to work with (I still use old GUI stuff, because I coded all of my menus before the new GUI stuff came out). It's really a very good environment, and easy to understand system once you've spent some time with it, and the dead easy porting is a huge plus. I have not tried other 3D engines yet to compare however, so take that with a grain of salt.

 

Update #19:

This giant rock golem fight is inspired by the Crocomire fight in Super Metroid. If you know your video game history, you know there is only one way to win this battle.

 

Update #20:

Doing some extra promotional art. This time it's a poster with some of the main characters you will meet throughout the game. It's a work in progress. Eventually it will be full color and high res.

 

The game is gorgeous.
What do you use to make 2D tiles levels ? You said it was one big world to explore, didn't you find some memory and other limitations ? Or how do you manage ennemies nad traps in this big world , activated ro spawned on player near ?

 

Thanks zen!

The tiles are 3D cube variations with slightly rounded edges. It looks fairly 2D because I am using orthographic projection, but you do get a 3D effect as well with the dynamic lighting as you move near to objects. I use a grid system called rotorz to place tiles. It automates placing rounded edges only at the actual edges of platforms. It will also allow me to quickly add more variation later on.

The world is not quite seamless. It is broken up into smaller parts (constructs), which you can warp between. It allows you to go back and search specific areas that you missed something within the first time around. It let's you know if there are things you missed. This, of course, helps a lot with memory too.

Enemies and hazards behave in a variety of ways. Many only activate once you are in their line of sight, or a certain distance away, or both. Some are always active, usually operating only within a specific area. Some are even only activated by a dialog trigger, or by being attacked. Some enemies will remain eliminated for the duration of the construct play through, while others come out of cloner objects, which will keep regenerating enemies if you are nearby.

As for hazards and other interactive objects, some are timer activated, some activate once you are within a certain range, some activate only when you touch them, and some are activated by switches and pressure plates. I am really trying to get a wide variety of interactive objects into the game.

One trick I've learned that helps with performance (saved 7% CPU usage in my particular case), is to not put my damage code inside of my damage trigger collider's OnTriggerStay() function. Instead, I keep a list of all characters that have entered a specific damage trigger, then remove them when they leave the trigger, while sending damage messages to all GameObjects that stay on that list in Update(). Putting code inside of OnTriggerStay() is best to avoid if you possibly can in most cases I have found.

One more trick that I use is precompiling all of the most common shaders that I use, and trying to stick to those shaders when I can. In Unity, you can force it to compile these for you by going to Edit->Project Settings->Graphics. You can also force Unity to compile all shaders active in your scene at any time using the Shader.WarmupAllShaders() in a script. Whenever I use a shader that is not warmed up (compiled), it causes some dropped frames as Unity compiles the shader on the fly, at the moment that I Instantiate() an object that uses that shader.

 

I own Rotorz also and this is a great tool.Thank you for the details , specially the advices

 

Holy crap! 150 levels?! How big is one level do you thinbk, in terms of time? Like how many minutes would one level take? Because 150 is very much. Keep it up

 

Yeah, it's a lot! I wanted there to be a good amount of content for Let's Players and the like, but without the repetition of being a roguelike. I have been making it a point to keep adding new mechanics, ideas, and enemies as I go to keep the game play fresh all the way to the end, which has definitely pushed me in directions I would have never otherwise considered. It's a cool experience.

As for the time length, that is always such a hard question to answer! I estimate that by the time the game is finished (I've only finished making 90/150 levels so far), it will take me maybe 7 hours to complete the game. Keep in mind I am almost speed running it, because I know where everything is and how to solve any tricky situations. For a new player, it will take longer.

The levels range from about 1 - 4 minutes to complete if you don't die. It really depends on the type of level though. The level styles vacillate between being more puzzle/exploration oriented, and being a mad dash to the finish. I want to keep a good balance between action and depth for this game so that you don't ever get bored with one or the other.

I will definitely keep it up!

 

Update #21:

A new mechanic I am working on. Crates with explosives. Using a bomb on one sets off a chain reaction and destroy everything in it's path.

 

Update #22:

Wanted to post one more gif of chainsplosions because they're cool looking. Gotta find a way to get the conveyors to go the right direction before you can start this chain reaction.

 

I like it. Is the way he throws the bomb final or are you still working on it?

 

I'll be tweaking everything until the end. The bombs move a bit slow in the air, so I may try to retool their physics a bit, And possibly shave a half second off of their fuze time, but that's about it. Why do you ask? Is there something in particular that you would like to see changed for them? I'm totally open to suggestions.

 

As you said, the bomb seems to move on low gravity and also I think that they should rotate while are moving through the air. Do they get stuck in contact with the floor?

 

I turned off rotation for the bomb objects, because then they just kept rolling once they hit the floor, making it harder to aim to bomb a specific piece of a floor. Maybe I can work out some sort of in-between solution where it only rolls a little bit though. I'll post a gif when I get around to polishing them. Thanks for the feedback! It helps a lot.

 

I haven't messed with the bomb rotation yet, but I've worked on its air physics a bit. Does this look better?

 

Yes, it does I had a similar problem when I implemented grenades on my game.

 

Update #23:

Hey guys! I wanted to mention that I'll be at GDC Play this year, booth PL 104. Come stop by to say hi and check out Trial by Viking if you like!

Today I spliced together a few clips showing how to get one of the treasure chests on level 93. I can show a bit more in depth how the game will play with gifs like these, so expect more like this in the future. Let me know what you think!

 

Update #24:

GDC is just around the corner. In case you didn't hear from previous posts, I will be at GDC Play showing off the game. Feel free to stop by booth PL 104 and say hi!

I have emailed the press, made appointments, made business cards, t-shirts, and stickers, printed giant posterboards for the back of the booth, organized getting help from friends, and RVSPed to GDC after parties. The rest is up to the game dev gods. Cross your fingers for a good show!

 

It looks and plays great, but i don't know about gameplay with a controller how it feels.
Your game will be successfull.

 

I have been playing using an XBox One controller for a while now, and it feels really good on a controller. I mostly use an analog thumbstick to control, but d-pads and keyboard also work really well. When the demo comes out, I'll post it here and you can try it out.

 

Update #25:

I had an awesome time at GDC! Thanks to everyone who stopped by! If you haven't gone, and you ever get the chance, I highly recommend it.

In this update, I want to show you a new playable character, Kara. You only get to play as Kara for very specific levels. You won't have access to your regular inventory for these levels, but you will have a bad ass pair of swords, some pretty nice melee combos, and a spinning blade attack. Here she is exterminating a couple of rats on level 99.

 

Looks really cool

 

Thanks Zomby!

 

Looks really good dqhendricks! I like the style and design of it. Keep up the great work. =)

 

Thanks Jeff! The positive feedback definitely helps with motivation to keep working hard on this

 

Here's a super early look at a new boss I am working on the coding for.

 

Update #26:

And here he is completed. This guy does some fly by homing projectiles, and then lands to breathe electric breath and rain a few lightning bolts.

 

Hey, just stumbled upon this gem of a thread I really like how your game looks, the art is very polished and the game looks solid and fun to play as well. I hope it will be available on Steam someday (even it it means having to pay valve 30% of your profits ) I would surely be a happy customer. One thing I immediately thought of when watching the gameplay GIFs was the old Amiga game "Fire and Brimstone" which, even though it's from the early 90s, looks very similar in style to your game... Well, at least it also has a red-bearded viking warrior as the protagonist! Well, in case you didn't know about it, maybe it can serve as some inspiration, it's not a great game but not too bad either.

 

Good luck with this, looks great and the effort that you've put into this really shows.

 

Thanks Cherno! This looks pretty cool!

 

I appreciate the kind words. It means a lot!

 

How many bosses does it has ?
When will it be finished ? Do you have some approximative date ? it looks already great for a Steam release.

 

kind of reminds me of a game cant remember the name now looks ok though

 

Hi Zen, thanks! The goal is early October for a Win/Mac/Linux release, and possibly more platforms depending on a few things. There will be 27 bosses. During the cutscenes you will make decisions, and depending on your decisions throughout the game, you will either fight one boss and have one ending, or fight a different boss, and have a different ending. I'll let you know when the demo gets released, which should be in a couple of months.

 

amazing work.. keep it up.. seems so epic

 

Thanks Caven! I will do my best

 

Update #27:

Been revamping the throwing axes. Check it out and let me know what you think.

 

They are kinda large, huh? Why do they suddenly stop flying and hover in the air before fading away?

 

They are big. Do you think that may be a problem? I kind of like the giant axes. It's something I have to be careful about changing since the size can change the balance of combat.

It's interesting that you say they float in the air. It means that perhaps the gears are a bit too dark and look like part of the background or something maybe. The axes are actually hitting that gear, and getting stuck in the edge of the gear before fading away. It may be hard to tell when so tiny and 256 color animated. Here's a closeup.

 

I suspected the axe hitting that gear, but the flight path looks weird as it seems to fly in an arc but then, instead of bouncing of or, I don't know, exploding/shattering, just freezes in mid-air at the contact point and slowly fades.From watching the Angry Videogame Nerd episode about Friday the 13th, I think throwing weapons that fly in an arc can be very frustrating to use if they fly over the enemies which are near So in my opinion, it should just fly straight, be at least 30% smaller (it's taller than the hero!), and immediately shatter on impact (or bounce off and fall down).

 

Thanks for the feedback. I'll take this into consideration.

The hilt of the axe can also stick in to things, causing a hit. This helps a bit with the not going over enemies heads. The differentiation between this and the secondary weapons, such as the boomerang, throwing sword, and wand, which all shoot straight, is sort of part of the point. You may have to be at closer/farther range to use your axe if it's a short enemy, otherwise you use the secondary weapon, which has a slower cooldown. I want players to have to think about combat, instead of just tapping x through the whole game. There is also a dash move for any enemies in front of you, and the axe is pretty fun to use against air born enemies because of the arc. I think this may the sort of thing that has to be played in order to decide whether it's good or bad. It might be different for different games. I do see your point, and I will try to work against causing too much player frustration however.

The axe is meant to be as big as the character, but if it bothers you, maybe it is an issue? I'll ask around and see what others think. Promo art has already been made using this scale, so it would be expensive to change. It would also affect the hit boxes, which may make it harder to hit things, which may make the entire game more difficult. This might be something that has to be lived with, but I'll try to gauge if it is a big enough problem to take those risks.

I've spent a good amount of time getting the axes to stick into the things that they hit. It's kind of a cool effect when the thing they hit moves. So like if it hits a wheel, it spins around as the wheel does, or if it hits a dragon's head, it will stick in and move as the dragons head moves. The axe is a magic gift from Odin, so no matter how many times you throw it, it will always return to you. I guess that's why I made them vanish instead of explode or whatever. If I made them drop to the ground, it would look kind of weird when they hit something made of wood or flesh.

 

Yep the vanishing is strange.

 

Sheesh. If that's the case then why would the weapon even be an axe? Why not just make it a rock if you want it to do all of that? Axes don't do any of this in Castlevania and yet they work just fine. It's like you might not have played too many videogames on consoles in your lifetime.

 

If you think the behavior or the axe in the original GIF is good as it is, that's fine by me. I'm sure dqhendricks won't base changes to the gameplay mechanics solely on my humble opinion

It's nice that they "don't do any of this in Castlevania", but I wonder what this statement is worth? Would it totally break the game if the axe didn't behave like the one in CV? Would it be totally unrealistic to have the axe fly in a straight line? Does it even make sense to talk about realism in a game about a Viking throwing ginormous magical axes?

 

How long have you been working on this? Looks visually very pleasing Did you make the artwork yourself?