Hey guys!

As usual for this time of year, I've been super busy at work (university). But--I've had a bit of free time to work on other projects

Here's the title screen for a new game I've been working on, "Legend of Fordham Forest"



All artwork done with GIMP 2.8 + MyPaint 1.1.



The game itself is a spin-off of an excerpt from an original draft of An Ember in the Wind that was taken out (not related to the story). Some of you may remember Mara (now with Trojan Green tunic instead of Wolfpack Red). In the scene she is talking to Merci, the mantis. Merci is relaying the story of his friend Romy the lightning bug and their journey through "Deep Cavern".

The game itself is similar to Worms/Angry birds (catapult type game). This is a render from one of the levels.



I've posted artwork from a few different games over the past year or so. This is the first one that I've used to tell a real story, so it's a bit bigger of an endeavor.

If you're interested, I put a demo up:

Demo Link!

The target platform is mobile--not Flash. So, it's a bit of a CPU hog.

Instructions:

Assemble Romy's insect army and defeat the sulfur-demons of Deep Cavern!

Press 'r' to skip the opening sequence (may need to let first scene finish transitioning first) It's a demo, so there are several missing UI features (volume control, saving, etc.)

Army Select Screen



Your goal is to complete your journey in one fortnight (14 days). You cannot put all of your army in action at once. To complete the game within the time limit, you should find a strategy for which combatants to put in action and which to let recover. You can also recover the entire army (Rest Restore), but this action should be used sparingly.

All combatants who survive the end of a scene gain experience. Levels unlock additional abilities, weapons, etc.

Action Screen

Play is turn-based. Each of your soldiers has a certain amount of action points (AP) to spend on actions, such as moving, firing, etc. Remaining action points shows in the top left status in the form of a bar.

Click on the soldier to bring up an action menu. If you select movement (walk or fly), use the arrow keys to move.
If you select firing, click and drag on the solider to set fire angle and range.

Click + hold the edges of the screen to scroll the camera.

When your own projectile has disappeared, click the screen to bring the camera back to your party.



There are a number of ways to defeat the sulfer demons:

* Strike with weapon (fire stick/spear is more effective than rocks)
* Push them off the screen
* Knock them into the water
* Collapse the structures they're on (rocks are most effective against structures). If they fall far enough, they'll take damage.



If any demons remain at the end of your turn, each will take a turn firing back at you!

Soldiers that take too much damage will leave the battlefield to recover. At the start of your turn, you can bring in replacements by clicking the dotted box. New soldiers will not get to move until your next turn.

Soldiers can flee by leaving the left or right edge of the screen. Once they do, they cannot return. However, as running out of HP will cost them all their experience points toward the next level, fleeing may be preferred.

Known Bugs and Issues

The camera can be wonky, since some projectiles can capture it. Clicking should restore the camera focus to the currently selected player, but sometimes a projectile may lock the camera for a few seconds.

Nicely done Merrak. It must be a challenge working at such low resolution but you've pulled it off really well. I particularly like the image of the girl sitting beneath the tree.

Thanks




Thanks The artwork isn't true "pixel art". I say art is art, but there was a long discussion on this on the forum for the development software I use. I'm not placing each pixel by hand. Rather, the full-screen images are digital paintings that I scale down to 480 x 320 and change the image mode to "indexed". There is a "cranes" palette that came with either GIMP or the painter add-on that has a nice effect.

The girl under the tree showed up in many of my drawings in 2012 and again in 2014.



She's a character in a book I published last year. I'm going to try to drum up some more attention to it with the game. I've made a few games over the past year with that purpose in mind, but I realized I made a mistake in not making games related to the book itself. Rather, I made some puzzle-type games.