"The setting of this story I am about to tell you,
is the wild and rugged nature of a small country
overseen by the mother of our lands.
She has many names...
The Czech and Slovak call her Karpaty.
The Romanian Carpaţi.
And our Hungarian friends know her as Kárpátok.
But beware if you seek to be her lover,
for her shadow looms foreboding on all who would visit her in the night.
Though if you are intent on going, like the one I am about to tell you of,
know that the dark may play you tricks under the glare of the moon.
And be sure to bring her a gift worthy of queens,
or else she might take from you something even more valuable..."
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Goal
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"The one in my story, is a man set on accomplishing a task.
What task you say?
I can't tell you that now, it would spoil the story.
However, I can tell you that he set out in the middle
of the night after seeing a loved one.
What might he have been told?
That is the interesting part of this story.
So now, let us begin..."
----------
Controls
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You control the main character with the arrow keys, shift and control.
However, the controls can be changed by pressing Ctrl+Y.
--------
-Move around with the left and right arrow key.
-Crouch by pressing and holding down arrow key.
Note: You can climb low obstacles by simply holding the corresponding arrow key
when next to it.
---
--------
-Perform a long jump by pressing shift when standing still.
-Perform a running jump by pressing shift while running.
-Perform a high jump by pressing shift while holding up arrow key when standing still.
Note: Use long jumps for precision and running jumps for distance. You can alter the distance
traversed with the running jump by altering your speed before jumping.
Also, remember that it is a greater chance of landing on your feet from a jump rather than
from just walking off edges.
---
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-Grab on to ledges by holding up arrow key while jumping. If the main characters hands
are close to an edge he will grab on to it and climb up.
Note: When you have grabbed an edge during a long- or running jump, hold arrow key down
to drop down instead of climbing up.
---
--------
-Stab with your knife by pressing control when standing still. You can also stab while crouching.
Note: Your knife is not only a weapon, it can also be used as a tool in certain situations.
Try experimenting with it if you get stuck.
---
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-If fate might have you meet your doom you will be returned to the last checkpoint when you press
any key after a few seconds.
Note: Explore! You have an infinite amount of retries, so search high and low to find your way and
advance if you get stuck.
---
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Credits
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Eternal Entertainment 2009
Concept, Graphics and Programming: Fredrik Jardsell
Music: Joel Fahlberg
Sound effects: Joel Fahlberg, Fredrik Jardsell, Joakim Widell
Visionary work: Fredrik Jardsell, Joel Fahlberg, Lars Mċrdenkrans
Ideas, Input and Understanding: Annah Bodlund <3
--------
There are a few known bugs, so please report if you find any and please! Do share thoughts and comments!
//EE
NEW WINDOWED VERSION!
On demand, a windowed version for you who can't play the fullscreen version. Yay!
I really really like the engine. The movement and general feel are very good. It reminded me of a DOS game from the 90s but I'm not sure which one. Something similar to Abe's Oddessy I guess.
However I think the game was just too hard. I gave up after the first fight with the wolf. I didn't know what to do and it didn't die even after I stabbed it. I only managed to stab it once after about 15 attempts.
I am also going to criticize the level design because the gameplay is basically: Run towards next screen > die > avoid death next time > repeat. I can't think of any suggestions to improve upon this. I know the graphics are 'stylized', which is cool, but it limits how much detail you can put into the scenes - such as hints like 'cracked floors'. You can't tell what to avoid until you die from it. You're obviously a talented animator so maybe you could consider adding a few more colours?
I also think that there needs to be better recognition/less sensitivity for ledge grabbing because you have to be pretty spot on to grab a ledge.
I do like this game and I think it has a lot of potential, but please consider the gameplay elements that I have addressed.
Thank you for listening to my suggestions! The patched version is better I think. I managed to kill the wolf but I didn't know what to do when I got to the field of spikes. Unless that's the end?
I also agree with Glasskatten that the intro should be skippable (at least after the player has watched it once before.)
I can't make it through the third screen, the one with two holes you have to jump over, then jump onto two platforms.
I just can't reach the second platform, no matter how hard I try. The character always seem to jump too low.
I really want to continue playing this! Halp!
Glasskatten/icecream-kitty?): Good point on the intro, hadn't even thought about that! Will be changed in the next patch. And the wolf, due to time constraint isn't even near what I wanted initially. But there are still two solid ways of beating it.
1.) Just wait standing and time your stab correctly and you'll get it before it even reaches you for the first time!
2.) This is somewhat trickier. Run a bit to the left and at the moment the wolf jumps you, quickly crouch! That will cause the wolf to pass over your head and give you a window of opportunity to quickly stab it!
AA: No, thank you for giving them!
And at the screen after the wolf (the one you respawn in) there is some vegetation at the top of the screen that hints on how to proceed. Though after some thought I realize that it's too vague a hint really. Will have that in mind for the next patch! And you will know when you're at the end after you reach it!
Callebo: That is because he really does jump to low, hold 'up arrow' when nearing the second platform and the character will automatically grab the edge of it when in the right position.
And I want to thank all of you for your input! This entire project (gfx-engine-sounds-everything) has only been in production for seven days, so it has been very easy to miss bugs/unfair elements/details etc. So your objective opinions is worth gold to me since I want to make the best game I can. Please continue to share thoughts and idea's, because I really do listen to them!
If you are interested in this project in any way I encourage you to visit the project page for it and continue to share thoughts and ideas trough-out the development process. Link-->
Awesome prince of persia clone.
Nice graphs, sounds and gameplay.
One bug spoiled the whole game experience. You can get stuck in random places and then it's time for some good old F2. :/
Final patch released!
This one contains a whole lot of new things, most remarkble is the entirely new environment added as can be seen in the new screenshot (the fifth).
And as per request! The intro is now skippable! Jump for joy all you F2'ers!
First thing I must say is, I really enjoyed the graphics, animation and sound.
Falling and breaking things felt great (except breaking my flesh on spikes ). Most jumps require extremely fine precision, which is both okay and frustrating since it requires skill/timing, but obviously the feeling of accomplishment was great when you finally figure how to overcome things.
Although eventually, somewhere after the first wolf fight, you don't get the redeeming pits of death as much - nooo.. you get backtracking!! argh.
This is eventually what lead me to giving up, having to run through various challenges that I had already overcome, since it was almost inevitable that I'd continue to fail the jumps and have to repeat the earlier challenges that I'd already felt like I'd completed.
I'm not sure if this was intended or not, but holding Right/Left + Up at the same time while you press Shift to try and jump does not register as a jump - which was sometimes frustrating since a lot of the jumps require me to be heading to the right/left and then latch onto something above me, but it's fair enough if you wanted the mechanics to function this way.
The wolf scared me though, but thankfully my knife skills are awesome.
The challenge was designed well at times and was quite satisfying to begin to master, but the backtracking was just frustrating (I'm not sure if this backtracking remains throughout the rest of the game, but my patience wore thin).
I had an issue with your colouring, the foreground had less saturation and intensity and didn't really feel like it was the foreground since usually the opposite is true (I think anyway).
I thought it may have been better if the foreground colour was swapped with the cave background colour, example:
Overall, a very well made game that I enjoyed over many other games on this site.
Thank you all for commenting! I'm very glad that you liked it! Now for some comments.
Beta-testers are the conscience of the developer, they confront you with problems and ask for your reply. In this particular case, mr. Alastair Lego-knight is my bad conscience. I knew that the level design could involve some backtracking, and this is solely because of slacking from my part.
You see, one game-mechanic wasn't implented in the preview, for several reasons. And that is a fatal height, from which you won't survive a fall.
And because I actually do know that this can cause some horrible backtracking, I've decided to, even though this was supposed to be the final, make a patch TONIGHT which includes this.
So keep your eyes open for it! And thank you mr. Knight for convincing me that it sometimes is important to die!
Thank you also for drawing my attention to the fact that the controls behave peculiar, this has to be due to using the "player 1"-controls rather than keyboard input. I'm gonna check that out too and hopefully it'll be fixed in the patch.
And the coloring issue was very interesting! I won't change this for the preview, but I have been pondering how to "up" the graphics for some time. So expect to see a change in the final game!
EDIT: Ahem, just updated the patch YET AGAIN, but the only fix was that now you can respawn after dying by pressing button 1 or 2 on the joypad when using it, so you don't have to press a key on the keyboard. Comment edited by Eternal Man [EE] on 11/3/2009
Excellent! The atmosphere and mood in this game are legendary. I enjoyed the wolf fight and thought the timed combat to be both realistic and enjoyable.
One suggestion I always have for click games is to offer a widescreen option so the gfx don't get stretched - I would have liked to see the moon be a circle instead of an oval.
The end was interesting... when it flashed red I was not sure if I had died or if I was transforming... hmmm. One color not used was a green flash...
I also think this game could work well on a mobile platform... perhaps Android... the controls, gfx,and gameplay are well suited for mobile devices.
Like many others one this site, I am dying for more - like 10 hours more... and then some more after that
Thanks for the great comment! I'm happy you enjoyed it so much! It would be interesting if I could find a way to add support for widescreen in the game, though I'm not sure exactly how I would go about it. But I promise I'll look into it!
It would be great to see it on a mobile platform!
Nice to hear you want more, you'll sure have it, though maybe not 10 hours...
I would like to thank everyone for their comments as well. They make the whole process much more enjoyable
Also feel free to comment on the Audio/music-aspects of the game, there is need for feedback in that departement too
First off, I thought you truly hit the nail on the head graphics and atmosphere wise. Though it was at first quite hard and I assume I must have died at least 50+ times including trying to stab the wolf at the right time I got the hang of it eventually. The engine is much different from any I've seen on TDC.
This deserves a fave! Great job, keep up the good work!
I hearby proclaim: "Liquixcat's most anticipated game!"
Your ability to listen to user feedback is this games greatest strength. Although. please do not think EVERY suggestion is a good one. Be weary yet open-minded in a sense .
I have no suggestions as of yet, I will continue to keep an eye on this.
Good that
<br />
We only make changes we feel are suitable, and believe it or not most of the suggestions you guys bring forth are good ones! Comment edited by Chimera II [EE] on 12/13/2009
Woohoo! I got to a screen with a bunch of spikes and figured that it was either the end of the preview or of my ability to figure out where to go.
I'll sound like a broken record here, since everyone else has said it, but faaaaaantastic atmosphere! Very very professional. All the detailed and differing sounds and moody music created a very nice effect. Ignoring everything else about the game, the fluidity of animations (particularly the ledge-hanging one) and the aura this game seems to have alone would be enough to qualify it as great.
For the most part, the engine is solid. The movement is as smooth as the animation. Barely any hiccups, only one odd physics issue. I think once or twice I felt like a running jump was much farther and faster than it had been before, but it may have just been my imagination. The only real thing I found was on the second screen after the bridge. I was able to run up a wall. (This one: http://jollycrouton.com/Uploads/images/silhouette.png)
It's definitely difficult, but not quite as infernally frustrating difficult as it is, "Alright already. Let's get on with it, then. I want to keep progressing!" Which hearkens back to what Assault Andy was saying. I usually hate repetitive things like that, but I put up with it for this game, and I have no clue why. Especially after the wolf battle, which was a nice timely break from the platforming. I was expecting it--I even thought, "It's going to be the next frame" but I was still startled into dying the first two times. That help file that you urged me to read is what made it possible for me to beat the wolf without giving up in frustration. You sneaky goober you. The screens are all very much the same, but I wouldn't fault it for that--not just because I like the way it looks, but because it's on to something. My favorite part so far about this whole thing is that it just feels like a real project. It's already good, but you're building on what people bring to the table. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the great input!
First off, you haven't reached the end of the preview yet. Search around the area a bit more, and if needed, look to the heavens for the answer... *HINT HINT*
Secondely, that wall-bug is a known one, I thought I had gotten rid of it, but I must have missed that perticular spot. And about the jumps, I'll be reworking most of the movement engine for the final game, balancing things and such.
Again, thanks for the input!
And go on and make it to the end, you'll probably like it...!
I think this would play better on a slower framerate. Maybe it's just from playing loads of Flashback and Price of Persia as a kid, but it just seems out of place going so fast and smooth.
That was actually something I thought about doing at first. Like the short intro where he runs out of the frame, a choppy amiga-esque style. The problem with making it that way was that there wasn't an easy way of achieving it in such a short period of time. Though it would be a very cool feature to be able to choose "choppyness" in the future option-screen! Great idea there James!
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