Well the Xmas trailer is going to be late. I still haven’t updated all the visuals yet and I’d much rather make a graphically loveliful trailer when Clickteam releases the hardware acceleration update.
I’ve invested so much time into optimising the engine and then they went and announced HWA back in September! Ho hum. I suppose the optimisation will be useful if, say, you don’t have a graphics card of any shape or form and play by sound alone.
Or something like that.
Hey so I’ve had a busy week. Bought a PSP off eBay, the thing was buggered so I went out and got a Slim instead. Then my bro ended up getting one too! They’re really nifty and immensely improved upon from the last model, that and they’re getting some very good games now. It’s a really awesome machine that has replaced my DS for the time being.
So I was bazzing around on my PSP for the past few days and just last night I finally settled down for some Tormi work only to find my keyboard wasn’t working! So in a mad rush to get some work done (I always like to put an hour or so in each day at least! Even during Christmas) I ran out to the Apple store and got one of the new Apple keyboards! It’s a thing of beauty and it’s so thin!
Also got in touch with a really ace game studio out in the ‘states who… Well I might have some brilliant news in the coming months. 
So back to work I suppose!
Just thought I’d reveal some little tidbits!
Downloadable content
I’ll be running a server which contains downloadable content, there’s an option to check for updates when the game boots or if you’d rather do it manually. Thinking about it I’ll stick in a "check every X days" option too! DLC will be free and contain music, new maps, new graphics etc. There will also be the option to run your own DLC server, the most popular ones and servers ran by the team will turn up on the Tormi main menu, otherwise you just have to enter the address of the server in the menu or options screen. They will also have an age rating attached so little nippers don’t get sworn at! Dotted around the game are also a few areas where DLC will be downloaded, after a connection confirmation request.
Challenge Tower
Towards the end of the game a little tower will appear. As part of the DLC content the game will download new arena’s for the tower. The user can also make their own towers which contain 1-5 screens and can be puzzle based, combat based or whatever. The game saves a list of your best times of that tower map, sorta like a time trail mode. Only official maps will have online highscores though.
The level editor lets you choose the graphics (from a set) and song (from the game or your own).
The more popular user maps and official maps will only appear as DLC too. Though you can just download them manually and copy them to the games folder.
Multiplayer support
This hasn’t changed much. Player 1 controls the main guy, Player 2 or CPU controls Tsol. So far it’s local but if there is demand then I’ll release an update with online co-op.
And a general update – still working on the new graphics! Should have them all finished in the next few days. Also like to thank Mr. Pineapple who has been working really hard on some outstanding new tracks! Thinking about releasing a little soundtrack taster once we can fill a CD (35 minutes so far!).
I’ll try and get a trailer out in 7 days but I can’t promise anything!
This is possibly the most jolly, most Christmassy tune in Tormishire at the moment. There are a little group of miners who float about the place destroying walls, building stuff and all that. But they usually always need a hand!
Mario, Castlevania, Zelda. They’re all guilty of punishing water levels, right? I was running about on Metroid Prime 3 annoyed to high heaven about trudging through water. The imposed hindering controls that are generally associated with water movement hasn’t been pretty and stained games like Ocarina of Time.
Of course games usually give you a Get out of Jail ticket; Mario has the frog suit, Metroid and Castlevania have the “pretend I’m not water” ability. Zelda gets away with it by being a little more serious (I didn’t say that) and keeping you aquatically slow.
I’m guilty of it myself. Sam was slow in water, Tormi guy can only doggy paddle until he gets the running ability. Even then you’re stuck doing a struggled breast stoke on the waters surface. It takes a good hour or so of a linear level set before you get the full swimming ability.
Then it hits, like a repelling behemoth towering over the player, the water “temple” arrives. After the 2nd boss the player faces off against a vertical series of levels making up this giant area. Thankfully at this stage the player has the full 360º swimming ability which is a comfortable experience.
A tip: Don’t hinder the player in water! Give them a way out of it. Lovely.
http://satansam.co.uk/ftp/swim3.mov
*old swimming video. Thanks piney!
So the sprite redrawing wasn’t the only graphical update I’ve done. I’m redrawing everything from the ground up. The new graphics are really something else! A lot more form compared to the previous ones, much smoother and nicer looking.
I’m a little worried there won’t be a trailer until early new year but I’ll try my best.
Before and after (unfinished again, the right shot was taken without runtime lighting effects on)
I know I’m late to the party, but I never had a SNES so completely missed out on some classic games that weren’t remade for the GBA. I just bought Super Metroid for the Wii.
I’ve only played for around an hour so far but it’s very impressive. I’m already thinking about swapping my Tormi joypad keys around to mimic this game (coincidentally Tormi has the same face button actions but rotated 90 degrees right, but with one button used for interacting) so I don’t keep pressing the wrong buttons with Samus!
The music and atmosphere is phenomenal. The level design is slap bang in between natural and designed.
It might just be me, as I’m playing through some games I question the overall level design and wonder to myself “Who put this piece here?”. Metroid seems to get away with it by saying there was an ancient civilisation kicking around, other games don’t offer an explanation. I’ve tried to go for a natural cave style with Tormishire, adding naturally occurring caving elements like sumps and crawl spaces. You have to start a water seed and imagine where the water would cut away soft rock and shape the area over decades or hundreds of years, depending on how old the area is meant to be, areas below will have to be designed around minor waterfalls cutting away to them caverns too. Along with designing this very flexible story and non-linear game – it’s a bit of a nightmare!
There are a series of reservoirs and lakes around here which really help when it comes to seeing the way water can shape huge landscapes – documented in my various photo albums floating around.
The level design is split into a few sections. Caves being one extreme and cities the other, with hybrid mediums like mines and roads. Metroid seems to dart between various landforms without introduction or seams, but it’s all extremely well designed. My challenge is to make something natural but to also keep it well designed as a game play form. Everything is placed for a reason. I shouldn’t have got interested in caving me thinks.
Funny thing is I was first inspired by Narnia, wanting to create vast and confusing, surreal dream like world. But I’ve ended up taking this realistic route now.
I’ll also get playing Super Metroid in the weeks to come. What a fantastic game Nintendo made!
These are still WIP pieces as I get it all much more consistent
Cassius before and after-
New look player (with old backgrounds)-
Tsol doing his skipping thing-
I’m more or less just working on art and music for the time being, and some of the later area designs.
And here’s a random pic I whipped up one quick evening-
