Blood Ledger Blog

Make games! Discuss those games here.

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Pepsi Ranger
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Post by Pepsi Ranger »

There's a lot of interesting visual things happening here, but I really appreciate those quality of life enhancements like brightness control and controller options. Great attention to detail and thinking ahead to what the player may want.
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guo
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Post by guo »

Youre really pushing the engine to its limits. This has gotta be my most anticipated game. Id love to playtest if you need!
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ArtimusBena
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Post by ArtimusBena »

Certainly on the table in the next month, guo, I'll PM ya!

I am hereby announcing Blood Ledger's candidacy for Heart of the OHR. (It was accepted three months ago in secrecy and in silence. Sneaking game is sneaky)

Forgive me for the lack of updates, but as I usually say, it's not because I'm not hard at work! There is no question, this is the most explosive update yet.

There's a lot of new stuff. A lot of reeeally cool stuff. Here we go:

______________________________________________________

The TRIPLINE item.
Find two things made of wood and set a trap for guards!

On/Off switches:
They come in immediate AND timed varieties. Thrown objects can be used to activate switches remotely.

Cinematics:
Due to the nature of game -- being highly dependent on loops and many simultaneous working parts -- an "event sequence" script was written. Complete with letterbox effect.

Jumping:
The skilled player can, if they get a good running start, jump over obstacles and pits. It is planned (and may be implemented by HOTOHR) for you to be able to *throw projectiles* over these obstacles as well, while staying hidden!

Receding into your shadow:
Very high cost to your Hunger, but it renders you undetectable, and will allow you to pass underneath locked doors.

Inventory:
Using the base OHR inventory system for a new purpose, you can re-arrange your inventory so that the first four items can be scrolled through on the hud.

LIGHTSOURCES:
These cause your character and NPCs to cast an angled shadow when near a bright light source. Two lightsources? Two shadows. Getting too near one though renders the player much easier to spot, so I'd stay away from those if you can! (They also flicker randomly)

Sounds:
Hear guards walk while they move! For many other new features, around 30 new sound effects have been added. It is a game as heavily focused on sound as it is on graphics.

Map tiles:
I've been working hand in hand with Holly over voice chat to make a whole bunch of new tiles

Graphics:
Many of the effects have been redone, and you may notice a pretty sweet new HUD

Story:
Because Holly's been such an awesome person and joined the Eponym Ent team for HOTOHR, I'm able to tell a story here, with more than just one environment. The story, I think, is pretty darn cool. A lot of people I've explained the story to have been extraordinarily complementary. At least one thing can be said: it's not your typical stealth game story.

___________________________

On the technical side:

Save and Load:
I've put in a rather cool save and load system that breaks the norms of the OHR engine. Pickups do not reappear when you leave the map and come back. And whether you load the game back to the last checkpoint, or to your last save, their presence (and all other states respectively, such as globals, tags, fog of war minimap, etc.) reload as they were for *that* save. This also extends to any items you drop or place in the level: go and come back, and they'll be right where you left them. *Even if you quit the game*

Character Progression:
It's highly untested, but there will be an option to play the game a bit more like an RPG if you want to. Playing in certain ways ups your stats and unlock new abilities. Four stats: Stealth, Stamina, Swiftness, and Distract. For some abilities, you'll have had to progress two or more stats to qualifying levels in order to learn them. The system has been programmed in but requires balancing and fine tuning. Using the base OHR status and skill screens, you can look up your stats and what things you can do (with a quick reminder on how to do them)

Guard pathing:
Rather than strictly plotscripted movements, they use nodes and pathfind to them. This allows for guards to be side-tracked and still find their way.

Control remapping:
Testing will be done to see if this works with third party controllers such as PSX and XBOX wireless controllers, but you can now remap your controls as you see fit, for both keyboard and gamepad (definitely works for plug-in USB gamepads), and if you want to switch back and forth, the game remembers your mapping for each one - no re-remapping required. Fyrewulf has agreed to help me determine modern gamepad compatibility.

I'm sure there's more, but this is good for now!

More gifs in the next reply! See you in a month.
Attachments
On/off switches
On/off switches
switches.gif (3.48 MiB) Viewed 2652 times
Setting a trap for guards
Setting a trap for guards
tripline.gif (3.39 MiB) Viewed 2652 times
Jumping
Jumping
jumping.gif (3.81 MiB) Viewed 2652 times
Light sources/angled shadows
Light sources/angled shadows
lightsources.gif (2.25 MiB) Viewed 2652 times
Cinematics
Cinematics
cinematics.gif (4.72 MiB) Viewed 2652 times
Last edited by ArtimusBena on Mon Nov 23, 2020 3:52 am, edited 3 times in total.
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ArtimusBena
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Post by ArtimusBena »

As promised, more gifs:
Attachments
Control re-mapping
Control re-mapping
controls.gif (498.58 KiB) Viewed 2643 times
Status and Abilities
Status and Abilities
abilities.gif (475.98 KiB) Viewed 2643 times
Credit scroll
Credit scroll
credits.gif (3.89 MiB) Viewed 2643 times
Opening screens
Opening screens
opening.gif (490.68 KiB) Viewed 2643 times
Ability: Recede
Ability: Recede
recede.gif (1.63 MiB) Viewed 2643 times
Last edited by ArtimusBena on Sat Nov 21, 2020 8:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Do you make love with the same urgency you make games?
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Bob the Hamster
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Post by Bob the Hamster »

That is soon cool! I love the way the directional shadows under light sources look. The tripwire also looks fantastic.

Blood Leger is really looking polished
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Post by kylekrack »

The recede ability looks really strong. Is there any reason not to use it all the time?
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ArtimusBena
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Post by ArtimusBena »

Naturally; hunger is a big deal in the game, and grows at different rates depending on the ability you're using. The Recede ability increases it by a lot (just look at the bottom right progress bar).

If you're too hungry you don't die, but there's a lot you can't do until you find food. Some of the abilities you need hunger for are things you might need to progress through certain sections.

Native to the game (or a learned ability if you choose to play it more like an RPG) is the passive regenerate ability which will slowly heal your hunger back to 50%
Last edited by ArtimusBena on Sun Nov 22, 2020 5:42 am, edited 2 times in total.
Do you make love with the same urgency you make games?
ArtimusBena
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Post by ArtimusBena »

It's kind of like mana in reverse.
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ArtimusBena
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Post by ArtimusBena »

A play through of a slightly modified version of my submission. The idea is to show you around a little, but I get through it pretty quick.


A pleasure to have taken part in the contest, and it's been wonderful to see all the other submissions!

https://youtu.be/kef_jTQziUw
Last edited by ArtimusBena on Tue Feb 09, 2021 10:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
Do you make love with the same urgency you make games?
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