Enchanted Pendulum: The Chrono Valkyrie

[Abster]

Of course I don't want to distract from the main meal of this forum so I've got this little pad all for myself, and discussions go in here as such for this subject.

I want to talk some about my own game, Enchanted Pendulum.

I'm a bit of a retro nut, having primarily grown on the NES through PS2 eras. I've always been one to want to create his own love letter to the old pixel games, but I want to put some additional advanced spice on it to make it appeal in today's age. I'm primarily a programmer and a brainstormer, so even though I have a pretty good idea on how EP will play, I do need some help in allowing me to come up with a vision for it so I can pursue it.

You probably know of the girl in my avatar if you seen enough of my posts. It's my game's playable character Sylvia Brangwin.





I had an idea/concept for using time travel as a parallel world mechanic similar to how some Zelda games to it, like Oracle of Ages and Link to the Past. My inspiration for time travel was actually born from the NES game Magic of Scheherazade, which I recommend.

The basic gameplay I want to essentially be a faster version of Zelda 2/Faxanadu, with good defense with your shield being as important as your offense. One thing I thought was impressive for early turn based RPGs in the olden era was the strategy and unique ways to work with a game's mechanics to defeat certain bosses. Whereas in Castlevania you simply smacked an enemy with your weapon of choice until it died. I want to make use of RPG mechanics not just in combat but also as utilities. For example, being able to put a very powerful opponent to sleep so you can sneak by them.

I intend for it to have plenty of Norse references but have some of its own lore as well. The general palette being based off of something like Demon's Crest, as it is a dark fantasy. I don't want the game to be all black and gothic though. Through the game's 4 main areas I want there to be plenty of variety as well. Ice caves, volcanoes, oceans, forests.

I'll drop by some more brainstorming to see what everyone thinks of it and I'll add to this as more comes to me.

[Kapcash]

Hi !

I didn't get everything because of my poor english but I would like to answer you to motivate you in your projet !

Do you have some gameplay ideas or your mind just focused on the universe ? I mean, do you want a 2D game, a RPG seen from above like old Zelda's games or something else ?

I like your character, it reminds me Fire Emblem's graphic style ^^

Keep going ! Each personnal creation is a good thing, first for our own mind and for resume :p

[Abster]

I'm unsure if there will be an overworld or not, but the battle scenes will be 2d sidescrolling, similar to Zelda 2 Adventure of Link. It's been hard for me to stay on task when I'm working 2 jobs at once. I did port my project to 64 bit systems and am starting to work on basic animation.

[Abster]

Here's a small update.

With my intended higher resolution I have to figure out a sprite style to go with


I have a week's vacation coming up so I'll finally have a chance to work on this thing.

[Bodie]

Here's a small update.

With my intended higher resolution I have to figure out a sprite style to go with


I have a week's vacation coming up so I'll finally have a chance to work on this thing.

Nice, looking good!

Just want to warn you, though: your character is double the size of Alucard. While she looks good right now, you'll have to lower her resolution if you're going to have any hope of animating her without a fulltime animator doing ONLY her for a long while. For comparison:

X (Megaman X): 24x32 pixels
Lunais (Timespinner): 20x34 pixels
Shanoa (CV:OOE): 18x46 pixels
Alucard (CV:SotN): 23x48 pixels
Lenneth (Valkyrie Profile): 26x56 pixels

Sylvia (Enchanted Pendulum): 43x98 pixels (!)

Keep in mind that your character is almost double Lenneth's size, and that game had TWENTY character animators on staff.

I strongly recommend picking a smaller resolution for your characters!

[Abster]

Well, EP was intended to be in double the resolution of Timespinner, in 800 x 480. However, I am aware of the potential complexities that may arise from trying to do pixel art at that higher resolution (where basic platformer graphics are the size of fighting game sprites and tiles are in 32x32). However, I am always aware of my other option which is to slim down to something smaller/simpler, like this.



This would be my most likely option. One of the things I wanted to do with EP is try some things never done before with an IGAvania style game, the higher resolution being one of them.

[Abster]

Ok. Less of a break here than last time, but hate missing the live stream due to work away from work, but that's a rant for another time.



This will be more or less the design I'll go with when I get her to sprite form. I'm looking to enlist the help of a pixel artist who once worked on Esco's SOTN remake.

The more notable changes are bringing back some of the more broad shoulder plates and relocating the time stone to be attached to a growth on her arm, as a curse brought about by affecting the game's timeline.

Working now on shrinking the game's resolution and updating the physics to go along with it. Hope to share more soon.

[Abster]

Yeah, things are still hectic, but recently in a good way. Finally got a pixel artist to help kick this thing off. I think he captured Sylvia's appearance pretty well. Can't wait to put these into action soon.

[Abster]

And more progress. Finally went and added all the animations so far drawn for the character. Physics are a bit heavy but those can be fairly easily tweaked. I had some debug code leftover from when this code was for a different project. It still works as it should but the font needs to be rebuilt and the text set elsewhere.