King's Field Side-scroller? Yay or Nay?

[vongrimmsy0]

here's my second go at the player -- used one of the GBA Castlevania games for reference, so he came out smallish:

EDIT: size comparison... wow, he looks like he could take off his head/half his body in one bite now O_O

but I like it overall  the only thing I'm unsure of is the black outline, as the monsters won't have it... though I suppose it is fitting that the player stands out more~

[vongrimmsy0]

...and yet another player incarnation; this is my favorite one so far, I really like the eyes and the look of his hair! also, I think having light sources and a day/night cycle could be VERY cool in this game, hence the torch:

<--size comparison

and blown up 3x -->

EDIT: and another, because I couldn't resist -->

[vongrimmsy0]

ok, so I made a page on deviantart for my game's stuff --> http://shadesofverdite.deviantart.com/, so I'll probably keep my art updates there henceforth; but I will still be around here, if anyone has any questions/feedback/input~! 

[JC Bailey]

I really like the new player sprite. The only things I'd change are the eye color (Alexander has brown eyes if I remember right), the width of the stepping animations (they are a little bit too wide), and I feel like he should be about 2x taller (and maybe wider) than the mantrap. Otherwise I think it looks perfect.

If you want to share your work with a bigger community, there's a somewhat active Facebook group simply called King's Field.

[vongrimmsy0]

thanks a lot for the detailed feedback! :) I wasn't sure on the eyes, mostly made em 'moonlight colored' on a whim heh... I'll fiddle around with the other details and see how he comes out!

one other thing I should've mentioned, is that I will have different monster sizes like King's Field as well; so, this mantrap could theoretically be smaller/larger than the shown size. but yeh, Alexander needs a lil more meat on his bones, regardless. 

and unfortunately, I'm in China so no Facebook for me. >_<

[dmpdesign]

Love it, all the art you guys have is sweet, wish there were complete games to go along with them :)

Out of curiosity, what engine/platform are you developing your side scroller on?

[vongrimmsy0]

thanks a lot! :) hopefully there will be a complete game with these (and my initial venture) at some point in the future, haha~ 

so far it is for PC only, as the programmer is using Microsoft XNA tools in hopes of porting it to Xbox at some point... he's made a level editor/creator which I've been using to piece my art together -- I've already made most of the game's main city. the next update he was working on includes attack/spawn/movement/animation editing, so it's a big un' and will keep me pretty busy... and currently, the levels are even playable as-is, but don't have items or enemies unless you spawn them in manually (and at present the enemies are just palette-swapped clones of the player lol).

but a cool side note to having this neat little level creator...? I can plug all this King's Field stuff into it just as easily. so once the editor is done, I can actually make a lot of different (2D) games with it... it's just a matter of when that will be happening.... ~_~

so now, I'm just waiting pretty much. 

EDIT: oh and here's another monster (and in case no one got it yet, I'm doing ALL the plant-types first... ~_~) - weren't they called 'Grave Pot'? -->

[vongrimmsy0]

made a few more baddies, and put em all in a line-up (minus the Red Slime, because I forgot ); most of these pictured do have several frames of animation cut out for convenience, fwiw.


(still didn't get around to changing Alexander's size yet, because I've been drawing monsters  )

[vongrimmsy0]

hey guys, I'm still working on this. 

have just been a bit busy w/ having more 'real life' work added to my schedule, but otherwise I'm still at it~!

(hehe, the first one makes me smile xD)

I've been reading up on the possible connections within the lore between King's Field / Dark Souls / Shadow Tower, and just wanted to throw a (few) theories out there: [primarily about KF/Dark Souls]

Could it be possible that the time of Seath's madness (as described in both King's Field II [U.S.] and the first Dark Souls) coincided?

It seems very probable given the surrounding events during each game's established stories; such as, Seath the Scaleless http://darksouls.wikia.com/wiki/Seath_the_Scaleless (an actual boss in Dark Souls I) betraying the dragons and aiding Lord Gwyn http://darksouls.wikia.com/wiki/Gwyn,_Lord_of_Cinder in their ultimate slaughter - after, Lord Gwyn gifted Seath a 'Lord Soul' for his help, and this power later drove Seath to madness as he delved into mastering the art of sorcery (happened in Dark Souls I; but could also explain Seath/Guyra being the last two dragons in KF, and why Vallad seems to be a lone deity with no control of his worldly avatars, struggling to rebuild a chaotic world) [NEAT-O SIDE NOTE: it's VERY interesting that he is called 'the Scaleless', since we find 'Seath's PLUMES' in King's Field; and not scales instead~  and fwiw, I think Seath is E-V-I-L, and that he played everyone into thinking Guyra is the bad one -- but that's another topic~!]

Also, the Giants (described in King's Field I and/or II?? I currently forget which, exactly  ) losing a great battle-- which could possibly have happened to be to Vendrick (Dark Souls II) http://darksouls.wikia.com/wiki/Vendrick, whom it is established, wiped out the Giants in a great war; following this was the first appearance of Golems after Vendrick defeated the Giants and stole 'an item that allowed him to create the first Golems', which he used to further advance the kingdom of Drangleic (it's never told what this item is exactly; any ideas anybody? O_o); Giants tried a counterattack to avenge their fallen, were totally slaughtered, and the only one you face in the game (outside of the 'Giant's Memories' segments) is named 'The Last Giant'; the area he is kept prisoner in is called 'The Forest of the Fallen Giants' - the place where most of the Giants died in the war. There's also an area in Firelink Shrine (Dark Souls I) called 'The Tomb of Giants', and I think there is a coliseum-like area when facing the first boss iirc; which could potentially link this place to Melanat, as Firelink Shrine appears to be a coastal structure, and the Tomb of Giants is connected to it; and in King's Field we are never given a good idea of how big the island really is... O_O We do know it's close to Verdite, however, as it can be seen from there by the naked eye on a clear day~

I believe all these occurrences have one thing in common -- that they all happened in the same world (and some events seem closely-knit w/ others, even geographically), roughly around the same time, and that some events affected others pretty heavily. One thing that makes me strongly believe this, are a few quotes from a character in Dark Souls II, Straid of Olaphis http://darksouls.wikia.com/wiki/Straid_of_Olaphis:

"So, how long was I sat petrified… Long enough for the old kingdom to have crumbled, I see. Long enough for Olaphis to rise, fall, and fade away, evidently. Why didn't anyone wake me sooner?! Heh heh…"

"Drangleic… I've never heard the name. Is that what they call this place now? Hah hah…Very good, very good indeed."

"The cursed ones were imprisoned within this land. Of course, you came of your own free will. Heh heh… The people feared the cursed ones like a plague. Some people would rather keep dreadful things out of sight, out of mind. In the end they swept them up and corralled them here. So very typical of meek minds, don't you think?"

"Once people became aware of their own frailty… They seized anybody they found undesirable, cursed or no, and impounded them here. Whoever posed even the slightest threat, was removed. All so that they could sleep better at night. They even turned the great Straid into a stone! Hah hah!"

"Many kingdoms rose and fell on this tract of earth; mine was by no means the first. Anything that has a beginning also has an end. No flame, however brilliant, does not one day splutter and fade. But then, from the ashes, the flame reignites, and a new kingdom is born, sporting a new face. It is all a curse! Heh heh heh! And it is your cursed flesh that will inherit the flame. Heh heh…"

We know from the atmosphere of King's Field that things in the world are pretty damn bad; you seldom run into groups of live people (more like NEVER; no groups anywhere), as everyone has fled or been killed, save for a fair few. The same goes for the Dark Souls games. Another thing we see, are many 'King' and 'Lord' characters; I think it'd be safe to assume, that in such a dismal situation, any tough guy with a sword that has killed a few monsters would want to start calling himself 'Lord' (assuming they weren't royalty in the first place), and the same person could easily have the same potential to recruit follows to his cause. This could be the reason we see all these Lords/Kings and such, but none of them are around - many have come, had their follies, died, had kingdoms, lost kingdoms, and with the Undead Curse running rampant throughout all this (all of these games mention a foreboding fog/mist that kills and/or 'produces monsters') it's also an easy assumption that this all could have happened within a shorter time span than we realize. It's a simple matter for time to get distorted - and assume decades or centuries have passed - when everyone is constantly dying and/or Hollowing (which makes them totally insane/hostile), destroying anything that is actually re-established by the living, and there is no one sane/live around to keep proper record of the constant upheaval(s). We see many more corpses and eccentric or untrustable survivors in either series, than we see sane, coherent characters - that much I'm sure of.

I think Straid is alluding to these facts pretty obviously by there having been several kingdoms come/gone since he was petrified (at least 2 that we know of, as it was called Olaphis in his time, and Drangleic currently); add to this, his mention of 'being cursed' and his sarcastic, mocking tone when he speaks of these things, and it seems even clearer.

But these are just my assumptions, mostly, besides the stuff in the links directly from the games~ :)

Would love to hear what anyone else thinks, and sorry for the long-winded post! I need to sleep now!

[vongrimmsy0]

a little something to show that I'm still working on this (as life allows  ):



it's rough to be sure (especially since all the animations must be timed together -_-), but it's a start. just made this to demonstrate the HUD really~

those little boxes (where the dagger is) will fan out to reveal a 'quick slot' for changing your currently used weapons/magic/items (in that order); that's what the red orb behind the dagger is for as well

and I'm thinking this will be Alexander's final size; as wonky as it may/may not be, I have already fallen in love with it, and I actually have a legitimate reason for the monsters being bigger than usual~ 

so yeah, that's about it otherwise!! I'm still chipping away in the pixel mines~!