Lets open with this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVgGejSKPAc
Mind the audio it comes out of sync in some places, but this is a test run with no power ups.
Honestly ive fought this B***h more tiimes than I can count lol.
Ive made some substantial changes and will be updating this around the end of the month.
Please Bare in mind that everything ive done so far, I did so with the greater good in mind This not only means pleasing you guys, but being responsible about the game as a whole.
Tyrfing Cycle or Cycle of Tyrfing began merely as a small project that i fell in love with and each time i figured 'enough was enough' and prepared for release I had a doubt in my mind that it wasnt the best I could do...
Red tape stuff, and some insight behind the scenes
Ive made some terrible mistakes, one of the biggest ones being my association with a certain publisher. It became apparently rather quickly that they did not care for my or the game's best interests and this shows in their actions. What resulted up until now was a lengthy and arguous process.
Out of Professional courtesy I wont go into exact details, but know this:
my relationship with BlackShellMedia has been terminated.
Know, that I was seeking legal consultation from June up until August and know that I made some rather big decisions, but the Benefit, is that I have regained control of my game
I am sorry to all of you who this may have effected, and Im sorry that his has delayed things, but this is for the better.
Unfortunately, communication issues cause numerous problems between me and the publisher. Many promises went undelivered or underdelivered and even things i was supposed to be privy to such as analytics and sales...I was not.
The reality is, besides the files, I was mostly locked out of my game.
I could change things here and there but the publisher wielded absolute authority.
Not having access to sales and analytics made it difficult to determine what worked and what didnt, Thanks to the vocal few of you, ive gotten some insight, but with out the cold hard numbers I had no clue what to focus on.
But, because I did my best to talk to you guys and communicate, I managed to gain an important insight to the flaws in my design, and applying things that I learned recently to this new build, I feel confident that I made a more superb product.
While I believe fully that you should be privy to everything, I need to balance that with a cerain level of professionalism and I need to say that I do not wish to initiate any sort of drama or pointless debate, what happened happened, whats done is done, lets move on and talk about the fun ^_^
THE GAME
To keep things simple I created a list here.
1) I overhauled the environment.
- before, rooms were constricted to a 4000x2000 pixel layout, that constraint is gone. which means stages come in all shapes and sizes.
2) overhauled gravity - Hervor's jump height is the same, but the jump is less floaty, I suspect this is because of the way i coded how gravity effects her.
She falls quicker, and for an added sense of control you can press 'down' to control your jump as well.
3) New Control scheme for Mouse/Keyboard offered in addition to just keyboard. You can choose to use the mouse for attacking, the benefit this gives you is the ability to aim Elemental attacks such as Lightning release.
4) Control adjustments for the Xinput control.
You can use the Right thumb stick to aim Elemental attacks now.
Elemental Releases used to spawn adjacent to the player, but now you can choose exactly where the attack occurs
5) Playing to our strengths.
- The general consensus with critics is that the platforming is weak and while we took the time to improve the platforming, we decided to use the new 'larger' environments to complement more horizontal movement.
- Platforms are larger and Easier to reach, but jumping from place to place is less necessary.
6) Wall Hike - Hervor can get an extra boost off of walls and ledges for added height and control
7) Mid air Control has been improved.
Hervor moves quicker while airbourne and can turn easier. This defies the laws of physics, but on the otherhand did you get a good look at that sword?
yeah...
8) Brand New Quick Counter mechanic -
Melee based enemies give longer telegraphs for their attacks, but those who are particularly bad@$$, we wait till the last second to dodge the attack.
Doing this makes Hervor glow and allows her next attack to DEVASTATE the enemy. Hiting them so hard the freaking expload into a glorious display of gore and fireworks.
9) Each Realm is 4 segements with 4-6 bosses
rather than 2 segements with 4-5 bosses on random.
10) Enemies drop more items more frequently and these items are more helpful.
11) New Animated Assets
I got pretty good at animating in other programs during the down time, I learned how to make animated repeating textures as well WOOT
Notice in the background of the above gif, the clouds move as this massive beam of ENERGY pierces the skies.
12) Boss fights are more dynamic, with a more combat oriented camera.
In most segments of the game the camera places the player in the center, but when massive enemies become your main threat, the camera dynamically focuses on both the player and the biggest threat on screen.
Ive also added some zooms which can be seen in the Hela fight
This is not mimirs best day
13) A finishing blow must be delivered to end the fight with the boss, this final strike causes them to utterly expload in a spectacle of particles!
Lets talk more causually for a minute.
You might not know that Tyrfing Cycle was originally going to be a binding of isaac like game merged with castlevania like mechanics. I make each game with the desire to learn something new and what i wanted to achieve at the games conception was item synergy like BOI but used in a side scrolling platform type Game style
As I grew to learn what 'Tyrfing Cycle' was really all about i had to make some tough calls. One of the biggest ones was the removal of permadeath.
I changed the whole format.
Each cycle is its own set of levels, Helheim cycle takes place in Helheim (no S**T)
I made each level visually different to enforce a sense of progression and rather than forcing a player to restart the entire cycle they can choose to repeat the stage.
14) The addition of the Idunns apple mechanic rewards skill, completing stages quickly, efficiently and aggressively yields greater rewards on the stage completion screen, this includes health boosts, revivals and more.
15) The player is only penalized for death if the death results for sloppy playing for too long. Ive balanced each fight to be winnable with no powerups.
and added health boosts and revival items that are rewarded for skillful play.
Seeing the game over screen means you didnt make a simple mistake, it means you made many, BUT you have the chance to make a comeback
Speaking of 'chances'
16) Temporary power ups - including an item that is not the berserk sphere, (although i wish the name was taken for sure...) This blue sphere grants hervor a temporary strength boost to utter destroy anything in her path. Just watch:
17) New Power ups - Ill let these be a surprise ^_^
Changes, implementations and moving forward
as said above, these changes will be implemented towards the end of the month.
Release date has been shifted back (no duh right?)
Ideally we will Launch in the Late fall Early Winter, but we will at this point do whatever it takes to make this game all that it can be.
You can please some of the people most of the time, or we can please most of the people some of the time, and the third choice is to please no one
Our goal is to make you guys happy and deliver a solid action experience while building a great reputation as an independent Developer and Publisher.
This additional time placed into development has increased the quality drastically, it increases the replayability, the ease of access AND the length of the game overall.
The game is SUBSTANTIALLY larger and the cost to Demon Sword Games is time and resources. As DemonSword and 378 Publishing LTD have full control now we are making some new value propositions.
This translates to, we're changing the price.
DONT PANIC! lol, the price changes will occur on full release, during early access we will maintain our 7.99 US price tag, but when the game is completed the final price will be 12.99 US
We while strive to give you the lowest prices we can while still maintaining profitability, but this change is firm and more than fair. We will offer regular sales and discounts, and those of you who bought, or will buy it during Early access, you will ultimately come out with better bang for your buck because YOU are entitled to the full game at the price you paid upon attainment.
Ill also need to clarify that BlackShellMedia Selected the 7,99 price tag, not me. There were numerous communication issues and while they originally proposed 10.00$ which I already put through and Steam approved, they for undisclosed reasons went with 7.99
Seriously, they didnt even tell me... lol
As publishers they probably selected that price based on what they thought would earn the most money quickly... But that is conjecture I quite literally have no idea what was going on on their end.
For those of you who feel the full release price is unfair, follow us on twitter
https://twitter.com/TyrfingCycle
and please COMMENT
Your input is important to us
With that being said I look forward to moving ahead with you guys
You've all been terrific and I have had a swell experience with the Steam community as a whole You guys are great, much love and kind regards
Donovan G Jackson
DemonSwordGames
378 Publishing LTD.