Strider of Feral Lands - New video (May 2011)

[Matti]

The game is a mix of turn-based movement and real-time fights. The players wander around on a map, visiting lairs, towns and other locations. It's basically about fighting creatures and your opponents, with RPG elements like experience, skills and equipment.

While the gameplay is inspired by the old Amiga classic Moonstone, we improve things a lot. The AI controlled opponents are quite clever already and the fight system is more elaborate, meaning that you can't just accustom yourself to a simple technique in order to easily beat your enemies. Also, the map is larger and more varied, and reappearing lairs technically result in unlimited gameplay. While the fight between two knights basically works like a duel, it's a whole other experience to fight creatures like spiders and trolls as your movement speed and attack and defense moves will change.

Either play the alone and bring an epic story to a happy end or play against AI players or your friends via hotseat.


It's going to be commercial, but we haven't decided on a price yet.




Features:

• single-player storymode
  
• AI controlled players
  
• hotseat function for up to four players
  
• 800x600 32-bit graphics
  
• detailed hand-drawn backgrounds
  
• various landscapes, effecting backgrounds, movement and enemies
  
• a duel system and fighting techniques depending on the type of enemy
  
• a customizable difficulty level, effecting the reactions and behavior of the enemies
  
• very simple keyboard control, yet a variety of moves
  
  

Team:

- Programming / Ideas : Matti
- Art / Ideas : Nickel






Screenshots:


   

   

   

[ThreeOhFour]

Sounds good and looks great.

My eye will be out for this one - and good luck with making it commercial as well

[abstauber]

Cool... I've enjoyed Moonstone very much (to be honest, the intro the most ).

I'm looking forward to this!



(and add a cool intro )

[karja]

Oh my!

I dont think there is any one who played Moonstone as much as me and my friends.

If this is remotly like it, I will sure give it a try!

Are the character sprites gonna be made in 3D or handrawn 2D?

[Matti]

@ Ben: Thanks.

@ abstauber: Let's see about the intro... and the story. But I'm glad you enjoyed Moonstone.

@ karja: Everything will be handrawn in 2D. Hope you'll like it.

[Nickel]

Mr Matti: I wanted to reply first. :'(

karja:
Characters will be handrawn 2D!
We really want to catch the atmosphere of old games like Moonstone.
The difference in the grafics will be that it's not pixelart anymore.

[Matti]

We made a Youtube Channel and uploaded two videos here and here.

Also, there's a new screenie in the first post.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Parts of this remind me a lot of Moonstone: A Hard Day's Knight, which can only mean good things!

http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/153/Moonstone+-+A+Hard+Days+Knight.html

[Matti]

As mentioned in the first post, it is indeed inspired by Moonstone and yes, that should be considered a good thing 

[abstauber]

it is indeed inspired by Moonstone and yes, that should be considered a good thing

Since you want to sell this thing. You do know that Moonstone wasn't popular for it's game mechanics, right

I think fighting games have evolved a lot since then, and I'm quite picky about this if I have to pay for it. But if you mix Warlords 2 with King of Fighters I shall empty my pockets at once

[Matti]

I'd say that Moonstone was popular for its atmosphere, adrenaline kicks, sound, multiplayer support and the amount of gore. We wanna keep these things in mind but also add new stuff (random encounters, easter eggs, locations) and eliminate MS's serious flaws. These flaws were the following:

- The AI players randomly walked around the map without buying or fighting anything and were no threat at all for human players.

- The map was small, the game was short and you had no chance to save your game.

- You could easily beat every enemy if you sticked to a certain technique, thus the game was way too easy after some playing. Also, the enemies were boring due to their completely predictable behavior without the tiniest bit of randomization.

- Most of the (few) inventory items were rather pointless and you always awaited the point were you had enough money to buy the best armor or best sword. Afterwards you didn't really know what to do with you money and just slayed a growing amount of creatures.

[m0ds]

Wow, very nice artwork - I thought I was looking at a photo!

[Nickel]

- The AI players were no threat at all for human players.

This is what you say after playing the game over and over again. 

- The map was small, the game was short and you had no chance to save your game.

I wouldn't say it's a real flaw if you finish the game in two hours. It's a concept, wich has pros and cons. I also don't like games that are streched to the infinite while all you do is to upgrade your character, ship or what ever is apparently expressible in numbers. 

[hedgefield]

Wow, the fighting engine looks great! Seems very smooth, though I'm curious to see how responsive it is. But still very impressive, looking forward to this one.

[bicilotti]

Very interesting indeed. Good luck boys!

[Grim]

I loved Moonstone too... So I'll definitely give this game a go if it's anything like it!:)

[Nickel]

Thanks for all the motivating comments!

abstauber: What do you mean exactly? That just a fight game would be to boring for you (and you prefer a genre mix), or that the fighting mechanics have to be "state of the art"? Or both?

[Matti]

Bump!

We've replaced the dummies with real sprites (who still need to be polished though) and added sound. Watch our new video!

[bush_monkey]

This is looking awesome. I loved Moonstone! Will you be able to block in the final version? The guys in the video just seemed to try and avoid each other 

[Matti]

I'm afraid it was me avoiding the AI player. But seriously: Of course you can block. Here is another video, with some more blocking.

We also replaced the last screenshot (spiders!).