Fallen Legend - Updated 29th December 2008

[Cyrus]

As I've noticed, your game has a lot in common with Broken Sword.

What does it have in common with Broken Sword?

GUI, maybe graphic style, atmosphere (though it's much darker than in most BS games).

[ambientcoffeecup]

I almost didn't come into this topic because I am the kind of guy that will judge a book by it's cover and judge a game by it's title. FALLEN LEGEND is a really bad title. It sounds like the generic output game name of some GAME NAME TITLE GENERATOR and it could have been anything.

It was a nice surprise though, to find that you have very very nice backdrops and an actual interesting sounding story. I was expecting "jaded fantasy hero must once again save the kingdom." Period isn't really an issue but you have chosen a very nice aesthetic for the game.

The character sprite feels like it clashes a little with the backdrops but that's just me being picky about shit because it does look very nice.

Looking forward to it anyway. I'll definitely give it a shot but BIG GRIPE: Bad name.

[DazJ]

Thanks for the reply ambientcoffeecup, I appreciate everyone's input regarding the game.

It's surprising that the character does clash with the backgrounds because he was drawn and animated by the same guy who did the backgrounds. He has been resized considerably though as he is a full screen height originally. It's probably this that's the reason for the anti-alias issues. Either way, there will be parts in the game when we will see him drawn fairly large.

Regarding the title, I'm afraid Fallen Legend is here to stay. The title WILL be fitting once you play the game and realise EXACTLY what it's about. Until then you'll have to wait

Again though, thanks for the input

[dirk delshire]

hmm... Interesting design for a Horror/Thriller I trust it will get a lot darker latter on.
Also the main charactor looks a lot like Peter Parker in the early issues of Spiderman. LOL

[DazJ]

It'll get darker

The 2 original screenshots you see are from the very beginning of the game.

[DazJ]

UPDATE: Added new screenshot in the original post.

[Brad Newsom]

The new screenshot is definitely much better. Are you stilling using the Light filter in other backgrounds?

[Cyrus]

Yeah. It's darker and really fits the game's idea.

[DazJ]

The new screenshot is definitely much better. Are you stilling using the Light filter in other backgrounds?

No light filters are being used now.

[DazJ]

Added another screenshot:

[dirk delshire]

I just remembered what this game reminds me of, Have you ever heard of Alan Wake?

[DazJ]

Never heard of it.

[DazJ]

Just checked it out. It does indeed seem to have some things in common with Alan Wake and that's the location that the game's set in.

[Rd27]

The story sounds interesting and the backgrounds are looking very nice, but I think that the main character is not in the same level of quality as the backgrounds.

But it still looks very good. Looking forward to this one!

[DazJ]

Thanks!

Our artist has insisted that he'll be redrawing the character as he's not 100% happy himself.

We should be releasing a playable demo soon.

[DazJ]

I've uploaded a playable demo of the game. There's a few things that need ironing out but in the meantime, enjoy!

LEFT CLICK - Interact/Walk
RIGHT CLICK - Look

http://www.gamejelly.net/FL_Demo_v1.zip

[MashPotato]

Congratulations on the release of your demo   The game's got a unique look, and the "ping!" with the "Day 1" reminded me of The Shining, which is a good thing considering the game's premise

I assume this isn't the "official" demo, but just a preliminary one?  If so, I realize this is probably still in the WIP stage, but I have some critique/suggestions if you don't mind :

1)make text skippable
2)some of the button hotspots seemed too small and I had to repeatedly click in order to get a response (eg. "New game").  I also had this problem with selecting inventory items
3)the dialogue font is rather hard to read on some backgrounds.  This may be a personal preference thing, but I'm also not sold on using a font that is all-caps for a horror game.  It seems a little too shout-y for an eerie atmosphere
4)I think it would be good to make the player turn to face whatever he's describing
5)it would be nice if commands could be interrupted (eg. while he's walking to interact with a hotspot, I can click somewhere else to cancel that)
6)when I pressed ESC, in addition to the options menu the quit message also popped up.  Also, I could bring up the options menu on the opening screen
7)the mule deer slides during its animation
8)this is just my opinion, and perhaps it's not done yet, but for a commercial game I feel the game needs more animation (eg. log cutting (showing just the start before the fade), flag flapping)
9)the descriptions are rather bare-bones (once again, they may not be done yet)
10) I couldn't walk to the lake; I assume I wasn't supposed to be able to since it's a demo, but maybe disable that so people won't think it's a bug

I hope I haven't come across as too negative   The premise sounds good, and it will be interesting to see how this develops.  Good luck!

[abstauber]

Nice work!

The color are great and give the scenery a very gloomy atmosphere. Along with the music, I can imagine that this will get pretty thrilling.

But for pulsating lake... this looks a little strange. I think it would have been enough to move those ripples instead of letting the whole thing grow and shrink.

[DazJ]

Congratulations on the release of your demo   The game's got a unique look, and the "ping!" with the "Day 1" reminded me of The Shining, which is a good thing considering the game's premise

I assume this isn't the "official" demo, but just a preliminary one?  If so, I realize this is probably still in the WIP stage, but I have some critique/suggestions if you don't mind :

1)make text skippable
2)some of the button hotspots seemed too small and I had to repeatedly click in order to get a response (eg. "New game").  I also had this problem with selecting inventory items
3)the dialogue font is rather hard to read on some backgrounds.  This may be a personal preference thing, but I'm also not sold on using a font that is all-caps for a horror game.  It seems a little too shout-y for an eerie atmosphere
4)I think it would be good to make the player turn to face whatever he's describing
5)it would be nice if commands could be interrupted (eg. while he's walking to interact with a hotspot, I can click somewhere else to cancel that)
6)when I pressed ESC, in addition to the options menu the quit message also popped up.  Also, I could bring up the options menu on the opening screen
7)the mule deer slides during its animation
8)this is just my opinion, and perhaps it's not done yet, but for a commercial game I feel the game needs more animation (eg. log cutting (showing just the start before the fade), flag flapping)
9)the descriptions are rather bare-bones (once again, they may not be done yet)
10) I couldn't walk to the lake; I assume I wasn't supposed to be able to since it's a demo, but maybe disable that so people won't think it's a bug

I hope I haven't come across as too negative   The premise sounds good, and it will be interesting to see how this develops.  Good luck!

Thanks Mash for the effort of downloading and reviewing the demo (which is a WIP more than a demo).

EVERY single point you've put across had already crossed my mind and I intend to fix each and every one. Guaranteed, all of these will be implemented into the final product. As we've established, this 'demo' is really a WIP, released due to members asking me when a demo is going to be released, lol. Trust us, it'll be worth it when it's finished.

The 'pulsating lake'....yes, lol, this I'm totally aware of. Again, it will be fixed/tweaked.

Thankyou though Mash, I really appreciate the critisism

Nice work!

The color are great and give the scenery a very gloomy atmosphere. Along with the music, I can imagine that this will get pretty thrilling.

But for pulsating lake... this looks a little strange. I think it would have been enough to move those ripples instead of letting the whole thing grow and shrink.

Thanks abstauber. Critisism taken on board! Thankyou!

[Cyrus]

I think the player should be able to skip dialogues by left-click, not keypressing.