FOREST KING IS A PLATFORMER GAME INSPIRED BY CLASSIC PLATFORMERSÂ AND METROIDVANIA GAMES.
My duties for the project include:
Writing the logic and behaviour for all objects
Level design
Game Theme
Character Design
Mechanics Design
THE THINGS THAT I AM MOST PROUD OF ARE THE SPRITES. EVERYTHING WAS DESIGNED AND DRAWN BY ME.
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Character Sprites
Background Colour
Tileset
Background Art
FUTURE PLANS
Adding the option for players to choose different characters
Secret Boss levels
Create more enemies
BEHIND THE SCENES
THINGS TO NOTE
Forest King was done in 6 weeks, most of assets were drawn by me using Photoshop and mechanics were completely done from scratch using Stencyl.
LEVEL 1
Forest King takes inspiration from games such MapleStory, Castlevania, and other platformers. The overall layout of Level 1 is your typical tutorial to let players get a feel of what the game plays like.
LEVEL 2
Level 2 takes away the players ability to shoot and forces them to rely on dodging enemies. The overall background design is inspired by mines in games such as MapleStory and Hollow Knight.
LEVEL 3
Level 3 is a platformer classic. The water level is a suggestion by one of the playtesters. The main purpose of Level 3 is to give players a break and just enjoy swimming around. Level 3 is inspired by Megaman 8 and Mario Bros.
BOSS LEVEL
The boss level is inspired by older platformer games like Megaman and Castlevania. The background for the level emphasis the near end of a game as the sky turns darker by each level.
ITERATIONS
WEEK 1
The core of Forest King relies on its theme. Each component needs to fit with each other to make the game more realistic.
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For the first level of the game, it was designed to let players get a better understanding on how the game works.
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Things accomplished:
AI enemies that follow the direction of the player
Level Design
Point system
Lives
WEEK 2
Fixed major bugs that caused the game to be unplayable​. Extended the levels so that they are longer. Got feedback from playtest on what players want to see.
Fixes and Additional Features
Fix AI hitbox
Extend levels
Working health system
Added spikes
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Feedback
Show score when finished game
More player characters
More levels
WEEK 3
Added new levels to make the game feel fresh. New mechanics was implemented (swimming).
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Fixes and Additional Features
Changed Hero sprites -- (last iteration feels generic)
Replaced some old sprites that are copyrighted to mine -- (due to the lack of time, it takes time to draw my own sprites)
Added more enemies -- (fish enemies)
Final score added to end game scene -- (a previously requested feature by playtesters)
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Feedback
Fix player and platform collision -- (playtesters find certain jumps hard to reach)
Increase difficulty -- (overall level design are not challenging)
WEEK 4
Added a new level called Boss level. New mechanic implemented (teleport). Players are required to use the teleporter in order to defeat the boss.
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Fixes and Additional Features
Added boss sprites, tiles, new background and background music
Added new mechanic (Teleport)
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Feedback
Boss not moving properly (Bounces around the map and gets stuck in the corner)
Boss projectiles not working (Orbs of different colours are suppose to spawn from the side of screens)
WEEK 5
Fixed major bugs on Boss levels that prevent the game from functioning as intended.
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Fixes and Additional Features
Boss now moves properly
Boss projectiles now work as intended
Made the region box of the teleporter closer to the 'teleporter actor'
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Feedback
Fix player and tiles collision on certain levels (Players still get stuck)
Add more levels (Secret Boss currently in development)
Add a sense of adventure to the game (Implement exploration in some way)
WEEK 6 DEVLOG 18/8/2020
The end is (not) near
This is (not) the final week of iteration for Forest King.
Let's go through what I did:
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Cutscenes are finally added to the game!!
The cutscenes gives players an idea of the personality of Hero and his clumsiness.​
Most of the story and progression is done through dialogue.
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Although this is my first time writing stories and dialogue. I found it really fun to come up with interactions between Hero and other characters​ as well as the environment. The cutscenes help to make the game feel more lively.
MYÂ JOURNEY
What I've learned
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This is my first time diving deep into the Platformer genre and it really opened my eyes on how much work is put into every game. I would like to firstly thank all the developers that made my childhood full of gaming memories.
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Throughout these few weeks of iterating my game, I've learned to come up with new mechanics to make the game feel fresh and exciting. Research on popular platformer titles such as Megaman, MapleStory, and Super Mario definitely was a huge driving force in helping me complete my game.
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I've learned to step out of my comfort zone and try new things. Writing stories has never been my strong suit as I don't read books. Games and movies have always been my main source of story-telling. This is my first time writing dialogue as well as creating a fully fledged story on my own. However, I would like to say that this would not be the last time for me to write stories as I grew to enjoy making them.
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What I would add?
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The whole story for Forest King has already been completed on script. However due to time constraints a lot of Forest King's content is incomplete. With that being said, the development of Forest King will continue. I would not feel satisfied until I've fully completed my vision for the game.
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Multiple bosses
Castle Level
More enemies
Interactive NPCs
Choice Dialogues
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What would you do if you were to do it again?
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Personally I wouldn't change much, over the past few weeks I've made mistakes and learned to overcome them and improve as a developer. If there was one thing I would change, it would most probably be my own time management. There were times where I could have been iterating my game but would feel demotivated and burnt out and end up pushing my responsibilities towards the end of the week.