The game is taking shape now that I have some music and more sound effects in. And I got the visuals covered too, in the form of some mighty visual feedback.
Visual effects
Lately I've been busy experimenting with various visual effects. What I've come up with is a combination of scene dimming, screen shake, some particles and a 'lightning strike' effect. These effects get gradually stronger with each consecutive kill, and combined with big fruit/coin drops, achieving a long kill combo feels really satisfying.
Some gifs:
Music & sound
When it comes to retro pixel art games like Power Heroes, an obvious choice or even general expectation for music would be chip tunes. "Because the game looks like this, it has to sound like that". I wanted to do things differently this time, so instead of chip music I asked my composer Dave to do more or less an orchestral score for the game.And I'm happy that I did. The combination of orchestral score and 'chip' sound effects work really well together. About 50% of the music is already done and it really brings life into the game. While Dave has been working on the music, I've been generating more sound effects with sfxr/cfxr tools.
RPG elements?
I think I'm going to include some very simple, lightweight RPG elements into Power Heroes. Here are my thoughts and options.
Buffs
Temporary gameplay advantages, purchaseable before game start. Buffs could include: more life hearts, more power, increased luck (affects item drops), speed, etc. Buffs expire when the game is over.
Permanent upgrades
Maybe 3 stats for each hero that you can level up using coins. Here we could have upgrades to power, luck and life.I don't want to complicate things too much, so the number of steps/decisions needed from the title screen to starting the game should be kept to a minimum.If you have an opinion on this matter (or anything else), I'd like to hear it!
Vote for Power Heroes!
Finally, SlideDB (and IndieDB) are running a contest for the best indie games of 2013. If you like where Power Heroes is heading and want to support the game (and me), please stop by and vote! THANK YOU! :)
I absolutely love the sprites and tiles.
Good work.
I hope you'll make this an expansive world, worthy of exploration.
Hey, thanks for the comment!
Yes that is exactly my plan - to have lots and lots of different areas to explore. The basic themes I have now are: forest, desert, winter/snow and dungeon (meaning that each of these has its own music). I can then do variations of these base themes, like having a forest area leading to a mountain area and further on to a snow level etc. With a few secrets along the way of course. :)
Stay tuned!
Sounds sweet!
Keep up the good work - Will be rooting for ya'