Dolus - 2D indie platformer about Grief

[Ratgibnak]

This is how our little fellow defeated this monstruous trap that stood between him and his redemption. But beware the several others, they may be not that easy to take down !



Thank you Deck !

Ratgibnak

[Ratgibnak]

The art keeps evolving ! New platforms are in place ! And for the first time we are proud to show you the wall jump with the wall slide !



Have you noticed the moving stars in the background ?
We will soon share more on this !

[Ratgibnak]

We are starting the level design for Dolus and the rules tiles are so easy ! We made good progress this week ! Here is an example :

[Ratgibnak]

Strong emotions should not be repressed. Understand them, feel them fully and make them your shield !



Today we have a new ability to show you ! The player will be able to spawn an energy shield to prevent damages. What do you think of the shield's design ?

[100goats]

I like the design. I like that the shield isn't a symmetrical circle, but something imperfect.

[Ratgibnak]

I am glad you noticed it goats ! We were thinking at the beginning for a perfect circle but we find this shape way better

Now that you know how to put boundaries that protect your emotions and soul, you can use it on demand.



As you can see we have some particles bursting out of the shield when it's impacted by an attack. We are thinking about adding some visual effect to the creature attack to notify the player that this specific attack was blocked. Do you think it's too much ? We already have the particles showing that a block happened. Should the player's character have an animation ?

[Ratgibnak]

Concentrated Power Attack !

This is what you will be able to cast in Dolus once you gather enough energy through time and defeating your demons.

How could we improve this ? Does it look good to you ?


We also made some progress on a new monster that will be part of the Denial level.


Creepy right ? ^^

Next step is to work on the animations to kill that monster ! You will have to hit it several times to be able to get rid of it !

[Ratgibnak]

The ripples of your suffering can bend the reality around you !



We added a new effect when the player takes damages ! I am creating this shock wave effect via a shader. It took me a bit of time but it was worth it ! We will add more shaders like this in the future.

Should I make it a bit faster or go further ?

[100goats]

It is a neat idea. However, it is difficult to see that this is an animation for being hurt or taking damage.

It looks closer to an attack animation.

I think the character should have an expression of pain on their face to make it clear.
Closing the character's eyes would make sense here.

Also it is visually confusing to see a shock wave coming from a character similar to a super hero and
see it as a weakness. The shock wave looks like it should be hurting the enemy.

Weakness should look small and contained within the character, something like becoming smaller, moving the entire body back, etc.

A good example of visually showing pain is this sprite sheet of Link for Zelda 2.
https://www.spriters-resource.com/resou ... 2/1611.png

Link is facing down instead of looking at the enemy in the eyes like normal; is falling / not balanced unlike his normal confident pose.
It has a huge contrast from his normal pose.

[Ratgibnak]

Hi Goat,

Thanks for the detailed feedback !

For the animation of the player, I feel like your example from Link is quite similar to what we have. The player is looking down, he is not standing right like usual. But I think you are correct about the face, we should change it. Closing the eyes would be a great solution !

As for the shock wave I don't know. I kind of agree with you that it could be understood as a power that will have an impact on the enemies. But in the other hand a game like Hollow Knight has a lot of effects on screen that could be understood as a power.
Maybe I'll simply make it a bit faster and shorter so it stays less time on screen.