Zoom x1 = 640 x 360.
Nice noise level, very sharp. I like how it looks. (Open the picture in a new tab).
However, in order to be played should be at least in an x2 Zoom. Maybe, I would have to leave that as an option, like Risk of Rain game.

It seems to have a lot of open sky, however it happens to be these type of scenary wich makes looks so empty. Further concepts will be, one in the city (with a lot of plataforms), and other underground (maze type; darkness).


 

Scavengers

Final concepts for the Basic enemy characters for the Act 1. 
It took time, but I think all of them will make an interesting playtime.

For those who do not remember, the premise was to find an alternative to the progressive difficulty.
Instead of progressively increase the stats, the idea was to look for behaviors that presented a challenge for the player. In this way, any character (no matter how strong it is) can defeat any enemy. The difference will lie in knowing how to win in each situation.

In turn, and following the same line, the enemy classes do not mark a progression in the characteristics (althought there is some progression), but rather, more modes of action:


(The missing frames shows the transition point because the backpack explodes and "they began to operate without energy") (Every backpack with chimneys will have a smoke animation). 

It is no accident that there is a certain similarity between the rows of the same column:
Althought every column is a clan, when they lower a category it means that they are losing parts of their original equipment, and therefore they are changing their behaviour according to their situation. 

This is related to the crafting core in the game. Not only the player will have the opportunity to improve their equipement, but also the enemy as well. In other words, there is an assonance between the ludo-narratives mechanics and the difficulty.

I+D - GAME FEATURES MOCKUP

Altought the very first intention is to test the overall production, the real reason behind is to ask the GameDev community a lot of things, such as:

• Can it be programmed?,
• Which engine is better?,
• etc.

Depending their counselling and advices, I will able to stablish limitations in relation with the intended game features.

LIST OF FEATURES

1) Multi Layered Sprites:

GOAL:Reflect the crafting concept

The sprite is divided in 3 main layers, or spirtesheets, representing the equipement of the player.

• Armor.
• Helmet.
• Backpack.

Each spritesheet contains 5 types of "gear level", wich refers also to the maximum number, or capacity, of tier for improvement:

• 0 - None 
• 1 - Improvised gear. 
• 2 - Light gear.
• 3 - Medium gear.
• 4 - Heavy gear

Each item will be programed to show their "level of complexity" animation withouth changing the spritesheet:
 

2) Full immersion:

No Hud, only Inventory.
Interacting with it will be at real time, therefore the player has to be wise.

(I will post a pic here).

3) Inventory and Dynamic physics

-The inventory has a space limitation. Althought it is only enlarged with Backpacks, for administration sake, there are a lot of containers that can stack items.
-However there is a carry weight limit. The more weight, worse ergonomic in movements. 

In order to simplify this mechanic, there will be 3 states: 

• Light:   <50%. Player can perform all basic movements (Run, Sprint, Jump).
• Heavy: >50%  Player can't sprint, and jump performance is reduced.
• Stuck: >100% Player can't run, sprint nor jump. A red exclamation sign will show up above the player.

Althought throwing deadWeight is the common solution, Player can use Gadgets to boost the Weight limit.

4) Crafting

There will be 3 types of items:

• MAT: (Materials) Fragments of Wood, Cooper, Iron, Steel, and Titanium.
• OBJ: (Objects) Gears, Pipes, Boxes, Can, Pan, Sewer covers, Wrench, etc. Some of them can be crafted. 
• RCP (Recipe) Crafted ITEMS from MAT and OBJ.
  Player can experiment but bad combinations results in trash. Althught it can be "recycled" (recovering >50% of materials), to avoid this, the player can search or buy recipes (usefull just as a guide).  

The characteristics of the Crafted Items may vary according to the "Quality" of the materials used in the recipe. Every Item holds a Numerical value (hidden to the Player). The QUALITY VALUE of an Item is determined by the sum of the parts:

• 100 Qv = I
• 200 Qv = II
• 300 Qv = III
• 400 Qv = IV

Each Category represent a feature trend and determinate the level of customization:

• I -  IMPROVISED:  Lighter features.     1 Level of Customization.
• II - LIGTHER features:                        2 Level of Customization
• III - MEDIUM features:                        3 Level of Customization
• IV - HEAVY features:                          4 Level of Customization

Each level adds:

• 3 Traits, (Passive features) only one of them can be improved and unlocks the Gadget. 
• 1 Gadget (Active features) it also unlocks the next tier of modifications. 

The TRAITS develop the basic stats of each Item equiped, therefore the overall stats of the character.
The better level of upgrade, the better attributes but more expensive* (as this game has a barter economy based in rarity of item, it can be expensive in some zones, and cheaper in others.)

• Res: Resistance = HitPoints.
• Dmg: Damage.
• Wgt: Weight (Only numeric, no specific measure).
• Rch: Reach of attack (Melee is fixed at 100%).

The GADGETS are the Hability or Power of the Character. Player must first research a gadget, and then install it in order to use it Althought there is no limit when researching Gadgets, there is an installing limitation up to 3 max.

The philosphy behind this is that the more gadgets a character has,
the better prepared to overcome challenges.

Gadget installation is administratded from the body Stats of the inventory.

Here I will post (from time to time) the dfferent enemies you will find in the first act.

"Carmored"



Slow, but Heavy.
When he protects with his shield,
it becomes nearly invulnerable to most attacks.
..."Do not understimate it..."

"Butcher"



Dangerous.
At first is easy to avoid his attacks,
but then it becomes a nightmare.
..."Kill it before turns berserker..."

"Jumper"



Weak, but hard to hit.
In close combat, he is fast and fourious.
At long ranges, he becomes deadly.
..."When you spot one, keep moving..."

..No codename yet..

    


Phantom menace.
High resistance, but poor damage.
Strategic unit that can control the battelfield.
..."Don't allow him to get the upperhand..."

More to come...

Long time pass & I didn't post any uptades, so here they are:

• New name: "WRECK". It's way more shorter, and it goes with the atmosphere of the (future) game.

• New style: Pixel, low resolution. Characters playables are no taller than 24px. Why the change?, well for various reasons, reducing time of elaboration primarily. On the other hand, the low resolution makes easier to feel the wrecking atmosphere, and the lack of detail allows the player to imagine the world more freely.

• Script: I had throw the most part of the old one, but I have keep the most important keyscripts (?) & linked the story in a more simple way. The old script will be the Lore in the game, and for mantaining the things a bit casual & enjoyables, I will put little bits of the lore like Dark Souls, in the description of the weapons, or in NPC chat. (But not like Diablo II, maybe one joke about that).
I will keep the game in three acts, and the first one will be like a demo. with one or two bosses. Nothing to long, just to introduce the story.


Here is the presentation of the Logo. Maybe when starts the game, a similar picture will appear, probably not this, but something scripted and ready to play. (INo menu is intended, doubleclick to the exe, and play!)


 

Here there is a chart with the "graphics" of the game. As I can't (or want) do the sprite for every item equipped, the axis of representation is moved to category of items (0, 1, 2, 3, & 4). As the player can eqquip any item, the sprites are made in a way that sprites can be combined, giving the sensation of change when equiping something.
 

--

Here are some animations at 300%:


                                                                              
                     

Obviusly here are alll at the same speed, however ingame the more heavier the more slower.. something similar happen with the enemies.. here, let me show:

Butcher: 

                                                           

It has three stages, the first is heavier therefore the fps is "slower", and in the last stage (after loosing the heavy weapon) the fps gets faster.

Carmored: (incomplete)

                                                           

This enemy is heavy, super heavy.

Jumper: (incomplete)

This enemy will be faster, ellusive, and annoying.

To make it readable, it needs to be open in a new tab.

Originally, there was also an extra armor; an exoesqueleton. Maybe in the future could be introduced again. 

Previously in "Game Aesthetic", I reveal the final style that will be handled in the game
-You can find: F.A.Q. / R+D / Workflow.

This note focuses on showing the first prototypes of this trancition: 
from the style used on the "Visual concept" to the Ingame style.

Enemie Chart:
This table will contain all the enemies that can be found in the game. I will be completing it, as time passes. However:
While I plan to design 42 basic enemies in total (not counting Bosses), It's quite possibly that i will have to trim the scope of the task to overcome at least the prototype phase, finishing only the first 18, maybe 20, and left the rest for the future.

Riding the wave of transparency, behold the mighty chart:

Anyway, i want to emphasize that despite enemies are being separated in categories, such separation wont be real ingame. Yeah, they will be shown in progression. However:
Each category responds more to the frequency of occurrence, determinated by the visited area. 
It should be understood more as a guide, than a division rule:

In previous notes said the game while "beat em up side scrolling" would not be linear progression but dynamic, where each stage represents a sector on the map. For example, we could say that in an industry sector, may appear more workers automatons and scavengers than civil automatons.

For animations look correct, as the gif was so big, i have to chip it. 

Ok, now, i have encounter many problems with the sprites in movement. Later i will edit this post to show the new bodies and style to fix this:

Previously in "Story Flashes", i show some examples of quotes for npc dialogue,
trying to light up a little the history and context inside the game. 

The ingame style it will be Pixel Art.

.: F.A.Q :.

1:. So, what happens with the visual concepts?

As a proto-professional (with no legal credits) I can say that the visual concept has to contain a lot of (visual) information so it can describe the concept. Yeah, It is not necessary to achieve a degree of neatness and detail as the latest concepts that i have made, just enough to serve as a guide of the intended form.

Now, when it's time to achieve a sintetic form, it's better to start with a lot of information, so one can vary the sketches subtracting information. This saves time and effort.
 

2:. Are there any reason to choose PixelArt from other styles?

Actually yes. On one side, the visual texture of the pixel aesthetic is very interesting to develop in a post-apocalyptic theme, because it adds that grittiness, dirty effect/ambient that otherwise would be more difficult to achieve.

On the other hand, the lack of resolution, working conditions with synthetic forms, which can be used as texture detail not seen but appreciated. Then, with few visual resources (lines and points) can achieve "more with less".

There is a third reason, which has to do with the speed of production and the number of objects that should be designed for the game (the game besides being a beat 'em up, has elements of rpg, openworld, and crafting system).

.: Research + Development :.

While I have some experience doing basic animations and i'm familiar with the process of analog-digital animation,
I have never approached the realization of animations in pixelart.
As proto-professional, I find it necessary to do a bit of R + D, before I start this great task:

After a brief survey, I have to mention  Fabrazz's video "How to do Pixel Art: Basics", as he quickly explained what i need to know; Color, Lighting, and especially what the F*** is a "Jaggie".
 

{Image}

.: WorkFlow :.

I'll explain a lot of things with infographics, so get used to it.
In this scheme, R & D result experience has been systematized in the form of a chain process:
Once it elucidated how to proceed, it becomes a method to increase the efficiency of the workflow.

Right click and open in a new window to see better!

Damn, always happens the same. I had prepared something for robot day, but always misstake the day.
Anyway, it doesnt matter now, fortunately, I'm always making robots.

Next time i won't forget, Robot Day,
>> "i'm watching you.." <<.