We who are about to Die! Made by an old m&b modder - me!

[creuzet]

It's weird to say but that's failry accurate.

Well, it's only weird to say because failry isn't a word. 

Regardless, keep up the great work, and please let me know when you're willing and able to take my money.

Fair point ; )
Thank you! I will gladly take your money after all is said and done, haha.

This game certainly has come a long way.

Thank you! One day at a time


Here's update 3 on the grand stadium

And a sketch for a possible loading screen:

(needs more work)

Really cool setting.  Will the entire game take place in the arena, or will you get access to other parts of the map?

 

[Highelfwarrior]

creuzet - thank you!

The (first version of the) game takes place only in arenas. I currently have about 6 distinct arena types planned, you work your way up from muddy pits to the grand stadium.

 

[Highelfwarrior]

Making of the grand stadium level!

Also opened a discord for the game, feel free to pop in and idle or chat

https://discord.gg/eCdUxht

 

[faradon]

bretty gud

 

[Highelfwarrior]

Not as good as your music!

Final from the Grand Stadium:

Also -

1: 1 of the AMAZING music tracks made by Faradon

https://soundcloud.com/marius-schlichting/whe-who-are-about-to-die-battle-track-no-1


2: Dat feel when you design combat that generates unplanned combos. Twirl +  attack = faster, better attack.

 

[Llew2]

I like what I see man! Top notch ****.

 

[Highelfwarrior]

Thanks Llew Good to see you here, been so damn long!
--

Not much visual progress to show because of UI and engine updating work So here's another twirl attack move, result of the dynamic physics based combat system!

 

[Scuba Steve]

This is looking like it'll be a pretty solid and fun game once you're finished. Keep up the great work.

 

[Highelfwarrior]

Thanks so much

I redid the UI entirely. Here is the new career menu UI!

Feedback very welcome

 

[Highelfwarrior]

Made a little training area for my game  Sparring arena and all!

Now to add functionality. The visuals are still rough but will be polished later.
The idea of this place is to provide consequence-free sparring whenever you want, and also act as a tutorial.

I need to still figure out how to do the tutorials. I'd like to involve the fighting dummies, like maybe have each one represent a "feature" of the combat or related tip.

Designing a tutorial that isn't completely ****ty, immersion breaking, and that not everyone will skip will be hard. I know I'm a tutorial skipper, for example. I make it a point to try to figure out the game without a tut, so I want to encourage that.
At the very least I will never force the player to do the tutorial at any time; I'll just let them play the game immediately and have the tutorial level be available at any time.

Any ideas? What has been the best tutorial in a game in your experience, and why?

 

[Highelfwarrior]

Basic dialog boxes with tips as the tutorial Super non-invasive and totally optional.
​​​​​​​I also made the dummies targetable and hittable!

 

[Pumpkin Lord]

Make them integrated into the real battle - in the actual fight and time them well. Make sure tutorials help him defeat the player. There were a few games like that. Or - make it a story? And let player play the storyline to give tips od the lore while learning the game. Borh are fun options.

 

[Areze]

I like the idea of making the tutorials integrated into the gameplay. Maybe have a veteran gladiator/gladiator trainer telling it to you (in character of course)?

 

[Llew2]

I really like the mouse-led attacks. Looks wicked cool and intuitive. Also I love the overall art style and time periods. Tickles me in all the right (nonsexual) places. 

Thanks Llew Good to see you here, been so damn long!

I browse on the reg, just never post much. I'm at that point where real life is more engaging than actually gaming. I also enjoy following game development more than playing. Like Bannerlord, Star Citizen, WWAATD, etc.

 

[Comrade Crimson]

Would you like voice acting at all for this? I've got a professional setup and wouldn't mind pitching the effort in if so.

Let me know if interested via a PM, can exchange contact details there.

 

[Orion]

I really like the mouse-led attacks. ... Also I love the overall art style

Seconded.

I'm going to throw my 2 cents about tutorials in. That training ground is excellent, and is exactly what I like to see in games with dynamic combat mechanics. Aside from providing a place to learn techniques, I would also use it to spend time improving them in a setting that isn't going to set back my campaign/career progression. If there are tooltips or hints to be found in the area, that's cool and useful, but it would be considerate if they required a hotkey to pop up rather than being just proximity/orientation-based (especially if they take up a lot of screen space).

Dummies are unfortunately very boring targets, mainly because they don't fight back. If there were a couple of NPCs just hanging around the yard that you could initiate a sparring session with, that would be great. A recent, positive tutorial experience I had like this was in Kingdom Come: Deliverance with Captain Bernard. If you haven't played it, the gist is you could chat with him and ask for a sparring session, and he would give you choices regarding the focus of the sparring session (i.e. which specific mechanics you'd like him to demonstrate for you, or just a stand-up fight) and the weapons you'd like to use. This provided the player with a safe place to practice against a "living" opponent that was probably the most competent combatant in the entire game. I spent hours poking him with a sword, and I probably wouldn't have figured out a couple of the finnicky mechanics without spending that time practicing them.

I'm not a huge fan of hints popping up in the middle of the action, but I am a huge fan of hint display options. I'd say that whatever direction you choose to go with hints, give players the choice of hiding them up-front instead of "don't show this hint again" style nonsense. Some of us like to learn by doing!

 

[Duh]

Could be kinda fun/interesting to also have a "class" of fighters that executes certain moves when the instructor tells them to/shows them. Making it a rhythm/timing based mini game with snarky comments

 

[Highelfwarrior]

Would you like voice acting at all for this? I've got a professional setup and wouldn't mind pitching the effort in if so.

Let me know if interested via a PM, can exchange contact details there.

No dialog planned / required at the moment, but maybe later. Please do email me your details!

Thanks everyone for the comments/input on the tuts! I definitely agree. Wanna emphasise what I made now is temporarily put together for a playtest

Speaking of which...

We who are about to Die has officially gone out of alpha and into beta. (aka alpha 1.0 or beta 0.0) This makes the exhausted game-dev happy. I split development into 4 major cycles/updates, 2 for alpha. 2 for beta. Now 2 are totally done and already parts of update 3! I would say the game is about 65% done.

Now comes a big playtesting round. I need dedicated playtesters who want to try a very unfinished game, can elaborate why they like or dislike parts of the game. Are willing to write about the experience and report bugs or try to break the game. Roguelike players, melee combat game players, game designers or developers or modders are encouraged but not a must. Hang out in the discord for more info in the following week or 2 weeks. I'm prepping the playtest build at the moment.

www.discord.gg/eCdUxht

Feel free to share this info if you wanna help out even more

 

[Highelfwarrior]

Working on item pick up & dropping! Inspired by one of my fav games, Titan Quest


​​​​​​​

 

[Highelfwarrior]

You don't think I'd make a gladiator game without the audience launching random weapons and items into the arena sometimes, right? (Especially now that item picking up & dropping is in the game)

So I wrote a little "launcher" script!
Making great progress the last few days