Guys, I have EXTREMELY cool news! Grimhelm approved the development of the remake on his blog in comments, his answer was so fast that I was even shocked a little bit
Guys, I have EXTREMELY cool news! Grimhelm approved the development of the remake on his blog in comments, his answer was so fast that I was even shocked a little bit
Guys, I have EXTREMELY cool news! Grimhelm approved the development of the remake on his blog in comments, his answer was so fast that I was even shocked a little bit
First time I died there was quite a bit of lag and there were a few errors that popped up from the dev console. I also managed to respawn at a checkpoint I hadn't reached yet (at least I'm pretty sure I hadn't reached it yet). The gameplay and the scenes are pretty nice though, and the inside-view is well-done. Good job.
Impressive that he doesn't mind. I love a Project like this, New ideas are always good. And the idea of Creating something of your own what you think is fitting or even be able to Redone it, is Awesome. Looking foward what is about to come
I don't have direct contact with Grimhelm at the moment (working on that), but judging from how frequently lots of people asked him to do the sequel of this game whole past year and how he ignored those requests I guess that he has some own reasons to avoid doing this, maybe he wants to try different art style/genre/etc., who knows.
After all, it will not be a problem to replace/improve the sprites if he'll like full version of remake and then announce it as "update from original author" or something like that. I didn't believe in mass updates of the graphics until Sourjelly announced total remake of all his CGs in Anthophobia and as I see now, such huge updates are ok, too. I just have to finish full project from the technical side somehow
First time I died there was quite a bit of lag and there were a few errors that popped up from the dev console. I also managed to respawn at a checkpoint I hadn't reached yet (at least I'm pretty sure I hadn't reached it yet). The gameplay and the scenes are pretty nice though, and the inside-view is well-done. Good job.
Could you try to repeat the same actions (starting new game via "new game button" and picking up "save" item rewrites the latest save from previous game) and if you have that bug then make a screenshot or copypaste the text from the console? (I left it for purpose in that build in order to catch any bugs more precisely). Also it would be nice if you tell me how the area around that unreached checkpoint looked like (it will allow me to track what exact checkpoint object was somehow used for that bug). Thanks a lot for tracking and detailed description of that bug!
When I ripped the textures from original game then original markup for all sprite sheets was lost, so I had to do it from scratch and I missed some center coordinates for some frames a little bit when I redid it, so I guess that it's all about tweaking the center of walking animation sprite frames a little bit, I'll quickly fix it in the next version, it's not a huge problem, thanks for telling me that.
Guys, I have one simple question about game plot (summarizing remake development plan right now, so it's must-have question): what kind of narrative fits Dark Star atmosphere, what do you think?
I came to conclusion after some thoughts that the plot and narrative should stick to several conditions:
No screens with tons of text to skip and required minutes of time to read. It just doesn't fit here: it's not RPG or VN game and I think that writing tons of complicated text and building strong text-based scenario for 2D platformer when you are not good copywriter or director is bad move and nobody will like it;
No long cutscenes with lots of replicas - it can make the game boring and again, even if it may seem to be cheap to make from technical side then the texts will suck anyway (but I like Vosmug's simple way to tell scenarios though anyway, for example);
Environmental or indirect storytelling - that's the way! I mean, if you noticed some yellow signs in the techdemo which were used only for tutorial in the original game then it can look like more expanded version of it - when special signs not only telling you where to go or what kind of danger can be nearby but also telling some quick short text thoughts of the character when she walks past this place. It may look funny;
Emotion bubbles / emoticons - I still wonder why it's so rarely used in hentai games, but adding this feature for some cutscenes or actions to the enemy or the player can make the game look more emotional and funny, too.
Some people may argue that "why platformer hentai game needs the plot at all?" and even quote John Carmack about games, plot and porn, but I don't think that leaving Dark Star without a plot is good thing, its heroine and enemies leave lots of questions what the hell she forgot on this planet and how she got there.
Yes, it's cut from several frames of one of CARYO's works and will be most likely replaced (CARYO's frames are not well-synchronized with animations from Grimhelm's game, as well as it can create copyright problems if it will be left for final release. As I said before, I wish I'd have an artist who can redraw it )
My code doesn't contain any line that involves Internet connection, so I guess it's more Unity application build problem. My firewall is off on my system, so I didn't notice any such request of the application during testing. You can scan it with any kind of antivirus if you don't trust my words. My Avast didn't notice anything suspicious though.
Btw, I've redone synchronization frames for walking animation and made camera movement smoother today, so I guess that character shaking problem is solved for the next build
Heh, I'll try to get some more info. Here's a more thorough bug report:
I jumped off the first ledge with the floating platform immediately after the first bouncy red platform, and fell off the stage. I hit the first checkpoint before that.
After that happened I tried to respawn from the last checkpoint and proceeded to respawn here (the first checkpoint):
and the program because unresponsive. Shortly afterward there was the "death" sound (which I think should probably be replaced), and the respawn screen came up again. Choosing to respawn from the last checkpoint again sent me here: .
I wasn't able to find whatever bug popped the dev console up though. It seems likely that it was something that I accidentally pressed while trying to get the game unstuck after the lag spikes between the first and second deaths.
On a different note, you said you were a fan of Parasite in City. Are we gonna have a pregnancy mechanic with those flying aliens? That would be pretty cool, if you could find an artist to help you with the animations.
EDIT: Console came up after exiting to title screen. NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. Also corrected some mistakes in the report.
It seems you're able to induce a "super jump" by jumping, pressing and holding the jump key again then turning the opposite direction just before landing
I don't have direct contact with Grimhelm at the moment (working on that), but judging from how frequently lots of people asked him to do the sequel of this game whole past year and how he ignored those requests I guess that he has some own reasons to avoid doing this, maybe he wants to try different art style/genre/etc., who knows.
After all, it will not be a problem to replace/improve the sprites if he'll like full version of remake and then announce it as "update from original author" or something like that. I didn't believe in mass updates of the graphics until Sourjelly announced total remake of all his CGs in Anthophobia and as I see now, such huge updates are ok, too. I just have to finish full project from the technical side somehow
Could you try to repeat the same actions (starting new game via "new game button" and picking up "save" item rewrites the latest save from previous game) and if you have that bug then make a screenshot or copypaste the text from the console? (I left it for purpose in that build in order to catch any bugs more precisely). Also it would be nice if you tell me how the area around that unreached checkpoint looked like (it will allow me to track what exact checkpoint object was somehow used for that bug). Thanks a lot for tracking and detailed description of that bug!
When I ripped the textures from original game then original markup for all sprite sheets was lost, so I had to do it from scratch and I missed some center coordinates for some frames a little bit when I redid it, so I guess that it's all about tweaking the center of walking animation sprite frames a little bit, I'll quickly fix it in the next version, it's not a huge problem, thanks for telling me that.
Guys, I have one simple question about game plot (summarizing remake development plan right now, so it's must-have question): what kind of narrative fits Dark Star atmosphere, what do you think?
I came to conclusion after some thoughts that the plot and narrative should stick to several conditions:
No screens with tons of text to skip and required minutes of time to read. It just doesn't fit here: it's not RPG or VN game and I think that writing tons of complicated text and building strong text-based scenario for 2D platformer when you are not good copywriter or director is bad move and nobody will like it;
No long cutscenes with lots of replicas - it can make the game boring and again, even if it may seem to be cheap to make from technical side then the texts will suck anyway (but I like Vosmug's simple way to tell scenarios though anyway, for example);
Environmental or indirect storytelling - that's the way! I mean, if you noticed some yellow signs in the techdemo which were used only for tutorial in the original game then it can look like more expanded version of it - when special signs not only telling you where to go or what kind of danger can be nearby but also telling some quick short text thoughts of the character when she walks past this place. It may look funny;
Emotion bubbles / emoticons - I still wonder why it's so rarely used in hentai games, but adding this feature for some cutscenes or actions to the enemy or the player can make the game look more emotional and funny, too.
Some people may argue that "why platformer hentai game needs the plot at all?" and even quote John Carmack about games, plot and porn, but I don't think that leaving Dark Star without a plot is good thing, its heroine and enemies leave lots of questions what the hell she forgot on this planet and how she got there.
If video games are like porn, what are porn games like? Ultra porn? Yeah
Agreed on all those points. There's also the question of the tone of the plot? Is it super serious? Is it serious but tongue in cheek? Or is it just wacky? I think somewhere between the first two is ideal, this doesn't seem like an appropriate game for in-your-face humor
My code doesn't contain any line that involves Internet connection, so I guess it's more Unity application build problem. My firewall is off on my system, so I didn't notice any such request of the application during testing. You can scan it with any kind of antivirus if you don't trust my words. My Avast didn't notice anything suspicious though.
Btw, I've redone synchronization frames for walking animation and made camera movement smoother today, so I guess that character shaking problem is solved for the next build
On a different note, you said you were a fan of Parasite in City. Are we gonna have a pregnancy mechanic with those flying aliens? That would be pretty cool, if you could find an artist to help you with the animations.
I got some interesting GIF for you, watch till the end
http : / / i.giphy.com/3oz8xTOwvjIYG4kim4.gif
Maybe I'll make more pregnant animations later or show it in CGs, current implementation does egg laying the same way as it was done in Soul of Forgery game (awesome one, btw). Pregnancy is triggered when you let the enemies 4 times to cum inside the girl. That counter will be probably changed depending on testing.
Yeah, network request was sent because of being "Development build option" turned on in Unity, I'll turn it off next time when I publish new build.
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Hi guys. It’s been awhile xD I apologize for missing communication with everyone, there were some personal events in my life that prevented me from working on this project since May-June 2016 and there was no progress till the end of October/November 2016. Speaking frankly, I had so much doubts about doing this stuff that I even considered converting it to shitty 2.5D platformer with stock 3D models from Daz3D, but then I admitted that despite loving high-quality 3D (like Mithos56 or Miconisomi), doing shitty 3D without proper quality is even worse for me than doing 2D platformer with bad quality. So I decided to continue my fight with art skills A friend of mine that helped me with initial animations for that remake is busy with making mods for other project and doesn’t want to continue remaking animations for this one, so I discovered that my Galaxy Note table with Samsung S-pen and an app called Infinite Painter can deliver interesting results, I’ll post some art WIPs in the future, maybe with proper art education which I’m working on now I’ll be able to add some HCGs to the game and then it would be awesome.
Regarding the game itself, when I started this project, I didn’t have any strict plan for its design, stages and etc. So now there are some outlines of what I would like to deliver:
There will be 5 stages in full version of the remake. Maybe I’ll cut them to 4, but I would like to make fifth one because it concludes the plot logically (I played MGS V: PP recently and it really sucks when a good game doesn’t guide the player to the ending directly);
I would like to spend some time on drawing CGs for game-overs, they will not be animated, just some pictures. If it will be possible to include some of them into the demo - that would be awesome;
Demo will have 2 stages. I will gather some feedback after that again and then I’ll proceed directly to the end of the development of this remake;
I acknowledge that some fetishes (like X-ray / egg laying / etc.) are not for everyone and final version of the remake will have an ability to toggle them off (ideally I’d like to make an ability to turn off ALL hentai features in order to convert this game to usual platformer, if needed, but implementing this option is much easier when whole game is finished and you know what places to disable).
My level design policy is “we don’t force you to explore whole level in order to complete it, but you will miss some fun if you don’t”. For example, Stage 1 can be completed in several minutes if you take the fastest route, but full exploration with looking through plot events/decorations/alternate level routes and gathering weapon upgrades will take up to 10-15 minutes of gameplay. That’s what I missed in original Dark Star, because level design was relatively simple and straightforward there.
I recorded short (around 6 min of gameplay) video with small part of Stage 1 in order to illustrate current progress of the implementation, it’s here, on Vimeo (NSFW, and yeah, sorry for low video quality - Vimeo doesn’t give much space to store video - and I know that I have to improve struggle mechanics somehow, still wonder how it could be done with minimum animations): vimeo.com/198767235
I almost finished level design of the 1st stage and there is some prepared art for 2nd stage, but I would like to add details to stage 2 decorations and then start level design of 2nd level and focus on remaking and adding more hentai scenes. Also I managed to fix almost all things that I mentioned in the first post, except platform edge problem, it seems that it doesn’t affect gameplay much, maybe I’ll just leave it there as it is. I don’t know anything about the deadlines for a demo, it can be 1/2/3/etc. months, just too afraid to say anything about that, it depends on the workload at my main job.
The communication seems to save any game creator from depression, so I guess that I have to post some stuff about development progress each month or two here, maybe it will help to do what I planned to, after all, I have lots of ideas for hentai games and the next one will be done with Unity, but probably with other technology for animation (skeletal 2D animation) instead of plain 2D sprites, so it will be visually closer to Kooonsoft games or the games from MenZ or Dr. Linch project.
Thanks for everyone who is still interested in this free remake, I’ll do as much as I can in order to not disappoint you.
Regards,
Dark
P.S. It seems that remake will need some soundtracks, what do you think? The game is more intense than original one, what kind of music will it fit, some sci-fi action theme? Or maybe we don’t need any music at all (it’s difficult to find even beginner composer who’s willing to give some free music for hentai game, I guess, but it’s possible).
After trying the game out, first impressions were great.
In-game rape? Great.
Little animated mini-diagram of penetrative sex? Cool!
Multi-enemy rape? That bronze star just turned into a gold star.
Multi-enemy rape with different enemies, platinum star.
And even on top of that, you've done something no other hentai
game I can think of did, which had always been on my
"great list of ideas for the holy grail of hentai games", which is
a cum-meter.. An actual meter to show how much cum the character's taken
inside them.
Sure, it just acts as a super-weapon fill-up bar, but it's a step in a great direction.
As for your suggestion, music would just slow things down and get in the
way, a true enterprising hentai game dev knows what players want is
visceral cum-dripping lewd noisy content! In other words, more rape!
Here's what ya do..
The "finish" animation is great, the sounds are on-cue as well, nothing says
insemination quite like the muffled low-toned gushes of cum being pumped
directly into a uterus.
But you need to add a bit more visual detail to the act.. Let us see the
cum-bar slowly fill up tic-by-tic in sync with each audible pump of cum the woman receives while the enemy is cumming. Include the animated diagram to show her insides being filled up if you'd like, as a bonus.
Your idea for impregnation is also wonderful.. The only game that pulled that off nicely was nightmare spere, and even then it was a pain to do because you could only get pregnant while KO'd, so if your donater/child wandered off screen and de-spawned, you couldn't get infinitely raped by your kin.
But you need to add a bit more visual detail to the act.. Let us see the
cum-bar slowly fill up tic-by-tic in sync with each audible pump of cum the woman receives while the enemy is cumming.
I thought about some small, but simple effect when there are some additional splashes at the place where monster came, like it was in Soul of Forgery: media.giphy.com/media/xTgeJ0Ms0lnMcG5ai4/source.gif , maybe that would be enough ?
I guess it could be added directly into x-ray window that is shown separately, I didn't draw that "filled-in" animations separately because it could take more time than I expected, but I'll try to perform something like that in the future, there was a game called "An adventure of little alchemist Annette", I guess, where there were about 3-4 stages of filled-in x-ray animations, maybe such solution is the best for cum filling progress illustration.
In addition to lurkers suggestions, I would like to say that its currently too easy to escape. You can mash out pretty much as fast as it takes to react that you got grabbed. Hopefully you will add in some mechanics or difficulty modifiers/settings for those of us that want to work a bit harder Are there any plans along these lines?
