Mechanics.

This isn't a visually cool post, but it is worth mentioning anyways.
MECHANICS!

Mechanics mechanics mechanics! That's right, basic mechanics have finally filtered their way from paper to progress in the game. Player's can kill enemies and obtain a certain amount of energy or have the choice to attack with less damage but sort of "syphon" energy out with each strike, making for a little bit of risk/reward. You have to be a bit closer to the enemies to be able to hit them with that "syphon-y strike thing" (placeholder name...)

Then we have the pause screen laid out pretty simply again with some placeholder elements. But the inventory will show blank "slots" where different objects can be collected and fill up. It's a bit more like The Last of Us rather than World of Warcraft. There are a finite number of objects to collect in the game and I want players to see silhouettes to pique interest. Plus I think it looks neat, sue me.

THEN we have the stat leveling mechanic, which I am particularly excited for. Think a 2D Dark Souls with basic stats and you have Ouroboros. Use the energy collected (see above ;) ) to boost one of your 3 major stats (strength, defense and wisdom) and that value to pay to level the stats goes up universally after every upgrade. I want the upgrades to feel substantial, but not overpowering. The moment you go from doing 2 damage to 3 with the test enemies in place... It does feel nice.

Next to work on is the crafting mechanic and how equipment will work. This will make or break the game, and hopefully it will make it because I want it so bad.



Anyways, long story short, things are happening. Excitement excitement excitement.

Scenery

So here we have some new areas. The first three pictures are of the hero's hometown of Artoras. They're a simple people. I mean, if the world ended once before and you had to construct a house in the desert, how would you do it?

Down here we have some gray box test of Mount Astus, east of Artoras. I don't know yet if directly one screen east of the town there should be a mountain trail or if one more area of desert filled nonsense should go there. Always thinking.

Animation progress.

This is just a quick overview of some of the new animations put in.
Jumps.
Dust particle when kicking off to jump.
New attack, new mechanic: Syphon, a sort of stab with the soul stone acquired. This will allow the player to gather more energy from enemies.

This forced me to rebalance the test enemy's energy levels when killed. I lowered them a bit to make the player feel the need for that extra pick up by using their new ability.

The Syphon will be a main mechanic in the game to help players get a boost in currency to help with crafting and other various things.

Ultimately, the little blue balls that represent the energy will be far more "pretty", and have a sort of "vaccuum" animation when the player is near, to show the collection as more of a reward than just a... BOOP! Disappeared.

Anyways, always trudging along.

Not shown: Crouching...

For some reason I didn't crouch at all to show the new crouching pose.... Doh.

Developer Diary #2!

We explore the asset creation pipeline all the way to using the asset in level design!

Probably only interesting to the 3D folks, but it's a quick glimpse into the inner workings of Clam Stab Studios.

Find us on Facebook!

Follow us on Twitter!
@clamstabstudios

And play Ouroboros when it's released!

Ouroboros Developer Diary #1

Ouroboros update!

Well despite losing the main focus of a prospective coder, Chase and Dillon have picked up the slack and have been trudging away in development of character functions, scene functions, etc.

Though things are moving at a faster clip than when we were relying on someone else, we are both learning coding while developing the art assets and gameplay mechanics.

We can't help but look at this positively, though.

They both seem to really enjoy the challenge of coding. It's kind of like a game within itself.

So here's to the good year of development ahead of us!


Soon, we'll have some more work in progress to show.

Don't forget to go to our Facebook page and follows us on Twitter!

@ClamStabStudios

A little update...

It's been a while, but things always progressing. This isn't the most recent "build"... If you can even call it that, but it's more a proof of concept.

The mix of 3D models with pixel art. It's working! Can't wait to dive in and make this pretty!

Long time, no update!

Well hello again!

It's been a while.

Things are progressing slowly but surely. Basic logic of enemies has begun and our player character has been reworked from the ground up.

Nothing super exciting to share but it is all still moving. Level designs, block outs, scripting and mechanics.

Things are happening.
Stuff is moving.

Vague, I know.

-Chase

Audible concept art.

Consider this a bit of "concept art" except for the OST.

A piece composed by Chase Holton, he had this to say:

"I don't know, for some reason it reminded me of Ouroboros and some climactic event. Who knows if it'll be a part of the game or not. We'll see. Regardless, it was fun."





Also, we are currently working on a logo for the studio. Hopefully by next week we will have a visual identifier aside from the Ouroboros logo! :)

Jericho prototype.

Jericho, our hero.

Currently the prototype build. Prototyping generally doesn't even need this much animation, but we wanted to give some life to the character while we progress. It's a bit more interesting than a sprite plane or cube sliding around a grey world, don't you think?

He's only 32x32 pixels right now, but the plan is to at least double that, furthering detail and smooth animation. Something about that chunky pixel art is endearing though...

First Glance....

We are working hard at bringing our ideas to reality. The art team team has been cooking up some great ideas from level to creature design. Although we are still in very early stages of development, we figured it wouldn't hurt to keep everyone's interest by showing you some of our possible layouts.

This is only a few of many that are in the works. Perhaps next week we can show a sneak peek of our main character! 

Thanks for following us on our blog. If you haven't already, you should visit our Facebook page, ClamStabStudios, and *Like* us on there to keep up with all the latest updates!

Mechanics.

Aside from a metroidvania style of exploration, some game mechanics are still in the design phase. Maybe Ouroboros would stand out more if we shed a little bit of light on some of the directions we plan to take.

For one, a finite, expendable source of energy that is lost upon death, creating a risk vs. reward system that will challenge the player to make quick decisions that would otherwise be simple and basic in other 2D platformers.

How about crafting? Making various items to increase your abilities. And along side that...

Abilities that are further developed by spending energy on them and equipped via a sort of equip/upgrade system within "special" items.

Out philosophy is this: if the game is designed around a cohesive, tightly designed world with a simple character, we should allow the player to customize the character on a gameplay oriented level instead of a cosmetic level. Keeping Jericho the same the entire game lends to the story being about Jericho, but the way he is played will reflect on the player, creating a parallel between player and character.

Dare we say... This game contains role playing elements?!

Sure sounds like it! :)

Ouroboros update.

The world of Ouroboros became more fleshed out than ever after an online meeting with the team last night.

A pixel art metroidvania has never been so deep.

"No surprises for the writer, no surprises for the reader"

At this point, we have surprised ourselves in such a way that it will be impossible for players to see it coming.

Using a tried and true formula of gameplay, we've constructed a world with lore deeper than one may think.

We can't wait to have people in the world of Ouroboros!

Welcoming a new member.

To add to the roster at Clam Stab Studios, we have recruited Brandon Watson as an animator, writer and 3D modeler.

His knowledge is extensive and his humor and taste in games helps round out the team even more.

Welcome, Doc Wats!

Jericho attack = fixed.

Good news: Jericho now punches properly with a pause in movement. This is good news. Took a bit of a hiatus on the code and came back with fresh eyes and with Dillon there to throw in his knowledge.

Let the "grey blocking" commence.

Minor progress report.

School begins again. Another semester, another 4 months of sleep deprivation. That's okay though! It's all a step closer to Ouroboros.

I hope everyone is excited as we are right now!!

More real stuff coming soon. "Stuff" is so technical. Sorry for the vagueness :)

Project update #1

Well here we are early in 2013 and early in development of our first game.

The design document is well underway, and the vision is really coming together. Style and art assets are a matter of time and motivation.

Being a group of students at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, MI makes for a rough time schedule... Fellow students know this! But we will press on.

The excitement is high, the morale even higher. Sure, this is just a beginning but I personally cannot wait for the long nights of trouble shooting and bug fighting.

Our goal is to bring the metroidvania subgenre to life with a new look and feel that is all at once nostalgic yet....well.... new!

Keep on the lookout!!

Artwork to show is coming in the next couple weeks.



We want to document every step of the process so fellow game designers or aspiring game designers can watch, learn and hopefully find some inspiration.

We all need a little inspiration to get the creative juices flowing!

Welcome to Clam Stab Studios!

We don't have an office. We don't necessarily have a certain location.

Best of all: We don't pay rent.

Not yet.

So this is the culmination of all thoughts and progress within Clam Stab Studios, an indie game development team full of passionate, driven and creative gamers-turned-designers.

We would like to think of ourselves as a cloud based company and our talents range from animation to 3D modeling, game design to coding. You name it.

Clam Stab Studios consists of the following individuals, creating a solid, well rounded team.

Chase Holton- Game designer, pixel artist and all around nice chap.
Dillon Sommerville- Game designer, 3D modeler and he's a super good guy.
Dean Ripper- Animation guru, 3D modeler and despite his terrifying last name, also a nice fella'.
Ryan Dziurgot- 3D modeler, concept design and a less obnoxious, nice guy.
Mike Dumas- Lead concept artist... and he likes pizza.
Bobby Buffum- Code master and logistics guy, the brains. A swell chap that knows code better than all of us combined. Which is a good thing.

This is only the beginning of Clam Stab Studios.